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Schilling seeks dismissal of suit over 38 Studios

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 05 Maret 2013 | 00.33

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is among those asking a Rhode Island judge to dismiss a state economic development agency lawsuit over its $75 million loan guarantee for his now-defunct video game company.

Attorneys representing Schilling and others at his former startup, 38 Studios, on Friday filed documents asking Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein to throw out the lawsuit.

In November, the Economic Development Corp. sued Schilling, other company executives and some of its own former officials, saying they misled the agency's board into approving the loan guarantee. The company filed for bankruptcy last year.

The motion to dismiss says Schilling and other executives being sued repeatedly disclosed the company's financial needs and that the lawsuit doesn't prove any of them knowingly made false statements.


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Gov. offers taxpayers chance to weigh tax plan

Gov. offers taxpayers chance to weigh tax plan

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick is continuing to push for a series of tax changes — including an income tax hike — even as his plan faces skepticism in the Legislature.

The governor on Monday announced a new web page that allows taxpayers to determine how the proposals would impact their own individual or family budgets.

Patrick wants to raise the income tax rate from 5.25 percent to 6.25 percent while lowering the sales tax rate from 6.25 to 4.25 percent. The nearly $2 billion in net revenue increase would go to transportation and education improvements.

The governor says about half the state's taxpayers would pay the same or less in taxes under his plan.

Legislative leaders have expressed doubts about the proposed income tax hike and may consider alternatives for raising revenue.

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Online: www.mass.gov/governor/choosegrowth


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Glance: A list of the top 5 Forbes billionaires

NEW YORK — A list of the top five billionaires in the world, according to the latest annual tally by Forbes magazine.

1. Carlos Slim Helu - net worth $73 billion

2. Bill Gates - net worth $67 billion

3. Amancio Ortega - net worth $57 billion

4. Warren Buffett - net worth $53.5 billion

5. Larry Ellison - net worth $43 billion


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US budget impasse weighs on markets

LONDON — Uncertainty over a budget battle in Washington and the stability of China's housing market pushed world stock markets lower on Monday.

President Barack Obama and his political opponents have failed so far to agree on a way to roll back automatic spending cuts that took effect Friday. Those cuts slash $85 billion from the nation's budget, which could slow down the economy.

U.S. lawmakers say they want to undo the cuts so that federal programs can be spared but are divided over whether higher taxes should be used to pay for them.

Evan Lucas, an analyst at IG Markets, said he believes the budget fight is just "another political distraction that will cause some investors to cash out and buy back in on the dips."

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.5 percent to 6,345.36, with shares in HSBC down 2.3 percent after the bank reported a drop in net profit for 2012 due to fines it paid in the U.S. and U.K. on top of other one-time charges.

Germany's DAX fell 0.3 percent to 7,684.15 while France's CAC-40 edged up almost 0.1 percent to 3,702.95.

Finance ministers from the 17-country eurozone will meet later in the day in Brussels to discuss a bailout for Cyprus, but a final deal is expected to take another few weeks since a new government has just taken over in Nicosia.

Wall Street opened lower, too, with the Dow slipping 0.3 percent to 14,045.58 and the broader S&P 500 shedding 0.2 percent to 1,516.05.

Stock markets in China were dragged down by property shares that tumbled after China's Cabinet ordered new measures to cool surging housing prices. The government said it will raise required minimum down payments in areas where prices are deemed to be rising too fast and crack down on efforts to evade limits on how many properties each buyer can acquire. The Shanghai Composite Index slid 3.7 percent to 2,273.40.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.5 percent to 22,537.81. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.7 percent to 2,013.15. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.5 percent to 5,010.50. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines also fell.

But Japan's Nikkei 225 bucked the negative trend, rising 0.4 percent to close at 11,652.29. Investors are seemingly in a buoyant mood ahead of a leadership change at the Bank of Japan. Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa will step down March 19, making way for a new chief who supports Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's call for bolder monetary easing. The central bank meets Wednesday and Thursday for a regular monetary policy review.

Benchmark oil for April delivery was down 28 cents to $90.40 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.37 on Friday.

In currencies, the euro fell 0.1 percent against the dollar, to $1.3005, while the dollar fell 0.3 percent against the Japanese yen, to 93.37 yen.

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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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Obama nominates Wal-Mart's Burwell as budget chief

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Wal-Mart's Sylvia Mathews Burwell as his next budget chief, thrusting her into the center of Washington's heated partisan budget battles.

Obama announced Burwell's selection to lead the Office of Management and Budget during a White House ceremony, noting that her appointment comes as government-wide spending cuts are going into effect that he said mean "eventually a lot of people are going to feel some pain." The White House and congressional Republicans were unable to reach a deal to avert the cuts ahead of last Friday's deadline.

If confirmed by the Senate, Burwell would bring more diversity to Obama's second-term Cabinet following criticism that many top jobs were going to white men.

Burwell is a Washington veteran, having served as chief of staff to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and as OMB's deputy director in the Clinton administration, where Obama noted she was on a team that presided over three consecutive budget surpluses. She has been running the Wal-Mart Foundation, the retail giant's philanthropic wing, and previously served as president of the Gates Foundation's Global Development Program, where Obama said she helped the organization "grow into a global force for good."

"Sylvia knows her way around a budget," Obama said. "But as granddaughter of Greek immigrants, she also understands that our goal when we put together a budget is not just to make the numbers add up. Our goal is also to reignite the true engine of economic growth, and that is a strong growing middle class, to offer ladders of opportunity for anybody willing to climb them."

Wal-Mart president Mike Duke called Burwell a strong leader with a "clear vision for making big things happen."

"She understands business and the role that business, government and civil society must play to build a strong economy that provides opportunity and strengthens communities across the country," Duke said in a statement.

Burwell would replace acting OMB director Jeffrey Zients, who has been discussed as a contender for other top administration posts.


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Gov't: Budget cuts already causing airport delays

WASHINGTON — U.S. airports, including Los Angeles International and O'Hare International in Chicago, are already experiencing delays as a result of automatic federal spending cuts, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday.

Both of those big-city airports routinely suffer delays.

Napolitano, who spoke at a Politico-sponsored event on the 10th anniversary of DHS, said that delays will become worse. The Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection agencies, which are part of the Homeland Security Department, are sending furlough notices and have cut overtime for employees.

Napolitano said she expects a cascading effect during the week, with wait times expected to double in worst cases.


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Volkswagen's Golf named Europe's Car of the Year

GENEVA — The Volkswagen Golf has been named Europe's Car of the Year by automotive journalists from more than 20 countries.

Introduced in 1974 and recently redesigned, the hatchback is the company's mass-market flagship — and a key element in its ambition to overtake Toyota as the world's biggest carmaker.

The car left the competition in the dust Monday on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show, grabbing 414 votes. The Subaru BRZ, also sold as the Toyota GT-86, was second with 202 votes and the Volvo V40 third with 189 votes.

The award is one of the most important in Europe and gives consumers an idea of what the experts think the car of the future is. But it's old news for the Golf, which has already won it in 1992.


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Mass. gas prices down 4 cents per gallon

Mass. gas prices down 4 cents per gallon

BOSTON — The cost of a gallon of gas in Massachusetts has dropped by four cents in the past week.

AAA Southern New England reports Monday that self-serve, regular is selling for $3.72 per gallon. That's two cents below the national average but still 13 cents higher than a month ago and a penny below the price a year ago.

AAA found self-serve, regular selling for as little as $3.59 per gallon and as high as $3.89.


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Monster hits back at lawsuit over teenager's death

NEW YORK — Monster Beverage is hitting back at a lawsuit alleging its energy drinks were responsible for the death of a 14-year-old Maryland girl, saying that no blood test was performed to confirm that the girl died of "caffeine toxicity."

The disclosures come amid intensifying scrutiny of energy drinks and their caffeine levels. A lawsuit filed last year by the family of Anais Fournier said the girl went into cardiac arrest after drinking two, 24-ounce cans of Monster drinks in a 24-hour period. The Food and Drug Administration has also said it is investigating reports of deaths linked to energy drinks, including five that cite Monster beverages. The agency notes that the reports don't prove the drinks caused the deaths.

In an interview, Monster's lawyer Daniel Callahan said the company hired a team of physicians to review the medical records in the case, which he said suggest Anais Fournier died of natural causes brought on by her pre-existing heart conditions. The team found no medical evidence for an autopsy report that said "caffeine toxicity" was a factor, he said.

Callahan said that declaration on the autopsy report was made based on interviews with Anais Fournier's mother, who told the medical examiner's office the girl had consumed energy drinks before her death.

A spokesman for Maryland's chief medical examiner could not immediately confirm whether a blood test had been performed to check for caffeine levels and said that the office does not comment on cases in litigation. He noted the cause of death was "cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity complicating mitral valve regurgitation in the setting of Ehler's-Danlos syndrome," which is a heart condition.

Kevin Goldberg, a Maryland attorney for Fournier's family, said in a statement that the family is looking forward to a jury determining Monster's accountability in the case.

"In America, a jury of our peers determines justice. Not doctors paid by billion-dollar corporations to attend press conferences," he wrote.

Labeling on Monster's cans say the drinks are not for children or pregnant women. But Goldberg said the reference to children is "ambiguous and intentionally misleading" because Monster's marketing is geared toward teenagers and young adults. Monster says its target market is 18 to 34 years old but that its drinks are nevertheless safe for children as well.

The company also said that evidence obtained as part of the lawsuit's discovery process shows Anais Fournier regularly had energy drinks and frequented Starbucks without incident. Monster made the findings public during a press conference in Chicago, which is holding a hearing on a ban on energy drinks Tuesday.

Callahan also noted that none of the other incidents the FDA is investigating has resulted in a lawsuit against Monster.

Before the spate of bad publicity that dragged down its stock price in recent months, Monster had been enjoying enormous growth because of the surging popularity of energy drinks. In 2011, sales volume for energy drink overall rose 17 percent, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest, with the three biggest players — Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar — all logging double-digit gains.

But the success has also brought greater scrutiny. This summer, the New York state attorney general's office subpoenaed Monster as part of an investigation into how energy drinks are made and marketed. Subpoenas were also sent to Living Essentials, which makes 5-Hour Energy shots, and PepsiCo Inc., which makes AMP.

Lawmakers have also called on the FDA to investigate the use of ingredients such as taurine in energy drinks and whether the caffeine levels are safe for children.

Monster has stood by the safety of its drinks, which it says contain 240 milligrams of caffeine for a 24-ounce can, compared with 330 milligrams in a 16-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee. Monster, based in Corona, Calif., has recently said it will begin disclosing the caffeine levels in its drink labels.


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Hess, under pressure, to exit retail business

NEW YORK — Hess will rid itself of its retail operations as well as its energy trading and marketing businesses as it shifts its focus further into exploration and production.

The company will also nominate a slate of six independent directors to its board, replacing six that already hold seats.

The announcement arrives about a month after the hedge fund Elliott Management, one of the company's largest shareholders, accused the board of "poor oversight," and said that the company's management was responsible for more than a "decade of failures."

Elliott, which holds a 4 percent stake in Hess, is pushing to seat five outsiders on the board.

But Hess rejected Elliott's nominees in a letter to shareholders Monday, accusing the firm of trying to disrupt progress it has already made in reshaping itself. It said that Elliott hasn't taken into account how much company shares have risen since it began to shed previous business models.

Hess said the nominees chosen by Elliott would effectively dismantle the company.

Hess shares fell sharply after the recession, as did shares of most energy companies, but the stock began to rebound last summer and on Monday, they hit their highest levels almost two years.

Shedding the green and white gas stations that stretch from New Hampshire to Florida will allow Hess to broaden exploration and production capabilities.

Hess, based in New York, has already announced the sale of U.S. oil storage terminals and plans to close a New Jersey refinery as it exits the volatile refining business. Other energy companies are doing much the same, focusing the booming domestic drilling and also high-risk drilling operations at deep-water drill sites.

Murphy Oil, ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Corp. have all split off their refining businesses in recent years to focus on exploration and production.

Hess did not elaborate on the sale of portions of the company and a spokesman did not immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press.

Elliott has said it wants Hess to boost shareholder value through various means, including a potential spin-off of the oil company's holdings in North Dakota's Bakken shale-oil field.

Elliott officials didn't immediately return an email sent through the firm's website.

Hess shares rose $2.48, or 4 percent, to $69.02 in midday trading.


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