Today, Live Action released a new undercover video showing a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Austin, TX encouraging a woman to obtain a late-term abortion because she was purportedly carrying a girl and wanted to have a boy. The video is first in a new series titled “Gendercide: Sex-Selection in America,” exposing the practice of sex-selective abortion in the United States and how Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry facilitate the selective elimination of baby girls in the womb.

A Colorado farm that was traced to a listeria outbreak in cantaloupe last year has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Jensen Farms declined to comment on its filing Friday. Its attorney Jim Markus told The Denver Post the filing should free up millions of dollars in insurance and other funds that could be distributed to victims.

The outbreak was blamed for 32 deaths. It infected 146 people in 28 states. Federal investigators have said old, hard-to-clean equipment at Jensen Farms and pools of dirty water on the floor probably were to blame.

Court documents show the farm had $4.8 million in revenue in the past 12 months. It lists $2.1 million in assets, $2.5 million in liabilities, and $1.6 million in payments outstanding from food distributor Frontera Produce.

The crippled law firm Dewey & Leboeuf LLP filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday night and will seek approval to liquidate its business after failing to find a merger partner, marking the biggest collapse of a law firm in U.S. history.

Once one of the largest law firms in the U.S., Dewey has been hit by the loss of the vast majority of its roughly 300 partners to other firms amid concerns about compensation and a heavy debt load.

Dewey had warned employees earlier this month of the possibility the firm may shut down, and a person familiar with the matter had told Reuters that the firm was considering a bankruptcy filing.

"Dewey's failure is rocking the industry in the sense that most firms are saying to themselves, if Dewey could go down, could we?" Kent Zimmermann, a legal consultant at the Zeughauser Group, said in an email Monday night.

Dewey said in a filing it had decided to wind down its business following unsuccessful negotiations with other law firms to strike a deal. It said it would ask about 90 employees to remain on staff to assist in the liquidation, which it expects to be completed in the next few months.

Negative economic conditions, along with the firm's partnership compensation arrangements, created a situation where its cash flow was insufficient to cover capital expenses and full compensation expectations, Dewey said.

Novant Health informed its employees by memo Tuesday that it is laying off 289 employees, including 150 cuts in the health system's Winston-Salem market.

Most of the Triad cuts affect Forsyth Medical Center , Novant Health's flagship campus, and primarily impact nonclinical positions, according to spokeswoman Jeanne Mayer. The Charlotte Business Journal reports that 103 of the jobs being eliminated are at Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte.

Daimler AG (DAI)’s Mercedes-Benz, Brazil’s second-biggest truck and bus manufacturer by market share, will take 1,500 workers off assembly lines in Brazil for five months to lower production as demand drops.

The employees from the German automaker’s factory in Sao Bernardo do Campo will receive additional training during the period, the Stuttgart-based company said today. Daimler employs about 14,000 workers in Brazil, where it controls 25.5 percent of the truck and bus market, according to data from the country’s dealer association, known as Fenabrave.

Declines in truck and bus sales “created the need to reduce production,” Mercedes said in an e-mailed statement.

Truck and bus sales fell 28 percent in the first two weeks of May from a year earlier, according to Fenabrave. Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega last week announced stimulus measures to help boost vehicle purchases. Mercedes and Volvo AB (VOLVB) planned to halt production temporarily to cope with dropping sales, according to a report in O Estado de S. Paulo.

A Syracuse automotive parts manufacturing plant will lay off more than 400 workers beginning in August.

New Process Gear Inc. filed notice with the state Department of Labor that a total of 406 employees, including salary, union and non-union employees, will be let go beginning Aug. 20.

The company is part of Magna International Inc. , which is shutting down the operation. The notice did not indicate a date for when the plant will be officially closed.

Renesas Electronics Corp. (6723) fell to the lowest level on record after the company was said to be planning to eliminate 10,000 jobs and raise 100 billion yen ($1.3 billion) under the latest draft of a restructuring plan.

The world’s biggest maker of automotive microcontrollers presented the proposal last week to its workers’ union and lenders Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc., a person briefed on the matter said May 25. The job cuts would amount to almost a quarter of the company’s 42,800 employees as it seeks to return to profit

Research In Motion Ltd is preparing for a major restructuring beginning in the next couple of weeks that will see it eliminate at least 2,000 jobs worldwide, the Globe and Mail reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources.

The Canadian newspaper, citing several people close to the company, reported that the next round is layoffs is said to be planned for around June 1 - a day before the BlackBerry smartphone maker's first quarter ends - but some expect the announcement even earlier.

One source close to the company told Reuters the impending layoffs could hit as many as 6,000 people and affect RIM's legal, marketing, sales, operations, and human resources divisions.

"The strategic question is: are you accelerating into a better future or shrinking to a niche operation," said the source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the job cuts.

Trip Hawkins, Digital Chocolate (and EA for that matter) founder, is leaving his position as CEO amid company-wide layoffs and studio closures, aiming to take more of an advisory role in the near future. Around 180 employees have been reportedly let go in Russia, San Mateo and India, though the figures have not yet been officially confirmed.

The company’s offices in Mexico, Armenia, Washington and Russia have also reportedly closed their doors. Apparently, Digital Chocolate is just ”narrowing its focus and it made sense to get more streamlined.” Considering last week’s news of the 38 Studios collapse, not exactly an encouraging week for the industry.

More than 100,000 Americans out of work longer than a year in six states and Washington, D.C., are expected to lose their unemployment checks this summer, pushing the total cut off this year to more than 500,000.

Economists say the cutbacks will lower the unemployment rate but hurt consumer spending.

Affected are extended benefits, paid by the federal government, which provide an additional 13 to 20 weeks of payments to those already out of work 60 to 79 weeks. Congress mandated the reductions this year and they join other cuts in place or coming.

Some states have trimmed even initial benefits to less than 26 weeks, and some have limited eligibility. Florida residents must apply online and take a lengthy skills test.

Starting next month, many states will reduce the second phase of benefits, which aids people unemployed for 26 to 79 weeks. That is expected to affect several hundred thousand by year's end.

The portion of the jobless receiving payments recently fell below 50%.

Many states are ending extended benefits, as required by federal law, because their unemployment rates are no longer rising.

From June through August, New York, West Virginia, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, Idaho and Washington, D.C., will end extended benefits, according to the National Employment Law Project. Those cuts will affect about 116,000 recipients. From January through May, 419,000 Americans in 27 states lost payments.

Despite an improving job market, those out of work the longest struggle most to find jobs.

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's faltering Rhode Island video game company laid off its entire staff Thursday.

An email sent by the 38 Studios company to workers and obtained by The Associated Press says they were notified of the "non-voluntary and non-disciplinary" layoffs on Thursday.

38 Studios moved from Massachusetts in 2010 after Rhode Island offered a $75 million loan guarantee officials said would bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars of tax revenue. The company was more than two weeks late this month on a $1.1 million payment to the state economic development agency. State officials said the company wasn't able to make its payroll.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee said the layoffs were an indication of the "grim times" facing the company and the state, which could be responsible for some of 38 Studios' debt should the company collapse.

The company had 300 employees in Providence, Chafee said. It also has an office in Maryland.

Attempts to reach Schilling and company executives on Thursday were unsuccessful.

A Manhattan public elementary school will begin requiring students to take a mandatory Arabic class for 45 minutes twice a week, putting it on the same level as science and music courses, the New York Post reports.

PS 368 in Hamilton Heights will start the classes next semester, and all students from second to fifth grade will be enrolled.

Nicky Kram Rosen, the school’s principal, said the language was chosen because it enhances the school’s chance of obtaining International Baccalaureate standing.

According to NY1.com, the Global Language Project is providing teachers and the Qatar Foundation is paying for them.

A pilot program is already being taught, and students taking the class said that it was challenging at first, according to the Post.

“Arabic has been identified as a critical-need language,” said Angela Jackson, CEO of the Global Language Project. “It means they can spin the globe and decide where they want to work and live.”

Jackson said the school will deal with students who object to taking the course on a case-by-case basis.

Though the Obama campaign has repeatedly attacked Mitt Romney for his career at Bain Capital, President Obama still accepted $7,500 in campaign contributions from three Bain executives. His campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt told The Politicker the president has no intention of giving the money back.

“No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for President highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization,” said Mr. LaBolt. ”The President has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink of another depression, manufacturing and the auto industry revived, and support his agenda to build an economy that lasts where America outinnovates and outeducates the rest of the world and economic security for the middle class is restored.”

On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden defended the attacks on Mr. Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. Though he insisted he wasn’t “criticizing private equity firms,” Mr. Biden said there were many examples of Mr. Romney and his Bain colleagues causing tremendous harm.

http://politicker.com/2012/05/president-obama-wont-be-returning-his-donations-from-bain-capital/

A group of Democratic female senators on Wednesday declared war on the so-called “gender pay gap,” urging their colleagues to pass the aptly named Paycheck Fairness Act when Congress returns from recess next month. However, a substantial gender pay gap exists in their own offices, a Washington Free Beacon analysis of Senate salary data reveals.

Of the five senators who participated in Wednesday’s press conference—Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.), Patty Murray (D., Wash.), Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) and Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.)—three pay their female staff members significantly less than male staffers.

Murray, who has repeatedly accused Republicans of waging a “war a women,” is one of the worst offenders. Female members of Murray’s staff made about $21,000 less per year than male staffers in 2011, a difference of 35.2 percent.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/senate-dems-betray-lilly/

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell supports same-sex marriage — and he doesn’t necessarily believe the issue should be left up to states.

“I have no problems with it,” Powell, who served under George W. Bush, says in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that airs in full at 5 p.m. Wednesday. “I don’t see any reason not to say that [same-sex couples] should be able to get married under the laws of their state or the laws of the country.”

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama endorsed same-sex marriage, saying, “For me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married and I continue to believe that this is an issue that is going to be worked out at a local level.”

“In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that’s called marriage,” Powell said Tuesday, “and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country. And so I support the president’s decision.”

Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was implemented in 1993. The retired four-star general said Wednesday that he thought of DADT as a compromise that improved the status quo at the time.

“It was the Congress that imposed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred,” Powell told Blitzer.

In February 2010, Powell announced that he supported the repeal of DADT.

“In the almost 17 years since the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed,” said Powell at the time.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76687.html

The typical American household would have paid nearly all of its income in taxes last year to balance the budget if the government used standard accounting rules to compute the deficit, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Under those accounting practices, the government ran red ink last year equal to $42,054 per household — nearly four times the official number reported under unique rules set by Congress.

A U.S. household's median income is $49,445, the Census reports.

The big difference between the official deficit and standard accounting: Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits. Yet companies, states and local governments must include retirement commitments in financial statements, as required by federal law and private boards that set accounting rules.

The deficit was $5 trillion last year under those rules. The official number was $1.3 trillion. Liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, according to government actuaries, but the amount was not registered on the government's books.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-05-18/federal-deficit-accounting/55179748/1

The stage is being set so that military Chaplains can and most likely will be ordered to perform same sex marriage in contradiction to their religious beliefs.

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Democrat House leaders including Nancy Pelosi have opposed a measure to ensure military chaplains are not forced to perform same-sex “marriages,” arguing that it is based on a “manufactured crisis” and therefore unnecessary - a response strongly criticized by chaplain advocates.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday echoed sentiments issued by the Obama White House regarding the conscience language, part of a defense spending bill, saying that “there’s nothing that says that chaplains act against their faith.”

The result will be that chaplains of certain faiths abandon the military as they are forced to choose between violating their faiths or being driven out for not performing such marriage ceremonies.

What is required is the respect of certain long-established and broadly supported religious beliefs. We currently lack a White House and Democrat leadership capable of providing this respect. When Leftists empowered by big government meet religion, religion loses and is ultimately diminished in size and influence.

Pelosi and Obama need to be held accountable for it and not be allowed to slip away based on misleading arguments designed to give them the authority to dictate their own liberal agendas.

A bill that would close an IRS tax credit loophole that allows the IRS to funnel over $4 billion to illegal immigrants is being held up by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, has been vocal in his disdain for the blatant misuse of taxpayer monies:

I’m disappointed that the Majority Leader objected to our effort today to prevent billions in tax credits from being wrongly sent to illegal immigrants claiming they have dependents, many of whom do not live in the US. This should not be a partisan issue: it is wrong for the government to use Americans’ tax dollars to directly subsidize illegality, especially at a time when our nation is spending so much money we don’t have.

The $4 billion wasted on the illegal immigrant tax credit loophole is “roughly the same amount the President proposes to raise annually by instituting the new Warren Buffett Tax,” says Sen. Sessions. The Alabama senator also notes that it's the amount needed to fund the shortfall in the highway bill and nearly all of the student loan bill.

Tourists in town next week could see two very different messages if they look skyward once Gay Days rolls into town: One will warn them away from an annual gay-and-lesbian celebration at Walt Disney World, while the other will welcome LGBT travelers and the dollars they spend in Orlando.

The aerial battle pits a conservative religious group against a local visitors bureau. Both groups said Wednesday they are planning to hire aircraft to fly banner messages over Orlando's tourist areas before or on June 2, which is the day that thousands of gays and lesbians are scheduled to visit the Magic Kingdom during the annual series of events known as Gay Days.

For the second year in a row, the Florida Family Association says it will fly a banner that states, "Warning Gay Day at Disney." OrlandoGayTravel.com, the recently launched gay convention-and-visitors bureau, is raising money to combat that message with a banner that states: "Gay Friendly, Everyone Friendly!"

Gay Days, which is not sponsored by Disney World, includes the tradition, begun in 1991, of gays and lesbians visiting the Magic Kingdom on the first Saturday in June wearing red T-shirts. Organizers say more than 100,000 visitors are now drawn to Orlando for a series of related activities, including parties and an LGBT expo at the host hotel.

"When gays and lesbians are thinking about where they might go for a vacation, one of the factors that's really in their mind is: … Is it welcoming? Will we not be hassled?" said Paul Queen, director of marketing for OrlandoGayTravel.com.

The Florida Family Association said on its website that its efforts last year "spared tens of thousands of children from the unexpected exposure to this coming out party."

A tattoo of a giant iguana curling up her chest had seemed like a good idea when she was younger.

“We were 18, and we really liked lizards,” says Kaylie, now 26. “It wasn’t a mistake, but at a certain point it didn’t fit with who I was anymore.”

Kaylie (who asked that her last name not be used) got her tattoo while on a celebratory beach trip with friends following high school graduation. Although three of her friends still sport the matching iguanas they chose to symbolize their friendship, Kaylie recently made the decision to have hers removed for an upcoming wedding and to improve her job prospects.

“I was tired of wearing turtle necks to job interviews, and I didn’t like the way the more closed-minded people judged me just because I had a tattoo,” she says.

After spending more than $2,000 on laser treatments to have her ink removed, Kaylie is now tattoo-free on her chest and lower neck. Although she still has more than 10 tattoos elsewhere on her body, she says having one removed is not something she would do again.

“It was painful, and it was way more expensive than the actual tattoo. I’m definitely keeping the others that I have. I like them, and they’re not in such obvious places,” she says.

Almost 200 employees of G&D Integrated will lose their jobs by the end of the summer, according to a notice sent to employees by the company.

Caterpillar Inc. is terminating its contract with the logistics company and sourcing the work elsewhere in central Illinois, G&D CEO Joe O'Neill said Tuesday.

The notice sent to employees of G&D who work at the Caterpillar STRF facility at 2223 W. Altorfer Drive stated that the layoffs are the result of an unforeseen business circumstance. There are currently 189 employees at the facility affected by the contract termination.

"They sourced the work to another provider," O'Neill said. "Cat makes its own decisions about these sorts of things."

Without specifying what company is taking over the work, O'Neill said he expects that it will hire roughly the same amount of people laid off from G&D.

CAE Inc. is making the largest cut to its workforce in nearly three years by trimming 300 jobs as the flight simulator and training company adjusts to the impact of military budget cuts in Europe.

The Montreal-based company announced Wednesday that it is trimming about four per cent of its global workforce of 8,000 despite growing revenues and profits.

Most of the job cuts are in Germany, but 90 employees in Montreal were notified as of Wednesday they would no longer be needed. No engineering positions are affected. Most are general, administrative and support jobs.

The Christus Santa Rosa Health System informed the Texas Workforce Commission on Wednesday that 400 employees in San Antonio will lose their positions between July 31 and Aug. 13.

The layoffs stem from the consolidation of the hospital system's City Centre at 333 N. Santa Rosa St. downtown into its existing Children's Hospital to form a planned stand-alone children's hospital.

About 90 of the 400 affected workers already have secured job transfers to other Christus Santa Rosa hospitals.

All 400 City Centre employees could find positions eventually, a Christus Santa Rosa spokesperson said.

City Centre is a 400-plus bed adult-care hospital.

Some City Centre units will be transferred to other Christus Santa Rosa hospitals, the letter explained.

Driving onto an Interstate highway? Crossing a bridge on the way into work? Taking a tunnel under a river or bay? Get ready to pay.

With Congress unwilling to contemplate an increase in the federal gas tax, motorists are likely to be paying ever more tolls as the government searches for ways to repair and expand the nation's congested highways.

Tolling is less efficient and sometimes can seem less fair than the main alternative, gasoline taxes. It can increase traffic on side roads as motorists seek to evade paying. Some tolling authorities — often quasi-governmental agencies operating outside the public eye — have been plagued by mismanagement. And some public-private partnerships to build toll roads have drowned in debt because of too-rosy revenue predictions.

Tolls are hardly a perfect solution. But to many states and communities, they're the best option available.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/states-looking-tolls-pay-highways-161604357.html

Taking a calcium supplement to help prevent bones from thinning puts people at a greater risk for heart attacks, says a report out today in the journal Heart.

The study of approximately 24,000 people between the ages of 35 and 64 found participants who took regular calcium supplements were 86% more likely to have a heart attack than those who didn't take supplements. Those who took only calcium supplements were twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as those who didn't take any vitamin supplements. Calcium supplements have been linked to kidney stones and bloating in other studies, according to the National Institutes of Health.

"Calcium supplements have been widely embraced by doctors and the public, on the grounds that they are a natural and therefore safe way of preventing osteoporatic fractures," the authors write. "We should return to seeing calcium as an important component of a balanced diet."

The study, primarily undertaken to determine if calcium supplements modify cardiovascular risk factors, found no direct link between the supplements and heart attacks, nor did they identify brands of supplements. Participants answered questions about their use of supplements and their diet during an 11-year study of their health.

The study did not look at what caused the heart attacks, but the authors write: "Supplements cause calcium levels to soar above the normal range, and it is this flooding effect which might ultimately be harmful."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-05-22/calcium-supplements-bones-heart-attack/55174526/1

Skyways Express AB and its subsidiary City Airline AB Tuesday canceled all flights with immediate effect and said it will file for bankruptcy during the day as its owner said it could no longer finance the Swedish regional airline.

This week science fiction writer Elizabeth Moon argues that everyone should be given a barcode at birth.

“If I were empress of the Universe I would insist on every individual having a unique ID permanently attached - a barcode if you will; an implanted chip to provide an easy, fast inexpensive way to identify individuals.

It would be imprinted on everyone at birth. Point the scanner at someone and there it is.

Having such a unique barcode would have many advantages. In war soldiers could easily differentiate legitimate targets in a population from non combatants.

This could prevent mistakes in identity, mistakes that result in the deaths of innocent bystanders. Weapons systems would record the code of the use, identifying how fired which shot and leading to more accountability in the field.

Anonymity would be impossible as would mistaken identity making it easier to place responsibility accurately, not only in war but also in non-combat situations far from the war.”

President Barack Obama is hailed by his supporters and the mainstream media as one of the most brilliant men ever to hold the office. However, his refusal to release his academic records, his admitted deficiencies as a student, and his frequent factual errors--even in his chosen field of constitutional law--have cast doubt upon his supposed genius. Now, Breitbart News has established that Obama's grades and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores may have been even lower than those of his supposedly less capable predecessor, George W. Bush.

Breitbart News has learned that the transfer class that entered Columbia College in the fall of 1981 with Obama was one of the worst in recent memory, according to Columbia officials at the time.

A Nov. 18, 1981 article in the Columbia Spectator, “Tight Housing Discourages Transfer Applications to CC,” written by student Jeremy Feldman and quoting admissions officials, reported: “On paper at least, the quality of the students accepted [as transfers] has declined along with the number of applicants, the officials say.”

Feldman, quoting Robert Boatti, Assistant Dean of Admissions, as well as the late college Dean Arnold Collery, continued: (read more: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/22/Exclusive-The-Vetting-Obama-Wrong-on-Columbia-Admission-Transfer-Class-Had-Low-SAT-Scores-Grades)

Independent former Maine Gov. Angus King has stubbornly refused to say what party he would caucus with if he succeeds in his bid for the Senate seat left open by Olympia Snowe’s retirement.

But Federal Election Commission filings give an indication: King donated to both the Democratic National Committee and President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign this year.

The Maine Wire first reported the contributions, which were highlighted by the campaign of Rick Bennett — one of the Republican candidates.

On February 28, Sen. Olympia Snowe announced suddenly that she would not run for another term. On February 29, King made a $6,000 donation to the DNC.

Several days before that, he donated $10,000 to the Obama Victory Fund.

King has repeatedly said that he will not say which party he would caucus with before he is elected .

“I want to keep ’em guessing,” he told the Associated Press in April. “I think I can be much more effective by not making that decision and by postponing it as long as possible. I’d like to postpone it forever.”

Republicans have accused King of being a secret Democrat, and several potentially strong Democratic candidates opted not to run after he entered the race.

Faced with no growth in two of its key medical-device markets, Fridley-based Medtronic said it would eliminate about 1,000 jobs, including 250 positions in the Twin Cities.

Most of the local job cuts -- which were first disclosed by the company earlier this month -- are in Medtronic's heart rhythm device unit, which is based in Mounds View and makes pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators.

General Mills Inc. GIS +0.08% said Tuesday it'll eliminate 850 jobs globally in order to cut costs. The Minneapolis-based food company said it'll book $109 million in separation expenses as well as $13 million for the write-down of production equipment. It'll book $94 million in restructuring costs in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, with the remaining costs to be recorded in fiscal 2013. General Mills continues to expect adjusted fiscal 2012 earnings of $2.53 to $2.55 a share, compared to the Wall Street estimate of $2.54 a share in a survey of analysts by FactSet Research.

Hoku Materials has laid off nearly 100 employees at the company's Pocatello plant.

According to a news release provided to the Associated Press: Hoku Corporation announced that as of March 31, 2012, its preliminary estimates of cash, other current assets and current liabilities was approximately $7.7 million, $6.7 million, and $278.8 million, respectively. The current liabilities include approximately $74.4 million of accounts payable at Hoku Materials. Due to the delinquency of unpaid construction obligations, liens have been filed against the Hoku Materials polysilicon plant, and some lien holders have begun foreclosure proceedings in the Idaho courts.

The Company announced that it received an additional loan from China Merchant's Bank, New York Branch., which is secured by a cash collateralized letter of credit drawn by Hoku's parent company, Tianwei New Energy Holdings Co.

The West Union plant of the international company Itron Inc. is cutting 300 jobs in what company officials say is just part of the business cycle.

In a statement, company officials said 112 Itron staff and 189 temporary positions that are filled by Phillips Staffing will be eliminated, with the reductions planned to happen between August 10 and August 24 and between September 14 and September 28.

The plant, which employs about 850 workers, makes high-tech meters, notably "smart meters."

Company officials say the cuts will be made because several large smart metering projects in North America are nearly completed, reducing demand for the products.

After waiting months for the go-ahead to say so, Google CEO Larry Page today announced that his company now officially owns Motorola Mobility.

Google announced plans to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in August. Upon doing so, the companies had to clear regulatory hurdles to get the deal done. Regulators in both the U.S. and the European Union approved the acquisition back in February, but the companies were forced to wait for China. Over the weekend, China approved the deal, paving the way for Google to close it.

As part of the acquisition, Page announced today that Motorola Mobility chief Sanjay Jha has stepped down from his post. In his place, Google has named "long-time Googler" Dennis Woodside to be the mobile firm's new chief executive.

"I've known Dennis for nearly a decade, and he's been phenomenal at building teams and delivering on some of Google's biggest bets," Page wrote in the blog post. "One of his first jobs at Google was to put on his backpack and build our businesses across the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. More recently he helped increase our revenue in the U.S. from US$10.8 billion to US$17.5 billion in under three years as President of the Americas region."

It has been widely believed that the main reason Google acquired Motorola Mobility was for its patents. The search company and its vendor partners are currently waging legal battles around the world with a host of companies over claims that Android violates patents. Motorola Mobility holds thousands of patents and patent applications that could come in handy for any future legal proceedings.

Obama’s War on Coal has already taken a remarkable toll on coal-fired power plants in America.

Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a shocking drop in power sector coal consumption in the first quarter of 2012. Coal-fired power plants are now generating just 36 percent of U.S. electricity, versus 44.6 percent just one year ago.

It’s the result of an unprecedented regulatory assault on coal that will leave us all much poorer.

Last week PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) held its 2015 capacity auction. These are the first real, market prices that take Obama’s most recent anti-coal regulations into account, and they prove that he is keeping his 2008 campaign promise to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”

The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt.

Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price

An Associated Press review of regulatory filings shows that Solyndra was hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars for years before the Energy Department signed off on the original $535 million loan guarantee in September 2009. The company eventually got $528 million.

Republicans also question a decision in February to restructure the loan in such a way that private investors, including an Obama fundraiser, moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default.

Under terms of the February loan restructuring, two private investors — Argonaut Ventures I LLC and Madrone Partners LP — stand to be repaid before the U.S. government if the solar company is liquidated. The two firms gave the company a total of $69 million in emergency loans. Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation — headed by billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House. Kaiser raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama’s 2008 campaign, federal election records show.

Administration officials say the restructuring was necessary. Without an infusion of cash, Solyndra would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, they said.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday moved forward with legislation to increase airline passenger security fees, beating back a GOP attempt to keep them at current levels.

The 2013 Homeland Security appropriations bill would increase one-way fees for passengers from $2.50 to $5 in order to close a budget shortfall at the Transportation Security Administration.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said the $315 million in funding would otherwise come from taxpayers and argued it is better to stick passengers who rely on TSA with the bill.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) sponsored an amendment to strip out the fee increase and offset the loss of revenue with cuts to state and local grants, emergency food and shelter funding, and dropping $89 million in funding for a new highway interchange leading to the Homeland Security’s new headquarters in southeast Washington, D.C. Hutchison noted that the Senate had decided not to increase the fees in the recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill.

Ed Rendell joins Harold Ford and Cory Booker as critics within Barack Obama’s own party of his electoral strategy of demonizing private equity. In a BuzzFeed article that focuses on the larger disconnect between Obama and Democratic Party institutions, Zeke Miller gets the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania — a state critical to Obama’s re-election hopes — on the record as decidedly uncomfortable with the tone of Team Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital:

Rendell joined the chorus of criticism of Obama’s attacks on finance, whose leaders have written checks to many members of both parties.

“I think they’re very disappointing,” Rendell said of the ads attacking Bain. “I think Bain is fair game, because Romney has made it fair game. But I think how you examine it, the tone, what you say, is important as well.”

As for Booker, “I admire him,” Rendell said. “People in politics should tell the truth. He could have qualified it better, he could have framed it better, but if you’re in this business, none of us like negative ads.”

Read more: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/22/rendell-hey-can-you-believe-these-bain-attacks-from-obama/

Qantas Airways said on Monday it is eliminating 500 jobs by merging maintenance facilities to save up to A$100 million ($98.4 million) annually, as high fuel costs and weak demand take a toll on airline profits.

Qantas, which is emerging from a costly industrial dispute, said in statement it will stop heavy maintenance in Tullamarine in Melbourne and concentrate on centers in Brisbane and Avalon, resulting in the job cuts. It had, in February, flagged another 500 job cuts for the group.

The latest move will save it A$70 million to A$100 million a year but will result in one-off costs of A$50 million, and takes estimated costs of an overhaul plan for the second half of fiscal 2012 to between A$250 million and A$260 million, it said.

The Ferry-Morse Seed Co. said Monday it will lay off 199 workers throughout the United States, including at its White City operations near Medford.

The company told state officials it will eventually close its plant.

Ferry-Morse, based in Fulton, Ky., is laying off half of its workers nationally after its May 18 sale to Seed Holdings.

The White City location had been the company’s first West Coast plant, opening in June 2009. Ferry-Morse had leased a 100,000-square-foot structure and quickly hired 25 full-time and 75 seasonal workers.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., the publisher of authors from Mark Twain to J.R.R. Tolkien, sought bankruptcy protection to eliminate more than $3 billion in debt.

The company, based in Boston, listed $2.68 billion in assets and $3.53 billion in debt in Chapter 11 documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. More than 20 affiliates also entered bankruptcy, including Broderbund LLC and Classroom Connect Inc.

“The global financial crisis over the past several years has negatively affected” Houghton Mifflin’s financial performance, in a business that “depends largely on state and local funding” for the schoolbook market, said William Bayers, company general counsel, in court papers.

He cited “recession-driven decreases” and “purchase deferrals” by the states and a “lack of anticipated federal stimulus support” for “substantial revenue decline.”

The filing comes as traditional print-book publishing faces growing competition from e-books. Sales of adult paperbacks and hardcover books fell 18 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to the Association of American Publishers. Borders Group Inc., the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain, filed for bankruptcy in February 2011.

The 189 layoffs at BioScrip’s 2791 Charter St. facility will begin on June 25 and be complete by Aug. 6, according to a notice the Elmsford, N.Y.-based company filed with the state. Layoffs include 30 patient care consultants, 26 pharmacists and a dozen insurance verification specialists, among others.

Ponzio said that the company is going to “repurpose” its Columbus facility and will employ about 70 workers in its remaining Columbus business once layoffs are finished. The company will continue to run its pharmacy benefits-manager business, which supplies oral drugs in 90-day supplies, and its infusion business out of the Columbus facility.

BioScrip is considering opening a second distribution center in Columbus among other plans, he said.

American Eagle Airlines is cutting management in a move similar to that recently undertaken by sister carrier American Airlines.

The regional carrier has targeted $7 million in annual management and support staff labor savings as part of parent company AMR Corp.’s bankruptcy restructuring. The latest cuts are an attempt to reach a goal of 10% management and support staff cuts, American Eagle CEO Dan Garton says in an internal letter to employees.

Eagle is eliminating up to 100 non-union management and support staff positions, although the exact number remains unclear. Some of the positions currently are unfilled and simply will be eliminated, and Eagle expects attrition to account for some more of the losses, but employees will be cut under this initiative.

As part of the restructuring, the carrier’s safety organization will now report to Chief Operating Officer Fred Cleveland. Ed Criner, who had overseen safety, is retiring.

Dave Brown, VP in charge of airport services, also is stepping down, and job cuts are now being implemented in operations, finance and human resources. Changes in the company’s information technology department are expected to follow.

The 10% reduction target includes a 15% decrease in top management positions, Garton’s letter says. These cuts are beginning now, with further reductions expected soon.

AMR had set a goal of a 20% reduction of management and support staff for its American Airlines division to be completed by the end of the summer.

Renesas Electronics Corp. plans to cut about 6,000 jobs, or about 15% of its workforce, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported in its Tuesday morning edition.

The Japanese firm, which employs about 42,000 people, also plans to raise about Y50 billion in fresh capital, the paper said.

The Yomiuri report said that Renesas aims to smoothly implement the job cuts through measures such as voluntary retirement.

The company's shares fell 10% yesterday in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after Goldman Sachs downgraded the company's stock rating to Sell.

Traffic congestion dropped 30% last year from 2010 in the USA's 100 largest metropolitan areas, driven largely by higher gas prices and a spotty economic recovery, according to a new study by a Washington-state firm that tracks traffic flows.

That was the largest drop since the nation plunged into recession in December 2007.

Of the 100 most populous metro areas, 70 saw declines in traffic congestion while just 30 had increases, says Jim Bak, co-author of the 2011 U.S. Traffic Scorecard for Kirkland, Wash.-based INRIX.

That was a reversal of what happened in 2010, when 70 had increases in congestion and 30 had declines. Tampa had the biggest increase in congestion, and Minneapolis the biggest drop.

"We're experiencing a stop-and-go economy right now," Bak says. "The data indicate the country may be experiencing the jobless recovery economists warned of during the recession."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-22/traffic-congestion-down/55120930/1

The eminent presidential historian and Lyndon Johnson biographer Robert Caro has always said that “power reveals.” And it is becoming more evident that President Barack Obama is revealing himself more and more as a typical Chicago politician.

When he was a presidential candidate, one of Obama’s main campaign themes was ending the revolving door between government and lobbyists. Obama assailed the Bush Administration’s no-bid contracts and the notorious “K-Street” project Republicans undertook in the 2000s that enraged conservatives across the country.

But a recent examination of newly-released White House visitor logs by The Washington Post shows an administration who promised to clean up the proverbial Washington cesspool and instead made it a hot tub.

According to The Washington Post, the visitor logs “make it clear that Obama’s senior officials are granting that access to some of K Street’s most influential representatives. In many cases, those lobbyists have long-standing connections to the president or his aides. Republican lobbyists coming to visit are rare, while Democratic lobbyists are common, whether they are representing corporate clients or liberal causes.”

Among the revelations: an unpaid adviser to Obama’s 2008 campaign, Marshal Matz, “came to the Old Executive Office Building with the owner of Beef Products Inc. to meet with Robin Schepper, a woman he has known for years who heads Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign. The company owner argued that one of his products should be promoted for school lunches, according to two participants in the meeting.”

According to the report, the AFL-CIO’s lobbyist met with members of the Obama administration 50 times while uber liberal lobbyist Tony Podesta, son of former Obama official and co-founder of the liberal Center for American Progress think tank that runs left-wing organizations like “Think Progress,” visited with members of the administration over 20 times.

Then there is Tim Hannegan, a lobbyist for Comcast, which now owns MSNBC, which essentially acts as an arm of Obama’s reelection campaign. According to the report, “Hannegan gathered at the Old Executive Office Building with the CEO and a lobbyist from his client Kelly Services,” and the “group discussed a tax credit that Kelly, which supplies temporary office staffers, was pushing to encourage companies to hire unemployed veterans. Obama signed into law the credit, known as the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, a month and a half later.”

The report also notes that “among the lobbyists with close ties to the White House is former New York congressman Tom Downey, who is married to Carol Browner, until last year Obama’s energy czar.”

Downey has logged 31 meetings. Even the Washington Post, which owns the for-profit Kaplan educational institutes, lobbied the White House, according to the visitor logs.

An Obama 2008 campaign brochure prominently stated that, The Bush Administration has turned our government into a game only the lobbyists and special interests can afford to play. The evidence of the Bush Administration and its cronies manipulating public policy for private gain is staggering.”

In that brochure, candidate obama promised he would close the revolving door, “end wasteful spending,” and restore “objectivity to the executive branch.”

And yet, Obama has not restored objectivity by not meeting with Republican-leaning lobbyists, has not ended wasteful spending by awarding no-bid contracts to campaign cronies and wasting taxpayer money on venture socialism projects like Solyndra, and wrote an Obamacare law that directly benefited the very lobbyists from the drug industry he promised to run out of town.

These are just more examples of the hypocritical campaigner-in-chief’s rhetoric not matching his record.

China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S. government debt and go straight to the U.S. Treasury, in what is the Treasury's first-ever direct relationship with a foreign government, according to documents.

The relationship means the People's Bank of China buys U.S. debt using a different method than any other central bank in the world.

The other central banks, including the Bank of Japan, which has a large appetite for Treasuries, place orders for U.S. debt with major Wall Street banks designated by the government as primary dealers. Those dealers then bid on their behalf at Treasury auctions.

China, which holds $1.17 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, still buys some Treasuries through primary dealers, but since June 2011, that route hasn't been necessary.

The documents viewed by Reuters show the U.S. Treasury Department has given the People's Bank of China a direct computer link to its auction system, which the Chinese first used to buy two-year notes in late June 2011.

China can now participate in auctions without placing bids through primary dealers. If it wants to sell, however, it still has to go through the market.

The change was not announced publicly or in any message to primary dealers.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/us-usa-treasuries-china-idUSBRE84K11720120521

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee will rename a street after former-Speaker Nancy Pelosi today in Golden Gate Park.

"Middle Drive East" which connects Martin Luthjer King Jr. Drive and John F Kennedy Drive in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park will now be renamed in honor of Pelosi and her 25 years of service in Congress.

San Francisco is the second city to name a street after Pelosi. Baltimore, her home town, renamed a street in her honor in January 2007 shortly after she was elected Speaker of the House.

A North Carolina high school teacher was captured on video shouting at a student who questioned President Obama and suggesting he could be arrested for criticizing a sitting president.

The Salisbury Post, which first reported on the YouTube video, did not identify the teacher in question, who is reportedly on staff at North Rowan High School. The video does not show faces, but the heated argument in the classroom can clearly be heard.

"Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush?" the teacher said toward the end of the argument, telling the student, "you are not supposed to slander the president."

The student told the teacher that one can't be arrested "unless you threaten the president."

The teacher went on to say that Bush was a Shi**y president.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/21/nc-teacher-captured-on-video-suggesting-student-could-be-arrested-for-obama/

The state of Hawaii has responded to Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett’s request for proof that President Barack Obama was in fact born in the Aloha State.

The Hawaii attorney general’s office has reportedly told Bennett that there are steps he needs to take in order to confirm President Obama’s birth records.

Those steps include Bennett proving that he legitimately needs confirmation in order to update the records at his office.

Bennett recently said in an interview with KFYI that he had asked Hawaii to further verify the President’s birth.

Bennett said he would consider removing President Obama’s name from the ballot during this year’s presidential election if Hawaii didn’t fulfill his request.

Bennett stated that he is not a “birther,” and believes that President Obama was born in the United States.

He went on to explain that he had received about 1,200 emails from Arizona voters who are concerned about President Obama’s birth records, and felt it was his duty to follow up.

President Obama released his birth certificate last year after some people questioned whether he was actually born in Hawaii.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been investigating the President’s birth certificate since last August. Arpaio has said that his investigation is still ongoing.

Facebook shares fell more than 13 percent, falling below its $38 price of its initial public offering, in the social network's second day of trading as a public company.

Meanwhile, the NASDAQ exchange continued to defend itself regarding the IPO's delay on Friday.

The company's shares [FB 33.62 -4.6118 (-12.06%) ] last traded down more than 13 percent. The stock had previously closed 0.6 percent higher on Friday.

Investors and technology industry watchers are closely tracking the Menlo Park, Calif., company's shares. The world's largest social network was one of the most anticipated initial public stock offerings ever, and now serves as a bellwether for other social media companies.

China's Dalian Wanda Group and AMC Entertainment announced Monday a $2.6 billion deal to take over the U.S. theater group, forming the world's largest cinema chain, according to a new release on the deal.

The move is the latest in a raft of deals between U.S. entertainment companies and Chinese firms, linking the world's largest theater market with the world's fastest growing.

"This acquisition will help make Wanda a truly global cinema owner, with theatres and technology that enhance the movie-going experience for audiences in the world's two largest movie markets," said Wang Jianlin, chairman and president of Wanda.

Wanda, a private company that previously operated solely in China, generates $16.7 billion in annual revenue from its commercial development and entertainment businesses, the company said. The group owns 86 theaters with 730 screens in China.

"As the film and exhibition business continues its global expansion, the time has never been more opportune to welcome the enthusiastic support of our new owners," said Gerry Lopez, chief executive officer and president of AMC.

AMC operates 346 multiplex theaters, largely in North America, with a total of 5,034 screens. Headquarters of AMC, a privately held company, will remain in the Kansas City area and day-to-day operations, including the process for film programming, will remain unchanged, the release said.

In a deal last February, China agreed to increase the quota of 20 foreign films per year -- most of them from the U.S. -- to add an additional 14 IMAX or 3D films each year, and nearly doubled the cut foreign film companies can take from Chinese box office to 25%.

Obama, by all accounts, was a habitual drug user in high school. He tried cocaine, he admits in Dreams From My Father; he “tried drugs enthusiastically.” The Chicago Tribune reported back in 2007 that Obama thanked the “Choom Gang” in his high school yearbook; “chooming” was Hawaiian slang for smoking pot. The Honolulu Advertiser reported that Obama’s senior portrait “prominently displayed … A package of ‘Zig-Zag’ rolling papers and a matchbook.” One of Obama’s close friends was arrested for drug possession during high school...

In his memoir, Obama talked about routinely getting high. “Junkie. Pothead,” he wrote. “That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man.” But, according to Obama, he only got high because he was contemplating deep matters: drugs could “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”

Because old media failed to explore Obama's high school drug use, Cub Reporter Biff Spackle was dispatched to Hawaii three weeks ago. His job: to find and interview the president's 11th and 12th grade classmates who weren't in prison, dead or drones.

Fortunately, just hours before his flight out of Honolulu was scheduled to depart, Spackle happened upon Ernie "Spliff" Pipebladder. Pipebladder made several extraordinary claims about young "Barry Obama":

Dude, that m***erf***ing Barry stole so much s*** from me before he left for college it's not funny. I always kept my favorite bong near my bedroom window at Kaliihi Heights [apartment complex], which Barry knew about. Just before he leaves for Occidental, like days before, the damn bong dis-a-frickin-pears.

What are the odds of that happening?

Not only that, but I had some crazy good Maui Wowie that summer. Dude tells me he'll pay for a dime bag, which I give him on good faith, and he disappears to California a m***erf***ing week later.

Read more: http://beforeitsnews.com/story/2158/201/Drug_Dealer_Claims_Obama_Stole_My_Bong_He_Still_Owes_Him_For

Robert Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., on Sunday acknowledged design problems with Nasdaq's technology after the exchange operator was widely seen as bungling the landmark listing of shares of Facebook Inc. FB +0.61% on Friday.

Mr. Greifeld said in an interview with reporters that problems with order cancellations interfered with the initial public offering process. Tests Nasdaq had conducted ahead of the highly anticipated offering failed to detect the problems, he said.

"This was not our finest hour," he said, telling reporters Nasdaq's board met Saturday to consider the Facebook offering. Nasdaq plans to make changes to the IPO auction process given the Facebook troubles.

Mr. Greifeld said the exchange is "humbly embarrassed" by the technical problems, but that it remains confident it will continue to gain market share in handling IPOs.

Overall, Mr. Greifeld said, the first day of trading in Facebook stock was "successful." He said that withdrawing the IPO "never came into" consideration.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304019404577416500155524694-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwMDEyNDAyWj.html

French ski brand CoreUPT has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, which was founded by four-time freeskiing world champion Guerlain Chicherit, has until July 16 to find a new source of capital to sustain its operations.

Failure to find a new investor or other source of capital by July 16 would downgrade CoreUPT's status to Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which calls for the liquidation and redistribution of the brand and its assets. "We have two ways [to go]," said CoreUPT General Manager Pierre Gjurasevic, "the first being a capital increase from a new investor, or for the second, a handover of the brand."

"For now they are very bad outcomes," said Gjurasevic. "It's not very comfortable but we work hard and I'm sure we will find a solution in a few weeks." According to Gjurasevic, CoreUPT is already in talks with 10 different potential investors from the United Kingdom, the U.S., Russia and France.

FTS International has announced a total of 127 job cuts at its Shreveport and Longview locations.

FTS International, formerly known as Frac Tech (FTSI – www.ftsi.com), is an onshore oil and natural gas well stimulation services provider.

The reduction in force at FTSI involves 89 employees at its Shreveport operations location and 38 employees at its Longview operations location.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, a company spokesperson said, "Although this reduction in force affected only a tiny percentage of our total workforce of more than 4,000 people, we do regret that current market conditions have resulted in this impact on people and communities in northeast Louisiana and east Texas," FTSI Corporate Communications Director Pam Percival said. "The reality is that the continuing low price of natural gas has caused a slow-down in gas well drilling and completions work in the area of the Haynesville Shale. FTSI has been moving its completions equipment and personnel to work in areas where more wells are being drilled, such as the Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas and the Permian Basin area of west Texas. We will continue to operate in the Haynesville area as long as there is a demand for our services. FTSI is also looking at utilizing workers in other areas to help minimize the effects of this market downturn.

Employment at FTSI's Shreveport operations district now stands at 166, with 115 people employed at FTSI's Longview operations district.

More than 170 employees will be laid off from Kmart stores in Hollywood and Pembroke Pines by the end of the summer as Sears Holding Corp. turns the stores into liquidation centers.

About 80 employees from the Kmart store at 651 S. 60th Ave., Hollywood, and 91 workers from the store at 10501 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines, will face layoffs near the end of July, said a worker adjustment and retraining notification issued on May 18.

The stores will remain open, but operate as liquidation centers, which function similar to outlet stores, said Kimberly Freely, company spokeswoman. The stores will sell only specialty items and last-chance apparel. The hours of the stores will be cut to 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., so the number of staff will drop significantly, Freely said.

I have learned that Florida election officials are set to announce that the secretary of state has discovered and purged up to 53,000 dead voters from the voter rolls in Florida.

How could 53,000 dead voters have sat on the polls for so long? Simple. Because Florida hadn’t been using the best available data revealing which voters have died. Florida is now using the nationwide Social Security Death Index for determining which voters should be purged because they have died.

Here is the bad news. Most states aren’t using the same database that Florida is. In fact, I have heard reports that some election officials won’t even remove voters even when they are presented with a death certificate. That means that voter rolls across the nation still are filled with dead voters, even if Florida is leading the way in detecting and removing them.
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But surely people aren’t voting in the names of dead voters, the voter fraud deniers argue. Wrong.

Consider the case of Lafayette Keaton. Keaton not only voted for a dead person in Oregon, he voted for his dead son. Making Keaton’s fraud easier was Oregon’s vote by mail scheme, which has opened up gaping holes in the integrity of elections. The incident in Oregon just scratches the surface of the problem. Massachusetts and Mississippi are but two other examples of the dead rising on election day.

Florida should be applauded for taking the problem seriously, even if Eric Holder’s Justice Department and many state election officials don’t.

Judges from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, federal district and bankruptcy courts in nine Western states and two Pacific island territories, along with lawyers practicing in those courts, and court staff, will gather at the luxurious Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa from August 13 - 16, 2012 in what looks like a less than valiant attempt to ensure American justice is being served...at a cost to taxpayers of approximately one million dollars.

From tennis courts to the caddy shack and luau experience, justice will be served in a manner many Americans never get to experience. Breitbart News has reviewed a letter from the offices of the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions, and the offices of Senator Chuck Grassley, the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, with several detailed questions they want answered by the Ninth District.

The letter cites the 2010 version of the Ninth Circuit's annual judicial conference that cost taxpayers over $657,000 in travel costs alone, along with $860,000 in combined travel costs for the Ninth Circuit's 2008 and 2009 annual conferences in Monterey, California and Sun Valley, Idaho, respectively. It also provides evidence of the Ninth Circuit's awareness of the Government's budget challenges in the face of a still suffering Obama economy, going on to challenge why the Ninth Circuit seems determined to go on spending large amounts of money on plush conferences, when a more prudent approach could provide the same value for professional purposes.

If you're thinking of visiting a Disney park in Anaheim this summer, be warned that the price is about to jump by between $7 and $150 depending on the ticket deal.

The annual summer price hike for tickets to Disneyland and the Disney California Adventure Park were announced Friday and take effect Sunday.

For example, a ticket for one day at either Disneyland or California Adventure had cost $80 for parkgoers who are 10 or older. The new price, starting Sunday, will be $87, up nearly 9%.

The biggest increase will hit people who buy the premium annual pass that includes parking. The pass increases to $649 on Sunday from $499 previously, or a 30% jump.

Disney officials declined to say whether the higher prices were meant to compensate for the $1.1-billion investment the theme park has made to expand and overhaul California Adventure.

The 12-acre expansion, dubbed Carsland, opens June 15 and pays homage to the characters of the popular animated movie "Cars." The park's main entrance has also been revamped to incorporate architecture from 1920s Los Angeles.

"Like all business, we periodically evaluate and adjust our pricing structure to ensure we are offering a great entertainment value," Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said.

"What I find is he's hypocritical with saying, you know, 'the 1% don't get us,' and he's a multi-millionaire now. 'You know, they're not paying their fair share of taxes, now I'm going over to George Clooney's house to get money from millionaires and billionaires,' and he collected $15 million," Jon Lovitz said on "Hannity" last night.

"'Wall Street are the bad guys, but now I have to go to a dinner with Wall Street people to get money for my campaign," Lovitz said as if he were Obama.

"I just think he should, instead of making people victims of people who are successful, we should be telling people, 'Look, you are having a hard time, I feel bad for you. Let's look at what you're doing, let's teach you how to succeed. Let's give you the tools to succeed as opposed to turning everybody into victims, a victim mentality is what he's selling and nobody with a victim mentality will get anywhere. Ever. They will never succeed," Lovitz said.

Slightly less than 200 positions have been cut from Westinghouse Electric Co. nationwide, primarily at its corporate headquarters in Cranberry Township.

There were about 170 voluntary buyouts and 28 layoffs across the non-technical workforce at the nuclear energy company. The cuts were in human resources, communications, finance, quality and other jobs that support the major business units, said Westinghouse spokesman Scott Shaw.

Shengdatech Inc. (SDTHQ.PK) reported Friday that it has filed a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization and proposed Disclosure Statement with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada.

The company said that the Bankruptcy Court has set June 25, 2012 as the hearing date on the adequacy of the Disclosure Statement. Assuming the Disclosure Statement is approved on June 25, 2012, the Company is targeting August 30, 2012 for confirmation of the Plan.

Chrysler is recalling nearly 87,000 Jeep Wranglers in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere due to a risk of fires.

The recall affects only Wranglers from the 2010 model year that have automatic transmissions and were built before July 14, 2010.

The recall was announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on its website.

It says debris can get caught between a plate that protects the transmission and the catalytic converter, causing a fire. A catalytic converter is part of the exhaust system and uses heat and precious metals to control pollution.

Chrysler spokesman Eric Mayne says the recall affects about 68,000 Wranglers in the U.S., 6,000 in Canada, 1,500 in Mexico and about 11,000 in other countries.

Chrysler knows of at least 14 complaints of fires caused by the problem with 2010 Wranglers.

The company says it doesn't know of any injuries. It says debris can get trapped when the SUVs are driven off-road or through tall brush.

Ailing law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf is considering a bankruptcy filing as new debtholders take a more aggressive track, shifting away from earlier attempts at an out-of-court liquidation, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The majority of Dewey's partners have quit as a result of concerns about compensation, and $225 million in bank loans and bond debt.

Buyers of distressed debt who have acquired Dewey's debt at a discount on the secondary market are more open to seeing the firm wound down in bankruptcy court rather than out of it, said the person, who requested anonymity because the information was not public.

With the emergence of new creditors, Dewey on Tuesday replaced restructuring adviser Development Specialists Inc. (DSI) with competitor Zolfo Cooper. Joff Mitchell, a senior managing director at Zolfo, is now Dewey's chief restructuring officer, two people familiar with the situation said.

Bill Brandt, chief executive of DSI, confirmed that his firm's involvement in the matter was coming to an end.

"Our firm is transitioning out," Brandt said. "We've been replaced by Zolfo at the insistence of the debt holders. It now becomes a creditor-driven case."

The Congressional Research Service estimates that since 2008 the federal government has spent nearly $70 billion on “climate change activities.”

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe presented the new CRS report on the Senate Floor Thursday to make the point that the Obama administration has been focused on “green” defense projects to the detriment of the military.

The report revealed that from fiscal years 2008 through 2012 the federal government spent $68.4 billion to combat climate change. The Department of Defense also spent $4 billion of its budget, the report adds, on climate change and energy efficiency activities in that same time period.

Inhofe, the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued that the expenditures are foolish at a time when the military is facing “devastating cuts.”

“[E]veryone agrees that energy efficiency in the military is a worthy goal,” he said. “In fact, I have been a strong supporter of some of DoD’s alternative energy solutions that are affordable and make sense, including their initiatives on non-algal bio-fuels and natural gas. But forcing our military to take money away from core programs in order to invest in unproven technologies as part of a failed cap-and-trade agenda is not only wrong, it’s reckless.”

China’s economic growth is being propelled forward by the growing rate of Chinese corporations using pirated software, according to a recent report from the Business Software Alliance.

Published on Tuesday, the report concluded that for every personal computer legitimately sold in China in 2011, there was approximately $8.89 of legal software being used. This is in comparison to the $120 of legal software for every legitimately sold personal computer in the U.S. that year.

Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the Business Software Alliance, told The Daily Caller that the benefits to businesses currently using unlicensed software in China for the productivity of their business far outweighs any cost or penalty businesses face due to the lack of a enforcement.

Businesses in China have a close relationship with the government, and the massive profits gained from using the software allows them to make larger investments.

“The problem in that is that China has not yet utilized transparent, world-class practices in businesses to manage software,” Holleyman told TheDC.

While the U.S. is applying significant pressure on the Chinese government to reform how piracy is enforced, it will continue to fall short due to the the lack of a “sheriff in town” to install and enforce practices that would produce measurable results, Holleyman said.

China is, however, only a part of the growing problem for U.S. software companies. The problem is global, but is particularly symptomatic of emerging economies. The global piracy rate “hovered” at 42 percent, but in 2011, the value of unlicensed software increased from the year before — $58.8 billion in pirated software used across the world — to $63.4 billion.

A district-court judge has suspended enforcement of a law that could strip U.S. citizens of their civil rights and allow indefinite detention of individuals President Obama believes to be in support of terror.

The Obama administration has refused to ensure that the First Amendment rights of authors and writers who express contrary positions or report on terror group activities are protected under his new National Defense Authorization Act.
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Targeted in the stunning ruling from U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest of New York was Paragraph 1021 of the NDAA, which Obama signed into law last Dec. 31. The vague provision appears to allow for the suspension of civil rights for, and indefinite detention of, those individuals targeted by the president as being in support of terror.

Virginia already has passed a law that states it will not cooperate with such detentions, and several local jurisdictions have done the same. Arizona, Rhode Island, Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Washington also have reviewed such plans.

The case was before Forrest on a request for a temporary restraining order. The case was brought on behalf of Christopher Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Jennifer Bolen, Noam Chomsky, Alex O’Brien, Kai Warg All, Brigitta Jonsottir and the group U.S. Day of Rage. Many of the plaintiffs are authors or reporters who stated that the threat of indefinite detention by the U.S. military already had altered their activities.

More than 60 percent of males arrested last year for crimes – felonies and misdemeanors – tested positive for drug use, according to a White House study of arrest data from 10 large cities. For some cities, that surpassed 80 percent.

That’s an uptick for half of the cities evaluated in the 2011 Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Annual Report from the previous year, particularly in Washington, D.C. The report also shows a small decline in the percentage of arrestees testing positive for drug use in the last five years.

During President Barack Obama’s administration, the percentage of arrestees in three cities testing positive for drugs increased, remained steady in four cities and declined in two – Chicago and Denver.

The report was released Thursday by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

ABC News reports that Trayvon Martin, the black teenager who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman on Feb. 26, had drugs in his body on the night of his death:

The autopsy report shows traces of the drug THC, which is found in marijuana, in Martin's blood and urine.

On the infamous 911 call that Zimmerman made to police, Zimmerman told the dispatcher that Martin looked like he was "on drugs or something."

That suspicion--which was twisted by the left and the mainstream media as part of an attempt to accuse Zimmerman of acting on racist motives--has been confirmed.

ABC News also reports injuries to Martin that supports Zimmerman's contention that there was a physical struggle between the two young men:

The autopsy also shows that Zimmerman shot Martin from a distance of between 1 inch and 18 inches away, bolstering Zimmerman's claim that he shot Martin during a struggle that landed Zimmerman on his back, Martin straddling him and banging Zimmerman's head on the ground.

Martin's autopsy report also revealed that there was a quarter-inch by half-inch abrasion on the left fourth finger of Martin, another indication of a possible struggle.

In contrast to early media reports that described Zimmerman as "white," he is now described by ABC as "a multi-racial Hispanic man."

Miriam Goderich, who helped edit a 1991 booklet for Barack Obama's then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which erroneously stated that Obama had been born in Kenya, has issued a press release--first reported by her own client at Political Wire:

"You're undoubtedly aware of the brouhaha stirred up by Breitbart about the erroneous statement in a client list Acton & Dystel published in 1991 (for circulation within the publishing industry only) that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me -- an agency assistant at the time. There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii. I hope you can communicate to your readers that this was a simple mistake and nothing more."

Political Wire is run by Taegan Goddard, a client of Goderich's agency, Dystel & Goderich.

Goderich's statement fails to explain why the "fact checking error" persisted for sixteen years, through at least three different versions of Jane Dystel's website, and through at least four different versions of Obama's biography.

It persisted, in fact, more than two (read more: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/17/A-Fact-Checking-Error-Repeated-Multiple-Times-Over-Several-Years-by-Different-Agencies)

General Motors has funneled more than $1 million to two powerhouse Democratic lobbyists since the taxpayers rescued the automaker in 2009.

GM teamed with Navigators Global and the Podesta Group beginning in 2010 and soon arranged six-figure contracts with lobbying teams headed by Democratic bundlers Vin Roberti and Tony Podesta. Each earned top nods from GQ’s Monthly Power List soon after inking the GM contracts.

Roberti has been the automaker’s highest paid lobbyist since 2010. The longtime- Democratic activist and film producer has represented a slew of Democratic allies, pushing for unionization expansion as a UPS lobbyist, which FedEx Corp. called a UPS bailout; broadband internet stimulus for AT&T; and support for the TARP bank bailout on Citigroup’s behalf—the same bailout that would later rescue GM.

The automaker has rewarded Roberti for his efforts.

Roberti, a longtime fundraiser for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, merged his lobbying shop with Navigators, a Republican shop, in December 2008. The K Street firm soon cashed in on nearly $400,000 while representing GM, which received more than $70 billion from taxpayers.

The bipartisanship was not to last, however. When Navigators spun off the Democratic lobbyists in 2011, GM followed suit, shifting a lucrative $392,500 contract to the newly formed Roberti and Associates. The firm has earned $80,000 from GM so far in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Silver Legacy will declare chapter-11 bankruptcy.

Silver Legacy officials announced the decision in an open letter to the community Thursday evening.

The letter says the company is voluntarily filing for chapter-11 to restructure its mortgage notes which became due in March.

Company officials are stressing they are not going out of business or closing its doors. They will continue to operate normally throughout the process.

The United States Postal Service announced today it will close 48 mail processing and distribution centers this summer, cutting 13,000 jobs.

The Shallowford Road center was marked for closure earlier this year, but won’t close this summer.

But the life of the center and its more than 250 jobs is likely short. The Postal Service plans to close an additional 92 centers by February 2014, then another 89 by the end of 2014.

When all 229 centers have been closed, about 28,000 post jobs across the country will be eliminated, saving the service $2.1 billion annually.

Published reports say Hewlett-Packard is poised to eliminate up to 30,000 jobs to help offset dwindling demand for personal computers as more people connect to the Internet on smartphones and tablets.

Bloomberg News says HP is mulling 25,000 job cuts. All Things D, a technology blog, estimates the purge will jettison 30,000 jobs. Both reports cited unnamed people familiar with HP's plans.

Hewlett-Packard Co. declined to comment Thursday.

The Palo Alto, California, company ended its last fiscal year with nearly 350,000 employees. Based on that, HP is considering a 7 to 9 percent decrease in its workforce.

Analysts estimate a payroll reduction of that size would save HP more than $1 billion annually.

The job cuts could be announced next Wednesday, when HP is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings.

A study commissioned by Sen. Tom Coburn is casting doubt on whether taxpayers' $18 billion annual investment in federal jobs training programs is paying off.

"The vast majority of money we spend in job training doesn't go to job training, it goes to employ people in those job training federal programs," Coburn told Fox News.

The 2011 Government Accountability Office study he commissioned, which examined programs in fiscal year 2009, found an overlapping and duplicative maze of 47 federal jobs programs run by nine agencies. Some were rife with mismanagement, waste, fraud, abuse and corruption.

The study found:

Some job training participants spent their days sitting on a bus.
Some were trained for jobs that didn't exist.
Others were paid to sit through educational sessions about jobs they already had.
High school students were knowingly exposed to the cancer-causing agent asbestos as part of a job training program.
Funds were misspent to pay a contractor for ghost employees and to purchase video games.
Job training administrators spent federal funds on extravagant meals and bonuses for themselves.
In one state, workforce agency employees took more than 100 gambling trips to casinos mostly during work hours.

Coburn’s criticism comes in the heat of a presidential campaign in which President Obama has made funding job training programs a priority. He showcased one program last month at Lorain County Community College in the key swing state of Ohio.

Staples Inc., the Framingham-based office supply giant, announced today that it has cut 500 jobs worldwide following first-quarter net income dropping 6 percent to $187 million, according to press reports.

About 200 of the cuts were in North America, the remainder in Europe and Australia, reports stated. No information was provided on how many cuts took place in Massachusetts. Staples employs roughly 88,000 worldwide.

“In North America we continue to build momentum in categories beyond office supplies while trends in our international business remain soft,” said Ron Sargent, Staples’ chairman and chief executive officer, in a press release. “Our plans remain on track to grow both sales and earnings during 2012.”

America hit a demographic milestone last year, with new census figures showing for the first time more than half the children born in the U.S. were minorities.

That percentage just barely eked over the halfway mark, with minorities making up 50.4 percent of U.S. births in the 12-month period ending July 2011. But it marks a steady trend -- minorities represented 37 percent of births in 1990.

As a whole, the nation's minority population continues to rise, following a higher-than-expected Hispanic count in the 2010 census. Minorities increased 1.9 percent to 114.1 million, or 36.6 percent of the total U.S. population, lifted by prior waves of immigration that brought in young families and boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years.

The numbers also serve as a guide to where taxpayer dollars could be going in the coming decades. With minority populations growing faster than white populations, robust minority population centers are sure to increase in electoral heft in the coming decades.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/17/minorities-now-surpass-whites-in-us-births-census-shows/

Florida's local election supervisors on Wednesday sounded skeptical, and even distrustful, of a push by the state to remove thousands of potential non-U.S. citizens from the voting rolls just months before the critical 2012 elections.

The supervisors, meeting at their annual summer conference, peppered state election officials with questions about the list of more than 2,600 people who have been identified as being in Florida legally but ineligible to vote. That list was sent to supervisors recently, but state officials have also said there may be as many as 182,000 registered voters who may not be citizens.

The questions about voter eligibility surface as the state continues its months-long efforts to scrub the rolls, including asking supervisors to remove more than 53,000 dead people discovered by comparing voter rolls to federal Social Security files. This was the first time the state checked the files. It was allowed under a controversial election law that passed the GOP-controlled Legislature last year.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/17/florida-voter-rolls-suspected-having-roughly-53k-dead-2600-ineligible/

It's no secret that HP is considering layoffs and soon.

Meg Whitman has even publicly hinted at them. Question is, how many employees will be axed?

One source at HP claims the job cuts are going to be massive.

While this is just one source, we know that tension inside the company is running high and so is the rumor mill.

Here's what our source told us:

Layoffs are going to be significant. At least, they'll be bigger than what Whitman has said so far. She's said that layoffs would NOT be "broad-based" at least in China (whatever that means), but she didn't say anything about the rest of the worldwide workforce.

Our source said HP wants to trim its workforce by 10%-15%. Given that HP has 320,000 employees, a 10% reduction would be 32,000 workers gone. However, that would include an early retirement program. We'd guess that this would include attrition, too, where new hires don't come in when employees leave. That number sounds high and we don't expect HP to promise it next week, because HP will also want to shift some jobs offshore. So, HP's total workforce numbers won't reflect all of the cuts.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/source-hp-layoffs-are-going-to-be-huge-2012-5