Life Without Oprah

            This shows a picture of a rehab center which includes welcoming people who were obsessed with watching Oprah because her show went off the air as of Tuesday.

Foreclosures for sale: Big supply, low prices

           Las Vegas has so many foreclosures that 53% of all the homes sold in Nevada are in some stage of foreclosure.  Foreclosures represent 45% of sales in California and Arizona, and 28% of all existing home sales during the first three months of 2011.  With the slowed sales pace, it will take three years to burn through the inventory of 1.9 million distressed properties, according to Sharga.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Foreclosures-for-sale-Big-cnnm-2801454840.html

Bank Robbery

The Fate of Huguette Clark's Fortune

          The intensely reclusive copper heiress Huguette Clark died on Tuesday, she was 104. Now, the fate of her estimated $500,000,000 fortune she inherited from her copper mining magnate father, W.A. Clark will have to be determined.  She divorced in 1930 and never remarried. After her mother Anna died in 1963, she cut herself off from the world, shutting herself into the family's massive apartments at 907 Fifth Avenue, in New York.  The family owns the entire eighth floor and half of the twelfth--42 rooms in all. There's also a beach house in Santa Barbara that she hasn't visited since the 1950s and a country house in New Canaan, Conn., currently for sale for $23 million.
         Also, her only apparent family seems to be nieces, nephews, and cousins.  In my opinion, I believe either the fortunes should be kept in the family, or let someone buy most of the realist ate and use some of the money to pay off any fees, debts, and commissions for the employees and lawyers.  Honestly, if she wasn't so reclusive from the public; she would probably have made some type of will where closely related relatives and friends could receive some inheritence.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20110524/ts_atlantic/fatehuguetteclarksfortune38100

How Domino’s Delivered a Tasty Turnaround

          Recently, some purveyors of chow are thriving, including Domino's Pizza. The chain's stock is near a 52-week high.  In its most recent quarter, Domino's reported the same-store sales in the U.S. fell 1.4 percent compared to the year-before quarter. But, international same store sales grew 8.3% in the first quarter, marking the 69th consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth for this division.  While total U.S. sales slumped one percent in the quarter, total international stores rose 15.3 percent — and that's not including the impact of a lower dollar. In the first quarter of 2011, Domino's shut a net 20 stores in the U.S. and opened a net 48 stores overseas. The upshot: today, 4,470 of the company's 9,379 stores are outside the U.S. (nearly 48 percent).

Greek Debt

        This cartoon shows a man trying to push a boulder as the rocks below him are falling.  This represents Greece's debt, as they try to lower it, it's continually going to enlarge and sink.

The Great Recession's Lost Generatio

        Last year, the unemployment rate for college graduates age 24 and younger rose to 9.4%, the highest since the Labor Department began keeping records in 1985.  Hires with limited experience have the toughest time competing in a job market flooded with experienced candidates.  Adecco found that 18% of recent grads have been forced to turn to full-time jobs outside their field of study, often jobs for which a college degree is not required.  
       With hiring on the rise, this year's college grads will find a somewhat better job market awaiting them after graduation, but those already hurt by the recession might not bounce back so quickly.  According to a study by Till von Wachter, an economics professor at Columbia University, the drag on income lasts for 10 years, on average.  In addition, the outlook could be worse for the class of '09 or '10, von Wachter said, since the worse the recession, the longer it takes to get earnings and a career back on track.  "In the bad recessions in the past, the graduates recovered in 10 to 15 years. But we've never had such a strong recession," he said.


     Brittney Winters graduated from Princeton in 2009, she has a double major in French and Spanish. But aside from some freelance tutoring, the jobs she's been able to find: waitress, public relations and video store clerk-- all aren't in her field.

     Afshin Shirazian had trouble finding an internship in the summer of 2009, so he changed careers and went to UCLA business school despite bad timing.  He graduated in 2010, and has been trying to find a marketing job in the health care field ever since. But so far, he has only been able to find freelance consulting jobs.

    By the time Michael Brody graduated from Hunter College with degrees in English and film in 2009, he knew he was going to be facing a tough job market.  Two years later he still doesn't have a permanent, full-time job.  Since graduation, Brody's done some freelance writing, worked in construction and even tried his hand at stand-up comedy.


http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/112754/recession-lost-generation-cnnmoney

With Time Slipping Away, N.B.A. and Players Plan to Meet

            Seeing that the NFL is already in a lockout, the N.B.A. and the players union are meeting with greater frequency as time dwindles for reaching a new labor agreement and avoiding the league’s first lockout since 1998. The labor agreement expires June 30, after a season in which the N.B.A. has recorded substantially higher television ratings. The union rejected a counterproposal recently authored by the league. In a memo to players, the league’s proposal for a $45 million salary cap ($13 million less than the current one). The real sticking point is the league’s wish to install a hard salary cap and decrease the amount of guaranteed money owed to players. The N.B.A.’s proposal also called for eliminating the luxury tax and guaranteeing only half of a player’s first $8 million in salary and 25 percent for deals above $8 million, according to the Sports Business Journal.

http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/with-time-slipping-away-n-b-a-and-players-plan-to-meet/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Stocks start week with losses after earnings miss

        Stocks started the new week with losses Monday following an earnings miss by a big retailer and new concerns about Europe's debt crisis.  The Dow Jones industrial average lost 50 points, or 0.4 %, S&P 500 fell 4, or 0.3 %, and Nasdaq composite lost 13, or 0.5%.  The U.S. stock market has lost some of its momentum lately after finishing its best first quarter since 1998. Stocks in Europe fell broadly after the arrest of the head of the IMF.  The Euro Stoxx 50, an index of large companies in countries that use the euro, lost 1.1 percent. Greece's stock market fell nearly 2 percent.  The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange dropped nearly 11 percent after competitors Nasdaq OMX Group and ICE announced that they had withdrawn their hostile bid for the company.  However, J.C. Penny Co. Inc. rose nearly 4 percent.

School receives record fine, playoff ban for ineligible players

           A Florida high school has been fined $57,000, following a lengthy investigation into widespread improprieties related to its wrestling and girls volleyball programs.  According to the Orlando Sentinel, the $57,000 fine that the Florida High School Athletic Association issued against Oviedo (Fla.) High is the largest single fine ever handed down to a Seminole County School District institution. The Oviedo wrestling program was banned from all district, regional and state competitions for three years while the school's volleyball team was put on probation.
           Some of those wrestlers also reportedly lived with assistant wrestling coaches to illicitly work around the state's residential restrictions. The entire Oviedo wrestling coaching staff was fired and head volleyball coach Chad Long was also dismissed from his position.  The school will not re-appoint athletic director Wes Allen or assistant athletic director John Howell, neither of whom were reportedly aware of any indiscretions on the part of either program before the investigation. According to the Sentinel, because of that lack of awareness, Allen is being allowed to continue in his position as Oviedo's head football coach.
           The violations on the part of the Oviedo wrestling coaches taint a powerful program which had built a stirring state legacy under head wrestling coach J.D. Robbins. Oviedo has won five team state titles since 2004, when Robbins took control of the program. Those titles include a four-peat from 2004-2007 and, more recently, another state title in 2010. The team also notably won an incredible 84 consecutive dual meets between 2004 and 2008.

Osama Hiding in Pakistan

     This cartoon shows Osama's house hiding spot in Pakistan and how Pakistan couldn't possibly know he was hiding in a house with a 18 foot wall surrounding it with barbed-wire on top.

After bin Laden’s death, what’s next for the U.S. and al-Qaida?

          Bin Laden's death could trigger a backlash against Americans and other Westerners by those who had strong feelings of affinity for the al-Qaida leader. He remained hugely popular in much of the Middle East.  al-Qaida as an institution is unlikely to be in a position to organize a sophisticated counter-response to bin Laden's death, at least for the time being. Al Qaida's style is to run well-organized operations that involve complex moving parts which simultaneously converge on a high profile target.  Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had become symbolic rather than command and control leaders over al-Qaida assets in recent years. Killing bin Laden removes the symbol, but he could become a rallying martyr in the eyes of some extremists.
           Al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian cleric who remains at large, was an operational and strategic force in building and animating al Qaeda alongside bin Laden. He now becomes the most wanted terrorist in the world.  Bin Laden's death will affect the war in Afghanistan in the sense that the hunt for him was one of the primary rationales for the invasion.  This is the prize George W. Bush wanted and couldn't achieve before the end of his term.  The killing of bin Laden shores up Barack Obama's hard power credentials and will force political opponents like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin to change their talking points.  President Obama approached the bin Laden challenge seriously, cautiously, and showed a focused earnestness in bringing him to justice.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/20110502/pl_yblog_exclusive/after-bin-ladens-death-whats-next-for-the-u-s-and-al-qaida

NFL Players and Owners

       This cartoon shows the NFL Owners and the players fighting over money, and it looks like the players are trying to take the money from the owners.

15 Athletes Gone Bankrupt

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42766400/?slide=1

Summer Job

        This cartoon displays a student and a laid-off worker applying for a summer job to cut grass.  However, this represents the struggle of workers to find jobs and how they now have to compete with teenagers and young adults for low-end jobs.

NCAA formally charges Jim Tressel with lies, coverup of OSU violations

         Initially, before coach Jim Tressel was outed for essentially lying to his bosses and the NCAA, it looked like Ohio State was getting off kind of easy.  That, of course, was before Tressel's long-running, deliberate coverup of the violations saw the light of day, and before it became clear that the NCAA — and possibly the higher-ups at Ohio State themselves — had been misled by one of the most respected men in the profession.   Between November 2008 and May 2010, multiple student-athletes received preferential treatment and "sold institutionally issued athletics awards, apparel and equipment to Edward Rife, owner of a local tattoo parlor," adding up to more than $13,000 in cash, free tattoos, a loan and a discount on a used car one of the players bought from Rife.
       Per standard procedure, Ohio State has 90 days to reply to the allegations by substantially agreeing or disagreeing with the findings (with copious documentation either way), after which it will appear in front of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, which will hand down a verdict and sentencing, which will then be appealed, etc.  As punishment after the 2011 season Ohio State could face the following: vacated wins, a postseason ban and possible scholarship restrictions are very much on the table, as is Tressel's job, arguably the safest seat in college football at the start of the year.

NFL Draft

       This week the NFL will still be have it's annual NFL Draft despite the lockout.  In the NFL, players being drafted are like huge investments.  Over the years, rookie salaries have increased at an alarming rate, so for a horrible team finding a franchise player can be a bit costly with it's risks and rewards.  However, teams who are looking for late round steals and sleeper picks trade down into the draft in order to acquire more picks around the same area on the board to find guys.  With the NFL being in a lockout, it's crucial for teams with high picks to find the right guy so they won't have a "bust" on their hands who wasted millions of dollars. 

To see some of the biggest busts of all-time you can go to  http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/The-worst-No-7-pick-ever-Choosing-biggest-bust?urn=nfl-wp1194

‘The Avengers’ looking for extras

        There have been many movies where scenes have been shot in Ohio, preferribly Cleveland.  However, Marvel Studios will hire more than 2,000 people to have bit parts in the new movie "The Avengers" when filmmakers begin shooting in August.  The production will be the largest feature film ever made in Ohio.  The Avengers film is about a popular group of Marvel Comics superheroes and stars Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson.  But if you miss out at being an extra in this film, you will have other chances because 10 other movies are to be filmed here soon.  The Greater Cleveland Film Commission said the city is becoming a prime location for Hollywood film producers.

Debt Ceiling

        This cartoon shows the democrat and Republican mascot in the Congress building as a spaceship.  As you can see, they avoided a Government Shutdown; however, they are going to hit the debit ceiling which is represented by the moon.

American Ghost Towns of the 21st Century

         There are several counties in America, each with more than 10,000 homes, which have vacancy rates above 55%.  Most people who follow unemployment and the housing crisis would expect high vacancy rates in hard-hit states including Nevada, Florida and Arizona. They were among the fastest growing areas from 2000 to 2010.  Many large counties which have 20% or higher occupancy rates are in these same regions. Lee County, Fla., Yuma County, Ariz., Mohave County, Ariz., and Osceola, Fla., each had a precipitous drop in home prices and increases in vacancy rates as home buyers disappeared when the economy went south. Lake County, Mich. was #1 as far as vacancy rate among counties in the United States.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/112463/american-ghost-towns-21st-century-247wallst