12-06-2012 15:21 Frank Stehlik, Director of Operations, Exteriors & Modular Construction at Alure Home Improvements, discusses current trends in their modular division, designing and putting second stories and extensions on customers' houses. These additions come premade, which saves months on the process. They can be customized 100% to the customers' wants and needs, and they are also extremely durable. Aside from needing to meet state regulations, Alure has extremely high standards they uphold.

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Home Improvement: Adding a Second Story to Your Home - Video

The Cowboys hope free agent acquisition Brandon Carr (No. 39) can help solidify a secondary that finished 23rd in the league in yards allowed last year. (Matthew Emmons/US Presswire)

With NFL training camps just around the corner, were taking a team-by-team look at how the offseason played out and what you can expect in 2012. Click here to read them all.

On Nov. 6 of last year, the Cowboys kicked off a four-game win streak by downing the Seattle Seahawks. One week later, the Giants stumbled in San Francisco, lifting the lid on a four-game losing streak.

All signs pointed to Dallas pulling away in a very mediocre NFC East and returning to the playoffs after missing out in 2010.

That all changed in Week 13, though. Despite a lethargic effort on the road at Arizona, Dallas was in position to pull out its fifth straight victory. But at the end of regulation, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett inexplicably iced his own kicker prior to a potential game-winning field goal. Dan Bailey then missed the 49-yarder, Arizona went on to win in overtime, and the Cowboys lost four of their final five games including a 31-14 shellacking in the Meadowlands in Week 17, which gave the Giants the division crown.

Dallas looks like a favorite in the NFC East again. As owner Jerry Jones said just a few weeks ago, however, the window might be closing on the Cowboys aging core.

2011 Record: 8-8 (third place, NFC East) Key Additions: CB Brandon Carr, CB Morris Claiborne, LB Dan Connor, DE Tyrone Crawford, G Nate Livings, QB Kyle Orton, S Brodney Pool, FB Lawrence Vickers Key Subtractions: TE Martellus Bennett, S Abram Elam, CB Terence Newman, WR Laurent Robinson Team Strengths: QB, RB, WR, CB, OLB Team Weaknesses: OL, DE

Three Things to Watch:

1. Has the interior of the offensive line been fixed?: During the 2010 season, the Cowboys lined up Andre Gurode at center with Leonard Davis at right guard and Kyle Kosier on the left. Last season, Dallas featured a Montrae Holland-Phil Costa-Kosier interior for the majority of its games.

The drop-off was severe.

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Offseason Breakdown: Dallas Cowboys

Rafael Nadal continued his reign at Roland Garros, defeating Novak Djokovic in the final. (Getty Images)

The second major of the season is in the books. Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova put up solid performances to hoist hardware at the French Open. Now its time to take stock of individual performances by handing out grades.

Rafael Nadal: A-plus. By now the numbers have been repeated over and over again. A record-breaking seventh Roland Garros title, he doesnt drop a set heading into the final, and he overcame adverse conditions and Novak Djokovics heavy hitting to come back from a break down in a rain interrupted final to close out the fourth set. The key to Nadals win? His intensity and focus when play resumed on Monday sent a clear message to Djokovic. He got the break back immediately and the Serb grew more and more frustrated with each game. Theres no doubt Rafa was the best man throughout Paris and hell leave the City of Lights with one thing hes been missing for a while: his swagger.

Maria Sharapova: A-plus. While Nadal did what he always does, Sharapova did what no one ever thought she could do: win the French Open after coming back from career-threatening shoulder surgery, a coaching change, a racket change and various tweaks to her technique. Who would have thought that Sharapova, famous for her uber-professionalism that can come across as guarded and icy, would provide the feel-good moment of the tournament? People may hate the shrieks and they may long for a more graceful game, but in Maria Sharapova, fans of womens tennis have the one thing that so many of the women lack: a hardened competitor who can will herself to win. Respect that.

Novak Djokovic: B-plus. Djokovic was nowhere near his best all tournament, yet he survived losing the first two sets to Andreas Seppi and saved four match points against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. And dont you dare think the eight-straight games he reeled off against Nadal in the final werent mental. With less than his A-game, Djokovic beat Roger Federer in straight sets and took a set off Nadal. The double faults in the final were problematic, but if anything, this tournament proved that Djokovic doesnt have to play lights out to make the final of a Slam. Thats a pretty scary thought.

Sara Errani: A-plus. Errani may have been the surprise finalist, but you cant say she didnt earn it. Much like Li Na last year, Errani had to beat some quality opponents on the way to her first Grand Slam final, including Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Angelique Kerber and Sam Stosur. While those players crumbled under the pressure and expectation, Errani was solid as a rock, and she continued that form in the final. She couldnt compete with Sharapovas power, but the Italian scrambled and scrapped as much as she could to make Sharapova earn the win. Weve become accustomed to seeing players shrink under the pressure of a Slam final. Sara Errani bucked that trend.

The Americans: C-plus. Talk about a great story that crashed and burned in a matter of 24 hours. After going 10 for 10 through the first two days of the tournament, the American women saw their numero uno, Serena Williams, suffer her first opening round loss at a Slam in ever. Two days later, John Isner, Americans Great Clay Hope, came out on the wrong side of another marathon match, effectively ending what was one of the most highly-anticipated American clay seasons in recent memory.To be fair, it was still a great tournament for Team America, with Melanie Oudin finally getting a win at a Slam, Brian Baker providing the feel-good comeback story, and Sloane Stephens and Varvara Lepchenko getting career results. But when your best prospects go out before the tournament even gets going, its hard to look at it fondly.

Sloane Stephens: A. The draw opened up for her and she did well to take advantage of it, making the fourth round without having to face any seeds, and she didnt even drop a set before losing to Sam Stosur. But lets chillax and not burden the kid with the expectation that has sunk the hopes of many an American phenom.

Brian Baker continued a remarkable comeback from injuries to push No. 12 Gilles Simon to five sets at the French Open. (Getty Images)

Brian Baker: A. Of all the anecdotes and tidbits that emerged to form The Brian Baker Story, this visual will remain my favorite: Baker loading up his bags into the trunk of his car, along with a stringing machine, to drive to a tiny challenger in Pennsylvania to start his comeback in the summer of 2011. No entourages, no federations, no help. Just a guy and his racket heading off to try to win matches.

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Report Card: Grading the French Open

June 12, 2012 - Western Hockey League (WHL) Vancouver Giants VANCOUVER, BC - The Vancouver Giants are proud to announce the signing of Surrey native Jakob Stukel to a WHL Player Agreement.

Stukel was the Giants' second selection in the 2012 Bantam Draft, going 37th overall in the 2nd Round. He is a product of Cloverdale Minor Hockey, where last season he posted 25 goals and 37 assists in 20 games. The left winger is listed at 5'9", 150 lbs.

"We're excited to now have all three of our early picks from the 2012 Bantam Draft commit to the program", said Giants Executive Vice President & General Manager, Scott Bonner. "Jakob, Ty (Ronning) and Jesse (Roach) are all great additions to the future of our club, and getting everyone committed so soon after the draft shows how excited they are to be part of the Giants family."

Stukel joins Ty Ronning (1st Round, 15th overall) and Jesse Roach (2nd Round, 42nd overall) as members of the 2012 draft class who have officially signed with the Giants. All will attend Giants Training Camp this August, however players in their age group (1997-born) are only eligible to play in a maximum of five games during the 2012/13 WHL regular season, until such time as their club team is eliminated from the playoffs.

Discuss this story on the Western Hockey League message board... Digg this story Add to Del.icio.us

The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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Giants Sign Jakob Stukel

Apple on Monday announced that it was developing a new mapping service from the ground up, with the company doing the cartography by itself.

In addition to street maps, the new mapping service will show traffic status and provide information about businesses depending on location. The company has already integrated information about 100 million businesses in the mapping service, and is integrating Yelp for reviews and ratings.

The new service will be the default mapping feature in Apple's latest iOS 6.0 mobile operating system, which was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Apple's iPad and iPhone use iOS, and iOS 6.0 will be released for devices in the fall, the company said. A beta of iOS 6.0 is being shipped to developers on Monday. The mobile OS will support iPhone 3GS or later, the second- and third-generation iPad, and the fourth-generation iPod touch.

The mapping service will also show turn-by-turn navigation, and anonymous, real-time, crowdsourced data from other iOS users will keep traffic information up-to-date. The estimated time of arrival for a specific route will be updated in real time based on the traffic information gathered, and the mapping service will be able to recommend a faster route to cut down travel time.

A feature called Flyover provides 3D models of buildings and maps. For example, the service will be able to provide a 3D overview of a whole route and users will be able to zoom in and pan in the imagery.

The integration of Apple's own mapping service inside iOS spells trouble for Google, whose mapping service was used on many iOS products. Google last week announced upgrades to its mobile mapping service, including the additions of 3D imaging, a flyover feature and offline viewing capabilities.

(Macworld staff contributed to this story.)

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

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Apple Announces Homegrown Mapping Service for IPhone, IPad

CANFIELD, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Farmers National Banc Corp. (FMNB) will join the Russell Microcap Index when Russell Investments reconstitutes its family of U.S. indexes on June 25, according to a preliminary list of additions posted on http://www.russell.com.

Membership in the Russell Microcap Index, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the appropriate growth and value style indexes. Russell determines membership for its equity indexes primarily by objective, market-capitalization rankings and style attributes.

This announcement is great news on two fronts, says Farmers President and CEO John S. Gulas. First, positive recognition such as this will surely be a value to our current shareholders. Second, investors from all over the country will now be introduced to the Farmers story, through Russell and see the benefits in joining our shareholder ranks. Either way, its gratifying to see our companys growth plans achieve success.

Todays Russell announcement comes just weeks after Farmers was named one of 200 best community banks in America by American Banker Magazine (www.americanbanker.com) and notice from PrimeVestFarmers financial services partner for investment servicesthat Farmers is its number two producer of investment services in the US for banks its size.

Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies. In the institutional marketplace, an industry-leading $3.9 trillion in assets currently are benchmarked to them. Russell calculates more than 80,000 benchmarks daily covering approximately 98 percent of the investable market globally, 83 countries and more than 10,000 securities.

Annual reconstitution of Russell Indexes captures the 4,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May, ranking them by total market capitalization to create the Russell 3000 Index and Russell Microcap Index. These investment tools originated from Russell's multi-manager investment business in the early 1980s when the company saw the need for a more objective, market-driven set of benchmarks in order to evaluate outside investment managers.

Total returns data for the Russell Microcap and other Russell Indexes is available at http://www.russell.com/indexes/data/US_Equity/Russell_US_Index_returns.asp.

About Farmers National Bank

Farmers National Bank is Mahoning Valleys leading community bank with more than $1 billion in Banking assets and $1 billion in Trust assets. With 19 banking locations and two trust offices throughout Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana and Stark counties, Farmers also has a full array of financial services to include Farmers National Investments, Farmers Trust Company and Farmers National Insurance.

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Farmers National Banc Corp. to Join Russell Microcap Index

Truman Geiman, right, shakes hands with Gorden Myers during the 72nd reunion of the Eichelberger Class of 1940 last week. Thirteen class members and 10 guests met for lunch at Hoss s Steak and Sea House in Hanover to catch up and tell old stories. (THE EVENING SUN BRETT BERWAGER)

Treasurer Dale Alwine raised one hand for quiet and assured his fellow class members around the banquet tables that, yes, he had prepared a story.

Something to share with the class.

So there's this old man who can't hear too good anymore, Alwine said.

He goes to the doctor's office. The doctor looks him over, then pulls out his light and shines it in the man's ear.

Here's the trouble, the doctor says: you've got a suppository in your ear.

"Well," the guy says, "at least now I know what I did with my hearing aid."

Guffaws and cheers then, from the Wednesday lunch crowd at Hoss's Steak and Sea House.

Now then, on to serious business.

***

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Graduation season finds Eichelberger High School alumni going strong

08-06-2012 23:42 Five Acre Artist Retreat & Desert Hideaway WILD MOON MESA Web Site: Wild Moon Mesa ~ Situated atop 5 beautiful acres on Cooper Mountain mesa in Joshua Tree, California, this newly remodeled, fully furnished, turn-key Casita features fabulous and far ranging vistas of wide open Mojave Desert, surrounded by the rugged, tall peaks of Hidalgo, Bartlett, and San Gorgonio Mountains. Hike, climb, ride and roam right outside your front door. Star-filled nights and beautiful sunrises await you. A perfect artist retreat or California High Desert getaway. WORK CREATE PLAY In addition to the Casita, Wild Moon Mesa features a fully equipped detached studio + loft with its own separate bathroom. Designed for use as a creative workspace, office, music and art studio, it is also perfect for use as an additional guest room, offering privacy and comfort for your visiting guests. A wonderful addition to the property, it is perfect for creative professionals who work from home, or those wishing to take a working holiday. Artists, Designers and Fabricators will enjoy the large workshop space created from the oversized three car garage on the property. Designed and used for custom art fabrication, there's ample room for just about any type of workshop, hobby or craft. Not in need of a workshop? It easily converts back into a two car garage that's large enough to house your full size truck, bikes, and tons of recreational gear, with even more storage available in the second ...

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Joshua Tree House For Sale - Wild Moon Mesa - Video

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by R.L. Nave June 8, 2012

A Utah private-prison firm will take over running the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility and two other Mississippi prisons from The GEO Group. Management & Training Corporation, based in Ogden, Utah, will also assume management of East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian and the Marshall County Correctional Facility in Holly Springs.

The 10-year deal between MTC and the Mississippi Department of Corrections is worth $430 million, the Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday. Neither MTC nor MDOC officials have returned our calls for comment at this time. With the Mississippi additions, MTC runs 22 state and federal prisons in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas and, now, Mississippi. MTC is also the nation's largest contractor with the federal Labor Department's Job Corps program, operating 19 Job Corps sites across 16 states.

The announcement raised eyebrows in prisoner-rights advocacy circles, which say private prison companies have a poor track record in the state.

Gail Tyree, a Soros Justice Fellow and an organizer against private prisons across the South, said she was disappointed to hear the news that a different private firm would be getting the contracts.

"Looking at their history, private prisons are giving Mississippi a black eye," Tyree told the Jackson Free Press.

As evidence, Tyree points to the beleaguered Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Leake County. Opened in 2000, Walnut Grove housed youth between 13 and 22 who were tried and convicted as adults. In Nov. 2010, civil-rights attorney Robert B. McDuff and lawyers from the Southern Poverty Law Center and American Civil Liberties Union sued MDOC Commissioner Christopher Epps, other state officials and the prison's Boca Raton, Fla.-based operator, The GEO Group, on behalf of incarcerated young men who alleged ongoing negligence and abuse.

In February 2012, the parties reached a settlement. Under the federal court decree, MDOC agreed to move the boys from Walnut Grove to a facility that would operate on principles of juvenile justice rather than standards of the adult prison system. The decree required Mississippi to offer an array of educational and rehabilitation programs and prohibited the state from putting children in its custody in solitary confinement.

Subsequently, GEO and MDOC agreed to terminate all the company's contracts with the state. Around the same time, MDOC and Corrections Corporation of America, agreed to terminate CCA's contract to manage the Delta Correctional Center in Greenwood. CCA, which ran three state prisons and one federal facility in Mississippi, said it could no longer manage the prison more efficiently than the state could.

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Utah Firm to Manage Three State Prisons

by Connie Cone Sexton - Jun. 8, 2012 09:04 AM The Republic | azcentral.com

A study room, training lab and Workforce Literacy Center are some of the new additions to the remodeled Ocotillo Library.

The Phoenix branch, which was closed for about nine months, reopened in April but its official grand opening is set for 9 a.m. Saturday at the location, 102 W. Southern Ave.

The $1.65 million renovation was funded in part by a one-time 2008-09 Community Development Block Grant stimulus award given to the city as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Other changes at the branch include a "First Five Years" space for children and more computer stations.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, Councilman Michael Nowakowski and City Librarian Rita Hamilton will oversee Saturday's celebration. The 9 a.m. ribbon cutting will be followed by music and family activities, including a story time at 9:30 a.m. with the mayor and his wife.

Ocotillo librarian Maria Dominguez said the Workforce Literacy Center will assist job seekers with workforce needs by serving as an "ACCESS Point" in partnership with the city-run Phoenix Workforce Connection, which offers help for job seekers. The center helps people with resume writing, interviewing skills and computer use to English as a second language.

Having the center will help meet the needs of the community, Dominguez said. "A lot of their needs were employment necessities," she said. Many people told her they had never filled out a resume before, never knew how to look for a job, never knew how to interview for a job.

Dominguez is excited about the grand reopening, especially because she doesn't think everyone in the neighborhood realizes the library is running again.

"It's been a slow start but now, it's word of mouth, people are talking to people" about being open again.

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Phoenix's Ocotillo Library to celebrate reopening