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“We believe the proposed demerger, if implemented, will accelerate the simplification of the group’s portfolio, provide investors with choice and unlock value in both companies,” Jacques A. Nasser, the BHP Billiton chairman, said in a statement. |
BHP said its yearly profits were supported by record iron-core production, which counterbalances declining revenue from copper, petroleum and coal. BHP hopes to expand production in the current financial year, basically from Australia, regardless of concerns among a few speculators that request is not able to stay awar... |
Truck rental companies would be required to verify customers’ identification as pat of a bill that will be introduced Wednesday, the one-year anniversary of the West Side bike path terror attack that killed eight people. |
City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens), chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said truck renters can exploit a practice that allows customers to pick up the keys to a truck at a kiosk or by using an app. |
In theory, a terrorist could arrange for someone else to pay for the van, then pick up the keys without being required to show his ID at the front desk. |
The bike path suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, rented his pickup truck from a New Jersey Home Depot. The chain store does not use kiosks or apps, but after the terror attack, the NYPD and other authorities looked at ways terrorists could rent vehicles while concealing their identity. |
Under terms of the bill, anyone renting a van or SUV that can hold at least 10 passengers or weighs at least 6,000 pounds would have to show their ID to a company employee. Renters would also be required to prove their signature is the same as the one on their license. |
Police Commissioner James O’Neill said if the bill becomes law, it would provide the opportunity for suspicious employees to tip off police. |
Saipov killed eight people and injured 11 on the bike path in lower Manhattan last Halloween. The ISIS-inspired rampage ended when Saipov crashed into a school bus, got out of his truck and screamed in Arabic “God is great!” As he waved a pellet gun and paintball gun, he was shot by a police officer and arrested. |
The Uzbeki immigrant, now 30, faces the death penalty if convicted in Manhattan federal court. |
The state Senate debated the statewide smoking ban for four hours Wednesday. There were seventeen amendments offered – two of which would have allowed hotels and motels to offer a percentage of smoking rooms. Democrat Bob Jauch said not having any smoking rooms places a burden on innkeepers. "What is a hotel in Milwauk... |
But Democrat Jon Erpenbach, who brought together the compromise bill, said smokers such as himself always have an alternative to lighting up in their rooms. "I've stepped out on the balcony, and I've had a cigarette," said Erpenbach. "If I smoke in the hotel room and there's no smoking, they're stil... |
The first amendment – allowing up to twenty percent of rooms to be smoking – was tabled. Jauch offered a second amendment – the seventeenth proposed during the debate over the ban – allowing up to fifteen percent of rooms to be smoking. "All we're trying to do is make the bill a little bit more responsive, to a le... |
Some other amendments which were offered and tabled during the Senate debate would have exempted private clubs such as the Moose and Elks, veterans clubs, hooka bars, cigar fundraisers, and nursing homes. |
The Assembly took up the smoking ban after the Senate vote. In that chamber, there were 25 amendments proposed. |
An inmate at the Carson City Jail hanged himself in a segregation cell on Saturday afternoon, the sheriff said Sunday. |
Inmate Jonathan Roe, 20, was found about 5:22 p.m. as officers were serving dinner, Sheriff Ken Furlong said. |
In custody since July on a probation violation, Roe was moved into the segregation cell about 4:30 p.m. because of fights with other inmates, said Furlong. |
Furlong notified Roe’s mother and grandparents who live in Carson City. Roe’s father lives in Las Vegas, Furlong said. |
He said Roe never indicated that he would harm himself. |
“That’s the ironic part about this, there was no expression of depression beyond what is anticipated. Obviously when people are in jail they are upset. There doesn’t seem to be anything that we can put our fingers on that would have suggested that he was going to do this,” he said. |
Roe had recently been given a sentence of “time served,” on an alternative sentencing probation violation. He was scheduled to appear in Carson City District Court on Nov. 6 on a charge of state probation violation. Roe also had a hold on him because of warrant out of Douglas County, said Furlong. |
Roe’s hanging is the third time in the last five years that a Carson City Jail inmate committed suicide. This is the second hanging under Furlong’s administration. |
Environmentalists and timber industry representatives agree that properly managed forestry is gentle on the land compared with commercial and industrial development. |
"Especially here in Puget Sound, it is critical that forestry not be driven out of business because it is the lightest land use you can think of: untouched for 40 years while producing a lot of good, then harvested once," said Mark Doumit, executive director of the Washington Forest Protection Association, who supports... |
The argument over who and what represent proper forest management is playing itself out in the lands commissioner race, a position that oversees nearly 6 million acres of the state's property, producing $209 million last year for a trust that helps build state public schools and universities. |
Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark, 62, cattle rancher, wheat farmer and former Washington State University regent, says incumbent Sutherland, 71, has dropped the ball when it comes to protecting the environment and the state's resources. |
Sutherland counters that he has found the balance between successful industry, state revenues and ecological protections. |
There are few places where the rift between Sutherland's and Goldmark's backers -- industry and environmentalists, respectively -- is as noticeable as on Maury Island, where Glacier Northwest owns a sand and gravel mine next to a state aquatic preserve. |
Glacier wants to expand that mine 200-fold: from mining 10,000 tons annually to 2 million tons annually, though it could mine up to 7.5 million tons of Maury Island's sand and gravel. |
After going through a lengthy permitting process interrupted by environmental lawsuits, Glacier now needs the commissioner to approve a lease for its steel dock, which would jut 305 feet from shore onto state-owner tidelands, ending in a 510-foot-long "T" that would allow the company to load football field-sized barges... |
The ratio of sand to gravel at Maury Island is in short supply in this region, said Pete Stoltz, the permitting manager for Glacier Northwest, which gave $50,000 to a political action committee backing Sutherland. |
"I don't know which way I am going to go," Sutherland said of the lease approval. |
Stephanie Warden, the director of King County's Department of Development and Environmental Services, said that the county had allowed Glacier Northwest to begin staging its expansion work after the company told them "they expect to get the aquatic lease" but rescinded permission in October after the environmental comm... |
Goldmark said he would wait for the Puget Sound Partnership's plan for cleaning up the Sound to be made public this winter before deciding whether to approve the lease. |
Postponing the decision, Sutherland says, would "make the property owner go back to square one ... and my guess is that you would have a significant lawsuit on your hands." |
Preserve Our Islands President Amy Carey said environmentalists and residents are concerned that having such a major mining operation, proposed over a sole-source aquifer, would disrupt soil laced with arsenic dropped by smoke from the Asarco copper smelter in Tacoma. The group tested a sample from the mine, finding go... |
Sutherland said he is waiting for further testing on whether the amount of precious metals in the mine warrants a review by the state, which would have to decide whether to pursue its claim to the mineral rights after having sold the sand and gravel to the company. |
"Sutherland is clearly in conflict of interest and appears to represent Glacier in this specific case," Goldmark said. "I would sue Glacier to establish who owns mineral deposits -- is it Glacier or is it the state?" |
Goldmark and environmentalists say Sutherland drags his heels when it comes to protecting the environment and the state's resources, giving as an example Sutherland's lobbying against studying certification of state forests as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent third party. |
All state trust timberlands are certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Sutherland said. Goldmark called that measure "an industry facade," favoring the Forest Stewardship Council certification. |
Sutherland defends his department's decision to pursue the industry certification first, citing the state's legal obligation to set a timber harvest and the lack of market demand. |
When pressed on the issue, he displayed a flash of what got him in trouble in 2005, when he rubbed a female employee from her neck to her back moments after meeting her and then either said before a group of colleagues that he "could have felt ... up front" or "could have felt the other side." The woman later quit her ... |
Speaking to a female reporter about forest certification, Sutherland made an unprompted analogy, "You have to do things in logical sequence: you wouldn't put your coat on to go outside, then put your underwear on. Well, I don't know what you do with your underwear." He laughed. |
Many of the factors that shape the lands commissioners' job have little to do with their own choices, such as the onset of a global economic nose dive. |
Goldmark said he thought layoffs would be necessary at the department because of the economic downturn but said the state could weather the slump by managing its timber more sustainably. |
Sutherland said, "Overall, I do see a decline in revenues attributable primarily to the timber market," but he believed some loss would be offset by gains the state has made on its agricultural land's profitability. |
The Hall of Languages building on the Syracuse University campus. |
Syracuse University increased its tuition price again. The cost for the upcoming school year will be $52,210. |
SU increased the 2019-2020 school year tuition by 3.9 percent. This increase follows a large bump in 2018 that included a $3,300 additional tuition premium, part of the “Invest Syracuse” plan to fund $100 million in initiatives over the next several years. |
SU administrators said they plan to invest more money into student financial aid than ever before. The budget for financial aid in 2019-2020 will be $280 million, which is a 9 percent increase, officials said. |
SU’s last reported overall operating budget was more than $1 billion in 2018, according The Daily Orange student newspaper. The DO reported SU had projected revenues of around $1.39 billion, and expenses of $1.388 billion in 2018. |
SU said for the 2019-2020 school year, some other student expenses would increase in addition to tuition. Room and board rates will increase by about 2 to 2.5 percent for most students. |
A student health and wellness fee will go up by about 2.1 percent. That’s in part to support the Barnes Center at The Arch, which is slated to open in the fall. |
The total cost of attendance at SU is more than $70,000. |
Chancellor Kent Syverud said Syracuse University's $43,300 annual tuition is low compared to the school's peers. Compare for yourself. |
Hague was a washout at PMQs today. The wittiest performer on the front benches failed to lift the house with a single joke. Since ditching the after-dinner circuit, perhaps he no longer needs parliament to advertise his stand-up skills. Opposite him Hattie Harman was her usual lumpen self, slow and predictable, full of... |
Hague took her to task on footling, no-brainer issues. The house is rising too early, he said. Unbelievable. He wants to mount an attack on this knackered, directionless government and he chooses the calendar. Harman’s answer – the house is also returning early – was as limp as the question. Hague then asked if Labour ... |
Hague couldn’t find a way to hurt Harman today. In her bumbling but single-minded fashion she managed to change the subject and portray the Conservatives as a party of tax-dodging millionaires who cosy up to questionable allies in the EU. She got away with it too. But Hague wasn’t even trying. |
Vince Cable asked a pertinent question about tax evasion which HMRC reckons costs us £40bn a year. Hattie deliberately misunderstood the question and blamed the reduced tax-take on ‘the global recession’. David Heathcoat-Amory mocked the new Fiscal Responsibility Bill by asking if failure to meet its provisions would r... |
Another Tory backbencher, Ann McIntosh, stood up looking even more aristocratic than her high-born opponent and made an oblique and rather laboured point involving Copenhagen, Hans Christian Andersen and global warming. ‘Does she have a favourite fairy-tale? The Emperor’s New Clothes?’ asked the Duchess of McIntosh glo... |
The only moment of drama came as the session closed. The defence secretary Bob Ainsworth, who with his strange little moustache looks like a bank manager dressed up as Hitler, got to his feet to make a statement. Members swarmed for the exits. ‘Bob Ainsworth’ is a weapon with two settings. His name, or his title, ‘Secr... |
Later asked about the tackling on third downs, Freeze said: "I wish I had all the adjectives. It was as bad as I've ever seen." |
Ole Miss' defense was dealt a blow when star defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche was knocked out of the game with a concussion while trying to convert a third-and-short opportunity -- on offense. |
Freeze made several questionable calls Saturday. Perhaps the biggest was the decision to go for it from the Rebels' own 34. Quarterback Chad Kelly was stuffed and Memphis found the end zone six plays later to go ahead 24-14. |
"That wasn't a good decision," Freeze said. "You've got about half a foot, thinking we really need to change this momentum and get some points is what you're thinking but, obviously, it was not a good decision." |
The good news is the Rebels still control their fate as far as the SEC is concerned with Texas A&M on Saturday and Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and Mississippi State still on the schedule. |
Ole Miss will also see the return of left tackle Laremy Tunsil, which should help solidify a leaky offensive line. Will it matter? The Rebels will find out against the Aggies in Oxford. |
DON IMUS. In the furor over his ugly comments about the Rutgers basketball team emerges the dollar-and-cents reason he hasn’t been fired (something that would have happened in a nanosecond to a lesser mortal). The NY Times today reports that his broadcasting empire rakes in $50 million a year. Advertisers like AT&T, Sp... |
SoftBank's two Uber board members are waiting for clearance from the U.S. government. |
The CFIUS review of SoftBank's investment along with the government shutdown is complicating the company's anticipated IPO. |
Uber is expected to be the most high-profile debut in the class of 2019. |
Between the stock market's extreme volatility of late and the three-week-old government shutdown, the IPO market faces plenty of uncertainty in 2019. But for Uber, there's another complicating aspect — the company's biggest investor is still waiting for its board seats. |
When Uber sold a 15 percent stake to SoftBank last January, the ride-hailing company agreed to give the Japanese conglomerate two board positions out of an eventual total of 17. SoftBank said its seats would go to Marcelo Claure, the company's operating chief and executive chairman of Sprint, and Rajeev Misra, the head... |
More than a year later, SoftBank is waiting for the U.S. government to give Claure and Misra the go-ahead. SoftBank has its Uber shares, but the broader deal is under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a unit of the Treasury Department that reviews certain transactions involving... |
The CFIUS process is slow even in normal times, and with the federal government in the midst of a partial shutdown, there's no telling when Uber will get a response. As Uber gears up for a massive IPO, which is expected to come this year, it's doing so without representation from its top shareholder, adding a significa... |
"Investors would clearly want to be involved in the IPO process because there will be things negotiated with underwriters that will demonstrably affect their securities and the liquidity of their securities," said David Golden, a partner at Revolution Ventures in San Francisco and former head of tech investment banking... |
Uber is expected to be the most high-profile IPO in a 2019 class that could include Airbnb, Lyft, Pinterest and Slack. However, optimism for a blockbuster year plummeted after technology companies led a fourth-quarter stock market plunge, resulting in the worst year for U.S. indexes since 2008. On top of that, we're st... |
For Uber, the added challenge of a CFIUS review stems from SoftBank's $9.3 billion investment early last year, which provided some fresh capital and offered billions of dollars of liquidity to early investors and employees, including co-founder and ex-CEO Travis Kalanick. |
SoftBank submitted the deal to CFIUS for voluntary review and agreed not to place its directors until getting approval. The review went deeper after Congress passed changes in the CFIUS law in August, expanding jurisdiction to non-controlling investments. It's unlikely that CFIUS will do anything to scuttle the deal, a... |
A person familiar with the matter said SoftBank is supportive of the review and that it shouldn't impact Uber's ability to raise money on the public markets. The person asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic. A SoftBank spokesperson declined to comment, as did a representative from Uber. |
There's no guarantee that Uber goes public this year anyway. While investment banks have been floating a valuation of $120 billion for the company and Uber reportedly filed confidential papers for its IPO in December, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has left open the possibility of pushing it out to 2020. |
"The good news is that we've got a strong balance sheet so we don't need to go public this year," Khosrowshahi told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week. He called it a "desire," but said "if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen." |
The SoftBank seats aren't the only ones on Uber's board that remain unfilled. As part of the company's effort to strengthen corporate governance following a series of scandals in 2017, Uber agreed to expand its board to 17 people from 11. The board currently has 12 members and still has vacancies for three independent ... |
A macabre story she heard as a child about hospitals and homes dumping stillborn and aborted babies on the street sent a Hanoi woman on a lifelong mission of finding and burying them. |
Nguyen Thi Nhiem has built a cemetery on a part of her rice field in Doi Coc village in the capital's Soc Son District. |
Ten years ago she began to look for babies' corpses, and cleaned them, put them in jars, and buried them. |
The first one was from a local neighborhood and had been found by people on the road. |
"I felt so sorry for it and I took it home," she says. |
She kept the baby for a couple days "with a mixture of love and fear," she admits. She then decided to make her paddy field its final resting place. |
Her altruistic mission was sparked by a story a stranger narrated many years ago. |
"I was only 10. A man from nearby Phu Tho Province said he lived next to a hospital and saw people throwing away stillborn babies every day, and his family ended up burying them. |
She says it is natural for people to be scared to hold a dead baby, but she gradually trained herself not to be afraid. |
"I love them. They were not allowed to live and be with their parents," says the woman who never married and has no child of her own. |
Nhiem does not wait for people to find dead babies anymore, but instead goes to hospitals to ask for them. |
She says the early days were hard. She does not ride a motorbike but sometimes had no money to take a bus to hospitals. And people doubted her motives, suspecting that she would sell the bodies for money. Dead fetuses could be used to make a Chinese tonic for sexual health, as rumors have it. |
But after a while people knew about her and handed over the cadavers. |
There have been cases where she found babies still alive. She managed to save some of them, giving them into adoption or to charity centers. |
But the one she remembers most clearly was a baby she named Tieu Duyen (Little fate). She took care of it for 19 days in November last year at a hospital but was eventually unable to save its life. |
Nhiem says what she does brings peace of mind to her and the many people who help her. |
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