Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192361076?client_source=feed&format=rss
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IF you’re keeping score, the president made only six blatant class warfare remarks in his State of the Union speech. That’s a new low for Barack Obama.
If you watched closely, Obama was morphing into Bill Clinton. Rather than the grand visions the president once elucidated, Obama outlined a series of small steps that he thinks will help average Americans.
The speech was expected to be a core 2012 campaign address. But it was less partisan than the pundits expected. If you’re keeping score, Obama made ?only? seven references to the mess he inherited. That must also be a new low.
Obama’s recent and belated interest in jobs creation dominated the early part of the speech. Energy policy was also a key theme, but the energy industry can be forgiven if it takes Obama’s remarks with a grain of salt.
Among the props he used were Steve Jobs’ widow and Warren Buffett’s secretary, the latter on display to illustrate Obama’s specious claim that she has a higher effective tax rate than Buffett.
While the president’s remarks were notable for the ?narrowness? of his vision (as columnist Charles Krauthammer put it), the Republican response from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was sweeping and inspiring ? rising to a level that the GOP candidates seeking to oust Obama have yet to reach.
Source: http://newsok.com/obamas-words-in-state-of-the-union-dont-match-his-actions/article/3643390
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James, is that Hugh?
James Franco hit the Glendale, Calif. set of Lovelace on Thursday. The handsome, quirky actor, 33, was utterly transformed to film his cameo as none other than Hugh Hefner — morphing into a younger version of the Playboy founder, 85.
PHOTOS: Celeb lookalikes
The normally hipster casual actor, artist and student wore Hefner’s iconic red moking jacket and white scarf, with his hair in a 60s/70s style pompadour.
Starring Amanda Seyfried as porn star Linda Lovelace, the film made a last-minute casting switch this week: Mary-Louise Parker is replacing the ailing Demi Moore in the role of Gloria Steinem, a source confirmed to Us Weekly exclusively.
PHOTOS: Hugh’s brutal breakup
Tell Us: How does Franco look as Hefner?
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[unable to retrieve full-text content]Bathonea, a harbor town dating from the second century B.C., was discovered by archaeologists on a peninsula jutting into Lake Kucukcekmece.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=02f6b60949d5d52d98e5df730a70d5cb
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By Marisa Taylor
In a strange twist for a purveyor of clean-cut comic books, a co-CEO of Archie Comics has been temporarily barred from the company?s Mamaroneck, N.Y.-based offices for violating an order to reduce her role at the company.
Yes, one of the owners of the red-headed Archie Andrews character.
A federal judge on Tuesday placed a temporary restraining order against Archie Comics co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit to keep her from entering the company?s offices or playing any role at the company, reported The New York Post, after Archie Comics filed a suit in Manhattan Supreme Court accusing Silberkleit of violating a previous court order to limit her role there.
Archie Comics had filed a previous suit against Silberkleit alleging that she harassed and intimidated employees, according to court documents.
Silberkleit circulated a press release last week in which she referred to herself as ?the seasoned anti-bullying and literacy advocate,? and called for entries to a student essay contest about bullying that would accompany a non-profit comic book about the topic.
But on Tuesday, the restraining order was filed as part of a contempt hearing about whether Silberkleit violated a previous order to limit her involvement in company business until the original case was closed, reported The New York Daily News.
According to court documents, employee complaints about Silberkleit’s behavior at the office in 2011 led to the contracting of a human resource consulting firm to investigate the matter, and the firm found that ?there is a serious problem in the company? and recommended that Silberkleit ?should have no further contact with the company?s employees and vendors.?
The filing said: ?Several employees mentioned being scared of Nancy. They believe?that her behavior is erratic and they are fearful of what could happen. Other employees feel concerned that Nancy could threaten their well-being, jobs and even physically (sic)?.
Among employees? complaints were that Silberkleit referred to male staff members as ?penises,? accused two employees of having an affair, and alluded that a female staffer was liked by other employees solely based on the size of her breasts.
Neither Silberkleit?s nor the plaintiff’s attorneys would respond to requests for comment, but an attorney representing co-CEO Jon Goldwater? recently told The Daily News that Silberkleit had also visited the Archie offices last December accompanied by a former player for the NFL?s Baltimore Colts team.
But at Tuesday’s hearing, Silberkleit reportedly told the judge that she was the victim of a “smear campaign” by Goldwater and other Archie staffers, reported The Post.
Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10244654-judge-bars-archie-comics-ceo-from-office
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Google?s winning smartphone strategy was to make Android open source and invite anyone and everyone to create a device for their mobile platform. It worked, as HTC, Motorola and others jumped on the opportunity to create smartphones to rival the iPhone. However, the market was reset when Apple released the iPad. Yet another game-changer, the iPad set new standards for tablets, and is already prepping for a third generation release. All the while, Google?s been building an Android platform designed for tablets, eventually releasing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich towards the end of last year. While Android?s been unable to topple iOS in the tablet arena, the tides are finally starting to turn as Android?s tablet market share rose to 39 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011.
According to Strategy Analytics, that?s up from 29 percent in the year-earlier period. The iPad still accounted for 68.2 percent of tablet sales, but the pattern is following a path similar to the smartphone market since the iPhone was first released in 2007.
?In other words, Android tablets are rising at broadly the same rate as Android smartphones did in the past,? says Neil Mawston, executive director of the global wireless practice of Strategy Analytics.
That?s good news for device makers, who have been anxious to release better Android tablets into the market. Price is certainly a factor, with gadgets like the Amazon Kindle Fire appealing to a broad range of consumers. Companies like Samsung have been able to rise to the top of the Android competition with one of the best iPad alternatives in terms of features. And while Samsung faces a slew of patent infringement lawsuits from Apple, Android OEMs can apply some of the lessons learned from their smartphone experiences, making improvements in their tablet strategies moving forward.
Tablets boost the mobile market
More Android tablets could be a boost for carriers as well, which rely on a diverse mobile device line up to draw in consumers. AT&T may have lost a few billion in the failed T-Mobile merger, but the wireless provider still managed to beat Wall Street?s expectations last quarter with total revenue of $32.5 billion, an increase of 3.6 percent from the same period last year. AT&T had its best-ever quarter for smartphones, setting records for Android and iPhone activations. If tablets truly are to follow the smartphone market, networks like AT&T will be able to further their revenue streams around tablets and data plans over the next few quarters.
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By Martha C. White
When companies go bankrupt, the misery is?shared among many: Bond holders are wiped out, retirees see their pensions and benefits vanish, and employees lose their jobs.
But some feel no pain at all: CEOs and other top executives of companies that go through Chapter 11 receive robust compensation in the form of salary, stock grants and other benefits.
In some cases, they earn even more money than they did before the filing, even while other stakeholders suffer.?It’s the most unlikely fast-track to a fat payout ever, and it goes on in spite of federal legislation meant to crack down on corporate honchos feasting while everyone else fights over crumbs.?
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. In the wake of corporate catastrophes such as Enron, Congress passed legislation aimed at preventing companies from paying retention bonuses to executives at firms going through Chapter 11.?
“You can’t pay someone for just staying at a bankrupt company,” said Robert Jackson, an associate professor at Columbia Law School at Columbia University, and former advisory to senior Treasury officials on executive compensation during the financial crisis. “But that’s different from paying them from doing well at a bankrupt company,” he said.?
That distinction has become a loophole. Since the law allows performance-based incentives, huge executive payouts have morphed over the years to be little more than retention bonuses by another name, according to critics who say executives net outsized payouts even when they negotiate agreements that leave stakeholders out in the cold.
“There seems to be no sense of accountability at this level,” said Steven Kropp, a professor at Roger Williams University School of Law. “In most of these cases, the unsecured creditors aren’t being paid back in full, employees are being laid off, and in addition, they’re finding their health insurance and pensions diminished.” An investigation by The Wall Street Journal found that median compensation of CEOs at 21 companies that filed for bankruptcy was $8.7 million, just $400,000 less than the median compensation earned by CEOs at healthy companies.?
Companies are required to go to court and argue their case for big bonuses with the bankruptcy judge, explaining why the CEO deserves the set level of compensation and what targets they must meet in order to earn their bonus. The problem is that often?the bar is set so low that even lackluster performance will be measured as success.?
“It’s all fine and well to say you’re going to pay people for performance, but the key is what kind of performance,” Jackson said. “It’s very hard for a judge to know if an earnings target is easy or hard to hit. Are they just window dressings?” To make this determination, the court has to rely on evidence from the company’s executives and lawyers, who may have an incentive to give themselves easy assignments.
Judges also have to rely on the input of compensation experts ? also hired by the company ? to know if the bonuses being proposed are appropriate for the industry and the task at hand, which also raises the prospect of manipulation.?
To keep companies from taking advantage of this, Jackson said, bankruptcy courts could have their own industry-specific experts to vet the numbers being proposed by people on the company payroll.?
Critics of the current status quo say there are other legal ways to patch the ballooning-bonus loophole. “You could simply amend the bankruptcy code to preclude a company in bankruptcy from paying bonuses in excess of prior salary to its existing executives,” John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School, said via email. “Or you could limit the amount of any additional income in excess of their prior compensation?from the firm to some reasonable percentage.”?
Kropp suggests using clawback provisions to cap executive compensation in the event of bankruptcy and funneling the recovered funds into employees’ investment accounts. Even advocates of reforms like these, though, admit that they’re a political no-go for lawmakers in today’s contentious legislative environment.?
The argument in favor of big bonuses, even when they come at the expense of employees, retirees and other unsecured creditors, is that successfully guiding a company through bankruptcy and emerging on the other side is a challenging, risky job, and most CEOs would bolt without the promise of millions in cash and stock for their trouble.
But research done by Ethan Bernstein, a Kauffman Foundation Fellow on leave from Harvard Law School, shows that CEOs of financially troubled companies quit or are ousted at the same rate whether or not they file for bankruptcy or muddle through with private restructuring.
For some, this raises the troubling possibility that Chapter 11 has become a back door for CEOs to grant themselves raises, especially in light of the fact that the Journal’s research found CEOs at some troubled firms actually earned more after filing for Chapter 11.
“My belief is that CEOs and other senior executives can panic a board with the implied threat that they might desert the sinking ship if some formula is not found to give them extraordinary pay for their service in a crisis,” Coffee said.?
Pulling a teetering company back from the brink is hard, and it’s an increasingly specialized job, which Bernstein said contributes to the high number ??37 percent ??of CEOs brought on either during a bankruptcy reorganization or in the year leading up to it.?
He said key stakeholders want a “bankruptcy guru,” and they’re willing to shell out enormous sums for the services of a CEO they think can pull the most money out of a troubled company. The catch is that this slate of decision-makers increasingly includes big creditors, negotiating with the kind of clout once limited to shareholders. What a creditor sees as the best return on its investment may very well be a bloodbath for the company’s rank-and-file.
Do you think these CEO compensation deals are fair? Share your thoughts on Facebook.
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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa ? President Barack Obama is arguing that manufacturing must be the foundation for a renewed American economy, as he takes his State of the Union economic message on a tour of politically crucial states.
Obama toured a plant that makes giant conveyor belt screws Wednesday before addressing a crowd about the importance of bringing manufacturing back to American shores.
Running for re-election against Republicans who’ve questioned his economic stewardship, the president said he wants to restore the basic promise of America, “and it starts with manufacturing.”
Obama’s remarks in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, came on the first stop of a three-day tour the morning after his State of the Union address. Obama stops later Wednesday in Arizona before traveling Thursday to Nevada and Colorado and wrapping up Friday in Michigan.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
President Barack Obama embarked Wednesday on a three-day tour of politically crucial states in a post-State of the Union journey to sell his 2012 economic policy goals while pitching his presidency to a divided public.
Fresh from his address to a joint session of Congress, Obama was promoting his agenda to attract more manufacturing to American soil by showcasing a conveyor belt maker in Iowa and an Intel plant in Arizona.
Obama will highlight energy security Thursday in Nevada and Colorado and wrap up Friday by pushing education and training proposals at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Presidential travel following the State of the Union is commonplace, allowing presidents to temporarily bask in the afterglow of their prime-time performances, milking their message before key constituencies.
Obama was touring Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing, a small family-owned Cedar Rapids company that builds conveyor belts, working primarily with the ethanol and food industries. The president planned to discuss a series of tax incentives to help manufacturers, including ways of reducing tax rates for manufacturing companies and a proposal to double the tax deduction for high-tech manufacturers to spur more jobs in the U.S.
Obama’s trip comes amid signs of economic improvements even as battling Republican presidential contenders appeal to conservatives by sounding increasingly hostile to his policies.
Underlying the president’s specific policy proposals will be the election-year economic fairness argument that he has been refining since he spelled it out in Osawatomie, Kan., last month, including higher taxes on the wealthy. Reinforcing the political subtext of the trip is the fact that four of the five states he will visit will hold Republican presidential caucuses or primaries within the next month. The two caucuses ? in Nevada and Colorado ? come within two weeks of his visit.
Obama has made a point of grabbing headlines in states in the midst of Republican presidential contests, eager not to cede the political message to his rivals.
What’s more, of five paths that Obama campaign manager Jim Messina has charted to win re-election in November, all foresee winning Michigan, three require winning Iowa, two require Colorado and Nevada, and one has Arizona in the Obama win column. In 2008, of the five states he’s visiting, Obama only lost Arizona, the home state of then rival John McCain.
Obama will also use his trip to grant two high-profile interviews, one to the Spanish-language television network Univision and the other to ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer. With Univision, the White House hopes to reach an important Latino voting bloc, a constituency that could be important in states such as Arizona and Nevada. The White House also likes the reach ABC gives the president because the interview will be spread among three news shows ? the evening news, “Nightline” and “Good Morning America.”
As part of his focus on manufacturing on Wednesday, Obama’s trip to Arizona marks his second visit to an Intel plant. He traveled to the firm’s Oregon campus in 2011, when Intel announced it would spend $5 billion on a new computer chip manufacturing facility. Intel’s CEO, Paul Otellini, is a member of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Looking to increase domestic manufacturing, Obama on Tuesday reiterated his proposal to eliminate tax incentives that make it more attractive for companies to ship jobs overseas. The proposal would require American companies to pay a minimum tax on their overseas profits in order to prevent other countries from attracting U.S. businesses with unusually low tax rates.
Obama also wants to eliminate tax deductions companies receive for the cost of shutting down factories and moving production overseas. He wants to create a new tax credit to cover moving expenses for companies that close production overseas and bring jobs back to the U.S. He also wants to reduce tax rates for manufacturers and double the tax deduction for high-tech manufacturers in order to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
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President/CEO of Together We Rise talks to MTV News about song, slated for March release.
By Jocelyn Vena
Justin Bieber
Photo: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images
Justin Bieber‘s fans are working to give back the same way the pop star readily does. Several of Bieber’s biggest fan groups, as well as the nonprofit Together We Rise and Brush Buddies (the makers behind the singing Bieber toothbrush), have all teamed up to work on a charity single.
“They’re all working on pieces of the video and the lyrics. Right now, they’re putting together videos and thank-you’s.’ We’re working on the back end,” Danny Mendoza, President/CEO of Together We Rise, which focuses on helping foster children in the U.S, told MTV News about the project.
“It started with a young lady named Vivian, she runs the Justin Crew fan club and she approached it on Twitter. She approached it and she had a lot of fan support,” he continued. “She took it upon herself to take a leadership role, and then she contacted me because she needed some guidance. We just decided we’ll help you do it. Justin Bieber had tweeted about us in the past and helped us get some recognition, so it was a thank-you to him as well.
Proceeds from the song will go toward Bieber’s Believe charity drive. It will drop in March, just in time for his 18th birthday on March 1.
“I’m almost 100 percent positive that they know,” Mendoza said of Bieber’s camp’s knowledge of the project. “Justin Bieber inspired a lot of young people to give back. It’s a thank-you for helping us and we want to give back in your honor.”
Bieber is certainly not a newbie to the world of charity. Mendoza said that having a pop star like Bieber being so socially conscious has been incredible for the charities he helps bring attention to.
“He definitely has the right people around him … They made it a priority that giving back is more. I think his relationship with [his manager Scooter Braun's brother] Adam Braun and his charity [Pencils of Promise], he was able to see hands on a lot of it.”
After Bieber tweeted this week about the Trillium Gift of Life Network, the Ontario-based organ donation network has seen registrations skyrocket to more than 1,200 people, four times the amount the network usually receives.
What charity do you want Bieber to promote? Leave your comment below.
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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677983/justin-bieber-together-we-rise-charity-charity-single.jhtml
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DETROIT ? Prince Fielder was born in 1984, the last time Detroit won the World Series.
After luring Fielder to Michigan with the fourth-largest contract in baseball history, the Tigers are hoping he will help usher in a new championship era for the Motor City.
“This is awesome,” Fielder said Thursday after finalizing a $214 million, nine-year deal with Detroit. “It’s kind of a dream come true. I’m excited.”
Detroit began seriously pursuing Fielder after designated hitter Victor Martinez tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during offseason conditioning. Now the Tigers have three of baseball’s biggest stars ? Fielder, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander ? all in their primes. Detroit won the AL Central by 15 games last year but lost to Texas in the AL championship series.
When the Tigers introduced Fielder on Thursday, the message was clear:
“We’re trying to win right now,” general manager Dave Dombrowski said. “We tried to win last year. We were close. I think we’ve reached a point now, on a yearly basis, we feel that way. When you look at the core of our group of players, there’s a lot of guys that are on that field right now that are quality players.”
Fielder’s father Cecil became a big league star when he returned to the majors from Japan and hit 51 home runs with Detroit in 1990. Cecil played with the Tigers into the 1996 season, and young Prince made a name for himself with his prodigious power displays during batting practice at Tiger Stadium.
Detroit plays at Comerica Park now, and times have changed. The Fielders’ strained relationship has been well documented, and Prince didn’t elaborate on it Thursday.
“I’m just ecstatic about being with the Tigers,” Prince Fielder said. “I’m just here to enjoy the day.”
It will be up to manager Jim Leyland to figure out where to play all of his powerful hitters. He said Thursday the Tigers will move Miguel Cabrera from first base to third to make room for Fielder. He also listed a possible batting order, with Cabrera hitting third and Fielder fourth.
It’s a lineup based on power, not speed.
“If they hit it where they’re supposed to hit `em, they can trot,” Leyland said. “We’re going back to the old-fashioned baseball. We’ve got big-time power on the corners.”
Fielder’s contract includes a limited no-trade provision. He can be traded to 10 clubs without his consent before 2017, when he gains rights to block all trades under baseball’s labor contract as a 10-year veteran who has been with a team for at least five years.
He will earn $23 million in each of his first two years with Detroit, then will make $24 million annually in the final seven seasons of his contract, according to terms obtained by The Associated Press.
The move carries plenty of risk for the Tigers. Fielder is 27 and has been extremely durable during his career, but Detroit is committing to him for almost a decade.
“I go by my instinct, like everybody else does,” said owner Mike Ilitch, the Little Caesars pizza mogul who signed off on this massive deal after what had been a quiet offseason for the Tigers. “My instincts told me that this is going to work out fine.”
Leyland sounded as taken aback as anyone with his club’s sudden change.
“This boggles my mind, to be honest with you,” he said. “I was kidding somebody. I said ? I’m being funny ? `About three weeks ago we were talking about maybe getting an extra pitcher or bullpen guy or something. Well, we didn’t know if we had the finances to get a guy.’ I said, `I don’t know what happened in three weeks. Little Caesars did good, evidently.’”
The hardest adjustment might be for Cabrera. He’s returning to a position he played while with the Florida Marlins, but he’s played only 14 games at third base with the Tigers ? all in 2008 right after he joined the team.
Fielder made 15 errors last year, the most in baseball by a first baseman.
“Mr. Ilitch and Dave have given me a lot of nice pieces to this puzzle. It’s my job, along with coaches, to figure out how to put that puzzle all together,” Leyland said. “(Cabrera) is not going to have the agility, most likely, defensively that Brandon Inge had. You give up a little something, but you get a whole lot in return.”
Leyland said he talked to Inge, who lost his job as Detroit’s everyday third baseman last season.
“He’s not the happiest camper,” Leyland said. “He certainly understands.”
Dombrowski indicated he’s satisfied with his roster heading into spring training, although it’s hard to rule out any more moves after the Tigers shockingly emerged with Fielder.
The pitching rotation is anchored by Verlander, who won the Cy Young Award and MVP last year, but Detroit’s fifth starter spot is still uncertain. Dombrowski said the Tigers could bring in some non-roster invites to compete for that job.
“I think positional player-wise, we’re pretty well set,” he said.
___
AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed to this report.
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