Garner North Carolina is growing, “as they say” like a weed, well in the mist of all this growth a number of area businesses has found a little hidden treasure that most businesses have over looked, Local online advertising and marketing, meaning locally owned and operated.
Garner NC City Guide has been competing, not only with the online and off-line local newspapers, but other local online business directories and the Internet giants, “Most of the major search engines” for Garner NC business customers for the past few years and Garner NC and the surrounding area’s answered by a 600% increase in free and paid listings since 11/15/2007.
Garner City Guide is nothing fancy with pop-up all over the pages, other ads all around your listings, promotional music and graphics screeming on your screen, but what Garner City Guide is, is bring traffic to your business and website at an affordable yearly fee.
If the search engines can’t find Garner NC business directory and local City Guide then its of no use to our Garner NC Businesses.
Garner North Carolina Business Directory!
Our goal is to provide community businesses and residents with a low cost way to advertise and be seen by many people in and around our growing area. Now with our City Guide Site businesses can finally get the exposure they deserve.
Our City Guide, business directory, event calendar and free classifieds allows local residents, as well as anyone around the world, to find information about businesses ranging from a wide variety of categories in Garner, North Carolina. garnernc-online.Best of all, gold member businesses are evenly rotated and featured on our home page below, as well as on the top of their respective category page. Therefore, receiving the highest level of exposure for their business, plus even more exposure with a new personal webpage on our server. You can also use our MARKETPLACE for buying and selling your products and services in the CLASSIFIEDS ADS Section.Local Basic Classifieds are FREE, however we offer a more advanced level for more exposure for your advertising. Garnernc-online is more than just a place to advertise your business or promote your products and services, we offer information, useful information about Garner NC and surrounding area’s that you and your business are looking for.
We invite you to use Garner’s Event Calendar, it’s also free, “list your events” -Crafts, Government, Charity, Sports, Holiday, Business, Church, Theater, Party, Networking. Lots of things happening in Garner NC- List Your Business Today!
RALEIGH, N.C. – Over the past ten years there has been a significant decline in the rate of spina bifida in North Carolina. In observance of National Folic Acid Awareness Week, January 7-13, the North Carolina Folic Acid Council (NCFAC) and the March of Dimes would like to recognize the work North Carolina has done to reduce the number of babies born with this serious birth defect.
“We’re seeing progress in the fight to eliminate neural tube defects like spina bifida thanks to folic acid fortification and an intense public health campaign to increase folic acid consumption through multivitamins,” said Amy Mullenix, MSW, MSPH, Statewide Campaign Coordinator. “Yet, there are still too many babies born with spina bifida and we want to make sure every woman of childbearing age gets the message that she should be taking a multivitamin every day, just in case.”
In North Carolina there is one child born with a neural tube defect (NTD) for every 1,160 live births, according to the State Center for Health Statistics’ Birth Defects Monitoring Program. Provisional data from the Birth Defects Monitoring Program show that the rate of NTDs declined approximately 40 percent between 1995 and 2005. Spina bifida rates dropped by an estimated 45 percent during that same time span. In Western North Carolina, where the Folic Acid Campaign has been active the longest, NTDs have decreased by more than 80 percent.
Spina bifida is a defect of the central nervous system and is the most common NTD. The neural tube is an embryonic structure that grows into the brain and spine. The defect occurs when the neural tube fails to close properly, around or before the 28th day of pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant. Spina bifida can range from mild to severe. Infants who survive this birth defect often spend their lives in wheelchairs, unable to move their lower extremities, or to control their bowels or bladder.
Research shows that 50–70 percent of neural tube defects are preventable with adequate folic acid intake before pregnancy. The U.S. Public Health Service recommends all women of childbearing age take 400mcg of folic acid daily. Nearly all brand-name and generic multivitamins contain the recommended amount.
The North Carolina Folic Acid Campaign, a collaboration between the North Carolina Folic Acid Council and the March of Dimes, uses innovative initiatives to educate women about the benefits of folic acid and the birth defects it helps to prevent. Through the Office Champion Program, which educates health care providers; the Community Ambassador Program, a lay health education program; and a multi-faceted media campaign in English and Spanish, the campaign spreads its message throughout the entire state.
To find out more about how you can become a community ambassador or office champion, contact Megan Fazekas at 919-781-2481 or by e-mail at mfazekas@marchofdimes.com. For more information about the NC Folic Acid Campaign, visit www.getfolic.com
Read On:CarolinaNewsWire
The first-ever statewide study of nonprofit employment shows that nonprofit organizations provide 212,814 jobs in North Carolina. This is more jobs than in the state’s construction industry and 54 percent more than in the state’s entire banking, finance, insurance, and real estate industry. Nonprofits employ more than one in every 18 workers in North Carolina, or about 6 percent of all jobs, says the study released today by the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits. National experts at Johns Hopkins University conducted the study on contract with the Center. Additional research found that the nonprofit sector puts $25.8 billion into the state’s economy each year.
“Economic developers tout our quality of life, and nonprofits play a vital role in creating this quality of life,” says Jane Kendall, president of the N.C. Center for Nonprofits. “Nonprofit colleges, PTAs, and day care centers educate and take care of our children. Nonprofit museums, theatres, and music festivals teach about our cultural heritage. Nonprofits also promote recycling, conserve green space, and monitor water quality. And, YMCAs, YWCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Boy and Girl Scouts help young people grow. Nonprofits are a part of our economy that works for the common good.”
“We depend on nonprofits for many of the drawing cards that make North Carolina attractive to business,” says Jim Fain, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Commerce. “Many in industry and government were not aware of nonprofits’ economic force, but this report will change that. The nonprofit sector is a key part of a vibrant economy for us now and in the future.”
The Surprise: More Jobs Than Several Large Industries
Nonprofits provide 212,814 jobs in North Carolina, which is about the same number as in the state’s construction industry (210,900 jobs) and one and a half times the state’s banking, finance, insurance, and real estate industry (137,800) combined. Nonprofits provide almost three times more jobs than the transportation (77,000) and information (75,100) industries, and 15 times more than the utilities industry (14,200) in North Carolina.
Nonprofit Sector Employment Growing Faster Than Business Sector
Between 1995 and 2003, nonprofit employment in North Carolina grew by 35.4 percent and added 55,700 jobs to the state’s work force. This is an average growth rate of 4.4 percent per year, which was six times the growth rate achieved by the business sector during this period. The nonprofit sector accounted for 26 percent of the state’s job growth in these eight years.
Total Economic Impact of Nonprofits
The total economic impact of the nonprofit sector in North Carolina has grown even faster than the jobs it has created. Nonprofits put $25.8 billion into the economy in 2005, an increase of 117 percent in one decade, up from $11.9 billion spent in 1995.
“The benefits of nonprofits are not limited to the people that they serve,” says Richard “Stick” Williams, vice president of enterprise field services at Duke Energy in Charlotte. “These dollars support local economies and create jobs.”
Nonprofit employees earned nearly $6.6 billion in wages in 2003, which accounted for 5.5 percent of the payroll of all North Carolina workers.
“The people who work in the nonprofit sector also contribute to the state’s economy,” says Kendall. “Nonprofit employees pay hundreds of millions of dollars in state income taxes. They buy clothes, food, and computers and thus pay state and local sales taxes on their purchases. They also buy homes and cars and pay property taxes to local governments.”
Just as sports events generate economic ripples, nonprofit activities such as arts performances, museum tours, and conferences also benefit the economy by boosting local businesses and sales taxes revenue through visitors’ expenditures at local hotels, restaurants, and stores.
Where Nonprofit Employees Work
North Carolina’s distribution of jobs in charitable nonprofits is similar to the national pattern. The majority (54 percent) are in health services, from Duke Health System, one of the state’s largest nonprofits, to local health clinics. Eighteen percent are in educational services, including private elementary and secondary schools and colleges, such as the Asheville School, Davidson College, and Shaw University. Ten percent of nonprofit jobs are in social assistance – from elderly services to emergency relief and child care. Nine percent are in membership, civic, and advocacy organizations, such as United Ways, foundations, and those addressing social issues such as child abuse. Three percent provide professional, scientific, and technical services, such as research organizations and legal services. Two percent of nonprofit jobs are in arts and recreation, such as performing arts groups, museums, and local recreation centers.
From 1995 to 2003, nonprofit job growth was strongest in membership, civic, and advocacy organizations (149 percent) and in private schools and colleges (101 percent). Other fields with above-average job growth were professional, scientific, and technical services (75 percent); social assistance (57 percent); and arts and recreation (39 percent). Hospital employment grew by 24 percent during this period. By contrast, nonprofit clinics and home health services lost 14 percent of jobs, a possible reflection of the growth of for-profit businesses in this arena.
Average Nonprofit Wages Are Lower Than in Business and Government
At $593, average weekly wages of nonprofit workers were 4 percent below those of workers in the business sector and local government, and 11 percent below those in state government. However, these averages obscure significant variations for nonprofit workers in different fields. Average wages range from a low of $391 per week in the social assistance field to a high of $710 in the hospital field.
What Nonprofits Do in North Carolina
Nonprofits fulfill several roles in North Carolina. (1) They deliver health and social services through organizations such as nonprofit hospitals, hospices, day care centers, and the Salvation Army. (2) They create volunteer opportunities, such as delivering Meals on Wheels or building a house with Habitat for Humanity. (3) They educate the public on issues such as smoking, domestic violence, and air pollution. (4) They develop programs and propose policies to solve public problems, such as the Child Care Services Association’s innovations in affordable day care and the Center for Community Self-Help’s leadership in curbing predatory lending. (5) They supply a voice for the voiceless, such as children, the frail elderly, and people with AIDS. (6) Finally, they offer avenues for religious worship through churches, synagogues, and mosques.
The report’s release coincides with the start of the holiday season when many people volunteer and make charitable contributions to nonprofits that deliver services to people in need. “But the impact of the nonprofit sector on the quality of life and the economy is felt in North Carolina 365 days a year,” says Kendall. “This study points to the large stake that North Carolina has in the health of its nonprofit sector.”
Read More:CarolinaNewsWire
When Yahoo! makes news these days, it’s usually not good news. But today there’s a bright spot for the portal, which has managed to capture the No. 1 spot for internet news, ahead of rival Google.
According to comScore, Yahoo reaches 50 million people per month between its news, finance and sports channels. Although TV still has a greater daily reach, portals like MSN, AOL and Yahoo are quickly becoming news heavyweights.
Scott Moore, vice president of news and information, told Forbes.com that Yahoo has built its news empire by cutting deals with an array of news providers.
“Our news product is very leanly staffed,” Moore said. “The MSNBC news room has 150 to 200 people. Yahoo News is a fraction of that. We have lower costs and that makes us more profitable.”
Read More:Imedia Connection
When you think of Texas and energy, green alternatives are probably the last thing that comes to mind.But the land of big trucks and big oil is emerging as the leader in wind energy, an alternative technology that could become an important power source.
Last week, the state awarded a Louisiana company the right to build large wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico through what was the nation’s first competitive lease auction for the generation of offshore wind energy.
The company, Wind Energy Systems Technology, or WEST, will pay Texas a minimum of $132 million over 30 years for the rights to four tracts totaling more than 73,000 acres. In a best-case scenario, Texas could get as much as $433 million during that time.
The leases stipulate that the wind farms will ultimately produce at least 250 megawatts of power per tract, according to Jim Suydam, press secretary for the Texas General Land Office. That’s enough to supply 300,000 homes with electricity.
Texas is proving to be a welcoming partner for proposed wind energy projects, with 367 miles of coastline open for possible development. “The Texas wind rush is on, and pioneers are staking their claims,” said Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, in a statement.
According to Susan Sloan, communications specialist at the American Wind Energy Association, Texas has more wind power than any other state.
“The political leadership has made Texas friendly for wind power, and an open and competitive marketplace there allows wind generators easy access to the power grid,” she says. Why Texas?
Read More:TheStreet.Com
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Muslim extremism, Christian fundamentalism blamed
BURGESS HILL, ENGLAND - Every morning on his walk to work, high school teacher Graham Wright recited a favorite Anglican prayer and asked God for strength in the day ahead. Two years ago, he stopped.
Wright, 59, said he was overwhelmed by a feeling that religion had become a negative influence in his life and the world. Although he once considered becoming an Anglican vicar, he suddenly found that religion represented nothing he believed in, from Muslim extremists blowing themselves up in God’s name to Christians condemning gays, contraception and stem cell research.
“I stopped praying because I lost my faith,” said Wright, a thoughtful man with graying hair and clear blue eyes. “Now I truly loathe any sight or sound of religion. I blush at what I used to believe.”
Wright is now an avowed atheist and part of a growing number of vocal nonbelievers in Europe and the United States. On both sides of the Atlantic, membership in once-quiet groups of nonbelievers is rising, and books attempting to debunk religion have been surprise bestsellers, including “The God Delusion,” by Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins.
New groups of nonbelievers are sprouting on college campuses, anti-religious blogs are expanding across the Internet, and in general, more people are publicly saying they have no religious faith.
More than three out of four people in the world consider themselves religious, and those with no faith are a distinct minority. But especially in richer nations, and nowhere more than in Europe, growing numbers of people are saying they don’t believe there is a heaven or a hell or anything other than this life.
Many analysts trace the rise of what some are calling the “nonreligious movement” to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The sight of religious fanatics killing almost 3,000 people caused many to begin questioning — and rejecting — all religion.
“This is overwhelmingly the topic of the moment,” said Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society of Britain. “Religion in this country was very quiet until Sept. 11, and now it is at the center of everything.”
Since the 2001 attacks, a string of religiously inspired bomb and murder plots has shaken Europe. Muslim radicals killed 52 people on the London transport system in 2005 and 191 on Madrid trains in 2004.
Many Europeans are angry at demands to use taxpayer money to accommodate Islam, Europe’s fastest-growing religion, which now has as many as 20 million followers on the continent. Along with calls for prayer rooms in police stations, foot baths in public places and funding for Islamic schools and mosques, expensive legal battles have broken out over the niqab, the Muslim veil that covers all but the eyes Read More: News & Observer
(ARA) - Poverty is a serious issue in our country. In fact, there are 36.5 million Americans living in poverty, including 12.8 million children. Shockingly, of all the industrialized nations, the United States has the most people living in poverty.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. And you can be part of the solution.
Catholic Charities USA has launched the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America. The main goal of this campaign is to cut the U.S. poverty rate in half by 2020 and calls upon everyone to address the issues and get involved. The campaign urges the government to improve public policies that strengthen and support families and aims to educate policymakers and the public about the struggles of those living in poverty — as well as solutions for lifting people out of poverty.
“This Campaign is about who we are as a nation,” says Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA. “We must not ignore the injustice of poverty and the extreme inequality in America. We must work together to advocate for changes that promote human dignity and the common good.”
Local Catholic Charities agencies across the country have been transforming lives for over 200 years. Today, Catholic Charities offers help and creates hope for nearly eight million people by providing food to the poor, shelter to the homeless, and responding to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.
For example, one mother — an immigrant from Guatemala who speaks little English — started a successful childcare business in her home with funds from a Catholic Charities’ Individual Development Accounts (IDA) program. Another single mom on public assistance, with help from the same program, received her real estate license. She was able to purchase her own home, establish good medical and life insurance plans and open college savings accounts for her children. They have broken the cycle of poverty.
These success stories happen every day. But there could be even more success stories if more Americans had a better understanding of poverty in our country. After all, poverty doesn’t just affect the families who suffer. It jeopardizes the economic well-being of our nation as a whole.
“Statistics on poverty don’t give the whole picture,” says Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA. “There are many faces of poverty who often go unnoticed.” Despite common stereotypes, most impoverished people have jobs. Nearly two out of three families with incomes below the poverty line include one or more workers.
“By taking a personal step to become educated and volunteer, you gain a greater awareness of the people you are helping and the challenges they face,” adds Snyder.
You can be part of the solution. Join the campaign to Reduce Poverty in America and see how lending your voice and actions can go a long way in cutting poverty in half by 2020. Visit www.CatholicCharitiesUSA.org for more information.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
SIDEBAR:
Things You Can Do to Address Poverty:
Get Informed
* Educate yourself about poverty in your community and in the United States. Read “Poverty in America: A Threat to the Common Good and other fact and stories about poverty.”
* Make yourself familiar with legislation and policy proposals that impact low-income families and individuals. Visit Catholic Charities USA’s advocacy page.
Get Organized
* Invite those who are directly impacted by poverty to join your discussions and become participants in the actions you all take.
* Develop a working group within your church and community to help spread the word and raise concerns about “your issue.” Make sure to involve some low-income families in your work group.
Get Involved
* Let your voice be heard by involving yourself in advocacy activities at the local, state and national levels.
* Contact your local elected officials with specific concerns about poverty in your community and ask for a staff contact to follow up with.
Volunteer and Donate
* Learn about volunteering with Catholic Charities in your community and support Catholic Charities’ efforts.
Depending on your religion, Friday, Saturday or Sunday spells sacred.Just consider what many of us do with our hands on those days: We raise them in praise or press them together in prayer. We use them to hold our holy books, to accept Communion, to offer another a handshake of peace.
But what about the workweek?
That can be hallowed time, too. On the job, in a thousand different ways, we extend helping hands.
At Charlotte’s Presbyterian Hospital, they understand — and honor — this. Once a year, chaplains carve out time to bless the healing hands of employees. Doctors, nurses, assistants, secretaries, gardeners, janitors — whoever chooses to participate.
Sometimes patients want to be included, too.
Recently, I tagged along as the Rev. Hunter Roddey and helper Connie Matthews rolled their “Blessing the Hands cart” from one nursing unit to the next.
Armed with hot water, frankincense and myrrh, their message to these caregivers, Roddey said, was: “You do so much with your hands all day. Let us care for you a little while.”
Then, in the same spirit as figures in the Bible washed each others’ feet, Roddey and Matthews soothed working hands by pouring water over them and anointing them with the aromatic oils.
“We are thankful for the work your hands do,” Roddey told nurse Mitzy Waller, 35, the first in line. Then he held her hands and prayed over them: “God, our creator, thank you for the skills you give us … and may the work of these hands bring hope and healing.”
Roddey is Presbyterian. But, because of the religious diversity of the hospital’s work force, he said he doesn’t invoke Jesus, Muhammad or Moses.
But those who receive the blessings are free to bring their own beliefs and traditions to the experience. And many do.
Dr. Jay Duggins, an anesthesiologist who attends Carmel Baptist Church, said he sees his work — and the blessing of his hands — as part of his Christian faith.
“I believe in the Lord and that we are all doing his work here,” said Duggins, 40, who was at Presbyterian to evaluate patients a day after surgery. “This is an outward showing of our faith, and allows [God] to work through us.”
Read More: News & Observer
Convinced that God has been erased from public schools, Southern Baptists are now working to open their own schools, where Jesus is writ large and Bible study is part of the daily curriculum.Church leaders are not calling for a wholesale exodus from public schools, which would be a monumental hit, considering that Southern Baptists make up the nation’s largest Protestant denomination with 16 million members.
Rather, they talk about alternatives to public schools capable of educating a new generation ready and willing to advocate for biblical principles rather than popular culture.
“In the public schools, you don’t just have neutrality, you have hostility toward organized religion,” said Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest. “A lot of parents are fed up.”
Southeastern is leading the push, sponsoring a Christian School 101 workshop Monday and Tuesday. The program is designed to train church leaders to open private schools.
At Southeastern and elsewhere, Southern Baptists have become convinced that fighting to change the system is futile. They say public schools have long demonstrated a commitment to teaching evolution over creationism, world faiths over Christianity, sex education over abstinence, moral relativism over Christian claims of truth.
A history of alienation
The denomination’s disenchantment with public schools is not new. It dates to the 1920s, when states debated the teaching of creationism vs. evolution. Evolution increasingly won, despite the famous Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, which gave the victory to creationists. The 1962 and 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decisions banning prayer and devotional readings from public schools only increased Southern Baptists’ ire.
Since then, alienation with public schools has grown alongside the nation’s culture wars, pitting evangelical Christians against secularists.
“Southern Baptists see the new religious establishment in this country as secularism,” said Bill Leonard, dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. “It dictates pluralism and diversity of values relative to doctrine, politics and sexual values.”
Southeastern seminary is fighting back. Ten years ago, it launched a master’s degree program in Christian school administration to help train principals.
“Are we going to be satisfied with the thousands of hours children spend in an environment with the absence of support for what we hold dear, and in many cases, hostility to it?” asked Ken Coley, a professor at Southeastern who runs the master’s program for Christian school administrators.
The 40 or so people who have signed up for the workshop Monday are church leaders primarily from small North Carolina towns, where there are few private Christian schools. They include the Rev. Ed Rose, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Wendell. Rose, whose church sits next to a 4,000-home development called Wendell Falls, sees an opportunity in fast-growing eastern Wake County.
“All our studies show the demand is off the charts,” he said.
The Triangle supports at least 15 private Protestant schools, most of which are not exclusively Baptist but enroll large numbers of children whose parents belong to Baptist churches. North Raleigh Christian Academy, the largest of the Triangle schools, enrolls 1,290 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. About 55 percent are Baptist, said Superintendent S. L. Sherrill.
Many of these schools bear little relation to those founded after the desegregation battles of the 1970s, when many Baptists pulled their children out of public schools to avoid forced busing and integration.
Read More: News & Observer
