SEC proposes changes in market halts (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Federal regulators are considering changing the rules for when a dramatic shift in the stock market's value triggers exchanges to cut off trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission put proposed changes in so-called circuit breakers out for public comment Tuesday. Those are measures that automatically halt trading if the market falls by certain percentages. The SEC wants smaller market declines to trigger halts, but it also wants to shorten the stoppages.

The "flash crash" of May 2010 didn't trigger the circuit breakers, which have activated only once since they were established in 1988.

Circuit breakers are intended to force traders to take a breather and refocus on economic and corporate news instead of an alarming market nosedive. They can't prevent people from losing money; they're aimed at keeping the market from succumbing to huge, snowballing, panic-driven sell-offs in a single day.

They now stop trading if the Dow Jones industrial average tumbles 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent. The new triggers would be drops of 7 percent, 13 percent or 20 percent in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.

The halts would be shortened to 15 minutes from the current 30 minutes, hour or two hours.

The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and the other U.S. exchanges asked for the changes, and the SEC put them out for a 21-day formal comment period and could approve them after it ends.

The current rules were established by the NYSE in 1988 in response to a stock market plunge in October 1987, and the one time they were tripped was in 1997, when an economic crisis in Asia set off a wave of heavy selling.

Along with other measures put in place in response to the May 6, 2010, "flash crash," the proposed changes are "designed to reduce extraordinary volatility in our markets," SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement.

The other changes include new rules spelling out when and, at what prices, erroneous stock trades should be canceled. Nearly 21,000 trades were canceled in the days following the 2010 plunge because exchanges deemed them erroneous, and many retail investors were affected.

Regulators have determined that event resulted from when an investment and trading firm executing a computerized selling program in an already stressed market. One trade by the firm worth $4.1 billion touched off a chain of events that ended with investors swiftly pulling their money from the stock market.

The SEC also has proposed establishing so-called "limit up-limit down" rules for individual stocks that would bar any trades outside specified price boundaries. Those restrictions limit how much a stock's price can rise or fall in a given day.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110927/ap_on_bi_ge/us_sec_trading_curbs

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Bake sale's racial pricing rocks UC Berkeley campus (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Student Republicans at the University of California at Berkeley have stirred up the famously left-wing campus with plans for a sale of baked goods priced according to the race and gender of buyers.

A Facebook promotion of the event, set for Tuesday, has drawn cries of racism and misogyny on the social networking site, and student body president Vishalli Loomba called what the Berkeley College Republicans were doing offensive.

The school's chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, weighed in on Monday night with an open letter condemning the planned bake sale as contrary to campus "Principles of Community" that call for debate to be conducted in a respectful manner.

Organizers say their "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" is meant as satiric political commentary on newly passed legislation that would allow California's public universities to once again consider the race, gender, ethnicity and national origin of admissions applicants.

The sale is slated to take place between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. near the location of a campus phone bank set up by supporters of the bill, SB 185, to lobby for Governor Jerry Brown to sign the measure into law.

The original Facebook post for the event said pastries sold at the event would be priced at $2 each for white customers, $1.50 for buyers of Asian descent, $1 for Latinos, 75 cents for black customers and 25 cents for Native Americans. All women would get a 25 cent discount.

The post said the pricing structure was designed to "ensure the equitable distribution of BAKED GOODS to our DIVERSE! student body."

Loomba said Berkeley "students are talking about this everywhere I go."

"They've been able to get a lot of publicity, but at what cost? They are creating an environment of divisiveness," she told Reuters. "You can't justify doing something this offensive and making students of this school feel uncomfortable."

BALLOT MEASURE

While enactment of SB 185 does not require university admissions officers to give preferential treatment to applicants on the basis of race or gender, it would allow them to consider such factors.

A statewide ballot measure approved by California voters in 1996 banned the use of race and gender preferences in state university admissions, hiring and contracting. The California Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality last August.

SB 185 was presented to Brown on September 9 and becomes law in 30 days even without his signature, unless he vetoes it.

Berkeley's student government passed a resolution in support of SB 185 last week, and organized the telephone lobbying effort on its behalf, prompting the Berkeley College Republicans to plan their bake sale.

On Sunday, the student government unanimously passed a resolution decrying the College Republicans' move.

In his letter Monday night, the chancellor said the issue was not the group's opinions, but how they were expressed.

"The issue is not whether one thinks an action is satirical or inoffensive, the issue is whether community members will be intentionally -- or unintentionally -- hurt or demeaned by that action," Birgeneau wrote, adding, "intelligent debate is based on mutual respect."

Leaders of the student Republicans were not immediately available for comment. But the group's president, Shawn Lewis, said in a statement posted on its website that "physical threats" were made against organizers of the bake sale, including suggestions that cupcakes would be purchased and then hurled back in protest.

"Threatening and political intimidation should not be part of the (campus) community," Lewis said. "What I have seen and heard in response to the Berkeley College Republicans' 'Increase Diversity Bake Sale' has been far from healthy disagreement or challenging of ideas."

In addition to the phone bank, a free giveaway of baked goods, called Conscious Cupcakes, was planned as a riposte to the College Republicans' sale. Conscious Cupcakes' Facebook page indicated "641 attending."

(Additional reporting by Greg Lucas in Sacramento, Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110927/us_nm/us_bakesale_berkeley

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'Organized retail crime' is $30-billion business nationwide | Texas ...

By KRISTIN VOLK and DANIELLE COHEN

Scripps Howard News Service

Posted September 26, 2011

If you're shopping in a store and have your eye on an iPad 2, a new Slap Watch or any other accoutrement, chances are thieves do, too.

"Organized retail crime," as police call it, has become big business. Last year, theft rings stole an estimated $30 billion worth of retail merchandise that wound up getting sold out of car trunks, online and even to distributors who relay the merchandise back to store shelves.

Shoppers end up bearing the financial brunt, because "it comes back to consumers in the form of higher prices," said Joseph LaRocca, the National Retail Federation's senior adviser of asset protection. Households fork over nearly $400 a year to offset retailers' losses, he said.

The thieves steal what they can sell quickly, targeting popular items such as smartphones and designer bags. But no product is beyond the scope of organized theft rings, law enforcement officials said.

Read the entire article HERE.

Source: http://www.tdcaa.com/issues/organized-retail-crime-30-billion-business-nationwide

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Festive Fall Staging to Sell or Dwell Idea: Pumpkin Topiaries

Whether you?re selling a home or dwelling in one, porch appeal is always a plus! So I decided to punch up my own?last?weekend. The weather was great and pumpkins were at Walmart for $3.88 each. But not only because I found cheap pumpkins? It?s my favorite time of year too. I also relish the idea of having passersby enjoy the view of my home on their morning or evening walks. I love looking at my neighbor?s homes as well and what they do and I hope to invigorate and inspire them too.?The same sentiment should be?said about prospective home buyers too.

Pumpkin topiary

Here are the simple steps to create your own pumpkin topiaries too. Here?s what you?ll need:

1. 1 or 2 - Pots or urns to place them in (use what you have or purchase new)The ones in the photo were purchased after season this summer at Garden Ridge for 1/2 price. These were $30 each. I had other pots that had broken but I actually used them inside these pots as a foundation for ?lifting? the pumpkins up without having to fill the new pots with anything.
2. 1 or 2 ? Large Pumpkins for the base (Walmart $3.88). I measured the opening of the pot & needed 11? in width for the pumpkins to work.
3. 1 or 2 ? Small Pumpkins for the top (Walmart .79 cents a pound, these were ?baking? pumpkins on top. I like the stems they had?)
4. 1. 5 or 3 ? 6? Fall garlands * Optional (I found mine at Garden Ridge for $8 each & can be re used year after year)
5. 1 or 2 Fall Wreaths (Measure the opening of your pot to make sure it won?t fall through but will sit on the edge/lip of the container. These wreaths were found at Walmart for $10 each. I liked them because they had a fan of willow stems as the base and added a layer of texture and dimension to the base)

My total cost (without taking into account the price of the previously purchased pot) was $28 for each container which I anticipate will last through Thanksgiving.

How to create the Pumpkin Topiary:

1. If your pot is empty you may want to fill/pack with newspaper or something else to secure the base of the pumpkin once in place. I actually put a broken pot inside my new pot (I layered some newspaper under the broken base of the inserted pot) to shore up the foundation and provide some ?lift?.

2. Place one wreath at the opening of your pot. (I had to pull away/move gently the leaves and the faux gourds on this wreath so the large pumpkin once placed on it wouldn?t be hindered [unstable] by them)

3. Place your large pumpkin UPSIDE DOWN on the wreath. (this creates a flat base for the next pumpkin to rest on)
4. Wrap one garland (optional*) around the pumpkin on the wreath if needed. I did this to actually cover the lip of the old pot that was sticking up a little from the top of the new pot. But you may not need it!
5. Place your small pumpkin, RIGHT SIDE UP on the larger upside down pumpkin
6. Cut one garland in 1/2 (you may need wire cutters)
7. Wrap 1/2 of garland around the smaller pumpkin on top. You may have to tie it off or use a tie wrap to keep it from coming loose. I simply tied it and lifted the small pumpkin and placed a leaf from the garland under it to secure it once the pumpkin was back in place. They are simply resting on each other, no other tools were needed to prop them up.

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Exceptional Home Staging services for Dallas, Richardson, Plano, Allen, McKinney, Frisco, Carrollton,TX and surrounding cities.

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Source: http://activerain.com/blogsview/2528767/festive-fall-staging-to-sell-or-dwell-idea-pumpkin-topiaries-

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Report: EPA cut corners on climate finding

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration cut corners before concluding that climate-change pollution can endanger human health, a key finding underpinning costly new regulations, an internal government watchdog said Wednesday.

Regulators and the White House disagreed with the finding, and the report itself did not question the science behind the administration's conclusions. Still, the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general is sure to encourage global warming doubters in Congress and elsewhere.

The report said EPA should have followed a more extensive review process for a technical paper supporting its determination that greenhouse gases pose dangers to human health and welfare, a finding that ultimately compelled it to issue controversial and expensive regulations to control greenhouse gases for the first time.

"While it may be debatable what impact, if any, this had on EPA's finding, it is clear that EPA did not follow all the required steps," said Inspector Arthur A. Elkins, Jr. in a statement Wednesday.

The EPA and White House said the greenhouse gas document did not require more independent scrutiny because the scientific evidence it was based on already had been thoroughly reviewed. The agency did have the document vetted by 12 experts, although one of those worked for EPA.

"The report importantly does not question or even address the science used or the conclusions reached," the EPA said in a statement. The environmental agency said its work "followed all appropriate guidance," a conclusion supported by the White House budget official who wrote the peer review guidelines in 2005.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said repeatedly that her conclusions were based on the underlying science, not the agency's summary of it.

The greenhouse gas decision ? which marked a reversal from the Bush administration ? was announced in December 2009, a week before President Barack Obama headed to international negotiations in Denmark on a new treaty to curb global warming. At the time, progress was stalled in Congress on a new law to reduce emissions in the United States.

In 2010, a survey of more than 1,000 of the world's most cited and published climate scientists found that 97 percent believe climate change is very likely caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

But by highlighting what it calls "procedural deviations," the report provides ammunition to Republicans and industry lawyers fighting the Obama administration over its decision to use the 40-year-old Clean Air Act to fight global warming. While the Supreme Court said in 2007 that the act could be used to control greenhouse gases, the Republican-controlled House has passed legislation that would change that. The bill has so far been stymied by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Sen. James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who requested the investigation and one of Congress' most vocal climate skeptics, said Wednesday the report confirmed that "the very foundation of President Obama's job-destroying agenda was rushed, biased and flawed."

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, another critic of EPA regulations, said the agency sacrificed scientific protocol for "political expediency."

Environmentalists, meanwhile, said the inspector general was nitpicking at the public's expense. The investigation cost nearly $300,000.

"The process matters, but the science matters more," said Francesca Grifo, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Nothing in this report questions the agency's ability to move forward with global warming emissions rules."

A prominent environmental attorney and Columbia University law professor questioned what effect, if any, the report would have on global warming policy.

Michael Gerrard said that while lawyers and politicians would try to use the report to fight EPA regulations, the scientific case for global warming has only gotten stronger.

The report itself found that EPA "generally" adhered to data quality requirements. But it said while the agency's document was based on well-established and peer-reviewed science, it required additional independent scrutiny because the EPA weighed the strength of that science. The inspector general pointed out that the EPA did not publicly report the results of the review and that one of the dozen experts who reviewed the document worked at the agency.

EPA officials said that information was included, but not in the format the inspector general wanted.

The Obama administration has emphasized the importance of peer review.

Six weeks after taking office in 2009, Obama issued a memo that said: "When scientific or technological information is considered in policy decisions, the information should be subject to well-established scientific processes, including peer review where appropriate, and each agency should appropriately and accurately reflect that information in complying with and applying relevant statutory standards."

A year later, the president's science adviser, John Holdren, emphasized the "particular importance" of outside review by scientists.

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Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this story.

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Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter (at)dinacappiello

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Online:

EPA inspector general's report: http://www.epa.gov/oig/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-09-28-EPA-Global%20Warming/id-1c2613f39e194d9b90e852273f6f3f3a

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The difference between us and them - FAS Windows and Doors

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

If you are shopping for windows,?doors or coating, you know there are many companies out there in the Central Florida area. There is a lot of competition here and everyone wants to get your business. When you start getting quotes from companies, it is important to look at that company?s history and reputation. There are parts of the home improvement that are sometimes occupied with shady companies looking to make a quick buck. Thankfully not everyone is going to drop their standards to make sales. We here at FAS?Windows and?Doors are proud of the reputation we have built in Central Florida as a quality home improvement company. We make sure to go through all the steps necessary in order to be a reputable window and door dealer.

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It is important to know that before the installation process FAS?Windows and?Doors always pulls the required permits?from the Department of Community Affairs. This isn?t just done to be ?official?, it?s the law, yet somehow there are companies that will install without this integral step in the process. These?permits are needed because there are strict requirements and guidelines on how windows and doors are to be installed. The?permits also guarantee that the installation will be inspected by the county and that the products are up to the rigorous Florida Building Codes. This protects you from having an inferior product being installed in your home. There are companies out there that will install anything if it will get them a sale. FAS Windows and?doors absolutely refuse to install ANYTHING that does not meet or exceed regulations for an area.

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FAS?Windows and?Doors is also proudly accredited by the Better Business Bureau, which is not something every window and door company can say they are part of. Companies that are not trustworthy or do not regularly fulfill their promises have no chance of being a member of the BBB. Make sure you check our profiles for?Central Florida and West Florida.

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Also make sure that any company you are considering for your home improvement job will put, in writing, a lien waiver from the installation crew. FAS?Windows and?Doors does not allow, for any reason, an installer to lien a home. When many small home improvement business are going under these days it is not uncommon to see this being skipped. What this means if that if a company does not pay the installer for their work, the installer can then put a lien on the home where he or she performed the service. When you choose FAS?Windows and?Doors the crew chief will sign the back of the contract prior to any service being performed waiving the right to lien your property. Your contract is with FAS only, no outside parties.

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Also demand to see the certificate of liability insurance before you let anyone work on your home. FAS?Windows and?Doors carries a minimum of $1,000,000 insurance policy on Workers Compensation. Installation of windows and door has a risk of someone getting hurt on the job. Why would you ever hire a company willing to take that chance? This isn?t the only insurance we carry, we also have general liability. We make sure that as our customer, you are protected.

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We believe that for these reasons, you will strongly consider FAS?Windows &?Doors in your search for windows,?doors and coating. We hope that our reputation and history prove our validity as a top?window and?door distributor here in Central Florida. If you are ready for an estimate please call us at 888-422-1690.

Items in bold indicate required information.

From Our Customers Lynn G. (Winter Park, FL), 04/30/2009

Source: http://www.faswd.com/blog/posts/the-difference-between-us-and-them.html

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Inadequate birth control pills recalled | Healthy Living

Birth control or contraceptive pills? are a set of pills, which are taken by a women in a sequential way for birth control, a combination of an?estrogen?and a?progestin. When taken by mouth every day, these pills inhibit female fertility. Contraceptive pills prevent?ovulation?by suppressing the release of?gonadotropins and by inhibiting?follicular development. Qualitest Pharmaceuticals recalled birth control pills due to packaging error.

Availability and use

Most brands of pills are packaged in one of two different packet sizes, with days marked off for a 28 day cycle. These ?pills should be taken at the same time each day. If one or more tablets are forgotten for more than 12 hours, contraceptive protection will be reduced.

Recalling the lots

Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, a division of Endo Pharmaceuticals,? found a packaging error in some packs, in which the?birth control?pills were rotated 180 degrees within the card, which reversed the weekly tablet distribution. They are recalling these lots as this could cause women to take pills in the incorrect order, which may leave women without adequate?contraception?and at risk for unintended?pregnancy.

The company is currently investigating the source of the packaging error.

Recalled Products

The recall affects two Clyclafem products and two Glidess products, as well as Emoquette, Orsythia,?

onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.webmd.com']);">Previfem

, and Tri-Previfem oral?contraceptives. A?complete list of products?and affected lot numbers are posted at the Endo Pharmaceuticals web site.

It was clarified by the company that the women affected by the recall should use a non-hormonal form of birth control immediately and consult their health care provider or pharmacist.

Pharmacies that sold the lots of such birth control pills are also being instructed to contact their customers who received the affected products.

via

Related posts:

1. EllaOne ? Contraceptive pill gets FDA approval
2. J&J ? Additional OTC drugs recall
3. Campbell soup recalls 3 varieties of spaghettiOs pasta
4. Ella emergency contraceptive pill gets FDA approval
5. Know if your Lipitor from Pfizer is on recall list due to musty odor?

Source: http://www.knowabouthealth.com/8368defective-contraceptive-pills-called-back/8368/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=8368defective-contraceptive-pills-called-back

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