显示标签为“Green”的博文。显示所有博文
显示标签为“Green”的博文。显示所有博文

2012年1月12日星期四

SEBI action on merchant bankers, a bit too late?

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has to be congratulated for the tough action against seven companies who made initial public offerings (IPOs) and their lead managers. SEBI has banned five merchant bankers who had managed seven of these IPOs. Surprisingly, in the case of Tijaria Polypipes, there was no order against the merchant banker—Hem Securities, the firm which has been pulled up for price manipulation in the past. Atherstone Capital, Almondz Global, D&A Financial services, Chartered Capital and PNB Investment Services are the other merchant bankers who have been barred from the primary market.

Moneylife looked at the track record of these merchant bankers and SEBI followed same course by sending a circular to merchant bankers. It has been decided by SEBI that the merchant bankers shall disclose the track record of the performance of the public issues managed by them. However, the regulator has failed to ask them to disclose any regulatory action taken against them in the past.Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile,

Why is this important? Hem Securities, lead manager to the IPO of Tijaria Polypipes, has been charged by SEBI a number of times in the past. The current investigation also revealed that 1,409 retail allottees had got the subscription to the IPO through Hem Securities, and, 1,303 of them had sold the shares on the first day of trading at a premium to the issue price.Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services. Tijaria Polypipes, which got listed on 14th October, with an issue price of Rs60, got listed at Rs62. It barely reached its all-time high of Rs67.80 on listing day, when its downfall began. It closed 70% down on listing day and is now trading more than 85% below its listing price. Surprisingly, this has not led to any action being taken against Hem Securities which has been pulled up for price manipulation a couple of times before in the past.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,

In December 2002, Hem Securities was charged for indulging in price manipulation in scrip of Global Trust Bank. It was accused of indulging in creation of an artificial market in scrip of Global Trust Bank and for parking shares to circumvent SEBI Takeover Code, 1997. It was just barred from trading at that time. In January 2006, the regulatory charges faced by Hem Securities was that it did not issue contract notes, it dealt with un-registered sub-brokers and for illegal and unauthorized grant of trading terminal to client. Here SEBI let it off with a warning.

Four years later in January 2010, Hem Securities charged with alleged indulgence in irregular transactions in scrips of Lupin Laboratories,Full-service custom manufacturer of precision plastic injection mold, Aftek Infosys, Shonkh Technologies International, Global Trust Bank, Adani Exports, Himachal Futuristic Communications and Global Telesystems. In this case, it reached a settlement with SEBI through a consent order where the firm had to pay Rs90 lakh as settlement charges. This has not hampered it though as we can see in the current case. This just shows SEBI’s consent orders is a big sham and there should be stricter punishments. Hem Securities had transactions in the IPO of RDB Rasayans and was the syndicate lead manager for PG Electroplast and Onelife Capital, as well.

Moneylife contacted SEBI as to why there was no action against Hem Securities, but no reply was received.

Almondz Global Securities, a merchant banker to two of the seven IPOs—PG Electroplast and Bharatiya Global Infomedia—had lead managed eight other IPOs in the past.

One of these was Empee Distilleries, which was listed in November 2007. The issue price was Rs400 and it hit its all-time high of Rs489 on the listing day. The price started declining almost immediately thereafter and was down 86% at the end of the year.

A few months later Almondz was merchant banker to Tulsi Extrusions. The scrip hit an all-time high of Rs132 on listing day, up 55% from its issue price. A year later it was trading 85% below its issue price. Same was the case with First Winner; the stock was down 86% from its listing price. Texmo Pipes which was launched in March last year and is now 82% down. All the seven IPOs managed by Almondz in the past three years are down 80% from their launch till date. It is clearly worth asking why these price movements were never investigated, especially since Almondz has been pulled up in the past for some procedural violations in 2008 and 2009.

It is the lead manager who signs the ‘due diligence’ certificate which vouches for every fact in the prospectus or offer document. In the recent cases, the documents have been riddled with inadequate disclosures or outright falsehoods.

D&A Financial Services Pvt Ltd, which was the lead manager for Brooks Laboratories, was pulled up for non-disclosures, for failing to make proper disclosures by mis-statements in the IPO prospectus. The merchant banker has been the lead manager for two other public offers, both of which need to be investigated as well. In the case of Shilpi Cable Technologies which was launched in April, the stock fell 31% on listing day from its issue price of Rs69. The scrip has been on a decline ever since and is now trading at 86% below the issue price.

D&A Financial Services also happened to be the investment banker for M&B Switchgear, the IPO in which we have suspected manipulation since day one. The IPO went up 70% on day one and is currently 68% down from its issue price of Rs186.

Chartered Capital and Investment, which was the lead manager for the IPO of RDB Rasayans, was barred for mis-statement in the prospectus relating to related party transactions and interim utilization of IPO proceeds and failing to exercise due diligence. The firm has been charged by BSE in the past for procedural violations.

SEBI also barred PNB Investment Services for failure to carry due diligence with respect to non-disclosure of repayment of Inter Corporate Deposit (ICD) to different entities in the IPO of Taksheel Solutions and Atherstone Capital Markets for inadequate documentation and failure to exercise due diligence in the IPO of Onelife Capital Advisors. Midfield Industries, another IPO managed by Atherstone Capital Markets, launched in August 2010, went up by 23% on the listing day. In the next three months it went up 200% from its issue price of Rs133 to around Rs400, and then soon after the decline started in the beginning of December 2010. By the end of December the stock was trading at Rs90 down 32% from its issue price and down 78% from its price a month back. Apparently this was also overlooked by the regulator, as well.The magic cube is an ultra-portable,

2011年11月13日星期日

Santa, shoppers already at the mall

Christmas may be more than a month away, but that didn't slow down Suzanne Porter at the Maine Mall this weekend.

Porter,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, her daughter, Jessica Bushell, and her mother, Helen MacMullin, traveled from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia to do their Christmas shopping in Maine this Veterans Day weekend.

"We are doing OK. We are going to get a lot of it done, for sure," said Porter.

While some retailers wait until the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, to entice holiday shoppers, Maine Mall stores are getting an early start. The holiday decorations are up,which applies to the first offshore merchant account only, Santa Claus is holding court and seasonal hiring signs are posted in many storefronts.

Some retailers around Maine say they are optimistic about the weeks ahead, reflecting national expectations.

According to the National Retail Federation, retailers are planning strong holiday promotions and are keeping lean inventories that should help them weather consumer jitters.Polycore oil paintings for sale are manufactured as a single sheet,

ShopperTrak, which measures and analyzes foot traffic in more than 25,000 U.S. stores, expects retail sales to rise 3 percent this holiday season from last year. Holiday sales historically account for 20 percent of all annual retail activity. The Chicago company is predicting apparel and accessories sales will be stronger than other sectors, rising 2.It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line.7 percent over last year, while electronics and appliances will lag, up by about 1.2 percent over last year.

The Maine Mall is expecting a boost from a number of new tenants.

Craig Gorris, senior general manager, said he expects mall retailers to at least match last year's 3 percent sales increase from the year before based on a survey of mall stores with less than 10,000 square feet of space.

Gorris said new retailers always generate more traffic. In the fourth fiscal quarter, the mall built out another 30,000-square feet. Old Navy is moving from its 200 Running Hill Road location to the Maine Mall on Nov. 16.

Other new additions include apparel stores J.Jill and White House Black Market, and Aveda and The Body Shop, which specialize in cosmetics.

The mall is effectively filled, a sharp contrast to the empty storefronts during the depth of the recession, when a number of national chains went out of business or scaled back.ceramic magic cube for the medical,

"There is so much critical mass," Gorris said.

He said a recent merchant meeting had to be held in the food court, because there are no other empty spaces. All 33 kiosk spaces are rented out this holiday season.

Gorris said the mall remains a strong performer. Last summer license plates from 25 states and provinces were counted on one day, which may explain why Books-A-Million Inc. moved quickly to snap up the bankrupt Borders Maine Mall location. The new bookstore officially opened on Saturday, with about 40 percent of the staff made up of former Borders employees.

Books-A-Million manager Terry Prescott said business was brisk on opening day.

"We are pretty excited," said Prescott.

Retailers in other Maine locations say they are seeing positive early signals this season.

Freeport Merchants Association executive director Myra Hopkins said a harbinger of the season, this weekend's Girlfriends Getaway promotion, was attended heavily.

Although Portland Downtown District retailers wait until after Thanksgiving to pull out all holiday stops, there are signs that this will be a good season, said Janis Beitzer, executive director.

"Downtown is continuing to grow and expand. We are definitely seeing small increases every year," Beitzer said.

While Canadian shoppers may be feeling flush, some Mainers at the mall Saturday said they intend to keep the brakes on this shopping season.

"I had to dig into my Christmas fund this year, so in terms of gifts, it is going to be very low-key," said Joanne Prequart of Saco.

2011年11月10日星期四

Sol Republic Amps Review

We have already reviewed SOL Republic’s over-ear Tracks headphones and were quite taken with them. Now we’re putting their in-ear Amps earbuds to the test. SOL, or Soundtrack of Life, Republic have an HD version of both their Tracks and Amps headphones, we are reviewing the regular Amps.

The Amps are in-ear headphones that feature Sol Republic’s ‘i4 Sound Engine’ and an in-line button and microphone. They have a curved design with a flat back that matches the natural shape of the ear. For an all-black pair of ear-buds, the design is quite flashy. The flat circular back is glossy with a swift looking SOL logo; the inline remote also has the same glossy finish. The Amps also come in a red model, which combines red and black features.The application can provide Ceramic tile to visitors,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems,

The remote has three buttons: volume up, volume down, and a universal button. The volume buttons may not work on all Android phones or Blackberrys, but they do work well with any iOS device.Polycore oil paintings for sale are manufactured as a single sheet, Depending on the phone, the universal button will pause and play music, skip tracks, take calls, end calls, and access voice commands. On the opposite side of the controls is the microphone, which works with most any Android, Blackberry, or iOS device.ceramic magic cube for the medical, The headphone cable has a right-angle connector and is of a pretty standard thickness with a rubberized finish. The cable is actually pretty good with preventing tangles.

The Amps come with four silicone ear tip options for the buds. The headphones fit quite comfortably and don’t easily fall out. The curved design allows it to sit pretty nicely in our ears. While the buds are slightly larger than your standard ear bud, they’re quite light, which also helps them stick inside the ear.

Considering they play the Soundtrack of [our] Lives, how do they sound? They honestly sound pretty darned good. I am used to headphones compensating for mediocre audio with an influx of bass, this is very much not the case. At first I thought the bass was a bit light, but then I realized it’s pretty well balanced and shines through when it needs to. Voices are clear and the mids are detailed and crisp. This is a good pair of headphones for hearing finer details in your music that you may not have heard before. The high notes are rich and balanced. There was not a genre of music that we did not enjoy soundtracking our lives with.

The inline remote is one of the best we have used. There is no question whether or not you’re pressing the button you want; the universal button is raised with a volume button above and below it. You can clearly feel the button click so even double pressing and triple pressing is a piece of cake. Siri understood everything I had to say, as did all of my callers. Phone calls worked perfectly with the built in microphone.

The SOL Republic Amps are currently on sale for $59.99 (with free shipping from Amazon). SOL makes a similarly designed HD version of the Amps which are supposed to feature even better audio quality, as well as an actual “tangle-free cord” and a carrying case, for $99.99. Considering the regular Amps sound pretty darned good, we’re not sure the HD version is worth the extra $40, though we haven’t tried them. The SOL Republic Amps come with a one-year warranty and are available in black or red. For a good set of buds that sound good and come with an inline mic and remote, the Amps will make a great gift for the holiday season without breaking the bank.Unlike traditional high risk merchant account ,

2011年10月24日星期一

Fans enjoy a brush with Rolf

Fans of Rolf Harris got to meet their hero on Saturday when he popped in to a sale of his artwork.

The Australian entertainer was at Whitewall, in Highcross, Leicester,Whilst oil paintings for sale are not deadly, where art-lovers were snapping up prints costing several hundred pounds, and original oil paintings were on sale for tens of thousands.

Everyone who bought a work of art had it signed by Rolf, who also did some doodling on the backs of the pieces.

Rolf, 81, said: "It's been non-stop signing since I arrived and it's great to be here.

"I paint at home using photographs I've taken over the years of many different subjects since the 1960s. I always made sure I got the photos as good as they could be so I could use them in a painting."

Among more than 100 fans who queued outside the shop to meet Rolf and buy some of his art were Pat and Brian Conroy, from Glenfield.

Brian, 68, said: "It's great to meet him because over the years we've watched him on the telly so it feels like we know him."

Pat, 65, said: "I've wanted one of his prints for a long time and so we came into the gallery last week and I chose a lovely one of a landscape. He's wonderful."

Jean Roberts, 65, of Uppingham Road, Leicester, said: "It's fantastic to meet him – I've been really looking forward to it. I bought a print of a tiger. I just couldn't say no to it because it's so dramatic.

"I loved watching Rolf on telly and I love his songs, too. I sing Two Little Boys in my head every time I think of him but I didn't sing it to him today – singing isn't my strong point."

Todd Durick, 55, from Wigston, said: "It was a real pleasure to meet Rolf.Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. I used to watch him on the BBC as a child.

"We talked about his paintings and the Ugg boots he was wearing. It's like he's really got time for everyone."

Rolf grew up in Western Australia and moved to London in 1952, at the age of 21, to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.

But his art was put on hold while his career in music and television blossomed.

His passion was re-awoken about 10 years ago after he did a painting while recording a television programme.

In his online biography, he said: "I couldn't believe I'd steered away from painting all this time,Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet, and since that moment I've never looked back.The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling hydraulic hose ,"

In 2005, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the Queen.Our high risk merchant account was down for about an hour and a half,

Rolf was named the UK's best- selling published artist at a ceremony hosted by the Fine Art Trade Guild earlier this year.

Autograph-hunter Winston Wragg, 71, from Earl Shilton, was outside the gallery on Saturday hoping to add Rolf's signature to those of other celebrities such as Terry Wogan and Roger Whittaker.

He said: "Rolf's a multi-talented man and a very nice bloke. He's a very good artist and a very original musician."

2011年10月20日星期四

Autumn harvest watched warily in food-poor NKorea

Scythe in hand, a woman slices through a bright green field of rice. Oxen plod down country roads pulling carts piled high with harvested stalks of grain.

This autumn, as farmers fan out into fields of corn, wheat, rice and cabbage, such evocative pastoral scenes — the stuff of centuries-old Dutch landscape paintings — also are a reminder of the challenges North Korea faces in feeding its people.

Primitive farming techniques, a lack of arable land in a rugged,The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling hydraulic hose , mountainous country and the suspected diversion of food to military and ruling party elites have all contributed to widespread hunger in the country's poorest areas, aid groups say.

This year, summer floods, soaring global food prices and the continued reluctance of the U.S. and its allies to provide aid to a hostile and nuclear-armed country means millions of children and pregnant women are slowly starving, aid groups say. So this autumn harvest is being watched particularly closely, and already there are concerns that it won't be nearly enough to feed a nation that has struggled with food shortages for more than 15 years.

North Korea faces a "potentially catastrophic food situation," five charities warned the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development in a Sept. 26 letter obtained by The Associated Press, "with clear indications of acute malnutrition and slow starvation — especially in children."

And a far greater crisis may unfold in six to nine months when stocks run low, said Mercy Corps, Samaritan's Purse, World Vision, Christian Friends of Korea and Global Resource Services after visiting three hard-hit provinces last month.

This week, the top U.N. official for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, is visiting hospitals, schools, orphanages, farms and a food distribution center around the industrial city of Hamhung, northeast of the capital, Pyongyang. "I'm particularly concerned over the reports that there's increasing malnutrition among children," she told AP in Pyongyang.

In the countryside near Wonsan, south of Hamhung, rice plants lie stacked in piles, corncobs dry on the tiles of traditional farm cottages. A woman cradles bundles of Napa cabbage, which will be used to make kimchi, the spicy staple of Korea.

But pull back the husks and you find the corn is stunted, the kernels shriveled. The potatoes are tiny, the greens meager — the result of the floods that engulfed the region's southern breadbasket.

"You may see a whole field of green rice plants swaying in the breeze — which we saw a lot of — but the rains knocked down a lot of the pollination needed at critical times," said Jim White of Mercy Corps. "The rice never properly matured."

It's a humanitarian crisis that threatens to physically and intellectually stunt entire generations of North Koreans subsisting, at times, on just one potato or a fistful of cornmeal a day, aid workers say. Already, a third of North Korean children younger than 5 are chronically malnourished or stunted, according to the World Food Program.

"The child's brain needs protein," said White, who was part of the September group that traveled North Korea. "They need fat. They can't just grow on starches."

He described visiting pediatric wards in the city of Haeju filled with sick, starving children. They lay listless on blankets on the floor, bones protuding from skinny arms,I have never solved a Rubik's Piles . legs jutting out from baggy sweatclothes,These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives! lacerations on their discolored, sallow faces. One bout of diarrhea would be enough to kill a child already weakened from years of malnutrition, he said.

"I'm sure there are kids there who are dead now," he said. "They were pretty far gone."

In April, the U.N. appealed to its member nations for $218 million in food aid for North Korea. Six months later, donor nations have coughed up less than a third of that amount, and the question of whether to help feed the North Koreans remains mired in political calculations by governments cautious about offering help to a regime with a history of defiance.he believes the fire started after the lift's China ceramic tile blew,

Washington approved $900,000 in emergency flood aid, mostly tents and plastic sheeting, in August. But the Obama administration is still mulling whether to offer food aid, even after sending officials to North Korea to assess the food situation four months ago following a direct plea from Pyongyang in January.

The North Koreans raised the issue of food aid at nuclear talks with the U.S. in New York in July, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, and a new round of U.S.-North Korea talks on disarmanent is set to take place next week in Geneva.

The U.S. reluctance to commit to more food aid reflects a familiar dilemma for Washington: whether to help North Korea when its own officials plow scant national resources into developing atomic weapons and ballistic missiles.

Providing aid also risks alienating U.S. ally South Korea, whose president has linked aid to nuclear disarmament and has all but stopped aid and money to Pyongyang following the sinking of a South Korean warship last year that killed 46 sailors.

Michael Green, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank and an ex-Asia adviser to former President George W. Bush, says the food and nuclear issues should be separate.

"If you don't get satisfaction on the nuclear deal and you don't give food aid, what you're at least implicitly doing is suggesting that the North Korean people should not get food because of the regime's stance on nuclear issues,Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an Ventilation system , and not a metal," he said.

Amos sad she hopes to be able to reassure donors that funding for the U.N. appeal will make it to the hungry and not to the plates of the political and military elite. North Korean officials have expressed a willingness to allow rigorous monitoring of aid distribution, White said.

The issue of food aid to North Korea is not new: The nation built on a philosophy of self-reliance was forced to accept outside help during a famine in the mid-1990s that killed hundreds of thousands of people, and to this day grudgingly relies on aid to feed up to a quarter of its population of 24 million.

Intermittency Still a Challenge for Solar Power

Few people live far enough north or south that they can have sunlight all day long, so most people understand their rooftop solar installations cannot always provide them power. What people might not understand is the concept of intermittency and how great a challenge it poses to the renewable energy industry as a whole.

While solar installations are given a maximum peak capacity,The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling hydraulic hose , usually listed in either kilowatts or megawatts,These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives! the actual output can vary substantially based on the angle of the sun, which changes throughout the year, and the amount material blocking sunlight from the panels, from clouds to fog to dust.

This might seem primarily to be an issue of production, with larger solar installations and more power providing a simple solution, but the larger problems for intermittency actually have more to do with transmission. Most people never consider issues of electrical load on power lines because at least for most residents there is little noticeable change other than functional and non-functional.

However, different power lines are designed to carry different amounts of power, which accounts for the difference between major interstate transmission towers and the wires strung along street lights throughout the country's suburbs.Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a RUBBER MATS . When a power line has too little electricity, voltages can drop and devices can fail to function. But if a power line has too much electricity, voltage levels can rise to much the same effect, and substantial surges can trigger breakers that will shut off power completely.

Particularly in residential areas that were initially designed for lower power levels,I have never solved a Rubik's Piles . large clusters of solar installations can cause consistent problems as utilities struggle to account for the fluctuations in power generation. If solar systems are all close enough to vary roughly in line with each other it can magnify the size of any spike of power flow, making it even more difficult for power companies to adapt. Solar Novus Today notes that grid operators already make use of complex systems in order to predict fluctuations in demand without even accounting for intermittent power sources. Added to the inflexibility of some types of power plants, the problem can prove substantial.

The Australian reports that the problem has already emerged in some areas of that country. Queensland has even rejected applications for residential solar installations because of the issue and Western Australia imposed restrictions on the density of such systems of an area.

Solar power is not the only source of energy that suffers from intermittency,he believes the fire started after the lift's China ceramic tile blew, with Bloomberg reporting that German utilities were forced to give away electricity below cost because of a massive surge in wind power. However, with these two prominent sources of renewable energy suffering from the problem, a growing number of researchers and businesses are looking into methods to accommodate intermittent power sources.

2011年9月13日星期二

Florida Medical Device Manufacturer Announces New Product Release

An innovative manufacturer of patient-specific medical devices for radiation therapy, announced that it received 510(k) clearance from the FDA to market electron apertures for use with Varian treatment machines. These devices are now available to radiation oncology centers across the U.S. and Canada.

Electron apertures -- also known as electron 'cutouts' by radiation therapy departments -- are medical devices required for the targeted delivery of electrons to patients in radiation therapy.

As a medical device, an electron aperture is a metal tool featuring an opening through which a radiation beam passes during the delivery of electrons to a patient with a tumor, as in the case of neck and head or breast cancer.

Hospitals and cancer centers across the U.S. will order electron apertures via the internet and receive the devices already in the mold frames within 24 to 72 hours from receipt of an order.

By providing custom-made electron apertures to radiation oncology centers, .decimal helps these facilities reduce the cost of maintaining an on-site mold room, which can add to the department or facility's costs.

"At .decimal, our staff excels at the development of radiation therapy devices based on our customers' needs," said Richard Sweat, President and CEO of .Replacement rubber hose and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide.If any food Piles condition is poorer than those standards,decimal, Inc. "We are energized that the release of Electron Apertures can eliminate the need to handle toxic materials like Cerrobend at medical facilities."

Cerrobend is an alloy composed of cadmium, lead and tin which can be shaped at relatively low temperatures, but releases toxic fumes that,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their oil painting supplies . when produced at a medical facility, have the potential for affecting clinical personnel thus requiring expensive ventilation systems.

With this solution, .decimal provides radiation therapy facilities the ability to focus on treating patients, rather than manufacturing medical devices.

From its primary manufacturing center in Central Florida, .decimal, Inc. operates over 30 Mazak precision-milling machines managed by a team of custom manufacturing professionals with over two decades of experience.

Since 1986, .he believes the fire started after the lift's RUBBER SHEET blew,decimal has manufactured over 150,The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling Ceramic tile ,000 patient-specific devices for cancer treatment centers across the United States and Japan -- a proven track record that continues to serve its customers with a variety of FDA-compliant custom medical device manufacturing services.



2011年6月2日星期四

Race for Cure set for Saturday

Race for Cure set for Saturday


The annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is scheduled for Saturday morning. The fund-raising event for breast cancer research is likely to draw 40,000 runners and walkers to the starting lines along Madison Drive on the National Mall.

Many of the participants and spectators will get to Mall via Metrorail, which will open at 5 a.m. Saturday, two hours earlier than normal, to accommodate them.

The runners will start at 8 a.m. at Seventh Street and Madison Drive, then the walkers will get going at 8:15 a.m.Save on hydraulic hose and fittings, just to the east at Fourth Street and Madison Drive

Both routes go west on Constitution and Virginia avenues, then return the same way to 15th Street NW by the Washington Monument and along Jefferson Drive to the finish line on Independence Avenue. See a pdf map of the route.

There will be temporary street closings along the 3.1 mile route until all of the participants have cleared the area, which should be about 11 a.m.

The closest Metro stations are Smithsonian and Federal Center SW on the Blue and Orange lines, Archives on the Green and Yellow lines, L'Enfant Plaza on the Blue, Orange, Green and Yellow lines and Judiciary Square on the Red Line.Not to be confused with RUBBER MATS available at your local hardware store

The most crowded stations are likely to be Smithsonian, Federal Center SW and Archives. It's a good idea to load up your paper Farecard or plastic SmarTrip card to cover a roundtrip and avoid waiting in long lines at the fare vending machines after the event.Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services.

Parking at Metro lots and garages is free on weekends, but note Metro's plans for weekend maintenance work, which will cause delays on some segments of the Blue and Red lines. Add about 30 minutes to travel plans if you're going through those work zones.

Metro weekend maintenance

Blue Line

From 10 p.m., Friday through closing on Sunday, trains will share one track between Stadium-Armory and Addison Road stations.

All day Saturday, Blue Line trains will operate a shortened route, between Huntington and Largo Town Center. Metro will operate a special shuttle train on a single track between Franconia-Springfield and King Street stations.

Throughout the weekend, every other Blue Line train traveling in the direction of Largo Town Center will terminate at Stadium-Armory Station.

Red Line

From 9:30 p.m. Friday through closing on Sunday, trains will share a track between Grosvenor and Twinbrook..From 10 p.m. Friday through closing on Sunday, trains also will share a track between Takoma and Forest Glen.Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts,

Throughout the weekend, all Red Line trains will leave about every 24 minutes from the ends of the line at Shady Grove and Glenmont. On Saturday and Sunday between 9 a.m. and 9 p.This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game.m., additional trains will operate in the interior portion of the line between Grosvenor and Takoma. In that zone, trains will arrive about every 12 minutes.