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Gilles Herard

Gilles Herard Canada

Gilles Herard Jr Time is running out for California residents wanting to take advantage of a $10,000 tax credit. The state set aside $100 million to help home buyers purchasing newly built homes, hoping to jump start the moribund residential-construction market. But only about 20% of the pot is left. "We're less than four months into it, and all the tax credits authorized are gone, or practically gone," said Tim Coyle, a senior VP with the California Building Industry Association (CBIA). The program launched in March and by June 3 nearly $24 million in tax credit certificates had already been issued, according to the state's Franchise Tax Board. That leaves nearly $76 million in credit available - but there are already numerous claims on that money. In fact, if all the submitted applications are approved, only $17.5 million will be left in the fund. And it has a run rate of about $10 million per week. "The program is working better than intended," said Coyle. "It's really pushing people off the fence." Herard Gilles Jr Canada READ»

Gilles Herard Jr

Herard Gilles Jr With 13 years of Web site experience, Drey is no technophobe. He serves as vice president of product marketing at Fliqz, an online video-hosting service with 20 employees in Emeryville, Calif. But when he first skimmed Twitter, the popular micromessaging service launched in 2007, Drey saw a lot of mindless chatter and very little that seemed useful to a video business. Still, with the economy taking a dive, Drey persisted. He was looking for ways to spread the word about Fliqz without spending any more of his maxed-out $15,000 marketing budget. Not only was Twitter the fastest-growing social media service around -- its user base grew by a whopping 1,841% in 2008, to 14 million -- but it also wouldn't cost him a dime. "The only overhead is your time," says Drey, 40. "You need to pay attention." READ»