Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/305541316?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Transocean chairman to step down after Icahn attack
By Braden Reddall
(Reuters) - Transocean Ltd
Talbert, a director since 1994 who was also chief executive from 1994 to 2002, told the board that if re-elected at the upcoming shareholder meeting on May 17, he will step down as chairman by November and leave the board no later than the 2014 annual meeting, Transocean said.
Icahn, who owns 5.6 percent of Transocean, has opposed Talbert's re-election. The activist investor has been campaigning for a higher dividend payout for months and is calling for major changes to the Switzerland-based company's board ahead of the annual meeting.
"We find it to be utterly absurd that a Chairman facing the prospect of losing his directorship would be so brazen as to ask shareholders to return him as Chairman so that he and the Board can then pick his successor," Icahn wrote in a letter to Transocean shareholders on Monday.
Talbert's exit strategy caps a tumultuous meeting season for long-serving bosses in the energy business. On Friday, John Hess was stripped of his chairman duties at Hess Corp
Icahn has gone after Transocean over "ill-advised" mergers and "unsuccessful" development strategies. Over the past five years, its shares dramatically underperformed rivals Ensco Plc
Transocean grew out of a series of mergers that started with the purchase by Alabama-based Sonat Offshore Drilling of Norway's Transocean ASA in 1996. Three years later came the takeover of Sedco Forex, spun off by oil services giant Schlumberger
Icahn wants the company to replace three directors, including the chairman, with his nominees John Lipinski, Jos? Maria Alapont and Samuel Merksamer.
Transocean has responded by questioning their qualifications, saying Alapont and Merksamer have no apparent energy experience while Lipinski leads a U.S. refiner - a side of the oil business far removed from exploration.
Transocean also notes that Icahn, in his successful battle to take over the board of refiner CVR Energy Inc
Apart from Talbert, the two directors in Icahn's sights are Thomas Cason and Robert Sprague. Cason had been a GlobalSantaFe director, and previously worked at oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc
Icahn has said he holds the directors responsible for the value destruction brought about by the takeovers of old assets while rival Seadrill
"We believe that directors Talbert, Sprague and Cason have proven themselves incapable of delivering returns, and therefore, they should be replaced," Icahn wrote on Monday.
Transocean is in the process of shaping up its sprawling global operations. It has promised to cut $300 million of costs by next year, on top of planned reductions of about the same this year from the 2012 operating and maintenance cost figure of $6.1 billion.
Shares of Transocean were down more than 1 percent at $53.94 on Monday. The stock has declined by 65 percent in the past five years, compared with a 33 percent drop for Noble and an 8 percent slide for Ensco. Seadrill is up 38 percent in that time.
(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Matt Driskill, Marguerita Choy and Chris Reese)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/transocean-chairman-step-down-icahn-attack-171916035.html
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Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Budget cuts pare real-time monitoring of volcanoes
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? Scientists monitoring Alaska's volcanoes have been forced to shut down stations that provide real-time tracking of eruptions and forgo repairs of seismic equipment amid ongoing federal budget cuts ? moves that could mean delays in getting vital information to airline pilots and emergency planners.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory can no longer seismically monitor five volcanoes with real-time equipment to detect imminent eruptions. Such equipment is especially important in helping pilots receive up-to-the-minute warnings about spewing ash that can cause engine failures and other problems.
Alaska has 52 active volcanoes, with many of them located on the Aleutians Islands along international air routes between Europe, North America and Asia.
Alaska Airlines officials said the observatory, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey, provides a crucial service, including early warnings of seismic changes that may portend an impending eruption. Monitors need to be operating all the time, not just during major eruptions, said Betty Bollert, an Alaska Airlines dispatcher.
"I think the public gets kind of complacent when nothing exciting is happening ... and think, 'Oh, why should we throw money at that?'" said Bollert, who was on duty in 1989 when the Redoubt Volcano blew 115 miles from Anchorage.
Following that eruption, several aircraft experienced damage from ash ? including a Boeing 747-400 carrying 231 passengers that lost all four engines after flying into an ash cloud. The plane dropped more than two miles in five minutes before the crew was able to restart the engines and land safely in Anchorage.
Worldwide, hundreds of flights are diverted each year because of volcanic activity. In 2010, an eruption in Iceland spread debris over Northern Europe, threatening most flight routes from the East Coast to Europe, and within Europe itself.
The Alaska volcano monitoring system, first created in 1988, is intended to help pilots avoid such problems. But it has regressed over the past few years because of shrinking finances, and now the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration are further squeezing operations.
For example, gone is a plan to install seismic monitors at Cleveland Volcano, a remote mountain on an uninhabited island in the Aleutians. The volcano experienced a low-level eruption earlier this month that continues to discharge steam, gas and heat, although no ash clouds have been detected in the past week.
"Because our budget has been declining for so long, we have no hope of actually addressing the Cleveland eruption in the way that it really should be," said geophysicist John Power, the USGS scientist in charge at the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
A second Alaska volcano began heating up Monday. Pavlof Volcano, 625 miles from Anchorage, does have seismic instruments, which picked up tremors signaling a possible eruption. Satellite imagery also showed a lot of heat in the mountain.
In Alaska, 32 volcanoes once had 200 working seismic instruments. Now 80 of those instruments have fallen into disrepair and can't be fixed due to the USGS budget cuts. That means five of those volcanoes aren't monitored electronically at all, and the number could rise if more instruments go without maintenance.
Cuts also have reduced the number of days helicopter crews can fly to repair equipment in remote locations, from 140 days in 2008 to 36.
The observatory still uses satellite data, infrasound and reports from pilots and others to detect eruptions. But none of those offer real-time information. Sound waves picked up the Cleveland eruption, but it took 40 minutes for the data to reach scientists in Anchorage, 940 miles northeast of the volcano.
Decreasing funds, once boosted by $2.5 million in now-defunct congressional earmarks, also have forced staff reductions. These days, the observatory is operating on $4 million annually, roughly half of its heyday budget.
Four other observatories in the U.S. ? in Wyoming, California, Washington and Hawaii ? also have faced cuts, leading to a reduction in lab research, studies of eruption histories and lava survey flights. In Hawaii, lava flyovers of the Big Island's Kilauea volcano were reduced from once a week to once every two weeks.
It's still early in the federal downsizing process, and resources already are spread thin, said Tom Murray, chief of the five USGS observatories. And while these types of cuts may not be immediately felt by the public ? unlike the furloughs of air traffic controllers that caused flight delays nationwide ? they are just as damaging, said Murray.
"The challenges with what we do is that it doesn't happen all the time," he said. "But when it does happen, then the ramifications can be very large."
___
Follow Rachel D'Oro at ?https://twitter.com/rdoro
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Women have new options for breast cancer surgery
May 13 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $5,849,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,388,064 3. Kevin Streelman $2,572,989 4. Billy Horschel $2,567,891 5. Matt Kuchar $2,493,387 6. Phil Mickelson $2,220,280 7. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,207,683 8. D.A. Points $2,019,702 9. Steve Stricker $1,977,140 10. Graeme McDowell $1,910,654 11. Jason Day $1,802,797 12. Webb Simpson $1,759,015 13. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 14. Hunter Mahan $1,682,939 15. Charles Howell III $1,561,988 16. Russell Henley $1,546,638 17. Martin Laird $1,531,950 18. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/women-options-breast-cancer-surgery-070654866.html
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Rolls-Royce to back supercar project
13 May 2013
Last updated at 05:45 ET
Watch the Bloodhound's EJ200 engine on the testbed
Aero-engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is to sponsor the British Bloodhound project to drive a car beyond 1,000mph.
The company will provide financial as well as technical support.
Its major involvement is to oversee the supercar's EJ200 jet engine, a Rolls power plant normally found in a Eurofighter-Typhoon.
Bloodhound will use this jet to raise its speed to about 350mph before igniting a rocket motor to take it supersonic.
The intention is to break the current land speed record of 763mph (1,228km/h) next year, and then push it beyond 1,000mph (1,610km/h) in 2015.
The running of the car will take place on a dried-out lake bed in South Africa.
Bloodhound includes key personnel from the team that set the existing mark back in 1997, including driver Andy Green and project director Richard Noble.
It is in part this experience that has prompted Rolls to waive its usual reluctance to get involved directly in speed record attempts.
"In general, we have a pretty robust policy about using our power plants in applications for which they were not designed," explained Colin Smith, the manufacturer's director of engineering and technology.
"The reason we're prepared to relax this policy in this case is because Bloodhound is a professional organisation," he told BBC News.
"I am impressed by Richard Noble's design process and his safety process; and he has a track record."
Light and swiftThe car project has been loaned three EJ200s from the Ministry of Defence. Two for running, one for spare parts.
The plants are development engines and although they have only a few hours' operational life left in them, this is more than adequate for the purpose of a Land Speed Record bid.
And as part of its involvement in the project, Rolls has put one of the engines on its testbed facility in Bristol.
This proved not only that the engine was in good working order but allowed also the Bloodhound engineers to trial the car's management and control system.
"The EJ200 was designed with one aircraft in mind - the Eurofighter-Typhoon. It lives within the Typhoon control system, so we've had to mimic a lot of the Typhoon inputs so that that engine still thinks it's in a Eurofighter," said Bloodhound's chief engineer Mark Chapman.
Green's and Noble's previous car, Thrust SSC, set its Land Speed Record using Rolls' Spey 202 engine, which was originally designed for Phantom and Buccaneer military planes.
But the advance in capability in the EJ200 is immediately evident just from its supremely compact size.
Whereas the Spey had a thrust to weight ratio of about five to one, the Eurofighter engine has a thrust to weight ratio of nine to one. The newer engine is incredibly power-dense.
The huge mass saving should make a big difference to Bloodhound as it seeks to better its predecessor's top speed.
Rolls-Royce has plenty of indirect history in the sport, notably with Malcolm and Donald Campbell, but it is very rare for the company to back projects quite so overtly as it is doing with Bloodhound. The famous "RR" badge will sit on the supercar's engine cowlings.
Rolls-Royce says one significant reason for its interest is Bloodhound's commitment to education.
The project was originally envisioned by former defence and science minister Lord Drayson as a means to inspire children to engage in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects.
Today, the Bloodhound Education Programme involves more than 5,000 schools, using curriculum resource materials based on the science of a supersonic car.
Although, Rolls has no problem filling its graduate-entry and apprenticeship schemes, it is concerned for the wider engineering base in the UK, and believes initiatives such as Bloodhound are needed to channel young people's interests into technical subjects.
"We're very fortunate in being oversubscribed for those graduate and apprenticeship roles by a factor of 10, but we have a big supply chain in the UK and some of those companies are struggling to get the right calibre of skills," explained Mr Smith. "We need to encourage more people to do useful and scientific degrees in the UK."
Richard Noble said Rolls-Royce's direct backing was a tremendous fillip to the project and would help to bring on board the final sponsors needed to fully fund the construction of the car.
"A lot of companies are doing this education thing but sometimes the subject matter isn't exciting enough," he told BBC News. "What you need is a flagship inspiration machine, and that's what we are."
The Bloodhound project is currently assembling the car at its new technical centre in Avonmouth, Bristol.
Other major aerospace companies are contributing to the build. The last big structural item is about to be released by the design team.
This is the fin, which has recently had its configuration changed. It is now cruciform rather than T-shaped.
The fin is integral to the stability of the vehicle at high speed. It is also the part of the car that will carry the names of all the individual members of the public who have sponsored the project.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22507584#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Monday, 13 May 2013
Video: Terminal Snooping at Bloomberg
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/51863473/
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Sunday, 12 May 2013
Cops find body presumed to be missing Kansas baby girl Lana Leigh Bailey
Mike_Yoder / AP
Riders on horseback search culverts and drainage ditches along Kansas Highway 68 for 18-month-old Lana-Leigh Bailey, Friday.
By The Associated Press
Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards said early Sunday that remains believed to be those of Lana Leigh Bailey ? who had been presumed dead ? were found Saturday in Osage County in eastern Kansas.
"It is with great sadness that I report a body found in Osage County, Kansas, is believed to be the remains of 18-month-old Lana Bailey," Richards said in a statement he emailed to The Associated Press.
He said the body was found by an Osage County sheriff's deputy who was scouring an area for items that could be connected to the deaths reported at the farmhouse May 6 in nearby Franklin County. The evidence collected Saturday when the body was found led investigators to believe it was the infant's body, his statement said.
"We hope that a forensic examination will make a final identification," Richards added.
Richards told The AP by telephone that he would not have additional information beyond his statement early Sunday.
The search crews had been using boats and sonar equipment but Richards did not say in his statement exactly where the body was found. Earlier authorities had said investigators were scouring ponds and other waterways in the area looking for the body of Lana Leigh Bailey.
Kyle Flack was charged Friday with capital murder in the deaths of Lana Bailey, her 21-year-old mother, Kaylie Bailey, and 30-year-old Andrew Stout. The 27-year-old convicted felon was also charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder in their deaths as well as the death of 31-year-old Steven White.
The investigation has included searching the farm and other rural areas in the 50-mile stretch between Ottawa and Emporia, where Kaylie Bailey's car was found Tuesday.
Franklin County Attorney Stephen Hunting said Friday that a firearm was used against the victims recovered at the farm, but didn't elaborate on whether that meant they were fatally shot. Authorities have not commented on a motive.
Richards said previously that the extensive investigation has taken a toll and that members of the investigative team have required medical attention after searching in difficult areas. Others have sought counsel from a chaplain.
Related: Kansas man arrested, suspected of murdering three or four people
This story was originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 3:59 AM EDT
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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War spawns new approaches for wounded service members' pain care
May 11, 2013 ? Better body armor and rapid aeromedical evacuations enable American service members to survive blasts that would have proved fatal in Vietnam or even the first Gulf War, but they pose new challenges to military medicine -- how to deal with the excruciating pain of injuries, especially severe burns from IED blasts that body armor can't protect.
In fact, U.S. military doctors say the wars are inflicting injuries among the most painful known to medicine. Department of Defense scientists working at the U.S Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, spoke at the American Pain Society's annual scientific meeting and reported on progress in addressing pain management challenges for treating service members returning from the war front with severe burns.
"Soldiers with severe burns, such as those on 20 percent of their bodies or more, are often hospitalized for months and they endure agonizing pain every day -- not just from the first wound but also from repeated washings, dressing changes and multiple skin graft surgeries," said DOD Scientist Marcie Fowler, Ph.D. "Many also have polytraumatic injuries and have received several levels of treatment from the battlefield to the hospital, and brain trauma adds a cognitive impairment component to the rehabilitation of burns and polytraumatic injuries."
Opioids have been a mainstay for treating pain in badly burned warfighters, but extended use increases the risk for respiratory side effects and possible addiction. "There aren't many great alternatives to opioids but they do work and we have to deal with the side effects," said Fowler. "However, we are exploring several alternatives that might help reduce opioid use."
Dayna Loyd Averitt, Ph.D., a researcher at the USAISR, reported that the Army is conducting extensive research with novel therapeutic options for treating pain, such as using complementary drug therapy regimens, multidisciplinary pain
management strategies, and even virtual reality to help decrease pain during procedures. She reviewed current projects evaluating the potential benefits of the synthetic analgesic tramadol to treat pain with a reduced emphasis on opioids and in using an injectable agent, resiniferatoxin (RTX), to temporarily deactivate nerve endings. The RTX project is in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health.
"In our research with tramadol, we are evaluating the potential of using dual mechanism therapeutics that act on both opiate and neurotransmitter receptors," explained Averitt. "The drug's activity with neurotransmitters involved in pain modulation, such as serotonin and norepinephrine, could be helpful in treating pain while decreasing opioid use and lowering risk for addiction. The anti-depressive mode of action also can help treat burn patients who are dealing with PTSD and mood disorders.
Averitt said that preclinical studies with RTX show that treatment significantly reduced pain sensitivity from burns.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/y6Vuu7I4h6k/130511194835.htm
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Obama calls on Congress to help more homeowners
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says Congress must give more homeowners the chance to refinance their mortgages to save money.
Obama says more than 2 million people are saving about $3,000 a year after restructuring their loans under his administration but that more deserve the same chance.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama also calls on the Senate to confirm "without delay" his choice of Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees government-controlled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Obama says the North Carolina congressman helped enact rules to protect consumers from dishonest lenders.
In the Republican address, Alabama Rep. Martha Roby discusses legislation passed by the GOP-controlled House to give private-sector workers the right to trade overtime pay for additional time off.
___
Online:
Obama's address: www.whitehouse.gov
Republican address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-calls-congress-help-more-homeowners-100546905.html
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Whole Foods mixes up chicken, vegan salads
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Whole Foods Market Inc. said that labels on a chicken salad and those on a vegan version were reversed at some of its cold food bars in the Northeast.
The mislabeled salads ? a curried chicken salad and a vegan curried "chick'n" salad ? were sold in 15 stores in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, Whole Foods said. In some locations, the company said the salads were sold in the cold food bars where customers can scoop food into containers, which are then weighed at the register. In other locations, it said the salads were displayed in the prepared food sections behind glass. The salads were sold on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Food and Drug Administration noted the vegan salad contains soy, and the curried chicken salad contains egg. It said people who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to soy or eggs run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they eat the salads.
The company, based in Austin, Texas, said no illnesses have been reported.
Libba Letton, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods, said the salads were mislabeled at a company-owned commissary that supplies food to the stores. She said the mixup was discovered by an employee in the prepared food section at one of its stores. Whole Foods is issuing a recall in line with guidelines set by the FDA and plans to post signs in stores Friday alerting customers about the mislabeled salads, she said.
Whole Foods has about 330 stores in the U.S. and is known for selling a wide array of organic products.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/whole-foods-mixes-chicken-vegan-salads-012628036.html
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Reclaiming an old tradition - Nashoba Publishing Online
Nashoba Publishing/Dina Samfield Home funeral guide and consultant Peg Lorenz is certified in end-of-life care from the University of Southern Maine, and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Home Funeral Alliance. Lorenz will be conducting two workshops on caring for deceased loved ones at home on Saturday, May 18, at First Parish Church of Groton, beginning at 10 a.m.
SHIRLEY -- Peg Lorenz is an interior house painter who moved to Shirley from Groton three years ago. She and her partner, Trish Garrigan, live in the former house of Earl Tupper's (of Tupperware fame) sister Ruth.
What is unique about Lorenz is neither her profession nor her historic home. Rather, it is her capacity for compassion and her ability to make one of the most stressful events in a family's life into a loving tribute to the one they love.
She is one of many in a growing movement to take back death, to relearn what it means to care for one's own dead.
Her journey to becoming a home funeral guide and consultant began 20 years ago when she became a hospice volunteer.
"I just got a certificate of appreciation for 20 years of service," she said recently in her cozy Hazen Road home. Nashoba Nursing Service & Hospice, located in Phoenix Park, bestowed the award.
"Twenty years ago, no one in my family had died and my parents were already in their 70's, and I thought somebody in my family ought to know how (their deaths are) going to feel -- what the experience could be like. And then I saw the ad in the paper that they needed volunteers and I went through training."
"Imagine that for 20 years you are volunteering and meeting all kinds of people doing respite care, which means I sit with the dying person while the primary care person takes a break," Lorenz said. "I love it. You sit, and just be with the person."
Lorenz said
that learning how to listen and "just be" with a person as he or she is dying is a big part of the hospice care experience.From hospice to home funerals
"After the death, I would sometimes be invited to the memorial service weeks later. I would see the family again, and there was a nice bond there," Lorenz recalled.
"I would say, 'So how was it at the end?,' because we are never there. It happens in the middle of the night.
"From a few families I heard that they loved hospice, but then at the end they felt abandoned," she said. "A nurse pronounces the death, and then they leave and nobody is there."
Once the funeral home pays a visit, "two strangers arrive, and they put their loved one in a plastic body bag and on a gurney, and take them out. These families said that they were traumatized by that.
"At that moment, (family members) are in an altered state, really in shock. It is like you are thrown into a totally different state. And then these people come and whisk the loved one away."
Lorenz said she decided that there must be another way. She did some research and "poked around" about after-death care.
She saw the beginnings of a small movement of people saying that you could keep loved ones who had died at home. At the same time, she happened to see a PBS documentary called "A Family Undertaking," a movie about home funerals.
The movie, which interviews funeral directors, home funeral guides and four families, is available on Netflix.
Eventually, Lorenz and a friend went to Connecticut to take training in home funerals from Elizabeth Knox, a Maryland mother who was interviewed in the movie. Knox started a home funeral and green burial resource center called Crossings after her daughter died at age seven.
At the time, Knox says on her website, www.crossings.net, the hospital told her that her daughter's body could only be released to a funeral home. That turned out not to be true.
Knox says that she cared for her deceased daughter at home for three days, bathing and watching her, and gradually coming to terms with her grief, sharing the experience with friends and family.
Peaceful passage
Lorenz decided that if she was going to get trained in being a home funeral guide, she might as well start her own business. Becoming a home funeral guide is a specialization that has been around on the east and west coasts for some time, she explained. Her business is called Peaceful Passage at Home.
"It is really a service to educate families about the in-home vigil after death, and anybody can do it anywhere in the country. There are no restrictions about that. You can keep the person at home, and in those restrictive states the restrictions are generally about transporting the body and doing the paperwork.
"In Massachusetts the family can do everything themselves if they want. It's not for everybody, but some families really, really want it. Others do not, and that's fine; it's just that you have that choice."
Some people choose to have home funerals for economic or environmental reasons as well as to pay their respects to their loved ones on their own terms.
The average American funeral costs about $6,000 for the services of a funeral home, not including the costs of cremation or burial.
A home funeral can be as inexpensive as the cost of pine for a coffin for a backyard burial, or a few hundred dollars for cremation or cemetery costs. Embalming is not required.
"There is no health risk associated with a home burial," said Lorenz. "There is no reason you have to have a body embalmed or call a funeral home unless you are in one of the restrictive states.
"You're in the privacy of your own home. There is a silence that is there; it is respectful, it's sacred, and within that context, the body is beautiful. I have not heard one family not say that the body is beautiful."
That the body is somehow not something to be viewed without the administration of a funeral director is among many misconceptions around the body of the deceased, said Lorenz.
"People have this idea of it being really awful, and I have to tell you that the body changes, but very gradually... What families report, and I have felt it too, is that there is sort of a spirit that lingers, and I think most religions do say that for a few days it is customary to feel some presence."
A home wake, said Lorenz, allows the time for those closest to the deceased to slow down, gather the family, and "have those wonderful conversations in the presence of the person."
Reclaiming a loving tradition
During and after the Civil War, the U.S. began to drift away from the home funeral tradition. Until that time, most people died at home; thus, most funerals were home funerals. Bodies remained unembalmed and were usually placed in pine caskets and buried in pesticide-free cemeteries.
But the war and the need to transport bodies from the South to the North led to widespread embalming, and with the rise of modern hospitals, death became much less a part of daily life.
As a home funeral guide, Lorenz said she feels "like a bridge of information from our great grandparents to now, because in that interim, we lost that knowledge of how to do this.
"The families I have helped nearly all will say that at the end of this experience they are less afraid of death. And you know, if our culture were less afraid of death, it would be an incredible change. We would not be so afraid to have end-of-life conversations, call hospice sooner or be more forthright in discussing our end-of-life decisions. We would be more like, 'I see how this goes, and it's OK.' That's what families report to me."
Lorenz plans to share more of her expertise on caring for deceased loved ones at home during two free workshops on Saturday, May 18, at First Parish Church of Groton, located at 1 Powderhouse Road.
The first workshop, from 10 a.m. to noon, is an introduction to home funerals. It will describe the personal benefits that come with beginning the grieving process in the privacy of one's home, and include the legal facts and logistical details of home funerals.
The second is a hands-on workshop, from 1-4 p.m., for those interested in the details of performing a home funeral. A basic knowledge of home funerals or attending the first workshop is recommended.
To register or obtain more information, contact Peg Lorenz at 978-425-6602 or peglor@comcast.net. Her website is http://www.peacefulpassageathome.com.
Source: http://www.nashobapublishing.com/shirley_news/ci_23214468/reclaiming-an-old-tradition
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Saturday, 11 May 2013
FTSE LIVE: Footsie extends winning run after Japan stocks soar overnight; BT the biggest riser
By This Is Money Reporters
|
10.25: The Footsie climbs a little further, up 22 points now (0.34 per cent) to 6,615.
BT's better-than-expected results have boosted its shares 10 per cent now, up to 304p. Read our full report here.
British Airways parent company International Airlines Group edged lower after reporting a bigger first quarter loss, driven by the poor performance of its Iberia business. Shares were 4.05p lower at 276.45p.
Outside the top flight, Ocado shares jumped 14 per cent after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to buy and the internet grocer's management said they were encouraged by progress so far this year.
Eye on the ball: BT just announced a free sports deal for broadband customers; its shares have shot up today
The stock, which fell sharply yesterday on fears a distribution deal with Morrisons will fall through, rose by 31.1p to 239.65p to place the stock at the top of the FTSE 250 index.
Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG, said: 'The FTSE has been dragged to new five-year highs by buoyant European markets, which continue to climb.
'In Asia, the Nikkei continues to demonstrate the fine form shown in April, and with US dollar finally breaking the psychological 100 yen level the Japanese index could be set for new highs.
'BT have followed up yesterday?s aggressive pricing policy by posting impressive full-year figures. Many UK armchair sports fans will be hoping that they can instigate a pricing war with Sky. With a host of well-known sports personalities endorsing them, BT will hope to improve their market share of broadband users. However, if BT don?t have the product to back up the hype customers could be hard to hang onto - as both Des Lynam & Setanta will testify.
'The UK high street's banking market could be thrown into fresh chaos after the Co-op's credit rating was slashed by Moody?s overnight. Any lingering hopes the UK government had that the Co-op would acquire its 632 Lloyds branches have now surely dissipated.'
Read more on this here.
08.15: The FTSE 100 has extended its winning run into a seventh straight session, led by telecoms group BT on robust results and with some traders forecasting more market gains to come.
The Footsie was up 14 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 6,607 in early trading, having risen 0.1 per cent yesterday to record its highest close since October 2007.
The UK benchmark has risen around 12 per cent this year as interest rate cuts and injections of liquidity by central banks around the world have lifted equity markets in spite of a stuttering global economy.
'I still think the fundamentals (aren't good enough) to warrant the current stock prices, (but) the central bank intervention has more than offset that,' Nick Xanders, head of European equity strategy at BTIG, said.
'At some point that will give and the fundamentals will matter again, but it isn't today.'
BT jumped 8.5 per cent, rebounding from a 2.3 per cent drop on Thursday, as it raised its outlook after cost cuts and strong consumer demand helped it to beat annual forecasts. Its shares are up 23.5p to 299.2p.
BofA Merrill Lynch, describing BT's results as 'very strong', upgraded its rating on the stock to 'buy'.?
08.00: Japanese equities soared to five-and-a-half year highs overnight, with the dollar sailing past the symbolic 100 yen level and beefing up the outlook for corporate Japan, but shares elsewhere in Asia retreated as global equities paused overnight from recent rallies. ?
Financial spreadbetters predicted London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX? would open up as much as 0.2 per cent.
Yesterday the pan-European FTSEurofirst closed flat overnight to stay near five-year highs.
US stock futures were up 0.1 per cent, suggesting a slightly firmer Wall Street open after American stocks slipped from record highs yesterday.
?
The dollar was buoyed after Thursday's weekly US data showed initial jobless claims fell to the lowest level in more than five years, following last week's much stronger-than-expected monthly non-farm payrolls report for April.? ?
'What you need to understand about what is going on in the United States is that we're growing, this recovery is real. There may be some bumps, but the fundamental push forward is there,' said Carl Larry, president of the Houston-based Oil Outlook and Opinions.
The yen's resumed downtrend bodes well for Japanese exporters, and expectations of robust earnings drove the Nikkei stock average up 3 per cent to its highest since January 2008.
The index is up 6.4 per cent, on track for its biggest weekly gain since December 2009 when it jumped 10.4 per cent.
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Virginia Is Much More Important Than South Carolina
Republican Mark Sanford?s victory Tuesday in South Carolina?s 1st Congressional District tells us only one thing about the 2014 midterm elections?that Democrats still need to capture 17 seats to win back the House majority they lost in 2010. Nothing more, nothing less.
Had Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch won the special election, all it would have demonstrated was that even in such an overwhelmingly Republican district (Mitt Romney carried it by 18 points last year, John McCain by 13 points in 2008), a scandal-ridden, politically disfigured Republican could still lose. Because Sanford ended up winning, all it showed was that district voters prefer to hold their noses and vote for a deeply flawed Republican than to vote for a Democrat. It should be noted that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi figured prominently in Sanford?s last round of advertising; the former governor warned that a vote for Colbert Busch was a vote to make Pelosi House speaker again.
There have been times when a special congressional election told us something about the national political environment, but those instances are few and far between. More often, the districts bear little resemblance to the country as a whole, or the circumstances of a race are so extenuating that any suggestion of deeper meaning is a stretch.
The outcome of New Jersey?s gubernatorial election in November is similarly unlikely to have great import. Although the Garden State has a distinctive blue political coloring, GOP incumbent Chris Christie most likely will make mincemeat of the sacrificial lamb Democrats choose to oppose him.
Arguably, this fall?s Virginia gubernatorial race will be a better test. Historically a conservative and Republican state, Virginia?along, to a lesser extent, with its southern neighbor, North Carolina?has become more like the Mid-Atlantic states to its north in recent years. Other Southern states, such as Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee, largely retain their Dixie voting patterns. Each of those states has a bedrock Democratic vote made up chiefly of minority voters, along with indigenous white Democratic voters. But North Carolina and, even more so, Virginia have seen an influx of non-Southerners, who vote more like the country as a whole than like the Old South.
Notably absent from the above analysis is Georgia. This Dixie state has more Northern transplants than the other Southern states but fewer than Virginia and North Carolina, so it hasn?t made the turn yet.
The Virginia governor?s race should be a more interesting test than the South Carolina special election. Both parties have potentially problematic nominees. Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli brings to the race a reputation as a hard-charging, take-no-prisoners conservative, more in tune with the old Dixie Virginia than the new Mid-Atlantic Virginia. GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell started his gubernatorial bid four years ago with a reputation as a social conservative, but he is nowhere near as conservative as Cuccinelli; the latter will have considerably more distance to cover than McDonnell did in 2009.
Democrats are fielding Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who is best known for being one of President Clinton?s closest friends?which is an asset in some parts of the state but not so much in others. Although former Gov. Tim Kaine went on to become DNC chairman before edging out former Sen. George Allen in their Senate race last year, he was known in the state as a Virginian, rising through the ranks in state politics. McAuliffe comes via national politics, although his ads are quick to point out that he and his family moved to the state more than two decades ago.
A convincing argument can be made that each man will have difficulty reaching beyond his party?s base. Indeed, some wags argue that Cuccinelli is the only Republican whom McAuliffe could beat and that McAuliffe is the only Democrat whom Cuccinelli can defeat. On paper, this starts out as a pretty fair fight.
Two somewhat contradictory polls are out at the moment. A recently released NBC News/Marist survey shows McAuliffe and Cuccinelli locked in a close contest, with McAuliffe leading by 2 points among registered voters and Cuccinelli by 3 points among likely voters. A Washington Post poll put Cuccinelli ahead by 5 points among all voters and 10 points among likely voters. The Republican has considerably higher name recognition starting out than McAuliffe does, giving McAuliffe some room for improvement as his name ID increases. African-Americans are disproportionately undecided, but Cuccinelli stands little chance of getting their support. Suffice it to say, this is a very close race.
Cuccinelli has begun trying to reframe his image, with ads pointing out that he worked the midnight shift on occasion at a homeless shelter and took other actions that don?t fit into the rigidly conservative persona he has projected in his political career. McDonnell, using some of the same advisers that Cuccinelli now employs, did this four years ago with great success. Indeed, some of McDonnell?s first television ads featured him talking up the importance of creating green jobs; others were clearly aimed at softening his image, particularly among female voters.
So Virginia has a race that might be illuminating. It is a swing state where moderate and independent voters will have to choose sides; the national political environment may well be a factor in driving them one way or the other. Indeed, the swoon of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds four years ago coincided remarkably closely with the drop in President Obama?s numbers, both in the state and nationally. The race hinted at what was to come the next year when Republicans scored near-biblical gains in the House and a six-seat gain in the Senate.
So although the South Carolina special election had some entertainment value, if you want to look for a potential clue about 2014, you?ll have better luck watching Virginia.
CORRECTION: The print version of this column misstated NBC News/Marist poll data. The survey showed Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, not Terry McAuliffe, leading by 3 points among likely voters.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/virginia-much-more-important-south-carolina-211947559.html
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Friday, 10 May 2013
Weaker Yen Is Mixed Bag for Japan Auto Makers
By YOREE KOH
TOKYO?Japan's auto makers have been some of the most vociferous proponents of a weaker yen?calling for the U.S. dollar to appreciate to ?100 or more.
That is because they should be among the biggest beneficiaries: A weaker yen makes Japanese-made cars and trucks less expensive around the world and helps increase overseas earnings when they are repatriated into yen.
But a closer look at two auto makers, Mazda Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., shows that the benefits of a weaker yen to Japan Inc. are anything but clear.
Hiroshima-based Mazda is the car company most likely to pop the Champagne when the dollar hits ?100. That is because Japan's fifth-largest auto maker produces about 71% of its cars at home and exports roughly 80% of them, meaning a move in the currency can deliver a heavy blow or sudden windfall.
One reason for the high percentage of exports is Mazda's small size: Last year it produced only 1.18 million vehicles, versus Nissan's 4.88 million. Despite the currency risk, Mazda decided it would be more efficient to concentrate its factories in Japan, rather than spreading them throughout the world.
Even as the yen strengthened in 2012, Mazda brought production of its Mazda6 sports sedan back home, after falling vehicle sales in the U.S. spurred them to pull out of a Michigan assembly plant run jointly with Ford Motor Co.
For the fiscal year ended March 31, the move means the amount Mazda lost for every one-yen appreciation versus the dollar climbed to ?3.5 billion?about 6.4% of the company's ?53.9 billion operating profit??1 billion more than it would have been two years ago. A strong yen?the dollar hit a post-World War II low of ?75.31 in October 2011?has been a big factor behind Mazda's four consecutive years in the red, totaling ?245.7 billion in net losses.
Now the yen's rapid slide means Mazda's fortunes are changing.
Assuming ?100 is worth a dollar, "we estimate additional profit of ?60-?70 billion versus" Mazda's guidance of ?120 billion in operating profit for this fiscal year through March 2014, J.P. Morgan analyst Kohei Takahashi said in a research note after the company announced earnings on April 26. Mazda projects its operating profit could increase ?56 billion based on currency gains in the current fiscal year, ?17 billion of which can be attributed to dollar-yen gains alone assuming a conservative rate of ?90 to the dollar.
In contrast, Yokohama-based Nissan has gradually shifted more production away from Japan over the last decade, in order to reduce costs and protect against currency fluctuations. The Japan-made portion of global production dropped to 24% in 2012 from 38% four years earlier, although with increasing sales, the export levels from Japan stayed relatively steady at 60%.
Nissan has also aggressively increased the use of components made elsewhere in Asia to lower yen-based costs. Deutsche Bank estimates Nissan now sources more than 40% of its auto parts from overseas, up from 10% to 20% several years ago. Nissan's best-selling domestic car, the compact Note car, imports about 45% to 50% of the parts used to build the vehicle at its factory in southern Japan.
Nissan says a bigger shift is on the horizon: it plans to move production of its two popular sport-utility vehicles to the U.S. The small Rogue crossover is scheduled to make the move this year, while the next generation of the Murano luxury SUV will follow when production is expected to begin in 2014. Nissan said 259,000 Murano and Rogue SUVs were produced in Japan last year?about 23% of domestic vehicle production.
That very different profile means every one yen change versus the dollar's average during the just-ended year has a ?15 billion impact on Nissan's operating profit, according to Koji Endo, a senior auto analyst at Tokyo-based Advanced Research Japan. That is 2.6% of what Nissan estimates will be its full-year operating profit. At a dollar level of ?100 compared with his previous fiscal year's estimate of ?82, Mr. Endo says operating profit this fiscal year at Nissan would increase ?270 billion from just dollar-yen effects.
Nissan is scheduled to report its earnings for the just-ended fiscal year Friday afternoon in Tokyo.
With the weaker yen, some question whether Nissan will follow through with its plan to shift SUV production to the U.S. On April 12, the Nikkei business daily reported that the auto maker may delay the production shift. A Nissan spokesman said the company's plans "to manufacture the next generation Rogue and Murano in the U.S. remain unchanged" and called the Japanese business newspaper's report "unauthorized and unfounded."
At the New York International Auto Show in March, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn also suggested its plans will stay. "We moved production outside of Japan and it's not going to come back," he said.
Going to a ?75 to the dollar level was "a shock," Mr. Ghosn said. Although the yen has weakened in recent months, "we are not very far from a historic level," he said.
--Joseph B. White in New York contributed to this article.
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Pegatron increases workforce by 40 percent, adds more grist to Apple rumor mill
Whenever a company involved in making Apple products adds to its workforce, the internet is flooded with "cheap iPhone" and "iWatch" stories. The latest event to perk up the rumor mongers is Pegatron, which announced that it'll be hiring 40,000 more workers in China for the second half of 2013. During an investor call, company president Jason Cheng predicted that revenue from "communication products" would increase by 16 percent between July and December -- so hopefully he's seen something on his order book to make him that confident. That said, the only solid fact we have is that the company has stated it'll be producing Haswell-powered laptops for a variety of companies, but we won't let that stop you staring at your wrist and hoping.
[Image Credit: Jay Greene/CNET]
Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Apple
Source: Reuters
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/MGaHbYgMS20/
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Photo Gallery: Mount Union Football Coach Larry Kehres Resigns
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Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on Victory in Europe Day
2011 was a busy, focused and successful one for our community. There are a number of reasons to say this and I figured important enough to number.
1. Unemployment numbers in our community dropped each and every month since January.
There are still more jobs to create and the recovery is a fragile one. No question however, that we are on the right track.
2. The Cairns Family Health and Biosciences Research Complex was built and is almost completed.
No longer is Brock the university up on the hill. The facility will boast almost 110,000 sq feet of Bioscience research, second to no other research facility or university in the country. It will in fact, rival the facility in place at the University of Florida. The link with the community and our local economy is through the incubator facility that will house small start up businesses. The true value of this investment is when we see the creation of manufacturing jobs through this facility. My close friend Jeff Cairns' dad Roy passed away in 2011.? One of his last significant commitments to his community was the Cairns' family investment and contribution to Brock. Roy had a feeling this is going to work and it's up to all of us to make sure we prove his feeling true.
3. Majority government on May 2nd of this year.
Yes of course, those who didn't vote Conservative may disagree with this from a partisan perspective, but truly what this country needed was a stable federal government for a number of years. We can all judge the results once we reach re-election time in 2015.
4. Completion of a number of economic stimulus projects in town.
The new parking garage, the Armenian community centre, the children's centre at the YMCA, the football/soccer facility at the 4-pad, a brand new airport, nGen technology and multi-media investments, to name a few, have helped bring our community into the modern era. They also created short and long term jobs that were sorely required.
5. St. Catharines/Niagara is at the forefront of the agenda in our nation's capital.
The direction we take as a government is inspired by and involves our community. In other words, we matter and we play a role. I have to compliment both Dean Allison and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson for being great spokespersons for our communities.
Turning to 2012, the economy and continuing to help create jobs will remain our community's most important focus. It's the responsibility of all of us local politicians at the federal, provincial, regional and municipal jurisdictions to work together and never lose sight of the fact that whatever we do must have a long term economic benefit to our city and our Niagara.
We've spent a ton, yes a ton, of taxpayers money in St. Catharines from all orders (levels) of government. All of those investments were made with the rebuilding of our local economy in mind. In other words, we aren't dreamers or creative folks any longer. We are now project managers who have to ensure that taxpayer's investments will do what we (politicians) said it would. In 2012 I'm focused on the results of these investments to ensure that the investors (taxpayers) get value for their hard earned dollars vis-?-vis property tax, regional tax, provincial tax and federal tax. Every one of us has to focus on providing the actual outcomes from each of these investments that prove they're delivering the results promised.
Heading into my 6th year as the MP for our city, I'm looking forward to playing my part and ensuring we do focus on our economy and continue to bring St. Catharines issues to Ottawa.
city I'm looking forward to playing my part and ensuring we do focus on our economy and continue to bring St. Catharines issues to Ottawa.
Here's to 2012!!?
Later,
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Source: http://www.rickdykstra.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2826&Itemid=51
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Thursday, 9 May 2013
Sanctions help to stoke Iran property boom but bubble feared
By Marcus George and Zahra Hosseinian
(Reuters) - The Iranian property developer leant back in his chair, drew hard on a shisha pipe and looked down at photographs of a Tehran apartment block on his tablet computer.
"I designed it myself," he said proudly as he blew a cloud of scented smoke out into Dubai's night air.
The pictures showed the lavish interiors of apartments and penthouse suites in a 20-floor development his company recently completed in Niavaran, one of the Iranian capital's wealthiest areas, with views towards mountains to the north.
One of many towers to have sprung up on the Tehran skyline in recent years, it is part of a property boom due indirectly to sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear activities.
While the sanctions threaten to bring the Iranian economy to its knees, million dollar apartments fitted out with the best imported equipment have become ever more common in Tehran.
Embargoes imposed on the oil and banking sectors since late 2011 have sent the Iranian rial currency crashing, pushing up import prices and contributing to spiraling overall inflation.
Wealthy Iranians, often unable to move money abroad due to the banking sanctions, have tried to protect their savings by turning to property at home, further stoking the market.
Developers have reaped the rewards but some now believe a bubble is forming and fear the consequences should it burst. For poorer Iranians, the boom is creating more immediate problems as it stretches their ability to provide for their families.
"Until around two years ago, the market rose steadily. Then it started going crazy," the developer said on a visit to Dubai.
"You can't believe how quickly everything's gone up," he said, asking not to be named.
The cost of apartments in his developments - among the most sought after in Tehran - have almost tripled in two years, he said. They now sell for about 200 million rials ($5,500) a square meter, and even his medium-sized apartments cost the local currency equivalent of $1 million.
Property inflation has spread across Tehran and is now being felt around the country, say investors, estate agents and prospective buyers.
"Prices have gone up drastically in recent months," said Hooman Bina, a Tehran-based professional property investor. "There's even been a hike since Persian New Year (on March 20)."
DEMAND VS COSTS
Iranian manufacturing is grinding to a near halt and unemployment is rising. In April the International Monetary Fund forecast the economy would shrink 1.3 percent this year. This has left investors with few opportunities beyond construction, and estate agents say it is a seller's market.
"A lot of people have started buying places, especially small apartments, just to protect the value of their money. Real estate looks like a safe investment, at least for now," said a Tehran-based analyst who - like many Iranians in the current sensitive political atmosphere - did not want his name to appear in international media.
Everything from the cost of land to equipment for new homes has soared. "The materials used in houses such as air conditioners, elevators, wood, iron and steel, especially in buildings in northern Tehran, are of very high quality and imported from abroad," said Bina.
"Everything imported is much more expensive now," he added. With the rial at 36,000 to the dollar in the open market, Iran's currency is around a third of the value it had in mid-2011, making imported goods far more expensive.
To sell million dollar apartments in plush areas of northern Tehran, developers need to provide the best fittings on the market. Despite the sanctions, top quality European products such as Poggenpohl kitchens and Siemens white goods from Germany are available alongside even some American ones.
Those Iranians with access to hard currency are in the best position of all. Their dollars or dirhams go as far as they did in 2011, and in some cases farther, because the U.S. and Gulf currencies held their value while the rial plunged.
"I'd been meaning to upgrade my apartment and this is a great opportunity," said an Iranian businessman looking out over Dubai from his 18th floor office. He settled in the United Arab Emirates 20 years ago but regularly visits Tehran on business.
OUT OF REACH
As with every boom, many are missing out and struggling to afford a home as grocery and fuel prices also soar, however. After saving for 10 years, Mohammad Hossein's hopes of buying a family home are further away than ever.
Worse still, the surge has also pushed up rents and the 38-year-old shoe factory worker has had to move with his wife and infant to a smaller apartment in Tehran because the family could not afford the landlord's demand for an increase.
"Prices have gone up so much that people like us can only afford to buy or rent an apartment half the size of what they could afford with that same money two years ago," Hossein said.
Iran has an unusual rental system, called rahn, in which a tenant "lends" the landlord a sizeable sum, sometimes with a modest monthly rent. The landlord uses the money as an interest-free loan - a valuable commodity when annual interest rates are around 20 percent - before returning it after an agreed period.
When 28-year-old graphics graduate Parastoo moved to Tehran earlier this year, she soon found out her budget could not keep up with the rents. Eventually she found a 51 square meter (550 square foot) apartment in central Tehran, paying rahn of 385 million rials ($11,000) in addition to a monthly rent of 2.5 million rials.
"It was a real struggle," said Parastoo, who asked to be identified only by her given name. "The owner of my apartment originally wanted to sell it but because of the daily fluctuations in price he decided to rent and wait for prices to stabilize," she said by phone from Tehran.
DECIMATED ECONOMY
Iran's property phenomenon reflects just how badly the economy is suffering from "stagflation" - zero growth alongside high inflation and increasing unemployment.
According to official figures, inflation is running at more than 30 percent but some analysts estimate the real rate could be double or even triple that.
"Iran has definitely entered an era of stagflation. It's very vulnerable and its own economic policy has not helped." said Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who estimates annual inflation at over 100 percent. "Without oil, everything would collapse overnight."
For those in the business, the rapid property inflation has now become worrying. The national union of property advisers says that in the second half of the Persian year (up to March 20), prices went up more than the rate of inflation.
"The purchasing power of prospective buyers is going down with the increased rates," said union head Mostafa Khosravi. "We want to see price stability because this leads to increased prosperity in the market," Mehr news quoted him as saying.
Real estate agents say business has slowed in recent weeks and speculate this may be due to uncertainty before a presidential election in June to elect a successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The outcome is far from clear.
With fluctuations in the market and the ensuing difficulty of planning large-scale construction, the developer in Dubai said he had halted projects in Iran and was proceeding with caution.
"The country has stopped. Nothing's moving but inflation's still going up," he said. "It's a bubble and I don't know what will happen."
(Reporting by Marcus George in Dubai and Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich; Writing by Marcus George; Editing by David Stamp and Sonya Hepinstall)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sanctions-help-stoke-iran-property-boom-bubble-feared-141300930.html
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Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Exclusive Blog: How Giuliana & Bill Balance Work, Family
Giuliana: I am living proof that yes, you can have it all. I am a product of the American Dream, coming to America from Italy as a young child. I was told at a young age that I would never achieve my dream of becoming an anchorwoman on television. I was told I wasn't pretty enough or smart enough and I didn't speak English well enough. Well, I worked my butt off and never gave up.
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Amazing Race Canada will likely rappel from Toronto City Hall rooftop
A proposal passed in Toronto City Hall could be giving away a future challenge for contestants on The Amazing Race Canada.
The agenda item has been deemed urgent and asks the city to give permission to Insight Productions to allow three people on a television show to rappel down the side of Toronto?s city hall.
?The Facilities and Management Division has received an application from Insight Productions to film an episode of a television show at City Hall on Friday, May 24, 2013,? the document reads.
?One of the main activities consists of three participants rappelling over the west tower roof onto the podium green roof of City Hall.?
Insight Productions is the production company responsible for The Amazing Race Canada, Big Brother Canada, Battle of the Blades, the Juno Awards and the upcoming series Never Do This At Home.
But the document is marked ?urgent? and notes that filming will occur at the end of the month, pending completion of the appropriate paperwork. This narrows down the list of possibilities considerably, pointing squarely at The Amazing Race Canada, which is currently filming in Western Canada.
The motion recommends adoption from the Chief Corporate Officer, who approves of the license. That document is here:
The motion passed Toronto City Council on May 8.
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Convicted Central Texas Killer Executed
HUNTSVILLE (May 7, 2013)--Convicted killer Carroll Joe Parr, 35, who bypassed his attorneys and filed his own appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, was executed Tuesday evening in Huntsville for a shooting a decade ago in that left a teenager dead.
The one-time drug dealer, who was known on the street as "Outlaw," was sentenced to death for the Jan. 11, 2003 shooting outside of the B&G Convenience Store in North Waco that left Joel Dominguez, 18, dead and Mario Chavez, then 18, injured.
Just hours before the execution, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia rejected Parr?s appeal, which was mailed to the high court and received earlier Tuesday.
Parr contended in the appeal he had deficient legal help at his trial in Waco and in earlier stages of his appeal.
Scalia chose not to refer it to the full court and rejected it less than two hours before Parr was taken to the death chamber.
According to the typewritten petition, the motion was delivered to Texas prison officials for mailing on April 26.
The shooting stemmed from a drug deal.
Parr had purchased marijuana from Dominguez at the store and later returned with a friend, Earl Whiteside, to get his money back, prosecutors said.
After Parr and Whiteside arrived at the store, they forced Dominguez and Chavez to walk to a fenced area beside the store where Parr pistol-whipped Dominguez and demanded his money, prosecutors said.
Dominguez complied, but then Parr told Whiteside to "smoke 'em."
Whiteside shot Chavez in the hand and Parr shot Dominguez in the head, killing him, prosecutors said.
Parr was convicted of capital murder on May 21, 2004 and was sentenced to die five days later.
Whiteside entered a guilty plea in March 2004.
Parr insisted he didn't shoot Dominguez, but said he wouldn?t break his word to the people involved in the slaying and identify who he claimed actually did the shooting.
Parr's execution date was set on Feb. 4 in a Waco courtroom in which security was tight.
As he was led from the courtroom after the date was set, Parr yelled, "Death is a prize."
Parr told The Associated Press during a recent interview he was resigned to his fate and even welcomed it although he insisted someone else killed Dominguez.
Parr's execution was the fifth this year in Texas.
At least 10 others are scheduled for the coming months, including one next week.
Source: http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/206391921.html
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