Former Bethlehem Steel Property To Idle

 

BETHLEHEM STEEL PLANT AT SPARROWS POINT – NARA – 546882 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The owner of the financially ailing Sparrows Point steel plant is idling operations there, warning 1,975 workers Thursday that they would be laid off starting next month.

The news, which casts doubt on the future of the Baltimore County facility that was once owned by Bethlehem Steel, came as RG Steel is shopping the steel mill and its other assets to potential buyers.

RG Steel informed the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations that layoffs would begin June 4 and continue through June 18. The state said the company would be laying off 1,714 hourly and 261 salaried workers, losses that would be a significant blow to the economy.

For years, the plant has faced uncertainty before last-minute deals salvaged the mill. RG Steel is the latest owner to try to sustain steel production at the once-flourishing facility.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-allentown-sparrows-point-idle-20120525,0,7750660.story

New Orleans Newspaper Cuts Print Edition To Three Days A Week

A true-color satellite image of New Orleans taken on NASA’s Landsat 7 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW ORLEANS, La.  (Reuters) – The 175-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper will reduce the number of days it publishes a print edition to three a week, making the Louisiana city the largest in the United States without a daily newspaper.

Advance Publications, which owns the Times-Picayune, said on Thursday it made the change because of the upheaval in the newspaper industry and the necessity to focus on its digital publications.

The company said three of its newspapers in Alabama – the Huntsville Times, Mobile Press-Register and Birmingham News – would also cut back their print editions to three days a week.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/sns-rt-us-media-neworleans-newspaperbre84o03e-20120524,0,1798086.story

Shooting Targets Resembling Trayvon Martin Sold Online

(Reuters) - Shooting targets resembling Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager shot to death in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer, were offered for sale online before the ads were pulled by the auction site.

The sale at an online gun broker’s auction site started on April 22 and offered 40 10-packs of paper targets, according to a screen shot of the auction ad by WKMG-TV in Orlando before the ad was taken down.

The targets featured a silhouette of a faceless person wearing a hooded sweatshirt, known as a hoodie, and holding a bag of Skittles candy and a container of tea. In an email exchange with WKMG, the seller claimed to be motivated by profit and to have sold out in two days.

Martin was wearing a hoodie and returning from a convenience store with Skittles and tea when he was shot on February 26 in Sanford, Florida. Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, 28, is awaiting trial for second-degree murder in the racially charged case.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/11/us-usa-florida-shooting-targets-idUSBRE84A1CP20120511

5 Most Damaged Brands Right Now

A conservative, a liberal, a country, a football team and a car make up the list!

See the list: http://money.msn.com/investing/5-most-damaged-brands-right-now

Kitten Tortured With Pen Dies In Home

Editor’s note:  I think there is a special room in hell for people who torture animals!

A kitten that was tortured with a pen before it was found in Mount Penn has died at the home of the woman who adopted it, authorities said Monday.

The kitten, which was about 5 months old, was rescued in March by a Mount Penn couple who found it with a pen stuck in its body near their house in the 2600 block of Perkiomen Avenue.

The kitten was taken to the Animal Rescue League of Berks County and underwent emergency surgery to remove the pen. League staff named her Susie.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=384867

One World Trade Center To Become NYC’s Tallest Building Monday

NEW YORK, NY—  C0me Monday, 1 World Trade Center is expected to become the Big Apple’s tallest skyscraper, when its steel casing surpasses that other famous city landmark, the Empire State Building.

It will reach more than 1,250 feet, just a little past the Observation Deck.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/kcpq-one-world-trade-center-to-become-nys-tallest-building-monday–20120430,0,1144920.story

Charles W. Colson, Watergate Felon Who Became Evangelical Leader, Dies At 80

Charles W. Colson, who as a political saboteur for President Richard M. Nixon masterminded some of the dirty tricks that led to the president’s downfall, then emerged from prison to become an important evangelical leader, saying he had been “born again,” died on Saturday. He was 80.

The cause was complications of a brain hemorrhage, according to Prison Fellowship Ministries, which Mr. Colson founded in Lansdowne, Va. He died at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., and lived in Naples, Fla., and Leesburg, Va.

Mr. Colson had brain surgery to remove a clot after becoming ill on March 30 while speaking at a conference, according to Jim Liske, the group’s chief executive.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/politics/charles-w-colson-watergate-felon-who-became-evangelical-leader-dies-at-80.html?_r=1&hp#

TV Emperor Of Rock ’N’ Roll And New Year’s Eve Dies At 82

Publicity photo of American Bandstand host Dick Clark. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dick Clark, the perpetually youthful-looking television host whose long-running daytime song-and-dance fest, “American Bandstand,” did as much as anyone or anything to advance the influence of teenagers and rock ’n’ roll on American culture, died on Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 82.

A spokesman, Paul Shefrin, said Mr. Clark had a heart attack at Saint John’s Health Center on Wednesday morning after entering the hospital the night before for an outpatient procedure.

Mr. Clark had a stroke in December 2004, shortly before he was to appear on the annual televised New Year’s Eve party he had produced and hosted every year since 1972. He returned a year later, and although he spoke haltingly, he continued to make brief appearances on the show, including the one this past New Year’s Eve.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/arts/television/dick-clark-tv-host-and-icon-of-new-years-eve-is-dead-at-82.html?_r=1&hpw#

Gannett Posts 25% Decline In Earnings

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — The Gannett Company reported a 25 percent decline in first-quarter profit on Monday, as advertising in its newspapers continued to decline.

The company, which owns 82 newspapers in the United States, including USA Today; 23 broadcast television stations; and several digital media properties, said it earned $68.2 million, or 28 cents a share, in the quarter, down from $90.5 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue in the period, which ended March 25, fell 2.6 percent to $1.22 billion from $1.25 billion last year.

Results were helped by strong TV advertising and growth in digital products like the CareerBuilder Web site. Even so, overall revenue came in below analysts’ expectations. Analysts had expected $1.24 billion in revenue, according to a poll by FactSet.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/business/media/gannett-profit-falls-25-on-newspaper-ad-decline.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Biologists Count Penguins By Satellite

Emperor Penguins in Ross Sea, Antarctica (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  I like penguins   Glad there is good news to report!

Using space technology to sniff out a telltale trail of penguin poop strewn about the edges of Antarctica, scientists have completed the first-ever census of an animal population taken with satellite imagery.

The collaboration of British and American researchers was able to identify 44 emperor penguin colonies, including seven that were previously unknown. They counted 595,000 birds — twice as many as they expected to see.

“Now that we have this baseline information, we can start asking new questions” about the Antarctic ecosystem, said Michelle LaRue, a doctoral student in conservation biology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and coauthor of a paper about the discovery, published Friday in the journal PLoS One.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-penguins-20120414,0,6965187.story

NBC: George Zimmerman To Be Charged In Trayvon Martin Case

An enlargeable map of the 67 counties of the state of Florida (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Pete Williams, NBC News, and M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

Updated at 2:57 p.m. ET: The special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case will announce criminal charges against George Zimmerman on Wednesday, a law enforcement official told NBC News.

The nature of the charges wasn’t immediately known, the official told NBC News Justice Department correspondent Pete Williams, speaking on condition of anonymity. But because Angela Corey — the special prosecutor appointed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to re-examine the case — previously announced that she wouldn’t take the case to a grand jury, first-degree murder is not an option.

Corey’s office confirmed that a news conference would be at 6 p.m. ET in Jacksonville, Fla.

Authorities in Sanford, Fla. — where Zimmerman, 28, a neighborhood watch volunteer, shot Martin, 17, on Feb. 26 — also began preparing for an announcement from Corey, NBC station WESH of Orlando reported. Seminole County sheriff’s deputies spent Wednesday morning setting up barricades along the booking area for new inmates at the county jail. 

Read more: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/11/11144255-nbc-george-zimmerman-to-be-charged-in-trayvon-martin-case?lite

Mike Wallace, CBS Pioneer Of ‘60 Minutes,’ Dies At 93

 

Publicity photo of journalist Mike Wallace for the television program Mike Wallace Interviews. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mike Wallace, the CBS reporter who became one of America’s best-known broadcast journalists as an interrogator of the famous and infamous on “60 Minutes,” died on Saturday. He was 93.

On its Web site, CBS said Mr. Wallace died at a care facility in New Canaan, Conn., where he had lived in recent years. Mr. Wallace, who received a pacemaker more than 20 years ago, had a long history of cardiac care and underwent triple bypass heart surgery in January 2008.

A reporter with the presence of a performer, Mr. Wallace went head to head with chiefs of state, celebrities and con artists for more than 50 years, living for when “you forget the lights, the cameras, everything else, and you’re really talking to each other,” he said in an interview with The New York Times videotaped in July 2006 and released on his death as part of the online feature “Last Word.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/business/media/mike-wallace-cbs-pioneer-of-60-minutes-dead-at-93.html?ref=business

Amazon A Virtual No-Show In Hometown Philanthropy

SEATTLE — Conceived on Wall Street, born in a Bellevue, Wash., rental house, and based in a dozen buildings in downtown Seattle, Amazon has grown into one of the Internet’s most-recognized name brands.

But Amazon, which employed 1,381 in 2011 at its Breinigsville warehouse complex, cuts an astoundingly low profile in the civic life of its hometown.

It’s a minor player in charitable giving in the Seattle area. Some nonprofit officials say it can be difficult to find someone at Amazon to even talk with them. Other business leaders say they’re hard-pressed to name examples of Amazon playing a significant role on broader public issues.

And while Amazon’s logo smile appears on billions of boxes that criss-cross the globe, neither that smile nor its name can be seen on a single building at its sprawling new campus in Seattle’s South Lake Union area. The company, which turns 18 this summer, won’t even acknowledge how many employees it has in the area.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-amazon-charity-20120407,0,5273935.story

AOL To Sell 800 Patents To Microsoft For $1 Billion

The second logo for AOL, used from 2006–2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Reuters) – AOL Inc said it would sell over 800 of its patents and related applications to Microsoft Corp , and would grant Microsoft a non-exclusive license to the patents it retains, for slightly over $1 billion in cash.

AOL’s shares jumped 37 percent to $25.16 in trading before the bell on Monday. They closed at $18.42 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Internet company said it plans to return a “significant portion of the sale proceeds” to shareholders.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/sns-rt-us-aol-microsoftbre83809x-20120409,0,3464198.story

Report: Sony To Axe 10,000 Jobs In Turnaround Bid

 

The logo of Sony is not considered a "work of authorship" because it only consists of text in a simple typeface, so it is not an object of copyright in respect to US law. However, this logo is still protected by trademark laws. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Japan’s Sony Corp. is cutting 10,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its global workforce, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday, as new CEO Kazuo Hirai looks to steer the electronics and entertainment giant back to profit after four years in the red.

The job cuts would be the latest downsizing in Japan Inc where companies from cellphone maker NEC Corp. to electronics firm Panasonic Corp. are trimming costs in the face of a strong yen and competition from rivals like Apple and Samsung Electronics.

TV makers in particular have been hit hard by the tough business climate as well as sharp price falls, with Sony, Panasonic and Sharp expecting to have lost a combined $17 billion in the fiscal year just ended.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/chi-sony-to-axe-10000-jobs-in-turnaround-bid-20120409,0,38906.story

Painter Thomas Kinkade Dead At Age 54

Thomas Kinkade (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the most beloved artists in America has apparently died of natural causes, at home, according to a statement from his family.  Thomas Kinkade was 54 and leaves behind a wife and four daughters.

Kinkade lived in Los Gatos, California.

Navy F/A-18 Jet Crashes Into Building In Virginia Beach

U.S. Navy F/A-18C from VFA-131 launches from French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle off the Virginia Capes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An F/A-18 jet crashed Friday into a cluster of apartment buildings in Virginia Beach, Va., eyewitnesses and authorities said.

A witness told MSNBC cable television that he arrived seconds after the crash at a building he described as a two-story apartment building that he said had been hit dead center. Aerial television coverage showed black smoke billowing from several buildings. The Virginian-Pilot reported that the buildings were in the Mayfair Mews Apartments.

Read more: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/06/11057385-navy-fa-18-jet-crashes-into-building-in-virginia-beach

Strip Search for Traffic Tickets???

U.S. Supreme Court building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note: This is a big old WTF moment in American history!

In a shocking abdication of its responsibility to uphold Americans’ constitutional freedoms, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that people suspected of minor offenses, such as rolling through a stop light, can be stripped and have their body cavities searched by jail guards.

Writing for the slim 5-4 majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the court should not second-guess prison officials.

But that is exactly why there is a court – to second-guess officials when they ignore constitutional rights and freedoms.

In this case, the court threw away the individual’s basic right not to be punished before being adjudicated.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/146170285.html

Yahoo To Lay Off 2,000 Employees

Deutsch: Logo von Yahoo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Betcha nobody is yelling “yahoo” over this news!

(Reuters) – Yahoo Inc will lay off 2,000 people, or 14 percent of its workforce, in its deepest round of job cuts in years as new Chief Executive Scott Thompson tries to jumpstart growth with a leaner, more agile company while saving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wall Street’s reaction was lukewarm, after two previous Yahoo CEOs failed to find an answer to rivals like Web-search leader Google and the Facebook social-networking site.

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, which ended 2011 with some 14,000 employees, said it would save $375 million annually from the cuts and incur a pre-tax cash charge in the second quarter of $125 million to $145 million.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/sns-rt-us-yahoo-layoffbre8330ly-20120404,0,1433746.story

Flying-Car Prototype Goes For Test Flight — And Drive

Map of Plattsburgh city (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Want to watch a car take flight? You are in luck. Terrafugia, makers of Transition — the world’s first flying car — has released video of a production-type prototype flying over Plattsburgh, N.Y. today.

The flight was the first successful test of the two-seat personal aircraft that you can park in your garage, drive on the road and fill up at a gas station.

“This is a very exciting time for Terrafugia,” said Carl Dietrich, the company’s CEO and CTO. “We are on our way up — literally and figuratively!”

The Transition reached an altitude of 1,400 feet during its first test flight, and spent a total of eight minutes in the air, company officials said.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/la-fi-tn-flying-car-test-flight-20120402,0,6282324.story