PITTSBURGH, March 13— Specific details of a revised legal code for the Roman Catholic Church are emerging here at the first meeting in the United States to examine a draft of the first changes in the code since 1917.

While the general outlines of the code have been discussed since the draft was completed late last year, the actual canons are just becoming available in unofficial English translations.

Among other things, the code expands the discretionary powers of individual bishops and national conferences of bishops. It also stipulates that lay people have a responsibilty to help govern the church and broadens the reasons for which marriages may be deemed invalid. The revision, in the opinion of theologians, is more flexible, tolerant and ''pastoral'' than the code now in force.

A recognition that the needs of the church vary from country to country and a desire to consolidate the changes wrought by the Second Vatican Council caused the church to make the drastic revisions in its legal code. One of the advisers to the Vatican commission that drafted the new law, the Rev. Francis G. Morrisey of St. Paul University in Ottawa, also attributed the changes to the use of modern psychology as evidence in church courts. First of Several Meetings

Father Morrisey and several other experts on church law addressed a convocation sponsored by the Diocese of Pittsburgh that was attended this week by nearly 1,000 priests, nuns and lay people. The meeting, which ended today, is the first of several planned in the United States to introduce the new code to the nation's Catholics.

Theologians who helped prepare the code say the final draft describes a church conscious of the need to make its witness in a world where Christians are a minority.

The church's law must ''foster intelligent, responsible, loving human beings, and not only force conformity,'' said the Rev. Michael J. Himes, dean of Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, L.I.

The penalty section of the code has been significantly reduced to show that the primary function of the law is to exhort the faithful to lead Christian lives rather than threaten punishment for those who go astray, theologians say. 20 Years of Work Completed

The final draft of the laws, known as ''canons'' from the Greek word for ''norm,'' was completed last fall after more than 20 years of work.

The exact date of its release is not yet known, but last month Pope John Paul II allowed the Vatican's printing office to begin setting type for the publication of the nearly 2,000 canons in the code.

The Pope has the right to alter the draft, but Father Morrisey said he did not believe the Pontiff would make extensive changes in the code. When it is finally approved, the code will become binding on the world's more than 500 million Roman Catholics.

The code of canon law, while shorter than the one that went into effect in 1917, deals with all aspects of church life, from the administration of the sacraments to the duties of the bishops.

The new code pays particular attention to the role of lay people in the church, calling for ''prudent recognition of the rights of all Christians,'' according to an unofficial English translation of one canon.

But it is the attitude behind the new canons rather than the specifics of the laws that shows how the church's law has changed, according to the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a canon lawyer who is secretary of the Vatican's delegation to the United States. 'Ongoing Effect' of Sacraments

''The old law was concerned with the right form and valid execution of the sacraments,'' Father Doyle said. ''The proposed canons stress the ongoing effect that the sacraments have on the faithful.''

Lay people most often come in contact with church law when they arrange baptisms or marriages, and it is in these sections that some of the most radical changes are proposed.

For example, the new canons stipulate that pastors are to take pains to prepare parents for the baptism of their children. The intent, said Father Doyle, is to teach that baptism places certain obligations on parents and to avoid the impression that the sacrament is merely a social ritual.

''The emphasis on pastoral care is a totally new element in the section of the code dealing with marriage,'' said Msgr. John A. Alesandro, chancellor of the diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island, who is a consultant to the theologians preparing the new code. ''The marriage canons outline general principles,'' he said. Specific regulations may be determined in the local diocese. 'Impediments' to Marriage

According to Catholic theology, a valid marriage may not be dissolved while one of the partners is living. Divorced Catholics are not allowed to remarry in the church while their former spouse is alive; if they remarry without dispensation from the church they are technically barred from receiving Holy Communion. But the church teaches that if certain ''impediments'' existed, the former marriage was invalid and the parties are free to marry again.

By expanding the way the church views the ''impediments'' to marriage, the church is able to defend the permanence of marriage but still admit that some people contract marriages that are invalid in the eyes of the church.

Like any law, the application depends on the interpretation of the canons given by the church's courts, but Father Morrisey said the flexibility of the new canons allowed pastors and bishops to make crucial decisions about church life.

The Vatican has been critical of the number of marriage anullments granted in the United States, but Monsignor Alesandro said the new code was not likely to make it more difficult to get an invalid marriage annulled.


06/01/2015 AT 06:00 PM EDT

is making it official: Toned is the new skinny.

The lifestyle guru, 29, announced on Monday that "body shaming terms" like "skinny," "slim" and "thin" are completely banned from her website

"Starting this month, we'll be banning any body shaming terms from the site, and replacing them with words like 'fit' 'toned,' and 'healthy,' " she wrote

Conrad's decision to band the terms came as swimsuit season approaches and

's editorial team will begin sharing fitness content for the entire month.

"My editorial team and I had a long talk about it, and we want to make sure that the focus is on being fit as opposed to a number on the scale," wrote the former reality star who

in September. "Every body is created differently – and healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes."

But there is one fashion-related exception to the rule.

"The word skinny will now be reserved for skinny jeans," she wrote.

Summary: "We want to make sure that the focus is on being fit as opposed to a number on the scale," the lifestyle guru wrote in a blog post


It’s a math problem familiar to any maitre d’ — You have a roomful of thirsty guests, one bartender, and just a handful of servers. How soon before each guest finally gets a drink?

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says new algorithms, along with a crew of delivery robots, can outdo humans at this challenge, serving up the cold ones to partygoers more quickly than the average server can.

In a demonstration this summer, the researchers showed how a double-armed robot could be instructed to play bartender and collaborate with a pair of delivery bots — little wheeled platforms scooting around with party coolers — to ferry drinks to waiting people.

These are hardly the first robots to play bartender. Last year, a pair of robots made by the Italian company Makr Shakr mixed drinks and placed them on a conveyer belt leading to waiting passengers at the Sky Bar on the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship.

But the MIT demo is the first time booze bots have worked as a team, said University of New Hampshire computer science professor Christopher Amato, who began the work as a research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

The team presented its work last month at the Robotics Systems and Science Conference in Rome.

The robots also take a smarter approach to collaboration, preparing for possible missteps like dropping a bottle or picking up the wrong one.

When programming robots to collaborate, lots of other researchers take the “swarm” approach, in which an army of some 1,000 robots executes a very simple task, despite the fact that each individual robot is oblivious to the movements of its teammates.

MIT’s bartender bots, on the other hand, are aware of their neighbors and adjust their behavior based on what they are doing. “Our robots are more like people, the swarm robots are more like ants,” Amato said.

The booze-delivery task is just a dry run en route to harder real-world problems.

Amato said the new algorithms being used by the bartending robots could be applied to any situation that would benefit from collaboration.

For example, the researchers behind this project also are simulating search-and-rescue operations.

In that scenario, flying drones could scour a disaster zone for survivors and then send a message to ground robots, which could be dispatched to pick them up.

Another simulation involves exploring how Amazon.com-style delivery drones could communicate with a ground crew to ferry a package to the correct doorstep.

“The beer problem is really emblematic of all these real-world problems,” Amato said.

Summary: A team from MIT claims that algorithms and a crew of delivery robots can outdo humans at this task, serving up cold ones more quickly to a waiting party than human servers.


Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement chain, reported lower-than-expected results as its spring selling season got off to a slow start after a severe winter in many parts of the United States.

Shares dipped in pre-market trading. (Click here to get the latest quotes.)

The company posted earnings of 96 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on sales of $19.7 billion. Analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 99 cents a share on $19.95 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Including items, the company earnings $1 a share in the first quarter.

Comparable-store sales increased 2.6 percent.

"The first quarter was impacted by a slow start to the spring selling season. But we had solid results in non-weather impacted markets and expect our sales for the year to grow in line with the guidance we previously provided," said Frank Blake, chairman and CEO of Home Depot in a press release.

Home Depot, however, maintained its sales growth forecast of 4.8 percent for the year ending January.

The company raised its full-year earnings forecast to $4.42 per share from $4.38 per share. The increase reflects a 4 cents per share benefit from the sale of shares in HD Supply Holdings and Home Depot's share buybacks this year.

The company gets much of its business from building contractors, who are vulnerable to weather-related disruptions.

Spring is also an important time for Home Depot as households prepare their gardens and get set for the barbecue season.

The company said it intended to buy back up to $3.75 billion additional shares this year.

Rival Lowe's is slated to post earnings Wednesday before the bell.

Summary: Home Depot posted quarterly earnings and revenue Tuesday that missed Wall Street expectations, sending shares lower in pre-market trading.


Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner

08/17/2015 AT 09:00 PM EDT

Not even the happiest place on Earth could ease the tension between

couple visited Disney World together with their children on Sunday, as part of Affleck's

, but an onlooker tells PEOPLE they had "no interaction at all" with each other.

They looked "so tense and uncomfortable," another onlooker notes. "When she was around him, you could see the tenseness. Her shoulders would rise up."

While Affleck and Garner spent time individually with the kids – Violet, 9, Seraphina, 6, and Samuel, 3 – "There was never a point that all of them were really [interacting] together," according to the onlooker.

The family and a few friends arrived at Fantasyland in the morning, and got to skip the long lines for rides like It's a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, Mickey's PhilharMagic, and even took a special tour of Cinderella's Castle. When Affleck and Garner accompanied the kids on the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride (which they went on twice in a row) the couple rode on elephants near each other, an onlooker says.

The awkwardness of their reunion echoes reports from Saturday, when the family visited the

at Universal Orlando together, where another onlooker says, "Neither of them looked too happy."

But a source close to the couple told PEOPLE they were focused on putting their children first.

"As always, it's about the kids and they will always put them first," the source said. "Everyone had fun. They put them first no matter what."

"All Ben wanted for his birthday was to be with his children."

in June, Affleck and Garner have remained committed to spending time together with their kids. In addition to announcing their divorce while on a family

, the pair has spent time together with their children

, where Garner is filming

The latest family trip comes amid reports of an

between Affleck and the family's former nanny,

, 28. Affleck has denied there was any infidelity.

Summary: The tension between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner continued during a family trip to Disney World on Sunday


Here's an important point that many people often forget: Your retirement target figure isn't actually a specific amount of money. That goal number you think you're aiming for is just one in a complex equation. And on the other side of that equation are your total retirement expenses, which depend heavily on your health, longevity and the lifestyle you choose. If you spend less as a retiree (obviously), you need less.

Given that, it's worth considering an option that would reduce your expenses in retirement without changing your retirement lifestyle: Long-term care insurance.

According to the most recent available statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services, an American who lives to age 65 today will, on average, live to 84. And an estimated 70 percent of baby boomers are expected to use some form of long-term care during their lives, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation—likely for several years, and at prices that can drain even the most well-feathered nest egg. And there are large portions of those bills that Medicare won't cover.

Hence, the recommendation that you price out long-term care coverage. It isn't the right choice for everyone, but if you have enough assets to protect, and can afford the premiums, it can mean the difference between outliving your money and having your money outlive you.

Three caveats: First, until recently, long-term care insurance was a better deal than it is now. So good, in fact, that insurers started losing money on the policies as care costs soared and it became clear that they'd underpriced them. For the most part, in the past couple of years, those insurers that didn't get out of the business have adjusted premiums upward to compensate.

Second, while Medicare does not cover long-term care, Medicaid does in many instances. But to qualify for the Medicaid program, you have to deplete your nest egg down to nearly zero, which is not the goal here.

Third, like any other form of insurance, this one is a gamble: You're betting that you'll live long enough to need the expensive care that it covers. The actuaries are hoping that you and most of your fellow customers will live in good health right up until your last days. If they have it their way, you'll pay premiums for years, and get little value for the money.

But here's why these policies make the "recommended" list regardless. The goal of this whole exercise is to make sure that you don't outlast your stash. The longer you live, the more likely you are to get your money's worth out of a long-term care policy, which will preserve your other assets. On the other hand—morbid as it may be to contemplate—if you don't live quite that long, you're also less likely to outlive your nest egg.

Read MoreThe pros and cons of long-term care coverage

In a similar vein, John Jamieson, owner of financial advisory firm Perpetual Wealth Systems and author of "The Perpetual Wealth System," espouses another technique to avoid running out of cash before you run out of time: fixed indexed deferred annuities.

"A successful retirement is about guaranteed income that you can't outlive," said Jamieson.

His advice: "Roll over a portion of your IRA into a solid deferred fixed indexed annuity and fund this annuity with as much as possible in upcoming years."

There are a few benefits, he says. First, this protects your capital from any market downturns; second, with a lifetime income rider, you have an investment that guarantees lifelong income for you and your spouse; third, it gives your retirement nest egg the chance to have strong growth with no market losses along the way.

Earnings on a deferred annuity account are also taxed only upon withdrawal, so there's a tax benefit. And they typically include a death benefit, so that the beneficiary of the annuity is guaranteed the principal and the investment earnings.

Read MoreLongevity annuities can provide income later in life

The caveat here is, of course, that guaranteed safety like that comes at the expense of higher growth rates. A fixed indexed annuity can have caps on its returns, so the index it's linked to may have a banner year, and your investment will only return you part of those gains.

Hickey of Merrill Lynch also recommends annuities as a complement to other investments, but he prefers a standard variable annuity—especially if you find yourself in possession of a large sum to invest all at once. Even so, it's a recommendation he couples with a warning: "With an annuity, you've got to be careful what you're buying ... it's a way for you to put a lump sum in for tax-deferred growth, but examining the fees, the expenses, caps and holding periods is crucial."

Summary: Nearly half of Americans worry that they'll run out of money in retirement. Here's how to make sure you don't.


For all the retailers whose businesses have become obsolete due to changing consumer preferences, there are other names that are capitalizing on these shifting trends, and using them to catapult their expansion.

Whether it's a fast-fashion brand that's keying into shoppers' thrifty nature, or a traditional retailer spinning off a new concept to attract a wider swath of consumers, these companies are making waves in the industry for their own distinct reasons.

They also differ greatly in size. While some of these disruptors are private companies with a few U.S. locations, others are megaretailers that already boast thousands of stores.

Just because they're on the growth track doesn't mean they're not facing challenges. Some are plotting growth even as sales at their existing stores come under pressure.

Sometimes, it can be size itself that trips retailers up—a trend that's been evidenced by the massive store closings the industry has experienced over the past few years.

To see a list of companies that are stirring up the retail sector, click ahead.

Summary: For all the retailers whose businesses have become obsolete due to changing tastes, there are others capitalizing on shifting trends.


U.S. Treasury debt yields rose across the board on Tuesday on growing expectations the Federal Reserve could change the language in its next monetary policy statement to flag a possible rate increase as early as June.

U.S. 30-year bond and 10-year note yields climbed to seven-week peaks on reports that Greece intends to ask for an extension of a loan agreement tomorrow, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Yields on U.S. 7-year and 5-year notes also touched their highest levels since early January. With the latest sell-off on Tuesday, Treasurys will effectively have given back all of their monster gains in January, when the Merrill Treasury index gained 2.8 percent in its best month since the crisis days in December 2008.

Read MoreA Fed rate hike is coming—the question is when

Tuesday's decline will bring losses for the month so far to more than 2 percent, putting Treasuries on track for their worst month since either December 2009 or January 2009, depending on index weights.

Treasurys sold off as well on news Greece intends to ask for an extension of its loan agreement with the euro zone on Wednesday. That loan is separate from the country's full bailout program.

"There's speculation that there would be some upbeat tone in the minutes tomorrow and that might suggest (Fed Chair) Janet Yellen might take that stance at her congressional testimony next week," said Kim Rupert, managing director of global fixed income at Action Economics in San Francisco.

Read MoreGreece balks: What's next?

"That would potentially lay the ground work for the Fed to remove 'patience' in its statement at the March meeting. That, in turn, could signal that they're ready to hike rates by June."

The Fed will release the minutes of its latest meeting on Wednesday, and market participants are awaiting to see the Fed's stance on the economy and interest rates. Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser, who is not a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, said on Tuesday a 1-1.5 percent fed funds rate at the end of 2015 was reasonable.

Read More'Get out of bonds,' strategist says

In late New York trading, U.S. 30-year bond prices fell more than 2 points to yield 2.738 percent. Earlier, U.S. 30-year yields rose as high as 2.747 percent, the highest since Jan. 2.

Benchmark 10-year notes were down more than a point in price to yield 2.148 percent, up from 2.054 percent late on Monday. U.S. 10-year yields rose as high as 2.152 percent. Concerns about Greece's debt negotiations and the conflict in Ukraine had triggered earlier safe-haven buying of Treasuries, but that dissipated in New York trading.

Summary: U.S. government debt prices slipped on Tuesday as talks between Greece and the euro zone failed to reach a compromise.


Shifting the stage to "the shadow of the White House will place immense pressure on these parties to resolve an issue that is being underscored as being of national importance," Schaaf said.

Perez's office did not have immediate comment Thursday night. Neither did the bargaining parties, which are operating under a media blackout.

The talks in San Francisco began nine months ago, but broke down in recent weeks. Perez began overseeing negotiations Tuesday.

Read MoreWest Coast port impasse beefs up US meat stockpile

Since his arrival, the two sides appear more engaged than before. On Thursday, talks extended into the evening.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars of cargo sits on ships anchored outside the 29 ports. They cannot dock because of historically bad cargo bottlenecks at ports that handle about $1 trillion of trade annually, much of it with Asia.

Cargo already was moving slowly due to systemic problems in the supply chain. Starting this fall though, problems reached crisis levels, due both to dockworkers who slowed their work rate to comply fully with safety rules and partial worker lockouts by companies that load and unload ships.

Summary: The nation's top labor official ratcheted up pressure on the two sides haggling over a new contract for dockworkers at West Coast seaports.


Goldman said that Brent prices would also come under renewed pressure.

"As a result and absent further unexpected OPEC disruptions, we expect Brent oil prices and timespreads to reverse their recent strength, although the lack of a meaningful build in the past few months leaves risk to our forecast for (WTI) oil prices remaining at $40/barrel for two quarters skewed to the upside," the bank said in a note dated March 8.

The bank said that it expected "OECD Asia demand to decline in 2015 as stronger industrial production is offset by the continued switch to LNG (liquefied natural gas) for power generation and the impending start-up of the two Sendai nuclear reactors in Japan".

A two-thirds drop in Asian LNG prices is making the fuel cost competitive against oil in the industrial power sector.

Read MoreOil firms are swimming in data they don't use

In Japan, the regulator has given approval for several reactors to be restarted this year. All its 48 reactors were taken offline after the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant following an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

In the United States, Goldman said that "the build in U.S. inventories has surprised to the upside, especially in Cushing".

The bank said that its WTI price prices forecast of $65 a barrel for 2016 was "skewed to the downside" as currently idled assets could quickly be redeployed, especially as operating costs were falling.

Follow us on Twitter: @CNBCWorld

Summary: Oil prices will reverse their recent gains, with U.S. crude likely to drop as far as $40 a barrel, Goldman Sachs said.


But for Terry the loan denial was not an impediment. She turned to her 401(k) and maxed seven credit cards to get the $150,000 she needed for her business.

Terry's risk is now paying off. Her lingerie line, two years young, is being sold at major retailers such as Macy's and jcpenney.com.

Other challenges that minority businesses face is profitability and survival rate. About 50 percent of all small businesses survive five years or more, and only one-third survive 10 years or more. And according to an SBA report, "Women and minority-owned firms tend to be smaller and less profitable … and they carry lower survival rates than their male or nonminority counterparts."

"Smaller loan sizes seem to be linked to higher failure rates. Access to credit is a big barrier," Lisa D. Cook, an associate professor of economics at Michigan State University and a former member of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. "Most of minority-owned businesses are located in their local communities, and if their local communities are poorer than other communities, they're going to have a lot less growth potential."

Another challenge that could hamper business growth among blacks and Hispanics is the lingering effect of the housing crisis, Cook said.

"A lot of their wealth for 2008 was tied up in housing," she explained. "It's not easy to get a mortgage anymore. ... Home-equity loans can't be counted on as they were before to finance start-ups."

A study found that minority homeowners were disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis.

Home ownership often serves as collateral for those who want to start their business and can also help decrease the probability of loan denials.

"Home equity can serve as a relatively low-cost financing alternative," the SBA says. "Absence of home ownership may also serve as a barrier to entry for prospective women and minority entrepreneurs."

Read MoreWhat global warming means for your grocery bill

Another challenge Cook sees among blacks and Hispanics—whose businesses are mostly in the service and manufacturing industries—is their lack of representation in the innovative economy, or science and technology economy, which she says is the fastest growing economy.

Asians, however, fare well in the STEM (science, technology,engineering) industry holding 15 percent of all stem jobs, according to the Census.

Blacks held 6 percent of STEM jobs, while Hispanics held 7 percent.

The Obama administration hopes to alleviate some of the hurdles small-business owners face—in particular, among minority—with the appointment of the new SBA administrator, Maria Contreras-Sweet, who was born in Mexico.

Summary: Minority businesses make up almost 15 percent of the 28 million small businesses and employ 5.9 million workers. What's driving the growth?


CORAL SPRINGS, Florida, August 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

As the digital payment services expand globally, the pace of mobile payment innovation and advanced biometrics technology is accelerating beyond expectations. While the race continues to replace the way consumers rely on using their credit cards, the digital currency, mobile payment market forges ahead with reinventing the future for payment services led by companies in the space such as NXT-ID, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD), : Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V)

NXT-ID, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD) News: Strategic Advisor to NXT-ID, SoundView Technology Group Issues NXT-ID Updated Report; Major Progress Now On Sale - Includes Intrinsic Valuation (IV) value of $7.47/share - SoundView is tweaking its model to account for some more shares outstanding and also took the opportunity to add expenses for SG&A to support increased marketing and operational readiness. It has had only a minor impact on the IV estimate - taking it from $8.28 to $7.47. As mentioned by SoundView at the start of the note the risk/return from the current stock level is very attractive. Longer-term investors will also note that our IV for 2016 doubles so if NXT-ID exits 2015 with good momentum there is quite a bit of additional upside. In the few years we've been working with and following NXT-ID the current moment offers the best risk/reward we've seen so far. The company has come a very long way since their IPO at $1 and seen share prices as high as $5.60 with a substantial period trading between $4-5/share.

Read the full Press Release at http://www.financialnewsmedia.com/profiles/nxtd.html

The digital payments space has remained a hotbed of activity with PayPal now a separate public company and Visa teaming up and funding Stripe. The proliferation of devices that can tie into future payment systems (like the Apple Watch and Moto 360) helps justify infrastructure updates that will make payments easier across a broad array of types - from cards to Wockets to phones to watches. EMV has been in the news and NXT-ID has been planning for it for a long time. In order to fully support EMV the Wocket will be upgraded to include EMV and NFC technologies. It will take EMV quite some to roll out to the masses of terminals out there so an upgraded Wocket later this year will enable consumers to use these terminals when they begin to encounter them. The NXTD research update (PDF) is also published and available here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/Published_Research/NXT-ID_NXTD_SV_NOTE_AUGUST_2015.pdf

In other digital payment and mobile payment services news and happenings: Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) gained over 4% on more than 5 million shares traded yesterday after unveiling a new organizational structure. The tech conglomerate created a parent company named Alphabet. Google is one of the units that will operating under the umbrella. Google's co-founder and CEO Larry Page will head Alphabet, while Sundar Pichai will take over as the chief executive at Google. Google's stock was upgraded by three Wall Street firms following the announcement. Google recently revealed it will create a special API for Android Pay, so companies can add the option to pay with Google's new service in their apps. Users can easily upload credit card or debit card information in the app, to make all in-app transactions single-tap payments. The same tap-to-pay function will also arrive in select stores. It may use Google's Host Card Emulation (HCE), which enables third-party apps to use the Near Field Communications (NFC) chips in Android smartphones.

American Express (NYSE: AXP) said Monday morning that customers will now be able to add their corporate cards to their Apple accounts. As of October 2014, AmEx allowed non-corporate cards to be integrated with Apple Pay. AmEx says it is the first major corporate card to be integrated with Apple Pay. Apple Pay (NASDAQ: AAPL) allows iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad users to upload credit and debit cards to a "mobile wallet" on their phone. Consumers can then use their phone to pay for goods at retail partners who have point-of-sale registers equipped with near field communication technology, known as NFC.

PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ: PYPL) rolls out NFC card reader that could help Apple Pay gain traction. The 'PayPal Here' card reader accepts contactless payments from Visa, Maestro and MasterCard debit and credit cards as well as Apple Pay, updating an earlier version which supported swipe and chip-and-PIN payments. For small businesses, this means they can now take advantage of consumers embracing contactless. The main draw will be for businesses that process payments on the go or trade seasonally, as they can get the card reader without the tie of monthly fees, instead paying a one off price for the device and then a standard fee for each transaction. Source: TheDrum.com / Drum News Editorial.

Visa, Inc (NYSE: V) pumps money into payments startup Stripe, now worth $5 billion - Stripe, the hot Silicon Valley payments startup and Y Combinator alum, has taken in a round of funding led by Visa that values the company at $5 billion. The news was reported earlier by Re/code and the New York Times. Stripe sets itself apart from other payments services by being the programmer-friendly backend "plumbing" that enables apps and online stores to take payments from anybody, anywhere. Stripe counts companies like Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Lyft as customers, helping them accept credit card payments while being totally invisible to end users. Source: BusinessInsider.com

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Summary: While the race continues to replace the way consumers rely on using their credit cards, the digital currency, mobile payment market forges ahead with reinventing the future for payment services led by companies in the space such as NXT-ID, Inc.,: Google, Inc., Apple Inc., PayPal Holdings, Inc. and Visa, Inc.. NXT-ID, Inc. News: Strategic Advisor to NXT-ID, SoundView...


The co-founder of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers shocked many by comparing wealthy Americans to Jews in Nazi Germany, Re-code reported.

In a letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal, Tom Perkins wrote that he wanted to "call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 'one percent,' namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the 'rich.'"

To read the full article, click here.

Summary: The co-founder of a venture capital firm shocked many by comparing wealthy Americans to Jews in Nazi Germany, Re-code reports.


Meanwhile, Dairy Queen is also focused on new flavors and innovation, according to Barry Westrum, executive vice president of marketing for Dairy Queen. He cited the re-introduction of its popular S'mores Blizzard as an example of the steps it's taking.

As for the threat of frozen yogurt, Westrum, in a statement, said, "At DQ, we've found that consumers see the two occasions (yogurt and ice cream) very differently. Ice cream is still the preferred option for a summertime, cool-down treat."

Cold Stone officials weren't immediately available to comment.

Others aren't sounding the full bells of recovery just yet.

Harry Balzer, a chief industry analyst and vice president of the NPD Group who specializes in consumer eating habits, said he doesn't expect that the yogurt battle was the source of ice cream's pain. Instead, consumers are often shifting to healthier choices.

"Back in 1989, the average American had 43 eatings over the year of ice cream at home and out away. They had three eatings of frozen yogurt. Today, ice cream amounts to 28 eatings, and frozen yogurt is one," Balzer said.

—By Bo McMillan, special to CNBC.com.

Summary: After cooling during the fro-yo craze, it appears that ice cream is posed to churn again, mostly in small chains and mom-and-pops.


"I think by the end of the week we'll have a better idea," said Gregory Peters, senior investment officer at Prudential Fixed Income. "They clearly want to move off the zero bound. ... If the data allows them to they will. If the data are weaker or more squishy, it makes it hard for them to do it."

Peters said with the market putting odds of a first rate hike at just above 50 percent for September, the Fed may sound a bit more hawkish as it tries to steer the market closer to its intentions. Many economists expect a September rate increase.

Traders are also very much focused on the commodities selling spree, as it is seen as a potential catalyst that could dampen already low inflation and slow the Fed's path to a rate hike. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said the central bank would like to raise rates this year, but the Fed has said its decision would be made based on the economic data and it would like to see inflation moving toward 2 percent.

"Commodities have been selling off ... but I think this last leg down is a wake-up call when you're seeing commodities prices near 2009 lows. That was a major financial crisis. When you see commodities prices back toward that level, that says a lot about global growth," said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at Lindsey Group.

Read MoreChina slowdown hits corporate earnings across the board

Worries that China will not be able to orchestrate a soft landing have rattled investors around the globe, but have been manifesting themselves in the commodities market selloff. As a result, investors sought the safety of Treasurys and stocks sold off in the past week. "It's not just China. It's all of Asia. It's very mediocre global growth, and a Fed that wants to raise rates and a stock market that's very expensive," said Boockvar.

Commodities have also felt the sting of a higher U.S. dollar and the prospect of rising U.S. rates. The greenback was mixed in the past week, with gains against some commodities-based currencies like the Australian and Canadian dollars but down against the euro.

WTI crude oil futures fell more than 5 percent for the week, breaking below $50 per barrel. Gold futures were down for a fifth week, losing more than 3 percent and trading below the key $1,100 per ounce level. Copper, the bellwether for global growth, was down 4.5 percent, amid concerns that China's demand for raw materials has stalled out.

Stocks were slammed, with the S&P 500 down 2.2 percent to 2,079—its worst week since March 27. The Dow at 17,568 was off 2.9 percent and the Nasdaq was down 2.3 percent at 5,088. The worst sector was commodities-sensitive materials, down 5.5 percent, and energy was next with a 4 percent decline. Industrials, hit by international earnings weakness, slumped 3.8 percent.

Read More The Dow just broke a pretty dubious record

More than a quarter of the S&P 500 companies release earnings in the coming week, with names like oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron and multinationals like Procter & Gamble reporting. Facebook also reports.

Even with concern about earnings, companies continue to beat estimates at a high rate—74 percent as of Friday, according to Thomson Reuters. But some of the misses have been high-profile names like Apple, Caterpillar, 3M and American Express. Many companies have blamed currency translation and emerging market weakness for their shortfalls.

Citigroup's chief U.S. equities strategist, Tobias Levkovich, said the market's China concerns may be overblown. "We just don't see that threat being imminent. I'm not minimizing the impact of a Chinese economic hard landing. Everything we look at, as a firm, suggests that's not the outcome," he said.

Levkovich said while the earnings may be softer, he expects the second half to pick up and earnings could grow at about 8 percent.

Read MoreTop 5 stocks of the week and how to trade them

"I'm moderately bullish," he said. "I'm looking at (S&P) 2,200 by year-end, 100 points from now, and I'm looking for 8 percent over the next 12 months."

Levkovich expects earnings to grow by about 2 percent for the first half of 2015, before the second half pickup. "We've got less pressure from the drags of the dollar and energy. And the energy benefits come in in the second half. There's a long lead time. People need to believe those lower prices are permanent, not a blip," he said.

Factors that should help the profit outlook, include higher wages, improving employment, the wealth effect and cheaper energy.

Levkovich said his one concern is a lack of investor enthusiasm. "Investors don't want to be in a believing mode. The money flow's not there. ... It just means we continue to grind higher. This doesn't feel good when you have to fight for every inch," he said.

Summary: The Fed meets next week, but a commodities meltdown and earnings season are adding to concerns about global growth and may steal some of its thunder.


Apple could then charge more since it had a monopoly over the portable device music market. The plaintiffs estimate damages at $350 million, but if antitrust violations are proven, damages could exceed $1 billion.

Read MoreHere's why Apple dropped

The company argued that the iPod updates were legitimate product improvements, that there's no proof of harm to consumers and denies that it exerted monopoly power.

As for Apple's chances, "it will have to convince a jury that the software updates were a genuine product improvement," according to a San Francisco-based antitrust lawyer who reviewed the case.

Read MoreApple's dip not an 'appetizing' entry point?

Adding to the peculiarities of the case are the fact that presiding Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is not permitting the defendants (or plaintiffs) to tell the jury that Jobs died of cancer, and is discouraging defendants from referring to him as a "visionary."

"Although juries are unpredictable" the antitrust lawyer says, "I think that this could prove difficult" for Apple since the case "is technical and difficult to understand." With the plaintiffs; case much simpler: Apple made iPod and iTunes exclusively compatible just to prevent competitors from entering the market.

A few other Apple heavyweights are also slated to testify, including Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, and Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet software and services. The $1 billion would not even be 1 percent of Apple's cash hoard of $155 billion as reported in the tech giant's most recent quarterly earnings report.

Opening statements are set to start Tuesday, at the Oakland, California, federal courthouse. The case is Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation, 4:05-cv-00037-YGR.

Summary: Apple is back in the courtroom to defend itself from antitrust allegations and Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple, is set to be a witness for the plaintiffs.


"London has been and will continue to be a very attractive jurisdiction for claims, and [the new legislation] gives additional scope for that," said Edward Coulson of Hausfeld. "The US settlement covers mainly US investors: [but] London is about 40 per cent of the forex market, so there are a lot of other investors."

The other five banks that settled last week are Bank of America, Citi, BNP Paribas, JPMorgan and UBS. A further seven continue to face litigation in the US from investors over alleged foreign exchange manipulation, including Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered.

David Scott, managing partner of US law firm Scott & Scott, which was also involved in the case, said the settlement with the nine banks went "a long way to ensuring that they are being held accountable for their egregious manipulation of the foreign exchange market".

The US investors alleged that the world's largest financial institutions conspired to manipulate the foreign exchange market as far back as 2003. The conspiracy affected dozens of pairs — the value of one currency versus another — including seven pairs with the highest market volume.

Aside from cases brought by investors, global banks have been hit with penalties from regulators for rate-rigging misconduct. Last November, six banks paid $4.3bn in fines to British and Swiss regulators. The UK's FCA said the forex misconduct was carried on from 2008 until October 15, 2013 — several months into the launch of its probe.

Giles Williams, regulatory partner at accountancy firm KPMG, noted the size of the US settlement was much smaller than the fines imposed by regulators for alleged forex rigging.

"Is therefore the size of some of the regulatory penalties a punishment for behaviour rather than investor loss?" he said.

He said he would be "surprised" if banks had not already made provision for the latest settlement amount.

The banks declined or could not be reached for comment.

Summary: Global banks are facing billions of pounds-worth of civil claims in London and Asia over the rigging of currency markets.


To be sure, Wednesday's agreement brokered with Raul Castro does not end a trade embargo with the country and does not yet open the country for tourism. Those changes would need action by Congress.

But always looking six months to a year ahead, traders aren't waiting for any official changes before betting on the shares.

"A lot of people are going to want to go home, and a lot of people are going to want to visit Cuba," said Rhino Trading Partners' Michael Block. "Hotel companies will have a chance to build there."

The Cuba news boosted shares of Carnival and competitors Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings to near new highs for the year.

"All three of the cruise lines under our coverage (Royal, Carnival, Norwegian) have a considerable amount of capacity operating in the Caribbean, and we believe an opening of Cuba could generate material incremental demand, both from repeat cruise customers and those new to the industry," Stifel analyst Steven Wieczynski wrote in a note to clients.

Carnival said in a statement to CNBC:

"Cuba is the largest country in the Caribbean, so there's some exciting possibilities from a cruise industry perspective. Some infrastructure for cruising already exists in the country, along with several ports, so it offers great potential, but there are other issues that will need to be taken into consideration if this market opens up."

Normally, about 25,000 shares in the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund change hands. Early afternoon Wednesday, volume was greater than 19 million.

The fund is "focused specifically on companies that are poised to benefit from the resumption of U.S. trade with Cuba, once the U.S. embargo prohibiting trade with that country is eased or lifted."

The "CUBA" fund's largest holdings are Copa, Coca Cola Femsa, Seaboard Corp, MasTec, Lennar, Royal Caribbean and Watsco Inc.

Read More Obama opens door to new relations with Cuba

Wednesday's announcement comes as no surprise to the managers of the fund, Thomas Herzfeld and Erik Herzfeld, as they wrote the following in the fund's annual report posted in June:

"Extreme inflation and rapidly increasing poverty have led to continued economic and political volatility in Venezuela. This, coupled with plummeting oil exports and declining production levels for the nation, may force Venezuela to reconsider its policy of supplying subsidized oil to Cuba. As a result of this pressure on its economy, the Cuban regime may be more amenable to U.S. diplomatic overtures, even though relations between Cuba and Russia have been warming."

Investors should be cautious when seeking plays related to normalized Cuba relations. While the aforementioned companies and funds have a legitimate chance to profit from a free Cuba, some of the securities moving on Wednesday do not have much to gain.

For example, shares in the Cuba Beverage Company jumped more than 100 percent to 4 cents a share midday Wednesday. The stock, which trades over the counter, has a market capitalization of just $3.7 million. Going by the company's website, it has nothing related to the country other than its name. The maker of "herbal energy juice" is based in San Diego.

Summary: Shares of cruise company Carnival and airliner Copa Holdings were among the stocks boosted on normalized diplomatic Cuban relations.


10/22/2015 AT 12:20 PM EDT

The Rolling Stones have nothing on Bob Wood.

Mick, Keef and the boys might be trucking into their 70s, but they're youngins compared to 81-year-old Wood.

Wood achieved a measure of Internet fame this month when a Nashville guitar shop confusingly named British Audio Service

of Wood playing an impressive version of the standard "BÃ©same Mucho."

As the video racked up views (it's currently sitting at just over 2 million) the Internet clamored for

, which started to trickle in, mostly via Facebook comments from Wood's assorted family members.

Wood grew up playing music in the Shenandoah Valley, and was signed on as a regular performer at Jamboree USA in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1970, where he performed for 10 years. He was named Entertainer of the Year by Eastern States Country Music Inc., and in 2007, he was inducted into the the Southern Legends Country Music Hall of Fame.

Wood cut several albums during his career, including this ice-cold piece of '70s-era cool,

contain this testimonial from none other than country guitar legend Carl Perkins:

"If kindness, concern for fellowman, loyalty to wife and family have anything to do with the making of a man, then my friends, meet a man, Bob Wood. Besides being a friend, I regard Bob as one of the very few great stylists on guitar. Talents are essential in the music business, being a man is helpful in any field. Combined you don't miss. Now enjoy with me, an album by just such a person, my friend, Bob Wood."

Here's to many more years of playing it cool, Bob.

Summary: Bob Wood has been playing guitar professionally since the 1970s


FORTUNE — A harried commuter riding home on the bus uses his smartphone to buy last-minute holiday toys for his kids. An office worker sitting outside during lunch browses fashion sites on her phone and buys the latest Ugg boots before returning to her desk. Online retailing executives describe scenes like these — people shopping on the go — when touting mobile commerce and its potential. The reality is far different, however.

Mobile shopping is largely done on tablets, and not smartphones. Moreover, the term mobile shopping is somewhat of a misnomer. Yes, people use mobile devices to window shop. But much of the buying is done at home from the living room sofa, and not from a park bench, subway or the sidelines of a children’s soccer game, according to analysts. “The smartphone is actually a terrible device to complete a transaction on,” says Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst for Forrester FORR , the technology consulting company. “There’s no question that the tablet is easier.”

Last year, tablets accounted for 3.2% of all U.S. online retail sales, more than double the 1.5% share for smartphones, according to a survey of 55 online retailers by Forrester. The reasons for the gap boil down to this: Smartphone screens are so tiny that browsing products online and entering credit card information is a pain.

MORE: 11 worst predictions of 2012

Of course, compared to overall e-commerce, mobile shopping is miniscule. But it is growing quickly and is expected to account for a far greater share of online retailing in the coming years. Mobile shopping represented 10% of e-commerce in the quarter ending in September, according to comScore SCOR . On certain days, like Black Friday, the shopping-crazy day following Thanksgiving, mobile devices accounted for 16% of all sales, IBM IBM said.

Companies like eBay EBAY consider mobile shopping to be critical to their futures. John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, predicts that shoppers using mobile devices will spend $10 billion on his site this year, double the amount in 2011.

Despite the high expectations, retailers are still grappling with how to deal with the shift in consumer behavior. The field is so nascent that it’s difficult for companies to know what to do or how to measure success. Experimentation is common. Spending a lot of money can be hard to justify in the short-term, however, because of the limited sales generated.

At eBags, an online retailer in Denver, tablets accounted for 10.8% of overall traffic in the latest quarter and around 10.4% of sales. Meanwhile, smartphones represented 8.4% of overall traffic, but only 2.9% of sales. Peter Cobb, chief executive for eBags, explained that tablet users behave much like people on desktop computers or laptops. Shoppers on tablets meander around retail sites, watch product videos and buy what they want – all while sipping wine in front of the television.

MORE: Apple’s App Store vs. Google Play: Where they stand

Smartphone users, in contrast, are more pressed for time and on a “search and destroy” mission, as Cobb put it. People want to get in, compare prices and get out until they go home and complete a purchase using their home computer, so to avoid any hassles in the check out process. “The reality is that there are two different shopping experiences,” Cobb says.

The greater success in getting tablet users to buy comes despite a big disadvantage in numbers. There are around 137 million smartphones in the United States compared with only 61 million tablets, according to Forrester. The relative numbers show just how little sales smartphones drive, at least directly. Average order sizes on smartphones are also smaller at $134.37 versus $159.28 for tablets.

Still, smartphones play an important role for retailers. People use them to research products before making purchases from home. Additionally, many shoppers do so before visiting a bricks and mortar store. Comparing prices inside stores and scanning QR codes is also common.

Such behavior, known as showrooming, is a sore point with some retail executives, who complain about shoppers eyeballing products in their stores that they intend to buy from online rivals. Nordstrom’s JWN , Target TGT and Saks Fifth Avenue SKS have taken an opposite approach by installing Wi-Fi in their stores to help customers connect online through their smartphones.

MORE: Amazon: TV is about to get way more interesting

Ignoring the fact that customers are using smartphones in stores is futile, the theory goes. In any case, smartphones can potentially drive more business if retailers use it to their advantage. A study this year by Deloitte Consulting, for example, that found that mobile phones influence 5.1% of all in-store retail sales, or around $159 billion in transactions. That amount far exceeds the $12 billion consumers will spend via direct mobile shopping, the study said.

Cobb, from eBags, says that he plans to make a number of adjustments to his mobile site over the next year to make it more appealing to shoppers using smartphones. By then, he’ll have a better idea of what to highlight by tracking the products that shoppers click on a lot versus the “dead spots” that get relatively few clicks. Expect bigger buttons, he said, so that customers can more easily use their smartphone screen to navigate. Letting customers search by brands is another key feature because smartphone users generally knowing what they want.

“I do believe it is our job to unlock the potential of smartphones because it’s only going to keep growing,” Cobb says.

Summary: Despite the high expectations, retailers are still grappling with how to deal with the shift in consumer behavior to mobile devices.


Retail items bearing the Notre Dame logo or leprechaun mascot are also a hit in the $4.6 billion market for licensed college merchandise. From July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013, the Catholic school grew into the third-biggest seller, behind Texas and Alabama but ahead of No. 4 Michigan, according to IMG College's Collegiate Licensing Co.

Last year, Notre Dame ranked ninth trailing: Texas; Alabama; Kentucky; Florida; Michigan; LSU; North Carolina; and Georgia.

In terms of corporate sponsorships, Notre Dame is the gold standard. The athletic department's national sponsors include: Adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Gatorade, Sprint and Xerox. An undefeated regular season helped ad sales on campus too. The football game program sold 20 more full-page ads this year, at a price of $12,700 a pop, said John Heisler, senior associate athletics director.

Notre Dame home games have been sold out since the 1960s. That's created a lucrative market for resold tickets. Like the New York Yankees, the Fighting Irish are the team other fans love to hate. That makes them just as big a draw on the road.

Notre Dame kicked off the 2013 season with the most expensive average prices in college football, according to Jesse Lawrence, chief executive officer of TiqIQ. (At $237.63, they've dropped to third behind Michigan at $263.89 and Ohio State at $249.37.) On a dollar basis, Notre Dame's average ticket prices rose more than any team this season, he said.

"If you're looking to resell Notre Dame tickets, you're making a lot more money than you did in the past."

SeatGeek is seeing more demand too, said spokesman Connor Gregoire. With an average price of $230, Notre Dame tickets are up 26 percent from $183 last season and 45 percent from a $158 average in 2011.

In fact, Notre Dame's average price trails only Texas A&M (and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny "Football" Manziel's) $241, said SeatGeek. But the Aggies average was mostly driven by the eye-popping $639 price for a single home game: The team's 49-42 loss to the Tide on Sept. 14.

The most expensive Notre Dame game is yet to come. Prices are averaging $417 for the team's home game in South Bend, Ind., against the visiting USC Trojans on Oct. 19. The average price for Oklahoma closed at $347.

In terms of demand (sales/page views), the Irish rank third this year behind the Wolverines and Aggies, according to Barbara Shannon of StubHub. They were fifth at the same point last year.

A rising economic tide lifts all boats. Notre Dame's also helped by the growing financial clout of college sports. Between ticket sales, media rights, corporate sponsorships and everything else, college sports now generate $7.2 billion in annual revenue, according to Ben Sutton Jr., president of IMG College. Football is the economic engine, producing about 70 percent of total revenues, say experts.

Those kinds of dollars put college sports in the ballpark with the biggest pro sports leagues, such as the NFL ($10 billion), MLB ($7.5 billion) and the NBA ($5.5 billion).

The fractured, decentralized sport of college football could finally realize its potential when the hated Bowl Championship Series (BCS) format (which relies on polls and computer rankings to determine the two teams playing for the national championship) is replaced by a four-team playoff in 2014 that will settle things on the field.

"College sports are big business—and growing bigger," said Sutton. "There's a lot of opportunity for brands to connect to 190 million passionate fans."

Michael McCarthy covers sports business for Advertising Age in New York. He's been a sportswriter for USA TODAY, Newsday, the NFL and SportsBizUSA. Follow him on Twitter @MMcCarthyREV .

Summary: Notre Dame ranks No. 1 off the field with fans, according to Harris Interactive. Its popularity is helping drive higher ticket, retail and advertising sales.


FORTUNE — With a record 108 Pulitzers under its belt, no American newspaper is better at winning journalism awards than the New York Times. And by the publication of the second in what was to be a nine-part series on the “iEconomy“– seven of which were focused on Apple AAPL — we were pretty sure the editors were hoping to ride Steve Jobs’ company all the way to number 109.

But iEconomy had a glaring problem that should have been apparent to anyone who follows the industry. As we wrote when the series came to a close:

The plan was simple: Single out Apple as what biologists might call a “conspicuous megafauna” — the high-profile stand-in for thousands U.S. firms that have been shipping American jobs overseas. Then, with only a couple detours into automobiles and robots, a team of Times reporters set out to dissect Tim Cook’s company one layer at a time:

Part 1: How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work Part 2: In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad Part 3: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Global Taxes Part 4: Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay Part 7: The Patent, Mighty as a Sword Part 8: As Boom Lures App Creators, Tough Part Is Making a Living Part 9: Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China

Never mind that Apple’s competitors all outsource work, sidestep taxes, use patents as weapons and turn an even blinder eye to labor abuses in the Asian supply chain. The fact is, Apple — always a draw for readers — made a big, fat, easy target.

The series may yet win a Pulitzer in April. But on Monday the 2012 journalism award season began with the announcement of the winners of this year’s George Polk Awards. Although the Times did indeed take home a prize for Foreign Reporting, it was for “The Princelings” — David Barboza’s three-part series on the great wealth amassed by China’s leaders and their families — not for the iEconomy series.

Summary: The paper's controversial "iEconomy" series went home empty handed Monday


02/06/2016 AT 10:30 AM EST

One person in the Kardashians' circle who isn't all that bothered by

"I saw Rob a couple of weeks ago. Rob is doing 'Rob,' clearly. That's what Rob is doing. I can't say he's bad. I can't say he's good," Haqq told reporters before Friday's 47th Annual NAACP Image Awards, alongside sister Khadijah. "I can just say that he's going through his vibe, which kind of excludes other people from the choices that he wants to make and maybe that's him growing from whatever discomfort he may have had."

"But he has the most support I've ever seen anyone have in my life," she continued. "Rob will be just fine. I'm not worried about him."

that some in the family,

, aren't thrilled with Rob's love life (Chyna was once engaged to and shares a son with

), Haqq said he'll never lack for love.

"They're a family that's always supportive. No matter how much they fight ... support is what they know best," Haqq said.

"They can fight like cats and dogs but nobody else can fight with them, but they can do that with each other and keep it movin'," she said.

Haqq's opinions on Khloé's romantic choices are equally reserved: Haqq said she likes Khloé's beau James Harden "as a person," but demurred on anything definitive.

"It's not for us to tell! It's not our relationship," she said. One thing was certain, though. "If they're not happy I will bite their ankles off," Haqq said. "That's about all I can reach anyways. Don't let the height fool you!"  Reporting by REAGAN ALEXANDER

Summary: But Kardashian "has the most support I've ever seen anyone have in my life," Malika Haqq told PEOPLE


Under the assumption that it’s never too late to pick up a new skill to impress friends and family, and perhaps graduate to an entirely different, lucrative career, I attended DJ school recently.

It was held at Foxgrove, an electronic music and DJ academy on West 29th Street.

My daughters had offered anecdotal reporters of high school friends, whose genius had heretofore been disguised, becoming rich and famous spinning records.

And I like to think I impressed Foxgrove’s co-founders, David Maurice and Natalie Lam, with my passion by being the only one among us old enough to identify the symbol on the Serato Numark controller they use to teach their classes.

The design was that of a 45-rmp record adapter, a small piece of plastic that one inserts in the middle of a 45-rpm record, allowing it to be played on LP turntables.

It appeared on the platter, the part of the controller that simulates a turntable and allows a DJ to show off his or her scratching technique, among other skills.

When I think of DJing, and how the world in general has left me behind, scratching, where DJs move a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable and call it music, seems as good a place to start as any.

Except that there’s no vinyl involved these days. The platter probably isn’t even necessary. The magic is accomplished using software displayed on large monitors at Foxgrove’s 12 learning stations. To my ignorant eye, all the blinking colors and wave patterns signifying instruments and sounds appeared approximately as comprehensible as the cockpit of a 747 if the pilot told me to land the plane on my own.

Mr. Maurice used a piece of electronic dance music to show me how to program voices and instruments and remix songs on the controller.

The problem, at least one of them, is that I don’t like electronic dance music.

“It’s an exact tempo,” he explained with saintly patience, “128 beats per minute.”

He was referring to why we would be remixing that genre rather than something more familiar, or even something that I recognized as a song with a beginning, middle and an end.

Why not the Rolling Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow,” for example?

I trace my declining interest in music and dancing to the day in the late 1970s that disco displaced rock 'n' roll as the dominant party soundtrack. Electronic dance music seems but one more milestone on that slippery downward slope.

“You’re able to revisit a lot of records from the past,” Mr. Maurice explained cheerfully, trying to pique my interest. “You can dive back into your old library and do new things with it.”

That’s precisely the problem: I don’t want to do new things with my old records, which I suppose limits how far I can take this DJ fantasy. I love them just the way they are.

I’m not quite conceited enough to believe I can improve the Beatles’ “A Day In the Life” or Neil Young ’s “The Needle and the Damage Done.”

Mr. Maurice’s and Ms. Lam’s larger hope is that their students will become, if not the next Grandmaster Flash, players in the creative process, if only after leaving their corporate jobs for the night.

“A hundred years ago, before recording technology existed, music was 98% in the amateur space,” Mr. Maurice said.

People sang and learned how to play musical instruments and entertained themselves and each other at home. “As soon as you could record music, people became spectators rather than creators,” he went on.

If anything, the problem has gotten worse with music having essentially become free. People aren’t “interacting with music other than just listening to Spotify,” Mr. Maurice added.

Foxgrove’s goal is to do for music what Instagram has done for photography. Releasing everybody’s inner Ansel Adams. “Music is the last frontier to go into the amateur space,” Ms. Lam said.

I applaud them. But I’ll be seeking my bliss elsewhere.

Write to Ralph Gardner Jr. at ralph.gardner@wsj.com

Summary: Under the assumption that it’s never too late to pick up a new skill to impress friends and family, and perhaps graduate to an entirely different, lucrative career, Ralph Gardner Jr. attended DJ school.


Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders

USA TODAY NETWORK/Sipa USA; Joshua Lott/Getty

03/06/2016 AT 10:00 PM EST

came out swinging during CNN's Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan, on Sunday, just as the results of the Maine caucuses were filtering in.

The pair traded jabs – most notably on economic policy and gun control – when they took part in the debate. Clinton, in particular, took Sanders to task for his lack of support for harsher gun regulations, especially in the wake of a spate of mass shootings.

"Giving immunity to gunmakers and sellers was a terrible mistake," Clinton said, explaining that she would regulations to prosecute or fine gun makers and sellers in an effort to try "to get makers to make guns safer. To give gun sellers more accountability."

When Sanders explained that he would not pursue holding gun manufacturers and sellers responsible for selling guns to those who later went on to take part in mass shootings – saying that such legislation would end gun manufacturing in America – Clinton took him to task.

"We talk about corporate greed when gun manufacturer sell guns to make as much money as they can make," Clinton said to loud cheers and applause from the audience.

The two candidates also touched on racial issues after being asked what their "racial blind spots" are by CNN host Don Lemon.

Clinton said she wanted to "urge white people to think about what it is like to have the talk with your kids" about the possibility of getting in trouble with police "for no reason." The former secretary of state also referenced

after a routine traffic stop in Texas in July. Meanwhile, Sanders, who worked as a civil rights activist in the '60s, said that white people in America "don't know what it's like to live in the ghetto."

The politicians also touched on the

, with both candidates agreeing that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder should resign or be recalled from office.

While the pair battled it out in the debate, one candidate did emerge victorious – Sanders won the Maine caucuses on Sunday,

. Sanders walked away with 14 delegates from the caucuses while Clinton nabbed 6.

Despite their clashes during the debate, both candidates shared a laugh at the Republicans' expense. When Clinton asked for people to compare the substance of Sunday's discussion with the GOP debate from last week, Sanders had a quick quip.

"We are going to invest a lot of money in mental health," the Vermont senator said. "And if you watch the Republican debates you know why!"

Summary: However, the candidates shared a quick laugh over the GOP candidates


Imagine getting paid to eat ice cream all day, to go to the beach or to figure out how to make a race car go even faster.They sound like fantasies to most of us but for some people, these are their actual jobs.Take Paul Monaghan, who is the head of car engineering for the Red Bull Racing Formula One team. Or Kirsten Schimoler, whose job it is to come up with new flavors of ice cream for Ben & Jerry’s.We interviewed both of them and several others who have the world’s coolest jobs. Click ahead to find out how they landed such a cool job and what a “typical” day is like for them!By: Cindy PermanPosted 3 March 2011

Summary: Imagine getting paid to eat ice cream all day or to figure out how to make a race car go even faster. Meet the people who get paid for this stuff and more of the world's coolest jobs!


That's not surprising, given a series of storms that battered the East, especially the Southeast and major cities further north.

However, as weather improved in the second week, so did auto sales.

(Read more: Housing starts reel amid January freeze)

After 13 days, sales for the month were down just 1 percent, according to J.D. Power.

Analysts believe Presidents Day weekend and aggressive promotions will spur stronger business in the second half of February.

The report on sales through midmonth shows customers continue to pay more for new cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles.

"The industry is on track to reach its highest-ever average transaction price for the month of February, with prices exceeding $29,000," Humphrey said. "This beats the previous record from February 2013 by more than $400."

(Read more: US cold snap's latest victim: Industrial output)

Furthermore, J.D. Power and LMC Automotive calculate total consumer spending on new vehicles will top $28.3 billion, an increase of $1.7 billion over last year.

(Read more: Small auto brands steal spotlight from big guys)

Still, despite the encouraging rebound in sales, the heavy inventory being carried by automakers remains a concern.

"While inventory levels are excessive at this point, demand during the spring selling season will help resolve the situation," said Bill Rinna, senior manager of forecasting at LMC Automotive. "However, if inventory is not cleared out by June, production levels in the second half of the year are at risk."

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

Summary: The consulting firms J.D. Power and LMC Automotive now believe auto sales for February will increase 5 percent over last year.


A proposed UN resolution that supporters hope will be adopted next week demands that all parties to conflicts protect medical personnel, hospitals and medical facilities against violence and attacks - and face justice if they don't.

The draft resolution circulated on Friday expresses deep concern that the number of attacks is increasing despite obligations under international law that combatants protect medical staff and facilities as well as the sick and wounded.

New Zealand's UN ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, a co-author of the resolution, said the bombing of an important hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo that killed more than 50 people on Wednesday including patients and staff "sadly demonstrates why the resolution is so timely".

New Zealand's UN Mission said the Security Council will vote on the resolution on Tuesday and members will be briefed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the presidents of Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The resolution - also drafted by elected Security Council members Spain, Egypt, Japan and Uruguay - would strongly condemn all violence, attacks and threats against the wounded and sick, medical personnel and medical facilities.

It reminds all governments and fighters that under international law any intentional attack against hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected is a war crime, and so are attacks intentionally directed against buildings, vehicles and personnel using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions including a red cross.

It strongly condemns "the prevailing impunity" for attacks and abuses against medical staff and facilities and strongly urges governments to conduct independent investigations of all violations.

Summary: The United Nations Security Council will vote on a resolution on Tuesday demanding combatants protect hospitals and doctors in conflict areas.


In Warren Beatty’s 1998 film Bulworth, a U.S. Senator running for reelection has a moment of clarity and decides to do something no politician to date has ever done: be completely honest in everything he says.

Senator Jay Bulworth tells an audience in South Central Los Angeles that the Democratic party doesn’t care about them because they don’t contribute enough money to political campaigns. He informs a group of Hollywood executives in a private home that the movies they make are awful. And in a live televised debate with his opponent, he says that the news is controlled by the same corporate interests that contribute boatloads of cash to elections, which means that the public isn’t informed about what is really going on in the world.

Bulworth is a comedy. It has to be, since the premise that a politician would ever dare to be honest is inherently funny, right?

Enter Donald Trump into the 2016 Presidential campaign. The whole world knows what he thinks about Mexican immigrants, global warming, his fellow presidential hopefuls, the bestseller status of the books he’s written, and Megyn Kelly’s physiology.

We now have a real-life Bulworth, and it’s tempting to rejoice that here at last is a man so rich he’s willing to speak his mind without having any concern about the consequences of what he says.

If only life could imitate art.

The difference between Jay Bulworth and Donald Trump goes far beyond the fact that one is a Democrat and the other is (for now) a Republican. Or even that one is fictional and the other is real.

Jay Bulworth spoke the truth as he saw it because he was tired of living in a world where corporate greed and politicians’ unquenchable thirst for power have widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots, severely damaged the integrity of news organizations, compromised our faith in democracy, and poisoned the planet. In other words, he had a deep, abiding concern for things beyond himself.

Donald Trump speaks the truth as he sees it because he is an unrepentant narcissist who loves being the center of attention and doesn’t care how his words affect other people. As such, he fits in perfectly with our selfie culture. Both Donald Trump and those of us wandering around with selfie sticks are boldly declaring, “Look at me! Aren’t I great?”

The problem with Trump’s candidacy isn’t merely that he is willing to insult anyone who rubs him the wrong way. It’s that the Donald we see and hear on a daily basis appears to be psychologically incapable about caring about anyone other than himself. And if that’s who he really is, he won’t—and can’t—win the White House.

Leadership and narcissism: What’s the connection?

Stanford University business school professor Jeffrey Pfeffer recently wrote a fascinating article for Fortune in which he claimed, “Everything we bash Donald Trump for is actually what we seek in leaders.” Pfeffer argues that there is a yawning gap between the qualities we believe we want in our leaders and the actual qualities of the men and women we put in leadership roles. “[E]ven though we say we want people who don’t self-aggrandize, we secretly like the confident, overbearing people because they provide us with confidence—emotions are contagious—and also present themselves like winners,” Pfeffer writes.

But it’s one thing to be strongly, even supremely confident, and quite another to have contempt for both the truth and other human beings. One can be bold in thought and action and still be open to the possibility that one is mistaken. That, in a nutshell, is what it means to be rational. “I believe this with all my heart,” my college religion professor Patrick Henry once said about his faith, “but I might be wrong.”

It’s that last part of the equation that appears to be genetically absent from Donald Trump. I say “appears,” because I know the man the same way you probably do: only by what I see on TV. So I spoke with Jeffrey Hayzlett, author of the forthcoming book Think Big, Act Bigger: The Rewards of Being Relentless, a guest judge on Celebrity Apprentice, and a business associate of Trump’s, to get a closer perspective.

“Donald Trump cares a lot for his children and for the people on his staff,” Hayzlett told me. “He really does. If he were so bad, would his children still work for him? And the other people who work for him have been there forever.”

“So what advice would you give to him for the rest of the campaign?” I asked.

“To win the Republican nomination, he needs to be more inclusive,” Hayzlett replied. Part of the problem, Hayzlett believes, is that the media haven’t shown that Trump truly understands and cares about other people.

I’m glad to hear that Trump treats his kids and his staff well. But the best person to run our country will care for everyone, not just family, team members, and supporters. That means casting aside hateful remarks, evincing a passion for the truth, and resisting the impulse to drone on and one about how terrific, smart, and successful he or she is.

Whether or not Trump is up to the challenge remains to be seen. But the smart money for the remainder of the race is on the man or woman who can look beyond the mirror and the adoring crowd at their feet and cast their gaze upon the vast sea of people who come here from all over the world but who are united by a single definition: American.

Bruce Weinstein, The Ethics Guy, is a keynote speaker and corporate trainer in ethics, leadership, and character, and his latest book is The Good Ones: Ten Crucial Qualities of High-Character Employees.

Summary: It's one thing to thrive on attention—it's another to be an unrepentant narcissist. Just which one is the Donald?


Bryce Salvador once called the rehab from his injury “hell,” and in a gripping retirement announcement, it doesn’t sound far off.

The former Devils captain called it a career Wednesday, announcing his retirement in a revealing and heartfelt article published on the Players’ Tribune.

“I achieved my goal of coming back so that my boys would be able to remember me as an NHL player,” Salvador wrote, “and now I am content to step away on my own terms.”

Salvador, 39, was named the Devils captain in January 2012, after Zach Parise left to sign a free-agent deal with his hometown Wild. Yet Salvador was slowed to just 15 games last season due to a back injury, and 94 games over the past three.

But that is hardly the worst of it.

At the end of the 2009-10 season, Salvador took a puck to the face with 53 seconds left in a game, likely the cause of an inner-ear concussion. He finished that season, but during the next preseason, he took a punch in the helmet and fell down, knowing something was very wrong.

He took a shoulder to the chin soon thereafter, and was diagnosed with another concussion. Doctors couldn’t figure out why the symptoms weren’t completely going away.

Salvador missed the entire 2010-11 season, seeing specialist after specialist, including an entire month at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey. Eventually, he stopped going because his recovery had plateaued. He became temperamental with his family, including his two boys, ages 4 and 1. He didn’t like noise or light. He couldn’t drive at night. He couldn’t deal with social situations.

At the urging of his wife, Salvador decided to try to get better again. He went to see then-general manager Lou Lamoriello — who has since moved on to take that same job with the Maple Leafs — and Lamoriello told him to do whatever he needed to get better.

“Lou,” Salvador wrote, “thank you.”

Salvador ended up in the office of Dr. James Kelly, whom he said was a military doctor who sees civilian patients only one day a month. Dr. Kelly told him his vestibular system was out of whack, but it could be fixed; he had seen worse in soldiers coming back from war.

“That’s the moment I stopped feeling frustrated and sorry for myself,” Salvador wrote. “At the very least, I finally had an answer.”

Salvador spent the whole season rehabbing, which consisted of some childhood pastimes — running with his eyes closed; bouncing on a trampoline while calling out shapes and colors; spinning in an office chair to see how long it would take to recovery from being dizzy. A normal person needs 10 seconds, and at first, it took Salvador almost a minute.

Eventually, when Salvador spun around in the chair and needed just the normal 10 seconds to recover, “I thought I was going to start crying,” he said.

He told Lamoriello he was going to return for the 2011-12 season, and he got a fair shake in training camp. He became a reliable stay-at-home defenseman, playing all 82 regular-season games and leading the Devils past the Rangers in the conference final.

They lost to the Kings in six games in the Stanley Cup final, but at Game 1 in New Jersey, Salvador’s two sons got to see what their dad did for a living, and they were finally old enough to understand.

It was a long ride from his childhood in Manitoba, to getting drafted by the Lightning in the sixth round in 1994, then playing parts of seven seasons with the Blues before being traded to the Devils in 2008 in exchange for fourth-line grinder Cam Janssen.

Salvador and his family are staying in New Jersey, and he plans to work with the Devils and local hockey organizations to “spread access to the game for everyone.” It’s something he couldn’t be happier to be able to do.

“After I was drafted, an NHL scout told me, ‘Salvador, you’re never going to make it. Too slow, too soft. You’ll never play a game in the NHL,’” he wrote. “Here I am, 786 regular-season and 74 playoff games later, retiring as a captain. No matter what anybody says, they can’t take this away from me:

“I played in the freaking NHL. It’s enough to make you dizzy.”

Summary: Bryce Salvador once called the rehab from his injury “hell,” and in a gripping retirement announcement, it doesn’t sound far off. The former Devils captain called it a career Wednesday, annou…


Founders (from left) Maria McKeon and Michele Gannon

Courtesy of Mary's Place by the Sea

08/01/2013 AT 11:30 AM EDT

Michele Gannon knows what it's like to be sick and unable to care for yourself, let alone your children.

In 2009, while recovering from an ongoing, debilitating illness, her doctor put her on bed rest for several weeks.

"My kids would say, 'Are you better now? Now? Now?' " says Gannon, 45, of Interlaken. N.J. "When I did surface, I just saw my whole world, my well-oiled machine, was broken down and that led to depression."

"I said to myself, 'I wonder what a woman does when she has a long-term illness like cancer?' " she says.

She quickly discovered there weren't many places available for women to escape and relax, so later that year she and a friend, Maria McKeon, founded

, a retreat in Ocean Grove, N.J. where women with cancer can get everything from oncological massages to nutrition counseling during their stay.

"It's life changing," says Gannon, "because you learn in your own way not to get worried about the small things that you used to worry about and just put things into perspective."

"I walked in and I got the greatest sense of comfort and love and compassion that you could ever imagine," says Brinkmann, of Westfield, N.J., who has

"For someone that's dealing with cancer and is scared to death," she says, "and needs someone just to hold them and love them and give them faith and hope, these women are incredible."

Volunteers, many of them cancer survivors themselves, help staff the retreat, which is housed in a three-story, six-bedroom Victorian house that faces a lake and is one block west of the ocean.

Beth Hahn choked up when describing her experiences at the home.

(from left) Michele Gannon, guest Beth Hahn and Maria McKeon

"There is so much love in that place," says Hahn, 40, who was in the midst of chemotherapy for

when she went the first time in May 2012.

"You have to go to truly understand how full of love it is," says Hahn, of Shippensburg, Pa.

But Gannon says she's the lucky one.

"I always say that I get more than I give," she says. "Every woman who comes in has so much courage."

Summary: The New Jersey motherâs waterfront home has been a retreat for more than 2,000 women across the country


Need an excuse to stay inside this weekend and avoid the crowded beaches? Why not binge-watch a TV marathon? Here are five options if you'd prefer the glow of the television to the glow of the sun.

Disney Channel original movie marathon

Parents can keep their children occupied over the three-day weekend with almost all of Disney Channel’s original flicks, including “High School Musical” and “Cheetah Girls.” Starts Friday, May 27 at 10 a.m.

Harry Potter marathon on Freeform

10 true-crime stories to check out after 'Making a Murderer'

Having trouble waiting to see J.K. Rowling’s new film, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”? It doesn’t open until November, but you can satisfy that chocolate frog craving with all eight Harry Potter films back-to-back on Freeform — the channel that until recently was ABC Family. This magical marathon starts Friday, May 27 at 2:45 p.m. with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” and ends Monday, May 30 at 7 p.m. with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”

Baywatch Marathon on COZI TV

You don’t have to go to the beach to watch hot lifeguards save people’s lives. Watch 12 hours of the iconic TV show on NBC-owned Cozi. It starred David Hasselhoff and a bevy of babes and was filmed on the beautiful beaches of Southern California. The marathon starts May 30 at 8 a.m.

Turner Classic Movies War Marathon

Brooklyn man breaks binge-watching Guinness World Record

TCM honors veterans with 82 hours of classic war films running all weekend long, starting May 27 at 8 p.m. See stars like John Wayne in “They Were Expendable” (1945), Frank Sinatra and Montgomery Clift in “From Here to Eternity” (1957) and Gregory Peck in “The Guns of Navarone” (1961).

“Empire” Seasons One and Two Marathon

The Lyon Family is back! Relive the devious drama in just two days with Season 1, beginning Sunday, May 29 at 12p.m., and Season 2 starting Monday, May 30 at 7 a.m. on TV One. The award-winning series stars Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard and Academy Award and Emmy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson.

Summary: Here are five TV marathons you can binge watch this Memorial Day weekend.


Janet Yellen and the Federal Open Market Committee convene their third meeting of 2016, and Wall Street is expecting a real snoozer.

While Fed minutes show that at least some members of the committee think the central bank should restart the process of moving interest rates higher, futures markets say there’s zero chance that Yellen and company will raise interest rates this week. This appears to be a pretty sound bet. Fed minutes clearly show that the majority of committee members aren’t ready to raise rates during a week during which the preliminary data indicate we will get yet another disappointing GDP report come Thursday.

But as we look ahead into the future, the market’s confidence that the Fed won’t raise rates further looks more dubious. According to Bloomberg data, the markets are giving just a 18.8% chance that the Fed will hike twice in 2016, whereas every FOMC member save for one thinks that there will be two or more hikes this year, according to the projection materials released following the last meeting in March.

In other words, something’s gotta give. But it’s not like we can blame markets for not having the utmost faith in Federal Reserve projections. The central bank has consistently overestimated the pace of economic growth since the end of the financial crisis, and therefore underestimated the amount of monetary stimulus it would need to provide the economy. And so it appears that traders are taking the Fed’s faith that economic conditions will improve enough over the next eight months to warrant two rate increases with a grain of salt.

But this divergence between where the Fed sees the economy going and what traders predict will happen could very well be cause for increased volatility in financial markets in 2016. The Fed is counting on the idea that economic turmoil abroad will settle down, and falling unemployment will soon cause a rise in inflation that will necessitate higher rates. The market’s view is that the economic malaise has characterized the current expansion will be sustained by rising income inequality and technological developments that lessen the need for companies to hire large numbers of workers. Combine that with continued economic weakness in the global economic that puts a premium on safe assets like U.S. government debt, and it’s unlikely that the Fed will be able to push rates higher in the near future.

Both of these theories are plausible and can be backed up with data. But the longer central banks and the market disagree with each other, the better the chances that the Fed deals a big surprise to investors.

Summary: Maybe traders are getting too complacent?


Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. said its formulation of resveratrol, a substance found in red wine, helped diabetics lower their blood sugar in an early-stage clinical trial.

Sirtris, Cambridge, Mass., is working on commercializing resveratrol and related drugs to fight a number of diseases. Advocates suspect resveratrol may also increase life span, though that hasn't yet been shown.

Sirtris released results yesterday from an early-stage study involving 98 diabetics at an investor conference sponsored by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in San Francisco. It is the first study to show beneficial effects in humans from resveratrol. Previous studies had focused on mice and rats.

"We chose diabetes because it's a big market, but the biology says the drug could work on any number of diseases," said David Sinclair, a professor at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Sirtris. The company has said 2012 is the earliest it could get to the market with a diabetes drug, which would happen only if further phases of clinical testing in much larger groups of patients are successful.

In the so-called Phase-1b study, Sirtris gave daily doses of resveratrol to 67 diabetics who weren't on other treatment. It gave placebos to 31 others. The study took place in India.

After 28 days, those taking resveratrol had improved their scores on an oral glucose-tolerance test, which measures the body's ability to break down and use sugar, a fundamental problem for diabetics. Those taking the placebo didn't show an improvement.

Resveratrol also seemed to lower base-line levels of glucose in the blood, though that result wasn't statistically significant. None of the patients reported a significant side effect, the company said.

Write to Keith J. Winstein at keith.winstein@wsj.com

Summary: Sirtris Pharmaceuticals said its formulation of resveratrol, a substance found in red wine, helped diabetics lower their blood sugar in an early-stage clinical trial.


FANS OF “Mad Men” may assume that everyone long ago lost count of how many drinks the characters in this booze-happy drama had knocked back.

Going into the final seven episodes that wrap up this coming Sunday (AMC, 10 p.m.), the network says they had consumed exactly 369 drinks — in the office.

We won’t ask who at AMC was tasked with watching every episode and counting the drinks, but that kind of attention to detail feels quite in keeping with the show itself.

The drink total has climbed in these final episodes as everyone toasted the vanishing era. Roger and Peggy alone finished off a half-dozen glasses of vermouth saying goodbye to their old digs.

Not surprisingly, cigarette consumption was equally prodigious. AMC counted 942 cigarettes, spread out over almost every character: Don, Roger, Joan, Peggy, Betty and yes, even young Sally.

A little less open, sometimes, was the smoking of 18 joints.

By coincidence, 18 is also how many women with whom AMC calculated Don had slept. In these final episodes he added one more.

Don went through nine secretaries, two of whom he slept with and one of whom he married.

On the behavior side, 14 punches were thrown, most of them ineffective, and for all the times these characters deserved to get knocked upside the head, we only saw four actual slaps.

Candace the hooker slapped Don, at his request. Roger was slapped after his heart attack. Betty slapped Sally for cutting her hair — like that was Sally’s worst transgression — and Betty also slapped Glen’s mother, Helen, for suggesting Betty discourage young Glen from further fantasies about Betty.

Now Glen is apparently ticketed for Vietnam, where we hope he does not become the last “Mad Men” statistic.

Summary: Fans “Mad Men” may assume that everyone long ago lost count of how many drinks the characters had knocked back.