MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Mitt Romney was put on defense out of the box at Monday night's Republican presidential primary debate -- answering questions about his record at private venture firm, Bain Capital; distancing himself from super PAC ads against fellow candidates; defending his record as Massachusetts governor, and dodging demands that he release his tax records.
But Romney fired back against the onslaught, saying he is proud of his record in business and as governor.
"We were fortunate to have an unemployment rate by the time I left office of 4.7 percent. Sounds pretty good today," Romney said. "And I was also proud of the fact that we balanced the budget every year I was in office. We reduced taxes 19 times, put in place a rainy day fund of over $2 billion by the time I left."
We need to satisfy the country that whoever we nominate has a record that can stand up to Barack Obama in a very effective way," said Gingrich, the former House speaker, defending his questions about Romney's work at a private equity firm that critics say slashed jobs and plundered companies.
"There was a pattern in some companies, a handful of them, of leaving them with enormous debt and then within a year or two or three having them go broke. I think that is something he ought to answer," he said.
Romney's firm, Bain Capital, has become a flashpoint in the campaign in recent weeks, although the candidates have eased off their criticism on the campaign trail at the urging of some Republicans.
Romney defended his record at Bain, saying he invested in more than 100 businesses and had a mixed but overall successful record of job creation.
"If people want to have someone who understands how the economy works, having worked in the real economy, then I'm the guy who can best post up against Barack Obama," Romney said.
Perry, the Texas governor, and Gingrich also have been challenging Romney to release his tax returns. Perry confronted him directly during the debate of 1 hour and 50 minutes.
"I hope you'll put your tax records out there this week so the people of South Carolina can take a look and decide if, you know, we've got a flawed candidate or not," Perry said.
Romney did not firmly commit to releasing his records but said historically candidates have released them around April. "That's probably what I'll do," he said.
Celebrations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life often focus on his famous “I have a dream” speech, spoken on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1963. Americans born after Dr. King's assassination often relate to that speech as a definitive synopsis of Dr. King’s beliefs.
That speech was a realistic, positive, and uplifting expression of Dr. King's dream and vision for a renewed America. However, there was so much more to Dr. King than that one speech. Dr. King was a complex and compelling human being.
In August, 1963, there were civil rights activists who felt that the march on Washington was a watered-down, sanitized version of the kind of demonstration needed to make a stronger statement to the American government about the problems of discrimination, inequality, and racism within the society.
However, Dr. King was willing to heed the concerns of President Kennedy, who called the civil rights leader prior to the March on Washington, explaining that if the massive gathering took a negative turn, it would severely hinder efforts to push civil rights legislation through Congress.
Other celebrations across the country focused on volunteer efforts and more traditional ceremonies to celebrate King's life.
•President Obama and his family commemorated the day with a volunteer service project at a Washington, D.C., school.
The family greeted volunteers and helped build bookshelves in the school's library. Obama said there was no better way to celebrate King's life than to spend the day helping others.
•Washington is home to the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, where some braved temperatures near 30 degrees to visit the 30-foot statue of King.
Dorothy Drake, 61, and her sister, Beulah Ashby, 59, visiting from North Carolina, said they attended segregated schools and remembered not being able to eat inside certain restaurants, sitting on the back of buses and being banned from some hotels. "I woke up this morning and it gave me great joy to know that I was coming here," Ashby said. "I know it's a piece of stone, and I know it's one man, but it was just pride. Pride. Happiness."
•Vice President Biden and his wife, Jill, celebrated the holiday in Philadelphia, which has one of the nation's largest King Day celebrations.
The Bidens joined about 4,000 volunteers at Girard College to assemble and package 100,000 meals for distribution around the world by the non-profit Stop Hunger Now, said Todd Bernstein, founder and director of the Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service.
•In Detroit, about 2,500 people walked in honor of King. "We're just trying to keep the tradition going so history is not lost to the future generations," said DeShaun Willingham, 39, a millwright who brought his children to the walk.
•In Iowa, Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, told about 300 people that King's legacy is carried on by the icon's family, friends and others from the civil rights movement.
"Dr. King really led the fight against segregation, racism and injustice in this country, and he made a big difference in the lives of everyone," Branstad said.
Building on the last two years of dramatic changes for the series -- death, pregnancy, unrequited affection -- the episode finds Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) leaving their friends in Manhattan for a subdued suburban life in Long Island.
It throws a confused Ted (Josh Radnor) and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) in the arms of Lily's stripper doppleganger, first seen in the fifth season, but as creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays promised a small group of press last week, the move won't likely stick.
Marshall and Lily were struggling with her dad around all the time — and Marshall asked him to move out. Papa Aldrin didn’t take it well.
But while they were dealing with an added presence in their life, the rest of the gang (…and Kevin) were struggling with the lack of Lily and Marshall in their lives. Ever since moving, Marshall and Lily could no longer get to the bar like before. So they tried to replace them with Stripper Lily and scary, stabby foreign Marshall (Stripper Lily’s boyfriend), but that worked out pretty much how you’d imagine.
Everything worked out in the end. Lily’s dad helped Marshall out of a tricky situation involving the fuse box (and was invited to stay for a bit more), and the gang realized there was no replacing their friends. Instead, they all decided that if Marshall and Lily wanted to have a new life in the ‘burbs, that they’d learn how to be a part of it. “Our booth is wherever the five of us were together,” future Ted said. And ain’t it the truth.
What did you think of the episode, readers? How epic were the two new credit sequences? And what was your favorite part of the episode?
Tags: How I Met Your Mother, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris, born June 15, 1973 is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.
Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold & Kumar series, and the title role in Joss Whedon's musical web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
He hosted the 63rd Tony Awards on June 7, 2009 and the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards on September 20, 2009. On March 7, 2010, he made a surprise appearance at the 82nd Academy Awards, delivering the opening musical number. On August 21, 2010, he won two Emmy Awards at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony. On December 11, 2010, Harris hosted Spike's Video Game Awards, before hosting the 65th Tony Awards on June 12, 2011.
Harris was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico. His parents, Sheila and Ron, ran a restaurant.[5] He attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque and was active in school plays and musicals there. Harris was an honors student and graduated as such in 1991.
Career
Harris began his career as a child actor and was discovered by playwright Mark Medoff at a drama camp in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Medoff casted him in his 1988 film Clara's Heart, a drama with Whoopi Goldberg based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Olshan. Clara's Heart won him a Golden Globe nomination. In 1988, he also starred in Purple People Eater, a children's fantasy. The following year, he won the lead in Doogie Howser, M.D., for which he was again nominated for a Golden Globe. After Doogie Howser's four-season run ended in 1993, Harris played a number of guest roles on television series, such as Murder She Wrote, before taking his first film role as an adult in 1995 in the little-seen shocker Animal Room. Since then, his film work has included supporting roles in The Next Best Thing, Undercover Brother, and Starship Troopers. He also plays a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold and Kumar stoner comedy films (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas).
From 1999 to 2000, Harris starred with Tony Shalhoub in the sitcom Stark Raving Mad, which lasted 22 episodes. He has taken lead roles in a number of made-for-television features including Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story in 1994, My Ántonia in 1995, The Christmas Wish in 1998, Joan of Arc in 1999, The Wedding Dress in 2001, and The Christmas Blessing in 2005, as well as series guest roles.
Harris is openly gay, confirming this in November 2006 by saying "...I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love.
Harris attended the Emmy awards in September 2007 with his partner David Burtka, later confirming the relationship, which he said began in 2004 in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. On August 14, 2010, Harris announced that he and Burtka were expecting twins via a surrogate mother. Fraternal twins Gideon Scott, a boy, and Harper Grace, a girl, were born on October 12, 2010.
Following the passage of the Marriage Equality Act in New York on June 24, 2011, Harris and Burtka announced their engagement via Twitter, stating that they had proposed to each other five years ago, but kept the engagement secret until same-sex marriage became legal.
Harris is a fan of magic and is a magician similar to his character on How I Met Your Mother. He serves on the Board of Directors of Hollywood's Magic Castle. Harris won the Tannen's Magic Louis Award in 2006 and hosted the 2008 World Magic Awards on October 11, 2008. Additionally, Harris was the celebrity guest of honor for Top Chef Masters, which took place at the Magic Castle and included Burtka as a fellow guest. Harris also performed magic in his Emmy-winning performance on Glee.
Tags: How I Met Your Mother, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor
Alyson Lee Hannigan, born March 24, 1974 is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Willow Rosenberg in the cult classic television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Michelle Flaherty in three American Pie films, and Lily Aldrin on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
Hannigan was born in Washington, D.C. She is the only child of Emilie Posner, a real estate agent, and Al Hannigan, a truck driver. Hannigan is of Irish descent on her father's side and Jewish on her mother's. Her parents divorced when she was two and she was raised mostly by her mother in Atlanta.
In 1997, at 23 Hannigan was cast to play Willow Rosenberg, Buffy's best friend, on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show became a success, and Hannigan gained recognition, subsequently appearing in several notable films aimed at teenage audiences, including American Pie, American Pie 2, Boys and Girls, and American Wedding. By the time Buffy had ended in 2003, Hannigan was earning a US$250,000 salary for each episode. She also had a guest spot on the Buffy spin-off, Angel, reprising her role of Willow in a few episodes (including most notably "Orpheus," during the fourth season of Angel and the seventh season of Buffy), but none after Buffy finished production.
In early 2004, Hannigan made her West End debut, starring in a stage adaptation of When Harry Met Sally... at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, opposite Luke Perry.
In 2005, Hannigan returned to starring in a regular television series, appearing in the hit comedy, How I Met Your Mother, as Lily, and also playing a recurring guest role on Veronica Mars as Trina Echolls.
Hannigan has dated Ginger Fish of Marilyn Manson. She married actor Alexis Denisof at Two Bunch Palms Resort in Desert Hot Springs, California, on October 11, 2003. (Denisof played Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in the Buffy/Angel franchise and also appeared in How I Met Your Mother as Robin's co-anchor Sandy Rivers in the first and sixth season). They bought a house together in Santa Monica, California. Their daughter, Satyana Marie Denisof, was born at home five-and-a-half years later on March 24, 2009, Hannigan's 35th birthday. In December 2011, Hannigan's representative announced that the couple is expecting their second child.
Tags: How I Met Your Mother, Jason Segel, Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris
Jason Jordan Segel, born January 18, 1980 is an American television and film actor, screenwriter, composer, puppeteer and musician, known for his work with producer Judd Apatow on the cult-classic, short-lived television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, the films Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, I Love You, Man, Gulliver's Travels, Bad Teacher, Despicable Me, and The Muppets, and also for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
Segel was born in Los Angeles, the son of Jillian (née Jordan), a homemaker, and Alvin G. Segel, a lawyer, and was raised in Pacific Palisades, California. His father is Jewish and his mother is Christian; he was raised in his father's religion, and also attended St. Matthew's Parish School, a private Episcopal school. He has stated that he and his older half brother, Adam, were not close while growing up.
He is known for his role "Freak" Nick Andopolis on the short-lived NBC comedy-drama series Freaks and Geeks, about a group of suburban Detroit high school students circa 1980. He also personally wrote a song for his character, Nick, to sing to the lead female character, Lindsay (Linda Cardellini), in an episode of Freaks and Geeks. She and Segel dated for a few years following the show's cancellation. It was rumored that she broke up with him for gaining twenty pounds, but it has since emerged that the statement was in fact a joke taken out of context.
Segel had recurring roles on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Neil Jansen and on Undeclared as Eric. He currently plays Marshall Eriksen on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Feature film appearances include Slackers, SLC Punk!, The Good Humor Man, and Dead Man on Campus. In 2007, he appeared in Knocked Up, directed by Freaks and Geeks creator Judd Apatow. Segel starred in the lead role of 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a film he wrote and Apatow produced with Shauna Robertson for Universal Pictures. In it, he appeared fully nude on camera. He also starred in I Love You, Man, which was released on March 20, 2009 by Dreamworks.
In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Segel's character writes a "Dracula" musical performed by puppets. In an interview, he stated that the Dracula musical with puppets, as well as being broken up with while naked, were real experiences he wrote into the movie. Those cloth creatures were custom-made by the Henson puppeteers, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie. Segel performed his Dracula's Lament on the 1000th episode of Craig Ferguson's show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Tags: How I Met Your Mother, Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris
Joshua Michael "Josh" Radnor, born July 29, 1974 is an American actor, producer, director, and writer, best known for portraying the main character Ted Mosby on the popular, Emmy Award-winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, for which he has received worldwide fame and recognitions.
He made his writing and directorial debut with the 2010 comedy-drama film happythankyoumoreplease, for which he won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and was nominated the Grand Jury Prize. He is currently producing his second film, entitled Liberal Arts, which he again wrote and directed.
Radnor was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Alan Radnor, a medical malpractice lawyer, and Carol Radnor. He has two sisters, Melanie and Joanna. He grew up in Bexley, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, where he attended Jewish day schools (including the Columbus Torah Academy).[1] Radnor attended Bexley High School and later Kenyon College, where his school's theater department presented him with the Paul Newman Award, and he graduated with a B.A. in drama.
In 2001 Radnor was cast as the lead in The WB series Off Centre. However, the role was re-cast with Eddie Kaye Thomas before the first episode aired. In 2002 he made his Broadway debut in the stage version of The Graduate, succeeding Jason Biggs, opposite Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone. Since 2005, Radnor has starred in How I Met Your Mother, his biggest role to date. In July 2008, he starred opposite Jennifer Westfeldt in the premiere of the play Finks, written by Joe Gilford and directed by Charlie Stratton for New York Stage and Film. Radnor made his directorial debut with the film happythankyoumoreplease, in which he was also the writer and star.
Tags: How I Met Your Mother, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris
The chairman of Costa Crociere on Monday blamed the captain’s decision to take an unauthorized route for causing the cruise ship to hit rocks off Italy’s coast, an accident that has claimed at least six lives and will cost the Miami-based Carnival Corp. as much as $95 million in lost revenue this year.
Costa Chairman Pier Luigi Foschi said at a news conference in Genoa that it was Captain Francesco Schettino’s “human error” that brought the ship carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew too close to the shores of Giglio island where it ran aground, gashing its hull. The Costa Concordia’s route was set electronically before it left Civatavecchia near Rome.
“We can’t deny that there was a human error,” Foschi said. “The route had been properly programmed in Civitavecchia. The fact that the ship strayed from that course can only be due to a maneuver that was not approved, not authorized nor communicated to Costa Crociere by the captain of the ship.”
While the captain has the final decision to adjust the ship’s course, that move is typically done only because of bad weather or an emergency. Foschi said. Schettino apparently rerouted the ship to “pay a salute” to the island of Giglio and struck rocks that were above the water line, Foschi said. As far as he knew, the captain had not been drinking alcohol.
The ship is expected to be out of service "for the remainder of the current fiscal year if not longer," the company said.
Schettino joined Costa Cruises as a safety officer in 2002 before being appointed captain four years later, the company said.
Even with its admission that mistakes were made, the Genoa-based cruise company defended the ship's crew in the face of criticism on the part of some passengers, who said the crew appeared helpless and overwhelmed as passengers rushed for lifeboats.
"It is becoming clear that the crew of the Costa Concordia acted bravely and swiftly to help evacuate more than 4,000 individuals during a very challenging situation," the company said, adding all crew members are trained and the passengers earlier took part in an evacuation drill.
Survivors have described the scene -- after the ship hit rocks near Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany, and turned over on its side -- as chaos.
"There was no one taking command," passenger Lauren Moore told HLN's Mike Galanos. She said she was having dinner with a group of friends when she heard the crunch of the ship hitting the rock and the crash of plates and glasses falling to the floor.
"It was a terrifying sound and we knew it wasn't normal," she said.
Moore ran to her cabin and then to board a lifeboat. "It was so chaotic ... Everyone was basically fighting for his or her own life," she said.
Some passengers braved the chilly water, with a temperature of about 57 degrees, and swam to safety. Others had no choice and fell in. Nighttime temperatures on Giglio have recently dipped below freezing.
Authorities have said at least 20 people were injured, in addition to those killed and missing.
There were fears the death toll could rise as rescuers searched the ship, which was nearly 50% submerged and had a gash in its hull, authorities said.
Questions and criticism continue about what caused the shipwreck and the adequacy of the response.
Speaking on Italian television, the ship's captain insisted the rocks that the Concordia hit were not marked on his map.
"On the nautical chart, it was marked just as water," Schettino said, adding that the ship was about 328 yards (300 meters) from shore.
But Coast Guard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro insisted that the waters where the ship ran aground were well-mapped. Local fishermen say the island coast of Giglio is known for its rocky sea floor.
Nicastro said the Coast Guard was investigating why the ship took the course it did.
"We know where the ship was," he said. "We know it was too close to the island. ... We don't know why."
Built in 2006, the Concordia had been on a Mediterranean cruise from Rome with stops in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.
Tags: Ship aground off Italy, Giglio Italy, Eight deaths reported, Italy cruise ship Costa, Three dead, 40 missing, Costa Concordia, Costa Concordia disaster, Divers Search Costa Concordia, Third survivor heard, Cruise ship off Italy, Rescuers try to reach, Costa Concordia Cruise ship, Builders of the Costa Concordia, Captain left ship early, Francesco Schettino Costa Concordia Captain, Owner of concordia
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Costa Crociere, S.p.A. and Director
Carnival PLC
Miami , FL
Sector: SERVICES / General Entertainment
Officer since October 1997
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Costa Crociere, S.p.A. and Director , Carnival Corporation
Pier Luigi Foschi, age 63, has been a director of Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc since April 2003. He has been Chief Executive Officer of Costa Crociere S.p.A. (?Costa?), a subsidiary of Carnival plc, and chairman of its board since January 2000.
In addition to his duties at Costa, Mr. Foschi is vice-chairman of Confitarma, the federation of Italian ship owners, and chairman of the European Cruise Council, an organization consisting of Europe’s main cruise companies.
Mr. Foschi joined Costa following a long and prestigious career at OTIS Elevator Company, the world leader in the elevators and people moving equipment. At OTIS Mr. Foschi covered increasingly important roles since 1974. In 1990, after working in Italy and France, he moved to Hong Kong and then to Singapore as executive vice president of the OTIS Asia-Pacific operations, with operational responsibility for 14 countries, from Mongolia to Australia, from India to Japan.
Tags: Ship aground off Italy, Italy cruise ship, Giglio Italy, Costa Concordia, Costa Concordia disaster, Divers Search Costa Concordia, Third survivor heard, Cruise ship off Italy, Rescuers try to reach, Costa Concordia Cruise ship, Builders of the Costa Concordia, Captain left ship early, Francesco Schettino Costa Concordia Captain, Owner of concordia
Tony Hsieh, born December 12, 1973 is the CEO of online shoe and clothing shop Zappos.com. Prior to joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded and sold the internet advertising network LinkExchange to Microsoft in 1999 for $265 million.
In 1995, Hsieh graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Computer Science. While at Harvard, he managed the Quincy House Grille selling pizza to the students in his dorm (his best customer, Alfred Lin, would later be Zappos’s CFO and COO). After college, Hsieh worked for Oracle. After five months, Hsieh found himself dissatisfied with the corporate environment, and quit to found LinkExchange.
In 1996, Hsieh started developing the idea for an advertising network called LinkExchange.Members were allowed to advertise their site over LinkExchange's network by displaying banner ads on their website. They launched in March 1996, with Hsieh as CEO, and found their first 30 clients by direct emailing webmasters. The site grew, and within 90 days LinkExchange had over 20,000 participating web pages, and had its banner ads displayed over 10 million times. By 1998, the site had over 400,000 members and 5 million ads rotated daily. In November 1998, LinkExchange sold to Microsoft for $265 million.
In 1999, Nick Swinmurn approached Hsieh and Lin with the idea of selling shoes online. Hsieh was initially skeptical, and almost deleted Swinmurn’s initial voice mail. After Swinmurn mentioned that "footwear in the US is a 40 billion dollar market and 5% of that was already being sold by paper mail order catalogs," Hsieh and Lin decided to invest through Venture Frogs. Two months later, Hsieh joined Zappos as the CEO and has since doubled revenues every year, starting with $1.6 million in 2000. By 2009, revenues reached $1 billion.
On July 22, 2009 Amazon.com announced the acquisition of Zappos.com in a deal valued at approximately 1.2 billion . He is said to have made at least $214 million from the sale not including money made through his former investment firm Venture Frogs.
In June 2010, Hsieh released Delivering Happiness, a book about his entrepreneurial endeavors. It was profiled in many world publications, including The Washington Post, CNBC, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post, and The Wall Street Journal It debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List, and stayed on the list for 27 consecutive weeks.
Zappos.com is an online shoe and apparel shop currently based in Henderson, Nevada.
In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Since its founding in 1999, Zappos has grown to be the largest online shoe store.
Zappos was founded by Nick Swinmurn in 1999. The initial inspiration came when he couldn’t find a pair of brown Airwalks at his local mall. That same year, Swinmurn approached Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin with the idea of selling shoes online. Hsieh was initially skeptical, and almost deleted Swinmurn’s voice mail. After Swinmurn mentioned that "footwear in the US is a 40 billion dollar market and 5% of that is already being sold by paper mail order catalogs," Hsieh and Lin decided to invest $500,000 through their investment firm Venture Frogs. The company was officially launched in June 1999, under the original domain name "ShoeSite.com.
Zappos’ primary selling base is shoes, which accounts for about 80% of its business. There are currently about 50,000 varieties of shoes sold in the Zappos store, from brands like Nike, Ugg boots, and Steve Madden heels. They also serve the niche shoe markets, including narrow and wide widths, hard-to-find sizes, American-made shoes, and vegan shoes. In 2004, they launched a second line of high-end shoes called Zappos Couture.
In 2007, Zappos expanded their inventory to include clothing (including petite, big and tall, and plus sizes), handbags, eyewear, watches, and kids’ merchandise, which currently account for 20% of annual revenues. Zappos expects that clothing and apparel will bring in $1 billion worth of revenue by 2015, as the apparel market is four times the size of the footwear market. Hsieh states that "our whole goal is we want to build the best brand of customer service. Hopefully, 10 years from now, people won’t even realize that we started selling shoes.
Zappos uses a loyalty business model and relationship marketing. The primary sources of the company's rapid growth have been repeat customers and numerous word of mouth recommendations. Of its customers, 75% are repeat buyers.
The company's customer service reputation has been augmented through viral spreading as well, as customer service expert Micah Solomon noted in 2010: "Shoe merchant Zappos has benefited from Internet wildfire. When Zappos offered special return shipping assistance, beyond their company policies...the good word about the company spread quickly throughout the blogosphere.
Twitter: Zappos run its own Twitter microsite for its 500 employees registered on Twitter. Among them, Tony Hsieh is one of the 185th most followed person on Twitter with 1.85 million followers. Employees do not use their Twitter accounts to offer promotions or marketing pitches, but instead to show followers a little bit of the Zappos culture and to humanize the company. As an example, before going onstage for a tech conference, Hsieh tweeted: "Spilled Coke on left leg of jeans, so poured some water on right leg so looks like the denim fade. He also encourages customers to use Twitter to give positive as well as negative feedbacks.
YouTube aims to show how people works at Zappos. It helps its employees to “Create Fun and A Little Weirdness” (Zappos Core value number 3) and to “Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit” (Zappos Core value number 7). Zappos has increased its channel views five-fold to reach today 230K views. More than 2500 people have suscribed to the
Facebook allow to provide very rich contents -videos, photos, “behind the scene stuff”- to its 152,000 fans. Facebook helps fans to interact more easily than with the other networks (post some videos, comments, pictures). Zappos creates contests to get fans even more involved by giving away some products.
Corporate blogs: Zappos runs several covering all topics related to its business: CEO blog, COO blog, Couture blog, Fashion Culture blog, Inside Zappos blog. This blog culture allows even more the employees to show their passion and dedication to their job and helps customers to get Zappos' culture.
All the social networks are complementary for Zappos; none of them can be avoided. However, the "real" social media remains the telephone and the email, which are essential to get the best customer service.
In 2008, Zappos launched Zappos Insights, which aims to help other businesspeople refine their company culture and customer service. For $40/month, participants are offered access to a subscription video service that lets companies ask questions to Zappos employees. Zappos Insights also offers a two-day bootcamp where participants visit the headquarters and have meetings with Zappos executives.
In 2007, Zappos acquired 6pm.com, which has bargain shoes, clothing, and accessories.] In May 2010, 6pm accidentally priced all their merchandise at $49.95, including items like GPS navigators. They honored the pricing glitch, taking a $1.6 million loss.
Zappos sponsors the "Zappos Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon and ½ Marathon," which draw 28,000 runners each year.They also sponsor the Zappos WCC basketball championships. During the tournament, Zappos hosts "Kidz Day," which outfits local Las Vegas kids with a new pair of shoes and an event t-shirt.
Zappos has been featured in many US based publications, including The New Yorker, USA Today, CNN, The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, The Washington Post, CBS News, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Forbes. They were named #23 to Fortune’s list of “Best Companies to Work For” in 2009, #15 in 2010, and #6 in 2011.
With online shopping hitting record levels of adoption this past holiday season, it may seem to many that we're on the brink of a golden age of online commerce. But a hacking incident suffered by Zappos just last night could give some wary shoppers pause before making that next Internet purchase.
The security breach was revealed on Sunday evening by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh via Twitter and on the company blog.
"We were recently the victim of a cyber attack by a criminal who gained access to parts of our internal network and systems through one of our servers in Kentucky," Hsieh wrote. "We are cooperating with law enforcement to undergo an exhaustive investigation."
Hsieh's message went on to stress that the database containing customer credit card and online payment information was not affected or accessed.
Too many of us use similar passwords for most of our online log-ins. It can be hard to juggle different passwords for the dozens of accounts we have.
But the Zappos breach is a great example of how dangerous that can be.
Using the clues gleaned from Zappos accounts, the hackers may now have enough clues to gain access to a user's e-mail or other important accounts.
So while Zappos passwords may still be relatively secure, all those other pieces of information can offer clues to a user's password. That information can also be used to answer a weak set of security questions correctly.
That's why giving the same password to something important like online banking and a one-off retailer purchase like Zappos is very dangerous.
A good tip is to create passwords that are just nonsensical characters at websites that won't get daily use. If, say, you shop at Macys.com once a year, there's no reason to give that account a password similar to the important ones tied to daily destinations like e-mail or online banking.
It won't be a password you'll be able to remember, but when you have to log in next, just click the password reset button and have a link e-mailed to you.
Doing things this way means that all those accounts will always be as secure as your e-mail, which should be a password unlike any other.
There's no way to stay perfectly safe on the Web, but these tips should go a long way to keep you secure.
MISSOULA- Western Montana's relatively quiet winter is about to be shaken up with several feet of snow expected to fall in the mountains throughout the week. The National Weather Service office in Missoula has issued several watches and warnings for the area.
A Winter Storm Watch remains in effect from late Tuesday night through Thursday morning for the Flathead and Mission valleys.
Snow showers will increase and become heavy at times through Tuesday and east winds will likely increase and could cause some visibility issues due to blowing snow. The snow will likely decrease Tuesday night, only to return again Wednesday morning.
Periods of light to moderate snowfall are expected throughout Wednesday with the possibility of heavy snow across the Mission Valley late Wednesday afternoon through Thursday morning. Freezing rain may become possible Thursday morning, further accentuating the dangerous nature of the upcoming winter storm.
Snow accumulations from Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning are expected to be in the range of 3" to 6". From Wednesday morning through Thursday morning an additional 6" to 8" of snow are possible with local areas potentially receiving more. At this time the heaviest snow appears possible across the southern Mission Valley.
National Weather Service In Seattle Has Issued A Winter Weather Advisory For The North And Central Coast...Which Is In Effect Until 6 AM PST Tuesday. A Winter Storm Watch Has Also Been Issued. This Winter Storm Watch Is In Effect From Wednesday Morning Through Wednesday Afternoon. The National Weather Service says Some Affected Locations include Forks, Pacific Beach, Aberdeen, and Hoquiam. With accumulations of Up To Two Inches Of New Snow Today...2 To 3 Inches Of New Snow Tonight. Significant Addition Accumulations are Possible Wednesday Morning.
Main Impact...Near Or Below Freezing Temperatures Will Result In Some Icy Roads This Morning And Again Tonight.
A Winter Weather Advisory For Snow Is Issued For The Lowlands When 1 To 3 Inches Is Likely To Fall In 12 Hours.
A Winter Storm Watch Means Conditions Are Favorable For Severe Winter Weather. If You Must Travel In The Watch Area...Carry An Extra Flashlight, Food, Water, And Blankets In Case Of Emergency.
National Weather Service (NWS), once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States government. It is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The NWS is tasked with providing "weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy." This is done through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local weather forecast offices (WFOs). Since the NWS is a government agency, most of its products are in the public domain and available free of charge.
In 1870 the Weather Bureau was established through a joint resolution of Congress signed by President Ulysses S. Grant with the mission "to provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent and at other points in the States and Territories...and for giving notice on the northern (Great) Lakes and on the seacoast by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms." The agency was placed under the Secretary of War because "military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness, regularity, and accuracy in the required observations." Within the Department of War, it was assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Corps under Brigadier General Albert J. Myer. General Myer gave the National Weather Service its first name: The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce.
The NWS issues a comprehensive package of forecast products to support a variety of users, including the general public. Although text forecasts have been the primary means of product dissemination, the NWS has been converting its forecast products to a digital, gridded format. Each of the 122 Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) send their graphical forecasts to a national server to be compiled in the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD). This is a collection of sensible weather elements such as: maximum and minimum temperature, humidity, cloud cover, probability of precipitation, amount of precipitation and wintry precipitation, weather type, and wind direction and speed. In addition to viewing gridded weather data via the internet, more advanced users can decode the individual grids using a "GRIB2 decoder" which can output data as shapefiles, netCDF, GrADS, float files, and comma separated variable files. Specific points in the digital database can be accessed using an XML SOAP service. These capabilities have greatly increased the audience of NDFD data. The NWS has received some criticism from commercial weather vendors for providing graphical forecast data free of charge. They argue that such tailored forecast information compete with their own products. However, a large majority of private weather firms quickly realized its potential benefits and have flourished by using the NDFD as a tool for composing their products.
Anaheim - Murder charges are expected to be filed this week against an Iraq war veteran and ex-Marine suspected of stabbing four homeless men to death in Orange County.
Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda, was captured in Yorba Linda Friday night by witnesses who chased him from the scene of a fatal attack that occurred about a quarter-mile away behind a Carl's Jr. at 3110 E. La Palma Ave.
in Anaheim.
The victim was John Berry, a man of 64 or 65 who slept along the bed of the Santa Ana River, described himself as a Vietnam veteran and reportedly recently told people someone had been watching him. People who saw Berry in front of the restaurant and a nearby CVS pharmacy told broadcast outlets he was a nice guy, not an aggressive beggar.
He was very worried about me," Refugio Ocampo, 49, said Sunday. "I told him, 'Don't worry, I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me.'"
The suspect came back a changed man after serving in Iraq, his father said. His son expressed disillusionment and became darker as his family life frayed and he struggled to make his way.
The 23-year-old Ocampo is awaiting charges in connection with the serial killings of four homeless men since last December.
Police arrested Itzcoatl Ocampo on Jan. 13 after a locally known homeless man, John Berry, 54, was stabbed to death outside a Carl's Jr. restaurant in Anaheim. Bystanders gave chase, and police made the arrest.
Refugio Ocampo said that on Jan. 11, his son came to him with a picture of his first victim, 53-year-old James Patrick McGillivary, who was killed Dec. 20.
"This is what is happening," the father quoted his son saying.
Ocampo's family says Itzcoatl was never the same after he was discharged from service in 2010. When he received news of his friend's death in Afghanistan, he "was never the same," his family explains.
His family described a physical condition Itzcoatl suffered in which his hands shook and he suffered headaches. Medical treatments helped until he started drinking. His father said, "He started drinking like crazy, too much, way too much.
ALBANY, New York - After winning swift passage last month of a millionaire's tax increase, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo claimed the process of putting together the state budget was halfway done. The other half may be more difficult.
The budget plan Cuomo will unveil on Tuesday must close a gap of about $2 billion, largely through spending cuts, as Cuomo already has ruled out any new taxes or fees.
A surprise increase in revenue, which would help win the legislature's approval of an austere budget, looks unlikely.
New York's economy has not fully recovered from the recession, and the sagging performance of Wall Street - the state's main economic engine - is crimping tax collections while unemployment hovers just below 8 percent.
"Our challenge for 2012 is this: How does government spur job creation in a down economy while limiting spending and maintaining fiscal discipline?" Cuomo said in his State of the State address last week. He also proposed tapping $25 billion of private capital to spur growth and rebuild infrastructure.
State agencies already have been told to cut spending by 2.5 percent so that Cuomo can increase spending on education by about 3 percent, or around $800 million, to almost $20 billion.
While most states report slow fiscal improvement, New York is among just four states — California, Missouri and Washington are the others — that reported a budget gap halfway through their 2011-12 budget year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Most states expect to meet or exceed their revenue targets, according to the NCSL's mid-year report, with New York and Delaware missing even a reduced projection for corporate income tax collections. New York's revenue outlook was lowered for the remainder of 2012 "to meet lower expectations," the NCSL report stated.
Washington's need to cut spending and debt and continued economic volatility abroad darkened the outlook. In New York, not even Wall Street's rebound is saving the state this time as bonus checks and the taxes they generate are increasingly deferred.
"Economic growth remains sluggish and the economy, fragile," state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Friday.
On Friday he released his report on the third quarter of the current fiscal year, and it wasn't pleasant news for Cuomo. DiNapoli found that December tax collections were down 2.7 percent from a year before. By the end of 2011, however, overall revenues were nearly 8 percent higher than a year before in a slow recovery of fits and starts.
It already seems a long way from Cuomo's rousing and optimistic State of the State speech Jan. 4 when he bellowed: "The best is yet to be. They ain't seen nothin' yet!"
Cuomo called for a jobs program to fix crumbling roads and bridges, support of a casino company's private venture to build the nation's biggest convention center at Aqueduct race track in Queens, $25 billion in economic development grants and tax breaks to employers, and major expansion of gambling, a common crutch for Albany.
"He gave a progressive agenda in the speech, but I think in the end you aren't going to see anything different than in the first budget," Lawrence Levy, a political commentator and dean of Hofstra University's National Center on Suburban Studies.
That first Cuomo budget a year ago addressed a $10 billion deficit and made a small but rare spending cut that was supposed to be much of the pain to fix the "functionally bankrupt" Albany he inherited.
A year into his first term leading New York, Andrew Cuomo continues to boast high approval ratings from voters in both parties, according to a new poll.
Gov. Cuomo's approval rating stands at 73%, with 20% disapproval, according to the survey, released Monday by Sienna College.
Tune in Thursday at 8 p.m. ET for the CNN/Southern Republican Presidential Debate hosted by John King and follow it on Twitter at #CNNDebate. For real-time coverage of the South Carolina primary, go to CNNPolitics.com and on the CNN apps for iPhone, iPad, Android or other phones.
Mr. Cuomo, who has deftly dealt with the Legislature with careful prodding and effusive praise, issued a news release that sharply criticized the 2010 law that left teacher evaluations up to each district to negotiate. He called out the Assembly by name, a rare move so far in his yearlong tenure.
“The Assembly-led legislation in 2010 protected the teachers union at the expense of the students and instituted a system that was destined to fail,” Mr. Cuomo said Tuesday.
Mrs. Russell voted for that law.
“I believe that the districts and their employees are perfectly capable of addressing this issue on a district-by-district basis,” Mrs. Russell said.
For his part, Mr. Silver disagreed with Mr. Cuomo on a ceremonial point but one of Mr. Cuomo’s top applause lines at his State of the State address. Mr. Cuomo had dubbed himself a “lobbyist for students” in the speech, pledging to change the system so that students could succeed. The system now, Mr. Cuomo said, serves at the pleasure of the “education bureaucracy.”
At a meeting of the labor-backed Alliance for Quality Education on Tuesday, Mr. Silver told an audience that the parents are the true lobbyists for students.
Asked which side she agreed with, Mrs. Russell again split the difference, saying all elected officials and students’ parents — of which she is both — are the effective lobbyists.
Mr. Cuomo “is entitled to a certain amount of leeway when it comes to rhetoric,” Mrs. Russell said. “The governor is focusing on education reform from a student perspective.”
The ceremonial moniker may have been little more than a sound bite, but it reflected the desire of all parties involved to portray themselves as the ones who really understand public education and who really have the students’ best interest in mind.
Andrew Mark Cuomo, born December 6, 1957 is the 56th and current Governor of New York, having assumed office on January 1, 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 64th New York State Attorney General, and was the 11th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Born in Queens, New York, he is the son of Mario Cuomo, the 52nd Governor of New York (1983–1994).
Cuomo was born in Queens, New York, to a family of Italian-American origin and is the eldest son of Mario Cuomo, and Matilda Raffa, daughter of Charlie Raffa. He is the older brother of ABC News journalist Chris Cuomo.
Cuomo graduated from Saint Gerard's School in 1971 and Archbishop Molloy High School in 1975. He graduated from Fordham University in 1979, and Albany Law School in 1982. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo was a top aide to his father during his 1982 campaign for Governor. He then joined the Governor's staff as one of his father's top policy advisors, earning $1 a year.
On July 23, 2007, Cuomo's office admonished the Spitzer administration for ordering the State Police to keep special records of then-Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno's whereabouts when he traveled with police escorts in New York City. At the direction of top officials of the Spitzer administration, the New York State Police created documents meant to cause political damage to Bruno. The governor's staff had stated that they were responding to a Freedom of Information request from the Albany Times-Union in late June. A scathing 57-page report issued by the Attorney General's office concluded that Spitzer's aides did not simply produce records, as the state Freedom of Information Law requires, but were instead engaged in planning and producing media coverage concerning Senator Bruno's travel on state aircraft before any FOIL request was made. The investigation looked into both Bruno's travel and the Senate leader's allegation that Spitzer used State Police to spy on him. A year-long investigation and a 57-page report was drawn up by AG Cuomo's office and leaked by Democratic State operatives (though not tied to AG Cuomo's office) to the Spitzer Group that has since been charged with numerous felonies involving illegal use of state positions and resources, to smear Senator Bruno, one of New York State's "three men in a room". It also suggests that the governor's staff lied when they tried to explain what they had done and forced the State Police to go far beyond their normal procedures in documenting Mr. Bruno's whereabouts.
In 2007, Cuomo has been active in a high-profile investigation into lending practices and anti-competitive relationships between student lenders and universities. Specifically, many universities steered student borrowers to a "preferred lender," which resulted in the borrowers incurring higher interest rates. This has led to changes in lending policy at many major American universities. Many universities have also rebated millions of dollars in fees back to affected borrowers.
On June 10, 2008, Cuomo announced that three major Internet service providers (Verizon Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint) would "shut down major sources of online child pornography" by no longer hosting many Usenet groups. Time Warner Cable ceased offering Usenet altogether, Sprint no longer provides access to the alt.* hierarchy, and Verizon limiting its Usenet offerings to the Big 8. The moves came after Cuomo's office located 88 different newsgroups that contained child pornography.
Cuomo was lauded for his efforts to pass same-sex marriage legislation. One prominent same-sex marriage advocate stated that “for gay Americans, Mr. Cuomo was “the only national politician with hero status. In the fall of 2011, Governor Cuomo made a speech calling for all states to legalize same-sex marriage; Cuomo stated that “We need marriage equality in every state in this nation… Otherwise, no state really has marriage equality, and we will not rest until it is a reality. Following the passage of the Marriage Equality Act, Governor Cuomo was criticized for describing the viewpoints of same-sex marriage opponents as being “anti-American. On July 25, 2011, a lawsuit was filed in the New York Supreme Court seeking an injunction against the Marriage Equality Act, alleging corruption and violations of the law in the process of passing the bill. The trial court held that the plaintiffs' case could proceed, stating that “clear arm-twisting by the Executive on the Legislative permeated the entire process” by which the same-sex marriage law was passed.
On July 16, 2011, Cuomo finalized a five-year deal with the Public Employees Federation to end pay raises, implement furlough days, and require additional contributions to health insurance accounts.
Governor Cuomo received accolades for his 2011 restructuring of the New York State tax code. Cuomo also received criticism for including tax increases for high earners, and for allegedly requesting a unanimous Assembly vote in favor of the proposal and threatening to campaign against Assemblymembers who voted "no" -- a charge Cuomo denied. Cuomo also received criticism from voices on the left who felt that the Governor's tax reform was not far-reaching enough.
In an interview with The New York Times, Cuomo stated his top goal in 2012 is the reduction of public employee pensions.
Cuomo was married to Kerry Kennedy, the seventh child of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, for 13 years. They have three children: Cara, Michaela and Mariah. The two separated in 2003 and divorced in 2005. As of 2011, Cuomo resided with his girlfriend, Food Network host Sandra Lee.
A special focus of the 2012 Martin Luther King observance is turning it into a day of service, with numerous community projects taking place across the country, including weatherizing homes, beautifying schools, serving meals and supporting veterans and military families. By turning the observance into a day of service, we advance King's dream of economic opportunity, equality, and social justice for all.
King would have turned 83 years old on Jan. 15. Though his time with us was too brief, the wisdom of the messages he brought forth as a young man still hold today. He believed freedom was the one thing worth dying for, and ultimately, this freedom is what our veterans and our soldiers have served to protect. He believed that love could overcome hate, that justice required sacrifice, and that faith is the equalizer that surmounts all controversy.
There’s the overall King Day, set in ’83 when President Reagan signed a bill putting it in federal law. And there’s the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, established when President Clinton signed the King Holiday and Service Act of 1994. King Service Day is meant to be a day of personal action in Dr. King’s memory on or near his holiday – as its boosters say, a day on, not a day off. It’s promoted by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that also runs AmeriCorps and similar initiatives.
Last year in Philadelphia, for instance, computer professionals got together to donate used PCs to city families who lacked Internet access. In Washington, President Obama and his kids helped paint a middle school. In Des Moines, Iowa, members of Habitat for Humanity built 25 sheds for needy homeowners.
Many cities have organized King Service Day efforts. Philadelphia may be the most notable example: This year organizers expect to attract 85,000 volunteers to some 1,300 projects.
But if your city isn’t doing that, or if you don’t live in a city, you can go to the official King Service Day website (mlkday.gov), enter your Zip Code, and find projects that are asking for volunteers.
