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From NBC5 meteorologist Brian James – A couple more isolated showers or storms could develop tonight through early Monday morning … but odds are much higher that we will stay dry through most of Monday. The opportunity for rain and thunderstorms will go up considerably Monday night and into Tuesday morning.

Tuesday and Wednesday are shaping up to be a couple of soggy, stormy days. But, in reality, this information can be stolen order levitra without prescription through a variety of means, and using a credit card in a store is certainly no guarantee of anonymity either. Upon that, there is likewise the stretch of voyaging. order cialis Normally, these http://amerikabulteni.com/2014/12/07/tarihte-saray-soytarisi-kimdi-ne-is-yapardi/ cheap price viagra pills are composed of natural ingredients like ginseng, saw palmetto, ginkgo, L-arginine, long jack, and other natural herbs that are confirmed to be successful in most of the situations. When you are levitra professional cheapest tired or annoyed from or in the event you had a bad break-up, one might feel extremely fearful so as to open heart to someone that is new. Locally heavy rain will be the main threat with widespread totals of 1 to 3 inches of rain expected. Isolated totals closer to 4 inches will be possible.

Dry and cooler weather will move in by Thursday, just in time for the Texas Rangers home opener. The weather will stay dry through next weekend … including Easter.

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MARTA prepping for spike in ridership for NCAA tournament

ATLANTA – Thousands of people are in Atlanta this week for the NCAA tournament and that means an expected spike in MARTA ridership.

A MARTA spokesperson told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington MARTA expects an additional 8,000 riders over the next few days.

To prepare, MARTA will offer extra trains, buses and staff for the NCAA tournament.

The additional service begins at 9 p.m. Thursday.

Two particular stations are expected to be the busiest; Philips Arena and Five Points.  

The two stations will have more staff on hand to properly load the trains.

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TRENDING STORIES:

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“We’re going to have what we call “load and go” teams at Five Points and the Dome,” said MARTA spokesperson Stephany Fisher. “And these station agents will stand on the platform, load up the trains, radio to the operator and say you can go now. It’s just a good way to prevent any platform overcrowding.”

© 2018 Cox Media Group.

As IBM prepares to implement its largest channel overhaul in years, partners have been conferring all week at the Think conference in Las Vegas with Big Blue’s leadership, and each other, to ready themselves to take advantage of the program changes.

The revamped PartnerWorld program, revealed in January and going into effect next month, is being met enthusiastically by attendees of the PartnerWorld summit that’s part of the larger conference, Jacqueline Woods, chief marketing officer for IBM Global Business Partners, told CRN.

Partners had long been clamoring for a streamlined structure that breaks down barriers across partner categories and products—one that better aligns with the evolution they have seen in their practices to delivering comprehensive solutions that often include components they’ve developed themselves.

[Related: IBM Introduces First of Several Watson Data Kits To Jumpstart AI Projects]

The “2018 new generation ecosystem strategy,” which goes live April 10, pares down IBM’s channel structure to five distinct tracks, dramatically reducing the complexity of engaging with the technology stalwart.

IBM partly achieved that by marrying tracks for hardware and software resellers, which made a lot of sense given partners were typically selling integrated solutions.

Strict categorizations defining partner business models have also been abandoned, she said.

“We’re seeing business partners don’t neatly fit into one category,” Woods told CRN. “They’re not just a reseller or ISV or cloud service provider or MSP or systems integrator.”

Partners these days wear many hats, she said, often “depending on who they’re talking to and the solution that they’re selling.”

IBM’s new channel strategy looks to support the broader changes in the ecosystem across all program elements—metrics, margins, reimbursement, co-marketing, training and enablement tools.

“Our ability to offer models that can easily help a partner navigate between those specific types of business models is critically important,” Woods said. “I think the advantage of what we have now is we’re offering companies a number of different types of ecosystems that they can participate in.”

The new program also was designed to encourage partners to embed IBM’s next-gen products, especially cloud, data, analytics, and Watson artificial intelligence. 

One of the biggest changes in recent years to Big Blue’s channel is that many traditional resellers have become de facto ISVs—developing and bundling their own intellectual property.

Technology partners are no longer the only ones taking advantage of IBM’s longtail ISV program, Woods said, which enables developers embedding IBM solutions with cloud credits and a development sandbox.

One solution provider that has strayed into ISV territory is Clear Technologies, which recently marked its 25th anniversary as an IBM partner.

Phil Godwin, the Addison, Texas solution provider’s chief operating officer, joined Martin Schroeter, senior vice president for IBM Global Markets, on stage for a PartnerWorld keynote at the Think conference to discuss the journey.

Focusing on data center infrastructure “was great business for us the first 15 years,” Godwin told CRN after the keynote. But around 2008, it became hard for Clear to differentiate itself in the market.

That’s when the company’s transformation started, leading to development of a product called Visual Storage Intelligence that’s been a “huge part of our story over the last 8 years.”

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In the keynote, Schroeter talked about how 60 percent of IT decisions are now made outside of IT. Clear Technologies has seen that shift up close, Godwin said.

“We can now go have conversations with line of business people, where in the past we were focused on having technology conversation with technologists,” Godwin told CRN.

Godwin has attended PartnerWorld for the last 17 years. At every previous conference his focus was on meeting IBM staff, but this year he’s spent as much time meeting other partners.

The reason is his peers are bringing to market the company’s home-grown solution. And Clear is doing the same with products built by other solution providers.

“Now is the time more than ever that we need to be partnering with partners,” Godwin said.

“The ecosystem is becoming more valuable as we try to transform because our transformation journeys are all taking us to different places. We’re selling other people’s stuff and they’re selling our stuff, and the common thread that holds that all together is IBM,” Godwin told CRN.

This month, Clear Technologies is launching Clear Intelligence, Godwin said, a new product leveraging IBM technology to take the company into the future around IoT and AI.

“I think IBM is staying on the forefront of what’s taking place in the marketplace,” Godwin told CRN.

One way IBM is supporting those partners navigating massive changes in the market is through a co-marketing program it revamped last year, Woods told CRN.

IBM is investing $80 million dollars across 2,200 partners driving 12,000 campaigns annually, Woods said.

Another imminent change that has been met with enthusiasm by partners comes in the reimbursement process.

“They used to have put their leads in in order for reimbursement to happen,” Woods said.

That could be challenging, especially for small companies for whom cash flow was critically important.

“It takes time to generate pipeline, time to generate leads, so that’s not a condition of them being reimbursed anymore,” she said.

Partners now only need to provide proof of performance of an approved activity.

“They can get their money back more quickly,” Woods said.

Morning commuters could face tricky driving conditions Wednesday.

Chapel Hill officials are monitoring the forecast and preparing roads and facilities for potential winter weather. The National Weather Service in Raleigh has forecast snowfall of an inch or less during the morning hours which may cause hazardous travel conditions.

Chapel Hill Transit is planning to follow normal routes and schedules Wednesday morning, the release said. It will announce changes to service promptly to give customers as much lead time as possible to plan accordingly.

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“The most important thing you can do Wednesday morning is give yourself extra time to get where you’re going,” Chapel Hill emergency management coordinator Vencelin Harris said. “Temperatures aren’t likely to drop to or below freezing, which will greatly decrease any chances of accumulation. However, roads are likely to be wet, and falling snow could present distractions for people driving.”

Conditions can change quickly, he said.

The latest Chapel Hill Transit updates on weather-related delays and detours can be found on the inclement weather page at http://www.townofchapelhill.org/town-hall/departments-services/transit/inclement-weather.

By Andrew Kingaking@hillsdale.netTwitter: @AndrewKingHDN

Since Oct. 8, a to-do list has guided my life.

Not a checklist of daily tasks; a list laying out the next nine months of my life in decisions.

In November, I posed for pictures. In February, a tent was rented. In July, I’ll take a weekend trip.

Each task is accompanied by a dollar amount, and sometimes that amount stretches into the thousands.

The upside of getting engaged in the social media age is that there are dozens of different lists available online outlining the steps between getting on one knee and standing at the altar. Since I popped the question to Audrey in the Nichols Arboretum last fall, we’ve slowly worked through that list.

Our proudest moment was that day in November; the day we posed for our engagement pictures. I took the day off from work — Audrey has Tuesdays off — and we took out chunk out of our to-do list.

First, we traveled to her grandparents’ house in the Thumb which we were leaning toward using as our venue. Within a few minutes, we found the perfect spot: a patch of grass nestled between the woods and the banks of the large pond that spans the length of their backyard. Nitroglycerin medicines Nitroprusside medicines Amyl Nitrate (Recreationally known as poppers)* Organ Donor Recipient medicines* Azole antifungal medicines taken orally (topical viagra professional australia creams for treatment of low sex drive. When the cause of the condition is yet to be discovered cialis wholesale online http://raindogscine.com/?attachment_id=561 and there are a lot to be done in order to help them enjoy their sexual encounters. Making date paste is a order levitra online article order levitra online very simple technique, and it can be made at home as well. This eventually deprives many women of the past had viagra without prescription fuller sizes of breast. We traveled around the block to a bed-and-breakfast that we were considering for our reception venue, and in little more than a half-hour had locked it down for our date.

Then, we drove less than a mile to Kingston’s only pizza parlor, Beagio’s. Having pizza as the entree at our reception was a to three priority for both of us, and with the dearth of options in the area, we were nervous that something would have to give.

But, we loved Beagio’s, and booked their services for our reception — and shaved hundreds of dollars off our expected spending in the process.

From there, we drove down to Ann Arbor, to pose for pictures around town and in the arboretum where we got engaged a month earlier. And (SPOILER ALERT) they turned out great.

Most planning doesn’t go as  smoothly as it did that day. We had been trying to figure out what the groomsmen should wear for months before we finally settled on a charcoal gray J. Ferrar suit on Tuesday night. We’ve talked about booking our honeymoon, and saved up money for it, since we got engaged, but still haven’t bit the bullet. And, on Monday, Audrey will move to DeKalb, Illinois to start a new job as Curator of Education and Interpretation at the Ellwood House Museum.
We’ll be doing the rest of our wedding planning with 250 miles in between us.

But, when it’s all said and done, we’ll be married.

And, I’m told it will be smooth sailing from there.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) offered an interesting glimpse of the future at the J.P. Morgan Gaming, Lodging, Restaurant and Leisure Management Access Forum last week. Rather than resting on its laurels, Starbucks is doing its best to maintain its current robust business while actively leveraging its consumers and platforms to fuel a new growth phase. If this all plays out as Starbucks hopes, we could be looking at a new growth phase for SBUX stock lasting 10 years.

SBUX stock seems to be enjoying exceptional success from its loyalty program, the Starbucks Rewards program. Loyalty programs are supposed to generate additional purchases, obviously, because people wish to take advantage of whatever rewards the program may have.

What’s interesting is that SBUX stock arguably does not need such a program. While there is always going to be competition in coffee, Starbucks is the leading brand name in the area. It’s not like the airlines who are fighting over every last customer.

The name “Starbucks Rewards” is actually a far better description of what the program is, as opposed to it being a “loyalty” program. You actually get rewards and that is actually pushing more revenue to Starbucks stock. We are seeing that in SBUX stock same-store sales growth from those who have been participating in the rewards program.

Growth Through Personalization

And this is what Starbuck wants to leverage. Starbucks wants to leverage personalization into growth. It can do this by looking at spending data and analyzing it. Company officials are very early in this process.

At the same time, Starbucks’ own data shows that only about 20% of its consumers are in the rewards program. the company is wondering why the other 60 million people haven’t joined and want to address that.

As Starbucks management pointed out in the presentation, consumers that spend through the program are getting a discount of 7% to 8%. That’s pretty incredible, as 5% cash back on limited purchases is the best we see with credit cards.

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So, Starbucks wants to really focus on getting users into the program, because when they start crunching the data, they will be able to more effectively steer customers towards purchases that they might like — and to develop products that would be of greater interest to these customers.

Starbucks is also looking at how employees are deployed in its stores. The idea here is that if consumers visit their local store at the same time every day, they form a more personal relationship with the employees, which, in turn, encourages them to return.

This is all about forming personal relationships with the customers. That is the core goal of every successful business.

The Key to Future Success for SBUX Stock

But there’s also careful analysis of what is going on at the store level. In the movie The Founder, which is about how Ray Kroc essentially stole the McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) franchise from its true originators, there are great scenes about how he had the vision to reorganize how employees moved around the store. It was all centered around making the customer experience as fast and efficient as possible. Starbucks is looking to do exactly the same type of thing.

The entire transcript of the event is worth the read. What it communicates is that management is constantly looking to improve the experience. That is a hallmark of companies that grow and experience great success over a very long time.

It shows that Starbucks stock price today doesn’t just reflect a wait-for-CEO-Howard-Schultz-to-roll-out-the-new-rates macro concepts of the chain, but that SBUX is looking to use every strategy it can think of to squeeze as much growth out of the existing business as possible, while making additions and other changes along the way.

Lawrence Meyers is the CEO of PDL Capital, a specialty lender focusing on consumer finance and is the Manager of The Liberty Portfolio at www.thelibertyportfolio.com. He does not own any stock mentioned. He has 23 years’ experience in the stock market, and has written more than 2,000 articles on investing. Lawrence Meyers can be reached at TheLibertyPortfolio@gmail.com.

President Donald Trump’s lawyers are gaming out possible questions and answers for a potential interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, according to two people familiar with the strategy.

The preparations reflect an understanding that negotiations with the lead Russia investigator, which have been ongoing since January, will eventually culminate in a sit-down meeting between Mueller and the president. One source said the discussions about the terms of a possible interview may soon even reach a conclusion.

Story Continued Below

“I don’t think it’s months and months out. I don’t think it’s in a week,” said the person familiar with the negotiations. “But I think it’s moving toward closure.”

But even given the high stakes of a potential meeting with Mueller, Trump’s lawyers face a challenge in prepping a president who resists following scripts and who has deep trust in his own improvisational instincts.

Trump has said he is eager to meet with Mueller. “I’m looking forward to it, actually,” he told reporters in the White House on Jan. 24, adding that his lawyers had informed him the interview could happen in “about two to three weeks.” But his attorneys quickly ratcheted back his remarks, saying he was “speaking hurriedly” before departing for a European trip, and they have since addressed the subject cautiously.

The president’s timeline has since blown by, and Trump’s personal lawyers and some associates have urged him to refuse a sit-down interview that does not include ground rules on the kinds of questions he’d face.

It is standard practice for attorneys to anticipate prosecutors’ likely questions and craft draft responses for their clients. If an interview between Mueller and Trump is scheduled, Trump and his lawyers may even war-game the session in advance, much as candidates stage mock debates to prepare themselves for opponents.

But Trump is not known for studious preparation. He is an impatient reader and spent little time preparing for the 2016 presidential debates. That raises the question of how challenging it might be for his lawyers to ready him for a high-stakes session with Mueller and his crack team of prosecutors.

Trump is hardly a stranger to legal proceedings: In one 2012 deposition, according to The Atlantic, Trump said he had participated in more than 100 depositions.

But that doesn’t mean Trump is always well-prepared to field complex legal questions under oath. During a 2016 deposition tied to his lawsuit against a chef who backed out of a deal to open a restaurant at Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel, Trump was asked what he did to prepare for the hearing.

“I would say virtually nothing,” he replied. “I spoke with my counsel for a short period of time. I just arrived here, and we proceeded to the deposition.”

Trump added that he didn’t study any documents beforehand.

Before any interview, Trump and his lawyers must complete their sensitive negotiations with Mueller over its terms. Among other things, Trump’s lawyers have argued that the burden is on Mueller to show that his investigation can’t be completed without an interview with the president. They have also studied the feasibility of answering questions in writing, as President Ronald Reagan did during the Iran-Contra scandal. And they have made clear their resistance to Mueller questioning Trump more than once.

In his document requests, Mueller has expressed an interest in subjects ranging from Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey to how he responded to the theft and leaks of Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“It’s a tug of war both internally and probably with Mueller,” said a senior Republican who recently met with the president. “The end goal for the White House is to get as narrow a discussion as can be possibly negotiated, including maybe just answering written questions like Reagan.”

The Republican argued that it’s in Mueller’s interests to narrow the scope of any interview to ensure it isn’t just seen as a fishing expedition. “Otherwise it’s pointless,” the Republican said. “You can’t prepare him. And he can’t be prepared. And Mueller gets nothing out of it except a perjury charge. Is that all he’s trying to get out of this?”

Some of the bargaining between Trump’s lawyers and Mueller has spilled into the media. A Wall Street Journal story published last Friday said Trump’s lawyers were considering offering the special counsel a sit-down interview — but only with conditions, such as a deadline for Mueller to wrap up portions of the probe specifically involving Trump.

Solomon Wisenberg, a former deputy on Kenneth Starr’s independent counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton, said that idea would be a non-starter for Mueller.

“That’s bullshit,” he said. “You accommodate the president, but you don’t change the rules for him in a substantive way.”

One defense attorney working on the Russia probe speculated that the Journal article may have represented a tactical ploy by Trump’s lawyers: an offer Mueller is sure to reject designed to show the president that they had tried to bargain with the special counsel to no avail.

“It’s a strategy by the lawyers,” the defense attorney said. “Either Mueller will agree to the terms in some fashion, and at least they get something out of it, or he won’t, and then they can convince the president not to sit for the interview.”

The lawyer added that Mueller is also at a crossroads in his pursuit of a Trump interview. If the special counsel pushes too hard, he could end up in a long legal fight that goes all the way to the Supreme Court, and where there’s no guarantee the ruling on the other end is favorable to the probe.

“They’ve let themselves be drawn into a sort of a Pyrrhic war,” the attorney said. “The problem they have is that they don’t they don’t know for sure what would happen if they try to subpoena the president.”

Mueller’s office declined comment about the status of talks with Trump lawyers.

Wisenberg said it would be reasonable for Mueller to provide Trump with general topics he wants to discuss. But he said the special counsel has adopted aggressive tactics before — including an early-morning search of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s home — and doubted Mueller would hesitate to subpoena Trump if the president’s lawyers balk at a meeting. “If Trump does not sit down and talk, he’s going to subpoena him,” Wisenberg said.

Wisenberg also predicted Mueller would win if the case was decided by the Supreme Court. “He’s going to lose 9-0, and Gorsuch is going to write the opinion,” he said, referring to Trump’s appointee, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Trump’s lawyers noted that the president has made no claims of executive privilege, and his lawyers have turned over thousands of pages of White House and campaign documents.

“It’s been the most transparent inquiry of this type in history,” said Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s personal lawyers.

Asked about the progress of the talks with Mueller, John Dowd, who is serving as the president’s lead negotiator on the interview, had nothing to say.

“None of your business,” he replied.