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শনিবার, ১৩ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

April 12 Birthdays and Memoriams

Tony Anthony celebrates a birthday today. Jack Corcoran died at the age of 73 on this day in 1965, and Mike Von Erich passed at 23 in 1987. The Great Goliath passed away at the age of 69 on this day in 2004, and Bill Savage was 77 in 2008.

Source: http://www.gwhnews.com/2013/04/april-12-birthdays-and-memoriams.html

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Judge denies $20 million severance to outgoing AMR chief

By Jonathan Stempel and Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - A judge has rejected a proposed severance package of nearly $20 million for Thomas Horton, the chairman and chief executive officer of American Airlines parent AMR Corp, saying the payout was not allowed under federal bankruptcy law.

Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane in Manhattan issued his decision on Thursday, after having approved at a March 27 hearing AMR's planned $11 billion merger with US Airways Group Inc.

Horton's $19.9 million severance had been part of the merger agreement and was to consist of equal amounts of cash and shares of the combined company.

Lane had suggested at the hearing that severance might be better addressed in AMR's reorganization plan, which the company has yet to submit and which requires creditor approval.

U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis, a Department of Justice monitor for the bankruptcy, also opposed Horton's severance.

"It's American Airlines' current intention to address Mr. Horton's compensation arrangement in the plan of reorganization," said Mike Trevino, a spokesman for the carrier.

The combined company would be run by US Airways CEO Doug Parker, with Horton as nonexecutive chairman. Parker would become chairman after the first annual shareholder meeting, probably in the spring of 2014.

Horton first joined AMR in 1985, left in 2002 for a four-year stint at AT&T Corp and then returned. He became CEO of AMR when it filed for bankruptcy in November 2011.

AMR at first opposed the merger, but reversed itself under pressure from creditors. The merger would create the world's largest airline, and AMR and US Airways hope to save more than $1 billion of annual costs by 2015.

"You're telling retirees you can't pay their health care benefits, you're telling creditors you can't pay them, and then you want to pay $20 million to a CEO who hasn't done anything to earn it," airline consultant Mike Boyd said in an interview. "AMR will end up giving him several million dollars, and can probably dig up other cases and precedents to justify it."

UNCLEAR PURPOSE

Davis had called Horton's proposed payout too large relative to severance for nonmanagement workers, and improper because it was not part of a program for full-time workers in general.

Lane rejected AMR's argument that these restrictions did not apply because the payout would be made - or could be voided - by the combined company after the merger closed.

"It is unclear what purpose would be served by the court's approval of the severance if (the combined company) could later veto the severance through a vote of its board," he wrote.

The judge also said deferring to AMR's "business judgment" in allowing the payout was "exactly what Congress sought to prevent" in capping severance awards by companies in bankruptcy.

AMR has said the payment to Horton recognized his efforts in leading the company through bankruptcy and into the merger.

Its lawyer, Stephen Karotkin, told Lane on March 27 that the desire of AMR directors to maximize value and see the merger through justified payments to Horton and others.

The combined carrier would take the American name and be based in AMR's hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. US Airways is based in Tempe, Arizona.

The case is In re: AMR Corp et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-15463.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore; Additional reporting by Karen Jacobs in Atlanta; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Bernadette Baum and Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-denies-amr-ceo-20-million-severance-121734227--finance.html

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শুক্রবার, ১২ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Creative Market Previews Its API For A Digital Asset Marketplace With Photoshop Extension

Creative Market, the online store for creative digital assets, including graphics, themes, templates and fonts, this week introduced a new Photoshop extension that's designed to preview the power of its upcoming API. Creative Market already offers a central web-based store that acts almost like an Amazon for digital creative professionals, but its ultimate vision is much broader ? it hopes to give pros the opportunity to buy and sell their wares right where they're already doing their work, which is what the API is all about.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/l8EvfqybtSg/

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Lone Star suspect had 'fantasies of killing people and stabbing people' since he was a child

Lone Star College student Dylan Quick was arrested Tuesday after allegedly stabbing more than a dozen students, and authorities are now saying he had been planning the attack for a long time, having "had fantasies of stabbing people" since he was "in elementary school." NBC's Jay Gray reports.

By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

Shortly after 14 people were wounded on a Texas campus on Tuesday, Dylan Quick, the suspect in the attack, told investigators he had been fantasizing about fatal stabbings since he was a young boy, authorities said.

"He had fantasies of killing people and stabbing people," Sara Kinney, spokesperson for the Harris County district attorney's office, said. "He gave a lengthy, voluntary confession statement to the authorities in which he alluded to reading about killing people."

Investigators executed a search warrant on Quick's house, confiscating his computer and other items to try to get an idea of what might have prompted him to allegedly plan Tuesday's attack on Lone Star College in Cyprus, a suburb of Houston.

Quick, a 20-year-old Lone Star student, was arrested after the late morning stabbing spree, which left at least two victims in critical condition. He used a blade described by Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia on Wednesday as a "razor utility knife" made by X-Acto.

"There were pieces of blade in at least one victim, broken blade pieces in the area where the cutting occurred, and the handle to a razor-type knife was found in a backpack that Quick was carrying when he was arrested," according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

Quick had been fantasizing about stabbing people since he was 8 years old, Garcia told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday, adding that it appears the victims were randomly selected.

"He did share that he has been planning this event for some time," he said.?

Quick has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault. He was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation on Wednesday. Kinney said his family had hired an attorney for him, and he was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Thursday.

Harris County Sheriff's Office via Reuters

Neighbors who knew Quick as he was growing up described him as polite and helpful, according to?The Houston Chronicle, which reported he went to a mainstream school, Cy-Fair Independent School District in Houston, until 2004, and then was home-schooled. He was born hearing-impaired and received a cochlear implant when he was a child, the Chronicle reported.?

Investigators described Quick as matter-of-fact during their questioning, the sheriff said.

"He has been very forthcoming," Garcia said.

Tuesday's stabbings occurred at the school's CyFair campus, inside its health science building, on the first and second floors. The entire incident only lasted "a couple of minutes. That's how fast it happened," Garcia said.

Student Steve Maida?told NBC's Jay Gray that a group of students tackled Quick?when they saw what was happening.

?We pushed him down,?? ?Maida said. ?As soon as he knew he was caught, (he said) ?I give up. I give up.? I just sat on top of him and was like, ?Why? Why did you do this????

The majority of the wounds were to the shoulders, neck and face, witnesses said.

"This girl comes out and says, ?My friend?s been stabbed,??? Maida said. ?Then this other girl came out, and one of them had a hole in her cheek.??

Dr. Audre Levy, president of Lone Star College's CyFair campus, said those who knew Quick at school were shocked.

"There are no signs that he was a problem student," she said at Wednesday's news conference. "I do know that he worked in the library, and the library staff had very fond things to say about him."?

In January, three people were shot at a separate campus of Lone Star College. A federal official said those shootings appeared to be gang-related.

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Film review: Revolution - Montreal Gazette

Revolution

Three and a half stars out of five

Documentary

Directed by: Rob Stewart

Duration: 90 mins.

Parental guidance: Images of dead fish, and rabbits being preyed upon by lynx may be disturbing to young viewers.

Playing at: Colossus, Forum, Sph?retech and Taschereau cinemas

MONTREAL - ?We have a decision to make, and we don?t have much time.?

After revealing the devastating plight of the world?s shark population with his acclaimed 2007 documentary Sharkwater, Toronto director Rob Stewart looks at nothing less than the end of life as we know it with his urgent new film, Revolution.

The decision is whether we?re going to let the planet continue on its path toward self-destruction. It?s no secret that the environment is in great peril, and it?s getting worse by the minute. We know this; but why don?t we care? Or rather, why aren?t we doing anything about it?

Stewart makes an impassioned attempt to break past our apathy. There is a lot of bad news in Revolution; there is also a great love of the ocean, nature and all of the incredible creatures who inhabit it.

A charismatic storyteller, Stewart leads us on his personal journey that began as an animal-loving kid. He takes us through his experience touring Sharkwater, up to the aha moment when he realized the story was much bigger than sharks.

Why stop at sharks when we?re on track to eradicate all marine life by 2048, an audience member asks him at a Hong Kong screening, prompting him to look at the bigger picture.

Oceans cover two thirds of the planet, and hold 80 per cent of life on Earth, we learn. Coral reefs make up less than 1 per cent of the ocean floor, yet hold 25 per cent of its species and are the basis for 60 per cent of its fisheries. But the coral is dying, and the fish are disappearing in record numbers.

Stewart travels the globe to get the scoop on why, and what to do now. He heads to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia, where great expanses of coral are turning into chilling ?dead zones,? of which there are now 400 in the world. Our oceans have become 35 per cent more acidic, due to increased CO2 emissions ? a toxic shift that is depleting oxygen levels in the water and annihilating sea life.

In Papua New Guinea, we see pygmy sea horses and the amazing flamboyant cuttlefish, whose marvels Stewart explains with an infectious sense of wonder. Over to Madagascar, where deforestation is rampant, threatening the habitat of the trippy (and incredibly cute) lemurs

We are on the fast track to a sixth ?nature extinction,? Stewart says, unless we do something drastic. The solution is not complicated. ?We know what to do,? in the words of one interviewee. But there appears to be no political will to do it.

Canada doesn?t get off easy, getting blasted for its ravaging tarsands and lack of climate change policy.

Instead of giving up, Stewart turns things around, focusing on youth-led activist movements and urging viewers to join the fight against big business and apathetic government ? to stage the revolution that is desperately needed to save the planet before it?s too late.

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Review+Revolution+Documentary+makes+forceful/8229304/story.html

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ১১ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

In Venezuela election, food is a voting issue

In this April 6, 2013 photo, a customer points to fresh chicken at a food market in Caracas, Venezuela. Private food makers, large and small, often sell at a loss because of hundreds of price controls that the government imposed in a losing fight against runaway inflation. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

In this April 6, 2013 photo, customers choose tomatoes at a food market in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuelans complain that what goes into their Sunday dinner plate comes from abroad: Steak, from Brazil; plantains, the Dominican Republic; rice, South Africa; Parmesan cheese, Uruguay; oats, Chile. Even coffee, in a country famed for it, often is Colombian. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

In this April 6, 2013 photo, a customer looks at fresh fish for sale at a market in Caracas, Venezuela. The country of 30 million people imports nearly 70 percent of its food, including products it did not need to before Hugo Chavez became president, including beef, coffee and rice. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuelans complain that what goes into their Sunday dinner plate comes from abroad: Steak, from Brazil; plantains, the Dominican Republic; rice, South Africa; Parmesan cheese, Uruguay; oats, Chile. Even coffee, in a country famed for it, often is Colombian.

It's a complaint heard often these days as Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, seeks election against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. Under the socialist government, shoppers cannot count on finding sugar, cornmeal for Venezuela's beloved arepas and other goods when they go to market.

Those shoppers will be casting ballots Sunday in an election in which food security is a key issue, along with crime and power outages.

"You can't find anything," said Ermis Rodriguez, a 76-year-old retiree who walked away from the chicken legs on offer at a meat stand inside Caracas' bustling Guaicapuro Market. "I voted for Chavez, but I'm not voting for Maduro. Things are getting worse."

Chavez, who died March 5, made agrarian reform a pillar of his "revolution" and vowed to turn Venezuela into a self-sufficient, food-exporting power. His government expropriated 2.3 million hectares (5.7 million acres) of farmland over the last 12 years that he said were misused. He nationalized food-producing companies whose owners he claimed were gouging the people, conspiring against his government, or both. For some products such as rice and coffee, the government-controlled market share has ranged from 40 percent to 75 percent.

For the past seven years, Venezuela, a major oil exporter, has seen sporadic shortages of some basic foods like milk and butter. The country of 30 million people still imports nearly 70 percent of its food. And it has to import products it did not need to before Chavez, including beef, coffee and rice.

While Venezuela was nearly self-sufficient in beef 15 years ago, it now imports nearly half the beef it consumes, said Manuel Cipriano, president of the national cattle ranchers' association. The government and some pro-Chavez agricultural groups dispute that figure but still put it at least 30 percent. Last year alone, frozen beef imports increased nearly 150 percent, according to government figures posted on the ranchers' association's website. That has pushed up beef prices.

Gerardo Barreto, president of the Chamber of Industry of the central state of Carabobo, said Chavez gutted Venezuela's coffee industry by expropriating its major players, in one stroke diminishing and degrading the product as companies with decades of know-how were replaced by state conglomerates lacking expertise.

"Our coffee used to be excellent. Now it's a coffee worthy of the garbage," he said. "Because it doesn't come prepared or selected. The know-how has been lost."

Barreto said Chavez's expropriation of the seed and fertilizer company Agro Islena had also hurt agricultural production. Fertilizer imported by the government is now more expensive or can't be obtained, he said. "The entire chain of productivity was messed up," he said.

Sonia Pena, 50, eyes cuts of Brazilian beef in the Guaicapuro market. "It takes me all day, going from market to market, to get enough to feed my family each week," she said.

Capriles accuses the government of ruining the food market through nationalizations and what he calls ineptitude. He promises to end expropriations and promote dialogue between landowners and farmworkers. He says he will fix Venezuela's deteriorating rural roads, create a micro-lending program for small farms and establish agricultural teaching institutions in every region.

Venezuelan homes will "have refrigerators filled with good food, food made in Venezuela, food made by our farmworkers and not farmworkers from other countries," Capriles vowed during a campaign rally Sunday.

Chavez's proposed plan for his unfinished six-year term had similar proposals, including fixing roads, but the government plans to keep up expropriations.

Jose Agustin Campos, president of the pro-government National Confederation of Farmers and Ranchers, defended Chavez's policies at a news conference Tuesday. He said Chavez had reduced interest rates for agricultural loans to help farmers invest and imposed a minimum wage for rural workers on par with urban laborers to encourage the workforce to stay on the farms.

Campos also said dependence on food imports is an old problem that preceded Chavez.

Attempts at agrarian reform in the 1960s sputtered when the government redistributed land but failed to provide the new farmers with the expertise and capital needed to succeed, leading them to produce less. By the time Chavez was elected in 1999, a census had found that 90 percent of farmland given to the poor had returned to large landholders.

Chavez had promised not to make the same mistakes, but Venezuela's poor have continued to migrate to the cities; deprived of expertise, many expropriated farms produce less and less. Private food makers, large and small, often sell at a loss because of hundreds of price controls that Chavez imposed in a losing fight against runaway inflation. The government controls the foreign currency they need to buy foreign-made pesticides, fertilizers, animal food and machinery.

Maduro has insisted he will continue Chavez's legacy of state-sponsored supply for the poor. And last Thursday, he injected a new element into the campaign, accusing Venezuela's biggest private food producer, Alimentos Polar, of sabotaging the domestic food market, though he did not elaborate on how.

"Keep up your sabotage of the people's food," Maduro bellowed at a rally in the northern state of Carabobo. "That's OK. Everything in life has its end."

Polar employs about 48,000 people directly and indirectly in its foods division and accounts for roughly 10 percent of domestic food production, including grains, sauces, cheese, canned foods, jam, animal food and other products.

It issued an unusually strong statement Friday that called Maduro's remarks "threatening" and insisted it is producing at maximum capacity despite a web of government restrictions.

Polar said the government owes it $140 million in U.S. dollars for imports. It said the government decides where its products are shipped, "without taking into account consumer demand." It said the government has disrupted cornmeal inventories throughout Venezuela by demanding that Polar send most of it to Caracas.

Polar added that every food delivery it makes must be approved beforehand by the government. And it noted that official prices for many of its products have not changed in two years despite a recent devaluation of the bolivar currency and estimated inflation of 23 percent. The company said it is losing money on sales of some products, including precooked corn meal, rice, corn oil and pasta.

In a skewed and often irrational market, the vendors at Guaicapuro do what they can.

Dexnmit Gonzalez's family sells chicken and eggs at 50 percent more than official prices. The government-set prices are posted on a board he's flipped around so customers can't see them, but which can be quickly displayed should a price inspector come around.

"Between us," Gonzalez said, "we cannot sell at official prices."

On Saturday, many shoppers walked away from a display case half-stocked with scrawny chicken breasts. Gonzalez brought out a healthy chicken breast and held it in his palms. "This is very scarce," he said. "Nothing's guaranteed."

Across the way, Rocky Galviz, 42, sells pig feet, cuts of meat and turkey beneath a sign urging shoppers to denounce price gouging to the "Institute for the Defense of People Seeking Goods and Services." Galviz confides he must sell his Brazilian meat at 50 percent above official prices to make ends meet.

The government can sell its own imports of Brazilian meat at state prices, Galviz complained.

"That is unfair competition," he said.

_____

Associated Press Writers Alexandra Olson in Caracas and Frank Bajak in Valencia, Venezuela, contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-10-Venezuela-Foreign%20Food%20Plate/id-fa779ceefdac4f6a8db94fbf348c4984

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