J&J, FDA leaders take heat for 'phantom' recall - Yahoo! Finance: "Johnson & Johnson executives and the Food and Drug Administration both shouldered the blame Thursday for a secret recall in which hired contractors quietly bought up defective painkillers to clear them from store shelves.
J&J Chief Executive William Weldon told House lawmakers the company 'made a mistake' in conducting the so-called 'phantom recall,' which is one of a string of problems that have drawn congressional scrutiny
In the same committee hearing, the FDA's deputy commissioner, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, said his agency should have acted sooner to halt J&J's plan. At the same time, though, he stressed that regulators were not aware of the deceptive nature of the recall."
Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap - Yahoo! Finance: "The figures also show that Americans on average have been spending about 36 fewer minutes in the office per week and are stuck in traffic a bit less than they had been. But that is hardly good news, either. The reason is largely that people have lost jobs or are scraping by with part-time work.
'Millions of people are stuck at home because they can't find a job. Poverty increased in a majority of states, and children have been hit especially hard,' said Mark Mather, associate vice president of the Population Reference Bureau.
The economic 'indicators say we're in recovery, but the impact on families and children will linger on for years,' he said.
I’m the president’s neighbor in Chicago, but we’ve never met. I wish we could, because I would introduce him to my family and our lifestyle, one he believes is capable of financing the vast expansion of government he is planning. A quick look at our family budget, which I will happily share with the White House, will show him that like many Americans, we are just getting by despite seeming to be rich. We aren’t.
I, like the president before me, am a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, and my wife, like the first lady before her, works at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she is a doctor who treats children with cancer. Our combined income exceeds the $250,000 threshold for the super rich (but not by that much), and the president plans on raising my taxes. After all, we can afford it, and the world we are now living in has that familiar Marxian tone of those who need take and those who can afford it pay. The problem is, we can’t afford it. Here is why.
The Associated Press: Report: Blockbuster bankruptcy filing soon: "Troubled video-rental chain Blockbuster Inc. could file for bankruptcy protection as early as Wednesday, according to a Wall Street Journal article.
Citing unnamed sources, the Journal said Blockbuster is working with creditors to develop a bankruptcy restructuring plan that would free it of debt and allow the company to keep some stores open and focus more on digital distribution.
If Blockbuster misses an interest payment on Sept. 30, more than $900 million in debt will be due in full.
The article says billionaire investor Carl Icahn owns one-third of Blockbuster's debt and would return to the company's board once it exits Chapter 11. He resigned from the board in January.
Blockbuster and Icahn did not return calls for comment."
A Perk of Our Evolution - Pleasure in Pain of Chilies - NYTimes.com: "Some experts argue that we like chilies because they are good for us. They can help lower blood pressure, may have some antimicrobial effects, and they increase salivation, which is good if you eat a boring diet based on one bland staple crop like corn or rice. The pain of chilies can even kill other pain, a concept supported by recent research.
Others, notably Dr. Paul Rozin at the University of Pennsylvania, argue that the beneficial effects are too small to explain the great human love of chili-spiced food. “I don’t think they have anything to do with why people eat and like it,” he said in an interview."
CTA hanging up on pay phones - Chicago Breaking News: "In recent years, with more people using cell phones, there has been a steady decline in the use of coin-operated phones, which has resulted in a significant drop in revenue for the CTA,' CTA spokeswoman Sheila Gregory said in an e-mail.
In April, there were 559 pay phones on CTA property. Pacific Telemanagement began removing the least used, unprofitable phones, leaving just 179 phones across the CTA system, said Michael Rossi, the firm's chief operating officer.
But the firm wants to keep operating the phones that are left.
'It may not be a significant contribution to the CTA, but it's not costing them anything,' Rossi said."
Colleges get edgier to stand out in marketing campaigns _ but will it get a failing grade? - chicagotribune.com: "Fifteen years ago, the term 'branding' was virtually unheard of in higher education. The idea of selling college like a luxury vehicle or an expensive cup of coffee was viewed as antithetical to the academic mission.
Although pockets of resistance remain, it'd be difficult these days to find a four-year school that hasn't gone through the institutional soul-searching and subsequent marketing blitz that typically goes with being a 'Brand U.'
The new challenge may be this, as Drake has learned: When everyone is trying to stand out, colleges can no longer expect to meet enrollment targets by playing it safe. And pushing the marketing envelope carries risks and rewards.
'Historically, folks really have taken a fairly conservative approach,' said Robert Moore, president and CEO of Chicago- and Washington-based marketing firm Lipman Hearne and author of a book on higher education branding. 'We are seeing a bit more out-of-the-box stuff, and I think the jury is still out.'"
Now, after decades of debate, the Food and Drug Administration appears poised to issue its strongest guidelines on animal antibiotics yet, intended to reduce what it calls a clear risk to human health. They would end farm uses of the drugs simply to promote faster animal growth and call for tighter oversight by veterinarians.
The agency’s final version is expected within months, and comes at a time when animal confinement methods, safety monitoring and other aspects of so-called factory farmingare also under sharp attack. The federal proposal has struck a nerve among major livestock producers, who argue that a direct link between farms and human illness has not been proved. The producers are vigorously opposing it even as many medical and health experts call it too timid.
Scores of scientific groups, including the American Medical Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, are calling for even stronger action that would bar most uses of key antibiotics in healthy animals, including use for disease prevention, as with Mr. Rowles’s piglets. Such a bill is gaining traction in Congress.
“Is producing the cheapest food in the world our only goal?” asked Dr. Gail R. Hansen, a veterinarian and senior officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which has campaigned for new limits on farm antibiotics. “Those who say there is no evidence of risk are discounting 40 years of science. To wait until there’s nothing we can do about it doesn’t seem like the wisest course.”..."
Tech that: Infosys puts policies on probation - The Economic Times: "BANGALORE: We've heard of people on probation. Now, it's policies on probation. In an indication that companies are increasingly moving towards involving employees in decision making, Infosys Technologies has decided to put 'policies on probation' before they are implemented. This applies specially to human resources policies.
The company will consult all employees and give them sufficient time to discuss a proposed policy. Many believe it's partly a reaction to the huge employee backlash that Infosys suffered on its HR policy called iRace introduced last year.
...Nandita Gurjar, group head (HR) of Infosys, said the company believed 'in an open culture'. 'Everyone should have a say in all the policies that impact their career. We have created suitable platforms for our employees to post their feedback,' she said.
IITs to offer medical courses - The Economic Times: "IITs will now be able to offer medical education, permanent faculty positions to foreign nationals and admit foreign students at the post-graduate level. These decisions were taken at a meeting of the IIT Council headed by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on Friday. The Institute of Technologies Act will have to be amended to enable IITs to offer medical courses"
Cos may have to invest 2% of net profit in CSR - The Economic Times: "The government is considering to make it mandatory for all companies to invest 2% of their net profit in corporate social responsibility (CSR). The ministry of corporate affairs plans to incorporate it in the new Companies Bill, an official in the ministry said. The oil ministry has already made it mandatory for state-run oil companies such as ONGC, IOC, BPCL and HPCL.
The proposal of the ministry is tabled in the Parliamentary Standing Committee. It will be debated threadbare as private companies have opposed the idea of any mandatory social spending limit. They want the contribution to remain voluntary.
“Every year at least 2% of its (companies’) average net profits during the three immediately preceding financial years shall be spent on CSR activities,” the ministry said in an statement.
The new provisions may apply to companies having a net worth over Rs 500 crore, or a turnover over Rs 1,000 crore, or a net profit of over Rs 5 crore in a year. While the idea to mandate a minimum spending on CSR front is still being debated, what appears certain is that companies will have to make specific disclosures of their social spends in their annual report."
In Washington, a Surge of Interest in Hiring Republicans - NYTimes.com: "Lobbyists, political consultants and recruiters all say that the going rate for Republicans — particularly current and former House staff members — has risen significantly in just the last few weeks, with salaries beginning at $300,000 and going as high as $1 million for private sector positions.
“We’re seeing a premium for Republicans,” said Ivan H. Adler, a headhunter for the McCormick Group in Washington who specializes in placing lobbyists. “They’re the new ‘It’ girl.”
Raytheon, the military contractor, just hired as its top Washington lobbyist a former senior Republican aide in Congress, and Wal-Mart and Target are said to be looking for Republicans to beef up their Washington offices, according to consultants with knowledge of the talks."
Judge Won't Kick Green Party Candidates Off Ballot - NYTimes.com: "PHOENIX (AP) -- A federal judge has denied a request by the Arizona Green Party to kick a majority of the party's candidates off the November ballot.
U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell made the ruling late Thursday, hours after hearing arguments in the case.
The Green Party calls the disputed nominees ''sham candidates'' and says they were placed on the ballot ''to mislead voters and rig the election process.''
Greens and Democrats say Republican officials took advantage of a little-known provision in election law that applies only to the Green Party. It allows people in some cases to become a Green Party nominee with a single write-in vote."
Obama Aid Rules Rile For-Profits, Spur Letter Blitz - BusinessWeek: "For-profit colleges are enlisting students and teachers to lobby against proposed limits on student aid, and may at times be using misleading tactics, the U.S. Department of Education said. The proposed government crackdown on aid has generated about 26,000 letters to the department, the most on any topic since 1983.
College representatives and lobbyists also are flocking to lawmakers’ offices in the U.S. capital and their home districts. Donald Graham, chairman and chief executive officer of Washington Post Co., owner of the Kaplan education business as well as the Washington Post newspaper and other media, met Aug. 3 with Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, to discuss the proposed regulations. The newspaper ran an editorial criticizing the department’s efforts to crack down on companies."
Amazon Tries to Cut Frustration Over Packaging - NYTimes.com: "For nearly two years, Amazon has been trying to get manufacturers to adopt “frustration-free packaging” that gets rid of plastic cases and air-bubble wrap — major irritants for consumers and one of Amazon’s biggest sources of customer complaints.
But the frustration persists. Only about 600 of the millions of products Amazon sells come in frustration-free versions. And other big online retailers, like Walmart.com and Target.com, have not embraced the new packaging, even when manufacturers make it available.
“A lot of it is just the inertia of making changes,” said Stephen Lester, science director at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, a nonprofit environmental group. “Whenever you have a system set up to run your business, making any change means time and money.”
For brick and mortar retailers, traditional packaging remains popular because it can help deter theft. But in Web shopping, there is general agreement that the alternative packaging is a hit with consumers, and that it is simple for packaging companies to create. It is also environmentally friendly, using recycled and recyclable cardboard rather than plastic and wire ties, quicker to produce than the retail packaging and costs less.
Now Amazon, still determined to get more manufacturers to sign up, is making the case by taking the angry customer feedback on old-school packages directly to the product makers. Compared to the traditional versions of the products, frustration-free products have earned on average a 73 percent reduction in negative feedback on the Amazon site..."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/3/study_ceos_who_fired_most_workers
JUAN GONZALEZ: Two years into the recession, there’s one small group of Americans who are not feeling the bite of the economic downturn: CEOs. Chief executive pay in 2009 more than doubled the CEO pay average for the decade of the 1990s. It more than quadrupled the CEO pay average for the 1980s and ran approximately eight times the CEO average for all the decades of the mid-twentieth century.
And a new study from the Institute of Policy Studies shows that CEOs who fired the most workers during the recession took home the highest pay. According to that study, the CEOs of the fifty corporations responsible for the biggest layoffs were paid an average $12 million—42 percent more than the average pay for the Standard & Poor’s 500. The study covered the period from November 2008 to April of this year. For 72 percent of companies, mass layoffs were announced during periods of profit and high CEO salaries.
For more on this story, I’m joined now from Washington, DC, by the lead author of the report, titled "Executive Excess 2010: CEO Pay and the Great Recession." Sarah Anderson is Global Economy Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
SARAH ANDERSON: Great to be here, Juan. Thanks.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Sarah, lay out what you found.
SARAH ANDERSON: Yeah. Well, we thought, obviously, since we’re in the middle of such a terrible jobs crisis, that it would be a good idea to look at the companies that have cut the most jobs under this crisis, and then look at how the CEOs at those companies were doing. And I guess it wasn’t any surprise to us to find that the CEOs at these top job-cutting companies weren’t really tightening their own belts. But what was truly outrageous was to find out that they were actually making significantly more than their overpaid peers at other big US companies. And so, to be specific, what we looked at were the fifty companies that have had the most layoffs. All of them have cut more than 3,000 jobs since November 2008. And as you said, on average, they made $12 million last year, which was 42 percent more than S&P 500 CEOs as a whole.
JUAN GONZALEZ: What are some of those companies, and name the executives and their pay?
SARAH ANDERSON: Yeah. Well, one that’s very interesting, I think, is Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard, because he’s been all over the headlines lately because he got fired a couple of weeks ago. He was fired because he tried to conceal a relationship with a female contractor who also happened to be a former erotic film star and a reality TV star. And, you know, I find stories like this as titillating as the next person, but I was amazed to see that these stories all ignored the fact that this is a guy who has laid off more than 30,000 workers at Hewlett-Packard over the last few years, while earning more than $20 million a year. Now, to me, that is the real scandal at Hewlett-Packard. But we’re not hearing much about these kinds of stories.
There’s still the impression, I think, the misconception, that when CEOs make these big mass layoffs, that they’re being the good tough guys—they’re making the tough decisions necessary to make their companies mean and lean. And yes, that might boost their profits in the short term by cutting all of those costs, but we want to point out that these kinds of layoffs can have very serious long-term costs for the companies, not just the workers themselves. That’s obvious. But there’s a lot of costs associated with these kinds of mass layoffs in terms of lower worker morale, in terms of costs associated with having to train and rehire workers down the road. And so, we see it as just another example of the kind of short-termism, the short-term thinking of business leaders that got us into this crisis in the first place.
...
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/3/educators_push_back_against_obamas_business It’s back to school, and as millions of children around the country begin a new school year, the Obama administration is aggressively moving forward on a number of its education initiatives. On Thursday, federal education officials announced that forty-four states have joined a new $330 million initiative to replace year-end English and math tests with new national exams. The funds are drawn from the Obama administration’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund. The new testing systems are scheduled to be rolled out in the 2014-15 school year. The tests are a part of an effort to create a new set of national academic standards known as Common Core Standards, which nearly forty states have already agreed to adopt. Critics have suggested that national standards would erode state and local control of schools. Meanwhile, through Race to the Top, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has also pushed states to lift caps on charter schools and link student achievement to teacher pay. The initiative has come under fire from civil rights organizations, community groups and teachers’ unions.
Govt clears $5-billion airplane purchases: Boeing bags bulk of aircraft sought by LCCs
The government has cleared the acquisition of 46 new aircraft worth over Rs 19,000 crore by three low-cost carriers: SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Lite. The new planes will arrive in a staggered delivery schedule beginning November. The acquisitions were cleared on August 30 at a meeting of a civil aviation ministry empowered committee.
US manufacturer Boeing bagged the larger part of the clearances — 32 planes — while 14 went to European rival Airbus. The Centre’s green signal for the aircraft comes just two months before the scheduled arrival of US President Barack Obama on a state visit to India in November.
| FLYING HIGH | |||
| Airline | Approvals | Curr fleet | |
| SpiceJet | 30 | B737-800 | 21 |
| IndiGo | 14 | A-320 | 27 |
| JetLite | 2 | B737-800 | 23 |
Workers Absorbed Increases in Health Insurance Costs - NYTimes.com: "s health care costs continue their relentless climb, companies are increasingly passing on higher premium costs to workers.
The shift is occurring, policy analysts and others say, as employers feel more pressure from the weak economy and the threat of even more expensive coverage under the new health care law.
In contrast to past practices of absorbing higher prices, some companies chose this year to keep their costs the same by passing the entire increase in premiums for family coverage onto their workers, according to a new survey released on Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group."
Maker of Botox Settles Inquiry on Off-Label Marketing - NYTimes.com: "Allergan, the maker of Botox, agreed on Wednesday to pay $600 million to settle charges that it illegally promoted and sold the drug through 2005 for unapproved uses like treating headaches."
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