The views and/or opinions posted in the Your Say section are the opinions of the authors, not necessarily those of Fiji Times Limited. Fiji Times Limited reserves the right to edit the content, correct factual errors, remove obscene or hateful language or remove the comment and/or opinion altogether.Posters to all comment areas are reminded of our guidelines, below. We will now be moderating comment areas more strictly (even if not in as timely a manner as we would like). If you feel the need to be offensive, vulgar, racist or flirt with slander, you will probably find your comment edited or deleted.If you really want to make a point we can't or won't publish, please use the many other blogs available for this purpose elsewhere on the web.Thanks for your understanding.

This Chaundries Charter was doomed to fall apart because of who and how it was forced upon the people.

Obama Must Build a Movement to Take Him Beyond the White House

On the night when Barack Obama took Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC with 20 point leads, an equally potent primary result came in from Maryland's fourth congressional district. Away from the glare of the international media, Donna Edwards, anti-war campaigner and community activist, trounced eight-time incumbent Albert Wynn in the battle for the Democratic nomination. This was no minor achievement. A sitting congressman had not been ousted in a primary in Maryland for 16 years. In 2006, a high tide for anti-incumbent sentiment, Edwards lost to Wynn by 3%. But she persevered. Wynn had taken huge sums from lobbyists. He had voted for the Iraq war, Dick Cheney's energy bill and to repeal inheritance tax. Edwards argued that this was against the wishes and interests of his mostly black, middle-class constituents.

Collective Brands Reports Fourth Quarter, Full Year Financial Results

Comparable store sales(2) (which include only Payless results) declined 1.9% in 2007 on a comparable calendar basis. Net earnings for 2007 were $42.7 million, or $0.65 per diluted share, compared to 2006 net earnings of $122.0 million, or $1.82 per diluted share. Excluding the impact of purchase accounting(1), net earnings for 2007 were $77.4 million, or $1.18 per diluted share.

Collective Brands' fourth quarter 2007 net sales were $776.8 million. Net sales for Payless and Stride Rite were $611.6 million and $165.2 million, respectively, for the fourth quarter of 2007. Comparable store sales declined 6.8% on a comparable calendar basis. Comparable store sales were affected primarily by lower traffic as a result of a slowdown in consumer spending linked to the economic environment. Collective Brands recorded higher fourth quarter 2007 sales in three out of its four reporting segments compared to the fourth quarter of 2006.