San Francisco-based interactive marketing agency Red Bricks Media was recently selected to provide search marketing solutions to two new clients. It will manage search campaigns for Pacific Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 500 insurance product provider, and Salon.com, a website providing original news-related content and commentary.

Pacific Life Insurance Company, founded in 1868, is a leader in the sale of both life insurance and annuity products and achieved over $4.5 billion in revenue last year. It offers a variety of investment products and services to individuals, businesses, and pension plans.

MicroCredit Enterprises today announced a major modernization of its lending eligibility and criteria for overseas microfinance institutions (MFIs). MicroCredit Enterprises makes tiny business loans to MFIs that serve deeply impoverished rural women who often struggle to survive on just $1.00 a day.

Effective immediately, MicroCredit Enterprises will give special consideration to MFIs who operate comprehensive social service programs, such as women's empowerment, health education or business training for micro-entrepreneurs, and who have accountable boards of directors who respond to local community needs.

On November 9, 2007, in front of a U.S. District judge in New Orleans, big-pharma giant Merck & Co., Inc agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle about 27,000 lawsuits filed over allegations that the COX-2 inhibitor Vioxx -- which the company was forced to withdraw from the market in 2004 -- caused deaths or injuries to patients taking the drugs.

Today, a challenge was issued by Steve Hayes, director of Novus Medical Detox Center in Pasco County, Florida, that a similar settlement should be pursued against Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of OxyContin, to directly compensate patients whose lives have been adversely affected by this drug.

Webmail.us, a leading provider of email hosting services to more than 45,000 small, medium, and geographically dispersed businesses, today announced the launch of its email marketing service, a service that allows customers to send opt-in email newsletters to large groups. Email newsletters can be used to send vital communications to customers, subscribers, or others who wish to receive the communications.

By employing eight years of experience in the email services industry, Webmail.us has designed this service to help customers use email to communicate more effectively with large groups of recipients, achieve the highest possible delivery rates, easily manage email campaigns, and track the effectiveness of those campaigns. More importantly, customers are now able to communicate directly with large groups while remaining compliant with industry anti-spam regulations. In fact, the company recently joined the Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC), a group that was formed to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. "We are pleased that Webmail.us has joined ESPC and our mission to combat spam while protecting legitimate email by following best practices and adhering to emerging technology standards," state James Campbell, Assistant Director of the ESPC, "and we look forward to working with them to promote these practices with other large senders and receivers."

Cascadia Capital, a national investment bank focused on the needs of middle market and emerging growth companies, announced today that two more senior bankers have joined the firm's experienced ranks.

Tom Newell has become a Managing Director at Cascadia focused on sourcing and executing M&A and financing transactions for middle-market companies - especially in the consumer, food and retail sectors.

And Sócrates Jiménez is now a Senior Vice President at the firm, where he will specialize in software M&A, private equity and debt placement and corporate finance transactions.

Care Connections LLC, an innovator in connecting members with care providers for children, homes, and pets today announced that Babysitters.com has surpassed the (40,000) forty-thousand member mark.

What makes Babysitters.com interesting and different?

"Babysitters.com is meeting the ongoing need for busy parents to find local sitters that match their quality standards," said Mike Cravens, CEO of Care Connections, LLC. "In addition to providing local searches, parents have the flexibility of searching for a babysitter nationwide - an added benefit while traveling with children."

A conversation between the CEO of a thriving vitamin supplement company and a Marine recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq has inspired Louis Takacs, CEO of VitaminBin.com, to dedicate his company to helping American Military troops overseas.

Staff Sergeant Alexander Merzlyak spoke candidly with Takacs about the harsh conditions he and his fellow American Military troops endured every day while he was attached to 1st Force Service Support Group stationed in Camp Viper, Iraq, which is located in the desert just north of the border between Iraq and Kuwait, and later in Diwanya about 180 kilometers from Baghdad.

InstallAware Software Corporation has shipped a plug-in update pack for InstallAware, adding support for deploying Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 was released less than a week ago, and InstallAware is the only installation toolkit at this time to provide support for installing the new version of the framework.

“InstallAware has taken the lead. We’re the first to support the new breed of Microsoft technologies, including .NET Framework 2.0 and SQL Server 2005,” says Sinan Karaca, President of InstallAware Software Corporation. “For over two years now, InstallAware has been offering the only viable alternative to InstallShield’s line of installation development tools. With this latest update to InstallAware, made available in less than 24 business hours after the new Microsoft technologies were released to manufacturing, we are championing the next generation Windows Installer based setup development tool.”

Pismo Group, an interactive agency, today announced that it’s CEO, Michael Boyer, has been selected to the "40 under 40" by the Pacific Coast Business Times profiling up-and-coming businessmen and women under the age of 40.

"It’s encouraging to see the efforts of local leaders recognized on the central coast, especially in the technology industry. Michael has used his leadership skills to drive the creation of Pismo Group as well as lead the strategic vision of our organization. Michael is deeply involved with the local community; he actively participates as a Director of the Pismo Beach Rotary Club, a Director of the Grover Beach Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Clark Center Foundation Endowment Committee and contributes to many other community organizations," commented Christopher Smith, President of Pismo Group, "All of us at Pismo Group congratulate him on his current and future successes."

The Southern California Center of Reproductive Medicine's affiliation with Dr. Pak developed due to the increasing number of requests by IVF patients and Dr. Anderson's high opinion about acupuncture.

"There have been many attempts to increase the success of IVF through the use of a variety of alternative medicine treatments", comments Dr. Anderson. He adds, "Over the past few years, acupuncture has become one of the more popular of these treatment modalities. Research shows that it may have a positive impact on the outcome of an IVF cycle."

Centrally located, operating Med Spa (10 years) is five minutes from the Airport and walking distance from many hotels and restaurants. Rejuvalift is located five miles from the famous "River Walk" in Downtown Scottsdale as well as the Scottsdale Fashion Square. Only minutes away from many famous points of interest and night time entertainment.

Rejuvalift Face and Body Aesthetic Medicine Institue has trained thousands of Physicians around the world in various modalities in the Aesthetic Medical Practice. Our State of the Art Facility and superior staff has years of experience in anesthesia, liposuction, lipolysis, cosmetic and plastic surgery, cosmetic lasers, dermal fillers, BOTOX, busininess and marketing. We stress safety and efficacy along with procedure standards of care in the community. As the featured speakers in Bombai, India at the International Society of Plastic Surgery we earned reknowned notoriety for our work in ablative technology and Med-spa development.

RSD, a leading provider of enterprise content management (ECM) and business information delivery solutions, today announced the availability of RSD Folders 5.0 for z/OS, the next major release of RSD's enterprise content management platform that delivers significant new capabilities in information lifecycle management and auditing.

"New information governance requirements place an even greater burden on IT to ensure secure and timely access to critical customer and employee documents," said Pierre Van Beneden, RSD CEO. "Until now, ECM solutions were not designed to handle complex retention rules or to deal with extraordinary situations, such as a litigation process can create."

Miguel del Valle, Clerk of the City of Chicago, received National-Louis University's (NLU) first annual César E. Chávez Award for Service to the Latino Community for his work in helping Latinos overcome barriers to education.

Cesar Chavez Award

Throughout his career, he has worked tirelessly to help people overcome barriers to education.

It is an honor to receive the first National-Louis César E. Chávez award. I commend National-Louis University for making significant efforts to increase the number of Latinos receiving advanced degrees

The importance of higher education is key for Latinos when competing for job opportunities and advancement in the workforce.

NLU president Richard J. Pappas, Ed.D., and Julian Posada, Chair of NLU's Proyecto Comunidad Advisory Board, presented the award to del Valle during a ceremony April 1.

MacLean Finance (www.macleanfinance.com) is proud to announce its inclusion as one of a handful of Australia home loan companies offering the new "Cash Flow Plus Loan" (CF+L). This is a radical new loan finance product that allows an investment client to gain the twin benefits of a positive cash flow from their investment, and a negative gearing taxation deduction that assists in the legal reduction of their taxation bill. Simply put this means money in the investors pocket, and a reduced tax rate. This a new concept in loan finance for Australia home loan companies and investors.

Ciara Cabinet Designs, South Florida's premier home remodeling and kitchen design company, has developed cost cutting tips on home remodeling. Many home owners are staying in their homes longer and are looking for ways to remodel their homes on a budget. With lavish counter tops and custom kitchen appliances, remodeling could cost thousands. Ciara has developed a list of insider tips to help you get the best deals.

Kitchen Cabinets - use what you have! You can cut panels out and install many types of glass

Increase your kitchen storage space - Lazy Susans, pull out drawers and cutlery dividers are great ways to maximize the space and conveniences in your kitchen, no matter the size.

Re-facing countertops - Not every inch of your countertop needs to be redone. Keep what you have and only resurface what's needed

Custom kitchen hardware - By changing the knobs or hardware on kitchen cabinets, you could save thousands while giving your cabinets a brand new updated look.

Custom Kitchen Backsplashes - Look around, there are unlimited choices of tile or glass, with beautiful murals to use at focal points.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work today awarded the 2004 European Good Practice Award to a Finnish solution that has significantly increased occupational safety at construction sites. The solution combines an innovative mobile solution from Helsinki-based mobile technology company BookIT and the Finnish construction safety observation method.

The 2004 European Good Practice Award was awarded at the European Construction Safety Summit on November 22nd in Bilbao, Spain.

The award-winning BookIT Mobile ActivityTracker solution, implemented by leading construction services company Skanska, uses mobile phone technology to enhance the traditional construction safety observation system. The form-based construction safety observation method focuses on evaluating essential safety factors at building sites, while the BookIT mobile solution enhances the monitoring process by providing real-time progress updates, thus helping to prevent accidents.

TGB, the 25 year old Taiwanese company, famous for its overwhelmingly successful line of scooters in the U.S. market, announced the highly anticipated launch of the TGB Outback™ 425 4x4 Adventure Series™¸ a brand new line of full sized utility ATV's aimed squarely at the U.S. market. Models including the, Outback™ 425C, OUTBACK 425 Special Edition, and the Outback® Camo Edition.

The new TGB Outback™ 425 4x4 Adventure Series™ all-terrain vehicles are setting the standard for the next generation in ATV technology. The Outback™ 425 is perfect for hunters, farmers, rangers, campers and adventure seekers. The experienced ATV rider will find the Outback™ 425 fun to ride because of the automatic transmission, high ground clearance, and exceptional turning radius. The Outback™ 425 has a standard high and low range with an automatic locking front differential so you can get out the deep mud, climb higher mountains, and forge deeper rivers.

e-Builder, the leading provider of collaborative project management solutions, today announced that Mark Bridgers, senior consultant with FMI Corporation, will deliver the FMI/CMAA Eighth Annual Survey of Owners at e-Builder's Annual User and Technology Conference, November 9, 2007. This year's survey focuses on information technology and its impact on construction projects, particularly the ways technology can be used to improve project collaboration -- which owners have signaled they urgently desire.

The Perth Leadership Institute (alert on the market crash and how human resources and leadership development can quickly and effectively develop a post-crash leadership strategy. The alert provides rapidly actionable, high-impact recommendations and suggests that human resources must focus on business acumen development and improving executives’ financial impact through behavioral approaches.

According to Dr. E. Ted Prince, Founder and CEO of the Institute, “The current market crisis highlights the failure of traditional leadership programs to identify and develop business acumen in leaders. This has occurred in almost all organizations and not just in financial services companies. The Perth Leadership Institute has long pointed to this critical gap in leadership development. The current financial turmoil is at least partly the result of leadership development programs that place an emphasis on people skills. These programs largely ignore the essential qualities of business acumen, such as achieving long-term profit quality, and where they do focus on these issues, it is from a financial literacy rather than a behavioral finance approach. In order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, HR and Leadership Development executives, as well as other business executives, need to refocus their efforts on building an awareness of the financial behavior of their organizations. If they do not, the current financial engineering actions being taken by governments around the world will be less likely to have positive and sustainable long-term macroeconomic impacts.”

TeamBuilders, a performance development company based in Palm Harbor, Fla. and the Boston area, announced today it will build a special training course at Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.

The course will be used for Pursuit training. Pursuit is an organizational development program TeamBuilders developed and introduced last year.

Pursuit has proven to be a highly effective -- and highly popular -- organizational training program, and our clients have embraced it enthusiastically since we introduced it last fall," said Nick Conner, TeamBuilders vice president of program development. This new course in Howey-in-the-Hills is specially designed for the Pursuit program, and it will give us a beautiful venue that clients should find extremely comfortable."