| IPO REPORT: Visa Would Be Richest-ever U.S. IPO At Nearly $19 Billion
He cited Visa's long track record, its new management team brought in last spring and moves to settle about $3 billion in litigation with American Express (AXP) and Discover (DFS). 'I love the symbol, 'V' for victory,' said John Fitzgibbon of IPOScoop.com, who pointed out that a whopping 15 investment banks will be involved in distributing the deal including J.P. Morgan (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS). 'It's like a Cecil B. DeMille production.' However, Motley Fool senior analyst Seth Jayson sounded a note of caution, given the volatility of the stock market in recent months. 'I really don't expect to see Visa shares double, triple, quadruple inside a year,' Jayson said. 'Anyone hoping to hitch on in the opening days, and hoping catch that kind of action is likely to be very disappointed.' Both Fitzgibbon and Sweet said the IPO is expected to begin trading by the end of March, catching the usual springtime surge in the new issues market.
Tolleson school audit finds credit-card abuse
A state audit has revealed loose controls on spending in Tolleson Union High School District's top administrative office, but board members say they have fixed the problems and want to move forward. One of the issues identified by the Arizona Office of the Auditor General was misuse of a credit card by Superintendent Kino Flores. During fiscal 2006, he charged nearly $26,000 on his district credit card for meals, flowers, employee gifts, travel, medical bills, and fuel and repairs on his personal vehicle, the audit showed. .
Brooks Global-Lok Sets a New Quality Standard in Security Seals
LIVINGSTON, N.J., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the past two years, E.J. Brooks has been conducting market research as part of its new product development initiative to further improve the performance and feature levels of mechanical cable seals that are used in cross border and intermodal use around the world. Being the only security seal manufacturer that is a validated member of C-TPAT as well as a strong believer in independent testing by a third party ISO 17712 accredited lab, global compliancy is Brooks number one objective. However, the logistics community raised other issues that were considered in product design and we are now announcing a breakthrough in mechanical cross border security seal protection. E.J. Brooks is proud to announce the introduction of the Global-Lok, a high security cable seal that is not only ISO 17712 compliant, but exceeds the ISO 17712 required minimum tensile strength level by 82% with over 4,000 lbs of pressure necessary to pull it apart.
BACK IN IRAQ: THE 'WHORES OF WAR'
EVEN FOR Blackwater, it was an atrocity too far. If an Iraqi government report is to be believed, Blackwater, a US mercenary company which is unofficially the world's largest "for hire" private army, indiscriminately and without provocation opened fire earlier this month on civilians in a Baghdad street, killing at least 20 people. Iraq immediately revoked the firm's licence to operate in the country and moved to expel its staff and prosecute those responsible for the shootings, but Blackwater's activities have since resumed. This coincides with the release of a US Embassy report on the September 16 shooting, obtained by the Washington Post and described by a State Department official as a "first blush" account. It details the events, as given by Blackwater guards, and has stirred controversy in Iraq and Washington and prompted an inquiry into the role of Blackwater and other private security firms in Iraq.
Israel Defiant As Gaza Toll Rises
We live like primitives in third world conditions, like in Africa. The International world needs to understand we are human beings under siege and all we want is what every human being wants; we want to have dreams, but Gaza is a nightmare." _________________________________________________________________ The Independent reported today, by Donald Macintyre in Jabalya, northern Gaza Monday, 3 March 2008 Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, rejected international calls yesterday to end the "excessive" and "disproportionate" military operation in Gaza which has claimed the lives of 101 Palestinians – including many children and other civilians –since Wednesday. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called on Israel to halt the air and ground attacks which on Saturday alone claimed the lives of at least 54 Palestinians in the most lethal single day of violence since the beginning of the second intifada more than seven years ago.
Bright idea?: CFL bulbs, symbolic of green trend, are raising concerns ...
If you put it in an enclosed fixture, maybe it will last 3,000 or 5,000 hours, not 10,000." Incandescent bulbs usually 750 to 1,000 hours.n One size does not fit all. The more light a CFL puts out, the bigger it must be. The CFL equivalent of a 60-watt bulb is tiny. The 120-watt equivalent is bigger and won't fit in many lamps and fixtures.n Many CFL bulbs don't work well with dimmer switches and three-way light fixtures. A few will work, but they're hard to find. "If you put a regular CFL on a dimmer, in some cases it will hum and snap; it won't live as long, and it won't dim," Horowitz says.When used with a dimmer switch, CFL bulbs typically will dim to about 20 percent of their full intensity and then cut out. They also must be turned on at a high setting and then dimmed, says Philip Scarbro, consumer division director at Energy Federation Inc., a group that promotes conservation.n They're still not widely available.
Sleepless in Seattle, for Delegates
Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., made her case to supporters that she's more qualified than her opponent in the presidential nomination race, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., suggesting that his lofty rhetoric about hope and unity is empty and meaningless. "I am hoping to unify the country," Clinton said, "but to unify it to do the work of the country. Not to unify it just for the sake of saying we are unified. In the meantime more and more people lose health care. More and more kids can't afford college. We need to be unified with a common purpose." .
SOCIAL INSECURITY High-Interest Lenders Tap Elderly, Disabled
DOTHAN, Ala. -- One recent morning, dozens of elderly and disabled people, some propped on walkers and canes, gathered at Small Loans Inc. Many had borrowed money from Small Loans and turned over their Social Security benefits to pay back the high-interest lender. Now they were waiting for their "allowance" -- their monthly check, minus Small Loans' cut. .
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