Stocks edged higher in early trading on Wall Street, boosted by gains for discount retailers, after Dollar Tree posted strong earnings.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,929. The Standard and Poor's 500 gained 3 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,500. The Nasdaq composite fell seven points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,136.
Discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc. rose $4.50 to $45.57 after it said its net income increased nearly 22 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter as consumers spent more at its stores. Dollar General and Family Dollar Stores also advanced.
Orders for U.S. factory goods that signal business investment plans jumped last month by the most in more than a year, suggesting that companies are confident about their business prospects.
The Commerce Department said orders for so-called core capital goods, which include machinery, equipment and software, rose 6.3 percent in January from December. However, a sharp drop in demand for commercial aircraft caused overall durable goods orders to drop 5.2 percent, the first decline since August.
Stocks bounced back Tuesday after logging heavy losses at the start of the week.
Both the Dow and the S&P logged their biggest losses in more than three months Monday on concern about Europe after elections in Italy left the country with political gridlock.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, fell 2 basis points to 1.86 percent.
Among other stocks making big moves;
? Priceline.com, a Travel website operator, gained $26.45 to $704.60 after it said late Tuesday that its net income jumped in the fourth quarter as bookings grew.
? First Solar plunged $4.31 to $27.02 after the company posted disappointing sales for the fourth-quarter and offered a weak early outlook for the year.
A new study links extreme weather events to interference in global air-flow patterns.
By Tanya Lewis,?LiveScience Staff Writer / February 25, 2013
The sun rises Saturday over grain bins and a corn crop struggling from drought in Ashland, Ill.
Seth Perlman/AP
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Extreme weather events have been on the rise in the last few decades, and man-made climate change may be causing them by interfering with global air-flow patterns, according to new research.
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The Northern Hemisphere has taken a beating from?extreme weather?in recent years ? the 2003 European heat wave, the 2010 Pakistan flood and the 2011 heat wave in the United States, for example. These events, in a general sense, are the result of the?global movement of air.
Giant waves of air in the atmosphere normally even out the climate, by bringing warm air north from the tropics and cold air south from the Arctic. But a new study suggests these colossal waves have gotten stuck in place during extreme weather events.
"What we found is that during several recent extreme weather events these planetary waves almost freeze in their tracks for weeks,"?lead author Vladimir Petoukhov, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, said in a statement. "So instead of bringing in cool air after having brought warm air in before, the heat just stays."
How long these weather extremes last is critical, the researchers say. While two or three days of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) pose little threat, 20 days or more can lead to extreme heat stress, which can trigger deaths, forest fires and lost harvests. [The World's 10 Weirdest Weather Events]
Monster Waves
The researchers created equations to model the motion of the massive air waves, determining what it takes to make the waves plough to a stop and build up. The team then used these models to crunch daily weather data from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
During extreme weather events, the waves were indeed trapped and amplified, the scientists found. They also saw a significant increase in the occurrence of these trapped waves.
Here's how the waves may be getting trapped: The burning of fossil fuels causes?more warming in the Arctic?than in other latitudes, because the loss of snow and ice means heat gets absorbed by the darker ground, not reflected (as it would by the white snow). This warming lessens the temperature difference between the Arctic and northern latitudes like Europe. Since these differences drive air flow, a smaller difference means less air movement. Also, land areas warm and cool more easily than oceans. The result is an unnatural pattern of air flow that prevents the air waves from circulating over land.
The study's results help explain the spike in summer weather extremes. Previous research had shown a link between?climate change and extreme weather, but did not identify the mechanism.
"This is quite a breakthrough, even though things are not at all simple ? the suggested physical process increases the probability of weather extremes, but additional factors certainly play a role as well, including natural variability," study co-author Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, also of PIK, said in a statement.
The 32-year period studied provides a good explanation of past extreme weather events, the researchers say, but is too short to make predictions about how often such events may occur in the future.
The findings were reported online today (Feb. 25) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.?
Copyright 2013?LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, file photo, South Korean models pose with a CINEMA 3D Smart TV during a press conference to introduce the LG Electronics' television and the company's marketing strategy for 2012 in Seoul, South Korea. Hewlett-Packard said Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, it is selling its webOS operating system technology to South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Hewlett Packard Co. and LG said on Monday that LG will use webOS to support its "smart TV" technology. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, file photo, South Korean models pose with a CINEMA 3D Smart TV during a press conference to introduce the LG Electronics' television and the company's marketing strategy for 2012 in Seoul, South Korea. Hewlett-Packard said Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, it is selling its webOS operating system technology to South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Hewlett Packard Co. and LG said on Monday that LG will use webOS to support its "smart TV" technology. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Hewlett-Packard is selling its webOS software to South Korean electronics company LG Electronics, securing a new home for a technological orphan.
The deal announced Monday rids HP of the centerpiece of its ill-fated, $1.8 billion purchase of Palm Inc. three years ago.
HP used webOS as its springboard into the smartphone and tablet computer market in 2011, but quickly scrapped the mobile devices running on the software amid disappointing sales. With that retreat, Hewlett-Packard Co. stopped developing webOS for its own products and gave away the underlying technology as open-source software for programmers elsewhere to modify for their own needs.
LG Electronics has grander plans for webOS. Initially, the software will be melded into a new line of Internet-connected televisions from LG Electronics Inc. If those are successful, LG Electronics is considering selling household appliances and other devices that run on webOS in an attempt to create a so-called "smart" home. That's a concept that could appeal to a generation of consumers who wouldn't consider leaving their homes without their smartphones.
In a sign of its commitment to webOS, LG Electronics is also acquiring the team of engineers who had been working on the software for HP. The precise number of HP workers transferring to LG Electronics wasn't disclosed. The affected employees currently work in San Francisco and Palm's former Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters, and will remain based in those cities, according to LG Electronics. It still hasn't been determined if LG Electronics will take control of the employees' current offices or move them to other locations in the same cities.
The opportunity to pick up a pool of talented software programmers and gain control over the core of webOS were the main reasons LG Electronics wanted to do the deal instead of simply relying on the free open-source project, LG Electronics spokesman John Taylor said.
Financial terms of the webOS sale weren't disclosed. It's unlikely that LG Electronics had to pay much, given that HP had already absorbed $1.6 billion in charges to account for the diminished value of Palm and other costs caused by its decision to stop making webOS devices.
HP, which is based in Palo Alto, is in the process of eliminating 29,000 jobs in an effort to cut costs amid a slump that has seen its revenue falling for the past 18 months. Through January, HP had jettisoned more than 15,000 of the jobs targeted in its streamlining.
HP is still holding on to some vestiges of its Palm acquisition. Among other things, HP retains ownership of other computing coding outside webOS, along with Palm's hardware and Palm's customer contracts. HP will also continue to employ former Palm employees who weren't involved in webOS and will continue to handle customer support for people who still use Palm products made in the past.
Besides getting webOS' source code and other key parts of the technology, LG Electronics will take over stewardship of the open-software project.
HP is jettisoning webOS just as the company is gearing up to introduce a new tablet that features a 7-inch screen and will sell for just $169. The upcoming device, called Slate 7, will run on the popular Android software made by Google Inc. It will supplement a more sophisticated and expensive tablet computer designed primarily for business users. That tablet runs on Windows 8, a recently released makeover of Microsoft's ubiquitous operating system.
PARIS (AP) ? France's defense minister says French troops are involved in "very violent fighting" in the mountains of northern Mali, and that it's too early to talk about a quick pullout from the West African country despite the growing cost of the intervention.
Jean-Yves Le Drian said on France's RTL radio Tuesday that the French intervention in Mali has cost more than ?100 million ($133 million). French troops moved in Jan. 11 to help Mali's weak military push back Islamist extremists.
Le Drian said, "we are now at the heart of the conflict," in protracted fighting in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains. While some have suggested starting a pullout of the 4,000-strong French force next month, Le Drian said he couldn't talk about a quick withdrawal while the mountain fighting goes on.
(Reuters) - South African Miner Petra Diamonds Ltd reported 20 percent higher core earnings for the first half, helped by production at its recently purchased Finsch mine.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose to $32.6 million for the six months to December 31 from $27.1 million a year earlier.
Petra, which has seven operating mines in South Africa and one in Tanzania, said revenue grew 63 percent to $151.7 million.
The rough diamond market is expected to remain stable in the second half, the company said.
Earlier this month, the world's biggest diamond producer, De Beers, said a more positive outlook in China and India would boost sales of diamond jewellery in 2013.
Petra said last month that production rose 31 percent to 1.25 million carats for the first half, mainly due to the inclusion of output from the Finsch mine.
But it lowered its full-year production target by about 7 percent, citing uneven quality, particularly at its Finsch and Cullinan mines in South Africa.
Shares in Petra closed at 115.8 pence on the London Stock Exchange on Friday. They have lost about 25 percent of their value in the past year.
Samsung has stepped forward and officially announced the Galaxy Note 8.0. We've sen and heard enough leaks and rumors to know that we would be seeing an 8-inch version of the popular Note series, but tonights' news clears up al the speculation and replaces it with information direct from Seoul.
The Note 8.0 takes everything you love about the Note series, adds some great new features, and packages it all into a solid tablet form factor. The Note 8.0 will still be able to make phone calls in some countries, but the 8-inch screen puts this one squarely into the portable tablet genre. And that's a good thing. Users who didn't want a full-sized 10-inch tablet, but still wanted access to the great S Pen technology now have that option.
We've spent some time with the Note 8.0 on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2013, and have the answers to all your questions covered. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 will be available world wide (Europe, Korea, North America, S.E. Asia, S. W. Africa, the Middle East, China, Taiwan, and Latin America) in Q2. Keep an eye on Android Central for exact dates and pricing. The full press release and press photos are after the break.
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Leaders for the Ontario?s high-school teachers will vote Friday afternoon on a motion to return sports teams and clubs to schools.
Sources told the Globe and Mail that although the Liberal government has not made any concrete overtures, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers? Federation executive want educators to trust that talks are moving in a positive direction and return to extracurriculars. The motion will be voted on this afternoon.
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Insiders say that government discussions with leaders representing high-school teachers have moved at a quicker pace than with their elementary school counterparts. The OSSTF and their colleagues at the elementary level have been meeting with government officials for several weeks.
Public school teachers have withdrawn extracurricular activities to show their frustration at the provincial government for legislating the terms of their contracts.
School boards have been worrying for months about the loss of students to the Catholic and private systems because of the cancellation of extracurriculars. With early enrolment projections suggesting numbers could be down, and budget discussions introducing the prospect of teacher layoffs, those fears are spreading to union leaders.
New Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, and Education Minister, Liz Sandals, have indicated plans to revamp the negotiations process, which has involved an informal agreement for all parties to meet at the provincial discussion table over the last decade. Teachers and school boards have lamented that the process doesn't leave enough room for local-level negotiations, and the imposition of contract terms through legislation earlier this year has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many teachers.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The bankrupt city of San Bernardino has hired a new city manager who, according to court filings, has twice declared personal bankruptcy and was recently ousted from the board of a small community's water company after being sued by shareholders.
The city council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to hire Allen J. Parker, 71, as its city manager on an annual salary of almost $222,000. He replaces an interim city manager who resigned last month because, according to friends, she was exasperated by the city's internal divisions.
The interim city manager, Andrea Travis-Miller, could not be reached for comment.
Pat Morris, the mayor of the city in California, praised Parker's "wealth of city management experience" and expressed "great confidence" in his ability to oversee the city's affairs. Parker, who began working in the job on Wednesday, will be crucial in guiding the city of 210,000 people through municipal bankruptcy, in a case that could set a national precedent for Wall Street bondholders and pension funds in future municipal bankruptcies.
The mayor and council members knew about both of Parker's personal bankruptcies - the first in 1991 and the second in 2011 - and the litigation surrounding his water board tenure before they interviewed him, according to the mayor's chief of staff. They discussed both issues with him when they interviewed Parker last Friday. They say the issues were no impediment: the council interviewed two final candidates but voted unanimously to hire him.
The California newspaper The Press-Enterprise reported on Thursday that Parker filed in 2011 for personal bankruptcy. In comments to the paper, Parker said that his bankruptcy and his ability to handle the city's fiscal problems were "apples and oranges."
Calls and emails to Parker asking about his bankruptcy filings and his tenure on the water board went unanswered. An email to Parker asking if his wife Sara, with whom he jointly filed for bankruptcy in the 2011 petition, would comment also did not elicit a response.
The bankruptcy of San Bernardino, a city 65 miles east of Los Angeles, is a national test case as to whether the pensions of government workers take precedence over other payments in a municipal bankruptcy - a high stakes issue for pension plans and their beneficiaries, and for the Wall Street bondholders who lend money to governments.
City managers are central to any city's quest to seek bankruptcy protection, because they have a pivotal role in answering questions from creditors and the court. The judge overseeing San Bernardino's case must still rule on whether the city is eligible for bankruptcy before the case proceeds.
A TINY COMMUNITY
A 2009 lawsuit brought by a shareholder in the Banning Heights Mutual Water Company, where Parker was a director and then president of the board between 2004 and 2010, resulted in Parker being voted off the board in February 2010 after a court-ordered special election.
Banning Heights is a tiny unincorporated community 85 miles east of Los Angeles. The water company was formed in 1913 to provide water and today it serves about 250 residents.
Despite its small size, the water rights and land upon which the community sits are worth millions of dollars, according to John McClendon, the water board's general counsel. At one point under Parker's tenure on the water board, an entity called The Tahiti Group had placed $7 million in an escrow account to purchase the company, according to correspondence attached to court filings.
Court filings in the 2009 lawsuit, and a subsequent separate lawsuit brought by the water company allege that Parker, along with others, used their position on the board to try to sell the water company, against the wishes of shareholders.
Parker and others were also accused of withholding information from shareholders, according to those court filings. The shareholder sued in 2009 because he said Parker and others ignored the results of previous shareholder elections when they were voted off the board. Parker is not a defendant in the second lawsuit which is still active.
According to one court filing by the water company dated September 20, 2010, when shareholders gained access to the water company's office after Parker and others were voted off the board, computers were missing, hard drives had been wiped and bags of shredded documents sat on the floor.
In a deposition dated November 9, 2010 relating to the 2009 lawsuit, Parker said he never shredded documents and did not believe anyone "during our regime" on the water board shredded any documents.
After a judge ruled against Parker and others in the 2009 lawsuit and ordered a special shareholder election, they were voted off the board by shareholders in February 2010.
CITY DID ITS CHECKS
According to his resume, which does not mention Banning Heights Water Company, Parker has long experience as a local manager in several other California cities such as East Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, Seal Beach, and Compton.
Jim Morris, the son and chief of staff to Pat Morris, San Bernardino's mayor, said the city had done its own thorough background check on Parker before he was interviewed by the council, last Friday. His bankruptcies, and the Banning Heights Mutual Water Company litigation, were known about by the time the interview took place, Morris said.
"We talked to the attorneys involved, and pulled the court filings. These were disputes over election results," Morris said. He said the Banning Heights litigation did not involve serious issues, and that such disputes occur on small entities such as the water board all the time.
Morris said there was no reason why Parker should have included his tenure on the water board on his resume. "He wasn't employed by the water board," Morris said. "His resume was an employment resume. If someone was a member of their local homeowners' association you wouldn't expect that to be on their resume."
Parker filed for personal bankruptcy in 1991, in San Mateo, California, according to court records. No further details were available. In February 2011, he filed for bankruptcy with his wife, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California.
According to the 2011 bankruptcy filing, Parker and his wife listed among their debts two home mortgages with unsecured balances of $267,500, as well as bank and credit card debt of $137,252.
(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Martin Howell, Tiziana Barghini and Claudia Parsons)
Installed and works rather well. Looks like it might be a battery burner though. Not sure if its the app or the fact that I'm playing with nav and Siri.
Which tweak? AssistantLove? Jeff Benjamin swears by it and just recently did a big review on it. He didn't mention battery life. Sorry if I led you array. Stick with it for a little while and see how it plays out. It might be just cause ur using it so much. Sometimes these things settle down over time whether it be due to a recharge, respring/reboot, update, removal of a conflicting tweak, etc. If its bad on the battery try one of the others that are out there. Enjoy!
Wanted: A life outside the workplace Public release date: 21-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andy Henion henion@msu.edu 517-355-3294 Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. A memo to employers: Just because your workers live alone doesn't mean they don't have lives beyond the office.
New research at Michigan State University suggests the growing number of workers who are single and without children have trouble finding the time or energy to participate in non-work interests, just like those with spouses and kids.
Workers struggling with work-life balance reported less satisfaction with their lives and jobs and more signs of anxiety and depression.
"People in the study repeatedly said I can take care of my job demands, but then I have no time for working out, volunteering in my community, pursuing friendships or anything else," said Ann Marie Ryan, MSU professor of psychology and study co-author.
Traditionally, companies have focused on helping workers find "work-family" balance. The broader new concept is called "work-life," though for many employers it remains just that a concept, said Jessica Keeney, study co-author and recent doctoral graduate in psychology at MSU.
"As organizations strive to implement more inclusive HR policies, they might consider offering benefits such as flexible work arrangements to a wider audience than just parents," said Keeney, who works for APTMetrics, a human resources consulting firm. "Simply relabeling programs from 'work-family' to 'work-life' is not enough; it may also require a shift in organizational culture."
Take, for example, an employee who is single and without children and wants to leave work early to train for a triathlon, Ryan said. Should that employee have any less right to leave early than the one who wants to catch her child's soccer game at 4 p.m.?
"Why is one more valued than the other?" Ryan said. "We have to recognize that non-work roles beyond family also have value."
Childlessness among employees has been increasing in the United States, particularly among female managers, the study notes. Further, a large portion of employees today are single and live alone.
The research encompassed two studies of nearly 5,000 university alumni. Roughly 70 percent of the participants were married or in a domestic partnership and about 44 percent had one or more children living at home. The participants worked in a wide range of industries including health care, business, education and engineering.
The three areas in which work interfered the most for all participants were health (which includes exercising and doctor's appointments); family; and leisure (which includes hobbies, playing sports and reading and watching TV).
Ryan said the findings were similar for both workers with families and those without. Each group reported challenges with maintaining friendships, taking care of their health and finding leisure time and this had negative effects above and beyond the challenges of balancing work and family.
###
The findings were published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior. The other co-authors were MSU doctoral graduates Elizabeth Boyd, Ruchi Sinha and Alyssa Westring.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Wanted: A life outside the workplace Public release date: 21-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andy Henion henion@msu.edu 517-355-3294 Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. A memo to employers: Just because your workers live alone doesn't mean they don't have lives beyond the office.
New research at Michigan State University suggests the growing number of workers who are single and without children have trouble finding the time or energy to participate in non-work interests, just like those with spouses and kids.
Workers struggling with work-life balance reported less satisfaction with their lives and jobs and more signs of anxiety and depression.
"People in the study repeatedly said I can take care of my job demands, but then I have no time for working out, volunteering in my community, pursuing friendships or anything else," said Ann Marie Ryan, MSU professor of psychology and study co-author.
Traditionally, companies have focused on helping workers find "work-family" balance. The broader new concept is called "work-life," though for many employers it remains just that a concept, said Jessica Keeney, study co-author and recent doctoral graduate in psychology at MSU.
"As organizations strive to implement more inclusive HR policies, they might consider offering benefits such as flexible work arrangements to a wider audience than just parents," said Keeney, who works for APTMetrics, a human resources consulting firm. "Simply relabeling programs from 'work-family' to 'work-life' is not enough; it may also require a shift in organizational culture."
Take, for example, an employee who is single and without children and wants to leave work early to train for a triathlon, Ryan said. Should that employee have any less right to leave early than the one who wants to catch her child's soccer game at 4 p.m.?
"Why is one more valued than the other?" Ryan said. "We have to recognize that non-work roles beyond family also have value."
Childlessness among employees has been increasing in the United States, particularly among female managers, the study notes. Further, a large portion of employees today are single and live alone.
The research encompassed two studies of nearly 5,000 university alumni. Roughly 70 percent of the participants were married or in a domestic partnership and about 44 percent had one or more children living at home. The participants worked in a wide range of industries including health care, business, education and engineering.
The three areas in which work interfered the most for all participants were health (which includes exercising and doctor's appointments); family; and leisure (which includes hobbies, playing sports and reading and watching TV).
Ryan said the findings were similar for both workers with families and those without. Each group reported challenges with maintaining friendships, taking care of their health and finding leisure time and this had negative effects above and beyond the challenges of balancing work and family.
###
The findings were published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior. The other co-authors were MSU doctoral graduates Elizabeth Boyd, Ruchi Sinha and Alyssa Westring.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 21-Feb-2013
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