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Google announces surprise shakeup as Larry Page takes on CEO role

Dominic Rushe
The Guardian
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:16 UTC
Image
© Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Google said Larry Page (above) would take over from 4 April, when Eric Schmidt will become executive chairman.
Long-time chief Eric Schmidt to become executive chairman

Web giant reports better-than-expected profits of $2.5bn

Larry Page, Google's co-founder, is taking over the reins at the search engine giant from long-time chief Eric Schmidt.

In a surprise move Schmidt delivered the news as the company announced fourth-quarter profits that were far better than analysts had expected. "Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!" he tweeted as the results were released.

Google reported a profit of $2.54bn (£1.59bn), up from $1.97bn a year earlier, far better than expected. Schmidt said it had been a "great privilege" to lead the company and he looked forward to working with his "literally best friends and partners Larry and Sergey."

The company said Page would take over from 4 April when Schmidt will become executive chairman, "focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships".
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Sheriff

US: FBI arrests 127 in its biggest ever Mafia crackdown

Ed Pilkington
The Guardian
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:11 UTC
Image
© Chip East / Reuters
Roundup of suspected Cosa Nostra members in raids by 800 officers hark back to heyday of battle with the mob

The charge sheets read like a script from the heyday of Hollywood's love affair with the mob, replete with made men, consiglieres and vows of undying loyalty to the boss. In a move that made it seem time had stood still since The Godfather first astonished America in 1972, the FBI today renewed its decades-long battle against the US mafia.

In a devastating blow to the organised crime families of the north-eastern US, more than 800 FBI and police officers made the largest roundup of Cosa Nostra bosses and soldiers in US history. Some 127 mafia members and their accomplices were charged.

The arrests in New York, Newark in New Jersey and Rhode Island were both an indication of the mafia's enduring power in the US and of the determination of the FBI to regain the initiative in its struggle with the organisation.
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Heart - Black

US:Proposed Bill Would Create Domestic Violence Registry

Jay Gormley
CBS 11 News
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 07:02 UTC
Image
© AP Photo
A Woman Cries
Veronica Galaviz of Richardson is nine months free of the man who tried to first kill her before then taking his own life. Prior to that horrific night, Galaviz said that she spent years being verbally and then physically abused.

But a bill that has been proposed by State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio seeks to create a domestic violence registry, similar to the current sex offender registry. "Once you've been in an abusive relationship, you have some trust issues," Galaviz said. "You always have some doubts, and this would be one way to relieve some of those doubts."

"I think it's a great tool, especially for someone who doesn't have the means to do a criminal background check on a potential suitor," Galaviz added.

If the bill (House Bill 100) is passed, any individual convicted of domestic violence at least three times would be required to register as a repeat offender. The registry would be free and open to the public, and would include names, birthdates and recent photographs of the offenders.

Jan Langbein is the executive director of Genesis Women's Shelter in Dallas. "I've heard so many women over the years say, 'Gosh, I wish I could have seen this coming,'" Langbein said. "'There was no way for me to see this coming. I didn't know that his past three wives were abused by him.'"
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Arrow Down

US: Home Sales Hit 13-Year Low; Slow Recovery Ahead

Martin Crutsinger
The Associated Press
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:54 UTC
The number of people who bought previously owned homes last year fell to the lowest level in 13 years, and economists say it will be years before the housing market fully recovers.

High unemployment and a record number of foreclosures are deterring potential buyers who fear home prices haven't reached the bottom. Job growth is expected to pick up this year, but not enough to raise home sales to healthier levels.

"We built too many houses during the boom, and now after the crash, it will take us a long time to get back to normal," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.

The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that sales dropped 4.8 percent to 4.91 million units in 2010. That was slightly fewer than in 2008, which had been the weakest year since 1997.

The poor year for sales did end on a stronger note. Buyers snapped up homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million units in December, the best sales pace since May and the 12.8 percent rise from November was the biggest one-month surge in 11 years.
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Briefcase

US: The Phantom 15 Million

Jim Tankersley
NationalJournal
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 06:15 UTC
Image
© John Moore/Getty Images
Anxious: Job seekers in Denver
America's jobs crisis began a decade ago. Long before the housing bubble burst and Wall Street melted down, something in our national job-creation machine went horribly wrong.

The years between the brief 2001 recession and the 2008 financial collapse gave us solid growth in our gross national product, soaring corporate profits, and a low unemployment rate - but job creation lagged stubbornly behind, more so than in any economic expansion since World War II.

The Great Recession wiped out what amounts to every U.S. job created in the 21st century. But even if the recession had never happened, if the economy had simply treaded water, the United States would have entered 2010 with 15 million fewer jobs than economists say it should have.

Somehow, rapid advancements in technology and the opening of new international markets paid dividends for American companies but not for American workers. An economy that long thrived on its dynamism, shedding jobs in outdated and less competitive industries and adding them in innovative new fields, fell stagnant in the swirls of the most globalized decade of commerce in human history.

Even now, no one really knows why.
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Eye 1

US: Bonus Payments to City Retirees Are Drawing Ire

Elizabeth Lesly Stevens
New York Times
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:07 UTC
As San Francisco struggles under ballooning pension and health care costs, the city's retirees will receive unexpected cost-of-living bonuses totaling $170 million. The city's anticipated budget deficit for the coming year is $360 million.

A political battle has raged over the city's growing retirement obligations. In November, Proposition B, which would have required city workers to contribute more toward their pensions and benefits, was soundly defeated. The measure's opponents - every major elected official and energetic public-employee unions - said fears about the pension fund were overblown.

Meanwhile, the fund's fundamentals deteriorated as it gradually accounted for its huge losses in the stock market crash. It took in $414 million in contributions in 2010 but paid out $819 million.
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Popcorn

US: LucasFilm spokesperson pooh-poohs George Lucas belief that world will end in 2012

Lewis Wallace
Wired
Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:22 UTC
George Lucas
© bananawacky/Flickr
George Lucas: another 2012er
Star Wars creator George Lucas was just kidding when he chatted with Seth Rogen about the Mayan prophecy of an apocalypse in 2012. But that hasn't stopped news sites from regurgitating Rogen's weird report that Lucas truly believes the end is near.

Even The Washington Post's Celebritology 2.0 blog got in on the action Wednesday, with a post headlined, "Does George Lucas Think the World Will End in 2012?"

While the question mark might indeed be the blogger's best friend, the answer to the query is a resounding "no."

"I spoke with George," said Lucasfilm rep Lynne Hale in an e-mail to Wired.com about this issue of obvious intergalactic importance.

"He was not serious when he talked about the end of the world in 2012 but he is an adamant believer that the world is flat, that Stonehenge was built by aliens, and that the sun revolves around the Earth," Hale said. "These are among the many subjects he commonly discusses at length with Elvis, who he's going to digitally insert into Indy 5 along with a roster of famous dead actors."

While Lucas and his associates clearly have a sense of humor about the rumor's wildfire propagation, Rogen was reportedly "left stunned" by Lucas' comments during a meeting that was also attended by Steven Spielberg, according to The Toronto Sun story that set the rumor mill buzzing.
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Dollar

Communist Vietnam's $35 bowl of noodle soup

Alastair Leithead
BBC
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:01 UTC
Image

As the communist country of Vietnam increasingly embraces the ways of capitalism, the gap between rich and poor is rapidly expanding.

I have had some odd days, but Sunday in Hanoi was certainly a very odd day.

It started off with me gawping at a preserved and somewhat waxy-looking man, then there was a taste of Vietnam's most expensive soup - and a sight of its most costly car.
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Fish

Poachers toss thousands of fish

Elizabeth McDougall
WAVY.com
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:22 UTC
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina - WAVY.com has received numerous e-mails in regard to a major commercial trawler discard off the coast of North Carolina this past weekend. Several people have reported that trawlers fishing off the coast of the Outer Banks were caught tossing thousands of dead, or near dead, rock fish overboard. A YouTube video and several pictures emailed to WAVY.com show the fish floating everywhere.


A concerned fisherman told WAVY.com, "Commercial netters are dredging thousands of striped bass off the Outer Banks, and throwing back thousands of fish in the quest to fill their quotas with the largest fish possible. Miles of dead, floating striped bass are the result. Classic example of poorly designed fishing laws creating waste in a vulnerable and valuable fishery."

According to the Coast Guard , several fishing vessels were cited in violation of federal law, including one vessel in possession of 58 illegally caught Atlantic striped bass. The crew of the Coast Guard cutter Beluga, while on patrol, detected and intercepted the illegal poachers Friday.
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Family

What happens when mom unplugs teens for 6 months?

Beth J. Harpaz
Associated Press
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 07:55 UTC
Image
© Frances Andrijich
This undated photo shows Susan Maushart, second from left, with her children,from left to right, Anni, Sussy and Bill
New York - Susan Maushart lived out every parent's fantasy: She unplugged her teenagers.

For six months, she took away the Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones and video games. The eerie glow of screens stopped lighting up the family room. Electronic devices no longer chirped through the night like "evil crickets." And she stopped carrying her iPhone into the bathroom.

The result of what she grandly calls "The Experiment" was more OMG than LOL - and nothing less than an immersion in RL (real life).
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