Nasdaq paying $10M to settle Facebook disruption

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Nasdaq has agreed to pay a $10 million penalty to settle federal civil charges after regulators said its systems and decisions disrupted Facebook's public stock offering last year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that the penalty is the largest ever imposed against an exchange. Nasdaq also has had to pay $62 million in reimbursements to investment firms that lost money because of the problems.

Facebook launched its initial public offering on May 18, 2012 amid great fanfare. But computer glitches at Nasdaq delayed the start of trading and threw the launch into chaos. The technical problems kept many investors from buying shares that morning, selling them later in the day or even knowing whether their orders went through. Some said they were left holding shares they didn't want.

The SEC says a design flaw in Nasdaq's systems was to blame and Nasdaq officials then made a series of "ill-fated decisions."

Nasdaq neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

Robert Greifeld, the CEO of the exchange's parent Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., called the settlement an "important step forward."

In a letter to customers made public Wednesday, Greifeld said Nasdaq has carefully reviewed the Facebook disruption over the past year and put new technical safeguards in place. The exchange has taken steps such as creating new executive positions within its technology division, and setting up teams to monitor and test trading systems, Greifeld said.

In addition to its namesake stock exchange, Nasdaq OMX also operates other exchanges and clearinghouses in the U.S. and abroad.

The Facebook IPO was widely anticipated and one of the largest in history. The social network was valued at more than $100 billion when it went public for $38 a share.

Nasdaq violated market rules by being poorly prepared for the launch, the SEC said. Exchanges have an obligation to ensure that their systems and contingency plans are strong enough to manage an IPO without disrupting the market.

The SEC said Nasdaq officials believed they had fixed the design flaw by removing a few lines of computer code and opted not to delay the start of trading in Facebook. But they failed to understand the root cause of the problem, the SEC said.

The $10 million penalty had been expected. Nasdaq said last month that it might have to pay that amount to resolve the matter with regulators.

In its administrative order issued Wednesday, the SEC also censured Nasdaq. Censure brings the possibility of a stiffer sanction if the alleged violation is repeated.

On Wednesday, Facebook shares fell 78 cents, or 3.2 percent, to close at $23.32

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nasdaq-paying-10m-settle-facebook-disruption-173358535.html

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Hader: Stefon probably won't be on 'SNL' again

TV

Matt Murray TODAY

2 hours ago

Eight years, countless strangely named nightclubs and a "human roomba" later, Bill Hader sayshe doesn't think Stefon will be back any time soon.The "Saturday Night Live" actor announced earlier this month that the season 38 finale of 'SNL' would be his laston the show, and he sat down with Willie Geist and Megan Colarossi to talk about Hader's fan-favorite character.

Willie: So how does it feel to be done with 'SNL'?

Bill: I feel good. It was more like my wife and I decided we were moving to California because we were flying out there a lot. So it was like, "Can I still do 'SNL' and live in LA?" and it wasn?t going to work out.

Willie: Was there any trepidation about stepping away from 'SNL'?

Bill: No, because to me it was like "I did SNL." I mean, getting "SNL" was pretty amazing so just to be able to have an eight-year career there and be really happy with everything I did, it was pretty big.

Megan: I heard there's an interesting story about you and Andy Samberg auditioning at the same time?

Bill: We both were auditioning at the same time and he was the guy next to me and he had a backpack full of props, not like Carrot Top-style, but people bring props, a lot of people do that. But I looked over and I was going, "I didn?t bring anything, I'm an idiot. Why didn't I think to bring any props or anything?" And he said he was looking at me and thinking, "Oh, he didn't bring any props, why did I?" We were both just wrecks.

Watch: Bill Hader's best celeb impressions on SNL

Willie: The big question everyone wants to know, will we ever see Stefon again?

Bill: That might have been it.

Willie: No Stefon movie?

Bill: No, probably not. Lorne (Michaels) talked about (a movie), and me and John Mulaney who I write that with, we talked about it and said, no I don?t really think there?s a movie there. I mean, it barely worked as a sketch! We couldn?t do it as a sketch, that?s why we put it on "(Weekend) Update." I was like, "Unless I break during the movie, I don?t think people are gonna watch."

Willie: The hands coming to the face, did that come from you laughing?

Bill: No, that was a part of the character, him being nervous. And then it helped when (John Mulaney) would start changing the cue cards and I'd laugh. The cue-card changing, it was really only two or three times where they?d change it and it?d be something completely different that I didn?t know about. Most of the time when I would start laughing was something that we wrote that week and I still couldn?t keep it together, like the Human Roomba joke. But sometimes as I?m walking out, John Mulaney would say, "Oh I changed the club promoter to Gay Liotta. Have fun!"

Willie: It seems like there was a competition to see who could come up with the most obscure reference.

Bill: We?d try to take the Stefon pitches to the amazing writing table at "SNL" and we?d say, "OK, what club should this take place in?" and people would say really funny stuff, but then John would go, "A haunted diaper" and I?d agree and say, "Yeah, a haunted diaper." And eventually the writers just said, "Yeah, go away, we can't." And we don?t really laugh that much while we?re writing it. It?s just kind of sitting there, long stretches of silence. Most of the time it was just slamming your head against the wall. I think with that writers' room thing, it was hard to give notes on Stefon as far as what to cut and what not to cut because it was like, "I don?t know what any of this means."

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/bill-hader-says-we-probably-wont-see-stefon-again-6C10116962

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New Mexico Man Arrested for Drunk Driving, Sex Behind the Wheel

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We Are Stardust (Balloon Juice)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Morgan Stanley property unit to raise up to $3 billion global fund: WSJ

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's real estate unit, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds, is looking to raise between $1 billion and $3 billion for a global property fund, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Morgan Stanley executives have begun talks with pension funds and other prospective investors, and are hoping that China Investment Corp will become an anchor investor, the Journal reported.

China Investment, a huge government-run fund, owns a 6.4 percent stake in Morgan Stanley, according to Reuters data.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, private funding in real estate has been dominated by private-equity companies such as Blackstone Group LP and Starwood Capital Group, which have raised billions of dollars to take advantage of improving property markets.

A Morgan Stanley executive declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal. The bank could not be reached by Reuters outside of regular business hours.

(Reporting By Maria Ajit Thomas in Bangalore; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/morgan-stanley-property-unit-raise-3-billion-global-023317370.html

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Aqua is a major international Earth Science satellite mission centered at NASA.

Aqua is a major international Earth Science satellite mission centered at NASA. Launched on May 4, 2002, the satellite has six different Earth-observing instruments on board and is named for the large amount of information being obtained about water in the Earth system from its stream of approximately 89 Gigabytes of data a day. The water variables being measured include almost all elements of the water cycle and involve water in its liquid, solid, and vapor forms. Additional variables being measured include radiative energy fluxes, aerosols, vegetation cover on the land, phytoplankton and dissolved organic matter in the oceans, and air, land, and water temperatures. The primary science objective of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua mission is the study of Earth's interrelated physical processes with an emphasis on the water cycle. Primary variables of interest include: ocean evaporation, atmospheric water vapor, clouds, terrestrial snow, land ice, sea ice, sea surface temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture. Additional variables include: radiative energy fluxes, atmospheric temperatures, humidities, aerosols, land vegetation cover, and ocean productivity.

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House Republicans repeal Obamacare again. Why do they keep doing it?

House Republicans repealed Obamacare for the fourth time Thursday, and like their other efforts, it will go nowhere in the Senate. Yet for the party's base, it's hardly a pointless vote.

By David Grant,?Staff writer / May 16, 2013

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky points to a 7-foot stack of 'Obamacare' regulations to underscore his disdain for the law during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., in March.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/File

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House Republicans booked yet another chapter of their drive to repeal President Obama?s signature health-care law on Thursday night, ramming their fourth complete repeal and 37th elimination of some portion of the law through the chamber on a 229-to-195 vote.

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Two Democrats joined Republicans in voting for a measure that represents a cornerstone of the Republican attack on Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats in the election cycle to come.?

While the scandals currently roiling Washington ? from the IRS?s overreach to the Department of Justice?s seizing of Associated Press phone records to a lack of clarity over the Obama administration?s response to the terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya ? don?t seem to have a common theme, Republicans see a unifying thread: government overreach.

Republicans argue, in effect, this is what happens when you put your faith in big government. And at the bedrock of that critique, the purest form of this governmental overreach in the minds of many conservatives, is Obama?s signature health-care law.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida put it just so on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

?This same IRS [who targeted conservative groups for more scrutiny] will now have unfettered power to come after every American and ensure that either you?re buying insurance or you?re paying them a tax. Every American business. The front lines of enforcing Obamacare falls to the IRS. That is what happens when you expand the scope and power of government,? Senator Rubio said.

?It?s always sold as a noble concept. It?s always offered up by government as, ?We?re going to give the government more power so they can do good things for us.? But the history of mankind proves that every time a government gets too much power, it almost always ends up using it in destructive ways against the personal liberties of individuals,? he continued.

The health-care law is such a fundamental piece of the Republican political playbook because it has enormous implications for the lives of ordinary Americans ? and thus weighty political implications.

Republicans have argued for a long, long time that excluding a handful of popular provisions in the health-care law, the implementation of the bulk of the law regarding insurance exchanges in late 2013 and 2014 will be a disaster. That?s because, they argue, the law is too complex and dysfunctional to be well-implemented, Republicans argue, and will drive up insurance costs with little accompanying benefit.

?Ultimately, that?s the meaning of the vote being taken by the House of Representatives on Thursday,? said Joe Trauger, a vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers, in an e-mailed statement. ?It is a vote of no-confidence.?

Americans tend to agree that the law will drive up premiums, according?to a recent survey by TIPP/The Christian Science Monitor. Some 61 percent say that premiums will increase significantly versus 7 percent who think they will stay the same and 25 percent who think premiums will drop significantly.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/_c7ibEe9sK4/House-Republicans-repeal-Obamacare-again.-Why-do-they-keep-doing-it

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The BlackBerry Live gala keynote jamboree is about to start; you can watch the livestream here, and

The BlackBerry Live gala keynote jamboree is about to start; you can watch the livestream here, and we'll be updating with news as it breaks.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/OFlIixdZAoU/the-blackberry-live-gala-keynote-jamboree-is-about-to-s-505502611

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Syria wants peace conference details before deciding to go

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria wants details on a U.S.-Russian proposed peace conference before it decides whether to attend and says the role of President Bashar al-Assad is a decision "only for the Syrian people and the ballot box", a minister said.

Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi was quoted by state news agency SANA on Tuesday as saying Syria welcomed the proposal but "will not be a party at all to any ... meeting which harms, directly or indirectly, national sovereignty".

Assad's departure has been a demand of the opposition since the revolt started two years ago and previous peace efforts have ground to a halt over failure to specify Assad's future role.

Zoabi's comments, which are in line with Syria's longstanding policy, will pour more cold water over a conference proposal that is yet to be agreed on by either warring side. SANA said he was speaking in an interview on Monday with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah's television station al-Manar.

The minister said Syria wanted a political solution but that international efforts should also deal with "terrorists", a term the Syrian government uses to refer to rebel fighters.

More than 80,000 people have been killed during the war, an anti-Assad rights group says, and millions more have been displaced. International powers have taken sides, with the West and Gulf countries supporting the opposition while Iran and Russia back Assad.

(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bombings-turkey-says-world-must-act-against-syria-053811707.html

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