One of the mysteries of 19th-century literature has been solved - specifically, the identification of the ''Marguerite'' in Matthew Arnold's early poems and love life and similar momentous attitudes of Victoriana that have long tantalized scholars. The answer came after an international search through unpublished journals, diaries and letters tracked down in archives from Birmingham to Newcastle, from New Haven to Wellington, New Zealand.

The detective work was undertaken by Park Honan for his biography ''Matthew Arnold: A Life,'' newly published by McGraw-Hill here. Professor Honan is an American who lives in England and teaches at the University of Birmingham. In a talk from Birmingham the other day, he said that his trans-Atlantic background enabled him to obtain information from fellow scholars in what amounted to a literary Interpol investigation.

Arnold, who lived from 1822 to 1888, turns out to be a character somewhat less delightful than his poetry and criticism. From his family home in the Lake District, he traveled extensively in Europe and made two trips to the United States, not always to the advantage of Americans. He was an inspector of schools and a professor of poetry at Oxford. His well-known poems include ''Dover Beach'' and ''Empedocles on Etna'' and his principal work as a social critic is ''Culture and Anarchy.'' Star-Gazing Walks

In the biography, his fictional ''Marguerite'' is revealed to be Mary Claude, a French Protestant exile born in the Freidrichstadt district of Berlin, who summered in the Lake District and became close to the Clough family, Arnold's best friends. He was 25, she two years older; neither was married when they began a series of heavybreathing, star-gazing, moonlight walks.

Miss Claude, by all accounts, was beautiful, with ash-colored ''soft, enkerchiefed'' hair, pale blue eyes, rounded cheeks and a mocking manner. Those who did not admire her found Miss Claude ''cruel and invisible.'' If so, at least she had a Continental manner, was a linguist, and could be mocking in six languages. Arnold's worried friends, by contrast, considered him debonair but a hopeless fool ensnared by ''romantic passion.''

Or, as he put it in one of his intense poems of unfulfilled amour: Forgive me! forgive me! Ah, Marguerite, fain Would these arms reach to clasp thee! But see! 'tis in vain.

The poet and Miss Claude decided to get away from the Victorian strictures of the Lake District, Professor Honan says, and meet in the Hotel Bellevue in Thun, in the Swiss Alps. Arnold, ever the scholar, prepared himself by reading poems about lust. ''Love for Matthew, at 25, is not so much an exciting sensation as a way of knowing,'' his biographer declares, ''less a palace of delights than a window opening on himself and the world.''

If Arnold's heart raced as he reached the hotel, the story continues, all he could do was admire the lobby instead of the rest of the blue-eyed Miss Claude. She had taken a Victorian powder. Apparently because of vague family commitments, she had returned to England earlier than planned. Arnold was left to cool his heels and his ardor. Professor Honan speculates that he may have been ''halfrelieved'' by the unconsummated tryst. 'Destroyed His Pose'

''His romance in the Alps was worse than farcical,'' the biographer notes. ''It now destroyed his pose as the easy emperor who was more coolly witty and sophisticated than anyone else. Whatever he said, the joke was on him. He appeared to have waited like a hot schoolboy for a princess - as if she would sexually succumb! - and the princess had snubbed him!''

References to the romance were later suppressed by family and friends. But with the help of scholars at libraries and universities, including Yale, Virginia, Maryland, Birmingham, Newcastle and Wellington, the author pieced together the clues. The Claude connection came out through letters and family journals. Letters written by Arnold's sister, Mary, to a brother, Tom, in New Zealand, revealed the romance. Matthew Arnold's American grandson, Arnold Whitridge, provided unpublished letters. And bits and pieces turned up in such esoteric publications as the Victorian Newsletter, Victorian Poetry and The Arnoldian.

When Arnold visited the United States, he was a celebrated poet. A newspaper headline in 1884 read: ''England's Incomparable Egotist Gives a Few of His Impressions About Chicago.'' Arnold was quoted: ''I would not go to see the pig-sticking in the stockyards. Certainly not! Why should I wish to see pig-sticking?'' 'Speed of Change'

But he also tallied up the real strengths of country, the biographer says, including ''her wonderful Constitution, laws, and federal system, the hopeful attitudes of the people, her natural resources; her weakness lay at the heart of her success - the speed of change had made the quality of life in the United States very poor, with the three key industries of steel, meat packing and oil at the heart of her enterprise.''

Arnold was happily married, and he and Frances Lucy Wightman had six children. Miss Claude never married and lived until 1912. There is no indication that either one was heartbroken. They had gone their separate ways, without further ''nervous kisses in the moonlight dark.''

Illustrations: photo of Matthew Arnold


There was a time when Presidential candidates made political capital of having been born in a log cabin, and a few Presidents were.

Now a former President, who was not born in a log cabin, is having one built as a place where he can get away from it all and do a little fishing.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are having a vacation cabin built alongside Turnip Town Creek, near Ellijay, population 1,327, in the mountains of north central Georgia. The creek runs into Carters Lake, which was not named for the former President. John Pope of Americus, a family friend who is in charge of construction, said the cabin, built of handhe wn logs, will have a main floor that includes a large open room, a bedroom and a bathroom. There will also be an upstairs slee ping loft and bathroom for children and visitors.

Mr. Pope said that the cabin had a ''wonderful view of waterfalls and rapids, which Mrs. Carter loves,'' and that mountain laurel and rhododendron, favorites of the former First Lady, abound in the area.

The cabin is being built on a 20-acre plot, where quarters for the Carters' Secret Service agents will also be built. Albin Krebs Robert McG. Thomas Jr.


ABOARD A COAST GUARD RC— 130, off Newfoundland, - ''Oh, they're out here all right,'' Lieut. Frank Sturm shouted over the roar of the plane's engines. ''The trick is to find them before they find someone. And this is looking to be a real busy year.''

The objects of Lieutenant Sturm's search and of a multimilliondollar annual hunt just resumed are icebergs, the frosty leviathans that lumber out of the north this time of year to threaten the busy North Atlantic shipping lanes.

With funds from a consortium of maritime nations, the United States Coast Guard annually assigns a longrange patrol plane, a team of observers and at times a ship to monitor the southerly flow of icebergs along the Canadian coast toward a natural doom in the warm Gulf Stream currents.

From fog-ridden fields in Newfoundland, these teams fly out daily, equipped with special radar gear and computer charts and using sharp eyes, a dash of daring and a sense of humor to leaven long hours of monotonous searching for the deadly bergs that began life generations ago as innocent snow on Greenland's icecap. Reports Fed to Computers

Five months a year the crews radio reports to computers on Governors Island in the New York harbor to update twice-daily international broadcasts transmitted to ships to prevent a repetition of the Titanic disaster that claimed more than 1,500 lives in 1912. The computers also hold area currents, and information on weather and temperatures to help predict the daily movement of each iceberg.

By mid-April the crews were monitoring more than 90 icebergs, equal to the number usually plotted as late as July. The high number was a result of the winter's lingering chill and the severity of winters two or three years ago when the current icebergs were ''calved,'' breaking off parent glaciers on Greenland's western shore.

Some icebergs spend a year or two in their home cove before drifting into currents that carry them on a 2,000-mile journey north along the Greenland coast and then down past eastern Canada and Newfoundland.

''The waterr is colder this year,'' said Lieutenant Sturm, who is from Hopatcong, N.J. ''So even the smaller bergs are lasting longer.'' Move 15 Miles a Day

The iceberg the Titanic hit was probably of medium size, standing 50 to 150 feet above the surface, with a dark reef of ice reaching far out underwater. Experts say icebergs can tower 300 feet high and can be more than 1,500 feet long, containing up to 1.5 million tons of ice, nine-tenths of it hidden below, moving at a speed of 15 miles a day.

The Coast Guard calculates that it would take 2.4 million gallons of gas or 1,900 tons of TNT to melt or destroy a large iceberg. So destruction is left to the warm Gulf Stream, which does the job in two weeks.

Every morning in Gander, Newfoundland, weather and machinery permitting, Lieutenant Sturm boards an aging aircraft along with the two other ice observers, Petty Officers John Flynn of Voorheesville, N.Y., and Daniel Walsh of Syosset, L.I., and a seven-member Coast Guard air crew from Elizabeth City, N.C. They cover an area of ocean the size of Pennsylvania.

Depositing their lunches in the plane's tail to chill, the crew prepares the special radars and sensors able to differentiate icebergs from fishing boats. They closely monitor engine No. 4, which had a severe fuel leak the day before, causing an emergency three-engine landing. There are many jokes about handling the giant RC-130 in a severe spin and ''blowing the jug,'' or crashing. Flying Over Iceberg Alley

The plane is flown high and fast to the southern fringe of the iceberg alley, to make sure none have sneaked through. In the rear of the noisy craft, Mr. Walsh is waiting and dozing until urgently awakened by Mr. Flynn, who as a prank is wearing a parachute.

As the plane begins its patrol, flying low-level patterns in the shape of inverted ''U's,'' Andy Hampton, the radar operator, calls out the ''targets,'' mostly ships. ''No two bergs are alike,'' he says. ''But from up here they all look beautiful.'' Banter Over the Intercom

Everyone on the plane is wired together by intercom headsets. Technical jargon mixes with comradely bantering. ''We have a 34 DME lock on here,'' says the co-pilot, Allan Ferguson, meaning there is another plane 34 miles away. ''How come,'' Lieut. Fred Fairchild, the navigator, asks the engineer, Ron Dye, ''you look so much older than I do?'' ''I'm enlisted,'' comes the reply. ''There are some big characters floating around out here,'' says Mr. Walsh, ''in all shapes and sizes with the most beautiful shades of blue.'' Each Is Classified By Size

He must classify each sighting according to size. Even small ones, called growlers, only three feet above the water, can weigh 100 tons. Just as the plane is to climb and head for home, Lieutenant Sturm calls out: ''10 o'clock, five miles out. Bingo!'' The craft swings to the left. There, hugging the shore, is a small berg, three peaks of white and green ice sticking perhaps 20 feet above the water. The plane circles to get the correct coordinates for relay to New York.

''Well, that's one,'' says a somewhat frustrated Lieutenant Sturm. ''At least we know today where a lot of icebergs aren't.''

Illustrations: photo of Vivian Crea


Gartner’s picture of the computer industry would look very different if it included the iPad

The blue line is the PC market as Gartner defines it with the iPad’s growth thrown in. The green line is PCs running Microsoft’s MSFT Windows. The red line is Apple’s AAPL Macintosh. The orange line is the Mac plus the iPad.

Want more? Read Horace Dediu’s analysis at Asymco.com.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Summary: Gartner's picture of the computer industry would look very different if it included the iPad The blue line is the PC market as Gartner defines it with the iPad's growth thrown in. The green line is PCs running Microsoft's Windows. The red line is Apple's Macintosh. The orange line is the Mac plus the iPad.…


07/20/2015 AT 08:00 PM EDT

YouTube star Meghan Tonjes has some major issues with

on her page explaining why Grande's deflection of blame for her

is indicative of greater societal problems.

"When I saw her go right in for that apology it upset me, because it really was taking the focus off of the fact that she licked some doughnuts in a store – and that's f------ gross – and kind of threw fat people up as the reason that everything's awful," said Tonjes.

"I'm not saying that she doesn't have a great point about the food industry, or the quality of food that we have [â¦] but if we want to sit here and believe that it's just the fat people in America who are [eating unhealthy foods], it's not," she said. "People are shocked that I don't sit all day on the couch and eat pizza, but you know what, sometimes I do, because sometimes everybody does."

The Los Angeles-based musician went on to explain the larger issues she has with societal attitudes towards people who are "fat."

"If I were 120 lbs. eating a pizza in my underwear on Tumblr, I would be 'quirky' and 'cute' and 'real,' but if I'm 300 lbs. and I'm eating pizza in my underwear, people are like, 'You're killing yourself,' 'You're disgusting,' 'You're everything that's wrong with America,' " said the 29-year-old.

"We live in a culture that glorifies food, but then we hate the people that we think are representative of that sinful desire for food," she continued. "I just wish that people remembered that fat people are people."

Tonjes hopes her video – which currently has over 50,000 views – opens up a dialogue about how people view those who are overweight.

"We judge people based on what we think they do, and that judgment changes based on how they look," she tells PEOPLE. "I just wanted to highlight the hypocrisy of some of the things that happen when we start going in this direction of 'Fat people are bad,' 'Fat people are evil,' as if that's the problem. I hope that people watch [my video] and it sparks conversation."

Tonjes hasn't been surprised by the impassioned commentary her video has already generated – both supporting her and critiquing her views.

"I knew that it was a topic that people feel very passionately about on both ends," she continues. "I know that it's a very hard message to swallow."

Summary: "If I were 120 lbs. eating a pizza in my underwear on Tumblr, I would be 'quirky' and 'cute' and 'real,'" said singer-songwriter Meghan Tonjes


The updated Moto X smartphone from Motorola.

NEW YORK — Motorola is refreshing its Android smartphones with better cameras and other improvements as it seeks to lure customers who want lower-cost alternatives to the leading smartphones from Apple and Samsung.

Its new models — the Moto G, Moto X Play, and Moto X Style — will appeal largely to people who have to pay full prices for phones, rather than discounted prices that come with two-year service contracts.

‘‘We’re about delivering great mobile user experiences at a price that doesn’t break the bank,’’ said Motorola’s president, Rick Osterloh.

Motorola, which Lenovo bought from Google last year, said the new Moto G will retail in the United States for about $180, without a service contract.

Motorola hasn’t announced prices for the Moto X models, but they are expected to be a few hundred dollars cheaper than high-end phones, which cost $600 or more without a contract.

In promoting the improved cameras, Osterloh was careful to say they will deliver some of the best pictures ‘‘at this price point.’’

Apple and Samsung, in particular, have been advancing their phone-camera technology with better auto-focus and low-light performance.

Their high-end phones also have other wizardry, such as fingerprint sensors for bypassing passcodes.

The 5-inch Moto G will have a 13-megapixel camera, up from 8 megapixels in last year’s model. Motorola says the phone will be able to withstand dunking in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. All models will support 4G cellular connections; in the past, 4G models of the Moto G cost more.

The cameras on the Moto X phones will be 21 megapixels, up from 13 megapixels, but they won’t have extensive water protection.

The 5.5-inch Play model promises two days of battery life, while the company says the 5.7-inch Style should last more than a day. The Style will have a sharper screen than the Play and more customization options, including wood and leather backs for a higher price.

Only the Style version will be sold in the United States. Motorola says it should work with all major carriers. Contract-free phones are often limited to GSM networks like AT&T’s or T-Mobile’s.

The Moto G goes on sale Tuesday, while the Moto X models will be available in coming weeks.

Summary: Motorola is refreshing its Android smartphones with better cameras and other improvements as it seeks to lure customers who want lower-cost alternatives to leading smartphones from Apple and Samsung.


Yelp Inc. plunged by a record 28 percent after the customer-review website reduced its revenue forecast and at least five analysts downgraded the stock.

The shares fell to $23.97 in Wednesday morning trading in New York, the lowest intraday price since April 2013. On Tuesday, Chairman Max Levchin said he would step down after 11 years to focus full time on his job as chief executive officer of Affirm Inc., the consumer-lending startup he founded. In addition to cutting its third-quarter sales prediction, Yelp announced it would stop selling national brand advertising. Banks including Oppenheimer & Co. and Raymond James reduced their ratings on the stock.

The website attracts more than 160 million visitors looking for customer reviews about local businesses. National brand ad revenue decreased 8 percent to $8.3 million last quarter quarter and Yelp will phase out those sales by the end of the year to focus on its core local advertising. The lowered forecast shows the highly competitive local advertising environment Yelp faces, said Chris Merwin, an analyst at Barclays Plc.

“We’re at a pretty unusual time in terms of the amount of competition in local,” Merwin said. “Over time, competition should normalize and help Yelp, but nearer term it should be challenging.”

Yelp lowered its third-quarter sales forecast to a range of $139 million to $142 million, below analysts’ average estimate of $152.7 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Annual revenue was projected at $544 million to $550 million, down from an April forecast of $574 million to $579 million, the San Francisco-based company said Tuesday in a statement. Analysts anticipated $571.9 million.

Yelp shares fell in April after the company reported declining advertising sales. The shares rebounded in May following reports that Yelp was exploring a possible sale.

Yelp reported a net loss of $1.3 million, or 2 cents a share in the quarter, compared with a profit of $2.7 million, or 4 cents a share, a year earlier.

“We expect local advertising will continue to be our primary driver of growth as we work toward our goal of generating one billion dollars of revenue in 2017,” said Rob Krolik, chief financial officer.

Local ad revenue grew 43 percent to $107.9 million last quarter.

Summary: Yelp plunged after the customer-review website reduced its revenue forecast and at least five analysts downgraded the stock.


"My own impression is that we will get a rate hike this summer, by September, not in September," he said.

This will be accompanied by "very aggressive forward policy guidance, which tells us it's a long journey, so markets don't go to the terminal late. We want to focus on a very gradual journey," he said.

On Friday, Federal Reserve vice chairman Stanley Fischer said the central bank looked most likely to raise interest rates in June or September, but developments in the economy could alter the timing.

"I don't think there is an emphasis on June instead of September" Fischer said, at a monetary policy forum in New York, adding that he doesn't expect the U.S. central bank to follow any sort of predetermined path when rates do begin to rise.

Speaking on valuations, El-Erian said short-term investors should look to move out of the U.S. and into Europe as there is still room to go. The dollar will also strengthen further, he said.

"The dollar has further to go, but it won't be linear. The thing that investors should value most is liquidity, the ability to reposition…. don't give up liquidity. These markets are structurally no longer constructed to provide liquidity," he added

Summary: Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, has told CNBC that investors should prepare for a U.S. rate hike this summer, by September.


"The dollar is weaker against all the commodities at the moment," said Michael Hewson, chief analyst at CMC Markets.

"We saw a heavy selloff in commodities yesterday and I think that's why we're getting a little bit of a rebound in oil prices on the back of that."

French oil major Total announced on Thursday that it would increase cuts to operational costs to $1.2 billion this year while spending 30 percent less on exploration, to cope with weaker oil prices.

Traders have been torn between early signs lower prices will eventually curb production and indications the market will remain oversupplied in the first six months of this year.

Read MoreWhy rig cuts won't save oil: Goldman

U.S. crude stocks rose to a record weekly high last week, while gasoline stocks increased and distillate inventories fell, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday.

"(The rise in prices) is quite surprising," said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Germany's Commerzbank. "Prices have dropped sharply in the last two days so it may be a bounce back from that, but the decline was more than justified."

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's oil minister met the chairman of Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, Saudi state media said, and discussed cooperation between oil producers belonging to the

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-members such as Russia.

Saudi Arabia will keep March crude supply to Asia steady, industry sources told Reuters.

—CNBC contributed to this report.

Summary: Crude oil futures climbed on Thursday, arresting a two-session losing streak, as industry spending cuts and a weaker dollar spurred buying.


Question 1: Is the dollar index value at $1.00 unusually high?

From 1997 to 2000 the dollar index traded in a consolidation band between $0.99 and $1.02. The current value near $1.00 is inside the historical trading band. The dollar index may develop a consolidation pattern between $0.99 and $1.00.

Question 2: Can the dollar index go higher and what are the target levels?

In 2001 and in January 2002 the dollar index peaked at $1.205. It is possible that the dollar index will breakout above $1.02 and move higher.

Question 3: How sustainable was the breakout above $1.02?

The breakout above $1.02 in January 2000 developed into a well-defined and sustainable uptrend. The uptrend was contained in a unsloping trading channel around $0.10 wide. The key feature is the stability of the uptrend following the breakout above consolidation between $0.99 and $1.02.

Question 4: Are there similarities between 1997 and today?

There is a very important difference. In 1995 to 1997 the rise from $0.80 to $1.00 was a more stable trend than the rise from July 2014 to today. Fast rises are often followed by substantial retreats. The potential for retreat is the key risk in the current dollar Index environment so investors will carefully watch for consolidation to develop between $0.99 and $1.02. A retreat below $0.99 has the first support target near $0.89. A breakout above $1.02 has the first resistance level near $1.09.

The very fast rise from $0.80 to $1.00 suggests a greater potential for market volatility until the consolidation pattern is confirmed.

Summary: The U.S. dollar is on a tear amid expectations that the Fed will hike rates later this year, but charts suggest the potential for volatility before the greenback consolidates those gains.


She is authentic. "Will the real Hillary Clinton please stand up?" is a question that many are asking. "Show us the real Hillary!" the Washington Beltway is yelling. Well, I counter that this IS the real Hillary. She writes in "Living History," "In high school, I ran for student government president against several boys and lost, which did not surprise me but still hurt, especially because one of my opponents told me I was 'really stupid if I thought a girl could be elected president.'" An ironic foreshadowing of her future, but in 2016 she can rewrite history.

When a person has been running a campaign for elected office since high school, I accept the fact that this is who she is: A consummate politician rooted in strategy, thoughtful word choices and crafted optics. And I consider such traits as assets for a president inheriting a Congress that is dangerously divisive. She knows defeat, but is not afraid to get back on the field to run the ball. As a United States senator and a cabinet secretary, she has learned to compromise and work with her rivals. With Hillary, we know what we are getting – authentic experience.

Read MoreCriminal Inquiry Is Sought in Clinton Email Account

She'll really fight for the middle class. Growing up middle class, I was able to witness the value and rewards of my parents' hard work, while simultaneously being sensitive to the notion that others weren't as fortunate by circumstance. They pushed my siblings and I to aspire for more, beyond our class, through education. In voting for a president, I don't care if the candidate is of economic means. What I care about is if he or she has the moral compass to understand that classism exists, the desire to help others advance from their current station in life, and the sense to support the industries that keep America working.

In "Living History," Hillary says, "On that first day (at Wellesley College), as my parents drove away, I felt lonely, overwhelmed and out of place. I met girls who had gone to private boarding schools, lived abroad, spoke other languages fluently and placed out of freshman courses because of their Advanced Placement test scores. I had been out of the country only once – to see the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. My only exposure to foreign languages was high school Latin." This is the type of person I want in the oval office. One who sits in a seat of privilege, but can remember, when creating policy, what it felt like to feel overwhelmed and out of place.

She understands foreign policy. The world has changed, period. Our enemies are now our partners. ISIS is on Twitter. Cuban cigars are THISCLOSE to becoming sold in local stores. And I know more about Greek ATM transactions than I care to. So it's easy to build a case for Hillary, as she served as secretary of state while the world was shifting its axis of influence and evil. Hillary traveled to 112 countries, making her the most widely traveled secretary of state in history. She attended 306 diplomatic meetings and spent the equivalent of 87 full days on airplanes. By these stats alone, she is ahead of any of her Democratic or Republican challengers on familiarity with world leaders, their allies and agendas.

What's more, she views women's rights and human rights as critical for U.S security interests — a sophisticated understanding that our national security has to be about more than military might. We need a leader who understands nuanced diplomacy and who can build on Obama's legacy. Hillary is that leader.

Read More Trump turns GOP race into reality-TV circus

She has the qualifications. There is no college degree or career that can possibly prepare one for the responsibility of becoming the most powerful person in the world. Therefore you have to have the audacity and will to believe you can make a difference. It became clear to me that Hillary had this mix when she recalled, in "Living History," the story of how, as an eighth-grade supporter of Richard Nixon's presidential campaign against John F. Kennedy, she showed up at a downtown hotel in her hometown of Chicago (unbeknownst to her parents), "went off with strangers" in a car to check voter lists against addresses to uncover (alleged) voter fraud in Chicago.

Today, she's just as bold. She was one of the first presidential candidates to talk openly about race and the issues regarding the Black Lives Matter movement after the church shootings in South Carolina. What's more, she supports Latinos and other immigrants' path to citizenship; she believes that women's rights are human rights, that global warming is real, that affordable health care isn't optional and that the minimum wage needs to be a livable wage. You know, just the basics.

And for me, that's more than enough to say, I am ready for Hillary.

Read MoreWinning $15 an hour means no food stamps: KDeverything to me

Commentary by Mike Muse, co-founder of Muse Recordings. Muse has served on President Barack Obama's National Finance Committee as well as finance committees of Sens. Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand and Mayor Bill de Blasio. He is currently serving on the Democratic National Finance Committee and Hillary Clinton's Finance Committee. He was recently appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to serve on the Board of Advisors for the Mayors Fund to Advance New York City. Follow him on Twitter @IamMikeMuse.

Summary: Hillary Clinton gets it right on four major points, and plenty of others, says political fund-raiser Mike Muse.


NEW YORK (AP) — This month's Federal Reserve policy meeting could signal the end of an era.

Policymakers may decide to raise interest rates for the first time since the Great Recession, marking the end of an era of ultra-low rates that has defined financial markets for almost seven years.

Although signs of slowing global economic growth have decreased the likelihood of a September rate increase, many economists still expect policymakers to take action at least once this year as the labor market improves. The Fed has kept its benchmark rate at close to zero since late 2008 to help revive the economy.

As well as helping the economy, those low rates have been great for financial markets.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index has almost tripled since bottoming in March 2009, as corporate profits have surged. Bond prices have also climbed, pushing down yields. In turn, that has boosted demand for other dividend-rich securities, such as high-yield bonds and real estate investment trusts.

But if interest rates start rising, will that automatically reverse the stock market's momentum?

Jim McDonald, chief investment strategist at asset manager Northern Trust, explains what he expects to happen with interest rates, how that will impact financial markets, and what investors should, or shouldn't do.

Fed policymakers will meet Sept. 16 and 17.

Q: Do you expect an interest rate increase this year?

A: We do expect a rate increase this year. The Fed is itching to start to get off zero interest rates, so they will move this year.

They are nervous that they don't have any dry powder to deal with an increase in financial markets or economic volatility. They can't really cut rates any more and the market would respond negatively to (more) quantitative easing. They want to get rates up, so that in the future, if they want to cut rates, they have that option.

Q: How high could interest rates go?

A: Over the next year, it could be two interest rate hikes. So, they would get up to 50 basis points (0.5 percent) and then they have to hang out. Because along with the Bank of England they will be the only central bank that is raising rates. The economy is just not that strong.

Q: What should investors do in response to higher rates?

A: There is absolutely no need for panic around the Fed starting to raise rates. Some people are concerned about it, but this an extremely studied event and the market is rarely disrupted by an event that is over analyzed. And this has been over analyzed.

The recent volatility in the market has been tied to China. And, secondarily it's been tied to people saying "jeez, you know what? The major central banks really don't have a lot of ammo if we do get into a significant downturn." It's that aspect of monetary policy that has been of concern. It's not worries about a 25 basis point increase, which, in the scope of everything else going on, is immaterial.

Q: So investors shouldn't overreact?

A: It's a "let's ride this out" situation because raising interest rates is generally tied to the economy improving, and the economy is going to have to be doing OK for the Fed to raise rates. The history of the stock market is that it does fine when the Fed starts to raise rates, because the Fed taking action is corroboration that the economy is strong.

Q: Which sectors perform best in a rising rate environment?

A: Typically the financials would be the stand out performer in that environment. Financial stocks have been hurt by the low interest rate environment and they should be good performers with a higher rate environment. So they are the number one example. But we're not overweight financial stocks right now because we think that the rate increases are going to be relatively minor.

Q: What's your favorite sector in the current environment?

A: We're focused more on the fundamental background of the different businesses. Health care is one of our top recommendations and that's because the fundamentals in health care are just so good. And they won't really be impacted by a small increase in interest rates.

There's been a significant increase in volumes across the industry tied to the Affordable Care Act. That's been good news for health care providers.

A: We don't expect a major upset in the bond market tied to a Fed rate increase. Expectations are already built into the market. We think that the longer maturity bonds will be particularly well behaved when the Fed starts to raise rates. That's because the bond investors will worry that the Fed is going to slow economic growth.

Answers edited for clarity and length.

Summary: NEW YORK— This month's Federal Reserve policy meeting could signal the end of an era. The Standard& Poor's 500 index has almost tripled since bottoming in March 2009, as corporate profits have surged. Jim McDonald, chief investment strategist at asset manager Northern Trust, explains what he expects to happen with interest rates, how that will impact financial...


"If you had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed," he said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney argued those being forced to find new plans will receive better quality of coverage.

"What we're talking about here is the five percent in the country who currently purchase insurance on the individual market," Carney said last month. "And that market has been like the Wild West. It has been under-regulated, it is the place where Americans have most keenly felt the challenges posed by the insurance system in this country."

Read first-person stories on Obamacare: Cancer patient: I'm losing my insurance Retired executive: I can keep my health-care plan? Not true!Small-business owner: Insurance canceled: A message to President Obama

Health and Human Services Secretary Katherine Sebelius acknowledged in a hearing Wednesday that a "majority" of those in the individual market would end up with plans with better coverage while "others will have to choose" an ACA-compliant policy.

Frustration among even some Democrats supportive of the Obamacare bill boiled over this week as coverage of the dropped plans continued.

Sen. Max Baucus, the Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman and a key author of the bill, called the problems "unacceptable" during a hearing at which Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was grilled on Wednesday.

"It has been disappointing to see members of the administration say they didn't see the problems coming," he said.

—By Chuck Todd, NBC News

Summary: Obama said he is "sorry" that some Americans are losing their current health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act.


Keeping up with the Joneses is as American as apple pie. So some good news: The American dream is still alive. Regardless of age, gender, economic level or political affiliation, a majority of wealthy households that took part in CNBC's first-ever Millionaire Survey believe that hard work will still lead to upward mobility and success in the U.S.

If you peeked into the Joneses' windows, though, the people living the good life might surprise you.

For all of the similarity in this group—overwhelmingly white, married and educated—the survey, conducted in the spring of 2014 by SpectremGroup for CNBC, reveals there are some dramatic differences among households with more than $1 million of investable assets.

So here is a look at the millionaires of today in America—how they got where they are, the kind of life it allows them to lead, how they plan to protect what they have gained, what they believe to be true about the American system of capitalism and what poses a threat to wealth in the future.

—CNBC.com staff Posted 6 May 2014

Burke/Triolo Productions | Photolibrary | Getty Images

Summary: For those with a fixed view of what it means to be a U.S. millionaire, the first-ever CNBC Millionaire Survey serves up some surprises.


While VR has long gotten lots of buzz in the media, it's still in its infancy.

Read MoreA battle for the future of virtual reality gaming

Currently, users are pretty limited in what they can actually do while wearing a virtual reality headset. Sure, there are immersive visuals, but in general users can only look around at the environment and make limited movements. Romo said to take VR to the next level, it needs to include a social element.

"Meeting in virtual reality you get the same nonverbal communication you would in real life. You are able to see someone else's body language and you can understand why they are looking that way or what they are looking at," Romo said.

The Redwood, Calif.-based company's software enables users to meet up in a VR setting in the form of an avatar and do things, have conversations, share online content and play games.

Altspace VR partnered with Intel to demonstrate its technology at CES earlier this month and to show how its technology—along with Intel's RealSense 3-D cameras, which track hands—could be used together to enable users to toss a ball back and forth in a virtual reality setting.

Beyond consumers, Romo said he envisions a time in the not-so-distant future where people may put on a virtual reality headset to attend a meeting across the world.

Summary: This company wants you to hang out with your friends in virtual reality.


"U.S. stocks will have to sing for their supper," Colas wrote. "It can be a nice tune about lower interest rates, sung in the European language of your choice. Or, it can be a robust march with verses promising a vigorous domestic economy."

Others also have some concerns. Technical analyst Todd Gordon sees the recent yield move as giving the Federal Reserve license to hike rates—which could be an issue for stocks.

"Why are commodities rallying? Why are bonds selling off? Why is the dollar selling off? Everything from an intermarket point of view points to inflation. … So I wonder if the Fed's going to be move sooner rather than later," Gordon said. "I think that may be trouble for equities if we are in fact going to get a rate hike."

Forecasting inflation is a major departure from the market's recent milieu: The big modern concern has been disinflation or deflation, rather than inflation.

Read MoreWall Street bankers say bond market is in danger

Summary: A further bounce in German yields could be detrimental to U.S. markets.


WILLISTON, N.D., July 29 (Reuters) - U.S. oil companies, under renewed pressure from falling crude prices, are increasingly tweaking and mixing fracking technologies as they scramble to squeeze more out of wells and eke out profits after rounds of cost-cutting.

Shale oil firms need the experiments to payoff now more so than before given that oil prices have resumed their slide to trade around $49 per barrel this week from $60 a few months ago.

Quarterly earnings - and the reams of data that accompany them - throughout the next few weeks will offer Wall Street the first opportunity to assess those efforts and pick potential winners and losers.

When oil fetched $100 a barrel and profits were fatter, most companies followed a similar script. Now, many try to go their own way in a race to bring down the price level at which production remains profitable.

Noting the new trend, CapitalOne Securities said in a recent note to clients that mixing up well completion techniques could result in "a step-change in well performance."

For example, Continental Resources Inc is blending so-called plug and perforate well completion techniques with a "sliding sleeve" approach, betting that gains in oil volumes will outstrip additional costs of using more than one technology.

Effectively, Continental divides a well into 30 or more sections, plugging off some and fracking others. For other parts of the well it uses a "sleeve," a steel device that moves through the well and isolates small sections of a well at a time to be fracked.

The approach has lifted initial production rates as much as 50 percent compared with nearby wells where standard procedures using just one method were applied, Continental president Jack Stark told investors two months ago. Stark will address Wall Street analysts again on August 6 with an update on the new approach. The company is expected to report a 95 percent drop in quarterly profit, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

To be sure, it will take months to fully assess the effectiveness of mixing and matching techniques across dozens of wells, though initial production rates, which get reported to state regulators, will offer a first glimpse.

Wells are fracked by injecting a slurry of water, chemicals and sand at high pressure down holes to crack rock and release hydrocarbons. The technology, known for decades, has made big strides in the past six years when shale oil companies developed horizontal drilling that made oilfields more accessible.

Whiting Petroleum Corp, North Dakota's largest oil producer, since this spring has experimented with pumping twice as much sand into a well during fracking as usual and has found it can boost output by as much as 40 percent.

The Denver-based company, which is expected to barely eke out a profit when it reports quarterly results on Wednesday, was so encouraged by the output rise that earlier this month it increased its 2015 budget by 15 percent to $2.3 billion to finish more wells this year.

Meanwhile, Hess Corp has opted to stick with just the cheaper "sliding sleeve" technique. Data from state oil regulators show that Hess has some of the most productive wells in North Dakota.

"I want to preserve that efficacy I have with sliding sleeve," Gerbert Schoonman, vice president in charge of Hess operations in North Dakota's Bakken shale oil formation, told Reuters.

By contrast, Exxon Mobil subsidiary XTO Energy has chosen to continue to use "plug and perforate" in some areas and "sliding sleeve" in others, and not mix them up. Exxon is expected to report a nearly 50 percent drop in quarterly profit on Friday.

"We're trying to see what process works best in each part of the Bakken," Tim McIlwain, XTO's operations chief, said in an interview.

Statoil is even looking beyond fracking designs. The Norwegian company is investigating whether artificial proppant shaped like the letter "X" could prove to be more effective at holding open cracks in shale rock than sand or ceramic balls.

The technology, which is still being tested, came from a competition for scientists Statoil held earlier this year with General Electric Co to find new styles of proppant.

"You can get more diameter out of the 'X' with less material than you could if it were a sphere of a sand grain," said Gene Bock, Statoil's North Dakota operations chief.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Terry Wade and Tomasz Janowski)

Summary: WILLISTON, N.D., July 29- U.S. oil companies, under renewed pressure from falling crude prices, are increasingly tweaking and mixing fracking technologies as they scramble to squeeze more out of wells and eke out profits after rounds of cost-cutting. Shale oil firms need the experiments to payoff now more so than before given that oil prices have resumed their...


But employees such as the tutor mentioned in this story shouldn't simply accept that they have to change professions—or hide—in order to be gainfully employed. Scott Behren, a Florida employment law expert who specializes in noncompete cases, says there's a number of things workers can do both before and after they leave their jobs to make landing a new job easier.

"There are definitely lots of ways to attack these things," said Behren, who also operates the website TakeThisJobAndShoveItBlog.com.

Workers can accept a new position and sign an indemnity clause with their new employer holding them harmless, and see if the old employer tries to enforce the agreement with a lawsuit, he said.

Proactively, a worker can have a lawyer draft an opinion letter to the old employer, stating the noncompete is unenforceable or overly broad.

Court decisions vary wildly around the country, but generally judges will disallow noncompete provisions that are considered overly broad—either in their time frame or their geographic limitations. Noncompetes must involve a "protectable business interest," Behren said. Front-line workers don't usually have access to trade secrets or other protectable intellectual property, he said.

Former workers can also file with a local court asking for "declaratory relief," that the provision be struck down or modified. Corporations will often settle out of court after such filings, he said, fearing the creation of case law that is unfavorable.

More hardball tactics can involve filing cases for wrongful termination, discrimination or some other workplace violation that lead to dissolving all terms of an employment agreement.

On the other side of the spectrum, workers can also try to negotiate with their former employer.

Read MoreWhy millennial women don't save for retirement

"There are lots of smart employers who understand that despite having required a noncompete, being litigious against your former employees hurts their recruitment efforts and their reputation as a great place to work," Lobel said. "If that's the case, negotiations, formal or informal, can work."

Perhaps the best time to think about noncompetes—as with prenuptial agreements—isn't at the end of a relationship, but rather the beginning.

"(Some) companies are caught up in what I call in (my) book a control mentality, thinking of any former employee as a threat," said Lobel. "It's a good idea when possible to figure out ahead of time which company is which when accepting a position."

—By CNBC contributor Bob Sullivan

CORRECTION: An earlier version misspelled Bijan Sabet's last name.

Summary: Corporations are shackling all kinds of workers with employment agreements that ban them from working for competitors.


Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, right, and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt get out of a Google self-driving car at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., February 2, 2015.

Google has appointed a former auto executive as its first CEO for its driverless cars division on Monday, in a sign the U.S. search giant is getting serious about bringing autonomous vehicles to market.

John Krafcik steps into the role, leaving his job as president of car price comparison website TrueCar. Krafcik is an auto-industry veteran with a previous role in product development at Ford, and as CEO of Hyundai Motors America, where he spent a decade of his career.

Autonomous driving is becoming a hot topic for technology companies like Google and Apple, which is reportedly working on a project in the space. But traditional auto firms have been trying to defend themselves against tech companies encroaching on their space. A consortium of German carmakers earlier this year bought Nokia's HERE mapping business– a key component of driverless cars – for 2.8 billion euros ($3.1 billion).

The hire hints at Google's seriousness about commercializing its autonomous car project and turning it into a fully-functioning business.

"This is a great opportunity to help Google develop the enormous potential of self-driving cars. I can't wait to get started," Krafcik said in a tweet on Monday.

"Self-driving cars could save thousands of lives, give people greater mobility & free us from things we find frustrating about driving today," he continued in another tweet.

Over the past few years, Google has been trying to diversify its business. Earlier this year, the Mountain View, California-based firm re-organized the business into a holding company called Alphabet with its main Google business containing units like YouTube and Android, split from other arms such as its smart thermostat section Nest.

The driverless cars project is part of Google X, the company's secret research lab. By hiring a CEO, this could put the autonomous vehicle unit on course to become a separate entity from Google X, according to a Google spokesperson quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

Google is trying to move quickly with the project and has tested their pod-like vehicles on public roads in both California and Austin, Texas.

It's unclear as of yet how driverless cars will progress but Google has previously said that it won't manufacture its own vehicles but instead looking to partner with other companies.

Summary: Google has hried a former auto exec as its first CEO for its driverless cars unit, in a sign its serious about commercializing the vehicles.


US stocks tumbled to begin 2016 amid a rout in Chinese equities that was sparked by weak factory data there and a reading that showed the fastest contraction in US manufacturing in six years. Traders fear that slowing growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy, may be spreading. Tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran added to the unease. “China is a reminder that there aren’t many things to be bullish about going into this year,” said Michael O’Rourke, at JonesTrading Institutional Services. “The three catalysts to the bull market were economic recovery, earnings recovery, and accommodative policy, and while the economy has gotten better, we’ve lost the other two.” Trading was halted in China after the CSI 300 fell 7 percent. Chinese policy makers went to great lengths to prop up stock prices last year and still aim to prevent market volatility from weighing on an economy set to grow at its weakest pace since 1990. The S&P 500’s fall was its sixth-worst start to a year in post-1927 data compiled by Bloomberg. The biggest rout was in 1932, down 6.9 percent, followed by a 2.8 percent slide in 2001 as the dot-com boom ended.

Summary: A rout in Chinese equities renewed concern that an economic slowdown there will damp global growth.


Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio

01/07/2016 AT 10:50 AM EST

stepped out to attend a special screening of his latest film,

, with his pal and

The two men were all smiles as they posed for pictures on the red carpet in New York City on Wednesday night.

He was also joined on the red carpet by his

and director Alejandro González Iñárritu – and later waved when the director made brief remarks before the start of the film.

DiCaprio, 41, looked dapper in a sleek black suit, with a crisp white shirt underneath. The

actor slicked his hair back for the occasion but sported some light facial hair.

After the screening, the star headed to a private afterparty for the film, where he was seen hanging out with Hill, 32, and fellow actor

The special screening comes just days before the

ceremony. DiCaprio, who has been garnering strong buzz for his performance, is nominated as best actor in a motion picture, drama, for the role.

The four-time Oscar nominee has already received

for his portrayal of 1820s fur trapper Hugh Glass. Along with the Globes nominations, he also received a nod from the

and is already being called a top Oscar contender.

hits theaters nationwide on Jan. 8, after a limited release on Christmas Day.

Summary: DiCaprio is nominated for a Golden Globe for his depiction of 19th century fur trapper Hugh Glass


Mondelez International Inc. is changing its marketing recipe.

For decades advertisers have relied heavily on television commercials to sell their products to the masses. But as consumers’ TV-viewing habits change, thanks in part to the growth of the Web and the rise of smartphones, companies are looking for new ingredients to add to their advertising formulae.

The owner of well-known brands such as Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolates and Ritz crackers is embracing a wide range of newer approaches from spending big on digital channels to using technologies such as holograms in store aisles. At the same time, it has reduced its TV ad spending in the U.S. almost 50% from five years ago, according to ad-tracker Kantar Media.

Change isn’t easy, and Dana Anderson, Mondelez’s chief marketing officer, has plenty riding on her efforts. The Deerfield, Ill., company is under pressure from two high-profile activist investors, including William Ackman, to cut costs and boost earnings. It is also trying to re-engineer some well-known brands to keep up with consumer demand for healthier or more natural food options.

Ms. Anderson spoke with The Wall Street Journal about how Mondelez has gotten its executives to embrace digital media, how it is seeking more than just ads from the likes of Google and how it’s dealing with belt-tightening. Edited excerpts follow.

WSJ: What is the biggest challenge you face?

MS. ANDERSON: The pace of change. Just think about digital media, for instance. As a company, we’re committed to shifting more of our investment to that channel. But it requires learning new capabilities at a very quick pace.

WSJ: How do you train your executives?

MS. ANDERSON: We used to provide capability classes on all kinds of topics that were self-administered. We wanted new training methods to be more effective. We are building a black-belt system for training, where you get your green belt or red belt that measures what you learned and how you apply that to the business. We want our leaders to demonstrate competency at beginning, medium and experienced levels. For our social-media training, the black belt is achieved once the leaders go through all the training modules, ranging from planning to risk and reputation management, and then training other people on that topic.

WSJ: Why is education critical?

MS. ANDERSON: When our folks are not confident, they will go back to what they know. So if I know how to measure TV and to look at TV commercials, I am going to feel more comfortable with buying TV. If I am less comfortable in digital, maybe I will step back from that.

WSJ: How do you protect the marketing budget when activists are pushing for more cost-cutting and when measuring marketing is still a squishy business?

MS. ANDERSON: We are getting a lot of support for reinvesting our savings back into marketing. We are increasing advertising and promotional spending. We have a team devoted to sharpening and proving the return on our marketing investment. We are also shifting more of our spending to digital, as it typically costs less than traditional media but has twice the return on investment.

WSJ: Are the issues facing the company distracting?

MS. ANDERSON: We are all experiencing cost-cutting, it’s not just us. Almost everybody, at least in very traditional businesses, is going through this process and it really is a revelation in many ways. You look back and think, “Wow, how was I spending my money before?”

WSJ: U.S. TV ad spending for Mondelez fell roughly 18% in 2014 from the year before and is down almost 50% from five years ago. Where are those dollars going?

MS. ANDERSON: To digital media. By 2018, we hope that digital media will represent 30% of our total media spending globally. That is about double where we were last year. In North America, 32% of our total media spending went to digital in 2014 and we expect that to be about 45% this year.

WSJ: Mondelez has signed large agreements with digital companies such as Facebook and Google. Can you explain how those deals go beyond just buying ad time?

MS. ANDERSON: Google is working with us on new product inventions. They are giving us unprecedented access to consumer insights and feedback. We now have a panel of two million people that Google created.

WSJ: Mondelez wants to have e-commerce represent at least 10% of its total packaged-goods sales by 2020. How do you get to that goal, and how will marketing play a role?

MS. ANDERSON: We have added buy buttons to our marketing on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter so people can move from a message to a purchase.

Snacking has not been a large e-commerce player, although it is growing. A lot of our sales are impulse-oriented, so how does that translate online? How do we drive consumer impulse-buying online?

We did an agreement with Facebook to bring us a scalable solution on how technology can drive impulse-buying online. Basically, its creating an online “hot zone” that will drive impulse-purchase in the way front-of-store racks created impulse-purchase behavior in-store many decades ago.

WSJ: What is the most promising thing that Mondelez has discovered recently in shopper marketing?

MS. ANDERSON: For a soccer-themed campaign called “Pass the Love,” we used holographic displays that created the illusion of a floating advertisement that could be seen in the aisle.

WSJ: How do you promote the fact that some of your products are healthier or have reduced sugar or fat without causing concern that the products won’t taste the same or good?

MS. ANDERSON: Taste is still king. As we move forward in creating new products, taste absolutely has to be in the forefront.

Saying “less fat” or “less sugar” is not the pathway anymore. I think the pathway is how it [the product] is formed, how much of it there is and what sizes I give it to you in. For example, Oreo Thins have less calories than regular Oreo cookies, but what we love is the delightful crunch and the taste. So that’s what our marketing for Oreo Thins focuses on.

It really depends on the brand equity and the consumer need we’re addressing. For example, in the case of belVita breakfast biscuits, “sustained energy” is a core theme because we know consumers are looking for a tasty and nutritious breakfast option that is also convenient.

WSJ: What are some of the challenges you see with mobile ads?

MS. ANDERSON: One of the unforeseen things was design. You can design a package for on-shelf or design a package for an ad, but when you are buying or advertising via a smartphone, you have to worry about what the product looks like. Now that everything I am doing is being reduced to a much smaller image, smaller than a stamp, you have to think about how it looks.

Ms. Vranica is a news editor for The Wall Street Journal in New York. She can be reached at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com.

Summary: An interview with Mondelez Chief Marketing Officer Dana Anderson about new ways to sell Oreos, and the company’s push into digital marketing.


By the end of Tuesday, every Major League Baseball team will have played its season-opening game. But after all the build-up to Opening Day, the next day is a letdown for many fans.

And why? Because lots of MLB teams -- more than half this year -- are off the day after Opening Day. This is a weird time to give players a break, just one game into a 162-game season, and on the surface it doesn't seem fan-friendly, either.

So what gives? Why take a break when the season's just begun?

It sounds counterintuitive when you're trying to ramp up fan excitements, but the reality is MLB is doing a favor to protect the fan experience. There's no day in baseball quite like Opening Day -- for diehard fans, it's an unofficial holiday.

Ticket prices reflect that increased interest. Fans want to be able to say they were at the game during Opening Day. But suppose bad weather caused the game to be postponed. In that case, the second game of the season would become the season-opener. And, if that happened, everyone who paid premium prices with the intent of watching baseball on Opening Day -- well, they'd be screwed out of the experience.

By building in a one-day break between the first and second games, MLB gives teams a chance to postpone the opener without upsetting ticket-holders. That's important when you're starting the season in early April, when it's still winter in northern parts of the country.

Look at Monday's Opening Day games: Both the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees had games pushed back because of extremely low temperatures.

Without that one-day buffer, the second game of the series would become Opening Day, throwing fans into an uproar. So while the break may be deflating, it's a necessarily evil to preserve the integrity of that hallowed season-opener.

Baseball, Boston Red Sox, MLB, New York Yankees, Opening Day

Summary: By the end of Tuesday, every Major League Baseball team will have played its season-opening game. But after all the build-up to Opening Day, the next ...


05/02/2016 AT 10:20 AM EDT

gushed over his wife on her

returned the favor, helping her doting husband ring in his 41st birthday.

Victoria took to Instagram on Monday to post a touching message for her "amazing husband" on his special day.

"Happy birthday to the most amazing husband and wonderful daddy X We all love you so much," she wrote, adding the hashtag #soulmate.

In the photo, David is seen smiling while surrounded by a stack of presents wrapped in paper featuring a world map on it.

And Victoria wasn't the only one to celebrate the former soccer player's birthday on social media.

to David, calling his father his "hero.

"Happy birthday dad. I'm so lucky to have a dad and a hero all in one! Love you so much," he wrote alongside a black-and-white photo of the father-son duo sitting on a wooden fence.

And his birthday wasn't the only thing David had to celebrate on Monday – it also marked his one-year Instagram anniversary.

shared a video clip of himself on

thanking fans for the birthday wishes and for supporting him on the social media platform.

"Thank you all for the birthday messages and for your support this year!" he wrote.

, and David isn't shy with sentimental Instagram posts.

In the video, a series of his most popular posts flashed across the screen, with many of them featuring his kids.

Summary: "We all love you so much," she captioned a loving Instagram, adding the hashtag #soulmate


Instagram’s new app Hyperlapse is pretty nifty for creating silky-smooth timelapse videos with your iPhone. Sharing your favorite Hyperlapse videos on Instagram and Facebook is super-easy right from the app, but what if you want to tweet them as an embedded video? That’s a bit harder, as Instagram disabled Twitter embeds back in 2012—not long after Facebook bought Instagram in a $1-billion deal.

But embedding Hyperlapse videos in your tweets is possible, with this workaround.

After you’ve made your Hyperlapse video, it’s automatically saved to your iPhone’s Camera Roll as a normal .MOV file. To get that bad boy on Twitter as an embedded video, simply upload the .MOV to YouTube (preferably over Wi-Fi, as big .MOV files can really eat into your data plan). You can do this either automatically through your iPhone, if it’s linked to your YouTube account, or by emailing the .MOV file to yourself and uploading it on your desktop.

Once your Hyperlapse is up on YouTube, simply tweet out the YouTube link and your video will appear embedded in the tweet:

Summary: It's a YouTube-based workaround


LOS ANGELES, March 1  On the eve of this weekend's Academy Awards, a bare-knuckled fight has broken out among the producers of one of the leading Oscar-nominated movies, "Crash," over two of the things Hollywood cares about most: money and credit.

Cathy Schulman, a producer of the film "Crash," at the N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards in Los Angeles last month with two of her fellow producers: her former partner Bob Yari, right, whom she is suing, and Mark Harris.

Even as the last Oscar ballots were being cast late Tuesday, Cathy Schulman, a producer of "Crash," filed a lawsuit that accused Bob Yari, her fellow producer and former partner, of acting from "greed and ego" in failing to pay at least $2 million in producing fees to her and her partner, the film's executive producer Tom Nunan. Mr. Yari had earlier sued the pair, claiming in January that they had taken funds owed to their joint production company, Bull's Eye Entertainment.

On Wednesday morning, Mr. Yari, who put together the $7 million in financing for "Crash," took out full-page advertisements in Hollywood's trade papers with a ringing call to uphold justice and due process  or at least a show business version  by abolishing the secret panels that award credit for best picture.

Mr. Yari was denied a producer credit in an arbitration by the Producers Guild of America in December, and denied again after appeals to both the guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars. As a result, he will not take home a statue if "Crash" is named best picture on March 5.

Ms. Schulman and Paul Haggis, a co-writer and the director of "Crash," are the only producers eligible for the prize, though the film has six producers in its credits.

Tuesday's legal complaint by Ms. Schulman and Mr. Nunan used strongly personal language with regard to Mr. Yari. It denounced what it called the "squalor of Yari's ugly behavior" and claimed that the producer, a former successful real estate developer who created a Hollywood company in recent years, acted like "an impetuous child" toward Ms. Schulman after being denied producer credit. The complaint said Mr. Yari's lawsuit was, in effect, retaliation for losing the producer credit in arbitration.

Mr. Yari responded, "This lawsuit is a shameful misrepresentation of the facts concerning my partnership with Ms. Schulman and Mr. Nunan." He said the lawsuit reinforced a pattern by Ms. Schulman of "deceitful and litigious behavior."

A lawyer for Mr. Yari, Neil Sacker, who is also a defendant in Ms. Schulman's lawsuit, denied that Mr. Yari's suit was retaliation.

Because the budget on "Crash" was so small, many of the principal people involved  including the producers, the writers and the director  took no money during the production of the film, deferring fees until the film saw a profit. As is often the case with low-budget films, the principals also had deals to participate in the profits.

Although "Crash" was filmed two years ago and has taken in $83 million at the box office worldwide plus millions more in home video and DVD sales, the lawsuit alleges that Mr. Yari has not shown Ms. Schulman or Mr. Nunan any profit-and-loss statements and has not paid basic producing fees or profit participation.

But Mr. Sacker said that Ms. Schulman and Mr. Nunan had both been paid salaries as partners in Bull's Eye Entertainment, and that their fees for producing "Crash" were not meant to be paid until all the overhead costs for Bull's Eye had been recouped.

"Most producers are not paid a salary," Mr. Sacker said. "She was being paid a salary. Her fees were paid against her salary and overhead."

Melvin Avanzado, the lawyer for Ms. Schulman, disputed that. "He's recouped everything several times over," he said. "There's been four movies on which there has been financing in which he has recouped. We just can't tell how many times he's recouped because he hasn't given us an accounting."

Other producers on the film declined to comment on the dispute, or on the question of their being paid by Mr. Yari.

" 'Crash' has been a great thing in my life, and I expect everyone to act honorably," said Robert Moresco, a co-writer with Mr. Haggis who is nominated for the best-screenplay Oscar. Mr. Haggis could not be reached for comment.

"Crash," a multicharacter story about racial tension in Los Angeles told through varying car incidents, is nominated for six Academy Awards: best picture, director, screenplay, supporting actor (Matt Dillon), original music and editing. The film, which was made independently and acquired for domestic distribution by Lionsgate, became an unexpected hit and has been showered with nominations throughout the Hollywood awards season.

In his open letter to the academy, published in both The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety on Wednesday, Mr. Yari compared his speaking out against the arbitration process to Edward R. Murrow's standing up to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's authoritarianism, as depicted in one of the other best-picture nominees, "Good Night, and Good Luck."

"Murrow reported on and exposed a dark period in our country's history, when accusations and hearsay alone were enough to condemn," Mr. Yari wrote. "Unfortunately, the lessons learned then seem to be forgotten now."

The lawsuits have cast a pall over celebrations scheduled for the next several days, including a gala dinner given by Lionsgate on Friday and the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday. And there was a fitting, if unfortunate, footnote to the dramatic tension rising around the film: in the midst of it all, Mr. Yari's publicist, Lynda Dorf, was involved in a minor car crash on Wednesday. There were no reported injuries.

Summary: A bare-knuckled fight has broken out among the producers of one of the leading Oscar-nominated movies, "Crash," over two of the things Hollywood cares about most: money and credit.


New York City has always been a proving ground for entrepreneurs. The Alfred Eisenstadt photograph above, for example, depicts a dog walker in Central Park in 1967 — and documents a phenomenon born just a few years before the photo was made, and that remains as in-demand in today’s New York as clean-scented cabs and Citi Bike stations that actually work.

One morning a half-century ago, in 1964, a man of Upper East Side gentility awoke at dawn to walk an acquaintance’s dog. By the end of the year he was making more than $500 a week walking other people’s pooches.

Over time, Jim Buck — for that was his name — gained many more clients, and in a few years employed a stable of two dozen assistants walking hundreds of dogs a day.

As the ’60s pressed on, Mr. Buck founded Jim Buck’s School for Dogs — the first of its kind, being one part canine-training, one part exercise and other walking needs — and ran the business for more than 40 years.

Buck closed his school shortly after the new millennium, and retired. He died in July 2013 at the age of 81. (His obit appeared in the Times.) But his was a classic American success story: He was an innovator who saw a need, and filled it, and a man who, legend has it, wore through the soles of his shoes every other week.

Other jobs come and go in the Big Apple — but the sight of a man or woman walking a pack of energized dogs through the streets, or through a park, never gets old. And, we hope, it never will.

Olivia Marsh is a filmmaker, writer and history student at New York University.

Summary: Other jobs come and go in the Big Apple -- but the sight of a man or woman expertly walking a pack of energized dogs never gets old. And, we hope, it never will.


WHEN María Elena Salinas started work as a local television reporter 25 years ago in a musty old Los Angeles house that had been converted into a newsroom, there were only 14 million Hispanics in the United States. They were not yet a force, and neither was Ms. Salinas, who stumbled over her words on the air and had occasional bouts of stage fright.

Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times

María Elena Salinas on the set of the Spanish-language news program, Noticiero Univision, in Doral, Fla.

By 1987, as she recounts in her new memoir, "I Am My Father's Daughter: Living a Life Without Secrets" (Rayo), she had mastered her craft and made it to the anchor's chair of the nation's leading Spanish-language network, Univision. The growing number and influence of Hispanics in the United States  now more than 40 million with an annual purchasing power estimated at more than $600 billion  has kept her there, turning her into the most recognized and trusted Hispanic newswoman in America.

"I have been a female network anchor for almost 20 years," Ms. Salinas, 51, said. "Not as a decoration on the set, but as someone with credibility who can carry a program."

Ms. Salinas and her co-anchor at Noticiero Univision, Jorge Ramos, are the voices that Hispanic immigrants turn to for news and guidance as they navigate their new lives while staying connected to their old countries. On any given night, the pair may begin the newscast with a story about Hispanic-American soldiers in Iraq, continue with a segment about gangs in El Salvador, and wrap up with a report from New York about diabetes.

"They have community-making impact," said Ileana Oroza, a journalism professor at the University of Miami who runs a Spanish-language graduate program for journalists. "María Elena and Jorge have turned their newscast into a virtual plaza, where people gather every night to be informed and to think."

The power of Hispanic communicators to influence and mobilize their audience was thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks as hundreds of thousands of immigrants took to the streets in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and other cities to protest immigration legislation before Congress. A national boycott is planned for Monday.

Ms. Salinas, who is Mexican-American, said she had not urged viewers to participate, and instead credited Spanish-language radio personalities, as well as immigration advocates and officials of the Roman Catholic Church. But she was pleased by the show of strength  a response, she said, to anti-immigrant sentiments in the current debate.

"It's the worst that I've seen and felt in my career," she said. "But it is also the best of times because people are mobilizing, not waiting for others to defend them."

For those who have closely followed the steady progress of Spanish-language media in the United States, the agenda-making potential of broadcasters like Ms. Salinas, and, lately, of radio show hosts, comes as no surprise.

"Radio is very big now," Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, said. "But when you talk about Spanish-language media in this country, you're mostly talking about television, and when you talk about television, you are mostly talking about Univision, which means you're mostly talking about Jorge and María Elena."

Unlike English-language networks, which battle for the attention of an increasingly fragmented audience, Mr. Suro said, Univision anchors know exactly whom they are addressing  which makes it easier for them to attract loyal followers. "It's the way English-language networks used to be 40, 50 years ago," he said. "The message the anchors convey is clear and direct: 'I'm here. I'm talking to you. We are part of your life, we are in your team.' "

That message resonates across a very diverse population  white, black and brown; Spanish-speaking and bilingual; recent arrivals who crossed the border illegally and United States citizens of Hispanic heritage who serve in Congress. In Miami, for example, Univision's evening news consistently beats the English-language networks in general market ratings. In New York and Los Angeles it often surpasses CBS, and it occasionally goes head-to-head with the other networks.

In Ms. Salinas's case, part of her appeal may be that she practices what she calls advocacy journalism, a breed not common among her English-language peers (though Katie Couric has for years urged Americans to get tested for colon cancer). Ms. Salinas has worked on national campaigns to get Hispanics to vote, to stay in school and to vaccinate their children. All her issues take on a political veneer because they implicitly involve empowering Hispanics at a time when polls show Americans are increasing troubled about immigration.

Summary: The power of Spanish broadcasts is nothing new to María Elena Salinas. Neither are female news anchors.


Actor and die-hard basketball fanatic Michael Rapaport can trade up for a home with a REAL b-ball court now, after making a tidy profit off his L.A. home.

We're told Mike closed last weekend on his 4 bedroom, 3 bath pad in the Hancock Park neighborhood. It sold for $1.789 million. Mike purchased it about a decade ago for $1.324 mil.

The home's pretty cozy inside -- lots of natural wood, plus a huge wraparound balcony off the master suite overlooking the pool and spa.

One listing for the pad said it came with a basketball court, which is kinda true. It's really just a backboard hanging over a patio, but whatever ... someone bought it.

Summary: Actor and die-hard basketball fanatic Michael Rapaport can trade up for a home with a REAL b-ball court now, after making a tidy profit off his…


Seymour "Red" Press is having one of his busiest years ever, and he's 92 years old.

Press shows off his Tony award.

Most theater fans don’t know Seymour “Red” Press by name, but they cherish the famous Broadway musicals he’s worked on: “Gypsy” starring Ethel Merman, “Pippin” with Ben Vereen, the original productions of “Dreamgirls” and “Nine,” and at least 71 more.

Add in off-Broadway shows, and that number more than doubles.

Press, an icon around Shubert Alley, is a music coordinator, meaning he hires pit-orchestra musicians to achieve the perfect sound. He’s a workhorse, with four shows currently running on Broadway: “Shuffle Along,” “Bright Star,” “An American in Paris” and “Chicago.” It’s one of his busiest years ever, and he’s 92 years old.

“I love it and I am still able,” Press tells The Post over lunch at Sardi’s. “I don’t want to ever give up.” His colleagues, who revere him as “the legend,” wouldn’t have it any other way.

“[Red] is a trusted collaborator on just about all of my projects,” says Rob Berman, music director of “Bright Star” and “Tuck Everlasting.” “He is still going strong because he loves what he does and he loves the people he works with. And they love him right back.”

Born in The Bronx in 1924, Press first picked up an alto saxophone at age 13, kicking off a lifelong passion for music. During World War II, while stationed in Newport News, Va., he played in the Army band. Three years later Press was on the road with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey.

“They were both difficult,” Red remembers of the legends. “But their bands were sensational.”

He spent the next 10 years playing in bands, but jobs became scarce. “That big-band era was dying, and I had to move into a new area.”

Broadway beckoned. His first musical, in 1958, was “The Body Beautiful,” which ran a scant three months. But his sophomore production, in 1959, was a big hit: “Gypsy.”

“When we rehearsed that show in Philadelphia, I was in the same room as Jule Styne [the composer], Stephen Sondheim, John Kander and director Jerome Robbins.

“When I look back on it, I was with the best of the best in one room,” he says. Press’ relationship with “Gypsy” came full circle in 2008 when he worked on the revival starring Patti LuPone. He diplomatically says both Merman, who headlined the original, and LuPone “spoke their minds.”

Pit orchestras have changed a lot in 60 years. When he started, “marijuana was in style.

Musicians…had problems with alcohol. Liquor was part of the environment,” he says. “It’s not anymore. They’re much more conscientious now.”

Orchestras are in Press’ blood. He spent his days and nights playing the alto sax, clarinet, flute and piccolo in pits till 1970, when he transitioned into being a music coordinator.

He hasn’t looked back since. Today Press lives in Forest Hills, Queens, with his wife of 60 years, Nona, 82. They have two children and two grandkids. Press takes the F train into Midtown several times a week to oversee his Broadway shows and the Encores! musical series at City Center, as he’s done since the event started in 1994. After working on 160 shows over the years, he’s picked up many admirers.

Among the 150 people at Red’s surprise 90th-birthday party at the Glass House Tavern in 2014 were Academy Award Winner Joel Grey. Seven years earlier, Red’s friend LuPone serenaded him at Tavern on the Green as he received his Tony for Excellence in Theatre, a special honor for those not eligible in competitive categories. LuPone, a stage superstar, performed at his request.

“He’s a special human being and a legend in our business,” LuPone tells The Post. “He’s just a great guy.

“And his name is Red!”

Summary: Most theater fans don’t know Seymour “Red” Press by name, but they cherish the famous Broadway musicals he’s worked on throughout the decades.


Before you go, we thought you'd like these...

'Pawn Stars': Man's fake 'amber rock' ends up costing him money

IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SWIFFER - Rick Harrison of "Pawn Stars" teams up with Swiffer to encourage men to "Man Up, Clean Up" at Las Vegas BikeFest on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012 in Las Vegas. (Isaac Brekken/AP Images for Swiffer)

Corey Harrison, left, and Chumlee from "Pawn Stars" arrive at the 2011 A&E Upfront Presentation at the IAC building on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer)

Rick Harrison from "Pawn Stars" attends the A+E Networks 2013 Upfront on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SWIFFER - Rick Harrison of "Pawn Stars" teams up with Swiffer to encourage men to "Man Up, Clean Up" at Las Vegas BikeFest on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012 in Las Vegas. (Isaac Brekken/AP Images for Swiffer)

In this Wednesday, April 3, 2013, photo, Rick Harrison, owner of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop waits as a camera crew prepares to shoot an episode of Pawn Stars at his shop in Las Vegas. Pawn sales at the shop, which is featured in the television reality show Pawn Stars, bring in about $20 million a year, up from the $4 million a year it made before the show aired. Turning small business owners into stars has become a winning formula for television producers, but the businesses featured in the shows are cashing in, too. Sales explode after just a few episodes have aired, transforming nearly unknown small businesses into household names. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

On "Pawn Stars," a man brought in a 50-million-year-old amber rock with a spider in it ... or so he thought.

Madison was under the impression he had a piece of Baltic amber that was between 40 and 50 million years old with a tarantula trapped inside that he could get up to $50,000 for.

He was hopeful because he got the rock tested at Berkley and had paperwork saying that the material appeared to be Baltic amber. Rick Harrison said the test wasn't definitive, and that he needed to have the rock tested at the GIA, or the Gemological Institute of America to know for sure.

Madison paid $200 to get it tested, and it turns out ... it's plastic. Rick Harrison had to break the bad news, telling Madison that 'It's worth negative $200.'

Madison got the rock when he was just 10 years old, so he was pretty stunned. Harrison said the rock was likely made of Bakelite, which is used to simulate Amber.

The Twitterverse felt for Madison, and were skeptical that the amber was fake from the start.

Facebook fans had the same feeling he would be out $200. Hey, you win some, you lose some.

'Pawn Stars': Man's fake 'amber rock' ends up costing him money

In this Wednesday, April 3, 2013, photo, cameraman Mark Matusiak shoots a scene between Chumlee, second from left, Corey Harrison, and customer Gene McCauliff of Las Vegas, for the reality tv series Pawn Stars, Wednesday, April 3, 2013, in Las Vegas. Pawn sales at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop bring in about $20 million a year, up from the $4 million a year it made before the show aired.Turning small business owners into stars has become a winning formula for television producers, but the businesses featured in the shows are cashing in, too. Sales explode after just a few episodes have aired, transforming nearly unknown small businesses into household names. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

In this Wednesday, April 3, 2013, photo, customers wait in a line that stretches down the block to enter the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, in Las Vegas. Pawn sales at the shop, which is featured in the television reality show Pawn Stars, bring in about $20 million a year, up from the $4 million a year it made before the show aired. Turning small business owners into stars has become a winning formula for television producers, but the businesses featured in the shows are cashing in, too. Sales explode after just a few episodes have aired, transforming nearly unknown small businesses into household names. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 16: History's Pawn Stars Chumlee and Richard Harris drive down the Las Vegas strip with the cast of PAWN SHOP LIVE! to the Riviera Hotel & Casino on April 16, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Denise Truscello/WireImage)

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 20: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) TV personality Rick Harrison visits the SiriusXM Studios on March 20, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 30: (L-R) Corey 'Big Hoss' Harrison, Austin 'Chumlee' Russell, Richard 'The Old Man' Harrison and Rick Harrison arrive at the opening of 'Pawn Shop Live!,' a parody of History's 'Pawn Stars' television series, at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino on January 30, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bryan Steffy/WireImage)

KATIE - 5/3/13- 'Katie's Vegas Adventure: Katie gets a personal item appraised by the cast of 'Pawn Stars,' airing Friday, May 3, and distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. (Photo by Ronda Churchill/Disney-ABC via Getty Images) KATIE COURIC, CHUMLEE RUSSELL, COREY HARRISON, RICK HARRISON, RICHARD 'OLD MAN' HARRISON

KATIE - 5/3/13- 'Katie's Vegas Adventure: Katie gets a personal item appraised by the cast of 'Pawn Stars,' airing Friday, May 3, and distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. (Photo by Ronda Churchill/Disney-ABC via Getty Images) KATIE COURIC, COREY HARRISON, RICK HARRISON

In this Wednesday, April 3, 2013, photo, cameraman Joe Murgia, right, shoots a close-up of Michael Jordan memorabilia which was brought in to the Gold & Silver Pawn shop for an episode of the reality tv series Pawn Stars, in Las Vegas. Pawn sales at the shop, which is featured in the television reality show Pawn Stars, bring in about $20 million a year, up from the $4 million a year it made before the show aired. Turning small business owners into stars has become a winning formula for television producers, but the businesses featured in the shows are cashing in, too. Sales explode after just a few episodes have aired, transforming nearly unknown small businesses into household names. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

In this Wednesday, April 3, 2013, photo, visitors to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop take a closer look at various college and professional sports championship rings on display, in Las Vegas. Pawn sales at the shop, which is featured in the television reality show Pawn Stars, bring in about $20 million a year, up from the $4 million a year it made before the show aired.Turning small business owners into stars has become a winning formula for television producers, but the businesses featured in the shows are cashing in, too. Sales explode after just a few episodes have aired, transforming nearly unknown small businesses into household names. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Customers wait in a line that stretches down the block to enter the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, Wednesday, April 3, 2013, in Las Vegas. Pawn sales at the shop, which is featured in the television reality show Pawn Stars, bring in about $20 million a year, up from the $4 million a year it made before the show aired. Turning small business owners into stars has become a winning formula for television producers, but the businesses featured in the shows are cashing in, too. Sales explode after just a few episodes have aired, transforming nearly unknown small businesses into household names. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Rick Harrison from "Pawn Stars" attends the A+E Networks 2013 Upfront on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

In this Wednesday, April 3, 2013, photo, visitors to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop take a closer look at various college and professional sports championship rings on display, in Las Vegas. Pawn sales at the shop, which is featured in the television reality show Pawn Stars, bring in about $20 million a year, up from the $4 million a year it made before the show aired.Turning small business owners into stars has become a winning formula for television producers, but the businesses featured in the shows are cashing in, too. Sales explode after just a few episodes have aired, transforming nearly unknown small businesses into household names. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 16: The cast of PAWN SHOP LIVE! Kady Heard, Garret Grant, Chumlee, Troy Tinker, Sidney Kounkle, Gus Langley, Sean Critchfield, Anita Bean, History's Pawn Stars Richard Harris, Rob Kunkel and Derek Stonebarger arrive at the Riviera Hotel & Casino on April 16, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Denise Truscello/WireImage)

These drawings ended up being worth nearly $50,000 --- each.

Summary: %Slideshow-201059%  On "Pawn Stars," a man brought in a 50-million-year-old amber rock with a spider in it ... or so he thought.  Madison wa


Ireland-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals jazz will buy U.S.-based Celator Pharmaceuticals cpxx in a cash deal valued at about $1.5 billion, to gain access to an investigational product in development for treating acute myeloid leukemia.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals will pay $30.25 per share in cash for Celator, a 72.6% premium to Celator’s closing price on Friday.

In March, Ewing, New Jersey-based Celator said its Vyxeos treatment helped older high-risk patients with a deadly form of leukemia live longer than those who received the standard of care regimen in a late stage clinical trial.

In May, the company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted breakthrough therapy designation to Vyxeos.

The deal is expected to add to Jazz Pharma’s non-GAAP adjusted earnings beginning in 2018, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

“As Celator is currently preparing a regulatory submission in the U.S. for Vyxeos, this acquisition would add a new orphan product with the potential for short- and long-term revenue generation and expansion of our international commercial platform,” Jazz Pharmaceuticals Chief Executive Bruce Cozadd said in a statement.

Jazz Pharma will fund the deal, structured as a tender offer, with a combination of cash on hand and borrowings under its credit facility.

RBC Capital Markets was the financial advisor and Cooley LLP was the legal counsel for JazzPharmaceuticals.

Summary: To get a promising leukemia drug.


However, rattan does not last long if subjected to the elements, especially rain and frost. This is why, 10 years ago, garden furniture manufacturers, looking for an alternative to wood, began to weave garden sofas and chairs in synthetic fibres to make furniture with the comfort of rattan but which could be left outside.

Synthetic rattan is now a bestseller, with much of it still manufactured in the Far East, where the traditional weaving expertise has never died. Most of the new rattan designs echo the shapes of mainstream sitting-room furniture, modular sofa units, or rounded chairs with plump cushions.

An exception is the flamboyant Peacock chair, a traditional Philippines design from the 1870s, with a huge, intricately-patterned fantail back, which was revived in the hippy 1970s, and is once more making a comeback. Indian Ocean makes an outdoor, waterproof version (£1,695). Real rattan takes dye very well, so black chairs, like this one, are completely in the style of authentic local designs.

All the manufacturers of synthetic rattan make modular sets, which can be arranged into L-shapes, or U-shapes. These range from the beautifully made Gloster Havana Lounge (£1,732 for a centre unit) with its double-weave around arms and back and subtle colour modulations, to the good value of the Dunelm five-seated Corner Conversation Set (£599) in fashionable graphite grey. Ikea’s brown Arnholma modular rattan sets (from £65 for a single chair, £15 for a cushion) is, like the Dunelm, “weatherproof”, although both firms advise you to store them inside in bad weather.

Summary: Our guide to the best Rattan Garden Furniture sets available and where to get them including designs from Indian Ocean, Garden Furniture Company, Ikea, Maze and more.


An AOL Jobs reader asks:

Question... before I left for a one week vacation, I was told, not asked, by my manager via email that I need to give her my computer password. I told her that I can't do that because the employee handbook state that sharing user ID/password sharing is a major breach of company policy, and I may be dismissed from employment for sharing user ID/password information with anyone. When I told her about the employee handbook policy, she said that it's not her asking for it, that it's her boss asking. I never gave it to her, but I found out later that they got my password from the company's IT. I feel like I keep getting violated from my managers/ work place. Do I have any legal rights? Any advice?

So your boss's boss asked for your password before you went on vacation and you refused to give it? Frankly, you're lucky you weren't fired.Yes, it's a concern if your company handbook or policy says it's a firing offense to give out your password. But if your boss orders you to do it, then you can be fired for insubordination. What's an employee to do?

First of all, remember that in every state but Montana you're an at-will employee, meaning that you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all. While you still can't be fired due to discrimination, taking Family and Medical Leave, making a worker's compensation claim, or objecting to something the company is doing that's illegal, this sounds like it doesn't fit into any protected category. That means you can be fired if you don't do what your boss tells you to do.

Here are some things that you might have done to protect yourself in this situation:

: If the boss or the boss's boss demands your password, then send an email saying something like, "This will confirm that you have requested I provide you with my computer password before leaving for my vacation. It was my understanding that company policy number ___ forbids sharing of passwords, but I will comply with your request. Unless I hear otherwise from you within 24 hours, I will forward you my password." Then wait and see if they change their minds. Maybe even cc or bcc HR or whomever developed the anti-password-sharing policy. If they don't say otherwise, then send another email after the deadline saying something like, "Since I have not heard otherwise, I am complying with your instruction to provide my password. It is, "password." (And please don't tell me your password is really, "password.") Hopefully covering yourself with this will protect you. Print the emails before you leave so you have proof in case someone accuses you while you're gone.

: If you don't think the CYA method protects you enough, then maybe you contact HR or whomever developed the policy and tell them, in writing, that this is what is being requested and ask them to confirm you have permission to comply. If it's okay, then comply. If it isn't okay, then maybe someone above you gets in trouble. Of course, you aren't legally protected against retaliation for reporting this, so use your judgment. Hopefully the company will protect you.

: If you are the only one who has been asked for a password before you left on vacation, then you have to ask yourself why. If only people of a particular race, sex, national origin or other protected category have been asked, it might be discrimination. If it's just you, then maybe you have access to something the boss needs while you're gone. On the other hand, maybe you're suspected of some wrongdoing. By refusing to give the password, you might be fueling suspicion. If you did do something wrong, then it might be time to start looking elsewhere during your vacation (or contacting a criminal defense attorney).

: If you have the company's banking information, classified documents or other information that it would be illegal to grant access to, then you obviously have different concerns. If that's the case, you might contact the company's legal department or an

to see what your responsibilities are.

It's really dangerous to disobey a direct order from your boss or your boss's boss. Unless complying is illegal, you're better off documenting the instruction and obeying.

Summary: Shutterstock    An AOL Jobs reader asks:  Question... before I left for a one week vacation, I was told, not a


is going to have a very special guest in the audience tonight for the opening of his comedy tour ... none other than porn pal

Kacey tells TMZ she'll be in the audience in Detroit tonight for Charlie's "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not An Option" tour. Kacey says she has 8th row seats and plans on "making it known" that she's there.

Considering what she does for a living, that could mean any number of things.

Guess Kacey caught someone's eye ... she tells us, "Charlie's people just came to me in the middle of the show to meet up with him afterwards and gave me a pass."

Summary: Charlie Sheen is going to have a very special guest in the audience tonight for the opening of his comedy tour ... none other than porn pal Kacey…