Stocks mostly lower on Wall Street

Stocks edged lower on Friday, but nothing like the plunge they took earlier this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down two points at 14,756 as of 12:51 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. That almost seemed like a rally after the Dow's 560-point tumble over Wednesday and Thursday, which wiped out its gains from May and June. The plunge came just three weeks after the Dow hit a record high of 15,409.

The Fed's easy money policies have been a big driver behind the stock market's bull run the last four years. It led to low interest rates that encouraged borrowing for everything from factory machinery to commercial airplanes to home renovations. Now investors have to figure out where to put their money now that they have a better idea of how the Fed's stimulus efforts could end.

Kim Forrest, senior analyst with Fort Pitt Capital Group, a portfolio management firm in Pittsburgh, said the market had the "right reaction" to the news that the Fed would wind down its stimulus if the economy continues to improve, but the move may have been overblown.

"We're getting news that made the market uncomfortable," she said. "We shouldn't be sitting at these highs given the fact that the Fed signaled that someday it's going to take some liquidity off the table. So the reaction is right, the magnitude is probably a little off."

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell a point to 1,587. The S&P hit its own record high a month ago. The S&P and Dow were moving between slight gains and losses Friday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit 2.50 percent from 2.42 percent late Thursday. It has risen sharply since Wednesday as investors sold bonds in anticipation that the Fed would slow, and eventually end, its bond purchases, if the U.S. recovery continues. The Fed has said it wouldn't hesitate to step up its bond purchases again if the economy weakens.

The yield, which is a benchmark for interest rates on many kinds of loans including home mortgages, is at its highest level since August 2011. On Tuesday, the day before the Fed's announcement, it was 2.19 percent. It hit a low for the year of 1.63 percent on May 3.

Technology shares fell more than the rest of the market after business software maker Oracle reported disappointing earnings late Thursday. Oracle plunged $2.71, or 8 percent, to $30.50, the biggest drop in the S&P 500 index. Oracle is struggling to adapt as customers shift away from software installed on their own computers toward software that runs remotely.

Oracle's results are a poor omen for business spending on technology. Technology stocks in the S&P index fell 1.8 percent, the second-biggest decline among the 10 industry groups in the index. The biggest declines were in materials stocks, down 2 percent.

The Nasdaq composite index, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, fell 14 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,350. Apple, the biggest stock in the index, fell $3.84, or 1 percent, to $412.99. Microsoft fell 10 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $33.39.

The price of gold recovered after plunging the day before. Gold was up $6.30, or 0.5 percent, to $1,292.50 an ounce. Crude oil fell $1.90, or 2 percent, to $93.24 a barrel in New York.

The dollar rose against other currencies as traders anticipated that U.S. interest rates would rise as the Fed winds down its bond purchases.

Among other stocks making big moves:

? Darden Restaurants, which runs Olive Garden and Red Lobster, fell $1.97, or 3.8 percent, to $49.26 after rising expenses hurt its fourth-quarter earnings.

? CarMax, which runs used car dealerships, reported that its first-quarter profit jumped 21 percent as sales rose. Its stock rose in morning trading but then gave up its gains. In the afternoon its stock was down $2.02, or 4.5 percent, to $42.56.

A Fed policy statement and comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke started the selling in stocks, bonds and commodities Wednesday. Bernanke said the Fed expects to scale back its bond-buying program later this year and end it by mid-2014 if the economy continues to improve. The bank has been buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bonds, which has made borrowing cheap for consumers and businesses. The program has also encouraged investors to buy stocks instead of bonds.

The S&P 500 is still up 10.9 percent, for the year, not far from its full-year increase of 13.4 percent last year.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei index rose 1.7 percent, but other Asian markets fell. European markets slipped. France's CAC-40 fell 1 percent and Germany's DAX fell 1.8 percent.

The real question will be whether the sell-off continues next week, said Frank Fantozzi, CEO of Planned Financial Services. So far, it's more of an adjustment. "If the flow out of equities starts to increase, this might be the pullback we've been waiting for," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-mostly-lower-wall-street-170004639.html

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US government files criminal charges against Edward Snowden over PRISM leaks

The Washington Post reports tonight that, as expected, the US Government has filed criminal charges against Edward Snowden for leaking information about NSA surveillance programs to the Post and Guardian. The charges listed include Theft of Government Property, Unauthorized Communications on National Defense Information and "Willful Communication of Classified Information to an Unauthorized Person." The charges are filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the headquarters of Snowden's employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, are located. So what's next? According to the paper, the government has asked Hong Kong to detain Snowden on a provisional warrant, however if a fight over extradition or request for asylum could delay the process.

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Source: Washington Post, Official Complaint

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/21/us-government-files-criminal-charges-against-edward-snowden-over/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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NEW YORK: First Apple computer could fetch $500,000 or more ...

This undated photo provided by Christie?s Auction House shows an ?Apple 1? prototype computer, built in 1976, accompanied by an operation manual and schematic as well as a photo of its inventors, Steve Wozniak, left, and Steve Jobs. One of the very first Apple 1 computers, it goes on sale later this month at Christie's auction house, the latest in a recent run of vintage tech sales that have attracted some eye-popping prices.

CHRISTIES IMAGES LTD. 2013 ? AP Photo

NEW YORK ? It's the kind of electronic junk that piles up in basements and garages - an old computer motherboard with wires sticking out.

But because it was designed and sold by two college dropouts named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it could be worth more than half a million dollars.

An Apple 1 from 1976, one of the first Apple computers ever built and forerunner of today's MacBooks, IPads and IPhones, goes on the auction block at Christie's next week. The bidding starts at $300,000, with a pre-sale estimated value of up to $500,000.

"This is a piece of history that made a difference in the world, it's where the computer revolution started," said Ted Perry, a retired school psychologist who owns the old Apple and has kept it stashed away in a cardboard box at his home outside Sacramento, Calif.

The 11-by-14 green piece of plastic covered with a grid of memory chips above a labyrinth of wires was one of the first 25 such computer elements, and sold for $666.66.

About 200 were made but most have disappeared or been discarded. Various estimates put the number known to still exist from about 30 to 50. They came with eight kilobytes of memory - a million times less than the average computer today.

Vintage Apple products have become an especially hot item since Jobs' death in October 2011, surrounding the mystique attached to this entrepreneur who joined forces with Wozniak to build computer prototypes in a California garage.

Another Apple 1 was sold last month for a record $671,400 by a German auction house, breaking a previous record of $640,000 set in November. Sotheby's sold one last year for $374,500.

"This is the seed from which the entire orchard grew, and without this, there would be no Apple," said Stephen A. Edwards, professor of computer science at Columbia University. "I've been shocked auction prices got into the six digits. The market has just gone crazy."

The latest auction at Christie's, "First Bytes: Iconic Technology from the Twentieth Century," is being conducted online only from June 24 to July 9. The Apple 1 is to be displayed starting Monday at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, south of San Francisco.

Perry, 70, acquired his Apple 1 in either 1979 or 1980, as a secondhand item he saw advertised.

He paid nothing for it; it was a swap with the owner.

"I traded some other computer equipment I had for the Apple 1," he said.

At the time, he was working as a psychologist in a school in Carmichael, a town near Sacramento. While observing special needs children, he noticed that a teletype machine "made a huge difference" in how a deaf boy using it responded and learned.

As the first computers came on the market, Perry learned to program them. Then he approached Wozniak, who agreed to provide what the psychologist calls Apple's "internal code" so he could create interactive lessons for his students using the new technology.

An expert hired by Christie's recently came to Perry's home to examine the old Apple and try to turn it on. Only the Apple motherboard is original. A keyboard, monitor and a storage device - in this case a portable cassette tape deck - were added later.

"I was a little afraid to run it, but it still works, with the original chips!" he says.

Source: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/06/21/3548816/first-apple-computer-could-fetch.html

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Iceland businessman says plane ready for Snowden

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) ? An Icelandic business executive said Friday that a private plane is on standby to transport National Security Agency secrets leaker Edward Snowden from Hong Kong to Iceland.

Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson said he has not spoken directly with Snowden but has been in touch with a third party representing him.

The businessman, who has connections to the WikiLeaks secret-spilling organization, said he has access to planes in Hong Kong and mainland China that Snowden could use.

But Iceland's government says it has not received an asylum request from Snowden, who has revealed his role in providing secret NSA documents about widespread surveillance programs.

Iceland Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Tomasson said Snowden hasn't approached the ministry and could initiate an asylum request if he was already in Iceland.

When asked about the reports of Sigurvinsson chartering a private plane to fly Snowden to Iceland, Tomasson said: "We don't object to that. But we don't have any knowledge other than what has been in the news. We can't comment any further on that."

U.S. officials have expressed an interest in prosecuting Snowden for his admitted role in the publication of the documents. Snowden fled to Hong Kong and is hiding.

Sigurvinsson said that Snowden's potential private flight is being funded by private donations.

"There are a number of people that are interested in freedom of speech and recognize the importance of knowing who is spying on us," he said. "We are people that care about privacy."

Money is being raised on Snowden's behalf by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee based in the United States, but it was not immediately clear if any of these funds would be used for the flight.

Sigurvinsson is a former director of DataCell, a data hosting service provider that, as one of its services, processed donations for WikiLeaks. He previously worked for investment and technology companies, including Baugur Group, MerkurPoint and iCell.

He said his group hopes to obtain Icelandic citizenship for Snowden.

"We are hoping that the government does what they did with Bobby Fischer," he said, referring to the late chess master who went to Iceland to escape U.S. prosecution for breaking sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia. "We will see what happens."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iceland-businessman-says-plane-ready-snowden-133414615.html

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Senators closing in on border security compromise

WASHINGTON (AP) ? White House-backed immigration legislation gained momentum in the Senate on Thursday as lawmakers closed in on a bipartisan compromise to spend tens of billions of dollars stiffening the bill's border security requirements without delaying legalization for millions living in the country unlawfully.

"Once the Senate adopts our amendment, I will be proud to vote for a bill that secures our border and respects our heritage as an immigrant nation," Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said in a statement. Additional GOP support was expected as a result of measures that backers dubbed a "border surge."

Under the emerging compromise, the government would grant legal status to immigrants living in the United States illegally at the same time the additional security was being put into place. Green cards, which signify permanent residency status, would be withheld until the security steps were complete.

Officials said the plan envisions doubling the size of the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents, completing 700 miles of new fencing along the border with Mexico and purchasing new surveillance drones to track would-be illegal border crossers. The cost of the additional agents alone was put at $30 billion over a decade.

In addition, immigrants would not be able to claim credit for Social Security taxes they paid while working without lawful status. Credits are used to determine the amount in Social Security benefits a worker receives after retirement.

Under another change, neither the administration nor states would be permitted to grant welfare benefits for five years to immigrants currently living unlawfully in the United States

There was no immediate reaction from the White House to terms hashed out by senators in both parties, although Democrats kept administration officials apprised of the talks.

The agreement began to take shape over the past several days beginning with a series of meetings involving Republicans who were uncommitted on the legislation but receptive to supporting it after changes were made. Eventually, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., both authors of the bill, joined the talks.

If agreed to, the changes could clear the way for a strong bipartisan vote within a few days to pass the measure that sits atop President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda.

The officials who described the emerging deal spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

The developments came as Democrats who met with House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday quoted him as saying he expected the House to pass its own version of an immigration bill this summer and Congress to have a final compromise by year's end.

Boehner, R-Ohio, already has said the legislation that goes to the House in the next month or two will not include a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the United States illegally.

The potential compromise in the Senate came into focus Wednesday, one day after the Congressional Budget Office jolted lawmakers with an estimate saying that as drafted, the legislation would fail to prevent a steady increase in the future in the number of residents living in the United States illegally.

The estimate appeared to give added credibility to Republicans who have been pressing Democrats to toughen the border security provisions already written into the bill.

"Our whole effort has been to build a bipartisan group that will support the bill," said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who's helped develop the deal along with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "That's what this is all about, and it's focused on border security."

Schumer and Menendez met at midday Wednesday with Graham, Hoeven, Corker and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The Democrats, Graham and McCain are part of the so-called Gang of Eight.

It was unclear which other portions of the Senate legislation might be changed. There is pressure from some Republicans to make sure no federal benefits go to immigrants who are in the country illegally, at least until they become citizens.

The underlying legislation already envisions more border agents; additional fencing along the U.S-Mexico border; surveillance drones; a requirement for employers to verify the legal status of potential workers; and a biometric system to track foreigners who enter and leave the United States at air and seaports and by land.

Schumer said discussions with Republicans "have been really productive."

"We've made a lot of progress in the last 24 hours. Now we have some vetting to do with our respective allies," he said.

If ratified, the compromise would mark concessions on both sides.

Some Republicans have been unwilling to support a bill that grants legal status to immigrants in the country illegally until the government certifies that the border security steps have achieved 90 percent effectiveness in stopping would-be border crossers.

On the other hand, Democrats have opposed Republican proposals to make legalization contingent on success in closing the border to illegal crossings. Under the legislation as drafted, legalization could begin as soon as a security plan was drafted, but a 10-year wait is required for a green card.

One plan to change that was sidetracked on a vote of 61-37 Wednesday.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said his proposal would require Congress to vote annually for five years on whether the border is secure. If lawmakers decide it is not, "then the processing of undocumented workers stops until" it is, he said. The decision would be made based on numerous factors, including progress toward completion of a double-layered fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and toward a goal of 95 percent capture of illegal entrants. A system to track the border comings and goings of foreigners is also required.

Across the Capitol, House Republican leaders sought to present a friendlier face to Hispanics ? a group that gave Obama more than 70 percent support in last year's presidential election.

Boehner met with the Democratic-dominated Congressional Hispanic Caucus, while rank-and-file members of his party reviewed areas of agreement with Latino religious leaders.

"It's a conversation Republicans want to have," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said later at a news conference outside the Capitol.

Separately, the House Judiciary Committee approved legislation creating a program allowing farm workers to come to the United States to take temporary jobs in the United States.

The measure is one of several that the panel is considering in the final weeks of June as part of a piece-by-piece approach to immigration rather than the all-in-one bill that Senate is considering.

___

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-20-US-Immigration/id-003cdd0354fe4297b18268b947c1576a

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The Grammarphobia Blog: Rental telepathy

Q: I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and listen to Pat on WNYC, but I couldn?t get through on the phone to ask her this question: What do you call someone who subleases an apartment FROM somebody, and someone who subleases an apartment TO somebody? I?ve seen so many variations that I?m going mental.

A: It?s not surprising that you?ve noticed some confusion in these terms, since your neighborhood is a hot spot in a fevered urban real estate market.

To begin with, let?s imagine the classic rental relationship?landlord and tenant. The ?lessor? is the one who grants the lease (the landlord). The ?lessee? is the one who?s granted the lease (the tenant).

Now if this primary tenant (or ?lessee?) then subleases his apartment to someone else, he becomes a ?sublessor.? And the person who?s granted the sublease is the ?sublessee? (also called a subtenant).

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a ?sublease? as ?a lease granted by a person who is himself or herself a lessee of the property in question.?

A ?sublessor,? in the OED?s definition, is ?a person who grants a sublease,? and a ?sublessee? is ?a person to whom a sublease is granted.?

An all-purpose term, ?subletter,? can refer to either a ?sublessor? or a ?sublessee,? according to the OED, but you won?t find it in most standard dictionaries, so we?d be hesitant to recommend it. (Besides, it?s ambiguous.)

By the way, the terms ?sublease? and ?sublet? (both as nouns and as verbs) mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably.

All these terms naturally feel very contemporary. But in fact they?ve been around for quite a while.

?Lease,? in the sense we?re talking about, first appeared in writing as a noun in 1483 and as a verb in 1570.

Both came into English from Anglo-Norman and are traceable to an Old French verb, lesser or laissier, meaning ?to let, let go.? (The modern French equivalent is laisser.)?

The ultimate source, however, is Latin?the verb laxare (to loosen), derived? from the adjective laxus (loose).

Here are some related terms, along with the dates they first appeared in writing, according to OED citations:

?Lessor? 1487; ?lessee? 1495; ?sublease? 1758 (noun), 1824 (verb); ?let? 909 (verb meaning to rent); ?sublet? 1766 (verb), 1834 (noun); ?sublessee? 1651; ?sublessor? 1813; ?subletter? 1825.

One final note. Like ?rent,? the verbs ?lease,? ?sublease,? and ?sublet? work both ways?they can mean either to grant a rental contract or to assume one.

In other words, you can lease or sublease or sublet property to someone or from someone.?

Check out our books about the English language

Source: http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/06/rental-telepathy.html

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High court sets stage for frantic week

The U.S. Supreme Court, Oct. 8, 2010 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)

To the dismay of court watchers everywhere, the Supreme Court did not hand down decisions in the four biggest pending cases Thursday, leaving their simultaneous release for the final, frantic week of the court's term.

Opinions that could drastically expand the rights of gays and lesbians in society, sharply curtail the use of race in college admissions, and strike down civil rights legislation protecting minorities at the ballot box could all be released at the same time on Monday, unless the court adds more decision days to its schedule for later that week.

Though undoubtedly every case the nine justices decide has important effects on the legal system, each term a handful of controversial cases particularly capture the public's attention. This year, the court decided to wade into the gay marriage debate for the first time in its history, and also took up two landmark cases involving race. One of the cases, a challenge to the University of Texas' affirmative action program, was argued in front of the court all the way back in October, and many legal experts are stumped as to why the justices have taken such an unusually long time to release an opinion.

It's common for the court to delay releasing its biggest decisions until the very last day. Last year, the court did just that, releasing its bombshell decision upholding the health care law on June 28. This is often because the controversial cases are the most difficult, and require more back and forth between the justices' dissents and the main opinion and concurrences.

Two highly anticipated gay marriage cases?Perry v. Hollingsworth and Windsor v. United States?are sure to have attracted just this sort of judicial shuffling.

In the Perry case, the court is expected decide whether California voters discriminated against gay people when they voted "yes" to Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in 2008. In Windsor, the court is weighing whether the federal Defense of Marriage Act?which limits all federal marriage benefits to opposite sex couples?violates the constitutional rights of same-sex couples.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative-leaning swing vote on the court with a history of backing gay rights, is expected to decide the fate of both cases.

But it's possible that the justices could dodge the legal heart of those two cases?whether gays and lesbians have a fundamental right to marriage?and instead rule narrowly on procedural or standing grounds.

David Boies, an attorney representing same-sex couples in California in the Perry case, has said he believes the justices will rule that the proponents of Proposition 8 do not have the legal standing to challenge the lower court's ruling striking down the ban. (In the Prop 8 case, California elected officials opted not to appeal the lower court's ruling, and it's unclear if an unelected coalition of Prop 8 supporters have the legal right to appeal on behalf of California voters.) If the court rules on these narrow grounds, it would make same-sex marriage legal again in California without having any implications for the dozens of states that currently ban same-sex marriage. This would punt the fundamental gay marriage question down the road for the court to decide later.

In the DOMA case, the justices may decide to strike it down based on the federalist argument that states should be allowed to define marriage for themselves. It's also possible that the justices will decide that Congress doesn't have the standing to defend the law, after the Obama administration's justice department declined to defend it in court. Either possibility would result in a narrow decision without much legal implications for the gay rights movement's larger argument that same-sex couples should be allowed to wed.

The two cases involving race, Shelby County v. Holder and Fisher v. University of Texas, will also most likely be released Monday or another decision day next week.

In Shelby, the justices could significantly scale back the federal government's right to supervise states with a history of voting discrimination against minorities. If the justices decide to strike down this key part of the Voting Rights Act?a cornerstone of the civil rights movement that helped dismantle decades of discriminatory voting restrictions?states would have more leeway to pass laws the Obama administration considers to be discriminatory. These include laws that tighten identification requirements and limit early voting hours at the ballot box, which have passed in dozens of states in the past few years.

In Fisher, the court will decide whether universities can use race as a factor in undergraduate admissions. The Supreme Court established in 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger that universities could use race as a factor in admissions as long as they did not use quotas (for example, that 10 percent of the class must be black). The justices said affirmative action was still necessary to counteract the effects of institutionalized racism that had prevented minorities from attending college in the past. The majority wrote that they believed that in 25 years, affirmative action would no longer be necessary and should be stopped.

It's possible that the justices will use Abigail Fisher's complaint that she was rejected from UT because she is white to step up the timeline set out in the 2003 decision, and reject the college's use of affirmative action as unconstitutional. The college argues that Fisher's grade point average and standardized test scores made her inadmissible regardless of her race, and that using race as one factor in admission helps them maintain a diverse student body.

The justices also have the option of not deciding some of the cases at all, which would mean they would have to be reargued in October. But that's rare. A hectic Monday full of four legal landscape-changing decisions is much more likely.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/supreme-court-holds-big-four-cases-final-frantic-170036331.html

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