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Few film franchises have gone into six installments. But then few film franchises have been such enormous box office hits as The Fast and the Furious series. Now it appears that, after four installments already released, NBC Universal could be on its way to filming numbers five and six together for staggered release.

The news was broken by none other than Vin Diesel himself, the star of the film series, on his Facebook page. According to Diesel:

If 2009’s ‘Fast and Furious’ was chapter one, what writer Chris Morgan just delivered is Chapter 2 and chapter 3.
I have never been submitted a two story saga from a studio before… it is very exciting, and shows a commitment level that is hard not to respond to.
Excited about the sexy locations the filming of this sag…

Chris Morgan was the writer behind the last two installments (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast and Furious), and according to Diesel, he’s already written the next two screenplays. That, of course, doesn’t mean they’ve both been approved for production, but with the director, writer and lead actor reportedly already on board, the studio would have to have gone speed-blind to pass up these cash cows.

[Source: Facebook | Image: Charley Gallay/Getty]

No Escaping the NAWS: Vin Diesel hints at Fast and Furious 5 and 6 on Facebook originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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David Walton, MD, a physician with Partners in Health, arrived in Port-au-Prince within 48 hours of the earthquake. He met with Partners In Health and Zanmi Lasante (Partners In Health’s Haitian sister organization) leadership to pursue a coordinated strategy for medical relief.

In addition to providing desperately needed medical care and arranging relief effort logistics, Walton was able to document the scene with his camera.

View this photo gallery for a glimpse into the challenging and heartbreaking situation in Port-au-Prince right now.

Lester Hartman, MD, a Children’s-affiliated pediatrician who runs a clinic in the mountains of Haiti, made his way to the region within days of the earthquake. He’s been sending email updates about what he’s seeing on the ground. Last night he wrote:

Brought 40 people from sheet cities in Port-au-Prince – will house up in closed school near clinic. Several kids with fractures.
Our driver just informed girlfriend died. Be back midnight from Dominican Republic, pics to follow.

We’ll update you on Hartman’s progress and that of the Children’s team that has been trying to get to Haiti since last week as soon as we have more information.

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

• Doesn’t the outpouring of American aid, from both the public and the private sector, show once again that Americans are the most generous people on this planet?
• Is it time to buy timeshares? We snooped around a little and were blown away by how cheap some of these have gotten. When everyone is selling, it’s probably a good time to be buying.
• Oops, we meant to include a link to the clip from Splendor in the Grass last week but accidentally linked to an Elvis Presley clip.  Here’s the scene we intended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtO5rF-ORWc&feature=related
• If you work for GMAC, does that mean you work for the government? We’re just kidding, but the government does own 56% of the company.
• Have you been following the imminent foreclosure of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in New York City ?  This is New York ’s biggest apartment complex, with over 11,000 units.  Here’s the deal: (1) Tishman Speyer and Blackrock bought it for $5.4 billion in 2006. (2) Each invested $112 million, raised capital from other investors, and got a $3 billion first mortgage. (3) Piggybacking on the 1st, they simultaneously got a $1.4 billion second mortgage. (4) They got the $3 billion first mortgage from Wachovia, but (5) Wachovia securitized it and sold most of it. (6) Who bought the securities? The biggest investors are FNMA and Freddie Mac.  Analysts say the soon-to-be foreclosed property has dropped in value from $5.4 billion to about $1.8 billion.
• We wrote of hero Miep Gies last week, and it got us to thinking about our childhood heroes. One was cowboy star Roy Rogers. He represented the Western virtues of straight talk, courage, honesty, decency, courtesy to women and a dedication to the law.  He always fought by the rules, and if you think back, he never once killed anyone.  When he was forced to use his gun, he never killed people it but would just shoot the gun out of the bad guy’s hand. 
  

If you grew up as a little kid in the fifties, you loved him.   He had a wife named Dale, a dog named Bullet, (or maybe vice versa) and a horse named Trigger. He was just a TV character, but he was a great role model for kids.

• The MBA is predicting that total mortgage volume will be down 40% in 2010, with refinances off 60%.  We’re seeing too many budgets that show the company’s volume increasing this year.  Unfortunately, plans that assume growth also have to assume all the things that go with growth, the main one being increased spending.  If you insist on such an optimistic budget, how about also having a shadow budget that’s more reflective of falling loan activity?
• It’s a sad time for gourmets everywhere. Donald Goerke died last week, and he was the Campbell Soup executive who invented Spaghetti-Os, one of nature’s more perfect foods.

• We were at a mid-Atlantic Bank not too long ago, and the CEO was livid over secondary market leakage.  He was angry at the head of secondary and their hedging advisor.  Our audit revealed that processors had mislabeled a bunch of non-owners as owner-occupied loans, and they naturally took a big hit when they were sold.  Two lessons here:  (a) Figure out first why certain losses have occurred before you start assigning blame (it’s often not as obvious as it appears), and (b) how about assigning the losses to the true source of the problem, in this case, production?  You need to isolate such situations from your gain-on-sale calculation or you’ll get a highly inaccurate picture of your secondary marketing department’s performance. Capiche?

• This sounds callous, but the devastation in Haiti may actually benefit that poor country.  Billions of dollars are going to flow into Haiti as near-total reconstruction takes place, and all that money will create jobs, new businesses, and for some, real wealth. There will probably be lots of corruption, but still, lots of those dollars will work their way into the economy as they’re spent on food, goods and services. The human toll is incalculable and the loss of life unimaginable.  But the new wealth that will come could create a middle-class, and middle-classes always demand (and get) democratic institutions. In a perverse way, the horrible disaster may drag the country out of its desperate poverty and toward a liberal democracy that acts in the best economic interests of its citizens.
• We get asked a lot how we write this newsletter, and the answer is that it’s much easier than you might think. We keep it open on our computer desktop, and when we see or think of something interesting, we jot it down.   It’s written 30 seconds here, 60 seconds there.  When it looks like we have about 15-16 bullet points, we edit it (albeit poorly) and send it out.  If we tried writing it all at one sitting, it just wouldn’t be the same.  We tried it once, and it came out boring and self-conscious.
• You know what cracks us up the most about our newsletter? About 3-4 times a year, we’ll find someone who takes our newsletter, removes our names at the bottom, and sends it out under his company name!  We don’t get all excited about it, and it mostly makes us wonder who these people are.  Can’t you just see one of the guy’s loan officers saying “Hey, Jack, I like our new newsletter, but I had no idea you liked baseball so much.  You always said you hated it.  And what’s all this stuff about Cal and growing up in the fifties?  If you went to Cal , why do you have that Oregon State diploma on the wall?  And the fifties?  Jack, get a grip. I’m your twin brother, and we were both born in 1977!” 
• Last week we mentioned the coffee mugs given out by Farmers National Bank. We actually meant Farmers Bank & Trust, a great Kansas bank.  They have a very successful mortgage operation, and one of the things we like is that they’re always trying to improve and perfect their processes.  They have an intellectual curiosity about the business that’s refreshing.  We liked them so much that we not only took one of their coffee mugs, but we also opened up a deposit account there.
• The attached article is a year old, but we think it asks questions that still haven’t been answered.  Maybe the Congressional hearings going on will get past management and question some bank Directors who seemed AWOL  
• If kids get heroes like Roy Rogers from watching them on TV, is there a generation that will look upon Richard Simmons as their hero? Here’s the fitness guru himself, in all his embarrassing glory.
  

Shouldn’t there be a law about men wearing short shorts in public?  Last year National Enquirer caught Arnold Schwarzenegger on film wearing a Speedo bikini bottom at the beach, and Speedo’s just don’t look right on guys over the age of about six.  We still have nightmares about Arnold in his G-string swimsuit.

We’ve been writing about leakage, and we’ve gotten quite a few responses. Different companies have different ways of doing the calculation, but the important thing is that many of you are really focusing on it now.  If you’re uncertain about the methodology, your Hedging Advisory Service can give you guidance.  Also, you don’t want to include your hedging cost but should treat that separately. Your Advisor is probably charging you 1-2 bps, so it’s not going to make a huge difference if you do include it, but don’t waste your time trying to figure out the cost of the bid-ask spread.

And finally, for all you Latin lovers, here are two phrases to give to your internal audit or quality control departments: Nil credam et omnia cavebo (Believe nothing and guard against everything) and Quid custodiet ipsos  (And who shall guard the guardians?).

We’re back from New Jersey and Texas and off to Ohio and Seattle , so no newsletters for another week or so.  But we’ll see you s soon as we get back.

Garrett, Watts & Co.

“Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.”

Corky Watts     (408-395-5504)

Joe Garrett      (510-469-8633)

Mike McAuley   (281-250-2536)

It’s lonely at the top, something that is becoming clearer and clearer for Google. It’s being attacked from all sides, government regulators and private companies alike, sometimes over real issues, but most of the time over what amounts to jealousy of Google’s increasingly successful ventures. In the latest case, three German companies and organ… (read more)

We’re fans of Novatel’s MiFi hotspots, which allow a 3G connection to be converted into Wi-Fi. What we are not fans of is a new exploit that lets hackers reveal your location and all your security info.

The exploit, which affects the MiFi 2200s sold by Verizon and Sprint, kicks in when users visit a certain website.

“Among the information the MiFi 2200 will readily share is the WiFi security key – sent in clear text – and with some Javascript Baldwin showed it was possible to change the hotspot’s settings to the point where a factory reset is required in order to restore functionality to the user. Even if GPS is turned off, a remote command can be used to switch it back on.

A further exploit can extract the entire configuration of the MiFi, again in clear text, including all of the security settings.”

If you’re a MiFi user, just be careful out there until Novatel issues a fix. [UMPC Portal via SlashGear]

I was thrilled to attend this fast-growing conference and get to see great peeps like Sheril K, Darlene Cavalier, Carl Zimmer, Tom Levenson, Isis, SciCurious, Jennifer Ouellette, and many, many more.

I didn’t always attend the panels (and only spoke on one, last minute) but I did have some reflections:

1. Science and Entertainment: Beyond Blogging – Tamara Krinsky and Jennifer Ouellette: Hollywood getting into science = definitely cool. But will Hollywood’s ace marketers ever see a real need to court science bloggers to get the word out about films, given the relatively small size of our audiences and the vastness of their ad budgets? Not clear to me how much *we* matter, at least so far.

2. Trust and Critical Thinking – Stephanie Zvan, PZ Myers, Desiree Schell, Greg Laden, Kirsten Sanford. Yes, science on the web is a total mess. But trying to “certify” good/accurate science bloggers, vs. bad/biased ones, is an idea that poses more problems than solutions. And anyway, bloggers aren’t the gold standard of scientific accuracy–scientific societies, the NAS, the IPCC, etc, are. Science bloggers should raise the profile of these organizations, and prop up the sense of their credibility, rather than slapping quality labels on various science blogs.

3. Broader Impact Done Right – Karen James, Kevin Zelnio, Miriam Goldstein, Jeff Ives and Beth Beck. It is exciting to learn how some recipients of federal research grants have built websites that have been effective at public outreach and thus at fulfilling the “broader impacts” stipulation of the grant. However, I seriously doubt that most grant recipients are innovating in these ways. Throwing up a website is not, generally, a good way of publicizing research, unless you really know what you’re doing, and plan to carefully measure your traffic and influence. More generally, why on earth do we have vast scores of different grant recipients all called upon to publicize their individual research projects separately? Why isn’t there some joining of forces, and some decisionmaking about what science really needs highlighting before the public, and which scientific teams are best equipped to do so?

Those are my semi-random opinions from ScienceOnline 2010. I’m so glad that I attended, and hope to do so again next year!

Forgive us for focusing so much on the betting over at InTrade today — but since the stock market is closed, and since we’re junkies, this will have to do.

Anyway, in addition to collapsing odds for Martha Coakley, the the contract for the GOP to takeover the House come November is surging, perhaps on a realization that the Democratic party — through unpopular policies, a wave of retirements, and firece infighting — has quickly been thrown into disarray.

Still, the contract is trading at 37.8%, so it’s a big hill to climb.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Martha Coakley Falls To 40% On InTrade
• How Traders Are Making Money On Sarah Palin, Osama Bin Laden, And Tim Geithner’s Resignation

One of the hardest things about bread-making – especially with artisanal breads that involve multiple slow rises – is the timing. The recipes are stretched out over many, many hours and I’ve heard of people waking up at all hours of the night just to feed their starters, knead down a first rise or get a loaf into the oven. To be honest, hearing stories like this makes breadmaking seem intimidating, when it’s really not all that difficult to do! Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day breaks down bread-making into simple and easy to follow steps that remove the stress from trying your hand at artisan breads. And Reinhart does it all without “dumbing down” the recipes, instead relying on clear explanations and detailed instructions to encourage the reader to bake and produce great results.

As I said, the recipes are very easy to follow. While Reinharts previous books are detailed, this book approaches the task of artisan bread baking looking for new techniques and new methods that will make the process simpler but still produce great results. Many of the breads have starters, most call for long rises and they are all shaped by hand before baking. The instructions simply serve to reassure you as they guide you. Want to do a 4 hour rise? A 48 hour rise? No problem. Just leave the dough as the book tells you and come back any time for the next step. There is none of the buildup (high stress for many would-be bakers) of having to stick to a set-in-stone timeline as you work.

The book is filled with beautiful photos, showing the breads in progress as well as the finished loaves. When shaping techinques are called for, such as braiding a loaf, photos showing the steps accompany the instructions. The recipes are divided into Sourdough Breads, French Breads, Enriched Breads and Rich Breads, and there is also a chapter that discusses the methods used in the book and breadmaking in general to start things off. The breads range from simple sandwich breads to whole grain sourdoughs and sweet brioche. Finally, if you have Reinhart’s other books, keep in mind that the recipes and techniques, even for the same breads, are different in this book, so it’s work getting if you’re a fan of his work. Otherwise, it’s a well-rounded book that should appeal to experienced bakers and for those just looking to get their feet wet.

A divorce can oftentimes exert considerable stress on a couple’s financial situation, resulting in the need to make important decisions about the distribution of assets and satisfaction of liabilities.  Where a couple is faced with a property valued under what is owed on a mortgage or the prospect of foreclosure due to nonpayment, a short sale may be preferential.  A short sale is the sale of real estate in which the sale proceeds equal less than the amount owed towards the mortgage or mortgages on the property. A short sale requires that the lender, or holder of the lien on the marital property, agrees to a discounted or reduced repayment of the loan.

In these circumstances, when a short sale is considered, there are frequently many benefits associated with retaining a qualified and knowledgeable real estate attorney. A competent attorney will be able to provide answers to all of your questions regarding the short sale process, as well as review your agreement with the lender and realtor in order to ensure that all potential ramifications of the short sale are accounted for. Important considerations may include tax consequences, credit score and reporting activities on behalf of the lender, and the potential for a deficiency judgment (an amount that may be owed to the lender representing the difference between the loan balance and the proceeds of a short sale).

The first important consideration, in deciding whether to utilize a short sale to solve a financial problem, is the potential effect of a short sale on the couple’s credit report and score. While a short sale will almost inevitably cause a decline in an individual’s credit score, a short sale’s impact on a borrower’s credit score will often depend on the timing of the short sale and will almost always be less than the decline resulting from a foreclosure. In most cases, the longer a borrower is in arrears and is unable to pay amounts owed to a lender, the worse the impact is on the credit score. If a borrower is able to remain current on mortgage payments during the short sale process, the decline in the credit score will be less significant. Understanding the resulting implications of a short sale and the way in which these implications will impact a couple in the future is an important step in making an informed decision regarding the disposition of the marital home.

The next issue to consider is whether the lender will have recourse against the borrower for the difference between the sale price of the property and the amount owed on the mortgage loan.  A deficiency judgment is a judgment awarded by the court which allows a creditor to recover the unsatisfied portion owed on a loan after the sale of the mortgaged property fails to repay the debt owed in full. In order to assure that the lender will not pursue payment of the amount owed after a short sale, it is imperative that an attorney negotiate and draft a forbearance agreement on the borrower’s behalf. Such agreement will outline the terms of repayment and specify that the lender agrees to withhold their right to pursue payment for any amounts owed after the sale. Without the help of an educated attorney, practiced in contract negotiation, drafting, and real estate law, divorcing couples seeking to utilize a short sale may find themselves owing the lender money for years after the conclusion of the short sale transaction.

Lastly, it is important to determine the possible tax consequences of a short sale transaction for a couple investigating the use of a short sale in the distribution of assets during a divorce.  The U.S. tax code taxes individuals based on income or gain. Income is defined as all income from whatever source derived whatsoever. According to American tax law, this definition of income includes cancellation of debt, because it is considered a freeing of assets under the case of U.S. v. Kirby Lumber Co., 284 U.S. 1 (1931). The tax code outlines specific cancellation of debt income which does not need to be included in an individual’s gross income in 26 U.S.C. § 108(f). These exclusions include:

• If the discharge of indebtedness occurs in a title 11 bankruptcy case;
• If the discharge of indebtedness occurs when the taxpayer is insolvent;
• If the indebtedness discharged is qualified farm indebtedness; and
• If the indebtedness discharged is qualified real property business indebtedness

The tax consequences are some of the most important and significant ramifications of a short sale transaction. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 added another exemption to the above referenced list, known as the qualified principal residence exemption, in an attempt to provide relief for qualified taxpayers who were not covered by the traditional exemptions. The Act provides relief from taxation on cancellation of debt income, such as that experienced in a short sale situation, so long as the forgiven or cancelled debt was used to buy, build, or substantially improve a borrower’s principal residence, or to refinance debt incurred for those purposes and the debt was secured by the home. This new exemption may offer assistance to many individuals facing the possibility of a short sale; however, it is important to note that the exemption does not apply to second homes or investment properties. Due to the complicated nature and intricacies of the tax code, as well as the manner in which the tax code can be applied to different individuals in a variety of situations, an attorney can be an invaluable asset in determining whether a short sale is a desirable solution to a divorcing couple’s financial woes.

Though this video is nine minutes long, you only have to watch for about 45 seconds to see the stupidity of tag-team MMA.

You can even hear the crowd laughing. To make it even dumber, only "slaps" are allowed to the head. That’s right; no punching people in the face.

Look, I love MMA for the strategy, technical difficulty, cardio and all of the many brilliant aspects of the sport. One of those aspects? Seeing someone get punched in the face. The tag team idea is weird enough, but no punching people in the face? That’s just silly.

Thanks to Cage Potato

Rebecca Zacks wrote:

Posting will be light today as Xconomy’s offices are closed in observation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.

For those of you looking for a way to pitch in in your own city or town, Serve.gov has a searchable database of volunteer opportunities. If you or your organization would like to aid the disaster recovery effort in Haiti, or to make a donation of goods to the effort, start by registering your offer with the Center for International Disaster Information.  If you’d like to make a cash donation, InterAction has a list of agencies that are accepting them. The newly formed Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is accepting donations as well.

So have a great day, however you spend it. We’ll be back to work first thing tomorrow.

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For those vendors with solid profits, it’s a buyer’s market. SDL, parent company of such products as Tridion, Trados, Trisoft, and XySoft, announced the acquisition of Dutch e-commerce vendor Fredhopper today.

SDL’s streak of acquisitions is something I recently checked up on while writing the Tridion review for the Web CMS Report 2010. Notwithstanding its ever-expanding portfolio of products, you shouldn’t forget that in essence, SDL is largely a translation services company (rather than a software company), with the revenue from those services fueling expansion in the software market. After having added translation services companies, and then translation management software companies, the focus the past few years has been on XML and component management companies.

At first glance, adding Fredhopper’s "marketing and merchandising optimization software for e-commerce" to that portfolio makes little sense. However, SDL sees it as a logical move, moving from multi-lingual consistency (translation), to brand consistency (XML and component management). And SDL Tridion, which accounts for about a third of SDL’s revenue, is now going to be the connection between that side and online marketing plus e-commerce.

In fact, Tridion has already announced "SmartTarget," which will use Fredhopper in combination with Tridion’s personalization and statistics. Combinations like that are all the rage now in Europe (Sitecore’s Online Marketing Suite and EPiServer’s partnership with Mediachase come to mind), perhaps because targeted marketing and e-commerce across several countries and languages is, in fact, very hard to do.

So how good is Fredhopper, anyway? Well, the company (now to become SDL’s "eCommerce Technologies" division) certainly has some impressive customers; mail-order companies like Otto and Neckermann are household names here in The Netherlands and Germany (and in fact, Otto Group is "the second largest e-commerce business in the world behind Amazon"). Unfortunately, Fredhopper’s results on, say, the otto.nl site are less impressive. For example, I entered "tshirt" as a query; then refined on "men’s wear"; and then refined on "suits". I got two results for my faceted, refined query. A hat and a belt.

Of course, a solution is only as good as its implementation. When I asked SDL about my Otto example, they suggested trying the same query on another Dutch site, which renders much more relevant results. And I doubt a U.S. vendor like Endeca (famous for its e-commerce implementations) would be able to do better. In fact, Endeca also lists the Otto Group as a reference, but tellingly — Endeca’s implementations are in English, only. But it illustrates that marketing and e-commerce across multiple languages and countries is still very challenging.

So the acquisition probably makes sense for SDL and Fredhopper. However, make no mistake: SDL still isn’t a one-stop-shop with complete off-the-shelf solutions integrating all its technology flawlessly. For you, the customer, it’s still going to be a lot of hard work to get it all working together right.

According to new data from ChangeWave Research, both usage and consumer sentiment towards Google’s mobile operating system Android has increased over the past several months. As of December 2009, the research firm’s survey shows that 4% of all smartphone owners now use a phone running some version of the Android OS. That’s an increase of 200% since the previous survey released in September.

Sponsor

Respondents were also asked about their plans to purchase a smartphone in the future. Among those who planned to purchase within the next 90 days, 21% said they would now choose Android. In September, that figure was only 6%. At that time, Android was tied with Palm as the least-preferred mobile operating system but by December’s survey, it became the second-most preferred. (Palm, sadly, has dropped to least-preferred).

Apparently, some of Android’s growth has come at the expense of the iPhone. While still the most popular mobile OS to date, those saying they would prefer to own the Apple device over any other smartphone dropped from 32% to 28% over the past three months (September – November 2009). However, Apple’s overall share of the market has increased one percentage point to 31%, notes the survey. Research in Motion (makers of Blackberry phones) retains a 39% share and Palm has slipped to a 6% share.

While this seems like promising news for Android, let’s not forget the recent figures regarding sales of the Nexus One, Google’s self-sold Android smartphone. Once positioned as a potential “iPhone killer,” the N1’s first week sales fell short of expectations with just 20,000 sold since its January 5th launch date. So while consumer sentiment may be on the rise regarding the Android OS, the mobile OS still has quite a ways to go before it catches up with the iPhone 3GS (which, incidentally, sold 1.6 million devices in its first week).

However, positioning the N1 against the iPhone isn’t really a valid comparison -the N1 is only one of many Android handsets on the market today. Other Android-enabled phones like the myTouch 3G and the Droid also have significant and growing install bases. Combined, the overall marketshare for Android is on the rise. This growth is benefitting both Motorola and HTC, each who offer a version of the Droid smartphone. (HTC is also the maker of the N1). Since September, Motorola has increased 12 percentage points in terms of future buying, the first increase ChangeWave Research has seen for the company in three years. HTC has also increased from 5% to 9% in the same time frame, a change prompted both by the N1 release and the November release of the Droid Eris model.

Discuss

Slates are all the rage and we’ve seen a few packing Windows 7 onboard, including this new model dubbed the Netbook Navigator. I’m not sure what a slate has to do with being a netbook, but it looks like a compelling device. Like other Windows slates, the Netbook Navigator is a netbook with no keyboard, making it a “less is more” type of device. More is definitely the case as the 3G-enabled model of the NN will reportedly cost $1,199. Yowza, that’s a dent in the wallet for what is essentially a netbook missing the keyboard. There will also be a model of the NN without 3G (and less storage), and that will retail for $799. That’s still a healthy price penalty for producing a netbook missing the keyboard.

This leads to the observation that the cost of Windows slates may not be competitive with alternatives. I suspect that we will see slates with ARM processors and a form of Linux for a lot less than these Windows slates. It’s worth noting that the Netbook Navigator web site mentions a cheaper model coming that will run Windows 7 Starter Edition. If I’m not mistaken Starter Edition lacks the advanced touch features of Windows 7. What’s a geek to do?

Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law the Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010, a bill to implement new, rigorous evaluations for teachers and school principals across the state.

The new law boosts Illinois’ “Race to the Top” application by addressing one of the four priority areas outlined by the U.S. Department of Education.

“This law is another strong signal to Washington that a top-notch education for all Illinois students is our foremost priority,” said Gov. Quinn.

“Rigorous teacher and principal evaluations will make our education system the best it can be, while ensuring Illinois is at the head of the class when it comes to winning those important federal ‘Race to the Top’ funds.”

Senate Bill 315, sponsored by Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) and Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), requires every school district to incorporate student performance as a significant factor in teacher and principal evaluations.

The new law requires districts to work with its local teachers’ union to meet the new requirements.

More than 350 school districts, representing more than 70 percent of Illinois’ students, have agreed to make student performance at least 50 percent of evaluation criteria if Illinois receives “Race to the Top” funds.

Under the legislation, Chicago Public Schools and dozens of other districts will begin using the new teacher evaluations in 2012, with full statewide implementation by 2016. All districts will implement the new principal evaluations in 2012.

If the state wins “Race to the Top funds,” the timeline would be greatly accelerated with most districts implementing the evaluations in 2012.

Gov. Quinn also signed Senate Bill 616, sponsored by Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) and Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), which allows non-profit organizations, such as Teach for America, to offer alternative certification programs independent from institutions of higher education.

This allows the state to increase the number of high-quality training programs for teachers and principals, a priority established by the U.S. Department of Education. The non-profit programs will be required to undergo the same rigorous approval process as higher education institutions.

These bills represent a four-month effort by the Governor’s Office, the Illinois State Board of Education, the two major teachers’ unions, civic and business leaders, advocates, management groups and legislators from both parties.

“Race to the Top” is a $4.35 billion competitive federal grant process focused on innovative approaches to education.

Illinois could receive up to $500 million in discretionary funds made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Applications are due Jan. 19.

The sales are starting to slide for Modern Warfare 2. Based on the latest Chart Track in the UK, the glitchy-but-top-selling shooter bows out of the top, leaving the throne to Just Dance and Wii Fit Plus.