History Of The Times Square Ball And Celebration

The History Of The Times Square Ball And Celebration

New York in 1904 was a city on the verge of tremendous changes – and, not surprisingly, many of those changes had their genesis in the bustling energy and thronged streets of Times Square. Two innovations that would completely transform the Crossroads of the World debuted in 1904: the opening of the city’s first subway line, and the first-ever celebration of New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

This inaugural bash commemorated the official opening of the new headquarters of The New York Times. The newspaper’s owner, German Jewish immigrant Alfred Ochs, had successfully lobbied the city to rename Longacre Square, the district surrounding his paper’s new home, in honor of the famous publication (a contemporary article in The New York Times credited Interborough Rapid Transit Company President August Belmont for suggesting the change to the Rapid Transit Commission). The impressive Times Tower, marooned on a tiny triangle of land at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway and 42nd Street, was at the time Manhattan’s second-tallest building — the tallest if measured from the bottom of its three massive sub-basements, built to handle the heavy weight demands of The Times’ up-to-date printing equipment.

The building was the focus of an unprecedented New Year’s Eve celebration. Ochs spared no expense to ensure a party for the ages. An all-day street festival culminated in a fireworks display set off from the base of the tower, and at midnight the joyful sound of cheering, rattles and noisemakers from the over 200,000 attendees could be heard, it was said, from as far away as Croton-on-Hudson, thirty miles north along the Hudson River.

The New York Times’ description of the occasion paints a rapturous picture: “From base to dome the giant structure was alight – a torch to usher in the newborn year…”

The night was such a rousing success that Times Square instantly replaced Lower Manhattan’s Trinity Church as “the” place in New York City to ring in the new year. Before long, this party of parties would capture the imagination of the nation, and the world.

Two years later, the city banned the fireworks display – but Ochs was undaunted. He arranged to have a large, illuminated seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball lowered from the tower flagpole precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908.

On that occassion, and for almost a century thereafter, Times Square signmaker Artkraft Strauss was responsible for the ball-lowering. (For more information on the past and present of the New Year’s Eve Ball itself, please click here.) In 1914, The New York Times outgrew Times Tower and relocated to 229 West 43rd Street. By then, New Year’s Eve in Times Square was already a permanent part of our cultural fabric.

In 1942 and 1943, the glowing Ball was temporarily retired due to the wartime “dimout” of lights in New York City. The crowds who still gathered in Times Square in those years greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by chimes ringing out from sound trucks parked at the base of the Times Tower.

The New York Times retained ownership of the Tower until 1961, when it was sold to developer Douglas Leigh, who was also the designer and deal-maker behind many of the spectacular signs in Times Square, including the famous Camel billboard that blew water-vapor “smoke rings” over the street. Mr. Leigh stripped the building down to its steel frame, then re-clad it in white marble as the headquarters for Allied Chemical Corporation.

Today, New Year’s Eve in Times Square is a bona fide international phenomenon. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people still gather around the Tower, now known as One Times Square, and wait for hours in the cold of a New York winter for the famous Ball-lowering ceremony. Thanks to satellite technology, a worldwide audience estimated at over one billion people watches the ceremony each year. The lowering of the Ball has become the world’s symbolic welcome to the New Year.

New Year’s Eve is just a small slice of Time Square’s history. To learn more, check out our Interactive Timeline.

Source:

http://www.timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye_history.html

Terrorist From Pakistan Confesses To Mumbai Terror Attacks

Terrorist From Pakistan Confesses To Mumbai Terror Attacks

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer Kathy Gannon, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A militant arrested in Pakistan has confessed involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks and is giving investigators details of the plot, a senior Pakistani government official said Wednesday.

The revelation could add to pressure on Islamabad to either bring Zarar Shah and other suspects to trial or extradite them to India.

“(Shah) has made some statement that he was involved,” said the government official, without providing specific details. “I can tell you that he is singing.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

A senior intelligence officer said Shah and another suspect, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were cooperating with investigators, but cautioned authorities had not reached a definite conclusion as to their involvement yet.

He too asked for anonymity. Indian officials were not immediately available for comment.

Gunmen targeted 10 sites including two five-star hotels and a Jewish center during the November siege on Mumbai’s financial capital, killing 164 people in a three-day reign of terror.

India and the United States say the militants who planned and carried out the attacks were Pakistani and are demanding Islamabad take action against those responsible.

The official also told The Associated Press that India has shared some evidence of its suspicions but he said it was “very very little.” Pakistan’s president and other top officials have said India has yet to provide any evidence.

The intelligence officer also said the country had received “information” on the attacks from other, unspecified, nations.

“They (India) gave us a list of numbers and phone calls, most of them useless,” the official said.

Shah and Lakhvi have been identified as members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned militant group accused by India of carrying out the Mumbai attacks and others on its soil.

They were taken into custody soon after the attacks.

India has said both were involved in the planning of the siege, but have given few details of their role and made no evidence public.

Accusations of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s involvement have put Islamabad in a difficult position because the group is widely believed to have been created by Pakistan intelligence agencies to battle Indian-rule in Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by Pakistan and India

Source:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/ap_on_re_as/as_gen_pakistan_india

Wanna Puke? 1.6 Billion Tax Payer Dollars Used For Bank Executive Bonuses In 2008

Wanna Puke? 1.6 Billion Tax Payer Dollars Used For Bank Executive Bonuses In 2008

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.

The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.

Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.

The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services committee and a long-standing critic of executive largesse, said the bonuses tallied by the AP review amount to a bribe “to get them to do the jobs for which they are well paid in the first place.

“Most of us sign on to do jobs and we do them best we can,” said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. “We’re told that some of the most highly paid people in executive positions are different. They need extra money to be motivated!”

The AP compiled total compensation based on annual reports that the banks file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 116 banks have so far received $188 billion in taxpayer help. Among the findings:

The average paid to each of the banks’ top executives was $2.6 million in salary, bonuses and benefits.

Lloyd Blankfein, president and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, took home nearly $54 million in compensation last year. The company’s top five executives received a total of $242 million.

This year, Goldman will forgo cash and stock bonuses for its seven top-paid executives. They will work for their base salaries of $600,000, the company said. Facing increasing concern by its own shareholders on executive payments, the company described its pay plan last spring as essential to retain and motivate executives “whose efforts and judgments are vital to our continued success, by setting their compensation at appropriate and competitive levels.” Goldman spokesman Ed Canaday declined to comment beyond that written report.

The New York-based company on Dec. 16 reported its first quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. It received $10 billion in taxpayer money on Oct. 28.

Even where banks cut back on pay, some executives were left with seven- or eight-figure compensation that most people can only dream about. Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., took a $1 million hit in compensation after his company had a disappointing year, but still got $17 million in stock options. The McLean, Va.-based company received $3.56 billion in bailout money on Nov. 14.

John A. Thain, chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch, topped all corporate bank bosses with $83 million in earnings last year. Thain, a former chief operating officer for Goldman Sachs, took the reins of the company in December 2007, avoiding the blame for a year in which Merrill lost $7.8 billion. Since he began work late in the year, he earned $57,692 in salary, a $15 million signing bonus and an additional $68 million in stock options.

Like Goldman, Merrill got $10 billion from taxpayers on Oct. 28.

The AP review comes amid sharp questions about the banks’ commitment to the goals of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), a law designed to buy bad mortgages and other troubled assets. Last month, the Bush administration changed the program’s goals, instructing the Treasury Department to pump tax dollars directly into banks in a bid to prevent wholesale economic collapse.

The program set restrictions on some executive compensation for participating banks, but did not limit salaries and bonuses unless they had the effect of encouraging excessive risk to the institution. Banks were barred from giving golden parachutes to departing executives and deducting some executive pay for tax purposes.

Banks that got bailout funds also paid out millions for home security systems, private chauffeured cars, and club dues. Some banks even paid for financial advisers. Wells Fargo of San Francisco, which took $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, gave its top executives up to $20,000 each to pay personal financial planners.

At Bank of New York Mellon Corp., chief executive Robert P. Kelly’s stipend for financial planning services came to $66,748, on top of his $975,000 salary and $7.5 million bonus. His car and driver cost $178,879. Kelly also received $846,000 in relocation expenses, including help selling his home in Pittsburgh and purchasing one in Manhattan, the company said.

Goldman Sachs’ tab for leased cars and drivers ran as high as $233,000 per executive. The firm told its shareholders this year that financial counseling and chauffeurs are important in giving executives more time to focus on their jobs.

JPMorgan Chase chairman James Dimon ran up a $211,182 private jet travel tab last year when his family lived in Chicago and he was commuting to New York. The company got $25 billion in bailout funds.

Banks cite security to justify personal use of company aircraft for some executives. But Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., questioned that rationale, saying executives visit many locations more vulnerable than the nation’s security-conscious commercial air terminals.

Sherman, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said pay excesses undermine development of good bank economic policies and promote an escalating pay spiral among competing financial institutions — something particularly hard to take when banks then ask for rescue money.

He wants them to come before Congress, like the automakers did, and spell out their spending plans for bailout funds.

“The tougher we are on the executives that come to Washington, the fewer will come for a bailout,” he said.

Source:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081221/ap_on_bi_ge/executive_bailouts

After Christmas Sale At Christmas Depot

ChristmasDepot.com is having its 10th Annual Monster Clearance Sale. Big savings on Led Christmas lights, Christmas trees and a zillion other Christmas decorations is going on now at the web site. Savings are listed up to 75 percent off. Users can combine other current Christmas Depot coupon code to obtain an even greater discount.

If you are a Christmas enthusiast and love Holiday decorating, do yourself a favor and visit the web site and see for yourself the countless offerings at terrific Monster after Christmas savings.

http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=58594&u=179599&m=10182&urllink=www.christmasdepot.com/&afftrack

Billionaires Who Lost A Bundle Of Money In 2008

Billionaires Who Lost A Bundle Of Money In 2008

Dozens of the world’s wealthiest lost billions in recent months, but these 10 distinguish themselves for some of the biggest flops.

It was a dreadful year for the world’s wealthiest as markets and currencies around the world tumbled.

More than 300 of the 1,125 billionaires we tallied on our annual list last March have since lost at least $1 billion; several dozen lost more than $5 billion. The 10 richest from our 2008 rankings dropped some $150 billion of wealth, dragged down by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, estranged brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani and property baron K.P. Singh, who together dropped $100 billion. America’s 25 biggest billionaire losers of 2008 lost a combined $167 billion.

But even in such an awful year, the stories of a few billionaires and now former billionaires stand out as particularly dreadful.

Take David Ross, one of the U.K.’s most successful entrepreneurs. Earlier this month, Ross notified four public companies in which he was a major shareholder and director that he had borrowed against his shares to fund real estate investments that had soured. He will likely have to sell some of those stakes to pay off his debts. So far he has resigned from three of the four boards and stepped down from his post as an Olympics adviser. His fortune, which we estimated at $1.4 billion in March, is now worth about $150 million.

Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, former chairman and a large shareholder in Landsbanki, Iceland’s second largest bank, saw the firm seized in October as the worst of the credit crisis tore through the island nation. The failure wiped out his $1.1 billion fortune. He has since had to put his holding company, Hansa, into voluntary liquidation and is selling his U.K. soccer team, West Ham.

Russians were some of the biggest losers in the past year. Vladimir Lisin’s Novolipetsk Iron and Steel is down three-fourths since its June peak. Dmitry Rybolovlev’s fertilizer company, Uralkali, has fallen 90% since it peaked around the same time.

But those losses pale compared with the troubles facing Oleg Deripaska. In March he was the world’s ninth richest person and Russia’s richest man, with a fortune we estimated to be worth $28 billion. Since then Deripaska has been forced to sell shares in Canadian carmaker Magna International and German construction firm Hotchief, and had to borrow $4.5 billion from a state-controlled bank to hold on to his stake in Norilsk Nickel. He will likely sell off additional assets to avoid losing even more of his fortune, now estimated at $10 billion. Or less.

The biggest loser of all was Anil Ambani. Touted on the cover of our 2008 billionaires issue for having added $24 billion to his fortune in one year, Ambani has dropped $30 billion since then. But don’t worry too much. His Reliance Entertainment is investing $500 million in a new studio venture with Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks. Plus, he remains quite wealthy, worth $12 billion That’s something many others can’t claim.

Top 5 Losers –

1. Anil Ambani

March net worth: $42 billion
Current net worth: $12 billion

The biggest billionaire gainer last March is now the year’s biggest loser. Ambani lost $30 billion in the past nine months, more than anyone in the world. Stock of his telecom company dropped after his estranged brother helped scuttle a deal with African telecom MTN. It’s quite an achievement in a year in which three of his fellow countrymen–estranged brother Mukesh, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Indian KP Singh, all of whom ranked earlier among the world’s 10 richest–lost more than $20 billion apiece.

2. Oleg Deripaska

March net worth: $28 billion
Current net worth: less than $10 billion

Former metals trader survived Russia’s gangster wars but may not withstand collapsing markets and heavy debts of at least $14 billion. Russia’s one-time richest man recently received a $4.5 billion loan from a state-controlled bank in order to keep his 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel, which faced a margin call by Western banks from which he had borrowed. Other margin calls forced him to divest a $1.5 billion stake in Canadian carmaker Magna International and a $500 million stake in German construction company Hotchief. He’s also selling stake in insurance company Inogsstrakh.

3. Anurag Dikshit

March net worth: $1.6 billion
Current net worth: $1 billion

Dikshit designed the software for PartyGaming’s successful PartyPoker game, which allowed live gambling over the Web. He left the company and sold a chunk of shares in 2006, the year the U.S. government banned gaming. He recently pleaded guilty to violating U.S. gaming laws and agreed to forfeit $300 million. He could face up to two years in jail but apparently won’t be sentenced until 2010. He has already paid $100 million of his fine and will pay the rest in two installments next year.

4. Bjorgflur Gudmundsson

March net worth: $1.1 billion
Current net worth: zero

The October collapse and government seizure of Iceland’s second largest bank wiped out the $1.1 billion fortune of Gudmundsson, the bank’s chairman and biggest shareholder, along with his son Thor. His holding company, Hansa, has since gone into voluntary liquidation and is looking for a buyer for its U.K. soccer team, West Ham. It’s not the first time he’s run into trouble. A former shipping executive, he was charged with fraud and embezzlement in relation to the firm’s 1985 collapse, and was eventually found guilty on five minor counts and sentenced to 12 months’ probation.

5. Luis Portillo

March net worth: $1.2 billion
Current net worth: $15 million

Spain’s short-lived real estate gold rush left one of its most visible speculators holding a nearly empty bag. Portillo–who acquired real estate firm Inmocaral three years ago, then led the takeover of the larger Inmobiliaria Colonial in 2006–personally borrowed a reported $1.4 billion from more than a dozen banks during boom times, using his stock as collateral. He resigned as chairman in December 2007 and then tried to sell his stake to a Dubai fund earlier this year. When the deal fell through, he had to sell most of shares to pay debts.

Click below for the full list of the Billionaire Blowups of 2008.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/106352/Billionaire-Blowups-of-2008

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Car Makers Plead For Cash – Thursday Big Day

Automakers plead for aid, but Senate votes lacking

By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writer Ken Thomas, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Imperiled automakers and their union worked feverishly Wednesday to sell a skeptical Congress on a $34 billion aid plan, promising labor concessions and restructuring. The Senate’s Democratic leader said there still weren’t enough votes to tap the $700 billion federal bailout fund to prop up the foundering Big Three.

One day before the chiefs of the auto companies return to Capitol Hill to make their urgent cases for loans, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the money was unlikely to come from the Wall Street rescue fund.

“I just don’t think we have the votes to do that now,” Reid told The Associated Press in an interview.

The White House called the timing of his comments “interesting” coming on the eve of high-stakes congressional hearings Democrats demanded.

“It’s not hospitable,” said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary.

In Capitol Hill meetings, industry officials said the collapse of one or more of the Big Three carmakers could greatly worsen the nation’s recession and undermine the companies’ ability to survive.

“We’re on the brink with the U.S. auto manufacturing industry. We’re down to months left,” Chrysler’s vice chairman, Jim Press, told the AP in a separate interview. “If we have a catastrophic failure of one of these car companies, in this tender environment for the economy, it’s a huge blow. It could trigger a depression.”

The United Auto Workers union, scrambling to preserve jobs and benefits, agreed at an emergency meeting in Detroit to allow the companies to delay payments to a multibillion-dollar, union-run health care trust and to scale back a jobs bank in which laid-off workers are paid most of their wages. The concessions could help mollify some lawmakers who have criticized the union’s benefits as too rich when compared with those of workers at foreign-brand auto plants in the U.S.

The Bush administration and auto-state Republicans and Democrats are pushing to help the automakers with aid from a different source: a previously approved $25 billion program that’s supposed to be used to help them produce more environmentally advanced vehicles.

Environmentalists — and a number of powerful friends in Congress — are vigorously opposing that idea.

Reid said the administration could act unilaterally to use a portion of the Wall Street bailout program for loans to the automakers, but the White House has consistently resisted that approach.

“There’s talk going around now that the Bush White House may ask for” the second $350 billion installment of the $700 billion financial industry rescue fund, Reid said.

But if Bush’s team doesn’t act, he said, “I think that we are probably going to have to try to do something” in Congress.

Reid said he would rely on Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, to determine what kind of legislation would be appropriate.

The autoworkers’ concessions are “a step in the right direction,” he said.

“I think it’s too bad that negotiated contracts between labor and management are going to have to be changed,” Reid said. “But it’s obvious to everyone — as strong of a union guy as I am — it’s obvious that there has to be some changes made.”

Ahead of Thursday’s televised hearings, GM’s president and chief operating officer, Fritz Henderson, met with congressional aides and said bankruptcy for his company would further erode consumer confidence. About 25 auto dealers also combed through House and Senate office buildings, lobbying for the bailout package.

General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. submitted three separate survival plans to Congress this week after flunking their first attempt to persuade lawmakers to throw them a lifeline.

GM and Chrysler said they needed an immediate infusion of government cash to last until New Year’s, and both said they could drag the entire industry down if they fail. Ford wants a $9 billion standby line of credit in case a competitor fails.

Chrysler said it needed $7 billion by year’s end to keep operating. GM asked for an immediate $4 billion as the first installment of a $12 billion loan, plus a $6 billion line of credit to use if conditions worsen.

Ford’s chief executive, Alan Mulally, and GM’s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, said they would work for $1 a year if each company accepted government loans. The carmakers also have offered to cancel bonuses and merit raises. Chrysler said its chief executive has cut his annual pay to $1.

All three plans envision the government getting a stake in the companies that would allow taxpayers to share in future gains if they recover.

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee was to hear testimony Thursday from the executives, the UAW’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, and the head of the Government Accountability Office on the companies’ plans. The House Financial Services Committee planned similar session Friday.

Officials at the White House and the Treasury and Commerce departments were scouring the plans. Perino said it was “too early to say” whether the companies have outlined a path toward viability that justifies new federal assistance.

President-elect Barack Obama said it appeared that Big Three chiefs were returning to Washington with a “more serious set of plans.”

The bailout faces a skeptical public. Sixty-one percent oppose providing the auto companies with billions in federal assistance, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll released Wednesday. Fifty-three percent said it would not help the economy.

Few saw any quick impact if the U.S. auto industry were to go bankrupt — only one in three expected to be affected immediately or in a year. Most of the rest said they thought it would affect them eventually, though nearly one-quarter said they would never feel its impact.

Associated Press writers Erica Werner, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Deb Riechmann in Washington, Kimberly S. Johnson in Detroit and Joe Milicia in Cleveland contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081204/ap_on_go_co/congress_autos

Rockefeller Center Lights Up Christmas Tree

Rockefeller Center lights tree in annual ceremony

By MARCUS FRANKLIN

Associated Press Writer Marcus Franklin, Associated Press

NEW YORK – A family of Hurricane Katrina survivors whose new house was partly built with lumber from last year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree were among tens of thousands who attended this year’s lighting ceremony.

The eight-ton, 72-foot Norway spruce was illuminated Wednesday night in the Manhattan plaza after performances by entertainers including Tony Bennett, Harry Connick Jr., Jamie Foxx and Beyonce.

“It’s been an awesome experience,” said Tracey Davison, 40, a teacher’s assistant from Pascagoula, Miss. “I have a famous living room because of the tree from last year, and my girls and I have had a spectacular trip to New York for the first time.”

This year’s tree was decorated with 30,000 energy-efficient LED lights on five miles of wire, topped with a 750-pound star made of 25,000 Swarovski crystals. It was donated by the Varanyak family in Hamilton Township, N.J.

Among the thousands of onlookers who gathered to watch the annual tradition were Davison and her four daughters: Ashunti, 10; Nylah, 9; Majsa, 8; and Karly, 4.

The family, who fled Katrina with just a few suitcases, recently moved into a new three-bedroom house built by Habitat for Humanity. Parts of the walls and floors in their living room were made with lumber from last year’s tree.

“It’s kinda like Christmas before Christmas,” said Davison. “It was a dream come true. We’re very, very excited to be in the house.”

Others who lined the streets to watch the celebrity performers and the ceremony were Anita McLean, 71, her son and her two grandchildren, ages 14 and 11.

“It’s my fourth year, and I’m not cold,” she said, adding that she stood for more than three hours to secure a viewing spot for the lights. “Just being together, the excitement of the day, it’s keeping with the spirit of Christmas.”

In past years, the Rockefeller Center tree has been recycled after the holiday season, being made into toys for animals at the Bronx Zoo and mulched for hiking trails.

The tree lighting ceremony started in 1933, but workers building the Art Deco complex began putting up Christmas trees in 1931 during the Great Depression.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/rockefeller_center_tree;_ylt=Asl.kLXU7FK1xSw1tpRfyN5.KcMA

Family Files Lawsuit In Wal-Mart Stampede Death

Victim’s kin file suit in Wal-Mart stampede death

By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer Frank Eltman, Associated Press Writer –

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – The family of a New York man who was trampled to death the day after Thanksgiving by a stampede of bargain hunting Wal-Mart shoppers has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The family also filed notice that Nassau County, on Long Island, and its police department will be sued.

The lawsuit against Wal-Mart and the Long Island mall where it is located was filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in the Bronx on behalf of Elsie Damour Phillipe. Phillipe is the sister of victim Jdimytai Damour (DHMEE’-tree Di-MOHR’), and is the court-appointed administrator of his estate.

Damour, a temporary worker hired for the holiday season, was crushed to death when some 2,000 customers stormed into the Valley Stream store.

None of the defendants in the lawsuit immediately responded to requests for comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081203/ap_on_re_us/wal_mart_death

By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer Frank Eltman, Associated Press Writer –

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – The family of a New York man who was trampled to death the day after Thanksgiving by a stampede of bargain hunting Wal-Mart shoppers has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The family also filed notice that Nassau County, on Long Island, and its police department will be sued.

The lawsuit against Wal-Mart and the Long Island mall where it is located was filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in the Bronx on behalf of Elsie Damour Phillipe. Phillipe is the sister of victim Jdimytai Damour (DHMEE’-tree Di-MOHR’), and is the court-appointed administrator of his estate.

Damour, a temporary worker hired for the holiday season, was crushed to death when some 2,000 customers stormed into the Valley Stream store.

None of the defendants in the lawsuit immediately responded to requests for comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081203/ap_on_re_us/wal_mart_death

Ford CEO Will Work for 1 Dollar to Get Bailout Loan

Ford Says CEO Will Work for $1 to Get Loans

By TOM KRISHER and KIMBERLY S. JOHNSON, AP Auto Writers

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. will tell Congress that it plans to return to a pretax profit or break even in 2011 when the Detroit Three automakers’ CEOs appear before lawmakers this week to request $25 billion in government loans.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally said he’ll work for $1 per year if the company has to take any government loan money.

After grilling the CEOs at hearings last month, Congressional leaders demanded plans from the automakers by Tuesday to show that they will survive if they get federal funds. The plan Ford submitted said the company will cancel all management employees’ 2009 bonuses and will not pay any merit increases for its North American salaried employees next year.

The company also said it will sell its five corporate aircraft. The CEOs of all three Detroit automakers were harshly criticized during last month’s hearings for flying to Washington in separate corporate jets.

Mulally said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that Ford will give much more detail to Congress than it did previously, and the company will emphasize the steps it has taken to cut its labor costs with the United Auto Workers union.

Mulally said Ford will seek $9 billion as its share of the loan money but may not need to use it. The Dearborn-based company has said it has enough cash to make it through next year without assistance.

As part of the plan submitted to Congress, Ford said it does not anticipate a liquidity crisis in 2009, “barring a bankruptcy by one of its domestic competitors or a more severe economic downturn that would further cripple automotive sales.” The loan would provide a safeguard against worsening conditions, the company said.

The company said it will accelerate plans to roll out electric vehicles as part of its plan.

“We are going to do that across our product line,” Mulally said in the interview.

The first plug-in vehicle will be a Transit Connect small van for commercial use in 2010 and a car the size of the Ford Focus compact the following year.

Ford also said it will accelerate plans for hybrid gas-electric vehicles.

Mulally said he will encourage automakers and parts suppliers to join forces to develop new battery technologies in the U.S. for future electric cars so the country doesn’t rely on foreign batteries.

“We don’t want to trade oil for batteries,” he said.

Ford’s plan calls for an investment of up to $14 billion to improve fuel efficiency over the next seven years. The company said would improve the overall efficiency of its fleet by an average of 14 percent in 2009.

The CEOs of the Detroit Three are scheduled to appear before congressional committees Thursday and Friday. Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. have said they are perilously low on cash and need the government loans to survive the recession and the worst auto sales environment in 25 years.

GM and Chrysler were to submit their plans to Congress later in the day. At an appearance in Baltimore on Tuesday morning, Chrysler President and Vice Chairman Jim Press didn’t give details of the business plan that Chrysler will present, but said it will tackle product mix, vehicle pricing and quality and fiscal responsibility.

Press said all players, including banks and labor, have agreed to “all the concessions that are necessary.”

The CEOs were skewered on their first visit in November, when lawmakers criticized them for high labor costs and products that aren’t competitive with foreign automakers.

“I think we learned a lot from that experience,” Mulally said in the interview, adding that the CEOs were there last time to discuss the progress of the industry, not a plan for viability.

Ford’s new plan is 32 pages long, plus an appendix, and it includes much detail that was lacking during the first visit.

The company says its plan to achieve profitability or break even by 2011 is based on industrywide sales estimates of 12.5 million units in 2009, 14.5 million in 2010 and 15.5 million in 2011. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate dropped to 10.6 million vehicles in October.

Ford shares rose 25 cents, or 9.8 percent, to $2.80 in midday trading.

Ford’s plan said it will reduce its number of dealers by 606 to 3,790 by the end of the year. It will also trim the number of major sourcing suppliers it uses to 750 from 1,600.

Ford reiterated its intention to offload Volvo, by either selling the Swedish automaker or spinning it off into a separate company. Since 2007, Ford has sold its Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover lines. It also sold most of its stake in Mazda.

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/775/ford-says-ceo-will-work-for-1-to-get-loans/

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Associated Press Writer Alex Dominguez in Baltimore contributed to this report.

How To Hang Christmas Lights

How To String Christmas Lights By Vanessa Raymond

Say your husband is Jewish. Say you haven’t put Christmas lights up in twenty years (or come to think of it, ever). Say you have a kid now and the importance of holiday traditions has suddenly dawned on you. Say it’s mid-December.

This was my position a few years ago when I realized that no, the Jewish husband would not be putting up any Christmas lights (imagine that!), and if they were going to be a part of our holiday tradition, it was up to me. I learned how to string Christmas lights the hard way; here are a few tips to make stringing your Christmas lights easy:

Timing. In Seattle, if your Christmas lights aren’t up by early November, you’re virtually guaranteed to be up on a slippery roof in a cold rain in the dark uttering some newly-minted phrases that aren’t exactly in keeping with the holiday spirit. This doesn’t mean that come mid-December, most of us Seattleites aren’t out there doing just that, but we do have special dispensation to get our lights up early. In other parts of the country, stringing your lights anytime before Thanksgiving is seen as sacrilege. Though you won’t be the Grinch who stole Christmas, you’ll be the turkey who snubbed Thanksgiving.

Consider the weather. Dress appropriately. Here in the Pacific Northwest, gortex is more than just a fashion statement; it is a way of life. Those gloves with the fingers cut out–what did you think they were for? Even with all the right clothes, you are still going to freeze a few key parts, most likely your digits. If you’ve got Reynaud’s syndrome, may I suggest that you consider stringing a wreath instead?

The Joneses. Let’s face it, once the lawn and barbecue season is over, the friendly neighborhood ribbing opportunities dwindle over the winter months. If you just happen to be a distant cousin of Martha Stewart and can’t help but create a classic lighting display that perfectly complements your country chic house, kudos to you. If you didn’t get the right genes for that, there is always overkill. How many lumens do the Joneses have? Add a zero and you win.Get a good ladder. There’s nothing like trying to descend from the roof with frozen fingers and a burned-out string of lights onto a ladder that tests the durability of your newly reconstructed anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). You can forget the moguls but if you expect to be skiing the steeps into your forties, fifties, and beyond, invest in a good ladder now.
Measure first. Measure the area where you want to string the lights. I know–it’s like asking for directions. But it will save you return trips to the hardware store, and face.

Choose your tree wisely. If you’ll be stringing lights on a tree, go for the evergreen and not the hawthorn–”thorn” is in the name of this tree for good reason. Remember, thorny and gnarled was Halloween.

Don’t overload your circuits. As much as that bright orange extension cord across your lawn does not fit your vision, let it be (and never plug more than one extension cord into an outlet). Trying to get an electrician to your house when you blow out your electrical box is guaranteed to blow your circuits, too, and counteract any of the goodwill generated by your magnanimous offer to string the Christmas lights in the first place.

There you have it. And don’t forget the brandy when you’re through. Remember, it’s all about tradition!

http://www.howtodothings.com/family-and-relationships/a4022-how-to-string-christmas-lights.html