Good Karma

GOOD KARMA

Instructions For Life

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's
*Respect for self
*Respect for others
*Responsibility for all of your actions
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a good relationship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationshiop is one in which your love for eachother exceeds your need for eachother.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

American Eagle Outfitters

American Eagle has become one of the most popular clothing stores of today. But American Eagle (or AE) got its start as an outdoor clothing retailer but now sells jeans, shirts, shoes, bags, jewelry and more. AE was started by a man named Edward Beinstein in Pittsburg Pennsylvania. The store opened in 1904 selling outdoor clothing, AE became a retailer in 1977. AE has sold other brands including OshKosh, Martin and Osa, and Bluenotes in Canada. AE has also brought another line into the shopping scene called Arie. Arie sells bras, underwear and “dorm clothes”.
AE typically aims its apparel at men and women between the ages of 15 and 25 going for a more “young and hip” look. AE currently has over 900 stores in the United States and Canada and is planning to open more this year. AE is a public company its stock is under AEO and their growth in one year was 21%. In 2007 there were 27,600 employees in the company and the CEO was/is James V. O’Donnell, while the chairman was/is Jay L. Schottenstein. American Eagle’s top competitors are Abercrombie, Hollister, and The Gap.

Coke VS. Pepsi

I'm not quite sure what to say. Im here for extra credit... lol But its really all the same. Its like Backstreet Boys or Nsync or Star Wars or Star Trek their basically the same. People always like one or the other. There are so many blogs about Coke and Pepsi. People like one or the other because of little things like there is more fizz in pepsi than there is in coke and thats just a theory. Pepsi started making different flovors and so did coke but i think Coke made more different kinds of flavors than pepsi did.

Plus pepsi is not that pricey than Coke. You may find them the same price at some stores but they say that Papsi makes more money. Personally they both taste the saem to me i don't know what the fuss is about but whatever.





And when you look at revenues, the gap is even more dramatic. Coke is trading at 7 times estimated 2002 sales while Pepsi is trading at 3.5 times 2002 revenue estimates. Both companies are expected to post slight declines in sales this year and an increase of about 4 percent in 2003. Due to this disparity in valuation. Coke is still the market share leader in soft drinks. One of the main reasons the stock has outperformed Pepsi this year was because it reported a better than expected gain in unit volume in the first quarter. And the company has taken steps to cement its carbonated beverage lead as well gain ground in the bottled water market. (Coke and Pepsi both have their own brands of water, Dasani and Aquafina, respectively.)



It is wierd but cool how people can go on and on about the silliest things. This might now be silly to some people but it is to me i mean come on its just a drink. Lol

Myspace.... the new fad!!

MYSPACE!!!!!!
im sure that everyone either has or ahs heard of myspace before! its seems like everytime you sign on to myspace you have a new friend or someone is asking you how to work their myspace because they just got theirs. but what really is myspace?? How did it start?? these are the questions that we are wondering.
Myspace alone is bigger then yahoo!, youtube, and google. It has millions of from more then 23 countries. Myspace was founded in 2004 by Tom Anderson and Chirs Dewolfe. In 2005 Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought the website for $580 million. Most of the money that myspace makes comes from the adveritising that goes on on the pages. Mostly for movies and new tv shows, or different web sites.
Tom and Chirs got the idea for their website from friendster.com. They thought that it would be a fun idea to create a socioal networking site, that could potentially get bigger then friendster.com.
its thanks to Tom and Chris for their hard work, that we can enjoy myspace when we get home from school.

Koi Bros!!!

There is a fish farm in Scandia, MN. These aren't just ordinary fish though, they are fish called koi. It started out as a hobby of a man named Mike Swanson then he got his 2 sons to enjoy these fish also. Now they own a koi fish farm located in Scandia MN. Their business, Koi Acres, began just a few years ago when the Swanson family, which also includes father Mike, mother Janel and brother Tayler, moved from suburban Oakdale to a farm in Scandia. Mike Swanson researched koi, which are popular in Japan. He had been unable to find a variety of the fish locally and decided to renovate their new land into a koi farm. The site now boasts a facility that holds four 8,000 gallon tanks for the fish. The farm generally contains 2,000 to 4,000 fish. While in Japan, the brothers tour koi farms and purchase fish to be transported to Scandia. Held July 23-24, the parade is a self-guided tour of unique ponds and landscaping in the metro area.
"This very large koi pond is a showcase for our Japanese koi. This pond is also our swimming pond and outdoor entertainment area. The pond is eight-feet deep and crystal clear all summer long due to an extensive filtration system," described the Swanson family.

Silver Jeans

FALL 2007 COMPANY

Quality- Silver Jeans keep their values and qualities the same even though the latest fashion is changing by the minute. They create the best looking, best fitting, and best value jeans possible for their consumers.

Input- Silver Jeans sells their products all over North America and Europe. They do studies looking in "our" towns- focusing on schools, food courts, streets, parks, etc. and put it into real affordable jeans.

Focus- "We have a tradition of quality-control: development takes place prior to production. Garmets are measured before and after in-house washing. Every pair of jeans are inspected and one-third of the finished ones are measured."

People- Silver Jeans promotes a corporate philosophy that tells how to be the best company they can be. They have a belief that our employees and customers are their greatest assets.

Product- Silver Jeans are created and designed in Canada in a house design team. A team of designers, merchandisers and production managers oversee a process of many things-- patterns, making, cutting, sewing, washing and detailing.

PRICES- Silver jeans ranges in prices from $59.00 to $73.00. Their jeans are comfortable, affordable, and cute : )

zimbabwean dollar

1 USD = 299.97 ZMD

Apple

Do you ever wonder how much apple is taking in with their new technological items? well we sure do! And here is what we found...

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2004 fourth quarter ended September 25, 2004. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $106 million, or $.26 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $44 million, or $.12 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $2.35 billion, up 37 percent from the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 27.0 percent, up from 26.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 37 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Apple shipped 836,000 Macintosh® units and 2,016,000 iPods during the quarter, representing a 6 percent increase in CPU units and a 500 percent increase in iPods over the year-ago quarter. “We are thrilled to report our highest fourth quarter revenue in nine years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We shipped over 2 million iPods, our Retail store revenue grew 95 percent year-over-year, and the new iMac G5 has received phenomenal reviews and is off to a great start.” Apple started the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also starting the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online music store. So as you can see apple is doing extremely well with its profits and hopes to continue its growing sales every year. If you are interested more in the apple company go to their website at http://www.apple.com/.

Jolly Ranchers

Jolly Ranchers is a big Brand Name for candies, that is in the market. Hershey Owns Jolly Ranchers candies. Jolly Ranchers are fruit flavored candies. They includes Jolly Ranchers hard candies, gummies candies, soft and chewy candies, sour and double Blasts, lollipop suckers, and jelly beans. It was founded in 1949 by Bill and Dorthy Harmsen in Colorado. The name Jolly Ranchers was created to explain the hospitability western country. In 1996 Hershey aquire the Jolly Ranchers. They probably compete against Starbusrts, which as a similar product. (compentuary) Also they use great advertisements like the one here:




I LOVE JOLLY RANCHERS! U GOTTA HAVE ONE

MONOPOLIES!!!!

WALMART IS A MONOPOLY AND MUST BE STOPPED!!!!

Walmart is a monopoly and, as far as most people see it, say that monopolies are bad, right? So then why do we still let cooperations like walmart, take over our towns and destory the buisnesses that are there? Beside the fact that walmart does give a lot of people jobs, it only hurts more than it helps. They like to inport a lot of their products from other counrties, making the US loose more jobs, probably more jobs than the stores themselves give back to the county. Plus, do we really know if the items that they inport are really quality items. In order to keep their 'always low prices' they have to buy in on cheap merchindise, jipping good paying constumers of their money. So, people do like going to walmart becuase they do have low prices, but you know what they say, you get what you pay for and when people pay for low prices, they're getting low quality products.
So, i ask you again, is walmart really all that's cracked up to be? The, good, family owned companies that they like to throw out of buisness, are probably better for the community than they are all together. At least these small companies buy their products inside the US instead of going elsewhere. Plus, if one single walmart kicked ten small buisnesses out of there homes, they're taking away as many jobs as they're giving back, accomplishing nothing on the subject of job giving. Again, i say that walmart hurts more than it helps.
Finally, for my closing statement, i would like to say that taking walmart away from the US probably wouldnt hurt the economy at all. There are plenty of other stores out there like K-mart and Target, stores that, as far as we know, doesnt practice the same underhanded things as we know walmart does. In fact, i would probably have to say that taking walmart away from out country would probably help it a lot more than it is doing now.

(couldn't upload picture go to www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i2488 for a pic)

Anti Walmart

HEALTH CARE

-WALMARTS HEALTH CARE PLAN FAILS TO COVER OVER 775000 EMPLOYEES
-LARGE COMPANIES COVER 66% OF THEIR EMPLOYEES AND WAL MART ONLY COVERS 43% FOR HEALTH CARE
-FULL TIME EMPLOYEES MUST WAIT 180 DAYS TO ENROLL IN HEALTH CARE AND OTHER BUSINESSES THE WAIT IS ONLY A MONTH





DISCRIMINATION

-IN 2001 SIX WOMEN SUED WAL MART BECAUSE THE COMPANY WOULDNT ALLOW THEM PROMOTIONS AND THEY PAID THEM LESS THEN MEN
-WOMEN MANAGERS ON AVERAGE EARN 14500 LESS THAN MEN

CRIME

-IN 2004 THE POLICE REPORTED A CRIME RATE OF OVER 269 INCIDENTS PER STORE

WAGES

-IN 2001 SALES ASSOCIATES EARNED A AVERAGE OF 13861 FOR ANNUAL WAGES AND THE POVERTY LINE FOR A FAMILY IS 14630
-WAL MART EMPLOYEES WERE FORCED TO WORK OFF CLOCK FOR NO PAY
-THE AVERAGE EMPLOYEE HAD 8-12 UNPAID HOURS EACH MONTH

Apple VS Microsoft

Apple vs. Microsoft: Battle of the Brands
Posted Apr 9th 2007 9:10AM by Brian WhiteFiled under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Marketing and advertising, International Business Machines (IBM), Battle of the Brands
This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and watch out for more Battle of the Brands posts.
It seems that the competition that has been brewing between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has never really died down from the late 1970s, even as both companies have had ups and downs in the stock market and in the consumer products market as well. The battle between Apple and Microsoft has been (and will be) a perfect case study for future business textbooks at the best universities, as the fight between the two has been nothing short of amazing in the past 25 years or so.
Apple
Apple's start began with Steve Jobs (visionary guru) and buddy Steve Wozniak (tech guru) trying to find a way to get customers buying the personal computer before the market and world even knew what a personal computer was. Steve Jobs was trained in calligraphy and wanted the PC experience to be just as much an art and visceral, visible experience as a technical, computer program-interface experience. With that vision, and with a little help from friends, the two Steves started selling Apple's first PC products out of a garage about 27 years ago in the Southern California area, after Jobs dropped out of college due to lack of funds and general boredom.
What transpired throughout the early 1980s was the rapid growth of Apple Computer Inc. as the PC powerhouse at the same time it was grabbing the attention of MicroSoft (later renamed Microsoft Corp.) founder Bill Gates, who had dropped out of Harvard to pursue his vision of coming up with a PC operating system that he could "license" to all the big hardware manufacturers to use on their machines. But, Gates needed a nice interface to ensure his product was better than Apple's.
There is endless debate on whether Gates and company stole designs from Apple, but that's another post. Jobs and company went on to dominate the PC industry they largely helped create throughout the early '80s and into the late '80s. Jobs himself was booted from the company he helped found, based on his erratic and perfection-obsessed personality, in 1985 as top Apple employees became severely alienated. Apple, though, continued on, but lost its magic until Jobs returned in 1997 at a time when Apple was completely floundering in the marketplace. Since 2002, it's not that hard to see where AAPL shares have gone -- from below $10 to over $94 today, with a split in 2005 as AAPL shares were going nuts with the incredible success of the iPod.
Microsoft
Bill Gates was apparently obsessed with more of a business decision to license his software to other manufacturers while keeping control of the software code itself, unlike Apple which wanted to keep control over both the hardware end and software end of its business. That decision by Gates created not only the largest computer software company on the planet, but also propelled Gates to the richest person in the world as well. While seeing very limited vision with large companies like International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft was able to convince IBM and others to sell its hardware to the public using Microsoft's software. In doing so, the "IBM clone" market exploded as the commodity parts needed to make an "IBM-like" PC became easy to find and make, and hundreds of companies joined in the fun of making ultra-cheap PCs running Microsoft's DOS (disk operating system).
During the late 1980s and all through the 1990s, Microsoft grew at a rapid clip as Apple was sliding down the hill with a lack of vision and uncompelling products. It was no match, as Microsoft's licensing strategy easily overwhelmed Apple's proprietary strategy, and soon almost every U.S. home had a PC. Based on such rapid growth, Microsoft split its shares several times in the 1990s, making millionaires out of secretaries and helping propel the PC to an everyday appliance like a toaster or oven. There are persistent arguments that Gates and company made many illegal deals with PC makers to ensure its operating systems (now called "Windows") would be the only choice offered on new PCs, but one thing remains undisputed as a thought: did Microsoft single-handedly create the PC marketplace and allow billions of customers to connect with personal computers, creating a revolution in the process? There's a debate for a whole volume of books, yes?
MSFT shares have never been above $32 a share in the past five years, while sinking to lows of $22 in the same time frame, even as Microsoft has tried to goose the price of its shares with heavily promoted buybacks and other strategies. Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to sell plenty of its operating system software, as well as loads of business software for servers and internet commerce applications. Translation: Microsoft isn't going anywhere fast, although shareholders probably want that notion wrapped up into a steadily climbing share price.
So, who's the champ here? Well, that is a very hard call (like always). There are ardent fans of both Apple and Microsoft these days, and at this time Apple seems to have the "popularity" edge in the marketplace with its stylish designs, easy customer experience, and superior marketing. In fact, Apple's marketing is superior to almost every company in any industry, which is saying a lot. But from a share price perspective in the past five years, Apple wins that prize as well, while not winning the revenue and profit battle, which goes to Microsoft.

Oprah Winfrey

Who is Oprah Winfrey? How did she become such a large figure in today’s world? Oprah Winfrey has broken many barriers and over come many obstacles in her life. But what is her story?
Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko Mississippi. She lived with her mother until she was 13 when she ran away because of abuse. When she couldn’t find a place to stay in a detention center she was sent to live with her dad in Nashville. While living in Nashville she began her career in broadcasting on a radio talk show called WVOL. A few years later she started her career on TV becoming an anchor on WTVF-TV. While she was on TV she started school at Tennessee State University majoring in Speech Communications and Performing Arts.
After college Oprah moved to Chicago and began hosting a show called “AM Chicago” which she made hugely popular. The name was changed to “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. Before Oprah was a popular talk show hostess she was an actress earning a nomination for her acting in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple. She was also in a book turned movie called Native Son.
In 1991 she helped set up a program for children who are molested and abused like she was when she was little. The program that she started was a national database for these children and the bill for the program was signed by Bill Clinton in 1993.
So how Oprah came to be such an authority figure was by working hard, breaking barriers and stepping up to the plate when she was called.

Citigroup's CEO Quits

Citigroup's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Charles Prince resigned Sunday and will be replaced by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

This decision was expected due to the increasingly poor state of the nation's largest banking company. Citigroup lost billions of dollars from investing in bad debt. In the third quarter alone, the company reported the loss of $6.5 billion from "asset writedowns and other credit-related losses". It expects an additional $8-10 billion in writedowns. Writedowns reduce a company's net income.

An emergency meeting by Citi's board determined the end of Prince's role in the company. The group also decided that Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of Citi Europe and a Member of Citi's management and operating committees, would serve as CEO until Rubin takes over the role. It was also expected that Prince would be replaced by Rubin, due to his many leading positions in the economic world. Citi's board hopes that replacing Prince will end the losses and possibly help the company regain substantial profits.

Prince will join former Merrill Lynch and Co. CEO Stan O'Neal, who resigned from the investment bank last month. Both CEO's dealt with billion dollar losses due to debt crises.

Prince had been the CEO of Citigroup for four years. The company's shares closed 20 percent below where they were when he started as Chief Executive.

Charles Prince Resigned

For more information on the resignation http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1528381.htmlcom/535/story/1528381.html

What is the World Bank

• Definition:The World Bank (the Bank), a part of the World Bank Group (WBG), is a bank that makes loans to developing countries for development programs with the stated goal of reducing poverty. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group in that the former only comprises the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association, while the latter incorporates these entities in addition to three others.[1]
• The World Bank was formally established on December 27, 1945, following the ratification of the Bretton Woods agreement. The concept was originally conceived in July 1944 at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. Two years later, the Bank issued its first, and largest, loan: $250 million to France for post-war reconstruction; an issue which has remained a primary focus, alongside reconstruction after natural disasters, humanitarian emergencies and post-conflict rehabilitation needs affecting developing and transition economies.
• What it does;
  Capacity Building – Strengthening governments and educating government officials
  Infrastructure creation – implementation of legal and judicial systems for the encouragement of business, the protection of individual and property rights and the honoring of contracts
  Development of Financial Systems – the establishment of strong systems capable of supporting endeavors from micro credit to the financing of larger corporate ventures
  Combating corruption – Eradicating corruption to ensure optimal effect of actions
• What are they doing now? Debt burden relief in the most indebted and poverty struck countries
  Amelioration of sanitation and water supply
  Support of vaccination and immunization programs for the reduction of communicable diseases such as malaria
  Combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic
  Support civil society organizations
  Creating initiatives for the reduction of greenhouse gases
• The Bank not only provides financial support to its member states, but also analytical and advisory services to facilitate the implementation of the lasting economic and social improvements that are needed in many under-developed countries, as well as educating members with the knowledge necessary to resolve their development problems while promoting economic growth.

US falls to #15

US FALLS TO NUMBER 15

The OECD ranked the after-tax income of the average worker in the United States as 15th among its member nations. The richest middle class, if measured in terms of the purchasing power of their income, was Britain.
That ranking would surprise most Americans, who likely consider their nation the most prosperous in the world.
In one fell swoop, OECD statisticians lowered the estimated income of the average American worker by more than 10 percent and raised average incomes of other rich nations by as much as 30 percent, notes Mr. Kirkegaard.
It may well be that the comparative US standard of living is slipping. The price of oil has risen more dramatically in the United States than in other nations because of the dollar's large devaluation.
The reason for the drop is also statistical. In the past, the OECD had been using a proxy for the middle class based on the "average production worker." This concept focused on full-time workers in the relatively declining manufacturing sector, which tends to be unionized in the US and better paid on average. The OECD's new measure is based on the "average worker," which captures all sorts of private-sector jobs including mining, utilities, construction, retail, hotel/restaurants, financial services, real estate, and other areas.
So this new system ought to provide a fairer comparison.
But 15th place?
Not likely, figures David Grubb, an OECD economist in Paris. He points out that the US and Canada included in the statistics that it sent to Paris the wages of nonsupervisory workers, and not those of higher paid supervisory workers and salaried professionals. When that statistical difference is corrected, the rank of the American middle class would move up from 15th. How far is uncertain.
In the newest OECD Economic Outlook, the average annual wage in the total economy of the US was $45,563 for 2005. That's exceeded only by Luxembourg, a wealthy banking duchy, with $50,634. Britain, Ireland, and Australia, are not far behind the US with incomes above $40,000.
The problem is that this is a measure of total wages, not just the middle class, and it includes the richest Americans whose incomes have risen enormously in recent years. Outside of Hungary, the US has the most extreme income inequality in the OECD.
Kirkegaard figures middle- and lower-income Americans are being squeezed by the flood of money going to the superwealthy. Democrats in Congress have the same view, and their tax proposals would shift the tax burden up the income ladder.
After the early 1990s, the incomes of "very well-off Americans increased much faster than those of both the middle class and the poor," figures Gary Burtless, an expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. For example, top corporate officers got pay increases of 9.5 percent a year in the 1990s, on top of high levels to start with.
This doesn't mean that Middle America incomes have been entirely flat. An analysis by Terry Alexander, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, concludes that a "broad swath of Middle America experienced notable hourly wage gains" since 1975. In other words, children can still assume they have a better living standard, on average, than their parents did.
To reach that conclusion, Mr. Fitzger­ald had to disentangle a "confusing web of data." Two data series on individual hourly wage rates showed little, or even negative, growth over the past 30 years. But labor income for the entire national economy was shown to have grown 39 percent in that time span.
To square this apparent contradiction, Fitzgerald applied to the two wage series a broader price index (personal consumption expenditures), which covers the basket of final goods and services that people consume each year. The new result: Average hourly earnings rose 10 percent, rather than declining 4 percent, from 1975 to 2005. Median hourly wages also rose 20 percent rather than 12 percent. Then he factored fringe benefits into the wage calculation, since they have become increasingly expensive and "contribute to workers' well-being."
That combination accounted for 28 percent of the 39 percent growth of total labor income. "This does not contradict the claim that wage inequality increased over this period – it did," writes Fitzgerald in a bank publication. In other words, the rich are still getting proportionately richer.

Bloomberg Orders $1.5 Billion In Budget Cuts

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Prepare for economic pain. That's Mayor Michael Bloomberg's message to the city as he orders his agencies to come up with $1.5 billion in budget cuts over the next two years. But the pain might not hurt as much as it could. Think of the city's economy as suffering from a cold or flu. It needs an over-the-counter remedy, not antibiotics. Just the same, it needs budget cuts, not tax hikes. "At this moment, I don't believe that tax hikes would be necessary," said Mark Page, the city's budget director. Those are heartening words from Page even as the city prepares to deal with a down turn in the real estate industry and Wall Street by slashing spending by $1.5 billion. Wall Street woes play a big part. In 2006, city income from Wall Street was $20.9 billion. This year, the city expects it to be only $14.8 billion -- a 30 percent drop. Wall Street cuts can have a ripple effect on the local economy. According to the state comptroller, the loss of just one job on Wall Street can mean the loss of as many as three jobs in other industries in the city and the suburbs. So how does the loss of a Wall Street job ripple through the economy? "If somebody has lots of money, what do they do with it? Well they probably buy a nice place to live, they probably eat meals in restaurants, they probably buy things, they pay sales tax, the restaurant hires people," Page said. The cuts are not expected to mean a drop in police, firefighters, and teachers. But the workforce will shrink. The agencies have about three weeks to decide what to cut. They'll go into effect in January at City Hall.

** All I have to say is that a lot of money!! **

To see the video click here: http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=104948@wcbs.dayport.com

Frozen Pizzas Recalled Amid E. Coli Concerns

Frozen Pizzas Recalled Amid E. Coli Concerns
General Mills on Thursday recalled almost five million frozen pizzas sold under the Totino's and Jeno's label because of possible E. coli contamination.
The problem may have come pepperoni on pizzas produced at a General Mills plant in Ohio, the suburban Minneapolis-based company said. They said the pepperoni itself came from a separate supplier, not produced at the plant itself.
State and federal authorities have been investigating 21 E coli illnesses in 10 states over about four months.
Eight of the cases were reported in Tennessee, with the other cases found in smaller numbers in Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin and South Dakota.
Nine of the 21 people reported eating Totino's or Jeno's pizza with pepperoni topping at some point before becoming ill. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that eight of the victims have been been hospitalized, and four have developed a type of kidney failure.
"We took action on that basis as a precaution, because of the possibility that a link might exist," said General Mills spokesman Tom Forsythe. "However, to date we have found no E. coli in our plant, and we have found no E. coli in our products."
General Mills said it was recalling about 414,000 cases of pizza, and that each case contains 12 pizzas.

For more on this article go to http://wcbstv.com/local/totinos.jena.pizza.2.480626.html

Exxon has $9.4B in Profits.

No, we're not impressed by flashy revenue numbers. But Exxon's $9.4 billion is not a flashy revenue number, it's a flashy PROFIT number. Many of us can't imagine 9.4B in profits ever, but this is only in the past three months. Even more amazing, is the company is not impressed with their 9.4B, because it falls 10% from last year.

With the price of oil so high, profits are falling. It's costing more to find and produce crude oil, and that's eating into profits.

Gasoline prices have not been rising as fast as oil prices, meaning the company could not pass along this cost to the consumer. The price of crude oil barrels increased by $10 during the quarter, while national gas levels fell, on average, by $.14.

Nope, we're not impressed by flashy revenue numbers, but you must admit, their profit number is something else.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/01/news/companies/exxon_mobil/index.htm?postversion=2007110112

Fed Cuts Rates to 4.5%

The Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates by a quarter of a point. This is the lowest level since January 2006. This drop was to keep the United States on track economically.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/31/news/economy/fed_rates/index.htm?cnn=yes

This move was widely expected due to weakness in the housing market along with problems with mortgages.