Blog

Carl Icahn has scooped up the distressed Fontainebleau Las Vegas for just $157 million, after making the only qualified bid at the auction.

That's over 90% below what it cost to build the casino so far, but of course it could end up as a huge liability for Mr. Icahn as well. The Fontainebleau also needs another $1.5 billion of potential work before it can be completed.

Still, this could be an early sign of renewed interest in Vegas (especially combined with other news, such as a rebound in gaming revenue).

According to the Miami Herald, Icahn was the only qualified investor with the stones to show up for the auction.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Carl Icahn Shaking Things Up At Take-Two
• Carl Icahn: Donald Trump Runs Companies So Badly, It's A Disaster When He Takes Over
• Carl Icahn Sues Goldman Sachs Over Delphi Short Selling

The CTA today announced that 2009 combined bus and rail ridership totaled 521.2 million rides, a decrease of 1 percent (5.1 million rides) over 2008 ridership.

Even so, totals were stronger than the agency expected considering the dramatic impact the recession has had throughout the year.

CTA ridership in 2009 still surpassed 2007 figures, when the agency recorded 439.5 rides.

“The fact that CTA has lost very little ground from a ridership standpoint under the most difficult financial circumstances this country has seen in decades is something I feel is encouraging,” said CTA President Richard L. Rodriguez.

“It would be unreasonable to expect that the growth in ridership CTA has experienced in recent years would sustain itself with so many people unemployed and businesses struggling.

The fact that it is only a 1 percent drop demonstrates the value of public transit as a convenient, cost-effective travel option.”

CTA projected 2009 ridership at 517.4 rides.

“We are committed to providing as much service as we can within our limited resources and ask that our riders stick with CTA while the economic recovery moves forward,” said Chicago Transit Board Chairman Terry Peterson.

“Although the upcoming service reductions will inconvenience everyone who relies on CTA, we will continue to work to manage riders’ expectations and restore whatever levels we can when our financial outlook improves.”

Rail ridership was 202.6 million for 2009, an increase of 2.2 percent or 4.4 million rides, compared to 2008.  The largest ridership increases were recorded outside of the morning and evening rush periods.

Bus ridership in 2009 wad 318.7 million, a 2.9 percent decrease from 2008, or 9.5 million fewer rides.

Over the past decade, CTA has seen overall ridership grow by 54.6 million rides—11.7 percent.

Rail ridership has lead the surge with a 21.7 percent increase (35 million rides) compared to 1999, and bus ridership increased by 6.6 percent (20 million rides) over the same period.

The White Sox added another pricing category for the 2010 season – Cubs.

Tickets to the three Cubs’ games at U.S. Cellular Field on June 25-27 will cost as much as $100 – a $32 increase from premier games in the premium LG skyline club box and premium lower box sections.

But Brooks Boyer, the Sox’s vice president/chief marketing officer, said the reality is that the prices for those games are similar to what the Cubs charge for their ”Platinum” games at Wrigley Field.

Club box and mezzanine suites seats for Cubs-White Sox games at Wrigley cost $100. The dugout box seats, located directly behind the backstop, cost $350 for Platinum games, according to the Cubs’ Web site.

By Mark Gonzales

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

There’s a sans-laugh-track clip going around from the sitcom The Big Bang Theory that illustrates how much worse that show would be without the recorded guffaws. Pretty dreadful. I just had a similar experience watching this new Target ad from Peterson Milla Hooks. First, I experienced it with the sound off, and it looked fairly pedestrian, like the sort of thing you’d see from, for instance, Kohl’s. But with the sound, it seems ironic and hip. I can’t say the same for the print stuff, unfortunately.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

The e-book world is fascinating to me. As a long-time reader of digital texts and a mobile aficionado, the rapid pace that is gripping the e-book scene is great to see. The news today that Amazon has opened the Kindle up to developers so they can make apps for it is surprising on the surface. The Kindle has been the most locked-down reader since its release, and it is interesting that Amazon is trying to turn the Kindle into a platform. I don’t think it will succeed, but not for the reason that is already floating around the web.

It wasn’t long after Amazon released this news that some started the speculation game. Why is Amazon doing this? Surely it’s because they are trying to deal with the heat that Apple is going to put on them with the mystical tablet / e-book reader? Amazon doesn’t want to be caught with its Kindle feet mired in quicksand, so it is turning the Kindle into a platform to cut Apple off at the pass. I don’t think that’s the main reason for Amazon’s big move.

Now, Amazon may very well be concerned with Apple’s move into the e-book world, if indeed that comes to pass. But the fact is, Amazon is already facing stiff competition from readers with platforms that developers can tap into. That platform is Android. Barnes & Noble didn’t choose Android as the platform for the Nook just because it’s open source, although that probably played a role. No, it’s a safe bet that B&N chose Android because it is already a complete platform that is optimized for handling mobile devices such as e-book readers.

There is already a vast developer network for Android, happily churning out thousands of apps. Many of those apps can be used by readers today, with little special attention required. This is why the Nook is not the only reader based on Android — there are quite a few of them getting ready for release. This is the real competition that Amazon faces with the Kindle, because it is already in motion no matter what Apple does with the fabled tablet. Amazon realizes it is move forward or stagnate, and opening up the Kindle for developers is something they must do to compete with Android.

I don’t believe opening up the Kindle will help Amazon deal with these upstarts in the long run. Android is already a complete platform, and I don’t see developers making the Kindle into one. Why spend a lot of effort to do so when these Android-based readers are already out there? No matter what Apple does, and if they enter into the e-book market it will certainly get even murkier for Amazon. Open Kindle or no.

I make no bones about the fact that I love the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. With its 50 centimeter (18 inch) resolution, it’s returned one astonishing picture after another. I’ve picked several for my annual Top Ten Astronomy Pictures, too.

And now NASA has announced something incredibly cool: they are allowing the public to choose locations for HiRISE to image! It’s easy enough. Just go to their website, register, and then you can look at other suggested spots or suggest one yourself.

I suggested one myself: re-imaging a black pit on Mars that I featured in my Top Ten pictures of 2007:

This is a rimless pit, basically a cavern on Mars. I suggested they image it again at a different time of day, yielding three-dimensional information about it. The change in the Sun angle will allow scientists to see how steeply it’s sloped, where the rocks sit, and also possibly illuminate a different part of the pit walls. It would be very interesting to see if any of the rocks have changed as well, maybe settling downslope since the prior image was taken.

I hope they pick mine, but go there and pick your own. You can search the extensive (11,000+ images and counting) HiRISE archive for interesting things, or poke around the web. And yes, the Face has already been suggested though for some reason the person suggesting it didn’t mention the Face, and just said it was an erosional feature of interest. I think that’s pretty funny. Actually, lots of suggestion have been submitted for that region in Cydonia, unsurprisingly!

But there’s a lot of surface to map on Mars, so give it a shot. And if they do wind up picking yours, let me know! That’ll be worth a followup post.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has finally come forward to admit that he fathered a child with a videographer he hired before his second White House bid. “It was wrong for me to ever deny she was my daughter,” he said Thursday.

Edwards confirmed this in a statement released to The Associated Press, after initially denying that he’d fathered a child during an affair with campaign aide Rielle Hunter.

“I am Quinn’s father,” the former senator declared in his statement, as the second birthday of Frances Quinn Hunter approaches.

A former Edwards aide, Andrew Young, initially claimed paternity of the child shortly before the 2008 presidential primary contests began. Young is scheduled to release a book on Feb. 2 that details the scandal

Frances was born Feb. 27, 2008, indicating that the child was conceived in the middle of 2007, several months after Hunter stopped working for Edwards. John and Elizabeth Edwards renewed their wedding vows in July of 2007 to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

Elizabeth Edwards, whose cancer returned in an incurable form in March 2007, has stood by her husband despite the affair. She has said that it does not matter to her whether her husband fathered a child with Hunter, saying, “that would be a part of John’s life, but not a part of mine.”

Since admitting the affair in August 2008, John Edwards has largely gone into seclusion. He has acknowledged a federal investigation into his campaign finances while both Young and Hunter — with her child — have made appearances at a federal courthouse in Raleigh.

In the statement Edwards released Thursday, he said, “I will do everything in my power to provide her (Frances) with the love and support she deserves. I have been able to spend time with her during the past year and trust that future efforts to show her the love and affection she deserves can be done privately and in peace.”

Edwards also said, “It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter and hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me.”

“I have been providing financial support for Quinn and have reached an agreement with her mother to continue providing support in the future,” the statement said. “To all those I have disappointed and hurt, these words will never be enough, but I am truly sorry.”

Harrison Hickman, Edwards’ longtime political adviser, called the situation “a lot more complicated than people think.”

“There are a lot of adults involved,” Hickman said in an interview broadcast on NBC’s “Today” show. “I think they wanted to handle this in the right way.”

“Elizabeth thinks that he should acknowledge this,” Hickman said. He said it “has been a very difficult time for everyone … but especially for Elizabeth.”

Edwards, a U.S. senator representing North Carolina from 1998 until his vice presidential bid in 2004, acknowledged in May that federal investigators were looking into how he used campaign funds. Grand jury proceedings are secret, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Raleigh has declined to confirm or deny an investigation.

Edwards adamantly denied during an interview with ABC News last summer that he had fathered a child with Rielle Hunter, and he welcomed a paternity test.

Edwards has said the affair ended in 2006. That year, Edwards’ political action committee paid Hunter’s video production firm $100,000 for work. Then the committee paid another $14,086 on April 1, 2007. The Edwards camp has said the latter payment from the PAC was exchanged for 100 hours of unused videotape that Rielle Hunter shot.

The same day, the Edwards presidential campaign had injected $14,034.61 into the PAC for a “furniture purchase,” according to federal election records.

Fred Baron, who was Edwards’ national finance chairman and a wealthy Dallas-based trial attorney, said last year he quietly sent money to Hunter and to resettle Young’s family.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

FLOTUS spearheaded the National Mentoring Month initiatives at the White House yesterday, Wednesday, January 20th. Last November the First Lady, along with some of her White House staff, began a mentorship program with Washington, DC area girls. Well yesterday it was the boys turn as she and President Obama welcomed a new group of mentees.

Leadership is about giving back and inspiring others. Letting them know that the future belongs to them and if they can dream it, it is achievable. The First Couple is certainly doing that and using the most powerful seat in the world to convey that message.

The event included high profile government officials, members of Congress, Corporation for National and Community Service, the Federal Mentoring Council, and Washington, DC area mentees. The mentors were there to share their experiences with their young mentees and to assist, encourage and inspire, and to answer questions.

The First Lady has mentored young girls on state dinner protocol, the importance of volunteering, and filling out job applications. POTUS & FLOTUS are role models to so many young people in America and having this White House event spoke volumes of their commitment to mentoring.

POTUS and FLOTUS highlighted the need for virtues of hard work, perseverance, and determination to succeed in spite of all the distractions that confront young people today. POTUS dispelled the false notion of pop culture that success is instant and encouraged the mentees to focus on commitment, persistence, effort, and hard work. He then cited the importance of mentors in the lives of successful Americans like Maya Angelou, Steve Jobs and, Dr. Carol Greider the Nobel Prize winner.

 Here is footage of the First Lady mentoring in Denver…

Posted by Patty Jones

We haven’t seen the sun in almost two weeks here in Kansas City, so in order to bring a little cheer to our day, we thought now would be a great time to test out this recipe for Roasted Vanilla Orange Juice. It’s subtle and sweet with a hint of ooh-la-la and is sure to win over friends and family alike — that is, if there’s any left.

Read Full Post

While brands duke it out to occupy the best of a dwindling supply of A-list retail locations here on terra firma, one family-restaurant chain has soundly out-sited its every competitor. How? By going to sea. For the last decade, the Lake Forest, Calif.-based retro-diner chain Johnny Rockets has been gradually setting up shop on a fleet of cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean. We’re not talking about licensed burgers on room-service menus, here. These are actual, freestanding restaurants, usually located on one of the upper decks toward the stern. To date, the chain has opened 10 of them. (Go to johnnyrockets.com/locations to see a list of the vessels.) The open-air locations allow the chain to feature both outdoor and indoor seating, and sport the façade and signage akin to ordinary sidewalk locations. Similarities aside, these floating restaurants are a world apart from their land-based brethren. Below, some branding pros and cons of serving burgers at sea:

  Pros

  • A captive audience in the most literal sense imaginable.

  • Sunset views sure beat what locations in Illinois can offer.

  • No worries about a competing chain opening up just across the shuffleboard deck.

  Cons

  • A meal at Johnny’s isn’t included in the cruise ticket; these burgers are "extra-fare."

  • If bad weather hits and the ship starts to roll, nobody’s eating a damn thing.

  • Occasional lifeboat drills can really kill a festive mood.

  Aside from a few limited-time promos, Johnny corporate hasn’t sought much press attention for these locations since the first one opened back in 2000, but maybe that’s because they don’t want to encourage imitators. After all, vacation blogs speak of lines forming outside the units, and when BrandFreak reached Johnny Rockets’ vp of communications to ask if there were plans to open any more oceangoing grills, we were told: "Yes, as many as we can."

—Posted by Robert Klara

Seesmic just announced the launch of Seesmic Look at an event in New York City. Seesmic Look, which is a Windows-only product, is anything but your standard Twitter client. Seesmic Looks is targeted at mainstream users who would normally be intimidated by the complexity of standard Twitter clients like Seesmic or TweetDeck.

Sponsor

As Seesmic’s founder and CEO Loic Le Meur told us yesterday, there hasn’t really been a lot of innovation in the Twitter ecosystem when it comes to Twitter clients. Seesmic Look is squarely aimed at mainstream users. Instead of giving users lots of options, it tries to keep things simple. Users, for example, don’t have to decide which users they want to follow. Instead, Seesmic has created an interactive experience that is more like browsing TV channels than using a traditional Twitter client. Seesmic Look offers a curated list of Twitter accounts that are organized by interests like news, sports or celebrities.

These curated channels are hosted on Seesmic’s servers and Seesmic plans to regularly update these lists

Seesmic collaborated with Microsoft on this product and conducted extensive usability testing to make sure that the software is easy to use. The application was optimized for Windows 7 but will work on any modern Windows operating system.

Emphasis on Design and Usability

Seesmic clearly devoted a lot of time to getting the design of the app right and the screenshots don’t really do it justice. Depending on the mode (timeline or playback), tweets fade in and out and scroll across the screen, for example. The background of the app changes continuously and matches the Twitter background of the user or brand you are looking at. Seesmic also supplies two built-in themes: one light and one dark theme. More themes will follow in the future.

Not for Power Users

It’s important to note that Seesmic is intentionally not targeting power users with this application. This does not mean that the app isn’t also a fully featured Twitter client. Users don’t need a Twitter account to browse through Seesmic Look’s channels. If they do sign in, however, they can browse their inbox (direct messages and @replies) and their personal Twitter stream. The app also supports lists and Twitter search and trends are prominently featured in the user interface.

For now, new users can’t set up a new Twitter account in the application, but Seesmic is working together with Twitter to make this possible in a future version.

Seesmic Look for Brands

In addition to the Seesmic-curated channels, Seesmic Looks will also give brands the option to showcase their Twitter accounts in branded channels. Among the 8 launch partners Seesmic announced today are Red Bull, the Huffington Post, Kodak, CNN Money and Ford. Le Meur told us that these companies are currently getting free exposure during the launch phase. Seesmic plans to charge monthly fees for these channels in a few month. Brands will also be able to create their own themes and distribute branded version of Seesmic Look in the future.

For Seesmic, this represents an obvious opportunity to create a revenue channel. To get these brands into the app, Twitter has partnered with Microsoft, which was responsible for bringing roughly half of today’s launch partners to Seesmic.

As Le Meur told us, Twitter itself is also quite excited about the prospects of this app and has given it its official seal of approval to the app.

This is definitely an interesting strategy for Seesmic. Brands obviously want to use Twitter to connect to mainstream users. For a lot of new users, however, understanding Twitter is simply too complicated. Twitter has always struggled to convert new users into regular users, which explains why the company would be so interested in supporting this project.

In our discussion yesterday, Le Meur acknowledges that the current crop of Twitter tools isn’t doing a good job at making Twitter easier for this group of users. Seesmic Look is easy enough to use for mainstream users and – if successful – could herald the arrival of a new crop of Twitter clients that are exclusively aimed at making Twitter easier and more fun to use.

Discuss

Apple is quietly padding the buffer on new, completely stock 27-inch iMac shipments to 3 weeks, for reasons we assume are tied to their well-documented manufacturing issues.

(You’ve probably heard us talking about the iMac’s production problems with yellow and flickering screens, but if not, follow the Faulty iMac Saga here.)

Notably, Apple has not delayed shipments on 21-inch iMacs, even though they, too, can be afflicted. In all fairness, however, I’ve found reports of 27-inch iMac problems to be far more prevalent.

While Apple hasn’t released a statement as to the reasons for delays, we can only hope the company has decided to pin down whatever issues are occurring as opposed to mailing out more broken computers and hoping nobody would notice. [AppleInsider]

How’s your January cooking going? Reader lasiciliana said that she is trying to eat more vegetables and grains this month, and we are with her wholeheartedly. Our affinity for vegetables reaches past health factors, though, and into those of convenience. There are a few vegetables that, when treated right, can make a quick, easy meal all by themselves. Here are five ways to make a quick, tasty (and, incidentally, rather healthy) meal out of single vegetables.

Read Full Post

Yesterday, on Slate’s The Big Money Matthew DeBord questioned why the U.S. should provide but a mere $7,500 tax credit on the upcoming Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, expected to get up to 230 miles per gallon, but to retail for as much as $40,000. Some analyses indicate that the Volt will only be profitable if sold for $30,000 or less. So DeBord asks — why not a $10,000 credit? Indeed! Why not a $20,000 credit to make it super profitable for GM. Or why not a $40,000 credit, and just give them away for free? Then every American will want one! Let me take a shot at explaining the problem here.

After suggesting a $10,000 rebate, DeBord says:

For the Volt to be successful–and successful in this brave new realm will be measured not in small percentages of actual market share, but in big multiples of correct-demographic mindshare–it needs to sell and sell a lot. And of course the government does own a majority stake in GM. Soooo … would it be … sensible?

In a sense, DeBord is actually right. If the government wants to ensure that a product is successful, providing a tax credit that might not get it over the hump is probably not particularly sensible. But to that, I say, why stop at $10,000? If it’s success the government wants, then it could expand the credit even more.

Of course, the problem here is far more fundamental: it shouldn’t even be providing a $7,500 credit. I’ve complained in the past about the government providing an incentive for investment in an unproven technology. Essentially, this means that the government is making a bet on the future, without any particularly keen foresight.

Bear in mind, electric cars aren’t the only option for the future of autos. Hydrogen fuel cells, modified algae and several other possibilities are also out there. Generally, the market determines which technology succeeds. And the winner is the one that can be produced more profitably and more effectively than the rest. But by the government picking winners, it prevents this market discovery and, ultimately, an inferior technology could dominate.

DeBord’s logic also kind of makes sense where asserting that Americans would benefit if GM profits, since taxpayers own the carmaker. But this assertion falls prey to the same problem as the idea of expanding the credit: in nationalizing GM, the government chose a winner, while the market dictated the firm a loser. So the question here is really: do two wrongs make a right? Should the government throw more money at Volt tax credits in the hopes of rescuing a sinking ship that it shouldn’t have saved in the first place? I remain unconvinced.

Continuing with its A1 teasing, Audi today released information about the “uncompromising quality ” of the new subcompact.

“The A1 will be the first fully-fledged premium automobile in its segment,” says Werner Zimmermann, Head of Quality Assurance at AUDI AG. “Our brand is venturing into what for us is a new class with the A1, but the smaller size of the vehicle does not mean that the customers expect anything less than they always do from an Audi.”

He went on to say: “The body is precision-built; the quality of the paint finish is top-rate,” says Zimmermann. “We even live quality in those areas that are not directly visible to the customer. Only in this way is it possible to achieve that incomparable Audi feeling.”

Click here for more news on the Audi A1.

You can hear Zimmermann talk more in the video after the jump.

2011 Audi A1 (Teasers):

– By: Kap Shah

UPDATE: The piecemeal disclosure of the city’s financial troubles continued Thursday morning with City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana reporting tax revenue has come in $186 million below the budget with sales taxes down 16 percent versus the budget forecast of 6 percent. “The city hasn’t seen this since the Great Depression,” Santana said., after his letter outlining options from city officials was leaked..

The mayor flits from photo op to photo op, tweeting all the way about the fantastic job he’s doing leading the city’s efforts to deal with the rain while the City Council spends endless hours debating the virtues of marijuana and lactation rooms.

And the first the public knows about plans to sell off airports and other assets comes from a leaked memo.

Nero would be proud to know that his legacy of imperious and incompetent leadership is still alive after all these years.

This is how you ruin a city, not run it. If there honor among these thieves, hari kari would be their only redemptive option. Maybe that’s what they intend by committing political suicide like this.

The city is in dire straits, the result of years of giveaways to unions, subsidies to developers, heavy spending on social welfare programs while the streets, sidewalks, water pipes and electrical grid deteriorated.

They are giving new meaning now to what we have long known: City Hall is for sale.

But now it’s not the corruption of political money and the “juice” that feeds a complex network of politicians and their gofers, lobbyists, lawyers, consultants, PR manipulators, contractors, unions and all the others who live off the public treasury.

Now what’s for sale are parking structures, Van Nuys and Ontario airports and whatever else they can find a buyer for to keep the cash flowing to avoid bankruptcy.

What’s next the DWP and LAX, the zoo and Convention Center?

Or will laying off 1,000 city workers, presumably with golden handshakes, on top of the 2,400 retiring with sweetened pensions be enough?

“Revenues are significantly lower than original projections and we are
prepared to make tough decisions, including layoffs and cuts in
less-essential city services to our constituents,” states a letter
being circulated among city leaders. A draft copy was obtained by The
Times.

“We will consider the elimination, consolidation, or outsourcing of
city assets and services, furloughs and layoffs where permissible,
continued managed hiring with consideration of a hard hiring freeze and
public-private partnerships that will generate revenue.”