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Pictured is the surgical suite in Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services in Lower Providence. Photo by Gene Walsh

Julie Banyacski, practice manager, and James F. Dougherty, VMD, pose in the lobby of Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services in Lower Providence. The practice is celebrating 25 years of animal care. Photo by Gene Walsh

LOWER PROVIDENCE — When Jim Dougherty hung out his shingle with three other doctors 25 years ago, he had no idea that Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services would one day grow into a facility with 24 doctors practicing 10 different specialties.

“There weren’t any other practices in the Philadelphia area at that time, besides the University of Pennsylvania,” Dougherty recalled. “We all did training and residencies there and were looking for a place to open a practice when we found some real estate on Trooper Road.”

Easy highway access to its original 915 Trooper Road address was an important factor in choosing the location. “

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We live in a world where technology has come a long way towards protecting us from many things, but unfortunately some individuals in society still try to take advantage of whatever loophole they can find to get illicit profit from. In this age of credit cards and internet shopping it’s paramount that we have fraud protection mechanisms in place so we ourselves can feel confident in using services that make our life simpler and easier.

Fraud protection is a useful two-fold thing: there are actions you can take to prevent any harm being done and there are mechanisms that your credit card company has in place in order to protect your information from being stolen and wrongfully used. This means that there is a partnership between you and your credit card company, and this partnership is invaluable in protecting you against fraud. You are, without doubt, the first line of defence. Steer clear of websites that don’t look safe and never give out your credit card information to anyone unless you can absolutely trust the person. The Read more…

Today you can choose any career path with federal

1. grants for single mother,

so it’s your choice if you want to earn a good salary or get stuck at the same point. A graduation certificate in hand will accomplish all formalities towards getting a job or a promotion at your workplace. The rest is your task.

To graduate you need to join a college and take courses. For a single mother who works full time and takes care of her babies, it is not possible to find time to attend classes regularly. It is also very difficult to pay for education with a low-income job. The federal grants not only pay for your education but you also have the opportunity to take online courses so you can study in the confines of your home and take care of your baby.

Many people, given the current economic situation, had to seek new careers. Times have changed and those who worked for a time in certain professions have found they are no longer in demand. If you’re in this position, there is no better time than this to develop a new career that pays well and is always in demand. Read more…

Foursquare is a phone app that lets people earn points and unlock badges as they go from place to place and share their location and their opinions about it with their social networks. Foursquare claims millions of everyday users and can be a good way for businesses to attract and retain customers.

To use it, business owners basically go to the website, claim their venue, and create specials that will reward people for visiting their businesses. Foursquare has a whole menu of different types of specials that let you reward customers in different ways. You might offer customers something “special” every x number of times they check in or offer a one time discount for a particular time, for instance.

And Foursquare provides Venue stats that allows you to see a full set of real-time data about your customers, so you can see how much impact your Foursquare specials are having.

This app has lots of potential, I think, as cell phone use is constantly growing.

Visit Foursquare to get started.

In response to Snowpocalypse 2011, has again made several of their iPhone City Guides free for download. 13 guides will be free in the until to 6pm PST Friday, February 4th 2011.

Here are the cities: San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, New Orleans, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Miami, Toronto, Los Angeles, Montreal.

People line up to attend the first day of a foreclosure event organized by the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. AP Photo

CHICAGO — Just as President Barack Obama took a reassuring tone in the State of the Union address, there are reasons for optimism when it comes to our personal finances.

The stock market has come back, companies are starting to hire again and economists are increasingly upbeat about the future.

But unemployment remains stuck at more than 9 percent, home prices are falling and the pace of foreclosures is accelerating.

It’s hard to see a return any time soon to the level of financial comfort many enjoyed before the tough times began.

“We dug ourselves a very deep hole,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “I think it’s going to take a full five years to recover in most areas: unemployment, wages, personal wealth and our collective psyche.”

Whether you are upbeat about your financial situation likely depends on not just your job security and income level, but also on how much you have invested in the stock market. T

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