WASHINGTON — On a rainy Saturday afternoon, about 100 people had gathered at Carolina Missionary Baptist Church in Maryland to get advice about their finances.

I was challenging them to really think about the financial decisions they have made and will make. Finally, one of the participants asked me a question that is, I believe, at the core of why so many people end up in financial trouble.

“OK, so when can you spend money on something you want?”

Heads nodded throughout the sanctuary in solidarity to the sentiment. I could see that people, despite their commitment to become better money managers, were concerned it would take too long before they could do fun things with their money if they stuck to the financial plan I was laying out for them. I’ll tell you how I answered, but first I want to take a little detour.

I was still thinking about the man’s question — one I get all the time — on the way home from the event. On the radio, a news anchor started talking about recent survey results from The Knot, which for the last eight years has shocked many a penny-pincher with its annual study of what couples spend to get married. The Knot — the wedding brand of XO Group Inc. — received input from 16,000 female members of TheKnot.com website who got married last year.

The average wedding, not including the honeymoon, cost $31,213. The average amount spent on a wedding dress was $1,357. Almost half went over their budget. Twenty-three percent didn’t even have a budget.

The most expensive place to get married is Manhattan, where the average wedding cost $76,328. In the Washington, D.C., metro area where I live, the average wedding cost $39,025.

There’s always gasping when The Knot comes out with its wedding survey. I certainly roll my eyes. Still, even if I think spending $31,000 on a wedding is wasteful, if all your financial ducks are in a row, do what you like with your extra cash.

But if you can’t tick off the things I think are important to have established before you spend lavishly on what is really a party — the wedding reception is, after all, where the bulk of the money goes — you aren’t being prudent.

I’ve shared the following list before, but let’s go over it again, shall we? Before you send out the save-the-date cards for your nuptials or decide to spend on a new car, luxury goods, or a vacation, you should be able to answer yes to the following questions.

■ Are you living within your means? Spending sprees have to wait if every month you are scrambling to meet your basic necessities.

■ Do you have an emergency fund? The goal should be six months’ worth of living expenses saved, but I’d be happy if you had even a single month’s worth.

■ Do you have a “life happens” fund? This is different from your rainy-day or emergency fund. It’s a pot of money you can tap regularly when there’s an unexpected expense that you can’t cover from your monthly budget, such as a major car repair. Having this fund prevents you from decimating your emergency fund, which should be reserved for dire situations like a job loss.

■ Are you saving for retirement? Specifically, have you figured out how much you need to save every month so that you will have a better chance of having enough financial resources in retirement?

■ Have you paid off all your credit cards?

■ Have you paid off all your student loans?

■ If you have children, are you putting money — anything you can spare — to help pay for their college education?

Now, let me get back to the man’s question.

The occasional small splurge is OK. But you are out of order if you can’t answer affirmatively to the questions and yet — out of a sense of entitlement — constantly go ahead with expenditures that fall into the “I want” category.

And if you can’t answer yes to the questions, you don’t impress me by saying you saved up for that $10,000, $20,000, or $31,000 wedding.

So. That money should have been directed to establishing a better financial foundation.

Some of you will think it’s preposterous to suggest people should wait to treat themselves until they have a savings cushion and are out of debt.

But me, I think it’s ludicrous, and risky, to live like you have it when you don’t.


Elliot is 11 weeks old and has yet to display any sign of being a budding art critic. If anything, music appears to be his first love (Ravi Shankar and The Blue Danube, since you ask, together with a plinky Mozart mobile whose particular configuration of primary-coloured shapes and hypnotic spirals can keep him amused for - oh - a good 20 minutes).

He will stare at pretty much anything you stick in front of him, though, with an engaging wide-eyed intensity. This tends to make a big impression on anyone who meets Elliot, the stock comment being: "He's very alert, isn't he?" (For which read "grumpy").

I introduced him to Art for Baby during a fleeting window of gurgling good humour between his 7pm feed and 8pm bath. The first two pictures - Paul Morrison's Cryptophyte and Takashi Murakami's Ohana - were an immediate hit. Elliot didn't know where to look and tracked repeatedly from one image to the other. Babies love it when you smile at them, of course, and will smile back if the mood takes them, but the beaming face of Murakami's flower didn't elicit a response. He might be 11 weeks old, but he's not daft.

He was also transfixed by Julian Opie's Natasha (perhaps it reminded him of his mum) and the Bridget Riley, which even inspired some tentative cooing. If the publishers of Art for Baby are contemplating a sequel, perhaps woozy 1960s op-art would be the way to go.

From there, Elliot's interest began to wander. Gary Hume's crude, line-drawn pear and David Shrigley's carrot failed to compete with something infinitely more fascinating going on over my shoulder. This may be because Elliot has never seen a real pear or a carrot (a breast or a bottle might be preferable, in case you're wondering, Gary). Or perhaps he had something else on his mind: after staring at Damien Hirst's spot painting for a few seconds, there was the unmistakable sound of an explosive burst of wind. I don't think Adrian Searle, the Guardian's art critic, has much to worry about yet.

Summary: Rob Fearn: What 11-week-old Elliot thinks of the Art for Baby pictures


Goldman Sachs GS reported its best quarterly profit in five years on Thursday, notching up big gains from trading bonds and currencies as global markets fluctuated during the first three months of the year.

Trading got a boost after the Swiss central bank scrapped a cap on the franc, the European Central Bank announced its quantitative easing program, and the U.S. Federal Reserve moved to tighten monetary policy.

That resulted in choppy trading that investment banks such as Goldman feed off. The bank’s total trading revenue rose 23 percent to $5.46 billion in the quarter ended March 31.

“Investors almost always discount trading and investment results because they’re so volatile,” said Michael Wong, an analyst with Morningstar, who also noted the lack of clarity on Goldman’s plans to return capital to shareholders.

“Retaining potentially excess capital, when it doesn’t seem to be for opportunistic purposes, makes someone wonder how much excess capital Goldman truly has or whether it’s retaining capital for a potential negative contingency,” Wong said.

Goldman has been more committed to trading fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) than some rivals, which are abandoning the business in the face of new capital rules and a slump in client activity.

FICC revenue rose 10% to $3.13 billion in the first quarter, after falling 29% in the fourth quarter.

Total net revenue rose 14% to $10.62 billion.

Goldman said higher net revenue from trading currencies and interest rate products was partially offset by lower net revenue from credit products, commodities and mortgages.

“Given more normalized markets and higher levels of client activity, we remain encouraged about the prospects for continued growth,” Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement.

The bank posted a bigger gain from trading in the quarter than JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc reported declines. Morgan Stanley reports earnings on Monday.

Goldman’s investment banking revenue rose 7.1% to $1.91 billion, the highest since 2007.

Net income applicable to common shareholders rose 41% to $2.75 billion, or $5.94 per share, beating the average estimate of $4.26, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“Overall, GS posted very strong results which show the strength of (its) business model,” analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a note.

Goldman’s return on equity was 14.7% in the quarter, compared with 10.9% a year earlier.

Compensation and benefit expenses rose 11.2% but were down slightly as a percentage of net revenue.

Total operating expenses rose 6% to $6.68 billion.

Summary: Goldman is more dependent on trading revenue than its peers because it has a less diverse business.


Chicago Cubs pitcher Jon Lester may have come up with the weirdest play ever seen in baseball after being forced to throw his entire glove to run out a batter.

Lester isn't renowned as a great fielder and seemed to be on the verge of blowing another chance when he mitted a return hit from San Diego's Clint Barmes.

Instead of immediately throwing the ball to first base, he instead runs halfway to his target before inexplicably throwing his mitt to the first baseman to make an out by the narrowest of margins.

While his actions initially left Cubs fans dumbfounded, replays of the incident showed the ball actually became stuck in Lester's mitt, forcing him into the split-second decision to throw the glove.

First baseman Anthony Rizzo was just as quick to react, ditching his own glove to receive his teammate's.

One commentator described their teamwork as 'the smartest play in the history of baseball'.

Do you have any news photos or videos?

Summary: Chicago Cubs pitcher Jon Lester may have come up with the weirdest play ever seen in baseball after the ball became stuck in his glove.


Updated MAY 07, 2015 5:07a ET

Oscar De La Hoya's boxing promotion company is suing Floyd Mayweather's manager and investors for $300 million, alleging they're trying to illegally monopolize U.S. championship fighting.

Golden Boy Promotions filed the federal antitrust and unfair competition suit Wednesday in Los Angeles.

It names Al Haymon, his companies, and the venture capital firm Waddell & Reed Financial.

The suit alleges that Haymon, who represents more than 150 fighters, violates the federal Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act and also California and Nevada state laws by acting as both manager and promoter.

While Haymon doesn't call himself a promoter, the suit claims he's forbidden his boxers to sign with other promoters and both arranged and paid for sponsors, arenas, and TV air time for championship matches — and even paid the purses.

Messages left at Waddell & Reed and Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions weren't immediately returned.

Summary: Mayweather's manager named in $300 million antitrust suit


David Beckham (left) and Stephen Hawking

05/12/2015 AT 09:25 PM EDT

When the legendary physicist, 73, met the soccer (and underwear) icon, 40, at an event hosted by Google on Monday, he used the opportunity to shed some light on their common ground.

Hawking's message to Becks was nothing short of brilliant. "I'm always being compared to you as a British icon and sometimes you rate higher and sometimes I do," he wrote.

Beckham was so thrilled with the encounter he posted about it

, captioning the photo, "It was an absolute honour to meet Professor Hawking. What he said to me was truly amazing."

wasn't the only Beckham who was starstruck. Wife

also posted a photo including the caption, "was an honour to meet Stephen Hawking."

Last month, Hawking lit up the hearts of teenage girls everywhere by perfectly explaining the

. Here's hoping for more sparkling bits of pop culture wisdom to come from science's greatest mind.

Summary: Leave it to one of the most brilliant people on Earth to always find common ground


Lower fuel prices are leading to growing competition among airlines—and investors are panicking.

Southwest Airlines reported ambitious growth plans this week, and the promise of more competition led to a selloff of airline stocks Wednesday. Southwest said it hopes to increase capacity±the number of seats on its planes—by 8% this year, up from its earlier goal of 7%, the Wall Street Journal reports. It credited higher profitability, which is partly due to cheap fuel lowering costs. But that led investors to predict a market oversupply as energy prices continue to keep overall costs low.

Shares of companies in the industry, including Southwest, United Continental and American Airlines fell more than 9%, while Delta saw its stock tumble by over 5%. Analysts called the selloff an overreaction, the Journal reports, but it still wiped out more than $10 billion in market value Wednesday.

“Investors are taking profits and being cautious, but we think when summer rolls around and airplanes are packed and airlines are back to making record profits, investors will come back,” Jim Corridore, an airline equity analyst with S&P Capital IQ, told the Journal. “It’s my fundamental view that the most pervasive thing is energy prices.”

Summary: Fears about competition spook investors


Annegret Raunigk with her daughter Lelia in 2005

05/23/2015 AT 04:30 PM EDT

The 65-year-old German schoolteacher who

after announcing her pregnancy with quadruplets, has given birth, according to

The mom of 13 welcomed the four babies on Saturday. Annegret Raunigk had three boys and one girl, who were born premature at 26 weeks. The news was announced by RTL, a German TV network.

The boys, born at a Berlin hospital, are named Dries, Bence and Fjonn, and the girl is named Neeta. RTL said the quads have "good chances of surviving," despite not being carried to full term, according to AFP.

"However, the babies, in comparison with a normal birth in the 40th week, are not completely developed, so eventual complications can't be ruled out," RTL said in a report.

The births make her the oldest mother of quadruplets to date. Raunigk's pregnancy was the result of artificial insemination using both donated eggs and sperm.

The teacher already had 13 children from reportedly five different fathers, the oldest child is 40. She is also a grandmother to seven.

When Raunigk first spoke of her pregnancy in April, she told German newspaper

she wasn't concerned about the possible health risks for a woman her age.

"I simply assume that I will remain fit and healthy," she told the newspaper at the time.

Summary: The woman is reportedly the oldest mother of quadruplets


LOS ANGELES, May 31— If any issue is intruding on the generally high spirits of the cable industry at its crowded annual convention here, it is the uncertainty over what regulatory role the Government will play in cable during the next several years.

- To what extent might Congress and the Federal Communications Commission permit the telephone company to compete with cable in providing information services?

- Will the cable systems be required to open up their channels to all those who want to use them?

- Might local government bodies handing out cable franchises impose still more stringent demands on the companies they license? Mark Fowler, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, made his first major policy address here Saturday. ''Our first and foremost objective,'' he said, ''is to create, to the maximum extent possible, an unregulated, competitive marketplace environment for the development of telecommunications. I believe that consumer choice and entrepreneurial initiative should be emphasized over pervasive government control and direction.''

In some previous statements, Mr. Fowler has indicated that he might go slower in the area of deregulation than his predecessor, Charles D. Ferris. Explosive Growth of Cable

Deregulation efforts, long opposed by broadcasters, are credited with spurring the explosive growth of the cable industry in recent years.

In a speech Saturday, the new chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Representative Timothy Worth, Democrat of Colorado, took the position that even as deregulation continues, government should insure that the public's First Amendment rights to multiple sources of information are upheld.

''A diversity of information is crucial to the survival of our democracy,'' he said. ''While we are aware of the clear potential for government interference, we are less sophisticated in understanding other possible barriers to the free flow of ideas and information.''

Representative Worth was apparently referring to private companies that might be in a position to control access, and said his subcommittee would hold hearings on the issue in July.

''Wherever a gatekeeper controls a bottleneck through which information must pass,'' he said, ''we must raise the issue.'' The ''gatekeeper'' that most concerns cable operators here is the American Telephone and Telegrapgh Company. They argue that if the telephone company is allowed to provide information services - as A.T.& T. has requested permission to do - the company's power will overwhelm any competitors, including cable. Panels Discuss A.T.& T.

Mr. Fowler did not address the telephone company issue, but it was the subject of two panel discussions that included several Congressmen and Senator Larry Pressler, Republican of South Dakota.

''We're all opposed to A.T.& T.'s involvement in cable,'' Senator Pressler said. ''The basic question though is who'll provide services to the rural poor areas that are not profitable for cable. There must be a commitment from the cable companies who want franchises to address the question of people who've been left out of the service.''

Mr. Worth took the position that because A.T.& T. controls over 80 percent of the country's local distribution networks, its local monopolies might favor A.T.& T.'s information services over those of other companies.

Such preference Mr. Worth said, ''would limit the growth and diversity of information available to the American people and would be contrary to the purpose and history of the First Amendment.'' Parallel Issue

A parallel issue of interest to some legislators here is whether a local cable system should also be viewed as a de facto monopoly, and thus forbidden from exercising total control over access to its channels.

According to Representative Al Swift, Democrat of Washington, ''If A.T.& T. is defined only as a pipeline, that could be a precedent down the line for cable. Why should one entity in the community control the information flow? What you do with A.T.& T. will be a good news/bad news situation for the cable industry.''

At present, most cable operators across the country are free to program the channels on their systems as they see fit. In newer systems, cities are now requiring companies to set aside at least some channels for public and municipal use.

Summary: If any issue is intruding on the generally high spirits of the cable industry at its crowded annual convention here, it is the uncertainty over what regulatory role the Government will play in cable during the next several years.   The questions are varied:   - To what extent might Congress and the Federal Communications Commission permit the telephone company to compete with cable in providing information services?   - Will the cable systems be required to open up their channels to all those who want to use them?   - Might local government bodies handing out cable franchises impose still more stringent demands on the companies they license?  Mark Fowler, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, made his first major policy address here Saturday.  ''Our first and foremost objective,'' he said, ''is to create, to the maximum extent possible, an unregulated, competitive marketplace environment for the development of telecommunications. I believe that consumer choice and entrepreneurial initiative should be emphasized over pervasive government control and direction.''


Photography has so recently begun to be taken seriously by museums, collectors and critics that it may be presumptuous to ask what its present state is. It has been recognized as art, hasn't it? For many of its devotees, that is still the best and only news, and anything else - anything that might sound like dissention in the ranks are ammunition for the skeptics who still are not convinced that photography is art -is not very welcome.

However, there is no doubt that something is happening in the world of art photography that is not unlike what is happening in the worlds of architecture, music, painting and literature. There is a certain disenchantment with the boldest, barest and most uncompromising aspects of modernism. There is a renewed interest in ideas and techniques rejected by modernists as old-fashioned or unartistic. There is even, occasionally, something that looks like a shy bid for popularity. And all of this is going on not in such bastions of conservatism as the camera clubs and the camera magazines, but in the avant-garde galleries and the museums specifically dedicated to modern art.

Symptomatic of a change in attitudes towards technical methods is the exhibition ''The Markers'' organized by Van Deren Coke, director of the department of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and seen there earlier this summer. (A smaller but related exhibition including many of the same photographers can be seen in New York at the Robert Samuel Gallery starting Sept. 9.) ''The Markers'' featured the work of 11 contemporary Americans whose pictures, though photographic in origin, are so scrawled and scribbled on, so scratched, torn and colored by hand that they resemble paintings by Robert Rauschenberg or one of his followers rather than, say, photographs by such classical modernists as Edward Weston or Ansel Adams. As paintings they are reasonably up-to-date even in the year of Julien Schnabel. But as photographs they are conservative in technique, for one of the dogmas of photographic modernism is the sanctity of the photographic print. According to modernist esthetics, any attempt to alter a photograph by hand is disrespectful of the nature of the medium and typical of the kind of thing done by old-fashioned, turn-of-the-century pictorialists like Frank Eugene, who felt that the medium of photography was too mechanical to be truly artistic, and that handwork was needed to give full expression to the photographer's sensibility. The jagged barbarities of ''The Markers'' certainly do not look like the misty poetics of pictorialism. But the aim is the same - ''injecting an element of human participation into photographic imagery,'' as Van Deren Coke puts it - and an alternated photograph by Frank Eugene is included in the show to underline the technical similarities.

San Francisco critic Ted Hedgpeth sees ''The Markers'' as a West Coast act of defiance against the more classical modernism of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And it is true that the New York Modern has persistently ignored the widespread contemporary interest in handwork on photographs. It has never given solo exhibitions to well-known and widely exhibited ''markers'' such as Benno Friedman, Bea Nettles and Thomas Barrow, or even included them in surveys of contemporary American work such as ''Mirrors and Windows.''

However, New York's Modern has its own kind of photographic conservatism in the return to the old-fashioned stand camera. Less than 10 years ago photographic modernism at the Modern was epitomized by the up-to-date 35mm camera work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and his American admirers such as Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand. Then, one by one, such long-time favorites at the Modern as Lee Friedlander and Joel Meyerowitz abandoned the 35mm camera for the large-format stand camera, and younger photographers began to be shown -Nicholas Nixon, for example - who were never known to have used anything but the stand camera. Some observers have seen this development as linked to the Modern's purchase in 1968 of the large collection of photographs by Eugene Atget, an early 20th-century user of the largeformat stand camera whom some con sidered to be the Cezanne of modern photography. Whether or not this conne ction can be made, the return to the stand camera is certainly a con servative move, and it has led some photographers, most notably Joel Meyerowitz to produce color photographs of beautiful sunsets that t eeter on the brink of the popular. A third ind ication of a growing conservative mood in the world of art photograp hy is a return to more traditional ideas of what art is.Two books to be published this fall exemplify this trend. One is by Robert Adams, a youngish landscape photographer much favored by the Modern, and i s to be published in September by Aperture under the title, ''Beau ty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values.'' It is true that ''beauty'' as defined by Adams is hard to distinguish f rom ''formal values'' as defined by a modernist. It is also true tha t Adams's own photographs are not beautiful except in the way that an Ansel Adams photograph of a mudslide is beautiful. But even to s peak of ''beauty'' when all others speak of ''formal values'' is a daringly conservative act.

It will, however, be topped this fall by John Szarkowski, director of the department of photography at the Modern, in his introduction to the first of four volumes on ''The Work of Atget.'' This book and its accompanying exhibition are the first fruits of the Modern's 12-year study of the works of Atget, in the course of which Szarkowski and the Modern had to face the fact that Atget, along with the masterpieces, produced and preserved a great mass of conventional work that could have been done by other competent photographers of his time and place. How to explain this embarrassing fact? Szarkowski does it by asserting that Atget was working not as a modern artist would, to express himself or explore his medium, but as all artists did up to the advent of modernism, in the service of something larger than himself or his medium.

The idea that artists work in the service of something larger than themselves or their medium is, of course, the traditional idea expressed by every significant writer on the subject from St. Thomas Aquinas to Sir Joshua Reynolds. It was also the man on the street's idea all through the age of triumphant modernism, which is one reason why the man on the street never liked most modern art. Now it is being promulgated ex cathedra from the very Vatican of modernism.

This does not mean, of course, that the Modern will now start showing photographs that are true and beautiful in the way that the photographs of Samuel Chamberlain are true and beautiful. It is one thing to revive the techniques and ideas of the past. It is another and more difficult thing to make them work today, and so far there is precious little sign of this in contemporary art photography.


-------------------------------------------------------------------- Dupuy Warrick Reed is a freelance writer. By DUPUY WARRICK REED

WALTER CHATHAM is a young architect with a contemporary point of view. His wife, Mary, is an art student with a more traditional outlook. Together, they have created a portable, classical romance in a 12th-floor loft in SoHo, using only second-hand treasures.

''We wanted a spectacular place to live, which we thought the loft could be,'' Mr. Chatham explained. ''But because we were renting, we wanted to use decoration that we could take with us.''

They began their search for a place to live by looking at apartments on the Upper East Side. But when they first saw their present home, they knew it was what they had been looking for. ''The light in the loft really sold us,'' Mrs. Chatham recalled.

''We had bought a set of columns from a demolished antebellum house in Maryland to create a sham ruin for Mary's sister's wedding in West Virginia,'' Mr. Chatham said. ''As soon as we saw this space, we realized that we could use the columns to divide it psychologically without disrupting the visual continuity.''

The classical theme is continued with the use of polished steel urns as focal points for the sweeping expanse of undivided space, and by the early 19th-century furniture that Mrs. Chatham has collected in secondhand stores and at auctions. The building itself dates from the late 19th century, so that stripping the woodwork and using only furniture of the period lends an atmosphere of authenticity to the setting.

Basic kitchen and bathroom facilities had already been built in the loft. ''We didn't want to make a big investment in the landlord's property,'' said Mr. Chatham, explaining that their entire decorating scheme cost about $2,000 - $500 for the columns, $900 for the urns and the balance for the furniture.

''The urns were our real extravagance,'' said Mrs. Chatham. ''Yes,'' agreed her husband, ''they came from an antiques shop in Florida. The dealer had hoped to sell them to an eccentric millionaire who was building an English garden. When he didn't buy them, we got a bargain.''

The scale and placement of the urns in relation to the sweep of the loft's main space are an object lesson in low-cost grandeur. ''When you first enter the loft, it's like going through the back door of a grand European house,'' Mr. Chatham said. ''Walking through the screen of columns, you can have the fantasy of being in the courtyard of a palazzo. We have used only landscape paintings - Mary's and other people's - to enhance the courtyard atmosphere.''

Fittingly, this ''courtyard'' is used mainly for state occasions - for entertaining, exercising the cats or Mr. Chatham's drum playing. ''No one seems to notice that the columns are in poor condition or that the furniture needs restoration,'' he observed. ''The funkyness makes our friends feel relaxed. Despite the fact that the decor is strictly classical, no one feels that they have to act formally here.''

''We tend to use the space behind the columns as our day-to-day living space,'' he continued. ''A bookcase and the intersecting colonnades divide the kitchen from the dining and sleeping areas; lying in bed, we can look out at the main space and the view as elements in an abstract landscape. The sense of expansiveness is refreshing, when city life begins to feel claustrophobic.''

The atmosphere of tranquility is quickly brought to earth, however, by the landscape that appears outside the loft's three exposures: both rivers are visible beyond the fringes of downtown New York.

Mrs. Chatham finds that living in an undivided space is somewhat demanding. ''I find it hard to paint here, because the space is so open that the slightest disorder is impossible to hide,'' she admitted. But both husband and wife agree that the discipline the loft imposes is worthwhile. ''We could never live in a three-room apartment now,'' Mrs. Chatham said.

In fact, they have persuaded their landlord to sell them the loft. But any speculation that, as an architect, Mr. Chatham will now want to make changes is quickly dispelled.

''We would like a better kitchen and a fantastic bathroom with a hot tub,'' he said. ''A storage space off the front hall will become a small study-guest room, and Mary needs a place to work. But we just can't see cutting up the main space, or even making the columns fixed. We want to preserve the openness and flexibility. There is something about waking up in the morning in a corner of an enormous room and watching the early morning sun reflect on the World Trade Center that we just aren't willing to sacrifice.''

The Chathams seem to regard the loft as a romance of their youth, whose ending has not been predetermined. Fortunately, their vision of Arcadia is completely portable.

''We find that a lot of young people don't want to accumulate a lot of possessions,'' Mr. Chatham said. ''We like the fact that we could strip the place bare and move anywhere with a single U-Haul truck.'' The truck may not be required for a few years yet, but when it is, the Chathams and their columns will be ready to move at a moment's notice.

Illustrations: Photo of a home with portable design


WASHINGTON, Dec. 21— Two days ago, while President Reagan was relaxing at his residence in the White House, Vice President Bush was 100 yards away in the basement Situation Room in the West Wing, conferring about Poland with the Administration's top national security and intelligence officials.

Later Saturday morning, Mr. Bush presided over a review of Poland in the Cabinet Room lasting an hour and 15 minutes. It was the fourth time in a week that he had conducted a high-level meeting in Mr. Reagan's absence, performing a role originally contemplated last March when Mr. Reagan selected the Vice President as the coordinator of ''crisis management.''

In fact, it was Mr. Bush who got the first call 10 days ago from Adm. James W. Nance, the acting national security adviser, about the unsettling and initially confusing reports from Poland. Mr. Bush then informed Mr. Reagan, who was at Camp David, Md.

The last week has marked the first time that Mr. Bush has performed his ''crisis management'' role for an extended time. But there has been a change from the original plans in March: a decision after the Polish situation erupted to shift the name of the unit under Mr. Bush from the ''crisis management group'' to the ''special situation group.''

''We didn't want to suggest that every time the group met, it was a crisis situation,'' said Edwin Meese 3d, the White House counselor. Others said that the name change also underscored the Administration's desire not to magnify the urgency of the Polish situation when it was still unclear just what was going on there.

The ''special situation group'' consists of everyone on the National Security Council, except for the President. Thus the key members Mr. Bush presided over were the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Director of Central Intelligence, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mr. Meese and the White House chief of staff, James A. Baker 3d.

By all accounts, Mr. Bush conducted the ''S.S.G.'' meetings in a crisp, businesslike manner. ''It was not a case of him spearheading policy decisions in any dynamic, aggressive way,'' said a White House official. ''Bush feels that the role of the Vice President is not to get out front, but to be low key about it.''

Meanwhile, with Mr. Bush being pushed toward center stage, Admiral Nance also found himself in the middle of things. A former aide to Senator Jesse Helms, the conservative North Carolina Republican, the Admiral never had a prominent role as the No. 2 man on the National Security Council staff until he began to fill in for Richard V. Allen in recent weeks.

Mr. Allen began a leave of absence last month while the Justice Department investigated alleged inaccuracies in his financial statement, and his acceptance of two watches from a Japanese friend last January.

White House officials said Admiral Nance was still a bit reticent at some meetings. For example, at one session with the President in the Cabinet Room, he declined to sit at the Cabinet table even though there were several chairs available.

But these same aides said he had performed exceedingly well by quickly providing written material when asked, and proving himself responsive to requests. Top aides who had been complaining privately that Mr. Allen was a poor administrator were among those who had praise for the Admiral.

Mr. Allen's fate has yet to be decided, but one aide to Mr. Reagan said recently that his chances of returning to his old job seemed to be diminishing. A luncheon last week sponsored by conservatives, which was aimed at drumming up support for Mr. Allen, had the opposite effect by causing resentment among top aides to Mr. Reagan, according to White House officials. One aide said Mr. Allen's fortunes were ''diminishing daily.''

Recent conversations with various officials, however, suggest that the leading candidate to replace Mr. Allen permanently is not Admiral Nance or Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the chief United States representative at the United Nations, but William P. Clark, the Deputy Secretary of State. Mr. Clark is a longtime friend of the President and a former Justice of the California Supreme Court.

When word of the Polish crisis arrived, Secretary Haig was asleep in Brussels, Secretary Weinberger was asleep in London, and Mr. Meese was in Hawaii, where he was on a combination business and pleasure trip at a conference of Hawaiian state legislators in Honolulu.

Mr. Haig and Mr. Weinberger came back to Washington immediately, and Mr. Meese arrived the following Wednesday. Not until Thursday did Mr. Reagan issue his first extensive comment on Poland - a stern declaration at his news conference that the United States was not so ''naive'' as to doubt that the Soviet Union fully supported the crackdown.

White House officials, however, maintain that any delay in producing a firm comment on the situation resulted, not from top aides being scattered, but from the initial fragmentary information.

''The first two or three days we had very little information available,'' said an Administration official. ''We decided to be very cautious in what we said, and not to say things that might turn out to be false.'' This official said, for example, that initial reports of Soviet troop movements, or of Russian planes landing, proved incorrect.

''It's ironic that some of the same people who said Ronald Reagan is a hawk or a warmonger are now saying that he should have made stronger statements on Poland,'' he said. ''To make such a claim shows no understanding of the importance of erring on the side of caution.''

Illustrations: Photo of George Bush


''I THINK the cable-television market is beginning to boom, and the fledgling industry will offer good management opportunities for women,'' Donald Noble told a meeting of more than 100 women last week. ''We are increasingly getting assignments for more marketing people in the cable field,'' he said at the session, which was sponsored by the Association of Women in Radio and Television.

Mr. Noble is the head of D.H. Noble & Associates Inc., a mediumsized management recruiting firm in New York City. He said the company was different from much larger recruiting operations in two ways: First, it specializes in the communications field, including marketing and advertising. Second, it does not have the ''don't call us, we'll call you attitude'' that he said many of the large recruiters had.

Mr. Noble said his firm wanted to build up its file of resumes and meet job seekers personally. He stressed that his aim was to create long-term relationships both with happy job holders and discontented job seekers, partly because of the growth of the cable-television business and partly because the approach is viewed as good public relations.

He said that the cable-television field was ''different in that it appears to be using more recruiters, whereas radio and television companies rely more on word of mouth and do not use recruiting firms much.''

Perhaps one reason is that the cable-television companies are new and good training is still rare. ''They are groping a little in the dark,'' Mr. Noble said. He stressed that there was a need for producers - creative persons who plan programs - as well as for programmers, who handle the technical scheduling of the programs.

''The cable companies also need financial people,'' he said. This could mean an opportunity for holders of master of business administration degrees.

Charles A. Hamilton, director of public affairs of the Teleprompter Corporation, agrees with the outlook for job opportunites in the cable-television area. He said the company had filed a bid with the city of New Orleans to set up the city's proposed 201-channel system, which means that producers and programmers will be needed for the mass of material expected to be offered. ''The new cable-TV systems have such large capacity but not enough programs yet,'' he said.

For example, in New Orleans the public library might have a channel for book reviews, book discussion groups, chidren's bedtime stories. Local hospitals might use channels to update the training of their medical staffs and to provide health maintenance programs for the public. Schools might use a channel for home teaching and for the training of the handicapped.

As if to underline the opportunities opening up in the cabletelevision field, Teleprompter announced recently that its division, Teleprompter Cable TV, had begun a special training program ''to prepare thousands of workers, specifically minorities, for careers in this burgeoning industry.''

According to William J. Bresnan, president of the division, ''The number of persons employed by cable-television companies will more than double within this decade from the current total of 30,000 to more than 65,000.''

The first class of installer technicians - 29 men and 10 women - was graduated last week from the new Teleprompter Cable Training Center in St. Louis, and the second group, consisting of 31 men and nine women, has begun training. During the training period the students receive per-diem funds for food. They live in a dormitory.

Following graduation, they receive six months of supervised on-thejob training, with an annual pay scale ranging from $11,000 to $14,000 in the St. Louis area. Students who have more expertise or have a technical background get the high end of the salary scale.

The intensive training is divided into four parts. First, there is technical book training so that the students will understand how cable television operates.

The second phase centers on intallation procedures, which include practice in the ''wall laboratory.'' There, students learn the different types of wall construction so that they can determine the best way to get the cable through the walls.

The third phase involves what the company calls its ''pole orchard'' - a cluster of telephone poles that the students must learn to climb to attach wires. Teleprompter rents the right to string its wires to local telephone or electric light poles. According to Mr. Hamilton, the women can climb the poles as well as the men.

The final phase concentrates on teaching students to be sensitive to customers' needs and dislikes. If a living room decor is white, for example, a white wire is suggested.

The company expects to start similar training schools in other major cities. The New York area probably will be the second one selected, Mr. Hamilton said. He also said that the company would be willing to train installers for other companies.

Illustrations: Cartoon of a woman watching TV's


Updated MAY 15, 2015 5:28p ET

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) Muhammad Ali's brother on Friday recalled their wrestling matches while growing up in their family's modest Kentucky home. No punches were supposed to be thrown because their parents wouldn't allow it, Rahman Ali said.

It was the home where Muhammad Ali, known then as Cassius Clay, was living when he left for fame as an Olympic gold medalist, launching a career that made him a three-time heavyweight boxing champion.

Now, plans are in motion to let his fans visit the now-abandoned house in Louisville.

Rahman Ali returned to his boyhood home on Friday with George Bochetto, a Philadelphia lawyer who recently acquired a half interest in the small frame residence with the sagging porch. Bochetto is accelerating renovation plans to restore it to how it looked when the Clays lived there in the 1950s.

''We're not looking to make it the fanciest house in America,'' Bochetto said. ''We're looking to make it as authentically as it was, as it looked, as it felt when Muhammad and Rahman were growing up here. That's what people want to see.''

That includes stripping the faded vinyl siding and putting up clapboard, painted pink, just like it was when the future champ lived there. He said he'd also like to put in a goldfish pond in the backyard, just like in the days of Ali's youth.

Bochetto, an Ali fan and a former Pennsylvania state boxing commissioner, is teaming with Las Vegas real estate investor Jared Weiss on the project. Weiss bought the house for $70,000 in 2012, but his plans to restore the house had stalled. Bochetto is injecting new energy and money into the property.

They are drawing on Rahman Ali's memory to restore the house.

''It means everything to me,'' Rahman Ali said of restoration plans that had him reminiscing about growing up with his brother.

''I wish we could go back and do it all over again,'' he said. ''We had such wonderful times.''

Rahman Ali said he and his brother were evenly matched when wrestling. But their parents forbid them from boxing each other at home, he said.

''They said brothers love one another, be kind to one another,'' he said.

Bochetto hasn't disclosed how much he paid to gain an equal share in the house. He said he wants to fill the house with vintage furniture and appliances like the Clays had in the 1950s. He said he had possible leads on tracking down the family's record player and refrigerator.

Bochetto said he and Weiss will cover all the project's expenses, which could reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The work will include reinforcing the foundation and extensive renovations on the outside and inside, he said.

Muhammad Ali and his wife, Lonnie, haven't commented publicly on the project. For years, he frequently stopped by his boyhood home and visited with neighbors, but he hasn't done so in recent years, said Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman.

The former champ has battled Parkinson's disease for years.

Bochetto said he would like to have the renovations completed by September, in time for the annual Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award in Louisville, but said it could be difficult to meet that timetable.

Lawrence Montgomery Sr., who lives across the street from where Ali grew up, has said the old Clay house already draws plenty of visitors, including people in tour buses. They take pictures and read a historical marker.

Chris and Lorraine Howell of Bardstown, Kentucky, stopped to get a look at the house while Rahman Ali was there. The couple shook hands and posed for photos with him. Lorraine Howell said she listened to Muhammad Ali's fights on the radio with her father.

''I'm so happy that it's still here,'' Chris Howell said.

Summary: Boxing fan accelerates plans to renovate Ali's boyhood home


ROCKPORT — A frequent complaint about classical music is its museum-like character, its veneration of the past at the expense of new creations. Whether you find that charge damning, inaccurate, or beside the point, it’s worth asking what we realize from repeated performances of iconic musical works. I think we get not only the chance to revisit great art but also an opening to think differently about the history of the art form.

Take Beethoven’s Op. 18 string quartets, the sixth of which was on the Shanghai Quartet’s Saturday program at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. Played one way, they are the epitome of Classical-era form and rhetoric; played another, they raise the curtain on the Romantic era, which would flower a few decades later.

The Shanghai opted for the latter conception and executed it brilliantly. Mercurial shifts in mood were accompanied by audible changes in color and texture. A brief unison scale in the slow movement sounded unusually mysterious. The Romantic aspect of the quartet is most evident in “La Malinconia,” the slow, dissonant intermezzo that precedes the sprightly finale. Near the end of the piece it returns, as if to remind you of what was just around the corner.

The Op. 59 quartets are Beethoven at his most Promethean, boldly exploding traditional models. The Shanghai’s performance of Op. 59, No. 1 was suitably gripping, nowhere more so than in the finale, whose labyrinth of twists and turns the players managed dexterously. Yet in the opening there was a welcome sense of Classical poise, even restraint, as if to preserve its links to the past.

Between the two came Samuel Barber’s Quartet, the fame of whose slow movement — the Adagio for Strings in its original guise — has unhappily overshadowed the rest of the piece. Heard in its proper context, stripped of its orchestral bloat, it comes off as heartfelt but not maudlin, a perfect link between the outer movements, which speak in a muscular dialect that balances the composer’s innate lyricism with an almost Bartokian edginess. The Adagio did emerge in an ideal visual setting, as dusk settled along the Cape Ann shore out the large windows behind the performers.

The Shanghai’s playing was superb throughout. They are unafraid to intervene in the music’s narrative flow when it serves an expressive purpose, as it did virtually everywhere. The quartet’s sound is plush but always translucent enough to appreciate each player’s distinctive qualities, Nicholas Tzavaras’s broad cello tone and Honggang Li’s darkly lyrical viola chief among them.

The encore was the nimble finale of Haydn’s Quartet in D major (Op. 20 No. 4), an effervescent way to clear the air of the sturm and drang that preceded it.

Presented by Rockport Chamber Music Festival

At: Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, Saturday

Summary: The sixth of Beethoven’s Op. 18 string quartets was on the Shanghai Quartet’s Saturday program at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival.


Transcript for Another Home Invasion Gives Fresh Lead to Vallejo Kidnapping Case

Reporter: In the quiet community of Dublin, California, a violent home invasion. This one, just 40 minutes south of Vallejo, the scene of Denise Huskins' disputed abduction a couple months earlier. Suspicious. North Terracina. Reporter: A carbon copy of the Vallejo crime. One subject in black had a laser. Reporter: Except this time, the victims fight back. A husband fighting with a subject. Reporter: The husband, grappling with the intruder while his wife calls for help. Responding north Terracina. Has locked herself in the bedroom. The husband possibly has a head injury. We're having medical started. Reporter: Police come on the double. The failed abductor takes off. The subject ran through the back door. Reporter: Leaving behind familiar tools -- zip ties, duct tape, and one more crucial piece of evidence -- a cell phone. Suspect left his cell phone upstairs. We have his cell phone. 10-4. Suspect left his cell. You might as well leave a business card and put it in the mailbox and say, "Okay, here's your clue, police." Without that piece of evidence, right now I think we'd still be investigating it. Reporter: Lieutenant herb Walters and his detectives cracking both cases, even though Dublin is half the size of Vallejo and has nowhere near the resources of the FBI. The case goes hopscotching across California. That cell phone forgotten at the Dublin crime scene leads police 100 miles north, to an address in orangevale. This house. Not exactly a hideout. A pleasant brick and frame home with a beautifully manicured yard. Our lead detective started doing more research on it, running all the different names associated with the orangevale address. Reporter: The homeowner tells police the phone belongs to her adult son. He'd misplaced it the day before. Police get the son's name. Our detectives had a name and that name was Matt muller. Reporter: On the surface Matthew muller is an unlikely suspect. His attorney Tom Johnson -- tell me about Matthew muller the man. Mr. Muller had some great success in life. Reporter: He attended this Sacramento area high school, played trumpet in jazz band, joined computer club. A teacher says, "A high achiever, but unmemorable." What do you know about his home life? Where was he raised, his parents? What kind of home does he come from? He came from a good home. He had two parents that were educators. They're good people. Reporter: Looking to gain maturity, muller joined the Marines. Stationed in okinawa, Japan, travelling the world, eventually returning to California, enrolling at Pomona college. Alex volberding was a classmate. He approached college with a very regimented attitude and vigor that was unlike most of our classmates. Reporter: He marries this woman, now a lawyer for a drug company. Goes to Harvard law, then joins this San Francisco firm, fighting for clients in court and on TV. No, we will not even let you have your day in court. Reporter: This is a smart guy? The person who went to Pomona college, the person who went to Harvard -- you can't be that person and not be a smart person. Reporter: But the shooting star was about to flame out. His lawyer says inside that handsome head, a time bomb was ticking. Muller was getting disbarred, his marriage of about ten years ending in divorce. Its been the past five to eight or so years where we are seeing some difficulty in conducting a Normal life. Reporter: Muller's mother tells detectives her son is now living 85 miles away in south lake tahoe, in this house in the woods. Sound familiar? It should. Remember, when Denise was still missing, that's where those mystery phone calls to Aaron came from. Then, right nearby -- jackpot. A stolen car. They found a Ford mustang that had been mentioned in the e-mails previously sent so they thought, "Wow, we actually found the car that the bad guy mentions in a previous communication." Reporter: Inside the vehicle, cops find one more misplaced clue -- a driver's license. It belongs to muller, who is quickly arrested. We arrived at the house, and it seems like nobody is home. We go up to the residence and once the detectives made entry, they found Matt muller coming out of the bathroom. He was calm, he didn't give up any resistance. I believe that muller expected something eventually to catch up with him. Reporter: Investigators say the house and car yield a treasure trove of evidence. A gps still programmed to the Huntington Beach address where Denise was dropped. Swim goggles, just as Aaron and Denise described. A telltale strand of blonde hair snared in the duct tape. And that toy gun -- the one the kidnapper was so proud of, he sent a picture to the newspaper. This is a really big find. It showed a direct link back to the abduction of this couple, and so this entire thing ties the case together. This is absolutely not a hoax. Wow. None of us thought it would end like this. Today is a fabulous day. Reporter: This is what an acquittal in the court of public opinion looks like. The Vallejo police department owes an apology to Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn. Reporter: Denise, still shaken, stands in the background. The lawyers do the talking. In the blink of an eye, everything has changed. Denise and Aaron go from crackpots to credible, hoaxers to heroes. A bizarre kidnapping story. Reality, stranger than fiction. Reporter: The FBI will charge muller with the original kidnapping, the allegations a far cry from where acquaintances thought their former college classmate would most likely wind up. I imagined him sitting behind the desk in some elected capacity, not sitting in jail right now. I don't want to say it was joy. It was relief. I'm not joyful about anything that's happened here. Joy would not be the word I would describe. Reporter: You're still outraged, it sounds like? Well, I am! To just take these people who've been completely victimized and then just run them over as many times as you can and see what happens, you would expect to see a lot of anger and a lot of hate. Reporter: Are they angry? I think they're horribly upset and disappointed. What they want are their lives back.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Summary: Part 5: When Matthew Muller was arrested in Dublin, California, the FBI finds similarities between the two cases.


In January, a campaign was launched to #SaveDippy, the 109-year-old diplodocus skeleton cast that has been in the Natural History Museum's (NHM) entrance hall since 1979.

More than 32,000 people signed a petition to keep Dippy, rather than a new blue whale skeleton, greeting visitors in the Hintz Hall, but now he will be going on a far more adventurous move: around the country's public venues before returning to another, yet to be confirmed, location in the west London museum.

The NHM are asking for venues and museums around the UK to host Dippy so he can "prompt curiosity and a desire to explore, helping the scientists of tomorrow," Michael Dixon, the museum's director said.

"For many of us, that first glimpse of Dippy was a formative moment in our childhood, evoking awe and a genuine wonder at the natural world."

However, there are various considerations when it comes to organising a holiday for a 21.3 metre-long dinosaur cast. The NHM will select venues that can offer the space, security and scope to reach a large and diverse audience.

Dippy will spend at least four to six months in each location, as he will have to be taken apart and re-constructed at each new venue. There are also considerable costs, which Dixon says would be "substantial".

Dippy's tour will begin in 2018. Venues can apply to host the diplodocus from September at www.nhm.ac.uk/dippyontour.

Summary: The Natural History Museum is asking for venues to volunteer to host their famous diplodocus cast


Whole Foods Market delivered quarterly earnings on Wednesday that beat analysts' expectations, while sales figures were in line.

After the earnings announcement, the company's shares rose more than 3 percent in after-hours trading.

Whole Foods posted fiscal first-quarter earnings of 46 cents per share, up 10 percent from a year earlier. Revenue also climbed 10 percent to a record $4.67 billion.

"We are pleased with our first-quarter results which reflect accelerating comparable-store sales growth and healthy returns. We attribute our broad-based sales momentum to our customers' positive response to our many strategic initiatives, along with improving consumer confidence," said Walter Robb, co-chief executive officer of Whole Foods.

Read MoreWhole Foods issues macadamia nut recall

Comparable-store sales rose 4.5 percent during the quarter, topping StreetAccount forecasts for a 4.4 percent increase.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 45 cents a share on $4.67 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Summary: Whole Foods delivered quarterly earnings that beat analysts' expectations on Wednesday, while sales figures were in line.


China's Shanghai Composite closed up 0.2 percent after wavering between gains and losses on the back of softer-than-expected economic data.

Blue-chip banking stocks held up thereby capping declines on the bourses; Bank of China climbed 2 percent, while China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 1.1 and 0.9 percent each. A positive showing by insurers also supported positive momentum in the bourse; China Life Insurance and China Pacific Insurance rose over 1 percent each.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index shed 0.6 percent to a 7-week low of 23,759.

Prudential pulled back 1.3 percent, resuming trade on Wednesday following news that chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam is leaving for the same job at Credit Suisse. Shares of the U.K. insurer remain halted in Singapore.

Read MoreTesting China, Japan eyes bigger role in Asia security

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 reversed a lower open after receiving a leg-up from better-than-expected machinery orders. The leading indicator of capital spending for the month of January notched down 1.7 percent, smaller than the 4.1 percent slump estimated by Reuters' economists.

Clothing store chain operator Fast Retailing and robot maker Fanuc, all heavily weighted components, turned positive mid-morning thereby lifting the bourse.

Exporter stocks remained mixed even though dollar-yen inched up 0.2 percent to 121.2, leading to calls that the long-standing inverse correlation between the currency and Japanese stock prices has broken down.

"The [Yen-Nikkei] relationship has broken down to the extent that you have to be cautious about some of the exporters," Tim Seymour, CIO of Triogem Asset Management, told CNBC Asia's "Squawk Box." "I like what's going on in the auto sector as global demand continues to be very strong. But after the run Toyota Motor's had, there may be a case of a breakdown."

Among Japanese automakers, Nissan led declines with a 1 percent slump, while Honda and Suzuki Motor sold off 0.8 percent each. Toyota shed 0.2 percent.

Summary: Asian equities were lower across the board on Wednesday, pressured by a plunge on Wall Street overnight and as a string of China data fell short of expectations.


FORTUNE — Napping behind the wheel of Google’s autonomous car while zooming down the highway is possible, theoretically. But is it legal? Who’s liable if there’s a crash? Will car owners need specific training?

California officials are trying to draft rules for autonomous vehicles, the futuristic cars that chauffeur passengers around town without a driver. The job is proving to be a complicated one as officials try to anticipate the potential legal and safety issues. Virtually all aspects of driving must be reexamined. The complexity foreshadows the work by states across the country if and when they legalize autonomous vehicles in the coming years.

“It’s still very much in its infancy,” said Bernard Soriano, deputy director for California’s Department of Motor Vehicles. “Things come up on a daily basis that we’re surprised by and make us say, ‘Yes, we should be considering that.’”

In addition to California, Nevada and Florida have passed laws allowing driverless cars to be tested within their borders. Legislators in a number of states like Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, Oregon, and Wisconsin are considering the possibility. Up until a couple of years ago, the reality of millions of autonomous cars on the road seemed like fodder for a science fiction film. But since then, Google GOOG , along with car manufacturers like Audi and BMW, have made rapid advances with the technology and started testing it on public roads.

In California, the effort to draft rules for autonomous vehicles is a work in progress. The Department of Motor Vehicles, which is in charge of the job, recently held its first in a series of public hearings on the matter. The goal is to complete the regulations for testing cars by early next year. The question is what criteria manufacturers will have to meet to get a permit to tool around on public streets and what rules their test drivers will have to follow.

MORE: The Chrysler-Fiat reversal of fortune

Proof of financial wherewithal — insurance or a bond — to cover any damages if there’s an accident is near the top of the list. So is the readiness of test drivers to take over the wheel if something goes haywire. Other matters aren’t so clear-cut like privacy. What kind of information will the car’s computers record, and will it include any data about any vehicles driving alongside?

At the same time, California is also working on a more comprehensive set of rules for the general public, in anticipation that they will someday be able to put their cars on autopilot. These regulations will be far more detailed, according to Soriano, who hopes to finish them by 2015.

Autonomous car maintenance is, of course, critical. But how far should the state go to verify it? Take the navigation system, for example. The state could require manufacturers to ensure that such systems work properly. Or it could establish an expiration date at which the equipment must be replaced. Another option is to require regular inspections.

Who can drive an autonomous car is another issue of debate. Anyone can sit back while the technology steers. Last year, for example, Google made headlines by posting a video online showing its autonomous car taking a blind man to Taco Bell. Whether the future rules will allow it is another matter, however.

Officials are looking at whether autonomous car owners need specific training. If so, who will provide it? A passenger may also be required to sit behind the wheel and be ready to take over if something goes wrong. Such a rule would, of course, preclude the blind along with others like children who are too young to have a driver’s license. “The main theme is ensuring public safety,” Soriano said.

MORE: Google takes stake in Lending Club

Whether autonomous cars will be issued specific license plates is unclear. The uncertainty speaks to the details officials are considering as part of the process. Soriano explained that identifying an autonomous car with a license plate or other marking may be hazardous. Fellow drivers on the road may decide to inch too close to see if it automatically swerves. “There’s pros and cons,” Soriano said.

For help with the rules, California’s DMV has teamed with an alphabet soup of government agencies including law enforcement, the insurance department, and highway construction and maintenance department. It’s also seeking the input of manufacturers, academics, and privacy groups.

Nevada was the first state to approve the testing of autonomous vehicles in 2011 and the first come up with a set of rules. Officials took eight months to issue them after a crash course in autonomous vehicle technology. “We’d never heard of autonomous vehicles before,” said Heather Hawkins-Fancher, an analyst with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles who worked on the rules. “We had to become experts.”

In Nevada, manufacturers must fill out a lengthy application explaining their cars’ capabilities and their track record. They must also chose the type of geography they wish to use — interstate highways or urban environment, for example — and show that they have a bond of $3 million to cover liability. In terms of mechanical requirements, the cars must have a system to alert passengers about any technology problems and allow them to take control. Additionally, the car must retain any sensor data collected for 30 seconds prior to any collision.

Those awarded a permit — Google, Audi, and Continental, so far — are required to operate their cars with two passengers inside. Driver’s licenses and prior training with autonomous vehicles are required. Both passengers must also “actively monitor for any aberration in the functioning of the autonomous vehicle,” according to the rules. Dozing off while being taxied around is clearly forbidden.

Summary: And other mind-bending questions autonomous vehicles are already creating.


But those are generalities, and Trump has been short on specifics. In particular, he has said very little, if anything, about his tax policy. But a couple of recent articles on Trump and taxes have caught my eye. Heather Long at CNN Money and Tony Nitti at Forbes have done some digging. And much of what they write is confirmed by specific past Trump tax statements listed at OnTheIssues.org.

Their findings? Like so many things in the Trump story, the Trump tax policy is a mixed bag. But there's a nice dose of supply-side in that mix.

Read MoreOp-ed: Why you should fear Donald Trump

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed back in May 1999, Trump praised Ronald Reagan's tax-rate cuts. He also trashed then-Senator Bill Bradley's elimination of the real-estate investment-tax shelter known as the "passive loss" deduction. I think Trump's basic point was that ending that deduction overnight without any transitional grandfathering was a giant mistake that sent commercial real estate and the savings-and-loans that financed them into a deep tailspin. I agree with this. Getting rid of the deductions was a good idea, but doing it so fast led to the banking and real-estate crash of the late 1980s.

Trump also attacked Bradley for putting a lid on IRA savings accounts, which caused a big drop in personal retirement saving.

But Trump shifted into tax-the-rich mode during the 2000 presidential campaign. He proposed a one-time tax of 14.25 percent on the assets of individuals and trusts in excess of $10 million. He seems to have believed that $5.7 trillion in revenue from his wealth tax could be used to pay off America's debt.

Later on, Trump shifted again, saying he was strongly in favor of extending the George W. Bush tax cuts. But the Trump tax tale gets a lot more interesting in 2011, when he came out with "Time to Get Tough." From what I can piece together, his tax talk in the book is pure supply-side.

Read MoreOp-ed: Scott Walker needs to suit up

For instance, he proposed four income-tax brackets: 1 percent for incomes up to $30,000, 5 percent for incomes of $30,000 to $100,000, 10 percent for incomes of $100,000 to $1 million, and 15 percent for incomes of $1 million or more. A bit messy, but right direction. He also wanted to kill the death tax, lower the taxes on capital gains and dividends, and eliminate corporate taxes.

In the book he quotes Ronald Reagan, who said, "The more government takes in taxes, the less incentives people have to work."

And really tugging at my heart strings — I am writing a book with Brian Domitrovic on the JFK tax cuts — Trump wrote: "As with most things, President Reagan had it right. But Reagan was merely echoing the economic thoughts of President John F. Kennedy, who had already said, in 1962, and I quote, 'The paradoxical truth is that the tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now.'"

Trump went on to write, "Reagan and Kennedy's views prove that smart tax policy shouldn't be a partisan issue. It should be common sense. If you tax something, you get less of it. It's as simple as that."

This is right out of the Art Laffer playbook.

Now, I have no idea, here in 2015, if Donald Trump still believes this. But if he does, it is a very good thing. It's solidly pro-growth — the incentive model of growth. But so far he hasn't talked about it.

Read MoreOp-ed: Four reasons I'm voting for Hillary

And then there's the big downside to Trump's tax plan: In his 2011 book, he supported a 20-percent tariff on all imported goods. This, of course, would be a huge tax hike on consumers and any businesses that purchase imports.

More recently, according to CNN Money's Heather Long, he has threatened a 35-percent tax on Ford vehicles made in Mexico and brought back to the United States. And back in 2011 he suggested a 25-percent tariff on goods coming here from China. If this is correct, it's not only anti-growth, it's trade war.

I would observe that, in general, Trump's rhetoric is almost always protectionist. Neither Reagan nor Kennedy would have supported that.

So, as we move towards next week's GOP presidential debate, and get to economic questions on taxes and trade, the big question is: Are you a supply-sider or not, Mr. Trump?

Summary: The Trump tax policy is a mixed bag. But there seems to be a nice dose of supply-side in that mix, says Larry Kudlow.


Pete Kledaras Will Discuss How to Mitigate Risk for eCommerce, Mobile and Prepaid Commerce in a Cloud Environment

PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CashStar, the industry-leading provider of prepaid commerce solutions, today announced that Pete Kledaras, chief risk officer, will speak at the CFO Risk Management Summit in Boston on Sept. 10. Kledaras’s session, “Mitigating Risk in a Cloud Environment,” will examine how to navigate fraud and risk challenges in a constantly changing digital environment, taking modern e-commerce developments like mobile wallets and prepaid commerce into consideration. Attendees will learn how they can close the exposed gaps in the cloud environment to reduce fraud, increase sales and create a satisfied and loyal customer.

The two-day CFO Risk Management Summit, taking place Sept. 10 and 11 at the Seaport World Trade Center, draws leading risk management and finance professionals together to explore key challenges impacting risk management today, as well as the opportunities that exist to drive growth by taking an innovative and holistic approach to risk management moving forward.

For more information and to view the full conference agenda, please visit: http://theinnovationenterprise.com/summits/risk-management-summit-2015-boston.

About CashStarCashStar, the industry-leading provider of prepaid commerce solutions, enables the world’s top retailers and restaurants to grow and innovate in the rapidly evolving retail environment. CashStar provides best-in-class capabilities, revenue-optimizing risk management and a client success model based on aligned growth, to optimize digital gifting and prepaid commerce experiences. CashStar powers more than 300 leading brands worldwide including Best Buy, Brookstone, Coach, Crate & Barrel, Dell, Dunkin’ Donuts, Gap, lululemon athletica, Nine West, Office Depot, Petco, Pottery Barn, QVC, Sephora, Staples, Starbucks, The Cheesecake Factory, The Home Depot and Williams-Sonoma. To learn more, please visit www.cashstar.com, follow @CashStar or e-mail info@cashstar.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150902005241/en/

Summary: PORTLAND, Maine---- CashStar, the industry-leading provider of prepaid commerce solutions, today announced that Pete Kledaras, chief risk officer, will speak at the CFO Risk Management Summit in Boston on Sept. 10. The two-day CFO Risk Management Summit, taking place Sept. 10 and 11 at the Seaport World Trade Center, draws leading risk management and finance...


The biggest obstacle will be getting regulators to sign off on the technology because of potential dangers.

Even after the first autonomous cars are cleared for driving, don't expect to see cars where front seats swivel to face the back. The technology for ensuring the safety of everyone in a car is nowhere close to making vehicle designers confident.

(Read more: Tesla cars are worth more used than new)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said for some time that autonomous-drive vehicles are coming, but even he admits those cars will still need a driver behind the wheel.

Last year, he told the Financial Times that 90 percent of driving could eventually be handled by autonomous-drive cars. Beyond that would be a stretch.

"My opinion is it's a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars," Musk told the FT. "It's incredibly hard to get the last few percent."

In the meantime, it's fun to imagine.

—By CNBC's Phil LeBeau. Follow him on Twitter @LeBeauCarNews.

Summary: The Swiss firm Rinspeed, which created the concept car XchangE, said it allows drivers to go truly hands-free.


So far, the international health body has reported 5,843 cases of Ebola across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone—the countries at the center of the epidemic—and 2,803 deaths.

Symptoms of the disease, for which no preventative treatment is available, include fever, vomiting, diarrhea and haemorrhage. It is transmitted by bodily fluids.

Just under 50 percent of suffers have died in the current epidemic and Ebola cases have also been reported in Senegal, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Read MoreIs climate change key to the spread of Ebola?

On Monday, Sierra Leone ended a three-day lockdown, in which residents were not allowed to leave their homes, and thousands of health workers went door to door in search of undeclared Ebola cases.

Sierra Leone's president, Ernest Bai Koroma, called on citizens to respect the lockdown and cooperate with authorities. "Avoid touching each other, avoid eating bush meat, avoid visiting the sick, avoid attending funerals, report illnesses and deaths to the nearest health facility or call 117," he said on the government's official website.

According to Sky News, 92 bodies and at least 56 new cases were discovered during the lockdown. Reportedly, residents mostly cooperated until Sunday evening, when people emerged prematurely onto the streets of the capital Freetown to celebrate the end of the lockdown. The police made some arrests, according to Sky News.

Authorities declared the move a success, but some health groups were critical, saying it would destroy trust between patients and doctors.

Read MoreMining CEOs call for action against Ebola

On Tuesday, the Wellcome Trust charity announced it had granted £3.2 million ($4.1 billion) for drug trials to be conducted on Ebola sufferers in the three worst-hit countries. The statement came after a WHO expert panel unanimously concluded it would be ethical to test untried treatments on people with the disease, given the exceptional circumstances.

Summary: The world's attention may have shifted to U.S. airstrikes on Syria, but West Africa continues to be ravaged by the worst outbreak of Ebola.


Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton with a student

Courtesy Blessings in a Backpack

09/17/2015 AT 01:20 PM EDT

Mayors from across the United States are gathering in their hometowns Thursday to ensure that many of the nation's nearly 12 million hungry children will be able to eat over the weekend.

They're doing so as part of

– gathering in schools across the country to make sure kids from food insecure homes are able to eat on days when they don't receive school lunches. With help from an all-volunteer network,

feeds more than 78,000 children in 45 states every week.

"The most rewarding thing is to see the joy and excitement of the kids receiving something they really need," says Blessings board member Richard Gordon.

"They're little kids and to realize that they're hungry and that they're excited not about getting a toy, but about getting food, on one level it's heartbreaking, but on the other level it's extraordinarily exciting and meaningful," he added.

Hunger has both long and short-term effects on child development – from weakened immune systems to impaired neural development to difficulty retaining knowledge – according to the non-profit.

Founded with the goal of eradicating child hunger, Blessings has grown to do much more. For instance, a program at a Washington D.C. school where 10 percent of the student body is homeless has developed a partnership with a nearby nursing home that now donates winter coats and Thanksgiving baskets to school families, and even helps parents of students find jobs.

"You take the heart and hands of Blessings in a Backpack and you kind of expand it," the nursing home's administrator, Gail Jernigan, said in a

. "We've wrapped our arms around this school and have basically said to them, any time you need anything, just call."

PEOPLE first introduced its readers to the organization in 2012 as part of the

initiative. Since then, it has grown from helping 23,490 students to the national powerhouse it is today – and it's still expanding.

"Our goal is to feed as many kids as we can," says Gordon. "The way to do it is to have local people hear the message, want to get involved, and do so."

To learn more about starting a program in your community, visit

Summary: "They're little kids and to realize that they're hungry and that they're excited not about getting a toy, but about getting food, on one level it's heartbreaking," board member Richard Gordon tells PEOPLE


There are some positive shifts taking place. For example, a Families and Work Institute study found that slightly more working men than working women provided elder care in the last five years. And research by the Georgetown University Law School found that the percentage of workers with flexible schedules more than doubled between 1985 and 2004.

In a broader finding, John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey, both professors emeritus and noted time-use experts, found that women were more likely to describe their lives as rushed, but that between 1965 and 1995 the researchers observed "converging androgynous lifestyles of men and women" in terms of how they spent their time.

Perhaps that reflects the generational shifts taking place in who does the chores. The Working Mother research found that some 35 percent of millennial men say they handle the laundry, compared with 23 percent of boomer men, and they are twice as likely as boomer men to plan summer camps for children, take time off work for their medical appointments, and fill out school permission slips.

Read MoreIs this the age women's careers grind to a halt?

Gen X dads fall somewhere between millennials and boomers. Brett Sonnenschein, a production artist at a large retailer and Owens' husband, says that in their home, they "kind of gravitate toward things that we feel better at or more comfortable." He picks up some of the chores that often go to working mothers, like laundry, and as the artist in the family, he also designs the birthday party invitations.

When it comes to planning, though, "she always seems to be the one to take the initiative and make the list," Sonnenschein said. And he still has a hard time when it is his turn to leave work at 5 p.m. to pick up his kids.

Read MoreCan women have it all?

"I would just trade almost anything to not have that hanging over my head those few days. I feel a little bit like I'm letting my co-workers down," he said. Sonnenschein said he comes in early, so he is working as much as everyone else. But when he walks out the door at 5 p.m. to get his kids, he said, "I'm the only one in my group who is doing it."

Given the trends, that may not be the case much longer.

Summary: Ms. magazine may have launched 44 years ago, but a new study finds the division of labor at home still looks a lot like "Leave it to Beaver."


The failure of those troubled exchanges to enroll more than a relatively few people in Obamacare plans for nearly two months lead to widespread speculation that Democrats would get pummeled in the mid-term 2014 elections, because the health reform law was crafted by a Democratic president and passed by what was then a Democratic-dominated House and Senate.

But after aggressive repair effort largely fixed HealthCare.gov by the winter, enrollment efforts dramatically rebounded, ending with 8 million selecting an Obamacare plan by mid-April.

While Republican leaders have remained critical of the law and its mandate that nearly all Americans obtain health insurance or pay a fine, there was a pullback in rhetoric about repealing the law after the close of open enrollment. And some Democratic candidates have been using Obamacare as a talking point in their races.

When Bankrate.com last asked people whether Obamacare should be repealed or kept as-is, 45 percent of respondents said it should be junked. But in the new poll, just 30 percent of respondents said the new Congress should repeal the new law.

Read MoreCourt rules for certain companies over Obamacare mandate

A total of 52 percent of people want the next Congress to make either minor or major changes to the law. Just 12 percent of the people said the law should remain the same as it is now.

This was the first time that Bankrate in its poll asked people whether they believed the law should be kept, but modified. Beforehand, the question was whether it should be repealed or kept as-is, Whiteman said.

"I think it's interesting that when you give "change" as a choice, that comes out on the top," Whiteman said.

Whiteman also noted that the number of people who told the poll that their health insurance situation had improved was double from when that question was asked almost a year ago.

In August 2013, 8 percent of respondents said they had seen improvement in their health insurance situation. By this June, that had doubled to 16 percent, he noted.

Summary: Nearly 7 in 10 Americans said their opinion of Obamacare will play a role in how they voting in upcoming Congressional elections.


10/15/2015 AT 02:15 PM EDT

's family members are asking for prayers as he remains

Odom's daughter Destiny, 17, took to

on Wednesday and Thursday to pray for her father.

"Please don't leave us," she wrote on Wednesday alongside a picture of the two.

Please don't leave us pic.twitter.com/X5XIRLu3qB

"Soon I'll be by your side and I'll never let go," she added. "I love you daddy."

Soon I'll be by your side and I'll never let go. I love you daddy

"Never letting go," she continued.

On Wednesday, Destiny's mother Liza Morales, Odom's ex, also took to Twitter to express her grief, writing "Please hear our prayers Lord" as well as "We need you, don't leave us" alongside an old photo of the family.

Please hear our prayers lord

We need you, don't leave us pic.twitter.com/WrQXT2ZNMH

for Destiny, Morales and Odom's father to

to Las Vegas on Wednesday.

at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, where he was rushed to after being

at a Nevada brothel Tuesday afternoon.

The former basketball star had

and opiates in his system, sources told PEOPLE.

On Thursday, Destiny tweeted another old picture of herself with her father, writing, "Let us laugh again and be filled with happiness."

Let us laugh again and be filled with happiness pic.twitter.com/XYO4Bcrrvv

"Please keep praying," she added.

since flying to Las Vegas on Tuesday night. She is also

despite having split two years ago.

Summary: "Never letting go," Lamar Odom's daughter Destiny tweeted on Wednesday


Cinemagoers everywhere can picture Los Angeles' sun-blushed streets, thanks to Hollywood. Yet a huge, newly digitised photographic archive shows a different LA, as the city developed from a western hinterland into shimmering megalopolis.

Form and Landscape: Southern California, Edison and the Los Angeles Basin 1940–1990 is an online exhibition taken from the 70,000-plus images shot from the late 19th century to the late 20th century by the photographers of the region's biggest electrical company.

Edison supplied power to municipalities beyond the city limits of Los Angeles proper, which, thanks to the firm's endeavours, went from being moderately inhabited coastal lands to one of the most densely populated regions in the US. The firm commissioned photographers to shoot its power plants and overhead cables, as well as the supermarkets, petrol stations and homes lit up by its current. While this might have served little purpose beyond demonstrating how great life was with plug sockets, today they're an evocative reminder of the hopes and follies of mid-century modernism, slipping in somewhere between Raymond Chandler and Ed Ruscha.

Perhaps it's the wide variety of scenes pictured, coupled with the photographers' apparent detachment, that makes the archive so uncanny. Or perhaps it's the fickle switch the photographers seem to make between documentation of power generation and a boosterish promotion of the good life on offer through the electrical grid.

Here a leisurely housewife roasts a turkey; there acouple rest on the lip of a nocturnal swimming pool; elsewhere an electrical worker shows the hole burned in his throat during an industrial accident; in between there are neon-lit convenience stores, twilit service stations; pylons, steam turbines, mines and scenes of blissful domesticity; here a young man labours over a metal furnace; there a schoolgirl falls asleep beside her nightlight.Edison bequeathed the photos to the Huntington Library, LA in 2006, and over the past year history professors William Deverell and Greg Hise have been making sense of this vast resource. Electricity was essential for much of the growth in manufacturing and the regional economy, they say . Metropolitan southern California is a product of the second industrial revolution; electricity and petroleum were fundamental for the production of chemicals, dyes and materials for aviation and aerospace, film and related industries.

There is a popular misconception that LA has no past, Hise explains. This collection is visual evidence that the past is all around.

Summary: Edison electrical company has created an extraordinary online photographic archive of more than a century of work in the Los Angeles area. Its 70,000 images create a fascinating portrait of place and people


11/19/2015 AT 10:40 AM EST

is suffering from a staph infection, PEOPLE has confirmed.

"She's home on antibiotics and being closely monitored a doctor," a source says, adding that she contracted the infection from being by estranged husband

's hospital bedside "but it was exacerbated by stress." She was diagnosed with the bacterial infection after noticing lumps on her lower body.

in a Nevada brothel Oct. 13, and Kardashian, 31, dropped everything to care for him. After a week at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas – where he

after four days – he is now

at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Now, because of her condition, Kardashian, who threw Odom an intimate 36th birthday party in the hospital earlier this month, can not visit him: "She is so frustrated by the fact that she was doing something good and then THIS happens," the source says.

Another source says the reality star is recovering well: "She just needs some medication and some rest and she will be fine. She's under a doctor's care and they are happy with how she is progressing."

on Wednesday, telling fans on Twitter, "I'm sick &dr's orders are that I need to lay low until we narrow down what's wrong."

She later added that she was taking antibiotics and painkillers.

Signing off.... Antibiotics +painkillers + tweeting does not equal anything good lol

Kardashian also advised her followers that "stress can run our bodies down so please everyone take care of yourselves."

Though Odom and Kardashian are

in this week's issue that the famous family will "always be there to support Lamar."

"You stick by your family," she said, "and you are there to be the best support system in the world."

Summary: The reality star cancelled book signing appearances Wednesday due to the illness


It’s not exactly an olive branch.

In an essay published in local media, Fidel Castro celebrated his 89th birthday Thursday by arguing that the United States owes Cuba “many millions of dollars” because of the trade embargo Congress imposed on the island nation back in 1963, according to a report in L’Agence France-Presse

The essay, which was published Thursday, appeared just one day before John Kerry was set to appear at a ceremonial raising of the stars and stripes at the U.S. embassy in Havana. The event is meant to celebrate the official opening up of Cuba-U.S. relations last month.

Despite the thawing of Cuba-U.S. relations, the trade embargo remains in place, and can only be removed by an act of Congress.

Summary: Castro spoke out against the U.S. in an essay published in the local media.


Tim Cook announces Apple Pay during an Apple special event at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on September 9, 2014 in Cupertino, California.

As far as security goes, Apple says consumers and retailers are safer using Apple Pay than a credit card.

The Touch ID is a fingerprint identification system. Apple says it will make the transaction safer for two reasons: the uniqueness of your fingerprint and because the cashier will never see your credit card.

In addition, Apple Pay uses EMV (chip and pin) technology, a security system already used in Europe on plastic credit cards. "It's a lot safer than the information that's stored on the magnetic strips on the back of our credit cards that we use here in the United States," said John Simons, technology and media editor at The Associated Press.

—By CNBC's Christina Medici Scolaro

Summary: Apple Pay is a key feature to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but there are a few downside issues consumers should know.


Janet Yellen, the new Federal Reserve Board chairwoman, appears before the House Financial Services Committee on February 11, 2014 in Washington.

Sure, Congress voted on a continuing resolution to avoid another debt ceiling debacle but they haven't addressed the issues. Macro data in global economies is weakening. And, then there's the impact that further Fed tapering will have on markets.

And, while Yellen's comments were expected and largely positive, she did express some concern about the economy, notably that comment on stubborn unemployment — and that's why longer-term investors need to be cautious.

(Read more: Marc Faber: Here's how much I want stocks to fall)

Considering the 30-percent market gain last year — the market needs to reprice based on all of this new data.

If the market suspects that the Fed plans to reignite the stimulus then, of course, the market will move higher. But if Yellen maintains the course and the economy begins to struggle, then expect an adjustment to prices.

The lack of volume speaks volumes about the mindset of investors. I suspect that we will challenge the all-time highs of 1850 once again. Once we get through this testimony today and Thursday, investors will focus once again on the broader picture — and this will cause a consolidation in prices.

What are stocks doing now? Click here for the latest read on the market.

Kenny Polcari is director of NYSE floor operations at O'Neil Securities and a CNBC contributor, often appearing on "Power Lunch." Follow Kenny on Twitter @kennypolcari and visit him at kennypolcari.com.

Disclosure: The market commentary is the opinion of the author and is based on decades of industry and market experience; however no guarantee is made or implied with respect to these opinions. This commentary is not nor is it intended to be relied upon as authoritative or taken in substitution for the exercise of judgment. The comments noted herein should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any financial product, or an official statement or endorsement of O'Neil Securities or its affiliates.

Summary: The market loved Janet Yellen's congressional testimony — but once reality sets in, the Yellen glow will fade, says NYSE floor trader Kenny Polcari.


Matthew Hickey and his beloved Ajax. (GoFundMe/Corey Orr)

A retired Ohio cop, who offered to buy his K9 ex-partner so the two of them could remain together – only to learn the dog had to be auctioned off, may have found another way of stopping them from being separated.

Marietta officer Matthew Hickey, who retired from the force last week following 30 years of service, was told first that he could “buy” his K9 police partner Ajax for $U3500 ($A4947).

Later he was advised the dog – legally regarded as the property of the city – had to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Mr Hickey’s bid to secure the dog inspired a GoFundMe campaign, which has already managed to raise more than $U68,800 ($A97,258) – a staggering achievement given the campaign’s humble goal of $U3500.

But it turns out the funds – a majority of which go towards providing police departments with protective vests for K9 officers – may not be necessary.

During a press conference on Monday, it emerged that Mr Hickey might have the option of becoming an auxiliary (volunteer reserve) police officer, thereby keeping his beloved pooch.

In an update to the GoFundMe campaign, creator Corey Orr wrote in to explain that no formal offer however has been made.

“As stated in the press conference the offer of auxiliary officer had been considered, but has not and cannot be offered because it has to be approved before it can be offered,” Mr Orr wrote.

“Furthermore, Officer Hickey still has not been cleared by his doctor to return to active duty whether that be regular or auxiliary duty.

“So none of this has been resolved or settled upon.”

Mr Hickey’s much-publicised plight has drawn support from both within Marietta and abroad.

Ohio law permits officers to buy their dogs, but only if the dog is older or has been injured in the line of duty.

Mr Hickey has been working with Ajax for four years and says he would be devastated if they were separated.

"Ajax is a family member; he's one of my children," Mr Hickey told WBNS last week.

K9 officers – also known as police dogs – are typically employed by police officers to assist with searches as well as to protect their human partners.


D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra

03/12/2016 AT 10:50 AM EST

excerpted in this week's PEOPLE, includes many surprising revelations, one of the most heartbreaking is the story of how she did not see her father for over twenty years after her parents divorced when she was two years old.

After the divorce due to her father infidelity, her mother moved to the U.S. where she worked as a nurse to start a new life. Several years later, Padma immigrated to the U.S. to join her.

It would be over two decades until she saw her father again. "Until I was in my twenties, I didn't even know what he looked like," she writes.

"My mother made a better life for us in America." she explains. "So for my whole family, he was sort of a personal non grata so there weren't even pictures of him. They were all torn up."

"And one time, I think maybe I was eleven, I stumbled on a wedding picture of theirs that somebody had somehow forgot to rip up," she recalls. "But when I saw him and saw his hand on the table, it looked like an older weathered version of my hand. And he has the same gait that I do. But I didn't get to see any of those things growing up and so I think for me, there were layers of an identity crisis."

"There was first being an immigrant, and then moving around a lot and then not knowing one whole side of my family," she notes. "And it was just one big black hole."

Still her large family, including her maternal grandparents and many cousins, she says "more than made up for it."

When she was 25 years old, she saw her father again. "I took the train to Bangolore and met him at the Taj Hotel in the lobby cafÃ©, and I just said to him the thing I had always wondered, which is okay, 'I'm sure you have your side [regarding] whatever happened between my mom and you but why didnât you want me?'"

"And he said something like 'I thought it would be better for you if it was a clean break and you weren't torn.'"

Asked if it's something she still grapples with, she says, "You can't miss something you never had. However, I do think not knowing one half of my family did delay me figuring out who I was, because I didn't know where I came from. And I didn't want my daughter to ever feel like that."

Summary: The Top Chef host reveals she did not see her father for twenty years after her parents divorce