Donald Trump trails Hillary Clinton by months, even years, in using fast-evolving digital campaigning to win over voters, data specialists working with the GOP say.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has dismissed the science that defines 21st century political campaigns, a tool that President Barack Obama used effectively in winning two terms and the Clinton campaign has worked on for nearly a year.

And while it is too early to tell whether the late start signals trouble for Trump, it illustrates the difference between Trump’s proudly outsider campaign and the institutional knowledge within Clinton’s.

“She’s been able to prepare a general election campaign since the beginning,” said Alex Lundry, former senior technology adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 Republican presidential campaign. “That head start in terms of time is extraordinarily valuable.”

Precision digital-marketing data, a person’s online footprints, have become an electoral science that Democrats have dominated, and Republicans have chased, for a decade. Campaigns used the data at first simply to track supporters. The information now guides a range of decisions, like the types and volume of advertising, where to deploy campaign staff to mobilize voters and where a candidate should visit.

Trump’s team has been unclear about its use of data in the general election.

Trump told The Associated Press this month the tool was “overrated” and he planned “limited” data use during the general election, though his campaign has worked with firms and a small in-house staff to track voters during the primaries.

Later, senior adviser Rick Wiley, who was hired in April, suggested Trump would run a “state of the art” campaign and use data strategically, relying on Trump’s own list of supporters, the Republican National Committee’s voter list and a data service financed largely by the RNC called Data Trust.

“All of the data points — whatever they are — our ability to harvest that data is invaluable,” said Wiley, the RNC’s former executive director. He has since left the campaign, after what a source close to the matter said were disagreements with Trump loyalists about who should lead campaign efforts in key states. The person spoke on condition of anonymity, lacking authorization to discuss internal campaign matters publicly.

Given how Republicans have long trailed Democrats in digital campaigning, Trump’s grudging talk and Wiley’s departure hardly signal a rush to catch up.

Trump spent more than $1 million in April on campaign paraphernalia like caps, T-shirts and signs. Even as he was effectively seizing the nomination, he spent less than a third of that amount on data and related functions such as telemarketing.

Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign revolutionized the way technology could be used to identify and keep track of supporters who attended his campaign events and gave money to his candidacy.

In 2012, Obama’s re-election campaign profiled potential voters by monitoring what online, mobile, reading and shopping choices they made. The data helped them project election outcomes based on advertising decisions in specific markets aimed at select voter types.

Obama’s 2012 re-election was viewed as a breakthrough in the political application of what had been a commercial tool, while Romney’s own data effort started late, was more limited in scope and ultimately crashed.

Clinton’s campaign has been collecting data since she announced her candidacy 11 months ago. Elan Kriegel, an analytics director for Obama in 2012, now heads Clinton’s analytics team. And, Jeremy Bird, credited with using the data in 2012 for decision-making that preceded the president’s re-election, is advising the Clinton campaign.

Kriegel said the nearly yearlong preparation has allowed his team to build intricate voter turnout models aimed at predicting voter behavior, especially in potential swing states.

“If you weren’t doing it several months ago, then you really are starting from scratch,” Kriegel said.

Trump’s challenge may be even more difficult, said Andy Burkett, the Republican National Committee’s former chief technology officer.

As the party’s nominee, Trump will have full use of the committee’s data program, in which it has invested heavily in recent years. Still, capitalizing on that resource will require Trump’s campaign to view data as central to its bid — and to put its own money behind it to tailor the data to preferences related to would-be Trump voters.

The Republican National Committee has recently added data scientists to its staff to assist with the general election. Also, an RNC data specialist first began working directly with the Trump campaign this month. But it takes time to turn raw data into meaningful models, Barkett said.

“It would take them six months to build and integrate the systems,” said Barkett, who advised Jeb Bush’s GOP primary campaign.

The election is in five months.

Summary: Trump has dismissed the technology that propelled Obama to the White House as being "overrated."


Spicy Chicken Enchilada Dip, the BEST DIP EVER! So addicting and full of flavor!

I like this dip so much that I'm posting it for a SECOND TIME! Chicken Enchilada Dip was one of my most popular recipes early on for The Cookie Rookie. As with every blog, photos evolve and we end up hating the early pictures we once loved. That post still gets a lot of hits from Pinterest and google, and I cringe every time just a little bit at the photos. Not my worst, FOR SURE, but I don't love them. I thought the dip needed a bit of a sprucing up! I made a few slight changes, added more cheese (duh), and added a bit more spice. You can see the original post HERE. Welcome to Spicy Chicken Enchilada Dip part TWO!

This is one of those easy recipes that Pat asks for over and over again. His biggest frustration with the blog, other than eating everything cold after I've taken about 500 pictures of every meal, is that I rarely repeat recipes. I don't want to waste food, so we try to eat everything I make for the site. It makes the most sense for me to keep trying new things. But sometimes there are favorites that Pat really wants, and I'll give in. I told him if he would be my hand model for a day then he could have his dip. This is just too good to not make again and again.

Cheese, chicken, beans, corn, enchilada sauce, cilantro, MORE CHEESE; this dip has it all! It's perfect for tailgating, potlucks, or just an appetizer dinner at home (our fave). THAT STRETCHY CHEESE!!!!

Spicy Chicken Enchilada Dip Recipe Ingredients

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT OUR OTHER FAVORITE TEX MEX RECIPES!

TEQUILA LIME SHEET PAN CHICKEN NACHOS

MINI FRIED TACO PIZZA POCKETS

The post Spicy Chicken Enchilada Dip appeared first on The Cookie Rookie. WATCH: For even MORE dip inspiration.

Summary: For your Oscar party, try making a new dip this year! Check out The Cookie Rookie's famous dip, spicy chicken enchilada.


The homegrown Linux operating system has come a long way from its origins as a college kid’s pet project and computer hobbyist favorite. Refined in recent years by professional computer programmers at IBM , Hewlett-Packard , Novell and Red Hat , Linux now has become so technically powerful that it lays claim to a prestigious title–it runs more of the world’s top supercomputers than any other operating system.

A group that keeps track of the top 500 supercomputers in the world estimates that Linux powers 60% of those machines, displacing Unix, which used to be the most popular operating system for high-performance computing.

The official Top 500 list, available at www.top500.org, does not contain operating system statistics. But the scientists who maintain the list privately keep track of what operating systems are running on the computers, says Hans Werner Meuer, a computer science professor at the University of Mannheim, in Germany, who has been publishing the Top 500 list twice a year since 1993.

One caveat: Meuer says (via e-mail) that his statistics are only an estimate, since some supercomputer Web sites won’t report what operating system they use.

“There are many classified and commercial sites where we have to guess which operating system they are using,” says Meuer, who is also managing director of Prometeus GmbH, a consulting firm in Daisbach, Germany, that hosts the Top 500 list.

So Meuer may be off by a few machines. Even so, Linux clearly is by far the top choice for high-performance computing. Meuer reckons Linux powers 301 of the 500 top machines, compared to 189 on Unix, two on FreeBSD, a Unix variant, and one on Microsoft ‘s Windows. (Seven machines are categorized as “other.”)

“Linux has dominated the marketplace for high-performance computing,” says Mark Seager, assistant department head for advanced technologies at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., which operates ten machines on the Top 500 list, including Blue Gene/L, the world’s most powerful supercomputer, and Thunder, which ranks fifth.

Both of those machines run Linux, as do several other Lawrence Livermore supercomputers. Lawrence Livermore shifted to Linux a few years ago as an alternative to AIX, the IBM version of Unix.

Seager says the lab chose Linux partly because it is “open source,” meaning users can change the code to suit their needs. Also, they can use Linux without paying a licensing fee.

Moreover, Seager says Linux outguns popular Unix operating systems like AIX and Solaris from Sun Microsystems because those systems contain features that make them great for commercial users but add a lot of system overhead that ends up limiting overall performance. One example: a “virtualization” feature in AIX lets many applications share the same processor but “just hammers performance,” Seager says.

Linus Torvalds Linus Torvalds , who created Linux in his college dorm room in 1991, says (via e-mail) that Linux has caught on in part because while typical Unix versions run on only one or two hardware architectures, Linux runs on more than 20 different hardware architectures including machines based on Intel microprocessors as well as RISC-based computers from IBM and HP .

“Of course, of those 20, only a handful are relevant for high-performance computing, but it’s still a big advantage,” says Torvalds, who oversees Linux development from the Open Source Development Labs, a non-profit organization in Beaverton, Ore. “Linux is easy to get, has no licensing costs, has all the infrastructure in place, and runs on pretty much every single relevant piece of hardware out there.”

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Summary: The little operating system that could is increasingly dominating the world of very high-end computing.


By some measures, PayPal Holdings Inc. holds more customer money than all but 20 U.S. banks. What does that say about the future of banking?

At the end of March, customers of PayPal held more than $13 billion in accounts at the online-commerce company. Compared with the most similar type of bank deposit, the figure would put PayPal just behind TD Bank, the U.S. unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank , or Capital One Financial Corp. , according to data provider S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Under U.S. law, PayPal isn’t a bank, and those funds aren’t deposits, but cash that sits without earning interest for consumers, ready to spend. The San Jose, Calif., company doesn’t offer deposit insurance to customers who keep money in their accounts. It doesn’t enjoy the powers, or have the regulatory costs, of being a bank. And it mostly earns revenue when money moves, not when it is held.

But PayPal, independent of eBay Inc. since last year, offers many of the services that people think of when they envision banks. The central role PayPal seeks to play in the financial lives of its users shows the rapid evolution of what people think of as banking and could spark many of the world’s largest financial institutions to reconsider their own long-held customer relationships.

PayPal lets customers use the money in accounts to buy things on the web or transfer money. In addition to linking to a credit or debit card or bank account, there are 66,000 partner stores in which you can go and put cash into your PayPal account. It offers loans and credit cards with partner banks, and has explored tools that could help consumers manage a personal budget or make investments.

“I don’t see any philosophical reason PayPal isn’t a bank,” said Frank Rohde, chief executive of Nomis Solutions, a tech firm that works with big banks to help them price consumer products. “They can offer an account, a payment app, and a loan.”

In the race to shift banklike services to the web or mobile phones, the stakes are in the billions. Banks globally earned 46% of their profits in 2015 from individuals and small businesses. But 17% of the $1.2 trillion in U.S. and European revenue generated from those sources may be vulnerable to financial technology, or “fintech,” firms by 2023, up from 1% in 2015, Citigroup Inc. analysts said.

PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman said his firm doesn’t want to supplant banks and hopes it can provide products that also bring revenue to lenders. “What we mean to do is to extend traditional consumer financial services,” he said, adding that his target market is the two-billion-plus people who are outside the traditional banking system.

Ultimately, one future for established banks could be to serve as regulated money vaults to connect to a variety of fintech services. That would be similar to what has happened in other industries in the past decade, such as mobile communications, in which pricing power for service providers eroded while smartphone makers such as Apple Inc. boomed.

“Apple didn’t have to become a cellular carrier to launch the iPhone,” said Bill Ready, global head of product and engineering at PayPal. “A bank is the carrier behind a lot of the services we provide, and when we deliver value to our customers, we bring volume to banks.”

PayPal’s Venmo unit, well known for transferring money between millennials via its smartphone app, is perhaps the most visible example of how technology can lead to something closer to a cashless society less reliant on banks.

With Venmo, users can transfer small amounts of money via the app and can post each transaction to a public message board. While a bank account, credit card, or debit card is needed to add money to the account, once the funds are in Venmo they can remain there until the user wants to tap them.

Trelawny Davis, a 24-year-old who works in digital marketing, uses Venmo about once a week. She said she sometimes lets money she receives build up in her account, as much as a couple hundred dollars, rather than immediately transfer it back to the Bank of America Corp. account she uses to fund her payments.

“I am starting to intentionally keep my money in there a little bit longer,” said Ms. Davis. “It’s kind of a way to save some money.” She said she would be open to other tools for saving with Venmo, too.

Not everyone welcomes this encroachment. Banks are often critical of fintech firms, arguing that they do many banklike things but aren’t as safe because they don’t have to pay regulatory tolls such as regular visits from the Federal Reserve.

Few fintech firms offer deposits backstopped by the federal government, an important distinction for customers primarily concerned with the safety of their money.

This may not hold people back from using nonbank accounts for some purposes. “If a retailer goes under and you lose your $13 in a digital wallet, that’s not the end of the world,” said Haskell Garfinkel, co-head of the fintech practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. But he said many people would want the “safety and soundness” of a regulated deposit for the bulk of their money.

Regulators are starting to scrutinize the upstarts. Agencies such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. recently discussed frameworks for how to regulate fintech firms. The Fed and Treasury Department also have been studying fintech.

In addition to PayPal, a class of well-funded startups, including Stripe Inc., Square Inc., Social Finance Inc. and TransferWise, are offering more banklike services, suggesting that the financial face of the future may not be a bank at all. Thanks to “mobile wallets” that consumers can use to store value and make payments, sometimes by using cellphones themselves, other players are emerging from Google parent Alphabet Inc. to Starbucks Corp.

The money consumers loaded on their Starbucks cards and app surged to $1.2 billion in the first quarter, up 22% since the third period last year, according to company filings.

By keeping its customers’ cash, PayPal generates interest on short-term, liquid instruments like Treasury bills while avoiding a split in fees with credit-card or debit-card networks. The company doesn’t report its interest income on customer accounts, but said it falls into a broader revenue category that increased 22% last year, to $1.12 billion.

On average, PayPal’s account balances are small. Its $13 billion in customer money globally—up 23% since 2014—is spread across 184 million active customer accounts, or about $70 an account. By contrast, banks generally seek to have fewer but larger accounts.

PayPal earns much of its revenue from merchants, who range from one-person eBay vendors to retailers such as Home Depot Inc. The retailers accept payments via PayPal’s network or increasingly through other services such as Venmo.

Still, without insured deposits, fintech firms are limited in what they can do for customers in some respects. Banks, in exchange for being highly regulated, are given many powers that nonbanks lack. For example, they can take direct deposits of paychecks more easily. Federal government benefits can’t be deposited into a non-FDIC-insured account.

Outside the U.S., the convergence between banking and fintech is happening more quickly. PayPal’s Xoom international transfer service, which it acquired last year, recently started allowing bill payments to flow directly from the consumer to utilities or mobile-phone operators.

“Instead of asking, ‘Do we end up becoming a bank,’ ” said John Kunze, PayPal’s vice president for Xoom. “We ask, ‘Do we end up becoming the epicenter of financial life?’ ”

Write to Telis Demos at telis.demos@wsj.com

Summary: In the race to shift services to the web or mobile phones, the stakes are in the billions of dollars for traditional lenders and upstarts alike.


Knock, knock, knocking on Google’s door.

Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose is trying to get the company to remove a “fat photo” of himself that is circulating in a series of memes with clever plays on the band’s lyrics like “Oh sweet pie o’ mine” and “take me down to the bakery city.”

TorrentFreak reported that copyright claims were sent to Blogspot and GoogleUserContent on May 31 demanding that one particular image of Rose be removed.

“Copyright image of Axl Rose. Please be advised that no permission has been granted to publish the copyright image so we cannot direct you to an authorized example of it,” the notices sent by Web Sheriff on behalf of the singer reads.

The image was taken by Boris Minkevich in 2010 and stolen by internet users from the Winnipeg Free Press, the original image can be found, here.

However, sending the notices are not likely to get it removed from being used as memes, according to TorrentFreak.

Axl Rose has taken legal action against the interwebs to have his funny fat memes taken down. In other news, pie. pic.twitter.com/XQBywzNy8v


Even the most devout Wonder Woman fanatics probably didn’t know that the heroine’s creator, William Moulton Marston, a psychologist, lived with and had children with two women at the same time. They also probably didn’t know that he had slightly strange theories about the benefits of bondage. Nor is it common knowledge that the character, which debuted in 1942, was inspired by the leaders of the suffragist movement.

In her new book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, which hits shelves Tuesday, New Yorker writer and Harvard professor Jill Lepore delves into the life of the man who created Wonder Woman. The book comes just as Wonder Woman is swooping back into the cultural consciousness with her invisible jet. Israeli actress Gal Gadot will play Wonder Woman in 2016’s Batman vs. Superman and will get her own solo film in 2017.

Here’s just some of what Lepore uncovered:

1. Wonder Woman was inspired by Margaret Sanger (and other suffragists)

Creator William Moulton Marston, a psychologist, was deeply interested in gender dynamics, women’s rights and the suffragist movement.

He also fell in love with one of his students at Tufts, Olive Byrne, who eventually lived in his house with him and his wife in a sort of polyamorous relationship. Byrne happened to be Sanger’s niece, and Byrne’s mother, Ethel, and Sanger together opened what eventually became the first Planned Parenthood in 1916.

When Marston hired a woman named Joy Hummel to help him write Wonder Woman, Olive Byrne handed her one book to use as background: Margaret Sanger’s Woman and the New Race.

2. There’s a reason she’s bound up all the time

A recurring plot point in the early Wonder Woman comics was that if the superhero was bound by a man in chains she would lose all her Amazonian powers. So Wonder Woman was bound—a lot. This choice was partly inspired by the suffragists who chained themselves to buildings during protests and used chain symbolism to represent men’s oppression of women. But Marston was also preoccupied, perhaps even obsessed with, bondage.

He had a theory that women enjoyed submission and bondage and teaching young girls of that virtue was one of the purposes of the comic: “This, my dear friend, is the one truly great contribution of my Wonder Woman strip to moral education of the young,” Marsten wrote to his publisher after he was accused of sadism. “The only hope for peace is to teach people who are full of pep and unbound force to enjoy being found—enjoy submission to kind authority, wise authority.”

Wonder Woman’s subjugation was extremely controversial: Wonder Woman was banned in the 1940s because of the overt sexual nature of both her dress and the sexual nature of her near-constant bondage.

3. Wonder Woman was partly a response to the rise of the Nazis

The first comic book superhero, Superman, hit the stands in 1938. But shortly thereafter, comics came under fire: critics said Superman could be interpreted as a fascist—an all-powerful ubermensch that would have a negative influence on American children. (Remember, the rise of the superhero coincides with the rise of Nazi Germany.) Parents demand that the books be burned.

Superman publisher, M.C. Gaines, reads an article written by Olive Byrne for Family Circle saying that comic books might be good for kids. Gaines asks Marsten to help him save comic books, and Marston recommends a female superhero, reasoning that comic books are too violent and need a touch of femininity. Enter Wonder Woman.

4. The Lasso of Truth had a real-life parallel in Marston’s life

In the Wonder Woman comics, the heroine’s Lasso of Truth forces anyone in its snare to be honest. The weapon was likely inspired by Marston’s own creation of the lie-detector test in 1913. The basic test consisted of taking someone’s blood pressure as they answered questions. Any elevation in blood pressure signaled a subject’s guilt. In 1923, Marston fought to have results of his updated lie detector test used in courtrooms. But the courts rejected the machine, citing too high a frequency of error.

Marston was none-too-happy with this conclusion. In an autobiographical moment in the comics, Wonder Woman tries to get confessions made with the help of her Lasso of Truth admissible in court.

5. Wonder Woman was designed as a feminist icon

Anyone who has read Wonder Woman comics will be able to recognize the feminist underpinnings of her story. But readers probably don’t know that Marston broke from the rest of popular culture by asserting not only that kids would be interested in reading a comic about a woman but that she would be essential to their education in teaching them about gender equality.

“Like her male prototype, ‘Superman,’ ‘Wonder Woman’ is gifted with tremendous physical strength,” Marston wrote in the press release announcing her creation. “‘Wonder Woman’ has bracelets welded on her wrists; with these she can repulse bullets. But if she lets any man weld chains on these bracelets, she loses her power. This, says Dr. Marston, is what happens to all women when they submit to a man’s domination.”

He concludes: “‘Wonder Woman’ was conceived by Dr. Marston to set up a standard among children and young people of strong, free, courageous womanhood; and to combat the idea that women are inferior to men, and to inspire girls to self-confidence and achievement in athletics, occupations and professions monopolized by men.”

6. Despite that, she started out in the Justice Society as a secretary

Wonder Woman was admitted to the Justice Society with heroes like The Flash and Green Lantern after a survey of comic book readers found that the vast majority of girls and boys wanted her there.

But in a 1942 comic penned by Justice Society writer Gardner Fox, all the superheroes get to go off to fight the Nazis, except for Wonder Woman who must stay home and reply to the mail. Marsten was, of course, infuriated by this turn of events.

7. Wonder Woman has run for president in the comic books twice

Wonder Woman ran for office in a comic book written by Marston in 1943, and then again in a cover story in Ms. magazine in 1972. She didn’t win either time. Maybe she should try for 2016.

Summary: In her new book, Jill Lepore explores how the suffragist movement, Fascism and the lie detector inspired the creation of the most popular female superhero of all time


WASHINGTON — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio narrowly won the District of Columbia’s Republican caucuses on Saturday, seizing his third primary season victory as a critical contest looms in his home state, GOP results showed.

Rubio picked up 10 delegates with his Saturday caucus win in the nation’s capital with 37 percent of the ballot, according to the results released by party officials in the nation’s capital. Runner-up John Kasich was just 50 votes behind Rubio at 36 percent, and the Ohio governor will get nine delegates.

None of the other candidates in the race won enough votes to earn any delegates from the contest, in which GOP officials in the nation’s capital said 2,839 votes were cast. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump was third with 14 percent of the vote and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz followed with 12 percent, results showed.

Earlier this month, Rubio won the GOP caucuses in Minnesota and the party’s primary in Puerto Rico.

Fueled in part by anxiety over Donald Trump, District of Columbia Republicans flocked to a downtown hotel on Saturday to cast ballots in the city’s first-of-its-kind presidential convention.

The convention — essentially a primary conducted in a single, supersized precinct — offered a rare opportunity for Republicans in the overwhelmingly Democratic nation’s capital to cast a meaningful vote, with 19 delegates to the national convention at stake. Thousands of people embraced the opportunity, with some waiting more than 3 hours in a line stretching three full city blocks at times.

“This is worse than getting a new iPhone,” said Jeni Hansen, 38, who works in the tourism industry.

Some waited more than three hours before casting ballots after voting was extended.

Watch how Republicans could steal Trump’s nomination:

Volunteers for Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Rubio were handing out brochures and stickers with support appearing particularly strong for Rubio during the day. The District’s 27,000 registered Republicans tend to be moderate and establishment-friendly, and some voters sported a sticker with the hashtag “#NeverTrump.”

“Trump alternately scares and horrifies me,” said Bryan Marra, a 39-year-old attorney who was running as a delegate for Rubio. “He scares off people we need to bring into the party — Latinos, young people, women.”

The local GOP is heavy on what some would call “Beltway elites” — lawyers, lobbyists, political strategists and think-tank wonks. Candidates for delegate include former White House officials from the Reagan and both Bush administrations.

Robert Kabel, the city’s Republican national committeeman, said the convention was the most exciting local GOP gathering in decades, and he credited the anti-Trump contingent.

“I think he helped us bring people out — people who are supporting the other candidates,” Kabel said. “D.C. by definition is the establishment town.”

But Marya Pickering, who’s running as a Trump delegate, said the businessman deserves credit for bringing new, energetic voters to the party. She’s been active in local Republican politics for more than 20 years and she said she’s never met most of the would-be Trump delegates.

“I hope people will unite behind him because I think he can win,” Pickering said.

Many people said they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Trump if he wins the nomination. Christopher Goffos, a 24-year-old Rubio supporter, said Trump is “not a conservative” and that he would vote for a third-party or write-in candidate over Trump in November.

“As a Christian person I can’t choose between the lesser of two evils,” Goffos said. “I can’t vote for somebody that I think is going to radically change the country.”

Though polls had Polls had been scheduled to close at 4 p.m., but

Voting was extended more than three hours past the scheduled main 4 p.m. poll closing time to give the hundreds still in line an opportunity to cast ballots. Orthodox Jews also were given the opportunity to vote after sundown. The District had 19 delegates to allocate.

Summary: WASHINGTON — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio narrowly won the District of Columbia’s Republican caucuses on Saturday, seizing his third primary season victory as a critical contest looms in his home…


MOD Pizza has raised $32 million in an equity funding round that will be used to fuel store growth for the fast-casual restaurant operator, Fortune has learned.

The chain, which operates 110 locations across 16 states, will use the proceeds from the offering to double its store count this year, after tripling it in 2015. The latest funding round was led by boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners, which led MOD Pizza’s $45 million funding round in March 2015 and also holds two of MOD Pizza’s six board seats. To date, MOD Pizza has raised about $106 million from PWP and a small group of private investors.

Scott Svenson, co-founder and CEO, tells Fortune that MOD Pizza will open 70 company-owned locations this year and up to 30 franchise stores. It will also enter the U.K. market, marking its first foray abroad.

Rapid store growth is needed to stay ahead of the competition. MOD Pizza says it was the first to open a fast-casual chain that focuses on pizza in 2008, though the category has since seen a ton of rival entrants, including chains backed financially by Chipotle cmg and Buffalo Wild Wings bwld .

“This category was primed for some innovation,” says Svenson of the $40 billion pizza industry.

As Fortune has previously reported, fast-casual pizza operators are expected to open hundreds of new locations in the next few years. Pizza is fairly late to the fast-casual craze, as analysts have said that new technology helped make it easier for smaller ovens to cook pizza quickly. Fast-casual pizza chains often cook individual pies in five minutes or less. For MOD Pizza, the average is about three minutes.

“It is a fast-casual experience centered around a fantastic individualized pizza,” Svenson says. He notes that unlike other fast-casual chains like Chipotle, MOD Pizza is cooking pizzas to order, which results in a slightly longer cooking time.

The concept is resonating with diners. MOD Pizza brought in over $60 million in annual revenue, with same-store sales growth of 12.4%, in 2015. It plans to open locations in six additional markets this year and add 100 new stores annually for the foreseeable future. MOD Pizza also touts its corporate culture – it employs 2,200 people and ranked No. 7 on Fortune‘s 20 Best Workplaces in Retail.

The fast-casual category has seen rapid growth in recent years, as diners are willing to pay a few dollars more for food that they believe uses healthier ingredients but is still served quickly (without table service). A number of such companies have gone public over the past few years, often generating strong first-day pops. Such firms’ subsequent stock performances have been mixed, as growth in the competitive category isn’t always as strong as investors have hoped.

With that in mind, MOD Pizza says it doesn’t want to go public too early.

“There have been a lot of great brands that have gone public. They’ve all had success out of the gate and they’ve all had a mixed experience a year or two later,” Svenson said. He doesn’t view going public as an end point, saying he and his wife Ally – another MOD co-founder – have more altruistic aspirations.

“We want this next and last chapter of our professional lives to leave a legacy,” he says. “You can take a simple product like pizza and can use it to make a difference in your community.”

Summary: Chain planning to double its store base this year.


The use of e-cigarettes among middle and high schoolers in the U.S. is skyrocketing, according to new data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

According to the new data, which comes from an annual survey of middle and high schoolers across the country, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product in 2015.

SEE ALSO: Not so fast, vapers: British medical journal blasts e-cigarette safety study

A total of 3 million middle and high school students reported current use of e-cigarettes in 2015 — up from 2.46 million last year. Another 1.7 million students reported smoking regular cigarettes and other tobacco products.

The rising use of e-cigarettes, which many studies show present similar health risks as smoking regular cigarettes do, served to offset a decline in the use of conventional cigarettes among middle and high schoolers between 2011 to 2015.

This means that the overall smoking rate among American youth was unchanged during this five-year period.

More middle and high school students are using e-cigarettes than ever before

In this photo taken Tuesday, July 7, 2015, Will Braaten, 19, exhales vapor from an e-cigarette at the Vapor Spot, in Sacramento, Calif. As e-cigarettes rise in popularity, âvape shopsâ are popping up around the nation, places where customers can gather to inhale doses of nicotine through a flavored vapor solution. Industry officials say California is at the epicenter, with an estimated 1,400 retailers, operating largely without regulations in a Wild West atmosphere, but rules are imminent. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Jonathan Brower is the owner of Waldo Vapes in Kansas City, Mo., which sells some high-end vaping products. (David Pulliam/Kansas City Star/TNS via Getty Images)

SAN RAFAEL, CA - JANUARY 28: A customer smokes an E-Cigarette at Digita Ciggz on January 28, 2015 in San Rafael, California. The California Department of Public Health released a report today that calls E-Cigarettes a health threat and suggests that they should be regulated like regular cigarettes and tobacco products. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

SAN RAFAEL, CA - JANUARY 28: Rhiannon Griffith-Bowman smokes an E-Cigarette at Digital Ciggz on January 28, 2015 in San Rafael, California. The California Department of Public Health released a report today that calls E-Cigarettes a health threat and suggests that they should be regulated like regular cigarettes and tobacco products. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

SAN RAFAEL, CA - JANUARY 28: A customer smokes an E-Cigarette at Digita Ciggz on January 28, 2015 in San Rafael, California. The California Department of Public Health released a report today that calls E-Cigarettes a health threat and suggests that they should be regulated like regular cigarettes and tobacco products. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

SAN RAFAEL, CA - JANUARY 28: A customer smokes an E-Cigarette at Digital Ciggz on January 28, 2015 in San Rafael, California. The California Department of Public Health released a report today that calls E-Cigarettes a health threat and suggests that they should be regulated like regular cigarettes and tobacco products. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

SAN RAFAEL, CA - JANUARY 28: E-Cigarette vaporizer components are displayed at Digital Ciggz on January 28, 2015 in San Rafael, California. The California Department of Public Health released a report today that calls E-Cigarettes a health threat and suggests that they should be regulated like regular cigarettes and tobacco products. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

TORONTO, ON - NOVEMBER 24: The Ontario government announces new prohibitions on smoking E-Cigarettes any place real cigarettes are banned. (David Cooper/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Cliff Phillips, a 61-year-old retiree and former smoker, and his wife, Vali, enjoy electronic cigarettes at their home in Cuba, Ill., Tuesday, May 31, 2011. Electronic cigarettes like the one used by Phillips are at the middle of a social and legal debate over whether it's OK to "light up" in places where regular smokes are banned. E-cigarettes, which are gaining popularity and scrutiny worldwide, are plastic and metal devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution in a disposable cartridge, creating vapor that the "smoker" inhales. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

This Aug. 14, 2014 photo shows child-proof refill bottles of liquid nicotine at Salt Lake Vapors, in Salt Lake City. Poison control workers say that as the e-cigarette industry has boomed, the number of children exposed to the liquid nicotine that gives hand-held vaporizing gadgets their kick also is spiking. The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports that more than 2,700 people have called about a liquid nicotine exposure this year, up from a few hundred cases three years ago. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Daryl Cura demonstrates an e-cigarette at Vape store in Chicago, Wednesday, April 23, 2014. The federal government wants to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels under regulations being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

In this photo taken Thursday, July 16, 2015, Scot Taylor, left, manager of the Vapor Spot and customer Bruce Schillin, 32 exhale vapor from e-cigarettes at the e-cigarette store in Sacramento, Calif. As e-cigarettes rise in popularity, âvape shopsâ are popping up around the nation, places where customers can gather to inhale doses of nicotine through a flavored vapor solution. Industry officials say California is at the epicenter, with an estimated 1,400 retailers, operating largely without regulations in a Wild West atmosphere, but rules are imminent. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

"E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youth, and use continues to climb," said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement.

"No form of youth tobacco use is safe. Nicotine is an addictive drug and use during adolescence may cause lasting harm to brain development."

Sixteen percent of high school and 5.3 percent of middle school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2015, the survey shows. This was the second straight year that e-cigarettes were the most commonly-used tobacco product among American youth, the CDC said in a press release.

If current smoking rates continue, the CDC found, 5.6 million young Americans alive today "are projected to die prematurely from smoking-related disease."

Smoking-related illnesses, including lung cancer and emphysema, are the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States.

In 2015, 25.3 percent of high school students reported that they currently use a tobacco product, including 13 percent who said they currently use two or more such products.

One in four high school students and one in 13 middle school students also reported that they currently use any tobacco product, with e-cigarettes as the most popular product in both age groups.

The use of e-cigarettes rose particularly sharply among high schoolers in the past five years, going from 1.5 percent of high school students in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015.

Meanwhile, the use of conventional cigarettes among high schoolers declined during the same period.

Public health authorities in the U.S., UK and other countries are grappling with how to regulate e-cigarettes and discourage their use, much as they have done with regular cigarettes, due to the health risks.

Meanwhile, the health risks from such products are still being evaluated, with some studies showing that e-cigarettes may not be quite as dangerous as regular cigarettes, while others show greater risk.

The FDA has regulatory authority over cigarettes and other tobacco products, but is in the process of finalizing the rule for it to oversee e-cigarettes.

"The FDA remains deeply concerned about the overall high rate at which children and adolescents use tobacco products, including novel products such as e-cigarettes and hookah," said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, in a press release.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

More from Mashable: Zika definitely causes severe birth defects, CDC says Singapore to ban smoking in parks and reservoirs Police officer slams 12-year-old girl to ground in shocking video

Summary: The use of e-cigarettes among a key group in the U.S. is skyrocketing, according to new data released Thursday by the CDC.


Apple Inc. is tapping new technology to garner insight into user behavior, in an effort to keep pace with rivals’ insights without violating its privacy pledges.

Called “differential privacy,” the technology will be included in a fall update to iOS, Apple’s operating system for iPhone and iPad. It will help the company’s engineers “spot patterns on how multiple users are using their devices,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, at the company’s developer conference earlier this week.

The technology works by adding incorrect information to the data Apple collects. This is done in such a way that Apple’s algorithms can extract useful insights while making it very difficult for anyone to link accurate data back to an individual user.

Apple’s short-term ambitions for the technology are limited. The company will use it to keep user data anonymous while analyzing how customers are using emojis or new slang expressions on the phone, or which search queries should pop up “deep links” to apps rather than webpages. It will also improve the company’s Notes software.

In the long term, however, differential privacy could help Apple keep up with competitors such as Alphabet Inc. ’s Google that collect user data more aggressively and use it to improve offers such as image- and voice-recognition programs.

Its privacy stance has left Apple in something of a bind. The company promises not to touch its users’ data and criticizes other tech companies for collecting personal information that is used to target advertising. But that policy has hindered Apple’s ability to develop and improve services for users.

In essence, differential privacy is an effort to tap insights about what a group of users is doing without examining any individuals. Apple hasn’t released any technical details on how its differential-privacy software works.

“Using differential privacy will allow them to do significant machine learning while adhering to privacy promises that they made,” said Cynthia Dwork, a Microsoft Corp. researcher who co-wrote the first major paper on the concept a decade ago. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company isn’t employing the technology.

Daniel Barth-Jones, a Columbia University epidemiology professor who studies technologies related to the disclosure of sensitive information, said the technology will allow Apple to analyze more data. “They’ve been kind of surpassed by other players who are bigger data collectors—Google would be a good example—in the machine-learning arena and personalization of user interface,” he said.

The technology dovetails with Apple’s business model, which is focused on selling hardware rather than advertising, said Ed Lazowska, an engineering professor at the University of Washington. He said Apple’s approach to privacy is “highly principled.” But, he added, “They can afford to be, because strong privacy protection will have far less impact on their bottom line than for many other companies.”

Apple isn’t the first company to experiment with differential privacy. Google has been using the technology for two years to analyze some data from its Chrome browser.

One reason that differential privacy hasn’t been adopted more widely is that it is difficult to get right. “It’s not quite something you can deploy in a plug-and-play fashion,” said Arvind Narayanan, an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University. “It requires a certain level of expertise. It needs a lot of careful thinking about your data.”

He also urged Apple to talk more openly about how it is using the technology. “It is a good move that they’re doing this,” he said. “However, the public would have a lot more confidence in this if it were open and were able to be audited by outside privacy experts.”

—Daisuke Wakabayashi contributed to this article.

Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com

Summary: Apple is tapping new technology—called “differential privacy”—to garner insight into user behavior, in an effort to keep pace with rivals’ insights without violating its privacy pledges.


As any five year old with a bug jar can tell you, the desire to amass objects crosses all age groups. But many of us think serious collecting has to be left until later–when weve got more time, money and wall space. Even for those with a healthy Christmas bonus in hand, prices can be daunting.

Not to worry, say the experts. You can begin building a treasure trove on a budget, and you dont need a degree in art history. But where to begin?

For one thing, collect something that brings you genuine pleasure. That way if youre stuck with it, youre still happy, says Gary Sohmers, who is a frequent appraiser on the television series Antiques Roadshow and owner of AllCollectors.com. For many, collecting exists at the murky nexus between love and money. Sure, you want what you buy to grow in value. But if thats all you want, youd be better off in a mutual fund. We dont preach buying for investment, says Cathy Elkies, director of special sales at the auction house Christies in New York.

That said, some markets offer more potential for appreciation than others. Several experts identified a boom in 20th-century media, a category that includes historical photography, commercial illustrations, records, concert posters, animation drawings and the originals of comic strips. Sohmers even speculated that some music CDs would soon become worthy collectibles. The basic principle here is that scarcity produces value. As the world becomes more digital, Sohmers says, you find less and less of other things. Charlie Brown, unfortunately, may already be out of a beginners price range–a strip by Charles Schultz recently sold for $41,000.

Jim Halperin, a coin dealer and co-owner of Heritage Auction Galleries, says you can still get really special old photographs in the $200 to $500 range–but collectors should make sure their piece is not merely a new print made from an old negative. Halperin, who has a personal collection of works by the 1920s calendar illustrator Maxfield Parrish, says that the artists prints sometimes sell for between $100 and $500.

Moving up the price scale a little, Christies Elkies says that contemporary art from India and China is increasingly popular with collectors. Theyre new markets for us, so theyre more affordable, but I think they will only continue to grow over the next 15 years, she says. Canvases by contemporary Chinese artists have recently sold for as low as $10,000.

Its possible to shop for bargains even at a name-brand auction house. In virtually every category handled by Christies, which range from antiquities to vintage cigars, there is usually something going for under a thousand dollars, Elkies says. And while Christies holds major art sales in May and November, it also holds off-season sales of contemporary art in March and September, which are devoted to work by younger and still more affordable artists.

Once youve picked your passion, go for quality rather than quantity. Buy the absolute best of what you love, for the most that you can afford, says Elkies. If you have only $500 to spend a year, in other words, buy one great print and wait until the following year to add more. If you can stick with that, you will slowly create a great collection, she says.

Love notwithstanding, do your research. Find out if the market is healthy and growing, Sohmers says. Just like in day trading, you can become your own expert, whether its ivory or animation or action figures. If you buy on a Web site like eBay , where anyone can sell anything–and make any claim about it–you should either be knowledgeable enough to authenticate the work yourself, or be prepared to take it to an expert for evaluation. You can buy very cheaply on eBay, but you can also be deceived, because its a blind marketplace. There are literally hundreds of thousands of fake items, Sohmers says. Some Web sites, though, are great tools for price research. Priceminer.com is one that compiles data on auction sales going back 10 years.

If youre thinking of buying from a venerable auctioneer like Christies or Sothebys, prepare in advance by browsing the catalogue and going to a preview. Elkies, of Christies, also suggests attending an auction before youre ready to buy. Youll realize theres a method to the madness, she says. If youre still intimidated by the prospect of a live auction–or just strapped for time–you can participate via Christies Live. The online service, launched last July, allows buyers to watch the auction and bid from the comfort of home or office.

Finally, if you really want to see a collection appreciate, get in early–ideally so early that everyone tells you what youre buying is garbage, says Robert Lesser, a collector of unusual skill and foresight. That was his experience when he began collecting pulp art–lurid paintings of vamps and villains made for the covers of pulp fiction magazines in the 1930s and 1940s. He came across his first piece in the early 1970s, when, he says, collectors were trading the fiction itself, but the cover art was considered worthless. His collection grew to include 170 pulp art works, of about 850 that he estimates survive. In 2003 the Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibited his collection, and a book of his works, Pulp Art, is in its third printing.

Lesser is no one-hit wonder: He sold one of his earliest collections, of Native American textiles, to a museum, and he owns what Jim Halperin, of Heritage Auction, calls one of the all-time greatest collections of toy robots. It has been exhibited to sold-out crowds at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry. Today Lesser collects resin models–sculptures, often of science fiction characters, made from an easily molded plastic. He calls them the next great American folk art.

According to Lesser, you can start a valuable collection on a budget of zero. Lets say youre broke, youre penniless and you want to become a collector, he says. Try the garbage.

His big tip? The American movie poster is going through a golden age of design, he says. The movie theater is committed by contract to destroy them. So if you go behind the Loews Cineplex in your neighborhood on a Wednesday night, you can get them for nothing.

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Summary: No money? No problem. There are ways to start a valuable collection without being a billionaire, if you're smart about it.


A new Gallup Poll shows that more than half of women in the U.S. with children under the age of 18, 56%, would prefer to stay home over going to work, and 39% of women without children under the age of 18 said they wanted the role of homemaker. These numbers look like what you might expect in a society whose members are happy with the status quo, and may force the question: Who are feminists even fighting for?

Me. They’re fighting for me.

I’m a stay-at-home mother and have been for five years. (There was not an option for work-at-home mother.) If Gallup had called me and asked if I would prefer to stay home or work outside the home, I would have been one of the 56%.

I am not happy about this. In a perfect world, I’d work outside the home, bring in my 50% of our household income, love the children and play with them when I got home. Of course, I’m not everyone. Many are happier at home, and that is great, too. But I’m here to tell you that preference does not equal contentedness. And I’m not alone.

Broadening the scope of these numbers, Gallup says in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s, more than half of women would have chosen to work outside the home, if given the chance. Soon after that, the numbers flipped back to what we see today, but that blip is very important. It shows an idealism and desire that turned to action and got swiftly booted in the kneecaps.

Think about it: Given the wage gap, the lack of solid family policies, the lack of maternity leave, the discrimination against women in the work force based on family reasons, and the cost of childcare, for many, leaving the home would cost more than staying, in addition to causing huge strain and stress in our daily lives.

When I was 25, I was producing the 6 p.m. news in Boston, Mass. When I was 26, I moved into a managerial role for a magazine show in Connecticut, and had a staff of eight under me. I was going places. I wanted to go places.

I was 27 when I left the job market. My husband, who had lost his job in the economic crash of 2008 had finally found work, and moved us to a small city in Florida. I immediately went to the local television station and applied for a job. I was offered an anchor position, with producing on the side. I would be paid $9 an hour and expected to work any time they needed me, day or night.

I couldn’t do it. With two babies, not even 2-years-old yet, it would have cost us more than twice as much in child care as what I would bring home. That coupled with the odd hours and unset schedule made accepting the offer nearly impossible. What if I needed backup care orevening care? What if one of the babies got sick?

The only way for us to make it, financially and otherwise, was for me to stay home. And here I stay, indefinitely.

My kids are now 7-years-old. I could, much more easily than back then, get a job outside the home. But why would I? Who would be there to pick up the kids on early-release days? Who would watch them if they got the flu? All the extra scheduling and work I’d have to put into setting up my life around a job, just to barely break even, is not worth it to me. For the lifestyle change we’d need to make, I’d want a job that pays at least $70,000. And after being out of the workforce for five years, I don’t think I’d get that job.

For many women, staying home is their desire. But for many more, it’s a decision of convenience. Our society is structured in such a way that gives us the most rewards for living in the way it deems we should. Fifteen years ago, we found ourselves putting in huge amounts of effort to work outside the home, and we got very little reward in return. We learned that, yes, we can venture outside of this societal box of mother and homemaker, but our culture does not invite it, does not make it easy for us, and does not make it worth our very valuable time and effort.

So, we stay home. Not necessarily because we want to stay home, but because we would rather do this than all the groundwork it takes to do that, only to be told over and over again that we’re still not good enough.

Summary: But not for the reason you think


State Sen. Adriano Espaillat won a historic Democratic congressional primary in Harlem Tuesday, defeating retiring Rep. Charles Rangel’s handpicked candidate in a bitterly fought race.

Espaillat beat Rangel-backed state Assemblyman Keith Wright 36.7 to 33.1 percent to take the nomination in the heavily Democratic district and now has a virtual lock on winning November’s general election.

“The voters of the 13th Congressional District made history tonight here in New York City,” Espaillat told supporters.

Wright, however, would not concede defeat in the nine-way race, calling for an investigation into alleged voter suppression.

“No candidate can declare victory tonight,” Wright said. “Not until every vote is counted.

“We worked too long and too hard.”

Espaillat is a native of the Dominican Republic. His win marks a major shift for the Harlem district, which has been represented by African-Americans for the past 70 years.

Wright had the backing of Rangel and other prominent leaders in a district that has remained a black stronghold even as the number of Latino residents has grown.

Wright was also supported by civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who cast opponents of Wright as “Negroes you ain’t never seen before.”

Sharpton made the inflammatory comment last weekend during a Harlem rally attended by Rangel and ex-Mayor David Dinkins.

Rangel first won his congressional seat in 1970 by defeating the legendary Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in the Democratic primary.

Meanwhile, Manhattan/Brooklyn Rep. Jerrold Nadler won the Democratic primary in the 10th Congressional District, likely hanging on to the seat he has held for more than two decades.

Nadler handily defeated a primary challenger — his first in two decades — who attacked the congressman for supporting President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal.

The challenger, Oliver Rosenberg, said constituents had been betrayed by Nadler’s support of the measure. The former investment banker also accused Nadler of being out of touch with voters.

Elsewhere, Democrat Zephyr Teachout won an upstate Democratic primary to replace Hudson Valley Rep. Chris Gibson.

Teachout, who defeated Will Yandik, became a progressive heroine in 2014 by challenging Gov. Andrew Cuomo from the left and grabbing about a third of the Democratic primary vote.

Teachout and Republican John Faso will battle for Gibson’s seat this fall.

Summary: State Sen. Adriano Espaillat won a historic Democratic congressional primary in Harlem Tuesday, defeating retiring Rep. Charles Rangel’s handpicked candidate in a bitterly fought race. Espaillat be…


LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1— The Financial Corporation of America said today that it plans to convert its Federal bankruptcy filing from a Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation.

David A. Gill, Financial's bankruptcy trustee, said reorganization of the company as a going concern was not feasible, repeating statements previously made by the company's officers and others.

Under Chapter 7, a company's assets are liquidated and distributed to satisfy creditors, in order of priority. Creditors often receive some compensation under a liquidation, while stockholders often lose out.

The Chapter 11 filing involved an attempted reorganization while the company continued operating.

The Financial Corporation, the former holding company for the American Savings and Loan Association, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code on Sept. 9, when the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation seized American, then the nation's largest insolvent savings institution.

American was turned over to the Robert M. Bass Group of Fort Worth in exchange for an injection of $350 million. The Government promised to provide up to $1.7 billion. Under Bass ownership, the new American Savings is being operated as a much smaller savings and loan association, with assets of about $15 billion.

Summary: LEAD: The Financial Corporation of America said today that it plans to convert its Federal bankruptcy filing from a Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation.


AMC is hoping you'll forget about the "Friend" you once knew.

David Schwimmer is taking on an unlikely role in the cable channel's new series "Feed the Beast."

Schwimmer co-stars in the show alongside actor Jim Sturgess and a cast of other familiar faces.

"Feed the Beast" tells the story of wine sommelier Tommy Moran (Schwimmer) and his best friend Dion (Sturgess). Tommy is a recently widowed father attempting to piece his life back together after the unexpected death of his wife, while Dion frequently finds himself face-to-face with trouble. In spite of his run-ins with the law -- and the mob -- his talent in the kitchen drives him and Tommy to open an upscale restaurant in the Bronx.

"He is a hustler. He has hustled his way through life and has kind of survived, I think a big part of the hustle is his ability to cook," says Sturgess of his character. "He gets out of a bad situation by dazzling people with food. But you know he is a man who has been through a lot of trauma."

Sturgess is no stranger to the kitchen, admitting to CBS News that he once worked as a "potwash boy" growing up: "I was basically a human dishwasher at the bottom of the food chain, so I had some sort of idea what life in a kitchen was like."

In addition to his childhood kitchen experience, Sturgess spent nearly every day during the beginning of production learning skills from professional New York City chefs.

"It was more than just learning ingredients and dishes; it was more like learning the choreography of looking like a chef," he explains.

For Schwimmer's character Tommy, the restaurant's potential success could afford his son T.J. (played by Elijah Jacob) the life he never had.

"The arc of the whole first season is about choosing life. The whole journey of his friend coming back and the act of creation and building a restaurant is an act of choosing life," Schwimmer tells CBS News. "A survival thing kicks in as a parent, where you have to put your kid first. If there wasn't a son involved, I don't think he would. But he has to get on with life for his son."

Schwimmer is no newcomer in the food and beverage industry. The actor admitted he knew a good amount about food and restaurants prior to accepting this role. Playing Tommy, though, has taught him more about what it means to be a sommelier.

"I am learning what it entails and the level of knowledge that goes into being an advanced somm," he says. "It's hugely intimidating. I thought I knew a little about wine but now I know: I know next to nothing."

"Feed the Beast" premieres Sunday June 5th at 10 p.m. on AMC. It moves into its regular time slot, two days after the premiere on Tuesday June 7th at 10 p.m.

Copyright 2016 CBS. All rights reserved.

Summary: David Schwimmer and Jim Sturgess co-star in the new AMC drama "Feed the Beast"


(CBS)- Collecting evidence of a murder and connecting it to a single person is rarely easy, but imagine if there are two prime suspects and that these suspects are identical twins?

WATCH: Sneak peek of "The Devil's Twin"

That was what investigators in Jefferson County, Colo. faced in the summer of 2003 when a young mother disappeared and was later found murdered. Police believed she was killed by her husband with help from his identical twin, but couldn't find enough evidence to prove it.

It became a cold case that I couldn't resist investigating for one major reason: I am also a twin. And as close as I am to my fraternal twin sister, I can't imagine committing a crime with or for her.

The facts of the case made me wonder: are the thoughts of identical twins the same mirror images as their bodies? Does an identical twin, by nature, feel the same murderous impulses as his other half? The case of Heather DeWild just might provide some answers.

Heather DeWild, 30, disappeared on July 24, 2003, after she went with her two small children to the house of her estranged husband Daniel DeWild. Daniel DeWild admitted he had seen his wife, but claimed she had left the children with him to go shopping and never returned. That story made no sense to Heather's dad, David Springer, a Denver police officer. The couple was in the middle of a contentious divorce. And according to Springer and Heather's sisters, she would never have left her children behind, even with their father.

Two weeks later, Heather's car was found; a month after that, Heather's body was discovered under a mound of dirt on a canyon road. She had been murdered, her body bound with ropes and wrapped in plastic.

Dan DeWild, the estranged husband, was a prime suspect, along with his identical twin, David. The two brothers, 31 years old at the time of Heather's disappearance, were very close. They did everything together, even lived in that same house where Heather was last seen. Not only did the same blood run through the brothers' veins, but the same DNA made up both bodies. Their rough upbringing brought them closer together, even as they grew into adults and got married.

Police searched the brothers' house days after Heather's disappearance and found no evidence to tie them to a crime. No sign of a struggle, no blood. Her car appeared to be wiped clean, so clean that even her own fingerprints, which would presumably be found on the steering wheel, were missing.

Decomposition dogs did alert on David DeWild's Suburban vehicle indicating that something dead might had been in the car. That supported the investigators' belief that David had helped his brother by disposing of Heather's body, but wasn't conclusive evidence. None of Heather's clothing, DNA or blood was found in the Suburban. What's more, no one else's DNA was found on Heather's body....and police couldn't trace the rope or plastic used to bind her.

Investigators would eventually learn that Heather's death was no spur-of-moment, heat-of-passion murder. The brothers had planned it carefully by studying television crimes shows like CSI. That's why a new disposable razor was used to cut ropes instead of scissors. New razors couldn't be traced. They saw that on TV. The brothers wore long sleeves and double gloves to prevent any of their hair, fibers or DNA ending up on her body. Again, a lesson learned from TV. And while they had hoped her body would never be found, even when it was, the state of her body prevented the medical examiner from determining the cause of death.

Whoever killed Heather covered the tracks well and the case went cold.

Over time, however, it became clear that Dan and David DeWild weren't quite as "identical" as everyone believed. Investigators detected small differences in the personalities of the two men. Dan appeared to be the dominant twin, the leader of the pair. He refused to talk or sit down for a police interview and kept David from doing the same (although Dan did make three rambling phone calls to an investigator, denigrating his wife and accusing her of affairs). David, on the other hand, seemed troubled by the investigators' questions, more likely to crack under pressure. Eventually, that's exactly what happened.

How do you explain the differences in two identically made human beings? Apparently, genetics don't explain or control everything. What we think of as a "conscience" grows out of our experiences that are deeply unique and personal: what we read, the people we encounter, the emotions we feel. David DeWild somehow developed a sense of responsibility that made him a very different man from his twin brother. The two may have planned a murder together, but living with it was what ultimately divided them.

As Russ Boatright, an investigator with the District Attorney's Office described it, "you know, DNA will say these two are identical twins, but David is a very different person than Daniel."

We may never know exactly why David broke with his twin, but he alone took responsibility and even apologized to Heather's family.

As of this writing, the once inseparable twins are no longer speaking.

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: When 30-year-old mother Heather DeWild went missing, her husband Daniel, and his twin brother, David, were the prime suspects


LAS VEGAS — Nets general manager Sean Marks admitted losing out on his top two summer targets — restricted free agents Allen Crabbe and Tyler Johnson — was frustrating.

Now he’s preaching patience from Brooklyn fans, saying the Nets will just move on to Plan B — granted, it looks more like Plan G — in their slow build, instead of a quick fix.

“Yeah it’s definitely disappointing not to have those two guys,’’ said Marks. “But at the same time, we’re excited that those guys chose the Nets to sign offer sheets with. That says a lot about [coach Kenny Atkinson] and his staff and the vision set forth. We’ll go back at it again. There’s certainly a Plan B, and that’s in progress right now, which we’re excited about.”

Marks had to watch Portland match his four-year, $75 million offer sheet to Crabbe, and Miami his four-year, $50 million deal with Johnson. He understood the risk in targeting restricted free agents; but without control of their own first-round pick until 2019, it’s a risk he had to take.

“We expected that. There’s no secret we were going after two top-tier guys, guys we valued, that are 24 years old, that can be part of a program a building program from the foundation all the way up. We would’ve been excited to have them, but when you’re dealt the hand that we have, and we don’t have a whole lot of young assets in terms of picks, that’s the way we’ve got to go do it, play within the rules.

“We have to have patience. That’s the whole deal. When we came here, we said this isn’t going to be a quick fix. We’ve never said this is something that’s going to be turned around in three, four months. This is something where we’re going to take our time. We’re going to be systematic and strategic.”

Marks added Greivis Vasquez on a team-friendly one-year, $5 million deal that left $31 million in cap room. But in a picked-over market, don’t expect him to throw cash around like a Vegas gambler intent on blowing his winnings.

Despite being $20 million under the cap floor, Marks said he wasn’t in a rush to meet it. (Any excess funds would be distributed evenly among the players).

“At some point we have to get there,’’ Marks said. “But it’s not immediate right now. We’re not just going to go out and spend for the sake of spending. It’s about us doing the right things at the right times. Who knows what’ll happen? We have a lot of flexibility next year, so hopefully I’m standing in front of you next year with a couple guys who sign offer sheets that didn’t get matched.”

The Nets are mulling whether to give Dion Waiters an offer sheet, and have shown interest in Terrence Jones, Jordan Hill and Moe Harkless, the former St. John’s star. Lance Stephenson, who played at Brooklyn’s Lincoln High School, is also available.

“Contingency plans. There are a lot of other good players out there. We’re going to find them. I liked our strategy, I liked what we did and it didn’t work out. So now we’ve obviously planned for this type of situation,’’ said Atkinson, acknowledging the Nets are in the market for wing players.

“The more versatile the better … if they can play either wing position. Obviously there’s not a million guys out there right now, so we’re going to have to contingency plan and figure it out with the guys that are out there. But there are still some good players out there. So hopefully we get them.”

But with Stephenson comes baggage, including an assault charge stemming from an incident his rookie season with the Pacers, and Nets assistant Jacque Vaughn had problems with Harkless when Vaughn was head coach in Orlando. Marks stressed that character is important.

“We’re always going to think twice. But you have to see where those scales tip,’’ he said. “Obviously there are guys out there who have a heck of a lot of talent, but maybe they do have somewhat of a checkered past. But for us we’re not going to deviate a whole lot.

“We want guys in here that not only the group, the ownership, the staff of the Nets can be proud of, but the community can be proud of. That’s important.”

Summary: LAS VEGAS — Nets general manager Sean Marks admitted losing out on his top two summer targets — restricted free agents Allen Crabbe and Tyler Johnson — was frustrating. But it wasn’t unexpected. No…


Many of America's most successful companies can credit part of their strength to great customer service. Apple (

) is highly regarded for the way it treats customers, both at its retail outlets and its website. Southwest (

) -- the most financially successful airline in America -- routinely gets the best customer satisfaction grades, and in an industry that is known for poor customer treatment. Netflix (

), which has taken substantial revenue from cable companies and telecom providers, gets among the highest ratings in the well-regarded American Customer Satisfaction Index, released by the University of Michigan.

Poor customer service, on the other hand, is one of the primary reasons people tend to shun certain companies and even whole industries. 24/7 Wall St. identified the U.S. industries with the most complaints, as well as the troubles people have with them. If customer service is important to success, those we identified are in trouble.

24/7 Wall St. went to the Better Business Bureau in order to determine which industries received the most complaints in 2010. For each of the nine industries that stood out, we also narrowed down the most common complaints.

• Number of Complaints Received: 9,545

• Most Common Complaint: Contract issues (not honoring promised rate or terms)

Last year, nearly 10,000 people complained to the BBB about receiving poor treatment from their mortgage broker. Many of these complaints were part of the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis, as the problems created by many of the poorly handled home loans continue to surface. The biggest complaints from customers were that they were overcharged; that companies used overly aggressive tactics to collect on loans; and that companies simply did not honor the conditions of the mortgage.

• Number of Complaints Received: 12,950

• Most Common Complaint: Failure to refund money when product doesn't arrive or arrives damaged

There are benefits to online shopping, mostly the convenience of having everything at your fingertips. The clearest drawback, however, is that you don't receive the product until well after you pay, and all kinds of things can -- and do -- go wrong. This is especially prevalent when buyers are dealing with other individuals, as is the case with eBay, which has the lowest customer satisfaction rate in the industry, according to the ACSI. The BBB received nearly 13,000 complaints last year alone from online retail customers. The biggest complaints were, as might be expected, not receiving the product one ordered, receiving a damaged product, and not receiving a refund even after not getting what was ordered.

• Number of Complaints Received: 13,018

• Most Common Complaint: Failure to refund after furniture doesn't arrive or arrives damaged

As is the case with online shopping, many of the problems consumers have with furniture retailers don't occur until after they've paid for the product and moved on to waiting patiently until it arrives. More than 13,000 complaints were filed against furnishing companies last year. The most common complaint was that the furniture simply never arrived, or that it had arrived with serious damage. Retailers often blamed the postal service, or even the customer for falsifying reports. Another common complaint, unsurprisingly, was that the retailers deliberately misrepresented the quality of the product they were selling.

• Number of Complaints Received: 13,178

• Most Common Complaint: Failure to fix problem

Anyone who has taken a car to the shop can likely relate, especially when the problem is unidentified. Mechanics have garnered a reputation for being among the most untrustworthy service people in American business. Because consumers generally know close to nothing about their cars when they bring them in, mechanics can easily blame a more expensive part as the source of a problem. Overcharging was not the biggest source of complaints, however -- perhaps because few people who get overcharged ever realize they were hoodwinked. The most common complaint to the BBB was simply the failure of the mechanic to fix the problem.

• Number of Complaints Received: 15,896

• Most Common Complaint: Harassing tactics

While auto mechanics may be considered untrustworthy, they don't come close to earning the kind of fear and hatred collection agencies do. Much of this dislike simply stems from the nature of the business, but there are nearly 16,000 complaints each year against agencies that allegedly have engaged in some truly despicable acts. Harassing tactics and adding fees to old debt are the most common complaints. A quick search of customer-rights website

reveals too many horror stories, including a collector's threat to murder one woman's dog, or another suddenly demanding payment for a 13-year-old Internet bill.

• Number of Complaints Received: 22,648

• Most Common Complaint: Billing Issues (unnecessary fees, inaccurate information)

Nearly 23,000 complaints were filed with the BBB against America's banks last year. By far, the most frequent complaint had to do with billing, and the types of complaints related to this varied wildly. Some argued that their bank had charged them fees after an account had been closed. Others accused their company of inaccurate or incomplete information on their statements. Worst of all, people complained of being charged with unannounced and unexplained fees. The banks that received the worst customer satisfaction scores in the ACSI include JPMorgan Chase (

) and Bank of America (

• Number of Complaints Received: 27,973

• Most Common Complaint: Contract issues (not getting price promised, unnecessary fees)

Cell phone companies received one of the worst overall scores among the 50-odd industries covered in the ACSI. Nearly 28,000 complaints were filed against them last year. Common complaints include poor customer service, bad technical support, and issues of salespeople actually lying about the total price of the plans.

• Number of Complaints Received: 30,985

• Most Common Complaint: Misleading cancellation options.

In 2010, subscription television providers like Dish, DirecTV and Charter Communications had the third worst rating in the ASCI. According to the BBB, common issues include problems with billing, bad connections, the inability of workers to repair the bad connections, or repair workers simply not showing up at all. The most frequent complaint cable companies are charged with are misleading cancellation options.

• Number of Complaints Received: 38,948

• Most Common Complaint: sales practices (misrepresentation of automobile)

We combined the new and used auto dealers into one category as we believe the two groups have enough in common: For both factory-new and pre-owned vehicle dealers, the problems were the same. The most common complaint was that salespersons pressured customers into buying add-ons, like

and additional insurance, in some cases making it seem like these were standard options. Reportedly, some dealers even convinced customers they were approved for financing for a vehicle when they were not. The customers found out the truth only after taking the vehicle home; they had to return the cars, and then were charged for the miles they drove.


Ronda Rousey thinks she could be in for a long fight with Holly Holm. At least that’s what she told Jimmy Fallon about her upcoming UFC 193 headliner with the former world boxing champion.

But Rousey still very much expects to win. The UFC women’s bantamweight champion is currently a 15-1 favorite heading into the showdown, according to MMA Junkie.

“She’s a nice chick,” Rousey said about Holm on Tuesday’s episode of The Tonight Show. “I don’t have anything against her. She’s a nice chick who’s going to lose.”

Rousey also took the time to show Fallon how to put a game face on. When the host asked her about how she looks at an opponent, she spoke about how she learned to make the intimidating expression she uses in the ring.

“When I was a little kid, my godfather was trying to give me tips on how to have a game face,” Rousey explained. “You have to look at them through your eyebrows. You put your head down and you look up through your eyebrows at them and you look as mean as you can.”

Fallon’s game face somehow just isn’t as scary as the seven-time defending UFC champion’s.

Summary: The armbar master knows how to look intimidating


Opposite Christchurch cathedral and two minutes’ walk from Temple Bar, the epicentre of Dublin’s nightlife, this modern block is the best located Jurys Inn in the city (Jurys Inn is a chain of “superior budget” hotels). It also offers one of Dublin’s best hotel deals: £77 a night most weekdays on its 30-day, advance-purchase rate (see the website for details. Standard weekday rates are £102, Fridays/Saturdays normally £129).

Bedrooms are bland but a good size; many have a sofa bed for families. Those at the rear overlook a goods’ yard (some early morning noise), while front-facing rooms look to the cathedral across a busy road. A pleasant, bustling, open-plan bar/café/restaurant fills the ground floor. Breakfast from £8 per person.

Historic Smithfield Plaza is a striking, large square west of the city centre (three stops on the Luas tram), which has been redeveloped with some success in the past decade. The Comfort Inn, new in 2006, forms part of a modern, residential block flanking the square, and many bedrooms have floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies overlooking the cobbled space. Given the lowish rates, the rooms are excellent - light, spacious (most have a double and single bed), with good quality dark-wood and leather furnishings.

There’s a pared-down café/restaurant behind the reception (breakfast £8 per person), but you may be more tempted to use the café in the enticing food hall right next door to the hotel. At weekends, rates jump to around £129.

Affordable accommodation in the heart of Georgian Dublin, south and east of St Stephen’s Green, is hard to find. One of the few options is Kilronan House, a homely, old-fashioned guesthouse on an 1830s terrace. Bedrooms have checked bedspreads, modern pine units and net curtains. The £89 rate is for the two “economy” doubles, which have showers in the corner of the rooms and share a loo; standard doubles cost £105-£123.

Note that rooms in the modern wing at the rear are a bit odd, as they have frosted-glass main windows. Breakfasts, served in an atmospheric parquet-floored and chandeliered dining-room, offer a vast choice of dishes, including pancakes, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, as well as full Irish fry-ups.

Run by the hands-on Byrne family, this friendly guesthouse occupies the upper floors of a modern building in the Temple Bar area. Breakfasts are served downstairs in Eliza Blues, the Byrnes’ jolly café/restaurant. Bedrooms are furnished in modern pine; all but the singles are bright and overlook the River Liffey.

Though windows are double-glazed, noise is the drawback of staying here - both from late-night revellers and heavy traffic along the riverside street. Rooms on higher floors are quieter: top-floor “penthouse” rooms have terraces, though the cheapest are a squeeze for two people. Standard doubles cost £133 at weekends.

Of the many guesthouses along Lower Gardiner Street, a busy thoroughfare close to the bus and train stations just north of the River Liffey, this is probably the best bet. Its attractive bedrooms come in two distinct styles: either traditional, with high ceilings and painted cornicing, in the pair of Georgian houses at the front; or modern, with bare oak floors and brightly coloured bed headboards, in the 1990s wing at the rear, where you will also find a pleasant and light-filled vaulted breakfast room.

The Georgian rooms facing Lower Gardiner Street are noisy; quietest rooms are in the new wing overlooking the courtyard garden. Note that guests in the next-door hostel, which is under the same management, have access to The Townhouse’s public areas. Rates are £12 higher at weekends.

Though out in Ballsbridge, a 10-15 minute bus ride to the city centre (there’s a bus stop right outside), this chain hotel has a lot going for it. First, the monumental brick building, once a school, is rather impressive. Second, the £96 rate applies to all rooms every night of the year, making it a good-value proposition at weekends.

Bedrooms - some in the original building, others in a sympathetic new wing - are dull modern-pine affairs, but are a decent size and good quality. In the basement lies a vast but relaxing open-plan bar/lounge, dotted with leather armchairs and sofas . You will also find O’Connells, an inexpensive restaurant with a reputation for good Irish food. Full buffet breakfasts cost £9 per person, but you can have just a croissant and coffee in the lounge. The RDS Showgrounds, one of Dublin’s main concert venues, are across the road.

The decor in the Trinity Capital’s public areas – giant gilt mirrors, over-sized purple chaise longues, statues of camels - gives eclecticism a bad name. But the hotel is still worth considering, both for its very central location - Trinity College’s main entrance is just along the street - and its smart, contemporary-styled bedrooms, which are usually keenly priced on weekdays. (Rates normally rise to £128-£160 on Friday/Saturday nights, but cut-price, last-minute deals can be available any night of the week).

Ask for a bedroom in the courtyard wing, which will be away from the noisy street (there’s a fire station next door to the hotel). Extensive buffet breakfasts cost from £10 per person.

This fine, upmarket guesthouse is in Ballsbridge and in walking distance of, the city centre. Grafton Street, for example, is a 15-minute stroll away. Inside the pair of handsome, late-Georgian houses are well-proportioned bedrooms with high, corniced ceilings, long windows, smart dark-wood reproduction furniture and attractive tiled bathrooms. The king-size rooms (£16 extra) are pretty palatial.

Downstairs, in the fetching breakfast room, portraits of Irish writers adorn burgundy-coloured walls, and a conservatory extension protrudes into a large, neat garden, which guests are welcome to use. Breakfasts, which run to waffles with syrup and fish of the day, sound impressive. Standard doubles cost about £8 more at weekends. Free off-street parking available.

This is one of central Dublin’s better Georgian b&bs. Five minutes’ walk from St Stephen’s Green, it spreads over two interconnected houses that were once the home of the city’s Lord Mayor. Harrington Hall is at its most elegant in its expansive drawing-room, with its grand marble fireplace and oil paintings.

Some bedrooms also have a bit of Georgian swagger, with tall sash windows, high ceilings and more painted stucco, but furnishings are reproduction, and there are a few signs of wear and tear. Rooms at the rear are quiet, but those at the front are affected by the rattle of trams along Harcourt Street. Good cooked breakfasts are served in a sunny basement room. Rates are good value on weekdays, but shoot up to £144-£169 at weekends.

Pat Halpin’s Victorian mansion is civilised and cosseting. New arrivals are served tea in the graceful sitting-room, amid eye-catching watercolours and coffee tables arrayed with interesting books on Ireland. Bedrooms are really comfortable, with an armchair or two, plumped-up cushions, bathrobes and maybe a brass or four-poster bed.

That the rates are relatively low is due to the b&b’s out-of-centre location, at the southern end of Ballsbridge. But it’s a very peaceful place to stay: Park Avenue is a desirable, leafy, residential street, and Aberdeen Lodge’s large garden (available to guests) backs on to a cricket pitch. Moreover, the city centre is just eight minutes’ away on the frequent DART trains (the nearest station is less than a 10-minute walk away). At weekends, standard rooms cost £128. Free off-street parking available.

Jurys Inn Parnell Street (00353 1 878 4900, www.jurysinns.com), amid the shopping streets north of the Liffey; and the new Comfort Inn Granby Row (00 353 1 871 6888, www.comfortgranbyrow.com), just north of the city centre, offer similar standards and prices to Jurys Inn Christchurch and Comfort Inn Smithfield (see opposite).

Summary: Fred Mawer picks ten budget hotels in the Irish capital which cost no more   than £120 a night.