NWH-5-29-2013 by Shaw Media

BUSINESS

Page E2 • Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Northwest Herald / NWHerald.com

What does the Dow at 15,000 mean to you?

• LIGHTS Continued from page E1 The lights are now used in the emergency departments, ambulatory treatment services, endoscopy, cardiac catheterization laboratory, post-anesthesia care unit, Intensive Care Units, same-day surgery, in the surgery suites and in the Family Birth Center. “The Centegra Foundation’s grant helped us purchase additional lights so their use can be more widespread throughout hospital departments,” Schweder said. “We are thrilled to increase our use of this technology to reduce our patients’ risk for infections.” Centegra Health System Foundation helps build financial resources and grants funds for Centegra operations such as EKG transmitting devices, prenatal monitors, professional education, state-of-the-art TomoTherapy cancer treatment, charity care, wellness programs and patient transport. For more information about the Centegra Health System Foundation, call 815788-5870 or visit Centegra. org.

This month, the Dow Jones industrial average hit a milestone, when, for the first time, it closed above 15,000. Of course, 15,000 is a nice, round number, and it sounds pretty big – but what does it mean to you, as an individual investor? Is it cause for celebration – or is it more of a “caution” flag? There’s no one simple answer to these questions. Since March 2009 – the low point of the market following the 2008 financial crisis – the Dow has risen about 130 percent. And while the Dow is just one index, it’s nonetheless an important measure of the market’s performance – which means that you were likely glad to see the 15,000 mark eclipsed and you’d be happy if the numbers just kept rising. However, as you’re no doubt aware, the market does not move in just one direction. Typically, declines of 10 percent or more – or “corrections” – occur about once a year. Unfortunately, they’re not

would have bought more shares at the lower prices. • Review your portfolio. It’s usually a good idea to review your portfolio at least once a year, and it may be especially important during those times when the market changes directions. Over time, a portfolio can become unbalanced. For example, following a long period of rising prices, some of your growthoriented investments may have gained so much value that they now take up a larger percentage of your holdings than you had intended, possibly subjecting you to a greater level of risk than you desire. If this happens, you may need to scale back on these investments and reallocate the money elsewhere. • Diversify. Always look for ways to spread your dollars among a range of vehicles – stocks, bonds, government securities, certificates of deposit and other investments. Even within these classes, look for ways to diver-

FINANCE Steve Middaugh predictable. Sooner or later, the markets will indeed change course, at least for the short term. When this happens, don’t panic – corrections are a normal part of the market cycle. Still, you might feel like you should do something to cope with the downturn. But what? Here are a few suggestions: • Keep investing. Too many people, when faced with a market drop, decide to cut their losses and take a time out from investing. But that can be a costly mistake – had these investors bailed out of the market in 2009, and only recently returned, they would have missed a substantial part of that 130 percent run-up in the Dow. And when you invest in a down market, your dollars may actually go farther if the market rebounds, because you

sify further, such as owning different types of stocks, bonds of varying maturities, and so on. Diversification can’t guarantee a profit or protect against a loss, but it can help reduce the impact of volatility that can occur in a downturn. The Dow at 15,000 is certainly no minor event. And since stocks don’t appear too expensive compared to their earnings, don’t be surprised if higher milestones follow. But record highs can be quickly forgotten when the market falls. By being prepared for that day, too, you can help yourself continue to work toward your goals – even when the major market indices have, for the moment, taken a wrong turn. • Steve Middaugh is a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones Investments. He can be reached at steve. middaugh@edwardjones.com, or at his office, 500 Coventry Lane, Suite 160, Crystal Lake, 815-356-5401.

Great Lakes region pins economic hopes on water By JOHN FLESHER Associated Press MILWAUKEE – A century ago, the seven-story brick building a few blocks from downtown was a factory – a symbol of an era when Milwaukee and other cities ringing the Great Lakes were industrial powerhouses churning out steel, automobiles and appliances. Eventually the region’s manufacturing core crumbled, and the structure became an all-butforgotten warehouse. Now it’s getting a makeover and a new mission. It will reopen this summer as a hive of business experimentation swarming with scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. They’ll share a lab where new technologies can be tested. Office suites will host startup companies, including one devising a system for cultivating algae as biofuel, another producing a type of pavement that lets rainwater seep into the ground instead of flooding sewers. The center is part of a broader effort unfolding across the Great Lakes region to regain lost prosperity by developing a “blue economy” – a network of industries that develop products and services

• CONFIDENCE Continued from page E1 The U.S. housing market is benefiting from solid job gains and near-record low mortgage rates. Sales of new homes rose in April to nearly a five-year high. And sales of previously occupied homes ticked up in April to the highest level in three and a half years. Builders are responding to the supply shortage by ramping up construction. Applications for building permits rose in April to the highest level in nearly five years. The supply of available homes jumped in April but was still 14 percent below its level a year earlier. The housing recovery is creating construction jobs and bolstering the economy in other ways. Higher home prices make homeowners feel wealthier and encourages them to spend more. Prices have been rising steadily since last summer.

related to water, from pump and valve manufacturers to resorts offering vacations along redeveloped lakeshores. As growing water scarcity casts a shadow over the economic boom in warmer states, many in the long-scorned northlands are hoping they can finally make their abundance of freshwater a magnet for businesses and jobs that are now going elsewhere. The idea is either a perfect nexus of opportunity and timing, or – as some in the Sun Belt believe – just another longshot attempt by a cold and downtrodden region to reverse history. In the eight Great Lakes states, organizations devoted to the venture are springing up, with headquarters, government grants and binders full of Power Points and fiveyear plans. Universities are establishing freshwater science and engineering programs. Businesses are developing products such as advanced filtration systems for sale in countries where water isn’t just scarce, but also polluted. Milwaukee has taken a pivotal role from its perch beside Lake Michigan, with $83.5 million in public and private money budgeted over the next year to support water-related businesses and research.

AP photo

Dean Amhaus, president of The Water Council, stands outside a former factory building that is being renovated to house the Global Water Center in Milwaukee. “We all recognize that water has become more and more of a precious commodity,” said Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee. “We have to do a much better job of promoting it.” The Great Lakes – Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario – hold nearly onefifth of the freshwater on the Earth’s surface. But in one of the nation’s most vivid anomalies, some of the saddest, most bedraggled urban wastelands sit on the shores of the vast inland seas. After the col-

lapse of heavy manufacturing unleashed an exodus of jobs to the South and West, one proposal after another for turning things around fell short. Milwaukee reflects the grandeur of the lake region’s past as well as its decline and the quest to rebuild. A downtown statue of “The Fonz” evokes wistful memories of “Happy Days” prosperity, when more than half of the adult workforce had factory jobs with manufacturers like Allis-Chalmers, now defunct. Some warehouses and storefronts still sit empty, and the remnants of beer giants Schlitz, Pabst and Blatz have been turned to other uses. Though brewing is a shadow of its former self here, local leaders are newly mindful that the industry, which used huge volumes of water, attracted other businesses that still remain vibrant. Worldwide, water technology – pumps, valves and more – generates $500 billion a year and is growing rapidly, said John Austin, director of the Brookings Institution’s Great Lakes Economic Initiative. The Milwaukee-based Water Council, a research and networking organization, now has more than 100 members, including the brewer

MillerCoors. The technology center is expected to host a half-dozen startups at a time, with frequent turnover as companies grow and move to bigger locations. John Gurda, a local historian, said it’s about time Milwaukee gave up chasing the same high tech medicine and computer software companies sought by every other city. “The strength of this (wateroriented) strategy is that it’s playing to Milwaukee’s natural and historical strengths.” During the first half of the 20th century, the steel plants, paper mills and auto factories that employed millions along the lakes also left behind blight. The Lake Michigan city of Gary, Ind., is riddled with the hulks of abandoned buildings and the Grand Calumet River bottom is caked with a 20-foot-deep layer of gunk including toxic PCBs. An Obama administration initiative has pumped more than $1 billion into Great Lakes environmental cleanup, and a regional partnership has raised hundreds of millions to beautify Gary’s industrial waterfront. “People will pay more for an office with a water view,” Austin said. “But not if it’s a cesspool.”

BRIDGE

Crossword Across

1 Summit

conference goal before tight or loose 9 Asian nation suffix 13 At full speed 15 Bow-toting deity 16 Jared of “Mr. Nobody” 17 ___ diem 18 Some cruise ships, informally 20 Repetitive French greeting 22 Put aside for later 23 Start of a song with the cry “Yo-ho-ho” 25 Möbius strip’s lack 27 Gather, logically 28 Dessert menu phrase 30 Russian city, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics

5 Word

40 41

45 49 50

53 55 57 59 60 61 62

Nameless, briefly Ken Olin series about baby boomers Activision’s Guitar ___ ___ Motors (electric car company) State where bolo ties are common Live Lake Michigan borderer: Abbr. One who hoped things would pan out? Dull tapping sound Food critics, often “You lose!” Place to play or fight Like fine whiskeys Painter Magritte Secondstringers

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE S P R I N G

O R A T O R

N O V A

O D I N

D A K O T A

A Y E R N A

N E S V A E W T J A S O E L A I W I N T

B A N R E E T O R O I N A L D E E N N S N E E R

O N E H O R S E

G S A T T E E A R S S E P O E R T I G E T I L A A V E T A C L L A O L S D I T E

U R N S

M I D E A U S P T A T Y R U E L E U P S

M E R S T E U E S U S E R

R I R E

A N O N

S I E R R A

S H A D O W

A U T U M N

63 64 65

Monocle part LAX postings Willy Wonka’s creator

Edited by Will Shortz 1

5 14

Down Salerno 3 Comedian with the 1972 album “Class Clown” 4 Beginning in basketball 5 Berry of “Die Another Day” 6 “___ for the Misbegotten” 7 Election mo. 8 Fairy-tale escapee from a witch 9 One whose work is not picking up? 10 “Spanglish” actress 11 Serve, as a maid would a lady 12 KenKen entries: Abbr. 14 Least like a 9-Down 19 Eric of “Troy” 21 Sports artist Neiman 24 Injures severely 26 China’s ___ Xiaoping 29 ___-jongg 31 Astronomical red giant 32 Weed whacker 34 Midwinter event, often 35 Ethnic background 36 Partiers at a hooley

9 16

1 Spotted rodent 2 Tourist town of

No. 0424

50 53

45 51

56 59 62 65

PUZZLE BY CLIVE PROBERT

37 38 39 43 44 46

“Frasier” role Nicholas Gage memoir Airport queue unit “Just the Two ___” “Enough already!” Hardened (to)

Sister (and occasional rival) of Venus

Belgian city sometimes mispronounced as “wipers”

Mariana ___ (world’s deepest ocean point)

Sommeliers’ suggestions

Witty Mort

Guy’s partner

Rookie’s mentor, maybe

“Lovergirl” singer ___ Marie

For answers, call 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5554. Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. AT&T users: Text NYTX to 386 to download puzzles, or visit nytimes.com/mobilexword for more information. Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 2,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Share tips: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords.

To subscribe to the Northwest Herald, call (815) 459-8118.

By PHILLIP ALDER Newspaper Enterprise Association

For the last two days, we have looked at responder’s inviting game with 5-4 in the majors opposite a oneno-trump opening bid. What does he do with game-forcing values? The best method is the Smolen convention. Responder bids two clubs, Stayman. If the opener shows a four-card major, responder raises to game in that suit. But if the opener rebids two diamonds, the responder jumps to three of his four-card major. In this way, if they have a 5-3 majorsuit it, the opener becomes the declarer -- as in today’s deal. (Three no-trump would have been ine here, but if North had, say, a singleton diamond, the weakness in that suit might have been fatal.) West leads the diamond king against four hearts. How should South plan the play? Note that if North is the declarer in four hearts, the diamond-10 lead from East, a likely choice, would be lethal. The defenders would get one heart, two diamonds and one club. In contrast, when South is the declarer, he is in control as long as he ducks the irst trick, executing a Bath Coup.

What can West do next? A trump shift is best. If declarer tries the inesse, he goes down because East wins and leads back a diamond. But South, anticipating that scenario, should win with dummy’s ace and call for the club ive. If East takes the trick and plays a diamond, South wins, throws dummy’s last diamond on a high club, and works on trumps to take two spades, four hearts, one diamond and three clubs. Or if East ducks the club, declarer wins and returns a club, discarding a diamond from the dummy.

Contact Phillip Alder at pdabridge@prodigy.net.