Large Newspapers Category Finalists Ken Bensinger for "Wheels of Fortune" in Los Angeles Times David Kocieniewski for "But Nobody Pays That..." in The New York Times Marcus Walker, Charles Forelle, Stacy Meichtry, Matthew Karnitschnig, David Enrich, Brian Blackstone and David Gauthier-Villars for "European Disunion" in The Wall Street Journal Brody Mullins, Susan Pulliam, Steve Eder, Michael Rothfeld, Jenny Strasburg and Vanessa O'Connell for "Inside Track" in The Wall Street Journal Medium & Small Newspapers Category Finalists Jeff Horwitz for "Banks Took Billions in Insurance Kickbacks" in American Banker Raquel Rutledge, Rick Barrett, John Diedrich, Ben Poston and Mike de Sisti for "Shattered Trust" in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Spencer Soper and Scott Kraus for "Inside Amazon's Warehouse" in The Morning Call Charles Piller and Robert Lewis ... Continue reading →
Joel Saget/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFacebook pulled it off.As investors raced to get shares, the sprawling social network raised $16 billion on Thursday, in an initial public offering that valued Facebook at $104 billion.The I.P.O. signals a rapid evolution for the company. In just eight years, Facebook has gone from a scrappy college service founded in a Harvard dormitory to the third-largest public offering in the history of the United States, behind General Motors and Visa. Investors, who are paying $38 a share for the offering, now consider Facebook more stalwart than start-up. At $104 billion, the social network’s market value is higher than those of McDonald’s, Citigroup, Amazon.com and all but a handful of other American companies.“Facebook is here to stay,” said Navin Chaddha, ... Continue reading →
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Your morning cup of coffee may start to taste even better after a major government study found that frequent coffee drinkers have a lower risk of dying from a variety of diseases, compared with people who drink little or no coffee.The report, published online in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, analyzed the coffee-drinking habits of more than 400,000 men and women ages 50 to 71, making it the largest-ever study of the relationship between coffee consumption and health.Previous studies have offered conflicting results on the relative benefits or harms associated with regular coffee consumption. While coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant that may temporarily increase heart rate and blood pressure in some people, coffee also contains hundreds of unique compounds ... Continue reading →
Nearly 200 students who took the SAT at a Brooklyn private school this month had their scores invalidated by the company that administers the test, apparently because some students were seated too closely together, school officials said Wednesday. The decision enraged administrators, students and parents at the school, Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, who said they were being punished for a technicality. Students who needed the results for their college applications will have to take a new test, at no cost. “We are disciplining the people responsible for the administration of the test and making sure these adjustments are made,” said Bruce Dennis, the head of Packer. “But all of that could have been done without invalidating the test. To do this to 200 ... Continue reading →
SAN FRANCISCO – Having kids may not make us miserable after all.The conventional wisdom that's developed over the past few decades — based on early research — has said parents are less happy, more depressed and have less-satisfying marriages than their childless counterparts.But now, two new studies presented as part of the Population Association of America's annual meeting suggest that earlier findings in several studies weren't so clear-cut and may, in fact, be flawed. The newer analyses presented this week use analytical methods based on data from almost 130,000 adults around the globe — including more than 52,000 parents — and the conclusions aren't so grim. They say that parents today may indeed be happier than non-parents and that parental happiness levels — while they ... Continue reading →
In February 2011, Nicole Smolowitz’s son was admitted to the Mandell School on the Upper West Side. She signed a contract and paid the $7,500 deposit. By late April, the family’s financial situation had changed, and private school was no longer an option. Ms. Smolowitz called the school to say her son would not be able to attend. She did not expect to get her deposit back — but she was told she had to pay the remaining $26,250, as well. “It’s April,” she said she told them. “I will find someone for you to take my child’s spot.” The school told her that was not how things were done. Then, in September, Mandell sued. For most parents, getting their child into a private school ... Continue reading →
By David Weidner, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Sallie Krawcheck insists she’s not responsible for the Wall Street failings that happened on her watch as one of the industry’s most powerful executives. In fact, even though she’s not working on Wall Street today, Krawcheck says she’s still an advocate for the investor. But don’t take my word for it. Check out her Twitter feed. See @SallieKrawcheck on Twitter. Reuters Sallie Krawcheck On it, the same Sallie Krawcheck who held senior-level positions at B. of A. /quotes/zigman/190927/quotes/nls/bac BAC +0.06% and Citi /quotes/zigman/5065548/quotes/nls/c C +1.58% is — according to the pro-Sallie camp — continuing the good fight against bank greed and for fair dealing. She told me, “Given my experiences in the industry — as research analyst ... Continue reading →
