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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Penske Automotive Group, Inc., an Ohio-based investment group and Telesto Ventures have indicated separately that they are interested in purchasing the Saturn auto brand from General Motors (GM).

According to The Wall Street Journal, Nissan-Renault is interested in purchasing Saturn. Bloomberg, however, indicated that Nissan-Renault may be a partner of Penske’s potential bid. If Penske acquired the brand, they would distribute Saturn vehicles and outsource the assembly.

GM revealed that the Saturn brand along with Saab and Hummer were up for sale when unveiling their restructuring plans to Congress for governmental loans. While the Pontiac brand was originally to be a niche brand, GM had changed their plans recently and decided to eliminate the brand.

Telesto Ventures is an investment group that includes private equity firm Black Oak Partners LLC of Oklahoma City and several Saturn dealerships. Initially, Telesto will purchase Saturn branded cars from GM then act as a general retailer for foreign brands. Telesto is in talks with several foreign manufacturers.

The Ohio group includes many former senior auto company managers plus private financial backers, chemists and engineers who live in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Florida. This group plans to initially purchase cars from GM then purchase existing but closed plants due to automaker restructuring. Additionally, one of the partners indicated a willingness to accept some “legacy” cost in relation to the United Auto Workers. The Ohio group is also pursuing possible loans or other support from national and state governments.

GM is reviewing several offers for Saturn. GM has contracted with S.J. Girsky & Co. to advise them on the sale.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Dan Rather has announced that he will retire on March 9th, 2005 as anchor of CBS Evening News. He will continue to be a correspondent for both of the 60 Minutes shows.

It is reported that Rather’s leaving has nothing to do with a report in 2004 regarding US President Bush’s National Guard service that was widely reported to be factually false. A CBS panel is looking into that report.

Others believe that Rather is stepping down due to this report and investigation. Howard Kurtz, a reporter for the Washington Post, states that “It’s pretty clear that Dan Rather faced a very unpalatable choice… His contract had at least two more years to run. [Should he] step down now before the outside investigative report, commissioned by CBS News expected in the next few weeks about his botching — and the network’s botching — of that story about President Bush’s National Guard service? Rather [decided] today that it would be better for him to step down on his own terms.”

Dan Rather, 74, has been the anchor for CBS Evening News for 24 years, succeeding Walter Cronkite. Rather is the third most watched anchor on United States television.

All links dated November 23, 2004.

• Dan Collins, “Dan Rather Stepping Down”, CBS News.
  • Blogs: Jay Rosen, Medium Lobster, Jeff Goldstein, Steve M., Captain Ed, Skippy, Cori Dauber, DJ Drummond, Christopher Kanis, Greg Ransom, Jim Treacher, Smash, Taegan Goddard, Edward, Kevin McCullough
• The Associated Press, “Rather to Resign ‘CBS Evening News’ Post”, ABC News (US). Earlier article.
  • Blogs: Kevin Roderick, Damian Penny, Will Collier, Andrew Sullivan, Roger L. Simon, Pejman Yousefzadeh, Glenn Reynolds, Jesse Taylor, Matthew Yglesias, Jon Henke, Charles Johnson, Ace
• Jacques Steinberg, “Rather to Step Down in March After 24 Years as CBS Anchor”, New York Times (registration).
  • Blogs: Jay Rosen, Hindrocket, Charles Johnson, James Martin Capozzola.
• “Dan Rather to Step Down as CBS Anchor”, Fox News.
  • Blogs: Captain Ed, Bill at INDCJournal, Hindrocket
• “Dan Rather to leave anchor desk in March”, CNN.
  • Blogs: James Joyner, Andrew Sullivan
• The Associated Press, “CBS’s Rather Will Step Down”, Toledo Blade.
• The Associated Press, “A Chronology of Dan Rather’s Career”, Seattle Post Intelligencer.
• “Iowans Sad, Happy that Dan Rather Will Step Down”, Iowa Channel.com.
• Jonathan L. Schwartz, “Viacom’s CBS Network Loses Top Anchor To Retirement”, Forbes.
• “Dan Rather Stepping Down”, WNCT.
• More articles on Dan Rather at Google News.
• More blog commentary on Dan Rather’s resignation at Technorati.
• Usenet discussions of Dan Rather at Google Groups.
• Photos of Dan Rather at Yahoo! News.

Friday, March 23, 2007

In a press release earlier today, New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker, along with Dean of Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine Donald F. Smith, confirmed that scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified Aminopterin as a toxin present in cat food samples from Menu Foods.

Menu Foods is the manufacturer of several brands of cat and dog food subject to a March 16, 2007 recall.

Aminopterin is a drug used in chemotherapy for its immunosuppressive properties and, in some areas outside the US, as a rat poison. Earlier reports stated that wheat gluten was a factor being investigated, and officials now state that the toxin would have come from Chinese wheat used in the pet food, where it is used for pest control. Investigators will not say that this is the only contaminant found in the recalled food, but knowing the identity of the toxin should assist veterinarians treating affected animals.

The Food Laboratory tested samples of cat food received from a toxicologist at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University. The samples were found to contain the rodenticide at levels of at least 40 parts per million.

Commissioner Hooker stated, ““We are pleased that the expertise of our New York State Food Laboratory was able to contribute to identifying the agent that caused numerous illnesses and deaths in dogs and cats across the nation.”

The press release suggests Aminopterin, a derivative of folic acid, can cause cancer and birth defects in humans and can cause kidney damage in dogs and cats. Aminopterin is not permitted for use in the United States.

The New York State Food Laboratory is part of the Federal Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) and as such, is capable of running a number of unique poison/toxin tests on food, including the test that identified Aminopterin.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Science fiction author Harlan Ellison announced, in a press release dated March 13, 2009, that he is suing television company CBS Paramount Television for failure to pay residuals to Ellison for the Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever“. Ellison is also suing writers’ union the Writers Guild of America, west (WGA), of which he is a member, for failing to diligently pursue Ellison’s royalties from Paramount.

In a strongly and colorfully worded press release, Ellison and his lawyer alleged that Paramount had failed to pay the author, who wrote the 1967 television episode under the pseudonym “Cordwainer Bird”, royalties on derivative works such as tie-in novels based on the story as well as merchandise based on the episode such as a 2004 talking Christmas ornament which recited lines from the episode.

The suit comes two months before the release of a film, titled simply “Star Trek“, which will re-launch the longstanding multimedia science-fiction franchise. The film will be the first original, official Star Trek video material since the series “Star Trek: Enterprise” was canceled in mid-2005. CBS Paramount is also gearing up for the April release of the first series of Star Trek, including “City on the Edge of Forever”, on Blu-Ray high-definition disc.

Ellison, however, states: “And please make sure to remember, at the moment some Studio mouthpiece calls me a mooch, and says I’m only pursuing this legal retribution to get into their ‘deep pockets,’ tell’m Ellison snarled back, ‘F- – – -in’-A damn skippy!’ I’m no hypocrite. It ain’t about the ‘principle,’ friend, its^[sic] about the MONEY! Pay Me! Am I doing this for other writers, for Mom (still dead), and apple pie? Hell no! I’m doing it for the 35-year-long disrespect and the money!”

The suit is not the first time contention has arisen between Ellison and Star Trek since he wrote the episode. In 1995 the author, in the book Harlan Ellison’s The City on the Edge of Forever, accused Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry of “demented lies” about the episode. He also stated at the time: “I’ve never seen more than a pittance from ‘The City on the Edge of Forever,’ while every thug and studio putz and semiliterate bandwagon-jumper and merchandiser has grown fat as a maggot in a corpse off what I created.”

Roddenberry, who died in 1991, stated in numerous interviews that Ellison’s original script was unsuitable for reasons of content and budget, and rewrote it heavily; a dissatisfied Ellison chose to have a pseudonym appear on the final version. The episode as aired won the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, while Ellison’s original script won a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Hour-Long Script.

Ellison’s suit against the WGA West, meanwhile, is for the symbolic amount of one dollar. He asserts he is seeking “a judicial determination as to whether the WGA is doing what its stated purpose has been since day-one! To fight and negotiate for him and other writers. To obtain misappropriated, withheld, hidden earnings, no matter how minuscule or difficult to retrieve – but HIS, nonetheless.” Ellison took part in picketing during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.

Requests for comment from CBS-Paramount and the WGA were not returned.

Harlan Ellison became established in the science fiction community in the 1950s and won awards and acclaim for short work such as the 1969 novella “A Boy and his Dog” and the 1967 short story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream“. He has also been the plaintiff in several high-profile lawsuits, suing a person who posted some of his copyrighted work on Usenet along with the ISPs hosting the work in 2000 and in 2006 suing Fantagraphics for defamation; Ellison won the first lawsuit and settled the second. Also in 2006, he controversially groped the breast of fellow author Connie Willis at the 64th World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles during the presentation of Willis’s Hugo Award; Ellison later apologized for the incident.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World‘s fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering “in the woods” of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World in painting and animals. Below is David Shankbone’s interview with the soap diva.

Friday, January 26, 2018

Fire broke out on Friday morning and destroyed the bottom two floors of a six-story hospital in Miryang, South Korea, killing at least 37 people, most of them elderly. More than a hundred injuries were reported, with eighteen people in critical condition. This is the highest death toll from fire in South Korea in almost a decade.

The fire is believed to have started at about 7:30 local time, according to fire chief Choi Man-woo. It originated on the ground floor in the emergency room as per various officials. The hospital has 98 beds and a medical staff of about 35, and specializes in long-term care of elderly patients. It adjoins a nursing home, all of whose 94 residents were evacuated. Staff carried some patients out of the hospital on their backs.

One patient, Jang Yeong-jae, who told his story to JoongAng Ilbo, said he escaped by removing a screen from a window to get to a ladder placed by firefighters. He described people “running around in panic, falling over and screaming as smoke filled the rooms”. The majority of the victims died from smoke inhalation and are believed to be elderly, said the head of the city’s public hospital, Chun Jae-kyung. A doctor, a nurse, and a nursing assistant have died, according to the fire service; it took three hours to put out the fire.

In a press briefing, Seok Gyeong-sik, the director of the hospital, apologized to patients and their families. Son Kyung-chul, its chairman, stated that there were no sprinklers because the facility was small. Sprinklers are being installed in the nursing home, where a new law requires them by June 30.

Last month, 29 people died in a fire in a gym in Jecheon; the owner and the manager were arrested for safety violations. In 2014, a blaze in a nursing home in Jangseong left 21 dead. The President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, responded to the Friday fire by calling an emergency meeting of his staff, and promised that the cause would be found rapidly “to prevent the recurrence of the fire in the future”.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

The presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee and Illinois state senator Barack Obama conveyed his sympathies and condolonces to the people of the Philippines through President Gloria Arroyo, after the country was struck over the weekend by Typhoon Fengshen.

Obama also extended his regrets for not being able to meet Mrs. Arroyo who is on a 10-day official visit in the United States and met up with President George W. Bush at the White House.

The senator from Illinois stressed the strong bond between the Philippines and the United States, taking note of the two countries partnership during the Cold War era and during the Second World War. Obama also pointed out that the Philippines is also an important ally in the on-going war on terror.

He also expressed his desire on meeting Arroyo in the future and working closely with the people of the Philippines.

He also urged the Bush administration to provide more aid to the Philippines in the wake of the retrieval of victims of Typhoon Fengshen who drowned or were lost at sea.

Obama urged the “US government to provide emergency support to alleviate the suffering caused by the catastrophic natural disaster.”

Typhoon Fengshen lashed through the islands of the Philippines last June 21 to 22 causing mud floods, landslides and the capsizing of a passenger ferry, the MV Priness of the Stars, killing more than 700 passengers on board off the coast of Romblon island.

The National Disaster Coordinating Agency of the Philippines reported that five days after the ferry tragedy, only 48 passengers survived and rescuers were able to retrieve 67 bodies.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza also reported that 138 fishing vessels were reported missing as a result of Typhoon Fengshen.

A cargo vessel, the MV Lake Paoay carrying 5,000 metric tons of coal from the mines in Semirara island was also lost off the coast of Iloilo province.