DailyFinance.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.comDailyFinance.comhttp://o.aolcdn.com/os/df/2013/img/2-dailyfinance_logo_m.pngDailyFinance.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.comen-usCopyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Bernanke Signals Fed Will Keep Stimulus in Placehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/ben-bernanke-federal-reserve-maintains-stimulus/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/ben-bernanke-federal-reserve-maintains-stimulus/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/ben-bernanke-federal-reserve-maintains-stimulus/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
Paul Beaty/APFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is telling Congress Wednesday that the U.S. job market remains weak and that it is too soon for the Federal Reserve to end its extraordinary stimulus programs.

Reducing the Fed's efforts to keep borrowing rates low would "carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery," Bernanke said in testimony to the Joint Economic Committee.

Bernanke noted that the economy is growing moderately this year and unemployment has fallen to a four-year low of 7.5 percent. Still, unemployment remains well above levels consistent with healthy economies. And Bernanke said higher taxes and deep federal spending cuts are expected to slow economic growth this year.

His comments about the many risks facing the economy, along with the benefits gained so far from the Fed's stimulus, suggest the Fed is not ready to taper bond purchases that have helped lower long-term interest rates to encourage more borrowing and spending.
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Stocks surged after Bernanke's comments. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) was up just 40 points before his comments were released at 10 a.m. EDT. Minutes later, the Dow was up 125 points.

The Fed has said it plans to continue its $85 billion-a-month in Treasury and mortgage bond purchases until the job market improves substantially. And after its April 30-May 1 meeting, the Fed said it could increase or decrease the pace depending on how the job market and inflation fare.

Investors have been closely scrutinizing policymakers' comments since then for clues about the pace of the bond purchases.

Bernanke has had solid support for the bond purchases among the voting members of the Fed's interest-rate setting committee. At each of the Fed's three policy meetings this year, the committee has approved the purchases 11-1.

In recent months, the job market and the broader economy have shown renewed vigor. The economy has added an average of 208,000 jobs a month since November. That's up from only 138,000 a month in the previous six months.

The economy has benefited from a resurgent housing market, rising consumer confidence and the Fed's stimulus actions, which have helped ignite a stock market rally. The Standard & Poor's 500 (^GSPC) stock index has jumped 17 percent this year to a record high. Higher stock prices tend to make many people feel wealthier and more inclined to spend.

Those gains, in part, are why critics of the bond purchases, including some Fed regional bank presidents, have questioned the need to continue them at their current pace. They argue that keeping interest rates too low for too long could send inflation surging or inflate dangerous bubbles in assets such as stocks or real estate. Such a bubble could burst with the same destabilizing effects that the housing bust caused.

Gallery: 9 Numbers That'll Tell You How the Economy's Really Doing

1. Gross Domestic Product2. Consumer Price Index3. Unemployment Rate4. Trade Deficit5 & 6. Personal Income and Personal Spending

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]]>Ben Bernankebond buyingeconomic recoveryeconomyFederal Reserveinterest ratesmortgagesstimulusTreasuryThe Associated PressWed, 22 May 2013 10:55:00 ESTTarget Profit Tumbles on Weak Saleshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/target-earnings/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/target-earnings/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/target-earnings/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

target storefront
Lynn Watson/Shutterstock
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK -- Target reported a 26 percent drop in first-quarter profit as cool temperatures and financial pressures limited customers' appetite for spending.

The company, based in Minneapolis, also cut its annual profit outlook, sending its stock down in premarket trading.

Target Corp. (TGT) is the latest in a string of companies including rival Walmart Stores Inc. (WMT) that underscore how weather and other pressures on lower- to middle-income shoppers hurt business in the first couple months of the year.

Still, Target, whose sales growth has been uneven since the recession, remains confident in its strategies to attract shoppers.

Target has reached out to customers with two big growth initiatives. It has been offering a larger selection of food and also a program, started in 2010, that gives shoppers a 5 percent discount when they pay with Target-branded credit and debit cards.

At the same time, Target continues to team up with new designers for limited-time partnerships. Earlier this month, Target announced its latest designer collaboration, with Phillip Lim. The collection is due out in September.

Last year, Target expanded into urban markets using smaller versions of its big-box stores in Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Target also started to expand into Canada earlier this year, its first foray outside the U.S. The company is opening the stores in waves that should add up to about 125 stores at locations once owned by Canadian retailer Zellers by the end of the year.
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"Target's first-quarter earnings were below expectations as a result of softer-than-expected sales, particularly in apparel and other seasonal and weather-sensitive categories," Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and CEO of Target, said in a statement. "While we are disappointed in our first-quarter performance, we remain confident in our strategy, and we continue to invest in initiatives, including Canada, our digital channels, and CityTarget, that will drive Target's long-term growth."

Target said it earned $498 million, or 77 cents a share, for the three months ended May 4. That compares with $697 million, or $1.04 a share, a year earlier.

Sales rose 1 percent to $16.71 billion.

Revenue at stores open at least a year slipped 0.6 percent. That's considered an important measure of retail performance because it strips out the effect of stores that open or close during the year.

Analysts had expected earnings of 95 cents a share on revenue of $16.82 billion.

Target expects that adjusted earnings a share will be in a range between $1.09 and $1.19 for the quarter.

For the full year, the company now expects $4.70 a share to $4.90 a share. That's down from its original guidance of $4.85 a share to $5.05 a share.

Analysts had forecast $1.11 a share for the second quarter and $4.63 a share for the year.

Target's stock dropped nearly 2 percent to $69.98 in premarket trading.

Gallery: America's Most Popular Stores

10. Target9. Taco Bell8. CVS7. Walgreens6. Wendy's

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]]>earningsretailshoppingstockstargetTarget earningswalmartThe Associated PressWed, 22 May 2013 08:46:00 ESTDetroit Automakers Cutting Back on Summer Downtimehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/detroit-automakers-cut-back-factory-downtime/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/detroit-automakers-cut-back-factory-downtime/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/detroit-automakers-cut-back-factory-downtime/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

ford assembly plant chicago
M. Spencer Green/AP
By DEE-ANN DURBIN

DETROIT -- The Detroit automakers are largely forgoing the traditional two-week summer break at their factories and speeding up production to meet buyers' growing demand for new cars and trucks.

Ford Motor Co. (F) said Wednesday that 21 of its North American factories will shut for only one week this summer. That includes the Chicago plant that makes the Ford Explorer SUV and the Mexican plant that makes the Fusion sedan.

General Motors Co. (GM) won't idle its factories at all, while Chrysler plans a two-week break at just four of its 10 North American assembly plants. Both GM and Chrysler are rolling out critical new models.
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The three Detroit carmakers traditionally shut factories for 14 days around July 4 to do maintenance and change the machinery for new models. But they don't have that luxury this year. U.S. demand for new cars and trucks has been strong, up 7 percent through April, led by soaring demand for full-size pickup trucks as home construction rebounds. And after closing more than two dozen factories during the recession, U.S. automakers need to use their remaining capacity to its fullest.

Earlier this week, General Motors' North America President Mark Reuss said GM might pause work to change over some machinery but won't have full shutdowns. The nation's biggest automaker is in the midst of releasing 20 new models, including the new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. Chrysler Group has canceled downtime at three assembly plants, including the two Detroit facilities where the SRT Viper and Jeep Grand Cherokee are made and the Toledo, Ohio, factory that makes the new Jeep Cherokee.

Ford said it will produce 40,000 vehicles during the week it's staying open. In all, the company plans to produce 240,000 more vehicles this year than it did last year in North America. It will soon add a second shift to its Flat Rock, Mich., plant to make the Fusion sedan and a third shift to the Kansas City, Mo., plant where the F-150 pickup is made. It's also increasing the speed of its assembly lines, allowing plants that might have made 60 vehicles per hour to make 65.

James Tetrault, Ford's vice president of North American manufacturing, said that a decade ago, Ford had to idle factories because each only made one vehicle. If demand waned for that vehicle, the company needed to cut production. Now, it has flexible plants that make multiple vehicles on the same assembly line. If the Taurus sedan is selling slowly, for example, Ford can quickly switch over and make more Explorer SUVs at the same Chicago plant.

"It's a lot easier to figure out how to make more than to shut down a plant," he said.

Chrysler said in a statement that all but one of its 16 engine, transmission and metal stamping plants will work through the summer. Only four of its plants -- Brampton and Windsor assembly plants in Canada, which make large cars and minivans, and two Detroit-area plants that make the Ram pickup and midsize cars -- will close for a full two weeks in July.

Reuss said GM hasn't had formal two-week shutdowns since it emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2009.

Workers' pay isn't impacted by the change, since the shutdowns are paid vacations.

Not all automakers are changing their schedule. Honda and Nissan said Tuesday they still plan to close their U.S. plants for a week around July 4. Toyota is also planning to shut down its U.S. plants for a week this summer.

---

Auto Writer Tom Krisher contributed to this report.

Gallery: The Best And Worst Vehicles For Under $30,000

The Best And Worst Vehicles For Under $30,000Best -Best -Best -Best -

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]]>automakersautomobileDetroit Threeeconomic recoveryeconomyfactoryfordgeneral motorsmanufacturingPickupsummer shutdownThe Associated PressWed, 22 May 2013 07:21:00 ESTMuch Remains Unknown About Microsoft's Xbox Onehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/microsoft-xbox-one-much-uknown/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/microsoft-xbox-one-much-uknown/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/microsoft-xbox-one-much-uknown/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

microsoft xbox one console
Ted S. Warren/APMicrosoft's Xbox One entertainment and gaming console was unveiled Tuesday.
By DERRIK J. LANG

REDMOND, Wash. -- Will gamers want One? After four years of development, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One entertainment console and touted it as an all-in-one solution for playing games, watching TV and doing everything in between. Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be central to your living room and packed the new Xbox with such features as the ability to change TV channels through voice commands.

Although the device won't go on sale until later this year, at a price that hasn't been disclosed yet, Microsoft invited attendees of Tuesday's announcement event to take a closer look at the system.
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Based on limited time with the device, the Xbox One feels like an improvement over its predecessor. But it fails to include features some fans have demanded, including the ability to play games bought for the existing Xbox 360 system.

Of course, many particulars about the Xbox One could change between now and when it's released. The specific date hasn't been revealed. More details are expected at the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles next month.

For now, the system looks to be a thoughtful piece of technology, but there's still a lot that isn't known.

Design: With contrasting matte and gloss finishes, the Xbox One is the slickest video game console so far, although we don't yet know what Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 will look like. (Nintendo's Wii U came out in November and is the only one of the three new consoles already available for purchase, though sales have fallen short of the company's forecasts.) The Xbox's outer shell, which Microsoft calls "liquid black," features vented flourishes and all the inputs and outputs one might need, including multiple USB ports and HDMI pass-through.

Kinect: The new version of the Xbox's camera-based Kinect system comes with better motion and voice detection, including the ability to recognize faces, tell if you're smiling or talking and gauge your heart rate. It appears as sexy as the Xbox console, but has been overhauled under the hood. It's three times more sensitive and has a larger, 60-degree field of view. In a demo, the doodad's high-definition camera easily displayed crystal-clear 1080p video and could detect up to seven people, though it lagged as more folks stood in front of it. The basic motion detection appears vastly improved, but the voice detection feature wasn't made available to try out, adding to the list of unknowns.

Performance: The system seems to work harmoniously together. For example, by combining the Kinect's face detection ability with the machine's wireless controllers, it recognized -- almost magically -- when users swapped controllers.

Controller: The new controller's layout is mostly unchanged, but the bulky battery bump is gone from the back. The smoother Xbox One controller boasts a new directional pad and vibrating trigger buttons. The triggers pulsated in tandem with such imagery as a character's heart beating and a car revving up during a demo with a prototype controller.

Requirements: Luckily, the Xbox One won't require a constant connection to the Internet, but there's a possibility that some of the key features wouldn't work as well or at all. The Kinect system is required and will come with the machine, rather than sold separately as has been the case with the Xbox 360. The Xbox One also will feature privacy settings so it doesn't feel like the Kinect's camera is always watching you.

Limitations: Xbox 360 games won't work on the Xbox One because the underlying technology is different, according to Microsoft. Microsoft was vague about how the Xbox One will handle previously played games bought from other gamers, though it confirmed used games will work somehow. There had been talk that Microsoft might restrict used games on the new machine.

Games: What games? Despite the fact that such titles as "Call of Duty: Ghosts," ''FIFA 14" and "Forza Motorsport 5" were teased during Tuesday's flashy presentation, actual games weren't available to try out afterward. Microsoft said it plans to focus on Xbox One titles in three weeks at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual convention in Los Angeles.

The Xbox One shows promise with a sleek shell and a new Kinect detector that seems to perform fine -- at least if you don't try to confuse it with too many people at once. But with a lack of games and lingering questions about what it can do without an Internet connection, there are too many questions about the Xbox One, even after experiencing -- not just hearing -- what Microsoft has planned. At this point, it's too early to say whether Microsoft or Sony is leading in the latest round of the console wars. They'll have to duke it out at E3.



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]]>entertainmentkinectMicrosoftmoviesmusicNintendoWiitvxboxThe Associated PressWed, 22 May 2013 06:46:00 ESTSony Entertains Mulling Activist's Spin-Off Ideahttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/sony-mulls-entertainment-spin-off/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/sony-mulls-entertainment-spin-off/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/22/sony-mulls-entertainment-spin-off/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Sony President CEO Kazuo Hirai
Itsuo Inouye/APSony President and CEO Kazuo Hirai speaks Wednesday at Sony's Tokyo headquarters.
By ELAINE KURTENBACH

TOKYO -- Sony's CEO Kazuo Hirai says the electronics giant's board will discuss a proposal by U.S. hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb to spin off up to 20 percent of its movie, TV and music division.

Hirai was asked about the proposal at a corporate strategy presentation Wednesday. He did not give a timetable for a decision, and wouldn't give his own opinion about the suggestion raised by Loeb, who is CEO of hedge fund Third Point LLC.

"This will be deliberated by the board and we will come up with a response," Hirai told reporters. "We have only just begun to study this."

Loeb said money from the sale could be used to shore up Sony's ailing electronics manufacturing unit.

Hirai said Sony Corp. (SNE) didn't believe Loeb was proposing that Sony make its entertainment business a separate entity, but wants to make that part of the company public.

"It is an important proposal from our shareholder," Hirai said. "We want a constructive dialogue at all times with our shareholders."
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Sony initially responded to Loeb by saying its entertainment business was not for sale, though some analysts said the strategy might help Sony unlock value from its wealth of audio and video content. Sony has fallen behind powerful rivals such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. in profitability and innovation.

Hirai, who took over as Sony's president a year ago, outlined various plans for revitalizing Sony's electronics business, focusing on mobile devices, imaging and games. The company intends to return its TV business to profitability by promoting more expensive large-screen TVs. It will focus on cameras and other imaging products that have "value-added" technology such as image sensors and higher-powered zooms.

Sony reported its first net profit in five years for the fiscal year that ended in March. Hirai has sought to reinvigorate the once dominant electronics maker by tapping into what he calls Sony's DNA, and ensuring all its products have "wow."

"Creating new markets cannot be done without taking risks," he said. "If we cannot change we cannot grow."

Hirai defended Sony management's handling of its restructuring during the past few years, noting that top executives had given up bonuses for failing to return the electronics division to profitability, and some had taken salary cuts.

Asked if Sony's practice of having some long-serving employees move to a "career development room" amounted to "bullying" of rank-and-file workers, he insisted it did not.

"The career development room is not an office for getting rid of employees but providing re-employment assistance," he said. "We are trying to find new jobs for the employees and we will continue to do so."

Sony's shares jumped 5.9 percent in Tokyo trading to 2,290 yen.



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]]>AppleDaniel Loebelectronicsentertainmentkazuo hiraimoviesmusicSONYThird PointtvThe Associated PressWed, 22 May 2013 06:24:00 ESTBest Buy Reports 1Q Loss on Restructuring Costshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/best-buy-earnings/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/best-buy-earnings/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/best-buy-earnings/#commentsFiled under: , ,

best buy shopper earnings
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
MINNEAPOLIS -- Best Buy on Tuesday reported a loss in its fiscal first quarter as it sold its stake in Best Buy Europe and works on a turnaround plan that includes cutting costs and closing some stores.

Its adjusted earnings beat Wall Street expectations, but revenue fell short as the company faced tough pricing competition during the quarter. Its shares fell in premarket trading.

Best Buy Co. (BBY) has been working on a turnaround plan as it faces increased competition from online retailers and discount stores. The plan includes closing stores, cutting costs and investing in training for its employees. In April it also said it would sell its 50 percent stake in its European joint venture to streamline its business and strengthen its balance sheet.

The electronics retailer says net loss for the three months ended May 4 after paying preferred dividends totaled $81 million, or 24 cents a share. That compares with net income of $158 million, or 46 cents a share, last year.

Excluding restructuring costs and costs related to selling its stake in Best Buy Europe, it earned 36 cents a share. That beat the 24 cents a share that analysts expected, according to FactSet.
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Revenue fell nearly 10 percent to $9.38 billion, short of expectations of $10.67 billion. Revenue in stores open at least one year fell 1.1 percent. The measure is a key gauge of a retailer's expectations because it excludes stores that open or close during the year.

CEO Hubert Joly said results were hurt by the shift of Super Bowl, which typically drives TV sales, into the prior quarter, and the decision to reduce sales in some non-core businesses.

CFO Sharon McCollam said the company expects the price competitiveness that hurt a share results in the first quarter will continue into the second. She added that adding Samsung store-within-stores and restructuring retail floor space at some stores are expected to hurt some stores as well.

The investments in its turnaround plan, however are expected to be "substantially offset" by the company's cost cutting initiatives.

Best Buy shares fell 48 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $26.33 in premarket trading about 75 minutes ahead of the market opening.

Gallery: 7 Reasons Best Buy Won't Be Around in 7 Years

1. There's no end to the showrooming trend2. Exclusivity isn't necessarily an option3. Digital distribution is a killer4. There is no ecosystem5. Repeat traffic will dwindle as the digital migration continues

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]]>best buyConsumer Electronicsconsumer spendingearningsretailsame store salesThe Associated PressTue, 21 May 2013 08:23:00 ESTHousing Recovery Boosts Home Depot's 1Q Profithttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/home-depot-earnings/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/home-depot-earnings/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/home-depot-earnings/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

home depot logo earnings
Elise Amendola/AP
ATLANTA -- Even though the weather was poor, Home Depot posted an 18 percent increase in its net income for the first quarter thanks to the ongoing housing recovery.

Its quarterly results topped Wall Street's view and the world's biggest home improvement chain boosted its full-year earnings and revenue forecasts Tuesday.

Shares climbed 4 percent in premarket trading.

For the three months ended May 5, Home Depot Inc. (HD) earned $1.23 billion, or 83 cents a share. That's up from $1.04 billion, or 68 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts predicted earnings of 76 cents a share, according to a FactSet survey.
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"In the first quarter, we saw less favorable weather compared to last year, but we continue to see benefit from a recovering housing market that drove a stronger-than-expected start to the year for our business," Chairman and CEO Frank Blake said in a statement.

Revenue for the Atlanta company rose 7 percent to $19.12 billion from $17.81 billion. Wall Street expected $18.62 billion.

Home Depot's stock gained $3.24, or 4.2 percent, to $80 about three hours before the market open.

Revenue at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer's health, climbed 4.3 percent. This figure excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.

The chain anticipates fiscal 2013 earnings of $3.52 a share, with revenue up about 2.8 percent. Its prior guidance was for earnings of $3.37 a share, with revenue rising about 2 percent. The revised outlook implies revenue of $76.83 billion, based on 2012's $74.75 billion.

Analysts expect full-year earnings of $3.54 a share on revenue of $76.98 billion.

Home Depot had 2,257 stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico at the first quarter's end.



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]]>earningseconomic recoveryeconomyHome Depothousing marketsame store salesstocksThe Associated PressTue, 21 May 2013 07:52:00 ESTAmericans Better About Paying Credit-Card Debt in 1Qhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/us-credit-card-delinquencies-drop/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/us-credit-card-delinquencies-drop/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/21/us-credit-card-delinquencies-drop/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

credit cards wallet debt
Alamy
By ALEX VEIGA

LOS ANGELES -- Americans got better about paying their credit card debt on time in the first three months of the year, a period when many borrowers use income tax returns to tackle their holiday season debt.

The rate of credit card payments at least 90 days overdue fell to 0.69 percent in the first quarter from 0.85 percent a year earlier -- drop of nearly 19 percent, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Tuesday.

The January-March card delinquency rate was also down from 0.73 in the October-December quarter, when many consumers ramped up credit use to finance holiday season purchases.

Neither a 2 percent hike in Social Security payroll taxes that took effect in January, nor delayed federal income tax returns this year appeared to blunt borrowers' ability to manage their debt.

While down, the late-payment rate is above historically low levels. The lowest late-payment rate on TransUnion records going back to the mid-1990s was 0.56 percent, set in the third quarter of 1994. More recently, it was at 0.60 percent in the second quarter of 2011.

All told, the card-delinquency rate has averaged 1.03 percent since 1992, said the firm, whose credit trend data is based from a sample of 27 million consumer records.
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"Even a moderate uptick in delinquency is not a cause for concern, because we are at historic lows," said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion's financial services business unit.

During the last recession, many Americans reined in spending in favor of paying off debt, particularly credit card balances. The housing downturn also prompted many homeowners to make paying their credit card accounts on time a priority ahead of other financial obligations, such as their mortgage payments.

Nearly four years after the recession, the U.S. economy and job market are far from fully recovered, but they have made steady progress.

The national unemployment rate remains at an elevated 7.5 percent, but that's down from a high of 10 percent in October 2009. The economy has been steadily adding jobs, home values are rising nationally and the stock market has been on a sustained upswing, with the Dow Jones industrial average index up about 17 percent this year.

Those factors have helped boost confidence among consumers, making them feel wealthier and more willing to spend. Even so, many remain careful about how they manage their debt.

Average credit card debt per borrower fell 1.7 percent to $4,878 in the first quarter from $4,962 in the same period last year, TransUnion said. On a quarterly basis, it declined 4.8 percent from $5,122 in the fourth quarter.

TransUnion, however, has forecast that average credit card debt will rise by roughly 8 percent to $5,446 by the end of this year -- the highest level in four years.

Meanwhile, the number of new credit card accounts opened by consumers continued to decline as 2012 drew to a close.

The data lags by a quarter, so the latest TransUnion figures cover the October-December period. They show that the number of new credit card accounts fell 1.6 percent from the same period in 2011.

The share of cards issued to borrowers with less-than-sterling credit slipped to 28.1 percent from 28.4 percent a year earlier. That's still above the 27.7 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2010, however.

In the VantageScore credit rating scale, consumers with a score lower than 700 on a scale of 501-990 are considered non-prime borrowers.

Gallery: Why Your Bank Thinks Someone Stole Your Credit Card

Test PurchasesBuying in the Bad Part of TownStuff You Might SellBuying CashOut-of-the-Ordinary Spending Behavior

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]]>credit card debteconomic recoveryeconomyholiday spendingpayroll taxrefundTax ReturnsThe Associated PressTue, 21 May 2013 06:38:00 ESTCampbell's Profit Heats Up on Strong Soup Saleshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/campbell-soup-earnings/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/campbell-soup-earnings/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/campbell-soup-earnings/#commentsFiled under: , ,

campbell chunky soup cans store display
David McNew/Getty Images
NEW YORK -- Campbell Soup reported third-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations as a colder winter helped boost soup sales and offset a decline in its V8 drinks.

The Camden, N.J.-based company, which also makes Prego sauces and Pepperidge Farm cookies, has been trying to reinvigorate its namesake business with new flavors and packaging targeted at people in their 20s and 30s. The push comes as Campbell faces more competition from supermarkets that are offering fresh, hot soups in their take-out sections. Smaller players have been popping up on store shelves as well.

During the period, Campbell said sales for its U.S. Soup business rose 14 percent from a year ago, reflecting gains in all three categories: condensed soups, ready-to-serve soups and broths.

"Colder weather clearly helped soup sales," CEO Denise Morrison said in a conference call with analysts, noting that the previous year's winter was one of the warmest on record.
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But she also said that better advertising, such as those starring the NFL's Victor Cruz of the New York Giants, contributed to the growth. New products, such as the Skillet dinner sauces that come in pouches, represented a tiny fraction of sales, with the company still working on getting more consistent distribution in stores.

Even as it works on improving the image of its soups, however, Campbell is seeing its U.S. beverage business suffer a similar struggle. Sales in the unit, which includes its shelf-stable V8 juices, fell 5 percent during the period.

As with soups, the problem is that shelf-stable products traditionally sold in the center aisles of supermarkets don't have the image of freshness. And Campbell is seeing more competition in fruit and vegetable drinks.

Earlier this year, for example, PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) introduced its Tropicana Farmstand fruit and vegetable juices that are sold in the refrigerated sections of grocery stores. The company has noted that Farmstand's potential is far greater than V8 V-Fusion drinks because of that positioning as a fresher product.

During the call with analysts, Morrison expressed confidence that Campbell would be able to reverse declines in its beverage business by taking "a page from the playbook" it used for its soup business.

To diversify its products of canned soups and jarred sauces with products with a fresher feel, Campbell also recently purchased Bolthouse Farms, which makes premium juices, salad dressings and bagged carrots. That acquisition also contributed significantly to the increase in sales during the period.

For the quarter, the company said it earned $181 million, or 57 cents a share. That's up from $177 million, or 55 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 15 percent to $2.09 billion. Not including one-time restructuring charges, Campbell earned 62 cents a share. Analysts on average expected a profit of 56 cents a share on revenue of $2.04 billion, according to FactSet.

The company now expects sales to grow at the high end of its 10 to 12 percent range. Adjusted per-share earnings are expected to exceed the previous range of 3 percent to 5 percent.

Shares of Campbell Soup Co. (CPB) rose 2 percent to $48.69.

Gallery: Savings Challenge: Finding Cheap, Fast, Reasonably Healthy Dinners at the Asian Market

NoodlesBunsPremade FoodsDumplingsBoxed Foods

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]]>Bolthouse Farmscampbell soupcampbell soup earningsDenise MorrisonearningsfoodjuiceproducesoupsupermarketsThe Associated PressMon, 20 May 2013 09:58:00 EST'Food Genome' Map May Help Consumers Eat Betterhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/nutrition-map-help-americans-eat-better/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/nutrition-map-help-americans-eat-better/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/nutrition-map-help-americans-eat-better/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

ingredient label snapple bottle nutrition
Gerry Broome/AP
By MARY CLARE JALONICK

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Do your kids love chocolate milk? It may have more calories on average than you thought. Same goes for soda.

Until now, the only way to find out what people in the United States eat and how many calories they consume has been government data, which can lag behind the rapidly expanding and changing food marketplace.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are trying to change that by creating a gargantuan map of what foods Americans are buying and eating. Part of the uniqueness of the database is its ability to sort one product into what it really is -- thousands of brands and variations.

Take the chocolate milk.
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The government long has long classified chocolate milk with 2 percent fat as one item. But the UNC researchers, using scanner data from grocery stores and other commercial data, found thousands of different brands and variations of 2 percent chocolate milk and averaged them out. The results show that chocolate milk has about 11 calories a cup more than the government thought.

The researchers led by professor Barry Popkin at the UNC School of Public Health, are figuring out that chocolate milk equation over and over, with every single item in the grocery store. It's a massive project that could be the first evidence of how rapidly the marketplace is changing, and the best data yet on what exact ingredients and nutrients people are consuming.

That kind of information could be used to better target nutritional guidelines, push companies to cut down on certain ingredients and even help with disease research.

Just call it "mapping the food genome."

"The country needs something like this, given all of the questions about our food supply," says Popkin, the head of the UNC Food Research Program. "We're interested in improving the public's health and it really takes this kind of knowledge."

The project first came together in 2010 after a group of 16 major food companies pledged, as part of first lady Michelle Obama's campaign to combat obesity, to reduce the calories they sell to the public by 1.5 trillion. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation agreed to fund a study to hold the companies accountable, eventually turning to UNC with grants totaling $6.7 million.

Aided by supercomputers on campus, Popkin and his team have taken existing commercial databases of food items in stores and people's homes, including the store-based scanner data of 600,000 different foods, and matched that information with the nutrition facts panels on the back of packages and government data on individuals' dietary intake.

The result is an enormous database that has taken almost three years so far to construct and includes more detail than researchers have ever had on grocery store items -- their individual nutritional content, who is buying them and their part in consumers' diets.

The study will fill gaps in current data about the choices available to consumers and whether they are healthy, says Susan Krebs-Smith, who researches diet and other risk factors related to cancer at the National Cancer Institute.

Vast Marketplace

Government data, long the only source of information about American eating habits, can have a lag of several years and neglect entire categories of new types of products -- Greek yogurt or energy drinks, for example.

With those significant gaps, the government information fails to account for the rapid change now seen in the marketplace. Now more than ever, companies are reformulating products on the fly as they try to make them healthier or better tasting.

While consumers may not notice changes in the ingredient panel on the back of the package, the UNC study will pick up small variations in individual items and also begin to be able to tell how much the marketplace as a whole is evolving.

"When we are done we will probably see 20 percent change in the food supply in a year," Popkin says. "The food supply is changing and no one really knows how."

For example, the researchers have found that there has been an increase in using fruit concentrate as a sweetener in foods and beverages because of a propensity toward natural foods, even though it isn't necessarily healthier than other sugars. While the soda and chocolate milk have more calories on average than the government thought, the federal numbers were more accurate on the calories in milk and cereals.

Popkin and his researchers are hoping their project will only be the beginning of a map that consumers, companies, researchers and even the government can use, breaking the data down to find out who is eating what and where they shop. Is there a racial divide in the brand of potato chips purchased, for example, and what could that mean for health? Does diet depend on where you buy your food -- the grocery store or the convenience store? How has the recession affected dietary intake?

"It's only since I've really started digging into this that I have realized how little we know about what we are eating," says Meghan Slining, a UNC nutrition professor and researcher on the project.

Steven Gortmaker, director of the Harvard School of Public Health Prevention Research Center, says the data could help researchers figure out how people are eating in certain communities and then how to address problems in those diets that could lead to obesity or disease.

"The more information we have, the more scientists can be brainstorming about what kinds of interventions or policy changes we could engage in," Gortmaker said.

But the information doesn't include restaurant meals and some prepared foods, about one-third of what Americans eat. If the project receives continued funding, those foods eventually could be added to the study, a prospect that would be made easier by pending menu labeling regulations that will force chain restaurants to post calories for every item.

Popkin and his researchers say that packaged foods have long been the hardest to monitor because of the sheer volume and rapid change in the marketplace.

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, an industry group representing the 16 companies that made the pledge to reduce 1.5 trillion calories, says it will report this summer on how successful they've been, according to Lisa Gable, the group's president. The first results from Popkin's study aren't expected until later this year.

Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition, food studies and public health, says the data could be useful in pressuring companies to make more changes for the better. Companies often use "the research isn't there" as a defense against making changes recommended by public health groups, she notes, and it can be hard to prove them wrong.

"What people eat is the great mystery of nutrition," Nestle says. "It would be wonderful to have a handle on it."

Gallery: America's Most Popular Stores

10. Target9. Taco Bell8. CVS7. Walgreens6. Wendy's

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]]>consumer issuesconsumer protectionfoodgovernmenthealthnutritionUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillThe Associated PressMon, 20 May 2013 07:03:00 ESTConsumer Spending Forecast to Boost U.S. Economyhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/consumer-spending-forecast-boost-us-economy/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/consumer-spending-forecast-boost-us-economy/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/20/consumer-spending-forecast-boost-us-economy/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

san francisco shoppers consumer spending
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
WASHINGTON -- Consumer spending is likely to pick up this year, while government spending declines at a faster rate, according to a survey of business economists.

The economists predict that the U.S. economy will grow 2.4 percent this year and 3 percent next year. That's unchanged from their forecast in February. But they are more bullish on consumer spending and housing than they were three months ago, in part because of a more positive view about unemployment.

The survey was released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics, which periodically surveys economists for banks, manufacturers and universities.
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The 49 economists who were questioned between April 16 and April 30 predicted that consumer spending will rise 2.3 percent this year, up from a forecast of 1.9 percent in February. They were also more upbeat about auto sales, predicting 15.4 million vehicles sales, an increase of 1 million over 2012.

Nayantara Hensel, chair of the NABE survey and a business professor at National Defense University, said consumer spending will get a boost from gains in the stock market, home values and lower unemployment.

"Home prices are going up, and with also the improvement in the unemployment rate, people will be more willing to buy," Hensel said in an interview.

The economists predicted that home prices will rise 4.4 percent this year and 4 percent next year. Boosted by new construction, they predict a 15 percent jump in residential housing investment this year.

Housing starts hit a 5-year peak in March then fell in April, with most of the decline due to less apartment construction, which can swing wildly from month to month. Applications for building permits hit a 5-year high in April, suggesting that the housing market will continue to recover from the recession. A recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders found continued optimism among builders.

The NABE economists, who were surveyed before April unemployment was reported at 7.5 percent, predicted that the rate will decline to 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter and 6.8 percent in late 2014. Corporate profits after taxes are expected to rise 5.3 percent in 2013 and 7.5 percent next year. Both of those are more bullish forecasts than the economists offered in February.

While consumers might spend more, the government sector is expected to shrink 2.3 percent this year -- sharper than the 1 percent cut that the economists predicted in February, before a series of automatic federal spending cuts kicked in when Congress and the White House failed to reach a deal to avoid them. The economists expect government spending to decline a more modest 0.9 percent in 2014, but Hensel said the forecast could change to a bigger decline if it looks like the automatic cuts will continue into the next fiscal year.

Lower government spending, especially by the military, "has already had a sharp effect on GDP growth," she said. GDP, or gross domestic product, is the measure of the economy's total output of goods and services.

The NABE survey found little alarm about potential inflation. The economists expect the Consumer Price Index to rise 1.9 percent this year and 2.1 percent in 2014.

On Friday, the Conference Board reported that its index of leading economic indicators rose in April after falling in March. A board economist said the economy was getting a lift from steady job gains and the housing market, offsetting government spending cuts.

Gallery: 9 Numbers That'll Tell You How the Economy's Really Doing

1. Gross Domestic Product2. Consumer Price Index3. Unemployment Rate4. Trade Deficit5 & 6. Personal Income and Personal Spending

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]]>auto salesconsumer spendingeconomic growtheconomic recoveryeconomyGDPinflationinterest ratesNABEThe Associated PressMon, 20 May 2013 06:08:00 ESTTempest in a Tea Party: The IRS Scandal at a Glancehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/19/tempest-in-a-tea-party-the-irs-scandal-at-a-glance/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/19/tempest-in-a-tea-party-the-irs-scandal-at-a-glance/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/19/tempest-in-a-tea-party-the-irs-scandal-at-a-glance/#commentsFiled under: ,

IRS building Washington DC
Susan Walsh/AP
By CALVIN WOODWARD

WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service is feeling the sort of heat that targeted taxpayers feel from the tax agency. It's the sense that a powerful someone is breathing down your neck.

Republicans in Congress are livid with the IRS over its systematic scrutiny of conservative groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections. Democrats agree that something must be done. President Barack Obama also isn't at all happy with the tax collectors.

That kind of commonality in Washington is about as rare as a budget surplus. So expect a bumpy ride for the IRS, unloved in the best of times, as a Justice Department criminal investigation and multiple congressional inquiries try to get to the bottom of it all.

A look at the matter:

In Brief

The central issue is whether IRS agents who determine whether nonprofit organizations have to pay federal income taxes played political favorites or even broke the law when they subjected tea party groups and other conservative organizations to special scrutiny.

Also foremost in the concerns of Congress: Why senior IRS officials, for many months, did not disclose what they had learned about the actions of lower-level employees despite persistent questions from Republican lawmakers and howls from aggrieved organizations.

Why It Matters

The IRS is expected to be pesky, even intimidating, to miscreants, but at all times politically neutral. Nonpartisanship is the coin of its realm, perhaps more so than in any other part of government.

"I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives," Obama said in ousting the agency's acting chief, Steven T. Miller.

On Thursday, on the eve of House hearings at which Miller has been called to testify, the president named Daniel Werfel, a senior White House budget official, to take charge of the agency temporarily.

IRS actions in the period covering the 2010 congressional elections and the early going of the 2012 presidential campaign have tattered the perception that the agency is clean of political leanings. Whether that was also the reality remains to be discovered.

A report by the Treasury Department's top investigator for tax matters found no evidence that sheer partisanship drove the targeting. But the watchdog disclosed Friday that he is still investigating. His report faulted lax management for not stopping it sooner.

It's a sensitive time for the agency's professionalism to be in doubt because the IRS soon will loom even larger in people's lives. It's to be the enforcer of the individual mandate to carry insurance under Obama's health care law, itself an object of suspicion for many conservatives. To the right, that's insult upon injury from the left.

What Would Make It Matter Even More

Any effort from top levels of the administration or political operatives to manipulate the IRS for campaign purposes would put the scandal in the realm of Nixonian skullduggery.

The public record as it is known does not show interference.

No ties to anyone outside the IRS have been discovered. At the same time, early IRS assurances that high-level people inside the agency did not know what was going on have been contradicted by evidence that the head of the agency's tax-exemption operation and later its deputy commissioner were briefed about it and did not tell Congress.

Red-Flag Words

To qualify for exemption from federal income taxes, organizations must show they are not too political in nature to meet the standard. In the cases in question, applications that raised eyebrows were referred to a team of specialists who took a much closer look at a group's operations. That's normal.

But in early 2010, IRS agents in the Determinations Unit began paying special attention to tax-exempt applications from groups associated with the tea party or with certain words or phrases in their materials, according to the IRS inspector general's report. That's not normal.

The red-flag keywords came to include "Patriots," ''Take Back the Country" and "We the People."

That August, agents were given an explicit "be on the lookout" directive for "various local organizations in the Tea Party movement" that are seeking tax-exempt status. Such organizations saw their applications languish except when they were hit with lots of questions, some of which the IRS was not entitled to ask, such as the names of donors.

In June 2011, after the congressional elections, Lois G. Lerner, in charge of overseeing tax-exempt organizations, learned of the flagging and ordered the criteria to be changed right away, the inspector general said. The new guidance was more generic and stripped of any explicit partisan freight. But it did not last.

In January 2012, the screening was modified again, this time to watch for references to the Constitution or Bill of Rights, and for "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding government."

The Constitution and Bill of Rights are touchstones for liberals, too. But in modern politics, they've been appropriated as rallying cries of conservatives and libertarians. Finally, that May, such flagging ended.

Altogether, specialists reviewed a variety of potentially too-political applications, presumably covering the liberal-conservative spectrum. But fully one-third of the cases were of the tea party-patriot variety. During the height of the flagging, the inspector general says, all applications fitting the conservative-focused criteria went to the specialists while others that should have stirred concern did not.

In short, if you were with the tea party, you were guaranteed a close second look and almost certainly months more of delay. If you were leading a liberal activist group, maybe yes, maybe no.

On the Receiving End

"Dealing with this was like dealing with tax day every day for 2½ years," says Laurence Nordvig, executive director of the Richmond Tea Party in Virginia. "Like your worst audit nightmare."

His group applied for tax-exempt status in December 2009 and finally got it in July 2012.

Tom Zawistowski applied for the tax exemption for his group, the Ohio Liberty Coalition, in June 2010 when the flagging was gathering steam. He got it in December 2012, after the presidential election.

The IRS asked him for the identity of the group's members, times and location of group activities, printouts of its website and Facebook pages, contents of speeches and the names and credentials of speakers at forums. He said the IRS also audited his personal finances and his wife's.

"The intent of this was to hurt the ability of tea party groups to function in an election year," he said.

An Associated Press analysis of 93 "tea party" or "patriot" groups found that most were shoestring operations, with only two dozen raising more than $20,000 a year.

Five-Oh What?

If the IRS merely rolled over and played dead when it got an application for a tax exemption, the government would be even more broke than it is and big money would have an even more pernicious grip on campaigns.

The IRS knows better than most that politically driven organizations, out to elect and defeat candidates, can masquerade as "social welfare" or other charitable entities under the tax-exempting articles of Section 501 (c) of the tax code.

Or they can align themselves with one, allowing unlimited donations to be raised and the identities of the contributors to stay secret as long as the nonprofit entities don't go too far in overt politicking.

In recent years, advocacy groups have paired their nonprofit arms with "super" political action committees, moves that took hold after a series of court rulings - including the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision - loosened the rules on money in politics.

The rulings gave rise to such pairings as the American Crossroads super PAC with its Crossroads GPS nonprofit on behalf of Republicans in the 2012 campaign, and the Priorities USA Action super PAC with its own nonprofit arm, for Obama's benefit.

Section 501 (c) (3) can be the most lucrative financially for organizations because in addition to conferring tax-exempt status, it allows donations to qualifying groups to be tax deductible.

Section 501 (c) (4) doesn't permit tax-deductible donations but gives groups more latitude to lobby and to dabble more directly in political campaigns as long as "social welfare" remains their primary mission. They can also keep their donors secret, a big benefit over more blatantly political super PACs.

It's all complex, squishy and in some ways subjective, so it might not come as a shock that the IRS would look for shortcuts such as political buzzwords and slogans when deciding what a group is really up to. But the record as yet known does not show that the scrutiny cut both ways.

In congressional testimony about the discredited IRS actions, Attorney General Eric Holder said there is good reason to take a skeptical look at some Section 501 applications but "it has to be done in a way that does not depend on the political persuasion of the group."

By the Numbers

The inspector general's office reviewed 296 tax-exempt applications that had been flagged as potentially too political. Of them, 108 were ultimately approved, 28 were withdrawn by the applicant, none had been rejected and 160 were still open in December 2012, some languishing for more than three years.

Stonewalling?

Hearing complaints of IRS harassment from constituents, lawmakers began asking a lot of questions of the agency starting in mid-2011. They got a lot of answers - just not answers revealing what was going on.

In multiple letters, some as long as 45 pages, as well as in meetings and congressional hearings, senior IRS officials laid out in painstaking detail the process of checking tax-exempt applications but did not disclose what they had come to learn of the flagging.

Miller, for example, was told by staff in May 2012 about the inappropriate screening but did not pass that on in communications with inquiring members of Congress or in his appearance two months later with the House panel most concerned about the reports.

Lois G. Lerner, in charge of overseeing tax-exempt organizations at the IRS, was briefed about the screening a year earlier and ordered an end to explicit tea party-type flagging. But she did not tell lawmakers about that when asked about the constituent complaints.

About that Skullduggery

A number of presidents or their operatives have tried to twist the IRS against "dissidents" or political opponents. Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy are among them.

President Richard Nixon, though, surely takes the cake here.

The Senate Judiciary Committee cited his IRS manipulations, including his pursuit of those on his "enemies list," in the articles of impeachment accusing the president of high crimes and misdemeanors in the Watergate scandal and of actions "subversive of constitutional government."

Article 2, Abuse of Power, said: "He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner."

Nixon resigned after it became clear that a Senate impeachment trial would drive him from office.

Associated Press writers Stephen Braun and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.

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]]>501cirstax exemptionstea partyThe Associated PressSun, 19 May 2013 09:57:00 EST$600 Million Powerball: 1 Winning Ticket Sold in Fla.http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/19/winning-powerball-ticket-sold-florida/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/19/winning-powerball-ticket-sold-florida/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/19/winning-powerball-ticket-sold-florida/#commentsFiled under: ,

$600 million Powerball: 1 winning ticket sold in Fla.
Nati Harnik/APSheila Sutton updates the Powerball prize money sign at the Super C convenience store in Lincoln, Neb., Friday, May 17, 2013. Powerball officials say the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $600 million, making it the largest prize in the game's history and the world's second largest lottery prize. Sutton sold a million dollar powerball ticket on Tuesday.
By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ

DES MOINES, Iowa - It's all about the odds, and one single ticket in Florida has beaten them all by matching the numbers drawn for the highest Powerball jackpot in history at an estimated $590.5 million, lottery officials disclosed Sunday.

The lone winner was sold at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla., according to Florida Lottery executive Cindy O'Connell. She told The Associated Press by telephone that more details would be released later.

"This would be the sixth Florida Powerball winner and right now, it's the sole winner of the largest everPowerball jackpot," O'Connell told AP. "We're delighted right now that we have the sole winner."

She said Florida has had more Powerball winners than any other state.

The winner was not immediately identified publicly and O'Connell did not give any indication just hours after Saturday's drawing whether anyone had already stepped forward with that winning ticket.

With four out of every five possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, lottery executives said earlier that someone was almost certain to win the game's highest jackpot, a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars - and that's after taxes.

Saturday night's winning numbers were 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball of 11.

Estimates had earlier put the jackpot at around $600 million. But Powerball's online site said early Sunday that its latest tabulations of all tickets sold put that jackpot at an estimated $590.5 million.

Terry Rich, CEO of the Iowa Lottery, initially confirmed that one Florida winning ticket had been sold. He told AP that following a winner, the Powerball grand prize was being reset at an estimated jackpot of $40 million, or about $25.1 million cash value.

The chances of winning the prize were astronomically low: 1 in 175.2 million. That's how many different ways you can combine the numbers when you play. But lottery officials estimated that about 80 percent of those possible combinations had been purchased recently.

While the odds are low for any one individual or individuals, O'Connell said, the chance that one hits paydirt is what makes Powerball an "exciting game to play."

"There is just the chance that you will have the opportunity and Florida is a huge Powerball state. We have had more winners than any other state that participates in Powerball."

Such longshot odds didn't deter people across Powerball-playing states - 43 plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands - from lining up at gas stations and convenience stores Saturday for their chance at striking it filthy rich.

Calls by AP to the Publix supermarket where the winning ticket was sold were not answered early Sunday.

Before the drawing, there was a rush for tickets around the country.

At a mini market in the heart of Los Angeles' Chinatown, employees broke the steady stream of customers into two lines: One for Powerball ticket buyers and one for everybody else. Some people appeared to be looking for a little karma.

"We've had two winners over $10 million here over the years, so people in the neighborhood think this is the lucky store," employee Gordon Chan said as he replenished a stack of lottery tickets on a counter.

The world's largest jackpot was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012. If $600 million, the jackpot would currently include a $376.9 million cash option.

Clyde Barrow, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, specializes in the gaming industry. He said one of the key factors behind the ticket-buying frenzy is the size of the jackpot - people are interested in the easy investment.

"Even though the odds are very low, the investment is very small," he said. "Two dollars gets you a chance."

That may be why Ed McCuen has a Powerball habit that's as regular as clockwork. The 57-year-old electrical contractor from Savannah, Ga., buys one ticket a week, regardless of the possible loot. It's a habit he didn't alter Saturday.

"You've got one shot in a gazillion or whatever," McCuen said, tucking his ticket in his pocket as he left a local convenience store. "You can't win unless you buy a ticket. But whether you buy one or 10 or 20, it's insignificant."

Seema Sharma doesn't seem to think so. The newsstand employee in Manhattan's Penn Station purchased $80 worth of tickets for herself. She also was selling tickets all morning at a steady pace, instructing buyers where to stand if they wanted machine-picked tickets or to choose their own numbers.

"I work very hard - too hard - and I want to get the money so I can finally relax," she said. "You never know."

___

Associated Press Radio Correspondent Julie Walker and AP writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., John Rogers in Los Angeles and Verena Dobnick in New York contributed to this report.

Lottery Articles from DailyFinance:

Gallery: The 10 States That Pay Out the Biggest Lottery Jackpots

States Where It Pays to Play10. Michigan9. New Jersey8. Ohio7. California

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]]>lotterypowerballThe Associated PressSun, 19 May 2013 03:00:00 ESTReport: Yahoo Nearing $1.1 Billion Acquisition of Tumblrhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/18/yahoo-tumblr-marissa-mayer-acquisition/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/18/yahoo-tumblr-marissa-mayer-acquisition/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/18/yahoo-tumblr-marissa-mayer-acquisition/#commentsFiled under: , ,

yahoo ceo marissa mayer
Johannes Eisele, AFP/Getty Images

Yahoo may be on the verge of closing its biggest acquisition during the 10-month reign of CEO Marissa Mayer as she tries to attract more traffic and advertisers to the Internet company's website and mobile applications.

The Sunnyvale, California, company's board of directors will meet Sunday evening to consider approving a $1.1 billion acquisition of online content-sharing site Tumblr in a deal Mayer negotiated, according to the technology news site All Things D. The story posted late Friday cited anonymous sources.

If Yahoo's board signs off, the deal could be announced Monday.
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In an invitation sent Friday, Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) promised to unveil "something special" Monday evening in New York. The event is being held in a Times Squares lounge located about two miles from Tumblr's headquarters.

Yahoo has only said that Mayer will be on hand to unveil something related to a product. A company spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the potential Tumblr acquisition.

Buying Tumblr would fulfill Mayer's goal of reaching a wider audience on smartphones and tablet computers.

Tumblr serves up a constantly changing collage of stories, photos and other digital content served up by users who are increasingly connecting to the service through its mobile applications. The service is also one of the hottest sites among teens and young adults, a demographic that Mayer, 37, thinks Yahoo needs to do a better job of reaching.

If it's completed, the Tumblr deal would be Mayer's biggest coup - and, at the same time, the biggest risk -- since she ended her 13-year career as a key executive at Google Inc. (GOOG) to try to snap Yahoo out of a prolonged malaise that had demoralized employees and investors alike.

Since her arrival, Mayer has been focused on redesigning several Yahoo services and bringing in more mobile engineering talent, primarily by buying a series of small startups.

None of those previous acquisitions have required Yahoo to dip too deeply into its bank account. Late last year, Yahoo paid a total of $7 million for two startups called OnTheAir and Stamped. In the first three months of this year, Yahoo snapped up three more startups for a total of $10 million, according to the company's regulatory filings.

Tumblr, founded in 2007 by its CEO David Karp, presumably would become a pivotal part of Mayer's effort to sell more advertising.

Mayer has been winning back investors, even though the company's revenue is still lagging the overall growth of the booming Internet and mobile advertising market. Yahoo's stock price has risen 69 percent under Mayer's leadership.

Yahoo shares fell 6 cents Friday to close at $26.52.

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]]>googleMarissa MayertumblrYahooThe Associated PressSat, 18 May 2013 09:04:00 ESTRising Consumer Demand Boosts Organic Industry Clouthttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/18/organic-food-industry-political-clout-grows/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/18/organic-food-industry-political-clout-grows/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/18/organic-food-industry-political-clout-grows/#commentsFiled under: , ,

bottles heinz organic ketchup
Paul Sakuma/AP
By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON -- The organic food industry is gaining clout on Capitol Hill, prompted by rising consumer demand and its entry into traditional farm states. But that isn't going over well with everyone in Congress.

Tensions between conventional and organic agriculture boiled over this week during a late-night House Agriculture Committee debate on a sweeping farm bill that has for decades propped up traditional crops and largely ignored organics.

When Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., a former organic farmer, offered an amendment to make it easier for organic companies to organize industrywide promotional campaigns, there was swift backlash from some farm-state Republicans, with one member saying he didn't want to see the industry get a free ride and another complaining about organics' "continued assault on agriculture."

"That's one of the things that has caught me and raises my concerns, is that industry's lack of respect for traditional agriculture," said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., referring to some organic companies' efforts to reduce the number of genetically modified crops in the marketplace.
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At the same time, Scott acknowledged that he and his wife buy organic foods.

Growing consumer interest in organics has proved tough for some Republicans on the committee to ignore. Eight Republicans, most of them newer members of the committee, joined with all of the panel's Democrats in supporting the amendment, which was adopted 29-17.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Missouri Republican who owns a farm equipment business and a corn and soybean farm, said she supported the amendment not only because helping organics is good for agriculture but because many of her constituents eat organic foods.

"Organics are a niche market in agriculture with a growing market share, so it makes sense for me to allow farmers to invest some of their own funds to promote their products," she said.

The amendment would allow the organic industry to organize and pay for a unified industry promotional campaign called a "checkoff" that is facilitated by the Agriculture Department but is no cost to the government. These promotional programs have traditionally been limited to individual commodities or crops, producing familiar campaigns like "Got Milk?" and "Beef: It's What's for Dinner."

The amendment wouldn't set up such a program for organics, but it would allow USDA to approve an organic promotional campaign if the industry decided it wanted one. Laura Batcha of the Organic Trade Association says one reason the industry would approve a campaign is that many organic producers are concerned that consumers don't understand that products labeled "natural" aren't necessarily organic, which requires certification.

Growing Market Share

The organic industry has exploded in the last decade, with $35 billion in sales and 10 percent growth just last year. There are more than 17,000 certified organic businesses in the country.

Producers of organic crops and conventional crops have long been at odds, as organic products have grabbed market share -- more than 4 percent of food and beverage sales in 2011 -- and the industry has advertised organic foods as healthier than other foods. Organic products are required to be certified by the USDA and are grown without pesticides and genetically modified ingredients, mainstays of traditional agriculture.

Government-managed promotional checkoff programs like the one that would be allowed under the amendment are required to be positive and not disparage other products, and some lawmakers seemed wary that such a campaign would be possible.

"How do I present organic pork without disparaging non-organic pork?" asked House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., who opposed the amendment.

Mike Conaway, R-Texas, took issue with part of the amendment that would allow the organic producers to opt out of other commodity campaigns, an option that isn't given to conventional producers.

"Looks to me like they have a free ride on this thing," Conaway said, in an at times angry exchange with Schrader.

Despite the rancor, the chances that the amendment will become law are good, as the Senate Agriculture Committee added the same amendment to its version of the farm bill.

Schrader told his colleagues that embracing organics is essential to appealing to consumers in a time when big farms are often demonized by popular culture. He said that many young people are coming back to farms because of nontraditional agriculture.

"American agriculture is under siege," he said. "Urban folks do not understand where their food and fiber comes from. The point here is to hopefully position American agriculture where we're not always trying to catch up to what the American consumer wants."



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]]>agriculturecongressconsumersfdaheinzorganic foodsorganic trade associationUSDAThe Associated PressSat, 18 May 2013 05:00:00 ESTObama: Congress Needs to Focus on Job Creationhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-congress-focus-job-creation/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-congress-focus-job-creation/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-congress-focus-job-creation/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Jacquelyn Martin/APPresident Obama talks to a class of pre-K students Friday at an elementary school in Baltimore, where he also toured a factory that makes equipment for underwater excavation.
By NEDRA PICKLER

BALTIMORE -- Trying to reset the agenda amid scandal in Washington, President Barack Obama turned his attention Friday to the economy and said lawmakers should spend every day resolute on how to help it grow and get people back to work. "Our focus cannot drift," he said.

After a week that put him on the defensive and consumed by a trio of political controversies, Obama left the turmoil behind on a short helicopter flight about 40 miles north to Baltimore. The city has had its share of tough times in its move from an industrial to service economy, but Obama wanted to highlight its progress. Maryland overall has experienced job growth this year as part of a nationwide economic recovery.
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Obama cited growth in the economy, a drop in unemployment nationwide and improvements in the housing and auto industries. But he said Washington still needs to do more to build a "rising, thriving middle class" that will boost economic growth even more.

"We're now poised for progress, but our work is not done and our focus cannot drift," he said in remarks to employees of a factory that makes digging and pumping equipment for the mining industry. "We've got to stay focused on our economy and putting people back to work and raising wages and bringing manufacturing back to the United States of America."

"That has to be what we're thinking about every single day," Obama said.

Obama's comments seemed almost like a plea to his political opponents, and even some supporters, to stay focused on the economy and jobs and to shift from all the questions that have been dogging the president, including about the administration's handling of the deadly September 2012 terrorist attack at a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. The past week also brought revelations that the Internal Revenue Service had been targeting conservative political groups and that the Justice Department had seized telephone records for Associated Press journalists as part of a leak investigation.

"Others may get distracted by chasing every fleeting issue that passes by," Obama said. "But the middle class will always be my No. 1 focus. Period. Your jobs, your families and your communities."

The White House said Obama's visit would focus on three areas of needed investment to grow the middle class: jobs, skills and opportunity.

He highlighted the manufacturing base that still thrives here by speaking at Ellicott Dredges, maker of equipment for underwater excavation. He visited with students in an early childhood education program along with a community center that provides job training. Obama has proposed making public preschool available for all 4-year-olds from low-income families.

At the elementary school, Obama watched a group of youngsters learn to write about their favorite zoo animals and quizzed them on simple arithmetic. When one girl had a hard time coming up with the answer to one equation, Obama said in a sympathetic tone that "subtraction is tougher than addition."

Obama's turn to the economy came in a state that added 31,200 jobs during a year, making for a 6.5 percent unemployment rate in April, according to the most recent data by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. April saw a downturn, with Maryland losing 6,200 jobs after four consecutive months of job growth. The state unemployment rate for April was still a percentage point below the national rate of 7.5 percent for the month.

"Last year, we had the best-rated job creation of any state in our region and we have very nearly recovered 100 percent of the jobs that we lost during the recession," Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said at a bill-signing ceremony on Thursday.

Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland's only Republican congressman, criticized Obama's trip as a photo opportunity and said the president should have stayed in Washington to work on economic problems. Harris said Obama has been dragging his feet on developing the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from western Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast and create jobs. The administration has not yet taken a position on the project, which is opposed by environmentalists but supported by the president of Ellicott Dredges, Peter Bowe, in testimony before Congress Thursday.

"That would boost jobs at Ellicott Dredges, but other than that, it's just going to be another photo op on a campaign-style tour when the president should be in Washington tending to the nation's business and to address the huge scandals that are popping up on a daily basis in Washington," Harris said in a conference call with other Maryland Republicans.

At the plant, Obama touted another effort to create jobs faster. He signed a memorandum Friday directing federal agencies to update infrastructure permit processes, aiming to cut their timelines in half. The White House said it's an important step in the president's goal of creating jobs by making urgent repairs to roads, bridges and railways.

The White House cited as an example the recently approved replacement of the aging Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River in the suburbs just north of New York City, which saved two to three years on the timeline.

---

Associated Press writer Brian Witte contributed to this report.

Gallery: 9 Numbers That'll Tell You How the Economy's Really Doing

1. Gross Domestic Product2. Consumer Price Index3. Unemployment Rate4. Trade Deficit5 & 6. Personal Income and Personal Spending

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]]>BaltimoreBarack Obamaeconomic recoveryeconomyEllicott Dredgesemploymentfactoryinfrastructureirsjob creationjob growthjobsmanufacturingThe Associated PressFri, 17 May 2013 14:31:00 ESTGM Shares Top Level Not Seen Since 2011http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/gm-shares-reach-two-year-high/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/gm-shares-reach-two-year-high/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/gm-shares-reach-two-year-high/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

dan akerson gm ceo new york stock exchange
Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesGeneral Motors CEO Dan Akerson rings the opening bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 18, 2010, following the automaker's return to the U.S. stock market.
By TOM KRISHER

DETROIT -- Shares of General Motors reached an important milestone on Friday, topping their initial public offering price of $33 for the first time in more than two years.

The automaker's stock, which has been on a tear since January, reached $33.58 Friday morning before slipping back to $33.52, up 3.5 percent, around midday. The auto giant sold shares to the public for $33 in a November 2010 IPO, but they hadn't traded above that price since May 4, 2011.

The rally is good news for the U.S. Treasury, which has been selling off its GM holdings. Taxpayers still own 241.7 million shares, as a result of the government's $49.5 billion bailout of the company in 2008 and 2009.

General Motors Co. (GM) two weeks ago reported strong first-quarter earnings on sales in North America and China. The shares have gained almost 14 percent this year.

Friday's increase was likely due to general market gains and better prospects in Europe, where GM has lost money for more than a dozen years. The European automakers association said Friday that registrations rose last month for the first time in 18 months. European Union sales were up 1.7 percent, but GM sales fell 4.5 percent.

Gallery: Companies Paying The Most and Least Taxes

Companies Paying the Most in TaxesCompanies Paying the Most in TaxesCompanies Paying the Most in TaxesCompanies Paying the Most in TaxesCompanies Paying the Most in Taxes

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]]>automotive industrycarsdan akersonfirst cargeneral motorsgmGM IPOmanufacturingstocksThe Associated PressFri, 17 May 2013 13:11:00 ESTObama Shifts Focus to Jobshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-shifts-focus-jobs/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-shifts-focus-jobs/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-shifts-focus-jobs/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

President Barack Obama
Carolyn Kaster/AP
By NEDRA PICKLER

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is leaving behind scandal-focused Washington to focus on the country's slowly improving jobs picture.

Obama is to fly by helicopter Friday about 40 miles north to Baltimore, which has had its share of tough times in the move from an industrial to service economy. But Maryland has experienced steady job growth so far this year as part of a nationwide economic recovery.

The White House said the trip is designed to focus on three areas of needed investment to grow the middle class -- jobs, skills and opportunity.

The president plans to highlight one of the manufacturing companies still thriving in the city by speaking at Ellicott Dredges. It makes equipment for excavation under water and on beachfronts around the world.
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Obama also plans to visit a community center that provides job training to parents and an elementary school that provides early childhood education. Obama has proposed that public preschool be available for all 4-year-olds from low-income families.

At Ellicott Dredges, Obama was to announce that he signed a memorandum to cut timelines in half for the permit process for major federal infrastructure projects. The White House said it's an important step in his goal of creating jobs by making urgent repairs to roads, bridges and railways.

The focus on Obama's economic agenda comes at the end of a week that has been consumed by a trio of controversies. They include the targeting of conservative political groups by the Internal Revenue Service, the administration's response to last year's deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya and the seizure of Associated Press phone records by the Justice Department as part of a leak investigation.

Obama's turn to the economy comes in a state that added 4,700 jobs in March, according to preliminary data released last month by the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. That marked Maryland's fourth consecutive month of job growth. The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation says the state has recovered nearly 97 percent of the jobs lost in the recession. Maryland's unemployment rate held at 6.6 percent in March.

"Last year, we had the best-rated job creation of any state in our region and we have very nearly recovered 100 percent of the jobs that we lost during the recession," Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said at a bill-signing ceremony on Thursday.

---

Associated Press writer Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.

Gallery: 9 Numbers That'll Tell You How the Economy's Really Doing

1. Gross Domestic Product2. Consumer Price Index3. Unemployment Rate4. Trade Deficit5 & 6. Personal Income and Personal Spending

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]]>BaltimoreBarack ObamaEconomic Indicatorseconomic recoveryeconomyemploymentirsjob creationjobswhite houseThe Associated PressFri, 17 May 2013 08:02:00 ESTObama Picks OMB Chief to Run Embattled IRShttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-picks-daniel-werfel-irs-chief/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-picks-daniel-werfel-irs-chief/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/17/obama-picks-daniel-werfel-irs-chief/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

president barack obama
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama picked a senior White House budget official to become the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday, the same day another top official announced plans to leave the agency amid the controversy over agents targeting tea party groups.

Obama named longtime civil servant Daniel Werfel as the acting IRS commissioner. Werfel, 42, currently serves as controller of the Office of Management and Budget, making him a key player in implementing recent automatic spending cuts known as the sequester.

"Throughout his career working in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Danny has proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism, integrity and skill," Obama said in a statement. "The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time."
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Werfel replaces Steven Miller as acting IRS commissioner. Miller was forced to resign Wednesday amid the growing scandal, though he is still scheduled to testify Friday at a congressional hearing.

Also Thursday, Joseph Grant, one of Miller's top deputies, announced plans to retire June 3, according to an internal IRS memo. Grant is commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division, which includes the agents that targeted tea party groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Grant joined the IRS in 2005 and took over as acting commissioner of the tax exempt and government entities division in December 2010. He was just named the permanent commissioner May 8.

When asked whether Grant was pressured to leave, IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said Grant had more than 31 years of federal service and it was his personal decision to leave.

Before he joined the IRS, Grant was a top official at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Grant's predecessor at the IRS was Sarah Hall Ingram, who is now director of the agency's Affordable Care Act Office. Ingram was in charge of the tax exempt division when IRS agents first started targeting conservative groups.

Health-Care Overhaul Battle

The IRS said Ingram was assigned to help the agency implement the health care law in December 2010, about six months before an inspector general's report said her subordinate, the director of exempt organizations, learned about the targeting.

Still, the fact that she was in charge of the division when the targeting first started is sure to give Republicans fodder in their fight against Obama's health-care law. The Republican-led House voted 229-195 Thursday to repeal the health-care law.

Werfel agreed to head the IRS through the end of September, the White House said. Presumably, Obama will nominate a new commissioner by then.

IRS commissioners serve five-year terms and must be confirmed by the Senate. Werfel won't need Senate approval because he is a temporary appointment. The Senate, however, confirmed Werfel for his current position without opposition in 2009.

Werfel has had several jobs at the Office of Management and Budget and worked there during President George W. Bush's administration. He has also been a trial attorney in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

"He is an immensely talented and dedicated public servant who has ably served presidents of both parties," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a statement. "Danny has a strong record of raising his hand for -- and excelling at -- tough management assignments."

Former Bush chief of staff Joshua Bolten said Werfel was highly regarded by the Bush White House and that departing Bush budget officials recommended Werfel for controller to the incoming Obama camp after the 2008 election.

"He was consummately professional, well organized and effective," said Bolten, who also served as Bush's budget director from 2003 to 2006.

No Special Prosecutor

Werfel takes over an agency in crisis and under investigation. The IRS apologized last week for improperly targeting conservative political groups for additional, sometimes burdensome scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. The practice went on more than 18 months, diminishing the ability of these groups to raise money during election cycles in 2010 and 2012, said an inspector general's report released this week.

The report didn't indicate that Washington initiated the targeting of conservative groups. But it did blame ineffective management in Washington for allowing it to happen.

On Thursday, Obama dismissed the idea of a special prosecutor, saying probes by Congress and the Justice Department should be able to figure out who was responsible.

"Between those investigations I think we're going to be able to figure out exactly what happened, who was involved, what went wrong, and we're going to be able to implement steps to fix it," Obama said at a Rose Garden press conference.

Obama promised to work with Congress in its investigations, and he reiterated that he did not know that conservative groups were targeted until it became public last Friday.

"I promise you this, that the minute I found out about it, then my main focus was making sure that we get the thing fixed," Obama said.

Don't look for the controversy to subside.

Steven Miller to Testify

Three congressional committees are investigating, and the FBI has launched a criminal probe.

On Friday, Miller is scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee. Also testifying is J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

Ways and Means Committee members are expected to grill Miller over why he failed to tell lawmakers that conservative groups were targeted, even after the agency said he was briefed in May 2012.

"The IRS has demonstrated a culture of cover up and has failed time and time again to be completely open and honest with the American people," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. "The committee and the American people deserve honest answers from Mr. Miller at our hearing this Friday."

Miller, a 25-year career civil servant at the IRS, took over the agency in November, when the five-year term of Commissioner Douglas Shulman ended. Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush.

At the time when tea party groups were targeted, Miller was a deputy commissioner and Grant's supervisor.

The Senate Finance Committee said it will hold a hearing on the matter Tuesday. The House Oversight Committee is to hold a hearing Wednesday.

On Thursday, Senate Republicans called for yet another investigation into whether agents in the same Cincinnati office that targeted conservative groups released confidential taxpayer information from some of those groups.

The Journalism website ProPublica reported this week that the IRS had released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year.

The IRS said in a statement that the inspector general already had investigated the matter, and "found these instances to be inadvertent and unintentional disclosures by the employees involved."

---

Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.



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]]>Barack Obamadaniel werfelHealth care overhaulirspatriotsSteven Millertea partyThe Associated PressFri, 17 May 2013 06:46:00 ESTJ.C. Penney Posts Larger First-Quarter Loss Than Expectedhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/16/jcpenney-posts-first-quarter-loss/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/16/jcpenney-posts-first-quarter-loss/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/16/jcpenney-posts-first-quarter-loss/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Customer leaves J.C. Penney store in New York.
Mark Lennihan/AP

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK -- The legacy of J.C. Penney's former CEO continues to cast a dark cloud over the department-store chain.

J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) on Thursday reported that it widened its loss in the first quarter on a 16 percent plunge in revenue. It marks the fifth straight quarter that the struggling company has posted massive declines.

The results show that Penney is still reeling from the turnaround plan orchestrated by its former CEO Ron Johnson, who was ousted last month after less than a year and a half on the job.

The plan included getting rid of most sales and coupons in favor of everyday low prices, bringing in hip brands like Joe Fresh and remaking outdated stores. But the changes that were meant to attract younger, wealthier shoppers, wound up turning off loyal Penney customers who like sales and basic merchandise like loose-fitting khakis.
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Penney last month rehired Johnson's predecessor, Mike Ullman, who is adding back sales and bringing back some basics. The company also confirmed that Goldman Sachs will provide $1.75 million in financing, a move that eases worries that Penney could run out of cash this year.

But the Plano, Texas-based chain still faces big hurdles. Penney lost $348 million, or $1.58 a share, during the three months that ended on May 4. That compares with a loss of $163 million, or 75 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue dropped 16.4 percent to $2.63 billion.

Wall Street had expected a loss of $1.06 a share on revenue of $2.65 billion, according to research firm FactSet. Revenue at stores opened at least a year -- one measure of a retailer's health -- fell 16.6 percent. That was worse than the 15 percent drop analysts predicted.

Penney blamed the revenue declines, which actually look better because they are being compared with big drops in the year-ago period, on old pricing and marketing strategies under Johnson. But the 1,100-store chain also said that construction to revamp its home departments in some stores also hurt sales.

The big question for Penney is whether it can get back the shoppers into stores. Analysts say one thing is clear: Penney can't go back to its old ways. They say the company needs to strike a balance between catering to its loyal shoppers while bringing in younger customers.

During the seven years he was at Penney's helm, Ullman tried to court younger shoppers by opening mini boutiques in stores that feature beauty company Sephora and exclusive names like European clothing brand MNG by Mango.

But overall, Ullman did little to change the stores, which have been criticized for being too dark and outdated. During Ullman's tenure, sales declined from $18.18 billion in 2004 to $17.6 billion in 2010, his last full year at the company. Sales per square foot dropped to $155 from $177, according to Deborah Weinswig, an analyst at Citi Research

Johnson, the mastermind behind Apple Inc. (AAPL) stores, planned to shake up the company's stodgy image when he took over the top job at Penney's in November 2011. But he was counting on everyday low prices and youthful fashions from names like Betsey Johnson and Joe Fresh to get shoppers to visit more often. He also borrowed from Ullman's strategy of opening mini-boutiques: He developed a plan to replace racks of clothing with shops-within-stores.

When Johnson announced his vision in January 2012, investor enthusiasm was high. But the honeymoon didn't last long as sales fell. Penney's shares have lost more than half their value since early last year and are now trading at about $18, down from $43 in February 2012.

Failure to Launch

Analysts say the problem wasn't Johnson's vision, but his execution. They say the big mistake was that Johnson didn't test the changes with shoppers before rolling them out, as is common in retailing.

Penney mostly has been quiet about its plans going forward. But one question that remains is how much Ullman will slow the pace of the openings of the shops-within-stores, which the company started rolling out last fall. Penney needs to conserve cash but it also needs to bring in shoppers.

Walter Loeb, a New York retail consultant, said he believes that the opening of Penney's revamped home departments, which were under construction when Johnson left on April 8, will help attract customers. The areas will feature 20 new shops devoted to names like Michael Graves and Jonathan Adler. When the renovations are done, about 30 percent of the store will be transformed.

"That is going to make the store more productive," Loeb said.

Penney is hoping the revamp will help lure back some of the customers it lost, including Patricia Kellogg, 50. Kellogg, who lives in Nelson, Ohio, is a former Penney customer who has turned more to Macy's since early last year when Penney cut back on discounts and got rid of some of her favorite brands.

"Penney was my main store, where I shopped for good quality things at a reasonable price," said Kellogg, who works at a bar. "Now, you can't find good quality stuff for the money."

Kellogg stopped by a Penney store this week and bought winter scarves that were discounted to $1. "If they bring back better sales and better quality, I will be back," she said.

More: J.C. Penney's New Logo: Will Its Fourth in Four Years Be the Charm?

Gallery: J.C. Penney Says 'We're Listening.' Here's Who They Should Listen To

Take it Easy With the Coupon ComebackCoupons are Tough for Employees, TooYour Customers Aren't All SkinnyBring Back the CatalogsMobile Checkout Is Confusing

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]]>consumer spendingearningseconomyJcPenneyJCPenney earningsMike Ullmanretailron johnsonshoppingThe Associated PressThu, 16 May 2013 17:05:00 EST