This post is in partnership with Time. The article below was originally published at Time.com

House Republicans sued the Obama Administration on Friday over how it has implemented the health care reform law, taking legal action after threatening to do so for months.

The House sued the cabinet secretaries for the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of the Treasury, and filed the case in the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C., House Speaker John Boehner’s office said. At issue are administrative tweaks the Administration has made during the course of implementing the law.

“Time after time, the President has chosen to ignore the will of the American people and re-write federal law on his own without a vote of Congress,” Boehner said in a statement. “That’s not the way our system of government was designed to work. If this president can get away with making his own laws, future presidents will have the ability to as well. The House has an obligation to stand up for the Constitution, and that is exactly why we are pursuing this course of action.”

The lawsuit went unfiled for months after House Republicans first floated it. Legal experts have been skeptical of its chances of success.

Boehner said in July that the House would sue President Barack Obama for twice delaying the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that businesses with more than 50 full-time employes provide insurance or pay a fee—a provision Republicans oppose anyway. The suit also alleges that the law does not allow the executive branch to transfer funds to insurance companies to reduce out-of-pocket payments for low-income enrollees, as Congress has not appropriated the money for that purpose. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that those cost-sharing subsidies for low-income Americas—those at two-and-a-half times the poverty level, or $11,670 to $29,175 a year for an individual—will cost $175 billion over the next ten years.

Republicans had trouble finding a lawyer to pursue the case, but Boehner found his man this week in George Washington Law School professor Jonathan Turley, who had testified in favor of such a lawsuit this summer. House Republican aides have suggested the lawsuit could be expanded to include the Obama’s executive actions taken this week to grant temporary legal status to millions of immigrants in the country illegally, but Turley has said in the past that expanding the lawsuit would weaken it.

House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi ridiculed the lawsuit as a political stunt.

“After scouring Washington for months, Republicans have finally found a TV lawyer to file their meritless lawsuit,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement Friday. “While the American people want Congress to get serious about creating good-paying jobs and strengthening the middle class, House Republicans are paying $500-an-hour in taxpayer money to sue the President of the United States. The fact is, this lawsuit is a bald-faced attempt to achieve what Republicans have been unable to achieve through the political process.”

Summary: "The House has an obligation to stand up for the Constitution."


Kurdish fighters claim to have pushed ISIL militants out of the Syrian town of Kobane. (AAP)

Australians and Canadians are among the large number of foreign jihadists killed in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobane, a senior US official says.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) have announced the "liberation" of Kobane, depriving the Islamic State group (IS) of a strategic prize to add to its territory in Syria and Iraq.

The United States says Kurdish fighters are now in control of about 90 per cent of the town on the Syrian-Turkish border.

"ISIL is now, whether on order or whether they are breaking ranks, is beginning to withdraw from the town," a senior State Department official told reporters on Tuesday.

But he warned that the militants, also known as ISIL, were "adaptive and resilient" and no one was declaring "mission accomplished" yet.

The US and some 60 coalition partners are engaged in the "first phase of a multi-year campaign," he stressed.

But a victory in Kobane was an important milestone in trying to change "the narrative" of the militants who have attracted thousands of foreign fighters to their ranks, mostly disaffected youth drawn by the promise of adventure.

The IS group had poured some of its best foreign fighters into Kobane, the State Department official said, but in the last six weeks the losses had begun to cause splits in the ranks.

The group has even executed foreign fighters for refusing orders to deploy to the town.

Observers say IS lost nearly 1200 fighters in the battle, of a total of 1800 killed, despite outgunning YPG forces with sophisticated weaponry captured from Iraqi and Syrian military bases.

"We don't get into body counts, but it's in the four figures in terms of the overall number of ISIL fighters that have been killed," the State Department official confirmed.

Many foreign fighters -- many of them Australians, Belgians, Canadians and Chechens -- were among them, he said, refusing to give exact figures other than to say "it was hugely, hugely significant."

"The entire notion of this organisation which is on the march, inevitable expansion, (its) overall momentum has been halted at Kobane," he added.

The US began airstrikes on IS to stop its march on Kobane in September and in October airdropped in critical supplies to the anti-IS fighters.

Washington also worked with Turkey to open a land corridor to allow peshmerga fighters to help defend the beleaguered town.

With the eyes of the international media watching, the militants "wanted to raise the largest flag they ever made over Kobane," the US official said.

"Kobane shows that you're not going to be part of something great .. so the whole narrative that ISIL is trying to put out, Kobane really puts a dent in it."

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Summary: A senior US offical says Australian and Canadian fighters were among the many foreign jihadists killed in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobane.


This post is in partnership with Money. The article below was originally published at Money.com.

Planning your next big career move? Get going. Job openings climbed to 4.7 million in June, the highest level since 2001, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in a recent survey by Challenger Gray & Christmas, 77% of hiring managers reported trouble filling slots because of a talent shortage.

To succeed in this sunnier market, though, you need a firm grasp on today’s hiring process, one that may be far different from what you faced the last time you hit the circuit. For starters, businesses are going slow, spending an average of 23 days to fill a slot in 2013, vs. 12 days in 2010, according to employer review website Glassdoor. And many are replacing antiquated hiring methods with more offbeat ways to vet job seekers.

“Companies are finding traditional job interviews aren’t identifying the high-quality candidates they need,” says Parker McKenna of the Society for Human Resource Management. Numerous academic studies have unearthed flaws in the process. A 2013 one co-written by psychologist Jason Dana at the Yale School of Management found that many hiring managers are mistakenly overconfident in their ability to assess how well a candidate will perform through a one-on-one interview. To get an edge on your competition, you should prepare for these four types of tests.

What to expect: Last year nearly one out of five job seekers sat through a video interview, more than double the number the year before, according to a survey by workforce consultants Right Management. Firms want to see your communication skills, says McKenna. Plus, recruiters can cast a wider net for candidates without the cost of flying applicants into the office, notes Paul Bailo, author of The Essential Digital Interview Handbook.

Since American Wedding Group, a Huntingdon Valley, Pa.–based provider of photographers, videographers, and disc jockeys, began video interviewing in May, the company has conducted more than 300 screenings. The firm used to interview candidates from across the country by phone. This new approach, says head of human resources Scott Mitchell, works better for a business that places a high value on professional appearance. “We want to be confident the candidate is someone we feel comfortable putting in front of our clients,” he says.

How to be ready: Most video interviews are via Skype, so make sure you have a professional-sounding username and profile photo. Then nail down the mechanics. “Don’t let technology get in the way of getting hired,” says Bailo. That means investing in quality gear instead of relying on your computer’s built-in microphone and fisheye camera. “If you want to get a job, you have to buy a suit,” he says. “If you want to nail a digital interview, you have to buy the right equipment.”

His picks: the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 ($100) and Blue Microphones Snowball sound kit ($90). To cut the risk of technical hiccups and a bad Internet connection, do a practice run with a friend an hour in advance.

As with an in-person interview, looks matter. So dress appropriately, head to toe (be ready to stand to adjust the camera). Sit opposite a window for the best lighting, and pick a backdrop that’s clutter-free; off-white is ideal.

During the interview, keep looking at the camera. “If your eyes are shifting around, it distracts from the content of your interview,” says Bailo, who recommends taping a script to the wall behind the camera so that you can hit on key points without having to look down or shuffle through notes.

What to expect: While some employers rely on group interviews to weed through a large pile of applicants, companies more commonly use them to survey a refined pool of potential hires for certain qualities.

You’re likely to be one of three to five candidates, says Dan Finnigan, CEO of the social recruiting platform Jobvite. Typically you’ll be tasked with a group exercise. At Taste of D.C., a culinary event-planning business, groups must work together to develop a marketing campaign, say, or make a presentation. Even beforehand, the company observes how candidates waiting outside the interview room interact in a casual setting, says CEO Steuart Martens.

Adrian Granzella Larssen, editor-in-chief of career advice website The Muse, points out that interviewers are looking for a very specific set of interpersonal skills, such as leadership, communication, and collaboration.

That’s what the Boston-based international tour operator Grand Circle is after when it gives groups a task to complete, such as building a vehicle to transport an egg. “We analyze how candidates react,” says senior vice president of human resources Nancy Lightbody. “We’re looking for natural leaders to emerge.”

How to be ready: No matter how tempting it may be to grab the spotlight, don’t. “Dominate the conversation, and you’ll be perceived as aggressive,” says Priscilla Claman, president of Boston coaching firm Career Strategies. Sit back, though, and you risk being overlooked.

Give others space to offer ideas and then build on what they say. (“Josie brings up a great point …”). “Having the ability to politely piggyback demonstrates you can collaborate and work well with others while taking a leadership role,” says Finnigan. (Letting someone else speak first gives you more time to craft your idea too.)

Being in the same room as your competition, though nerve-racking, may give you a feel for the atmosphere at your future workplace. You’re getting a glimpse into the types of people the company likes. If the competition is cutthroat, employees may be as well.

What to expect: A third of employers put prospects in front of a group, Glassdoor reports. You’ll probably meet with three to five people, such as an HR rep, your prospective supervisor, a senior peer, and heads of departments you’d interact with daily. For employers a panel interview has several advantages. “It eliminates different people hearing different things in one-on-one interviews,” says Peter Cappelli, director at Wharton’s Center for Human Resources.

The insurer Kaiser Permanente asks finalists for midlevel management positions to present to a group. “It creates efficiency for both the candidate and the company,” says Jason Phillips, vice president of national recruitment and HR operations. “Many senior job seekers have a tight calendar.”

Another upside for you is the insight you can gain into the company culture. Pay attention to how panelists interact with one another; in a healthy environment co-workers are collaborative but also welcome and respect other points of view, says Finnigan.

How to be ready: To make it past a board, you’ll need everyone’s buy-in, says Washington, D.C., career counselor Karen Chopra. Contact your point person ahead of time to learn whom you’re meeting and roughly how long the interview will last (some run two to three hours). To give yourself a preview of the folks you’re facing, look up everyone’s profile on LinkedIn.

Introduce yourself to all the panelists and jot down the seating order; you can glance at the chart throughout the session so you can address each person by name. (Save it for writing your thank-you notes.)

Eye contact conveys confidence, says Chopra, so look directly at the person who poses the question, pass your eyes around the room as you answer, and circle back to the questioner as you’re wrapping up. Bring any mum panelists into the conversation, especially if there’s a chance silence means a closed mind. Posing a question about their divisions or clients also shows you’ve done your homework.

What to expect: Borrow your kid’s Xbox controller—you might need it for a job interview one day. Employers in a number of fields, including energy, consumer goods, and financial services, are starting to take a look at gaming technology to assess job candidates. Through custom-made videogames, companies can measure skills and personality traits that may be tough to pick up in person. “This is in the testing phase,” says veteran recruiter Mark Howorth. “But I do feel like it is about to take off.”

Take Knack’s Wasabi Waiter, a 10-minute game that has job seekers act as a sushi server at a virtual restaurant. Not only are your customer service skills tested, says Guy Halfteck, founder and CEO at the game developer, but “the game evaluates everything from your problem solving to critical thinking, logical reasoning, empathy, conscientiousness, and emotional intelligence.”

How to be ready: Gaming is in its infancy as a hiring tool, and how well the approach identifies ideal workers remains an open question. Nonetheless, get used to the technology. You can play Wasabi Waiter on Knack’s free mobile app, “What’s Your Knack?,” but don’t overthink your strategy: Your instincts are what interest employers, says Halfteck. When you’re finished, though, get back to working on your in-person interview skills. Odds are the last leg of the hiring process will be a face-to-face one.

Summary: Forget the traditional sit-down with a rep from HR. Nowadays companies are employing decidedly offbeat hiring techniques. To land the spot you want, be prepared for whatever tests come your way.


Ken Cataldo can usually move a lot of Volkswagens in February — 120 in a normal year, maybe 130 if the economy is humming and his sales team is feeling it.

But this month, with just nine days left on the clock, Colonial Volkswagen of Medford had sold 37 cars.

“Literally, there’s nobody,” said an exasperated Cataldo, general manager of the dealership. “I’ve never seen anything like it. This has been the worst two weeks of my life.”

Cataldo and other car dealers across Massachusetts said new car sales and repair business have plunged this year, as snow-weary drivers put off buying new rides until spring. Cruelly, the latest blizzard hit over Presidents’ Day weekend, which dealers use to launch the sales season by offering steep discounts. Instead, customers were stuck at home, and salespeople spent the holiday weekend rearranging car lots to make way for plows.

“It’s very important psychologically, because it gets people out of the winter doldrums and into a spring-like mindset. Obviously, that didn’t happen this year,” said Robert O’Koniewski, the executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association.

Three to 5 inches of snow could fall in Southern New England beginning Saturday, followed by freezing rain or rain into Sunday.

Colonial Volkswagen usually sells 30 cars on Presidents’ Day, then four or five cars each day the following week as salespeople finalize deals with stragglers who browsed over the weekend. This year, it sold 18 cars on Presidents’ Day, and only a handful the following workweek.

Consumers cited a number of weather-related reasons they are putting off buying cars. Alan Brandon, a 49-year-old technical writer from Pepperell, said he was looking forward to Presidents’ Day deals to buy a new Ford Escape that got better gas mileage than his current vehicle. Last weekend’s storm spoiled that plan, and now he’s waiting for the weather to improve before heading to a dealer.

“I don’t really want to stand around in the parking lot and haggle if it’s sleeting or something,” he said. “Besides, with the snow banks up here, it would be hard to even turn out of the lot for a test drive.”

Brandon said he also worried about immediately scratching up a brand-new car with an ice scraper, or smashing its bumper into a snowbank while parking, or tracking muddy snowmelt onto its spotless carpets.

Even the state’s largest chains are struggling. Herb Chambers, who runs 55 dealerships across Massachusetts, said he expected sales this month to be up 10 percent over last year. Instead, sales are down 20 percent. He has spent more than $1 million clearing snow from car lots and roofs. Also, Chambers is paying workers to stay for more hours so they can catch up on repair jobs and help clean up after storms.

“It’s terribly disappointing. We’ve lost a huge amount of money,” Chambers said. “Luckily, it has nothing to do with the industry. I believe we’ll make up the sales. The thing we won’t make up is the cost of snow removal.”

Colonial Volkswagen in Medford is still advertising its holiday sale event.

One upside for dealers is that most consumers are like Brandon — they buy cars after deciding they definitely need one, so the business lost this winter may come back in the spring.

But that delay comes with a price tag: All but the largest chains take out loans from banks or manufacturers to buy their inventory of vehicles, paying financing fees for each day a car sits unsold on their lots. And with many manufacturers extending Presidents’ Day sales another week or two because of the snow, dealers are also spending more on advertising to notify shoppers of the additional sale dates.

“We spent a tremendous amount of money on TV ads and direct mailings this month, and it’s too late to get out of that commitment by the time you see the forecast,” said Scott Dube, president of Bill Dube Hyundai in Wilmington. “Maybe we’ll eventually satisfy the pent-up demand in March or April, but we’ll have to spend just as much on ads to attract people then. Now, we’ve spent double the money for the same result.”

Dube said business at his service department is down by half. Customers have even been canceling appointments scheduled for the day before a storm. And because his customers are already missing work due to the weather, they are reluctant to take more time off for rescheduled service appointments. Dube said each one-day storm can quickly become three days of lost productivity and business.

Add to that the expense of clearing and sanding his lot, along with the challenge of keeping morale high among employees who depend on commission, and February is shaping up to be a tough month.

“It’s death by a thousand papercuts,” Dube said. “I’ve been buying [employees] lunch, trying to keep everyone’s head in the game, but it’s hard to stay jazzed when you’re shoveling out cars and not making any money.”

• Panel to examine MBTA woes

• How to deal with ice dams

• Vehicle sales down in winter

• Cold reduces devices’ battery life

• Finding artistic inspiration amid the cold and snow

Summary: Car sales in Massachusetts have plunged as snow-weary drivers put off buying new rides until spring. Worse, the latest blizzard in an increasingly indistinguishable series of storms hit over Presidents Presidents’ Day weekend, a key window for dealers.


FORTUNE – For the past two years, sales of Louis Vutton bags, Dior perfume and the like have been one of the few bright spots in retailing. But momentum in the world of all that’s luxurious has begun to wane some, as evidence builds that even the most resilient consumers might not be able to avoid implications of Europe’s ongoing debt crisis combined with a slower growing Chinese economy.

On Wednesday, British luxury fashion house Burberry Group Plc led luxury-goods stocks lower after reporting sales that missed analysts’ estimates. Sales for the first quarter rose 11% to $634 million, short of expectations for a 13% gain. Although the results weren’t considered anywhere near disastrous, and a Burberry executive said the company continued to see “an enormous amount of opportunity” in China, it didn’t exactly ease jittery markets.

Some analysts and investors fear this is just the beginning of slowing high-end sales. Burberry’s results came the same day Cartier, the luxury watch and jewelry brand owned by Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, said it is seeing less appetite for its high-end watches in China, a key driver behind the recent boom in luxury watches.

“After a phenomenal year last year, there’s been a bit of a slowdown in mainland China,” said Cartier CEO Bernard Fornas, at the company’s factory Wednesday as he unveiled its latest innovation, a concept watch, called the ID Two, that uses less energy. Similar to Burberry, Fornas isn’t worried about Chinese consumers in the long-run.

“When you talk to the people over there, they are all waiting for a new president to come in,” he added. “That will fuel the economy with fresh money and lower interest rates.”

But that remains to be seen. In the years following the Great Recession, demand for all things luxury in the U.S. surged in tandem with gains in the stock market. For those who could afford it, posh and extravagance wasn’t altogether impractical, as rallies in the equities market made affluent consumers more confident about spending. But that hasn’t been enough to sustain appetites for life’s finer things, as luxury sales have generally slowed down for the past several months.

In May, MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse reported that luxury sales, excluding jewelry, climbed 1.8% in April from a year earlier, after gaining 6.7% in the first quarter and 13% in the fourth quarter. Although spending on luxury has bumped up some recently, Michael McNamara, vice president of SpendingPulse, which tracks credit card, cash and check transactions, said robust sales seen in 2011 will be difficult to repeat this year.

High-end jewlers have been particularly vulnerable. In May, Tiffany & Co. TIF cut its fiscal year sales and profit forecast after reporting lower-than-expected first quarter earnings. This was driven by several factors, including concerns about Wall Street layoffs and cooling demand from Asia, a big contributor to the global luxury market.

David Schick, managing director at Stifel Financial, said he expects that softer sentiments for luxury will carry over globally as economic growth across Asia and Europe slow. “That’s going to damage higher income consumer sentiment,” he says.

China’s slowing economy has already put pressure on retail sales in Hong Kong, where many Mainland Chinese stand in lines stretched down several city blocks to shop for luxury brands. Sales rose 8.8% in May from a year earlier to $4.6 billion, the smallest gain since September 2009.

A diamond may be forever, but demand for it has a much less certain lifetime.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Burberry sales for the first quarter rose 11% to $634 billion. It is $634 million.

Summary: Combine the European crisis with a slowdown in China and you've got a recipe for a weaker luxury market.


This post is in partnership with Time. The article below was originally published at Time.com.

Dentists cannot have a monopoly on teeth whitening services, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court found that the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners was wrong when it sent “cease and desist” letters to companies that were offering teeth whitening at strip malls and kiosks. The board held that it was regulating the practice, but it was sued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for creating an advantage for its members and blocking competition.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the FTC, agreeing that the board was acting on behalf of private members and not as a state regulatory agency since it was not being actively monitored by the state.

North Carolina law does not specify whether teeth whitening is a practice only allowed by dentists. The smaller businesses were offering the procedures for a lower costs than the dentists.

Summary: The Supreme Court has ruled that dentists can't hold a monopoly on teeth-whitening services


The rumbling songs of the rare Antarctic blue whale can be detected almost 750 kilometres away.

Antarctic marine scientists have been eavesdropping on the world's largest creatures, using directional sonobuoys to listen for the low rumbling songs to guide their ship to the whales in the icy Southern Ocean.

Australian Antarctic Division Voyage Science Leader, Mike Double, says after travelling a large distance without sighting any whales, they were "staggered" to see over 80 of the rare whales in a relatively small area.

"With such a patchy distribution, it is only possible to study this endangered species efficiently using the acoustic technology developed by the Australian Antarctic Division," Dr Double said in a statement.

The scientists photo-identified 58 individual blue whales during their six-week Australia-New Zealand Antarctic Ecosystem Voyage to the Southern Ocean, investigating the region's top predators.

The images will help estimate the population size, rate of recovery and movements of the endangered creatures.

During the voyage they recorded more than 40,000 calls over 520 hours.

Using echosounders they were able to map, characterise and monitor the krill in the vicinity of the blue whale and found the swarms were denser than those found anywhere else.

The research aims to investigate key questions identified by the International Whaling Commission's Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP).

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Summary: Research into the rare Antarctic blue whale has tracked more than 80 creatures using directional sonobuoys listening to the sound of their songs.


The McLaren Technology Group is known for its exploits in Formula 1, having designed the systems that have sent a fistful of championships to Woking, England. But the organisation is now applying its problem-solving know-how to keeping hospital patients as healthy as McLaren keeps its racing machines.

McLaren Applied Technologies, a company subsidiary that leverages data-analysis skills developed through racing, has signed an agreement with Oxford University Hospitals to provide doctors with decision support – specifically around analysis of data that might maximize patients’ opportunities for positive treatment outcomes.

The effort begins, as so many automotive endeavours do, at the racetrack.

As an illustration of McLaren’s successful adaptation to circumstances, it points to its use of a simulator when ex-team driver Lewis Hamilton suffered a tire puncture during the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix. The simulator ran in real time, so when the team encountered the setback, the simulator was leveraged to choose the proper type of tire for Hamilton’s car – a seemingly mundane task that could have a very real impact on Hamilton’s prospects for victory. That simulation – combined with Hamilton’s deft driving – obviated the need for a later pit stop, positioning Hamilton for his eventual race win.

A simulator built by McLaren. (Credit: McLaren Applied Technologies)

A simulator built by McLaren. (Credit: McLaren Applied Technologies)

That is the kind of adaptation to adversity that doctors and patients both work towards in medicine. “We do have a large number of unmet needs,” explains Freddie Hamdy, head of the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at Oxford. “The methods we use are very much behind both the motoring industry and airline pilots as well.”

Applying McLaren’s simulator to medical situations has the potential to revolutionise health care, says Hamdy. “This is going to be a complete paradigm shift in how we implement new techniques,” he says. “For me, [McLaren’s simulator] was a complete revelation.”

Racing places a tremendous burden on an organisation with respect to its allocation of resources, notes Dr Caroline Hargrove, director of performance at McLaren Applied Technologies, as races are held at regular intervals without regard to teams’ preparedness. McLaren’s historical consistency “came from making our Formula 1 activities as streamlined as possible,” she says. “We were taking on new information and taking the best course of action. This could apply in the health care and hospital environment where scarce resources need to be applied as efficiently as possible.”

Left to right: Dr Caroline Hargrove and Ron Dennis of McLaren, with Sir John Bell, Ian Rhodes (McLaren) and Freddie Hamdy of Oxford. (Credit: McLaren Applied Technologies)

Left to right: Dr Caroline Hargrove and Ron Dennis of McLaren, with Sir John Bell, Ian Rhodes (McLaren) and Freddie Hamdy of Oxford. (Credit: McLaren Applied Technologies)

McLaren has applied this thinking to air traffic control at London’s Heathrow airport, where newfound efficiencies brought a 19% increase in capacity, says Hargrove. “If we did this in the medical world, it would have a significant cost saving attached to it.”

Indeed, Oxford’s Hamdy says that seeking efficiency advice from a racing team’s tech subsidiary is largely motivated by budgetary concerns. “Both in terms of the quality of care that can be delivered and the savings, [it] can be absolutely momentous,” he says.

And those speedy pit stops that are a McLaren speciality? They are precision-choreographed to eliminate any movement that could be considered extraneous. GlaxoSmithKline, the health- and pharmaceutical-product conglomerate, struggled with a 39-minute changeover of its toothpaste manufacturing line when switching between brands such as AquaFresh and Sensodyne. Analysis by McLaren Applied Technologies slashed that changeover time to just 15 minutes, letting the company fill an additional 6.7m tubes of toothpaste every year. In practice, however, GlaxoSmithKline uses the time saved to switch production streams more often – and more easily – as market demand dictates.

The company is also using McLaren’s data collection sensors in clinical trials for experimental treatments for respiratory ailments, stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Pursuing workplace efficiencies can take on much more intimate, tactile forms as well. McLaren tech is helping Oxford doctors to monitor patients’ progress after treatment. “We put sensors on people,” Hargrove says, noting that continuous, accurate data collection can be superior to relying on patients’ anecdotal recollections. “We get a much better objective feel for the level of activity, its intensity, and how well they sleep,” she says. “That gives us a much better picture of how well that person is.”

Such granular monitoring is routine for racing cars, but not for patients. “You do this to machines and we are not doing this to humans,” Hargrove marvelled. “You can see whether surgeries work well and their impact on peoples’ lives.”

A sensor that is used to gather patient data. (Credit: McLaren Applied Technologies)

A sensor that is used to gather patient data. (Credit: McLaren Applied Technologies)

The method can be applied pre-operatively to determine patients’ suitability for surgery, Hamdy says. “Our patient population is aging, and we are doing things now to 70-year-olds, 80-year-olds and 90-year-olds that we didn’t do 20 years ago,” he says. Instrumenting surgical candidates beforehand, he contends, will give doctors a clearer idea of their suitability for procedures.

Together with the post-operative monitoring, this data collection could help reduce the guesswork in medicine. “We are going to be able to predict much more accurately the long-term impact of the intervention,” Hamdy says.

Developing scenarios that predict a victorious outcome is old hat for McLaren. As for Oxford, such victories would be even sweeter when patients’ lives are the reward.

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Summary: The storied Formula 1 marque tackles the health-care sector. Dan Carney reports from medicineâs unlikely new frontier.


The Lamborghini crashed into a guard rail, killing a driving instructor in the passenger seat. (WFTV)

A Lamborghini that was part of an exotic car racing attraction at Walt Disney World has crashed into a guardrail, killing a passenger and injuring the driver.

The Florida Highway Patrol says Tavon Watson, 24, lost control of the vehicle on Sunday afternoon, killing Gary Terry, 36.

Sergeant Kim Montes said in an incident report that Watson failed to manoeuvre the high-powered vehicle through the Exotic Driving Experience course. The vehicle's passenger side struck the guardrail. Terry died at the scene. Watson was taken to a nearby hospital where he was treated and released.

The attraction lets race car fans be drivers or passengers in luxurious cars such as Lamborghinis, Porsches or Ferraris. For between $US200 ($A260) and $US400 ($A521), customers can drive several laps with a professional driving instructor in the passenger seat. It is located south of the Magic Kingdom parking lots.

A spokeswoman said Disney offers its "deepest sympathy to those involved" in the crash.

The track is operated by Petty Holdings, which has other Exotic Driving Experience attractions at speedways in Atlanta, Daytona Beach, New Jersey, Kansas, New Hampshire and Texas.

The race track is located at Walt Disney World in Florida. (WFTV)

The Exotic Driving Experience, along with its sibling track, the Richard Petty Driving Experience, was slated to close this summer at Disney World for unrelated reasons.

Montes said the crash remains under investigation.

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Summary: A man has been killed after a Lamborghini crashed at an Orlando race car track attraction at Walt Disney World.


Kitchen supplies vary in durability and design, often to the frustration of the home cook seeking tools of the trade at the nearest supermarket or hardware store. The Restaurant Store, a division of the Westchester Restaurant Supply Company in Elmsford, serves the public need for commercial-quality home supplies and for gifts of gadgets, copper, silverplate or glassware as well - selling either small quantities at wholesale prices, but no special orders, or wholesale quantities with volume discounts and custom specifications. The company moved to the present location four years ago after 50 years in Mount Vernon.

Special sales vary from month to month, with restaurant-strength pots and pans at extra discounts each summer and other specials announced by flier to a mail-order list. No purchase is required for a sweepstakes of Henckels Cutlery worth $250, an anniversary gourmet set, with a closing date of July 31 on mailing the entries. Dishwasher-safe, black-handled gadget sets by Henckel, Marks cutlery, knife blocks (usually $12.15, now $7.99) and magnetic wall brackets for cutlery are also sold.

Sturdy aluminum egg slicers are $3; rubber scrapers with stay-on handles in the 9 1/2-inch size are 70 cents and for the 13 1/2-inch size, $1.45; and, find of finds, vegetable peelers of the slender, knee-action design with bean-slicer at the end, $1.40. German-made pastry bags are numbered for size - 1 is $3.50, 3 is $4.15 and 5 is $6.35 (that's the 17-inch length), and these are subject to change on re-ordering as are other prices because of inflation. ''No chef should be without one'' reads the sign on an aspic garnish trufflecutter set of a dozen tin tips, used with the pastry bags, that costs $62.50. The stainless-steel French whip, or whisk, is $7.55 for the 14-inch length and $19.30 for the 30-inch tool. KitchenAid mixers in the five-quart size cost $243.10 and in the four-quart model $184.15, usually $329.95 and $249.95, respectively.

An insulated water jug, as is, with a discolored finish, costs $13.45; another model, $9.99. Sango fine china fruit bowls, list at $3.50, cost $2.20, the sugar is $12.50 and the creamer, $9.20. Professional corkscrews come in many models - nickel-plated at $2.25 and, with a knife along one side and especially handy for a picnic basket, $2.95. Dainty China lotus bowls are $1.35 each and yellow mugs on closeout are 99 cents. Stainless-steel ice cream scoops with Bakelite handles come in eight sizes, from .81 ounces to 3.73 ounces.

Copper crepe pans, 10 inches in diameter, cost $27, and shaped copper molds for mousse or aspic gleam from the ceiling and walls of the shop. Many copper pots, made in America to the shop's specifications with stainless steel lining and cast brass handles, sell at wholesale prices. A 2 1/2-gallon brown teapot for counter service of iced tea is $109.15 and a fish poacher 18 inches long is $37.50, for that fish that does not get away. Clam knives are $6.80 and oyster knives are $6.70 or, for a longer blade, $7.55. A 20-quart, enameled clam steamer, the sort with a spigot for draining the broth, costs $31.50.

The Restaurant Store is in the Westchester Restaurant Supply Company at 1 Nepperhan Avenue, 10523, the left-hand fork off 9A just north of Route 119, or Tarrytown Road (or, heading west on I-287 take Exit 2 at Elmsford, turn left on 9A southbound and the store is on the right after two-tenths of a mile). Open 8:30 A.M. to 5 P.M. Monday through Friday and 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Saturday. Visa and MasterCard on purchases above $10, and checks, including out-of-state, are accepted with two identifications. Returns within seven days from date of purchase with sales slip if item is in saleable condition. Minimum orders of a dozen for wholesale prices on flatware, china and crystal. The Telephone is 592-5200. Craft Supplies Outlet Draws From Afar

Stratford Craft Supplies draws wholesale as well as retail customers to Connecticut from as far away as New York City. Included are some vendors of finished crafts to stores who work at home and have special resale numbers exempting them from the state sales tax. Craft groups representing all ages and skills show up month after month for supplies, with prices reduced for quantity purchases or the 13th item free.

For macrame addicts, the store has beads, including wood; rings of metal, plastic, bamboo and wood in assorted sizes, and washable, nonfading acrylic or polyester cord - no cotton. Jewelry beads and beading threads (including silver and gold lame threads for crocheted jewelry and gold, silver, and white elastic) are alongside beading pins and plastic pearls by the yard for wedding gowns. Small bags of faceted plastic beads are 79 cents for 100; the middle size packet is $2.50 for 480 pieces; and the greatest bargain is in the 10 gross quantity, $7.05 for 1,440 beads.

There are books of directions, sample dolls made over detergent bottles, and a few kits for newcomers to doll-making, but a greater trade in supplies of black and white faces, hands, feet and noses; and in eyes, lashes, glasses, whiskers, hair, heads and whole bodies. Faces also come ready-made for Santa, witches, clowns, hoboes and animals. One popular ''thumbsucker doll'' set has a face and two hands, one holding a nursing bottle, at 89 cents.

There are Sunday classes for macrame and broom with bow, say, at a minimal charge including supplies - these resume in September ''when wives and children will return weekly, whatever the craft taught, during football afternoons between 1 P.M. and 3 P.M.,'' according to store personnel. The elderly with any identity card get a 10 percent discount on Fridays only, excluding baker's dozen, bulk or sale items. Gift certificates are available.

Stratford Craft Supplies is at 720 Barnum Avenue, Stratford, 06497 (from the west take Connecticut Turnpike Exit 32 at West Broad Street, following it to Main Street, then left for two miles to the first light, then turning right on Barnum Avenue). Open 10 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. Monday through Saturday (but summer Saturdays only to 4 P.M.). In addition, between September and mid-May open from 12 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. Sunday.

MasterCard accepted with $5 minimum and Connecticut checks for amount of sale only, with identification. Exchanges within 10 days with receipt, except on sale, chenille, yard goods or opened packages; no cash refunds. The telephone is (203) 375-2455.

The second annual Scarsdale Chamber of Commerce sidewalk sales days will find many merchants in the middle of individual clearance efforts designed to empty the shelves before the the advent of warmer clothing and footwear. Most stores will participate with booths and tables between 9 A.M. and 6 P.M. Friday and Saturday in the main village area, with a few participants on Garth Road and in Heathcote.

Some stores disallow house accounts, credit cards and checks during the sidewalk sale. Beyond the shopping, however, there will be raffles, concerts and food booths provided by individual sponsors. From the north, take Exit 11 off the Bronx River Parkway at Ardsley Road, circling left over the railroad bridge to metered parking at Garth Road and in the village. The telephone is 472-5016.


Mr. and Mrs. John Lawrence Eccker of Winnetka, Ill., and Holland, Mich., have announced the engagement of their daughter, Sandra Louise Eccker, to Christopher Drake Lidstone, son of Mr. and Mrs. Herrick Kenley Lidstone of Broomfield, Colo.

A January wedding is planned.

Miss Eccker was graduated from Smith College and is a candidate for a master's degree in geology at Colorado State University. Her father is vice president and associate manager of Merrill Lynch & Company in Chicago.

She is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis D. Eccker of Shamokin, Pa., and Mr. and Mrs. Amos Alonzo Stagg Jr. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Her great-grandfather was Amos Alonzo Stagg, the football coach who was elected to the National Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

Mr. Lidstone, a graduate of St. Mark's School in Southboro, Mass., received a B. A. degree from Cornell University and a Master of Science from Colorado State University. His father is counsel to the New York law firm of Battle, Fowler, Jaffin & Kheel, consultant to the law firm of Ireland, Stapleton & Prior in Denver, a visiting professor at the Colorado Law School and editor of Prentice-Hall's Institute of Business Tax Planning Series. His mother is a former member of the Town Council of Pelham, N.Y.

Illustrations: photo of Sandra Eccker


By William Safire WASHINGTON - Is Jacob Timerman the courageous accuser of anti-Semitism in Argentina, whose personal witness of torture and repression shames the don't-make-waves Jews of that country and demonstrates the need for the U.S. to put pressure on dictatorships of the right?

Or is Mr. Timerman a left-wing idealogue who was arrested primarily because his financial backer was a looter of banks and suspected of being a banker of terrorists, and whose suffering is being used to validate the Carter foreign policy and discredit the Reagan ''quiet diplomacy''?

Sorry, everybody - the answer is probably both. The duty of every minority is to stand up for its rights. Blacks should outspokenly combat racism and Jews should slam back hard at threats to dignity as well as survival. If I lived in Argentina, I like to think I would be in trouble with the authorities all the time. Mr. Timerman's outrage is well placed and extremely well directed; his testimony deserves the attention it has been getting because it will do some good.

But to admire Mr. Timerman - even to identify with his fury at the vestiges of Nazism that survive among some in the country that ultimately deported him -is not to agree with his conclusions about American foreign policy.

Doves who have enshrined him as ''a Solzhenitsyn of the left,'' in Irving Kristol's phrase, suggest that nobody who has not gone through his torture has the standing to differ with his recommendations.

Although I do not have the credentials of one who has suffered, let me suggest that Mr. Timerman cannot assail U.S. policy - as he did with his presence at the Lefever hearings - and remain unassailable himself.

Those who use Timerman as their political shield cannot fairly equate his detractors with his torturers. Many of the users of Mr. Timerman today denounce the ''corrupt dictatorship'' in Saigon during the Vietnam War. We do not hear much about the dictatorship in Ho Chi Minh City today. It is not corrupt. With honesty and efficiency, the Communist regime shoots or imprisons opponents; it lets no imprisoned editors go free to write books and bear witness. The people of Vietnam had much more freedom under the good old corrupt dictatorship.

Doves fearful of confronting the Russians are zealous in confronting, even destabilizing, imperfect allies. By lionizing Timerman (martyrs are frequently lionized), these doublestandardbearers hope to estrange us from the unpopular regimes we need to resist communist expansion. However, just when the dovish canonization of Timerman was well under way, the editor crossed up his advocates by endorsing Entebbe II. Timerman 's consistency in fighting for Jewish survival must have caused much fluttering in the dovecote.

The central question is not whether old liberals and neoconservatives will turn Mr. Timerman into this year's Lilian Hellman, but whether the Reagan policy will work better than the Carter policy of permitting laissez faire on the left and demanding rectitude on the right.

There sits Argentina, less repressive now because it murdered its terrorists along with many innocents. Of late, it has been doing business on a large scale with the Soviets; if we stand aloof, the Soviet Union will penetrate this hemisphere as it never could through Cuba. If we engage, we might be able to regain an ally in the economic warfare sure to follow an invasion of Poland.

South Africa is another nation that will not improve with ostracism. Our diplomats wonder why South Africans want to rig the Namibian elections to block complete takeover by leftists; the answer is that geologists at Gulf and Texaco suspect an ocean of oil under the western part of that country, and every SWAPO leader would become an instant Stuart Mott. South Africa may be racist, but it's not crazy; the OPEC nations are worried about a big find in that area, extending into Angola, which is why the Cubans will not leave.

Pakistan is no human-rights bargain either, but it stands between Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the Soviet strategic goal of dominating the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. The Reaganauts are shoveling in $3 billion with - we hope - some strings attached.

Regimes like these, which deny much freedom, can help us stop the march of communist regimes, which deny all freedom. We should help our allies so long as they give us some evidence of progress toward more internal freedom.

Either ''quiet diplomacy'' will work or it will not. If it works, real gains will be made in total human freedom; if it fails, we should stand ready to withdraw our support before we forget what makes us different from the communists.

It's worth a try. The alternative is self-righteousness in a sea of totalitarianism. Because no injustice is tolerable, the cries of the individual Timerman's must be heard and amplified; this Administration must be held accountable for results in extending freedom among our friends as it protects freedom from our enemies.


Ask a child who has been to the zoo and you will be told that a calf's head is bony and blunt as it thrusts up to scratching fingers, and that nestling a rabbit is like holding the softest pillow in the world.

But how many children have slid 14 feet down a fence lizard's escape route, or painstakingly pushed themselves along enveloped in a snail shell?

These feats will be possible at the Bronx Zoo's new Children's Zoo, which opens officially tomorrow morning at 10. And along the route across the new zoo's three acres, visitors will learn a number of lessons, some surprising, about the way animals live.

The new zoo consists of a sprawling environment of natural and manmade terrains crisscrossed by walkways, shelters and play areas made of natural-oak planks, all but one negotiable by the handicapped. Colorful banners identifying the new zoo's five zones hang at the entrance, across from the Elephant House, and each of the 42 exhibits is labeled with bright plaques proclaiming - but not too loudly - interesting details and speculations. Begins at Woodlands Edge

The two-hour trip into this world begins at the Woodlands Edge area, where the forest thins out to grass. Here visitors may learn about animal homes, which may be constructed or adapted. They may then walk over a brook and into the heron aviary, dotted with birds so still they seem stuffed until they blink.

Visitors peering into a nearby hollow glass-fiber log are met by a live and glowing pair of yellow raccoon eyes. There is a raccoon log to crawl through, but children may be more interested in a 20-foot garden orb spider's web. It is a faithful copy of a real one in a nearby log, but a copy that may be climbed.

The child who wedges into three caves will see first a den full of rat and garter snakes, then the crevice home for a wood rat, and finally a third, smaller grotto alive with glistening red cave salamanders intent on catching crickets for breakfast.

Bullfrogs are only one of the species of the manmade Marsh, where they live in a floating garden with egrets and ducks, sticklebacks and shiners. Here, youngsters will find a bullfrog jump where they can measure their leaps against an amphibian record. The children always lose, but they learn why frogs are such good jumpers. There's also a tank where diving and swimming ducks may be observed. Learning Animal Defenses

The main attraction of the Forest area, where children may learn about animal defenses, is likely to be the lizard escape slide. Tree stump stools are available at the foot of the slide for waiting adults, although the slide is large enough to accommodate a fairly portly parent.

Simulated sand, rocks and heat distinguish the Desert, where an owl may be observed by climbing a ladder up the eight-foot-high fiberglass saguaro cactus that is is home. To see the world as he does, viewers may squint at a mouse through a series of windows with varying illumination.

The world as heard by Freddy the Fennec Fox, the Children's Zoo mascot, may be listened to by inserting one's head between pairs of large fox ears very like those of Freddy and Flossy, a second fennec, who scampers, blinking, about a nearby pen.

A trip through the new Children's Zoo may end with a stop at a photo booth where children may have their pictures taken with a snake or rabbit. There may be found a nursery with baby chicks, hatching eggs, a tiny faun and orphan oppossums, as well as two scrabbling, month-old raccoons.

And there, too, are the petting pens, where visitors may stroke a variety of domestic animals. Like the rest of the new Children's Zoo, the appeal seems universal.

A pair of hulking teen-aged boys talked earnestly to a goat on a recent members' preview day, while four women bent over a nearby ducklings' enclosure, crying, ''Hello, bubbele,'' to a mass of peeping yellow fuzz.

Illustrations: photo of little girl with donkey


Henry B. Halicki makes movies, two of them so far, which he writes, produces and stars in. He also promotes them with a zeal P.T. Barnum might envy. In his latest effort, a half-million-dollar-budget film called "Junkman," Mr. Halicki portrays an independent film maker whom the big Hollywood studios try to do in, using airplanes and blimps. They fail.

In real life, the 41-year-old self-made Gardenia, Calif., millionaire is recreating the theme of struggling-little-guys-vs.-impersonal-giant, this time with Detroit in the latter role.

It seems that early this eyar ("Junkman" was completed last fall), Mr. Halicki decided the ideal way to promote his movie would be to give away new cars at theaters around the nation. The world premier was scheduled for April 2 in Houston. Promptly, the letters offering to buy the cars went out to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler: How soon could they deliver 50 of their top-of-the-line models? The reaction from G.M. and Chrysler, he said, was lukewarm to insulting.

"It was a frightening experience," Mr. Halicki said. "Here's and industry with 300,000 people laid off. Are these people working for some other company? Or the Japanese?" The letters and telegrams from Halicki Productions - to Chrysler chairman Lee A. Iacocca, G.M. chairman Roger B. Smith, and President Reagan in Washington - turned wrathful.

Mr. Halicki is a former junk dealer whose first film "Gone in Sixty Seconds" featured a 1973 Ford Mach I Mustang named Eleanor and the destruction of 93 very used cars in 97 minutes - 30 of them inadvertently. It cost about $400,000 to make, plus $1.3 million for promotion and distribution, and has grossed "almost $20 million," Mr. Halicki said.

As he sees it, the reluctance of the auto companies to deal had everything to do with his "little guy" image. "If you're not connected with a major film studio, you're not on their level," he said, "and they simply will not talk to you."

Detroit's version of the interfacing is somewhat different.

Mr. Halicki's first promotional target, for what he calls "the American Dream Giveaway" was the Chrysler Le Baron convertible, the first of which were delivered to dealers just this week.

According to Bernard F. Mullins, director of Chrysler's sales and marketing public relations, 3,100 people paid $1,000 each to pre-order the $14,000 La Baron. "I told Mr. Halicki those customers came first, and that we'd put him in line. Apparently that didn't meet his deadline."

"Of course we're not going to turn down anybody who want to buy cars," added another Chrysler executive, who insisted on anonymity. "But Mr. Halicki's presentation was very vague and very incomplete. I don't think anyone here got any straight facts out of the man."

"It's almost like he's trying to create a problem that doesn't exist," said Mr. Mullins. Mr. Halicki, still fuming, says he wouldn't take even the Le Barons "if Chrysler called and offered to give me a hundred of them free."

It is with G.M. however (which Mr. Halicki refers to as "The People's Republic of General Motors"), that the film maker is most annoyed. In an 11-page letter to the company's chairman dated Feb. 1, Mr. Halicki describes a meeting he had with two executives from the Pontiac division. He told him he was interested in purchasing a fleet of $10,000 Trans Am.

According to Mr. Halicki, one of the executives at the meeting told him that the Trans Am was such a hot seller that the company "did not need any new business."

Not so, said Robert Edward Benson, assistant general sales manager for Pontiac marketing. "Timing was the biggest problem," he said. "Mr. Halicki came here for an interview before we had even received his written proposal."

"We were willing to work with him," Mr. Benson added, "but we told him he'd have to buy the cars through a dealer."

That, apparently, is not in the cards.

Mr. Halicki has wound up at Ford, (where he says he was treated "decently and humanely") and saved himself some money. According to a spokesman for Ford, a deal for 50 Mustang coupes, at a package price of about $7,400 each, is being completed now. The sale will bring the company some $370,000. KIRK JOHNSON


HARTFORD FOR Rick Story, a blue box is something out of that television commercial for a charge card. He never leaves home without it. As an added precaution, he also keeps an identical blue box for safekeeping - in a bank vault. The blue box, which resembles a salesman's sample case, contains sets of brown books with page after page of names and information about some 5,000 Republicans who have been active in Connecticut politics for the past 10 years.

But this year, the information in that blue box tells Mr. Story, the chief delegate counter for Richard C. Bozzuto, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, how the 933 delegates to the party's state convention in July are likely to vote for the gubernatorial nomination.

Mr. Story's blue box is one of the weapons being used in the psychological warfare that is under way in Connecticut politics these days as candidates for statewide office count the convention delegates and offer sometimes conflicting claims about their strengths.

In the fight for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate, for example, Lowell P. Weicker Jr., the two-term incumbent, says he has a ''hard count'' showing 65 percent of the convention delegates supporting him. His challenger, Prescott Bush Jr., scoffs at Mr. Weicker's claims and says he will be the nominee.

In the contest for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Governor O'Neill has expressed doubts that his challenger, Ernest N. Abate, the Speaker of the State House of Representatives, will get the 20 percent vote at the convention that would be necessary to force a Democratic primary election in September. Mr. Abate has countered that the Governor's support is ''soft'' and that he will have the needed 20 percent.

In the four-way race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Mr. Bozzuto and Lewis B. Rome, both former Republican leaders of the State Senate, each contend that they will have more than 50 percent of the delegates. The two other contenders, State Senators Gerald Labriola and Russell L. Post Jr., each insist they will have 20 percent to force a primary election.

There is no way, of course, for four Republican candidates to get 140 percent of the votes of 933 delegates. But while the candidates' claims do not always add up and may draw derisive laughter from the opposition, the counting of delegates is still a serious and painstaking business in the crucial weeks leading up to the state conventions.

''If you take down all the mirrors and blow away all the smoke, Lew Rome has more committed delegates than Dick Bozzuto,'' said Tom Sweeney, Mr. Rome's press secretary.

''It's very easy for a candidate to say he has so much strength,'' said Mr. Story, who projects Mr. Bozzuto's convention strength at 56.4 percent of the delegates. But Mr. Story said his system is conservative and precise and has proved accurate in the past. ''I'm not anxious to be incorrect,'' he added.

Keeping tabs on the delegates has become an arcane science for the candidates and their campaign staffs. At the Rome headquarters in Bloomfield, for example, cards listing each delegate and who he or she is supporting or leaning toward are kept by State Senate districts. They are updated weekly with checks by Rome coordinators in each town or by calls from the candidate or his staff, according to Mr. Sweeney.

The count of delegates committed to Mr. Rome is conservative, he said. ''To be counted as committed, a delegate has to directly tell Lew Rome, 'I'm going to vote for you,' '' Mr. Sweeney said. It is not enough, he added, merely to say, ''Lew, we love you.''

The weekly updates give Mr. Rome and his staff a picture of each candidate's strength at that moment, and Mr. Rome gets lists of delegates to call personally. The emphasis is on calls to delegates who are listed as undecided.

The Rome organization does not keep calling delegates who are firmly committed to another candidate, but an effort is made to see if the delegate would consider supporting Mr. Rome if a second ballot is needed at the convention, Mr. Sweeney said.

Mr. Story, a marketing executive from Ashford, began building his delegate-counting system in 1972 while working for Robert H. Steele, then a United States Representative from eastern Connecticut.

The system got its most-publicized test at the Republican State Convention in 1974 when Mr. Steele, who was not the choice of the party organizaton, sought the gubernatorial nomination. Many politicians and reporters scoffed at the Steele-Story claim of 719 delegates as the convention began. Mr. Steele actually got 721 for a first-ballot victory that stunned party leaders.

''So somewhere along the line someone knew how to count,'' Mr. Story recalled with a smile. The brown book in Mr. Story's blue box with the information on the current crop of delegates, lists on one line such information as each delegate's name, address, office and home telephone numbers, how that delegate voted in every state convention since 1972, plus a rating system on how the delegate stands this year as well as the date the latest information was entered and the name of the person who provided the information.

A rating of 1 means the delegate is absolutely committed to Mr. Bozzuto and the candidate has talked with the delegate. A rating of 1A means the delegate is committed to Mr. Bozzuto, but the candidate has not yet, in Mr. Story's words, ''had the opportunity to seal the deal.'' A rating of 2 means a delegate is leaning toward Mr. Bozzuto but the candidate has not talked with the delegate.

A rating of 3 is assigned to a delegate who is truly undecided, while a 4 is assigned to someone leaning toward another candidate and a 5 is assigned to a delegate strongly committed to another candidate.

There are some 125 ''delegate hunters'' for Mr. Bozzuto around the state, Mr. Story said, and each has a supply of cards, known as ''Dnotes,''that the hunter fills out after talking regularly with a delegate. The cards are mailed to Mr. Story, who enters the latest intelligence for each delegate in his brown book.

Mr. Story periodically does an overlay showing the candidate's strength in each town, which enables Mr. Bozzuto to concentrate on the towns that still have undecided delegates, instead of wasting time on towns where he already is strong or where he has little chance of wooing delegates.

Mr. Story said that the information in his blue box enabled the Bozzuto camp to identify more than 60 percent of the delegates before they were actually chosen at party caucuses in March.

After phone calls from Bozzuto watchers to update the names after each caucus, Mr. Story said each delegate chosen was mailed a congratulatory letter from Mr. Bozzuto within 12 hours after each caucus.

''That gave us a two-week head start on everybody else,'' Mr. Story said.

Illustrations: photo of Lewis B.Rome and Bob Milvae, campaign manager


The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today’s highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business.

OUT OF GAS Chesapeake Energy, traditionally an aggressive natural gas developer, has announced that it’s selling all of its stakes in natural gas fields. The sales are expected to net the company $5 billion pre-tax, which Chesapeake CHK will use to get rid of about $3 billion in debt that it racked up by what many analysts and investors have caled over-spending. The company has said it has set its sights on a more immediately lucrative asset: oil. [Wall Street Journal]

SHELL SINGS A DIFFERENT TUNE and may offer its Russian partner, national energy company Gazprom, assets in Asia in exchange for expanding a liquefied gas export plant in Russia. Shell RDSA plans to boost its liquefied natural gas production at one of its ventures north of Japan by building a third plant there. [Bloomberg]

FORD LIGHTENS UP after CEO Alan Mulally introduced a new strategy to keep its SUVs and trucks on the road while still meeting fuel economy standards. Mulally, who employed a similar strategy for aircraft at Boeing BA , is pushing lightweight vehicle design to improve the gas mileage of Ford’s F car lineup. [Bloomberg]

AND GEARS UP to produce more cars. Ford announced at the National Automobile Dealers Association’s annual convention in Detroit that U.S. production will increase by 13% more than the company had originally planned for the first three months of the year. That shakes out to about 555,000 vehicles. Ford may have to tack on more shifts to churn out enough autos to meet demand. [Detroit News]

DEFENSE CUTS HIT BIG BUSINESS including defense giants Lockheed Martin LMT and Northrop Grumman NOC , both of which merged during a previous period of low defense spending in the 90s. This time around, defense contractors of all sizes are merging, spinning off, or divesting portions of their businesses to deal with the fact that fewer government contracts will be available. [Washington Post]

THE EPA IS CRAMPING OUR STYLE Companies including Boeing and ConocoPhillips COP have beef with 57 EPA regulations, some of which deal with ozone standards and greenhouse gas emissions. They’re voicing their displeasure via a report that California Republican Darrell Issa, leader of the U.S. House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, is compiling after asking corporations how the government was getting in the way of business. [Bloomberg]

Summary: The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today's highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business. By Shelley DuBois, reporter OUT OF GAS Chesapeake Energy, traditionally an aggressive natural gas developer, has announced that it's selling all…


08/04/2015 AT 12:25 PM EDT

Wedding bells are ringing on TLC's

, a five-part reality show that explores the lives of four unusually tall women.

In an exclusive sneak peak of Tuesday's episode, Haleigh shops for a wedding dress that will flatter her 6'7" frame.

The hunt for a gown at first seems daunting for Haleigh, who brings her mother Thea (6'2") and sister Tavia (6') with her to the bridal shop.

"It was a little frustrating trying on different dresses and knowing they don't fit me like they fit other girls," Haleigh says. She adds that she must "try [not] to play the comparison game in my head of like, 'Well, man, nothing's going to fit me the way that it fits the model in the book.' "

All it takes is the perfect frock to calm Haleigh's self-doubt. As the store attendant – standing on a chair to reach Haleigh's head – places a veil in her hair to complete the bridal picture, Haleigh begins to tear up with emotion.

"Being 6'7", I definitely have struggled with my fair share of insecurities, and I've always struggled to feel confident and feel beautiful," Haleigh admits, "but this dress that I'm going to wear on my wedding day makes me feel awesome. I put it on, and I feel awesome."

, stands nearly a foot shorter than his future wife at 5'8", but he insists that their height difference does not concern him. "You never know where you're going to find love," Brian says in the proposal episode. "I just happened to find love in a woman that's 6'7"."

airs Tuesdays (10 p.m. ET) on TLC.

Summary: Her fiancé Brian is 5'8" – almost a foot shorter than Haleigh


As a student, he worked as one of dozens of junior uniformed assistants to keep tourists in line and show them the collection.

Now Dr Nicholas Cullinan is to return to the National Portrait Gallery – as its director.

Cullinan, who as co-curator of Tate’s Matisse Cut Out exhibition helped mastermind one of the most successful shows in recent history, will take up the post this spring.

The 37-year-old, who was born in Connecticut, US, but brought up in Yorkshire, will take over from Sandy Nairne as director of the gallery; the 12th of its 158-year history.

He will be the first non British-born director of the establishment, after learning his trade in a wide variety of UK, US and European galleries.

Speaking after the appointment, made with approval from the Prime Minister, the Cullinan said he would return to the National Portrait Gallery with “great pleasure” after growing up professionally in its halls.

He began his professional life as a part-time Visitor Services Assistant at the National Portrait Gallery from 2001 to 2003, where he joined a team with tasks including manning reception, working on helpdesks and monitoring the galleries.

There, he is understood to have been part of a uniformed group of junior staff who would man the corridors and help visitors and tourists make the most of the collection.

At the time, he was studying at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where he eventually gained an MA and PhD before being a lecturer, intern and fellow at various institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Museum of Modern Art, NY, and the University of Wales Institute.

From 2007, he was employed at Tate Modern where he worked on exhibitions including Malevich (2014), Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye (2012), Tacita Dean: FILM(2011), Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia (2008) and Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons (2008).

His work on Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs (2014) helped make it one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed shows in Britain last year, before he moved on to work at as curator of modern and contemporary art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

He has now been appointed to the National Portrait Gallery by the Board of Trustees, following official approval from the Prime Minister.

Cullinan said: “It is with great pleasure that I return to the National Portrait Gallery, an institution that I have grown up with and where I first worked fourteen years ago.

“At a time when identity, shared culture and civic values are increasingly relevant to us all, the National Portrait Gallery is uniquely placed to generate a discussion by reflecting on our common artistic, cultural and social history – in short, on what binds us together.

“It will be an honour to lead the Gallery at a particularly exciting time in its development, to build upon its remarkable success and accomplishments and to work with its world-class team in shaping the future direction.”

Sir William Proby, chairman of the trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, London, added: “He is an outstanding curator and art historian, and has wide ranging international experience.

"We believe his flair and enthusiasm will allow us to build on the excellent work that Sandy Nairne has done over the past 12 years.”

Summary: Dr Nicholas Cullinan has been announced as the new director of the National Portrait Gallery, 14 years after he worked there as a lowly gallery assistant


Slowing growth could complicate the Federal Reserve's ability to raise interest rates, which many economists and investors see as most likely to begin at the U.S. central bank's September meeting. Low inflation, which has worsened in recent weeks as oil prices continue to decline, is also problematic for the Fed. U.S. crude, or West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for September was trading 20 cents lower at $41.40 a barrel, close to its lowest level in more than six years.

Read MoreStrings attached to German vote on Greek bailout?

The next major focus for investors will be consumer price data for July, which is due on Wednesday morning. The Fed will also release minutes from its July meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Investors will evaluate the Fed minutes for any new signs that Fed members were concerned about low inflation, even before the more recent decline.

They will also look for new information on how the Fed sees global risks to the economy, though the minutes won't capture last week's surprise devaluation of the Chinese yuan.

"The China devaluation story has only developed in the last week or so, and things in general were different when the meeting was going on," said Simons. "There was an acknowledgement in the FOMC statement about some of the global risks and people are going to be looking for further discussion on that."

Summary: U.S. government debt prices climbed on Monday, as traders awaited fresh clues on whether the Federal Reserve will raise rates in September.


Former European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told CNBC that the new government in Greece had to respect the other 18 members of the euro zone in the negotiations.

"It's fair that new governments come with new proposals. I think the partners should look at them attentively," he told CNBC.

"But I think it would be a huge mistake and it would be very bad for the euro zone if now we give the idea that because there is a political change in one of our member countries all the rules are put in question."

"The best we can hope from today is an agreement to move forward on," Nick Malkoutzis, the Athens-based editor of economic and political analysis website Macropolis, told CNBC.

The most immediate question is whether Greece should agree to an extension of its current bailout conditions (the favored position of the EU) or be given a bridging loan until the end of May, to give it time to renegotiate the bailout.

"For the man in the street, he wouldn't be able to put a figure on the primary surplus, but he would like to see some kind of concessions from where we are," Malkoutzis said.

Summary: The word paradox has its roots in Greek – and watching the Greek government’s efforts to negotiate less punishing debt conditions, you can see why.


08/31/2015 AT 01:00 AM EDT

While there were moments that kept our jaws glued to the floor at this year's VMAs – please refer back to The Weeknd's swoon-worthy performance and never-ending #squadgoals

unfailingly delivered for proof – nothing quite compared to the spectacle that was

's acceptance speech for his Video Vanguard Award.

The rapper's 10-minute talk touched upon a whole variety of topics, ranging from the impact fatherhood has had on him to his plan of running for president in 2020.

So many emotions, guys. So. Many. Emotions. West wasn't afraid to show them all, and because of that, compelled us to categorize his most memorable tidbits.

"We're not going to teach low self-esteem and hate to our kids. We're going to teach our kids that they can be something. We're going to teach our kids that they can stand up for themselves. We're going to teach our kids to believe in themselves."

"If I had a daughter at that time, would I have gone on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else's [hand]? I do fight for artists, but in that fight I was disrespectful to artists."

"I didn't know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing. I sat at the Grammys and saw Justin Timberlake and CeeLo lose â¦ I was thinking like, he deserved to win Album of the Year."

"I think if I had to do it all over again, what would I have done? Would I have worn a leather shirt?"

"I will die for the art, for what I believe in."

"Y'all might be thinking right now, 'I wonder, did he smoke something before he came out here?' The answer is yes; I rolled up a little something. I knocked the edge off."

"And yes, as you probably could have guessed from this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president."

Trick category, considering every other sentence ended in "brah." (Make sure you're not driving.)

Summary: Did Kanye West have the best acceptance speech of all time?


"Using the S&P 500, 20 times estimated future operating earnings," Bogle said. "That's a good warning sign."

In other words, when the market trades up to that earnings multiple, then Bogle believes the market is becoming overbought. At that level, he said "the market is on the high side."

However, until that time, he would remain bullish.

"It's all in the math," he said.

Read MoreJack Bogle: CNBC 25 - Index mutual fund pioneer

Also, Bogle believes that broadly, investors who put money to work in an index fund will outperform their actively managed peers; mutual funds.

Although fund managers can, theoretically, move in and out of stocks and protect clients, mutual funds charge fees. "And funds, on average, stay 95 percent invested in stocks," he said.

Therefore, Bogle says the costs and fees of mutual funds outweigh all other considerations, and ultimately prevent investors from maximizing returns.

By contrast, "Our Vanguard 500 Index fund delivers the market return less 5 basis points. That's 0.05 percent. So mutual funds that are charging one percent or two percent; they just can't compete."

"We started this structure 40 years ago," Bogle added. "And it's sensational because of its cost savings. It's an adherent advantage."

Summary: Legendary investor Jack Bogle, the founder of The Vanguard Group, revealed his strategy for determining when stocks are overbought, broadly


MINNEAPOLIS, March 25 (AP) — Cargill, Inc., confirmed today that it had received an export license to ship $5,155,170 worth of United States wheat to Russia.

However, a Cargill spokesman said the new license did not represent any added interest on the Soviet Union's part to purchase more American wheat.

The spokesman said that when Cargill made its original sale of 700,000 tons of wheat to Russia, the contract contained a clause that gave Cargill an option of delivering either 10 per cent more or 10 per cent less than the stipulated amount.

The spokesman said the company had decided to exercise the option, and the license granted today was to cover the additional 10 per cent.

Technically, the Commerce Department had to issue another license for the additional wheat, Cargill said.

This article can be viewed in its original form. Please send questions and feedback to archive_feedback@nytimes.com

Summary: Cargill repts additional $5,155,170 wheat sale


* Alibaba investing $4.6 bln in Suning Group

* Looking to compete with JD.com on logistics, electronics

* Deal values Suning at 149 times its 12-months last earnings

* E-commerce companies looking to buy more offline assets

BEIJING, Aug 12 (Reuters) - "Tragedy" - that was Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma's prediction for the fate of rival JD.com Inc in comments published earlier this year.

On Monday Alibaba signaled it is no longer writing off its smaller competitor, making a $4.6 billion investment to give it more traction in two areas JD.com does well in: logistics and electronics.

Ma's online shopping titan bought into bricks-and-mortar electronics retailer Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd, surprising investors given it has traditionally stayed away from physical, offline assets.

Analysts say the main draw for Alibaba is likely to be Suning's logistics network, which it says covers nine-tenths of China's counties, helping it compete with JD.com's sophisticated in-house warehousing and delivery system.

"Instead of building the network itself, it saves more time through this kind of deal," said Walter Woo, an analyst with Oriental Patron Finance Group in Hong Kong.

But even for cash-rich Alibaba the investment is a bold one, coming when its heady growth of the past few years is losing momentum.

On Wednesday, Alibaba said its revenue for the three months ended June rose 28 percent to $3.27 billion, its slowest growth rate in more than three years.

For a company long praised for its fat margins, fast revenue growth and lack of physical assets, buying a stake in Suning, which had margins last year of less than one percent, raised industry eyebrows.

Suning is now valued at 149 times earnings for the last 12 months, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In January, Ma apologized for his barbs about JD.com and its business model, saying he had spoken too openly.

JD.com's recent growth in the total value of goods sold on its platforms is likely to have given Ma more reasons for reflection.

JD.com's gross merchandise volume went from 21 percent of Tmall's, the main Alibaba site with which it competes, in the 12 months to December 2013, to 42 percent in the year ending June, according to Morgan Stanley Research.

"This likely might have triggered Alibaba and Suning to form a closer alliance to fight back," said Alicia Yap, a Hong Kong-based Barclays Internet analyst, in a Monday research note.

With China's increasingly discerning consumers drawn to JD.com's ability to use its in-house delivery system to avoid the more fragmented, chaotic one in China that its rivals depend on, Alibaba will be hoping Suning can give it a quick leg-up.

This prospect has already made JD.com investors nervous, with its shares down 12.6 percent since Monday, the biggest two-day drop since it went public in May last year, though the company is playing down the threat.

"When we began investing in same-day delivery, people wrote us off as dead," said a company spokesman in Beijing.

"More than five years later, e-commerce companies in the U.S. and China see our superior service and realize investing is the only way they can survive."

Alibaba also wants to hook up its other Internet services with Suning, including its affiliate online payment system Alipay.

Such moves linking online to offline assets are not always welcomed by investors, as they pose the risk of slimmer margins than online-only businesses.

Earlier this month, Baidu said it would spend aggressively in this area, triggering the shares' worst two-day drop since late 2008.

Some analysts say though that if e-commerce giants want to dominate all of the retail industry, then more tie-ups like Alibaba and Suning are on the cards.

"The price they paid is indeed very high," said Orient Patron Financial's Woo.

But given how complementary the deal could be, "this may be the reason to justify this high price."

(Reporting by Paul Carsten in BEIJING, Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI and Donny Kwok in HONG KONG; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)

Summary: *Alibaba investing $4.6 bln in Suning Group. BEIJING, Aug 12- "Tragedy"- that was Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma's prediction for the fate of rival JD.com Inc in comments published earlier this year. Analysts say the main draw for Alibaba is likely to be Suning's logistics network, which it says covers nine-tenths of China's counties, helping it compete...


People are seen in front of a Eurobank branch in Athens, Greece, March 19, 2015.

The European Central Bank raised the ceiling on Greece's liquidity assistance from 83 billion to 84.1 billion euros, wire services reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

Greek banks are currently reliant on a loan program offered by the European Central Bank known as Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA). This is designed to provide credit to financial institutions in the euro zone that are solvent but face "temporary liquidity problems."

Read MoreCentral banking: CNBC Explains

Last week, the ECB increased its ceiling for ELA to Greek banks by 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) to 83 billion euros, in light of Greek savers continuing to pull out their savings.

However, the ECB is at liberty to restrict banks' access to the ELA if operations "interfere with the objectives and tasks of the Eurosystem." This decision would be taken by the ECB's Governing Council and would require a majority of two-thirds of the votes cast.

ECB President Mario Draghi and his colleagues have insisted that liquidity will be provided to Greek banks as long as they remain solvent. But if Greece fails to repay the 1.6 billion euros it owes to the International Monetary Fund at the end of this month, this could be in jeopardy.

Read MoreThe trump card the ECB could use on Greece

In 2013 Cyprus turned to emergency liquidity assistance after the ECB refused to accept the country's sovereign bonds as collateral. Cyprus too faced warnings that the ECB's Governing Council was prepared to reject the continuation of ELA. The country later entered a rescue program and imposed capital controls to restore solvency to its banks.

Summary: The European Central Bank raised the ceiling on Greece's liquidity assistance to 84.1 billion euros, according to reports.


William Adams, better known as will.i.am, has been able to stay on top of a fledgling music industry. A core member of The Black Eyed Peas, he, along with the other members of the group, have sold 31 million albums and 58 million singles. The hip-hop group's last tour, in 2010, reportedly netted them $48 million dollars.

However, it's not just music in which will.i.am has found success; he's struck gold several times—in investing, entrepreneurship and philanthropy.

On the entrepreneurial side, he was an early investor in Twitter and also found himself in another winning enterprise by becoming a founding shareholder of Beats Electronics. Apple has acquired the headphone and music-streaming company for $3 billion.

Read MoreApple in talks to buy Beats for $3.2B

Summary: The megastar musician discusses his early investment in Twitter, Beats and his growing philanthropic work.


"That's when … they are closer to retirement than they are to the start of their career," said Blackwelder at Wisdom Wealth Strategies.

Additionally, she pointed out, people age 45 to 55 are typically in their prime earning years. "It may be possible to save more than in your 30s, when you were having kids and buying a house," she said. "You have to take advantage of that."

Read MoreHow to balance a portfolio

That means steering every possible dollar into a retirement plan.

The 2014 contribution limit for workplace retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans is $17,500; for an individual retirement account it's $5,500. Also, once you hit age 50, you can stash away additional pretax money per year using so-called catch-up contributions of $5,500 for a 401(k) and $1,000 for an individual retirement account.

Additionally, maxing out your contributions can lower your tax bill.

Another issue that advisors discuss with clients in their 40s and early 50s is college costs for their children.

Summary: Financial advisors say that 10 to 15 years before retirement is the time for workers to check whether their savings are on track.


Patri T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Potential homebuyers exit an open house in Redondo Beach, California.

Applications to refinance, which had a brief surge on a temporary rate drop, fell 9 percent from the previous week, seasonally adjusted. Applications to purchase a home, which are far less rate-sensitive, fell 4 percent week-to-week. Purchase volume has fallen 17 percent in the past four weeks, signaling a potential slowdown in home sales ahead.

Mortgage rates have moved in a very narrow range, hovering just above or below 4 percent for most of this year. Last week, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreased to 4.09 percent from 4.10 percent, with points increasing to 0.42 from 0.39 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans, according to the MBA. They may continue in this range for the rest of the year.

"Given recent economic growth and job market health, we had been expecting a September rate hike, however, given recent financial market volatility and global growth concerns, along with still-low US inflation, we are expecting the first rate hike to be moved to December 2015," said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the MBA.

It is still possible the Fed could make a move this week, and analysts are split as to what a potential rate hike could mean for the housing market. Mortgage rates do not follow directly rate moves set by the Federal Reserve, but instead follow bond yields, which can be affected by Fed moves.

"While lenders may temporarily raise rates, they'll probably lower them again in a repeat performance of what we saw when the Fed announced it was ending the QE [Quantitative Easing] program: Rates jumped up by almost a point; applications cratered; home sales slowed down; rates returned to lower levels; home sales and loan applications picked back up," said Rick Sharga, executive vice-president at Auction.com. "Most likely we'll see slow, incremental rate increases over time as lenders test the waters."

Summary: Mortgage borrowers backed away last week, as suspense continued ahead of this Thursday's Federal Reserve decision on the future of interest rates.


At Barrett-Jackson, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro COPO 427 sold for $330,000, which was above its estimate.

RM Auctions sold a 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 for $990,000—right at its low estimate. A 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 LS6 Convertible, which had a starting estimate of $225,000, sold for $225,500 with commission.

Read MoreMuscle car values roar back to life

A group of cars owned by legendary collector Ron Pratte have fetched strong prices. A 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle Yenko 427 that he owned sold for $275,000—right in line with the estimate.

Read MoreFastest car of 2014—for price increases

The top sellers by price so far are Ferraris, of course. A 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione Coupe sold $9.4 million by Bonhams. RM sold a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/2 Coupe for $2.75 million and a 1984 Ferrari 288 GTO Coupe sold for $2.75 million.

There were also some more surprising successes, especially in trucks. A 1940 Ford Boyd Coddington Pickup sold for $374,000, while the custom-made truck for the "Beverly Hillbillies" TV show sold for $275,000.

Summary: Classic car auctions in Scottsdale, Arizona, have gotten off to a fast start, suggesting the car market remains strong despite the instability in financial markets.


American service members dedicate years of their lives to protecting and serving our country. But when they step out of their uniforms and into civilian clothes, that mark of distinction isn’t always easy to notice.

Our veterans are leaders, team builders and problem solvers who help strengthen communities across our nation. Currently, between 200,000 and 250,000 American service members leave the military each year and return to civilian life, according to the U.S. military. Many have been on active duty for years or decades, and it’s not always easy making the switch.

Letâs start a national conversation. We all have the ability to greenlight a vet. Anyone can encourage their community and local business leaders to give veterans the opportunity to put their skills to workâliterally.

What is Greenlighting? Start by talking to a veteran. Ask about their service: where they served, what they did, what they took away from the experience. Invite a veteran to join your circleâyour sports team, book club, parents association or neighborhood group. Read a book about veterans’ experiences or volunteer with a veterans organization in your neighborhood.

If you’re an employer, contact your local veterans outreach group, and let them know when you have an opening. Hiring a veteran is smart business: Veterans stay at their jobs longer, and tend to be promoted faster than other hires, according to Walmart data. They have the leadership, drive and tactical decision-making skills that businesses and communities need to thrive in the 21st century.

Greenlighting is more than just honoring veterans. It’s about providing them with meaningful opportunities that put their skills to good use.

Taking a Lead Walmart plans to hire 250,000 veterans by 2020. Already, the company has hired more than 100,000 former service members, and more than 9,000 of them have been promoted.

“These are very talented people who make the cut to get into the military, and America makes a huge investment in them to give them the skills and abilities to grow and develop as leaders,” says Gary Profit, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and the senior director of military programs at Walmart. “We want to see that investment return over and over again in our communities.”

Our veterans have invested so much in our country. Itâs time we realize their full value and give back. Join the greenlighting movement. Learn how you can empower veterans in your community at www.greenlightavet.com.

Summary: Are you a vet, or know someone who is? Americaâs veterans have acquired many skills serving our country. Itâs time to put those skills to work.


It’s no longer a hoax: Abe Vigoda is actually dead.

The Brooklyn-born character actor, famous for both his roles in “The Godfather” and TV’s “Barney Miller” during the ‘70s and for being erroneously proclaimed dead multiple times ever since, passed away Tuesday morning at the age of 94.

ARCHIVES: ‘THE GODFATHER’ PRODUCER, ALBERT S. RUDDY, TALKS ABOUT THE MAKING OF THE FILM IN 1972

The long-time television fixture’s daughter, Carol Vigoda Fuchs, told The Associated Press that her father passed away peacefully in his sleep while staying at her Woodland Park, New Jersey, home.

“This man was never sick,” Fuchs told the wire service.

Which just made it all the funnier each time he was prematurely declared dead since the early ‘80s.

‘THE GODFATHER EPIC’ A GHRONOLOGICAL RE-CUT OF THE FIRST TWO FILMS, NOW STREAMING ON HBO

"They had a wrap party at the end of 'Barney Miller' and I wasn't there, and a reporter wrote . . . that 'the late Abe Vigoda' wasn't at the party," Vigoda told the Daily News in 1995.

And he never fully recovered in the eyes of the standup comics.

At a now-legendary Comedy Central taping of a Friars Club Roast with Vigoda in attendance in 1998, comedian Jeff Ross quipped, “Comedy Central is praying that Abe doesn’t die before the show airs."

"Abe Vigoda is here. I love Abe Vigoda," Billy Crystal deadpanned two years later at a roast for Rob Reiner. "I will not say anything bad about Abe Vigoda because I was always taught to speak well of the dead."

EXCLUSIVE: 'BARNEY MILLER' STAR HAL LINDEN REMEBERS THE LATE, GREAT ABE VIGODA Part of the punchline stemmed from Vigoda's unusual gaunt frame and hangdog face — a unique Boris Karloff-like look that nearly landed him the role as the monster in "Young Frankenstein."

By that time, Vigoda already had completed the unlikely ascent from a son of a Lower East Side tailor who had escaped the pogroms in Russia to be a successful actor. He parlayed a memorable turn in the 1960s in "Richard III" and in the Public Theater's "Shakespeare in the Park" into a career-making role in "The Godfather," as double-crossing mobster Tessio.

But his biggest claim to fame occurred on the smaller screen, in the sitcom "Barney Miller," in which he played the eternally deflated cop, Sgt. Phil Fish.

ABE VIGODA'S BEST MOMENTS ON 'LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN'

"He was more popular than I was and I was the lead," "Barney Miller" star Hal Linden told the News with a laugh.

It was a popular enough role to earn a short-lived spin-off in 1977.

In more recent years, he cornered the market on made men, even playing notorious Mafioso Paul Castellano in the 1998 TV movie, “Witness to the Mob.”

The twice-married Vigoda leaves behind his daughter Carol by his first wife, Sonja Gohlke. His second wife, Beatrice Schy, died in 1992.

Summary: Character actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his roles in “The Godfather” and “Barney Miller” died Tuesday morning.


When the Tipton family in Orange County, Calif., heard about Holly, a 3-month-old kitten, they knew she would be the perfect Christmas present for their daughter Scarlette.

Scarlette, 2, lost her left arm to cancer when she was only 10 months old, and Holly the cat is also a recent amputee. The first time Scarlette saw Holly, she pointed to the cat’s missing limb and told her mom “owie,” according to the Riverside County Animal Services Facebook page. Her mother, Simone Tipton, replied, “Yes, an owie. Just like you. But she’s OK—just like you are too.”

Scarlette’s parents had been searching for an injured pet to aide in their daughter’s cancer recovery. Holly was found severely injured and brought to the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus in southern California, where she was adopted by the Tipton family on Dec. 30.

Summary: Holly the kitten is the perfect Christmas present for this young cancer survivor