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Another member, Shiite cleric Ahmed al-Safi (search), said disagreement on the role of Islam continues. |
"There are three different opinion about Islam's role," he said. "One says that Islam should be the main source of legislation, another says Islam should be a main source of legislation, while the third says Islam should be one of the sources of legislation." |
Illinois hikes its income taxes 67 percent to help close its budget deficit. We look at states swimming in red ink, and the way out. |
American states – state governments – are in trouble. They are facing deficits and budget gaps like never before — huge, wide gaps that the federal government won’t cover. The gaps are so big they swallow up cutbacks faster than many statehouses can cut. |
Now one of the most hard-pressed states, Illinois, has pulled the emergency cord - raising state income taxes overnight, in a desperate, midnight move, by 67 percent in one go. |
We look at state budgets in turmoil, and extreme measures on the way. |
Ray Long, statehouse reporter for the Chicago Tribune. |
J. Fred Giertz, professor of economics and faculty member of the Institute for Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. He's executive director of the National Tax Association. |
Susan K. Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, a division of the Pew Charitable Trusts that identifies and advances effective solutions to critical issues facing states. |
This program aired on January 18, 2011. |
94 Acres of productive forest land including a large sugarbush and significant standing timber. Driveway built in 2015 approx. 1000 feet in to property. Long range views to the east and south possible from the mountain top building site. Tremendous South, East and Westerly exposure from the high plateau. Conservation e... |
Oracle has been the loudest of the legacy enterprise tech vendors when it comes to attacking the leader of the new guard over the past few years, and Amazon Web Services has definitely taken notice. |
The Information reported Tuesday that AWS and Salesforce are working on ways to use open-source database technology to replace Oracle database software that has been running on both companies’ servers for a long time, ever since using Oracle was one of a limited series of options for building a web-scale cloud computin... |
A few details in the story, however, reveal how Oracle’s brash style and history of notorious sales tactics lit a competitive fire under the database teams at AWS and Salesforce. RedShift was apparently named very deliberately as a nod to Oracle’ trademark red branding, and Salesforce is calling its effort to move onto... |
AWS and Oracle spent a decent portion of 2017 exchanging pot shots at each other over database performance, cost, reliability, and really anything else they could think of to get under each other’s skin. Part of that is because databases are one of the last major battlegrounds in the conflict between using on-premises ... |
According to the report, AWS has been thinking about moving away from Oracle since at last December 2004, when a database-related outage took down Amazon.com for an extended period of time. That’s actually a good reminder of how difficult it can be to migrate legacy applications to cloud services; if it’s taken one of ... |
Editor’s Note: Salesforce is a GeekWire sponsor. |
The creative software giant marked its tenth straight quarter of record revenue growth. |
Adobe reported third quarter earnings and revenue Wednesday, and in the process marked its tenth straight quarter of record revenue growth. |
The creative software giant reported Q3 net income of $272 million, or 54 cents a share. |
Non-GAAP earnings in the quarter were 75 cents a share on revenue of $1.46 billion, up 20 percent year-over-year. |
Wall Street was looking for earnings of 72 cents a share on revenue of $1.45 billion. |
Adobe's digital media business, which includes the Marketing and Document clouds, ended the quarter with a combined $3.70 billion in annualized recurring revenue, up from $3.41 billion in the previous quarter. |
Broken down, Creative Cloud revenue was $803 million, up 39 percent year-over-year, and Document Cloud revenue was $187 million. |
Meanwhile, Adobe Marketing Cloud brought in $404 million for the quarter, up 10 percent year-over-year. Adobe added that 83 percent of Q3 revenue from recurring sources, an all-time high for the company. |
For the current quarter, Adobe now projects revenue in the range of $1.55 billion to $1.6 billion with earnings between 83 cents and 89 cents a share. |
Analysts are looking for earnings of at least 78 cents a share on revenue of $1.57 billion. |
Adobe's stock was up more than four percent in after market trading. |
Naidu was told that none of the returning officers were removed and only one district election officer was shunted out, sources said. |
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu. |
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora here and submitted a memorandum alleging that a large number of EVMs malfunctioned during polling in the state on Thursday and inadequate security led to incidents of violence. |
Accusing the Election Commission of bias, he claimed that police and administration officers were removed arbitrarily, creating policy paralyses in the administration. He also demanded that the EC return to the ballot paper system to "preserve the sanctity of the electoral process" as there was a "possibility of tamper... |
"The manner in which the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body,... miserably failed to live up to the spirit of the constitutional duty, is not only disturbing but also dangerous to the future of democracy in the country," the TDP chief said. |
Naidu alleged that the Election Commission transferred the state chief electoral officer, Srikakulam district magistrate, Superintendents of Police of Kadapa and Srikakulam and DG (Intelligence) without valid reasons, affecting the morale of the officers in the state. |
The Commission is learnt to have given Naidu a point-by-point response to all his complaints. Naidu was told that none of the returning officers were removed and only one district election officer was shunted out, sources said. |
Naidu claimed that the transfer of the DG (Intelligence), who looks after the security of the chief minister, compromised his safety. |
The chief minister alleged that the EC acted "according to the whims and fancies of the YSR Congress Party's candidates" while complaints by his TDP were ignored. He claimed the SP of Prakasam district was transferred soon after the opposition's nominee made a threatening statement against the police officer. |
"The chief secretary was not only unceremoniously removed, but his replacement was done without even consulting the state government, which goes against established conventions and procedures of democratic governance," the memorandum quoted Naidu as saying. |
"Transferring the chief secretary just a few days before the election is atrocious and the failure of the election machinery (in the state) can be attributed to this hasty step," the Andhra Pradesh chief minister said. |
But the EC is understood have told Naidu that the chief secretary was shunted out for failing to comply with poll panel's orders. |
Naidu also alleged that after his party quit the NDA, the BJP in connivance with the YSR Congress Party unleashed central agencies like the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate against TDP leaders ahead of the elections. |
"Is it not the responsibility of the EC to curb such politically motivated raids on the TDP to throttle its election campaign?" he asked. |
During the election in the state on April 11, voting was delayed by two to six hours at many polling stations as a large number of EVMs malfunctioned, forcing many voters to return home, the TDP chief claimed. |
The chief electoral officer of the state himself had trouble casting his vote because the EVMs were not working, he alleged. |
On the electronic voting machines malfunctioning, Naidu was told by the EC that ground data showed that 1.75 per cent of EVMs were replaced. |
He was also told that the voter turnout in both Lok Sabha and assembly elections was impressive, the sources said. |
The TDP requested the poll body to countermand polls at 618 polling stations where voting could not start even many hours after the scheduled commencement time. |
"Inadequate security arrangement at polling booths emboldened criminal elements that resulted in many law and order incidents, costing one man his life. Many polling stations were manned by just a home guard or a volunteer," he claimed. |
Naidu proposed that if there is a mismatch in the EVM-paper trail machine counting, then all results must be matched in the entire assembly seat. |
As per a recent Supreme Court order, a random match of EVM and paper trail machines will be held in give polling stations per assembly segment. Earlier, it was one per assembly seat. |
Simultaneous elections were held on April 11 to 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state and to elect a new 175-member assembly. |
What if I press a wrong button on EVM? |
Election Guide 2019: How to use an EVM? |
Ipswich Witches needed a last heat decider to defeat Newcastle Diamonds 47-43 in the Premier League. |
The scores were level going into the 15th and final heat, but a Leigh Lanham and Morten Risager one-two earned the Suffolk side two points. |
"Tonight it looked a bit dodgy at one point," Witches team manager Pete Simmons told BBC Radio Suffolk. |
"We've got to accept the win at the end of the day but we were so up and down again as we have been all season." |
He continued: "We were desperately looking for three points but at one stage it looked like we might not get any. |
"So to pull it back in the end was a good result for us." |
Ipswich: Lanham 12, Risager 11+1, Tresarrieu 9+1, North 8+1, Tungate 6, Bekker 1, Poole 0. |
Newcastle: Henry 12, Lemon 10+2, Nedermark 10+2, Robson 6+1, Toft 5+1, Starke 0. |
This week, Wallace sat down with Pacquiao to discuss everything from the possibility of fighting Floyd Mayweather to the importance of faith in his life. |
Okay… Clearly, his English is not the best, but given that its not his first language, the Fillipino Congressman and boxer gets a pass. Pacquiao, who attended the National Prayer Breakfast on Wednesday, also discussed his humble beginnings and the role of faith for him. |
Last week, Washington Redskins Hall of Famer and Super Bowl MVP, Johns Riggins, sat down with Wallace to talk about his Super Bowl memories before the big game. |
Rick Thompson has put a lot of money into games and other startups over the years, and he has lots of money to show for it. Now, as gaming’s über-investor, he’s pouring even more into mobile game investments. We caught up with him earlier this month for an interview about what he sees in mobile. |
Thompson has had great successes as a tech investor, most recently selling Playdom to Disney for up to $763.2 million in 2010. His exits for all of his companies have totaled more than $5 billion in sales. He loves to play poker and chess; he has been an investor and entrepreneur since 1995; and he is focused on what h... |
He left Playdom in August 2011, and since then, Thompson has funded the next generation of game companies, including mobile gaming firm Funzio, which Gree bought last year for $210 million. He has also invested in Wild Needle (acquired by Zynga for $3.8 million), Idle Games, Red Robot Labs, Grand Cru, Rumble Entertainm... |
Thompson has had the luck of being at the right place at the right time. At Playdom, his team built Mobsters with six people in a week. Within 30 days, the game was generating $4 million a month. Here’s an edited transcript of our discussion with Thompson. |
GamesBeat: So, mobile is where all the action is gravitating to, then? |
Rick Thompson: Yeah. I think there’s continued momentum in that direction. The shift has been happening for the last couple of years. Some companies have also put their apps on Facebook and think of that as a multiplatform strategy, but pretty much everyone is thinking mobile first. What’s interesting here is with that... |
We’re continuing to look at more possibilities. The opportunities that we see — the pain points become obvious as the market becomes larger. The companies that can help solve app developers’ problems are opportunities that we’re investing in. One of the things that’s interesting from a gaming platform perspective is wh... |
What we think is interesting is the rise of a large number of dedicated communication applications — chatting and messaging. There’s a plethora that have come out in the last six months, like WeChat and MessageMe. We think there are more opportunities there. Ultimately, we expect to see a social graph coalesce around t... |
GamesBeat: That one seems to be regionally focused now in Asia, with things like the message platform Kakao in Korea. How do you take advantage of that opportunity? Does a studio simply target those countries with its games? |
Thompson: It’s not happening yet, but those apps have the potential to become a platform and a means of doing for apps what Facebook did on the web. Does that mean there’s going to be multiple tiers to the game platform space on mobile? I suspect so. |
It’s not just regional separation, too. Even within a given market, there are different apps with different purposes. People use each of these apps that are much lighter weight for a dedicated purpose. We see people using multiple communications and messaging apps. |
GamesBeat: Are these becoming the fastest-growing platforms in gaming now, the mobile messaging apps? |
Thompson: They’re not quite platforms yet. That’s what we expect to see over the next year, that they will become platforms. |
GamesBeat: As far as the investments that can happen in game studios themselves, where do you see that right now? Is it still attractive to invest in something like a 10-person game studio? |
Thompson: It depends on how you look at it. It’s much harder now to raise funds. Investors also have to be aware that follow-up financing is more difficult than it was. The quality of the teams and the quality of the deals has gone up. The valuations are much more attractive than they were. The downside is that follow-... |
GamesBeat: I had a conversation with David Helgason from Unity. He was saying that it was interesting to him that small teams continue to do extremely well, even at a time when people were predicting that bigger companies and brands would start to dominate mobile. He says he doesn’t see that happening now, and he doesn... |
Thompson: Big brands and well-known IP certainly have an advantage in discovery. There’s no doubt about that. The pressure to create that new IP, though, is something that larger companies have to be feeling from smaller companies. A lot of the creativity and innovation comes from smaller companies. That’s one of the t... |
GamesBeat: How do you look at the activities of the big companies out there now? What do their actions tell you about where things are going, like with EA as an example? |
Thompson: We do see an increased commitment to mobile. That includes tablets as well as phones. We’re seeing a lot of support. |
GamesBeat: Warner Bros. decided to open their own digital games studio here in San Francisco. It’s one more interesting sign. It seems to run against the trend of the larger companies shutting down a lot of studios now. |
Thompson: Yeah. Warner Bros. has amazing IP. If they can create quality games around that IP, they should do very well. That’s the thinking around bringing Batman to the App Store. It would get millions of downloads simply because it’s Batman. If it’s a good game it should do extremely well. I’m very much looking forwa... |
GamesBeat: As far as how well they’re going to offset the cycle of the consoles and the revenue decline there with the rise of digital games, do you think that digital games are rising fast enough to help them out there? |
Thompson: The challenge in a changing market is to get on the new horse and get up to speed as the other one starts to wear down. That certainly creates pressure on companies. The good news is that people are spending a lot more time gaming than they were previously. As the industry moves forward, some of the monetizat... |
GamesBeat: I don’t know if you’ve gotten lonelier as an investor as a VC in games, now that some of the other guys have gotten out. Why do you think it’s wiser to stay in and stay very close to game investing? |
Thompson: I think it’s a much better investment market right now than it was a year ago, when there were, frankly, a lot of tourists in the space. It’s very difficult to successfully do a one-game investment or a two-game investment. To understand the space it requires four or five or six investments. Competency and ex... |
GamesBeat: What do you think might lift it up and make it a hot space again? |
Thompson: There are some very profitable growing companies that are able to show predictable growth. They’ll get people’s attention. We see some of those companies coming into the market just now. Also, to the point earlier about additional platforms arising on mobile, that has the potential to set things back on fire.... |
GamesBeat: Are you staying focused on certain regions right now? |
Thompson: We’re primarily invested in the U.S., but we have some investments in China, Finland, and Germany. It’s a global business. The opportunity to reach larger markets has never been easier. We’re working where we find talent. |
GamesBeat: If there are going to be big exits like the ones we’ve seen in the last five years or so, where do you think they’re going to be? |
Thompson: We’re going to see a new social graph on mobile, and a publisher that’s able to create a platform that can go across iOS and Android and possibly Windows 8 to publish games across each of those platforms and integrate the social graph, much like Facebook did on the web. |
GamesBeat: Are you very interested in investments related to the new generation of console games — the PlayStation 4 and Wii U and whatever they call the next Xbox? |
Thompson: No, that’s outside of our interest right now. |
GamesBeat: Is that simply the domain of giant companies, then, or is that something you think is going to be a smaller part of the business going forward? |
Thompson: We’re investing in small teams that can be very capital-efficient and hit home runs with fairly modest investments. That’s why we’re focused on mobile. That’s also leading us to other investments in mobility, including other apps, enterprise, and business models that are enabled through mobility. |
Amsterdam district court judges today approved the extradition of an Irishman linked to the killing of a prominent Irish crime reporter. |
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