A Hidden Toll as States Shift to Contract Workers - Business

Michigan - Like many states and local governments strive to reduce costs, Michigan hopes to replace some government employees with contract workers who will do the same work for less.

Ginny Townsend, 41, took a job in January as a nurse at home managed by the state for veterans here. Technically, she works for a private company that provides certain employees of the veterans home under a contract of state. It is $ 10 per hour, about half the wages of public employees working in the establishment.

"I love my job, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here," Ms. Townsend, a former nursing home assistant, said one recent afternoon as she gleefully delivered fruit and a newspaper to a resident of 85 years in a sunny solarium.

With the national unemployment rate to about 9 percent, Ms. Townsend said she feels lucky to have a job. But its low wages, it is hardly to exist. She said she was raising four grandchildren under the age of 11 with his sister unemployed and could not help without the $ 300 in food stamps she receives each month.

Now the state wants to lay off 170 nurses in the pay of the public at home for veterans and replacing them with contract workers more like Ms. Townsend, causing a lot of legal controversy and personal anguish.

The legal battle highlights the potential pitfalls of such decisions. Outsourcing, usually intended to ease strained public budgets, tend to directly affect most people like Ms. Townsend and his co-workers. But there may be other disadvantages. The quality of services provided by contract workers, for example, may not be as consistent as that of government employees experienced. And taxpayers may end up paying for cuts more indirectly.

What governments, except salaries and benefits often "ends the government's books through a variety of programs," said Paul C. Light, a professor at the School of Public Service at New York University Wagner, referring to unemployment insurance, Medicaid and other public assistance for workers who earn low incomes.

Outsourcing is becoming more popular in tough economic times that states and municipalities to transfer the operation of facilities such as prisons, school cafeterias and sanitation departments to private contractors. Governors or assembled in Arizona, Louisiana, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have all offered critics of government agencies in seeking opportunities to privatize operations.

Many local governments, such as Anaheim, California, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, have outsourced services, including park maintenance, graffiti removal and tax claims. Mayor Rahm Emanuel collection recycling of Chicago recently outsourced parts of the city.

In Michigan, the plan to replace nurses home state veterans resulted in a lawsuit claiming that some temporary workers employed by the company contract had already compromised patient care. In one case, the suit said, a resident fell from her bed and broke his neck after being left unattended by a worker under contract. A judge granted a preliminary injunction that keeps state employees to work while the trial proceeds.

The injunction also prevents new workers HealthForceOntario J2S Group, which recently won the contract to replace state employees to take jobs at the plant. The Company has provided nurses to meet the veterans home since 2001.

The State appealed the decision, saying in court documents that the incidents cited were isolated and that workers had been involved in state care and negligence. He said contract workers can provide quality care to veterans and save about 5.8 million per year.

With state budgets under pressure, Mich., says he can afford relatively high wages of public sector workers, ranging from $ 15 to $ 20 per hour, with health and retirement benefits. According to Salary.com, certified nursing assistants in private institutions of long-term care in the region to earn a median salary of just over $ 25 000 per year, or about $ 12.25 an hour.

The house, opened 125 years ago to provide care to war veterans of the state and their spouses, now serves about 600 residents. About 40 percent of its funding comes from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the rest from public funds and fees paid by residents.

Many nurse assistants have worked here for decades, and the union representing them said their experience and relationships with their patients can not be easily replaced.

Listeria Outbreak Traced to Cantaloupe Packing Shed - Business Day

An epidemic at the national Listeria that killed 25 people who ate contaminated cantaloupe was probably caused by unsanitary conditions in the packing shed of the farm in Colorado where melons were grown, federal officials said Wednesday .

Government investigators said workers had walked through pools of water where listeria was likely to grow, monitoring of the deadly bacteria in the shed, which was operated by Jensen Farms, Grenada, Colorado The pathogen was found on a conveyor belt for transporting cantaloupes, melon a drying area and a floor drain, among other places.

"You are rolling around on the cantaloupe materials can not be cleaned and you get wet and you are not cool - it provides the ideal environment for the growth and spread of Listeria," said James Gorny, a counselor main food of food security and Drug Administration.

The epidemic, which began in late July, is the deadliest caused by a foodborne illness since 1985. A total of 123 people in 26 states became ill, including those who died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nicholas J. Parolisi Jr., a lawyer for the firm Jensen said he could not comment on accusations from the FDA.

The farm had passed a safety audit by an external food a few days before the start of the epidemic. Eric Jensen, a member of the family that owns the farm, said in an e-mail that the auditor gave the packing plant a score of 96 points out of 100.

F.D.A. officials did not criticize the listener directly. But Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods, said the agency aims to set standards for how auditors should be trained and how the checks should be made.

The food industry has increasingly come to rely on what he calls third-party audits of farms or processing plants to ensure food safety. But the auditors are hired by companies to be inspected, and their procedures are largely unregulated. In several recent food safety failures, the installations concerned had passed audits by third parties.

It was not clear how Listeria came first in the packing shed, which officials described as an open-air structure to have a concrete floor, a roof and no walls.

Listeria is often found in soil or manure, but soil tests on the farm were not bacteria. Authorities said a dump truck used to take melons on a farm slaughtered cattle was parked near the hangar and treatment could have led to the installation of the bacteria.

Jensen Farms, led by Mr. Jensen and his brother Ryan, had recently acquired a set of machines used to modernize the way she washes and dries her cantaloupes. The material was used for the potatoes clean and was not intended to be used with cantaloupes, officials said. They said the equipment was corroded in places and built in a way that makes it difficult to clean and disinfect.

An area used to dry melon included an envelope of canvas that could easily have hosted the bacteria, according to a person who spoke of the transaction with the Jensens.

Officials also said the cantaloupes had not been sufficiently cooled before being placed in refrigerated storage, which could have caused the condensation on the fruit, creating conditions hospitable to the bacteria Listeria. The bacteria thrive in wet or humid conditions and can also thrive in the cold.

Dr. Gorny said that some of the conditions he describes, including puddles on the floor, had been noted during a visit in mid-September, after the plant ceased operations and the equipment been removed. It was not clear if the investigators had visited the factory while he was still in business have seen the same unhealthy conditions.

Authorities said that the conditions on the farm Jensen are not typical of the industry to produce.

"We have no reason to believe that these factors are indicative of practices throughout the industry," said Sherri McGarry, a senior FDA adviser.

The epidemic is likely to draw attention to the new use of the auditors in the food industry. Typically farms or processors are required by customers, such as supermarkets and restaurant chains, to have an auditor to assess their food safety procedures.
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Citigroup to Pay Millions to Close Fraud Complaint - Business Day

Washington - As the housing market began its collapse, the Wall Street firms and sophisticated investors looked for ways to profit. Some of them found an easy way: with a portfolio of orders linked to risky mortgage investments, sell it to unsuspecting customers and bet against it.

Citigroup on Wednesday agreed to pay $ 285 million to settle a civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission that he had defrauded investors who bought such an agreement. The transaction involved a portfolio of $ 1 billion of mortgage-related investments, many of which were carefully selected for the portfolio by Citigroup without telling investors or that its role had made Paris the investment would fall in value.

In the four years since the housing market began its descent regular securities regulators have settled only two cases related to the financial crisis for more money. It is also the third case brought by the SEC accused a major Wall Street institution of misleading customers about who was to bring together security and their motivations. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Company Once installed similar case last year.

The settlement reimburse investors with interest and include a $ 95 million fine - a relative pittance for a giant like Citigroup. Monday, the company said that in the third quarter alone it made profits of $ 3.8 billion on revenues of $ 20.8 billion. The law may also have the approval of the difficulty in obtaining Jed S. Rakoff, the federal district judge in New York who must ultimately sign on the fine and took a hard line on the SEC settlements.

Neither the SEC nor the Department of Justice would say if the case raises questions about whether Citigroup had been involved in any criminal act. But the case highlights a growing frustration felt by the owners before, investors and Wall Street look like protesters that few, if any, of senior bank executives have faced criminal charges for losses caused by the financial crisis.

Citigroup settled a case stemming from the crisis. Last year, it agreed to pay $ 75 million to settle federal claims that the concealed interests of investors majority of subprime investments that have been a loss in value during the crisis and that eventually led the government Federal to save the bank.

"The securities laws require that investors receive more care and honesty that Citigroup provided" investors in security, said Robert Khuzam, director of the enforcement division of the SEC, referring to action Wednesday. "Investors were not informed that Citigroup had decided to bet against them and helped choose the assets that would determine who won or lost."

The fusion complex investments known as Class V Funding III produces 126 million dollars in profits for the brokerage subsidiary of Citigroup, and $ 34 million in fees to bring them together. All this, including interest and $ 95 million end, will now return to investors and the government will receive nothing.

In a statement, Citigroup noted that the S. EC does not load it with "willful or reckless." Instead, it settled charges that its actions were negligent and misleading to investors. In spite of its profits on the current agreement, the entire Citigroup has lost tens of billions of dollars of assets related to mortgage investments.

"We are pleased to put this matter behind us and focus on the contribution to economic recovery, to serve our customers and become more responsible," the company said in a statement. "Since the crisis, we have strengthened our financial strength, based on the revised risk management, a significantly reduced risk on the balance sheet and return to the basics of the bank."

The SEC on Wednesday also filed suit against Credit Suisse, who played a small role in the transaction, and against an individual at each company. But these people were middle-level employees in each company's investment and commercial departments, not senior management or the company have been charged.

Online Banking Keeps Customers on Hook for Fees - Business Day

Customers frustrated with banks' controversial new fees are Have Known Know what industry insiders for years: it is not so easy to disentangle your life from your bank.

The Internet Banking that were sold to customers such as convenience, such as paying bills online, use powerful ties to prevent them from jumping to another institution.

Tedd Speck, a market researcher for 49 years in Kent, Connecticut., Was furious about Bank of America charges $ 5 per month with a planned use of debit cards.

Goal is submerged After staying put by the inconvenience of moving tens of Online Bill Pay arrangements across the river.

"I'm really bored," he said, "Somebody aimed at Bank of America did the math and that they did right."

Former bankers and market researchers say it is no accident. The continuing expansion of online bill paying, they say, has emboldened Bank of America, as well as rivals such as Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and SunTrust, to turn to new fees on accounts receivable and other sources of income dry up. Costs have caused an outcry among consumers and years attracted strong criticism from politicians, including President Obama.

"Technology and locks that you are well aware of this," says Robert Smith, who was CEO of Security Pacific when it was bought by Bank of America in 1992. "It's very difficult for consumers of any gap."

For years, banks have openly sought to tie loans and as many services as they can for a client, such as credit cards, mortgages and banking by mobile phone.

What they did not mention marketing are controlled studies such as Fiserv, which develops systems for online bill payment, showing that using the Internet to pay bills, make debits and send electronic checks customer churn for banks reduced to 95 percent in some boxes.

With 44 million households used the Internet to pay bills within 30 days - against 32 million five years ago and projected to reach 55 million in 2016 - is a major change that has ramifications for the competition.

There is evidence that consumers are much less switching banks, with 7 percent of 'em estimated to be their main account to move to another institution in 2011, down 12 percent last year, according to surveys conducted by Javelin Strategy and Research.

Emmett Higdon, a consultant who managed Citibank products online bill payment from 2004 to 2007, said that "the consumer is a double edged sword." While customers appreciate the convenience, within the industry "We knew it would be a powerful retention tool. That's why Bill Online Pay Free Went first. Inertia is powerful in the banking sector. "

Bank of America now has 29 million online bank account holders and 15 million use the service to pay the bills, so company officials say there is no connection between the viscosity of the project Internet bill paying and the decision to impose the $ 5 monthly debit card fees.

"People like to pay the bill online, it is convenient and secure," said Anne Pace, a spokesman for the company. "The attrition rate lower Cam Along With it was simply the result of a range of valuable services."

Costs, she said, "we can continue to provide the benefits that customers expect from our debit card," as protection against fraud, the prevention and has found large ATM network .

Asked if online banking calculated how-Bill-pay a new fee would drive customers, Ms. Pace said, "We did extensive research on how they react to a new charge and if it was fair."

The new tariff will not apply to customers of Bank of America mortgage or those with an account balance of $ 20 000 or more.

Members of Congress have taken note of fresh tumult - The Ties That Bind and customers to their bank.

"The difficulty of moving accounts is deliberate and pointless," said Representative Brad Miller, who introduced a bill this month that would make it easier for customers to switch.

A Genius of the Storefront, Too - Business Day

When architect Peter Bohlin arrived for his first meeting with Steve Jobs, he wore a tie. "Steve laughed, and I've never worn a tie again," Bohlin said.

Thus began a collaboration which extended from the head of Pixar, completed in 2001, more than 30 Apple Stores (and more) around the globe, all with design work by Bohlin and his firm, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson - and Mr. Jobs himself.

"The best customers, in my opinion, not saying anything you do is good," Mr. Bohlin said last week, just days after the death of Mr. Jobs. "They are intertwined in the process. When I look back, it's hard to remember what had thought when. This is the best, most satisfying work, be it a large building or a house. "

Like Mr. Jobs has transformed the concept of the personal computer and mobile phone, he left an indelible mark on the architecture, especially the kind of detail, traditionally a backwater of the profession.

"No one in the commercial architecture has never channeled product in the architecture for a client on how Peter has done for Apple," said James Timberlake, a founding partner of KieranTimberlake, now the design of the New U.S. Embassy in London. "Architecture is the most commercial sub-detailed, sub-edited and under-budgeted. It's raw and ugly, and most of it is an eyesore on the American landscape. "

The work of Bohlin and his colleagues for Apple, by contrast, is smooth, transparent, inviting, technologically advanced - and expensive. In many ways, the architecture of retail sales is simply the biggest club in which an Apple product is wrapped, and Mr. Jobs was renowned attention to detail in the presentation of an Apple product and experience client.

The use of glass in structures such as the Apple cube on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th streets in Manhattan, the cylinder in the Pudong district of Shanghai and its trading floor on the outbreak Upper West Side Manhattan has become so distinctive that Apple is seeking patents glass elements. Cabinet of Mr. Bohlin has won 42 awards for his work for Apple and Bohlin was awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2010.

In their years of work together, Mr. Jobs and Mr. Bohlin, who is 74, seems to have achieved a rare chemistry.

Mr. Jobs was "a very public person," observed Mr. Timberlake. "This is in contrast to Peter. It is not a Frank Lloyd Wright or Philip Johnson. It does not sweep into a room and take the relay. You go to a design meeting, and it's more like a fireside chat. "

A team led by Karl Backus at Bohlin Cywinski Jackson learned early on the approach of Mr. Jobs with alternatives. "He liked to be presented with options and would often make suggestions very sound", said Mr. Backus, who lives in California and focuses on full-time work to Apple. "We all enjoyed working together."

The notion of glass as a signature architectural statement from Apple appeared on the stairs in his SoHo store, housed in a historic building.

"We had a two-story space, which is a big challenge to get people to go up or down," Mr. Bohlin said. "So we thought of glass. Steve loved the idea of ​​glass staircase. He got it. You do magic. We made these stairs were quite ethereal."

Like Mr. Jobs obsessed with Apple products, he pushed Mr. Bohlin to make glass structures become more refined and pure.

"We got involved James O'Callaghan. It is brilliant, a British engineer structural, with offices in New York and London," Mr. Bohlin said. "Now we are cantilevered stairs from top to bottom."

In the new Apple store in Hamburg, Germany, stairs float in space, attached only at the top and bottom. The fittings are integrated into the glass, "so you get the elegant profile magic when you look at the wall." Bohlin said.

"It's the kind of detail Steve wanted," he added. "We've been driving for this, do more and do more with less. It was a vision of architecture since the beginning of the century last. Modernism, some people say is do more with less. Steve wanted us to push the cutting edge of technology, but it had to be comfortable for people. Sometimes this idea is lost in modernism. C is an interesting challenge, how to marry the two. "

Apple's use of glass in architectural detail has emerged as a design element and brand to its Fifth Avenue store, which opened in 2006. The site was the initial challenge of luring customers in Metro Plaza, which was notoriously inhospitable as a retail destination. The solution was a glass cube virgin staircase flooded with natural light.

Stain From Tabloids Rubs Off on a Cozy Scotland Yard - Business

For nearly four years they lay piled in a test room at Scotland Yard, six soft plastic bags collecting dust and little else.

Inside was a treasure trove of evidence: 11,000 pages of handwritten notes about 4,000 list of celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officers and crime victims whose telephones may have been hacked by the News of the World, a British tabloid newspaper no longer exists.

However, since August 2006, when the items were confiscated until the fall of 2010, nobody in the Metropolitan Police Service, commonly known as Scotland Yard, the time to sort through all the material and a catalog of all pages, said senior police officer and former officials.

During that same time, senior officials from Scotland Yard said the parliament, judges, lawyers, potential victims of hacking, the media and the public that there was no evidence of widespread piracy of the tabloids. It firmly maintains that his original research, which led to the conviction of a journalist and a private investigator, has put an end to what they called an isolated incident.

After last week, that the claim has been reduced to rags, torn by an avalanche of conflicting evidence spectacular, revenue from International News executives that piracy was more prevalent, and an investment by police officers now admit the mishandling of the case.

Assistant Commissioner John Yates of the Metropolitan Police had not publicly acknowledged that really gone through the evidence. "I'm not going to go down and look in garbage bags," Yates said, using the British term for garbage bags.

At most, a former Scotland Yard officials acknowledged in interviews with senior police have been lazy, incompetent and too comfortable with people who should be considered suspect. At worst, he said, some officials could be guilty of crimes themselves.

"It's embarrassing, and tragic," said a former veteran of Scotland Yard. "This has damaged the reputation of a good research organization. And there is now a major crisis in the direction of the yard."

The testimony and evidence that emerged last week as well as interviews with current and former officials indicate that the police agency and News International, the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and publisher of The News of the World became so intertwined that they ended up sharing the objective of containing the research.

Members of Parliament, said in interviews that they were worried about a "revolving door" between the police and News International, which includes a former senior editor of the News of the World at the time of piracy, which went on to work as a strategist the media in Scotland Yard.

On Friday, the New York Times learned that the former director, Neil Wallis, was to inform the international news while he was working for the police in the case of piracy.

Executives and others in the company also maintains close social relationships to top officials at Scotland Yard. Since the scandal of piracy began in 2006, Mr. Yates and others regularly dined with the publishers of international newspaper accounts, records show. Sir Paul Stephenson, the police commissioner, met to eat 18 times with company executives and editors during the investigation, including eight times with Mr. Wallis when he was still working at The News of the World.

Senior police officials declined several requests to be interviewed for this article.

The police have constantly repeated that the original research was limited due to anti-terrorism unit, who was in charge of the case, was concerned about the most urgent demands. In the parliamentary committee hearing last week, the three said they were working in 70 terrorism investigations.

However, the Metropolitan Police unit that deals with the special crimes and had more resources and time, could have taken over the case, said four former high-level researchers. One said it was "nonsense" to claim that the department did not have enough resources.

A Nosedive Eases a Bit in Volatile U.S. Trading - Business

Disorders of the European debt and signs of a sluggish economy in the United States have shaken investors for months, and Thursday was no different. Stocks fell early, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 2 percent before rallying new hope for a Greek austerity plan.

The session saw-toothed and slightly lower at the close of stock to investors generally reported sluggish jumping title for title as they sought clarity. Volatility also reported other changes in sentiment, led by stocks with a clear direction on Friday. After posting losses for six of the last seven weeks, the Standard Poor & 500-stock index was showing a weekly gain of almost 1 percent to close Thursday. It just fell nearly 6 percent since the end of April.

"The situation in Greece was a dark ominous cloud hanging over the markets," said Lawrence R. Creatura, portfolio manager at Federated Investors.

"We are in uncertain times, everyone knows it and that creates volatility, but also opportunity."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 59.67 points, or 0.49 percent, to 12,050 on Thursday. Fr S.& 500 fell 3.64 points, or 0.28 percent, to 1,283.50 and the Nasdaq composite rose 17.56 points, or 0.66 percent, to 2,686.75.

Greece's debt problems have hit the market for weeks with concerns about contagion to other countries in the euro area and its effects on banks.

At the same time, recent economic data served as a reminder of the challenges to the economy of the United States, including a slowdown in hiring in May and a housing sector that is still trying to recover.

The seesaw in stocks began shortly after the opening, while the Dow, less than two hours in the trade, fell 234.73 points, or 1.9 percent, its low 11,874.94 intraday.

Analysts offered a range of reasons for the crisis, starting with the Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the economy was not growing as fast as expected and that it would complete the purchase of $ 600 billion in securities Treasury next week, then a pause.

Wednesday evening, Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, said the link between the debt problem and Greek banks was "the greatest threat" to financial stability in the European Union, according to Bloomberg News.

Thursday, the Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment rose by 9000 to 429,000 last week, according to seasonally adjusted figures. The four-week average movement was unchanged at 426,000.

Stanley A. Nabi, the chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management Group, said problems of debt in Europe were only one factor affecting the market Thursday. "I think the decline is significantly related to the Fed have lowered economic expectations for the coming quarters," he said. "And then the employment data that came out this morning was not particularly robust."

To add to the uncertainty, some analysts said, was the announcement International Energy Agency that the United States provides half of the 60 million barrels of oil reserves to be released to global markets, with other nations releasing the rest. The action is intended to replace a portion of oil production lost because of the conflict in Libya.

"It shocked the market," said Doug Cote, the chief strategist for ING Investment Management market. "It looks like thinly veiled stimulus," he said. "The big question hanging over the market is why now? "

But other analysts said the announcement suggested oil consumers could get relief at the pump, and sovereign debt and most economic issues, including talks faltering U.S. federal budget, are blame for pushing stocks lower.

News at the end of the day that Greece had achieved a certain approval for austerity measures helped the index recover.

"It was a kind of rock running on the last hour," said Stephen J. Carl, head equity trader at Williams Capital Group.

"It was almost an hour's 11th save," said Mr. Creatura.

European markets were down. The FTSE 100 in London fell 1.71 percent Thursday, while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 2.16 percent and the DAX in Germany fell 1.77 percent.

"Investors are concerned about the very things that have been worried in recent months," said Adrian Darley, head of European equities at Ignis Asset Management in London. "This is the weak U.S. data, a consensus of overheating in China and concerns about Europe. The Greek situation is still unresolved and the markets will remain very nervous. "

The 10-year Treasury note rose 18/32, to 101 26/32. The yield fell to 2.91 percent from 2.98 percent late Wednesday.

The energy and bank stocks in down nearly 2 percent. Stocks air, sensitive to oil prices, has increased. Exxon Mobil was down 1.73 percent, to $ 78.44. Chevron fell 1.69 percent, to $ 99.36. Marathon Oil fell 2.22 percent, to $ 51.62.

Trying to Get Back in the Game - Business

WASHINGTON - Dozens of the nation's top corporate lawyers in a conference convened last week to discuss the future of securities litigation.

In past years, Melvyn I. Weiss have played a central role in the debate.

But while the lawyers argued about Wall Street reform and the decision before the Supreme Court, Mr. Weiss sat on a panel in the lobby, talking about his time in prison.

When a leader called "Weiss lawyer," he quickly corrected her.

"The former Attorney Weiss," he says, a poignant half-smile on his face.

Mr. Weiss has lost his license to practice law when he pleaded guilty in 2008 of illegal kickback payments to its customers. He spent a year in jail, another four months in a halfway house and is now on probation for three years.

And if it is removed, Mr. Weiss intends to return to the legal arena. He sent letters in recent weeks about 200 of his former colleagues in search of work as a mediator.

"Despite the turmoil in my own life, I am pleased to announce that my body and mind are in great shape and I am motivated to be as productive as ever," wrote Mr. Weiss, 75, on paper header of his new company, MIW mediation and consultation.

Citing his experience as a mediator appointed by the court and decades of practicing law, Mr. Weiss writes: "Ultimately, I am available for mediation or arbitration of lawsuits."

Mr. Weiss has devoted his career among the lawsuits. He and his partners at Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes Lerach & revolutionized the shareholder class actions, the filing of the flow of cases against companies, accusing them of accounting fraud and other wrongdoing. Most companies based rather than undergo costly litigation, earning the firm hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees.

Aggressive tactics the company has made it the bane of corporate America. Business groups called Milberg Weiss prosecutions a legal form of extortion. Congress passed a law in 1995 aimed squarely at its practices.

In 2006, Milberg Weiss was charged with secretly paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to clients illegal to serve as plaintiffs in about 180 cases over 25 years. M. Weiss and three of his partners went to jail. His former firm, now called Milberg, paid $ 75 million to settle its role in the case.

No one has yet to hire Mr. Weiss as a mediator, and he said he realized that his luggage was a challenge for his fledgling business. Yet it is serious about the business - last summer, he took a course of arbitration of a week at Pepperdine University School of Law.

A lawyer can mediate deleted?

Most legal experts say there is no problem with Mr. Weiss acting in this role, after all, nonlawyers can act as mediators. Sol Wachtler, the former New York judge who lost his law degree in 1993 after pleading guilty to a crime of harassment, has acted as a mediator before being reinstated to the bar a few years ago.

But Bruce Green, a professor of moral ethics at Fordham University, said he believed that Mr. Weiss may act inconsistently with its order radiation.

"I'm not convinced that it is permissible for a disbarred lawyer to mediate and expressly rely on prior legal experience, as Mr. Weiss seems to be done," said Green.

Mr. Weiss, the Bronx-born son of an accountant, would not be a mediator for the money. For years 1983 to 2005, from Mr. Weiss profits of his company were about $ 210 million, according to documents filed by the court. (As part of his sentence, he paid a fine of $ 10 million.)

He divides time between a beachfront mansion in Oyster Bay Cove, NY, and a luxury condominium in Boca Raton, Florida

However, clouds financial business. In prison, Mr. Weiss learned that much of his savings had been eliminated in the Ponzi scheme of Bernard L. Madoff. Madoff the bankruptcy trustee then sued Mr. Weiss, his family and a former partner claiming they earned $ 20.4 million of profits from the fraud that had to be false returned to victims.

Mr. Weiss declined to comment further.

It is also locked in an arbitration against his former firm, which Mr. Weiss wants to compensate the company for tens of millions of dollars in legal fees it spent defending themselves.

During his speech, Mr. Weiss did not address these personal issues. Instead he focused on the problems faced by fellow inmates.

"The advice I received from most of my friends was, why do you want to dwell on the criminal part of your life?" Said Mr. Weiss, addressing a packed room at the American Constitution Society convention.

"How could I go through this experience with my 50 years of legal practice and not try to do something? So that's why I'm here."

He denounced the conditions of his halfway house, an "Army Hi decrepit building" in West Palm Beach, Fla., complained that he had a small TV with rabbit ears, that basketball do not bounce and patio furniture was collapsing.

"I went into this environment and said," How is it supposed to be a transition in society? "

He expressed frustration that he could not help his fellow prisoners because his probation prohibiting him from having contact with criminals.

This rule prevents them from speaking with William S. Lerach, his former protege and law partner. Mr. Lerach, who led the West Coast operation of Milberg Weiss and led in many cases, the largest of the firm, also served as a prison. Despite a bitter split in 2004, he expressed warm feelings for Mr. Weiss.

"I admire his decision to work again and think it could be extremely useful for the system as a mediator," Mr. Lerach said.

But 65 years of Mr. Lerach, who has written several opinion articles and lectured at law schools since his release from prison, said he had no interest in such business.

"I had a life of work and these days I'm just tinkering long," said Lerach, who lives in a mansion in La Jolla, California, perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. " I would tend to my garden. Right now I'm harvesting blueberries and boysenberry. "

Mr. Weiss has no garden, and while he golfs, with ongoing membership of Long Island Country Club (Glen Oaks) and Florida (Boca de Rio), he said he was not connected to live a life of leisure.

"Some guys work their whole lives and can then turn the tap," said Weiss, who has a wife, three children and seven grandchildren. "They play golf in the morning, gin rummy in the afternoon, dinner with their wives at night and that's it. It's not me."

After his speech here on Friday, Mr. Weiss milled about the conference, happy to be back in the game. A judge in Iowa showed up and said that when he chaired a case of life insurance marketing fraud made by Mr. Weiss. One of his former Milberg partners have come to say hello.

A lawyer for plaintiffs summit "gave him a warm welcome and have agreed to have dinner with their wives on their return to New York.

Down the hall, a lawyer who tried the case with Mr. Weiss marveled at his court holding onetime colleague. "It was a terrible lawyer, I liked to try cases with him," said the lawyer, who would be listed on condition of anonymity.

"But he also made serious errors and dishonored our profession. It's a mixed bag with Mel."

Public Unions Take On Boss to Win Big Pensions - Business Day

COSTA MESA, Calif. - City council elections in this city in southern California are usually quiet. Hot Topics include whether libraries should remain open at night. Campaign budgets are often not top $ 10,000.

Then Jim Righeimer, a Conservative activist and real estate developer, jumped into the race last year.

The city was on the road to insolvency, he warned, because public employee unions had lobbied politicians in the delivery of salaries and pensions. The police chief received $ 298 000 per year in total compensation, Mr. Righeimer said. The deputy fire chief had retired with a pension of more than $ 182,000 a year.

City workers are not fans of Mr. Righeimer, who had been critical of unions of the public for years. Local police and firefighter groups began mailing brochures and towing a sign around the city forward, implying that he had jumped on many debts. Public officials have spent more than $ 100,000 to oppose him, and six unions neighboring regions spent another $ 33 000 approving his opponents.

"They try to drag you into the mud so bad that everyone says," I never want these guys as enemies, I'll just leave them alone, "said Righeimer, who still managed to win a council seat.

Costa Mesa, population 110,000, is California in miniature. For years, unions of public employees across the state have often used their influence - sometimes behind the scenes, but sometimes with Hardball public campaigns - to push for workers' compensation and benefits improved. They exercised power beyond their numbers by donating money to legislators, burnishing references of candidates with endorsements and providing volunteers in the election.

Public employee unions are far from the only group involved in bare knuckles politics. Fierce lobbying firms and managers make campaign donations heavy.

But the workers of the public have a unique relationship with elected officials, because government employees are actually negotiating with the owners they can campaign to vote out of office if they do not get what they want. Private unions, however, generally do not have the power to fire employers of their members.

Even in recent years, as economic difficulties have worsened, the benefits for some government workers have increased. In 2008, for example, in Laguna Beach lifeguards began receiving retirement benefits increased in the state economy began to slow. The next year, rescue chief of the city to retire at age 57 with a pension $ 113 000 per year after 36 years on the job.

Legislators of both political parties have often acceded to union demands to avoid political confrontation or curry favor. They pushed hard choices in the future.

But now, with the cost of past promises to come due, the cost of delayed decision is mounting. California alone needs to begin to devote an additional $ 28 billion a year in pensions to state and local government to address an existing deficit, according to a non-partisan - and at the national level, estimates of these losses reach billions in the coming decades.

"We had no idea what we were doing," said Tony Oliveira, who as supervisor of Kings County, in central California, voted to increase benefits for employees, and is now on the Board administration of pension funds of the State enormous. "It was probably the worst decision of public policy in the history of the state. But everyone kept saying there was a lot of money. And nobody wants to be responsible if all the cops stop getting paid more in the next town. "

Public employee unions, in their defense, say politicians have unfairly made them scarecrows simplistic responsible for problems that have multiple causes. Not all government employees receive generous pensions, they note. A worker enrolled in public funds of the state's largest pension retiring in 2008 with over 30 years of service received a pension of $ 66,828 per year, on average, a retiree from 20 to 25 years of service has received about $ 34.872. Workers who retire with fewer years public work receive even less.

Moreover, the unions noted that they have improved the lives of millions and stand for workers, who are mostly middle class, at a time when many families are losing ground financially.

Shuttle’s End Leaves NASA a Pension Bill - Business Day

The national space agency plans to spend about half a billion dollars next year to replenish the pension funds of the contractor who supplied thousands of workers at the space shuttle program.


The shuttle program accounts for a majority of the activity of United Space Alliance, originally a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. With the demise of the shuttle program, United Space Alliance will be left with no source of income to maintain his pension plan afloat. Thus, the company wants to end his family pension, covering 11,000 workers and retirees, and to continue as smaller, more nimble competition for the sake of other contracts.

Normally, a company that has lost a vital contract would have little choice but to declare bankruptcy and ask the federal insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, to seize his pension. But the profits of the insurance limits, which means not everyone gets as much as they had promised. United Space Alliance Plan also allows participants to retire as a single check and includes the retiree health benefits, none of which are authorized by the insurer plans.

United Space Alliance, however, has a few token from another public agency to pay the bill. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in its contract with the company that it will cover its pension costs "insofar as they are not eligible due and reasonable." NASA interprets this to include the cost of terminating its pension plans outside of bankruptcy.

The pension fund now has about half the amount needed. President's budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 request of $ 547.9 million for NASA to provide the rest. Almost 3 percent of the total budget of the agency and about what's Science Mission Directorate at NASA spent last year on all grants and subsidies to the study of climate change , planetary systems and the origins of life in the universe.

"We know that it is the duty of NASA to fund this, and NASA do it," said a spokesman for the space agency, Michael Curie.

Other federal agencies have promised to pay the annual pension cost of contracting - the Department of Energy, for example, for companies that operate nuclear sites - and some government auditors have warned for years that investment control is lacking and the potential costs were underestimated. This seems to be the first time, however, that the main contract has expired a company and an agency had to bear the cost of terminating its plans.

Although NASA has been reimbursed the contractor for the annual pension contributions, he had nothing to say about how the money was invested. United Space Alliance put most money into stocks.

The net will be exceptionally costly because of market conditions. While United Space Alliance has made its contribution required each year, the fund has lost nearly 200 million in the market turmoil of 2008 and 2009. When interest rates are very low, as they were, the cost of promises increasing rapidly, thus creating a larger deficit.

The injection of funds is also prepared at a time when some members of Congress demanding cuts in spending and threatening to block anything that could be interpreted as a taxpayer bailout.

"It is unfortunate that it happens in this financial environment," said Bill Hill, assistant administrator of NASA's assistant for the Space Shuttle.

He said he hoped that Congress would appropriate the money before the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. If not, he said, NASA will have to divert funds from activities related to space.

Already, United Space Alliance has had five rounds of layoffs, falling to about 5,600 employees from a peak of 10,500. Its workers have conducted a wide range of jobs for the space shuttle program, mostly in Florida.

Beth Robinson, CFO of NASA, said that while United Space Alliance has gone bankrupt at this point, the agency went after retired NASA for some of the costs. She said the contract was issued during a booming stock market, with a clause saying that the plans must end with a surplus, the extra money would go to NASA. At the time, nobody expected them to end with a deficit.

The cost of cancellation may fluctuate depending on market conditions as Congress considers what to do.

Tracy E. Yates, a spokesman for United Space Alliance, said the company could not predict the outcome. "However, we have not seen or heard anything to date that indicates that NASA will not receive funding this obligation," she said.

OPEC Keeps Lid on Oil Production Targets - Global Business

HOUSTON - The OPEC ministers did not reach a consensus on Wednesday on rising levels of oil production, leaving quotas in place, despite rising world prices.

The lack of action, however modest, was a setback for Saudi Arabia, which had advocated a change in production quotas that had been set three years ago. But it is likely to have a little more symbolic importance as the organization is now pumping about 1.5 million barrels above the quota level anyway and Saudi Arabia has been increasing production in recent weeks by about 200,000 barrels per day.

Iran led the bloc of countries opposed to changing the quotas, even if it was above his own allocation of approximately 50,000 barrels per day for over a year to raise money to fight against sanctions economic. Some experts said that Iran's oil, which holds the presidency of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries this year was simply maneuvering to undermine Saudi Arabia's traditional adversary.

reference price of oil rose in response to the surprise outcome, but only modestly, by just over a dollar a barrel.

"Everybody in OPEC is cheating and everyone knows that," said Fadel Gheit, Oppenheimer oil analyst and CEO. "Do not listen to what they say, but look what they doing. "

The decision comes at a time when the international oil markets are tightening, with declining stocks in many parts of the world. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that this week that global oil consumption will increase by 1.7 million barrels per day, mainly because of the increasing use of oil for electricity generation in China, Japan and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the crisis in Libya took over 1.3 million barrels per day off the world market, and unrest in Yemen and Syria have removed as much as 300,000 barrels per day.

The International Atomic Energy, the Paris-based organization, which represents industrialized countries, reacted to OPEC's inaction with concern. "We noted with disappointment today OPEC members were unable to agree on the need to make more oil available to the market," the IEA said in a statement. "A further tightening the market and the potential increase in prices could jeopardize the economic recovery."

But the organization also noted that "what really matters is the actual offer."

Libyan exports slowed since around March, Saudi Arabia has assured the importing countries that would support production. As the only member of OPEC spare capacity considerable, estimated at 2.5 to 3 million barrels per day, Saudi Arabia is the only OPEC member that has the ability to support supplies and curb price increases.

"Ultimately, this is how much extra oil Saudi Arabia can or is willing to put on the market," said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy analyst at Rice University. "Who cares what Iran says? It does not matter. The countries produce what they think is best for their financial needs and long-term strategy."

Iran has managed to block Saudi Arabia, largely because it assumes the presidency. The organization is likely to meet again in three months to Iran to reconsider its decision.

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, never particularly warm, these are tense days during the sectarian crisis in Bahrain. Saudi Arabia has sent over 1,000 soldiers in Bahrain in March to help put the predominantly Shiite Sunni protests against the monarchy. Saudi Arabia accused Iran of inciting the protests, and Iran has criticized Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for repressive policies.

The current quotas of OPEC have been set by the organization of 12 countries in December 2008 when oil prices were falling at the beginning of a global recession. The quotas put a floor on prices slump and kept prices moderate and stable for over a year. But as prices began to rise, many OPEC members have started to cheat, which makes the current quotas little more than a landmark in the shade.

With oil prices rising by more than 35 per cent last year, a debate has emerged within OPEC about what to do about them. Saudi Arabia has led the members who want to help save the economic recovery at moderate prices, while Iran and Venezuela have resisted. Most OPEC countries, including Saudi Arabia, saying that speculators rather tight supplies are the cause of rising prices.

"No formal decision has been reached on a production agreement," OPEC said in a brief statement after the closed meeting. "However, the organization continues its longstanding commitment to order and stability of the international oil market."

Greek Leaders Fail to Reach Consensus on Austerity

At an emergency meeting Friday, the country's political leaders failed to agree on the austerity measures proposed by the government, but Prime Minister George Papandreou said there was still the hope that an agreement would be reached.

"Basically, there are many points on which we can agree," he said, addressing the nation in a televised speech. "But there is a need for political will on all sides."

"Over the next few days, we will continue our efforts to reach a consensus, he said, adding that" the government has assumed responsibility for extracting the country from the crisis and do so with or without consensus. "

But leaders of opposition parties have refused to fall behind the president, Karolos Papoulias, who had convened the meeting. The measures were proposed by the Socialist government of Mr. Papandreou.

The purpose of Friday's meeting was to convince the representatives of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund that Greece is serious about repairing its finances and has the political will to impose increases of taxes and spending cuts on a public already weary after a year of belt tightening. The effort came as speculation mounted about the ability of the Greek government to avoid default, which would very likely lead to another financial crisis across the euro area.

Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, said in a statement that the committee "regrets the failure of the Greek party leaders to reach a consensus on economic adjustment to overcome the current crisis of debt."

"An agreement must be found quickly," said Rehn. "Time is running out."

Earlier in the day, Antonis Samaras, the leader of the country's main conservative opposition party, New Democracy, said he would not back a program that "shaving Greek economy and destroy society ".

He called for the renegotiation of the terms of an agreement with the union and the IMF, which last May has promised € 110 000 000 000 in loans to Greece in exchange for the country's finances in order.

Mr. Samaras also reiterated calls for an alternative approach to the finances of Greece, one that has favored tax cuts and accelerated privatization of public assets.

Other leaders have also criticized the Socialists' plan. Among them was the leader of the Communist Party, Aleka Papariga, who said the Greeks were subject to "ideological terrorism" and must not yield to the "coercive dilemmas."

On Thursday, the group leader of euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said again that the EU would be unlikely to intervene if the IMF withheld its portion of a fifth round of funding emergency to Greece - 12 billion euros (17 billion dollars) should be paid next month.

Lenders of Greece require additional steps after the country missed its target deficit for 2010, with the objectives for this year and beyond the reach further. A mission of the European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank is trying to compile a long-awaited report on the progress of the Greek government, after which European ministers will decide how to react.

The situation is difficult because public opinion in creditor countries hardens and some governments in the euro area, including the Netherlands, made it clear they will not step in and fill the funding gap if the IMF does not believe it can justify the release of his party. This has increased pressure on the Greek government to accept revenue measures, including privatization, it will be enough to win the IMF

Within the Group of 8 meeting in Deauville, France on Friday, the U.S. has expressed its support for European efforts to avoid a debt crisis in Greece from propagating in a bigger problem for the Monetary Union Euro, two European diplomats who were present during the discussions but declined to be named.

The Americans said that Europe's ability to manage these problems was important for the United States, but that Obama did not specify what assistance the United States would be willing to extend to the Except for statements of support, the diplomats said.

EU leaders said during the discussions that Europe's problems were limited to Greece and they did not think Greece might infect the rest of the eurozone, which covers 17 countries. They underlined the continued strength of the euro vis-à-vis the dollar as evidence that the situation was still under control.

The leaders agreed, however, that Greece should be more aggressive in adjusting its own finances, and said they believed the country would finally be able to avoid default or restructure its debts .

Greek media speculated last week that the country will hold early elections or perhaps return to the drachma. European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs, Maria Damanaki, a Greek socialist, oil on the fire when she said Wednesday that negotiations were already in place on the way out of Greece in the euro area.

Further tax increases and cuts in public spending, the program of the Greek government austerity drive also includes a proposed privatization expects sales in the issues of public services and state assets, including the national telecommunications company OTE .

On Friday, Deutsche Telekom, which already holds a 30 percent in OTE, confirmed receiving a letter from the Greek finance ministry asking to hold talks to discuss increasing its stake.

But a few dozen employees of the telephone company protested against another sell-off by blocking one of the busiest roads of Athens, in front of company headquarters during the morning rush hour on Friday .

For Prosecutors, the Case That Got a Head Start on the Crime

Insider trading, the response so far has always been simple: crime came first. But the case against Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager who was convicted by a jury in federal court Wednesday, stems from an investigation that began long before the crimes were committed.

And that has made all the difference.

In normal case of insider trading, whether involving an individual brother-brother or famous that brought down Ivan F. Boesky a generation ago, the investigation began only after someone noticed suspicious trading, such as buying a stock just before a takeover bid was announced or selling shares just earnings before bad news was released.

Once the investigation began, the Securities and Exchange Commission could find who made the trades, and may wonder why they chose to make the trades in question. It could also find a source that would cast the "nonpublic information" to use the term legal information inside.

This investigation technique often failed to find evidence, although investigators were convinced that the law had been broken. It was more likely to work with small fish that the whales. If the trader in question had never purchased any before and then made a killing by buying call options just before a merger was announced, the investigators would be almost certain that there had a leak.

If it turned out that the CFO of the company being acquired also a neighbor of the investor is lucky, and that phone records showed they had spoken just before the transaction was made, the case is clear . In many cases, either fleeing or leaked would admit what had happened, and often identify others who had participated in the tip.

But this technique is all but useless if the suspect is a hedge fund manager as Mr Rajaratnam. His company made tens if not hundreds, of trades every day. He had a crowd of analysts and access to all research by Wall Street firms.

If a transaction in question were in some way, the company could arrive at any number of reasonable sounding explanations, as counsel for Mr. Rajaratnam, John M. Dowd, made the case that ended his conviction.

But these explanations sounded pretty lame when stacked against the audio recordings of conversations in which company executives gave confidential information to Mr Rajaratnam.

These bands exist only because the Department of Justice were involved in the investigation at first. Presumably, she had reason to believe that insider trading was going on, and has convinced a federal judge to approve wiretaps.

Accordingly, the F.B.I. could hear that the information was provided just before operations were performed. And they could hear Mr Rajaratnam discuss ways to get rid of an investigation initiated normal trading. He suggested sending choreographed e-mails with false reasons for a trade. He recommended negotiating and exit a stock that had accumulated because of inside information.

It seems likely that Mr Rajaratnam had only used the tactic in the past to explain the trades that had aroused suspicion. But to hear him describe a defense turned in a virtual confession.

These bands "showed that the accused knew what he was doing was not only unfair, but illegal," said a prosecutor, Mr. Reed Brodsky, in their closing arguments to the jury.

Insider trading was a common practice to Galleon. There were many leaks, and they came from the cream of American companies - from within large companies like Intel and Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, perhaps the company's most prestigious management consulting. CEOs of small businesses has provided Mr. Rajaratnam inside information about their companies, and benefited because they were allowed to invest in its funds.

Galleon has come to resemble a criminal enterprise, where information was illegally acquired by chains elaborate attempt to conceal the source of the money. Hedge fund investments have been made on behalf of a governess, and money was transferred abroad and return only to cover up the trail.

Sony Says PlayStation Hacker Got Personal Data Christopher Miller's PlayStation Portable game console had been broken for most of two years. So when

Christopher Miller's PlayStation Portable game console had been broken for most of two years. So when his parents brought him a new one for her 25th birthday on April 18, he was pleased - but only briefly.

Last week, the online network for the Sony PlayStation suffered a catastrophic failure of an attack by hackers. And since then, over 60 million players worldwide as Mr. Miller, who are accountable for the service were unable to play games with your friends via the Internet or to download demos of new games.

Then, on Tuesday after several days of near silence, Sony said that as a result of the attack, "unauthorized person" had obtained personal information of account holders, including their names, addresses, e -mail user names and passwords and PlayStation. Sony has warned that other confidential information, including credit card numbers, could have been compromised, warning customers through a statement " remain vigilant "in monitoring identity theft or other financial losses.

Police officials said Tuesday that Sony had reported the breach to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in San Diego, which specializes in computer crime.

The breach comes after an incident earlier this month when Epsilon, a marketing firm that handles e-mail lists, suffered a security breach that put millions of email addresses of people at risk. In some cases, client names were also stolen. Last year, a violation AT&T exposed the email addresses of at least 100,000 owners of the Apple iPad.

Even before the statement from Sony, complaints about the failure of the system have been mounting on websites, including Sony's own. "It's ridiculous," said Miller, a student of 3-D animation of Saline, Mich., in an e-mail.

Other customers - who came to take the gaming network for granted - they were surprised by the duration of the outage and its target, Sony, a technology company recognized worldwide. Some have suggested that the incident, already a severe blow to the reputation of Sony, would give its top rival video game, Microsoft and Nintendo an edge in the console wars.

"Sony is pretty much hurting," said Carl-Niclas Odenbring releasy of Customer Management in Sweden, which helps companies manage social media. Mr. Odenbring said his daughter, age 6, lack of games console from Sony, but is now playing on an iPad.

"It has no power to direct purchase, but its indirect influence in what my wife and I buy is enormous," he said. "Sony is losing the battle on her."

Last weekend, after the attack, Sony said it would rebuild the network to make it more secure. Sony Qriocity service, which is used to stream audio and video high-end televisions, Sony Blu-ray and other Web-enabled devices Sony was also hit offline.

"It is very unusual for Sony to completely rebuild a system after a security breach, rather than simply stop the bleeding and get back to some kind of limited network," said Mark Seiden, a longtime consultant information Security. "The fact that two distinct networks are involved in the security gap indicates Sony has discovered a major underlying problem that already existed."

It remains unclear who were the hackers. Anonymous, a well known group of hackers that has been blamed for attacking and above Sony's PlayStation Web sites, has denied any responsibility; group's website said: "For once we did not do it."

Last Wednesday, Sony has started posting messages sporadic PlayStation Network is down. In its first detailed statement on the attack, Sony told its customers Tuesday afternoon that it had discovered an "illegal and unauthorized intrusion" into the network took place between April 17 and 19.

"If you provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, an abundance of caution, we advise you that your credit card number and expiration date may have been obtained," Patrick Seybold, Senior Corporate Communications at Sony, wrote in a post on the PlayStation Web site and e-mail to customers.

Sony representatives declined to give details.

Sony said it expected to restore some services - but apparently not all - in a week.

Shortly after the announcement of Sony Tuesday, Senator Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat, sent a letter to Sony asking why customers were not notified immediately about the security breach and does not close a week on the scale of the attack. Mr. Blumenthal also cited concerns that many PlayStation users are children.

The letter said Sony will provide customers with PlayStation "service financial data security, including access to free credit reporting."

A group of players who have been particularly virulent have been members of DC Universe Online, an online game. The game was out of service since the attack, which affect the players who paid for the service for months in advance.

Other shoppers said they had trouble connecting to the popular online streaming service from Netflix for the PlayStation.

Daniel McGuire, a user PlayStation London, in an e-mail criticized the initial silence from Sony. "Most users would never pass PlayStation on the Xbox, he said, referring to rival Microsoft's console, but this drives people. If ever wanted to wrest PlayStation Xbox users, this would be the time."

A notable absence at the meeting of Berkshire

David L. Sokol was treated like a rock star at the annual meeting last year to Berkshire Hathaway,the conglomerate run by Warren E. Buffett. Shareholders lined up to sign autographs and photos of the executive regarded by many as the successor of Mr. Buffett.

Mr. Sokol will not attend the meeting of Berkshire this weekend. He announced his resignation last month after reports emerged suddenly that he had made a profit by buying shares of a company in his own account shortly before Mr. Buffett said he bought the company . .

The sudden drop has come as a surprise to foreigners who had observed Mr. Sokol held in the business world. He helped build a small energy company in Omaha company several billion dollars, sold to Berkshire Hathaway and by all appearances has become a favorite of executives from his boss. Mr. Sokol has served as Mr. Buffett's Mr. FixFix- an artist run confidence to tackle difficult jobs.

But people who worked for Mr. Sokol saw a side of him that Mr. Buffett has perhaps not. His brass-knuckles approach alienated some employees Berkshire, as when he suggested that people with illness or other personal issues were problematic and unceremoniously when he fired a senior officer and made him leave the office this day.

Flashes of his management style can be found in some of the earlier cases as well. In a civil case, a judge reprimanded Mr. Sokol numbers for falsifying his company so that the joint venture partner would be a small gain. In another case, Mr. Sokol continued to determine which employees in a unit of Berkshire were disparaging.

And he angered colleagues by two subsidiaries of Berkshire, Johns Manville and NetJets, by frequently invoking the name of Mr. Buffett to improve its image within the company.

Some people in Berkshire were puzzled about why Mr. Buffett's favored him so much that when he credited Mr. Sokol for a redress of Johns Manville, although the unit's profitability fell sharply after taking over.

Now, Mr. Sokol business is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to two people close to the investigation who would speak only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly . . So, the question of what Mr. Buffett has seen Mr. Sokol - and why he has publicly supported - will surely be a persistent topic of conversation this weekend in Omaha, at generally known as jubilant Woodstock of capitalism.

questions shareholders may cast a shadow over the case of spirit they consider the conduct of Mr. Sokol, who was already wealthy and was about to execute one of the most respected companies in America. "The reasons behind the actions Sokol is a mystery," said Whitney Tilson, fund manager and longtime shareholder of Berkshire.

"At the very least, he has exercised very bad decision."

Mr. Sokol said he had resigned to concentrate on the investments of the family and that stocks were a good investment for his family that he would again. He did not respond to questions sent by e-mail or phone messages for this article.

In some ways, Mr. Buffett and Mr. Sokol seem to share many similarities, suggesting an easy familiarity.

They were both born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska and still reside there. Each man credits their jobs early as newspaper delivery boys and grocery clerks, with the introduction of a strong work ethic. Their writings are filled with cases of homespun aphorisms.

But there are marked differences as well.

Mr. Buffett, one of the richest men in America according to Forbes magazine, owns a house he bought in 1958 for $ 31,500.

Mr. Sokol collects houses, one near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the town of upmarket skiresort and a beach house in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he docks his boat.

Although Mr. Buffett is a homebody whose favorite leisure pursuit is to play bridge on his computer, Mr. Sokol's passion is hunting. Last month, he went hunting in New Zealand.

They also have different opinions of investment banks. Mr. Buffett hasfrequent potshots at them and boasts of striking deals with billions of dollars without the help of advisers.

During his stay in Berkshire, Mr. Sokol relished his relationship with Wall Street. He frequently flew to New York for a series of meetings with bankers pitching deals.

Last year, one of these discussions bore fruit. A meeting with bankers from Citigroup led Berkshire to $ 9 billion acquisition of Lubrizol, a chemical company.

Friendster to erase messages early and old photos

Long before there was Facebook, or even MySpace, there was Friendster, a website that gave many people their first experience of the social networking world to come.

Friendster, which began in 2003, has long been eclipsed by younger, more nimble competitors, becoming a sort of ghost town. But Tuesday, the current owners told users plans to change its business strategy - and erase the treasure site digital memories, including old photos dorm room, blog entries late at night and references friend sincere, known as "evidence."

This triggered a wave of nostalgia among members of Friendster, although most have stopped visiting the site long ago.

Jim Leija, 31, who works in a non-profit organization of music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, recalled the court to his partner, Aric Knuth, through the site.

"All our initial discussions were with each other through their messaging systems," he said. "We were writing love notes back to the early winter of 2003."

Mr. Leija said that even if he had not used the service within three or four years, news of its plans to clear older documents tugged at his heartstrings. "Your emotions get wrapped up in," he said. He thought for a moment in time in our lives. "

Striking mass of evidence so embarrassing wardrobe choices, unrequited crushes may come as a relief for some, especially at a time when it seems that everything uploaded to Facebook can haunt forever. But some say that Friendster has unexpectedly turned into a time capsule with snapshots of what they once were. This is a version of history that is not in a shoebox or dusty album, but live on the Web - for now.

"We want to forget our mistakes and bad choices, but we are also a bit of trouble remembering," said Danah Boyd, a social media researcher at Microsoft and a boy at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. " These old systems are our memories. "

Joanne McNeil, who studies and writes about Internet culture, said that most of life is lived on the Web, people become more emotionally invested in the presence of certain online services, even those they have abandoned.

Ms. McNeil added that the realization that years of history could be removed on a whim company was shocking.

"The impermanence of the Internet was a way of life," she said. "A site could disappear in a few weeks, months. But Google and Gmail came along and changed, and now we are still waiting to have a copy of our online lives."

Friendster plans to strip the service recalled some old equipment to move from Yahoo in April 2009 to remove the plug from GeoCities, a leading provider of free Web home pages. At the time, Internet-yourselfers and historians have worked to keep the site millions of pages to disappear forever. Jason Scott is the founder of a group called Team records trying to save the content online. He recently joined efforts to preserve the videos from Google Video, Google, which stops in favor of the most popular YouTube.

Mr Scott said the shuttering of social services and online communities on the web was a "question cultural criticism."

"This is the daily activity of neurons of a world, society, collected and saved," he said. "For meit is very valid and useful to make sure it is saved for the future."

Mr. Scott said his group planned to try to download as much data as possible Friendster public before it is erased at the end of May, and make it available online in some form.

current owner Friendster, Malaysia MOL Global, said site information View basic profile and friends lists would remain intact as it becomes more of an entertainment site. It provides ways for members to upload photos and other documents threatened.

Friendster was once considered a hot property. The donor site is included Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, and K. Ram Shriram, an early investor in Google. In fact, Google has offered to buy Friendster for $ 30 million in 2003, but the site's founder, Jonathan Abrams, chose to remain independent. When MOL Global acquired in late 2009 for an undisclosed sum, he stated that the site had over 115 million members, though it was not clear how many of them were active.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Mr. Abrams said he had not heard of the planned changes on the site. And he said he was surprised that anyone would care.

"It is so old news for me," said Abrams, who is involved in projects including a workspace for start-ups and an enterprise social media. "After it was purchased by the Malaysian company, which was the last chapter."

Wal-Mart service tests for online purchase of food

Wal-Mart began testing a service online grocery delivery, called Wal-Mart to Go, in the San Jose, California.

The company has expanded its online options, including a national rollout of a service that allows customers to order goods (nonfood) online and pick it up in the store that day. Although this program aims to get customers into stores more often, it creates a more convenient way to buy from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart declined to make executives available for interviews on the test store, which began Saturday. In early March, when asked about the possibility of a service online grocery ordering, Steve Nave, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart.com, would not discuss details.

"One of the great things about Wal-Mart is that we'll put something there, try and learn from him," he said. "I would say that nothing is off limits."

other grocers, including Safeway and Peapod, which is affiliated with Giant Food, offer a similar service. Choose groceries via a website, select a delivery time and groceries are deposited to your home. Fresh Direct and AmazonFresh, neither of which are managed by grocers bricks and mortar, also offer a grocery delivery service.

But some grocers have said he is not a good use of resources. Supervalu, for example, has stopped offering the online grocery delivery in 2009, saying that most customers prefer to buy food from a store. And one of the most famous dot-com bust was Webvan, a grocery delivery service that went bankrupt in 2001.

The shipping costs for Wal-Mart to Go start at $ 5.

For the test, Wal-Mart is shipping in a grocery store in San Jose, pack them into tote bags and deliver them in temperature-controlled trucks that the company owns. Deliveries can be scheduled for tomorrow.

Currently, groceries available lean prepackaged products. Customers can not order beef with specifications, for example - they must buy pre-cut meat in a range of packages. And in the category of producing, while mangoes and bananas are available fresh, oranges and lemons come in bags of several books rather than individually.

His prices are competitive. One box of 64 ounces of milk Horizon was $ 3.50 on the site of Wal-Mart, at $ 3.99 and $ 4.29 on Peapod Fresh Direct.

sixteen ounces of celery at Wal-Mart to Go was $ 1.98, where 16 oz of celery Peapod was $ 3.29 and $ 3.49 Fresh Direct.

On food shelf as crackers and sweets, Wal-Mart had a choice - it sells 12 varieties of Triscuit, for example, against 10 to Peapod and two at Fresh Direct.

Wal-Mart is the largest grocer in the country - estimated by Janney Capital Markets, has about 33 percent market share in the United States. Kroger has 9 percent, 5 percent Safeway, Supervalu 4 percent and 3 percent goal, according to Janney. And groceries up more than half of U.S. sales Wal-Mart, except for figures of Sam's Club.

Craig Johnson, president of consultancy Customer Growth Partners, said the move made sense.

Wal-Mart stores are popular for large stock-up trips, not for on-the-go grocery shopping, he said, and delivery could help to resolve this issue.

Yet Wal-Mart would need to address issues such as how to deliver groceries on a larger scale (using its own trucks? Rental fleet? Use UPS?), And how to manage and preserve the safety of prepared foods like sandwiches or meals ready-to-be as basic foodstuffs, Mr. Johnson said.

"These operations are not simple to implement cost-effective manner, as Webvan and many others have found over the years," he said.

In the case Galleon Spotlight Rajat Gupta

Throughout the trial Raj Rajaratnam, who could go to the jury on Monday, it was an elephant in the courtroom: Rajat K. Gupta.

Gupta, once one of the most respected business in the world, is not considered here, nor has it been charged criminally. Yet hardly a day has passed when the jury in the trial of Mr. Rajaratnam is - the largest government insider trading case in a generation - do not hear from Mr. Gupta, former head of consulting firm & McKinsey Company.

Jurors listened to a wiretap in which Mr. Gupta, a former head of Goldman Sachs, said Mr. Rajaratnam, who led the hedge fund Galleon Group, talks about the bank's secret council.

They heard a recording of Mr Rajaratnam with a colleague that the administrator Goldman warned the benefit of the bank before making a public announcement. On another roll call, Mr. Rajaratnam said its operator that he had heard that something good would happen at Goldman.

Prosecutors also presented telephone bills and records of transactions, noting that Mr Rajaratnam Goldman stock traded shortly after his telephone calls with Mr. Gupta.

However, Gupta is not mentioned in the accusations of the government of Mr Rajaratnam. The prosecutor's office of the United States in Manhattan, who has studied the role of Mr. Gupta, in the case of at least three years, was named co-conspirator of Mr. Rajaratnam, but has not accused criminal.

Instead, federal prosecutors have built their formal charges against Mr. Rajaratnam around five cooperating witnesses who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in insider trading to the defendant.

Legal experts say there are a multitude of reasons for prosecutors conducting a criminal investigation for accusing some co-conspirators while not charging others.

"What motivates these decisions is the strength of the evidence against eachindividual co-conspirator and tactical considerations, Anthony Sabino, a law professor at St. John's, said.

There was no indication that Mr Gupta would play no role in the case of Mr Rajaratnam in the months preceding the trial. But in early March, a week before jury selection, the Securities and Exchange Commission has sent shock waves through corporate America when it filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Gupta administration. The agency he accused of leaking boardroom discussions to Mr Rajaratnam both Goldman and Procter Gamble &, where he also served as a director before resigning last month.

"The SEC allegations are totally unfounded," Gary P. Naftalis, a lawyer for Mr. Gupta said at the time. "Mr. Gupta's record 40 years of ethical conduct, integrity and commitment to maintain the confidentiality of his clients is impeccable."

sudden fall from grace Gupta has stunned the business world. An Indian from Kolkata and graduated from Harvard Business School, Mr. Gupta is the most important part trapped by a comprehensive survey of government in insider trading to hedge funds.

As global head of McKinsey, Mr. Gupta, 62, has been a trusted adviser to chief executives, including Jeffrey R. Immelt from General Electric and Henry R. Kravis of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company. A prominent philanthropist, he held a senior advisory position in the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation &.

Over the past ten years, he grew up near Mr. Rajaratnam, a major financial supporter of the Indian School of Business, ahighly regarded school graduates that Mr. Gupta has helped launch. Around his retirement from McKinsey in 2007, he went into business with Mr Rajaratnam, founding a private equity firm. Mr. Gupta has also invested with Mr. Rajaratnam.

It was during this period, a stretch of nine months in 2008 - the government wiretap phone of Mr Rajaratnam. These recordings have helped the government bring charges against 26 people,20 have pleadedguilty.

Federal prosecutors appear to have weaker evidence against Mr. Gupta against some of Mr Rajaratnam's other co-conspirators. For example, two cooperating witnesses - Anil Kumar Goel and Rajiv - are on wiretaps multiple exchange tips with Mr Rajaratnam.

In the case of Mr. Gupta, federal prosecutors played a single wiretap on which Mr Gupta disclosed discussions conference room at Goldman Mr. Rajaratnam. On July 1, 2008 Call Mr. Gupta said Mr. Rajaratnam that the board of the bank was contemplating a purchase of Wachovia or the American International Group.

Prosecutors did not present evidence,however, that Mr Rajaratnam traded on this tip.

Some provisions may also prevent prosecutors from using against Mr. Gupta two of the most incriminating wiretaps played during the trial, legal experts say.

In an appeal, Mr Rajaratnam said a colleague, "I heard yesterday from someone who is on the board of Goldman Sachs that they will lose $ 2 per share." In the other, Mr Rajaratnam said its operator, "I call saying something good will happen to Goldman."

Because these conversations were between Mr Rajaratnam and his employees, a judge may declare inadmissible hearsay evidence that is too remote or speculative to be used against Mr. Gupta.

But prosecutors could try to use conversations against Mr. Gupta under the so-called co-conspirator exception to the rule against hearsay. The theory is that the statements of Mr Rajaratnam about Goldman were conducted as part of the alleged conspiracy between Mr. Rajaratnam and M. Gupta.

Without these two statements by Mr Rajaratnam referring to advice on Goldman, prosecutors would be forced to rely on circumstantial evidence - such as telephone bills and records of negotiations - to establish the guilt of Mr. Gupta.

In civil cases the SEC, the agency has a lower burden of proof that federal prosecutors do in criminal proceedings. An SEC administrative law judge is not bound by the rules of hearsay.

In an unusual twist, Mr. Gupta continued the SEC last month, arguing that the administrative procedure hadnot unfair to a jury trial in federal court. Mr Gupta had more protection than it does him in an administrative proceeding, including the right to examine evidence of the SEC. A judge has not yet ruled on the issue.

If the SEC prevails, a judge could impose a financial penalty on Mr Gupta and prohibit him from serving as officer or director of a public company.

Big mortgage lender leader guilty of $ 2.9 billion fraud

The founder of what was once one of the lenders of the nation's largest mortgage was convicted of fraud Tuesday for masterminding a scheme that defrauded investors and the government billions of dollars. It is one of the few successful prosecutions to emerge from the financial crisis.

After more than a day of deliberations, a federal jury in Virginia found Lee B. Farkas, former chairman of Taylor Bean Whitaker &, guilty of 14 counts of securities, bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Mr. Farkas, 58, faces decades in prison for his role in the plot $ 2.9 billion, which prosecutors say was one of the largest and longest schemes bank fraud in U.S. history and led to the collapse of the 2009 Colonial Bank.

"There is no doubt that it is very important and a very important case," said Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General Criminal Division Department of Justice.

The trial of 10 days was a rare victory for federal prosecutors in the wake of the financial mess. The Department of Justice has yet to lay charges against an officer who led a major Wall Street firm that led to disaster. An earlier case against the hedge funds of Bear Stearns resulted in an acquittal. Prosecutors have dropped their investigation into Angelo R. Mozilo, the former head of Countrywide Financial, which nearly collapsed under the weight of subprime home acidification.

Six other Taylor Bean Whitaker & executives - including its chief executive and former treasurer of the old - have already pleaded guilty. Some have agreed to testify against Mr. Farkas at his trial.

Mr. Farkas testified during the trial to defend his actions and denied any wrongdoing. A lawyer for Mr. Farkas has not responded to a request for comment.

The scheme began in 2002, prosecutors say, when Taylor Bean Whitaker moved & executives to hide losses of the enterprise, its secrecy Colonial overdrawing its accounts, at times over 100 million U.S. dollars. To cover the shares, prosecutors said that the lender has sold Colonial about 1.5 billion dollars in "worthless" and "false" mortgages, some of which had already been purchased by other institutional investors. The government, in turn, guarantees these fraudulent home loans.

In a plot related, Mr. Farkas and other executives created a separate mortgage operation, called Ocala funding. The subsidiary has sold commercial paper to large financial firms, including Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas. When Taylor Bean Whitaker & collapsed, banks were not able to get all their money.

During the fraud, prosecutors said, he pocketed $ 20 million Farkas, he used to buy a private jet, several houses and a collection of vintage cars. "His shockingly brazen scheme pours oil on the flames of financial crisis," said Breuer.

With the credit crunch in full swing, Mr. Farkas and other Taylor Bean Whitaker & executives convinced Colonial to apply for 570 million dollars in bailout funds from the federal government through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

The Treasury Department has approved the bailout fund, provided that Colonial has been able to raise $ 300 million in private funds. The Taylor Bean Whitaker & executives falsely led to believe that the bank had investors lined up. Ultimately, the government has not given any money at Colonial.

Shortly thereafter, in August 2009, Colonial filed for bankruptcy, along with Taylor Bean Whitaker & failed.

"Today's verdict ensures that Farkas will pay for his crime - a scheme to defraud unprecedented regulators during the height of the financial crisis and stealing more than $ 550 million of U.S. taxpayer through the TARP "Christy Romero, Acting Special Inspector General for the TARP program, said in a statement.