Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman announced he is running for president last week. Business Insider caught up with Fred Davis, the veteran GOP media strategist behind Carly Fiorina's "Demon Sheep" ad , for more on how Huntsman is presenting himself to Republican voters.
1. How did you come to be involved in the Huntsman campaign?
A few years ago I filmed a non-candidate TV spot that happened to feature the governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman. So nice, so self-effacing, so refreshing for a politician that I never forgot that day. Years later, John Weaver called and asked if I’d be interested in joining a small group who were interested in a Huntsman presidential campaign some day, and I jumped at the chance.
2. What drew you to working for him, as opposed to the other 2012 candidates?
Authenticity. That breath of fresh air. The fact his ideas aren’t the same old ones we’ve heard for years, with a slightly new coat of varnish. I liked his view of America from 10,000 miles away, real lasting solutions instead of memorizedpoll-speak [sic].
3. Can you explain your thinking behind the motocross videos?
No one knows who Jon Huntsman is. The goal was pretty simple, find a format that caused people to talk and wonder and be intrigued about someone they’d never heard of. Worked quite well.
4. What makes Jon Huntsman the candidate for GOP voters?
He's the only GOP candidate who has a prayer of beating Barack Obama. Obama knows that, now to be sure the GOP knows that.
Creating and maintaining your online brand is an important tactic that anyone from the job seeker to the CEO should consider, particularly keeping up with an online presence. However, how do you add real value to your platforms, while at the same time keeping up with your image?
Here are a few suggestions:
Complete your profiles in full. When you visit someone’s social networking page, you get a quick glimpse of their life, their experience, and their personality. So, it’s probably a good idea to complete your online platforms in full. Depending on character limits or platform restrictions, think about including a decent headshot, full name, industry, location, links to your other platforms, a short bio, etc. That way, people will be able to gauge who you really are, verses just assuming.
Appeal to your niche or audience. Your following is important. After all, they’re probably how you’re going to get from point A to point B. Thus, try to appeal to your niche or your audience. Why? Well, besides adding value to your platforms, catering your work to your followers will keep them coming back. Further, if you go one step further and ask your audience what they want to read or see, you’ll get them involved making them feel appreciated and enhancing your personal brand.
Add video. Adding an interactive element like video to your online platforms may help you stand out from your competition. Since we live in a visual world, your audience or following will probably be more impressed if they see some sort of video element as opposed to just text. You don’t need to be an interactive expert to create or post an industry related video on your online platforms, either. Think about piecing together something short by using basic video software, or simply scour site like YouTube to find things your audience will enjoy. Regardless of your choice, the more interactive elements your sites have, the better.
Be current. Ever come across someone’s Twitter page and notice they seem to post things five days late? Although they get an A for effort, our digital world calls for information seconds after it happens, not days. So, it may be a good idea to stay up-to-date with trends and industry related news for the sake of a quality driven profile. For example, if a big company in your niche gets bought out, tweet the information as soon as it’s public, ask questions on Facebook, or even write a blog post. By staying current, you enhance your personal image and brand, which more times than not will probably add value to your platforms.
Update often. There’s little point in having online platforms if you’re not going to update them. Sure, anyone can have a Twitter or LinkedIn account, but how many people out there fine tune them often? It’s a challenge, but it can be done. So, if you switch jobs, indicate so on your professional sites. If you move, change your information. If you decide to completely switch up your niche, indicate so by blogging your plans. Bottom line: keep your name out there and your audience informed by staying on top of your content. That way, your online brand, as well as your platforms, will be more solid.
The curtains, which once hung in Kluge's former estate in Virginia, were expected to sell for somewhere between $600 and $800. They were sold at an estate auction in mid-June.
Catherine Levene is the CEO and co-founder of Artspace, a new Internet company focused on selling mid-range art at affordable prices on a global scale. The New York Times Digital and DailyCandy alum launched the start-up in March with $1.2 million in funding.
She tells Business Insider about the company's reception so far, not only by consumers but by curators and artists across the globe.
Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All Things Digital and author of the BoomTown blog, says that while there is "froth" around IPO activity, including the anticipated IPO filing of social game maker Zynga, the fundamentals around these companies are more substantial than during the tech boom of the late nineties.
Of the buzz around the Zynga offering, she says much of the chatter has come from the company's bankers who "are leaking more than the Titanic."
We've been seeing a lot of clever tricks for joining Google+ without an official invite from Google.
It's really easy. If you have Google+ and want to share with your pals, here's what to do:
Make sure the person you want to invite is already in your Google contacts. If not, you can add in Gmail.
From your Circles page, drag that contact into a new circle. (You have to check where it says you want to share with the person over e-mail.)
Now share something with the circle you just dragged the contact to. He or she will receive an e-mail that asks if they want to learn more about Google+.
When they click the link in their e-mail, they'll be prompted to join.
Left to your own devices, mobile or otherwise, there are is a gargantuan array of “travel gadgets” on the market, ranging from practical tools to wacky gimmicks.
Here’s an assortment of five travel gadgets:
AViiQ Portable USB Charging Station: This 10” x 5” x 1.5” bag, made out of ABS and nylon fabric, contains a USB charging hub, enabling you to charge up to three USB devices at the same time, while using just one AC plug. Its cable storage designs hopefully allows you to put your cables inside the bag without spending the rest of your vacation untangling them.
Website: aviiqu.com Price: $99.99
TRUCO (Travel Utility Carry On): A modular carry-on; combining a carry-on, laptop bag, and briefcase. A click-on system enables you to remove and add modules. And, if you are prone to grappling with overhead bins, the TRUCO modules can be separated to fit into the overhead bin space. 20” x 10.5” x 13.5”
Website: balanzza.com Price: $199.00
Verbatim Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard: For users of Bluetooth-enabled iPhone and iPad users who are feeling keyboard loss, this mobile keyboard folds up and can be easily stored, the company says. This gadget also sports a media console, enabling you to play, pause and otherwise control iTunes tunes right from the keyboard. A carrying case and iPhone stand are included.
Website: verbatim.com Price: $79.99
All-Weather Soft Case Bike Mount: Geared for recreational and competitive cyclists, the bike mount enables you to position your mobile device, which you might use as a GPS, to track your speed or with another bike-related app, on your bicycle handlebars. It comes with a soft, detachable, weather-resistant case, and you can dabble with your device’s touchscreen while it is securely in the case.
Website: Bracketron.com Price: $39.95
RageGage: In the somewhat quirky category comes RageGage, a “smashable rage controller,” perfect for calming down after a mile-long security lane or endlessly long wait at the departure gate. Just turn it on, adjust the volume and smash the soft gel pad with your hand. The RageGage comes preloaded with “a hilarious voice” which answers your poundings with retorts such as “you wuss” or “who are you kids?” The RageGage also “doubles as a video game controller for smash-based games…” RageGage says. Albeit, it’s smashing.
As it turns out, neither the banking industry nor the retail sector are too happy about the final result.
The finalized rule caps debit card fees at 21 to 24 cents per transaction for banks with more than $10 billion in assets. Yes, that’s about half of what current fees are, but it’s double the 12-cent cap that the Fed had originally proposed in December.
They also warned that capping the fees would force banks to charge consumers for basic services to make up the difference. It's not clear how much they spent on their campaign against the regulations, but commercial banks and credit unions have spent more than $17 million overall on lobbying so far this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
After their efforts, the rules were loosened and their implementation delayed until October. But banks have warned that they still plan to increase consumer fees.
“Consumers will still see higher fees for basic banking services, and banks—particularly community banks—will still feel the revenue pressures that this rule will cause,” American Bankers Association president Frank Keating said in a statement. “We will continue to aggressively advocate for remedies that will mitigate any harm caused by this regulatory action.”
Retailers criticized the Fed’s new rule as a “serious disappointment” and an “about-face” by the Fed. They say the cap is set too high.
As for consumers, it's not clear whether they'll come out ahead. David Evans, a former Visa adviser who runs a consulting firm catering to the financial industry, has said that consumers have no reason to be happy—they’ll lose their bank perks and have no guarantee that retailers will pass on any portion of their savings.
But Georgetown University law professor Adam Levitin takes a different view. He’s made the argument that competitive forces make retailers more likely to pass on savings to consumers, and that in issuing the final rule, “the Fed bent over backwards to help the banks on this. How they go from 12 cents to 21 cents is never explained in the rulemaking.”
American equity markets continued their run in Thursday trading as a solid Chicago PMI and declining jobless claims helped markets to end the quarter on a strong note. The Dow rose by 1.3% in the session, leading the broader indexes as the Nasdaq rose by 1.2% and the S&P 500 gained 1.0%. Commodities were more mixed on the day as gold lost close to $11/oz. and oil added a few cents, keeping the WTI benchmark just below the $95/bbl. level. Soft commodities were especially volatile, as products such as cocoa and coffee held firm, while crops such as corn and wheat plunged on the day by over 4% each. These sharp losses came despite a marginally weaker dollar and were on the back of a USDA report which suggested that acreage, and thus supply, of major grains would be up this season. Turning to Treasury markets, investors saw continued outflows from U.S. government debt as the debt ceiling issues continue to hang over the market. 10 Year debt saw yields rise to about 3.18% while the 2 year approached the 0.5% mark, finishing the session yielding 0.48%.
One of the biggest ETF winners on the day was the Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI) which gained 1.6% in Thursday trading. As predicted in today’s ETF to watch, the industrials sector was on the move today after the release of the Chicago PMI, which handily beat very gloomy expectations. Traders saw this key indicator surge to a reading of 61.1, well above analyst expectations which called for a drop down to 53.0. This figure led many analysts to believe that last month’s reading was somewhat of an aberration and that tomorrow’s key ISM report will show a rebounding economy. This along with a weaker dollar led many investors to be quite bullish on the U.S. industrial sector to close out the quarter, giving XLI a nice boost in Thursday trading [see holdings of XLI here].
One of the biggest losers in the ETFdb 60 was the PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) which sank by 2.5% in the session. Today’s stiff losses came largely thanks to a USDA report which showed that 1.8% more acres of corn were planted than expected and that stockpiles were 12% higher than forecast for the key crop. Meanwhile, a similar situation took place in wheat trading as traders learned that farmers planted roughly 2.6% more wheat than estimates and inventories were roughly 4.6% above estimates as well. Thanks to this extra supply, investors sold off corn and wheat contracts in droves; corn fell by 4.6% and wheat plunged by close to 8.9% in Chicago trading. Soybeans also fell more than 2% on the news, helping to send shares of DBA plunging on the day as the product has roughly one third of its total assets in these three commodities. Only strong performances out of the coffee, cocoa, and sugar kept this product from turning in a far worse day to close out the quarter [see more on the DBA fact sheet].
Jay Yarow, Nicholas Carlson and Dan Frommer discuss the most important items in Zynga's upcoming filing that will also finally give us a glimpse into how big Facebook is.
Twitter is under federal investigation for its dealings with with the companies building applications and services for its platform. Does the FTC's case hold water?
Other topics the SAIcast covers today are Justin Timberlake's new gig as MySpace's creative director, if Google Plus could really get popular with the 'normals' and and why Twitter refuses to sell.
Lastly, today is Dan Frommer's last day at Business Insider after four years at SAI. Don't miss the (almost) tearful goodbyes at the end of the podcast. Keep up with Dan's new project at @fromedome
Glenn Beck's final show on FOX is currently airing.
Taking a moment to list all the firsts he is responsible for Beck pointed to a chalkboard.
"Chalkboards! Look at the things we've done that are so ridiculous. Who would have thought this chalkboard would be...I mean, c'mon, CNN is doing holographic hookers and stuff, and we're doing chalkboards!"
Also, crying and eating and reading.
Shorter version: Beck didn't need bells and whistles (just frogs and rabbits and chalkboards).
The world economy dodged a bullet today. Parliamentarians in Greece voted in favor of a painful package of austerity measures aimed at reducing the government's yawning budget deficit, controlling its ballooning debt and convincing the rest of the euro zone to continue to support the country with rescue funds. The vote paves the way for a second EU-led bailout and probably holds off a default, at least for now. It probably also will quiet fears that Greece's debt crisis would spread turmoil throughout global financial markets (though perhaps not for very long).
The tragedy unfolding in Greece means even more than that. With much of the developed world – including the U.K., Japan, and yes, the U.S. – facing heavy state debt burdens, the events taking place in Greece are a glimpse into the future for many of the global economy's most important nations. As politicians in Washington wrangle over the debt ceiling, budget cuts and taxes, we have to ask the question: Is the U.S. heading in the same direction as Greece?
Secondly, don't rush to the exits. Financial markets are telling us that the investor community does not see the U.S. debt problem as urgent. Otherwise, yields on Treasuries would reflect more concern. So Washington enjoys a luxury the Greeks don't have – time. That credible plan to fix the nation's finances should be a long-term one. The U.S. can afford to stretch out budget-cutting over the next decade, maybe even further.
And if we cut too deep, too quickly? That could tank an economy already reeling. Unemployment is still obscenely high, the housing market is far from repaired and there's even talk of a double dip. In other words, the private sector is not ready to step into any hole left by reduced government spending. Until it is, Washington's politicians have to be extremely careful when closing the deficit. Not only would reduced expenditures cause a direct hit to economic growth, there will also be a knock-on effect that would dampen other spending. Say, for example, Medicare is restructured so that Americans in the future won't enjoy the same level of benefits. That would force families to save more now to cover expected medical expenses tomorrow, reducing their spending power today, and dampening growth prospects. The best way to fix American finances is through growth. More growth means higher tax revenues and smaller deficits. Slower growth would make closing the budget gap that much harder. The U.S. would end up like a dog chasing its tail.
Third, cut smart. The government has to think about fixing the budget while supporting U.S. competitiveness. For example, education might need even more funding if the U.S. is to compete with a rising China. Maybe we should buy fewer fighter jets and keep schools open? The U.S. also has to cut in ways that lessens the pain of austerity for the greatest number of people. In other words, Washington has to cut fairly. That's my biggest worry right now. The Republican approach to budget cutting seems to be turning the U.S. government into a perquisite machine for the privileged and connected. The GOP apparently has no problem with the deficit when it comes to tax breaks for the richest Americans, but the party has a big problem with the deficit when it comes to extending benefits to the unemployed or providing healthcare to the poor. That is not only morally repugnant, it is bad economics. The U.S. economy is built not on the bankers of Wall Street but the folks on Main Street. It's the hard-working middle class that needs to be kept employed and spending if the U.S. economy is to repair its national finances without destroying growth. That doesn't mean programs like Medicare and Medicaid don't require reform – they do – but it does mean the interests of the majority of the population can't be sacrificed for the interests of a few. The biggest danger I see in the American budget cutting process is that it will be based on the power of special interests and ideological idiocy, not pragmatism and fairness.
So is the U.S. facing a Greek future? Only if Americans choose to.
Twitter spent so much time not generating any revenue that everyone just assumes it's still struggling. But in fact Twitter has turned on many revenue products and after some experimentation, by all accounts they're doing well.
We're pretty sure the company is very profitable.
Let's do some math.
First of all, costs. What are Twitter's costs? The company has around 500 employees.
A good rule of thumb for a tech company is to figure a cost of $100,000 per employee. That's all of the company's costs, per employee, and includes rent, all those servers, etc.
So, roughly, Twitter's costs are probably around $50 million per year.
How much revenue do they generate?
Twitter has three sources of revenue that we know of: its firehose, Promoted Trends, and Promoted Accounts.
Twitter charges for access to its Firehose, all of the tweets in real time. That was the first time Twitter generated any meaningful revenue, selling that data to Microsoft and Google for their search engines. Back then, it was rumored that Twitter would take in $20 million/year deal. Now Twitter's firehose is many times larger but let's be conservative and say it still takes in $20 million/year from the firehose.
Promoted Trends are sold out, and they recently upped the price to $120,000. That's per day, and probably even a bit more as they're starting to roll out specific trends for specific countries. To take into account discounts and be conservative let's say Twitter sells $100,000 worth of Promoted Trends 350 days per year, which works out to $35 million in revenue.
And finally we have Promoted Accounts. We hear that's the most profitable. What companies want out of Twitter is to be able to increase their follower counts. Twitter's Whom To Follow feature allows it to suggest people to follow accounts. How much money is this making?
Well, we don't really know. But there's one way to guesstimate.
Twitter has 600 advertisers, CEO Dick Costolo said recently. The minimum buy is $15,000 over 3 months. Some advertisers spend that. Some probably spend millions. Let's take a conservative figure and say each advertiser spends $50,000 on average, which is probably low. That still works out to $30 million in revenue.
Let's add it all up, shall we?
Costs $50 million
Revenue Firehose: $20 million Promoted Trends: $35 million Promoted Accounts: $30 million Total: $85 million
In reality, this probably understates things. This is just our gut speaking but we're pretty sure Twitter will break $100 million in revenue this year and is very profitable.
If that's true, then why isn't it crowing about it? Especially given the beating it got in the press for so many years for not having a business model?
First of all, probably to spite the press.
Second of all, probably for competitive reasons. Twitter does compete with Facebook and Google in online advertising. In particular, it competes in creating new, social ad formats. It doesn't want to give the other guys too many clues as to what works and what doesn't.
Third of all, most successful companies don't brag about their profits. Google didn't. Zynga didn't. The smart thing is to let others underestimate you, keep looking at you as a toy. In the meantime, you can calmly coin money.
And Twitter is almost certainly minting it.
And it hasn't even gotten all the low-hanging fruit. Internationalization. Self-serve. And most importantly the service can't stop growing. Once they have the ad model, more users means more profits.
At the end of the day, Twitter is the new TV. That makes it a very valuable medium that advertisers will pay to have a space on.
You can quibble with the numbers, but anyone who says Twitter isn't making money isn't paying attention.
Between the parades, the fireworks, and the Coney Island eating contest, Americans will consume more than 150 million franks, which, as the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council points out, is enough to stretch from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. more than five times.
But if you’re choosing a hot dog over a burger to guard your heart and your waist, you’ll have to be picky.
*It also stands as yet another reason for Republicans to delay any agreement on the debt ceiling, since he would likely be replaced by a Democrat.
**I, in turn, will promise to get my tax difficulties with NY State straightened out.*** Since the current T-Sec had much more recurrent and lasting issues, I don't see this as a problem for confirmation, should such be required.
***They are the direct result on my current firm having accidentally, I presume, input my Social Security number into their system with "fat fingers."
Larry Summers, one of the US's top economists and policymakers, has joined über-VC firm Andreessen Horowitz as a part-time Special Advisor.
What Andreessen Horowitz is doing here isn't new. Al Gore and Colin Powell are part-timers at Kleiner Perkins and Tony Blair at Khosla Ventures.
There are two obvious reasons why this deal makes sense, but one of them people don't talk about.
The obvious reason people do talk about -- and it's a real reason! -- is that Summers is one of the greatest economic minds on the planet, and that having him as an advisor of a top venture firm and of companies that want to go global would be a very good thing.
The obvious reason that's less talked about is that, as a former Treasury Secretary and director of the National Economic Council, Summers has one of the biggest rolodexes in Washington DC.
Increased government intervention in the economy appears (unfortunately, to this writer) to be one of the megatrends of the 21st century. And many of the sectors that appear ripe for internet-enabled disruption -- education, healthcare, energy -- happen to be ones where government influence is the strongest.
Having Summers on board to make a few calls if and when one of your companies is regulated -- or to regulate an upstart that might compete with it -- will come in quite handy.
Yesterday, the Portland Trail Blazers extended a qualifying offer to Greg Oden that should keep him in Portland through the 2012-13 season. And with that offer comes an opportunity for Oden to finally live up to the promise he showed when he entered the NBA four years ago, and finally shake the label as "The Next Sam Bowie."
In 1984, the Portland Trail Blazers famously selected Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan with the second pick of the draft. Twenty-three years later, the Blazers had the top pick of the draft, and once again chose the big man (Oden) over the electric scorer (Kevin Durant).
Four years later, Oden has missed 246 of the Blazers 328 games. That has drawn some unfortunate comparisons to Bowie who only played in 63 games in the four seasons following his rookie campaign.
Meanwhile, Durant is a two-time defending scoring champ, and is the leader of an Oklahoma City Thunder team that some think are the favorites to win it all in 2011-12.
Here is a look at how Oden's first four seasons in the NBA compared to the first four seasons of Durant and Bowie.
It certainly paints an ugly picture. But Oden will only be 23 when the 2011-12 season is scheduled to start. Bowie, on the other hand, was 27 at the start of his fifth season.
Oden's career has been a colossal disappointment. And there is a good chance he will never be a dominating force in the NBA. But at such a young age, and with a team that refuses to give up on him, there is still hope.
And hope is more than a lot of people thought Oden would have at this point.
A group's intelligence has little to do to with the IQs of its members, according to a recent study. It has more to do with gender.
Having women in a group can make a team smarter, even when tested against groups comprised of all men with higher IQs. Why? Women are more socially conscious and don't seek to dominate the group.
"What do you hear about great groups? Not that the members are all really smart but that they listen to each other. They share criticism constructively. They have open minds. They’re not autocratic. And in our study we saw pretty clearly that groups that had smart people dominating the conversation were not very intelligent groups," researcher Anita Woolley told the Harvard Business Review.
Woolley, who is an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon's Business School, worked with Thomas Malone from MIT's Sloan School of Management to carry out the study. They evaluated 192 teams comprised of people from ages 18 to 60 on brainstorming, decision making and problem solving ability.
Synopsis: Just days before the team’s payroll becomes due, Dodgers’ co-owner and Chairman Frank McCourt has filed for bankruptcy. This decision has come as a result of many factors that have affected McCourt personally, as well as the Dodgers organization; McCourt’s messy divorce in 2009 (from which his wife still claims co-ownership); a scandal involving the “Dodger’s Dream Foundation”; the MLB appointing a representative to oversee the day-to-day operations of the franchise; and a report that claimed McCourt had received a personal loan from Fox to cover the team’s payroll in April and May.
Brand Buster: McCourt is clearly trying to put a halt on the MLB’s attempts for a franchise takeover with the filing. As soon as he decided to declare bankruptcy, it temporarily stopped the MLB from pursuing further legal action. This is clearly a last-ditch effort from a desperate man. And even if he does get through bankruptcy court in possession of the team, I doubt he will be in control for very long. The filing solidifies McCourt as a failed owner, and his statements about the commissioner (claiming he “turned his back on the Dodgers”, putting them in the current situation) hurt his brand further.
Prediction: My guess is that the Fox deal that McCourt has been waiting on will fall through, and the Judge will order that the team be auctioned off to the highest bidder. At this time next year, the Dodgers will inevitably be under new ownership. And in a bidding scenario, the league will have no say in the matter. Turning the Dodgers saga into a court issue, rather than an MLB issue is not good for McCourt, or the league itself.
Volumes are down = fewer bonds and stocks to trade = fewer traders
Regulations are requiring deleveraging, so there's less profitability
Salaries are now higher than bonuses
Watch below as McDonald explains how current events and Dodd-Frank have bred these scale backs and tells us whether they will spread beyond the financial sector.
As Independence Day approaches (Happy 235th Birthday to the United States), I thought it might be a good time to reflect upon this day from an entrepreneur’s perspective and offer some advice that has its roots in our nation’s founding.
Names like Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere invoke patriotism, but those names should also invoke another word for us, entrepreneurs, some more successful (Franklin) than others (Henry).
Independence is what the first patriots wanted, but they also wanted to control how they were going to be taxed, and I’m sure entrepreneurs still feel the same way today, particularly about taxes. So, before making this blog anymore political or historical than necessary, here’s one element to help control the taxes we pay for our business: tax credits. Here are some helpful hints on how to maximize your tax credits that can potentially save your business thousands of dollars.
1. Tax deductions are good, but tax credits are better
I’m sure many of you know the difference between a tax deduction and tax credit, but just in case, tax deductions reduce your taxable income; tax credits reduce your actual tax. For example, a tax deduction of $1 for a person within the 25 percent tax bracket means a reduction of 25 cents in taxes. A tax credit of $1 for that same person means $1 reduction in taxes. It’s obvious to see the value of tax credits, and in many instances, businesses don’t know that they may be eligible for thousands of dollars of tax credits. Large corporations are able to hire tax professionals and maintain a team of individual to manage and to maximize their tax credits and deductions. Smaller businesses unfortunately do not have the same luxury, and so they need to remain informed on recent legislation by both the federal government and their local governments for any potential tax credits they qualify for.
2. Piggyback federal tax credits with local government tax credits/incentives
As states continue to compete for business, state laws are loaded with incentives to entice businesses to either remain or move into their state. Often, these enticements come in low taxes and lax regulations. However, states also include incentives in the form of subsidies and tax credits. Some incentives target a particular industry or class of businesses, but others can be utilized by any business. Check your local government to see if any tax credits/incentives can apply to your business, and ask a tax expert if you are missing any benefits. Some common state incentives include tax credits for employer provided healthcare, green improvements, job creation, and research and development.
3. Keep good records
Because tax credits are more profitable to a business than a tax deduction, tax credits tend to be more complicated. As mentioned above, large corporations can hire a team of people to manage all their records to keep everything in order. Small businesses can’t hire a team to manage all their records, but must nonetheless have a system to keep all records updated and easily accessible. Keep detailed records of your business activities and of your employees. Know the past job and economic history of your employees. Many employer tax credits based on an employee’s past require certain employee qualifications that the employer must provide (i.e. HIRE Act, WOTC). Having a record of all this information will allow an employer to maximize the tax credits he or she may receive.
4. Get help from an expert
This is probably the most important advice regarding tax credits. Tax credits are complicated and it takes an expert to fully understand how much a business can reap from tax credits. Knowing if one qualifies for a tax credit is merely the first step in receiving a tax credit. You will definitely need the help of a tax expert for the next steps. Do not rely on internet calculators or even your own calculations (unless you are a tax expert yourself) to figure out if a tax credit is worth it or not due to the wide inaccuracies these calculations tend to produce. Experts are expensive, but tax credits are worth thousands and may end up saving your business quite a bit of money.
Last year, then-CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that Google would eventually announce a partnership with Zynga. Details may come out whenever Zynga files for its IPO, which is supposedly happening in days.
The source code also contains references to what looks like a question and answer service, with lines like "You might try rephrasing or tagging your question to make it easier for someone to answer" and "We haven't received an answer to your..." as well as something called "Google Experts." This could be the revamp of Aardvark, the Quora-like Q&A service that Google acquired last year.
You can out the source code for yourself by following this link and hitting "View...Source" from your browser menu.
An “Open Letter” to RIM’s senior management was published anonymously on the web today and it was attributed to an unnamed person described as a “high level employee”. It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary and it is particularly difficult to believe that a “high level employee” in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.
RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months. There is a fundamental business reality however that following an extended period of hyper growth (during which RIM nearly quadrupled in size over the past 5 years alone), it has become necessary for the company to streamline its operations in order to allow it to grow its business profitably while pursuing newer strategic opportunities. Again, RIM’s management team takes these challenges seriously and is actively addressing the situation. The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.
Apple is profiting at the expense of our stupidity.
“Stupidity!?”
Yes, stupidity. Consumers have been a little too excited about Apple's products lately, and the company is more than happy to take advantage of that.
Earlier this month it was revealed that Hewlett-Packard must sell seven computers to equal the profits that Apple earns from just one Mac.
This is where Apple's nickel-and-diming begins, but it is not where it ends.
To Be Fair, Hewlett-Packard's Computers Are Absolute Crap
It's true what they say: you get what you pay for. While it isn't always wise to assume that the most expensive item is the best one available, Hewlett-Packard desktops and laptops are some of the cheapest and weakest machines on the market. They are built very cheaply, they are prone to severe quality issues, and they fall apart more easily than most other Windows machines.
Taking that into consideration, it's no wonder the company has to sell seven machines to earn as much money as Apple makes selling one Mac.
Still, there is something seriously wrong with this picture. Hewlett-Packard laptops aren't seven times cheaper than a MacBook or MacBook Pro; if they were, consumers might be more willing to embrace their shortcomings. Meanwhile, Apple doesn't charge several hundred dollars more than Hewlett-Packard because its MacBooks cost several hundred dollars more to manufacture. Rather, Apple charges more because it knows that it has produced a product that consumers view as a “premium” item.
(Our) Stupidity is Surprisingly Profitable (To Them)
Last fall, Nintendo – the Apple of the video game world – got a little cocky and told Bloomberg Japan that the Nintendo 3DS was priced higher at ¥25,000 (and $250.00 in the U.S.) partly because of the positive consumer reaction to the device. While Apple isn't foolish enough to make a similar remark, you can bet that its strategy isn't all that different from Nintendo's: the more we crave a particular product, the higher the price we'll see at retail.
Forced Upgrades and Gargantuan Gimmicks
If you've read this far down, you must either (A) be in agreement with at least some of what I'm saying, or (B) plan to argue against my editorial by posting a comment at the end. If the latter is your goal, that's okay – I can live with your complaints. Despite my disgust with Nintendo's cockiness, I still bought a Nintendo 3DS. And despite my belief that Apple is charging much more than it has to, I own many of the company's products and plan to purchase others in the future.
Regardless, there's no denying one thing: Apple is out to screw to consumers for what it believes to be the greater good. This was proven the moment the company released Final Cut Pro X, a dummied down sequel to its professional video editing software. The new Final Cut has received nothing but complaints, partially because of its odd control scheme (FCPX is closer to iMovie than the original Final Cut), but mostly because it removed several features from the last iteration, Final Cut Pro 7.
In response to user complaints, Apple announced that it would “restore” some of the missing features every six months. The company did not say if it would charge for the restoration, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that they will all be free.
Thus, if you want a broken version of Final Cut, you can get that now for $299.99. Motion and Compressor retail for $49.99 each, so you'll have to spend $400 for the full package. I expect the first update or two to be free, but after that, plan on shelling out another $50 to $100 to acquire features you once had with Final Cut Pro 7. When all is said and done, you will have spent several hundred dollars and waited several months (if not years) to get a downloadable version of Final Cut Pro X that vaguely resembles the older software you purchased several years ago.
If that's not the very definition of nickel-and-diming consumers, then I don't know what is.
And The Greater Good is…?
Apple seems to think that by designing a video editing tool that anyone and their brother (and their brother's lazy friend) can use, it will sell millions of copies and turn the world into Mac-using indie filmmakers. But that isn't going to happen. We already have a program for that – it's called iMovie. Killing the Final Cut Pro brand now in an attempt to build it up later with new consumers is arguably the biggest mistake Apple has ever made.
This move ensures that Avid will retain its status as the industry leader (while films like The Social Network were edited on Final Cut Pro 7, most movies and TV series are edited with Avid). It also ensures that when filmmakers want a cheaper alternative, they will look to the various offerings from Adobe and Sony.
Want Final Cut Pro 7? Too Bad
Apple could remedy this whole mess by throwing Final Cut Pro 7 onto the App Store. The company could spin this decision by saying that Final Cut Pro X is now the “eXpress” version of Final Cut, and that FCP7 will continue the true Final Cut legacy. Apple could sell each Final Cut Studio program individually, allowing users to buy FCP7 for a fraction of the full Studio price.
Sadly, this is only wishful thinking. Apple has taken Final Cut Studio – and all of its contents – off the market. In addition to being removed from Apple's own site, Final Cut Studio has now disappeared from bhphotovideo.com, one of the leading retailers for professionals in the film industry.
The Silver Lining
When I first heard that Final Cut Studio had been discontinued, I was furious – not just with Apple but with myself. “Why didn't I buy it when I had the chance?” I wondered.
Bu I have since realized that this was for the best. By waiting as long as I did to acquire Final Cut, I had the luxury of learning one very sad truth. While it is safe to buy an iPod, iPad or MacBook without fearing that they will soon be obsolete, it is no longer safe to purchase a “professional” piece of software from Apple.
If I had already acquired Final Cut Studio, I'd be royally screwed right now. Final Cut Studio does not have a future. It won't be upgraded, which means it won't be able to support future file formats, or contain the new features that filmmakers crave. It is, in essence, as dead as Final Cut Pro X.
How sad that I consider this to be the “silver lining” in this whole mess. If only other video editors were equally as lucky.
Americans consider a 40-hour work week as "part time" in most professional jobs and as a sign of a stagnant career, according to a recent study by the Center for American Progress.
The financial reward for working longer hours has increased substantially in the past 30 years, especially for professional men.
The study, "The Poor, the Professionals, and the Missing Middle" says:
"The long-hours premium is particularly apparent in job categories with the largest earnings inequality within a given group. In other words, hours have spiraled up as men strive to ensure they don’t end up as 'losers.'"
On the other hand, while 37 percent of professional men work 50 hours a week or more, the number of middle- and low-income workers working 50 or more hours a week since 2006 has barely changed or lowered, signaling a declining job market and underemployment.
True to the international dynamic of 1M/1M, during today’s roundtable we had entrepreneurs from the U.S., India, and Israel pitch their businesses. And in the audience, there were people from at least 30 different corners of the world.
directdialogs First, Senthil Natchimuthu from Coimbatire, India, discussed directdialogs. Senthil is doing a small business marketing solution that combines loyalty programs with email marketing and campaign management. The product roadmap is quite ambitious, and I was concerned about the viability of a minimum viable product with such a large scope. It turns out that the product has been built over the last two years, and a MVP is already in place. Now, Senthil is working on the positioning and go-to-market strategy for the business.
This is a very crowded market, and I asked Senthil to do some competitive analysis on some possible markets, and we discussed some of the pros and cons of those markets. We’ll look at the options based on the analysis.
tapTank
Next, Yael Greenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel, pitched tapTank, a concept stage business where Yael wants to help consumers barter, collaborate, and compete on specific tasks. She gave a series of use cases from group travel to competing in marathons, and the one that resonated with me was barter. Each of her use cases is potentially a separate business, and I advised her to focus on fleshing out the barter concept.
PinkVilla Then Jeu George from Redmond, Washington, presented PinkVilla, one of the largest user-generated content-driven portals for Bollywood aficionados. The site has 11 million page views a month, and Jeu expects 2011 revenues to be about $250k. The site’s unique visitors are at about 600k a month.
Jeu is trying to figure out his financing options, and the majority of the discussion today was around target market, product roadmap, and monetization models, which are the factors that would drive investment strategy.
This is a promising business, but clearly under-monetized. The revenue models need to be revisited, and the customer acquisition strategy as well. Their penetration in India seems relatively low, given that Bollywood is really an Indian phenomenon, its international following notwithstanding.
Reach360 Finally, Kiran Nagarajappa and Rajesh Agarwal from Bangalore, India, pitched Reach360, a neat advertising optimization solution to help agencies, advertisers, and publishers get better eyeballs and click throughs out of their current campaigns. The product has been validated on campaigns by a dozen major Indian brands and / or agencies, and has shown great metrics. Now, Kiran and Rajesh are looking to take this to the next level. Last week, they won Microsoft’s Indian Startup Challenge grant of $40k.
Very interesting company with lots of great possibilities of working with major display advertising players, ad networks, and of course, advertisers and agencies.
You can select the business you like best of those discussed today through a poll on the 1M/1M Facebook page.
The recording of today’s roundtable can be found here. Recordings of previous roundtables are all available here. We will be holding future roundtables at 8:00 a.m. PDT on the following dates:
It's amazing what the internet can replace. What if it could replace your television and landline? What if that was money you were saving instead of spending each month?
It can be.
Don't worry -- you'll still be able to watch Real Housewives of Atlanta and call your sister to talk about it afterwards.
What follows are a few suggestions on how to get by without a TV and phone using only the internet.
Hulu is free and tough to beat.
Probably one of the biggest brand names for legal TV streams, Hulu should be your first stop when you want to get caught upon your favorite series. It's free and the streams are high quality.
Downside: Even if you pay for Hulu Plus, the expanded library of content that costs $7.99 per month, you're still subjected to commercials. Content can also disappear without warning.
Upside: Hulu Plus is available on a bunch of TV boxes, video game systems, and smart TVs so you can stream all that great content to your living room.
If you want hard to find movies, you want Netflix.
Netflix offers an astonishing selection of physical DVDs that you can have sent to your house for a reasonable monthly price, and its catalog of instant streaming movies gets bigger all the time. You can get the streaming-only service for just $7.99 per month. Plus you can stream Netflix movies to almost any device from iPads to big screen TVs.
Downsides: There aren't many. Maybe just the fact that it's a monthly fee. But we love Netflix.
iTunes has lots of TV shows and movies available.
iTunes lets you buy or rent TV shows for watching on your computer or iDevice. There are no worries about video format compatibility. You just buy, sync, and go.
Downsides: Paying for individual shows or moviews can be pricey. Unless you purchase a $99 Apple TV, you're stuck watching content on your computer or iDevice.
Journalist Arthur Hadley once wrote a short book entitled "The Invisible Primary." The book's thesis was that primaries and caucuses make the final decision on who will be the major party presidential nominees, but that the year (or so) leading up to those primaries and caucuses is itself a kind of "invisible primary" which winnows out the weak and identifies those who truly have a shot at the brass ring.We are, today, halfway through the invisible primary. Here's what we know:
The field is set. We don't know (for sure) if Sarah Palin will run or whether Texas Governor Rick Perry will run, but we do know that they are the only two remaining question marks.
The first tier is set. The leading candidates are Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Rick Perry. The betting now is that Ms. Palin will not run and that Governor Perry will run, but we'll see.
The second tier is really second tier. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, much touted at the beginning of this year, has fish-tailed through a long icy patch and now finds himself in an almost "win-or-go-home" situation in next month's Ames, Iowa Straw Poll. Press-hyped Jon Huntsman has made a favorable first impression in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida, but so far has been unable to make a dent in Mitt Romney's armor. Rep. Ron Paul and Herman Cain are second-tier candidates only in the sense that they currently outpoll some of their more supposedly electable rivals. Neither has any chance of being the 2012 GOP presidential nominee.
The third tier probably won't make it to Iowa. It is comprised of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former Pennsylvania US Senator Rick Santorum.
The first major event of the second half of the "invisible primary" year will be the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll, which Ron Paul is expected to win. No one will care about that. What people will be watching is whether Tim Pawlenty can claw his way back into the race by running well relative to Rep. Bachmann. If Ms. Bachmann beats Pawlenty by a comfortable margin in the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll, that may well be the end of Mr. Pawlenty's campaign.
Other major events will be fund-raising reports (fund-raising implies depth of support and political longevity, at least on paper), some debates (where the real battle will be for the hearts and minds of the party's socially conservative base) and polls (which will gauge voter allegiance and intensity).
By the end of the invisible primary, Perry or Bachmann or Palin will lead in Iowa and Romney will be the front-runner in New Hampshire. Those two states will winnow the field down to three (or even two). South Carolina and Super Tuesday(s) will decide the winner.
Where a basketball player is a great athlete, Roger is a great artist.
Where a quarterback fires a rocket into his receivers chest, Roger carves a perfectly arced backhand winner just inside the baseline.
And where mortal athletes get eulogies, Roger gets an elegy.
Right now, we are at the elegy stage with Federer.
I know that because the Swiss choked away his quarterfinal match against Jo-Willy Tsonga yesterday. I know this because these “shock” upsets are becoming more and more frequent. And I know this because I spent ten minutes attempting to make sense of this passage by Grantland’s Brian Phillips this morning:
“For a while now, ever since we started saying he was ‘still good’, we've been conscious of the fact that the end of his career was in view. But to see him looking paralyzed, seemingly frozen on the edge of some big, dark thing that no one else could perceive, was a lot more unsettling than the ‘vague sadness’ I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. It was about as close as you can come to watching the fantasy of sports fall apart before your eyes.
Granted, Federer wasn't standing behind the baseline thinking ‘now I gaze into the abyss beyond understanding.’ He was thinking about how much topspin to use, or how to improve his first-serve percentage. But the poet isn't the man who sits down to breakfast. There was an abyss somewhere, even if it was ours and not Federer's.”
Expect to see more than a few “Odes To Roger” in the coming days.
This is not to say that these elegies won’t be warranted. Federer was one of the greatest athletes of all time.
His play was awe-inspiring. He found angles that other players couldn’t see and hit shots that other players couldn’t hit.
He was as mentally tough as anyone, maintaining a borderline creepy steadiness during the tensest of moments.
He was, in my eyes, as exciting to watch as Tiger in his prime, LeBron in his Cleveland days, and Bonds when his head was the size of a parade float.
But the question remains: Why the romance around Federer? Why the poetry?
You could point to his European roots. You could point to how the flow of a tennis match lends itself to poetic themes. You could point to Roger’s overt interest in playing “beautiful” tennis.
All of these are legitimate theories. But another reason why we talk about Roger differently from how we talk about other transcendent athletes is decidedly more uncomfortable: class difference.
Tennis implies a certain level of affluence. It connotes upper-class notions of etiquette and respect. It has an inherent dignity that other sports do not.
Because of that, tennis players come to personify those characteristics and associations. Tennis players are dignified in the popular imagination. They are not merely athletes, they are thinkers and gentlemen who happen to possess athletic prowess.
Athletes in other sports simply do not get this type of respect.
One of the primary criticisms of LeBron James centers on his perceived ignorance of his own skills. He is a block of talent who doesn’t know how to fashion himself into the great player he can be.
Tennis players are never talked about in this way. They are always in total control of their skills. LeBron can dunk because of God-given talent that he has no control of. But Roger chooses to hit a screaming forehand precisely where he wants it. He has agency over his own play in a way other athletes don’t.
So it’s our assumption that Federer is aware of his own skills that sets him apart. It’s what makes him “creative”, and it’s what allows the romantically-inclined to call him a “poet”.
Of course, this narrative is completely false. Federer’s “poetry” is no different from LeBron’s “God-given talent”. The only thing that’s different are the socio-cultural associations of the two sports.
Obviously class isn’t the only reason for the romanticization of Federer. But in a sport defined by its affluence, it’d be naive to ignore the roll of class when talking about the fallen Swiss master.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jon Lester tossed two-hit ball over seven shutout innings, Jason Varitek homered twice and the Boston Red Sox avoided a three-game sweep with a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday.
Lester (10-4) struck out Raul Ibanez with two runners aboard with his 120th pitch to end a game-tying threat in the seventh. Dustin Pedroia and Varitek hit back-to-back homers in the eighth to make it 5-0.
Ryan Howard hit his 17th homer in the ninth, a two-run shot off Bobby Jenks. Jonathan Papelbon got two outs for his 15th save.
The Phillies got a scare when lefty Cole Hamels was forced to leave after being struck on the glove hand by Adrian Gonzalez's liner. The Phillies said X-rays were negative and Hamels will make his next start.
The China-end of the Siemens bribery scandal came to a conclusion in an Intermediate Court in Henan last month when a China Mobile executive received a death sentence. For the most part, this was just another anti-corruption case, one of a multitude flooding China’s courts these days. However, the participation of the U.S. government, and the information it shared with Chinese enforcement officials, serves as an important reminder that the global fight against corruption has entered a new phase.
Since the case involved state secrets and was therefore not opened to the public, there hasn’t been a lot of reporting on the verdict. Caixin, however, published a breakdown of the case today:
As an industry veteran, Shi Wanzhong sat in senior positions of state-owned telecoms companies for years. In May, the Intermediate Court of Hebi City, Henan Province sentenced Shi to death with a two-year reprieve on charges of bribery.
In addition to the sentence that Shi received, Tian Qu, who facilitated Shi’s graft, was sentenced to a 15-year jail term. The court found that Shi and Tian had accepted a total of US$ 5.1 million in bribes from Siemens.
Although this was a case in a Chinese court, involving a Chinese national, foreign investors (particularly multinationals) should pay attention to how this case came about.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) investigated Siemens for possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) from 2006 to 2008. The investigation involved actions by the German company in several countries, including China, Vietnam and Mexico.
The Securities and Exchange Commission [on December 15, 2008] announced an unprecedented settlement with Siemens AG to resolve SEC charges that the Munich, Germany-based manufacturer of industrial and consumer products violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by engaging in a systematic practice of paying bribes to foreign government officials to obtain business.
Siemens has agreed to pay $350 million in disgorgement to settle the SEC’s charges, and a $450 million fine to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle criminal charges. Siemens also will pay a fine of approximately $569 million to the Office of the Prosecutor General in Munich, to whom the company previously paid an approximately $285 million fine in October 2007.
This was a huge fine, and not surprisingly, the case received a great deal of attention not only in the U.S., but internationally. Keep in mind that the SEC and DOJ were acting under powers given to them under the FCPA, enforcing that law against a German firm. Moreover, the U.S. was cooperating with German enforcement authorities as well. Even without the involvement of China, this was a multi-jurisdictional enforcement action.
But that’s not where the story ends. According to Caixin:
After the Siemens bribery case was brought to light, information on the involvement of Chinese personnel was sent to the Chinese authorities via diplomatic channels, with Shi’s name appearing on relevant documents.
So the U.S. government, working with their German counterparts, investigates the actions of Siemens in several countries. As a result of that investigation, they uncover information on corrupt activities that involve Chinese companies and individuals. This information is then given by the SEC and DOJ to officials of the Chinese government, who use this to ultimately prosecute Shi Wanzhong and Tian Qu.
That’s a whole lot of information sharing and coordination between governments!
Since the case in Henan only involved Chinese nationals, none of whom worked for Siemens, should multinationals care about this? Absolutely. This is not a unique case, but it is instructive. It has become quite clear in the past few years that we are entering into a global phase of regulatory enforcement, brought about by globalization and trade.
This case involves corruption, but we could just as easily be talking about food, or pharmaceuticals, or electronic devices. Even regulations based on domestic laws flows across borders these days, forcing governments to work together and resulting in unprecedented information sharing.
Companies that do business in more than one jurisdiction cannot look narrowly at regulatory risk anymore, saying “This is a China problem” or “Our U.S. team will deal with this.” That was the past. These days, when a corruption matter (or any issue that involves international regulatory enforcement) arises, companies will have to take a look at each jurisdiction in which they are doing business.
All of this will no doubt result in higher regulatory and risk management costs, but government cooperation is on the rise and must be factored in to all compliance programs from now on.
Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the “Ground Zero Mosque” talks to Lloyd Grove about what he would have done differently, Fox News’ malicious intent, Donald Trump, and 9/11
Even Feisal Abdul Rauf, America’s most famous imam since his plan for a so-called Ground Zero Mosque captured the dark imagination of the mediapolitical complex last summer, knows that his optimism sometimes gets the better of him.
Especially when he predicts the inevitable success of his campaign—one hesitates to say crusade—to bridge the yawning chasm between Islam and the West.
“I realize some people think that I’m tilting at windmills,” Rauf tells me in the midst of explicating his rosy scenario of how the breach between the two competing cultures, which frequently has resulted in horrific violence, will ultimately be repaired much like solving a thorny problem in physics or engineering.
But then reality intrudes: Earlier this week, the supposedly sophisticated Aspen Institute think tank and Atlantic magazine, hosting a lunch at which Rauf was the featured speaker during the Aspen Ideas Festival, served slices of roast pork.
Rauf laughs a pained laugh when I ask if he managed to avoid the forbidden pig meat.
“Yes I did,” he says, adding that his friend and lunch partner Bill Schulz, a Unitarian minister and former director of Amnesty International USA, was stunned at this dietary outrage.
Was somebody trying to send him a message?
“It was one of two messages,” the imam good-naturedly replies. “The other one was having me rush immediately from the lunch to do another event when I would rather have stayed and bonded with the people at the lunch. I felt I couldn’t do full justice to that group.”
The 63-year-old Rauf hardly fits the caricature of the “Ground Zero Imam.” A soft-spoken charmer who chats with a mild Mediterranean accent and sports a neatly trimmed silver beard, he is nothing if not gregarious. Savoring a fat cigar on the back patio of his guest suite at Aspen Meadows resort, he fields calls from friends on his cell phone in English and Arabic and greets a besneakered lady walking by with two dachshunds on the lush lawn in front of him.
“Are these yours—or are you hired to do this?” he asks her with a grin, and he listens intently, as though learning the secret of life, as she explains that the unleashed pooch is hers and the leashed one belongs to a friend.
“I remember coming here in 2003 and meeting the former head of the CIA, Jim Woolsey, who told me this Muslim problem is going to take 100 years to fix,” Rauf says. “And I said it can be fixed in 10 years. I remember when Jack Kennedy said we will land a man on the moon by the end of the decade and people said, what is he smoking? People laughed at him. But he knew that we could do it. It just required the resources of this country, the focus of thousands of scientists in Houston and Florida, to reach this particular objective. And we did it.”
Crossing the cultural, religious and political divide between Islamic societies and Western democracies “will require the same man-on-the-moon level of focus and effort,” says Rauf, who fell short of finishing his doctorate in plasma physics before following in his Egyptian father’s footsteps and becoming a Sufi Muslim cleric.
As a measure of his relentless confidence, the imam says he is trying to get Hollywood interested in making three different feature films with feel-good plot lines involving Muslims who’ve had a positive impact on humanity. One movie treatment that Rauf is trying to sell concerns Abdol Hossein Sardari, an Iranian diplomat in Nazi-occupied Paris who saved hundreds of Jews from the death camps by giving them Iranian passports.
Rauf, who lives with his wife and fellow activist Daisy Khan in the New Jersey suburbs and a pied-a-terre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, founded the Cordoba Initiative seven years ago to create cultural and religious understanding. He travels constantly to spread his message of peace and reconciliation. He was out of the country and caught by surprise, spreading good will in the Middle East on behalf of the State Department, when the mosque controversy exploded last summer.
“Personally, it was extremely painful to be portrayed as the opposite of what you are, when you’re branded as an extremist, as a terrorist, especially when you try to stand up for the principles of high-mindedness and harmony between the faith traditions,” he says. “It was a travesty. This was also a deliberate attempt to use our project as a wedge issue for the midterm elections. Very clearly, right-wing Republicans like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin and Peter King [the Long Island congressman who has repeatedly questioned the patriotism of Muslim Americans] and the Tea Party, and that man who was fighting against Andrew Cuomo [GOP gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino] were trying to exploit it.”
At one point, at the height of the media circus, “one of our PR advisers said, ‘The only thing that’s missing is for Donald Trump to jump in.’ And a week or two later, Trump jumped in”—issuing a press release offering to buy the proposed site of Park 51, Rauf’s ecumenical Islamic community center, a kind of Muslim YMCA, a few blocks from where Al Qaeda’s hijacked jetliners toppled the World Trade Center. “Because of all the media attention, it attracted a lot of people who jump on the media bandwagon.”
Before the hullabaloo subsided, the redneck pastor of a tiny Florida church achieved world notoriety by announcing plans to burn the Holy Koran unless Rauf agreed to move the center—causing near-panic at the State Department and the Pentagon, where officials worried about attacks on U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, to say nothing of the fear of riots in various Arab-Muslim countries that are nominal U.S. allies. Rauf reserves special indignation for Fox News and the New York tabloids for stoking the mosque madness.
“What pained me most of all was not only the attack against me, but all the political propaganda masquerading as journalism,” Rauf says. “You know exactly what I’m talking about—Fox News and the tabloids. It was basically a creation of Fox News and the tabloid newspapers that had a particular political agenda that was Islamophobic and anti-Democratic Party… They do it because it increases viewership even though they know in their heart of hearts it is the wrong thing to do. But they are impelled to do it because of whatever—their material objectives, whether it’s money, whether it’s ratings, or even political power.”
The sad irony was that Rauf’s good intentions ended up aggravating relations between the United States and the Muslim world. At this point, the prospects for Park 51 don’t look good. The imam has made little progress in raising the nearly $100 million needed to build the community center—and potential donors have been scared off. What’s more, Rauf and the developers have yet even to sort out a legal and organizational framework for the project.
“In retrospect, one of things we could have done better was to reach out more to the 9/11 community and get them to stand by our side,” says Rauf, who plans to participate in several ecumenical services commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. “After the crisis erupted, we did speak to many of them in several meetings and they urged me to go and speak to the American people.”
Today thousands of public sector workers went on strike in the UK, the BBC reports.
Unions claimed that 210,000 members were striking, with more than 40% of state schools in England and Wales affected.
Protestors marched in support through central London and elsewhere in the UK.
Police made 18 arrests during the protests in the capital, but according to The Wall Street Journal, no violence was reported, showing that "London is no Athens."
Instead the protests were a mild-mannered affair, with ironic signs taking the place of petrol bombs.
Treme, David Simon’s melancholy ode to post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, will wrap up its second season on HBO on Sunday, July 3. Like Simon’s other creations for HBO -- The Wire, Operation Kill, and The Corner -- Treme shines an Upton Sinclair-like spotlight on myriad societal ills that thrive in the shadows of national neglect. And its unflinching exploration of soul-wrenching violence -- particularly in the most recent episodes -- is just the latest indication that Simon, a former bare-knuckled reporter for the Baltimore Sun, is clearly channeling his passion for truth into the art of narrative fiction.
Treme is a purposely uneasy look at the Big Easy. Like The Wire was to Baltimore, Treme is both a love letter to the rich musical and culinary culture of New Orleans and a lamentation on its civic decline -- and if you haven’t watched it yet, FAIR WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. After Season One wrapped with the suicide of Creighton Bernette, the English professor, novelist, and outraged blogger played by John Goodman, this season has dealt similarly tragic hands to two beloved characters. LaDonna Batiste-Williams, the strong-willed, street-savvy saloon keeper played by Khandi Alexander, ends up beaten and raped in an unspeakably vicious moment. Then, Harley Watt, a guardian angel street musician played by alt-country rocker Steve Earle, is shot dead in a street robbery gone wrong.
If Simon ever had misgivings about subjecting his finely drawn characters to such cruel fates, you wouldn’t know it. He has been criticized in the past for his apparent lack of sentimentality for his creations—Salon's Matt Zoller Seitz was particularly upset by the rape episode. Writers who’ve toiled for Simon bristle at his willingness to kill off characters they’ve invested so much in. Just before the fourth season of The Wire premiered, I moderated a discussion between Simon and the novelist Richard Price, who wrote for the series and harbored some serious resentment toward his boss’s nihilism. (In an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Earle joked that Simon blames novelist George Pelecanos, another Wire veteran and Treme scribe, for being the “Dr. Death” behind many of the offending episodes.)
As a viewer who’s invested emotionally in Simon’s characters, I share that outrage over their fictional fates. But I also believe that outrage is something Simon himself feels and wants to inspire in others. At heart, he is still a crusading journalist who’s outraged by injustice and knows that it’s the rare story that ends up happily ever after. And as someone who has publicly lamented the decline of the newspaper industry and criticized the Fourth Estate for putting fiscal priorities ahead of civic responsibility, he knows that crusading reporters who strive to take down corrupt politicians and criminal conspiracies are an endangered species.
So instead of practicing watchdog journalism, Simon is in the business of watchdog fiction. In that sense, he’s on the other side of the coin from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who use humor and satire to fill the void left by actual news outlets. It’s an unstinting brand of agitprop TV, though, that demands a lot of viewers. Kudos to HBO for supporting it -- at least for a third season.
To read more by J. Max Robins, visit The Robins Report at The Paley Center for Media.
I like to check in on Apple’s top grossing applications – it’s a good indication of mobile app and publisher trends. And from time to time, I have written about those trends.
… and here is a relatively important trend: each of the current top iPhone apps is freemium (
Security guards and ushers who work at Dodger Stadium had their paychecks bounce this week after the baseball team filed for bankruptcy, according to the LA Times.
Part-time employees who got paid by physical check (instead of direct deposit) were the ones affected. Full-time employees (including players) had no issues.
The team's bank accounts were frozen for 48 hours as part of the bankruptcy filing.
"I'm one that looks to seek consensus in decision-making. I've always told [employees] to call me an idiot if they think I'm doing something wrong, and many have!
"These things encourage people to share their ideas, thrash things out and be innovative."
Whitehurst says his "geekiness" gives him some cred, allowing him connect with younger employees at Red Hat, an open source software company based in Raleigh, N.C.
Want your business advice featured in Instant MBA? Submit your tips to tipoftheday@businessinsider.com. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email.
During Thursday's portion of the Casey Anthony murder trial, a member of the courtroom audience could no longer hold in his frustration for the seemingly endless case.
He flipped off the prosecutor.
Judge Belvin Perry was not amused.
After catching the gesture, Perry had the guy handcuffed on the spot.
After a series of embarrassing public questioning (including, 'do you live with your parents? What is your annual income, sir? How much money do you have in your savings or checking account?'), the visibly nervous T.G.I.Fridays server was sentenced to six days in the local county jail and fined $400.
Awesome! Our second major work stoppage in professional sports. Apparently owners and players in both the NFL and NBA are willing to stick it to fans if it means getting their way. Congrats, guys!
FOX has announced its temporary line-up for the 5pm slot following Glenn Beck's departure.
Basically, everyone but the kitchen sink.
For the remainder of the summer FOX will be airing an ensemble news program called The Five, which will feature a rotating cast of FOX personalities including Greg Gutfeld, Juan Williams, Dana Perino, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Geraldo Rivera, Andrea Tantaros, Eric Bolling, and Monica Crowley, to name a few.
The thinking behind this is likely two-fold.
First, the rotating cast will keep anyone from making ratings comparisons to Beck.
As much as FOX has been pushing Beck's declining ratings as one of the reasons for his departure -- and while, yes, they are down from his 2009 heyday, he still had the third most popular show on cable this quarter -- Beck's ratings were consistently so stunning it's unlikely anyone will match them for a long time to come. FOX doesn't want viewers reminded of that.
Second. It seems likely they are holding the slot for Megyn Kelly. Kelly, FOX's rising star, went on maternity leave in April and relaunching her in the 5pm hours is likely FOX's best chance of upping her profile and hanging on to some of the ratings Beck brought in.
FOX NEWS CHANNEL TO DEBUT 5PM ENSEMBLE OPINION PROGRAM ON JULY 11
“The Five” to Replace Glenn Beck Through Summer
FOX News Channel (FNC) will launch a new weekday program on July 11th at 5 PM/ET, announced Bill Shine, Executive Vice President of Programming for the network. Entitled The Five, the program will serve as a replacement for Glenn Beck during the summer.
The new opinion show will feature a roundtable ensemble of five rotating FOX personalities who will discuss, debate and debunk the hot stories, controversies and issues of the day.
In making the announcement, Shine said, “The Five brings together an eclectic group of FOX talent whose knowledge of key issues and unique insights will undoubtedly make for a dynamic program.”
Some of the revolving FOX personalities to be showcased in the weekly ensemble include: Greg Gutfeld, Juan Williams, Dana Perino, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Geraldo Rivera, Andrea Tantaros, Eric Bolling, Monica Crowley, Bob Beckel and Kimberly Guilfoyle. The program will also feature added guests, including politicians, celebrities, sports figures and key newsmakers.
Prior to the launch of The Five, FNC will run encore presentations of Glenn Beck from Monday, July 4th through Friday, July 8th. On Friday, June 30th, What Makes America Great, hosted by John Stossel will be presented at 5 PM/ET.
FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. A top five cable network, FNC has been the most watched news channel in the country for nearly ten years and according to Public Policy Polling, is the most trusted television news source in the country. Owned by News Corp., FNC is available in more than 90 million homes and dominates the cable news landscape, routinely notching the top ten programs in the genre.
July 4th means sun, sand, and time to read something other than the trades.
Here are 10 page-turning novels that take place in different times, in different places, all of them chosen with your entertainment and business acumen in mind.
Enjoy your weekend!
Glengarry Glen Ross: A Play by David Mamet
Mamet's play about two days in the lives of four desperate and hungry Chicago real estate agents, all of them doing whatever it takes to sell the unsellable to people who do not want it, is a lesson in the dark side of salesmanship and sales team incentives.
The desperation and almost thrilling disregard for anything but winning is a life-lesson that goes beyond professional ethics.
Published in 1955, the title of this novel has become synonymous with corporate stasis without thought.
We may live in different times, but stagnation, stubborn resistance to change, and punishing those who challenge the status quo are hardly a thing of the past.
Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar, Stories of Work edited by Richard Ford
A star-studded roster including Russell Banks, T. Corghessan Boyle, John Cheever, Max Apple, Junot Diaz, Andre Dubus, Annie Proulx, Edward P. Jones, Jhumpa Lahiri, James Salter, Joyce Carol Oates, Eudora Welty, Tobias Wolf, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Ann Beattie.
Each selection of short fiction is about work; how to find it, what happens once it is found, how to manage when it disappears.
NEW YORK (AP) — CC Sabathia tied his career high with 13 strikeouts and Mark Teixeira hit his 300th homer to help the New York Yankees finish off June with a season-best five-game winning streak by beating the Milwaukee Brewers 5-0 Thursday
Sabathia (11-4) won for the eighth time in nine starts and became the first major leaguer to reach 11 victories. Detroit ace Justin Verlander was going for his 11th on Thursday afternoon against the New York Mets.
In 7 2-3 innings, Sabathia gave up six hits and two walks. Every batter he fanned came on a swinging third strike.
When Sabathia left after throwing 118 pitches, he got a roar from the fans who saw yet another daytime win. The Yankees are 23-4 in the afternoon.
There were two reasons or variables in my early career that led me to being somewhat of an expert when it comes to managing and leading recent college graduate sales job seekers.
The first reason was that I enjoy teaching. I always have. I never understood why many universities have PhD requirements for business professors, as even John Madden was once on the field in a helmet. So, when I was able to afford my first employee (she wasn't actually a true employee, but an intern on a 1099), I immediately got a young woman from NYU who is now, five years later my managing director.
The second reason I ended up managing recent college graduates is because I couldn't afford any employees with the least bit of experience in just about any facet of business beyond basic reading of a Microsoft Word document.
Right now, three of the women who work at my company are in their early twenties and have been here since they graduated college. All have different personalities, very different backgrounds and a very great learning experience for me to manage them.
One has a Masters degree from Columbia who was born in Trinidad. My buddy and head of recruitment, Amanda Lowy, is a kid just like me -- right down to our families and upbringing. My now CFO Dawn Fang, went to the third best college in China only to get a scholarship to get her Master's degree in human or resources from Pennsylvania State University.
Here's a quick synopsis regarding managing these individuals:
Managing people from Ivy League schools is tough because they're very smart, but the thing that separates them from the rest of us is that they have followed rules their entire lives and, thus have the discipline to not tell someone they are full of you know what. They are great for corporate managers.
Managing the all-American kid with a head on her shoulders, but no silver spoon in her mouth, is very interesting for the reason that she is just as smart as the Columbia University grad, but she suffers from the same disease as I do: telling it like it is.
Then, my CFO, who is on the other end of the company now and I don't deal with much, taught me a lot about managing recent college graduates. If you're a manager or sales manager in hiring recent college graduates just after graduating college, do not hire anyone from abroad or someone to analytical in nature.
It has to do with the way that you process thoughts in your head and they do in their head -- and the two don't mesh well. This is about .001% of the knowledge that I'm so lucky to gain when it comes to managing recruiting and leading tomorrow's future.
Michele Bachmann thought the iconic Tom Petty hit "American Girl" was the perfect song to help launch her campaign.
The only problem?
Petty (vocally) disagreed with her.
That may be, Entertainment Weeklypointed out, because Petty doesn't see eye to eye with conservatives.
He also lashed out when George W. Bush used his song "Won't Back Down" at a rally.
So perhaps Bachmann should look to the (admittedly slim) pool of right-leaning musicians.
Outspoken Obama critic Ted Nugent has officially offered Bachmann use of his song "Stranglehold," which means Bachmann's team is probably crafting an awkward rejection/thank-you right now.
Gene Simmons identifies himself as a Libertarian Republican. That'll do. And so will "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" -- that's a message Bachmann can surely get behind.
Republican rocker Alice Cooper actually has a song called "Elected." Done and done.
In the end, it wasn't such a horrible quarter, and for the moment nobody is too freaked out about the end of QE2.
But first, the scoreboard:
Dow: +156.36 NASDAQ: +32.92 S&P 500: +13.51
And now, the top stories:
Basically, things got really quiet in the post-Greece-austerity-vote world today. There was no drama in Europe. Greece did pass its technical vote to implement austerity, but everyone knew that was coming.
As for markets, it was all about follow through for the Treasury selloff, and the rally in stocks. Suddenly, the highs of the year aren't even that far out of reach int eh US. It is pretty remarkable. Helping things along was a very solid Chicago PMI report. Suddenly, more and more people are talking about a re-rebound after the soft patch that started in early Spring.
There was a ton of talk about the end of QE2 and the end of Q2. The big Treasury selloff has some people thinking that the Bill Gross thesis -- bonds tank after the program is over -- might be correct. Others simply think that the big selloff in Treasuries had more to do with portfolio balancing -- institutions selling some of their winners for the quarter (bonds) to fill up on losers (equities). Either way, a few big clouds are lifting for the moment (Greece, Japan, etc.) and that's prompted a bout of risk tolerance.
MUNICH – “It’s not the euro that’s in danger, but the public finances of individual European countries.” One hears this everywhere nowadays, but it’s not true.
The euro itself is at risk, because the countries in crisis have, in recent years, been running the eurozone’s monetary printing presses overtime.
Some 90% of the refinancing debt that the commercial banks of the GIPS countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain) hold with their respective national central banks served to purchase a net inflow of goods and assets from other eurozone countries.
Two-thirds of all refinancing loans within the eurozone were granted within the GIPS countries, despite the fact that these countries account for only 18% of eurozone GDP. Indeed, 88% of these countries’ current-account deficits over the last three years were financed via the extension of credit within the Eurosystem.
By the end of 2010, ECB loans, which originated primarily from Germany’s Bundesbank, amounted to €340 billion. This figure includes ECB credit that financed capital flight from Ireland totaling €130 billion over the past three years. The ECB bailout program has enabled the people of the peripheral countries to continue to live beyond their means, and well-heeled asset holders to take their wealth elsewhere.
The capacity for continuing this policy will soon be depleted, as the central-bank money flowing from the GIPS countries to the core countries of the eurozone increasingly crowds out the money created through refinancing operations there. If this continues for two more years as it has for the past three, the stock of refinancing loans in Germany will disappear altogether.
Indeed, Deutsche Bank has already stopped participating in refinancing operations. If German banks drop out of the refinancing business, the European Central Bank will lose the direct control over the German economy that it used to have via its interest-rate policy. The main refinancing rate would then only be the rate at which the peripheral EU countries draw ECB money for purchases in the center of Europe, which ultimately would be the source of all the money circulating in the euro area.
The GIPS’ enormous current-account deficits – and the massive exodus of capital from Ireland, in particular – would not have been possible without ECB financing. Without the additional money that GIPS central banks created in excess of their countries’ requirements for internal circulation, trade deficits could not have been sustained, and the GIPS’ commercial banks would have been unable to prop up asset prices (which all too often were those of government bonds).
Last year, with the ECB running out of tools to keep Europe’s troubled banks from precipitating a financial crisis, follow-up financing was agreed upon, and from 2013 onwards the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is meant to take on that responsibility. This may relieve some pressure, but it only shifts the problem from the ECB bailout fund to the community of states. The ESM is a sure way to bring Europe to its knees, because the longer bailout loans continue, the longer the GIPS’ current-account deficits will persist, and the more their external debts will grow. Eventually, these debts will become unsustainable.
The sole exception is Ireland, which is suffering not from a lack of competitiveness, but from capital flight. Ireland is the only country that has lowered its prices and wages, and its current-account deficit is about to swing into surplus. By contrast, Spain’s external deficit is still above 4% of GDP, while Portugal and Greece recently recorded astronomical figures of around 10%.
What Europe is trying to do in Portugal and Greece is reminiscent of central banks’ futile efforts in past decades to keep exchange rates away from the market equilibrium price level. Some central banks, such as the Bank of England in its unsuccessful fight against George Soros in 1992, got burned; when it became clear how much money was required to buck the market, the policy was abandoned.
Apart from China, central banks don’t intervene to protect their currencies anymore. Europe, too, will get a bloody nose if it keeps trying to artificially prop up asset prices in the periphery. The sums required for this could ultimately run into trillions, according to an estimate by Citibank. This would shatter Europe.
Apart from financial restructuring, which is crucial, Greece and Portugal must become cheaper in order to regain their competitiveness. Estimates for Greece assume that prices and wages need to come down by 20-30%. Things won’t be much different in Portugal.
If these countries lack the political consensus they need to pull this off, they should in their own interest consider leaving the eurozone temporarily to depreciate their currencies. The banking system would not survive this without help, so the EU’s bailout activities should be refocused accordingly.
But these countries’ real economies would benefit from a furlough from the eurozone. Depreciation inside the eurozone in the form of deflation, on the other hand, would drive large parts of the real economy into excessive debt, because only the value of assets, not that of bank debts, would decline.
The transitional independent privatization agency proposed by Jean-Claude Juncker for paying the Greek debt is not a good idea. First, it would at best aim to solve the debt problem; it would not increase competitiveness. Second, Germany’s experience with this kind of agency shows that it is impossible to sell off large parts of an economy simultaneously. Europe’s banks would make a killing without reducing Greek debt in any meaningful way.
It is time to face the fact that Europe’s peripheral countries have to shrink their nominal GDP to regain competitiveness. The only question is whether they will take the euro down as well.
Opponents of Senate Bill 5, Ohio's new collective bargaining bill, have submitted an astonishing 1.3 million signatures to put repeal of the law to a vote on this year's November ballot.
Thousands of union supporters and other opponents marched through Columbus yesterday to deliver the signatures to the Secretary of State, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Although the signatures are still unverified, the number is more than five times what is required to qualify for a ballot referendum.
Senate Bill 5 — which severely limits collective bargaining rights for more than 350,000 public employees — has sharply divided the state since it was passed by the Ohio's Republican state Legislature in March amid huge union protests.
Among its many provisions, the law requires public employees to pay at least 15% of their health care premiums and forbids local governments from paying any portion of this share. It also prohibits public workers from striking and bars unions from collecting fees from public workers who do not join.
Republican Gov. John Kasich continued to defend the bill Wednesday, telling the Youngstown Vindicator that repealing it would be a blow to local governments struggling under growing personnel costs.
It's worth noting that Ohio's state budget — which Kasich is expected to sign today — cuts municipal aid by $455 million. The Cleveland Plain Dealer notes that local governments will also lose money due to an accelerated phase out of $1.3 billion in business taxes.
According to Bloomberg, Tim Geithner is considering leaving the Treasury once the debt ceiling debate is over, according to three sources.
He said he needs a break from government, according to Bloomberg's sources. He won't make the decision until the debt debate is over.
Bloomberg says his reasons for leaving are:
Geithner, 49, has told associates that he needs a breakfrom government service after dealing with the turmoil thatfollowed the collapse of Wall Street firms including BearStearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., first aspresident of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then asObama’s treasury secretary.Family considerations also are playing a role in Geithner’sdeliberations, according to the people. His son has decided tofinish his final year of high school in New York.
He'd be at least the third to leave during turbulent times. Jeffrey Goldstein will leave by the end of July. And Austan Goolsbee announced that he would leave last month.
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman announced he is running for president last week. Business Insider caught up with Fred Davis, the veteran GOP media strategist behind Carly Fiorina's 
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jon Lester tossed two-hit ball over seven shutout innings, Jason Varitek homered twice and the Boston Red Sox avoided a three-game sweep with a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday.
Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the “Ground Zero Mosque” talks to Lloyd Grove about what he would have done differently, Fox News’ malicious intent, Donald Trump, and 9/11
Today's advice comes from Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst's 
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NEW YORK (AP) — CC Sabathia tied his career high with 13 strikeouts and Mark Teixeira hit his 300th homer to help the New York Yankees finish off June with a season-best five-game winning streak by beating the Milwaukee Brewers 5-0 Thursday
Michele Bachmann thought the iconic Tom Petty hit "American Girl" was the perfect song to help launch her campaign.
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