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The indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Texas charges John Cockerham, his wife, Melissa, and his sister Carolyn Blake, with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, commit bribery and obstruct justice while Cockerham was a contracting officer in Kuwait in 2004 and 2005. |
All three were also indicted on money-laundering conspiracy charges. Cockerham was additionally charged with three counts of bribery. |
The Justice Department said that Cockerham, his wife, Blake, and unidentified co-conspirators accepted payments totaling $9.6 million in exchange for contracts for bottled water and other goods and services for U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait. |
Cockerham guaranteed that a contractor would receive a contract in return for a payment, according to the Justice Department. It added that his wife and sister collected millions of dollars on his behalf and deposited the money in bank accounts and safe deposit boxes in Kuwait and Dubai. |
If convicted on all the conspiracy charges, all three could face up to 20 years in prison and fines totaling $750,000 each. |
Cockerham could receive an additional sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty of bribery. |
The Cockerhams' attorney, Jimmy Parks, could not be immediately reached for comment. Parks said last month that Cockerham was a decorated Army veteran and the charges against them "just don't compute." |
Cockerham and his wife have been held since July 22 when they were arrested at their home at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Blake was arrested three days later in Dallas. |
The good news: Many Americans saw their paychecks get fatter in 2012, as average weekly earnings rose 2.4 percent over the course of the year. |
The bad news: The expiration of the payroll tax cut this January will basically wipe away all of last year's gains. |
We look at average weekly earnings of all employees on private non-farm payrolls: $818.69 in December. The 2% payroll tax increase clips $16.37 a week from take-home pay. ... That’s the equivalent of losing all the 2012 gain in weekly earnings in one month. |
And if you include inflation on top of that, then average weekly earnings actually went down 1.4 percent compared to this time last year. |
So how will Americans respond now that their paychecks are shrinking? A new study (pdf) from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests one answer: They'll spend a lot less this year. And that, in turn, could bruise the larger U.S. economy. |
And most workers expect to cut back on spending significantly now that the payroll tax cut is vanishing. The average household making $50,000 a year will see its payroll taxes rise about $1,000 this year. According to the New York Fed's survey data, that typical household says it will cut back on spending by about $710... |
Will that forecast hold up? That's a little hazier. The New York Fed found that Americans are notoriously bad at predicting how they'll respond to tax changes (most workers had expected to save far more of the original payroll tax cut than they actually did). But for now, Americans are saying they'll keep paying down t... |
Related: More details on the expiration of the payroll tax cut, which both parties supported during the fiscal-cliff negotiations. |
Kate Middleton and Prince William announced their engagement in 2010. |
It just got a whole lot easier to dress like Kate Middleton! It reportedly took just five minutes for the $535 Issa royal blue wrap dress Kate wore to announce her engagement to Price William on November 16, 2010, to sell out. Nearly eight years later, the flirty knee-length frock has been reissued. Aptly named the Kat... |
The ultra-flattering design was one of the first styles to ever benefit from the “Kate Effect,” and while the initial boost in sales was a game-changer for the small brand, designer Daniella Helayel subsequently said in interviews that it led to the demise of the already-teetering business. |
Unable to meet the ever-growing demand and struggling with financial troubles, Helayel left the brand as creative director in May 2013, and it shuttered soon after. The label got a second chance, however, when it relaunched in 2015 with House of Fraser in the U.K. offering workwear-friendly dresses, skirts and jumpsuit... |
Mother Denim Just Reissued Meghan Markle’s Invictus Games Sold-Out Style — Get ‘Em While You Can! |
While the original dress, which included a modest v-beck, long sleeves and crisscross waist retailed for nearly $600, the new iteration — named after its most famous wearer — is a bit more budget friendly at around $140. |
In addition to the sapphire blue color Kate wore to complement her ring, the style is now available in raspberry, black and Kelly green. According to reports, more colors — like yellow, orange and lime — will be available via House of Fraser at the end of March. |
While the dress might not come with its own Prince Charming, we’ll still be ordering one in every color! |
A consumer emerging market exchange traded fund can provide investors targeted exposure to a quickly growing segment of developing global economies. |
On the recent webcast, The Emerging Markets Consumer is Online, Kevin Carter, Founder of EMQQ Index, pointed to five factors that support emerging market growth, including diversification benefits, total population, favorable demographics, economic growth and recent underperformance. |
Richard Kang, Advisor for EMQQ Index, took a look at developing economies, with a specific focus on e-commerce and internet companies as a way to target the growing consumer base. |
The emerging markets have exhibited diversification benefits, compared to U.S. and other developed markets, providing correlations that are less than 1.0 to the S&P 500. The developing world make up 85% of global population and 50% of global GDP. There is a much larger younger population in emerging countries than deve... |
Looking ahead, Carter pointed out that emerging market gross domestic product could eventually over take many developed markets. For instance, according to the World Bank, China and India’s economies could become larger than the U.S. by 2050. |
Most investors seem to be underweight the emerging markets, at least based on global market capitalization. In a survey of financial advisors on the webcast, the majority of respondents, or 30.0%, indicated that they have a 5% to 6% allocation toward the emerging markets, followed by 22.6% of respondents showing a 3% t... |
The emerging consumer could sell to 4.2 billion people by 2025, with emerging market consumption accounting for $30 trillion, or almost half of the global total, Carter said. |
In the current age of communications, technology and innovations are also playing a huge role in growth. |
“What matters now is a combination of emerging countries, emerging themes and emerging innovations,” Carter said. |
For instance, Carter pointed to smartphones as a major industry disruptor that has shifted the way emerging consumers spend, notably through internet retailers or e-commerce purchases as internet access grows. He pointed out that smartphone shipments have overtaken both mobile phone and personal computer shipments, whi... |
Meanwhile, internet infrastructure continues to grow, allowing emerging markets greater access to the global network. As of 2014, 31.0% of emerging market households had internet access, which suggest that through greater penetration, emerging consumers may continue to adopt more online purchases. |
ETF investors interested in this growth opportunity can gain exposure to the targeted emerging market segment through the Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (NYSEArca: EMQQ), which focuses on internet names, notably those that cater toward online shopping or e-commerce. |
EMQQ includes exposure to the growth of online consumption in the developing world. Specifically, the ETF includes large internet names like Alibaba Group Holdings 9.3%, Tencent Holdings 8.3%, Naspers TLD 7.2%, Naver Corp 6.3% and Baidu Inc. 6.2%. The fund also has diverse country exposure, including India, China, Braz... |
Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about the emerging markets can watch the webcast here on demand. |
In Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, Apple introduced IPv6 support. Like other IPv6-capable operating systems, Mac OS will prefer IPv6 over IPv4 if it has a choice. That is, until yesterday's 10.6.5 Snow Leopard update. With regular IPv6 connectivity, the newly updated Snow Leopard will still try to connect over IPv6 first, but fo... |
The apparent rationale for this move is that 6to4 is responsible for a disproportionate share of non-working IPv6 setups. Measurements by Google show that simply giving www.google.com an IPv6 address means that, subsequently, about 0.1 percent of all Google's users would be unable to connect to the search giant. That i... |
6to4 is an automatic tunneling mechanism where IPv6 packets are put inside IPv4 packets so users of ISPs that don't support IPv6 yet can still connect to the IPv6 Internet. The automatic part means that 6to4 generates IPv6 addresses and manages to exchange packets with remote gateways that connect to the "native" (untu... |
The disadvantage of all this automatic behavior is that if something doesn't work, it's really hard to get around the breakage. 6to4 gateways can be flakey—they are operated for free for the good of the Internet after all. Some ISPs don't carry the 6to4 route in their network, while many universities filter 6to4 packet... |
To add insult to injury, Windows Vista and 7 systems always enable 6to4 automatically if they have a public IPv4 address. If they're configured with Internet connection sharing, those Windows systems will advertise their 6to4 IPv6 connectivity on the local network. Of course this connectivity rarely works because Windo... |
So good riddance to 6to4? Some people certainly think so. And if this helps everyone get over their reluctance to add IPv6 addresses to their Web properties, that's certainly a good thing. I'm not holding my breath, though. "Once we have X% IPv6 deployment will really take off!" stories litter the 15-year-long road tha... |
And this change has a big downside: it's no longer possible to just turn on 6to4 and start experimenting. Sure, technically you still have IPv6 connectivity if you add the 6to4 virtual interface to your Mac's network configuration or by setting IPv6 mode to "tunnel" on your Airport Extreme base station—as long as you h... |
It would of course be much better if users could choose which type of 6to4 behavior they prefer—even if the vast majority of users stick to the default setting. All other current systems allow this through a policy table that instructs the system how preferred (ranges of) IPv6 and IPv4 addresses are, as per RFC 3484. I... |
Oh, and as I was writing this, IANA gave out another block of 16.78 million addresses. That's the 15th this year, with 11 left. |
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration on March 30 issued a final rule that amends U.S. hazardous materials regulations to harmonize them with international regulations and standards. |
The rule makes changes to proper shipping names, hazard classes, packing groups, special provisions, packaging authorizations, air transport quality limitations and vessel stowage requirements. |
PHMSA also is adopting several amendments that result from coordination with Canada under the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council. |
“These standards have well-established and documented safety histories, and their adoption will maintain the high safety standard currently achieved under the hazmat regulations,” the agency said in a Federal Register post. |
The agency noted that the revisions are necessary to harmonize the hazmat regs with recent changes made to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air, and the United Nations Recommendations on t... |
Council President Brenda Jones criticized the administration Thursday for issuing a press release saying it would close the courses. |
The Detroit City Council next week might reconsider a deadlocked vote on a management contract, potentially staving off an announcement earlier this week from the administration to shutter three municipal golf courses — Chandler Park, Rackham and Rouge Park — later this month. |
Council President Pro Tem Mary Sheffield submitted a memo Thursday, requesting council reconsider its vote. |
Detroit's chief procurement officer, Boysie Jackson, said in an interview with the Free Press on Tuesday that council has a seven-day window to reconsider its vote but once that date passes, the city would have to begin the bid process all over again. |
"The move to reconsider the vote is an effort to procedurally bring the matter back to the table and avoid shuttering the city’s golf courses for the 2018 season," Sheffield said in a statement. "I personally believe that golf is a very important recreational activity, for young and old residents alike, and the city ne... |
Council President Brenda Jones criticized the administration Thursday during a Neighborhood and Community Services Standing Committee meeting for issuing a press release after the vote, saying it would close the courses because the contract wasn't approved. Jones said she felt the administration was trying to place the... |
"I would just like to say to the administration ... I am very disappointed with how that (press release) went out," Jones said. "I've been a member of this body for 13 years and I will continue to do my due diligence. ...To put out something to the general public to literally blame council who has a responsibility to d... |
The courses are set to shut down March 23, Jackson said, because the city's current contract with Oakland Township-based Vargo Golf Detroit expires March 22. Palmer Park, which is another city-owned course, is not impacted by the closure. |
That's because the city decided late last year to transition Palmer from being an 18-hole golf course into a driving range because of rising costs and a need for nearly $3 million in capital improvements, according to Jackson. A Palmer Park advisory council has been created to help decide what the city will do with the... |
Jones and Council members Roy McCalister, Janeé Ayers and Gabe Leland voted against the contract. Members Raquel Castañeda López, Andre Spivey, James Tate and Sheffield voted in favor of the contract. Councilman Scott Benson was absent. |
Within the past several months, many council members have raised concerns about the how the vendor was being selected and the transparency of the process. And last year, the City Council and administration tangled over a separate $98,000 consulting contract for seeking ideas to potentially repurpose Chandler and Rouge ... |
The Free Press reported in 2016 that revenue from the four courses has dropped in recent years. Revenue in 2016 for the golf courses was nearly $42,000, a significant drop from $104,000 in 2015 and $125,000 in 2014. The funds dropped partially because a portion of revenue went toward settling a $442,000 water bill for ... |
Jackson said his office led a six-month procurement process that ultimately selected Signet Golf Associates II, Inc., a North Carolina-based company, to operate and maintain the three courses for a two-year, $180,000 contract. |
In addition to Signet, the city received responses from Billy Casper Golf, Vargo Golf Detroit and Kemper Sports Management. |
The leaders of all opposition parties stand united with farmers in ensuring their good future, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Friday and called for a farm loan waiver. Addressing a gathering of protesting farmers at Jantar Mantar, he said no one will be able to silence the voice of farmers and youth. If the In... |
What are your favourite independent bookshops and why? |
The litany of bookshops that have disappeared from the UK’s high streets over the last two decades is long and sobering: chains such as Ottakars, Books etc, Dillons and Borders, and more than 1,000 independents. But over the past two years, indies have been quietly flourishing, with official figures from the Bookseller... |
Before 2017, the number in the UK and Ireland had declined every year since 1995, when there were 1,894 independent bookshops. A low of just 867 shops was reached in 2016, but 2017 marked a tiny turnaround: then, the total number in the UK and Ireland increased by just one, to reach 868. At the time, the BA predicted t... |
He said the store had received “an incredibly warm welcome” from locals, who had no independent bookshops in the area before: “So many people have come in and told us that it’s exactly what the area needed. They all put their money where their mouths were in the run-up to Christmas and we had a very encouraging month o... |
The new independents are original and innovative: at Vinyl Fiction in Manchester, Sarah Pregnall runs a spoken word event each month where writers can share their work and collaborate; at Storysmith, Ross goes an extra mile to encourage reading in his community. |
With other new stores including Max Minerva’s Marvellous Books in Bristol, The Snug Bookshop in Bridgwater, Somerset and Top Hat and Tales in Faversham, Kent, Meryl Halls, managing director of the BA, said it was “extremely encouraging to see independent bookshops succeeding in 2018, demonstrating the creativity and en... |
But Halls is clear that booksellers were still “facing an increasingly challenging landscape across the UK and Ireland”. Challenges she cites include unequal business rates burdening physical bookshops – last year, the BA complained to the Treasury that Waterstones in Bedford pays 16 times more in business rates per sq... |
Indonesia is among the markets where BNP Paribas is exploring an onshore presence. |
SINGAPORE: BNP Paribas SA is hiring relationship managers in Asia and considering a push into more of the region’s onshore private banking markets, according to the firm’s head of wealth management for Asia Pacific. |
The Paris-based lender is looking to add “a few dozen” to its existing headcount of around 300 wealth bankers, Pierre Vrielinck said in a recent interview. He said Indonesia is among the markets where BNP Paribas is exploring an onshore presence, adding to existing domestic wealth operations in India and Taiwan and its... |
In the past, the big global banks served their wealthy clients in Asia mostly from the big offshore centers of Singapore and Hong Kong, offering a wide range of international investment products. More recently, they have been establishing onshore operations as well to tap into the growing pool of assets held in those c... |
Indonesia is a particular target of DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., Singapore-based banks with large wealth management operations, especially after a tax amnesty in 2016-2017 unearthed some $346 billion in previously undeclared assets, of which about $262 billion is parked onshore. |
”When you look at the wealth generated in Indonesia, the potential of Indonesia, it’s a massively important country in the region,” said Vrielinck. |
BNP Paribas plans to boost assets under management in Asia to $120 billion by 2020, from about $100 billion at present, Vrielinck said last year. |
The French bank was ranked ninth, behind UBS Group AG and other Swiss, U.S. and Singaporean giants of the wealth business, in the 2017 league tables compiled by Asian Private Banker. |
The hiring and the onshore banking push reflect BNP Paribas’s desire to “be in the tier-one division,” Vrielinck said. |
BNP Paribas’ wealth management unit wasn’t “too badly hurt” by the volatility in financial markets in the last quarter of 2018 because of its emphasis on discretionary portfolio management and contractual advisory business, Vrielinck said. |
A discretionary portfolio involves the bank being mandated to make investment decisions on behalf of the client. Contractual advisory is similar, except the client makes the final decision on whether to execute the purchases or sales. |
Both fee-based services differ from the more volatile brokerage model, which is widespread in Asia, where customers decide which products they buy from their banks and pay commissions for each trade. |
Andy Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants and Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Labor, appears headed towards a dubious distinction: the first Trump cabinet nominee who fails to be confirmed. |
According to a report from CNN’s Manu Raju, Senate Republicans have been leaning heavily on the White House to withdraw Puzder’s nomination, a tacit acknowledgement that he does not have enough votes in the upper chamber to be confirmed. Raju reports that there are at least four firm “no” votes, with as many as eight o... |
That was followed shortly by reports that Puzder himself was planning to withdraw his nomination before his confirmation hearing, scheduled for Thursday morning. |
Puzder was a controversial nominee from the get-go. His selection at the end of last year earned the ire of the Fight for $15 movement, which continues to fight for increases to the federal minimum wage even as executives like Puzder remain steadfastly opposed. Carl’s Jr. and Hardees, two fast-food chains owned by Puzd... |
Fast food CEO Andrew Puzder opposes higher wages and has supported automating service jobs. |
But it’s troubling details from his personal and professional life that derailed Puzder’s nomination. Last month, ROC United, a restaurant employee advocacy group, released a report detailing instances of sexual harassment, discrimination, and wage theft in establishments overseen by Puzder. That was followed by a seri... |
Then this week came word that the Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit organization that deals with governmental ethics, filed a request to reopen Puzder’s divorce records, which contains details of his physical abuse towards ex-wife Lisa Fierstein (nee Henning). Those allegations resurfaced this week when the U.S.... |
Republican Senators Susan Collins (ME), Johnny Isakson (GA), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Tim Scott (SC) — who all sit on the Senate HELP Committee — planned to withhold their support for Puzder until after his confirmation hearing. |
Puzder’s withdrawal comes just 48 hours after National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned his post. |
Good morning and welcome to our first liveblog of the week. |
Normally the worst day of the week, today doesn't feel quite so bad - after all, the sun is out. |
I'm sure that many of you are feeling sore after yesterday's half marathon, so why not settle in and enjoy all the latest traffic and travel news this morning. |
There has been an incident on the M1, and we're working to bring you all of the latest on this one. |
Traffic on the M1 is now back as it should be, and this is where we shall leave you. We will of course be back with any breaking news. Thanks for following along with us today. |
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