Airlines cancel 1,200 flights as nor'easter approaches

19 hrs.

NEW YORK --?Major airlines are scrapping flights in and out of the New York area ahead of the second significant storm in little more than a week.

United and American plan to suspend operations in the region this afternoon. Other airlines are encouraging passengers to reschedule by allowing them to do it for free.

Airlines are quick to cancel flights ahead of major storms to avoid stranding aircraft and crews. Doing so also lessens storm-related financial losses. As of noon Eastern, about 1,200 flights had been canceled for Wednesday, according to flight tracker FlightAware. About 40 percent of those are at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

Superstorm Sandy last week caused more than 20,000 flights to canceled, making it the second most disruptive storm in the last 7 years. The latest storm is weaker than Sandy, but still carries high winds, a mix of rain and snow and the potential for more flooding. Sandy flooded some airport runways when it hit last Monday.

United, the world's largest airline, suspended most service in New York starting at noon. It warns that the bad weather will likely cause more delays and cancellations throughout the Northeast.

American Airlines is shutting down in New York at 3 p.m. It stopped flights to and from Philadelphia at noon.

Most other airlines, including Delta Air Lines Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp., are asking passengers to reschedule their Northeast flights for a later date. They're waiving the usual change fees of up to $150.

JetBlue, which is the biggest domestic airline at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, said its operations had just gotten back to normal Monday.

There's a dollars and cents reason that airlines cancel big swaths of their schedules well ahead of bad weather. Cancellations aren't as expensive for airlines as one might think.

Most passengers eventually reschedule, so the airline still collects the fare. And if flights are canceled, the airline doesn't have to pay the crew or the cost of burning fuel. Pilots and flight attendants only get paid once the main cabin doors close.

Many passengers on canceled flights are often squeezed onto another flight, which improves the airline's efficiency

Airlines also are not required to pay for hotel rooms, food or other expenses for passengers stuck overnight due to the weather, as many stranded by Sandy learned the hard way.

As the current storm moves up the Atlantic coast from Florida, it now is expected to veer farther offshore than earlier projections had indicated.

Storm surges along the coasts of New Jersey and New York are expected to reach perhaps 3 feet, only half to a third of what Sandy caused last week. High winds, which could reach 65 mph, could extend inland throughout the day, potentially stalling power restoration efforts or causing further outages.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/airlines-cancel-1-200-flights-noreaster-approaches-1C6918822

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Tom Hanks allegedly defrauded by insurance broker - KPCC

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Actors Tom Hanks (L) and his wife Rita Wilson arrive at the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures' 'Cloud Atlas' at the Chinese Theatre on Oct. 24, 2012 in Los Angeles.

Tom Hanks was allegedly defrauded by a Southern California insurance broker, who was arrested Wednesday morning. Jerry B. Goldman also faces federal charges that he defrauded musician Andy Summers, a former member of The Police.

The U.S. attorney?s office says Ventura County broker Goldman, 59, was arrested at his Thousand Oaks home and remains in federal custody.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted him on Oct. 30 for fraud. Prosecutors claim he overcharged Hanks, Summers and two other people some $800,000 on insurance premiums. Authorities contend he inflated some premiums by as much as 600 percent.

Details haven?t been released, but the indictment refers to insurance policies covering everything from worker?s compensation to fine art.

The arrest comes just a week and a half after the release of Hanks? ?Cloud Atlas.?

Goldman was expected to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon on a 10-count indictment. The indictment says Goldman negotiated premiums on behalf of his clients and was paid commissions by the insurance provider on each policy. He allegedly created fraudulent invoices on company letterhead inflating premiums.

Each of the 10 counts carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

Goldman was arrested on federal mail charges. The case was investigated by the FBI.

Messages seeking comment from representatives for Hanks and Summers and for Goldman?s public defender, Yasmin Cader, weren?t immediately returned.

Source: http://www.scpr.org/blogs/newmedia/2012/11/07/10971/tom-hanks-allegedly-defrauded-insurance-broker/

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Free Workplace Safety Culture Report

Workplace_Safety_Culture_Report

Technorati Tags: safety culture

The culture of a company determines profitability, staff happiness? and even how likely staff are to injure themselves at work.? Discover three core areas that every senior leader needs to keep in balance, in order to create a positive workplace culture.

Melbourne, Australia (5 November, 2012) ? Digicast Productions, a video production company, today launched a free report titled ?3 Factors that Influence Workplace Culture?.? It?s designed specifically for CEO?s, senior leaders and safety professionals who want to improve their workplace culture, but also their safety record, by improving three core business areas.

Often, it?s fixing the little things that have the biggest impact.? The report also highlights 8 telltale signs that indicate a poor workplace safety culture and how to fix them.

Smart company leaders know that to improve the performance of their company, they need to ensure staff are happy and safe, but often don?t know where to start.

This exclusive 10 page white paper looks at:

  • What signs to look for in your company that indicate a poor workplace safety culture, with steps on how to improve these areas.
  • A new workplace culture model ? based on three key areas that senior leaders need to focus on for peak business performance.
  • Why trust is the ?secret sauce? that senior leaders must aim for, when improving their organizational culture.

?For years, companies have asked me about what techniques they can use to improve their workplace safety culture,? explains Marie-Claire Ross, Digicast?s Principal Consultant, who created the workplace culture model.? She continued, ?By delving through lots of research, I?ve come up with three key factors that can easily be monitored and improved, in order to create a high performance workplace culture?.

For a complete copy of the whitepaper, visit http://www.digicast.com.au/workplace-safety-culture

About Digicast Productions

Established in 1991, Digicast Productions is a video content producer that specializes in both internal and external communication.? Our communication programs work to change behavior from aligning staff with your culture, launching new initiatives and training staff to keep them safe and productive.? For more information, visit Digicast or The Workplace Communicator blog for regular communication tips.

Contact Marie-Claire Ross
Digicast Productions
+ 61 3 9696-4400
mc@digicast.com.au

Source: http://www.safetyrisk.com.au/2012/11/07/free-workplace-safety-culture-report/

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News Corp 1Q earnings beat Street; revenue close

NEW YORK (AP) ? News Corp. said Tuesday that net income for the latest quarter tripled from a year ago, reflecting a one-time gain from the sale of its stake in digital video technology company NDS. Revenue rose 2 percent thanks to growth at pay TV networks such as Fox News Channel.

The company controlled by CEO Rupert Murdoch said that fiscal first-quarter net income came to $2.23 billion, or 94 cents per share, compared with $738 million, or 28 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding about $1.38 billion in special gains, largely due to the NDS sale, adjusted earnings came to 43 cents per share, beating the 37 cents expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue of $8.14 billion was roughly in line with the $8.15 billion analysts were looking for.

Shares rose 72 cents, or 3 percent, to $25 in after-hours trading following the release of results. In the regular session, shares closed up 36 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $24.28.

The company said that included in the one-time impacts, charges related to the phone hacking scandal in Britain came to $67 million, up from $17 million a year earlier.

At its U.S. pay TV networks, advertising revenue rose 8 percent, led by Fox News and its regional sports networks. Fees from distributors rose 16 percent domestically. The segment was again the company's most profitable, generating operating profit of $953 million on $2.45 billion in revenue.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/news-corp-1q-earnings-beat-street-revenue-close-212434032--finance.html

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Cold weather and an approaching deepen gloom among Sandy's victims; some seek solace in faith

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Shivering victims of Superstorm Sandy went to church Sunday to pray for deliverance as cold weather settling in across the New York metropolitan region ? and another powerful storm forecast for the middle of the week ? added to their misfortunes and deepened the gloom.

With overnight temperatures sinking into the 30s and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses still without electricity, New York City officials handed out blankets and urged people to go to temporary warming shelters set up during the day at senior citizen centres.

At the same time, government leaders began to grapple with a daunting, longer-term problem: where to find housing for the tens of thousands of people whose homes could be uninhabitable for weeks or months because of a combination of storm damage and cold weather.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 30,000 to 40,000 New Yorkers may need to be relocated ? a monumental task in a city where housing is scarce and fiercely expensive ? though he said that number would probably drop to 20,000 within a couple of weeks as power is restored in more places.

In a heavily flooded Staten Island neighbourhood, Sara Zavala spent the night under two blankets and layers of clothing because the power was out. She had a propane heater but turned it on for only a couple of hours in the morning. She did not want to sleep with it running at night.

"When I woke up, I was like, 'It's freezing.' And I thought, 'This can't go on too much longer,'" said Zavala, a nursing home admissions co-ordinator.

On a basketball court flanked by powerless apartment buildings in the Far Rockaway section of Queens, volunteers for the city handed out bagels, diapers, water, blankets and other necessities. Genice Josey filled a garbage bag until it was bulging.

"Nights are the worst because you feel like you're outside when you're inside," said Josey, who sleeps under three blankets and wears longjohns under her pyjamas. "You shiver yourself to sleep." She added: "It's like we're going back to barbaric times where we had to go find food and clothing and shelter."

Six days after Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline in an assault that killed more than 100 people in 10 states, gasoline shortages persisted across the region, though odd-even rationing got under way in northern New Jersey in an echo of the gas crises of the 1970s. More than 900,000 homes and businesses were still without power in New Jersey, and nearly 700,000 in New York City, its northern suburbs and Long Island.

With more subways running and most city schools reopening on Monday, large swaths of the city were getting back to something resembling normal. But the coming week could bring new challenges, namely an Election Day without power in hundreds of polling places, and a nor'easter expected hit the area by Wednesday, with the potential for 55 mph gusts and more beach erosion, flooding and rain.

"Well, the first storm flooded me out, and my landlord tells me there's a big crack in the ceiling, so I guess there's a chance this storm could do more damage," John Lewis said at a shelter in New Rochelle, N.Y. "I was hoping to get back in there sooner rather than later, but it doesn't look good."

Voting machines in hundreds of locations will be operating on generator power, some polling stations are being moved and there are likely to be delays in reporting election results in a few closely contested races because of extended deadlines for counting ballots cast by mail.

Churchgoers packed the pews Sunday in parkas, scarves and boots and looked for solace in faith.

At the chilly Church of St. Rose in Belmar, N.J., its streets still slippery with foul-smelling mud, Roman Catholic Bishop David O'Connell assured parishioners: "There's more good, and there's more joy, and there's more happiness in life than there is the opposite. And it will be back."

In the heart of the Staten Island disaster zone, the Rev. Steve Martino of Movement Church headed a volunteer effort that had scores of people delivering supplies in grocery carts and cleaning out ruined homes. Around midday, the work stopped, and volunteer and victim alike bowed their heads in prayer.

In the crowd was Stacie Piacentino. After a singularly difficult week, she said, "it's good to feel God again."

After the abrupt cancellation of Sunday's New York City Marathon, some of those who had been planning to run the 26.2-mile race through the city streets instead volunteered their time, handing out toothbrushes, batteries, sweatshirts and others supplies on Staten Island.

Thousands of other athletes from around the world ran anyway inside Central Park, where a little more than four laps around it amounted to a marathon. "A lot of people just want to finish what they've started," said Lance Svendsen, organizer of a group called Run Anyway.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York state is facing "a massive, massive housing problem" for those whose neighbourhoods or buildings are in such bad shape that they won't have power for weeks or months.

"I don't know that anybody has ever taken this number of people and found housing for them overnight," Bloomberg said. "We don't have a lot of empty housing in this city," he added. "We're not going to let anybody go sleeping in the streets. ... But it's a challenge, and we're working on it."

The mayor and the governor gave no details of where and how the victims might be housed. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita smashed the Gulf Coast in 2005, hundreds of thousands of victims were put up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in trailers, hotels, cruise ships and apartments across several states for months and even years.

On Staten Island, emergency management officials distributed leaflets urging people to take shelter from the cold. But "people are apprehensive and don't want to leave their houses. It's a definite problem," said Fred Melendez, who helped run a shelter at Tottenville High School that was nearly empty of storm victims Sunday afternoon.

Fearing looters, Nick Veros and his relatives were hoping to hold out in their storm-damaged Staten Island home until power was restored. He figured the indoor temperature would plunge into the 40s.

"If we get two consecutive below-freezing days, I'm probably going to have to drain the water out of the pipes," he said, "and then we'll have to get out of the house."

___

Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam, Cara Anna, David B. Caruso, Tom Hays, Michael Hill, Hillel Italie, Christina Rexrode in New York; Jim Fitzgerald in Mount Vernon, N.Y.; and Ben Nuckols in Belmar, N.J., contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cold-weather-approaching-deepen-gloom-among-sandys-victims-223649755.html

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NLP/EFT Stress Relief Tips for the Emotional ... - Self Help Hypnosis ...

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Source: http://zachariah963.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/nlpeft-stress-relief-tips-for-the-emotional-self-help-hypnosis.html

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Judge ends case against Britney Spears' parents

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2012 file photo, singer Britney Spears arrives at the Pre-GRAMMY Gala & Salute to Industry Icons with Clive Davis honoring Richard Branson in Beverly Hills, Calif. A judge on Thursday Nov. 1, 2012 dismissed libel, breach of contract and battery claims filed by Spears' former confidante Sam Lutfi against the singer's parents and her conservators. (AP Photo/Vince Bucci, file)

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2012 file photo, singer Britney Spears arrives at the Pre-GRAMMY Gala & Salute to Industry Icons with Clive Davis honoring Richard Branson in Beverly Hills, Calif. A judge on Thursday Nov. 1, 2012 dismissed libel, breach of contract and battery claims filed by Spears' former confidante Sam Lutfi against the singer's parents and her conservators. (AP Photo/Vince Bucci, file)

FILE - In this May 14, 2012 file photo, new "X Factor" judge Britney Spears attends the FOX network upfront presentation party at Wollman Rink, in New York. A judge on Thursday Nov. 1, 2012 dismissed libel, breach of contract and battery claims filed by Spears' former confidante Sam Lutfi against the singer's parents and her conservators. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Britney Spears' former confidante and self-professed manager failed to prove his libel and breach-of-contract claims against the singer's parents and her caretakers, a judge who dismissed the case mid-trial ruled Thursday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bruguera said an attorney for Sam Lutfi hadn't proven any of his allegations in the case that centered on events before the singer's public meltdown more than four years ago.

Lutfi's side rested its case Tuesday, but Bruguera agreed with arguments by attorneys for Spears' father and her conservators that there wasn't sufficient evidence to send the claims to a jury.

Lutfi had sued Lynne Spears for libel and the singer's father, Jamie, for allegedly hitting him at the singer's mansion in an incident shortly before Jamie Spears and others were granted control over the singer's life. Lutfi also had claimed he was owed a 15 percent share of the singer's earnings, but Bruguera disagreed.

Lutfi left the courtroom without speaking to reporters, and attorneys on both sides of the case declined to comment.

The case centered on many of Britney Spears' darkest moments, including a pair of psychiatric hospitalizations that led to her father being named her conservator. Her fiance, Jason Trawick, was added as a co-conservator earlier this year. The arrangement is overseen by a probate judge who had directed them not to allow the singer to appear at the trial.

Lutfi's attorney Joseph Schleimer had contended in opening statements that his client was made a scapegoat for Spears' downfall. Schleimer argued Spears' mother lied about claims that Lutfi drugged the singer and isolated her from family. And he said Lutfi's close relationship with the paparazzi was a way to get them to be less unruly and more respectful of the Grammy winner.

Yet Lutfi failed to show he had a binding management agreement that would have entitled him to 15 percent of the singer's profits from her 2007 album "Blackout" and other projects, the judge ruled. Joel Boxer, an attorney for Spears' conservators, argued that even if Lutfi had an agreement to serve as the singer's manager, he obtained it through undue influence.

Lynne Spears' attorney Stephen Rohde noted that many of his client's claims were included in court filings that prompted a judge to place the singer under the conservatorship, and that those statements were made under oath.

Lutfi sued in 2009, the same year that Spears' conservators obtained a restraining order against him to stop trying to contact her or meddle in her affairs.

He told jurors he endured death threats after the publication of Lynne Spears' book, "Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World," and he claimed the experience left him depressed and suicidal.

Schleimer argued he was stymied by rulings that denied him access to sealed court records and Spears' medical files, but Bruguera said the complaints weren't valid. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that information," the judge said.

Spears' parents sat through the entire trial, which opened with Schleimer showing videos and photos of Spears' turbulent period, including shaving her head and hitting a sport utility vehicle with an umbrella.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-11-01-Britney%20Spears%20Trial/id-9e4da1033a284a0eadfd1038bd8e3154

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Ex-mayor erects statue of himself at Michigan home

A statue of former Flint Mayor Don Williamson stands outside his Davison Township home. (AP photo/Dominic Adams, Flint Journal)

A statue of former Flint Mayor Don Williamson stands outside his Davison Township home. (AP photo/Dominic Adams, Flint Journal)

(AP) ? The former mayor of Flint, Mich., who resigned in 2009 while facing a recall has erected a bronze statue of himself outside the gated entrance to his home.

The Flint Journal reports (http://bit.ly/SpEobl ) that the statue of Don Williamson in Genesee County's Davison Township, near Flint, is surrounded by six bronze lions.

On the base of the statue are the words: "The Colonel's Inc. Founded by Donald J. Williamson May 10, 1984. His motto 'Success is the best revenge.'"

Williamson says the statue was made 20 years ago and was originally displayed at The Colonel's Inc., the auto parts firm where he made his fortune.

Williamson says the lions were imported by his wife. Of the lion statues, he joked: "Careful, one of them is alive."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-11-02-Ex-Flint%20Mayor-Statue/id-d8d832b27322409a908e1bbb1974ba44

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Editor Ryan Singel Departs Wired To Launch Publishing Tools Startup Contextly

ryan-singel-contactWell, there goes another tech journalist with the startup bug. Ryan Singel, editor of Wired's security blog Threat Level, told me that today is his last day on the job, because he's leaving to run his startup Contextly. Over the past decade, Singel has held various reporting and editing roles at Wired ? apparently he helped start Threat Level back in 2006, and I got to know him few years later, when he was writing for the site's Epicenter business blog.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vUJstZS7ll4/

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