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NCAA COULD BE CLOSER TO A COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SYSTEM

Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:40am EST 3

(via)

NCAA President Mark Emmert would support a four-team playoff in college football — as long as the field doesn’t grow.

After giving his annual state of the association speech Thursday in Indianapolis, Emmert acknowledged he would back a small playoff if that’s what Bowl Championship Series officials decide to adopt.

“The notion of having a Final Four approach is probably a sound one,” Emmert said when asked what he heard coming out of New Orleans this week. “Moving toward a 16-team playoff is highly problematic because I think that’s too much to ask a young man’s body to do. It’s too many games, it intrudes into the school year and, of course, it would probably necessitate a complete end to the bowl system that so many people like now.”

Emmert spoke two days after the 11 Bowl Championship Series conferences met to discuss possible changes to the system starting in 2014, but there is no consensus yet.

BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said Tuesday that 50-60 possibilities for various changes were presented during a deliberate meeting in New Orleans, where Alabama beat LSU in the BCS title game Monday night. Hancock anticipates it will take another five to seven meetings to reach a conclusion in July.

One possibility is the four-team playoff, or the so-called plus-one approach, that would create two national semifinals and a championship game played one week later. The original proposal, made in 2008 by the commissioners of the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference, was emphatically shot down by the leaders of the Big Ten, Pac-10, Big East, Big 12 and Notre Dame.

The BCS title game pits the nation’s top two teams based on poll and computer rankings.

But momentum is clearly growing for a larger playoff system.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany acknowledged this week that he would now consider the prospect of a four-team field.

“Four years ago, five of us didn’t want to have the conversation,” Delany told reporters earlier this week. “Now we all want to have the conversation.”

Then on Thursday, the BCS picked up another major endorsement for a potential playoff.

Emmert has long said he expected changes to the BCS system and has repeatedly offered to help the BCS debate if they want it. The NCAA licenses bowl games, but does not run them. It also has no direct authority over the BCS system.

But a small, four-team tournament could be the perfect remedy for what many still consider a flawed system.

“I see a lot of ways that a Final Four model could be successful,” Emmert said.

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COMPREHENSIVE #CES 2012 DAY 2 PREVIEW

Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:18am EST Comments Off on COMPREHENSIVE #CES 2012 DAY 2 PREVIEW

 

 (via)

Consumer Electronics Show: Complete coverage

The Consumer Electronics Show is in full swing now, with keynotes Wednesday focusing on some higher-level trends in the consumer technology world.

In the morning, Xerox, Verizon Communications and Ford will discuss innovation and its role in their companies’ success. In the afternoon, high-level marketing and communications officers from AT&T, General Electric, Hyundai, Facebook, Wal-Mart and Unilever will discuss marketing and branding on a global scale.

Hans Vestberg, president and chief executive of Ericsson, will also give a keynote address in the afternoon. The Swedish company is in a transition year. Ericsson ended its consumer electronics partnership with Sony but faces a greater demand for its mobile and wireless management services than ever before. The keynote speech should have some insights into the future of the mobile industry, even if it likely won’t have any flashy consumer product announcements.

This is also a day for policy at CES, with panels addressing a range of technology policy issues. Wednesday’s congressional panel features Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Lee Terry (R-Neb.), Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.), and probably will address the thorny issue of online piracy and copyright. Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski is also speaking with the Consumer Electronics Association president, Gary Shapiro, while commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Robert McDowell will discuss spectrum and other policy issues on a panel moderated by The Washington Post’s Cecilia Kang.

Related stories:

Privacy rights activists worry about potential abuse of high-tech devices featured at CES event

CES 2012: What is an ultrabook, anyway?

PHOTOS: Cool gadgets unveiled at CES

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Tim Tebow Declines to Endorse Any Presidential Candidates Despite Courtship

Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:59am EST Comments Off on Tim Tebow Declines to Endorse Any Presidential Candidates Despite Courtship

Sensing the excitement and loving his message, Tebow is also being courted by Republican presidential candidates. The quarterback recently told The Associated Press he’s been asked by more than one of the contenders for his support. He wouldn’t name names, but did say he’d declined the offer.

“I think you have to have so much trust in who you support, just from product endorsements to endorsing a candidate because if that person or company does something (bad), it reflects on you,” said Tebow, who’s a pitchman for Nike, Jockey and FRS energy drink.

Tebow has, however, placed himself in the political realm before – two Super Bowls ago when he starred in a Focus on the Family commercial with his mother sharing the story of how she gave birth to him in the Philippines in 1987 after spurning a doctor’s advice to have an abortion for medical reasons. After being criticized for that ad, he didn’t do an encore and instead tries to toe the line of showing his religion without shoving it down people’s throats.

That hasn’t stopped people from mocking him – and worse.

After Tebow was particularly bad in an ugly loss to Buffalo on Dec. 24, comedian and talk show host Bill Maher sent out a tweet that basked in the QB’s misfortune, blaming Jesus for the loss. “And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere in hell Satan is tebowing, saying to Hitler `Hey, Buffalo’s killing them,’” Maher tweeted.

Maher, in turn, was roundly ripped for the post.

Less toxic was the recent skit on “Saturday Night Live,” where “Jesus” materializes in the locker room with an actor portraying Tebow, admits he is pulling some strings during these Bronco games, then after being told the New England Patriots are next on the schedule, suggests Tebow substitute his playbook, “the holy Bible,” for one with some Xs and Os.

The “SNL” Jesus also concedes that he, personally, prays to the Broncos place-kicker, Matt Prater, whose excellence has defined what the Tebow sensation has been about for most of this season: a bunch of teammates, motivated by a less-than-perfect leader who never gives up, coming together and picking each other up when the going gets tough.

A great story line that has held most of the year.

The twist on Sunday, though, was that for the first time this season, it could reasonably be argued that Tebow was a one-man show. In the win over Pittsburgh, he completed five passes of 30 yards or more. And with his defense struggling, he threw a perfect strike for the game-winner to receiver Demaryius Thomas, who didn’t have to change his stride and, thus, ran untouched into the end zone.

“He was the same Tim, calm and collected,” Thomas said. “He took it one play at a time and was in the huddle and said, `It’s either we win or we go home.’”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE 

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Santa Aligns the Stars For U.S. Equities; Massive Rally on the Open

Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:49am EST Comments Off on Santa Aligns the Stars For U.S. Equities; Massive Rally on the Open

Not 15 minutes in and we are up 245 bones on the DOW. A strong Euro, Spanish bond auctions, good data from Germany, and great housing starts in the U.S. get the markets roaring.

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSc8n9ku-vI&feature=related 450 300]

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Gasparino: Morgan Stanley Layoffs Coming $MS

Thu Dec 15, 2011 3:22pm EST Comments Off on Gasparino: Morgan Stanley Layoffs Coming $MS

Morgan Stanley (MS: 15.23, +0.17, +1.13%) finally threw in the towel.

After months of denying that the big Wall Street investment bank had plans to announce across-the-board job cuts if business conditions didn’t improve, the firm announced Thursday morning that it will slash about 1,600 jobs, or a little more than 2% of its total workforce.

In July the FOX Business Network was first to report that Morgan was drawing up plans to slash jobs beyond the previously announced cuts of about 300 brokers from its “retail” division — which sells stocks and other securities to individual investors — if business conditions deteriorated. Morgan has the largest retail sales force with about 18,000 brokers.

The FOX Business report was initially denied by press officials at the firm as fear spread among bankers and traders that slowing business conditions were likely to be addressed through job cuts. Adding to the confusion: shares fluctuated wildly over the summer as investors speculated that Morgan was holding sovereign debt and other securities tied to several troubled European countries.

Morgan continues to deny that it has significant exposure to Europe, though today the firm finally confirmed its job cutting plans.

“As we conduct our year-end performance management process and evaluate the right size of the franchise for 2012, we anticipate the elimination of approximately 1,600 positions across the firm globally impacting all job levels — to take place early in the first quarter of 2012,” the firm said in a statement.

Shares of Morgan have fallen more than 40% this year; they rose a little less than 1% on the news.

Morgan isn’t the only firm to announce cutbacks as stiffer regulations and a slowing business environment crimp Wall Street profits. Nearly every major firm is paring back staff, including Morgan’s arch rival,  Goldman Sachs (GS: 92.93, -0.32, -0.34%).

Morgan CEO James Gorman has already announced that executives at his firm should expect much smaller bonuses this year, with some receiving no bonus at all.

“The government constraints put on this industry in terms of earning money has never been seen in any other industry,” said securities analyst Dick Bove. “And the result is they have to fire people. This isn’t specific or unique to Morgan Stanley.”

What makes Morgan’s situation unusual is the amount of confusion surrounding the job cuts, and the contingency plans that were in place. Some analysts have speculated that the firm didn’t want to concede it was likely to cut its staff so as not to give credibility to fears it may face losses tied to Europe.


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YOUS GUYS SEPARATE THE TRASH OVA HEAH: Organized Crime Gets Into Recycling

Wed Dec 7, 2011 5:46pm EST Comments Off on YOUS GUYS SEPARATE THE TRASH OVA HEAH: Organized Crime Gets Into Recycling

Mobsters have a long history of making a killing in the garbage-hauling business, but a New Jersey commission says they have gone green by infiltrating the commercial recycling business.

The New Jersey State Commission of Investigation reported Tuesday that organized crime continues to find and exploit holes in a regulatory system that hasn’t been updated in decades. A law adopted in 1983 that was designed to keep criminals out of the solid waste business isn’t properly enforced and commercial recyclers remain largely unregulated.

“The integrity of this industry remains in peril,” the commission wrote. “The industry today remains open to manipulation and abuse by criminal elements.”

Organized crime’s ties to garbage hauling reach back at least half a century.

The New Jersey commission first uncovered significant criminal intrusion into solid waste disposal in 1969. The infiltration was most prominent in the 1980s, when organized crime had a stranglehold on the industry, forcing out legitimate operators through extortion. A string of prosecutions and new regulations , licensing requirements and background checks , helped weed out underground operators.

The commission found that the aging regulations, funding and staffing shortages and inter-agency communication problems “aren’t working as well as intended to keep criminal elements out of the industry,” said commission spokesman Lee Seglem.

The commission said it was particularly bothered by evidence of organized crime’s infiltration into commercial recycling, which has become lucrative in the 25 years since New Jersey adopted a mandatory garbage separation and recycling law.

New Jersey requires background checks for “key employees” involved in solid waste hauling. New York’s tougher licensing laws , it requires checks for consultants and sales associates in solid waste and for recyclers , encourage organized crime to set up shop across the Hudson River in New Jersey, investigators say.

One example cited in the report is Joseph Lemmo Jr., whom the commission called a “poster boy” for gaps in the state’s solid waste licensing law.

Despite multiple criminal convictions and ties to the Genovese crime family, Lemmo made more than $1 million a year operating within plain sight for more than a decade, the commission said. Though his criminal convictions should have barred him from the industry in New Jersey, he found a back way in through a truck-rental company that supplied trailers to a waste-hauling company owned by his cousin, the report said.

Lemmo did not reply to a notice from the commission inviting a written response. A phone message left with his former company, which he sold two years ago, was not immediately returned.

People also have gotten around the law through front companies or by having relatives with clean criminal records obtain licenses, the commission found.

The commission recommended several changes, including stronger laws and more money and manpower for enforcement. It said the state’s solid waste and disposal licensing requirements should be extended to recycling. Recognizing that government budgets are being stretched thin by the recession, the commission also suggested charging licensing fees to haulers to generate money for enforcement.

Additional concerns were raised concern about potential environmental consequences of a waste-hauling industry running amok, including midnight dumping, the mixing of hazardous and solid-waste material and the resale of junked computer components.

The governor’s office said it was reviewing the report. Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, said the governor is confident in his administration’s ability to manage available resources to properly regulate the solid waste and recycling industries and enforce criminal laws.

The three-member commission said similar recommendations have been made before.

“In 1969, the commission revealed that organized crime rooted in New York was spreading into commercial garbage collection in New Jersey and warned that the industry was at dire risk of becoming rife with bribery, extortion, price-fixing, collusive bidding and other forms of corruption,” the commissioners wrote.

It issued additional warnings after the 1983 legislation required garbage haulers to be licensed, saying the new law was being improperly enforced.

“That the commission today, more than 20 years later, must repeat some of the same general findings and recommendations is a testament to the price of warnings ignored, opportunities lost and legislative intent undermined,” the most recent report states. “The ability of mob-affiliated entrepreneurs to continue profiting from the system even after they have been unmasked reflects a fundamental flaw.”

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ROGER AILES STRIKES AGAIN: Hot Blonde Melissa Francis Ditches CNBC for Fox Business

Fri Dec 2, 2011 4:33pm EST 16

TVNewser has learned Melissa Francis is leaving CNBC and joining Fox Business Network.

Francis was a co-anchor of daytime programs “Power Lunch” and, before that, “The Call.” The Harvard grad has been on TV since she was one year old, staring in a Johnson & Johnson commercial. She would later play the role of Cassandra Cooper Ingalls on “Little House on the Prairie.”

CNBC spokesman Brian Steel confirms the departure telling TVNewser, “We thank Melissa for her years of hard work and wish her well.”

SOURCE 

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REALITY TV: Trump to Moderate Republican Debate

Fri Dec 2, 2011 2:03pm EST 15

It’s officially a reality television Republican primary now.

Donald Trump is pairing up with Newsmax, the conservative magazine and news Web site, to moderate a presidential debate in Des Moines on Dec. 27.

“Our readers and the grass roots really love Trump,” said Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media. “They may not agree with
him on everything, but they don’t see him as owned by the Washington establishment, the media establishment.”

Mr. Trump’s role in the debate, which will be broadcast on the cable network Ion Television, is sure to be one of the more memorable moments in a primary season that has already delivered its fair share of circus-like spectacle.

Mr. Trump’s own flirtation with running for president this year seems almost quaint (whose birth certificate was he all worked up about?) compared with more recent distractions – like allegations of adultery and sexual harassment, gaffes that seemed scripted from a late-night comedy show, and a six-figure line of credit at Tiffany & Co.

But despite being derided by liberals – President Obama likened Mr. Trump to a “carnival barker” for his repeated assertions that the president was actually foreign-born – the real estate mogul is seriously influential in manyRepublican Party circles. And that sway seems especially deep with the party’s conservative base, which will be a decisive factor in the early primaries that are likely to determine the nominee. The debate, which unlike many recent ones will not be limited to a specific topic like national security or the economy, is set to happen just a week before the Iowa caucuses.

Newsmax sent candidates the invitation on Friday afternoon. It began, “We are pleased to cordially invite you to “The Newsmax Ion Television 2012 Presidential Debate,” moderated by a truly great American, Mr. Donald J. Trump.” Spokesmen for several candidates did not immediately respond to questions from The New York Times about whether they would accept.

Though presidential candidates may initially balk at the idea of appearing in a debate where Mr. Trump – with his bombast and The Hair – is the one posing the questions, they may ultimately see it as an invitation they can’t refuse. In fact many of the candidates have already met with him, some more publicly than others. Representative Michele Bachmann has sat down with Mr. Trump several times this year. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas had dinner with him at Jean Georges, the posh Manhattan restaurant. And Mitt Romney paid a visit but carefully avoided being photographed.

And Newsmax is a powerful player itself. It has a broad reach into the conservative base, with monthly Web traffic second only to Fox News among sites with conservative-leaning audiences.

Mr. Trump has been a popular attraction at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering in Washington. He was such a successful presence in the eyes of Fox News executives that they added a special weekly segment to their morning show “Fox and Friends” for him called “Mondays With Trump.”

Whether his professed presidential ambitions are genuine or merely a publicity stunt seems not to matter in terms of the news media attention Mr. Trump can command. His highly publicized flirtation with running this year coincided with a Trump-branded product that stood to benefit from all the attention – a new season of his highly rated NBC show “Celebrity Apprentice.”

The arc of his noncampaign was similar in 1987 and 1999 – when Mr. Trump also said that he was considering running for president, episodes that are often forgotten.

His book ”Trump: The Art of the Deal” was published in November 1987 and reached The New York Times best-seller list by December. But by the time theRepublican National Convention rolled around in August 1988, he had opted out.

”Everybody wants me to do it,” he declared then. ”But I have no interest in doing it.”

And in late 1999, just before his book ”The America We Deserve” went on sale, he began courting support as a candidate on the Reform Party ticket. He even toured the country with his girlfriend, Melania Knauss, now his wife. The outcome? You guessed it.

SOURCE 

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VP Joe Biden Fuels Rumors He Will Run in 2016

Thu Dec 1, 2011 1:09pm EST 1

SOURCE

Vice President Biden, currently visiting Iraq, said the Obama administration has fulfilled its campaign promise to end the war in that nation. He also refused to rule out a possible presidential bid in 2016.

Biden, who is meeting with Iraqi officials ahead of the deadline for the drawdown of American forces and will participate in ceremonies to honor U.S. and Iraqi troops, said Iraq’s government and military are ready to defend themselves. Biden will also visit Turkey and Greece before returning to Washington.

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