Category: News

If Charles Dickens were writing about the proxy that Dell, Inc. (DELL) filed yesterday, he might have reworked his classic opening paragraph to read, “It was the best of proxies, it was the worst of proxies, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” (we’ll spare you the rest so that we can get to the point).

We’ve written about Dell a lot over the years, driven by such actions as the company’s paying Michael Dell more than $4 million to compensate him for personal travel on his personal jet, or the company paying nearly $1 million in 2006 to provide Dell with personal and residential security. (That last number actually increased; in 2009, the company spent $1,164,625 on Dell’s personal security.)

So what did we find in this year’s proxy?

Here’s the section that earns true credit (although, admittedly, “the best of proxies” is an overstatement).  The proxy states:

“In prior years, Dell provided personal, residential and business related security protection to Mr. Dell. Effective for Fiscal 2010, Dell will only provide Mr. Dell with business related security protection.”

That decision, which will save almost $1.2 million, may buoy investors’ spirits a bit after the gross margins in last week’s report disappointed analysts.  In addition, Michael Dell didn’t take a bonus, stock awards, options, etc. in FY 2010, and his “Other” compensation (where perks are usually disclosed) was a paltry $13,623.

But there are examples of other expenditures that do not deserve praise.  The company paid Dell almost $2.6 million so he could use his personal jet (although that’s an improvement from last year), and it’s hard to understand how Stephen Felice, president – consumer and small and medium business division, racked up “expatriate expenses” of $1,326,728 in one year.  (Those aren’t a one-time expense, either.  In 2009 Dell spent $707,094 on Felice’s expatriate expenses; in 2008, the number was $1,567,625.)  And, of course, one can’t ignore that at the same time Dell’s money is flowing so freely on expenses for the NEOs, it acknowledged on May 26 that it’s cutting more jobs.

Finally, we can’t help but poke at one of the reasons Dell gives for opposing a proposal to give shareholders an advisory “say on pay.”  At the top of p. 25, the proxy states:

“It is widely expected that, within the year, Congress will pass new legislation requiring such a non-binding vote on executive compensation. Management believes it is in the best interest of Dell and its stockholders to await the legislation and not create our own policy only to possibly have to change the policy to match the new legislation.”

Seriously? The company is afraid of having to tweak a policy? Perhaps we have more faith in Dell’s lawyers than the company’s board does, but we bet they’re up to the job.  Like Dickens, all they have to do is pick up a pen and start writing.

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D. has a warning for people who are attending college after a stint in the grown-up workforce. She tells Consumerist that if you had health insurance through Aetna at your job, and your university provides student insurance through Aetna, this change will confuse Aetna’s system so thoroughly that everything you do will be billed to your old account number, forever and ever.

She explains:

Here’s one that hits grad students pretty hard. We’re forced to purchase health insurance through school if we don’t already have it; Aetna is the biggest student health insurance provider. However, if you’ve been a working adult out in the work world with a (real) Aetna insurance account number ever, Aetna will be sure to deny about half of your claims on your student health insurance (in my experience) by trying to apply your claim to your old (work) insurance that is no longer valid, and tell you its no longer valid. They refuse to remove your old (work) account from their computer systems, and continue to deny your (student) claims even though the claims are filed under a real, working insurance policy #.

They’ve done this to me now with two different student health insurance policy accounts (one policy through the school where I got my masters, and one policy through a different school where i am now getting my PhD.) Last year I had to pay $270 out of pocket for a pap smear, which is the most basic thing an insurance policy should cover for women, because they kept denying my claim, even though i had paid the (NOT CHEAP) premiums for the student insurance for the year.

Its a switcheroo tactic used only on formerly working grad students. I know several other people this has happened to with Aetna.

Maybe this number for the company’s executive relations team could help you find someone who can fix the situation. But if it’s the mysterious “system” actually causing this issue, maybe no one has power to fix it at all.

First BP told us 1,000, then 5,000, and now a joint federal and independent research task force estimates that 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil were spewing into the Gulf since the crisis began, NYT reports. If the numbers are right, then we’re talking about as much as 30 million gallons. That would be more than 3x the amount from the Valdez disaster.

President Obama is set to visit the Gulf today, where the “top kill” technique has is having success with stemming the flow of oil and was augmented last night by the “junk shot” procedure which involves shooting solid objects like golf balls and shredded tires into the well to plug it up. “The real question is can we sustain it,” said Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The President will likely be met by a BP-crafted “Potemkin Village” of cleanup, pundit James Carville told Larry King. “B.P. knows he’s coming.”

Meanwhile, news photographers are complaining that BP has erected a “photo blockade” around the most ravaged areas, alleging that local and federal officials are working with BP to “explicitly target” members of the news media and prevent them from documenting oil-drenched areas:

One of those instances occurred early last week, when Herbert accompanied local officials from Plaquemines Parish in a police boat on a trip to Breton Island, a national wildlife refuge off the barrier islands of Louisiana. With them was Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of Jacques, who wanted to study the impact of the oil below the surface of the water. Upon approaching the island, a Coast Guard boat stopped them. “The first question was, ‘Is there any press with you?’ ” says Herbert. They answered yes, and the Coast Guard said they couldn’t be there. “I had to bite my tongue. That should have no bearing.”

Estimates Suggest Spill Is Biggest in U.S. History [NYT]
BP Attempts ‘Junk Shot’ to Stop Flow From Gulf Well [WSJ]
Obama Defends Handling of Gulf Oil Spill [CNN]
BP’s Photo Blockade of the Gulf Oil Spill [Newsweek]
“It’s BP’s Oil” [Mother Jones]

Filed under: Hybrid, Government/Legal, Technology, Toyota

Things aren’t looking good for Toyota in a legal battle over whether or not the Japanese automaker has infringed on a Florida-based company’s hybrid drivetrain patents. A U.S. International Trade Commission judge recently ruled to deny Toyota’s request to end the lawsuit brought by Paice LLC. Toyota’s initial argument was that the plaintiff’s patent was invalid, but so far, the courts have sided with the smaller of the two companies time and time again. Earlier in the legal battle, a judge ruled that Toyota must pay Paice LLC a royalty for every Prius, Highlander Hybrid and Lexus RX400h model sold. Paice originally wanted Toyota to halt sales of those vehicles entirely.

In response, Toyota has begun the process of arguing against the royalty amount per vehicle, while Paice has filed a new complaint over the technology present in the third-generation Prius, Hybrid Camry, Lexus RX450h and HS250h.

Paice’s base complaint is over how the manufacturer is supplying torque from both the electric motor and the internal combustion engine to the drive wheels on those vehicles at the same time. The company has also gone after Ford for the design of its Fusion Hybrid and Escape Hybrid models.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Report: Toyota loses bid to dismiss hybrid patent infringements from Paice originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 28 May 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Grist, there are signs that President Obama is ready to connect the oil spill to the need for comprehensive climate and clean energy bill. At a fundraiser in San Francisco the President said:

“The reason that folks are now having to go down a mile deep into the ocean, and then another mile drilling into the ground below, that is because the easy oil fields and oil wells are gone, or they're starting to diminish. That tells us that we've got to have a long-term energy strategy in this country. And we've got to start cultivating solar and wind and biodiesel. And we've got to increase energy efficiency across our economy in our buildings and our automobiles.”

On the Financial Times, President Obama has “finally come out and linked the Deepwater Horizon accident and the continuing oil leak to the ‘dangers of fossil fuels’.” Mr Obama said

“the increased risks, the increased costs” of deepwater drilling “gives you a sense of where we’re going…We’re not going to be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use.”

E2 also has President Obama relating the oil spill to the need for clean energy.

“’This disaster should serve as a wake-up call that it is time to move forward on this legislation,’ Obama said, citing a need to develop ‘clean’ energy sources.”

When other Albertans saw landfill fodder, 17-year-old Kyle Schole saw electricity. His project, “Microbial Degredation of Vehicle Tires,” which uses a strain of bacteria to harness energy from decomposing rubber tires, hasn’t yet hit the journal circuit. But it has won the farm-raised teenager a gold-prize at his national science fair.

Schole devised his plan while driving past an Alberta tire recycling plant. Though his town was already transforming tires into speed bumps and surfacing, he wanted to pop those wheelies into something more. He decided to make a few calls, and chatted up a few microbiologists from Canada, Scotland, and Australia. He then had to find the perfect rubber-munching bacteria.

His farm wasn’t equipped to deal with biohazardous materials so he spent his summer in labs at the Westlock Health Care Centre. He estimates that the project took him over 400 hours, but in the end he successfully created a microbial fuel cell that converts chemical energy released during the tire’s microbial decomposition into electricity. For his efforts, he won a $6,000 cash prize and a $10,000 scholarship to the Canadian university of his choice.

The “science fair manic” told the The Edmonton Journal:

“I’m a very curious guy–whether it’s tinkering on the farm with my dad or working on science projects,” said Schole. “So I’m often thinking, ‘What would be a neat thing to test and improve on?’”

For more warm-fuzzies, see the CTV video coverage, with interview.

Related content:
DISCOVER: Science Fair for a Better Planet
Discoblog: It’s In the Bag! Teenager Wins Science Fair, Solves Massive Environmental Problem
The Loom: Microbial Art
The Loom: I For One Welcome Our Microbial Overlords

Image: flickr/Mykl Roventine

Americans’ income grew faster than spending in April. We’re earning more, we’re saving more and we’re spending the same. Good news for long-term recovery trends, because you don’t want a debt-fueled recovery coming out of debt-powered recession. Bad news in the short-term since consumption accounts for about two-thirds of GDP, by many measures. When consumption stalls, the economy stalls.

But basically, this is cause for joy. Rising income means rising consumer confidence, which sets the stage for more private spending, and less private spending, in the future.

Another interesting note for politicos is that when incomes rise, incumbents have a better shot at keeping their jobs. The relationship between growth in real disposable income and House seat losses is statistically significant — much more so than unemployment. Most presidents lose House seats during midterms, but high income growth mitigate those losses, dramatically.

Gross domestic product – Consumption – House – Unemployment – Recession

Take this news with a grain of salt, but The Street is reporting that Apple is set to release a Verizon-compatible iPhone this holiday season.  Ashok Kumar, analyst for Rodman Renshaw, has been watching Apple’s production plans in Asia and says that the company has told its supply and manufacturing partners to prepare for a production rate of 4 million iPhones per month by September.  Kumar goes on to say that Apple has told Asustek to begin production of a CDMA iPhone as early as November.  While this news is interesting, I wouldn’t get your hopes up for a Verizon iPhone just yet.  Owners of the iPhone 3G are set for upgrade this year, and if the leaks are true, Apple is releasing a totally revamped iPhone with much higher specs all around, which is sure to attract a ton of upgrades and new customers to AT&T.  I won’t believe anything about a Verizon iPhone until I hear it from Steve Jobs himself, and even Kumar says that with the Verizon iPhone, “nothing is definite.”

Via The Street

It’s been more than a generation since the carhop hey day and heck, even ‘Happy Days’ and ‘American Graffiti’ have become classics themselves. Anyone under the age of 35 probably never even had the chance to drive up and get served, however that is now changing, as an American classic serves up malts, burgers and fries in the age of iPhones, HDTV and the internet.

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Our story idea began a few months back while flying to cover a different story and while on the plane, I noticed a little blurb in a paper about carhops returning to Minnesota. Once back on the ground in Southern California, a little research revealed that carhops are indeed making a comeback, just like the muscle car. We even found several locations skating back into business here in the Golden State and the one we settled on just opened a short glide from Disneyland.

‘Ruby’s’ has been a staple here in Southern California for more than 25 years and now sports 48 locations in a number of states. What began as shake shacks serving beachcombers at the end of piers, has now spread to another iconic image…the good old fashioned American drive-in. CEO and founder of the Ruby’s chain Doug Cavanaugh says drive-ins take more space and finding a location can be tough, but when this property became available in Anaheim, California it was an easy choice.

Inside you’ll hear classics from the 40’s and 50’s with decor to match, as outside food hangs from windowsills. On this day, a group of guys and gals from ‘The Streetrodders’ in Whittier, California have cruised on in to get a slice of years ago. Parked down the live I see a 1940 Ford next to a stunning red and white ‘Bel Air’, but it is the 1966 avocado-green Fairlane that catches my eye. Owner Gary Kirkpatrick bought it new and used to take cruise the carhops before and after Vietnam. Now he pulls into Ruby’s with his friends and relives quite a time here in ‘tinsel town’.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee [official websites] on Thursday advanced compromise legislation to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy [10 USC s. 654; JURIST news archive], sending it to a vote of the full Congress. The compromise would prevent the repeal from taking effect until the completion of a review to determine what effects the repeal would have on military effectiveness, soldier retention, and family readiness. In order for the repeal to take effect after the review’s completion, the president, secretary of defense, and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff must sign and transmit to congressional defense committees a certification stating that the review has been considered and the recommended policy changes have been implemented. The House voted 234-194 [roll call], to add the compromise as an amendment to the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2010 [texts, PDF], and is expected to vote [CNN report] on the full bill on Friday. The Senate committee voted 16-12 in favor of the amendment. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) [official website], a sponsor of the repeal, praised the committee vote, stating:

Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee took a historic step forward to strengthen our military effectiveness and to begin to end a discriminatory policy that dishonors those patriotic Americans who are willing to defend our country. [The] compromise amendment … carefully accommodates the recommendations of the Pentagon working group and is consistent with the military’s standards of readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion, recruiting and retention. My strong belief is that if Americans seek to put their lives on the line to serve this blessed country of ours, we should not deny those patriots that opportunity because of their sexual orientation. The action which the Committee took today makes our country stronger and better.

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) [official website], the lone Democratic committee member to vote against the amendment, described it as a preemption [press release] of the ongoing comprehensive review of the policy by the Department of Defense [official website], and could be construed as “disrespectful” by some members of the military. The addition of the amendment to the defense spending bill has prompted some Republican lawmakers to threaten to vote against the bill [The Hill report] in its entirety.

The Obama administration on Monday backed the proposal [JURIST report], despite earlier opposition to passing a repeal before the completion of a comprehensive review. Defense Secretary Robert Gates [official profile] had initially urged Congress to delay repealing the ban until the completion of the review, but has backed the amended repeal legislation [POLITICO report]. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen [official profile] has also backed the compromise legislation. A CNN poll [results, PDF] released Tuesday found that 78 percent of American adults believe that homosexuals should be able to serve openly in the military. In March, Gates announced changes to the enforcement [JURIST report] of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy to make it more difficult to expel openly gay service members from the military. The repeal of the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has been an important issue for President Barack Obama since he took office, and its inclusion in the State of Union Address [JURIST report] reaffirmed it as a top priority for the administration.

It’s pretty certain, at this point in the discussion, that Congress will leave Washington today for a week-long Memorial Day break without passing legislation to extend a number of tax breaks and emergency unemployment benefits.

Not only have House Democrats — who’d hoped to have their bill wrapped up and delivered to the Senate by Wednesday — failed to rally the support of the budget hawks in their own party, but whatever the House does send over to the upper chamber, “Senate Republicans will not allow us to pass [this week] and maybe not ever,” said one Senate Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations.

As a possible Plan B, Senate Democratic leaders might offer a much smaller proposal Friday: a $4 billion package to provide a 14-day extension of the programs scheduled to expire next week while Congress is gone, including unemployment benefits, COBRA health benefits, payments to Medicare doctors, SBA loans and flood insurance. (None of the proposals under consideration would create new tiers of unemployment benefits.)

Trouble is, the Democrats don’t intend to pay for the short-term extensions with offsets elsewhere in the budget, meaning that Republicans will almost certainly object. (GOP leaders don’t reject the policies, but they want them paid for with unspent stimulus funds — a notion that Democrats oppose.)

There, in a nutshell, is the source of the stalemate — a stalemate that will allow these benefit provisions to expire, and force Democratic leaders to try to forge a deal that can pass both chambers quickly when they return to Washington June 7. The bill they produce, said the Democratic aide, will likely be retroactive.

Large adult cuff for Omron digital blood pressure monitors For all models except HEM AC HEM and HEM AC

View Omron Large Adult Cuff for Arm Size 13 Details

According to an Engadget source, the next Apple TV will be a totally reimagined device built upon the hardware and software architecture of the next iPhone. And it’ll cost $100. More »










Apple – IPhone – Smartphones – Handhelds – Microsoft

Newburgh, New York once one of the prettiest river towns on the Hudson, is now home to the highest violent crime rate in New York state. Earlier this month the town was the scene of one of the largest gang bust on the east coast. “We have brought federal narcotics charges against 78 members and associates of 2 notorious national gangs,”  told U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

In the 1950’s Newburgh was a gateway town with its own commuter ferry that ushered upstate New Yorkers across the river and down to New York City, 60 miles away.

There is a lot of history here in Newburgh. It is home to the nation’s first official historical site: the house from which George Washington negotiated the British surrender and helped set up the country’s first government.

Nick Valentine is Newburgh’s current Mayor and he says problems here started with the construction of the Newburgh Beacon Bridge in 1963. The bridge construction meant the loss of commuters.

“Everything, everybody that would come downtown to the waterfront to take the ferry over to beacon went away,” explained Valentine.

Valentine also blames the federal government’s urban renewal project in the 1970’s which demolished homes and then failed to rebuild in the area. He credits the government for at least getting involved with law enforcement. He says the May gang bust was the first step in getting his city back on track.

“We need greater law enforcement, personnel, and we need jobs and accessibility to jobs for the people who live here,” says Valentine.

If the government is able to provide the monetary funds to support Newburgh then it seems there is hope in bringing this beautiful river town back to life.

The former professional wrestler Stacy Keibler was in a party for LG Mobile Phones this week and what made everyone’s attention was her legs conveniently exposed.

As some would ask why would Stacy Keibler show those 30 year old legs, others would say that she still has nice legs. Pictures of her on the said party flocked around the web last May 26, 2010. But still, being at age 30, she still is gorgeous, but still, she’s not looking good as she used to be. On that tight black dress, Stacy finally decides not to dress super conservative.

Fans of Stacey says that they miss her on the WWE. Interestingly, they call her “Miss Hancock“.

Here are Stacy Keibler’s Pictures:

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A couple Senators are Voltroning to introduce legislation that would let authorities track identities of prepaid cell phone owners. Anyone who’s seen The Wire knows criminals thrive off of pre-paids.

Engadget reports:

New York Senator Chuck Schumer has already taken aim at texting while driving, and it looks like he’s now set his sights on pre-paid cellphones, which he says can also be dangerous — when in the wrong hands, at least. To that end, he and Republican co-sponsor John Cornyn of Texas have introduced legislation that would give authorities the ability to identify the owners of pre-paid cellphones, which they say is long overdue “because for years, terrorists, drug kingpins and gang members have stayed one step ahead of the law by using prepaid phones that are hard to trace.”

If you use pre-paids, why do you go that route and what do you think of the legislation?

Senators push for tracking of pre-paid cellphones [Engadget]

A few years back, we wrote about a teenager who used “innocent infringement” as a defense to an unauthorized file sharing lawsuit brought against her by the RIAA. Innocent infringement is in the law, as a way to reduce the statutory awards from the $750 minimum to $200. It doesn’t absolve the person or get them out of paying, but can greatly lower the amount. The district court agreed, and said she could just pay the $200 rate. However, an appeals court overturned, saying that because CDs have copyright notices on them — even though the girl never saw the CDs — the girl should have known that the mp3s were infringing. The logic there made very little sense. How can you hold someone to a clause that was never seen?

The girl’s lawyers have now appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which now has the option of weighing in on the matter (the Wired article linked here is a little misleading, in that at the beginning and in the headline, it implies that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case). If I had to guess, I’d say the Supreme Court won’t take the case, even though it is an important issue.

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Hey, remember those amazing Chrome speed tests from a few weeks back? Well, Opera’s not about to be outdone. And they’ve got parody on their side. If only this also came with its own “making of” video. [Opera via Engadget] More »










Opera – Google Chrome – browser – WWW – Clients

According to recent study, brushing your teeth can not only prevent a variety of tooth diseases and make your breath smell nice, but it can also help to prevent heart disease.  The study found that people who admitted to brushing their teeth less than twice a day had a 70% greater risk of having a heart attack.

According to Richard Watt, DDS, from University College London: “Our results confirmed and further strengthened the suggested association between oral hygiene and the risk of cardiovascular disease.  Furthermore, inflammatory markers were significantly associated with a very simple measure of poor oral health behavior.”  However, Watt also said that more studies would need to be conducted before it could be determined whether the two factors in question, namely poor dental hygiene and heart disease, are in fact causal or simply have a tendency to occur alongside one another.

However, researches do suspect causal tie:  “Inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, and markers of low grade inflammation have been consistently associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease,” is what was written in a report.

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The budget passed in the Illinois General Assembly this week cut education and human service providers and has a gaping fiscal hole in it.   We’re still waiting for the smoke to clear to get a clear understanding of what’s been cut, but there is near-unanimous agreement that the budget passed this week is unbalanced and irresponsible.

But it doesn’t have a tax increase, so some will claim that it’s the best budget possible.

The state senate will soon return to try to pass a bill to borrow $4 billion to allow the state to make its required payment to the pension systems.

Borrowing to pay for pensions, incredibly, is the most responsible option.  Since the legislature refuses to increase revenues, the only alternative would be to declare a “pension holiday,” which would cost taxpayers billions more and further weaken the systems.

What a state we’re in.

The Southtown’s Phil Kadner observes that state government’s reputation is such that, when a lawmaker changes a position, eveyone believes the change was the result of a political deal as opposed to a belief that changing the vote is “the right thing to do.”

Case in point, Rep. David Miller (D-Lynwood) who voted “No” on the pension-borrowing proposal, then switched his vote after the measure appeared  about to fall one vote short of passage in the House.

After his “No” vote, Rep. Miller met with Speaker Michael Madigan and Gov. Pat Quinn.  A short time later, when a second vote was held, he voted “Yes.”

Interestingly, Miller said the Madigan, Quinn meetings weren’t the deciding factor,

He said House Republican Leader Tom Cross railed against the plan in a partisan fashion. He heard some of his Democratic colleagues discussing a possible tax increase or budget cuts as solutions to the state’s deficit.

“But those things weren’t going to happen,” Miller said. “They weren’t realistic alternatives because there were not enough votes to pass any of them.

“And the more I listened to that, the more I realized that unless we act like mature adults here, we’re never going to come up with a solution. We’re going to drive the state to insolvency.”

Kadner says the negative reaction to Miller’s decision to do “the right thing” speaks volumes about the state of our state’s politics.

It has become impossible to believe that any elected official in Illinois would do anything just because he thought it was the right thing to do.

And maybe that’s worse than the budget crisis itself.

No members of the legislature emerged from this month’s activities with an enhanced reputation, but for a House member from a wealthy Chicago suburb, this has been a most unmerry month of May.

May sorry

Karen May (D-Highland Park) was among a group of Democrats who announced a plan to cut the state budget which, some believe, is needed to pave the way for a tax increase.

Nothing wrong with that.  We’ve been saying for sometime that a “balanced approach, involving cuts more revenue” is needed to get Illinois back on solid financial footing.

However, Rep. May, for some reason, went into last Monday’s news conference with an attitude that seemed quite tone-deaf to thousands of Illinoisans living on fixed incomes:

“As much as we love our retirees, this is a tough-love exercise,” said Rep. May. “They have to feel the pain.

We’re guessing that it was Rep. May who experienced some discomfort through contacts from retirees.  By the end of the week she had retreated:

“I would have, could have, should have, said, ‘We must all share the pain,’” May clarified Wednesday. “If it came out differently, I apologize.”

“If?”

Oh, well.  We’ll accept the apology anyway.