UFC suspends Nate Diaz for homophobic slur

UFC lightweight Nate Diaz has been suspended by the promotion for using a homophobic slur in a tweet about fellow fighter Bryan Caraway. After Pat Healy lost his UFC 159 Submission of the Night bonus for testing positive for marijuana, the bonus was given to Caraway. Diaz apparently didn't think Caraway should have accepted the money. Apologies for the language he used in the tweet showing on Cagewriter:

I feel bad for pat Healy that they took a innocent mans money and I think the guy who took the money is the biggest Fag in the world ..

? Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) May 16, 2013

He followed that up with a slur against women.

#sorryasslittlebitch

? Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) May 16, 2013

The UFC responded quickly, suspending Diaz as they investigate what their next move is. The promotion issued a statement on the matter.

"We are very disappointed by Nate Diaz's comments, which are in no way reflective of our organization. Nate is currently suspended pending internal investigation and we will provide further comment once the matter has been decided."

Diaz's Mike Kogan manager then responded that Diaz wasn't using a homophobic slur. Instead, he told MMA Junkie that Diaz was using a misogynistic term.

"Guess what? The word [expletive], at least in Northern California, and where Nate is from, means bitch. It means you're a little punk. It has nothing to do with homosexuals at all. So when Nate made the comment that he made, he didn't make it in reference to homosexuals or calling Caraway a homosexual. He just said it was a bitch move."

Calling someone that word isn't OK, either. Kogan's defense of his fighter is completely out of touch with the UFC's fighter code of conduct, which reads that a fighter will be disciplined for "insulting language about a person's ... gender or sexual orientation." Whether it's a misogynistic or homophobic term, fighters are specifically told not to use it by their code of conduct.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
? Vitor Belfort's long career arouses suspicion
? Mayors to settle differences in the cage
? Pat Healy?s positive drug test costs him $130,000

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-suspends-nate-diaz-homophobic-slur-121332619.html

george zimmerman website edmund fitzgerald uss enterprise white house easter egg roll 2012 andy cohen andy cohen mozambique

Shares fall as Fed officials talk of QE exit

By David Brett

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar held firm near a 10-month high versus a basket of currencies on Friday and European shares fell after a regional Federal Reserve chief said the U.S. central bank may begin to taper its asset buying this summer.

European shares were down 0.2 percent at 1,242.49, edging further back from five-year highs and following a retreat in Asian stocks and Thursday's late fall on Wall Street, but still on track for a weekly gain.

"The stock market is driven by liquidity and sooner or later this must end," KBC senior economist Koen De Leus said.

"In the near-term a correction would be healthy, but on the whole the market is (still) well supported by the huge amount of liquidity that is pumped into the system by the central banks."

In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4 percent to 479.33.

The German Bund future slipped at the open as some investors booked profits after this week's gains, but expectations central bank policies will remain ultra-easy for months limited losses.

The Bund future FGBLc1 was 4 ticks lower at 145.27 compared with 145.31 at Thursday's settlement, while the dollar rose 0.4 percent to 83.944 versus its currency basket, close to this week's 10-month high of 84.094.

The Fed's quantitative easing programme has helped stabilise the world's largest economy and sent investors scrambling for returns, suppressing bond and cash yields, inflating asset prices and fuelling a global rally in stocks.

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said on Thursday the Fed could begin easing its monetary stimulus this summer and end bond buying late this year.

Although Williams does not have a vote in the Fed's policy-setting panel this year, his comments weighed on U.S. shares, which have soared to record highs this year, in part because of the Fed's purchases of $85 billion a month in bonds.

A trio of hawkish regional Federal Reserve officials meanwhile called for the U.S. central bank to stop buying mortgage-backed bonds, citing a recent improvement in the housing market.

"The Fed realises the impact that (QE) has on markets and the potential negative impact on risky assets. Therefore they try to prepare the markets a bit for an eventual end," said BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets head of research Philippe Gijsels.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shares-fall-fed-officials-talk-qe-exit-090344531.html

cleveland browns minnesota twins bobby abreu 2012 draft colt mccoy arbor day mike adams

Analysis of Sony Corporation - FinanceLab

This article is brought by the Finance Lab Investment Panel
?
Sony Corporation is a company that has gone through a difficult period the last years with declining financial performance. The management has recognized this fact and they have launched a new comprehensive strategic plan. Is this a potential successful turn-around or is it a company in continuous decline?
?
Sony?s financial performance has been declining the last several years. The revenue has fallen with almost 23% the last five years and from 2009-2012 Sony reported a loss. This was first and foremost because of the decline in the revenue but also because of a significant downturn in their margins. In their newly reported results for 2013 they have reported a profit of $458 million. The increase is mainly caused by the depreciation of the Japanese Yen as well as the consolidation of Sony Ericsson AB. So the result is positively affected by nonrecurring gains and it is therefore not representative for the ongoing development.
?
After a comprehensive renewal of the management team followed by a reorganization of the organizational structure Sony Corporation launched a new ambitious strategic plan. Sony Corporation is with their new plan trying to increase the focus on their core strategic business units and reorganizing their broad portfolio of business units. The three new focus areas, where almost 70% of their R&D budget will be allocated, are ?Digital Imaging?, ?Game? and ?Mobile?. In all of these three areas Sony is going to increase the focus on innovation, strengthen their network across product platforms and improve the integration.
?
In addition to this new focus Sony has also initiated a turn-around of their television business. This included a 60% reduction in fixed business costs as well as a 30% reduction in operating costs. This reduction is supposed to be achieved through a thorough overhaul including reducing the model count with 40%. In addition to the reduction in costs they are also targeting innovation and development of new technology such as OLED.
?
As a last part of the strategy plan Sony is going to strengthen their already strong position on emerging markets.
?
Broadly speaking we believe that their new strategy includes some good initiatives and they have realized that they have to focus on their core competences. However, we do believe they could have been more ambitious in the restructuring and possibly sold some of their business units such as the ?Entertainment? division. We also do not believe that their competitive positioning is especially attractive and they have to strengthen their competitive advantage if they want to survive in the market. The execution of the strategy plan also involves significant risks and we would like to see more decisive results before we are convinced.
?
Japan is going through tremendous macroeconomic change and there is a lot of risk involved in this process. The expansionary monetary policy has already caused the Japanese Yen to depreciate and it has also led to gains on the stock market. If it will have a permanent effect or not is difficult to predict and it will be very decisive for Sony during the next years as 32% of their revenue comes from their home market.
?
The share price has already soared by almost 80% during this year measured in Japanese Yen and we would argue that the stock is currently too expensive. In addition we believe there is significant risk associated with their new strategy plan, their competitive positioning as well as the Japanese economy. This adds up to the fact that we do not see the company at the current moment as an attractive investment.
?

Source: http://www.financelab.dk/2013/05/17/analysis-of-sony-corporation/

Dorner Banana Joe state of the union fat tuesday ash wednesday kate middleton marco rubio

The EPA Could Lose Its Power to Fight Climate Change Before Using It

Advocates of forceful action on climate change have long held a trump card. The primary source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. is coal plants, and ??since the Supreme Court has determined that those emissions are a pollutant ??the EPA is mandated to regulate them. At some point, then, whether whatever president likes it or not, the agency had to make a rule limiting carbon dioxide?emissions.

RELATED: Five Best Monday Columns

But, what the court giveth, the court can rescind in a tightly contested vote. And with a barrage of petitions raining down on a conservative-leaning Supreme Court, it's possible that the EPA's pollution-control mandate could be eradicated well before the threat of climate change is.

RELATED: Sex Lives of Supreme Court Justices

Among large, developed countries, only Australia emits more carbon dioxide per person than the United States. China emits the most overall, of course, but as greenhouse gas polluters, we're still in the top tier. For decades, environmentalists have pushed to cut the country's overall emissions levels, winning a significant victory in 2007 when the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA that carbon dioxide was an air pollutant. Under the Clean Air Act, that required that the EPA take action.

RELATED: Should the Supreme Court Grant Ashcroft Immunity?

So far, it hasn't. When Barack Obama came into office, pledging to be the president who oversaw the moment when "the rise of the oceans began to slow,"?advocates hoped he'd move quickly to curb?carbon dioxide?emissions. In 2009, the House passed a measure to institute a market-based system to reduce emissions; it wasn't voted on in the Senate. Last January, Obama called for a similar solution, saying he'd act if the Congress wouldn't. That declaration, however belated, was interpreted as meaning he would ask the EPA to regulate coal-burning plants, even though his staff seemed unprepared to do so.

RELATED: Elena Kagan, Careerist?

While Obama and the EPA have delayed, opponents of regulating greenhouse gas emissions ??largely fossil fuel companies ??have filed a number of challenges to the Court's ruling. To date, they've failed; in both July and December last year, lower courts upheld the EPA's right to regulate. But each lower court decision makes an appeal to the highest court more inevitable. Reuters indicates that a case could arrive at the Supreme Court as soon as this October.

Some of the challengers specifically ask the court to consider overturning Massachusetts v. EPA. They point out that the Clean Air Act, which passed in 1970, was not designed to tackle climate change. At least one brief, by the state of Virginia, challenges the EPA's evaluation of the climate change science that underpinned its decision to regulate greenhouse gases. Others contend the Supreme Court's holding in the 2007 ruling, which specifically addressed automobile emissions, did not give the EPA the authority to issue greenhouse gas rules that affect such a broad cross-section of the economy.

If the justices were to accept one of these broad petitions and side with challengers, they could make it impossible for the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases and could open the door to attacks on the air pollution regulations the agency has formulated for 30 years, according to Dru Stevenson, a law professor at the South Texas College of Law.

That last point is even more alarming. The EPA uses the Clean Air Act as its mandate to regulate air pollution. If the Court says that it can't use the law to regulate carbon dioxide, it will not take long for companies that emit pollution of various types to challenge other Clean Air Act regulations.

RELATED: Supreme Court Weighs Freeing Chinese Muslims

There were two dissenting opinions filed in the five-to-four Massachusetts vs. EPA, written by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia. The make-up of the Court hasn't changed much; there are two new justices ??Sotomayor and Kagan ??who replace two that voted to support the majority opinion. In other words, it's not clear that the Court hearing the case means that the EPA's ability to regulate carbon dioxide emissions will be revoked.

But it's another sign of the lack of progress made in addressing climate change over the last six years. In 2007, a five-to-four vote established a critical tool that the EPA could use to tackle global warming. In 2013 ? without that having happened and facing a much weaker political position ? environmental advocates can only hope to keep that trump card in the deck.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/epa-could-lose-power-fight-climate-change-using-193905587.html

Grammys 2013 2013 Grammy Winners abraham lincoln Chris Dorner 1800 Flowers walking dead The Pope

Powerball jackpot closing in on another record

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? A little more than a year after three tickets split a world-record lottery prize, the jackpot for Saturday's Powerball drawing was nearing historic territory.

Should nobody pick the correct six numbers, the prize money will roll over to next week's drawing and almost certainly eclipse the $656 million doled out to winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland in the Mega Millions game in March 2012.

But the record could fall Saturday night too if a flurry of last-minute ticket purchases pushes the jackpot much above its current $600 million level. Since the previous drawing on Wednesday, it had grown by at least $236 million.

"If there was no chance, you wouldn't do it," said New Jersey attorney Rubin Sinins, who represented five construction workers who claimed a colleague cheated them out of a share of a multimillion-dollar lottery jackpot.

It seems simple enough: Just correctly pick five white balls out of a drum of 59 and one red one out of a drum of 35.

However, the odds of a single $2 ticket hitting the correct combination are about 1 in 175.2 million. That's slightly less likely than randomly drawing the name of one specific female in the United States: 1 in 157 million, according to the last census.

With such an astronomic payoff available for the lucky ticket holder, some buyers are content to settle for just a share of the winnings.

In Houston, city firefighter John Paetow and a dozen of his colleagues kicked in $10 each for the drawing, as they do occasionally when a the stakes soar into the lottery stratosphere.

"With firemen it's a camaraderie thing," said Paetow, 59. "It just makes sense to pool our money; it buys more tickets, gives us a better chance of winning."

Even if Saturday's drawing doesn't top last year's Mega Millions jackpot, it's already the highest in Powerball history, surpassing that game's $587.5 million record set in November 2012.

A major reason for the sales surge is that last month, Powerball landed the nation's most populous state as California joined 42 others that offer the game. California lottery director Robert O'Neill said the state had brought "sunshine and good fortune" to Powerball.

The Multi-State Lottery Association conducts the drawing live Saturday night from Tallahassee, Fla. The balls are weighed and X-rayed, and there are practice runs before the official televised version.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powerball-jackpot-closing-another-record-084632540.html

lsu football lsu football Jessie Andrews bloomberg bloomberg Daily Caller Staten Island

Death toll rises in Mpumalanga initiation deaths

May 15 (Reuters) - Post positions for the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes, to be run at Pimlico on Saturday (Post Position, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds) 1. Orb, Joel Rosario, Shug McGaughey, even 2. Goldencents, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill, 8-1 3. Titletown Five, Julien Leparoux, D. Wayne Lukas, 30-1 4. Departing, Brian Hernandez, Al Stall, 6-1 5. Mylute, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss, 5-1 6. Oxbow, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas, 15-1 7. Will Take Charge, Mike Smith, D. Wayne Lukas, 12-1 8. Govenor Charlie, Martin Garcia, Bob Baffert, 12-1 9. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-rises-mpumalanga-initiation-deaths-095151997.html

Kitty Wells Marissa Mayer Jon Lord Colorado shootings dark knight rises Aurora shooting James Eagan Holmes

'We saved the ship': WWII vets from stricken aircraft carrier gather, likely for last time

Terry Pickard / NBC News

Surviving sailors from the USS Franklin hold a reunion at Patriots Point in Charleston on Friday.

By Terry Pickard and Carlo Dellaverson, NBC News

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Two dozen surviving veterans from the World War II aircraft carrier USS Franklin gathered on Friday, probably for the last time, to honor and remember one of the most remarkable naval episodes of the war.

It was before dawn on a late winter morning in 1945 when a Japanese dive bomber dropped two 500 pound bombs on the Franklin. The year-old carrier nicknamed ?Big Ben? was serving in the Pacific theater and, at that moment, had maneuvered closer to Japan than any other U.S.-flagged carrier during the war.

Sam ?Dusty? Rhodes was asleep in the ship?s bunk area when the bombs hit. Rhodes was a water tender 3^rd class and was responsible for operating the ship?s massive boilers ? and with debris from the massive explosions raining down on him, that is just what he did.

Rhodes said he and other crew members ran to the one of the unaffected firerooms and attempted to raise enough steam to light the remaining boiler. When the flame caught from Rhodes? Zippo lighter, ?that?s when the ship?s heart started to beat again,? he recalled.

Above on the flight deck, the scene was nothing short of catastrophic. The Franklin was dead in the water, listing to one side and cut off from communications as fires burned everywhere. More than 800 sailors died in the attack, with hundreds more wounded.

Terry Pickard / NBC News

Flags line the walkway to the USS Yorktown, where a '13' was painted to honor the number of the USS Franklin.

But the Franklin didn?t sink, and that is the legacy crew members like Rhodes like to remember. The Franklin would become the most heavily damaged aircraft carrier of the war to make it back to port.

?We saved the ship,? Rhodes said. ?In the Navy, you save the ship. It?s your home.?

William Schauer was a Naval electrician and fireman 1^st class, just out of high school when he reported for duty on the deck of the Franklin, three months before the attack. Looking back on that day 68 years later, he said he was certain he was going to go down with the ship that morning, and ?that was the end.?

?But we were there for a purpose,? and despite suffering such heavy losses, Schauer says he still considers their mission ? keeping the ship afloat ? accomplished.

At the reunion on Friday, Medal of Honor recipient and retired Gen. James Livingston saluted the assembled veterans. He said their ?refusal to allow her to sink? allowed the Franklin to limp back to port instead of ending up buried forever on the ocean floor. ?That?s a testimony to what you are as men,? he said.

Terry Pickard / NBC News

The tattered battle flag from the USS Franklin hangs on display at the USS Yorktown.

In the belly of the USS Yorktown, another decommissioned carrier that saw battle in the Pacific and now survives as the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Naval Museum in this bucolic Charleston suburb, a tattered and smoke-tinged flag is mounted overhead. It was the original battle flag that flew on the mast of the Franklin?s flight deck the day of the attack -- the same flag that Rhodes remembers looking up and noticing through the haze of black smoke after the bombs hit. Seeing it meant they still had a chance, he remembered, ?because we would strike the colors before abandoning ship.? ??

?Big Ben? made it all the way back to New York for repairs, where it sat on V-J Day when the war finally ended. It never saw action again, and was sold for scrap in the 1960s. The flag, along with the bell and a gun turret also on display at the Yorktown, are all that remain of one of the most momentous spectacles of heroism and fortitude of World War II. And with what could be the final gathering of the men who saved the ship, it is up to a new generation to remember the Franklin.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2c12bec2/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A50C170C183253590Ewe0Esaved0Ethe0Eship0Ewwii0Evets0Efrom0Estricken0Eaircraft0Ecarrier0Egather0Elikely0Efor0Elast0Etime0Dlite/story01.htm

game changer corned beef recipe rpi dst friends with kids pacific standard time northern mariana islands