NEWS
The New Hanging Chad
Hanging chads are old news. The latest impediment to voting is...humidity?
Oswego County election officials couldn't tally 800 to 900 absentee ballots because their scanner kept jamming. Fortunately, Dee Brown, sales manager at Parsons, Kan.-based manufacturer The Flesh Co., did her part on Nov. 4 to ensure all votes were counted. Brown, whose daughter worked at the polls, stopped by to visit when she spotted the problem. "Those pages had picked up moisture and made them extremely curly and uneven," she says.
The ballots had been sitting around for weeks. Brown ran a batch of fresh forms through the machine to prove it worked, then instructed officials to get a hair drier. A worker brought his drier from home, and Brown and her daughter started drying the ballots at the County Clerk's office. There's no right way to blow-dry a ballot, Brown notes with a smile, but for the record, her daughter held the drier while Brown fanned small stacks of ballots in front of it. "You could physically see the difference after we did it," Brown says.
Brown's actions earned her more than pride at fulfilling her civic duty. A Parsons Sun reporter learned about the incident and turned it into a front-page story. Before long, the Associated Press picked up the story and distributed it nationwide. "I meant to be there for five minutes, and it probably ended up being two hours," Brown says. Now she's receiving letters from readers across the country.
International Paper Sells New England Land to GMO
International Paper Co. (IP), Stamford, Conn., sold 1.1 million acres of New England timberland to GMO Renewable Resources LLC, Stamford, for approximately $250 million. Sale of the land, located in Maine and New Hampshire, is expected to close by the first quarter of 2005, the company said. The companies also have agreed to a long-term deal that will supply wood fiber to two of IP's paper mills in Maine. IP also will provide GMO with forest management services.
Avery Dennison Says It Expects to Be Fined
Avery Dennison Corp., Pasadena, Calif., disclosed that it expects to be fined by European regulators for "instances of improper conduct" by workers in its European operations. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said the misconduct was uncovered during an internal probe. An investigation was started this year after European regulators began to scrutinize Avery Dennison as part of a wider antitrust probe of possible price fixing and manipulation of the European paper market.
MAR Graphics Buys Digital Press
MAR Graphics, Valmeyer, Ill., recently purchased a Nipson VaryPress 400 digital press (600 dpi at up to 410 ft. per minute) to be integrated inline with a Hunkeler Variweb finishing line. MAR says it is the first print and fulfillment operation in the U.S. to install an integrated print and finishing line with this degree of flexibility, which will streamline production involving variable data, integrated cards, glue, die cut, fold, and mail. The company says it will be able to produce complex ready-to-ship self-mailers from pre-printed rolls in one non-stop process.
Printex Packaging To Manufacture Conformer Expansion Envelopes
Conformer Expansion Products, Great Neck, N.Y., announced that Printex Packaging Corp., Islandia, N.Y., has become the latest licensed manufacturer of Conformer® Expansion Envelopes. Printex Packaging, the originator of the clear plastic-folding carton, will manufacture Conformer Expansion Envelopes in all sizes using a variety of clear plastic materials.
Staples Launches Paperless Rebates
Staples Inc., Framingham, Mass., launched Staples Easy Rebates(SM), a paperless online rebate process to make retail shopping easier with simple and trackable rebates. Staples retail, catalog and online customers now can submit rebate information online for hundreds of items, eliminating the need for the lengthy product rebate process. Easy Rebates alerts the customer at checkout if there are rebate eligible products within an order and directs them to www.stapleseasyrebates.com. The online tool walks the customer through a submission process and then automatically sends emails indicating the rebate status, including when the rebate check is mailed.
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Sales and Marketing Tip
Want to Keep Customers,
Create Profits?
Here are five pointers that can help you enhance your customers' experience. Full story.
E-Commerce Spotlight
Shoppers Looking at More,
Still Abandoning Carts
Visitors are spending less time on more pages, onsite search queries convert more sales than ever and shopping cart abandonment continues to be a problem for online retailers, according to a new study.
Full story.
Product of the Week
Book of Product Specification Guides
This book, offered at a special price of $20, contains a unique collection of 16 checklists and guidelines to gather complete ordering specifications for popular business printing products. Included are detailed checklists in camera-ready form for business forms products, non-impact printed products, roll products, mailers, pressure sensitive labels, tags and more. Code: FACTBK. $20. To order, contact Tina Davis.
Hot Sites
Gift Certificates Galore
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One Warm Coat
Do you own several warm coats? Do you need them all? If you're ready to turn a superfluous outer garment into some inner peace, check in with this site to see where coats are being collected in your neighborhood—and how you can help organize a local coat drive. Visit the site.
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