Despite the overwhelming din of right-wing noise, the President gave a speech. It’s one worth watching. Speaking to a fired-up crowd in Ohio at the Brent Spence Bridge, the President gave his best shot at getting people to understand the value of shoring up our crumbling infrastructure, while bringing back echoes of Ronald Reagan’s speech at the Berlin Wall. The gloves are off in this battle, and anyone who doubted this President’s will to fight should rethink that idea. No more compromising, no more calling out of “Congress”. It’s all about Republicans and Republican (lack of) leadership. Here’s the snippet of the transcript where he calls them out by name: So my question is, what’s Congress waiting for? Why is it taking so long? Now, the bridge behind us just happens to connect the state that’s home to the Speaker of the House — AUDIENCE: Booo — THE PRESIDENT: — with the home state of the Republican leader in the Senate. AUDIENCE: Booo — THE PRESIDENT: Now, that’s just a coincidence. (Laughter.) Purely accidental that that happened. (Laughter.) But part of the reason I came here is because Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell, those are the two most powerful Republicans in government. They can either kill this jobs bill, or they can help pass this jobs bill. (Applause.) And I know these men care about their states. They care about businesses; they care about workers here. I can’t imagine that the Speaker wants to represent a state where nearly one in four bridges are classified as substandard — one in four. I know that when Senator McConnell visited the closed bridge in Kentucky, he said that, “Roads and bridges are not partisan in Washington.” That’s great. I know that Paul Ryan, the Republican in charge of the budget process, recently said that “you can’t deny that infrastructure does creates jobs.” That’s what he said. Well, if that’s the case, there’s no reason for Republicans in Congress to stand in the way of more construction projects. There’s no reason to stand in the way of more jobs. Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell, help us rebuild this bridge. (Applause.) Help us rebuild America. Help us put construction workers back to work. (Applause.) Pass this bill. It’s past time, in my opinion, for us to stand up and get this President’s back. We can either let him give these speeches and pretend he isn’t, or we can start trying to get past the ridiculous right-wing nonsense flooding every airwave in the land and put some eyes and ears on what the man is saying. We need this bill. We need these infrastructure projects. The right-wing took right on off today on how the Brent Spence Bridge wouldn’t be eligible under the President’s proposal. So what? Republicans are in charge of the House, let them amend it to include it! If the damn bridge needs to be rebuilt, then they should be responsible enough to include provisions to rebuild it. For way too long, Republicans have owned all of the narratives about spending and the economy, but narratives aren’t fact, and the facts are pretty clear on who is responsible for keeping it suppressed. This isn’t a question of Keynes versus Friedman at this point. It’s a question of supply and demand, which will remain low until jobs are available. Infrastructure spending is one way to create jobs and create them rapidly. As Robert Reich pointed out, we could actually do an entire remake of the WPA right now and it probably wouldn’t be enough, but still, it would stimulate the economy. Here’s another classic moment: Now, the Republicans, when I talked about this earlier in the week, they said, well, this is class warfare. You know what, if asking a billionaire to pay their fair share of taxes, to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare, then you know what, I’m a warrior for the middle class. (Applause.) I’m happy to fight for the middle class. I’m happy to fight for working people. (Applause.) Because the only warfare I’ve seen is the battle against the middle class over the last 10, 15 years. I would have stretched that back farther, but I’m guessing he didn’t want to step on Bill Clinton. Clinton, by the way, had this to say about the ridiculous austerity “screw them all” tea party nonsense: You know, there’s not a single solitary example on the planet, not one, of a country that is succesful because the economy has triumphed over the government and choked it off and driven the tax rates to zero, driven the regulations to nonexistent and abolished all government programs, except for defense, so people in my income group never have to pay a nickel to see a cow jump over the moon. There is no example of a succesful country that looks like that. President Obama is doing what everyone said he should have done during the debt-ceiling debate. I am of the opinion that there was a broader strategy to what he did there and what he is now doing here — a carrot and stick strategy. But we are past the debt ceiling debate and onto one that will, in my opinion, be a make-or-break debate. He can’t stand out there and call for people to “pass the whole bill” or “rebuild this bridge” if we’re not behind him. If his speech doesn’t inspire you, and the insanity of the last three Republican debates don’t do it, maybe John Dean’s warning about the resurgence of Nixonian politics on the right, and their efforts to game American democracy will convince you, beginning with his analysis of how the media has been gamed via advertising revenue: There is a second reason for the disinterest, too—and an even more troubling one. Today’s mainstream news organizations are largely controlled by major corporations, which are profit-driven like never before. Most members of corporate management lean toward Republican views, and while top corporate executives typically give their news editors and producers great leeway, news organizations do not go out of their way to annoy their corporate bosses. The big money that is involved in reshaping America’s political processes has been, and will continue to be, a wonderful source of revenue for these organizations. News organizations need advertisers, and they love all the disingenuous advertisements that this political undertaking is generating. To those of you who might be inclined to say that I am writing from a purely partisan standpoint, rest assured that indeed, I am. Because I see absolutely no reason to give these insane, power-hungry, greedy people any more traction than they already have. You don’t have to love everything this president has done to understand that we’re on the precipice of a very, very deep, dark chasm, a place where no bridge will save us.
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It is understood Mishcon de Reya lawyer asked to to go to the Met with allegations made by Goody’s mother The Metropolitan police are to be asked to investigate allegations that reality TV star Jade Goody’s phone was hacked while she was dying of cancer. It is understood Charlotte Harris, the Mishcon de Reya lawyer representing several phone-hacking claimants, has been asked to represent her and to go to the Met with the allegations made by Goody’s mother, Jackiey Budden. Budden believes both her and her daughter’s phones were hacked, but did nothing about it until July this year when she read about murder victim Milly Dowler’s phone messages being intercepted by the News of the World. She could not understand how journalists were getting hold of information and, when she read the Dowler story, believed it could have been through phone-hacking. “She [Jackiey] will be going to the police. She believes her phone was hacked by the News of the World, and Jade’s. Jade told me ‘I’m convinced my phone is being hacked’,” said Max Clifford, who handled Goody’s PR after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August 2008. “Jade had said to me on many occasions that someone had been bugging her phone because of stuff that was coming out in the papers. She would say, ‘I’ve had these conversations and there’s no way any of these people would have revealed them’,” added Clifford. “This was all while she was ill. I think it’s absolutely disgusting.” Clifford said Goody was convinced calls she made to her mother in August 2008 from the Big Brother set in India to tell her she had cancer had been hacked. “She said to me ‘I think my phone is being bugged’,” he added. The PR man, who settled his own News of the World phone-hacking action for more than £1m last year, said the former Big Brother contestant was an obvious target – in the months between being diagnosed and her death in March 2009, there was “a feeding frenzy” and “immense interest” in getting exclusives about her personal life. If the allegations against the News of the World are substantiated, it would increase the duration of the now defunct News International title’s allegedly illegal activities. Up to now the News of the World has been implicated in phone-hacking allegations up to mid 2006 when Glenn Mulcaire, the phone investigator who formally worked for the title, was arrested. Mishcon de Reya said it “could not confirm” whether or not it had been instructed by Budden. News International declined to comment, but a spokeswoman said the company continued to cooperate fully with police investigation. Goody lived the last seven years of her life in the spotlight, with every twist and turn documented or exposed in the tabloids from her first appearance in Channel 4′s Big Brother in 2002, when she was branded “Miss Piggy” by the tabloids, to the day she died. Her on-off relationship with the father of her two children, a miscarriage, and then her cancer were all covered in minute detail by the tabloids, with 140 stories alone featuring Goody in the News of the World between diagnosis and her death seven months later. But she also regularly co-operated with the now defunct News International paper in “buy-ups” – deals in which she would talk about her life in exchange for payment. In a separate development on Friday, the actress Sienna Miller revealed that she accused her mother, her sister and her former boyfriend Jude Law of selling stories about her to the press because she could not understand how journalists were getting information about her private life. “I changed my mobile number three times in three months. There were clicks on the line. I would pick up the phone and it would drop, there were messages I would never get, coupled with articles [containing private information] coming out every week. “So I started to do tests. I would leave messages on people’s phones, like we’re going to rent this house or whatever, and it would appear next day in the papers,” she told the Independent . • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Phone hacking News of the World National newspapers Newspapers Jade Goody James Robinson Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk
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Coroner gives first spontaneous combustion verdict in 25-year career after man found dead in unexplained circumstances An Irish pensioner found burnt to death at his home died from spontaneous human combustion, an inquest has concluded. The West Galway coroner, Kieran McLoughlin, said there was no other adequate explanation for the death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, also known as Micheal O Fatharta. He said it was the first time in his 25 years as a coroner that he had returned such a verdict. An Irish police crime scene investigator and a senior fire officer told the inquest in Galway that they could not explain how Faherty burned to death. Both said they had not come across such a set of circumstances before. The assistant chief fire officer, Gerry O’Malley, said fire officers were satisfied that an open fire in Faherty’s fireplace had not been the cause of the blaze. No trace of an accelerant was found at the scene, and there was no sign that anyone else had entered or left the house in Ballybane, Galway city. The inquest heard that asmoke alarm in the home of Faherty’s neighbour Tom Mannion had gone off at about 3am on 22 December last year. Mannion said he went outside and saw heavy smoke coming from Faherty’s house. He banged on the front door but got no response, and then banged on the door of another neighbour. Gardai and the fire brigade arrived quickly at the scene. Garda Gerard O’Callaghan said he went to the house after the fire had been extinguished and found Faherty lying on his back in a sitting room, with his head closest to the fireplace. The rest of the house had sustained only smoke damage. O’Callaghan told the coroner that the only damage was to Faherty’s remains, the floor underneath him and the ceiling above. . The inquest heard that fire officers had been unable to determine the cause or the origin of the fire. The state pathologist, Prof Grace Callagy, noted in her post-mortem findings that Faherty had Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, but concluded he had not died from heart failure. His body had been extensively burned and, because of the extensive damage to the organs, it was not possible to determine the cause of death. McLoughlin said: “This fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation.” Ireland Europe Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Coroner gives first spontaneous combustion verdict in 25-year career after man found dead in unexplained circumstances An Irish pensioner found burnt to death at his home died from spontaneous human combustion, an inquest has concluded. The West Galway coroner, Kieran McLoughlin, said there was no other adequate explanation for the death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, also known as Micheal O Fatharta. He said it was the first time in his 25 years as a coroner that he had returned such a verdict. An Irish police crime scene investigator and a senior fire officer told the inquest in Galway that they could not explain how Faherty burned to death. Both said they had not come across such a set of circumstances before. The assistant chief fire officer, Gerry O’Malley, said fire officers were satisfied that an open fire in Faherty’s fireplace had not been the cause of the blaze. No trace of an accelerant was found at the scene, and there was no sign that anyone else had entered or left the house in Ballybane, Galway city. The inquest heard that asmoke alarm in the home of Faherty’s neighbour Tom Mannion had gone off at about 3am on 22 December last year. Mannion said he went outside and saw heavy smoke coming from Faherty’s house. He banged on the front door but got no response, and then banged on the door of another neighbour. Gardai and the fire brigade arrived quickly at the scene. Garda Gerard O’Callaghan said he went to the house after the fire had been extinguished and found Faherty lying on his back in a sitting room, with his head closest to the fireplace. The rest of the house had sustained only smoke damage. O’Callaghan told the coroner that the only damage was to Faherty’s remains, the floor underneath him and the ceiling above. . The inquest heard that fire officers had been unable to determine the cause or the origin of the fire. The state pathologist, Prof Grace Callagy, noted in her post-mortem findings that Faherty had Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, but concluded he had not died from heart failure. His body had been extensively burned and, because of the extensive damage to the organs, it was not possible to determine the cause of death. McLoughlin said: “This fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation.” Ireland Europe Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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People will blog about almost anything these days. Case in point: A man is attempting to live off of his wife’s breast milk and posting his daily experiences on a blog called, “Don’t Have A Cow, Man.” A father protesting the dairy industry, perhaps? Or one trying to cure his cancer by supplementing his diet with breast milk like this guy did? Not so much. Curtis’s wife, Katie, just has an ample supply: she pumped every two hours following three pregnancies and premature babies who were in the neonatal care unit. She has since managed to fill up a freezer — seven cubic feet deep mind you — that the couple purchased specifically for her excess milk. The two claim that they had trouble donating the milk due to the costs associated with doing so, and on top of that, Curtis says it helps his digestive issues. Feeling annoyed yet? You’re not the only one. “Please donate the milk!! Seriously. You have no idea how many women you are offending and infuriating with this crazy scheme!!” writes one respondent on the couple’s blog. The outrage could stem from a variety of factors. For starters, despite (or maybe because of) the couple denying it, this experiment is going to sound to some like a gimmick to get attention and a subsequent book deal (The couple specifically say on their website that they are not doing this for attention.) That five-minutes-of-fame issue aside, what about breast milk being in high demand both at home and abroad — it can sell for around $4 an ounce. In addition to all the mothers whose supplies run out or who can’t breastfeed for medical reasons, there are orphaned children in Africa whose mothers have died of AIDS. Several organizations are dedicated to providing them with milk. Last May, Wired reported about the booming internet market for breast milk. One woman estimated she could make $20,000 a year selling her milk. Curtis and Katie say they tried to find needy recipients for the milk, but that each one fell through. One woman wanted the couple to pay shipping costs, another wanted a medical test done that insurance wouldn’t cover. The couple also argued that milk banks would not accept their donation. They pointed out that donating couples don’t get a cut of the profits. Now, women are practically begging them for the milk on their own site. “I want that milk! Where are you located!?!?! (I have a four month old son who survives on donor milk)” wrote one woman on the couple’s blog. Another, an adoptive mother, offered to drive to their house from Texas and pick it up herself. So are there any medical benefits to Curtis living off the milk that might redeem the experiment? It seems unlikely. “Biologically, just because something is good for babies does not mean it is good for adults,” said Dr. Tonse Raju, a pediatrician and a neonatologist with the National Institutes of Health, who pointed out that all mammals wean from their mothers eventually. Calves eventually move on to grass, he said, and after six months, human babies need to start eating solid foods. Raju pointed out that breast milk may be calorically sufficient if an adult drinks enough of it, but it would still be deficient in several nutrients like protein and fiber. A chronic lack of either can cause a host of health problems, including harm to the liver, kidneys and an increased risk of intestinal cancer. “Human milk has evolved to support the baby’s needs during the years of the baby’s growth. When you begin to grow bigger, you have different needs,” said Raju.
Continue reading …Prez In Cincy: ‘Help Us Rebuild This Bridge, Pass This Bill’; Did AP’s Kuhnhenn Fabricate a Qualifying Statement?
September 22, 2011 No Comment
Earlier this evening (at NewsBusters ; at BizzyBlog ), I cited a few of very many examples where the press has not hesitated during the Obama years, and really since Barack Obama became the frontrunner for the Democratic Party's nomination in 2008, to engage in uncalled-for creativity to avoid calling a statement made a lie or an unlawful action illegal. One of the lastest: A Raleigh New & Observer reporter concluded that in implying that North Carolina has bridges in imminent danger of falling — specifically, by asking his audience: “Why would we wait to act until another bridge falls?” — Obama “may have” merely “over-suggested the risk to public safety.” Jim Kuhnhenn's report at the Associated Press tonight on the President's visit to the Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River connecting Cincinnati to Covington, Kentucky appears to have taken the cover-up of the president's misleading statements to a new level, as seen in the following excerpted paragraphs (bolds are mine): Obama challenges Boehner, McConnell on home turf Needling his top Republican adversaries on their own turf, President Barack Obama stood in the shadow of an outdated and heavily used Ohio River bridge Thursday and called his rivals out by name to demand action on his $447 billion jobs bill. Making a point to choose a bridge linking House Speaker John Boehner's home state of Ohio with Kentucky, the home of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, Obama struck a cheeky tone that underscored the politics of the moment. “Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell, help us rebuild this bridge,” he declared. “Help us rebuild America. Help us put construction workers back to work. Pass this bill.” … Obama said his legislation would put construction workers back to work around the country on projects like the Brent Spence Bridge, but the White House readily conceded that the choice of the aging span south of Cincinnati was symbolic. The bridge is scheduled to be repaired anyway starting in 2015. “We have never suggested that ground would be broken on this project immediately,” press secretary Jay Carney said on Air Force One en route to Ohio , though he said the president's job bill could speed up that timeline. … By selecting Ohio, Obama also raised his profile in politically important Ohio, a state that he won in 2008 but that George W. Bush also won twice. The Cincinnati Enquirer, however, greeted his visit with a downbeat banner front page headline: “Obama visit won't build new bridge.” Obama supposedly “symbolic” howler was obvious enough to wake up the people at the Cincinnati Enquirer says something about the degree of the deception. The Editorial Department, however, allowed itself to be impressed by a bunch of words, claiming this evening that Obama's speech “helps bridge (the) action gap.” Zheesh. But the main points here are directed at the AP's Kuhnhenn, specifically these: In the speech, as you quoted it and as it appears at the White House web site , the President implored John Boehner and Mitch McConnell to “Help us build this bridge. … Pass this bill.” As a result, anyone hearing only Obama's speech who is otherwise unaware of the truth has every reason to believe that passing the American Jobs Act would ensure that the Brent Spence Bridge gets replaced. It wouldn't. You said so yourself. Later in your report, you tell readers that “Obama said his legislation would put construction workers back to work around the country on projects like the Brent Spence Bridge.” To whom did he say that? I read Obama's entire speech (my pain and suffering compensation request is in the mail), and Obama said nothing of the kind. As stated, anyone there uninfluenced by other news sources would have left believing that the Jobs Act, if passed, will replace the bridge. It won't. You said so yourself. Did Mr. Obama tell you, Mr. Kuhnhenn, that only projects like Brent Spence are in the Jobs Act? If he did, where are the quotation marks? If you can make the “like” statement because of a separate private conversation with Obama, you needed to tell us that. Otherwise, readers have to assume that you believe it was in the speech. It wasn't. Absent evidence to the contrary, tonight Jim Kuhnhenn covered up a bold-faced falsehood stated by the President of the United States in a public speech to thousands by creating out of thin air a separate qualifying statement the President never made, for no apparent reason other than to make readers believe that Mr. Obama didn't “symbolically” lie in the first place when he said: “Help us build this bridge. … Pass this bill.” Again, absent evidence to the contrary, he did. Chalk up another probable entry into the Obama Administration Whitewash Hall of Shame. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .
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• Former eBay boss chosen to replace Léo Apotheker at HP • Lawyers will be studying small print in Autonomy offer Léo Apotheker has been fired as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard and replaced with Meg Whitman, the giant technology company announced on Thursday evening. Whitman, 55, the former chief executive of eBay and candidate for California governor, and a member of the HP board since January, was confirmed as the replacement following a board meeting yesterday. Apothekerhad been at the helm at HP for only 11 months. Rumours about Apotheker’s replacement began swirling on Wednesday and came to a head in the meeting, the outcome of which was announced after stock markets had closed. The stock was down by about 1% in after-hours trading. Ray Lane, who has moved from non-executive chairman to executive chairman of HP’s board, said: “We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead.” Lane said the board believes “the job of the HP CEO now requires additional attributes”. The board also plans to appoint an independent director. HP is one of the world’s biggest technology companies, with more than 320,000 staff, annual revenues of $120bn (£78bn) – mainly from large “enterprise” customers – and profits of about $5.5bn. The management shake-up represents yet another turnaround strategy at one of Silicon Valley’s oldest – but most publicly dysfunctional – firms. Since joining HP in November, Apotheker’s strategic decisions had been a drastic reversal of the company’s self-image as an inventor of hardware: he announced that it would spin off its PC business, the world’s biggest, closed down its TouchPad tablet and webOS division, and announced a move into services, including the purchase of the British company Autonomy for $11.7bn. It is unclear whether the latter purchase will go ahead under Whitman. HP has four main divisions: Services; Storage & Networking; Personal Systems Group; and Imaging & Printing. Of those, PSG, which is the world’s largest supplier of PCs, is the biggest by revenue – but its 6% profit margin is the lowest within the company by some way. The Guardian’s own analysis shows that if the PSG division could be spun off without harming other divisions, HP’s overall profitability would rise from 7.7% to 12%. But investors were not pleased by the prospect held out by Apotheker, who got terrible ratings from his own staff. The abrupt dismissal follows the revelation that some members of the board did not even meet Apotheker before approving his hiring in late November because they were “tired of all the infighting” that had led up to the dismissal of the previous incumbent, Mark Hurd, in August 2010. That in turn is almost certain to lead to lawsuits from disgruntled stockholders who have seen the value of their holdings fall by nearly 50% in Apotheker’s time in charge of the company. It already faces such a lawsuit filed earlier this week, over the closure of the webOS division, on the basis that it had previously suggested the $1.2bn acquisition of webOS with Palm in July 2010 would play a vital part in the company’s future. Instead Apotheker shut it within 48 days of the TouchPad going on sale. Whitman has been a member of the HP board since January, and so is not tainted by the decision last year to hire Apotheker. But members of the tech community were doubtful that she was the right person for the job. Charles House, a veteran HP engineer, told the New York Times that she would be “an unmitigated disaster”, while Roger McNamee, managing director of Elevation Partners – which sold an interest in Palm when it was acquired by HP in 2009 for more than $1bn – said that “the notion that HP can be fixed by adding a celebrity chief executive is laughable.” Wall Street should react favourably to a new leader, even if it would be HP’s third in six years, after Carly Fiorina (fired in 2005) and Mark Hurd (fired in 2010). But not all analysts were convinced. Although Whitman, 55, grew eBay from a 30-strong company with $86m revenues to one with 15,000 people and almost $8bn revenues, she also oversaw the ineffective $2.8bn purchase of Skype, and left in 2008. Her strengths are consumer-facing, not in the enterprise. Carter Lusher, chief analyst at Ovum, said: “Whitman would do little for the confidence of HP’s enterprise customers. Whitman’s expertise lies primarily in the consumer market, and an interim leader will just prolong the sense of uncertainty.” Apotheker, who joined from the customer management software company SAP in early November, was unable to even turn to his employees for support: his approval rating among them was just 25%, according to the recruitment site Glassdoor. Hewlett-Packard Autonomy Technology sector Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Former eBay boss chosen to replace Léo Apotheker at HP • Lawyers will be studying small print in Autonomy offer Léo Apotheker has been fired as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard and replaced with Meg Whitman, the giant technology company announced on Thursday evening. Whitman, 55, the former chief executive of eBay and candidate for California governor, and a member of the HP board since January, was confirmed as the replacement following a board meeting yesterday. Apothekerhad been at the helm at HP for only 11 months. Rumours about Apotheker’s replacement began swirling on Wednesday and came to a head in the meeting, the outcome of which was announced after stock markets had closed. The stock was down by about 1% in after-hours trading. Ray Lane, who has moved from non-executive chairman to executive chairman of HP’s board, said: “We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead.” Lane said the board believes “the job of the HP CEO now requires additional attributes”. The board also plans to appoint an independent director. HP is one of the world’s biggest technology companies, with more than 320,000 staff, annual revenues of $120bn (£78bn) – mainly from large “enterprise” customers – and profits of about $5.5bn. The management shake-up represents yet another turnaround strategy at one of Silicon Valley’s oldest – but most publicly dysfunctional – firms. Since joining HP in November, Apotheker’s strategic decisions had been a drastic reversal of the company’s self-image as an inventor of hardware: he announced that it would spin off its PC business, the world’s biggest, closed down its TouchPad tablet and webOS division, and announced a move into services, including the purchase of the British company Autonomy for $11.7bn. It is unclear whether the latter purchase will go ahead under Whitman. HP has four main divisions: Services; Storage & Networking; Personal Systems Group; and Imaging & Printing. Of those, PSG, which is the world’s largest supplier of PCs, is the biggest by revenue – but its 6% profit margin is the lowest within the company by some way. The Guardian’s own analysis shows that if the PSG division could be spun off without harming other divisions, HP’s overall profitability would rise from 7.7% to 12%. But investors were not pleased by the prospect held out by Apotheker, who got terrible ratings from his own staff. The abrupt dismissal follows the revelation that some members of the board did not even meet Apotheker before approving his hiring in late November because they were “tired of all the infighting” that had led up to the dismissal of the previous incumbent, Mark Hurd, in August 2010. That in turn is almost certain to lead to lawsuits from disgruntled stockholders who have seen the value of their holdings fall by nearly 50% in Apotheker’s time in charge of the company. It already faces such a lawsuit filed earlier this week, over the closure of the webOS division, on the basis that it had previously suggested the $1.2bn acquisition of webOS with Palm in July 2010 would play a vital part in the company’s future. Instead Apotheker shut it within 48 days of the TouchPad going on sale. Whitman has been a member of the HP board since January, and so is not tainted by the decision last year to hire Apotheker. But members of the tech community were doubtful that she was the right person for the job. Charles House, a veteran HP engineer, told the New York Times that she would be “an unmitigated disaster”, while Roger McNamee, managing director of Elevation Partners – which sold an interest in Palm when it was acquired by HP in 2009 for more than $1bn – said that “the notion that HP can be fixed by adding a celebrity chief executive is laughable.” Wall Street should react favourably to a new leader, even if it would be HP’s third in six years, after Carly Fiorina (fired in 2005) and Mark Hurd (fired in 2010). But not all analysts were convinced. Although Whitman, 55, grew eBay from a 30-strong company with $86m revenues to one with 15,000 people and almost $8bn revenues, she also oversaw the ineffective $2.8bn purchase of Skype, and left in 2008. Her strengths are consumer-facing, not in the enterprise. Carter Lusher, chief analyst at Ovum, said: “Whitman would do little for the confidence of HP’s enterprise customers. Whitman’s expertise lies primarily in the consumer market, and an interim leader will just prolong the sense of uncertainty.” Apotheker, who joined from the customer management software company SAP in early November, was unable to even turn to his employees for support: his approval rating among them was just 25%, according to the recruitment site Glassdoor. Hewlett-Packard Autonomy Technology sector Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Speaker of the House John Boehner says there is no chance the federal government will run out of money next week after Republicans suffered a rare and embarrassing defeat on a temporary spending bill. (Sept. 22)
Continue reading …Stefanie Dickinson, An Ellicot School Board Member, Has Been Arrested For Sexting A 14-Year-Old Boy
September 22, 2011 No Comment
Police have arrested a school board member for sexting a 14-year-old. The sexts were discovered by the victim’s sister, who became suspicious after witnessing Stefanie Dickinson, 37, hugging her brother multiple times. Dickinson is a sitting board member and treasurer of Ellicot School District-22, near Colorado Springs. Deputies told the Colorado Springs Gazette that they believe Dickinson had been texting the boy since he accompanied her, her husband and two sons on a camping trip to Lake Meredith in mid or late August. After the trip Dickinson allegedly asked the boy for his cell phone number so that she could send him photos from the trip, but the arrest warrant says that Dickinson texted him that she wanted to sneak out of the house to meet with him. Other text messages found on the boy’s phone said, “I just want u,” and on Sept. 2 they got more explicit. In the message, Dickinson talks about having sex and texts, “Baby I will rock ur f***ing world!” In another message Dickinson’s text reads, “You can’t tell anyone about this at all because I could lose my family.” A report cited by KDVR says that the boy told deputies that he felt uncomfortable, and says in the arrest warrant that she would frequently come to his football games and “would always tell me I have a sexy smile”. Dickinson posted a $3,000 bail, and is due back in court next week. SLIDESHOW: Teachers Behaving Badly: Student-Teacher Sex Scandals
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