Week of February 1, 2009
Banks in Florida, Maryland and Utah were closed as regulators wrapped up the
busiest month for failures since the housing slump began in 2006. Ocala National
Bank in Florida and Suburban Federal Savings Bank of Crofton, Maryland, were
shut by federal regulators, according to statements sent by the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. MagnetBank of Salt Lake City was seized by the Utah
Department of Financial Institutions. The banks had total assets of $876.4 million
and deposits of $790 million. Six banks have failed this month as tumbling home
prices and a 16-year in unemployment boost foreclosures. The FDIC classified
171 banks as “problem” in the third quarter, a 46 percent jump from the previous
period amid the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression.
The Senate confirmed
Eric H. Holder Jr
. as the
nation's first African American attorney general
by a vote of 75 to 21, opening a new chapter for
a Justice Department that had suffered under
allegations of improper political influence and
policy disputes over wiretapping and harsh
interrogation practices. Holder, 58, will arrive at
the Justice Department headquarters in
Washington for a swearing-in ceremony and to
greet some of the department's 110,000
employees.
Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination to be
President Barack Obama's Health and Human
Services secretary, dealing potential blows to
both speedy health care reform and Obama's
hopes for a smoother start as president. "Now we must move forward," Obama
said in a written statement accepting "with sadness and regret" Daschle's
surprise request to be removed from consideration. A day earlier, Obama had
said he "absolutely" stood by Daschle in the face of problems over back taxes
and potential conflicts of interest.
Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA
Swimming, the latest fallout from a photo that showed the Olympic great with a
marijuana pipe (bong). The sport's national governing body also cut off its
financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective Thursday.
Cereal and snack maker Kellogg Co. says it will not renew its sponsorship
contract with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps because he has acknowledged
smoking marijuana last fall. The Battle Creek, Mich.-based company said
Week of February 1, 2009
Thursday that Phelps's behavior - caught on camera and published Sunday - is
"not consistent with the image of Kellogg."
Macy's Inc said it would slash about 7,000 jobs and cut its quarterly dividend as it
forecast earnings for fiscal 2009 that fell far below Wall Street expectations,
sending its shares down 4 percent. The department store operator said it took
the steps to counter what it expects will be a very tough retail market this year,
and that it would plan conservatively despite efforts by the U.S. government to
build an economic stimulus package.
Wal-Mart - the discount retailer said sales at stores open at least one year rose
2.1% last month, excluding fuel -- better than the 1.1% gain analysts had
expected. Wal-Mart got a boost from sales of medicine and groceries, as
shoppers continued to focus on necessities during the downturn.
The mother of newborn octuplets says she had six
embryos implanted in her fertility procedure — far
more than industry guidelines recommend — and
was well aware that multiple births could result."I
wanted them all transferred," Nadya Suleman told
NBC's "Today" show. "Those are my children, and
that's what was available and I used them. So, I
took a risk. It's a gamble. It always is."
"It turned out perfectly," Suleman added in a
portion of the interview broadcast Friday.Other
portions of interview are scheduled to air next
week.
Employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January, the most since the end of 1974,
and catapulted the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent.
Grand Slam Breakfast giveaways - With the economy in a tailspin, Denny's
shook up the restaurant industry — if not the nation — Tuesday by doing
something no family dining chain had done before: giving out free meals coast-
to-coast from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. The entire promotion — including food, labor
and airing an ad on Sunday's Super Bowl — cost Denny's about $5 million.
"We're re-acquainting America with Denny's," says CEO Nelson Marchioli.
"We've never been thanked this much — and folks are saying they'll come back."
The promotion was available in all but two of Denny’s 1550 restaurants
nationwide.
Week of February 1, 2009
NBC said on the eve of Sunday's Super Bowl that it has sold the last two of the
67 advertising spots for the game, pushing total ad revenue for the event to a
record $206 million. The network said its total of $261 million in ad revenue for all
of Super Bowl day also is a record, calling it an especially impressive feat in the
middle of the economy's steep downturn. The Super Bowl is the premier
advertising event with an U.S. audience of 100 million viewers, many of whom
watch closely during game breaks for the debut of entertaining, big-budget
commercials. The ads have sold for between $2.4 million and $3 million per 30-
second slot this year.
The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the
Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in
SuperBowl 43. It was a riveting fourth
quarter that saw the Cardinals rally to
a 23-20 lead, but during the final 2
minutes - Pittsburgh came back with
a TD and field goal.
Technology
- An apparent system
error left millions of visitors to the site
puzzled when links to all search
results were flagged with the warning
'This site may harm your computer'. It is thought the site had erroneously
identified all other websites - and some of its own pages - as containing
malicious software or 'malware'.
The glitch, which prevented internet users from directly clicking through to search
results, was fixed within 30 minutes although users of Google's email service
Gmail have since reported finding genuine messages sent mistakenly to spam
folders. The errors prompted panic among web surfers who at first feared the
popular search engine had suffered some kind of major failure that could have
had serious implications for internet commerce. The Google search page is by
far the most popular on the internet, with the overall site receiving several
hundred million queries each day. It is the most common homepage and
accounts for almost four out of every five internet searches, making it a crucial
part of the global economy.
Google and NASA are throwing their weight behind a new school for futurists in
Silicon Valley to prepare scientists for an era when machines become cleverer
than people. The new institution, known as “Singularity University”, is to be
headed by Ray Kurzweil, whose predictions about the exponential pace of
technological change have made him a controversial figure in technology circles.
Google and NASA’s backing demonstrates the growing mainstream acceptance
of Mr Kurzweil’s views, which include a claim that before the middle of this
Week of February 1, 2009
century artificial intelligence will outstrip human beings, ushering in a new era of
civilization.
MySpace officials say about 90,000 sex offenders have been identified and
removed from its huge online social networking Web site. North Carolina
Attorney General Roy Cooper said Tuesday the new figure is nearly double what
MySpace officials originally acknowledged last year when detailing who had used
their site.
Panasonic recently introduced its
Lumix DMC-TS1 ($399.95), billed as
the world's first waterproof,
shockproof and dustproof digital
camera with high-definition (AVCHD
Lite) video recording. The rugged
12.1-megapixel camera features a
28mm wide-angle Leica DC Vario-
Elmar lens, 4.6x optical zoom
(zooming up to 128mm in telephoto,
even during video recording), image
stabilization and an "Intelligent Scene
Selector" that automatically adjust settings depending on the situation (night,
macro, portrait, and so on).
Google is releasing free software that enables people to keep track of each other
using their cell phones. "Latitude" uses GPS systems and what's called cell tower
triangulation to do the job. The software seeks the closest three cell towers and,
with GPS, combines the data to show where someone is. It is designed to work
on any phone with Internet capabilities, except the iPhone.
Music news -
Jennifer Hudson makes her first
appearance since the October slayings of
her mother, brother and nephew. Ms.
Hudson lip-synced the Star Spangled
Banner at the Super Bowl - though you
would never know it.
More Super Bowl - Bruce Springsteen
looked into the camera Sunday night and
told the people watching at home to "put
the chicken fingers down and turn the
television all the way up!" Then he
Week of February 1, 2009
proceeded to give the Super Bowl crowd and the millions watching on TV three
high-energy Boss standards, with the title song from his new album wedged in
among them for good measure. The 59-year-old Springsteen and his E Street
Band opened with "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," then without pause ripped
through "Born To Run" and "Working on a Dream," before winding up the set with
"Glory Days."
Joaquin Phoenix
says there's no
hoax about it: He really has given up
acting to become a hip-hop musician.
Phoenix has been spending his time
laying down tracks for a rap album in
the recording studio he built at his
home, the two-time Academy Award
nominee said Tuesday in an interview
to promote what he claims is his final
movie, "Two Lovers." After video hit
the Internet last month capturing part
of Phoenix's debut rap performance
at a Las Vegas club, speculation
swirled that he was perpetrating an
elaborate practical joke.
"I don't know where that comes
from," Phoenix said. "If it comes from people that I've had a falling out with, that
are (ticked) off at me?"
Elton John is playing his final notes on the red piano in Las Vegas.
Promoters say the pop singer will close his Las Vegas Strip show, "The Red
Piano," on April 22.The show made its debut in February 2004 at The Colosseum
Theater at Caesars Palace. After initially signing on for 75 shows, John's
engagement was extended.The casino says the closing show will be the 241st
performance.
Recluse Eminem is back - The 36-year-old white rapper, better known as
Eminem but occasionally styling himself Slim Shady, turned up at the launch of
his autobiography, The Way I Am, at a sports shop in Manhattan. Look for a new
album soon.
A publicist for the pioneering horror-punk band the Cramps says co-founder and
lead singer Lux Interior has died. He was 60. Publicist Aleix Martinez says
Interior, whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, died Wednesday of a pre-
existing heart condition at a Glendale, Calif., hospital.
Week of February 1, 2009
Interior met his future wife Kristy Wallace — who would later take the stage name
Poison Ivy — in Sacramento in 1972.They moved to New York and started the
Cramps, with Interior on lead vocals and Ivy on guitar. The group was part of the
late '70s early punk scene centered at Manhattan clubs like CBGB alongside acts
such as the Ramones and Patti Smith.
Nielsen Media Research ratings show the Super Bowl's audience was down from
last year's peak, but about on par with the 2007 and 2006 games. The
Pittsburgh-Arizona game on NBC recorded a 42.1 rating and 65 share in
Nielsen's overnight measurement of the nation's top cities. The same
measurement for last year's New York Giants-New England Patriots game, which
was the most-watched Super Bowl ever, was 44.7. The 2007 preliminary rating
was identical to this year's, and the 2006 game was 42.2, Nielsen said. Each
rating point represents 1,145,000 households. The share means 65 percent of
the televisions turned on during the game were tuned to the game. A viewership
estimate was not immediately available, but will likely be about 90 million.
