Trying to perform in front of an audience with 150 fascinated Japanese tourists wandering past with their luggage in a busy airport is nothing unusual for Grid Iron Theatre Company.

The Edinburgh-based group has established a reputation for performing in unusual places from underground vaults to a department store.

Last year, celebrating its 10th anniversary, it staged its trickiest work to date - at Edinburgh airport. The work, Roam, is primarily responsible for Grid Iron winning this year's Arts & Business community award. Not only did they use non-professionals from all parts of the community as cast, they also had to fit in with a community in its own right - an airport with managers, security staff, check-in workers and cleaners.

"The airport show all seems a bit unreal looking back on it. That was a challenge," admits Judith Doherty, producer and co-artistic director at Grid Iron.

"For Roam we treated the audience like travellers and got them to assemble at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and bussed them to the airport, where we got them to check in. The airport was open and real travellers were there checking in. We worked closely with the security and ground staff, we didn't want to upset or confuse any travellers."

With Roam they had a multinational cast of 10, but then two non-professional community casts of 15 That was made up of children and teenagers, and also senior citizens.

"We were representing the fact that an airport is the microcosm of the world. The senior citizens were checking in for a Saga-style package holiday, we had a mother checking in with her three unruly children - they were vignettes and everybody behaved extremely professionally. It was great fun."

Roam ran for three weeks last April and Doherty says it could not have happened without the involvement of the National Theatre of Scotland, who co-produced and opened doors which might otherwise have remained shut.

"BAA had to make a considerable leap of faith to even begin working with us - there was lots of bureaucracy."

They were helped by the fact that the airport terminal's projects manager and the head of security had both studied English together at university.

Roam was a tremendous success, winning three Critics Awards for theatre in Scotland - best ensemble, best technical presentation and best overall production in 2006. Roam was also nominated in two other categories.

Roam was described as a unique show and Doherty does not believe it could be done again. They were discussing the show with BAA before September 11 and had to delay it for obvious reasons. With last year's airport alerts it will probably be impossible to be as ambitious again.

Summary: Edinburgh-based Grid Iron's Roam show, which was staged at the city's airport, won three Critics Awards for theatre in Scotland.


South Korean IT giant Samsung Electronics AAPL in the premium segment and undercut by Chinese rivals like Lenovo Group Ltd in mid-to-low end. April-June operating profit for Samsung’s mobile division fell in annual terms for the second straight quarter, the longest streak since at least 2011.

But with the higher demand for mobile devices comes increased orders for mobile chips, and Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division will be key to propping up the company’s bottom-line, analysts say.

The plant in Pyeongtaek will make either logic or memory chips, Samsung Electronics said, adding that a final decision had not been made yet.

“Right now, the only part of the company that is bringing in steady profits is the semiconductor division, so it looks like the company will keep investing in the business,” said IM Investment analyst Lee Min-hee.

The chip business is likely to be a lone bright spot in what is otherwise expected to be a poor third quarter for the South Korean giant. Samsung will issue its earnings guidance for the period on Tuesday and analysts polled by Reuters expect operating profit to come in at 5.6 trillion won ($5.24 billion), its weakest performance since the fourth quarter of 2011.

Some analysts forecast that the semiconductor division will report stronger operating profit than the handset division in the third quarter for the first time in more than three years.

The chip business recorded a 1.9 trillion won profit in the second quarter, compared with 4.4 trillion won for the mobile business.

Samsung said the new plant is due to be completed by the second half of 2017.

Any capacity increase can be ominous for competitors in a deeply cyclical industry. Shares in domestic rival SK Hynix Inc fell more than 8% at one point on Monday after Samsung’s announcement.

Market conditions for memory chips have remained favourable this year partly due to stronger-than-anticipated demand from personal computers and servers. The industry has so far been careful about capacity expansion, keeping supply conditions on a tight leash.

Besides SK Hynix Inc, competitors in the memory industry also include Micron Technology Inc MU .

Analysts said there could be practical benefits to having the new plant in relatively close proximity to other domestic chip plants as opposed to building one overseas. Some said building a new plant near Seoul makes it easier for the company to recruit local engineering talent as well.

“To some extent this is also a response to the current government’s call for big corporations to invest domestically,” said Korea Investment Trust Management fund manager Baik Jae-yer.

The government has proposed a tax on excess profits at big corporations in an effort to prod them to spend more on investment, wages and dividends.

Summary: Korean giant bets heavily on semiconductors as U.S., Chinese competition erodes its position as the world's biggest smartphone maker.


The Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen made waves earlier this year when he declared himself bullish about the future of the news industry. Yet Andreessen is hardly alone.

Last week, Ozy Media, an ambitious, year-old digital magazine startup backed by Laurene Powell Jobs and other Silicon Valley luminaries, received an additional $20 million in financing. The investment, from the German publisher Axel Springer, values the Mountain View, Calif.-based company at about $120 million.

Ozy plans to use the money to raise its voice above the din of well-funded new publications that are vying for the attention of millennial readers and viewers and include BuzzFeed, Vice, the Huffington Post, Business Insider, Fusion, Quartz, and others.

“There is a wonderful re-imagining of journalism going on, and I am super excited that we are a part of it,” said Carlos Watson, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Ozy, whose launch a year ago was covered exclusively in Fortune.

While Ozy is smaller and far less known than many of its competitors, the site has attracted some 5 million monthly readers, well ahead of its initial plan, Watson said. (For comparison, BuzzFeed draws about 30 times as many visitors each month.) An additional 15 million people are exposed to Ozy content through distribution partnerships with the likes of USA Today, NPR, and CNN, Watson said.

Watson said that the new financing, which gives Axel Springer a roughly 16% percent stake in Ozy, will allow the company to triple its staff of roughly 25, and some of that expansion will be outside of the United States.

While new media startups have been a hit with consumers, most have yet to prove they can become successful businesses. But that hasn’t detracted investors, who are pouring vast sums into the sector. For example, Vice, which began as a punk magazine in Montreal two decades ago and has since morphed into a maker of hard-news documentaries and other fare, recently raised $500 million in a pair of investments that value the company at $2.5 billion. For its part, BuzzFeed raised $50 million from Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, in August, at an $850 million valuation.

“We are in a really interesting moment,” Watson said. “Smart people will observe that it won’t last forever and there will be a thinning of the crowd.”

Watson hopes Ozy will be among the survivors by focusing less on news and more on what Watson calls “the new and the next,” including profiles of rising stars like Princeton University football star Caraun Reid or Mark Dubowitz, a little-known player behind the financial sanctions on Iran. (Ozy dishes out some less serious fare too, like its story on Airpnp, a web app for short-term bathroom rentals.)

If you’re not a regular Ozy reader, you’ve no doubt missed those. Watson is trying to make sure you won’t miss the next batch of stories that come out of his growing newsroom. With its latest cash infusion, Ozy also plans to launch its first ad campaign and expand its live events.

Summary: Can it successfully attract the attention of millennial readers over competition from BuzzFeed, Vice, Fusion, and others?


Google Inc. brings its same-day delivery service to Greater Boston Tuesday, allowing customers to browse the offerings of local merchants online, order, and get the items within several hours.

The service, called Google Express, will be available in parts of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Somerville, Arlington, Everett, Malden, and Medford. So far, eight companies have partnered with Google: Babies R Us, Barnes & Noble, Costco, Guitar Center, L’Occitane, Staples, Stop & Shop, and Walgreens.

Google said it expects more retailers to participate and may expand its delivery areas. Customers will have a choice of how to pay for the service. If they commit to $95 a year or $10 a month, delivery of orders over $15 will be free. Alternatively, customers can pay a $4.99 delivery charge for each order.

“We’re going to help connect merchants with their existing customers. said Brian Elliott, Google’s head of shopping partnerships. “Our merchants have been seeing growth, and it saves time and effort for customers.”

Tuesday’s launch increases the competition between Google, the online search and advertising giant, and Web retailer Amazon, which began offering same-day delivery around Boston in 2009. Subscribers to Amazon’s Prime service pay $5.99 per order; non-subscribers pay $8.99 per order plus 99 cents per item.

The operations of these same-day services differ, however. Amazon delivers from its network of warehouses, while Google Express relies on stores.

When a customer places a Google Express order, employees at a local retailer receive notice on an Android smartphone, pick the items off a shelf, and put them into a Google-branded bag. Third-party courier services hired by Googledeliver them. Google declined to name the delivery firms. The Ford Transit and Toyota Prius vehicles used to deliver orders will be wrapped in Google branding. Couriers will wear Google uniforms.

Google’s same-day service has been available in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, where Google is based, since last year. In May, the service expanded to parts of Los Angeles and New York. Google Express also launches in Chicago and Washington this week.

Google will offer customer data to retailers. Elliott said retailers will only see aggregated data — meaning individuals can’t be identified — unless customers explicitly give permission to share more information.

Google declined to give financial details about the program, including how much retailers pay to participate.

In addition to generating revenues from data and delivery, the Express service could boost the number of people using Google’s search engine to find products and, as a result, the company’s ad revenues, analysts said. Amazon now dominates Internet product searches.

Jeff Wisot, a vice president at Guitar Center, a national chain of musical equipment stores with headquarters in California, said Google Express is off to a modest but promising start at the company’s three participating California stores. Musicians still prefer to buy expensive items such as guitars in person, he said, but customers who need guitar strings, a microphone stand, or drumsticks increasingly use the service.

“It gives us an edge, because we’re able to beat programs that offer two-day or very expensive one-day delivery with a reasonable price,” he said. “We’ll always have people walking into our stores, but we see a lot of potential here.”

For now, Elliott said, Google Express will make deliveries the old-fashioned way, rather than employing more advanced technologies Google is researching, such as drones and driverless cars.

But, he said, “if it makes it easier for users, then anything is possible — long term.”

Summary: Beginning Tuesday, the online search and advertising giant will offer its Google Express same-day delivery service in parts of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Everett, Malden, and Medford. The service, called Google Express, will be available in parts of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Everett, Malden, and Medford. So far, eight companies have partnered with Google, including Babies R Us, Barnes & Noble, Costco, Guitar Center, L’Occitane, Staples, Stop & Shop, and Walgreens. Google said it expects more retailers to participate and may later expand its delivery areas. Customers will have a choice of how to pay for it. If they commit to $95 a year or $10 a month, delivery of orders over $15 will be free. Alternatively, customers can pay a $4.99 delivery charge for each order.


Bushed … Paul McCarthy's Train, Mechanical (2003-09). Photograph: Fredrik Nilsen

Reader alert: the following is unpleasant. An identical pair of anamatronic sculptures of George W Bush are having anal sex with pigs in Hauser & Wirth's Savile Row gallery. The pigs are also gamely porking one another to riotous sound-effect squeals and the motorised wheeze of servo-powered pistons. The sculptures are beginning to look a teensy bit flayed. As you approach, the twin Bush sculptures swivel their heads and give you a Terminator stare, their pink silicon bodies still humping away. This isn't the first time LA artist Paul McCarthy has gone bestial, though repetition never killed any artist. You could call it rigour, or evidence of a one-track mind.

Going beyond taste is part of McCarthy's schtick. But whose eyes water now at the sight of McCarthy's giant butt-plugs, or the huge pendulous pair of testicles that dangle from a rickety wooden gibbet? They are mere incidents in a huge and inane raft of abused art materials and abandoned forms. McCarthy is nothing if not copious.

McCarthy himself, or rather his hairy, life-sized body-cast doppelganger, is enthroned in Hauser & Wirth's Piccadilly gallery, in front of rows of empty church pews. Pot-bellied and naked, he is a mute and impotent king, cable-tied to his chair and surrounded with painting supplies. This is the artist as fallen hero, sage and fool.

Repainted, blown-up photographs lean against the walls: Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, an upside-down Henry Fonda in a cowboy hat, a pornstar money-shot and an old Playboy cartoon. These are tawdry images for dismal times, emptied of shock or even surprise.

Once, in his hilarious and savage video Painter, McCarthy played a whining and infantile abstract expressionist, an overgrown baby dabbling in paint and screaming for money. Now he is both elevated and debased, sitting it out on a wooden stage. Down in the gallery's basement, there's a video running in which an assistant is having a go at the artist's replica with an electric carving-knife. Parody and mock yourself this much and you save the critic the job of complaint.

Occupying space after space with defaced heads, gooey residues and evidence of crimes against sculpted humanity, McCarthy's show fills every room of Hauser & Wirth's Piccadilly and Savile Row galleries. A black and tarry ship of fools looms under the plane trees of St James's Square, and he has a further show running concurrently in New York (above). McCarthy in his 60s has become reprehensibly respectable, and ever more repetitious as time wears on. One recent video installation is no more shocking than a beauty salon depilation promo.

This show often feels stretched, pumped-up and routine rather than genuinely violent and atavistic, the qualities I always liked in McCarthy's horrible and sometimes frightening world. Where do you go when you've already gone too far? McCarthy's self-portrait as king might well be a comment on his own artistic fate, and for that reason is the best thing here. Where once his art looked dangerous and subversive, rumbustious and bracingly obscene, his ever more strident antics now look tired, their bite gummy. This, more often than not, is the fate of an art of shocks. We get inured to it, as does its maker. What might become of the artist in late lyrical mode,when he gets beyond the pigs and the drool, the daily hump and grind of the big-career artist? Maybe McCarthy will sleep through it all, like the king in his dotage.

Summary: There's porn and George W Bush porking a pig but the grand old king of shocks has become reprehensibly respectable, writes Adrian Searle


FORTUNE — On the last day of trial testimony in Chevron’s racketeering suit against the environmental lawyers who won an $9.5 billion judgement against it in Lago Agrio, Ecuador in 2011 — a trial that had already featured allegations of bribery, extortion, and fraud — the oil giant presented troubling evidence of one final bombshell. It alleged perjury by a defense witness at trial and suggested a possibly related cover-up engineered by officials of the Republic of Ecuador.

The testimony came in Manhattan federal court, where Chevron CVX has sued New York-based lawyer Steven Donziger and leaders of the Quito-based Amazon Defense Front under under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). These RICO defendants were the leaders of the underlying Lago Agrio litigation against Chevron, which sought reparations for contamination allegedly left behind by Texaco when it drilled for oil in Ecuador from 1964 to 1990. Texaco was acquired by Chevron in 2001.

The final flurry of accusations at the RICO trial related to the most sensational allegations in the case: Chevron’s claim that the mammoth Lago Agrio judgment — $18 billion originally, though reduced to $9.5 billion about two weeks ago by the Ecuadorian Supreme Court — was not actually written by the Ecuadorian judge who purported to issue it, Nicolás Zambrano Lozada, but rather by the plaintiffs’ lawyers themselves.

MORE: Secret witnesses in Chevron’s RICO trial raise constitutional concerns

Chevron contends that Zambrano let the lawyers write their own judgment in exchange for a promise of $500,000 from the eventual recovery. Earlier in the five-week trial Chevron presented testimony from an ex-judge in Ecuador, Alberto Guerra Bastidas, who asserted that he acted as the intermediary to this bribe. But Zambrano himself then testified for the defendants, denying any bribe and insisting that he’d written every word of the judgment himself.

Last month, in something of an October surprise, leaders of the Amazon Defense Front announced with some fanfare that a forensic inquiry of Zambrano’s computers commissioned by Ecuadorian prosecutors had concluded that Zambrano was telling the truth. (Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, has been an outspoken champion of the Lago Agrio judgment, and has branded Ecuadorians who assist Chevron in any way as “traitors” and “criminals.”)

The forensic report had been written after Pablo Fajardo, the Front’s lead Ecuadorian lawyer, filed a criminal complaint against ex-judge Guerra, Chevron’s key witness at the RICO trial, accusing him of perjury and a sedition-like offense called “promoting separatism.” The Ecuadorian prosecutor’s forensic report, completed last month, concluded that a digital file containing virtually all of the text of the judgment had, in fact, been created on one of Zambrano’s two courthouse office computers in October 2010 — about when Zambrano claimed he started writing it — and that no flash drives had been connected to that computer prior to 2012 (appearing to rule out the possibility that others could have written the judgment and then loaded it onto Zambrano’s computer).

At about the same time, lawyers for Donziger obtained a three-page affidavit from the author of the forensic report, Milton Efrain Jaque Tarco of the Judicial Police in Quito. In the affidavit Tarco recited the key findings of his report, although he did not attach the report itself. Armed with that declaration Donziger’s lawyers quickly convinced U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, presiding over Chevron’s RICO case, to allow them to amend their witness list to include Tarco as a witness, and they began making logistical preparations to bring Tarco to New York to testify.

Complications arose, however, when Zambrano testified on Nov. 5. Zambrano testified confidently and repeatedly that the Lago Agrio judgment had been typed entirely and solely on the newer of his two office desktop computers, a fact of which he said he was certain “because it was the more modern computer,” and also because his older computer had been removed from his office for maintenance during the time when he was composing the opinion.

The catch was that Tarco had found the file that contained the judgment on Zambrano’s old computer, not the new one, though he hadn’t put it that way. Tarco’s affidavit had simply identified the serial numbers of the two computers in Zambrano’s chambers and then identified, again by serial number, the one that contained the judgment. Using those serial numbers, Chevron was able to trace the histories of the two computers in question based on records kept by both Hewlett Packard HPQ , the manufacturer of both machines, and the Ecuadorian Judicial Council, which purchased them and eventually assigned each to Zambrano. The computer on which Tarco said he found the file containing the judgment was unquestionably the old one, manufactured in 2006, and not the new one, built in 2010.

MORE: How MF Global’s ‘missing’ 1.5 billion was lost – and found

On November 11, 2013, Donziger’s lawyers notified Chevron that they had decided not to call Tarco as a witness after all. But by that point, Chevron smelled blood. Since Guerra’s lawyer was entitled under Ecuadorian law to review the full-length forensic report that Tarco had prepared for use against his client, he arranged to do so accompanied by a technician from Chevron’s digital forensics consulting firm, Stroz Friedberg. That six-hour review took place last Monday. Though Ecuadorian officials would not permit Guerra’s lawyer or the Stroz Friedberg representative to copy the full 40-page report or its hundreds of pages of annexes, they did permit about 24 pages of the report and excerpts from several annexes to be scanned and photographed.

Based on that additional evidence, Stroz Friedberg expert Spencer Lynch reached more damaging opinions still. There are two forms of metadata that contain evidence relating to when a file is created, he explained in a supplemental report filed with the court yesterday, and in the case of the file containing the judgment, those metadata were in conflict. The so-called “file system creation date” was, indeed, October 11, 2010, as Tarco had reported, but the “embedded creation date” was Jan. 21, 2011 — three months later and only three weeks before the 188-page, single-spaced, $18 billion Lago Agrio judgment was issued. Such a conflict in creation times was “rare” and an “anomaly,” according to Lynch, and “consistent” with the file “having been created on a third computer, and then having been copied to the old computer after the computer’s clock was back-dated to October 11, 2010,” he wrote. (For other reasons, Lynch opined, flash drives could well have been connected to the computer notwithstanding Tarco’s conclusion to the contrary.)

In the end, Lynch concluded that Tarco’s report “contains crucial errors and may be itself the product of fabrication or manipulation.”

After hearing arguments from the attorneys yesterday afternoon, Judge Kaplan excluded portions of Lynch’s intended testimony, citing his unwillingness to allow Lynch to critique a 400-page report that Lynch had never studied in its entirety. Nevertheless, he did allow Lynch to testify about the fact that the file containing the judgment was found on the “old computer,” in apparent contradiction of Zambrano’s testimony, since Lynch was in that instance relying only on certified records from Hewlett Packard and the Ecuadorian Judicial Conference, and what was contained in the short Tarco declaration that the defendants themselves had filed in his court.

Donziger attorney Rainey Booth, of Houston-based law firm of Littlepage Booth, handled the cross-examination of Lynch, attempting to contain the damage. Booth suggested that there may have simply been some good-faith confusion by Zambrano about which computer he used to compose the judgment. Alternatively, Booth suggested, perhaps Zambrano had written the judgment on a third computer whose existence had been forgotten about by Zambrano and likewise totally overlooked by Tarco during his investigation.

Closing arguments in the case are to take place today, after which the parties will be given the opportunity to file post-trial briefs, so a ruling is not therefore not expected until early next year

Summary: In a trial full of twists and turns, the oil giant alleges that the Republic of Ecuador may have been involved in a cover-up.


02/12/2015 AT 07:00 AM EST

is keeping it all in the family on this season of #CANDIDLY NICOLE – because as past episodes have proved, well, they're a hilarious bunch.

"I would say my whole family has a pretty good sense of humor," Richie told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday. "My dad [

] is a jokester like me. He really loves to laugh."

"He likes anybody to smile and if he's the butt of the joke that's going to make people laugh then he's fine with that, and I feel that I'm kind of the same way," adds Richie, who has recruited her dad for an episode that "focuses on old age and new medicine."

"He's getting older and I want him to take care of himself," explains Richie. "I brought in my healer ... and we did some acupuncture on him and some cupping."

teams up with Richie to attempt a world record.

"[Rashida's] my God sister. I've known her forever," says Richie. "She's very smart. She's a Harvard graduate and I went to [the University of Arizona], so I feel like it only made sense that the two of us set a world record."

is also joining in on the family fun by making a "really funny" appearance as a realtor.

"Benji was on an episode where I discovered real estate and ... I kind of had the idea, if you're going to show somebody a house you need to have it be a real home. So I had different people in there just to make it feel very homey," says Richie. "I thought that Benj would be great for that so he was one of the people that was in the house while I was showing different people the house."

She says, "I donât know who's going to be on the next season of my show."

#CANDIDLY NICOLE returns for the second half of its second season Thursday on

Summary: "I would say my whole family has a pretty good sense of humor," Richie told reporters during a #CANDIDLY NICOLE press conference


Now that more than two weeks of shining moments have come and gone, let's take a look at what the pros are up to with a week left in the regular season.

The San Antonio Spurs recently notched their 50th victory, extending their streak of consecutive seasons reaching (at least) this level of victory to 16.

It should be noted that this run would have been up to 18 right now, but for the interruption of a lockout that limited the 1999-2000 season to 50 games (the Spurs won 37).

For the record, San Antonio won 56 games during the 1998-99 campaign, which also happened to be the first for the great Tim Duncan.

Thanks to an injury to David Robinson and some lottery magic, the 20-win Spurs of 1997-98 were able to draft Duncan, who just happens to be the greatest reason why the current streak sits at 16.

Sure, the franchise is run by experts, Gregg Popovich is a marvelous coach and Duncan has had a pair of teammates worthy of MVP distinction in the NBA Finals.

But without the Spurs defeating Rick Pitino and the Boston Celtics in the Duncan lottery, Pop wouldn't have been around long enough to be Pop, and Tony Parker would have had far less latitude with which to develop.

Perhaps the most important measure of Duncan's greatness was his willingness to be coached, a trait that made it far easier for Pop to establish the Spurs' culture.

The Minnesota Timberwolves picked a pair of point guards in the 2009 draft before Golden State selected MVP candidate Stephen Curry with the seventh pick.

With the Most Valuable Player chase in the homestretch, a quick review of the four leading candidates reminds us Golden State whiz Steph Curry is the leader in outplaying expectations. The former Davidson star lasted until the seventh selection in the 2009 NBA Draft.

James Harden, a strong candidate for MVP, was picked third that same year. Hasheem Thabeet was chosen second, Ricky Rubio fifth and Jonny Flynn checked in sixth. That's right, the Minnesota Timberwolves managed to pick two point guards not named Curry.

Anyway, a review of the last 30 MVPs tells us there have been a few eventual superstars who didn't exactly go early in their respective drafts.

Kobe Bryant, for example, was the 13th pick -- coming out of high school one year after Kevin Garnett kick-started this trend. He was more than coveted, but circumstances we won't get into conspired to keep him on the board that long.

Two-timer Karl Malone also rose up to elite status from the 13th position. Another two-time MVP -- Steve Nash -- was the lowest pick (15th) among MVPs over the last 30 years.

Fourteen of those 30 MVPs were chosen first overall, with four-time choice LeBron James earning the most out of that group.

If Houston's Harden is the MVP this season, it will be the sixth time a No. 3 pick has been afforded the honor. The five previous No. 3 picks to win MVP were shooting guards ... all were named Michael Jordan.

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Bulls rookie forward Nikola Mirotic was drafted into the NBA in 2011 with a pick that was originally part of the Goran Dragic-Aaron Brooks trade.

When the Phoenix Suns decided Goran Dragic wasn't hacking it as Steve Nash's backup in February of 2011, they shipped him to the Houston Rockets for Aaron Brooks. Also going to Houston was a first-round draft pick extracted from the Orlando Magic in a deal involving the acquisition of Marcin Gortat.

That pick -- the 23rd overall in 2011 -- was used to select a 6-foot-10 forward from Montenegro, who was bounced from Houston to the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Chicago Bulls on the same night.

But Nikola Mirotic didn't come over to the NBA and begin playing for the Bulls until this season ... which also happens to be the first in the Windy City for (drum roll) teammate Brooks.

Anyway, while Andrew Wiggins, Nerlens Noel and a few other of his fellow rookies are demonstrating considerable promise, Mirotic just earned Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors for March.

He averaged 20.8 points and 7.6 rebounds over 15 games, though he must improve his defense and shot selection to continue his ascension.

Brook Lopez is coming on strongly enough in the latter part of the season to likely opt out of a contract that will pay him $16.7 million next season.

Riding a recent roll of offensive excellence, Brooklyn center Brook Lopez is expected to opt out of the last year of his Nets contact and hit free agency this summer. (For the record, the last season he'd be opting out of is worth $16.7 million.)

With injury-related depletion of the pricey Brooklyn roster, Lopez rose to the occasion by averaging 20.9 points per game in March. OK, that's really swell. Offense from Lopez, however, hasn't been much of a problem in the past. What really seems impressive was his average of 9.1 rebounds.

And in the first four games in April, Lopez has bumped up those numbers to 22.8 and 9.8 while making 58 percent of his shots from the field.

He picked a really grand time to turn into a beast, didn't he?

In other potential news, Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose just might return to action sometime this week. With history as our guide, this definitely should be listed as rumor.

Forward Jaylen Brown is the most-decorated prospect on Team USA for this weekend's Nike Hoop Summit showdown.

The World Team hits Portland, Oregon, on Saturday to take on Team USA in the Nike Hoop Summit competition.

The NBA will be well represented by personnel sharpies eager to see the near future of their draft.

Although most of these youngsters (the American team consists of high school seniors) will eventually find their way to the NBA, the closest attention will be paid to three prospects.

Team USA's most-decorated prospect is Jaylen Brown, a 6-foot-7 bundle of power, speed and bounce from Georgia. Although Brown is about a year away from hitting the pre-draft circuit, he still hasn't decided which college to attend for his expected one-and-done season.

The World Team's top scout-pleasing phenoms include 6-9 Australian Ben Simmons, a combo forward who just finished leading Montverde Academy (Florida) to its third made-for-TV national championship in a row. He'll be joined by 7-foot Sudanese-Aussie Thon Maker, who attends a prep school in Canada and -- like Andrew Wiggins and Andre Drummond -- reclassified a grade higher to begin his college-pro odyssey a year earlier.

Based on size, skill and competitive zeal, Maker's middle name could be "Difference."

Follow Randy Hill on Twitter

Summary: This week's hot topics in the NBA: The fundamental truth about San Antonio's excellence; defining value in the MVP race; another Beard makes its presence known; Brook Lopez sets himself up for another nice payday; and it's USA vs. the World in a battle of basketball prodigies.


WASHINGTON, May 8— On June 30 the 18-month Congressional moratorium that blocked the Food and Drug Administration's decision to prohibit saccharin will expire. An effort will undoubtedly be made to extend the moratorium, again raising the difficult issue of the so-called Delaney clause.

Since 1958 the clause, an amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938, has required the agency to ban any food additive that has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Though it has rarely been invoked, it is a powerful threat. With so much public opposition raised against the proposal on saccharin, a widely used noncaloric sweetener that many diabetics rely on, Congress enacted the moratorium.

The clause, which bears the name of Representative James J. Delaney, Democrat of Queens, was at issue, too, in controversy over the use of sodium nitrite in cured meats. Since the additive is used in 7 percent of the nation's food, the possibility of a prohibition caused widespread concern in the industry. Last year the agency determined that there was insufficient evidence to establish the chemical as a cancer-causing agent.

The food industry considers the conservative gains in Congress last November as a signal that it may get a more sympathetic hearing on saccharin. The debate will include economic issues, consumer tastes and divergences among scientists as well as the basic matter of health. The Background

The focus of contention is the Delaney clause's absolute prohibition on possible cancer-causing additives in the food supply. When the clause was voted, scientists could determine a chemical's presence down to one part per million. Technology has since improved to the point that a chemical's presence can be detected in parts per billion or per thousand billion.

The food industry has increasingly denounced the so-called absolute zero requirement as unreasonable. The agency has been looking for ways to modify the standard for some time.

The Reagan Administration is under pressure to decide how vigilant the Government should be in enforcing the law and whether there is such a thing as a safe amount of a proven carcinogen. Against the Delaney Rule

A coalition of industries, including the American Meat Institute and the National Food Processors Association, joined by the American Farm Bureau Federation, have circulated draft legislation on Capitol Hill that would provide some of the flexibility that they maintain is necessary because of the increased ability to detect minute amounts of chemicals.

''We think there is a general consensus for change,'' said Stuart E. Proctor, assistant director of the national affairs division of the Farm Bureau Federation, the nation's largest farm organization. Asserting that because of new detection techniques, the clause had resulted in ''more regulation than we originally started with,'' he described it as ''an outdated, maybe even archaic regulation'' that had led to consumer confusion and to a decline in the reputation of food safety laws in general.

The industry wants to replace the prohibition against suspect additives with tolerance levels that would be based on actual risks. In addition, it would like a mechanism for scientific review of studies that conclude that a particular substance is harmful to humans; this would involve internal food-drug agency review of such studies and an appeal process.

Currently, the Justice Department has interpreted the Delaney clause as requiring the immediate exclusion of additives proved to be carcinogenic. The industry would like to be able to phase them out to lessen economic disruption.

''We'd like there to be some risk-benefit consideration,'' Mr. Proctor explained. ''We're not talking about eliminating the law, just making it more realistic and up to date.''

To promote such arguments the American Meat Institute has been circulating a brochure to members of Congress entitled ''Time for an Overhaul.'' The brochure includes quotations from individuals, including the Secretary of Agriculture, John R. Block, when he was still in the Illinois government, arguing for changes in the clause. ''We want to make sure that there is nothing like the nitrite situation again,'' a meat institute spokesman said. For the Delaney Rule

Opponents of change in the clause maintain that there is no way to divide carcinogens into risk categories and that the clause is the most effective way to deal with additives that are suspected carcinogens.

''If they modify it, there isn't any Delaney clause,'' said Dr. Sidney P. Wolfe, director of the Health Research Group, a consumer health organization opposed to modification of the clause as it concerns food. While noting that other food laws offered considerable room for discretion, he said that such discretion should not be applicable when an additive is a proved carcinogen.

''Food is different from everything else,'' he said. ''In the work place you can determine a risk to a hazardous or carinogenic chemical. But you can't avoid contact with food. It is too important a topic to allow it to be arbitrarily changed at the discretion of a commissioner who may or may not be sympathetic to industry's arguments.''

In addition, some scientists are skeptical of moving to an assessment of risk and benefit in determining whether a carcinogenic substance should be tolerated in the food supply. Risk assessment would prohibit substances carcinogic to animals from use as food additives except when it could be shown that the actual risk to humans was nonexistent or so low as to be of no public-health concern.

On the other hand, extrapolating risk based on animal test data is an uncertain art. ''Its use in making regulatory decisions concerning deliberately added carcinogenic food additives would be both premature and irresponsible,'' said Samuel S. Epstein in a paper on risk assessment presented by him and Thomas B. Smith of the Community Nutrition Institute at a recent food-safety conference in Washington.

Dr. Epstein, professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, maintains that the zero-risk standard of the Delaney clause is a ''cautious and prudent societal judgment'' that the risk of cancer should not be intensified by the deliberate addition of a carcinogen to food. The Outlook

With the moratorium on the prohibition of saccharin expiring June 30, there have been several legislative moves to extend it, but passage of one before the expiration date seems unlikely because of the press of other Congressional business. It is equally unlikely, however, that once the moratorium expires the agency will move to eliminate saccharin from the marketplace.

First, since an extension of the moratorium can be expected eventually, the agency would not want to undertake enforcement of the prohibition only to find itself reversed once again. Second, though the Reagan Administration has taken no position on the issue, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Richard S. Schweiker, indicated during his confirmation hearings that his department would attempt to modify the Delaney clause. There is some expectation that the Administration will come down on the side of an extension of the moratorium pending the development of an approach to food safety.

Clearly there is a climate for changing the clause. At a recent Washington conference on food safety, Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, said that if the Delaney issue came up at that moment Congress would reach a ''very rough and ready'' conclusion that could lead to the clause's elimination.


Two researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center have challenged studies showing that care in an outpatient clinic, when feasible, costs less and was equal to or better than care at a hospital.

The researchers found that most studies had not adequately determined the true cost or the true quality of either kind of care. They urged that future studies be more scientifically designed.

Ambulatory care has been substituted for inpatient care in surgery for hernias and varicose veins, for example, in an attempt to contain the soaring costs of medical care.

However, in the issue of The New England Journal of Medicine to be published today, Aviva A. Berk and Dr. Thomas C. Chalmers challenge that assumption on the basis of their analysis of 134 reports in medical journals. Two Criteria Stressed

In assessing each of the reports, the two researchers stressed two criteria. One was that the assertions of financial savings resulting from the substitution of ambulatory care for hospitalization should be economically valid in that the claims should compare the true costs of each kind.

The other was that measurements of the quality of care in the two settings should be based on studies that met accepted scientific standards.

The researchers' analysis found that only four of the 134 reports had provided sufficient data on both cost and efficacy to yield statistically valid conclusions.

''Two of these four demonstrated that potential savings would be accompanied by a slightly poorer clinical outcome; two showed ambulatory care to be as effective as inpatient care and less costly,'' the Mount Sinai researchers wrote in their report.

''If data show costs to be more and care to be worse in the ambulatory setting, or costs less and care better, there will be no (ethical) dilemma,'' they stated.

Nevertheless, they added, even when reliable data were collected, society might be faced with ethical dilemmas. ''Problems will occur if data show that savings can be achieved in the ambulatory setting but with an inferior clinical outcome,'' the researchers said. ''or that a better clinical outcome will cost more in the ambulatory setting.''


MEDFORD ''ABSTAIN.'' That was the response of the newest member of the state's Pinelands Commission on every issue that came up for a vote on Feb. 6, the date of his first meeting as a commissioner.

He is former State Senator Raymond H. Bateman, and his failure to vote or express his views regarding the controversies facing the commission stems from his role as representive of James G. Watt, the new Secretary of the Interior.

Mr. Bateman does not know the Secretary's views; he does not even know whether Mr. Watt wants him in the job. What is more, Mr. Bateman has never even met the Secretary or spoken with him about the pinelands or anything else, although he hopes to do so before the commission's next meeting in March.

Mr. Watt came into office with President Reagan on Jan. 20. On Jan. 19, Mr. Bateman received notification from Cecil D. Andrus, then in his final day as Secretary of the Interior in the Carter Administration, that he had been designated the Secretary's representative on the commission.

The appointment was made to replace Donald Kennard, who had just resigned because the Carter Administration was ending. Mr. Bateman explained in an interview that his appointment by the outgoing Democratic Administration had been made under the auspices of Governor Byrne.

The role of the Pinelands Commission is to protect 1.1 million acres of the Pine Barrens from overdevelopment. Although Mr. Bateman is a Republican, Governor Byrne was aware of his interest in pinelands preservation and asked Secretary Andrus to make the appointment.

Asked whether he had acted to avoid taking a chance on a Reagan Administration appointee who might be less sensitive to pinelands questions, Mr. Byrne replied that he had recommended Mr. Bateman ''because he is an outstanding Republican who, I believe, will be acceptable to the Reagan Administration.''

Whether that is true is uncertain, even to Mr. Bateman. The Reagan Administration has established a personnel office in the White House whose avowed intention is to make certain that appointees to subCabinet jobs and positions on boards, commissions and regulatory agencies are Reagan people rather than holdovers from the previous Administration.

However, Mr. Bateman has the blessing not only of Governor Byrne, but also of the Republican establishment in New Jersey. His name was on a list of Republicans that David Norcross, the G.O.P. state chairman, submitted to Mr. Reagan for possible service with the new Administration.

In a letter dated Jan. 26, Mr. Bateman left it up to Mr. Watt, saying: ''On the final day of the Carter Administration, Secretary Andrus designated me as Federal representative to the New Jersey Pinelands Commission. Gov. Byrne had asked me, several weeks prior to the appointment, if I would consider taking such an appointment ...

''I would willingly stand aside for an appointee of the Reagan Administration if, for some reason, my services aren't desired. I said yes to Gov. Byrne only because I know that the project is more important to New Jersey's long-range future than any other pending program.''

The commission's plan for restricting development in the pinelands has been under heavy attack from builders and officials in many of the 56 municipalities and seven counties in the area.

The comprehensive management plan for the area was adopted by the commission last Nov. 21 and approved by Secretary Andrus on Jan. 16. It divides the pinelands into a central Preservation Area, in which construction is virtually prohibited except for such public-need projects as firehouses or vehicle-maintenance areas, and an outer Protection Area, in which construction and development are to be carefully regulated to prevent the destruction of habitat or degradation of water quality.

Under the state law that created the commission, counties and municipalities must bring their master plans and land-use ordinances into conformity by next January. However, opponents are resisting, and are seeking through the courts and by pressure on the Legislature and the commission to have restrictions on building relaxed.

On the commission itself, both sides hope for Mr. Bateman's support, not only because he has a vote on each issue that arises, but also because he represents the Reagan Administration and thus plays a critical role in the fate of the Federal funds - about $26 million - needed for planning and land acquisition.

The commission approved the management plan by a vote of 11 to 4, with Mr. Kennard siding with the majority. Mr. Bateman said he had not yet read all of the plan, but he added:

''Basically, I will be in agreement with what has been done.'' ''I'm not a screaming environmentalist,'' he said, ''but I'm interested in environmental protection. There is a definite need for preservation in both the Preservation and Protection Areas of the pinelands and for protection of the aquifer beneath them.

''Communities in the pinelands should want to comply, but there also has to be a sensitivity to the problems of the people in the area.''

Opponents of the plan contend that it takes too much control of land use away from local government. Forty-three of the 56 municipalities have applied to the commission for funds that would be used for the planning needed to bring local ordinances into conformity with the commission's plan, but none has actually committed itself to accepting the funds by signing a contract.

The contracting process will begin this week. Commissioner Roger L. Stobbart, a Cape May County builder who voted against the management plan, noted in an open letter last month that through-out the ''conformance year'' of 1981 there would be ''the greatest possible opportunity for those who feel wronged to bring legitimate political pressure to bear for legislative action to correct the flaws in the plan.''

No one on the commission has more experience with politics and political pressure than its newest member. Mr. Bateman served in the Assembly from 1958 to 1967 and in the State Senate from 1968 to 1977, when he became the Republican nominee for Governor. He lost to Mr. Byrne.

Mr. Bateman was the minority and majority leader in both houses and the Senate President for three years. He now operates a publicaffairs consulting business, advising corporations on government relations, and teaches politics at Rutgers University.

His service with the commission, like that of the other commissioners, is unpaid except for expenses.


New York State is expected to order the Consolidated Edison Company to refund nearly $40 million that it charged its 2.8 million customers because of an unscheduled shutdown last year at its Indian Point 2 nuclear plant, according to the State Attorney General's office.

The company imposed the charges to pay for fuel and substitute power that were necessitated by the shutdown, which began on Oct. 17, 1980. Subsequently, the State Public Service Commission's chief administrative law judge ruled that the shutdown was the result of ''imprudent actions'' by the utility and recommended the refunds.

The commission received the recommendation last Wednesday in an oral ''analysis'' by the judge, William J. Cowan. The commission deferred final action on the recommendation at the request of Commissioner Edward P. Larkin, who was absent. It is to meet Dec. 22 in Albany to act on the matter.

But Timothy Gilles, press secretary for Attorney General Robert Abrams, said remarks by five commissioners gave ''a clear signal that the commission intends to order refunds.'' Mr. Abrams had submitted expert testimony contending that the plant had a longtime ''propensity for corrosion and leakage.'' In urging the refunds, he proposed that repayments be in a lump sum. Shutdown Followed Flooding

The Public Service Commission staff had also presented witnesses to support its contention that Con Edison had been imprudent. Estimates last spring were that the refunds might come to $4.50 for a residential customer using 250 kilowatt hours.

The plant was shut down when leaks flooded the power reactor with 112,000 gallons of water. According to the Public Service Commission, Mr. Cowan said that the refunds would not be a penalty. But it said he had ruled that the company had taken imprudent actions and thus was not justified in collecting $33.7 million for extra fuel and substitute power for the 59 days of the shutdown that occurred before a scheduled shutdown. To the $33.7 million, he said that 11 percent interest should be added.

The utility had contended that Indian Point 2 had not gone out of service because of any damage, asserting that ''the water caused no substantial damage.'' 'An Industry-Wide Problem'

In a report to customers, it said it had acted ''to replace all 6,000 pipes in the heat exchangers of the plant's air-cooling system.'' Leaks in some of these, it said, combined with sump pump failures to cause the accumulation of water from the Hudson River on the containment building floor and reactor cavity.

It said that it had previously planned to replace ''leak-prone pipes in one part,'' but that increased frequency of leaks and new tests led to a decision to replace all the pipes.

''Leaking cooling systems are an industry-wide problem - not only in nuclear plants but also in oil-fired and coal-fired plants,'' it said.

The shutdown, it went on, was also ''to do refueling modification and maintenance work, which originally had been scheduled to begin in mid-December and run through mid-April.''

In a previous refund, gas utilities in the state began returning $36.7 million last October. This was caused by a return of money by the State of Louisiana, after the United States Supreme Court threw out its tax on gas transported through it to other states. Mr. Gilles said that case had been started by the New York and Maryland Attorneys General.


At his trial, Steven T. Judy described in detail how, in April 1979, he had raped and strangled a young woman and then drowned her three children. Mr. Judy told the jury that he should be sentenced to death, and he got his way. Last week, sedated with tranquilizers but denied the beer he wanted, Mr. Judy was executed in Old Betsy, the state of Indiana's electric chair.

Though he was not a very attractive symbol - Mr. Judy had bragged that, in his prime, he had committed half a hundred armed robberies and 13 rapes - opponents of the death penalty said that he should have been spared.

In her own post-mortem, Mr. Judy's foster mother said it would have been just as well if he had died in an automobile accident eight years ago. The wreck took place when he fled in the family car after she caught him making an obscene phone call. ''Four lives would have been spared,'' she said, ''and his death wouldn't have been so tragic for us.''

Mr. Judy was the fourth person to be executed since 1977. Altogether, some 730 inmates are on death rows throughout the country, many of them in the Deep South. ---------------------------------------------------------------------


It was perh aps inevitable that a fight over the appointment of judges to the State Supreme Court would end up adding one more case to New York's burgeoning judicial backlog. So it was last week, as anAppellate Div ision panel weighed a challenge by the Manhattan District Atto rney, Robert M. Morgenthau, to Chief Judge Lawrence

H. Cooke's plan to rotate lower court judges into temporary positions on the court in New York City. While the District Attorney and the Chief Judge have focused on the issue of who should serve on the court, which handles the more serious civil and criminal cases, others concerned with cutting the staggering caseloads were focusing on the issue of how many should serve. And a consensus was forming in Albany that some relief will be provided during this legislative session.

The judge shortage dates to 1962, when the Legislature amended the State Constitution to provide one judge for every 50,000 people in each of the state's 11 judicial districts, without regard to the rate of crime. That locked New York City into a level of judicial manpower that has proven far from adequate.

Though the State Constitution says that ''the justices of the Supreme Court shall be chosen by the electors of the judicial district in which they are to serve,'' it also allows for the appointment of temporary justices to the court. For 10 years, this provision has been used liberally; the 114 elected Supreme Court justices in New York City are currently supplemented by 141 acting judges. (These include 18 judges who have reached retirement age but have been temporarily retained; 12 Court of Claims judges originally intended only to handle narcotics cases; 14 judges from upstate jurisdictions and 97 judges from the city's Civil and Criminal Courts, the ones over which the Chief Judge and District Attorney are quarreling.)

The reinforcements, however, haven't enabled the court to keep up with, much less reduce, the city's steadily growing supply of criminal and civil cases. According to State Senator Emanuel R. Gold, the deputy minority leader, this so-called temporary system has, in effect, become a permanent ''patchwork of lower-court judges and judges from jurisdictions outside of New York City,'' who have not been elected, as the State Constitution requires.

Mindful of these problems, the Legislature last year appropriated $6 million for about 90 more judges statewide. But negotiations between the lawmakers and Governor Carey stalled over who would select them - Court of Claims judges are appointed by Mr. Carey, but Criminal Court judges in New York City are appointed by Mayor Koch - and the positions were not filled.

Because additional judges are certain to be popular with the voters, who will elect a new Legislature in November, and, to a lesser extent, because of the attention generated b y Mr. Morgenthau'ssuit, the lawmakers have ample incentive to t ake another crack at theproblem this session. So far, three approache s have emerged.

Mr. Gold has called for the constitutional limit to be either increased or repealed. Stanley Fink, the Assembly Speaker, would retain the limit but appoint more Court of Claims or Criminal Court judges to be designated ''Acting Supremes.'' However, the proposal with the most support - including that of Governor Carey, Mayor Koch, Senate majority leader Warren M. Anderson, Senate minority leader Manfred H. Ohrenstein, State Senator Roy M. Goodman and the State Bar Association - is a merger of the state's 11 separate trial courts. Proponents say this would eliminate duplicative procedures and allow administrators to switch judges freely to divisions where they are most needed.

Judge Cooke also backs the merger. But although Mr. Morgenthau once supported it, he has lately begun to back away from anything that would give the Chief Judge unlimited powers to shift judges from court to court without having to consult either the Court of Appeals or the state administrative board. ''That is why this lawsuit is so important,'' Mr. Morgenthau said as he argued his case before the Appellate Division. ''It will define the relationship between the Chief Judge and the Court of Appeals and the administrative board.''

Under the plan proposed by Judge Cooke, the 97 judges currently sitting as acting justices would be sent back to their original assignments in either criminal or civil court by 1984, and an equal number would be transferred from those courts to replace them. This process would eventually give all 218 civil and criminal court judges a chance to be selected for Supreme Court duty by a screening committee appointed by the Chief Judge.

The rotation, Judge Cooke said, would diminish prosecutorial influence over the selection of the temporary judges and insure ''a perception of fairness.'' But asserting that it would replace the senior judges with ''unknown quantities,'' Mr. Morgenthau argued that Judge Cooke had overstepped his powers by installing the system without the approval of the administrative board.

The first legal round went to Judge Cooke, when a State Supreme Court judge r uled last month that since Mr. Morgenthau was not ''personally aggrieved'' by the plan, he lacked the authority to sue.A ruling from the Appellate Division panel is expected this week.

Meanwhile, 31 of the screening committee's selections were already on the job last week and the District Attorney, whose office did not respond to inquiries from the committee as it reviewed the judges, was known to be dissatisfied with several of them. So was John Horan, chairman of the state Bar Association's Committee on Judicial Administration. ''Looking at some of them,'' Mr. Horan said, ''it is inconceivable that they are the best choices. The screening committee didn't do a good job at all.''

Illustrations: photo of Robert Morgenthau photo of Lawrence Cooke


LIKE domestic auto makers and home builders, book publishers have been hard hit by the economic recession, although that might not be readily apparent when the American Booksellers Association opens its 82d anniversary meeting and 35th trade exhibition tomorrow in Anaheim, Calif.

The purpose of the meeting is to call attention to the publishers' fall lists, and some 3,000 booksellers have registered for the fourday convention, almost 60 percent more than last year, when the meeting was held in Atlanta. Moreover, publisher registration is up more than 40 percent to about 4,000, according to G. Roysce Smith, executive director of the A.B.A. Some 75 Australians, 40 Italians and 30 New Zealanders will also exhibit. Some 75 observers from Japan will be on hand, as well as a sprinkling of observers from Finland, Norway and Denmark.

The convention stacks up as the association's biggest since it was held in Los Angeles in 1979, economic light-years away, but there are good reasons for that, beyond the lure of the annual gettogether. Some 20 percent of the association's 5,500 membership is in California and a total of 30 percent is on the West Coast. In addition, California is alive with small publishers, many of them quite imaginative, who are eager to show their wares in a homestate setting. But books are not the only attraction; today is A.B.A. Family Day at Disneyland, for example, and the group was so swamped with requests that it had to quadruple its initial order of 500 tickets.

A record 500 or more authors will be swarming over, under and around the convention floor during the four days and many of them will be busy in the autographing areas at both ends of the convention hall. Theodore H. White, author of the recent ''America in Search of Itself'' (Harper & Row), is scheduled to speak at a Books and Author breakfast on Sunday and former President Jimmy Carter, author of ''Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President'' (Bantam), which is due in November, will speak at the breakfast Monday then hold a news conference.

Also scheduled to be on hand are Joseph Wambaugh, William F. Buckley Jr., Belva Plain, Thomas Thompson, Richard Simmons, Jackie Collins, Richard Armour, Iron Eyes Cody, former Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, Ray Bradbury, Ernest K. Gann, Jackie Collins, Jim Davis and Mortimer Adler. Pele, the soccer superstar, will be publicizing ''The Pele Soccer Training Program.''

A Monday morning panel will be devoted to censorship, a major concern of authors, publishers and booksellers. But any sparks that fly at the convention are likely to be struck starting today when the association's 20-member board of directors is expected to be asked to support the antitrust suit the Northern California Booksellers filed in mid-April against Avon Books.

The California group has charged Avon with anticompetitive practices for giving chain booksellers substantially larger discounts than it gives independent book stores. Earlier this month an association of Bay Area book reviewers endorsed a resolution supporting the suit, but it is uncertain how the association board will vote. The big question at the moment is what, if anything, the Northern California booksellers will do if the association turns down their request.


The bandwagon of companies offering employees free college just got a bit bigger.

Health insurance company Anthem on Tuesday announced that it will offer its 55,000 full and part-time workers free tuition towards an associate’s or bachelor’s degree through College for America at Southern New Hampshire University.

College for America is an accredited online degree program that touts its flexibility and affordability. Its degree programs cost $2,500 per year or less. Southern New Hampshire was the first institution to gain approval from the Department of Education for its so-called direct assessment academic programs, which measure student learning based on competency rather than credit hours. In 2013, when President Barack Obama launched his College Affordability Tour, he highlighted College for America’s model, which rewards students for how well they master material, not by how much time they spend in class. “If you are learning the material faster, you can finish faster, which means you pay less,” the president said.

Anthem’s free tuition benefit through College for America, which launches on Tuesday, will be available to employees who work 20 or more hours per week and have been employed at the company for at least six months. Employees will have to front the cost of the courses and will later be reimbursed by the company.

In that regard, Anthem’s program is similar to the one that Starbucks expanded in April. Starbucks employees can earn a college degree from Arizona State University at no cost through the company’s reimbursement program.

Last month, the United States division of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced a free college tuition program for the 118,000 employees working at its Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Fiat dealerships. Part-time and full-time employees who have worked at a dealership for 30 days are eligible to enroll in an associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s degree program in 40 degree categories at Strayer University, a 123-year-old for-profit college based in Virginia. FCA and its dealerships cover the cost of employees’ courses upfront.

As the labor market has tightened in the past 12 months or so, more companies are interested in offering employees tuition assistance, said Mark Ward, vice president and general manager for EdAssist, a company that advises employers on their tuition assistance programs. The increased interest comes after a decline in such programs following the recession. A study of nearly 300 employers commissioned by EdAssist found that 71% of companies offered tuition benefits in 2012, down 16% from 2009.

Employers have begun to realize that the benefit is considered especially valuable by a growing segment of the workforce: millennials. An EdAssist survey of millennials released last month found that if asked to choose between similar jobs, nearly 60% of respondents would pick the job with strong potential for professional development over one with regular pay raises. One in two millennials said they expected an employer’s financial support in paying for further education.

Summary: First Starbucks, then Chrysler, now Anthem. The health insurer joins a growing list of companies offering workers free college tuition.


06/09/2015 AT 01:00 AM EDT

knows a thing or two about telling jokes, but he's currently getting attention for making a grim forecast for the future of comedy.

with Colin Cowherd, Seinfeld, 61, says the nation's trend toward political correctness makes it hard for comedians to be funny.

"I don't play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me 'Don't go near colleges,' " he said. "They're so PC."

As an example of the younger generations' tendency to find certain topics offensive, Seinfeld offers a story about his 14-year-old daughter.

"My wife says to my daughter, 'In the next couple of years, I think you'll want to be hanging around the city more on weekends, so you can see boys.' You know what my daughter says? 'That's sexist.' "

"They just want to use these words. 'That's racist.' 'That's sexist.' 'That's prejudiced.' They don't even know what they're talking about," Seinfeld said.

Seinfeld goes on to say that he makes jokes about the subjects he talks about because he's learned he can get a laugh out of them. "If I wanted to say something, I would just say it," he said.

You can hear these remarks in the below clip of the interview.

Summary: The comedian says the trend toward political correctness hurts comedians


Pugletto's interpretation of The Lion King

06/17/2015 AT 02:00 PM EDT

Admit it, you had an interspecies crush on Simba. It was hard not to!

hero was sensitive, troubled, adventurous and romantic and had a beautiful head of hair. The perfect man except for the whole, you know, lion thing.

, you don't need to feel strange about wanting to feel the love tonight with Simba. The 24-year-old animator has transformed this cub and other famous Disney animals into humans.

Pugletto's work re-imagines these famous animated dogs, bears and lions as cartoon humans who fit into the time period and cultural landscape of the film.

"The inspiration was more or less a way to deal with my own frustration with a lack of diversity in fan-based art communities," the artist

. "When people ask me how or why I drew them as people of color, my answer to them is usually, 'Why not?' "

Pugletto's interpretation of Lady and the Tramp

The result is a series of drawings that will give fans a new perspective on their favorite classics from childhood.

These human Disney doppelgängers aren't Pugletto's only expertise; the artist is an all-around impressive animator

Summary: Obviously adult-Simba is a total babe


Pinal County Sheriff's Office (2)

07/02/2015 AT 07:00 AM EDT

Police have found what they believe to be the bodies of a

who went missing more than a week ago. The discovery came just hours after police announced that they had detained a "person of interest" in the pair's disappearance.

Michael and Tina Careccia were first reported missing on June 22 after they left for work that morning and never showed up. The only clue in the mysterious disappearance? Their 2008 Honda Accord, which was found by Pinal County sheriff's deputies just hours after they vanished.

Early Thursday morning, two bodies believed to be those of Michael and Tina were found during a search of the couple's property,

On Wednesday, police announced they had taken an individual who lives on the couple's property into custody for questioning, according to

. "We have a person of interest detained who we believe is involved in their disappearance," said Mark Clark, a spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. He emphasized that the individual was not under arrest.

The news came after police searched the couple's home and land earlier in the day. The sheriff's office said Tuesday that they "are confident that foul play is involved in their disappearance."

"We knew there was foul play from the get-go," Geoff Dugan, Michael Careccia's brother-in-law, told reporters. "There's no reason they wouldn't come home."

Summary: Michael and Tina Careccia were first reported missing on June 22 after they never showed up at work


06/01/2015 AT 02:30 PM EDT

A restaurant regular decided to show his favorite gumbo spot a little extra love with some big money last Monday.

Christofer Nardelli, the owner of

in Washington, D.C., says one of his loyal customers left a $2,000 tip on a $93 bill, according to

Nardelli, who is keeping the patron's identity anonymous, told the paper that the customer always tips well, but that he was shocked to see a bonus this big.

The regular came in with a friend to feast on fried chicken, several bowls of gumbo and beer, and then paid for his food and left. It wasn't until closing that the customer's bartender, Laura Dally, noticed the unusual tip.

"I was in utter shock," Dally said. "I was completely speechless. I had to do a double take."

Along with the $2,000 tip, the patron left a note that said "Thank you for the gumbo," along with instructions about how the money should be spilt between Dally, Nardelli and chef James Turner, with $1,000 going to the gumbo maker and $500 each going to Dally and Nardelli.

"This is the kind of stuff you see in the restaurant business that happens to some guy in the Midwest or the West Coast," Nardelli said about the surprise. "You think, who are these people who give these extraordinarily generous tips that just made a server or bartenderâs day? And then sure enough, it happened to us."

The staff of Blue 44 know the giving customer well. The local customer comes in several times a month and sometimes emails with the owner and chef about the food and beer pairings and his favorite menu item: the gumbo.

Recently, Turner reached out to the generous customer and asked the man to email him the next time he was coming in, so the chef could have his favorite type of gumbo (chicken and andouille sausage with a dark roux) ready for him.

The man responded that he would be in Monday for the treat, and he arrived as promised. Turner served the customer multiple bowls of gumbo throughout his meal, and sent the foodie home with two quarts of the stuff on the house.

It was this welcoming atmosphere and dedication that led the man to leave the large tip. Nardelli emailed the customer after receiving the surprise to say thank you, and he received a response from the patron soon after.

"He said he's very happy with what we've built and that he's proud to be a customer," Nardelli said.

"It's flattering," the owner continued. "It's nice to see somebody appreciate what we do, and they're willing to leave something like that for us. It's hard to believe anyone deserves a tip like that.â

Summary: A loyal customer left a generous tip for three staff members at Washington, D.C.'s Blue 44


Police arrest a man after breaking up a protest in Ferguson. (AP)

US police have arrested 47 people during a night of protests in Ferguson, the Missouri town rocked by violence over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol said protesters threw bottles of water and urine at police towards the end of last night's protest, prompting officers to intervene after an otherwise peaceful night.

"As of 1am we had 47 arrests," he told a press conference today, adding that police had also seized three guns from demonstrators.

Johnson stressed that unlike a protest on Monday night, protesters did not fire guns at police and police refrained from using tear gas to break up the rally.

"Tonight we saw a different dynamic," he said.

Fears that another police shooting involving a knife-wielding male might renew tension failed to materialise, after successive nights of clashes with police in the St Louis suburb.

Ferguson has been ground zero of a renewed debate about race and strong-armed law enforcement in America since the August 9 fatal shooting in broad daylight of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer.

US Attorney General Eric Holder is to visit Ferguson amid an ongoing federal investigation into possible civil rights violations.

A grand jury is meanwhile to begin hearing witnesses to Brown's killing, amid calls for the police officer, Darren Wilson, to be put on trial for murder.

In another development, Brown's family is undertaking preparations for his funeral, which their lawyer said would take place on Monday.

Several hundred people returned to West Florissant Avenue on Tuesday, not far from where Brown fell, expressing their outrage and demanding that justice be done.

But in contrast to previous nights, rather than firing tear gas head-on into the crowd, police with riot shields and armoured vehicles opted to assume a lower profile on the sidelines.

They finally intervened around midnight, pushing the remaining crowd - without the use of tear gas - towards a newly designated public assembly area in a former car dealership.

"I want the good people to have the ability to voice their opinions," said Capt Johnson, the African-American officer tasked with restoring order in the restive town of 21,000.

Mingling with citizens at the outset of the march, who insisted on their right to protest, Capt Johnson denounced what he called "criminal elements" who, after dark on Sunday and Monday, had ignored police orders to disperse.

Earlier, a few kilometres away in St Louis proper, officers shot dead an agitated man who yelled "kill me now" as he rushed at them, wielding a knife during an apparent convenience store robbery.

St Louis Metropolitan Police Captain Ed Kuntz told reporters at the scene that an investigation had been launched, but, based on what he had heard, "it seems reasonable to say it was justifiable".

Police have identified the white police officer who shot Brown dead in broad daylight on a residential street as Darren Wilson, 28, a police officer for six years.

Brown's family wants officer Wilson - who reportedly has been granted leave from his duties - charged with murder for "executing" their son.

In an op-ed column in the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper today, Mr Holder pledged what he called a full, fair and independent investigation.

"And beyond the investigation itself, we will work with the police, civil rights leaders, and members of the public to ensure that this tragedy can give rise to new understanding - and robust action - aimed at bridging persistent gaps between law enforcement officials and the communities we serve," he said.

Police contend that Brown was rushing at the officer, but other witnesses say the teenager - who was about to start vocational college - had his hands up, ready to surrender.

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Summary: Police in the US city of St Louis have shot dead a man near where violent protests are taking place against an earlier police shooting of a black teen.


Facebook's warning that it expects its growth to slow later this year has spooked investors, but they may be overreacting, analyst Gene Munster said Thursday.

Facebook CFO David Wehner said during Facebook's conference call Wednesday that ad revenue growth will likely decelerate in coming quarters. But Piper Jaffray's Munster told CNBC Wall Street had already accounted for growth of 40 percent and 38 percent in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.

The social media giant reported revenue growth of 43 percent in the second quarter.

Read MoreFacebook quarterly results beat on most metrics

"I think [Wehner] was just trying to temper some expectations," Munster said in a "Squawk Box" interview.

Facebook on Wednesday reported adjusted second-quarter earnings of 50 cents per share on $4.04 billion in revenue, compared with Wall Street expectations of 47 cents per share on $3.99 billion.

Despite the earnings beat, share prices were down nearly 4 percent Thursday. (Click here for the latest price.)

Munster said investors should not expect Facebook to quickly ramp up revenue from its Instagram photo-sharing business and its messaging apps. The company will likely focus on making money from Instagram next year and possibly do the same with Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp in 2017 or beyond, he said.

Read More6 social trades on Facebook earnings

Investors were also seen reacting to higher costs. Facebook's expenses in total came in at $2.77 billion, up 82 percent from the same period last year.

Mark Mahaney, lead Internet analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said Thursday that Facebook has so far managed its investments wisely.

"This is still early stage for Facebook. The bigger mistake would be under-investing, not over-investing," he told "Squawk on the Street." "Unlike Google, they seem to be better at guiding to and then meeting or beating those expense goals."

While Mahaney said he expects a "pretty solid deceleration" in Facebook's growth rate, that deceleration will also be consistent and moderate.

"If that's what happens you're going to have close to $4 in earnings in 2017, and the stock's going to go higher. We may retrace shortly here, but overall fundamentals are about as strong as you can find in the sector and the valuation is still reasonable."

Summary: Investors misunderstood comments from Facebook CFO David Wehner about slower revenue growth in the rest of 2015, Gene Munster said.


There is simply too much gold supply, said John LaForge of Ned Davis Research.

"Eventually it will balance, but as of right now there is still too much supply," he said in the same interview. Even though the numbers are down, he said, gold production has been up over the last two years.

"That's what happens at the end of a supercycle, people tend to overproduce."

LaForge expects that if gold follows the pattern of a normal supercycle, the price could drop to the mid-600s before it is done.

Summary: CNBC spoke with a gold bear and bull on where the precious metal could go in the near and long terms.


Chris Hallock keeps busy as a programmer for the Boston Underground Film Festival, the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival, and the Somerville Theatre. When not lining up films for each of these eclectic and always rewarding venues, he contributes a column to the genre film publication Diabolique and writes screenplays, contributing his talents to Boston-based filmmaker Izzy Lee’s “Postpartum” and “A Favor.” He likes to watch people, so to avoid accusations of being a voyeur he lets documentarians do the ogling for him. “I respect outsiders and mavericks,” he writes in an e-mail, “and my choices reflect the spirit of resolve and fearlessness.”

Jonathan Demme’s new film, “Ricki and the Flash,” shows a rocker (Meryl Streep) past her prime. More than three decades ago he celebrated David Byrne and Talking Heads in this film, which Hallock and many others consider the best concert doc ever made. “Demme, utilizing the brilliant cinematography of Jordan Cronenweth, presents the live performance as a dynamic cinematic experience,” Hallock says. “His style complements classic tracks like ‘Psycho Killer’ and ‘Life During Wartime,’ spotlighting Byrne’s shamanic presence with an array of inventive lighting techniques and an astonishing sound mix.”

Filming the creative process and the origins of genius poses a challenge to documentarians, since it all happens inside the artist’s mind. Terry Zwigoff gets inside the head and private life of countercultural cartoonist R. Crumb, and it’s as strange as his freakiest creations,” notes Hallock. “The film took nine years to complete while the intrepid Zwigoff worked with subjects who weren’t always lucid during the filming. Crumb is a sobering look at the fine line between genius and madness. A stirring, occasionally morbid portrait of an artist whose idealism underlies the absurdist provocations for which he’s famous.”

Lost in La Mancha (2002)

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, says the anonymous poet. Terry Gilliam had more than a touch of madness in him when he tackled an adaptation of Cervantes’s “Don Quixote,” and fate did not deal with him kindly as he tilted at this windmill. Documentarians Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe recorded the whole sad story, portraying a genius undaunted by setbacks. “Thwarted at every turn to make his dream project, ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,’ come to life despite floods, injuries, and financing fiascos, Gilliam perseveres. But his unwillingness to compromise contributes to the film’s collapse as the challenges exceed his control. A cautionary tale about well-meaning ambition doomed by excess.” Unsurprisingly, Gilliam hopes to take another stab at making the opus in 2016.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad (2007)

Rock ’n’ roll will never die, not even in Iraq. So it seems from Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti’s perilous feat of profiling the battered nation’s only heavy metal band, Acrassicauda. “Despite constant danger (such as having their rehearsal space blown up), they endure for the shared love of heavy metal,” says Hallock. “It’s an utterly engaging look from the point-of-view of a group of men far removed from our culture, yet longing for the metal head’s uncompli-cated life of drinking beer and moshing.”

Summary: Chris Hallock likes to watch people, so to avoid accusations of being a voyeur he lets documentarians to do the ogling for him. “I respect outsiders and mavericks,” he writes in an e-mail, “and my choices reflect the spirit of resolve and fearlessness.”


Facebook's rising stock price after a report that the social media giant is seeking music video licensing deals may signal a broader comeback for momentum companies, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Friday.

The report, which appeared in The New York Times on Thursday, said Facebook is talking with recording companies to add a limited number of videos, all of which would be selected by the labels.

"It's funny that this announcement, which I don't think is that needle-moving is getting it going. That's a sign that a lot of people feel that these higher multiple stocks are ready to come back," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street."

Read MoreFacebook to build $500M data center in Texas

Facebook's shares were up about 1.5 percent Friday morning.

Summary: CNBC's Jim Cramer explains what Facebook's move to the upside could mean for the broader markets.


GM Executive Vice President Stefan Jacoby, who oversees markets beyond the Americas, Europe and China, acknowledges GM got it wrong in going head-to-head with the Japanese in a market he dubs their "backyard".

GM tried to take on Japanese rivals by locally producing its Chevrolet Spin, a strategic, small 'people mover' van which has proved a winner in Brazil, but it was too costly to make to be profitable in Indonesia as most of the parts had to be imported.

The Spin, which sold from around $12,000 and competed with Toyota's Avanza, failed to take off as GM had hoped, making the production plant at Bekasi, just outside Jakarta, a financial burden. Production last year was less than a quarter of Bekasi's annual capacity of 40,000 vehicles. GM sold just 8,412 Spin cars in Indonesia last year, and exported nearly 3,000.

"We could not ramp up Spin production to boost the volume as we had expected ... although the product was really good," Jacoby told Reuters. "The logistics chain of the Spin was too complex; we had low volume so we could not localize the car accordingly, and from the cost point of view we were just not competitive."

GM will stop making the Spin in Indonesia by end-June and shutter the Bekasi factory, which employs around 500 people. The restructuring will leave GM Indonesia as only a sales unit.

The overhaul aims to turn GM Indonesia "not only into profitability, but into a sustainable business model," said Jacoby.

Read MoreGM earnings blow doors off estimates

Summary: General Motors is to stop making cars in Indonesia, leading to a closure of an assembly plant and axing some 500 jobs.


08/27/2015 AT 09:00 AM EDT

's new single so much she didn't just direct the music video for it – she filmed it at her house and appeared in it, too!

PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at Irish band's video for "Love Will Set You Free," a song co-written by Cox's

"When Johnny first played me 'Love Will Set You Free,' I was blown away. The song is incredibly beautiful," Cox, 51, tells PEOPLE. "After hanging out with the guys and getting to know their personalities, I knew I wanted to direct this video and really showcase who they are as individuals and as musicians."

Kodaline frontman Steve Garrigan says the whole process, from writing to the video, was very organic. He and his bandmates – Vinny May, Jason Boland and Mark Prendergast – had met fellow Irishman McDaid, 39, a few times before they decided to go into the studio together.

"We recorded that song, and we just got really proud of it," Garrigan, 27, tells PEOPLE, adding: "Courteney just loved the song so much that she decided to do a video for us."

The music video wasn't Cox's first time in the director's seat

working with her husband-to-be: She directed some episodes of

as well as the drama

Garrigan says Cox's focus was on "making us feel comfortable" – which she achieved by shooting in her own Malibu home!

"Basically it was just us hangin' out," the indie rocker says. "We flew over some of our friends from Dublin and had a few beers and hung out and were messin' about."

Garrigan adds working with the star was a breeze, even if there were some jitters at first.

"When we first went up [to the house], we were quite nervous because she's Courteney Cox: We're

fans. We have the box sets at home, you know?" he says. But, "Courteney's an incredible person. You go there, and she just makes everybody feel at home. There's no airs or graces about her. She's just a nice person."

As it turns out, Cox isn't the only one in her family to make a cameo in the clip. Her daughter, 11-year-old

(who Garrigan says "stole the show"), and McDaid also appear.

And with Cox and McDaid's wedding coming up, will Garrigan and his bandmates be working on their big day?

"That would be fun. We've actually played a few of our friends' weddings before, so yeah, we probably will," he says. "They're great."

Summary: Frontman Steve Garrigan says he and his bandmates were, at first, "quite nervous" to team up with the Friends alum


Campbell Soup—The packaged foods maker posted an 8.6 percent decline in quarterly sales. Net sales fell to $1.69 billion from $1.85 billion.

Medtronic—The medical device maker reported a 47 percent increase in quarterly adjusted net income. First-quarter adjusted profit increased to $1.46 billion, or $1.02 a share, from $992 million or 99 cents a share in the same period last year. Revenue, including that generated by the recently acquired Covidien, rose to $7.27 billion.

Tesla—CEO Elon Musk tweeted after the market close Wednesday that the electric car maker will begin taking pre-orders in March for its entry-level Model 3, which will start at $35,000. The stock was up more than 2 percent in pre-market trade.

Twitter—The board of the social media company meets Thursday and focus will be on whether the firm will make any announcement on the selection of a new chief executive officer. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey became interim CEO in June after the surprise resignation of CEO Dick Costolo.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version incorrectly characterized the volume of Campbell's meal sales, based on a Reuters report.

Summary: Take a look at some of Thursday's early movers: SLB, LULU, EBAY, MDT, JOY & more


The governor of Kentucky has some advice for Obamacare's critics—relax a little.

"Give us an opportunity. Take a deep breath. Chill out, and let this thing work," Gov. Steve Beshear told CNBC Wednesday.

As opposed to problems elsewhere, the Kentucky online Obamacare exchange has been "going gangbusters," he said.

"Unlike the federal exchange, things are working very well here," Beshear, a Democrat, said in a "Squawk Box" interview.

(Read more: Langone to GOP: Shutdown gave party 'black eye')

Kentucky runs its own website for state residents to sign up for health insurance under the new law. Thirty-six other states chose to have their residents enroll through the federal portal, Healthcare.gov, which has been plagued with technology problems.

The Kentucky online exchange has had more than 350,000 unique visitors. There have also been about 70,000 phone calls to the help-center hotline. Almost 32,000 residents there have signed up for either the Medicaid program or the qualified health plans.

"By the way, a third of the people signing up for both the qualified health plans and Medicaid are under 35 in Kentucky," Beshear added. Participation from younger people—who are presumably healthier and won't use their benefits as much—are needed to offset the expected costs of the more frequent needs of the elderly and the sick.

(Read more: Obamacare can't make health care cheaper: Langone)

"We've got another 12,000 people who have already determined that they qualify for the subsidies and they're now just shopping," he said. "They will start signing up."

He said the enrollment numbers break down as about two-thirds Medicaid and one-third qualified health plans, though that is expected to even out.

"It's going to take some time. If you go back and look at the last time there was a transformational change in our health-care system in the United States, it was the Medicare Act in 1965. It look about three years for all those bumps in the road to be smoothed out," he said, adding that he expects the same of Obamacare.

—By CNBC's Matthew J. Belvedere. Follow him on Twitter @Matt_SquawkCNBC.

Summary: The Kentucky Obamacare website has been "going gangbusters," Gov. Steve Beshear said, adding the online federal exchange problems will be fixed.


Etsy delivered quarterly results that topped analysts' expectations on Tuesday, but the stock plunged as the e-commerce company warned that foreign exchange rates could negatively impact third-quarter sales growth.

The shares sank as much as 15 percent in after-hours trading.

In its second report since going public, Etsy posted a second-quarter loss of 7 cents per share. Revenue came in at $61.37 million, up 44 percent from $42.51 million a year earlier.

Wall Street forecast Etsy would post a quarterly shortfall of 8 cents a share on $60 million in revenue.

Read MoreEtsy launches crowdfunding pilot program

The online marketplace operator said currency rates, at their current levels, will continue to negatively affect gross merchandise sales growth for goods that are not listed in U.S. dollars. Etsy also said the rates could dampen the demand for dollar-denominated goods from buyers outside the U.S.

Operating expenses for the quarter increased to $43.25 million, up from $28.96 million in the year-earlier period. Etsy said it plans to spend more on marketing in absolute dollars in the third quarter compared with both the second quarter of 2015 and the third quarter of 2014.

Gil Luria of Wedbush Securities, which has an "underperform" rating and a $9 price target on Etsy shares, said the company's approach to spending isn't sustainable.

"They are increasing expenses at a much higher rate than their revenue growth and that's not sustainable and pretty soon their revenue growth is going to decelerate and they won't be able to justify what is now a 70 times EBITDA multiple," Luria said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Tuesday.

"All their growth isn't really sustainable. They are buying it basically by buying Google AdWords, they're buying it by introducing supply that shouldn't really be on Etsy in the first place."

Revenue generated from the company's marketplace—its cash cow—rose 23 percent year over year to $30.47 million, shy of StreetAccount's estimates for $31.3 million.

Seller services revenue climbed about 80 percent to $29.77 million, which outpaced estimates for $27 million.

Summary: Etsy delivered quarterly results that topped expectations, but the stock plunged as the company warned that FX rates could hurt growth.


But after reaching $1.52 billion in 2011, online sales fell by about a third in 2012, while rising 41 percent at the likes of Kohl's and Macy's. Penney lost its lead because of management missteps and inadequate investment in the website and other technology.

"Sadly they've gone from being a leader to a laggard," Lauren Freedman, president of the e-tailing group, a consulting firm, said about Penney. "They've failed to keep up."

(Read more: JC Penney sales rebound, but investors flee)

Penney now gets some 8 percent of sales online, compared with 15 percent, including catalog sales, a decade ago. E-commerce sales at Macy's and Penney were about equal in 2010. Two years later, Macy's were three times larger.

But a lot of work remains to be done.

"As one of the pioneers in online retailing, we are striving toward taking omnichannel to the next level at JCPenney—but first we knew we had to fix jcp.com," said a spokeswoman, who acknowledged that the decline was partly "self-inflicted."

Penney, which plans to close 33 of its 1,100 stores by May, must also improve its online business to makeup for a drop in store visits. The National Retail Federation estimates that overall U.S. e-commerce sales will grow by as much as 12 percent in 2014, three times faster than in-store sales.

(Read more: JCPenney closing 33 stores, slashing 2,000 jobs)

Penney is likely to provide an update on its e-commerce when it reports quarterly earnings on Wednesday afternoon. The retailer remains cash-tight after overall sales fell about 31 percent in two years to an estimated $12 billion, and the stock plunged 75 percent from a 52-week high on February 25 2013.

Penney's web problems were long in the making.

Around 2007, to ensure more consistency between Penney's e-commerce and stores, Ullman folded the jcp.com unit, which had functioned almost autonomously, into the retail business.

That change had unintended consequences: store buyers dropped items such as baby furniture and big and tall men's clothing that were popular online but not in stores, and Penney's annual web sales stagnated at around $1.5 billion between 2007 and 2011, while rivals grew.

Online sales went into freefall in 2012 when former CEO Ron Johnson came on board and neglected e-commerce to focus on hip new brands and store remodeling to take Penney up-market, an effort that failed. The product selection in-store and online became disjointed and confused shoppers, and popular items were dropped.

(Read more: Target warns breach costs could hurt future profit)

Johnson's vision for home goods, which account for half of online sales, flopped, and Penney is still trying to fix that business.

Summary: 'Sadly they've gone from being a leader to a laggard. They've failed to keep up,' said one consultant about JC Penney.


Cablevision CEO James Dolan just turned up the heat on cable consolidation talk.

In an interview on CNBC, Dolan said he doesn't understand why the Comcast, Time Warner Cable deal didn't go through, noting that there would still be plenty of competition even if the two companies had joined. "I certainly was not against it," Dolan said.

Now that the deal is off, he said there's plenty of consolidation opportunity for Cablevision.

"There is a lot of opportunity inside of consolidating the marketplaces and, in particular the one I know best, New York," Dolan said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Dolan spoke on a panel at the INTX cable conference in Chicago, where he said he was very interested in cable consolidation in the New York area. Cablevision's stock climbed in response and traded up nearly 5 percent in the early afternoon.

Click here to see what Cablevision's shares are doing now.

Dolan said a focus on the individual markets would benefit the consumers.

When asked if he's been in talks with Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus, Dolan laughed that their encounter Wednesday at the conference was the first time they've seen each other in months.

Summary: Cablevision CEO James Dolan sees more opportunities for consolidation in the cable space.