Proposed DC Charter Amendment V
Permit the Council to adopt a resolution to expel a Councilmember upon a 5/6 vote of its members upon demonstrating that Councilmember’s gross failure to meet the highest standards of conduct and upon establishing procedures for the expulsion of a Councilmember.

Proposed DC Charter Amendment VI
anyone who is convicted of a felony while holding the office of Council member ineligible to remain in office and ineligible to ever hold the office again

Proposed DC Charter Amendment VII
The Mayor is Disqualified from Office for A Felony Conviction

Marion Barry Wikipedia
Vincent Gray Wikipedia

My position is that the USADA has no jurisdiction in this case and Lance Armstrong should be allowed to keep his 7 titles. The USADA is recognized by the U.S. Congress as “the official anti-doping agency for Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic sport in the United States.” I don’t see Tour de France in that list. USADA is not a government entity, however the agency is partly funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Lance Armstrong passed all his drug tests, that was the rules. Changing the rules later via a non analytical positive (an athlete implicated not by a positive drug test but by supporting evidence) is ridiculous. Non-analytical positive is what brought down Marion Jones and Barry Bonds. It seems to me Travis Tygart, Chief Executive Officer of USADA is more interested in promoting his own career than ‘justice’.

Other articles of note:
A list of all doping cases in sport.
Wired: How Armstrong Could ‘Get Away With Stuff With Everybody Looking’
WSJ: Officials Pursued Armstrong for Years
Forbes: lance-armstrong-hero-cheat-and-tragic-figure   (the comments are better than the story)
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10151049613603691

“We were thinking that at some dose of running, things would level off, that we’d see that runners would have a reduction in mortality at certain distances and then it would kind of level off,” Dr Carl Lavie (Ochsner Health System, New Orleans, LA), one of the study investigators, told heartwire. “The fact that it reached its plateau at such a low level is surprising, as is the fact that it didn’t level off but actually went the other way. We never had a point where runners did worse than nonrunners, but really, if you put it in almost a joking way, it showed that if you ran enough you got yourself back to the level of a couch potato. You lost the survival advantage.”

The results of the study were presented last week at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) 2012 Annual Meeting by lead researcher Dr Duck-chul Lee (University of South Carolina, Columbia). Lavie stressed that while the study is one of the largest performed to date, including data on more than 52 000 men and women participating in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS), it is a retrospective analysis and that results will likely vary among individuals with differing athletic abilities or different ages.

“There is not going to be a set cut point where we say this is the magical amount of running,” said Lavie. “But certainly, it looks like you get the benefits at relatively low, modest amounts. If you shoot for superhigh amounts of running, you’re certainly not getting more benefit, and it actually appears from our data that you could be getting less benefit.”

Running linked with a 19% lower risk of death

In the ACLS, participants were free from cardiovascular disease, cancer, electrocardiographic abnormalities, and diabetes at baseline. Running and other physical activities were self-reported on the medical history questionnaire, and patients were followed for an average of 15 years. During this time, 2984 deaths occurred and approximately 27% of the men and women participated in running as a form of exercise.

Overall, running was associated with a 19% lower risk of all-cause mortality when compared with individuals who did not run (hazard ratio [HR] 0.81; 95% CI 0.73-0.89). As noted, the researchers observed a U-shaped relationship with all-cause mortality, with faster paces, longer distances, and increasing frequency suggestive of a diminishing mortality benefit.

Regarding pace, individuals who ran six and seven miles per hour had a significant 21% and 27% lower risk of all-cause mortality, whereas those who ran eight or more miles per hour had a nonsignificant 7% lower risk of all-cause mortality. Running up to 20 miles per week was associated with a significantly reduced risk of death, with the largest benefit observed in those who ran between 10 to 15 miles weekly (HR 0.73; 95% CI 0.60-0.89). For those who ran 20 to 25 miles and more than 25 miles per week, however, there was a nonsignificant 10% and 5% reduction in all-cause mortality. Similarly, the mortality benefit was observed in individuals who ran two to five days per week, but the benefit began turning in the other direction when subjects ran six or seven days per week. At six and seven days, the reduction in all-cause mortality was not statistically significant.

“Honestly, my weekly running mileage is above the level where we’re seeing the benefit,” Lavie told heartwire. “I average 35 to 40 miles a week, and in many previous years have probably averaged more than 45 or 50 miles per week. I’ve done a few marathons and a ton of half-marathons, so I sure would have liked to have seen the benefit leveling off rather than going the other way.”

Lavie noted that it is impossible to say definitively that more running is making the reduction in all-cause mortality go in the other direction, as it’s possible that unmeasured variables might have influenced the results. That said, the group corrected for the usual variables—age, gender, hypertension status, lipid levels, smoking status, and alcohol intake, among others. It’s possible that runners might not be taking care of themselves in other ways, offered Lavie by way of explanation, although he didn’t think that was plausible. “I would have thought that runners are more likely to be more health conscious,” he said.

Review article highlights the running risk

As for the underlying mechanisms, Lavie highlighted a review paper published this week in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings by lead author Dr James O’Keefe (Mid America Heart Institute of St Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, MO), of which he was a coauthor, highlighting the potential for adverse cardiovascular remodeling among individuals who participate in long-term endurance exercise, such as marathons, ultramarathons, Ironman-distance triathlons, and long-distance cycling races [2]. Regular and intense endurance exercise such as these events might lead to myocardial fibrosis, particularly in the atria, interventricular septum, and right ventricle, which in turn can lead to atrial or ventricular arrhythmias. Endurance exercise may also be associated with coronary artery calcification, diastolic dysfunction, or arterial stiffening.

Dr Benjamin Levine (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas), an expert in the effects of exercise on the heart, told heartwire that he believes concerns about endurance exercise, even long-term events like marathons and ultramarathons, are overblown. In fact, another exercise study presented at the ACSM meeting showed that right ventricular mass increased following six months of endurance exercise, but the ratio of left ventricular mass to right ventricular mass was unchanged, a finding that is suggestive of a physiological adaptation to exercise. Levine was not involved in any of the studies or with the writing of the review paper.

“We have studied some of the most extraordinary athletes on the planet,” said Levine. “We’ve done invasive studies, very high-resolution studies of cardiac and vascular performance, and elite endurance athletes, including young and elite master athletes, have no evidence of fibrosis whatsoever. They have youthful, compliant hearts and blood vessels.”

He added that his group has also analyzed data from the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study (CCLS), examining outcomes among individuals who ran two to three days per week, four to five days per week, and those training at an elite master’s level. After performing MRI scans, they saw no evidence of myocardial scarring as evidenced by delayed gadolinium enhancement. In fact, he contends that casual recreational activity, performed two to three days per week, is not enough to change cardiac compliance, whereas lifetime running at 30 miles per week makes cardiac compliance equivalent to healthy 30-year-olds regardless of age. In the CCLS study, those who exercised four to five times per week had aortic and cardiac compliance approaching values achieved by the master athletes.

“I think there are a lot of good things that happen when you only exercise a few times per week,” he said. “There are changes in autonomic function and endothelial function, but I wouldn’t disagree with you that there must be some level, occasionally, where people can hurt themselves running. I think the evidence is quite compelling that exercise in untrained people does increase the risk. It increases the risk of thrombosis, it increases the risk of an arrhythmia, and every time you exercise that risk goes up a little bit. We know that exercise does transiently increase cardiac risk, but over time the overall risk is clearly lower.”

Tips for Pinterest advocacy: nonprofit associations, political organizations:

1. It’s All About Images
2. Make it Shareable
3. Interact, Don’t Just Broadcast
4. It’s Not Just for Women
5. Don’t Pin and Ditch

Brand pages tips from the Facebook D.C. office:

Step 1: connect. Use advertising, paid media, social plug ins, and include your Facebook domain in email marketing.
Step 2: engage. Consistent interaction w connections. Frequent, high quality publishing.
Step 3: influence. Word of mouth, owned audience. Build strong engagement and use sponsored stories.
Step 4: integrate. Use deep integration to make points more meaningful. Integrate Facebook login with timeline apps to your site.

More tips from the Washington D.C. Facebook office

• Your membership wants to be involved – make it easy for them.
• Friends of your Facebook page are the key for nonprofit and association organizations to amplify page posts. 500k fans = 40MM impressions.
• Advice from Facebook: 80/20 rule for Facebook applications – spend 80% of your money promoting the app & 20% of your funds developing the app.
• Cover photo is ideal to tell your story and showcase the emotional mission of your organization.
• Facebook users 43% more likely to vote.
• 1 in 4 new Facebook users are over 65. Fastest growing group 35-65.
• 92% of people trust word of mouth ads. 47% trust tv, radio, newspaper advertisements.
  
• Creating an info graphic or posting an image more is effective than just words.
• Posting a press release or blog link is not the best form of engagement
• Pin a post to keep it on the top of your page for 7 days
• Using Facebook registration tool will enhance personal connections.
• Find the right mix of paid and earned Facebook media – they go hand in hand.
• Even Facebook posts where people DISAGREE with your advocacy position are helpful to expanding your voice.

The ad on the left did ok on click thru's, the ad on the right did very well on click thru's.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) unveiled a new Facebook application called Citizen Cosponsor, which is designed to connect voters with bills being debated on Capitol Hill. “We are dedicated to modernizing the way Congress connects with the American people,” Cantor said in a statement. “Citizen Cosponsor breaks ground by directly connecting people with the work the House is doing every day.” Users can “cosponsor” a bill to receive updates on its status, ranging from hearings to committee votes to full votes. Facebook then shares the user’s support for a bill on their profile. There is also a “keep me informed” option for citizens looking to solely follow bills.

Top examples for free market Facebook pages

American Free Enterprise
Hiring our Heroes
National Center For Public Policy Research

1. LinkedIn is the top tool lawyers use to find other attorneys.
2. People are using LinkedIn to search for legal services offered by D.C. legal profession.
3. Optimizing a LinkedIn profile can get your law practice on page one of Google (see examples in the video).

Watch the 3 minute YouTube video version of this article.

Video transcript: It’s critical that your law practice get visibility on page one of search results in LinkedIn and ultimately Google. What LinkedIn doesn’t tell you is that you can optimize your LinkedIn profile so you can be ranked on page one of Google without spending thousands in online advertising.

Let’s use the legal profession as an example. We start by typing a common request into Google, for example “New Media Attorney DC”. We would expect to see several law firms, but instead we see that the 5th position on page one of Google is occupied by Jennifer’s professional LinkedIn profile.

It’s interesting that she has achieved such a high rating for free, simply by having multiple relevant keywords and connections. Google views each personal connection as a high quality backlink – the more high backlinks and keywords the higher your profile will rank in Google.

Now lets try another search on Google, this time “digital media attorney dc”. We see that the 8th position on page one of Google is occupied by John’s LinkedIn profile. His profile is complete, full of relevant keywords and connections and ahead of other law firms.

Now lets try a highly trafficked keyword, for example “Corporate Attorney DC”. According to Google’s free Adwords tool, “Corporate Attorney” gets 18,100 searches in the United States each month. So lets plug that into Google search.

The initial result on page one is what you expect: six law firms that have likely spent thousands to have their website rank on page 1. But at the bottom of page one we see LinkedIn’s list of “corporate attorneys in DC”. Lets click on that. Here we see a list. So in this case Mirsky legal has achieved page one position in Google for a keyword that receives 18,100 searches by investing a few hundred dollars in a professional LinkedIn profile service.

Ok, so you understand it can be valuable to have a LinkedIn professional profile that is highly visible but how did those profiles get there? Surely theses DC law firm must have paid thousands of dollars in online advertising or D.C., Virginia or Maryland lawyer AVVO ratings?

NOPE. The answer is simple and can cost only a few hundred dollars.

LinkedIn ranks “complete” profiles higher than incomplete profiles in its search results. A complete profile combined with many connections, e.g. at least 50 will rank higher in search engine results. If you’re looking for a job or want to increase sales at your company, it is critical to have a legal profile that LinkedIn considers “complete”.

Let’s look at an example of a complete profile. As we scroll through though Madeline’s profile we see that she has completed the eight areas required for a “complete” profile

1.    Photo
2.    Summary
3.    Your industry
4.    Postal code
5.    50 or more connections
6.    Two jobs, along with descriptions
7.    Five or more skills
8.    School

Thus Madeline is highly ranked in LinkedIn search results and ultimately Google for “Medical Device Sales DC” . Try it on your own, if you have a LinkedIn profile type your name in Google to see where your profile ranks. Then type in your job skills or your small business product or service.

There are many hidden tricks to where you place your keywords in order to get a D.C. law practice highly ranked on Google. If your legal practice professional profile is not ranking well on LinkedIn consider hiring the LinkedIn profile experts at Linked Profile Service.

Contact us for a free evaluation of your needs.

Facebook has started rolling out Promoted Posts for Brand Pages, a new feature that allows businesses to pay for posts to be more predominantly displayed on news feeds. Earlier this year, Facebook shared the statistic that a Brand Page’s content is only seen by 16% of the fans. Facebook’s slew of ad tools and these new Promoted Posts are geared to help businesses reach and engage more of their fan base.

A nonprofit can now pay $5, $10, $15 or $20 to “get more people who like your Page to see this post.”

Facebook users will see promoted posts labeled with “Sponsored” in the news feed (not in the right rail where Facebook ads live) both on desktop and mobile. Promoted Posts have the same targeting ability that regular posts do, so you can geo-target just to your company’s area to get the most bang for your buck. Video: Facebook Promoted Posts: A Step-By-Step Guide

 Facebook Post Scheduling

Facebook recently announced that Brand Page administrators can schedule posts in advance (previously, administrators turned to social media management platforms like HootSuite and TweetDeck for this capability.) Mashable identifies a few things that could be improved with the new feature.

The following were my favorite sessions or technologies featured at SXSW 2012:

• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) 

• GoingMyWay

• Tapping into America's Secret Sauce: Entrepreneurs

• Gamify and Socialize: Beyond the Buzzwords 

• GE Social Fridge

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated “A combination of elements made this matter particularly unusual and egregious,” “When there is targeting of players for injury and cash rewards over a three-year period, the involvement of the coaching staff, and three years of denials and willful disrespect of the rules, a strong and lasting message must be sent that such conduct is totally unacceptable and has no place in the game.”

Goodell has frequently taken a hard line on any action that threatens player safety. He suspended Detroit’s Ndamukong Suh for two games for stomping on an opponent last season; banned Pittsburgh Steeler’s James Harrison for one game after a series of flagrant hits and has ramped up the amount of fines for what the league terms “egregious hits.”

Targeting opposing players for injury has long been part of NFL team tactics. The Raiders are better known for intimation, unnecessary roughness penalties than their motto “Commitment to Excellence.” It seems the NFL is serious about turning warrior bravado into flag football. Sadly I can’t help but think Goodell’s actions are more about limiting legal liability than actual player safety. I recently wrote an article for the Huffington Post: Super Bowl Hangover: Is the NFL Brand at Risk Due to Concussion Lawsuits?

If NFL rules continue to reduce the number and ferocity of hits the equity of the football brand will decrease. This will open the door for other sports with bravado, warrior and hero identities to grow. All brands have a life cycle — some day, some time, the NFL will cease to be relevant. As I am a fan of the NFL, I hope it doesn’t happen in my lifetime.

A leading LinkedIn profile article offers 10 tips for completing your LinkedIn profile based on the new calculation:

1.) Add a professional profile photo. (7x more likely to be found by job recruiters).

2.) List all the jobs or positions you’ve held, along with descriptions. (12x more likely to be found by job recruiters).

3.) Have 5 or more skills on your profile

4.) Write a summary about yourself

5.) Fill out your industry and postal code

6.) Add where you went to school

7.) Have 50 or more connections – it’s easier than you think to get connected!

8.) Use the ‘Improve your Profile’ tool to find simple steps to help you stand out.

9.) Freshness matters. Update your LinkedIn profile frequently if you want to keep your ranking score near the top in the LinkedIn search algorithm.

10.) Create a professional LinkedIn profile from the top LinkedIn Profile Service! Learn about their LinkedIn Profile Service Pricing and LinkedIn Profile Service Reviews Testimonials and LinkedIn News.