Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/313126812?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Pope taps trusted prelate to oversee Vatican bank
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis has taken his first major step in reforming the troubled Vatican bank by tapping a trusted prelate to oversee its management.
Francis signed off Saturday on naming Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as interim prelate of the Institute for Religious Works.
It's a key job that has been left vacant since 2011: The prelate oversees the bank's activities, attends its board meetings and critically, has access to all its documentation. The prelate reports to the commission of cardinals headed by the Vatican No. 2 who run the bank, giving him a virtually direct line to the pope.
Right before resigning, Benedict XVI tapped German aristocrat and financier Ernst von Freyberg as IOR president. Von Freyberg has said the bank's main problem is its reputation, not any operational shortcomings.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-taps-trusted-prelate-oversee-vatican-bank-110818935.html
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Judge to mull possible remedies in profiling case
PHOENIX (AP) ? A judge who ruled an Arizona sheriff's office had racially profiled Latinos in its signature immigration patrols will hold a hearing Friday to consider proposed changes aimed at ensuring that the agency isn't making unconstitutional traffic stops and arrests.
Attorneys who pressed the case against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio are expected to ask U.S. District Judge Murray Snow to impose a set of remedies that include beefing up training for officers, requiring better record-keeping on traffic stops and a court-appointed official to monitor the agency's operations to ensure that the judge's orders are being followed.
Three weeks ago, Snow concluded that Arpaio's office has systematically singled out Latinos in its immigration patrols and that sheriff's deputies unreasonably prolonged the detentions of people who were pulled over, marking the first finding by a court that the agency racially profiles people.
The six-term sheriff, who turned 81 years old on Friday, is expected to resist a court-appointed monitor. Arpaio rejected a court-appointed monitor last year when the U.S. Justice Department leveled similar racial profiling allegations against the agency. His objection was that allowing a monitor would mean that every policy decision would have to be cleared through an observer and would nullify his authority.
The May 24 ruling by Snow prompted the sheriff's office, which is expected to appeal the decision, to temporarily suspend all his immigration efforts until Friday's hearing. It's not known whether Arpaio will resume immigration enforcement after the hearing.
The ruling doesn't altogether bar Arpaio from enforcing the state's immigration laws, but imposes a long list of restrictions on his immigration patrols, such as prohibitions on using race as a factor in deciding whether to stop a vehicle with a Latino occupant and on detaining vehicle passengers who are Latino on only the suspicion that they're in the country illegally.
Arpaio won't face fines or jail time as a result of the ruling. A group of Latinos that first brought the racially profiling allegations to court wasn't seeking damages and instead wanted a declaration that the agency was violating the constitutional rights of Latinos and to force changes in the agency's operations.
The case focused on Latinos who were stopped during both routine traffic patrols and special immigration patrols known as "sweeps."
During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city ? in some cases, heavily Latino areas ? over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Immigrants who were in the country illegally accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by his office since January 2008.
The agency hasn't conducted any sweeps since October 2011, but continued immigration enforcement by enforcing state laws that ban immigrant smuggling and prohibit businesses from employing people who are in the country illegally.
The ruling against the sheriff's office serves as a precursor to a lawsuit filed last year by the U.S. Justice Department, which also alleges racial profiling in Arpaio's immigration patrols. The Department of Justice, however, alleges broader civil rights violations, such as allegations that Arpaio's office retaliates against its critics and punishes Latino jail inmates with limited English skills for speaking Spanish.
Legal experts say the judge presiding over the Department of Justice case isn't bound by Snow's decision and that the racial profiling allegations and evidence could differ between both cases. Still, the latest decision will loom large for participants in the Department of Justice case.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-mull-possible-remedies-profiling-case-090530702.html
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Saturday, June 15, 2013
Apple Game Console? iOS+OSX Controller Framework | Ubergizmo
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As we?re getting out of Apple?s worldwide developer conference (WWDC), the news that a new controller framework has been added to the iOS and OS X SDKs is already creating some waves on the net. Specifically, this would be the ?proof?, or at least the ?writing on the wall? that? Apple is working on a game console. Surely, there?s no other reason to support controllers, right? Wrong.
Everybody should support controllers
First of all, every manufacturer who wants to be serious about gaming needs to add some form of controller support, so this is not really a revolution, but rather the logical and smart thing to do. It?s true that the nature of gaming on iOS is very different from Mac OS and other ?fixed? platforms, but there are many mobile games that do benefit from having a physical controller. FPS are the obvious ones (Dead Trigger is 10X better with a controller), but the experience of? Racing and Platform games is also better with an analog/digital pad.
All right, but ?what if? Apple was to build a console?
This would be a very interesting development! For instance, there?s little that prevents Apple from updating its Apple TV to support games and Bluetooth controllers today. In fact, it?s even surprising that it has not happened yet, but Apple has only so many (human) resources and it needs to focus on its main business, namely the iPhone, which brings home half of the revenues and more than half of the profits. Yet, a gaming device is very much a possibility and nearly everything is already in place: app store, developers, games? the controller would be one of the final refinement before it?s all good to go.
Should Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo prepare for the Applecalypse?
If we are talking about an iOS, ARM-based game console, not really? or should I say ?not directly?. I mean that a product like that won?t be able to beat them on their ?gaming? turf. Today, there is nothing ?ARM-powered? that is powerful enough to provide the same gaming experience as the PS4, Xbox One and Wii-U. It?s that simple. Just look at the best E3 2013 Trailers.
However, such a device could harm those established consoles in the sense that it takes ?air time? on the TV. While someone (like young kids) is using the Apple device to play, it may monopolize the TV and therefore the ?real? gaming console can?t be used. Games consoles ?hurt? TV companies in the exact same way: while someone is gaming, nobody can watch TV shows (and therefore TV ads). That of course assumes that we are in the living room and not a bedroom. Basically all these devices will fight for ?air time? on the TV.
More likely, a small Apple console will really compete with devices like Ouya, SHIELD, other ?Android game boxes? and Smart TVs.
Wouldn?t that be a killer-feature for an Apple HDTV?
Assuming that we get some kind of iPhone-6 level hardware in an Apple Television, that would lead to a VERY nice smart TV hardware, but it still won?t compete with classic game consoles. Also, in order to be successful, an Apple television needs to provide better/unique content, and I bet that this is the main problem that Apple is working on tight now. Since Netflix and Amazon are launching their own TV shows, it means that they haven?t cracked the code to get great content deals without creating it.
Apple would probably have a neat industrial design, which is important, but I don?t expect people to buy a TV based on the looks alone. This is not a smartphone that can parade , or a laptop that looks neat at the cafe. To justify the kind of gross margins that Apple investors demands for its product, it needs to provide something else? and iOS games aren?t it.
Conclusion
An Apple ?box? or TV that would be capable of iOS-level gaming would be great, and in some segments of the market, that could be a game-changer. However, if you look at the grand scheme of things, it?s not as big as one may think. In 2012 there were 66M Smart TVs sold, versus 260M smartphones, and the second segment is the one really accelerating hard. If you add tablets, it is clear that mobile developers have already addressed the biggest part of the market.
The other issue for mobiles games is that very few of them can generate the kind of money that a Modern Warfare would get on console ($1.6B on the first week-end). This means that their production teams don?t have the means to compete with classic consoles titles in terms of quality and production value, at least in the short term.
Since Android Smart TVs are going to arrive in force soon, I am sure that Apple will do ?something? in order to prevent an Android overrun in another segment of the market. An Apple box seems to be a likely solution since it would sell in higher volumes (13M Apple TV boxes sold to date).
Would an Apple iOS game console be a world-changing event? this remains to be seen, but this wouldn?t be anything comparable to the iPhone?s introduction. As of now, devices like Ouya or SHIELD have yet to prove that there is a substantial market for ARM-powered consoles, and I don?t think that NVIDIA is doing this for the money anyway. Let?s wait and see? What would you want from an Apple game console?
Related articles:
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iOS Dev Guide Hints At MFi Gaming Controller
Best E3 2013 Game Trailers
Playstation 4 Starts E3 And Console Race In Pole Position
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Source: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/06/apple-game-console/
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DuPont says wet spring to hit operating profit
A new trend among Japanese teenagers called oculolinctus, also known as ?eyeball licking,? or ?worming,? is currently sweeping across the internet in videos and photos. The bizarre trend has started popping up on Youtube, Tumblr and Twitter. The practice, in which teens show affection by...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dupont-says-wet-spring-hit-operating-profit-133901822.html
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Tuesday, June 11, 2013
South Boston not same place Bulger once reigned (Providence Journal)
Monday, June 10, 2013
Korea talks raise hopes; history may scuttle them
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? The two Koreas will hold their highest-level talks in years Wednesday in an effort to restore scrapped joint economic projects and ease animosity marked by recent threats of nuclear war. That in itself is progress, though there are already hints that disputes in their bloody history could thwart efforts to better ties.
Still, just setting up the two-day meeting in Seoul, through a 17-hour negotiating session that ended early Monday, required the kind of diplomatic resolve that has long been absent in inter-Korean relations, and analysts say it could be a tentative new start. It's also a political and diplomatic victory for new South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who expressed her country's interest in talks and rebuilding trust even as she batted back North Korean war rhetoric with vows to hit back strongly if attacked.
"It's very significant that they're sitting down and talking at all ... after all the heated rhetoric this spring," said John Delury, an analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University. "It shows political will. Both sides could have called it off."
The main topics will be stalled rapprochement projects left over from friendlier days, including the resumption of operations at a jointly run factory park just north of the border. It was the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation until Pyongyang pulled out its workers in April during heightened tensions that followed its February nuclear test.
North Korea, however, is also pushing for something Seoul hasn't agreed to: A discussion Wednesday of how to jointly commemorate past inter-Korean statements, including the anniversary Saturday of a statement settled during a landmark 2000 summit between liberal President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the current ruler's late father.
This matters to North Korea because the June 15 statement from the 2000 summit, along with another 2007 leaders' summit, include both important symbolic nods to future reconciliation and also economic cooperation agreements that would benefit the North financially.
Those commitments faded after Park's conservative predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, took office in 2008. His insistence that large-scale government aid be linked to North Korea making progress on past commitments to abandon its nuclear ambitions drew a furious reaction from Pyongyang. Relations deteriorated further in 2010 after a North Korean bombardment of a South Korean island killed four people, and the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan killed 46 sailors.
A Seoul-led international investigation blamed a North Korean torpedo for the Cheonan attack, and South Korea has demanded an apology from the North before it will allow any exchanges. Pyongyang denies any role in the sinking, and the two sides will presumably bring those irreconcilable positions with them Wednesday.
Since her presidential campaign, Park has mixed a tough line with policies of engagement, aid and reconciliation with the North ? a recognition of the frustration many South Koreans felt about Lee's hard-line policies.
Analyst Park Hyeong-jung said North Korea wants the past statements on the agenda to forge a "relationship that is to their advantage. They want to hold the present South Korean administration accountable for the declarations of past administrations."
"This is the first time in a long time both sides are meeting," said Park, a senior research fellow at the government-affiliated Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. "Rather than a breakthrough, this week's talks are only the beginning."
Both Koreas have also agreed to discuss resuming South Korean tours to a North Korean mountain resort and the reunion of separated families, officials said.
There's little chance that the narrowly defined talks will tackle the crucial question of pushing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear bombs. North Korea has said it will never give them up, though the U.S. and other countries say it must if it is to rebuild its relationship with the rest of the world.
It's still unclear who will represent each side Wednesday. Seoul said it will send a senior-level official responsible for North Korea-related issues while Pyongyang said it would send a senior-level government official, without elaborating. A minister-level summit between the Koreas has not happened since 2007.
Dialogue at any level marks a positive sign in the countries' recent history, which has seen North Korean nuclear tests and long-range rocket launches. The armistice ending the three-year Korean War that was signed 60 years ago next month hasn't been replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically at war.
Analysts express wariness about North Korea's intentions, with some seeing the interest in dialogue as part of a pattern where Pyongyang follows aggressive rhetoric and provocations with diplomatic efforts to trade an easing of tension for outside concessions.
After U.N. sanctions were strengthened following North Korea's third nuclear test in February, Pyongyang, which is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices, threatened nuclear war and missile strikes against Seoul and Washington, pulled its workers from the jointly run factory park at the North Korean border town of Kaesong and vowed to ramp up production of nuclear bomb fuel. Seoul withdrew its last personnel from Kaesong in May.
Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, said he is optimistic that the Koreas can resume work at Kaesong and reunions for separated families. But he said a quick breakthrough is unlikely because North Korea's gesture for closer ties runs counter to South Korea's demand for apologies.
___
AP writer Elizabeth Shim contributed to this report from Seoul.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/korea-talks-raise-hopes-history-may-scuttle-them-104151267.html
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Report: NSA contract worker is surveillance source
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A 29-year-old contractor who claims to have worked at the National Security Agency and the CIA allowed himself to be revealed Sunday as the source of disclosures about the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs, risking prosecution by the U.S. government.
The leaks have reopened the post-Sept. 11 debate about privacy concerns versus heightened measure to protect against terrorist attacks, and led the NSA to ask the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation into the leaks.
The Guardian, the first paper to disclose the documents, said it was publishing the identity of Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, at his own request.
"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," Snowden told the newspaper.
Stories in The Guardian and The Washington Post published over the last week revealed two surveillance programs, and both published interviews with Snowden on Sunday.
One of them is a phone records monitoring program in which the NSA gathers hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records each day, creating a database through which it can learn whether terror suspects have been in contact with people in the U.S. The Obama administration says the NSA program does not listen to actual conversations.
Separately, an Internet scouring program, code-named PRISM, allows the NSA and FBI to tap directly into nine U.S. Internet companies to gather all Internet usage ? audio, video, photographs, emails and searches. The effort is designed to detect suspicious behavior that begins overseas.
Snowden said claims the programs are secure are not true.
"Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector. Anywhere. Where those communications will be picked up depends on the range of those sensor networks and the authority that that analyst is empowered with," Snowden said, in accompanying video on the Guardian's website. "Not all analysts have the power to target anything. But I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email."
He told the Post that he would "ask for asylum from any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy" in an interview from Hong Kong, where he is staying.
"I'm not going to hide," Snowden told the Post. "Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest."
The Post declined to elaborate on its reporting about Snowden.
The spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence, Shawn Turner, said intelligence officials are "currently reviewing the damage that has been done by these recent disclosures," adding that "Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law."
He referred further comment to the Justice Department.
"The Department of Justice is in the initial stages of an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by an individual with authorized access," said Nanda Chitre, Justice Department spokeswoman. "Consistent with longstanding department policy and procedure and in order to protect the integrity of the investigation, we must decline further comment."
In a statement, Booz Allen confirmed that Snowden "has been an employee of our firm for less than 3 months, assigned to a team in Hawaii." The statement said if the news reports of what he has leaked prove accurate, "this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct," and the company promised to work closely with authorities on the investigation.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has decried the revelation of the intelligence-gathering programs as reckless and said it has done "huge, grave damage." In recent days, he took the rare step of declassifying some details about them to respond to media reports about counterterrorism techniques employed by the government.
Snowden told The Guardian that he lacked a high school diploma and enlisted in the U.S. Army until he was discharged because of an injury, and later worked as a security guard with the NSA.
He later went to work for the CIA as an information technology employee and by 2007 was stationed in Geneva, Switzerland, where he had access to classified documents.
During that time, he considered going public about the nation's secretive programs but told the newspaper he decided against it, because he did not want to put anyone in danger and he hoped Obama's election would curtail some of the clandestine programs.
He said he was disappointed that Obama did not rein in the surveillance programs.
"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he told The Guardian. "I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."
Snowden left the CIA in 2009 to join a private contractor, and spent last four years at the NSA, as a contractor with consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton and, before that, Dell.
The Guardian reported that Snowden was working in an NSA office in Hawaii when he copied the last of the documents he planned to disclose and told supervisors that he needed to be away for a few weeks to receive treatment for epilepsy.
He left for Hong Kong on May 20 and has remained there since, according to the newspaper. Snowden is quoted as saying he chose that city because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent", and because he believed it was among the spots on the globe that could and would resist the dictates of the U.S. government.
"I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets," Snowden told The Guardian, which said he asked to be identified after several days of interviews.
Snowden could face decades in a U.S. jail for revealing classified information if he is successfully extradited from Hong Kong, said Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represents whistleblowers. Hong Kong, now a semi-autonomous region of China, had an extradition treaty with the United States that took force in 1998, according to the U.S. State Department website. A message to the State Department to confirm that treaty is still in force was not immediately answered.
"If it's a straight leak of classified information, the government could subject him to a 10 or 20 year penalty for each count," with each document leaked considered a separate charge, Zaid said.
Snowden told the newspaper he believes the government could try to charge him with treason under the Espionage Act, but Zaid said that would require the government to prove he had intent to betray the United States, whereas he publicly made it clear he did this to spur debate.
The government could also make an argument that the NSA leaks have aided the enemy ? as military prosecutors have claimed against Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, who faces life in prison under military law if convicted for releasing a trove of classified documents through Wikileaks.
"They could say the revelation of the (NSA) programs could instruct people to change tactics," Zaid said. But even under the lesser charges of simply revealing classified information, "you are talking potentially decades in jail, loss of his employment and his security clearance."
Officials said the revelations were dangerous and irresponsible. House intelligence committee member Peter King, R-NY, called for Snowden to be "extradited from Hong Kong immediately...and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," in an interview with The Associated Press Sunday.
"I believe the leaker has done extreme damage to the U.S. and to our intelligence operations," King said, by alerting al-Qaida to U.S. surveillance, and by spooking U.S. service providers who now might fight sharing data in future with the U.S. government, now that the system has been made public.
King added that intelligence and law enforcement professionals he'd spoken to since the news broke were also concerned that Snowden might be taken into custody by Chinese intelligence agents and questioned about CIA and NSA spies and policies.
"To be a whistleblower, there would have to be a pattern of him filing complaints through appropriate channels to his supervisors," said Ambassador John Negroponte, the first director of national intelligence, in an interview with the AP Sunday. "For me, it's just an outright case of betrayal of confidences and a violation of his nondisclosure agreement."
President Barack Obama, Clapper and others have said the programs are authorized by Congress and subject to strict supervision of a secret court.
"It's important to recognize that you can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience," Obama said. "We're going to have to make some choices as a society."
___
Associated Press writers Phillip Elliot in Washington and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.
___
Follow Dozier on Twitter at ? http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier or at http://bigstory.ap.org/tags/kimberly-dozier
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-nsa-contract-worker-surveillance-source-185911834.html
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Bacterial spare parts filter antibiotic residue from groundwater
May 21, 2013 ? Researchers at University of Cincinnati have developed and tested a solar-powered nano filter that is able to remove harmful carcinogens and antibiotics from water sources -- lakes and rivers -- at a significantly higher rate than the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon.
They report their results today at the 113th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
Vikram Kapoor, environmental engineering doctoral student, and David Wendell, assistant professor of environmental engineering, report on their development and testing of the new filter made of two bacterial proteins that was able to absorb 64 percent of antibiotics in surface waters vs. about 40 percent absorbed by the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon. One of the more exciting aspects of this filter is the ability to reuse the antibiotics that are captured.
"The presence of antibiotics in surface waters is harmful in that it breeds resistant bacteria and kills helpful microorganisms, which can degrade aquatic environments and food chains. In other words, infectious agents like viruses and illness-causing bacteria become more numerous while the health of streams and lakes degrades," says Kapoor.
The newly developed nano filters, each much smaller in diameter than a human hair, could potentially have a big impact on both human health and on the health of the aquatic environment (since the presence of antibiotics in surface waters can also affect the endocrine systems of fish, birds and other wildlife).
The filter employs one of the very elements that enable drug-resistant bacteria to be so harmful, a protein pump called AcrB.
"These pumps are an amazing product of evolution. They are essentially selective garbage disposals for the bacteria. Our innovation was turning the disposal system around. So, instead of pumping out, we pump the compounds into the proteovesicles," says Kapoor
The operation of the new filtering technology is powered by direct sunlight vs. the energy-intensive needs for the operation of the standard activated carbon filter.
The filtering technology also allows for antibiotic recycling.
"After these new nano filters have absorbed antibiotics from surface waters, the filters could be extracted from the water and processed to release the drugs, allowing them to be reused. On the other hand, carbon filters are regenerated by heating to several hundred degrees, which burns off the antibiotics," says Kapoor.
The new protein filters are highly selective. Currently used activated carbon filters serve as "catch alls," filtering a wide variety of contaminants. That means that they become clogged more quickly with natural organic matter found in rivers and lakes.
"So far, our innovation promises to be an environmentally friendly means for extracting antibiotics from the surface waters that we all rely on. It also has potential to provide for cost-effective antibiotic recovery and reuse," says Kapoor.
The researchers have tested the solar-powered nano filter against activated carbon, the present treatment technology standard outside the lab, in water collected from the Little Miami River. Using only sunlight as the power source, they were able to selectively remove the antibiotics ampicillin and vancomycin, commonly used human and veterinary antibiotics, and the nucleic acid stain, ethidium bromide, which is a potent carcinogen to humans and aquatic animals.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/63s9OA1mO5c/130521194001.htm
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Source: Treasury told WH of IRS disclosure plan
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A Treasury official says the department told the White House twice that the IRS was preparing to make public its targeting of conservative political groups.
The official said Monday that Treasury told the White House in late April about a possible speech in which IRS official Lois Lerner would make a public apology and that outgoing Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller expected to be asked about the issue during congressional testimony. However, the official said Treasury did not give the White House advance warning that Lerner planned to address the issue during a May 10 conference, which she ultimately did.
White House advisers have said President Barack Obama was not told about the IRS targeting before it became public.
The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-treasury-told-wh-irs-disclosure-plan-014154611.html
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Does France have right plan to revive its economy?
PARIS (AP) ? The man charged with reviving France's shrinking economy and attracting businesses to invest there is gaining a reputation for doing the opposite.
As the country's first-ever minister for industrial renewal, Arnaud Montebourg has told the world's largest steelmaker it is not welcome in France; exchanged angry letters with the head of an American tire company he was supposedly wooing; and scuttled Yahoo's offer to buy the majority of a video-sharing website.
Montebourg, a 50-year-old lawyer from Burgundy, is the public face of President Francois Hollande's plan to revitalize Europe's second-largest economy, which is in recession and grappling with 11 percent unemployment. The plan is to make the French economy more competitive globally ? especially for manufacturers ? by making it easier to fire workers, offering a payroll tax credit and investing in small businesses.
Economists have praised the labor reforms as a step in the right direction. But mostly they say France's economic plan is all wrong: It is too complicated; it favors a top-down approach to innovation; and it ignores some of the most serious problems plaguing France's economy, such as high labor costs.
And then there is Montebourg, whose public spats with international companies and efforts to block layoffs are making France look like an unappealing place to do business.
In fairness to Montebourg, he's not so much the problem as he is the symbol of it, analysts say. Even if Hollande were to replace him ? and that's looking increasingly likely ? it's unclear whether the substance of the industrial renewal strategy would change.
The sheer size of France's economy has cushioned it somewhat from the worst of Europe's debt crisis, which has brought depression-level unemployment to countries like Spain and Greece. It is home to many huge industrial companies, like EADS, parent company to plane-maker Airbus; Total, the world's fifth-largest investor-owned oil company; and Sanofi, the world's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company. France is also a cradle for design, high fashion and fine wine, embodied by world leaders like LVMH and L'Oreal.
But make no mistake, analysts warn: The French economy, which had no growth in 2012 and shrank at an annualized rate of 0.8 percent in the first three months of 2013, is in slow-motion free fall.
Profit margins at French companies are the lowest they have been in 30 years. In the past decade, one in six industrial jobs has been lost. And economists forecast unemployment will rise to 11.6 percent next year.
Hollande says the decline in French manufacturing ? from 16 percent of gross domestic product in 1999 to 10.7 percent a decade later ? is at the heart of his country's stagnation. Many European economies have seen a similar trend, but France's slide has been more pronounced than most. Reverse the decline, Hollande believes, and you reverse the stagnation.
"The goal of reindustrialization is a perfectly legitimate goal. The only question to ask for France is ... whether it's too late," says Elie Cohen, an economist at Sciences Po university in Paris. "It's probably too late."
Serge Lelard, who started a plastics company called Microplast in 1984, feels the same way. Montebourg, who buzzes around France touring businesses on a near-weekly basis, recently visited Microplast's factory outside Paris. He held it up as an example of the kind of small manufacturing businesses that France needs to keep and attract.
But Lelard is dismissive of the government's reindustrialization plan. He says there is too much talk and not enough action that addresses the competitive disadvantages French companies face in the global marketplace.
Microplast, which sells plastic bits that connect the wires in cars, has struggled along with the French auto industry. Lelard is pessimistic about the company's chances of survival.
France's economic challenges are rooted in government policies that protect workers at the expense of their employers. It has the highest payroll taxes in the European Union to fund generous health and retirement benefits. It has the highest tax on capital, which discourages investment. It aggressively fights companies that try to outsource jobs. And it makes firing an employee expensive and difficult.
These problems have existed for decades, but a growing global economy and France's control over its own currency and spending policies masked them. Slowly, however, those masks have been removed.
First, the euro was introduced at the turn of the millennium. Europe's strongest economies, like Germany, gained a competitive advantage: The value of the euro, held down by the weaker nations that used it, made German exports more affordable overseas. By contrast, countries like France suffered because the euro was valued more highly than their own currency, making French exports more expensive for buyers outside the eurozone.
Then the global recession dried up demand for French products at home and around the world. Finally, Europe's debt crisis prompted the government to cut spending and raise some taxes to reduce its budget deficit.
With these crutches pulled away, France's industry was pushed to its breaking point.
But Hollande, a Socialist, came to power last year by promising more of the same: He vowed to spark growth without cutting generous benefits.
There are three main planks to Hollande's reindustrialization plan: up to a 6 percent rebate for companies on some payroll taxes, labor reforms that make it easier to fire employees or cut their salaries during hard times, and a public investment bank with 42 billion euros ($55 billion) to invest in small businesses.
But new programs are announced frequently. Millions in grants and other incentives have been promised for everything from spurring the construction of electric cars to bringing robots to factory floors.
"That's exactly what you should not do. They're ... complicating instead of simplifying," says Anders Aslund, an economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Aslund says the government should avoid giving grants for specific industries and instead help all industries ? with permanent tax breaks, for example.
Last year, Montebourg unveiled a plan to give several hundred million euros in grants and tax credits to car companies and subcontractors in an effort to encourage the development of electric cars and batteries.
But economists say the French government should not try to invent successful sectors. Never mind that France is an unlikely place to incubate an auto revolution. Its car industry can't compete with global rivals like Volkswagen and Hyundai that have lower labor costs and stronger cultures of innovation. For example, French research institutions lack the strong links to industry that allow entrepreneurs in other countries to quickly convert lab discoveries into products.
The flip side of France's efforts to create booming new industries is its aversion to letting struggling ones die out.
"A saved job is always a victory," Montebourg, who is on the far left of the Socialist party, said at a recent lunch with journalists. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
But that's not how many economists see it. Part of Germany's success is its willingness to let some lower-level manufacturing jobs move to other countries, says Christian Ketels, a researcher at Harvard Business School. That allows German companies to stay competitive and keep high-skilled, higher-paid jobs at home.
"To my knowledge, France is really the only country in Europe that is upset about outsourcing," says Aslund.
One of the most glaring examples of this no-job-left-behind policy has been France's campaign to block steelmaker ArcelorMittal from shuttering the two blast furnaces its plant in Lorraine, in eastern France ? in spite of the fact that local mines are used up, it's far from ports and its furnaces are out of date.
That plant is "a perfect example of what you should close down," says Aslund.
Instead, Montebourg took up the cause, threatening to nationalize the plant and declaring that the company wasn't welcome in France. It's unclear how much of this rhetoric was in line with government policy ? the suggestions of nationalization were quickly struck down by the prime minister ? but the affair deeply bruised France's reputation as a serious place for business. In the end, the company will shutter the furnaces but other operations at the plant will continue.
Montebourg also tried to save a Goodyear plant in northern France by asking American tire manufacturer Titan if it was willing to invest. The answer from Titan's CEO mocked France's work practices in an embarrassing public letter ? and Montebourg took the bait, shooting back an equally chest-thumping missive.
There looks to be little hope of saving the Goodyear plant, but litigation could drag on for months if not years.
Just this month, Montebourg vetoed Yahoo's attempt to take a 75 percent stake in video-sharing website, Dailymotion. Citing concerns about Yahoo's health as a company, Montebourg said the government, which owns a stake in Dailymotion's owner, France Telecom, would only approve a 50-50 deal. Yahoo walked away.
Business owners say that the government remains more of a hindrance than a help. There are too many regulations and too much paperwork even for mundane tasks.
But the fundamental problem French manufacturers face is simple: Workers get paid too much to make products that cost too little.
The French government argues that its hourly labor costs are not much higher than Germany's ? 34.20 euros per hour on average in 2012 versus 30.40 euros per hour, according to Eurostat. But France's range of products ? with some notable exceptions, like Chanel handbags or Moet & Chandon champagne ? is generally of a lower quality than Germany's.
In other words, if it costs the same to make a Peugeot as it does a BMW, guess which company is going to have more left over to reinvest in innovation? And investing in innovation is how you make a Peugeot more like a BMW.
And it's not even that France pays top dollar to attract the best workers. Its wages are above average, though not spectacularly so. But its payroll taxes are the highest in Europe.
The government's new "competitiveness tax credit," which will eventually give companies up to 6 percent back on some workers' salaries, is a step toward lessening this burden for a time. Early surveys, however, show few companies are taking advantage of it, according to study by consultancy Lowendalmasai.
How come? The paperwork is too complex.
___
Follow Sarah DiLorenzo at http://twitter.com/sdilorenzo.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/does-france-plan-revive-economy-092441481.html
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The tea party and the politics of paranoia
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Public release date: 21-May-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Peter Kelley
kellep@uw.edu
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University of Washington
Members of tea party claim the movement springs from and promotes basic American conservative principles such as limited government and fiscal responsibility.
But new research by University of Washington political scientist Christopher Parker argues that the tea party ideology owes more to the paranoid politics associated with the John Birch Society and even the infamous Ku Klux Klan than to traditional American conservatism.
Parker is the author, with fellow UW political scientist Matt Barreto, of a new book titled "Change They Can't Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America," published this spring by Princeton University Press.
At the heart of their book is a nationwide telephone survey overseen by Parker in early 2011 of 1,500 adults equal numbers of men and women across 13 geographically diverse states. The results starkly illustrate where tea partyers and true conservatives part ideological ways.
Responses place tea party members far to the right of the mainstream Republican conservatism of Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and even George W. Bush viewing President Obama as a faux citizen, a Muslim and socialist agitator, bent on America's demise.
"Tea party conservatives believe in some conservative principles, to be sure, but they are different from more mainstream conservatives in at least one important respect," Parker said. "True conservatives aren't paranoid; tea party conservatives are."
Asked flat-out if they think President Obama is "destroying the country," only 6 percent of non-tea party conservatives agreed, a number that rose to 36 percent among all conservatives regardless of tea party affiliations. By contrast, 71 percent of self-identified tea party supporters thought this extreme statement true.
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg," said Parker, a UW associate professor of political science. "It's no secret that tea party conservatives view President Obama with such contempt, but I am the first to document it empirically."
Other survey results include:
- Three-quarters of tea party conservatives said they think President Obama's policies are politically socialist while only 40 percent of non-tea party conservatives held that view.
- Twenty-seven percent of tea party conservatives said they think President Obama is a practicing Muslim, while 18 percent of non-tea party conservatives took that view.
- Similarly, 46 percent of non-tea party conservatives allowed that President Obama is a practicing Christian, while only 27 percent of tea party conservatives believed it so.
- Was President Obama born in the United States? A majority 55 percent of conservatives allowed that this was true, but of tea party conservatives, only 40 percent agreed.
And perhaps not surprisingly, fully three-quarters 75 percent of tea partyers said they wish President Obama's policies to fail, compared with 32 percent of conservatives.
Parker called the tea party a continuation of what political scientist Richard Hofstadter in the 1960s described as "the paranoid style in American politics," characterized by exaggeration, suspicion and conspiratorial fantasy.
Parker said, "Consider me a skeptic when tea party supporters call upon a conservative tradition to which they have but a slight claim."
###
For information or interviews, contact Parker at 510-285-7770 or csparker@uw.edu, or Barreto at 206-569-4259 or mbarreto@uw.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 21-May-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Peter Kelley
kellep@uw.edu
206-616-5903
University of Washington
Members of tea party claim the movement springs from and promotes basic American conservative principles such as limited government and fiscal responsibility.
But new research by University of Washington political scientist Christopher Parker argues that the tea party ideology owes more to the paranoid politics associated with the John Birch Society and even the infamous Ku Klux Klan than to traditional American conservatism.
Parker is the author, with fellow UW political scientist Matt Barreto, of a new book titled "Change They Can't Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America," published this spring by Princeton University Press.
At the heart of their book is a nationwide telephone survey overseen by Parker in early 2011 of 1,500 adults equal numbers of men and women across 13 geographically diverse states. The results starkly illustrate where tea partyers and true conservatives part ideological ways.
Responses place tea party members far to the right of the mainstream Republican conservatism of Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and even George W. Bush viewing President Obama as a faux citizen, a Muslim and socialist agitator, bent on America's demise.
"Tea party conservatives believe in some conservative principles, to be sure, but they are different from more mainstream conservatives in at least one important respect," Parker said. "True conservatives aren't paranoid; tea party conservatives are."
Asked flat-out if they think President Obama is "destroying the country," only 6 percent of non-tea party conservatives agreed, a number that rose to 36 percent among all conservatives regardless of tea party affiliations. By contrast, 71 percent of self-identified tea party supporters thought this extreme statement true.
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg," said Parker, a UW associate professor of political science. "It's no secret that tea party conservatives view President Obama with such contempt, but I am the first to document it empirically."
Other survey results include:
- Three-quarters of tea party conservatives said they think President Obama's policies are politically socialist while only 40 percent of non-tea party conservatives held that view.
- Twenty-seven percent of tea party conservatives said they think President Obama is a practicing Muslim, while 18 percent of non-tea party conservatives took that view.
- Similarly, 46 percent of non-tea party conservatives allowed that President Obama is a practicing Christian, while only 27 percent of tea party conservatives believed it so.
- Was President Obama born in the United States? A majority 55 percent of conservatives allowed that this was true, but of tea party conservatives, only 40 percent agreed.
And perhaps not surprisingly, fully three-quarters 75 percent of tea partyers said they wish President Obama's policies to fail, compared with 32 percent of conservatives.
Parker called the tea party a continuation of what political scientist Richard Hofstadter in the 1960s described as "the paranoid style in American politics," characterized by exaggeration, suspicion and conspiratorial fantasy.
Parker said, "Consider me a skeptic when tea party supporters call upon a conservative tradition to which they have but a slight claim."
###
For information or interviews, contact Parker at 510-285-7770 or csparker@uw.edu, or Barreto at 206-569-4259 or mbarreto@uw.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/uow-tt052113.php
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
The Weekly Roundup for 05.13.2013
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
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Giant Boner Space Hotel? No Thanks, Says Barcelona
Pop quiz: what does a country on the brink of economic collapse, with dozens of unfinished buildings dotting its countryside, really need? A monstrous, phallic space hotel, of course!
Meet the 984-foot tall hotel proposed US-based firm Mobilona for an artificial island off the coast of Dubai Barcelona. Reachable by a walkway from the mainland, the hotel would feature things no one would ever need or want unless that person was a sheik with limitless funds: a zero-gravity spa (the world's first!), a vertical wind tunnel, and an "other worldly [sic] experience for guests wishing to travel to distant galaxies." It'll also be home to a 24-hour mall and a marina that can house your yacht as long as it's under 656 feet long.
Want to stay one night at the 2,000-room hotel? You'll spend anywhere from 300 to 1,500 Euro for a room. Want to stay for a week? You can pay 20,000 Euro a year for a timeshare. Want to own six-story penthouse mansion? Seventy million Euro will make the garish place, with its infinity pool, superyacht mooring, and optional helipad, yours.
So what's the problem here? One, this place is unnecessarily phallic. Two, Spain's economy is already massively screwed, and its construction industry is in an especially dire state. Dubai has similar versions of this real estate project, and they're pretty much falling into the sea.
Sure, Barcelona is known for crazy architecture, but not of this magnitude. But the good news? Barcelona's mayor, who saw the plans last week, is not on board with the 1.5 billion Euro lodgings. And neither is most, if not all, of the city council. Plus, Mobilona has proposed space hotels all over the world?and so far not one has come to fruition. [The Telegraph]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/giant-boner-space-hotel-no-thanks-says-barcelona-509032531
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Monday, May 20, 2013
What Convinced Jeremy Renner To Take 'Hansel & Gretel' Without Seeing A Script?
Picking a project for Holllywood actors can come down to a single aspect, whether it's an acclaimed director or the location of the shoot. For Jeremy Renner and "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters," all he needed was simple piece of concept art. As Renner explains in this exclusive from the Blu-ray and DVD release of [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/05/20/jeremy-renner-hansel-gretel/
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Netanyahu: Israel will take action to prevent Syrian 'weapons leakage' to Hezbollah
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Israel would prevent the movement of weapons from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. He made no mention of past or future air strikes.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, (l.), speaks as he sits next to Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit during a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israel, Sunday.
Ronen Zvulun/AP
EnlargePrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect on Sunday of further Israeli strikes inside?Syria, pledging to act to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah and other militant groups.
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Although?Israel?has not publicly taken sides in the civil war between Syrian President?Bashar al-Assad?and rebels trying to topple him, Western and Israeli sources say it has launched air strikes in?Syria?to destroy weapons it believed were destined for?Lebanon's Hezbollah.
In public remarks at the weekly meeting of his cabinet, Netanyahu made no direct mention of those attacks, but said?Israel?was prepared to take action in the future and was "preparing for every scenario" in the Syrian conflict.
Israel?had a policy "to prevent, as much as possible, the leakage of advanced weapons to Hezbollah and terror elements," he said.?"We will act to ensure the security interest of?Israel's citizens in the future as well."
Tzipi Livni, a member of?Netanyahu's security cabinet?and a former foreign minister, said: "I don't think there is anyone in?Israel?eager to take action" in?Syria, hinting at concerns that any strike could provoke a wider conflict.
In an interview with?Israel's?Army Radio, Livni also said Israeli politicians ought to avoid taking sides.
"Israel?isn't popular in?Syria. Therefore any such statement could only be used as ammunition by one of the sides to try and divert the debate or the violence toward?Israel?and that's the last thing we need," Livni said.
Israel?has neither confirmed nor denied reports that it attacked Iranian-supplied missiles stored near?Damascusthis month that it believed were awaiting delivery to Hezbollah, which fought a war with?Israel?in 2006 and is allied with Assad.
SUPERSONIC MISSILE
A Russian shipment of Yakhont anti-ship missiles to?Syria?was condemned by the?United States?on Friday, andIsrael?is also alarmed by the prospect of?Moscow?supplying S-300 advanced air defence missile systems toDamascus.
Netanyahu held talks in?Russia?on Tuesday with President?Vladimir Putin?on the Syrian crisis but gave no public indication whether?Israel's concerns over the Russian weaponry had been eased.
Amos Gilad, a senior?Israeli Defence Ministry?official, said on Saturday the S-300 and the Yakhont, weapons that could complicate any plans for foreign military intervention in?Syria, would likely end up with Hezbollah and threaten both?Israel?and U.S. forces in the Gulf.
"Yakhont is a cruise missile that can hit targets at sea and strategic targets. (It is) a supersonic missile, (with) a range of 300 km, very sophisticated," Gilad said on?Israel's Channel Two television on Saturday.
"The Russians sent it to?Syria, beside the strategic defence system called the S-300. There are a number of versions, and they are sending them one of the good versions," he said.
General?Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday?Russia's delivery of anti-ship missiles to Assad was "ill-timed and very unfortunate" and risked prolonging a war that has already killed more than 80,000 Syrians.
A spokesman for Putin, while not responding directly to assertions?Russia?had sent the anti-ship missiles, saidMoscow?would honour contracts to supply?Syria, a long-time weapons customer.
Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan
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Jamie Dimon under pressure ahead of investor vote
NEW YORK (AP) ? Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of the country's biggest bank, faces a key test this week: His shareholders are voting on whether to let him keep both jobs.
It's been just more than a year since his bank, JPMorgan Chase, revealed a surprise trading loss that tarnished its usually stellar reputation in Washington and on Wall Street, and what a difference it has made. Shareholder groups are calling for the bank to strip him of his chairman job, a move that would be a bruising referendum against a man who's normally chieftain even among other big-bank CEOs. They're also lobbying to kick out multiple long-time board members, saying they should have done more to detect or prevent the trading loss.
In all, it's a powerful reminder of how fortunes can quickly shift in the banking industry, and how banks, supposedly chastened by the financial crisis, are still stumbling through regulatory and legal crises.
On Tuesday, at the bank's annual meeting in Tampa, Fla., union group AFSCME, the New York City Comptroller's Office and other fund managers will ask bank shareholders to approve a proposal asking JPMorgan to split the roles of chairman and CEO, and to give the chairman job to someone who isn't a bank employee. The underlying idea is to install stricter checks and balances against Dimon and other top bank executives.
A similar measure got 40 percent approval at last year's meeting, which was held just days after the bank announced the so-called London whale loss. In the previous six annual meetings where Dimon has been both chairman and CEO, shareholders have been asked about separating the roles four times, and last year marked the highest level of votes in favor of the idea. In 2007 and 2008, only about 15 percent of shareholders voted for similar measures.
"Even a Master of the Universe can be swallowed by a London whale," said AFSCME president Lee Saunders. The loss is nicknamed for the location of the trader who made the outsized bets on complex debt securities that went wrong, eventually losing the bank $6 billion.
Both Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, two influential firms that give advice to big shareholders, are recommending that the jobs be split. Glass Lewis is also recommending getting rid of six of the 10 independent board members, and ISS recommends booting three.
The board has defended Dimon. It says that keeping him in both jobs is its "most effective leadership model." It's an arrangement that they are used to: Six of the 10 independent board members are or have been the simultaneous chairman and CEO of other businesses. Lee Raymond, who is No. 2 on the board behind Dimon, is the retired chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil.
The board also points out that JPMorgan has done well under Dimon, who guided it through the financial crisis and nursed it to emerge as one of the strongest banks in the country. It says it meets regularly without him and has taken steps to clean up the practices that caused the trading loss, including cutting Dimon's 2012 pay ? down 19 percent to $18.7 million, according to Associated Press formulas for executive compensation, though the bank calculates that it cut his pay by half.
At an investor conference in February, Dimon dismissed the groups lobbying to separate the jobs as "all the union investors," and called the debate "a sideshow." He also said that he wouldn't have gone to Bank One, a troubled Chicago bank that he took over and turned around in the early 2000s, if the bank hadn't given him the leeway to be both chairman and CEO. "Troubled company, big turnaround, divided board?" he said. "Not me. Life is too short."
It's not clear what would happen if shareholders vote to take away Dimon's chairman job. The proposal is non-binding, so technically the bank doesn't have to follow it. In 2009, shareholders at Bank of America voted to split the jobs, and the bank took away the chairman title from chairman and CEO Ken Lewis. Later that year, he resigned from the bank entirely.
Last year, shareholders at just four U.S. companies voted to split chairman and CEO roles, according to ISS. So far this year, shareholders at only one company, department store chain Kohl's, have voted to separate the jobs.
At a public company, the board is essentially supposed to be the boss of the CEO, hiring and firing him and reining him in from risky practices that could hurt shareholders. Shareholder activists say that if the CEO is also running the board, then the board can hardly police him. Many companies argue that the CEO knows the company better than anyone and is best equipped to run the board as well.
Dimon, 57, a native of Queens and grandson of a Greek immigrant, is an essential player in banking's world order. During a time of increased public anger against the industry, and as some of his peers tried to fly under the radar, he was outspoken, defending big paydays for bankers and criticizing some of the government's proposed new rules for the industry. He was President Obama's confidante in the banking industry, and then the banking leader with the guts and credibility to challenge him.
"He's obviously a brilliant executive," said Brandon Rees, acting director of the investment office at the AFL-CIO, a union group that supports splitting the roles. "But it's a rare quality for brilliance to be accompanied by lack of hubris."
Not everyone thinks that getting rid of Dimon would be best for shareholders. CLSA analyst Mike Mayo predicts that the stock would plunge 10 percent, noting there's no obvious successor. Nomura analyst Glenn Schorr, writing to clients last week after a meeting with Dimon, said he found it "fascinating" that investors were considering "shrinking the role of one of the best managers there's ever been in the business."
What everyone agrees on is this: From a public relations perspective, it's been a tough year at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Many of Dimon's highest-level executives have departed, including co-chief operating officer Frank Bisignano, who left in April to become CEO of payment processor First Data. The bank is also under extra scrutiny from regulators who are examining not only the trading loss but also the bank's foreclosure practices, its controls for preventing money laundering and other areas.
"Let me be perfectly clear: These problems were our fault, and it is our job to fix them," Dimon wrote in the annual letter to shareholders this year. "In fact, I feel terrible that we let our regulators down."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jamie-dimon-under-pressure-ahead-investor-vote-193125233.html
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Jury gets first glimpse of defense in Jackson case
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A look at key moments this past week in the wrongful death trial in Los Angeles between Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and concert giant AEG Live LLC, and what is expected at court in the week ahead:
THE CASE
Jackson's mother wants a jury to determine that the promoter of Jackson's planned comeback concerts didn't properly investigate Dr. Conrad Murray, who a criminal jury convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Jackson's June 2009 death. AEG's attorney says the case is about personal choice, namely Jackson's decision to have Murray serve as his doctor and give him doses of a powerful anesthetic as a sleep aid. Millions, possibly billions, of dollars are at stake.
WHAT HAPPENED
? Jurors heard from AEG Live's first two witnesses, a pair of choreographers who worked on Jackson's ill-fated "This Is It" shows. Stacy Walker told the panel she never saw any signs Jackson was impaired or ill during rehearsals. Her colleague Travis Payne, who rehearsed one-on-one with Jackson, acknowledged he couldn't say how many times the pair actually rehearsed and said he was concerned the singer was under the influence of prescription medications in the weeks before his death.
? An AEG accounting executive testified about the budget for "This Is It," which was planning on paying Murray up to $1.5 million for the first few months of the shows. The former cardiologist was never paid because Jackson died before signing his contract.
WHAT THE JURY SAW
? Payne shift from a composed, sometimes-smiling witness to one who fought back tears toward the end of his day-and-a-half of testimony. His devotion to Jackson was evident from his wardrobe, which included a black blazer with an emblem stitched onto each sleeve containing the letters "MJ" and golden wings.
? Lots of courthouse hallways and downtown Los Angeles. Friday's session featured a four-hour lunch break due to witness availability issues. The trial's third week featured only three days of live testimony and the jury was kept waiting or sent out of the room numerous times while attorneys argued legal issues.
QUOTABLE MOMENTS
? "Sometimes in rehearsal, Michael would appear just a little loopy," Payne said of Jackson's demeanor after visiting his longtime dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein, who is not a party to the case.
? "I just never in a million years thought he would leave us, or pass away," choreographer Stacy Walker said of Jackson. Walker testified for AEG and said she never saw signs Jackson was under the influence of medications or was ill.
OUTSIDE THE COURTROOM
? A state attorney urged a court to reject an appeal by Jackson's former doctor, Conrad Murray, stating there were no legal errors by a trial judge and the physician's own attorneys failed to raise issues at the appropriate time. Murray has shown no remorse for playing "Russian roulette" with Jackson's life.
WHAT'S NEXT
? A corporate attorney for AEG Live will testify, reflecting a shift in the trial focus away from Jackson and toward a central issue in the case ? whether Murray was hired by the concert promoter.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jury-gets-first-glimpse-defense-jackson-case-161342821.html
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