A Local Hero Needs Your Help

A friend at work's husband needs your assistance in order to qualify for a $25,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project.  This is funded by PepsiCo.  Each month, up to $1.3 million will be awarded as follows: 2 Grants at the $250,000 level; 10 Grants at the $50,000 level; 10 Grants at the $25,000 level; and 10 Grants at the $5,000 level.


I do not know her husband, but I can tell you that my friend, Dina, is a lovely lady who is involved in helping our local community through her work with a shelter for abused women and children, along with fund-raising for various Milwaukee area charities.  She is A-1, a hard-working, generous and kind person.

Here is the story from her email: 

My husband, Jack, mentors young males in the community who have no positive male role models in their lives. He began mentoring over 15 years ago while working in social services. He realized that we were losing more and more young males to gangs, drugs and the criminal justice system and he wanted to do what he could to reverse that trend. He has provided positive "man training" to young males helping them and their families through the transition from childhood to adulthood. He has helped countless number of young males turn their lives around through positive interaction, high expectations and a refusal to accept excuses. He's helped 13 young men graduate from college and 45 graduate from vocational school with career-ready trade skills...all out of his own pocket.



I submitted his project history as an idea to the Pepsi Refresh Project and it was accepted.


Now we need YOU! Please go to the website above and vote for our project. Voting runs from December 1- 31 with the winners being announced on January 1st. It doesn't cost you a thing, you can vote EVERYDAY and we hope that you will. (We have to end the month in the top 10 to receive the grant.)


Thank you!

Dina and Jack Bass
We need projects like this - the need is so great.  All our Goddesschess fans, I ask you to please take a moment, check it out and vote for Jack's project -  Man Business, Inc. - if you think it is cool.  Vote here for Man Business, Inc. 
 
I did myself and it's true, there are no catches to this. You do have to register an email and a name and date of  birth and also fill in one of those "write this word in the box" things to prove you are a real person :)  You do not have to sign up to receive any email promotions or other email notifications.  You do not and are not asked to contribute money to anything.  Just vote and that's it.  Once you're registered, you can vote for Man Business, Inc. once a day until the voting deadline, midnight on December 31, 2010. 
 
Please keep your fingers and toes crossed that Man Business, Inc. wins a $25,000 grant!!!  Man Business, Inc. is currently ranked 246th and needs to get into the top 100 to be carried over to the next month's list, when voting starts all over again.  To receive the $25,000 grant, Man Business, Inc. needs to finish in the top 10 for the month of December, 2010.
 
Please vote, and thanks!

Egyptian Goddess - Who Knew?

Intellectual Property Watch 12 November 2008 Egyptian Goddess Puts Teeth Back In US Industrial Design Rights Posted by William New @ 5:17 pm By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch For the past two decades, industrial design rights have received little respect in the United States. But no longer. The recent court ruling in Egyptian Goddess, Inc v Swisa, Inc has dramatically strengthened industrial design rights in the US, bringing the country’s protections for these rights back into line with international standards, according to many experts. Please note: this article is password protected and only available for IP-Watch Subscribers. Well, I'm not a member of IP-Watch Subscribers but I did read the decision simply by clicking on it and voila! There it was in PDF! Ah, it brought back pleasant memories of the days of my own brief writing and oral argument! Of course, the opinion is boring as hell and after having been out of it for over 20 years, it took a bit to track, but I guess once a lawyer, always a lawyer. Damn!