National News

Target 4Q adj. profit beats Wall Street's view

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Syrian forces clash with rebels around Aleppo

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Also: Drag queen is uninvited to Dr. Seuss reading; course syllabi of famous authors; and Russell Brand is working on a new book.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Last year when it looked like the U.S. would go over the fiscal cliff, the Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 1,000 points in about a month. Two years ago in the lead up to the debt ceiling debacle, the Dow lost almost 2,000 points in a month. But today, two days away from the sequester, the Dow is pretty much right where it was a month ago.

So why is Wall Street seemingly unfazed by Washington's latest fiscal deadline?

"If you are looking at any market of $20 trillion worth of value, and you have an $85 billion sequester that may or may not actually happen, it's very hard to say that should be the driving factor in the market," says Allan Sloan, senior editor-at-large at Fortune Magazine.

But according to Sloan, just because the sequester hasn't had a visible impact on the Dow doesn't mean investors and corporate America aren't taking note. Businesses are watching and waiting for a sign of what's to come in the long-term.

"Corporate America wants some sort of predictability, stability and knowing what the rules are, even if they don't like the rules," says Sloan.

To hear more about Wall Street's reaction to the sequester, click on the audio player above.

A huge crowd gathered Wednesday for Pope Benedict XVI's final general audience before his resignation takes effect on Thursday. In his remarks, the pope indirectly acknowledged that his nearly 8 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church have not always been easy.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

As the federal minimum wage has become a big topic of debate -- with President Obama calling to raise it to $9.00 an hour -- German politicians are in their own heated dispute over whether to have a minimum wage at all.

Germany doesn’t have a national minimum wage. In fact, it’s one of the few countries in Europe that doesn’t. Instead, German trade unions have always negotiated their own basic pay, industry by industry. But many Germans are questioning the effectiveness of this old way of doing things.

Damian Grimshaw, an expert on minimum wages at Manchester Business School, says Germany might be the economic engine of Europe, but German wages have stagnated over the past decade. Some are paid as low as $3 to $4 an hour.

"It’s not a model of economic growth that’s brought steady improvements in real levels of income and earnings," says Grimshaw. He notes that 20 percent of German workers earn what's considered low pay. That is, two-thirds below the median wage in the country.

The idea of introducing a national minimum wage of over $11 has become a contentious issue ahead of elections in Germany later this year.

Waltraud Schelkle of the London School of Economics says doing so would help solve a long-standing problem. Germans aren’t big spenders because of their meager incomes.

"People on low wages, if you raise their wage a little bit, they’re so hard up against budget constraints, that they would be happy to spend all that," says Schelkle. "So in that sense you could even stimulate the economy."

As is it stands now, because employers pay very little, the German government picks up the tab in higher welfare benefits to help workers make ends meet. It's a corporate subsidy Schelkle says Germany should do without.

Pope Benedict XVI greeted the Catholic masses in St. Peter's Square Wednesday for the last time before retiring on Thursday. He made several rounds of the square as crowds cheered wildly and stopped to kiss a half-dozen children brought up to him by his secretary.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Now that a budgetary doomsday scenario has been laid out for the world’s largest military, you might think China would see this as its golden opportunity to assert itself regionally. Think again, says Jin Canrong, International Relations Professor at Beijing’s Renmin University.

"In the coming years the defense budget will be cut, but the military power of the United States is far ahead of China," says Jin.

But China’s catching up. Last September, Beijing revealed the country’s first aircraft carrier. Ten years ago, the U.S. spent 19-times what China spent on defense. This year, it was down to 5-times.

Shen Dingli, Dean of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, estimates in 10 years, the U.S. will spend $500 billion a year on its military while China’s defense budget will be close behind at $300 billion.

"That’ll certainly have a serious impact on military power in the Pacific." says Shen,  "The U.S. won’t have enough money to support its naval forces at that point and China will."

But China has benefited from the global stability provided by a strong U.S. military. For example, U.S. intervention in Iraq in 1990 helped China, says Shen, by stabilizing global oil prices. And for China, a big military could mean big responsibilities and bigger expenditures.

"I think China should actually decrease military spending alongside the U.S.," says Shen.

In other words, says Shen, cuts in military spending could be good news on both sides of the Pacific.

This final note today, which we'll file under the heading: Things that kill mere mortals only make JPMorgan Chase stronger.

CEO Jamie Dimon was speaking at an investor conference yesterday. Turns out, he's not so worried about things. "Well, we have a battleship. We were a port in the storm in the last storm, we will be a port in the storm in the next storm. And I read this thing by the guy who talked about "anti-fragile" -- I think our bank is anti-fragile, we actually benefit from downturns. That's how we like to run the company."

Downloading stuff illegally online? Say hello to Internet piracy rehab. Instead of 12 steps, users get six warnings. That's part of a program that begins this week dubbed "Six Strikes". Under Six Strikes, Internet Service Providers send out warnings to users suspected of pirating online content.

Some of the participating ISP's include Comcast, Time Warner and AT&T. Jill Lesser, executive director for the Center for Copyright Information, the group leading the program, says a lot of those who share illegal content don't realize it's wrong.

"We are hopeful that the vast majority of people engaging in this behavior will change their behavior when they're informed in a way that's useful," she says.

So part of the new copyright alert system includes tips like how to secure your wireless connection and where to find legal downloads. If users keep pirating content online, ISP's can slow their Internet connection dramatically. Or users might have to watch a five-minute video on copyright infringement.

Benjamin Lennett, policy director for the Open Technology Institute, warns that content owners can ultimately use the program to cut off users' Internet connections.

"There's no cost for the content industry to submit as many requests to ISP's as they want," he says. "And this will all happen with very little transparency for the public."

Lennett says the new program offers no checks and balances for the content industry, so even if it seems weak on the surface, the copyright program can easily spiral out of control against users.

Critics also say the move can hurt small businesses like coffee shops that offer public WiFi, or people with unsecured WiFi networks at home, as anyone can jump on and download content illegally.

And if a consumer feels wrongly accused? There is some recourse. Appeals cost $35. But only then, Lennet says, does the burden of proof shift from the consumer to the content companies.

Cablevision is suing content provider Viacom. The cable company says it shouldn't have to pay for channels that aren't popular with subscribers.

The way it works now, Cablevision can't get Viacom's popular channels -- like Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon -- without also paying for its less popular ones, such as VH1 Classic and CMT. Some media companies have called this payment structure "bundling."

Cablevision is now arguing that bundling is unfair to subscribers, especially as the cost of cable is on the rise.

To hear and how and when this could impact the way you pay for cable, click on the audio player above.

Groupon is expected to announce fourth quarter earnings today. The daily deal company has been on the skids, and once again has shifted its approach. Rather than having deals pushed at them, consumers can now search for the deals they want. Think Google meets coupons.

It’s one of the more successful adjustments Groupon has made, says Greg Sterling tech analyst with Opus Research.

“By adding search into this you are allowing people to essentially express their needs and interests. That makes it much more likely there is going to be a transaction,” says Sterling.

Sterling says it’s a big improvement over all the Brazilian wax and teeth whitening offers popping up in people’s inboxes like spam.

But Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru says this shift undercuts the company’s value.

“You know there was these limited time offers and you had to get it now. There was a flash component. There was a sense of urgency. And now they are just becoming those deal saver books that the Boy Scouts sell you. And they don’t even have a charity angle,” she says.

Mulpuru says Groupon’s constantly changing business model shows the limited potential of the daily deal. She says merchants who want to offer coupons are better off going right to customers and skipping the middle man.

Connecticut elected officials called this week for Facebook to take down pages that have gone from Sandy Hook memorials to venues for conspiracy theorists to suggest that the Newtown massacre never occurred. Though it may seem hard to imagine, users have posted insulting comments on these Facebook pages targeting survivors of the shooting, saying they are hiding the "truth" about the event in order to allow President Obama or some other entity to push for gun control.

The letter from Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy as well as Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty point to Facebook terms of service language that requests users to refrain from creating pages or posts that could be considered misleading, malicious, or a form of harassment. (read the text of the full letter below).

Facebook has now responded to the letter, saying that the company has been working directly with victims' families and foundations connected with the tragedy. It's an interesting back and forth, especially considering it doesn't appear as if the elected officials and Facebook have really been in much direct contact over the issue.

We contacted the offices of both senators ahead of today's show to get their take -- neither office responded. But Facebook provided us with their letter and a statement from Krista Kobeski, a Facebook representative who has been dealing with people in the Newtown community since December. 

LETTER FROM CONNECTICUT ELECTED OFFICIALS

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,

It has come to our attention that Facebook has received multiple requests from grieving Newtown families to remove Facebook pages being used to harass them or to exploit their loss.

In the past several months, Facebook users have created hundreds of unofficial tribute pages dedicated to the victims of Sandy Hook. For example, The Greenwich Time reports over 100 tribute pages have been created using Victoria Soto’s name or likeness.

Many give the appearance they were created by loved ones in the names of the victims. Unfortunately, many of these pages have become vehicles for harassment, intimidation and possibly financial fraud. 
Pages providing platforms for people to violate the privacy of families as they grieve, or seek financial gain through soliciting donations under false pretenses, or generating Facebook “likes” for marketing purposes, should not be given quarter in the Facebook community.

In fact, several of your company’s terms of service speak directly to this point. The Facebook terms of service requires each user creating a page agree to a series of commitments, including the following:

• “You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.”
• “You will not post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates someone else's rights or otherwise violates the law.”
• “You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.”
• “You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.”

In the “Facebook Community Standards”, your company plainly states, “We ask that you refrain from publishing the personal information of others without their consent. Claiming to be another person, creating a false presence for an organization, or creating multiple accounts undermines community and violates Facebook’s terms.”
The Facebook terms of service also makes clear, “We can remove any content or information you post on Facebook if we believe that it violates this Statement or our policies.”

We ask that you direct your staff to remove the pages referred to in complaints by Donna Soto and Kaitlin Roig down for violating the above terms of service. If you do not believe these pages violate your terms of service, please detail in a written response why. If Facebook is already looking into this matter, please detail what you have done thus far to address the take-down requests from of Donna Soto and Kaitlin Roig. Our staff and we will be pleased to work with appropriate Facebook officials to address these issues affecting the Soto and Roig families, and others who may be affected by such abusive, unacceptable practices.

The horrific Newtown tragedy shocked and shook Connecticut and the nation, capturing hearts worldwide. Unfortunately it also apparently attracted less worthy attention.  We recognize that Facebook receives a large volume of reports and requests each day, but this issue deserves and needs priority enforcement of your own well-established policies. We trust you will do the right thing.

Sincerely,

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy
U.S. Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty

LETTER FROM FACEBOOK RESPONDING

Facebook's Letter to Connecticut Officials by

Secular activists launched the uprising in Syria two years ago, but ultraconservative Muslims are becoming a more potent force as the war grinds on. The sides have little in common besides their opposition to President Bashar Assad's government.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Most Americans are earning more money than their parents, according to a new study from Pew's Economic Mobility Project. But that doesn't tell the whole picture: It often takes two incomes to surpass the one salary that was enough for the younger generation's parents.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Only about 800 women younger than 40 get the kind of breast cancer that has spread to bones or other organs by the time it's diagnosed. But that number tripled in a generation, and scientists are left wondering what's the cause.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

There has been a lot of debate already this week on the internal Yahoo memo suggesting all work-from-home employees will, starting in June, have to get out of their pajamas and go into the office. For Yahoo -- a company that is struggling to redefine itself among the Googles, Apples, and Microsofts of the world -- the memo lays bare for its employees a need to work on company culture and collaboration. For employees the change can mean a pain -- either your office space is shrinking or you're having to trade in your slippers and favorite mug for work shoes and the water cooler cup.

I had to work from home a bunch at my last job. I assumed it would be great, but it wasn't. I was still chained to the desk, but in the comfort of my own home -- which quickly lost its homey luster. And even though I was filling my quotas, I wasn't really feeling like I was productive, unless you count creating dirty dishes.

What do you think? Is working from home a dream, or a daymare? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section.

To hear more about Yahoo's new work policy, click on the audio player above. University of Texas sociology professor Jennifer Glass shares her thoughts on telecommuting and work-life balance.

Many parents struggle to find the time to get their kids the exercise they need. Hectic lives are often filled with shuttling children from one sports activity to the next. But some parents are trying to make walking and biking part of their daily lives, not something they have to schedule.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The provision at issue in Wednesday's case before the court applies to parts of the U.S. where discriminatory voting practices were once rampant. The formula that covers those areas hasn't changed since 1975. The crux of the case: whether times have changed so much that Congress violated the Constitution when it reauthorized the law in 2006.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Elected in 1956, Wisconsin state Sen. Fred Risser is the longest-serving state lawmaker in the country. He may not use Facebook, Twitter or email, but he's gotten a lot done over the years. Considered an "institution within an institution" by some, he was just re-elected for another four years.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us