Though small stakes in the cement and paper businesses are publicly traded, his family retains firm control over the group.
As a practical matter, it seems safe to assume that the military will retain firm control of the country's nuclear weapons and decision-making about their use.
Mr. Protas retains firm control over the company and school as director of the trust, which gives him the legal responsibility for overseeing the quality of both institutions.
"Evolution II," which comes out on Tuesday, expands the concept to include a rhythm section and guitar, but Mr. Lewis retains firm control; there's a pointed lack of interaction in the group, which isn't the drawback you might expect.
The specter of rationing has also been invoked by those seeking to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board — a panel that would recommend ways to lower Medicare costs — so that Congress and special interests may retain firm control over Medicare spending cuts.
HAVANA, Oct. 22 - Taking pains to demonstrate that he retains firm control over Cuba after fracturing his knee and arm in a fall at a public event, President Fidel Castro says he conducted government business by cellphone during an ambulance ride and later refused general anesthesia.
This launch-pad explosion is also one more reason to be wary of what my colleague James Surowiecki has analyzed: Facebook's two-tiered corporate-governance system, which ensures that founder Mark Zuckerberg retains firm control, and can't be easily challenged by dissident shareholders, even if he steers badly off course, as highly self-confident men in their late twenties sometimes do.
The monk is an ingenious charmer and retains firm control of his congregation of elderly women, young children and little dogs as he takes his sermon to absurdist ends, much as Ms. Rasdjarmrearnsook herself did when she taught death to the dead.
The sort of structure recommended is a highly centralized government in which the ruler retains firm control of the "two handles" of government: punishment and favor (chapter 7).
