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Looks like we have a bid and ask today.
Is there any volume today?
I am unable to see the trading range. Does anyone know the open, high today, low today, and current price?
Thanks
Has anyone sold their shares before the impending reverse split?
It is my understanding that it is prudent to sell before the reverse split.
The Buyer was coming in at lunch time; now he is buying near the opening. The connection may be thin, but it is a trend.
A lot of volumn. Any idea what is going on?
I wonder if Fu Qiang of ABAT is also a political figure:
http://www.aboutxinjiang.com/news/content/2009-01/08/content_3779092.htm
That would put MAUG and ABAT in a good position to get American opportunities AND the quick blessings/"nod of approval" from the chinese government.
I agree. Nice volume today. 231k
SMAS is a Ground Floor Opportunity in Alternative Medicine – An OTCPicks.com Featured Small Cap Stock of the Week
Dallas, TX 11/25/2008 03:03 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)
Brian Dean, Publisher of OTCPicks.com, announced today that his firm has initiated Profile Coverage of Somatic Systems Inc. (OTC: SMAS). Mr. Dean comments, "Somatic Systems recently announced that it has been registered with the United States Government's Central Contractor Registration (CCR) as a healthcare service, and assigned its own commercial identification code by the United States Department of Defense. The CCR registers all contractors for the Department of Defense, and CCR registration is a critical requirement for any vendor to do business with the Department of Defense.
The Registration is a significant stage in the work for Somatic Systems to become fully approved providers for the military and Veterans Affairs, enabling Clinical Somatics treatment of all active and retired military personnel, family, dependents, and survivors to be paid for by the military.
The Department of Defense will only conduct business with vendors registered in the CCR. Furthermore, the CCR in turn serves as a registry if a vendor wishes to provide services to the Federal government, enabling Somatic Systems to seek other government contracts and opportunities.”
Visit - http://www.otcpicks.com/microcap.htm to sign up for small cap alerts today.
Is this our Fu Qiang?
China Daily opens Xinjiang officeBy Li Qian (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-11-21 22:32 Comments(0) PrintMailChina Daily opened a bureau in Urumqi on Friday to assist with publicity work in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
China Daily editor-in-chief Zhu Ling, center, and Fu Qiang, member of the Xinjiang Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, shake hands during the opening ceremony to unveil the new bureau of China Daily in Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, November 21, 2008. [chinadaily.com.cn]
Editor-in-chief Zhu Ling attended the opening ceremony of the new branch along with Fu Qiang, secretary of the regional Discipline Inspection Committee, and Li Yi, director of the Publicity Office, both of whom are members of the regional Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China.
China Daily is China's only national English-language newspaper published around the world, serving as a window of the country to the world. The Xinjiang bureau is poised to connect the region to the rest of the world, and to showcase the region's rapid economic development, social stability and unification of local ethnic groups.
"Our country's policies to speed up the development of western regions have laid the foundation for Xinjiang's future," Zhu said during the ceremony. "I firmly believe this new office will contribute to the reform and opening-up of Xinjiang, promote prosperity and social stability, and help the international community understand a thriving Xinjiang."
The opening of the Xinjiang office marks another big step in the news group's endeavor to expand local coverage. Since the end of last year, China Daily has opened eight offices throughout the country, in Guangxi, Hunan, Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Henan, Hubei and Xinjiang.
No. Don't oversimplify.
The VA is not staffed to handle this many veterans who need medical attention right now. This is an opportunity for medical professionals to provide solutions to a growing medial need.
I wonder if the students are buying this stock.
The military is overwhelmed by the long term care of soldiers. The VA is not staffed for the widspread need of their services. SMAS is idealy suited to help with this problem!
http://www.army.mil/institution/organization/offices/eoh/wcto/
WCTO provides strategic direction, develops, integrates, synchronizes, and assesses plans, policy, capabilities, and resources for warrior care initiatives and programs dedicated to the support, care, and healing of wounded, ill and injured Soldiers, their Families and caregivers in order to develop a balanced WTU structure and capability that is enduring, affordable, expandable, collapsible and responsive to the Army and the needs of the Warriors in Transition.
AP IMPACT: Flood of wounded GIs swamps care units
Associated Press Writer Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer – Mon Nov 3, 4:35 am ET
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – In a rush to correct reports of substandard care for wounded soldiers, the Army flung open the doors of new specialized treatment centers so wide that up to half the soldiers currently enrolled do not have injuries serious enough to justify being there, The Associated Press has learned.
Army leaders are putting in place stricter screening procedures to stem the flood of patients overwhelming the units — a move that eventually will target some for closure.
According to interviews and data provided to the AP, the number of patients admitted to the 36 Warrior Transition Units and nine other community-based units jumped from about 5,000 in June 2007, when they began, to a peak of nearly 12,500 in June 2008.
The units provide coordinated medical and mental health care, track soldiers' recovery and provide broader legal, financial and other family counseling. They serve Army active duty and reserve soldiers.
Just 12 percent of the soldiers in the units had battlefield injuries while thousands of others had minor problems that did not require the complex new network of case managers, nurses and doctors, according to Brig. Gen. Gary H. Cheek, the director of the Army's warrior care office.
The overcrowding was a "self-inflicted wound," said Cheek, who also is an assistant surgeon general. "We're dedicating this kind of oversight and management where, truthfully, only half of those soldiers really needed this."
Cheek said it is difficult to tell how many patients eventually will be in the units. But he said soldiers currently admitted will not be tossed out if they do not meet the new standards. Instead, the tighter screening will weed out the population over time.
"We're trying change it back," to serve patients who have more serious or multiple injuries that require about six months or more of coordinated treatment, he said.
By restricting use of the coordinated care units to soldiers with more complex, long-term ailments, the Army hopes in the long run to close or consolidate as many as 10 of the transition units, Cheek said during an interview in his Virginia office near the Pentagon.
In the past, a soldier with a torn knee ligament would have surgery and then go on light duty, such as answering phones, while getting physical therapy. But last October, the Army began allowing soldiers with less serious injuries such as that bad knee to go to the warrior units.
The expansion came in the wake of reports about poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., including shoddy housing and bureaucratic delays for outpatients there.
Brigade commanders began shipping to the transition centers anyone in their unit who could not deploy because of an injury or illness. That burdened the system with soldiers who really did not need case managers to set up their appointments, nurses to check their medications and other specialists to provide counseling for issues such as stress disorders.
The Army's goal now, as spelled out in a recent briefing given to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is to screen out those who do not need the expanded care program, shifting them to regular medical facilities at their military base or near their homes.
Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, said the Pentagon is making a fair argument. He acknowledged that some soldiers with less serious injuries might not need the units' services.
But he said commanders need to be able to move their soldiers who cannot deploy due to an injury to the units because that is the only way they can get a replacement before going to war. Otherwise, the brigade goes to battle without the forces needed.
"The larger concern here is that the problem that is driving this is the manpower problem," said Soltz. "The Army is overextended. We don't have enough guys."
It is vital, he said, that the medical system care for all the solders who need help and that any changes should not threaten that care.
Raymond F. DuBois, a former acting undersecretary of the Army and manpower adviser under then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said the units address "a problem that was not made aware at the highest levels" and do it well. But he has worried for months that the units were overstretched.
"Guess what? They did it so well everybody wants in," said DuBois, now an adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Cheek stressed that the new more stringent screening process will not deny care to soldiers in need or limit the treatment units to those with battle wounds.
"We don't really care about the source of the wound, illness or injury. We really care about the severity of the wound, illness or injury," said Cheek. "So if it's a severe, very acute condition that needs rehabilitation and a lot of management and oversight, regardless of where it comes form, that soldier needs to be in this program."
The latest data shows that it is working: The patient load is starting to inch down, from the peak of 12,478 in June to less than 11,400 in October.
Cheek estimates that the screening process will reduce the number to between 8,000 and 10,000.
As those numbers come down, the Army is also reviewing which units get more use. The list of potential closings include warrior transition units at Fort Rucker and Redstone Arsenal, in Alabama; Fort Leavenworth in Kansas; Fort Dix in New Jersey; and Fort Irwin in California. According to Army data, many of them either have only a dozen or so patients now, or can be combined with another nearby facility.
At Fort Campbell in Kentucky, however, more than 600 soldiers are in the treatment program. Staff there are bracing for a surge of patients when the three 101st Airborne Division brigades start returning home in the coming months.
Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, toured the unit in late October. He gathered more than two dozen staff around a long table to hear their concerns about how the program is operating. Afterward he marveled that they talked not about their own administrative complaints, but about specific problems they were trying to solve for their patients.
In a small office down the hall, Lisa Gaines was blunt about what the unit meant to her.
"It's done wonders for our family," said the mother of five.
Seated next to her, Spc. Sean Gaines nodded quietly as his wife talked about the strains his injury had on the family and how the staff worked to heal all wounds — physical and emotional.
Deployed to Iraq in 2004 with the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, cavalry scout Gaines was shaken but not bloodied by the blasts of several car bombs and a house explosion. Yet when he returned home, he began having pain and his body went numb. The medical diagnosis was a crushed cervical disc — an injury he got either in Iraq or in training, only to surface later.
After surgery in October 2007, he came to Fort Campbell's warrior transition unit — but he needed more than physical therapy. He had been told he could no longer serve as a scout.
"He loves the Army, he loves the military. For them to tell him he could no longer be a scout, it was difficult. It was a strain," recounted Lisa Gaines. He was agitated, angry and withdrawn, she said.
In response, the warrior unit gave him underwater training as therapy for his injury, coupled with family counseling, budget management and career help.
"I realized I had options, I could continue to serve," said Sean Gaines, who soon will leave the transition unit and take on a new Army job doing transportation management.
The counseling gave him time to figure out his options, come to terms with the change, and understand that he could either "drive on or prepare to exit," he said.
He decided to go on, saying, "I am not going to be a scout, but I will still be part of a team."
According to Army data, the key struggle is keeping the transition units fully staffed. In many of the more remote locations, Army leaders have trouble finding enough nurse case managers. As of the end of September, 12 of the units based at military posts were short those case managers.
Other locations, such as Fort Drum, N.Y., do not have enough behavioral health specialists.
Closing some of the locations may help ease those shortages, Cheek said.
"It shouldn't be too surprising," he said. "We're 18 months old here, so now it's time for us to relook at how we're doing this, and where we can gain some efficiencies."
He added that an order coming out in December will further refine the screening criteria for the transition units. In particular, it will call for the Army to identify other ways to provide care for reservists so they can receive the treatment they need closer to their homes, which often are far from large military bases.
The Army chief of staff, Gen. George Casey, has made it clear that any soldier who needs the coordinated care must get it, regardless of how many soldiers end up in the program.
Meanwhile, officials are building permanent care centers at the main bases over the next several years, at a cost of more than $1 billion. Annual operating costs are about $270 million, with the staff of about 3,000 consuming most of that expense.
Nearly 40,000 service members have been wounded in action in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as of Friday, although more than 18,000 returned to duty within 72 hours of their injuries, according to Defense Department data.
___
On the Net:
Warrior Care: http://www.warriorcare.mil/
I suspect that there will be retraining of current orthopedics and chiropractors. I suspect that chiropract schools will license the training. I suspect that Somatic Systems is not the only one who will get approved. I suspect that the CEO has already a service plan in place that the military has found acceptable.
When Somatics signs the contracts, there are lending organizations that help with the cash flow problem. The government tends to be slow to pay, there are companies that will pay Somatics now and then wait for the government's check.
Porous buys Pennsylvania facility
By Business Report Staff
October 20, 2008 --
LAFAYETTE - Porous Power Technologies LLC has acquired a battery development and test facility in Plymouth Meeting, Penn., to further its lithium-ion battery advancement.
The Lafayette-based battery developer, which specializes in creating battery separators that help determine how cool a battery operates and how long it lasts, purchased the facility from Plymouth Meeting, Penn.-based Lithium Technology Corp. (Nasdaq: LTHU.PK) on Sept. 1 for an undisclosed amount.
The building previously housed Lithium Technology’s headquarters, but the company is shifting gears and plans to be out of the facility by the end of the year, said Tim Feaver, Porous’ president and chief executive officer. Porous Power will continue subleasing the building through March when Lithium’s current lease ends, he said.
Porous Power will use the approximately 12,000-square-foot facility to develop new separators and create equipment and processes for lithium-ion cell lamination. The lamination process is used in creating hybrid and electric vehicle batteries.
Porous hired three Lithium Technology employees to help operate its primary research and development facility, Feaver said. Its headquarters, though, will remain in Boulder.
Mr. Zhiguo Fu,CEO, landed a big contract for ABAT: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=152285
Has anyone considered the civilian contractors that work along side the military? Those companies should also start paying for this service!
Somatic Systems should be prospecting them next!!
Over 250,000 people leave the military every year. If only 20% request treatments, that would mean 50,000+ new clients per year (probably optimistic)
Here are a list of Army hospitals in Kentucky:
Blanchfield Army Community Hospital - Fort Campbell, Kentucky (KY)
Ireland Army Community Hospital - Fort Knox, Kentucky (KY)
Lexington VA Medical Center - Lexington, Kentucky (KY)
Louisville VA Medical Center - Louisville, Kentucky (KY)
See all of them at: http://theagapecenter.com/Hospitals/Military.htm
Why Micro – Caps, Why now?
- Weakening international economies … Strengthening U.S dollar
- Less analyst coverage = more opportunity
- Low correlation to overall market = more diversification benefit
Great find!
It appears that the military contract is a done deal. Why else would they invest in all of these locations?
I believe there are many professional sport franchises in the cities they are setting-up offices.
Ran up to 0.13; I think someone forgot to enter it as a limit order
Is everyone trying to get the word out about Somatics? Telling your friends in the media, sending Steve key contacts that may increase his business, passing the website to holistic doctors/nurses, etc.
Since we are Somatic advocates, what does Steve need from my personal network of contacts that could help him? I know many people nationwide.
4Healone (love your sign-on),
The next time you speak to Steve, please ask for the phone and/or address of the Arizona location. I have a client I wish to send there (and spend money).
Thank you for your efforts upon the board's behalf.
FYI - I sent this stock to Charles Payne's research department for analysis.
http://www.wstreet.com/about/about.asp
You are right; .0002 is a good buy based upon future events. FYI - I wrote Mad Money about this stock earlier today.
Bought another 1 mil. Where is Steve getting the money for the buybacks?
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz I have been long since May. I still believe in SMAS. Since low and/or lowering debt & improving sales is critical in my fundamentals; does anyone have any financial data?
Are the after hours sales going for less than .00001?
I noticed that this stock was highlighted on AmericanBulls.com. I have been shadowing the conversations today.
Is methane cheaper than the other options? If so, customers will be demanding their product. I do not know the answer; please respond.
I noticed what appears to be systematic buying also. The question in my mind is "Why did they buy MAUG? What purpose will owning this company fulfill?"
I am watching this company very closely. I have Google alerts sweeping the internet for key phrases.
Any suggestions on getting MAUG to put out a PR?
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Gracias!
Someone please post a link to a level 2 screen for this stock. Thank you
Absolutely!
You were right and the Reuters article is right. This company has trouble ahead. Read the CEO's comments:
Thornburg Fights To Stay Afloat
Maurna Desmond, 08.26.08, 6:00 PM ET
Doubts still exist about the future of mortgage lender Thornburg Mortgage, but the company said its turnaround is under way. A new accounting rule didn't hurt its efforts either.
The beleaguered mortgage lender jumped to 9 cents from 40 during trading after it reported better-than-expected earnings due to big one-time gains from the sale of assets and the perverse effect of a new accounting rule, which requires the firm to record the $536.9 million decline in the value of its liabilities as an earnings gain. Without the added benefit of the new rules, Thornburg would have only brought in $22.7 million. Mortgage insurers Ambac and MBIA enjoyed a similar benefit recently. (See "New Accounting Rule Boosts Ambac's Fortunes.")
"Our circumstances are somewhat precarious, to put it mildly," Thornburg Chief Executive Larry Goldstone said on a conference call.,
Sante Fe-based Thornburg Mortgage reported earnings of $412.3 million, or 84 cents per share, vs. $78.1 million, or 66 cents per share, in the year-ago period. This is respectable considering the firm's aggressive fund-raising tactics, which increased the number of outstanding shares to 484.6 million common shares in the 2008 quarter from 119.3 million in the 2007 quarter.
The decrease in the per-share losses is principally due to declines in the liability related to Thornburg's Principal Participation Agreement, or the payback terms of its recent bond issuance, as well as a decline in other liabilities. On the upside, the firm also saw a $235.2 million net increase in the unrealized market value of its purchased adjustable-rate mortgage assets and hedging instruments.
A company representative could not be reached to clarify the impact of the new accounting rules on second-quarter earnings.
Thornburg, which specializes in originating and investing in jumbo mortgages that are worth more than $417,000, has been hurting since the middle of 2007 when the U.S. housing market began to sour. In June, the firm admitted that regulators are investigating whether the firm can continue (see "SEC Probes Sickly Thornburg") after it posted a $3.3 billion first-quarter loss.
Goldstone added that the mortgage securities market is not getting better, despite some speculation to the contrary.
In early March, the firm said it had faced roughly $1.8 billion in margin calls since the first of the year. While the firm sold assets at fire-sale prices, some savvy investors may have profited from Thornburg's woes. At the time, Bill Gross, chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management, said he had been buying millions of dollars of Thornburg's debt.
Net interest income, or earnings generated from loans and deposits, fell 48.0% during the quarter to $53.3 million from $102.3 million. However, income generated from fees and other charges jumped to $377.8 million from $6.8 million.
Credit ratings agencies downgraded Thornburg's books significantly during the three-month period ended June 30, which caused a $36.4 million decline in the carrying value of its mortgage-backed securities and a $1.1 billion slide in the seven weeks since. Although ratings agencies have different takes on how much these investments have crumbled, the company said the markdowns "adequately reflects any inherent losses."
Reuters contributed to this article.
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