by Steve Myers Published May 24, 2012 9:41 am A memo from Times-Picayune publisher Ashton Phelps confirms that the newspaper will cease daily publication, moving to three days a week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The memo also confirms staff cuts, though it doesn’t say how large they will be. Press reports have necessitated our giving you this news now. We realize it will make people anxious, but we do not know enough today to be able to announce how the changes will affect individual employees. We will move as quickly as possible in the coming weeks to make that determination and to inform each of you personally. The memo from Phelps: To all employees: We wanted to make you aware of a news story that ... Continue reading →
BY DREW HINSHAW AND LIAM PLEVEN DAKAR, Senegal—A military revolt in the tiny African nation of Guinea-Bissau is unsettling the market for prized cashew nuts. Some of the world's tastiest cashews are rotting in roadside piles on rural byways leading to and from the capital of the wetland nation, where a recent military uprising has left farmers stranded with no way to ship their nuts to the Indian factories that steam the cashew out of its poisonous shell. On April 13, soldiers kidnapped Prime Minister Carlos Gomes, Jr.—for the second time in two years—weeks before he was set to be elected president of Africa's fifth-biggest cashew ...BY DREW HINSHAW AND LIAM PLEVEN DAKAR, Senegal—A military revolt in the tiny African nation of Guinea-Bissau is unsettling ... Continue reading →
Press Release 12-097 Seagrasses Can Store as Much Carbon as Forests Researchers find that the global carbon pool in seagrass beds is as much as 19.9 billion metric tons May 21, 2012Seagrasses are a vital part of the solution to climate change and, per unit area, seagrass meadows can store up to twice as much carbon as the world's temperate and tropical forests.So report researchers publishing a paper this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.The paper, "Seagrass Ecosystems as a Globally Significant Carbon Stock," is the first global analysis of carbon stored in seagrasses.The results demonstrate that coastal seagrass beds store up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, mostly in the soils beneath them.As a comparison, a typical terrestrial forest stores about ... Continue reading →
By Sam Favate Associated Press President Ronald Reagan in 1988 Alec Baldwin�s Jack Donaghy of the TV show 30 Rock once received �the cufflinks Reagan was buried in� as a birthday present, but a true-life example of celebrity collecting is even more bizarre. PFC Auctions, based in Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, is selling a vial of blood it claims belonged to Ronald Reagan, taken while he was recovering from a 1981 assassination attempt, The Washington Post reported. The sale has been denounced by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in Simi Valley, Calif., which issued a statement calling it �a craven act,� and vowing to �use every legal means to stop its sale or purchase.” The auction house claims the vial is being sold on ... Continue reading →
By Joe Palazzolo AFP/Getty Images U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald Patrick Fitzgerald, arguably the most�conspicuous�of the nation’s 92 U.S. attorneys, and certainly the longest-serving, is leaving his post after nearly 11 years, his office said in a statement Wednesday. Mr. Fitzgerald, the top federal prosecutor in Chicago, was made famous for his role as lead prosecutor in the trial of I Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, who was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s identity. His highlight reel also includes overseeing the prosecutions of ex-Illinois governors Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan and media mogul Conrad Black.�Then there’s his record as prosecutor in New York’s Southern District, where he�participated�in terrorism trials stemming from the ... Continue reading →
By Reed Albergotti iStockPhoto Most people who work in office buildings think very little about the key cards they stuff into their wallets or hang around their necks on lanyards — except when they come into work or come back from a lunch break. But they’re likely to play a central role in the insider trading trial of former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta, unfolding in Manhattan federal court this week. It’s becoming clear that the government got hold of key card records at the Galleon Group hedge fund and plans to use them to corroborate Mr. Gupta’s location during certain conference calls and allegedly illicit trades. Mr. Gupta is charged with conspiracy and securities fraud for allegedly passing secret stock tips to Galleon founder ... Continue reading →
BY DAVID BENOIT Three Facebook Inc. investors filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, alleging the company and its underwriters failed to properly disclose changes to analysts' forecasts made at the underwriting banks. The suit follows reports that analysts at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut their revenue ...BY DAVID BENOIT Three Facebook Inc. investors filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, alleging the company and its underwriters failed to properly disclose changes to analysts' forecasts made at the underwriting banks. The suit follows reports that analysts at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut their revenue ... Continue reading →
PITTSBURGH—Only two and half years ago, the Orie sisters, daughters of one of this city's most prominent families, wielded considerable clout. Jane, 50, had won election four times to the state Senate. Joan, 56, was a state Supreme Court justice who had just won election to a 10-year term, with her office managed by sister Janine, 57. Now, Jane awaits sentencing on a conviction of using her legislative staff to do campaign work. Janine and Joan face similar charges, and Joan—Justice Joan Orie Melvin—has been relieved of her duties by her colleagues on the state's highest court. "There is no precedent that I know of in modern Pennsylvania history for three people in the same family, three sisters in this case, to face these kinds ... Continue reading →
