Maybe you think you know what makes the best barbecue. Heck, maybe you think you cook the best barbecue. But what if you actually submitted your legendary ribs, chicken, pork, or brisket to a panel of discerning judges? Well, I followed a guy who does just that.

Click through for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to compete for $10,000 worth of prize money. (Plus loads of glorious meat photography!)

18 Hours In The Life Of A BBQ Champion

18 Hours In The Life Of A BBQ Champion

Paul Kita of Men's Health documents the exploits of Tom Feil. Tame your barbecue's flames and sear these 10 Foods Every Man Must Grill.

At sunset the night before the first annual Lehigh Valley Que Fest, Tom Feil, begins preparations for tomorrow’s competition. He’s the head of his team, Christmas City Competition BBQ, which is named after where they take up residency in Bethlehem, Pa. So who makes up this award-nabbing force of slow-smoking savviness? Upgrade your cooking skills, impress your date, and reinvent your diet with 150+ easy, chef-approved recipes and tons of useful kitchen tips in Guy Gourmet cookbook.

From left to right: Stacie Feil, Tom Feil, and Sara Feil. Rachel, their oldest daughter, (not pictured) also competes. The family entered their first barbecue competition back in 2005. There, they won multiple awards and took fourth place overall. "At that moment, I realized I can't not do this again," says Tom, who by day works as a cardiothoracic physician assistant. Yes, relish the irony. Tame your barbecue's flames and sear these 10 Foods Every Man Must Grill.

On the eve of competition, Tom helms the smokers solo. By the time I arrive around 10 p.m., he’s already slid the beef briskets into his Abe's cabinet smoker and the pork butts into his Cookshack FEC100 pellet smoker. I missed him injecting the butts with fruit juice, but caught him just in time for the rubbing of ribs. First, he lights the coals in a separate smoker that will cook ribs and chicken. Between bites of grilled pork chops, smoked ribs and fire-roasted s'mores, Try Best Beer for Grilled Food.

Tom uses only spare ribs for competitions. That’s because most judges in this part of Pennsylvania expect that cut -- and the judges aren’t looking for curveballs, he says. When selecting rib racks, Tom looks for thick, meaty slabs of pork with fat marbling the meat throughout. Do you have a friend who is vegetarian? Try thisVegetarian Meal Meat Eaters Love

Before applying the rub, he shakes on a bit of cayenne. "You want a balanced flavor. The sweet, the meat, and the heat should all work together," he says. "You don't want one to overpower the other." For the rub, Tom uses Head Country's Championship Seasoning, which he buys in 50-pound boxes. Brines, marinades, and rubs are three fabulous ways to flavor your food. Learn what to use, when, and how to make the ultimate starter recipes for each.

Tom reviews the plan for tomorrow morning. "You gotta be detailed and have a routine," he says. "I’ve been competing for a while now, so most of my plan is in my head. But you have to have a plan." I head home to sleep. Tom will rest among the meat.

It’s a little before 6:00 a.m. the morning of the event. Wood smoke billows above the makeshift campgrounds of the competitors. The air is awash in oak, hickory, and cherry. Even at this early hour, you can smell the competition.

All considering, Tom's had a restful night. He had to check the brisket at midnight, and then again before waking up at 5:00 a.m. to start preparations for the day. He sleeps with the radio on to make sure his electricity doesn’t go out. "If everything goes according to plan, I might even be able to take a shower later," he says.

As the sun breaks over the campground, Tom assesses the temperatures on each of his smokers (the ribs are running a little too hot). With the planning going relatively well thus far, I walk the premise to scope out the competition.

Unlike big-league BBQ competitions such as Memphis in May or "The Jack," smaller competitions often include a range of cooking hardware. Some teams cook on oil-drum style smokers, while others turn to trusty backyard Weber bullet smokers.

This team opted for nothing but The Big Green Egg, a ceramic grill and smoker. Estimated cost: Upwards of $5,000.

But despite the term "competition," the interactions between teams are frequently friendly. They share tips and war stories. They BS over beers. They loan each other supplies. At one point, a guy, seeing my camera, yells me over: "Hey! You want a meat shot?" Chris, a former radio personality from Connecticut, pulls his pork butts from the smoker.

A little before 9:00 a.m., Stacie and Sara arrive. Stacie begins "building boxes," which requires twisting together small bouquets of curly-leaf parsley. Set atop a chiffonade of lettuce, these bundles form an Astroturf-like mat for the meat. Sara opts for a smartphone check.

One box can take as long as 30 to 40 minutes to produce. Today’s competition requires four boxes.

As Stacie meticulously crafts the boxes, Tom adds the chicken to the smoker. Each piece of chicken, after bathing in a commercial bottled marinade overnight, receives a shake of spice rub, and a thick butter pat. "If you like the taste of something, take it a little further," he says.

Address Tom at any point throughout the day and he’ll likely look up from a timer to reply. He'll mutter phrases to himself, such as "Okay, so the chicken just went in, which means we'll check the pork in 20 and then the brisket in another 45." I counted nearly 20 timers, probes, and clocks scattered throughout the Christmas City BBQ camp.

At 9:15 a.m., Tom removes the pork butt from the smoker. As he peels back the foil, the muscle of meat sends forth a plume of steam. Though the protein is smoked perfectly, Tom will only send a portion of this cut to the judges: a tender, succulent piece the competitors refer to as "the money muscle."

The money muscle is actually where the loin of the pig begins. This muscle doesn’t do much during a hog’s life, which is why the coveted meat is so tender. Tom detaches the muscle from the rest of the pork butt in order to begin preparations for the judges.

As judging approaches, Tom checks the status of the brisket and remaining pork butts. His pellet smoker is festooned with probes, each designed to keep a precise gauge on the temperature of each protein. A few degrees of doneness can make the difference between overcooked meat and a giant trophy.

"There are two things you'll find in every camp: a bottle of Jack Daniel's and Parkay," Tom says. I'll address the Jack Daniel’s later. But the Parkay? It’s the secret to great ribs. No, really ...

Tom removes the ribs from the smoker around 11:05 a.m. Immediately afterwards, Stacie rolls out a sheet of aluminum foil, and goes Jackson Pollock with honey, brown sugar, and Parkay. Tom places the ribs atop this bed and Stacie adds more brown sugar and another squirt of the butter product. "Parkay adds saltiness, butteriness, and moisture," Tom says. He wraps the ribs and shoves them back into the smoker.

Some meats reach doneness before the judging begins. When that happens, Stacie tucks the proteins into a sleeping bag. The bag keeps the meat juicy by avoiding any sudden drops in temperature, Tom says. I resist an urge to crawl inside.

There's an ebb and flow of competitive barbecuing. Moments of furious activity are interspersed among stretches of waiting, waiting, and some additional waiting

After hours in the smoker, the chicken is ready to be glazed. So far, everything is running according to Tom's schedule. From here, the chicken gains a helping hand from Sara, who has won numerous trophies in this category in competitions past.

Inside the trailer, Sara applies a liberal coating of barbecue sauce to each piece of cooked chicken. After experimenting with an additional application of honey, the team abandons the idea. "We're sweet enough," Tom says.

After glazing, Christmas City BBQ puts the cuts back into the smoker for a final blast of smoke flavor. The heat helps caramelize the sugars in the sauce and renders the skin tender. "You don't want a crunch," Tom says. "The idea is that the judge should be able to bite through the skin easily."

At 11:45 a.m., 15 minutes before judging, Tom pulls the chicken from the smoker. I swear I hear angels sing.

Sara nominates which pieces of chicken they’ll send to the judges' table. "We're looking for pieces with uniform shape, plumpness, and size," Tom says. They'll select just six from the batch.

With seven minutes until judging for the chicken begins, Stacie offers her consultation. The temperature in the trailer has increased significantly.

Tom and Sara apply a shake of cayenne to the undersides of each selected chicken piece. "The judge's tongue will hit the bottom of the chicken first," says Tom. I take a bite of chicken piece not chosen. The skin yields to my teeth, a rush of juicy meat follows, and I taste the faint fire of the seasoning. It’s some damn good chicken.

A few minutes before noon, the team has picked and prepared their six chicken pieces. Using forceps, Tom carefully transfers each piece to the box, the parsley cradling each cut.

As goes the Christmas City BBQ pre-judging ritual, Stacie kisses the closed boxed of BBQ and then presents it to Tom.

Then Tom lays a wet one on the box.

And, finally, Stacie and Tom kiss. Then, dashing out the screen door of the trailer, Stacie is off to deliver the box to the judges.

Stacie returns, the chicken entry delivered successfully, just in time to consult with Tom about the ribs. They have 30 minutes to prep the cut for judging. Upon opening the first package, Tom worries that they might be slightly overdone. "See the ribs popping right there?" he says, pointing to the bones breaking through the meat. A brief moment of concern settles among the team.

The tension passes, however, after Tom opens the remaining parcels of pork. Several racks offer the thick, substantive sections he’s looking for. Tom glazes these racks in barbecue sauce and slides them into the smoker for a final blast. It’s 12:14 p.m.

The ribs emerge a rich mahogany, with a slight crunch adorning the exterior. Tom selects a total of eight ribs for the box from the original total of four racks.

Tom transfers the ribs to a box and plucks any imperfections from the ribs using his trusty forceps. Stacie leaves the trailer with the box at 12:27 p.m. Just two more categories await. Tom looks like he’s just run a few wind sprints.

While Stacie hoofs it to the judges' table, Tom puts the finishing touches on the brisket. He adds a can of condensed beef broth to the meat, to intensify the beef flavor, and prepares a "hot tub," a mixture of brisket juices and secret ingredients.

Christmas City BBQ removes the money muscle from their sleeping bag and transfers it to the hot tub. (Yes, that's a real sentence.) After slicing the tender meat with an electric knife, they arrange the pork in a box and ship it off for judging.

And now, as promised, for the Jack. As is tradition, Tom and Stacie each take a shot before starting work on the final category, brisket.

Just after 1:00 p.m. Tom tastes the brisket and is especially pleased with the burnt ends of the beef. "When they turn out well, they taste like meat marshmallows," he says. "If the rest of the brisket tastes as good as this, it’s going to be hard to beat." Though it's not mandatory to include burnt ends in the brisket box, adding the meat marshmallows can score extra points with the judges.

Tom trims and slices the brisket with an electric knife. The slices should be about the thickness of a No. 2 pencil. "The test," he says, "is to drape a slice over your finger. If it bends without breaking apart, you’re good."

Tom decides to include the burnt ends into the brisket box. "You just want more of them," Stacie says. "They're like a little baby's cheeks.” And, with that, they send the box away. As the brisket leaves the trailer, so does the tension. The hard work is over. After Stacie returns, the family goes to find a fellow competitor to relax with until the prizes are awarded.

The verdict: Christmas City BBQ scored third place in the brisket division, second in pork, and first place in deviled eggs, a subcategory. They’re pleased, Tom says, and will go on to barbecue another day. “It’s family, it’s competition, and it’s getting to travel,” says Stacie. But for me? I’m with Santa on this one. It’s all about the meat. 10 Foods Every Man Must Grill.

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Summary: Maybe you think you know what makes the best barbecue. Heck, maybe you think you cook the best barbecue. But what if you actually submitted your legen...


When a software engineering job opens up, recruiter John VanderSande has a database of almost 2,000 names that he can turn to help fill the position, whether java architect or big data processor.

“Competition for talented coders, programmers, and developers is fierce, and there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work in finding and hiring the best tech talent,” said VanderSande, who has worked for WinterWyman, the Waltham staffing firm, for more than a decade.

You recruit for Massachusetts tech companies, especially startups. What are the hot skills that companies are looking for?

Believe it or not, 10 years ago there was no such thing as an app developer or data miner. Even five years ago, there wasn’t a lot of demand for cloud service specialists, big data architects, iOS or Android developers. Today, UI (user interface) engineers are among the employees with the toughest skill sets to find.

What does your day as a recruiter look like?

I work on a “blended desk,” which means I am working with roughly 12-20 different companies to fill openings while also helping qualified candidates advance their careers. A software company might be going through a big push to hire. They’ll give us details and then we need to find talent that fits.

Are recruiters threatened by LinkedIn?

No, we use LinkedIn as one of our many tools. But LinkedIn is a little oversaturated. Qualified engineers are now getting five to 10 “in-mails” a week — that’s LinkedIn’s version of an internal e-mail — so it’s a lot of noise to them and they’re just hitting “delete, delete, delete.”

How much can a recruiter like yourself earn?

Someone just starting out will make salary plus commission, and total compensation in the $50,000 to $100,000 range. A more experienced recruiter working on commission only — someone in the top 20 percent — can make in the $150,000 to $250,000 range, and an exceptional recruiter in the top 5 percent will make $350,000 to $550,000 or even more.

What’s your recruiting success story?

I started working with an early-stage startup in July of 2013. They had just raised a round of funding. Over the next nine months, we helped place 40 percent of their engineering team. Last spring, they were acquired for a huge sum of money by one of the most recognizable and prominent tech companies in the world. A few days after the news became public, I had an unexpected visitor at my office. One of the engineers I had placed there showed up with a very generous thank-you gift.


11/21/2014 AT 09:20 PM EST

For the past nine years, Beth Ferrier has tried her best to stay out of the media spotlight.

In 2006, Ferrier, who says she was in a consensual relationship with Bill Cosby for months,

slipped something into her cappuccino.

She says she went to visit him in his dressing room in Denver in the mid-1980s and he gave her a cappuccino.

"I woke up in my car in the parking lot with my clothes all a mess," the model told PEOPLE in 2006.

"I was definitely drugged. All I had to drink was coffee and the room was spinning. I wondered, I still wonder, 'What did he do with me? Why was my bra unhooked? What happened?' "

Cosby, through his attorneys, has consistently denied all previous allegations. And in a statement on Friday, Cosby's lawyer, Martin Singer, said, "It is long past time for this media vilification of Mr. Cosby to stop."

He added of the claims that have come out in the past two weeks: "It is completely illogical that so many people would have said nothing, done nothing and made no reports to law enforcement or asserted civil claims if they thought they had been assaulted over a span of so many years."

Ferrier, who was Jane Doe #5 in

, said she experienced a lot of backlash after that story ran.

"I lost everything," she says. "I've had to change my number several times because people were threatening me."

Members of her family stopped speaking with her and her modeling work dried up, she says.

"I lost a lot of friends," she says. "They didn't want to talk to me anymore."

Ferrier, 56, slowly rebuilt her life and worked as a certified special education teacher until she broke her neck in May 2011.

She doesn't have a television so she had no idea about the

until a member of the media tracked down a friend of hers two days ago.

"I immediately was like, 'I'm not going to say a word,' " she says. "I just started to shake my head, thinking, 'Holy Moly.' I feel really sorry for you because you have no idea how bad it can get."

This time needs to be different, she says.

"There needs to be an outcry and it needs to be huge," she says. "And I hope it gets so bad for him that he finally will break and have some true emotion."

Mostly, though, she just wants him to admit what he did.

"This time use your energy, your wealth and your intelligence to tell the world the truth," she says. "Call us by name. You know us."

Summary: The model was known as Jane Doe #5 in Andrea Constand's civil suit against Bill Cosby


If you happen to work at Microsoft, Google, Credit Suisse, or Unilever, you may be slightly ahead of your time — but only slightly. Those four companies have been featured in a new research report on the future of work.

“Most of the changes we’ll see in the next few years have already started to happen, but they will accelerate,” says Peter Martin, workplace strategy director for Asia at real estate company CBRE. “The future is already here.”

Why real estate? Simple: Many big commercial clients sign leases for a quarter century or more into the future, so the industry keeps an eye on how work, and the places where we do it, are most likely to evolve. CBRE teamed up with Genesis, a giant real estate developer in China, to conduct in-depth interviews and other research with about 220 expert observers, executives, and office workers around the world, many of them Millennials.

The study turned up some intriguing signs of things to come, like these three:

Artificial intelligence will transform the workplace

The era of automation, which has seen robots replace workers in routine jobs in warehouses and on manufacturing assembly lines, is shifting to “knowledge work.” Among the advantages of teaching computers to gather information, and base decisions on it, is that “humans have biases. For example, people tend to be overly optimistic about a risky course of action if they’ve already invested a lot in it,” Martin says. “AI eliminates those biases.”

It could also eliminate a lot of jobs — up to 50% of what knowledge workers do now, according to some estimates. Economies worldwide “won’t create new jobs at the same rate as we lose old ones,” says Martin. “So there will be a difficult period of adjustment.”

Martin likens this to what’s already happened within the legal profession, where computerization of routine research has slashed the number of new associates law firms need to hire. The upside: AI will free up human talent for more interesting, creative work. Eventually, we’ll all get used to it, Martin says — especially since many of the tasks AI will take over are the business equivalent of household drudgery: “You never hear anyone complain about the invention of the dishwasher.”

Companies will need a Chief of Work

Most C-suites haven’t added new roles since the Chief Information Officer title took hold about 20 years ago, but CBRE’s research suggests that’s about to change. For one thing, companies today have “human resources, we have IT, and we have a real estate division — all acting separately and, often, unwittingly working against each other,” Martin says.

A Chief of Work would coordinate all that, with an eye toward building a culture that attracts top talent, or what Martin calls “the complete experience of working for the company, and how that affects performance.” Finding the most efficient balance between full-time employees and growing armies of independent contractors will be in the Chief of Work’s wheelhouse, too.

Office cubicles will be a relic of the past

For huge swaths of the knowledge-working, laptop- or tablet-toting world, technology has already made a desk in an office obsolete, or at least optional. So, partly in the interest of face-to-face collaboration, companies in CBRE’s study are thinking up ways to make workspaces healthier, more comfortable, and more fun.

One example: Old-school fluorescent lighting could be replaced by LED lights that can easily change color throughout the day to reflect subtle changes in the sky outside, like those lights on many airliners now that simulate dawn, midday, and dusk for long-distance travelers.

Companies will also move toward creating campus-like office buildings, like Chiswick Park in England, with amenities and events that draw people in. Martin says more big companies around the world are starting to hand empty space, including erstwhile cube farms, over to local artists and musicians for use as studios.

“HR people tell us they see a tremendous increase in employee engagement from art, in particular,” says Martin. “Making a more interesting environment, where you bring more of the broader culture into the space, creates a buzz and an energy that you really can’t replicate in any other way.”

Summary: Artificial intelligence will rock the job market, your company will need a Chief of Work, and cubicle farms will disappear.


Sure, it’s shiny, sleek and cool — the latest must-have accessory. But here’s why I’m sticking with Apple’s real perfect product.

By Leigh Gallagher, Assistant Managing Editor

For weeks it sat as an unchecked box on my to-do list: “buy iPad.” I wanted in. I was eager to see what all the hype was about. Working in magazines for 15-plus years, I needed to see and experience this new device that promised to lead print journalism—indeed, modern civilization itself—into the future.

At Fortune we had been spending weeks working late nights to ready a sparkling new iPad version of our magazine; it was getting rave reviews. As a Blackberry RIMM loyalist who’s never had an iPhone, I had also missed the app revolution entirely. Tired of being left out when friends shook their phone to find a restaurant, programmed a bedbug locator, or saw how they might look with Justin Bieber hair, I thought it was time to join the conversation. And with my home MacBook on its last legs and my dead-tree Wall Street Journal subscription having recently expired, the time had come nigh. Lots of people told me I might even be able to use my iPad as a replacement for my laptop; one friend, a literary agent, told me his wife was writing her Ph.D. thesis on it and was loving the process.

So I finally took my app-less self to the Apple Store one night last week and announced proudly to the greeters that I was ready; this was to be the Night of my iPad Purchase.

The clerk politely indulged my sense of self-importance and showed me where the iPads sat, gleaming. High on the excitement of it all, I decided against getting the keyboard: if I was going to do this, I wasn’t going to try to turn the iPad into something it wasn’t. I was going to learn to love it for what it represented—a new form factor that would change. my. life.

When I got home and took it out of the box, my iPad looked stunning. In a single moment my living room became more stylish than it had in 18 months of DIY interior design. I had finally joined the club.

But when I started to use it—that’s when the love affair ended (or really, failed to kick in).

I surfed the web, paid a few bills and did a little online shopping. It was easy, but I was surprised by how much I fumbled on the touch screen. caps were left uncapped; I leftoutspaces; a few times I tried to position the cursor in one text box only to open another instead. But mostly, the touchscreen slowed me down. Like most writers, I type faster than I can write or even think; after talking, typing on a keyboard is the form of communication most natural to me. Absent that tactile depression and familiar click, I was thrown off balance. Without the subtle guardrails of the keys, my fingers slipped and slid all over the flat surface.

Pecking with two fingers instead, I fumbled with typos. I could never seem to find the underscore (which I swear is in two different places). The special .com button was a handy new experience. But I was still stuck in QWERTY quicksand. A free online typing test soon showed I was right: typing on my standard keyboard, I typed 96 words per minute; on the iPad my score dropped to 27 WPM. When typing and communicating takes more than three and a half times as long as you’re used to, well, this communicator gives up. I realize most people got over this long ago when they adjusted to their iPhones, and most of what I’m experiencing is probably growing pains as I enter the touchscreen tablet world, but I can’t be the only person facing this problem. In the information economy, speed is everything. Why was no one talking about how the iPad was slowing them down?

After that, everything about my iPad started to look a little less appealing.

When I put it down on my sofa and caught it in less flattering light, I saw my unattractive fingerprints all over it. When I took it to work the next day, it weighed down the new handbag I’d bought in part because it would fit it (plenty of people have lamented the iPad’s weight issues). On the subway, when my Wall Street Journal app didn’t work, I happily went back to my print papers and magazines. The next day, I learned of the recent flurry of articles that warned against sharing touch screens with others during flu season. Great. Now it was a germ trap, too.

There’s no climactic trip to the Apple Store return counter in this story. Reader, I’m keeping it. There are plenty of reasons to, even for an early resister. I can sit on my sofa and surf the web (as long as I don’t need to type very long urls). It makes awesome noises. Fortune looks undeniably beautiful on it, as do other magazines and newspapers, and I’m sure I’ll soon find some apps I won’t be able to live without. People say it’s a consumption device more than a communication device, so once I start to use it that way I might think differently.

Also, I just got the most fabulous ostrich leather sleeve for it, and I feel a rush of coolness when I send an email (albeit a short one with typos) that says “sent from my iPad.” (I could also just buy the separate keyboard dock, which would make things easier.) And really, how wrong can the rest of the world be? According to ChangeWave’s recent survey numbers out this week, iPad user satisfaction notched up four points from its last survey in May to 95%, surely a historic record for a consumer device.

People around the office all said I would soon adjust, which is Apple’s AAPL take, too. “We think people become accustomed to typing on the iPad and find it an incredibly easy and intuitive experience,” said spokesperson Trudy Muller; she pointed out that auto correction and auto completion learn the user’s typing habits, making it easier. (The underscore, it turns out, jumps to the front page of the keyboard when the cursor is in the ‘to’ field of an email, when you’re more likely to use it, the same way the ‘.com’ key appears when you’re typing a URL.)

The iPad user guide says the screen has an “oleophobic” coating but wiping it with a clean cloth is supposed to help with fingerprints. As for the germ situation, those concerns may be a tad overblown. While there are germs on an iPad, medical experts say the risk of transmitting a virus from one is no greater than from touching a doorknob. (“There’s no such thing as a sterile surface,” says Aaron Glatt, M.D., CEO of St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage, N.Y. and spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society.)

I think my colleagues are right; I’ll adapt. I hope I can. As a lifelong Mac loyalist, I don’t even know how to use a PC. I have some faith that if I just use my iPad more I’ll become faster and maybe as zippy as I am on a regular keyboard. But Steve Jobs need not worry even if I don’t. I’m also adding a new unchecked box to my to-do list: “Buy new MacBook Air.”

–Editor’s note: Leigh Gallagher promises to revisit touchscreen typing and life in the tablet world for Fortune.com in three months. Stay tuned.

Summary: Sure, it's shiny, sleek and cool -- the latest must-have accessory. But here's why I'm sticking with Apple's real perfect product. By Leigh Gallagher, Assistant Managing Editor For weeks it sat as an unchecked box on my to-do list: “buy iPad.” I wanted in. I was eager to see what all the hype was about.…


Taya Kyle and Bradley Cooper on Jan. 13, 2015

01/19/2015 AT 01:15 PM EST

Taya Kyle is thrilled by the success of

The film, which took in more than $90 million at the box office this weekend, tells the story of Taya's late husband,

, who is widely regarded as the deadliest sniper in U.S. history.

"I am overwhelmed with gratitude and my heart is full," Taya

has broken records, which follows such an honest path of Chris's life," she elaborated. "We never expected anything and were always in a moment of stunned silence at the response from all the beautiful people in this world."

Chris served four tours in Iraq before his untimely death at age 38 in 2013, when he was allegedly shot by fellow Marine Eddie Ray Routh. Routh is currently awaiting trial for capital murder.

"The only thing I can say is thank you," Taya added. "Thank you for the love and support of our military. Thank you for being willing to watch the hard stuff and thank you for hearing, seeing, experiencing the life of our military and first responders."

The widow went on to say that she

"You are the man who I couldn't have even dreamt of because you were/are better than I could have dreamed, the love of my life, my friend, partner and the man who laughed with me through the pain and found joy in the smallest and best parts of life," she wrote.

"I hope you see the love and good we will do together in whatever God has planned for the rest of the journey. Thank you for loving me. You are with me and I love you is all I can say. I can only say it simply, because there aren't words enough to express it all."

On Thursday, the film earned six

, including Best Actor for

Summary: The film took in more than $90 million at the box office this past weekend


Boston was well-represented at the 33d annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this past week, where hundreds of medical companies pitched their businesses to thousands of investors over several days. Local giants Shire PLC and and Foundation Medicine Inc. both announced multibillion-dollar deals, while at least four other companies with strong presences announced deals with a combined value of more than $1.1 billion. The Boston medical giant Partners HealthCare also sought to shrug off last year’s financial losses and put on its best face for investors gathered at the conference.

As tax forms go out across the country, a $346 million budget cut at the IRS means taxpayers calling for help with their taxes are facing long hold times. People who file paper returns could have to wait seven weeks or even longer before seeing a refund, the agency said, compared with the usual four to six weeks, but electronic filers should still receive their refunds within three weeks if they choose to receive the refund through a direct deposit to their bank accounts. Federal tax returns are due April 15. Staffing cuts also mean the agency will conduct 46,000 fewer audits than last year, although IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the agency still plans to audit more than 1 million filers.

The Back Bay is about to get a little taller. Officials broke ground this week on a 700-foot skyscraper, bringing the long-planned building a step closer to reality. It will be the city’s tallest building in four decades. The tower, at 1 Dalton St. near the Christian Science Plaza, will cost $750 million and is estimated to be completed in 2017. The Four Seasons Hotel — Boston’s second — will share the building with some of the city’s priciest condos, which developer Richard L. Friedman said will offer “11-foot ceilings, a fireplace in every condominium, the best kitchens, the best everything.” And the demand is probably there, according to a new study: Condo costs in central Boston hit a record high last year, with a median selling price of $619,000, nearly 12 percent higher than the median 2013 price of $555,000.

Retailers nationwide sold $616 billion worth of goods in November and December 2014, up 4 percent from the year before. It was a tick below expectations — the National Retail Federation predicted growth of 4.1 percent — and Massachusetts saw slower-than-national growth, with a survey of retailers here chalking up a 3.4 percent rise in sales compared with 2013. The shopping season was unusual for the way deals were rolled out before Black Friday, which smoothed consumption out and might have lowered sales for the Black Friday weekend. According to the Commerce Department, the high volume of November sales was actually larger than total sales during the December run-up to Christmas, and month-to-month retail sales dropped by 0.9 percent.— JACK NEWSHAM

At his first State of the City address, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh talked about big plans to build more housing and recapped Boston’s successful effort to lengthen the school day by 40 minutes. But then he unveiled something that really got the city talking: an app. ParkBoston, which has been in the works since at least June, will let people pay for street parking in the eastern end of the Back Bay with their phones for a 15-cent fee. The app will be rolled out to cover metered parking in the rest of the city over the next several months. Walsh also said he would appoint a “start-up czar” to work as a liaison with tech companies and run a program called StartHub, a decision that was greeted warmly by many Boston entrepreneurs.

Antonio Weiss (right), a former Wall Street banker nominated to an upper post at the US Treasury, withdrew his name from consideration last week after a long campaign by Massachusetts’ junior senator to scuttle his nomination. Centrist Democrats expressed anger at the outcome, but progressive groups applauded the move. Instead of taking a role as undersecretary of domestic finance, Weiss was appointed to serve as adviser to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, which will not require the Senate’s confirmation.

The price of gasoline continued its rapid drop this past week, with prices dropping another 11 cents per gallon to an average of $2.25 a gallon across Massachusetts. Prices are below $1.90 a gallon at some pumps. And in the coming months, many gas station owners said they’ll begin to slowly add hold-open clips to their pump nozzles. Although progress will be slow, by next winter, customers at most of the state’s gas stations will be able to duck into their cars to get out of the cold. Meanwhile, natural gas prices — already elevated in Massachusetts because of pipeline constraints — have begun to creep upwards. Colder weather poses a risk to industries and large-scale users whose rates aren’t set in advance like residential customers, who can burn with abandon.

UMass Amherst has chosen the web retailer Amazon to be its official textbook vendor for the next five years. Amazon told UMass it could save students 31 percent on their textbooks, or $380 a year. The company has promised to pay UMass a 2.5 percent commission on its sales through the online bookstore, and agreed to pay the university at least $1.4 million in its first three years of operation. Follett Corp., which formerly ran the campus’s “textbook annex,” will continue to sell university-branded mugs, hoodies, and swag, but textbooks will be delivered from a nearby distribution center that will provide students with free one-day shipping.

RadioShack, the long-struggling technology retailer founded in Boston in 1921, might be about to file for bankruptcy, according to news reports citing people close to the process. Although the Texas-based company is still a major retailer of cellphones, it has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in recent quarters as sales have dropped in other categories and crowds have thinned in its stores. Its attempts to shut many of its biggest loss-making stores were reportedly stymied by lenders, who insisted the stores remain open.

55 percent of Massachusetts residents support Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, according to a new poll by Sage Consulting. If the games were to require public money, however, only 33 percent of state residents said they’d support hosting them. Compared with a survey of Boston residents conducted in October, before the city was chosen to represent the US, the fraction of both boosters and naysayers has risen, but it’s the first time a majority of respondents said they support the effort. Still, the city’s politicians — who almost universally back the bid — might need to drum up more support, as Boston’s level of Olympic fervor is far lower than in other international cities.

Summary: Boston’s newest skyscraper, billion-dollar life sciences deals, and more news from this week.


Halliburton plans to cut 6,400 jobs, making it just the latest company in the energy industry to slash its workforce.

The oil services giant said Tuesday it would lay off 8% of employees amid depressed oil prices and a scramble to reduce costs.

“We value every employee we have, but unfortunately we are faced with the difficult reality that reductions are necessary to work through this challenging market environment,” the company said in a statement.

The layoffs come in the midst of oil prices that have fallen by more than 60% because of and global glut in supplies. Last month, oil services firm Schlumberger said it would lay off 9,000 employees. Meanwhile, rival Baker Hughes BHI said it would cut 7,000 jobs. Last week, Weatherford International WFT , another oil services firm, said it would lay off 8,000 workers. A study released earlier this month showed that the industry lost some 21,000 jobs in January alone.

Halliburton HAL said that these layoffs were not a result of its recent plans to acquire rival firm Baker Hughes for $34.6 billion. It did not provide further detail on the areas to be targeted for cuts other than to say they would impact all areas of its operations.

Halliburton’s cuts come on top of plans announced in December to slash 1,000 jobs outside the US.

Summary: Job cuts are part of a broader retrenchment by the oil industry because of depressed crude prices.


Brandon Lee and Pamela Anderson

03/13/2015 AT 01:40 PM EDT

's cute new arm candy? Her son!

The actress brought Brandon Lee, 18, her older child, as her date to the premiere of

With his hair slicked back, he rocked an all-black suit reminiscent of his bad-boy dad,

, while Anderson, 47, opted for a slinky gold gown.

The Los Angeles event was one of her first public outings since

from husband Rick Salomon for the third time.

The off-and-on-again stars annulled their first marriage after just months in 2007 and reconciled last year. Six months later, Anderson filed for divorce. She asked a judge to dismiss her petition before having another change of heart in February.

babe holding up? She gave followers a clue when she

Wednesday: "Single doesn't always mean lonely and relationship doesn't always mean happy."

Summary: Brandon, 18, is the star's son with ex Tommy Lee


03/30/2015 AT 09:10 AM EDT

Today, in breaking fake news â¦

Trevor Noah, one of the

's newer faces, will succeed

as host of the Comedy Central staple, the network said in a statement.

Currently on tour in Dubai, Noah, 31, told

that he was grateful for the opportunity but aware of the "significant challenge" inherent in taking over hosting duties from a man who had done so for nearly 16 years.

"You don't believe it for the first few hours," he told the newspaper. "You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you're in a place where you can't really get alcohol."

"I'm thrilled for the show and for Trevor," said Stewart, 52, in a network statement obtained by PEOPLE. "He's a tremendous comic and talent that we've loved working with," he continued, adding that he "may rejoin as a correspondent just to be a part of it!!!"

"It's an honor to follow Jon Stewart. He and the team at

have created an incredible show whose impact is felt all over the world," said Noah in the statement. "In my brief time with the show they've made me feel so welcome. I'm excited to get started and work with such a fantastic group of people."

South African-born Noah joined the show as a contributor in December and appeared on just three episodes prior to his major promotion.

in February after having hosted the series for the better part of two decades, leading it to win 20 Emmy Awards.

"He told me, 'I was where you were when I took over the show,' " Noah told the

about Stewart. " 'Nobody knew me. I was just starting out, finding my voice, and that's when I was handed this seat.' Now, it's my turn to steer this ship."

Summary: "I'm thrilled for the show," said Jon Stewart in a statement to The New York Times


More than any musical genre, jazz seems to be the one where you can wake up and learn that a benchmark recording by one of the ultimate heavies — Miles, Trane, Duke — has turned up in some archive, or in a tape operator’s sock drawer. The roll call of “new” instant classics has been impressive of late, especially in terms of live recordings. There may be no more quotidian musical form than jazz, no genre that better lends itself to daily creation. Gigs by rock musicians tend to be pretty samey. Classical musicians adhere to scores. But jazzers mix up the medicine, big time.

Consider, for instance, pianist’s Red Garland’s “Swingin’ on the Corner” on Elemental, cut in December 1977 at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner with the wonderfully named Leroy Vinnegar on bass and that mad bomb-dropper of a drummer, Philly Joe Jones, having an end-of-career flourish. Garland and Jones are best known for their roles in Miles Davis’s first great quintet 20 years earlier. But while Garland comped away with his block chords on that band’s quintessential sides, he didn’t stretch out a lot.

Here, you get a pianist with a knack for making 88 keys sound about double. Garland’s scalar runs get Jones going, and even if you’re not a drum solo kind of person, Jones’s outings here are richly tapestried, with high rhythmic thread counts such that you feel enveloped rather than put upon. The Garland tone is creamy top with discordances below, perhaps jazz’s version of Schumann’s take on Chopin’s playing as suggesting cannons buried below flowers.

Davis himself is a regular in the discovery game, and copiously documented. Still, you’re going to want to check out Acrobat’s four-disc “All of You: The Last Tour of 1960,” even though — brace yourselves, purists — it comes on CD-r. This was John Coltrane’s last go-around as the band’s tenorman, and he wanted out; you can hear it in his raging, keening solos.

The same label’s “So Many Things: The European Tour 1961” is Trane post-Miles, and provides the saxophonist’s fans with the perfect companion set to the first Village Vanguard recordings. We’re talking glorified bootleg sound, but if you want to feel like you’re having your mind blown in the second balcony, the opening “Blue Train” from L’Olympia in Paris makes its studio counterpart feel like a cable car.

That’s still the swinging side of Coltrane; for the scabrous, febrile, and still fascinating side seen late in his career, look to Resonance’s “Offering: Live at Temple University,” from 1966. This is the tenor’s end game: a giant musical swoosh of blackness, intruded upon by that strange, crazy dawn that always seemed to be emerging from Coltrane’s horn.

Easier on the ears is Elemental’s two-disc “The Jimmy Giuffre 3&4: New York Concerts,” taped in 1965. Giuffre is one of those undersung multi-instrumentalists who changed jazz minus the fanfare of the standard titans. “Quadrangle,” from Columbia University, is a sophisticated chart with the sweet swing of the Basie band; hear it once, and it’s easy to have Giuffre become one of your go-to musicians.

And then there is Mosaic’s gargantuan 9-CD “The Complete Dial Modern Jazz Sessions,” with a whole lot of best-ever-sounding Charlie Parker sides that make his case as jazz’s single greatest talent. We tend to think of Modernism in terms of vorticistic poems and recondite novels about wandering around Dublin, not the fare of a label that cranked out sessions with the hope of moving product — but what a smorgasbord of jazz futurism this is. Even beyond Parker: When Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray throw down vigorously on 1947’s “The Chase,” you’d think they were channeling the listener’s own delight at the shock of the old being made new again.

Summary: More than any musical genre, jazz seems to be the one where you can wake up and learn that a benchmark recording by one of the ultimate heavies has turned up in some archive or sock drawer.


04/07/2015 AT 11:20 AM EDT

, the actor best known for his role as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the CBS comedy

, has died. He was 88.

The actor passed away Monday evening in Hickory, North Carolina, after a brief illness and complications from pneumonia, according to an

posted to the actor's personal website.

The Kentucky-born actor appeared in many film and television roles throughout his lengthy career. His credits include

. He also appeared on popular TV programs including

Best's recurring role as the silly officer of Hazzard County in

brought him to national fame during its run from 1979 to 1985.

"He was a fine actor, director and mentor, and an even better friend," costar Tom Wopat, who played Luke Duke, wrote in a statement included in the obituary.

Sonny Shroyer, who played Deputy Sheriff Enos Strate in the series, wrote, "James Best will go down as one of the greatest actors that ever lived."

Best also formed an acting school where he taught notable Hollywood pupils including

. He operated the school in various forms for more than 25 years.

Best never fully retired from acting. In 2014 he starred in the family stage drama

, he addressed his feelings toward aging and death.

"The only thing that makes me sad about having so little time left is leaving the people I love and those who love me," he wrote. "There are also films and other projects that I want to get done, and there are always fish that need catching."

Summary: The actor passed away Monday after complications from pneumonia


Kim Kardashian meets an elderly fan in Armenia

04/12/2015 AT 06:00 PM EDT

seems to have fans everywhere – and of every age!

While on her eight-day tour of Armenia, Kardashian West made one elderly woman's day when she greeted her with a hug.

star is visiting Armenia with sister

and daughter North. The trip is being filmed for the family's hit E! show, and is in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Kardashian West was photographed hugging the older fan as she left her hotel in Armenia's capital city Yerevan on Sunday. The woman reportedly waited three days to meet the reality star, and was first snapped waiting outside the hotel on Thursday.

Kardashian West, who was clad in a white turtleneck and trousers, warmly embraced the woman and received a kiss on the cheek.

The reality star also stopped for selfies and autographs with other waiting fans, while Khloé was snapped looking on, all smiles.

Earlier in the week, Khloé and Kardashian West

the Mother Armenia statue in the capital, a memorial commemorating the victims of the Armenian genocide.

The sisters, joined by the their cousins Kourtni and Kara,

to the genocide memorial site in Yerevan. The statue is dedicated to the estimated 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Turks at the beginning of the 20th century.

The sisters also explored their

with the current Armenian Prime Minister, Hovik Abrahamyan, on Thursday.

Summary: The KUWTK star accepted the flowers from the excited woman


04/28/2015 AT 11:00 AM EDT

was not thrilled with the 30 students in his strategic management class. So he gave every single one of them an "F" and walked out.

"Since teaching this course, I have caught and seen cheating, been told to 'chill out,' 'get out of my space,' 'go back and teach,' [been] called a 'f---ing moron' to my face, [had] one student cheat by signing in for another, one student not showing up but claiming they did, listened to many hurtful and untrue rumors about myself and others [and] been caught between fights between students," Horwitz, 53, wrote.

"None of you, in my opinion, given the behavior in this class, deserve to pass, or graduate to become an Aggie â¦ I will no longer be teaching the course, and all are being awarded a failing grade," he concluded.

the class as the worst of his 20 years of college-level teaching, proceeded to send a similar email to administrators at the college, predicting his students' response but also telling higher-ups that his students are "your problem now." He then presumably dropped a mic and kicked down a door on his way out.

A university spokesman said noted that Horowitz's universal-F grade will not stand and will be reevaluated, though "all accusations made by the professor about the students' behavior in class are also being investigated,"

. They added that one of the allegations made by Horowitz had already been investigated and that a student committee exonerated the student in question.

Summary: Irwin Horwitz derided his class as the worst in his 20 years of college teaching


Thousands of protesters have hit the streets of Baltimore again despite the charging of six police officers over the death of a 25-year-old African American whose spine was snapped in custody.

The charges - ranging from second-degree murder and manslaughter to misconduct - were set out on Friday in a surprise announcement by Maryland state prosecutor Marilyn Mosby.

All six officers - three of them black and three white, according to mug-shots broadcast by CNN - were taken into custody and later posted bond, reports said.

Six officers have been charged after Freddie Gray, 25, died from injuries allegedly sustained during his arrest. (Supplied)

The death of Freddie Gray, 25, just the latest black American to lose his life at the hands of police, has reignited simmering resentment in the United States over police tactics, particularly in their dealings with African Americans.

"The findings of our comprehensive, thorough and independent investigation, coupled with the medical examiner's determination that Mr Gray's death was a homicide... have led us to believe that we have probable cause to file criminal charges," Mosby said.

Mosby said Gray "suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained" inside a moving police van following his arrest on April 12.

En route to a police station, the police van stopped at least three times, including once to pick up a suspect in an unrelated case.

Cheers broke out when Mosby unveiled the charges on the steps of Baltimore's war memorial, across the street from city hall, a focal point of protests demanding justice and change.

Baltimore's police union condemned what it called "an egregious rush to judgment" as it defended the officers and expressed confidence they would be vindicated.

But if nervous authorities had hoped the announcement would ease palpable tensions on the streets, a march that grew bigger by every passing hour suggested otherwise.

Several thousand people rallied from City Hall through downtown streets lined with riot police, demanding justice and an end to alleged racism and police brutality.

Some held aloft placards thanking Mosby, but others cautioned that the charges were only a first step.

William Murphy, a lawyer for the Gray family, told reporters they had no advance word of the charges.

Gray, who had a record of non-violent drug offences, died a week after his arrest from spinal injuries sustained when he was arrested in a west Baltimore public housing project.

Gray has become the latest face of an intense national debate over whether American police are too quick to use violence against unarmed black males.

In the best-known case, a white police officer fatally shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri - prompting riots in the St. Louis suburb - but was not indicted by a grand jury.

At the White House, President Barack Obama said it was "absolutely vital" for the truth in Baltimore to come out.

Do you have any news photos or videos?

Summary: Six police officers have been charged in Baltimore over the death of a 25-year-old black man, which sparked widespread protests.


PARIS, April 5— Three masterful collections over the weekend got the fall and winter fashion openings off to a strong start. Karl Lagerfeld of Chloe proved his superb command of the dressmaking craft with clothes that were the direct opposite of the sexy, skimpy shapes he had been toying with for the last few years.

Full-flowing skirts over narrow trousers and corselet-belted waistlines are the key to clothes that are graceful, attractive and new looking. Lagerfeld is back in the mainstream of fashion, leading the pack.

Hubert de Givenchy, who can be stuffy or, contrarily, embarrassing when he tries to be swingy, was at the top of his form with clothes that were suitably easy and casual or deliciously dressy as the occasion demands. The quintessential couturier demonstrated felicitously how good French fashion can be.

Spotted around his T-shaped runway, the moguls of United States retailing - the presidents and chairmen of such stores as I. Magnin, Neiman Marcus, Sakowitz, Marshall Field, Bergdorf-Goodman and Bloomingdale's - and their buyers, cheerfully applauded the Givenchy cape-stoles, tunics, long-torso dresses and evening styles decorated with feathers, furs and gold. A Success for Ungaro

But the big surprise was the unmistakable success of Emanuel Ungaro, favorite of such diverse women as Marie-Helene de Rothschild and Princess Caroline of Monaco. He entered fashion in the mid-1960's as a disciple of Andre Courreges, with whom he had worked. He first softened the austere space-age look, then began experimenting with other shapes and styles, known always for his proficiency as a tailor. His work was always interesting, even when it was not totally successful. He seemed always on the brink of achieving greatness, but not until his show late Friday afternoon did the breakthrough come, surprising even his faithful followers.

With his mixture of patterns, fabrics and laces, somehow updating the grand dame look of previous eras, he had been gaining adherents in the past few seasons. As the members of the fashion world, who had not seen each other since the Milan shows a week ago, came together around his runway, they realized it had all jelled. 'Waited Five Years for This'

Ungaro - with his military jackets combined with soft printed skirts, exquisitely detailed smock dresses over full, contrasting underskirts, capes and fitted coats - had catapulted into the first rank of the world's fashion designers.

''I've waited for five years for this,'' said one observer. ''I've only been moved like this five times,'' said another. ''First, there was Dior's New Look, then Courreges in 1964, some collection of Balenciaga, Claude Montana's third show and now this.''

As for the serious, hard-working designer, after the bravos and the standing applause, when told that his collection was of the caliber of grand couture, he said, modestly enough, ''It was regular readyto-wear, made with normal fabrics - and some taste.'' Travesties of Fashion

That was the good news of the first days of the showings here. The bad news was that many highly touted collections proved to be travesties of fashion, theatrical events that weren't even good theater. The circus atmosphere of the tents in the Forum des Halles, near the Pompidou Center, where most of the showings take place, was hardly conducive to serious viewing.

''It's uncivilized,'' spluttered John Fairchild, publisher of Women's Wear Daily, the trade paper. ''You meed an armored guard to get in. The feeling is hysterical, and it''s not safe. Where is the fire department?''

Leading purveyor of junk fashion, Thierry Mugler, capitalized on the ambiance by showing exaggerated comic-strip-cum-Hollywood clothes. The women looked like underworld characters in broad-shouldered tailored suits, Sonja Henie in skating tutus or Veronica Lake with her hair over one eye. In the tent that seated 1,200, more than 500 standees crowded through the aisles. They seemed to enjoy the show thoroughly.

Claude Montana, who has a better claim to be taken seriously, still seems to devote more attention to designing headdresses than to clothes. Still, his styles show a vast sweep from, say, Genghis Khan to the urban cowboy, with a stopover at the royal figures in a deck of cards. As a theatrical experience, the show was a tour de force. Cowboy Styles Appreciated

The cowboy sequences with their tooled leather garments went over particularly well. The crown-shaped headgear and the pancake hats of woven leather were riveting enough to divert attention from the clothes they were supposed to enhance. What the cavaliers wore in the hunting lodge of Francis I at Chambord in the 16th century inspired the finale of ivory cloaks and lace collars, according to the program notes.

Lagerfeld managed to achieve the drama without sacrificing the clothes. His new layering, in gray flannel, with full-skirted dresses and coats over narrow pants, his sweaters with capelet collars or armhole-deep sleeves and necklines that slide seductively over one shoulder, even his minidresses, which he has not neglected completely, give fashion a fresh focus.

So does Givenchy's essentially ladylike collection, with its strong emphasis on soft dresses. Ungaro's wonderfully rich fabric combinations, the big leaf prints blending with stripes and the velvet, lace and gold medleys for evening, have their own excitement without verging into costume. Good fashion doesn't require tricks.

Illustrations: 3 photos of models 2 drawings of models


LANDOVER, Md., Jan. 31 (AP) - Eric Smith and Eric Floyd led a rally in the second half today as Georgetown pulled away from a 1-point lead for a 63-46 Big East Conference victory over St. John's.

The victory in the Capital Centre, where Georgetown has won 11 in a row, gave the Hoyas a 16-5 record and moved them into third place in the conference standing with a 5-3 mark.

Georgetown, which beat St. John's by 72-42 on Jan. 6, led by only 31-30 at halftime today. But the Hoyas went on a 15-4 surge, with Smith scoring 7 of his 13 points, to open a 46-34 lead with 14 minutes 11 seconds remaining.

St. John's (14-4 and 4-3) never got closer than 9 points after that. Floyd, Georgetown's leading career scorer, had 10 points in the second half, 18 over all. Pat Ewing and Mike Hancock had 8 apiece for the Hoyas.

Billy Goodwin led St. John's with 16 points, David Russell had 13 and Chris Mullin 11. After St. John's pulled to 50-41 on a 3-point play by Russell with 11:49 left, the Redmen scored only 5 points. The only field goal was by Mark Calzonetti with 21 seconds left. 'Our Offense Really Left Us'

''We made only 16 points in the second half,'' said Lou Carnesecca, the St. John's coach. ''Our offense really left us. But their defense had something to do with it.''

''Their quickness is unbelievable,'' Carnesecca said.. ''And it's an educated quickness. You can't afford to make a mistake against them.''

Coach John Thompson of Gerogetown said he was surprised when St. John's, known for its man-to-man defense, played so much zone. ''The word must be out to play zone against us,'' Thompson said, ''when Lou starts using it.'' ''I told the kids at halftime that we had to start running and get Patrick involved in the game,'' Thompson said of Ewing, the 7-foot freshman center.

Ewing scored 4 points in each half, but in the second he grabbed eight of his 10 rebounds, made a steal and got four of his five blocked shots.

''Ewing is much more under control,'' Carnesecca said. ''I don't think he's getting upset. That's maturity.'' Wake Forest 49 Arkansas 48

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Mike Helms scored 14 points, including a jump shot that put Wake Forest (14-4) ahead for good at 38-36. Wake Forest trailed until its guard, Danny Young, tied the score at 36-36 at 14:52 in the second half. Arkansas (15-3) rallied, but with five seconds to go, the center Scott Hastings bounced a shot off the rim, giving Wake Forest the victory.

Neither team scored in the last 2:25 as the Deacon defense prevented the Razorbacks from getting to the inside for a shot. Jim Johnsto ne scored 12 points for the Deacons. Johnstone controlled th e inside, limiting Hastings to 6 points. For the Razorbacks, D arrell Walker had 24 points and eight rebounds, and Keith Peterso n added 12 points. West Virginia 65 South Alabama 59

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -Greg Jones scored 15 points and led a second-half surge that lifted West Virginia t o its 16th straight victory.

The Mountaineers, who are 17-1 but not ranked nationally, never led by more than 4 in the first half but pulled out to a 49-37 lead with 12:32 remaining after scoring 6 straight points. Russel Todd tapped in a missed shot and hit a 10-foot baseline jumper, and Jones hit a driving layup as the Mountaineers pulled out to their biggest lead.

South Alabama (8-12) got a game-high 21 points from Rory White, the only regular left from the Jaguars' 25-6 team that went to the N.C.A.A. tournament last season. But South Alabama could never get any closer than 3 points in the closing minutes.

Tony Washam, who sank four straight foul shots in the final 20 seconds to secure the Mountaineers' 26th consecutive home victory, ended with 12 points. Todd scored 14 points for the Mountaineers, who haven't lost since a 91-78 defeat at Marshall Dec. 5.

West Virginia, on the longest winning streak the school's history, began playing a deliberate tempo offense with about four minutes remaining as it held a 9-point lead. But the Mountaineers then turned the ball over three straight times and the Jaguars took advantage of the tunrovers to close to within 3.

Tony Hafley scored 16 points and Reggie Hannah came off the bench to score 11 for the Jaguars. The nationally televised game drew a crowd of 13,721. St. Joseph's 84, Villanova 64

PHILADELPHIA (UPI) - St. Joseph's used a balanced attack, led by Bryan Warrick's 17 points, to score its upset victory.

St. Joseph's (16-3) never trailed and moved to a 27-14 lead on a free throw by Jeffrey Clark with 5:45 left in the first half. The Hawks led, 34-22, at half-time.

John Pinone led the Wildcats (14-5) on a spurt that brought them to within 44-35 with 14:39 to play.

Illustrations: Photo of Georgetown vs. St. John's

Summary: GEORGETOWN ROUTS ST. JOHN'S   LANDOVER, Md., Jan. 31 (AP) - Eric Smith and Eric Floyd led a rally in the second half today as Georgetown pulled away from a 1-point lead for a 63-46 Big East Conference victory over St. John's.   The victory in the Capital Centre, where Georgetown has won 11 in a row, gave the Hoyas a 16-5 record and moved them into third place in the conference standing with a 5-3 mark.   Georgetown, which beat St. John's by 72-42 on Jan. 6, led by only 31-30 at halftime today. But the Hoyas went on a 15-4 surge, with Smith scoring 7 of his 13 points, to open a 46-34 lead with 14 minutes 11 seconds remaining.


Before the Knesset nearly voted no-confidence in Menachem Begin's Government yesterday, the Israel Labor Party briefly seemed close to the political power it had lost to him in 1977. However, power also seemed equally far away. One reason is that many Israelis consider Labor a faded carbon copy of Likud - a Likud II.

In fact, a leading Labor member of the Knesset, facing four more years in the opposition, told me last summer: ''I am bored. Let's face it, both we and the Likud are part of the same national consensus. We might as well join the coalition.''

Many Laborites are urging the party to join Likud in a national unity government. Some Labor leaders are waiting for a national emergency - a military confrontation, or strong American political pressure, that would serve as a ''patriotic'' excuse do so. However, other Laborites hope that when President Yitzhak Navon, a

Laborite popular among the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Israelis alike, finishes his term next year, as Labor's candidate for Prime Minister he will lead the party to victory.

Labor had hoped that a no-confidence vote would trigger the resignation of the Likud Government and result in formation of a new, alternative government headed by Labor, or in new elections. But many political observers considered formation of a Labor government unlikely since the National Religious Party, Labor's most likely coalition partner, knows that no Labor government would give it as many concessions as Likud has.

Moreover, new elections would present numerous problems for Labor. Foremost would be renewal of the fierce struggle for party leadership between the chairman, Shimon Peres, and the former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. They share identical positions on almost every political issue - and a deep mutual animosity. Another internal battle between them and their factions might endanger the precarious balance that keeps the party together. Indeed, it might be in vain, since most public-opinion polls continue to predict another Likud victory in new elections.

Even on West Bank policy, the parties' differences are primarily tactical. Both support the Camp David autonomy plan. Moreover, Mr. Peres, who as Defense Minister in 1975 convinced the Labor Cabinet to allow the first settlement in Samaria, polished his hawkish credentials recently by making a well-publicized visit to West Bank settlements and pledging that a future Labor government would not dismantle them.

The visit took place as Mr. Begin was attempting to persuade settlers to leave Yamit. This former Sinai town was a brainchild of Labor leaders, who after 1967, driven by nostalgia for the vision of early Labor-Zionist pioneers, embarked upon large-scale settlements in the occupied territories. Similarly, 13 Labor members of the Knesset joined with Likud in February in voting to extend Israeli law to the Golan Heights, and those abstaining did so principally out of anger with Mr. Begin's failure to consult with them in advance. Privately, many Labor leaders admit they are not so much opposed to his policy on settlements as his public display of it.

If the parties' political differences on the future of the territories are narrow, the economic and social gap between them is wide, reflecting a ''north-south'' conflict. The ''conservative'' Likud's social base is ''south'' - the lower middle classes and workers, mostly Sephardic Jews from Arab countries. Ironically, the well-to-do European Ashkenazim, Israel's WASP's, identify with the Israel Labor Party, which is Socialist.

''I hate gefilte fish,'' shouted Raanan Naim at a recent Labor meeting where he denounced leaders of the party for discriminating against its own Sephardic Knesset members. His statement became a Sephardic battle cry, because Labor's Ashkenazic leaders are still considered Israel's Establishment, even though out of power. The nationalistic Sephardim, who constitute about 60 percent of Israel's Jewish population, perceive this Establishment as Western in culture; as controlling a number of vested interests, among them kibbutzim; and as unacceptably liberal. Labor's failure to mobilize Sephardic Jews seems remarkable since the party controls Histadrut, the powerful trade union.

Whether Labor is to continue as an ineffective opposition party or a junior partner of Likud, it is becoming increasingly clear to those who hope that Israel can still fulfill its original Zionist dream that the nation's problem is not merely its right-wing Government but also the lack of a competent alternative to replace it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon T. Hadar, New York correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and The London Jewish Chronicle, served as the Israel Labor Party's parliamentary press secretary from 1974 to 1977.


With the prices of ski lift tickets, transportation and accommodations and the fees for ice-skating lessons soaring, introducing a child to a winter sport can seem like a costly investment indeed.

One way to cut a few corners is to forgo new equipment and find used skis and boots or skates for children. That seems a sensible idea since youngsters are likely to outgrow footwear long before they can wear it out. But stores that sell used equipment or allow tradeins are the exception, and resale and thrift shops offer only what is brought in by the public, so they may have a big stock in one size and nothing at all in the next.

Still, for those with determination, bargains can be found, though care must be used in selecting equipment that is suitable, safe and free of defect.

One good source for the parents of a novice ice skater is the A.N.L. Sports Center, 109 East Post Road, White Plains. It will take a child's outgrown skates, sell them on consignment and turn back the entire price, which is likely to be reinvested in another pair. The principle seems to work well for the purchaser and for the store. ''We get a lot of customers that way, and it keeps them coming back to us,'' said Norman Grossberg, the owner.

A.N.L. carries the products of such major manufacturers as Bauer, CCM, Lange, Micron and Hyde in a complete range of sizes. Figure skates that cost $50 to $100 new go for $15 to $25, Mr. Grossberg said. Hockey skates at $100 to $160 new are $30 to $50 used. Other hockey equipment is on hand: helmets that were $30 new are $15, $22-to-$50 sh oulder guards are $10 to $15, $33 pants $15, $35 shin guards $20, a nd $25-to-$100 gloves $10 to $50.

Robert Merrill, owner of the Sno-Haus Ski Shop, which has two branches on Long Island, said: ''Skii ng has b ecome the sport of the affluent: If you are able to pay $20 for each lift ticket and the gasoline to get there, you're probably not go ing to look too hard forbargains.'' Still his stores, one at 244 Nort h Franklin Street, Hempstead, the other at 2 West Jericho Turnpi ke, Huntington Station, ease the financial pain. Sources in New York

They give those who turn in outgrown boots in good condition a comparable pair in the proper size for $10, which includes adjustment of the bindings. The initial pair bought in the store, the Nordica Junior Sprint, is $55 to $65, and when the child wants more costly ones, generally in the teen years, the store will credit half the original price toward the purchase.

In New York City the most likely sources for bargain hunters seem to be children's clothing and toy resale shops and thrift shops. Stocks are determined by the vagaries of what donors turn in, so you may find boots but not skis in the right size.

The Toy Chest, 226 East 83d Street, usually offers such name-brand leather ice skates as Riedell and Hyde, which retail for about $75 without blades. Sue Gordon, the owner, said she sells Riedells with blades for $27.50 to $32 and Hydes for $24.50, depending on condition and size. Most are in good condition, she said, because they do not get hard wear.

Many customers sell the outgrown pair on consignment so their next size costs only about $14. About 50 pairs of girls' skates and about two dozen pairs for boys are available.

In addition, the Toy Chest has a few pair of skis ($10 to $20 a pair), ski boots ($15 to $20) and poles ($4), but does not concentrate on them because, Mrs. Gordon said, ''people tend to rent those, and improvements in equipment are made so rapidly that items become obsolete.''

Other shops that may be worth investigating include these: Second Act, 1046 Madison Avenue (80th Street).

This resale children's apparel shop sells 500 pairs of skates a season but when checked recently had only about a dozen pairs of girls' figure skates and 20 pairs of boys' hockey and figure skates. Prices range from $11 for plastic-boot skates to $25 for Riedell figure skates and $35 for CCM hockey skates. Short riding boots that are worn with jodhpurs are $15; high ones to go with breeches range from $45 to $125; rubber boots for bad weather and yard work are $12; riding hats are $6 to $12. An assortment of ski boots, most several years old, are $8 to $10. The inventory also includes catchers' mitts ($3 to $13) and tennis rackets ($3 to $15). The Frugal Frog, 1707 Second Avenue (88th Street).

A recent inquiry showed that it had about 20 pairs of ice skates, mainly in girls' styles. Prices are $3 to $10. Replay, 664 West 204th Street (off Broadway in the Inwood section).

It has ice skates in sizes to fit children aged 3 to 13. Manufacturers include Hyde and Johnson in figure skates and Bauer in hockey skates, with prices at $10 to $20. Vinyl boot skates are $7 and roller skates, now in short supply, cost $8 to $20 for the boot variety and $3 for the clip-ons. Riverdale Ice Skating Center, 5746 Broadway (236th Street).

A trade-in policy for customers prevails in the pro shop. A child is fitted for skates (about $40 a pair that normally last two seasons); they can be traded in for a new pair as needed with a 20 percent discount.

Some experts do not advocate buying used equipment once it has become clear that the child will participate in a sport on a regular basis.

''I once had a mother willing to pay for two lessons a week for her daughter and then renting terrible skates,'' said Archie Walker, owner of the Ice Studio, 1034 Lexington Avenue (75th Street). ''I suggested that she cut back to one lesson and buy a pair of decent skates. With used skates you can end up spending $20 on something that looks like a sneaker on a blade.''

Among the qualities he advised shoppers to look for in second-hand skates are: blades that are screwed, not riveted, onto the sole of the boot, a back-of-the-heel area that does not give much when pressed in, a heel at least an inch and a quarter high to prevent leaning back and guards to protect the blades.

Aske d what ski purchasers should consider, Brian O'Shea, manager ofthe Scandinav ian Ski Shop, a retail store at 40 West 57th Street thatdoes not carr y used equipment, said: ''Skis should be in fairly good condition. Th at means that the bottoms ought not be gouged and the edges should not be rusted or severely pitted. They should be uniformwhen you hold them back to back, so t hat you know they are not bent out of shape. And they should not be delaminated; that is, the various materials should not be separated.''

Because bindings are the key to safe skiing, Mr. O'Shea emphasized that used ones should be examined by a professional. ''Do not consider ones that are more than five or six years old,'' he said, ''because they will not conform to the uniform safety standards set by the industry.'' What the professional will look for, he said, is the way the bindings accommodate the boots and whether they are correctly tailored to the individual skier based on age, weight and expertise.

On boots, he advised: ''Examine the sole to make sure that it's not worn down because then it won't work with the binding. And the outer boot, which in children's sizes is thermal plastic, is pliable, so it too should not look as if it has been on a forced march.''

To determine proper fit, put the child in the boot with a regular ski sock, he said, adding: ''When the toes touch in the front, you should be able to fit the approximate thickness of two adult fingers side by side between the heel and the back of the boot. The boot should be snug and supportive.''

As for poles, he said, ''A pole is a pole so long as it's not bent or creased. That could make it snap, which could be dangerous.''

Illustrations: photo of children on skates photo of childen on skis


On the data front, June factory orders figures showed an increase of 1.8 percent.

The Atlanta Fed's Dennis Lockhart, a voting member, said in a Wall Street Journal report that the economy appears ready for an initial rate hike in September.

The major averages briefly extended losses following the report.

The U.S. dollar edged higher, with the euro lower near $1.092. Treasury yields extended gains, with the 10-year yield briefly at 2.21 percent and the 2-year yield at 0.73 percent.

Lawrence McDonald, head of the U.S. Macro Strategies group at Société Générale, said yields were reacting slightly to Lockhart's comments but remained within a recent range.

"Rates backed up on comments (from Fed Chair Janet) Yellen," he said. "And this as people have seen the data. The data has been extremely dovish. The data has been overpowering any of the comments."

On Wednesday, markets will be watching for the ADP employment report, which comes ahead of the labor report on Friday.

"The stock market seems to be biding it's time for what is looking like an important employment report this week," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist for State Street Global Advisors' U.S. Intermediary Business. He expects creation of slightly more than 200,000 jobs, a touch lower than the 225,000 consensus.

"I think as this relates to the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve is quite comfortable with improvement we've been having in labor," he said, noting that the stock market will likely have a reaction.

In corporate news, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals jumped to an all-time high after the soundly topping estimates on both the top and bottom line. The firm raised its U.S. sales growth forecast for its macular degeneration drug Eyelea to 45 percent to 50 percent from the prior 30 percent to 35 percent.

Shares of Twitter gained 1 percent, recovering from a decline Monday on growth concerns. The stock closed below $30 a share Monday for the first time.

Read MoreEarly movers: AET, TIME, REGN, BABA, ADM, COH, CVS, S, AIG, JCP & more

After the market close Disney, Zillow, Activision Blizzard,Cerner, LendingClub, PioneerNatural Resources, Dreamworks, Etsy, First Solar and Newfield Exploration are due after the bell.

"To the extent that the advance has narrowed in terms of leadership, in terms of fewer and fewer stocks, there's been a bias to buy ahead of earnings reports," said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics.

He is bullish on Disney as a beneficiary of consumer discretionary spending and negative on Zillow on bad guidance. Both firms report after the close.

Read MoreDisney's earnings projections looking magical

In Europe, equities closed slightly lower as low commodity prices and energy stocks dented sentiment.

In its second day of trading after reopening, the Greek stock market opened down over 4 percent, but pared losses to end roughly 1.2 percent lower.

Summary: U.S. stocks mostly lower as investors watched Apple and eyed a slight recovery in oil prices after the prior day's sharp decline.


The high share of taxes paid by one-percenters is due partly to their share of income, but also to the progressive tax code, in which higher earners generally pay higher rates. The one percenters' share of taxes is 2.7 times their share of income in taxes.

Read MoreWant a billion-dollar career? Choose this degree

There is no comparable historical data for the one-percenter tax payments prior to 2012. Yet the Congressional Budget Office, using a different calculation than the Tax Policy Center, found that the share of federal taxes paid by the top 1 percent of earners has increased dramatically since 1979 as the one-percenter's share of earnings has also gone up.

In 1979, the top one percenters earned 8.9 percent of pretax income and paid 18 percent of federal income taxes. In 2011, the top 1 percent earned 14.6 percent of income and paid 25.4 percent in 2011 of federal income taxes.

Read MoreStates with the most multimillionaires

The CBO said that the average federal income tax rate paid by the top 1 percent has also dropped since 1979—falling from 22.7 percent in 1979 to 20.3 percent in 2011.

Summary: The top-earning 1 percent of Americans will pay nearly half of federal income taxes for 2014, the largest share in at least 3 years, a study says.


Additionally, according to health-care provider education website Medscape.com, 41 percent of doctors age 40 to 44 are still paying off debt from medical school, and 22 percent of those age 45 to 49 continue making those monthly payments. That drops to 11 percent for those age 50 to 54.

Meanwhile, other health-care careers in CareerCast.com's top 10 list are dentist (No. 5), orthodontist (No. 7) and pharmacist (No. 10).

Read MoreNeed tuition? Ask your boss

Dentists, with a median annual salary of $146,340, typically need a bachelor's degree followed by four years of dental school. Orthodontists earn an annual median salary of $129,110 after a bachelor's degree, dental school and two or three more years of specialized training.

Meanwhile, pharmacists need a bachelor's degree followed by pharmacy school, which typically takes four years to complete. The median salary for pharmacists is just shy of $121,000 per year.

Summary: A new survey from CareerCast.com finds that 6 of the 10 top-paying jobs are in health care-related fields.


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge has approved a $415 million settlement that ends a lengthy legal saga revolving around allegations that Apple, Google and several other Silicon Valley companies illegally conspired to prevent their workers from getting better job offers.

The case focused on a "no-poaching" pact prohibiting Apple, Google and other major employers from recruiting each other's workers. Lawyers for the employees argued the secret agreement illegally suppressed the wages of the affected workers.

Things have changed dramatically since the class-action lawsuit was filed in 2011. Silicon Valley employers now regularly raid each other's workforces in search of talented engineers who might help them come up with new ideas and build technology's next hot product.

The lawsuit covered a period extending from 2005 to 2009. More than 64,000 technology workers will receive about $5,800 apiece to settle allegations that their wages were illegally held down by their employers' collusion during that time.

The complaint originally sought $3 billion in damages that could have been tripled under U.S. antitrust law. Based on that figure, the workers could have received more than $100,000 apiece if they prevailed at trial.

Nearly $41 million of the settlement will be paid to lawyers representing the technology workers. That's less than half of the roughly $85 million in fees that the attorneys had sought.

The approval granted Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, dispenses with a case that exposed internal emails casting former Apple CEO Steve Jobs in an unflattering light. Koh had rejected a $324.5 million settlement of the case reached last year as inadequate.

Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. will pay the revised settlement. Last year, Koh approved a separate settlement requiring Intuit Inc., Pixar Animation Studios and Lucasfilm to pay a $20 million settlement to resolve allegations made against them in the same case.

The lawsuit depicted Jobs as the conniving ringleader of a scheme designed to minimize the chances that top computer programmers and other talented employees would defect to other technology companies.

Even before Jobs died in 2011, Apple and its alleged conspirators had changed their ways as part of a 2010 settlement reached in an U.S. Justice Department investigation.

The competition is so fierce now that Silicon Valley employers dangle huge incentives to lure top programmers away from other companies. For instance, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk earlier this year said that Apple was offering $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent raises to persuade some of his employees to leave the electric car maker. Tesla has been aggressively raiding Apple's ranks, too, although Musk hasn't revealed how much his company has been offering.

Koh approved the latest settlement of the class-action lawsuit after finding little resistance to the deal. She said only 67 of the 64,666 workers represented in the case objected to or opted out of the settlement.

Just six of the workers objected because they thought they weren't getting paid enough in the settlement, according to court documents. One of the unhappy workers estimated that he had been cheated out of $400,000 because of the no-poaching pacts.

This story has been corrected to show that there were several other companies involved in the alleged conspiracy, not two.

Summary: SAN FRANCISCO— A federal judge has approved a $415 million settlement that ends a lengthy legal saga revolving around allegations that Apple, Google and several other Silicon Valley companies illegally conspired to prevent their workers from getting better job offers. Things have changed dramatically since the class-action lawsuit was filed in 2011....


(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are)

April 15 (Reuters) - If shedding its financing arm did wonders for General Electric's stock price, maybe too-big-to-fail bank peers like Citibank and JP Morgan should consider similar moves.

Not that banks will become industrials, but rather the biggest banks might get a better valuation on their earnings by becoming smaller, simpler, easier to manage and less strictly regulated.

GE last Friday announced a plan to divest most of GE Capital, taking operating earnings from finance eventually down to less than 10 percent of the whole as compared to 57 percent in 2007. GE's stock popped 11 percent on the news, which may allow the company to lose its designation as a 'systemically important financial institution' (SIFI) subject to tougher regulation under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Investors were happy not simply because of the prospect of less burdensome regulation. More important is that GE will be a more focused industrial company, one which will produce more predictable and hopefully less volatile earnings. While finance was once the tail which wagged GE's industrial dog, allowing it to grow earnings both rapidly and with metronomic, if sometimes hard to credit, regularity, GE Capital's huge and complex book of financings threatened to take the company down during the financial crisis, bringing on a stock slump from which it is only now emerging.

Though arguably in the pre-crisis era investors gave finance-based earnings at GE a bit of a pass, valuing them more highly than they would if produced by a similarly hedge-fund-like investment bank, those days surely ended with the crisis.

There is also the conglomerate discount at work here, a phenomenon characterized by investors being unwilling to pay as highly for a given dollar of earnings at a conglomerate as they would at a mono-line or simpler company. That's partly because conglomerates, and here I include financial ones, have a bad track record of being run too much for the glory and enrichment of insiders, but also because investors want to do their own diversification rather than subcontract it to the whims of executives and their investment bankers. Note that GE's consumer finance arm Synchrony Financial, spun off last August, has seen its shares rise by a third, much better than both the broad market and most financial shares.

The market seems to like simple stand-alone companies, even ones in finance.

THE INVESTMENT CASE AGAINST TOO BIG TO FAIL

So will any of this cut much ice with those making the calls at the too-big-to-fail banks? Very likely not, history and human nature being what they are, but perhaps it ought to.

The largest banks do enjoy material advantages due to their implied status of being back-stopped by the government. Though the dimensions of this subsidy are hotly debated, as are the corresponding costs imposed by tighter regulation, the fact remains that they have an advantage in certain respects due to their size and scope. There are also those who still sincerely believe that large U.S. banks will be positioned to take advantage of a supposed growth in financial services worldwide, though the evidence for this too is contested.

There is, however, good evidence to suggest that many large diversified financials, perhaps particularly the largest, might achieve better stock market valuations were they to break themselves up into more easily digestible pieces. Not only is this sector a byword for poor long-term stock performance, at least over the last decade and a half, but there is academic evidence to back up this thesis.

A 2005 study which looked at banks in 43 countries, all with $100 million or more of assets, found that the market actually imposes a 'diversification discount' on those with more conglomerate-like corporate structures. This discount was about 6 percent of a standard measure of over- or under-valuation.

"Across an array of sensitivity checks, the data suggest that diversity reduces the value of financial conglomerates. One explanation of these results is that financial conglomerates that engage in multiple activities intensify agency problems and destroy value," Luc Laeven, then of the World Bank, and Ross Levine, then of Brown University wrote.

Agency problems are economist-speak for what happens when an agent, like, say, a bank CEO, is in a position to take advantage of those for whom he works. In short, the more diversified the financial, the more likely that it is being run for the benefit of the inmates.

That's exactly why the biggest banks should be broken up, and why they probably won't. (At the time of publication James Saft did not own any direct investments in securities mentioned in this article. He may be an owner indirectly as an investor in a fund. You can email him at jamessaftzjamessaft.com and find more columns at http://blogs.reuters.com/james-saft)

Summary: April 15- If shedding its financing arm did wonders for General Electric's stock price, maybe too-big-to-fail bank peers like Citibank and JP Morgan should consider similar moves. GE last Friday announced a plan to divest most of GE Capital, taking operating earnings from finance eventually down to less than 10 percent of the whole as compared to 57 percent in...


Gasoline at the pump was averaging $2.73 a gallon nationally Friday, 4 cents higher than last week and 26 cents more than a month ago, according to AAA. Kloza said he expects summer prices to hover around $2.50 nationally before dropping closer to $2-$2.25 in the fall.

"This weekend will be peak, and we'll see slight declines as we go through the summer," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. "There's still a lot of crude oil out there that's going to temper any rises at all. But having said that, the demand for gasoline this summer is going to be very good, due to the lower prices."

Gasoline is expected to peak at about a dollar a gallon less nationally this year than last year, when the high was $3.71. Kloza said he thinks the futures market signaled the peak on May 6, when gasoline futures hit a high of $2.09 per gallon.

Memorial Day is viewed as the start of the summer driving season, and Kloza said drivers should spend about $10 billion less a month over last year's levels for June, July and August.

Read MoreLook who spends more gas savings

"It's a dress rehearsal for July and August. ... We're about six weeks away from the typical demand peak week which is in late July," said Kloza. "If you look at gasoline futures, there's a drop of about 30 cents that's perceived between now and December, but I think it will go down more than that."

One factor elevating the price this year is the outage at the Torrance, California, Exxon Mobil refinery, which produces about 10 percent of the gasoline for California, Lipow said. Californians were paying an average $3.80 per gallon of unleaded on Wednesday, according to AAA.

"If you throw out California, the national average is about 10 cents lower," Kloza said. "I think we're going to see a substantial give back of some of the price strength in California because the wholesale prices have dropped as ... gasoline has arrived from Korea, Canada and the U.S. Gulf Coast."

Read MoreGoldman: Oil will drop back to 2015 low

Kloza said the Torrance refinery is not expected to reopen soon enough to affect summer driving, but it has caused price dislocations on the West Coast. For instance, gasoline was trading recently in the spot market at more than $120 a barrel, double crude prices. "In the rest of the country, gasoline trades for $10 to $15 over the price of crude. California really became untethered," Kloza said.

But California should get some relief, even if it takes a while for Torrance to reopen. "We should see lower prices on the West Coast very soon because it's really dropped like a rock out there in terms of wholesale prices," said Kloza.

U.S. refineries were running at 92.4 percent of capacity last week, and gasoline production decreased slightly, according to the Energy Information Administration. Gasoline supplies declined by 2.8 million barrels, while distillates, including diesel fuel, fell by 500,000 barrels.

The EIA also pointed out that refining margins are at multiyear highs. For instance, the "crack spread," or difference between wholesale prices and crude oil, was the highest in New York Harbor since 2007, and in California it is dramatically higher.

Read MoreHas oil rout actually helped Gulf producers?

"Refiners are doing splendidly," said Kloza. "The irony is that we had all the light shale crude in the U.S. The big worry among refiners was we're running this light sweet crude, and we're going to make too much gasoline." He said what's happened is that prices rose, and the refiners are making more profits.

"These are Renaissance-level profits. They match levels some refiners thought they'd never see again," he said.

The EIA said refiners around the world have increased production as a result of better margins, and the U.S. input to refineries on the East Coast was the highest since 2010.

Summary: Drivers will pay a few more cents per gallon for gasoline this Memorial Day weekend, but that should be the highest price of the year, experts say.


LIESMAN WILL ALSO SIT DOWN WITH FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF CHICAGO PRESIDENT CHARLES EVANS AT 8:30AM ET

WHEN: Thursday, May 7th at 7:30am ET

Tomorrow, Thursday, May 7th on CNBC's "Squawk Box," CNBC Senior Economics Reporter Steve Liesman will sit down with former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner at 7:30AM ET and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans at 8:30AM ET.

With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD , CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to approximately 371 million homes worldwide, including more than 100 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.

CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms. These include CNBC.com, the online destination for global business; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides real-time global market data and live access to CNBC global programming; and a suite of CNBC Mobile products including the CNBC Real-Time iPhone and iPad Apps.

Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/cnbc/.

Summary: CNBC Media Alert: CNBC Exclusive: Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to Speak with CNBC's Steve Liesman on "Squawk Box" Tomorrow at 7:30AM ET


That said, it won't necessarily go up in a straight line. There is a potential for a correction, Peroni told CNBC's "Power Lunch."

However, he doesn't believe the Dow will correct more than 10 percent before hitting 20,000.

"This market has done an extraordinary job of policing its excesses on an ongoing basis."

Read MoreDon't expect market trend to emerge soon: Bob Doll

For example, biotechnology, aerospace and defense had sharp declines but are now springing back, he noted. Peroni believes the sectors will continue to show very strong momentum through the remainder of the cycle.

"There are so many predictions of doom when the underlying characteristics of this market are still quite robust," he said.

However, Peroni thinks there is a breakaway move coming relatively soon and once that occurs the path to Dow 20,000 will be "pretty quick."

Matt Roddy, vice president and portfolio manager at Rockland Trust Investment Group, isn't quite as bullish. He's predicting a 6 to 8 percent return on the Dow this year, with the index perhaps going as high as 19,500.

"That's as bold as I want to be," he said in an interview with "Power Lunch."

Read MoreMillionaires love this stock sector

When it comes to where investors should put their money, Roddy said he'd be leery of biotech stocks and some tech names, which he said have had "parabolic-like moves."

Instead, he would focus on more conservative sectors like utilities and telecom.

The bottom line, he said, is to be equal weight different sectors.

"Net-net I wouldn't bet big on any one sector," said Roddy.

Summary: Portfolio manager Gene Peroni explains why he thinks the Dow can hit 20,000 by the end of the year.