The 49ers went down punting.

In the final six minutes of their 29-13 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday, the 49ers twice decided not to go for it on fourth down deep in their territory.

Instead, they called on Bradley Pinion to punt. First, they kicked on 4th-and-13 at their own 25-yard line with 5:45 left. Later, they punted on 4th-and-8 at their 11-yard line with 3:09 remaining.

Given time to reflect, head coach Jim Tomsula said Monday he had no regrets about his decisions.

“Going into it, we’re thinking ‘OK, we’ve got to get two touchdowns and two two point-conversions,” Tomsula said. “’That’s the way we’ve got to play this right now.”

The 49ers still had three timeouts when they punted with just under six minutes left. They had two timeouts before their final punt on 4th-and-8. In discussing the final punt, Tomsula suggested he would have tempted to go for it in a short-yardage situation.

Instead, he punted, hoping the 49ers could force a three-and-out and get the ball back with no timeouts and just over two minutes remaining.

“My point was if we were close, if we got that thing up there in a fourth-and-short, then there was going to be a decision for me,” Tomsula said. “But then when we got backed up there … we’re on the 11-yard line. We’re going to punt. We’re going to punt that ball. If we go for on fourth down right there, if something happens, it’s a three-possession game. So we wanted to punt it. Use the two timeouts. Get to the two-minute drill. Onside kick and try to win the game. That’s what I thought. That’s what I still think. In that area of the field.”

The 49ers never got the ball back after the Seahawks took possession with 3:00 left. Running back Thomas Rawls had two first-down runs in the next four plays and quarterback Russell Wilson took three kneel-downs to end the game.

It was noted to Tomsula that, by punting with just over three minutes left, he was entrusting a defense that allowed 508 yards, 255 rushing yards and 28 first downs to stop the Seahawks.

“Well, we needed to (do that) to win that game,” Tomsula said. “That’s just what I felt.”

Tomsula was also asked about the late-game punts after the game. Today, he was asked if he understood why his decisions to kick inspired several questions.

“It was 4th-and-8 on the 11-yard line,” he said. “So you have to throw. If it’s 4th-and-1, 4th-and-2, we’ve got a little something there. But we’re 4th-and-8 on the 11. Defensively, you’re going to pin you ears back - ‘Here we come.’ You’re going to be under duress. It’s a long conversion. So if that doesn’t happen right there, now you’ve got a three-score game. There is no time (to come back). That, quite frankly, is the way I see it.”

Tomsula said his decisions weren’t influenced by a desire to lose by a less-lopsided score.

“Oh, God, no,” he said. “You win or you lose. That never … absolutely not.”

In a 20-3 loss to the Seahawks on Oct. 22, the 49ers punted on their final two possessions in the final 4:16 while trailing by 17 points. They punted on 4th-and-4 from their 16-yard line with 4:14 left. They later kicked on 4th-and-3 from their 27-yard line with 3:13 left. Tomsula was asked about those punts after that game.

“I was trying to get the field position changed,” he said.

Summary: 49ers’ Tomsula explains late-game punts against Seahawks  In the final six minutes of their 29-13 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday, the 49ers twice decided not to go for it on fourth down deep in their territory.  [...] they called on Bradley Pinion to punt.  [...] they kicked on 4th-and-13 at their own 25-yard line with 5:45 left.  Given time to reflect, head coach Jim Tomsula said Monday he had no regrets about his decisions.  In discussing the final punt, Tomsula suggested he would have tempted to go for it in a short-yardage situation.  [...] he punted, hoping the 49ers could force a three-and-out and get the ball back with no timeouts and just over two minutes remaining.  Onside kick and try to win the game.  The 49ers never got the ball back after the Seahawks took possession with 3:00 left.  Running back Thomas Rawls had two first-down runs in the next four plays and quarterback Russell Wilson took three kneel-downs to end the game.  In a 20-3 loss to the Seahawks on Oct. 22, the 49ers punted on their final two possessions in the final 4:16 while trailing by 17 points.


Florida State receiver Jesus Wilson has been suspended from the football team after facing a felony charge in the theft of a motor scooter, officials said Wednesday.

Police say Wilson was stopped as he rode a motor scooter days after it was reported stolen on campus June 11. Wilson said a friend loaned him the vehicle. An investigation ensued, and Wilson was later arrested and charged with third-degree grand motor theft. He turned himself in Wednesday and was freed on $2,500 bond.

University spokesman Rob Wilson said the athletics department's code of conduct forbids a player from representing the team when charged with a felony. Jesus Wilson is not eligible to play or travel but can practice and is not automatically kicked off the team.

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Coach Jimbo Fisher did not comment outside of announcing the suspension in a statement.

Wilson, a sophomore from Miami, played in 12 games last year and was expected to compete for a starting position as the Seminoles defend their national championship. He had three receptions for 23 yards in 2013 and averaged 11.1 yards on eight punt returns.

Wilson had four catches for 101 yards, including a 66-yard reception and a touchdown during the Florida State spring game. Quarterback Jameis Winston praised Wilson after the game and said building their chemistry wouldn't be as difficult as with the other new receivers.

"He's going to be the easy one because, mentally, he's mature and he wants to be there," Winston said in the spring. "He's the type of player he's going to do it on his own."

The Seminoles will have two new starters at the position after Kelvin Benjamin and Kenny Shaw went to the NFL.

Summary: Florida State WR Jesus Wilson facing felony for grand theft auto.


12/29/2015 AT 11:35 AM EST

is closing out 2015 on a very happy note.

of her smiley 1-month-old on Facebook on Monday, writing, "Happy baby! #SpurgeonElliotSeewald."

Seewald, 23, has posted plenty of pictures of her first child since his

, including some sweet snapshots from the

On Sunday, Seewald recounted the story of her

And despite going through 48 hours of labor and ultimately delivering an almost 10-lb. baby, Seewald, who has openly discussed her wish to adopt, shared that she's ready to keep having children.

"I think it'd be awesome. I'd love to have 15 sons," she said when husband Ben Seewald said that's how he envisions their future.

Summary: The Duggar daughter recently opened up about her difficult delivery


Sanders got to Jeff's work down Route 101 in 4 turns while Waze sent Bacon through side neighborhoods for a total of 14 turns. But it only took Bacon 38 minutes and 25 seconds, while it took Sanders 55 minutes and 30 seconds.

"I could have had breakfast!" said Bacon at the end of their race.

Read More Google expands low-cost Android One smartphones

That time savings comes at a cost, at least for the residents on previously sleepy blocks.

Some neighborhoods are turning to transportation officials for help, seeking speed bumps, four-way stop signs and other tools to discourage shortcut takers.

Read MoreWhat's behind rapid rise of 'China's Apple' Xiaomi?

But "this story is really about what inevitably happens when you design a city to be so dependent on cars alone, neglect mass transit and pedestrians, and vastly undercharge for the use of the roads," said Joshua Schank, President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation.

"No matter how Waze shuffles the traffic around, there are simply too many people trying to drive in L.A.," said Schank.

Summary: Some residents have tried to fight back by filing fake accident reports with Waze in hopes that the app will route drivers, TODAY reports.


A state board has recommended the approval of three full-size, Las Vegas–style casinos in New York State.

The three gaming complexes are slated for Schenectady (near the state capital, Albany), Tyre (near the Finger Lakes) and Sullivan County Catskills (north of New York City), the New York Times reports. They will be the first of their kind in the state.

The recommendations cap a competitive campaign by 16 casino developers for the right to set up shop in New York State, many of them hoping to tap New York City for customers.

Yet the board in the end rejected all six proposals for casinos immediately kitty-corner to the Big Apple, favoring instead developers with plans to give northward communities, still mourning the loss of a teeming manufacturing sector, a heady injection of jobs and cash.

Critics of New York State’s effort to expand gambling have doubted that casinos will renew hard-up towns and cities, citing a saturated regional gaming market, as well as predicting that casinos might hurt, not help, such places by sowing crime and spooking property values.

Summary: Full-size facilities intended as a boost for cash-strapped communities


Aaron Rodgers and Olivia Munn

01/12/2016 AT 05:30 PM EST

got creative while denying she's engaged, posting a hilarious text conversation with her mom to prove a point.

, are getting married have become so rampant that even her own mother is believing the hype.

to Instagram on Tuesday, sharing a screenshot of texts from her mom congratulating her on the big news.

"Oh man you engagement??" her mom wrote. "You know we love Aaron. I pray say thanks for him all the times ... Hey why don't you tell me first?"

"Oh my gosh Mom no," Munn responded. "You know you shouldn't believe gossip on the Internet. If I was engaged, I promise you'd be like the 8th person to know. Maybe 9th. But definitely way before the Internet."

Her mom responded "Okay sounds good" and let her know she's jealous she gets to meet "Colberto" on the

actress, who's been dating Rodgers since 2014, captioned the screenshot by explaining how answering "no comment" in an interview can be interpreted as a "default 'Yes.' "

Instead, Munn writes, "I'm going to let my text conversation with my Asian mom help me out. #Colberto"

Summary: Olivia Munn put to rest rumors she was engaged to NFL star Aaron Rodgers


How the company’s growing retail presence is driving Mac market share gains

In a report to clients issued overnight Monday about Apple’s AAPL opportunities for growth in China, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty adds, almost as a throwaway, the instructive charts at right (see also below the fold).

They show what she calls the “Positive Correlation Between Apple Store Expansion and Mac Market Share.”

Correlation does not mean causation, of course, but the trends do seem clear. Apple opened 123 stores in the U.S. between Sept. 2003 and Sept. 2009 while the Mac’s domestic market share grew from just over 3% to as high as 9% (before dipping below 8% last summer).

In Western Europe, the effect seems even more dramatic: 33 stores and a market share that grew from as low as 1.5% to more than 5%.

All this is to support Huberty’s contention that China represents Apple’s next major geographic growth opportunity, and that Apple’s plan to open 25 retail stores in China, announced during its shareholders meeting in February, could help drive Apple’s share price — in her “bull case” scenario — as high as $325 to $435 within a year. See here.

Below: Those bar charts, full size.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Summary: How the company's growing retail presence is driving Mac market share gains In a report to clients issued overnight Monday about Apple's opportunities for growth in China, Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty adds, almost as a throwaway, the instructive charts at right (see also below the fold). They show what she calls the "Positive Correlation Between…


The driving force behind the U.S. Olympic Committee brand is Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Baird. Since joining the USOC in 2009, Baird has helped secure more than $400 million in revenue for the group. Baird had worked as senior vice president of worldwide marketing communications at IBM and senior vice president of marketing and consumer products for the NFL. Baird talked to ThePostGame about a variety of topics from how to attract American consumers, how to select Team USA sponsors and the 2024 Los Angeles Olympics bid. She will deliver a keynote presentation at the Sports Industry Networking And Career (SINC) Conference at George Washington University on Friday.

ThePostGame: What is a normal day -- and maybe there is no normal day -- like for the Chief Marketing Officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee? LISA BAIRD: I could probably tell you I'm in a different physical place almost every day. Having said that, and with technology and being so connected with my team, it matters less and less. Even though you'd love to have a physical place to go to, and we love the office we have, I go to different places, which is great, because the Olympic movement should not be in one place. With technology, you're able to be connected with your team.

Another part of my normal day is how accessible I try to be. With an NGO, it's a different environment. You're in a life of service. Whether it's our governing body, sponsors or our executive team, part of my normal day is a tremendous amount of outreach and being in touch with people. Normal for me is to have sponsor meetings, to be meeting with my broadcast partner, NBC, to be out on the road, doing site visits, because we're really in a culture service. For me, normal is being on the road, in touch with people.

TPG: Is the USOC a non-profit or a business? BAIRD: It's a sport property and a non-profit. It is two sides of the same coin.

TPG: How has your job changed since 2009? BAIRD: It's expanded. At the beginning, we set into place a strategy of expansion. The biggest thing is being able to oversee a now-expanded portfolio of sponsors. We've had much more interconnectivity with our national governing bodies. We have a full-fledged media network with websites that host 25 national governing bodies with social media channels. Also, now we have a more direct linkage into a very diverse fan base.

TPG: Why is the USOC important to the American consumer? BAIRD: There's a couple of reasons. The Olympic and Paralympic Team ... in one sense, they are incredible, aspirational role models. They are everything that we admire and respect and yet, in them, we see us, because they are Americans. They are your next door neighbor. They are the best of all us. It's a very unique relationship. It's very different from other sports. You may be a Giants fan, and I may be a Jets fans. Even though we're fans together of the same sport, our relationship is conflicted because it's all about win-loss. There's a very entertaining and enjoyable aspect about being a professional sports team fan. The Olympic team, you're all rooting together for one team. It's the ability of the Olympic team to bring us together that a unique appeal. While you are rooting for that team or person to win a gold medal, you don't hear win-lose as much. The Olympics is about bringing nations together, not winning or losing.

TPG: How would you judge the current publicity of Olympic Sports? BAIRD: It's growing. We continue to grow in the visibility profile and the way we do it is by putting everything into one common communication. In the past, we may have a delegation of athletes at the Olympic Games. Now, it's about what they are doing year-round. People are following the U.S. Women's National Team in the World Cup and they're looking forward to them in Rio. That's Team USA. That's been the biggest change, to get the visibility and the profile of the athlete out there. It's not at the level of their professional counterparts, but it's certainly growing and to develop followings and what I call fangelism for U.S. athletes.

TPG: What's your definition of fangelism? BAIRD: It's a term that I coined back in 2010 because sports fans are primarily fans because they're entertained. That's great. They're entertained by a team's performance on the field or an individual's performance in a match. Our fans are different because there is a purpose to the Olympic movement. In addition to being fans, they are evangelists and influencers to our mission, which is to spread the Olympic movement. So they're fangelists. They are fans, but they're evangelizing the values and the purpose of the Olympic and Paralympic movement.

TPG: How important is the USOC for these athletes in terms of making a salary? BAIRD: It depends. Remember, the Olympics is different because it's a diversity of sports. By the Ted Stevens Act (Amateur Sports Act of 1978), we have oversight over 46 different sports. Some sports are professional sports. The professional players want to compete for their country at the Olympic Games. Basketball, tennis, hockey, there are definitely professional athletes. Other athletes are compensated by their personal endorsement deals. We work really hard to create an ability for an athlete to be sponsored by USOC sponsors. It's very much a mission and we see that happen more and more every Olympic Games.

The most important part is our fundamental mission, which is to raise the resources privately and through donation, which fund direct support to athletes. A total of 82 cents on every dollar we raise goes to sports or athletes. It could count even more if you talk about resources -- apparel for the team, flying the team to the Olympic Games.

TPG: How careful is the process in determining what brands to align the USOC with? BAIRD: It's very careful. I think we have one of the most precious brands in the world. It's certainly one of the most ubiquitous in terms of its awareness. The Olympic rings in combination with the flag is a real responsibility with the public. We have a serious conversation with our sponsors about how our partnership can help build that asset. I'll give you an example. In 2009, we brought on Procter & Gamble and we started having our conversation with their individual brands with how we could create a special relationship with their customers and the Olympic brand. That gave birth to the "Thank You Mom" campaign that became of the most loved advertising campaigns in Olympic history.

Another example is we formed a partnership with BMW in 2011 right after the Vancouver Games. They said look, we want to do something incredible for sport. We want to talk about sport and really do an integrated sponsorship to show how the values of the BMW and the value of sport are the same. That became the U.S. bobsled case study. They worked to retool the bobsled and in Sochi, we were very proud to win a medal in ever class for the very first time. We work for integrated marketing partnerships that help achieve their business goals and elevate our grand.

TPG: BMW is not an American brand. How open are you to bringing on international brands? BAIRD: Very. It's a global world. We are a member of a global movement.

TPG: What are some of the initiatives you are taking in this current cycle to bring more fans onboard with the U.S. Olympic Team? BAIRD: Right now, we are really on a journey to use data towards our marketing. The next path for us is to look at data as the next frontier on how we can create more fangelists, how we can increase the value of U.S. Olympic properties and how we can create a better and more intimidate relationship with our fans and do it in a way where we're safeguarding the long term of what we're doing.

TPG: How are you using social media to connect with fans? BAIRD: It's definitely one of our primary growth areas. And it's not just social media. It's really all digital and it's becoming more direct. The more we can connect with our fans in the channels they feel comfortable conversing in, the better we are. We've developed strategies that are customized by social media strategies. We are constantly connecting back to our website. The TV experience is as vital. If you look at the numbers of TV viewers, they keep growing at all levels.

TPG: NBC has started live-streaming more and more events in the past couple Olympics. How do you think that has helped connect fans? BAIRD: It's great because people are on their mobile phone. They engage with us in real time across time zones, as it was nine hours to Sochi and six hours to London. What's fascinating to me is they still gather around the TV at night. A lot of people though the TV experience would go away, but it hasn't. What happened is people may watch a match or a piece in real time, but they still go to the TV. That speaks to the essence of how we tell the stories and introduce athletes and people to other nations and cultures. The talent at NBC has a lot to do with it.

TPG: The time zone in Rio lines up well with the U.S. similar to Vancouver in 2010. How does the time zone for this Olympics affect your marketing strategy? BAIRD: It doesn't really. A lot of what we do in partnership with NBC is we're really interested in reminding fans of where our athletes are from and not where they're going. A lot of our marketing is what is taking place here and now to qualify for the Olympics. We work hard on the Olympic team trials. That's how 50 percent of our team will qualify for the Olympic Games. What's happening here at home (earlier in the summer) is equally as important to what will happen in Rio. My team is much more focused on telling the stories happening at home in terms of who is making the team and how they are making it.

TPG: How important would a U.S.-hosted Olympics be to your brand? BAIRD: Huge! It's something that we want every American, and every generation of Americans, to experience. When you think about it, we don't have seasons the way professional sports or even amateur or collegiate sports do. When you look at the generation of Americans, they have their memories built by such and such a game. No matter what age you are, you are going to have your favorite Olympic memory. It occupies a special place in your conscience as an American fan. I can't tell you how many 15-year-olds I've talked to who tell me they remember Miracle on Ice. That's physically impossible. But they have the memory of it because they heard in from their parents. Nothing does this more in a more impassioned and pure way than hosting the Olympic Games. That's not only for Team USA, but fans have the ability to show our country to the rest of the world. We have the LA 2024 Olympic bid and the vote is in 2017. To me, it would mean so much, so we can bring it to all those future generations, whether they are aspiring Olympians and Paralympians or fans.

TPG: I grew up in New York, I went to school in Chicago, I talk to people from Boston. Those three cities have been tossed around and didn't work. What is it about L.A., a city that has hosted two Olympics, that feels like it will work as a place to bring the Olympics back to the U.S.? BAIRD: I was in L.A. at the press conference for the new logo for the 2024 bid. The slogan for the bid is "Follow the sun." The key components about L.A. are the city has this very unique culture of optimism, hope, innovation. It's a sport culture, tremendous history of sport. It is a culture where entertainment and storytelling are part of a very diverse culture, one of the most in America. It reflects the diversity of America and the world. I think they capture something great. The sun is what the L.A. is -- everywhere you go, the sun is there. They kind of invented perfect Olympic weather. The sun is also a great source of energy and hope and optimism. For L.A., I hope our time is now for all of those reasons. We've certainly got a unique bid. And there a lot of great cities involved. But I think this would just be an incredible bid for athletes, around the world. I think think it would bring great passion for American fans on the Olympic movement, which is what we need. And it would bring energy for the world.

TPG: There is a new football stadium being built in L.A. Is that going to be the Olympic stadium? BAIRD: I am not the person to ask about that on the L.A. plans. I'm going to have to defer to my colleagues at L.A. 2024. I've got my hands full with this Olympics! I do know that 97 percent of the venues are built. They've announced that USC and UCLA venues will be used to house Olympic athletes. The Staples Center will be used. I believe there is one venue that has to be built by the committee.

TPG: What are the most successful initiatives that you have taken? BAIRD: I'll tell you one, and it was something I was very passionate about when I joined. It was a period of instability for the USOC and I had played a part, a significant part, along with my boss and his boss, in restoring long-term financial stability to the U.S. Olympic movement, which we didn't have. We have 46 sports. We're under the same pressures as every country, but we're not funded by the government. We may be the only major country in the world that received no funding from the government. We now have, with the IOC, a broadcast agreement through 2032. We have several global agreements through 2024. We're working on renewals for 2020. On a rational level, helping to play a role so future Olympic athletes can realize their goals is my No. 1 [success]. I take incredible satisfaction in this job because there seems to be very few things all Americans can root for together. You read the papers, you know what's going on. This is something every American feels good about. When you have athletes, who are as successful and as accessible as Olympic and Paralympic athletes, fans respond to them like no one else in the world. It's incredibly rewarding. I don't know where else you have a job where you can inspire all generations of Americans.

TPG: What are the biggest struggles you've encountered? BAIRD: Oh, gosh. The same as everyone else. How do you keep up with technology? How do you keep up with change? Changing media patterns. Certainly, we've had our share of up and down economic cycles. How to keep talent -- we're a not-for-profit and I need to have the best talent in the world. I have to keep my staff updated and energized.

TPG: Why are conferences like the Sports Industry Networking and Career Conference so important for you to attend and spread the brand? BAIRD: I think you just said it. It's a way for us to tell our story and spread our brand. My calendar's pretty full. I always try to prioritize what I do with university students. It's taking place at George Washington University. You have a whole new generation of talented students and people that are going to impact the world. The ability to talk to them directly is something I try not to pass up. I have two college students of my own.

TPG: Do any of your children go to George Washington? BAIRD: No, but I have one daughter who goes to Georgetown, so I'm dragging her to see her mother speak and she's going to be horribly embarrassed and humiliated I'm sure.

Chief Marketing Officer, Lisa Baird, Los Angeles 2024, Olympics, Rio Olympics, SINC, Summer Olympics, USOC

Summary: The driving force behind the U.S. Olympic Committee brand is Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Baird. Since joining the USOC in 2009, Baird has helped secu...


Emily Selke in Edinburgh, Scotland

03/19/2016 AT 09:45 AM EDT

One year after 22-year-old Emily Selke lost her life in the tragic

crash in the French Alps, her friends and family are carrying out the her dream to put on a music festival.

Emily, one of the 150 innocent people who died aboard the Dusseldorf, Germany, bound plane that was intentionally crashed by a suicidal co-pilot, was a music industry major at Drexel University in Philadelphia and it was her life-long wish to one day manage a major music show like Lollapalooza or Bonnaroo.

Ashley Kuhn, Emily's best friend, helped coordinate

, the tribute concert series that will take place at Philadelphia's World Cafe Live on Saturday and feature 13 bands from across the country.

The festival will also tribute Emily's mother, Yvonne, who died in the crash with her daughter.

"We are doing what Emily wanted to do with her life," Kuhn, 24, tells PEOPLE. "It's been therapeutic working on this festival, we share memories about Emily and her family while planning."

The friend adds, "She's not here physically to put this on, but she's been here in spirit with us this whole time."

Ashley Kuhn and Emily Selke

Kuhn says she has been working with four of Emily's closest friends over the past year to put on

"We are expecting 300 people to show up," she says. "It's great because the five us hosting the festival come from all walks of Emily's life, so we feel like we've gotten to know who she was on a deeper level."

Each of the bands featured in the festival were given a list of Emily's favorite songs – ranging from Coheed and Cambria pieces to Modest Mouse ballads – to cover during their sets.

"Her absolute favorite song was 'Third Planet' by Modest Mouse, which is what we named the festival after," says Kuhn. "I know she's going to look down at us Saturday, smiling. She'll definitely be watching."

Gamma Sigma Sigma Zeta Chapter / Facebook

Kuhn says the commemorative festival is scheduled to become an annual event.

"Emily was the nicest, most genuine person there was," says Kuhn. "We all miss her so much, she was taken away too soon. But we will never forget her, we won't let the memory of her fade away."

Summary: "We will never forget her, we won't let the memory of her fade away," Emily's best friend, Ashley Kuhn tells PEOPLE


NEW YORK -- In a measure of the strength of its secondary, Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson and safety Tyrann Mathieu were selected to the 2015 Associated Press NFL All-Pro team.

The Cardinals are one of five teams to have two players selected to the team. The other four teams were the Patriots, Steelers, Bengals and Rams.

The Carolina Panthers, with an NFL-best 15-1 record, had the most All-Pros with six: quarterback Cam Newton, fullback Mike Tolbert, center Ryan Kalil, linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis, and cornerback Josh Norman.

The accolade, considered more exclusive than a Pro Bowl selection, is the third for Peterson (2011 and 2013), and the first for Mathieu, who three weeks ago was lost for the season to a knee injury.

Khalil Mack, Raiders, DE and LB

Summary: The accolade is the third for Patrick Peterson (2011 and 2013) and the first for Tyrann Mathieu.


See the Late Night Ticket Calendar

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The "Late Night with Seth Meyers" interns hand out tickets to the monologue rehearsal at 12:30 p.m. in The Shop at NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (accessible via the 6th Avenue entrance) any day that we tape a new show. You must be at least 16 years old to attend the monologue rehearsal.

Please be aware that if you have a ticket reservation, you cannot attend the monologue rehearsal the same day. However, if you have a stand-by ticket, you can attend the monologue rehearsal the same day.

We typically tape daily (Monday through Thursday), but it's important to call our ticket hotline (212-664-3056) to confirm that a new show will taping on the day you'd like to attend.

If you aren’t able to get reserved tickets to the show in advance, you can get a stand-by ticket same-day for a chance to see that night’s taping. Please note that a standby ticket does not guarantee admission.

To get your stand-by ticket, arrive in line no later than 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the taping. Standby tickets will be handed out under the NBC marquee on 49th Street. Please be aware that while stand-by tickets are handed out at 9:00 a.m., the line typically forms before 9:00 a.m. There is no saving spots in line, so once an individual is in line, they cannot leave and return to their original spot in line. Please note that only one ticket will be issued per person, and you must present a valid photo ID (date of birth must be visible) to receive a stand-by ticket. You must be at least 16 years old to attend a taping.

After 9:00 a.m., any remaining stand-by tickets will be available in The Shop at NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (accessible via the 6th Avenue entrance).

Due to the limited number of shows per season and high demand for tickets, individuals cannot exceed more than one show taping within a four-month period. This applies whether you are admitted via stand-by ticket or 1iota e-ticket.

We typically tape daily (Monday through Thursday), but it's important to call our ticket hotline (212-664-3056) to confirm that a new show will taping on the day you'd like to attend.

Summary: Get Tickets to the Show! */ */   */ */


Kialoa, Jim Kilroy's 79‐foot ketch from Los Angeles, was the first yacht yesterday to complete the 370‐mile St. Petersburg-to-Fort Lauderdale ocean race, which was marred by a tragedy. Tom Curtis, a crew member aboard Obsession, was killed on Wednesday when he presumably was struck in the head by the yacht's boom.

Curtis, a 33-year-old yacht broker from New York, was pronounced dead on arrival at Key Memorial Hospital in Key West, Fla., at about 4 P.M. on Wednesday. He had been evacuated by a Navy helicopter from the yacht, which was situated 77 miles north of Key West.

Obsession, a new 46‐foot sloop belonging to Stephen Nichols of Greenwich, Conn., was on the course that took the fleet of 83 yachts around the Florida Peninsula. The race began Tuesday.

The Coast Guard at Key West received a radio call for help and the helicopter with a flight surgeon aboard reached Obsession within two hours. The distress call, according to the Coast Guard, said that Curtis had been hit when the yacht was in heavy seas and that he was unconscious and bleeding heavily from the right temple. No crew member saw the accident and Curtis was found on the yacht's leeward side, his body partially through the lifelines and in the water. He presumably had been killed instantly.

The helicopter was unable to drop a litter to the yacht's deck and a rescuer went into the water with a raft. Curtis was placed on the raft, lifted out by the helicopter and taken to Key West.

Curtis, a native of Hingham, Mass., had been a broker with Sparkman & Stephens for three years and recently was named a director of the company. He was one of three members of the firm among the crew of Obsession, which was designed by Sparkman & Stephens and built last year in the Miuneford yard at City Island. Obsession withdrew from the race and went to Key West.

This was the first fatality in the annals of the Southern Ocean Racing Conference and one of the few in yacht racing's history.

Kialoa finished the race at 1 P.M. yesterday and averaged a commendable 7 knots. After her came two foreign yachts, Condor of Bermuda and Mistress Quickly from London. The fleet was divided into six classes racing with time‐allowance handicaps. The overall winner will be decided today.

One of the favbrites was the new yacht Williwaw, from the Raritan Yacht Club of Perth Amboy, N.J., and belonging to Seymour Sinett of Plainfield, N.J. She is a Doug Peterson-designed 95‐foot sloop and her helmsman was Dennis Conner, the renowned 36year‐old yachtsman from San Diego.

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this archives appears in print on February 2, 1979, on page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Death of Crewman. Mars Florida Race. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: James Kilroy's yacht Kialoa wins St Petersburg-Ft Lauderdale ocean race; race is marred by death of Obsession crew member Tom Curtis (M)


Apple’s top executives pulled in roughly $25 million in compensation last year, except for CEO Tim Cook.

Cook earned a $2 million base salary and collected a bonus worth about $8 million in 2015, according to the tech and retail giant’s proxy statement filed with the SEC on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, five other top execs at Apple AAPL got about $5 million each in salary, plus cash bonuses, to go with $20 million in stock awards. Those high-ranking Apple employees include CFO Luca Maestri and Internet services head Eddy Cue, as well as retail boss Angela Ahrendts (whom Apple wooed two years ago from her former gig as Burberry’s CEO with a truckload of cash).

Notably absent from the proxy statement’s compensation list was Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, who ranks with Cook as one of the company’s most important employees.

Of course, as Bloomberg notes, Cook’s reported $10 million compensation doesn’t include 560,000 restricted stock units Apple gave him when he ascended to the CEO role in 2011 and which were earmarked for 2015. Those units were worth more than $64 million at the end of 2015.

And, for Cook, $10 million in salary and bonuses is actually a raise from the previous year, when he took home $9.2 million, which was double his 2013 pay package. (Cook is also sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in unvested Apple stock, though.)

Summary: But he still made $10 million last year.


Your fantasy life is about to get much richer, thanks to the wonders of virtual reality.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality equipment began shipping Monday for those who preordered or contributed to the original Kickstarter campaign. Oculus, which is owned by Facebook, has called today “a historic moment” in a release, adding, “soon, people all over the world will be experiencing fully immersive VR in their own homes.”

By which they mean porn, of course.

Sure, there are plenty of VR experiences that will allow users to step into fantastic worlds, jump out of planes or mimic daring stunts, all from the safety of their home. But where goes technological advancement, there also goes pornographic advancement. Plenty of third-party extensions allowing Oculus users to get a virtual lap dance or do the nasty with a digital partner have already been made available, and some intricate systems even incorporate gripping robots and Fleshlight-esque devices to take the experience one step further.

Though Oculus didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article, founder Palmer Luckey has emphasized that there will be an “open platform” for third-party developers, porn studios included.

Todd Gilder, CEO of VR porn studio BaDoink, joked to The Post that “Luckey ought to give us a referral fee for every sale of the Rift.”

Indeed, self-fulfillment is certainly one thing you could use the $599 Oculus headset for. But is the experience worth it?

Terry Klee, a licensed psychotherapist and relationship specialist affiliated with Columbia University, told The Post that the new horizons virtual reality offers could make masturbation enthusiasts’ experience that much better.

“I think it’s going to depend on each person’s level of sexuality,” she said. “For some I think it might actually enhance it. I think it depends on how comfortable people are masturbating to begin with.”

According to a 2015 study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, millennials tend to have fewer sexual partners than the generations preceding them. This could be owing to the twin factors of awareness of the dangers of unprotected sex and the easy availability of emotional intimacy via the Internet and dating apps. If you’re already being fulfilled emotionally, virtual reality porn is bound to be a big step up in the sexuality department.

“The definition of masturbation is self-pleasure, so whether you have a can or a vibrator or whatever, you’re by yourself. I think it’ll amp it up because much of masturbation is very similar to the pleasure principle of addictions, which is that you get accustomed to a certain level and you want even a higher sensation than you had previously,” Klee said. “The only reason that doesn’t really happen with our partners is emotions are included and shyness and inhibitions, but that all goes away when you’re by yourself, so people’s experimentation tends to increase.”

In addition to the physical safety of virtual porn, it could also allow people to experiment with kinks they may be too nervous or ashamed to try, or even experience sex from the point of view of another gender.

“You can’t go out and experiment with sex safely anymore,” Klee said. “With this, you could do that. It also removes the shame, there’s a lot of shame around masturbation.”

On the other hand, if you would be upset by your partner masturbating to porn, you’re likely to be unhappy with the new hyper-realistic advances in porn that the arrival of Oculus offers.

“For most couples, it could feel threatening because it’s going to disrupt the equilibrium that’s already established,” Klee said. Many people feel uncomfortable with how they’d stack up to the super-sexy behavior and perfect physiques that porn can offer, so a more immersive experience could be even more intimidating.

However you feel about porn, prepare to turn those feelings up to 11 when it comes to a virtual reality version.

“If you had a vibrator in your bedroom drawer, having this in your bedroom drawer is going to be that much better,” Klee said.

“It’s like the Wild West,” she said. “It’s very interesting.”

Summary: Your fantasy life is about to get much richer, thanks to the wonders of virtual reality. The Oculus Rift virtual reality equipment began shipping Monday for those who preordered or contributed to t…


You wouldn’t think that anybody would care about your drive to the supermarket to buy milk. But in the burgeoning world of building and selling electric cars, knowing about people’s driving habits is invaluable to manufacturers.

Electric car makers have begun poring over a wealth of data on how their vehicles are used. The information promises to provide insights about how people drive that were impossible to gain on such a large scale before – from charging habits to the ways people adapt to life with an electric car.

Unlike older vehicles, electric cars are equipped with computers, sensors, and wireless connections that allow drivers to voluntarily share information on their driving and charging habits. Usually a new owner will be prompted to opt-in to sharing location data, in a similar way to a new smartphone owner might be.

Trip information is collected by the vehicle’s computer, including start and end times of journeys, connect and disconnect times of chargers, and the battery level. Cars with GPS navigation systems can also collect detailed information about routes. And advanced systems can record details like how much the air conditioning is used, or how hard a driver accelerates.

The Volt, for example, is fitted with Chevrolet’s OnStar communication system that can broadcast driver data via its cellular connection. Many Volt drivers are choosing to share their habits online with other electric car drivers, in a kind of electric economy challenge. Manufacturers promote these data collection services as a bonus to consumers, helping them save fuel and money, or allowing them to see stats on their car via a mobile phone app, but the information is also a goldmine for car makers.

One of the best examples of just how much data is available came earlier this year, thanks to a fight between electric car maker Tesla, and a reviewer from the New York Times. On a test drive, the reviewer claimed he ran out of battery power, and had to have the car towed.

However, Tesla hit back by releasing a large amount of raw data from the vehicle that suggested it was driven at greater speeds, and with the heater on higher, than claimed. The company was even able to show that cruise control was not engaged, that charging stations were driven past, and that the car was unplugged before it reached full charge.

Now that electric cars are more abundant, the wealth of information and inferences that can be drawn are more meaningful than in the past. “We actually have data now,” says Mike Tinskey at Ford Motor Company. “We know our customer better than we’ve ever known them before because of these telematics.” He and others discussed their initial findings at the recent Plug In 2013 conference in California, a networking event for all the big players in the electric car industry.

Ford’s data shows that electric vehicles, including hybrids, are being driven about 203,000 miles every day in the United States, or more than 8500 miles every hour. “We know, for instance, the average trip for our customers is about 13 miles, and they do about four of those trips per day. Three of them are in all electric mode,” says Tinskey.

Data from the Nissan Leaf, meanwhile, has thrown up a few surprises. It has a range of about 75 miles (120 km) between charges, but the company says owners drive far less before topping up. “A lot of our cars are equipped with a data sharing system,” says Eric Gottfried of Nissan North America. “We find that most people drive about 30 to 35 miles a day.” So far, and it’s worth stressing these are early days, manufacturers say they are learning that people are accepting or adapting to the limits of electric vehicles, and their charging habits hint they are less likely to get so-called “range anxiety” than expected. Or more specifically, they are keeping their battery topped up before range anxiety sets in. Certainly, manufacturers have been trying to allay the fears of nervous drivers with blinking battery lights by investing in faster charging stations at more convenient locations. These chargers are installed at shopping centers, work places, or even by the side of the roads. They can usually charge a car twice as rapidly as a standard wall socket at home - often much faster – and in the case of Tesla, they are free for owners of the premium-priced cars. The fast chargers are like “drinking through a very thick straw” for batteries, says Gottfried. “You can go from zero to full in less than a half an hour, and that’s a game changer.”

According to manufacturers, there are hints that faster charging is encouraging people to charge little and often, rather than waiting until they run low. “Sometimes you can stop for just 3 or 4 minutes and get the confidence that you have the range to get where you’re going,” says Gottfried, who cites anecdotal evidence from Leaf drivers.

“Owners seem to adapt to the car to an extent,” claims Gottfried. “They start to say ‘if I need to sit for 15 minutes to top off my battery at a quick charge station, that’s cool, I’ll just grab a sandwich and I’ll have my lunch in the car’. They’re adapting as they go to this technology, and we’re seeing new paradigms being set.”

Collecting driving habit data on this scale promises to reveal much more in the coming years - and not only about electric vehicles. As more and more computer-equipped, connected cars fill the roads, we will learn a great deal about how we actually drive, because such detailed information has never really been collected on this scale before. As well as informing the future of vehicle design, it’s possible that your next car might even reveal your hidden habits and tell you that you’re not the driver you thought you were. Perhaps that trip to the store to buy milk will say more about you than expected.

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Summary: Equipped with a bank of sensors, car makers say their electric vehicles are revealing much more information about its drivers than you can see on display.


Everyone has experienced that tingling sensation in the hands or feet. We call it “pins and needles” because it feels like someone is gently raking your skin over and over again with hundreds of tiny little pointy objects.

Your skin might feel a bit numb, as if you can’t feel any sensations besides those pins and needles. When your foot “falls asleep,” it can actually become a little uncomfortable to place the full weight of your body on it. Not quite painful, but not altogether pleasant either. But if you wait a few minutes and shake out your sleepy limb, the sharp piercing nature of the sensation eventually fades away.

The sensation itself is properly referred to as “paresthesia,” and the fairly harmless variety described above is quite reasonably known as “temporary paresthesia.” But what is actually going on underneath your tingling skin? The biology behind those pins and needles is actually quite straightforward.

There are nerves throughout your body, biological superhighways whose job is to relay information between the brain and the rest of the body. If you place too much pressure on one of your arms or legs – something that’s quite easy to do because ape limbs are long and gangly – you could temporarily pinch the nerves that run through them. Meanwhile, you’re also putting a little too much pressure on the blood vessels that supply those nerves, like crimping a garden hose to prevent the flow of water.

This causes your brain to be deprived of the information it expects from those nerve bundles, and the nerves themselves aren’t receiving the oxygenated blood they need from your heart. Then, when that pressure is relieved, blood floods back into your limb and the nerves begin firing information to and from the brain.

Some felt as if they had ‘ants running up and down inside the skin’

A handful of experiments in the 1930s and 1940s helped researchers to understand the progression of the sensation. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to put a limb to sleep: all you need is a blood pressure cuff that’s set to squeeze a participant’s arm or leg to a higher pressure than his or her systolic blood pressure. That’s exactly what a pair of Oxford University researchers did in 1946.

Starting a minute or two after the pressure was applied, and reliably lasting for three to four minutes, was a sensation that they called “compression tingling”. Their participants described it as “a faint comfortable soda-water sensation", or as “buzzing,” or “a fine light tingle.” Some felt as if they had “ants running up and down inside the skin.”

The second stage, which usually begins 10 minutes later, was described as a “velvety numbness”. That feeling lasts as long as the pressure on the limb’s nerve and blood supply remains.

Finally, after the pressure is released, comes the third stage: this is known as “release pricking”. That’s the part usually referred to as “pins and needles.” As Oxford physiologist George Gordon noted in Nature in 1948, “the intensity and number of the pricks depend on the length of nerve which is recovering from any fixed period of depressed blood supply…no [particular] part of a nerve is particularly concerned in generating the impulses which give rise to this form of ‘pins and needles’.”

But not all pins and needles are of the temporary variety

Release pricking is typically more painful than the first two stages, but the emotional aspect of the experience is more often described as curiosity or interest. It hurts, but only physically. The sensation eventually subsides, but people are usually unable to pinpoint exactly at what point their skin sensations return to normal.

But not all pins and needles are of the temporary variety. Chronic paresthesia can occur as part of a variety of neurological disorders or following particularly traumatic nerve damage, like a bad burn.

In one study, researchers from Montreal’s Hotel-Dieu Hospital and McGill University worked with 104 burn patients to understand the long-term pain that followed their injuries. Many continued to feel pain even a year after their treatment was completed. After all, intense burns can often involve the destruction of nerves and their receptors, and surgical treatments for those injuries often involve skin grafts, which can also involve damage to and scarring of nerve cells.

Nearly two-thirds of patients in the study reported continued tingling on their burn sites, and a quarter of them reported the more intense pins and needles. “Pain and paresthesias can persist for many years after the injury,” wrote the researchers in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. “[They] may be present every day, and can interfere with the patient’s activities such as work, sleep, and social life.” That’s much more than the minor trifle that pins and needles represent for most of us.

Paresthesia can also occur following the administration of local anaesthetic medications during dental work. While it’s a rare event, and it isn’t yet clear just why this occurs, there are a few possibilities. It could be that the needle used to deliver the drug accidentally touches and then damages a nerve, or it could be that blood haemorrhages into the sheath surrounding the nerve fibre, which increases pressure. Alternatively, the injection itself may deliver enough fluids to increase pressure on the nerve, or perhaps the anaesthetic chemical is just toxic enough to damage nearby neurons.

In one case, the paresthesia lasted for a whopping 736 days

A 2010 University of Toronto study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association rounded up data from more than 11,000 “adverse effects” reported over a decade to the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) following the use of one of five kinds of local anaesthetics. Of those who experienced some form of paresthesia, 89% of it occurred in their tongues. Imagine not being able to speak or eat without feeling an awkward numb, tingling sensation in your tongue. The rest felt it in their lips instead. In one case, the paresthesia lasted for a whopping 736 days after the initial dental treatment – that’s more than two years.

And it’s not just pharmaceutical anaesthetics that can deliver paresthesias to the mouth, ranging from mild tingling to painful pricking. Peppers can do it too, thanks to the capsaicin locked away in chillies and peppers that deliver a pleasingly painful punch when delivered in small doses. Szechuan peppers, though, also contain compounds called alkylamides, which deliver a “tingling pungency,” similar to the compression tingling that precedes pins and needles.

It’s such a predictable effect that in folk medicine, the extracts of Xanthoxylum have been used for anaesthesia. The plants have even become known in some communities as the “toothache tree.”

Pins and needles may be an annoying reality for us, but it’s good to remember that it could be much, much worse. Most of us only have to get a little blood flowing and the irritation simply goes away.

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Summary: It feels like a thousand tiny pinpricks – though a few shakes and it is usually all over.  What causes the strange sensation? Jason G Goldman investigates.


PULLED A FIREARM on his accountant during a meeting in April in an explosive fit of rage ... and the entire incident was captured by surveillance cameras.

Gunplay allegedly stole a cell phone and a gold chain during the incident ... and was later charged with armed robbery. He turned himself in to Miami-Dade Police earlier this week.

Gunplay -- real name Richard Morales Jr. -- also faces a second charge of aggravated assault with a firearm.

According to the rapper's attorney, Gunplay could face life in prison if convicted on both counts.

Summary: Rapper Gunplay PULLED A FIREARM on his accountant during a meeting in April in an explosive fit of rage ... and the entire incident was captured by…


Tesla’s TSLA hotly anticipated, long-delayed third model — not to be confused with the upcoming Model 3 — is expected to ship this fall. It’s been a long time coming. The success of the all-electric crossover vehicle is crucial for Tesla’s mainstream automaker ambitions, testing its production capacity and ability to appeal to parents who take family trips to Tahoe. Here’s a look.

“The Model X may arguably be a better SUV than the Model S is a Sedan.”

—Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in June

Price: $70,000-$105,000 Range: 215 to 270 miles Power: 329 to 700 hp Preorders: More than 20,000 Acceleration: 0-60 mph in 3-5 seconds R&D: $426 million in Q1 Tesla capital expenditures* *majority earmarked for Model X production

Summary: A breakdown of the electric vehicle's features and functionality.


just learned a very important lesson: You can't piss where you play ... and expect to be invited back.

TMZ has learned the rocker has officially been banned from Emo's Annex in Texas where he recently pulled that whole "you think you're drinking tequila but it's actually my urine" stunt.

A rep for Emo's tells us "Emo's does not condone Fat Mike's actions, and we do not encourage or condone any acts of stupidity that Fat Mike may perform."

Summary: Fat Mike from the band NOFX just learned a very important lesson: You can't piss where you play ... and expect to be invited back. TMZ has learned the…


This essay originally appeared in Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily tech newsletter. Sign up here.

There are two reasons startups fail, according to Y Combinator founder Paul Graham. They run out of money, or the founders give up.

We know when the former happens because it’s usually sudden. The surprising demise of cleaning service startup Homejoy sent shock waves through the “on-demand” category of startups. Likewise for virtual assistant startup Zirtual, which ran out of money and shut down over a weekend.

But such overnight failures are rare. Instead, startups often die painful, drawn-out deaths, because Paul Graham’s second reason for failure—giving up—goes against the nature of most entrepreneurs. It takes a lot of grit and determination to start a company. Even the basics—raising capital, building a team, launching a product, and signing customers—require overcoming monumental odds. The “hero’s journey” mythology of famous, successful founders always describes the way they ignored everyone who said their idea would never work.

That explains why so many startup founders hang on to their dreams long after everyone else knows they’re doomed.

Exhibit A is Jawbone. The company has achieved many impressive feats in its 17 years of existence. It has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, something very few companies do, and it created and launched a number of successful consumer products, including the Jambox wireless speaker, its namesake wireless Bluetooth headsets, and the Up fitness band. But in recent years the “can’t-miss” company has struggled with product delays; executive reshufflings; increased competition from Apple AAPL and Fitbit FIT ; costly lawsuits with its supplier, Flex FLEX , and Fitbit; and a “down round” of funding that cut the company’s valuation in half. From the outside, it all adds up to an ugly picture.

Plenty of people close to founder and CEO Hosain Rahman have probably advised him to give up and make a graceful exit. Instead, his company continues to fight for its life. Over the weekend, Fortune’s Leena Rao reported that Jawbone is attempting to sell its wireless speaker business to focus on its fitness tracker business. At the same time, Business Insider reported that the company is apparently liquidating its inventory of Up fitness bands.

It’s yet another ominous sign for Jawbone’s survival. But it’s the sort of thing that shows Rahman’s determination: If Jawbone fails, it won’t be because he gave up.

Summary: They rarely "fail fast."


Venture capital is a hits business. By “hits,” I don’t mean singles and doubles; I mean chart-topping smashes that rake in royalties for decades to come. The investment thesis: For every 10 ideas, one or two will blossom into a Google or eBay –more than making up for the laggards and flops.

Seven years after the tech wreck, investors are again mustering the courage to play this high-stakes game. In the first quarter of 2007, VCs raised $1.2 billion, twice as much as they did during the same period a year ago, estimates research firm VentureOne. Meanwhile, 13 venture-backed companies sold shares to the public–nearly all of them in the information technology and health care sectors.

Of course, partners in these funds want to get paid for taking on such huge risks. And for cash-hungry entrepreneurs, the terms can be dear. Too dear, in my estimation.

VCs want two things: equity and control. Equity, because if and when the business is a hit, that stake will be worth piles of money, and control, because VCs want to reduce the risk that the entrepreneur will run a promising idea into the ground.

Giving up an equity stake may not “feel” like a big sacrifice in the beginning, but in fact it’s a huge concession. That’s because equity holders are entitled to a percentage of a company’s cash flows forever–as opposed to, say, payments over the life of a bank loan.

Making matters worse, venture firms often demand “preferred stock.” From a cost-of-capital perspective, giving away preferred stock costs entrepreneurs the worst of two worlds. Like bondholders, preferred stockholders charge interest on their money, and they get paid before common equity holders in a sale.

The second major issue is control. Ideally, most entrepreneurs want to be in charge–otherwise, they would choose to work for somebody else. If structured properly, loans or even common stock arrangements usually allow founders to maintain significant control. VCs, on the other hand, want a firm hand–if not two–on the wheel.

Funny, then, that venture capital has become so fashionable. Think about it: Do you celebrate when you get a mortgage? Maybe to some degree, but in the back of your mind, you also know that there is a piper to be paid. Yet when it comes to turning over your company to bunch of VCs, many entrepreneurs view it as a badge of honor.

So when do VCs come in handy? Some examples:

–If you are starting an enterprise that requires a large fixed-asset investment–say, a pharmaceutical company–then venture capital makes sense within reason.

–If you need expertise in understanding the market, running the operation or expanding the business, a VC firm may be able to provide it. (Beware, though: A VC shop may boast scads of “visionary” young people who have little if any expertise in your particular industry.)

–If a VC’s investment will propel your company to heights such that your remaining stake is still worth more than it would have been without the infusion, then VCs are worth a look. You’ve heard the old saw: “It is better to own 10% of a $100 million company than 100% of a $1 million company.” That logic assumes, of course, that your company would ever be worth $100 million.

In many cases, however, the best (albeit the least glamorous) way to raise money is to start your business small and “bootstrap” it. If nothing else, bootstrapping instills discipline when it comes to deciding which projects deserve capital and which don’t. The best part: Whatever you have left is all yours.

Brian Hamilton is the chief executive and co-founder of Sageworks, the developer of ProfitCents, a software application that enhances financial analysis and communication for financial professionals.

For more information on how to run a business on a shoestring budget, check out “Small Business On The Cheap.”

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Summary: Sure, you need the money. But that doesn't mean you should give up the store.


It might seem unnerving to have your financial data sitting on some remote server, but using downloaded software, with data kept on your PC, isn't as safe as it might sound. Companies whose reputations depend on data security are probably better than you are at keeping machines secure, says Neill Feather, president of security company SiteLock.

But Feather says there's no such thing as 100 percent security, and hackers are going to find these companies to be richer targets than your lonely PC.

That's where additional safeguards come in.

When you sign into TurboTax or TaxAct, a special code is sent to your email address. Hackers who get your tax password still wouldn't have that code in your email inbox. (Don't use the same password for your email.)

H&R Block gives you security questions, such as where your first job was, but someone could guess that from your Facebook profile. When setting up the security questions, add some numbers or memorable phrase to the answers to make them difficult to guess.

There have been cases of identity thieves filing taxes on your behalf and claiming the refund. Your best recourse is to file early before the thieves can.

Summary: Prices and plans for this type of software keep changing, and what was best for you last year isn't necessarily so now


By Mohamed A. El-Erian, contributor

FORTUNE — Wow! That is what I suspect many investors said when they heard Wednesday’s policy announcement from the Federal Reserve. And this single reaction would have captured not just partial surprise but also a combination of conflicting feelings.

Have no doubt: Yesterday’s Fed announcement will go down in the history books — at least those texts covering central banking and monetary policy. It marks a major evolution in the activism, involvement and aspirations of the central bank. It is also a risky move, taking the institution much deeper into experimental and politically charged territory.

The Fed took two major steps on Wednesday, one expected and one less so.

First, it added to its expected purchases of market securities, doubling the dollar amount to $1 trillion for 2013 — a very large number by any measure. Second, the Fed shifted to quantitative (unemployment and inflation) targets for forward policy guidance, and it did so earlier than most expected given theoretical and practical complexities.

This further leap into the policy unknown was motivated by continued disappointment with the economy’s sluggish growth, persistently high unemployment and increasing concern about joblessness becoming more structurally embedded into the economy.

MORE: Khosla Ventures teams up with Condoleezza Rice

That much was said by Ben Bernanke, the Fed’s admirably transparent chairman, during his press conference after the news was unveiled. It was also obvious that he is very concerned about the fiscal cliff, and the possibility that political paralysis could push the economy into another recession. The accelerated policy implementation may also reflect the Fed’s desire to take out some additional insurance.

Now for the mixed feelings: We should all welcome the greater policy emphasis being placed on unemployment. This national jobs crisis has enormous human costs. It increases poverty. It eats away at the social fabric of our communities. And the longer it persists, the harder it is to solve.

The Fed has again demonstrated to investors that it is “all in.” That is the good news. The Fed is doing even more in its attempt to artificially bolster asset prices as a way to “push” investors to take more risk. The bad news is that the institution, with its imperfect tools for the challenge at hand and with other federal government entities essentially MIA, may be taking on an unsustainable burden.

First, and as recognized by Bernanke, the outcome of the Fed’s unusual activism is neither predictable nor costless. Uncertain expected benefits come with an increasing risk of collateral damage and unintended consequences. And the tricky balance becomes less favorable every time the Fed feels it has to do more because prior actions have not been sufficiently effective.

MORE: Buffett’s buy changes Berkshire rules

Second, the Fed’s growing involvement is ultimately inconsistent with the proper efficient functioning of a market economy. With a market share that will end 2013 between 30% and 45% depending on the securities, the Fed is heavily involved in markets as both a referee and player. As such, it distorts their functioning, the price discovery process and the allocation of capital.

Third, all this threatens the institutional credibility and legitimacy of the Fed. It also exposes it to greater political interference and will anger America’s friends and allies abroad.

This is not necessarily to say that the Fed should have refrained from doing what it did. Instead, it should be read as yet another very loud and clear message to our bickering politicians. Washington should not fool itself into thinking that the Fed can maintain for long a wedge between Congress’ responsibilities and the economic wellbeing of the nation.

Even if it is willing to venture ever deeper into experimental mode — and clearly it is — the central bank is hard-pressed to deliver good and sustainable economic outcomes. The best it can do is buy time for our politicians who continuously fail to compromise and to reach agreement on a way forward.

Let us hope that this new Fed window will be used well by Washington, and that Congress will finally step up to its economic management responsibilities. If this does not materialize, the economy could risk ending up in a worse place: failing to generate high growth and job creation, further hampered by market distortions and inefficient capital allocations, and having damaged the credibility, legitimacy and future effectiveness of the Fed.

Summary: A bold and necessary move? Yes, but the Fed's growing activism has limits and is ultimately inconsistent with the proper efficient functioning of a market economy.


Abigail Breslin (left) and Freida Pinto

Noam Galai/Getty Images for GIFF

06/11/2016 AT 09:50 AM EDT

, the idea of change is "very simple."

In fact, she believes, "[change] is the only constant thing you can work towards and try to make possible."

The actress, 31, hopes in her new role as ambassador for

, a global campaign for girls' education, she will be able to bring

"In many parts of the world, it's always the girls who are the most marginalized – they're denied education or have been taken out of school because they've been married at age 18," Pinto tells PEOPLE.

"If you think about the injustice towards women, even in our very developed world, it exists, so you can't even imagine the extent of it in parts of the world where people aren't even aware of their rights," she says.

actress was honored at the Changemaker Gala, part of the

for her humanitarian work with Girl Rising.

"Getting involved came from a very human part of me," says Pinto. "I havenât been denied education and have the best education my parents could possibly give me, so this just came from a very human perspective."

She points out that school teaches girls much more than how to read and write. It also helps build confidence.

"The whole culture of actually going to school, interacting with friends, having great teachers, and learning more than what the book provides is so important in shaping children's minds," says Pinto. "It gives them a whole world from which they can choose from."

Summary: The Slumdog Millionaire actress receives top honor at the Changemaker Gala for her humanitarian work with Girl Rising


The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBT civil rights organization in the U.S., announced today that Apple AAPL CEO Tim Cook will be the next recipient of the organization’s Visibility Award.

HRC President Chad Griffin described Cook as a “visionary,” and said “his willingness to bravely and directly speak his truth has not only given hope to countless people around the world, it has saved lives.”

As the only openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company, according to a Fortune report last year, Cook serves as a role model for LGBT youth showing them that nothing holds them back from success.

Cook is known to actively support pro-equality legislation at both the state and federal levels. He has helped fight against anti-LGBT “religious freedom” bills in Arkansas and Indiana, and he has consistently supported non-discrimination federal legislation, including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which prohibits employers from discriminatory hiring practices based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Apple received a perfect score on the HRC’s first ever Corporate Equality Index in 2002, before Cook became CEO, and has continued to receive perfect scores every single year.

Cook became Apple’s COO in 2007 and CEO in 2011. Under his leadership, the company became one of the first major corporations to come out in support of the Equality Act, a breakthrough civil rights law that provides LGBT people with explicit and permanent protections against discrimination in the most basic aspects of their lives.

The award will be presented to Cook at the 19th annual HRC National Dinner on Oct. 3 in Washington, D.C., where U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will deliver the keynote address.

Summary: Cook will receive the Visibility Award on Oct. 3.


In 1998, Argentina underwent an anguishing economic crisis, and by December 2001, President Adolfo Rodríguez Saá announced that the country would default on billions of dollars in debt. Puerto Rico is going through a similar crisis today, with Governor Alejandro García Padilla announcing last year that Puerto Rico’s massive debt was unpayable, and declaring a moratorium on repaying the Commonwealth Development Bank’s debt service last week. But unlike Argentina, Puerto Rico will likely be unable to resolve its debt crisis.

How did Argentina pull itself out of its mire? There was no magic bullet. It increased some taxes and benefitted from a commodity boom, particularly in soy, that increased exports during the 2000s, both of which increased government revenues. Argentina also devalued its currency—the Peso—which helped to reduce imports and conversely augment exports. And Argentina negotiated with the IMF to take billions of dollars in foreign debt off the books.

Puerto Rico’s debt, just over $70 billion, is comparable with Argentina’s—around $93 billion at the start of its 2001 crisis. Puerto Rico’s debt-to-GDP ratio of 70% isn’t too remote from Argentina’s 2001 ratio of 65%. In a debt crisis, governments can increase taxes and fees and reduce government services. Puerto Rico has already done so. In the past couple of years, the Commonwealth’s Treasury Department has dramatically stepped up embargoes on businesses for failure to pay back taxes, it raised the business-to-business tax rate from 4% to 10.5%, and it increased the Sales and Use Tax rate from 6% to 10.5%. Puerto Rico now has the highest sales taxes of any U.S. state or territory. The resulting hardships have many middle-class islanders pondering whether they should stay in Puerto Rico or migrate to the U.S. mainland, as hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have done in the past decade.

Can Puerto Rico increase its exports as Argentina did? History says no. Compared to other countries and territories in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico had a fairly robust manufacturing sector. But in the late 1990s, the U.S. Congress severed that economic sector’s jugular vein by sacking Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code—which exempted U.S. mainland-based companies from paying federal taxes on earnings they generated in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico—and phasing out its tax incentives over a 10-year period. Congress eliminated Section 936 without any kind of a substitute, and the impact on the Puerto Rican economy has been devastating. Those 936 tax incentives were needed to offset the additional costs of doing business on an island far from the U.S. mainland and burdened with high commodity prices thanks to the Jones Act—a federal law designed to bolster the American merchant marine at the expense of Puerto Rican consumers. As a result, Puerto Rico lost half of its manufacturing jobs a decade ago. This loss has exacerbated unemployment and encouraged outmigration, thus shriveling the island’s tax base. Puerto Rico’s agricultural sector is small, too. There is no comparable soy boom on this Caribbean island. Thus increased exports—whether through manufacturing or other commodities—will not solve this debt crisis.

What about other segments of the economy? After all, Puerto Rico has a thriving tourism industry. Over the coming years, though, improved U.S.-Cuban relations may put a dent in that sector. And unlike Argentina, Puerto Rico cannot devalue its currency, the U.S. dollar.

The island’s political status isn’t helping matters, either. Argentina is sovereign—Puerto Rico is not. Other countries’ judiciaries cannot dictate Argentine polities (except to the degree that they are bound by international accords). But Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory that cannot escape Washington’s edicts. As an overseas possession, it is barred from having any voting representation in the body ultimately responsible for making its laws—the U.S. Congress. The only agent it has in the U.S. House is a non-voting resident commissioner. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has no electors for selecting the president who rules over it. With no say in Congress or the presidency, the island lacks any input into the appointment or confirmation of the federal judges who will adjudicate its fate. Thus, unlike Argentina’s case, the U.S. federal government can unilaterally impose its will on the Puerto Rican debt crisis.

So far, the congressional proposals for remedying Puerto Rico’s economic catastrophe involve creating some kind of federally appointed oversight board. In short, this represents the re-imposition of direct colonial rule. Thus far, the proposals coming from the House Republican majority envision an oversight board empowered to crack the fiscal bullwhip. There’s no hint of restoring the incentives necessary to rebuild the manufacturing sector, and the island is powerless to regulate its currency. Borrowing a famous line from the late French philosopher Michel Foucault, in Puerto Rico’s case, Congress seems only interested in discipline and punish.

For decades, some Puerto Ricans hoped the island would be admitted as the 51st state of the Union. Thanks to the debt crisis and its resultant mass outmigration, we are now witnessing the fulfillment of that dream. But rather than taking place in the barrios of San Juan or the coffee farms of Lares, it is becoming a reality in the neighborhoods of central Florida. There is a high probability that Congress will not act until crisis worsens significantly, and even then it might try to pass the buck. A bitterly divided Republican Congress has been unresponsive to calls from the White House to tackle the problems and unwilling to reach a compromise agreement with Democrats. At this point in time, there’s no expectation of a rosy forecast on the horizon.

Amílcar Antonio Barreto is an associate professor of political science, international affairs and public policy at Northeastern University. He is also the director of its MA Program in International Affairs.

Summary: And Congress won't act until it does


U.S. gene-testing company Affymetrix’s board on Sunday rejected a $1.5 billion bid by Origin Technologies, saying it stood by a $1.3 billion merger deal with Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Origin, made up of a group of former Affymetrix executives, made the offer on Friday, looking to derail the deal with Thermo Fisher.

Thermo Fisher TMO , the world’s largest maker of scientific instruments, agreed in January to buy Affymetrix AFFX for $1.3 billion in cash.

In reviewing the Origin proposal, the Affymetrix board said Origin appeared to be a newly formed shell entity with no assets of which Affymetrix was aware, and whose sole source of funding for the proposed transaction was $1.5 billion in potential debt commitments.

The 5 Best Performing Biotech Stocks in 2016

“We held preliminary discussions in the fall of 2015 with individuals who became principals and potential backers of Origin, and in November 2015 I invited them to submit a written proposal if they had serious interest in a strategic transaction with Affymetrix,” Dr. Frank Witney, Affymetrix’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

“We heard nothing further from them for over four months until they announced their unsolicited proposal on March 18,” Witney said.

Based on the analysis performed by its advisers, Affymetrix said Origin’s funds fall “materially short of the funds that would be required to complete the transaction, including a termination fee payable to Thermo Fisher.”

In a separate news release, Thermo Fisher said it continued to believe its agreement to merge with Affymetrix remained in the best interests of both Affymetrix and its stockholders.

Officials at Origin were not immediately available for comment.

Summary: Origin Technologies' unsolicited offer lost out to the scientific instrument company.


Amid a sea of standing desks and high-tech chairs on display at the NeoCon commercial interiors show at the Merchandise Mart this week, a small Burlington, Vt.-based startup is making a splash with a more unusual offering — a private portable nursing pod.

Launched in September, Mamava is popping up at stadiums, airports and businesses with its free-standing lactation station. The cozy enclosure provides an oasis for nursing mothers, while satisfying an Obamacare mandate for employers.

"This is a personal issue for us," said Sascha Mayer, 45, CEO and co-founder of Mamava. "When we were doing business, we were constantly forced to pump in bathrooms or the back seats of cars or storage closets. We said there had to be a better way."

Mamava has installed more than 100 stations across the U.S., including units at the Milwaukee County Zoo, Miller Park and General Mitchell International Airport in Wisconsin. The pod at NeoCon is the first in Chicago, Mayer said.

Manufactured in Rhode Island, the 4-foot-by-8-foot pods feature a locking door with the Mamava logo, which Mayer described as "happy breasts." The outside can also be customized with sponsor ads or themes, such as a lioness with her cubs adorning units at the Milwaukee County Zoo.

Inside, the units include a fold-down table, two benches, a mirror, motion-activated lighting and ceiling vent, and a dual outlet for powering breast pumps and charging mobile devices. The surfaces are food-grade fiberglass and Corian.

"It's quite spacious because we don't want moms to feel they're being put in a closet," Mayer said. "You need to be relaxed in order to be productive with your milk."

The basic station costs $12,000. A unit fully complaint with the Americans with Disabilities Act runs $18,000, Mayer said.

The Affordable Care Act requires companies with 50 or more employees to provide a private place, other than a bathroom, for nursing mothers to pump milk. That requirement, paired with Mayer's own frustration as a nursing mother, led to a business plan that seems to be resonating.

The first selling point is that it is not a bathroom.

"When a toilet flushes, particulates go into the air, so you are making food in a place that's for the opposite function," Mayer said.

In 1995, Mayer went to work as a brand strategist for Solidarity of Unbridled Labour, a Burlington design studio, which served as an incubator for Mamava. The first lactation suite was installed in 2013 at the Burlington airport, but the concept really began to gain traction last year, Mayer said.

The Milwaukee County Zoo installed three lactation pods last year on its 200-acre campus after Zoo Director Charles Wikenhauser saw one at the Milwaukee airport. Previously, nursing mothers at the zoo were escorted to a cubicle in the administration office or a restroom complex, Wikenhauser said.

Also last year, the Minnesota Vikings installed two lactation pods for employees at their offices, and two for fans at their stadium. The Vikings are planning to put four lactation pods in their new U.S. Bank Stadium, which opens this season.

In Chicago, tucked away on the seventh floor of the Merchandise Mart, the Mamava station was put to use this week by a number of NeoCon attendees. Lauren Christenson, an interior designer from Plymouth, Mich., with a 10-month-old daughter back home, availed herself of the station and found it to be "pleasant and comfortable."

"I've had to go through these different scenarios where I've had to sort of hide in a corner or go in a car or go in a back office, and this is just a really nice, private space to be able to take care of a need," said Christenson, 31.


IN 12-step confessional style, this is what love addiction did to my life: I dropped out of college, quit my job, stopped talking to my family and friends. There was no booze to blame for my blackouts, vomiting and bed-wetting. No pills to explain the 15 hours a day I slept. No needles as excuse for my alarming weight loss.

I hit bottom one sleepless night, strung out on the bedroom floor, contemplating suicide. And then I spent four months — and a good chunk of my family's money — in treatment for love addiction.

I know what you're thinking: Love addiction? Give me a break. Believe me, I've thought it, too. Even now, years later, I have mixed feelings about the term. But the facts of my experience — a relationship that utterly consumed my life, the magnitude of the depths to which I plunged before I sought help — are indisputable.

At the start our "new romance high" was unlike any I had experienced. Matt was my knight in shining Mercedes, courageously wielding his credit card as we bushwhacked through the malls of northern Virginia. We danced barefoot in the grass at a Harry Connick Jr. concert, and he surprised me with gifts from Tiffany cunningly stashed in the glove compartment. In Atlantic City we stayed in the honeymoon suite at the Hilton and in Florida had an ocean view from the Ritz. Day after day we lay in his bed with Sting's "Fields of Gold" lilting in the background.

BUT mere weeks into the relationship our idyllic soundtrack of golden barley fields, cascading hair and loving promises was replaced by "Every Breath You Take," played at deafening volume and on eternal repeat.

We had crossed some boundary from passion to obsession, and we simply couldn't stand to be away from each other. Friends, family members, school and my job became threats, so I left them. And soon our tunnel of love grew so dark and isolating that I could no longer conceive of a life outside it.

I couldn't because our relationship, however damaging, was my life, and if it were to end, I didn't see how I could continue to exist. Things reached a crisis point one night when, after being interrogated by Matt for hours over an old photo he'd found of me in the arms of a male friend, I feared he was going to dump me. I spent that night alternating between fantasies of kitchen knives and nagging thoughts I could no longer suppress telling me that something wasn't right, that love shouldn't make me want to die.

Matt, soon after that and to his credit, decided he needed professional help and announced he was sending himself to an addiction treatment center all the way across the country in Arizona. Already familiar with the treatment world, Matt knew that what was happening between us was dire. He even gave me a book on love addiction to bring me up to speed.

Faced with the prospect of being left in his apartment during that gray March without him or anyone, I decided I would get professional help, too. I went online and found a center that was, unsurprisingly, also in Arizona. I wanted to prove to Matt that I was a good girlfriend, worthy of his love. Going to treatment, I reasoned, was the ultimate evidence of this.

But my going to treatment to try to make our relationship work was like an alcoholic's checking herself in so that she could learn how to drink. I couldn't see that the solution wasn't learning how to live with Matt but learning how to live without him. I arrived at the center toting my oversize suitcase, exhausted and 15 pounds underweight with dark circles under my eyes. Four women, my apartment mates, were watching television in the living room, and one looked up at me and asked, "So what are you here for?"

"Um, I'm depressed," I said. "And, you know, stuff with my family. Maybe alcohol. Love addiction?" I offered meekly. "What about you?"

"Alcohol," she said. "Drugs. Abuse issues. Eating disorders. Co-dependency. Depression. Anxiety. Post traumatic stress. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Everything."

And she was nothing compared with my roommate, whose mom had been murdered, whose dad had died when she was 18 and who, before the age of 20, had been a stripper and a meth addict. Yet here I was at the same place, and all I could really say in response to anyone who asked why was, "I really miss my boyfriend."

True, I didn't have track marks on my arms or an enlarged liver. But that didn't mean I wasn't in the right place.

In addition to group therapy, we had to attend a daily 12-step meeting. I tried Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous but couldn't connect with people who talked about booze and drugs when all I wanted to talk about was Matt, Matt, Matt. So I stuck to meetings of Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous.

These meetings were coed. I know, it didn't make sense to me either. Had I been in a different state of mind, I no doubt would have gone the way of many of my treatment center peers by making cow eyes at the guys across the room and eventually starting a clandestine romance, which would ultimately get me kicked out of treatment. Instead I actually sat and listened.

Time and again I heard from fellow addicts outlandish stories of vitriolic romances and suicidal tendencies. Crazy, I thought, until I considered how similar their stories were to mine. Because Matt was in effect my drug, I wasn't allowed to speak with him during my first month of treatment.

So you can imagine my psychotic delight when I returned to my apartment one afternoon at the end of that month to find his voice cooing from the answering machine, "It's me, your boyfriend, Matt."

Summary: In 12-step confessional style, this is what love addiction did to my life: I dropped out of college, quit my job, stopped talking to my family and friends and contemplated suicide.


-- Steve-O just told us he couldn't agree more ... his stupid stunt SHOULD be illegal ... but that doesn't mean he's taking any responsibility for it. "This 'seizure prank' wasn't my idea or my operation, and I agree it was a real stinker," he said, adding the stunt provided an "invaluable service by exposing a glaring shortcoming in the laws."

The L.A. City Fire Dept. is LIVID at former "

... for a stupid prank Tuesday that triggered a 911 emergency ... but in reality there's nothing that can be done to him.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Steve-O and three of his cohorts

simultaneous seizures at a West Hollywood coffee shop ... and the 911 call prompted cops and paramedics to rush to the scene.

TMZ obtained video of the prank ... showing Steve-O and the others seemingly going into spasms and frothing at the mouth -- while horrified customers frantically call 911.

Here's the thing. Since Steve-O and his friends were not the ones who called 911, they can't be prosecuted for making a false report to authorities ... and the people who made the call did so in good faith.

Capt. Jamie Moore tells TMZ he's contacting Steve-O, his lawyer and his publicist to let them know the prank was not only dumb ... it threatened lives. The ambulance or fire truck could have gotten in an accident, and someone who didn't get an ambulance in time could have died.

Capt. Moore tells us, "The L.A. Fire Dept. frowns on his action that impacted public safety."

Summary: 7:30 AM PT -- Steve-O just told us he couldn't agree more  ... his stupid stunt SHOULD be illegal ... but that doesn't mean he's taking any…


It was quite literally una muerte anunciada—a death foretold.

At the end of December 2014, top Spanish winemaker Juan Carlos López de Lacalle was so fed up with the wine regulator in his region of DOC Rioja that he said he would discontinue the membership of his 30-year-old winery, Bodegas y Viñedos Artadi, if things didn’t improve. He was tired of being told that he couldn’t specify which vineyard plot produced the grapes on his wines’ labels. Instead, he could only specify a generic region. He’d already begun to rebel, in fact, labeling some of his wines with everything but Rioja (Laguardia, Álava, España).

“You have to answer the demands of the elitist market, which demands above all else personality and character from wine,” says the bookish but intense López de Lacalle, 59. “If we can’t do this in Spain, if we can’t put character and personality and identity in the great wines the country can produce, we’re on the wrong path.”

Though his winery is small—it brings in €3.6 million in annual sales (about $3.9 million)—López de Lacalle’s threat was no small matter. His Viña El Pisón, first produced in 1990, was one of Rioja’s first “single vineyard” wines (using grapes from one vineyard), and the 2004 vintage received a perfect 100-point ranking from wine guru Robert Parker. Artadi was also named 2014 winery of the year by Spanish wine guide Guía Peñín.

And so, when López de Lacalle followed through with his threat in December 2015 and quit the DOC Rioja, he uncorked an argument that bears an eery similarity to Spain’s other great separatist dispute: the one between the secession-minded parliament in Catalonia and the national government in Madrid.

The winery union in Artadi’s zone estimated that 60 wineries might follow López de Lacalle. The DOC Rioja regulatory board put out a pained statement, claiming that López de Lacalle hadn’t fully explained how he wanted his grievances to be addressed. And Spain’s largest daily published a story titled, “The Rioja Wine War.”

Unlike France, most of Spain’s wine regions only allow for broad geographic designations. This is a reflection of the local industry, which is dominated by large wineries that make blends with fruit bought from various grape growers across a region, not by small-production wineries that make wine from one or two local vineyards they often own. Today, 85% of the vineyard land in the DOC Rioja, which spreads across the communities of La Rioja, Navarra, and Basque Country in Northern Spain, is owned by growers, not wineries, says José Luis Benítez, who heads Grupo Rioja, a winery trade association whose members sell 75% of the region’s wine by value.

For blenders who buy grapes from multiple growers, it makes sense to promote their brands with a classification system like Spain’s, which notes the generic provenance of the grapes and ranks wines by how long they’ve been aged. A system that touted specific vineyards would shift power away from the blender.

But in today’s “locavore” consumer market, single vineyard wines have gained cachet because wine buyers want to know the wine’s terroir—that is, the soil makeup and grape variety, as well as the orientation and history of the vineyard the wine came from. And customers are willing to pay more for that, a sensitive issue at a time when Spain’s winemakers are looking to raise prices. A number of small wineries with younger winemakers have opened in Rioja in recent years, and they, like López de Lacalle, have begun to complain that the unique value of their local products is being squandered by regulations designed for large blenders.

“The way the laws are currently framed, they’re not encouraging younger people to invest in the region,” says Tim Atkin, a Master of Wine who covers Rioja as a wine judge and journalist. “They’re preserving the status quo, which is oceans of Rioja sold on supermarket shelves.”

Atkin was one of 150 wine industry professionals who in recent weeks signed a manifesto demanding that Spain’s wine regulatory bodies pay attention to terroir and modify the classification system so specific vineyards can be labeled.

The movement is beginning to lead to change. José Luis Lapuente, the CEO of the Rioja regulatory body, says that his board has debated modifications to the classification system over the last four months. The board is considering four proposals, Lapuente says, and Benítez of Grupo Rioja—the largest Rioja winery trade group—says his group will file another in several weeks.

“One has to evolve or die,” Benítez says.

Benítez says the Grupo Rioja proposal will likely allow wine labels to specify vineyards that meet certain requirements, such as age minimums (20-30 years), the use of manual harvesting, and maximum production levels.

“We want it to show that a wine is not just of a certain vineyard, but that it’s singular, high quality wine,” Benítez says.

While some big Rioja wineries already produce single vineyard wines, the region has had great success from high-end multi-vineyard blends—Cune’s Rioja Imperial Gran Reserva 2004 was named Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year for 2013—and it also does quite well selling lower-end wines. For established Rioja wineries, a new classification should improve, not replace, the current one.

“They just don’t want it to be that the new system makes crianza [a lower level wine with short aging] worthless if supermarkets sell millions of bottles of crianza,” says Benítez. “Do we have to destroy the current system to build another one? Hombre, I don’t think so.”

Benítez says it will take time to put together the votes the DOC Rioja requires to pass a new system, but he expects one to be done by the end of the year. For López de Lacalle, whatever the date, some kind of change is inevitable.

“This is an irreversible journey toward personalization, identity, toward wines linked to place, to the land,” he says. “It could take a year or a generation or five generations. I don’t know. But it’s unstoppable.”

Summary: Spain's artisanal winemakers are threatening secession if they don't get new rules on wine labeling.