RXi Pharmaceuticals’ Common Stock to Commence Trading under the Symbol “RXII”
May 10, 2012
WORCESTER, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (OTCBB: GALE – News) announced today that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., also known as FINRA, has approved RXi Pharmaceuticals’ common stock for trading under the stock symbol “RXII” on the OTC Bulletin Board. RXi Pharmaceuticals anticipates its stock will be eligible for trading commencing today, May 10, 2012. The listing of RXi Pharmaceuticals’ stock marks the completion of its spin-off into an independent, publicly-traded company from former parent Galena Biopharma, Inc
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WORCESTER, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (OTCBB: GALE – News) announced today that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., also known as FINRA, has approved RXi Pharmaceuticals’ common stock for trading under the stock symbol “RXII” on the OTC Bulletin Board. RXi Pharmaceuticals anticipates its stock will be eligible for trading commencing today, May 10, 2012.
The listing of RXi Pharmaceuticals’ stock marks the completion of its spin-off into an independent, publicly-traded company from former parent Galena Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:GALE). The spin-off transaction was previously announced by Galena in September 2011, and, on April 26, 2012, Galena paid a dividend of one share of RXi Pharmaceuticals common stock for each outstanding share of Galena common stock.
“We are pleased to announce the public listing of our common stock and the completion of our spin-off into an independent company,” commented Geert Cauwenbergh, Dr. Med. Sc., newly appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of RXi Pharmaceuticals. “With our increased focus as an independent company, we intend to work hard to create value for our shareholders through the advancement of RXi’s robust platform.”
World Trade Financial Corporation is acting as the initial market maker for the trading of RXi Pharmaceuticals’ common stock. World Trade Financial Corporation can be contacted at (619) 325-2620 or at www.worldtradefinancial.com.
About RXi Pharmaceuticals
RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (OTCBB: GALE – News) is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapies based on its proprietary, next-generation RNAi platform. Therapeutics that use RNA interference, or “RNAi,” have great promise because of their ability to “silence,” or down-regulate, the expression of a specific gene that may be overexpressed in a disease condition. Building on the pioneering work of scientific founder and Nobel Laureate Dr. Craig Mello, RXi’s first RNAi product candidate, RXI-109, which targets CTGF (connective tissue growth factor), is scheduled to commence human clinical trials for scar prevention in 2012. For more information, please visit www.rxipharma.com.
About Galena Biopharma
Galena Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: GALE) is a Portland, Oregon-based, biopharmaceutical company that develops innovative, targeted oncology treatments that address major unmet medical needs to advance cancer care. For more information please visit us at www.galenabiopharma.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about future expectations, plan and future development of RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation’s products and technologies. These forward-looking statements about future expectations, plans and prospects of the development of RXi’s products and technologies involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risk that RXi may not be able to successfully develop its candidates, the risk that the development of our RNAi-based therapeutics may be delayed or may not proceed as planned and we may not be able to complete development of any RNAi-based product, the risk that the development process for our product candidates may be delayed, risks related to development and commercialization of products by our competitors, risks related to our ability to control the timing and terms of collaborations with third parties and the possibility that other companies or organizations may assert patent rights that prevent us from developing our products. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. RXi does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release.
Syrian pound, stock market plummet: IMF
May 9, 2012
AFP – The value of the Syrian pound is down 45% on the parallel market and the stock market has slumped 40% since an uprising broke out in March 2011, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. “The exchange rate on the black market has depreciated by 45% and 25% on the official market,” IMF deputy managing director Nemat Shafik told reporters in Beirut. The unrest has damaged the Syrian economy but little data is available, Shafik added.
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AFP –
The value of the Syrian pound is down 45% on the parallel market and the stock market has slumped 40% since an uprising broke out in March 2011, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
“The exchange rate on the black market has depreciated by 45% and 25% on the official market,” IMF deputy managing director Nemat Shafik told reporters in Beirut.
The unrest has damaged the Syrian economy but little data is available, Shafik added. “For security reasons,” the IMF has been unable to send a team to the country.
“We know that GDP has fallen but we don’t have any numbers because we haven’t had people on the ground,” she said, adding the last IMF visit took place in January-February 2011.
Meanwhile, the stock market has plunged by 40%. “The fact that the stock market has fallen by 40 percent is an important indicator of what has happened to businesses,” the IMF official said.
The strife-torn country’s economy, hit by sanctions, is expected to suffer “significant” contraction in 2012, the head of the IMF’s Middle East, North Africa, Gulf and Central Asia department, Masood Ahmed, told AFP in May.
“The impact that the sanctions will have on oil exports for Syria will be the most immediate,” Shafik said, noting that Libya’s GDP fell by 60% when exports were halted during its conflict last year.
“Oil is a much bigger part of the Libyan economy than it is for Syria,” she said. “But still, for Syria it is its major foreign exchange earner and a big revenue earner for the government.”
The Iraqi economy is also affected by the crisis, Shafik said, noting the landlocked state’s dependency on its Mediterranean neighbour.
“Syria is Iraq’s main link to the Mediterranean, so transit trade from Iraq via Syria is potentially disrupted.”
Iraq is “quite dependent” on Syria, as “a significant proportion of Iraqi imports come from Syria, particularly commodities,” she noted.
Neighbouring Lebanon has also been affected by the crisis. “We have seen a decline in trade,” Shafik said.
There has also been a decline in tourism from Syria, while Lebanese banks have withdrawn from Syria to reduce their exposure to the crisis, the IMF official added.
The EU has adopted several rounds of sanctions against Syria, expected to tighten further, to pressure President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to halt its deadly crackdown on a 14-month uprising.
In September, the EU banned Syrian crude oil imports. The EU was the main importer of Syrian oil, at 95% of the total, while the industry provided the embattled state with a third of its foreign exchange earnings.
According to IMF data, Syria’s economy grew 5.9% in 2009 and 3.4% in 2010.
Mobile Set to Surpass Desktop Sales at Some Flash Sales Sites
May 8, 2012
By Lauren Indvik | Mashable – Mobile is becoming an increasingly significant sales channel for many online retailers, particularly for those who sell merchandise through flash sales . Mobile sales recently accounted for more than 50% of a day’s sales on Rue La La, a 6 million-member website that offers limited-time discounts on a range of goods and services in popular categories including fashion, home and travel. [More from Mashable : Lenovo to Spend $800M to Develop Mobile Products] Steve Davis, President of Rue La La , says that mobile sales have been rapidly and steadily accelerating as the company has aggressively promoted and upgraded its apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, as well as its mobile-optimized site.
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By Lauren Indvik | Mashable –
Mobile is becoming an increasingly significant sales channel for many online retailers, particularly for those who sell merchandise through flash sales.
Mobile sales recently accounted for more than 50% of a day’s sales on Rue La La, a 6 million-member website that offers limited-time discounts on a range of goods and services in popular categories including fashion, home and travel.
[More from Mashable: Lenovo to Spend $800M to Develop Mobile Products]
Steve Davis, President of Rue La La, says that mobile sales have been rapidly and steadily accelerating as the company has aggressively promoted and upgraded its apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, as well as its mobile-optimized site. A year ago, mobile devices were responsible for just a tenth of sales.
Other flash sales sites are also seeing growth. Mobile devices account for nearly 25% of revenue during the week and 30% on the weekends for Gilt, up from 15% a year ago. Twenty percent of all sales for Gilt City take place through its mobile app, double what it was a year ago, Christopher Gonzalez, director of mobile product at Gilt.com, tells Mashable.
[More from Mashable: Life-Size 3D Holograms Bring Us Closer to ‘Teleportation’ [VIDEO]]
Approximately 40% of shoppers visit design goods-focused site Fab.com through the retailer’s apps for iOS and Android devices. Although Fab.com refused to disclose what percentage of sales come from mobile, a company spokesperson did say that mobile revenue per week doubled in the first quarter of this year, and that mobile shoppers made purchase decisions in half the amount of time as desktop shoppers and bought more often.
It makes sense that flash sales sites are seeing the mobile boom ahead of other kinds of online retailers. Merchandise frequently sells out in minutes at sites such as Rue La La, Fab.com and Gilt. In response, consumers frequently log on to those sites as soon as their sales go live each day. If they’re not at their desks, they’re firing up their mobile devices. I suspect that many are also using personal mobile devices at their desk to hide their browsing and purchasing behaviors from their colleagues and superiors.
Flash retailers also observed some interesting trends across devices. About 60% of Rue La La’s mobile sales are made on iPhones, followed by iPads (30%), and Android phones and tablets (10%). Fab.com found that iPad users are more valuable: although only 15% of Fab.com’s members have browsed the site with an iPad, those customers are expected to generate 25% of the company’s revenue over the next two years. iPad traffic tends to peak in the evening, Gilt.com notes. Both Rue La La and Gilt noted that weekends are especially popular for mobile because shoppers are less likely to be in front of a desktop computer.
Davis also pointed to the rise of “multiscreen customers.” Members who access Rue La La on desktops, mobile and iPad devices are 540% more likely to purchase than a member that only shops on the desktop version of the website. Similarly, Gilt.com found that customers who shop on both desktops and mobile devices spend four times as much on average than customers who only shop on the full site.
How much more can mobile sales grow? Davis says he expects mobile will begin to bring in more sales for Rue La La than desktops by Christmas-time, accounting for somewhere between 50% to 70% sales on the weekends, and between 50% and 60% on the weekdays. The forecasts for other flash sales may be more modest, but the trend is still up.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Medvedev era as seen on Twitter
May 7, 2012
By JIM HEINTZ | Associated Press – MOSCOW (AP) — It was the end of an era, the kind of moment when a Twitter buff might unleash a barrage of 140-character spurts of sentiment, humor or self-aggrandizement. But Dmitry Medvedev , Russia ‘s one-time tweeter-in-chief, was characteristically modest and a little flat when his term as president came to an end Monday: “Thanks to everyone for their support over the past four years as President of Russia .
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By JIM HEINTZ | Associated Press –
MOSCOW (AP) — It was the end of an era, the kind of moment when a Twitter buff might unleash a barrage of 140-character spurts of sentiment, humor or self-aggrandizement.
But Dmitry Medvedev, Russia‘s one-time tweeter-in-chief, was characteristically modest and a little flat when his term as president came to an end Monday: “Thanks to everyone for their support over the past four years as President of Russia. Our dialogue will continue. There is much work ahead!,” he tweeted an hour after Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as his replacement.
The underwhelming statement was the final point on a presidential arc that started with hopes for reform, briefly rose to cautious optimism, then diminished into disappointment.
When Medvedev opened a Twitter account in June 2010 while on a visit to Silicon Valley, it was seen as a sign he wanted to modernize Russia’s economy and move away from the stiff, authoritarian ways of Putin.
But Medvedev’s 527 tweets as president (398 in English) reveal a man whose initial enthusiasm dissipated and who distanced himself from the drama around him — as Putin showed he was still boss.
Here’s a look at Medvedev’s presidency through his tweets.
TWITTERBOX
In his first days on Twitter, Medvedev appeared thrilled by the medium’s potential and turned into something of a, well, twitterbox. “Haven’t had a burger in a while. Lunch with Obama at Ray’s Hell Burger,” he tweeted on June 25, 2010. A day earlier it was American know-how rather than chow that had him excited: “Silicon Valley’s greatest asset is communication. People discuss their work not trifles. Russia would benefit from this kind of environment.”
PROTESTS, WHAT PROTESTS?
Then in December 2011, an unprecedented wave of anti-government protests roiled Russia. The world was eager to know what Medvedev thought of them, but learned nothing from Twitter. His sole English post from the turbulent month: “Hello (at)euHvR, on my way to Brussels. Looking forward to fruitful discussions with Russia’s largest trading partner.” His Russian posts were no more revealing, including one congratulating the Zenit St. Petersburg football team.
UH-OH
Two days after protests broke out against fraud-tainted parliamentary elections, a Medvedev tweet characterized rising opposition star Alexei Navalny as a sheep committing a sexual act with a human. Medvedev tersely followed that up, providing a link to a Kremlin statement explaining that the offensive posting was a retweet from a tough-talking ruling party ideologue. An unnamed member of the president’s technical staff was blamed for the unauthorized tweet.
THE END APPROACHES
In February, already a lame-duck, Medvedev appeared gripped by a spell of nostalgia, using Twitter to post some favorite photos: him fishing on a sunny day; a winter landscape snapped from a train window; a view of Buenos Aires from a rain-spattered hotel window. And, looking back on his foray into the world of social media, a picture of him at Twitter headquarters: “Here’s how it all began. … Today I have 1,000,000 readers. Thanks for communicating with me.”
Winans' Preferred Stock Index has Been Added to Thomson Reuters' MetaStock® Charting Software
May 4, 2012
NOVATO, Calif., May 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The Winans International Preferred Stock Index™ (WIPSI) is featured in Metastock’s latest product, Winans Preferred Stock Studies . Preferred stocks have historically been one of the best performing investments and have grown increasingly popular with investors due to their attractive dividend yields and strong price appreciation in recent years. The WIPSI is the only major index that tracks the price, yield and volume of preferred stocks as far back as 1900.
Continued here:
NOVATO, Calif., May 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The Winans International Preferred Stock Index™ (WIPSI) is featured in Metastock’s latest product, Winans Preferred Stock Studies.
Preferred stocks have historically been one of the best performing investments and have grown increasingly popular with investors due to their attractive dividend yields and strong price appreciation in recent years.
The WIPSI is the only major index that tracks the price, yield and volume of preferred stocks as far back as 1900.
“As a long-time user of MetaStock, it is an honor to have the Winans International Preferred Stock Index (WIPSI) added to MetaStock’s platform. This new feature will be a game-changer for traders and investors alike,” says Ken Winans, President & Founder of Winans Investments.
Equis (a subsidiary of Thompson Reuters) develops and markets the award-winning MetaStock range of products, which are the premier brand in the charting and technical analysis arena. The MetaStock product suite targeted toward the individual investor includes both real-time and end of day variants of the software along with data subscriptions, add-ons and third party products. Products can be purchased at www.equis.com.
More information on the Winans Investments Capital Management & Research or the Winans International Preferred Stock Index can be found at www.winansintl.com. More information on Ken Winans is available at www.kenwinans.com. Ken Winans’ award-winning book, Preferred Stocks – The Art of Profitable Income Investing, is available on Amazon.com
How to Play the Election Year Stock Market
May 1, 2012
Research has shown that the stock market tends to go up during a presidential election year.
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Research has shown that the stock market tends to go up during a presidential election year.
Ned Davis Research long ago identified a presidential stock market cycle. Returns during the first year of a presidential term average about 5 percent. Gains in the second year average only 4 percent. But the third year typically sees a jump of 12 percent, and the fourth year (the presidential election year) brings a further 8 percent gain.
Applying the presidential cycle theory, 2012 should be a good year for stock investing. And so far it has been correct.
A study by Marshall Nickles of Pepperdine University concluded that bear markets typically bottom during the midterm congressional elections, then rise during a president’s third and fourth years in office.
Nickles tested data from 1952 through 2000 and found that an investor who bought stocks and held them for the first two years of presidential terms, then sold them, would have made money six times and lost money seven times. In the end, he would have lost nearly half his money.
An investor who bought and held stocks in the second half of presidential terms, and then sold on the day the presidents were inaugurated, would have made money every time, for an overall gain of more than 7,000 percent.
Nickles and others caution that while the presidential cycle theory is historically accurate, it does not necessarily predict stock prices. The market is subject to various forces, many of them unforeseeable, and a recognized pattern may not anticipate the next turn in the market. Ask anyone who invested at the beginning of 2008, the last presidential election year. The S&P didn’t get anywhere near its 8 percent average. In fact, it lost a whopping 37 percent for the year.
Nothing in this world is certain, but the stock market is a game of probabilities. And another report from John Hancock Mutual Funds confirms that the stock market ekes out small gains during a president’s first two years, then goes up a lot during the president’s second two years. John Hancock puts the chances of a gain during the presidential election year at 74 percent.
In the last ten presidential election years, the market has been up eight times and down twice. Not bad odds. However, if the expected gain during a presidential year is about 8 percent, and as of late April the U.S. stock markets are already up 9 percent, then that doesn’t necessarily bode well for the rest of 2012.
Does it matter who wins the election? Some investors believe Democrats are bad for business, on the theory that they raise income taxes, impose more regulations, and increase labor costs—all leading to lower corporate profits. But perhaps extra government regulation also brings more openness and transparency to business, and Obama’s push to build out the infrastructure and develop alternative energy could end up creating more corporate profits.
The fact is, over time, neither Republicans nor Democrats have proved to be better or worse for the stock market. The market was bad under President Carter and good under Reagan. Then it was good for Clinton, but bad for Bush.
In presidential election years when the incumbent went on to win reelection, including George Bush in 2004, Bill Clinton in 1996, and Ronald Reagan in 1984, the stock market averaged better than 12 percent.
Meanwhile, in 2000, the last time a Republican took over the White House from a Democrat, the S&P 500 lost 10 percent. But when Ronald Reagan beat out Jimmy Carter in 1980 the stock market jumped up 26 percent.
One conclusion might be, if it looks like Obama is going to win, stocks will continue to edge up for the rest of the year. If it looks like Mitt Romney will pull an upset, then the market might surprise us. It could interpret a Romney win as a signal of better times ahead and rocket to higher levels, or it could take it as a sign that things are worse than everyone thought and plunge into negative territory.
But mark your calendar. If you believe this theory, the presidential cycle tells us that we should hang onto our stocks for the rest of 2012. But it also says we should sell when the president is inaugurated in January 2013—no matter who wins.
Tom Sightings is a former publishing executive who was eased into early retirement in his mid-50s. He lives in the New York area and blogs at Sightings at 60, where he covers health, finance, retirement, and other concerns of baby boomers who realize that somehow they have grown up.
Where CISPA’s Going: Everything You Need to Know
April 29, 2012
By Alex Fitzpatrick | Mashable – The House of Representatives changed, then passed, the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA , late Thursday afternoon. As the dust settles, many are wondering where CISPA stands now and where it’s headed next. Hey Mashable , what’s CISPA
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By Alex Fitzpatrick | Mashable –
The House of Representatives changed, then passed, the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, late Thursday afternoon. As the dust settles, many are wondering where CISPA stands now and where it’s headed next.
Hey Mashable, what’s CISPA?
[More from Mashable: CISPA Cybersecurity Bill Passes House, With Some Amendments]
CISPA’s designed to let private business share information about cybersecurity threats with one another and with the U.S. federal government.
If, for example, Microsoft‘s cybersecurity team detects a threat that might also have an impact on Facebook, Microsoft’s team could give Facebook’s people a call without worrying about legal barriers to that kind of communication. Microsoft could also give that heads-up to the federal government, and vice-versa.
[More from Mashable: President Obama ‘Slow Jams the News’ With Jimmy Fallon [VIDEO]]
Well, that sounds fine and dandy. Why’s CISPA controversial?
Privacy and civil liberties groups argue that CISPA would allow businesses such as Facebook to give the federal government (and the intelligence community) users’ private communications and other sensitive personal data.
The two parts of CISPA these groups consider most offensive are a national security clause and a liability clause. The first, they say, would allow CISPA to be used in any case where national security is deemed at risk — a potentially broad category. The second would protect any business that shares cybersecurity information from lawsuits — including suits from users who think their private information may have been shared without justification.
That’s not so great. How’d this bill pass the House?
CISPA’s authors, Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), worked with civil liberties groups and companies such as Facebook and Microsoft to try to address everybody’s concerns with their cybersecurity legislation. That means a lot of stakeholders were included in the bill, generating strong support among private firms, cybersecurity experts and Congresspeople.
CISPA had more than 100 co-sponsors and a lot of business support before it came up to a vote — a strong sign that it was well on its way to passing.
You said CISPA was amended — so it’s fine now, right?
That depends on whom you’re asking.
Many businesses and cybersecurity experts welcome the legislation, because it allows them to team up against the Internet’s bad guys — who are coordinating to launch cyberattacks every day.
However, most privacy groups aren’t sold. One amendment that would’ve removed the national security clause while ensuring civilian oversight of data shared with the government under CISPA was blocked from debate by House leadership. Some companies that once applauded CISPA, such as Microsoft, have backed away from the bill.
Other amendments which tightened up language, restricted the type of information that can be shared with the government and gave the civilian-controlled Department of Homeland Security more oversight in the data-sharing process were debated and passed, but they didn’t go far enough to win over privacy groups’ support.
What’s next for CISPA?
CISPA’s headed to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where one of two things can happen: The Senate can vote CISPA up or down as it was passed in the House, or they can amend it further.
Privacy groups, such as the Center for Democracy and Technology, are betting the bill can be salvaged in the Senate’s amendment process. If that happens, the House and Senate would have to pass a bill that reconciles the differences between their two concepts. Should reconciliation prove successful, the bill would be sent to the White House for President Obama‘s signature — when it would become law.
Other cybersecurity bills are already gaining momentum in the Senate. Those bills take a different approach, though — they set cybersecurity standards for private companies to meet instead of instituting an information-sharing system. Conservative lawmakers argue that approach represents an unnecessary and dangerous intrusion of the government into cyberspace.
Does Obama have to sign CISPA if it passes the Senate?
Not at all. President Obama’s top advisors have said they’ll recommend he veto CISPA if it doesn’t include adequate privacy protections before it reaches his desk.
Is CISPA the next SOPA?
The debate around the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, was about the balance between protecting intellectual property and preserving free speech, but CISPA is about having cybersecurity while preserving Internet users’ privacy.
Opposition to CISPA has yet to build to SOPA levels, but it’s starting to rise, especially on sites such as Reddit where the anti-SOPA community first came together. Threads advocating another SOPA-style blackout have more than one thousand comments. One anti-CISPA petition already has nearly 800,000 signatures.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, franckreporter
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Occupy Wall Street: New Movie 'Occupy Unmasked' Reviewed [Video]
April 29, 2012
Is Occupy Wall Street a grass roots movement? A new film, Occupy Unmasked attempts to answer that question and gives the viewer a peek into the minds of the Occupiers themselves.
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Is Occupy Wall Street a grass roots movement? A new film, Occupy Unmasked attempts to answer that question and gives the viewer a peek into the minds of the Occupiers themselves. Sean Hannity from Fox News reviews the movie. In the interview, he says that the film shows that the movement is an “organized, coordinated effort by liberal operatives and funded by left wing mega donors”.
Sean Hannity interviews the writer/director of the film, Stephen K. Bannon and executive director David Bossie. The interview includes some fascinating and disturbing clips from the movie, which also features the late Andrew Breitbart. The preview offers a montage of democrats praising the movement, such as Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, and also shows how they have disparaged the Tea Party as radicals, even with no evidence of violence at Tea Party events. In the preview, Andrew Breitbart announces, “We are finally telling you the true story behind the radicals in the Occupy movement.” The film shows many incidents of violence and is quite disturbing.
Steve Bannon makes a very interesting statement about the Tea Party. He says that after their huge victory in November, 2010, the narrative changed in America (finally) to addressing the out of control spending in Washington. The news was about “raising the debt ceiling” in August, 2011, which the director points out was not good for President Obama. He continues to say that the Occupy Movement did not “just appear” and that the film shows the infrastructure under the movement.
Who is funding the movement? Bannon believes that it is funded by a combination of big liberal groups, such as SEIU and George Soros funded groups, which is not in dispute. Andrew Breitbart believed that the anxiety that has been taught to children in school and in college about the American System, fuelled further by liberal media figures, such as Bill Maher, is coming to a head and that these protestors are being used. The piece shows one woman who claims to be a socialist, who stated that her professors taught her that socialism was the best system.
The Occupy Wall Street website declares, “We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence“, which is quite vague and almost endorses violence, if it is necessary. Most telling is that the movement itself does not strongly denounce the violence which occurs again and again during protests.
A preview for Occupy Unmasked is on their website and can be seen here:
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Amazon, Texas reach deal to settle sales tax spat
April 27, 2012
By CHRIS TOMLINSON | Associated Press – AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Online retailer Amazon.com reached an agreement with Texas officials Friday to settle a sales tax dispute by expanding operations in the state and starting to collect sales taxes.
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By CHRIS TOMLINSON | Associated Press –
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Online retailer Amazon.com reached an agreement with Texas officials Friday to settle a sales tax dispute by expanding operations in the state and starting to collect sales taxes.
The deal comes less than a year after Amazon shut down a distribution center in Irving to protest a $269 million tax bill sent by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs in 2010.
Combs and Amazon said in a joint statement that the settlement calls for the company to bring at least 2,500 jobs and $200 million in capital investments. The company will begin collecting and paying sales tax July 1. Last year Gov. Rick Perry denounced Comb’s decision to collect the taxes, saying it would cost Texas jobs and discourage companies from moving to Texas.
The announcement came the day after Amazon posted first-quarter profits that blew away analysts’ estimates and boosted the company’s stock.
The move is a dramatic reversal for Amazon, which has fought hard across the country against being forced to collect state sales taxes. Texas law requires companies with a physical presence in Texas to collect sales tax. After Combs concluded last year that the company owed $269 million in uncollected sales taxes, Amazon closed down the warehouse and argued it did not qualify under the law. The deal announced Friday settled that dispute.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday, Amazon said it still believes it never owed Texas any taxes but had nevertheless reached a settlement. The national fight over whether online retailers should have to collect state and local sales tax just the same way local merchants must remains unresolved.
Local shops argue online retailers have an unfair price advantage because they are not required to collect taxes on behalf of the state that in Texas can reach 8.5 percent of the sales price. Combs and Amazon’s Vice President of Global Public Policy Paul Misener both committed to working toward a national solution to solving that problem.
“This is an important step in leveling the playing field in Texas,” Combs said in a statement. “However, Congress should enact federal legislation that will give states access to revenues that are already due, which would resolve this issue fairly for all retailers and all states.”
Amazon has said in the past that the complexity of the state and local sales tax system makes it impossible for big online retailers to accurately collect sales tax and that it supports a national, standardized approach.
“We appreciate Comptroller Combs working with us to advance federal legislation,” Misener said. “We strongly support the creation of a simplified and equitable federal framework, because Congressional action will protect states’ rights, level the playing field for all sellers, and give states like Texas the ability to obtain all the sales tax revenue that is already due.”
The Alliance for Main Street Fairness, which has fought to force online retailers to collect state and local tax, also welcomed the agreement and called for Congress to enact a national solution.
Ex-FBI cyber chief joins Crowdstrike security firm
April 18, 2012
Reuters – WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The FBI ‘s former top cybersecurity official, Shawn Henry , said on Wednesday that he is taking a top job with Crowdstrike , a new security firm founded in February by two former executives with security software maker McAfee. Henry, who retired from the FBI in March, said he looked forward to continuing his fight against cyber attacks from outside government, where such work often ran into bureaucratic, jurisdictional and legal constraints
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Reuters –
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The FBI‘s former top cybersecurity official, Shawn Henry, said on Wednesday that he is taking a top job with Crowdstrike, a new security firm founded in February by two former executives with security software maker McAfee.
Henry, who retired from the FBI in March, said he looked forward to continuing his fight against cyber attacks from outside government, where such work often ran into bureaucratic, jurisdictional and legal constraints.
“I have always said the private sector needs to be a bigger part of the solution, and with CrowdStrike I’ll have more flexibility and opportunity to make a difference from this side of the fence,” Henry wrote in a blog posted on the company’s website.
George Kurtz, the former worldwide chief technology offer of McAfee, and Dmitri Alperovitch, that company’s former vice president of threat research, founded Crowdstrike in February with initial capital from private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
Alperovitch said Crowdstrike was helping Fortune 500 companies and government agencies track down and identify adversaries that had infiltrated their computer networks.
He lauded Henry’s work with the FBI, where he helped set up organizations that brought together all of the members of intelligence and law enforcement community to pursue coordinated action against national security threats in cyberspace.
Henry will be the president of a newly formed subsidiary, CrowdStrike Services, that will help assess, attribute and respond to targeted intrusions from Chinese adversaries and others who are suspected of trying to steal intellectual property and trade secrets from major Western companies daily.
“CrowdStrike provides me the opportunity to continue this fight, from ‘the other side’, using intelligence and technology to get in front of the problem rather than merely reacting to it,” Henry wrote in the blog. He said he liked the company’s “idea of protecting the innocent through relentless identification and pursuit of the enemy,”
Henry, who spent 24 years at the FBI, served as executive assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch since September 2010. Before that, he was the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office.
(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Kim Coghill)
