Stars illuminate Celtics' Garden party - The Boston Globe
The cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France winner, who ran to raise money for his foundation, seemed happy to reach the finish line. He got there in 2 hours, 50 minutes and 58 seconds - better than the three-hour finish he was hoping for. While the Red Sox finished their holiday weekend sweep of the Texas Rangers, pitcher Curt Schilling 's wife, Shonda, finished the marathon in under five hours, having run for the fourth time to raise money for the Shade Foundation.
Outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury 's girlfriend, Kelsey Hawkins (who finished in just over five hours), and Mike Timlin 's wife, Dawn (who ran the course in less than 4 1 2 hours), both ran on behalf of the Angel Fund, which supports ALS research. Also among the notable local runners: former acting governor Jane Swift, who finished in just under five hours and raised more than $10,000 for Children's Hospital Boston.
As the race continued into the early afternoon, Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi arrived at the Lenox Hotel and began asking about the 50 or so runners on his Tedy's Team, who ran to raise money for the American Stroke Association.
With his wife, Heidi, never far away, Bruschi was followed by an NFL film crew as he kept a watchful eye over the finish line from the Lenox's new presidential suite on the second floor. Up on the roof of the Boylston Street hotel near the finish line, we spotted the hotel's owner, Roger Saunders, his wife, Norma, and a large contingent of their family.
Also taking in the spectacular views were Boston artist and designer Anja Kola, event planner Susan Callendar, legal eagle Richard Glovsky, and real estate consultant Alison Drescher. Singer James Taylor was supposed to stop by, too, if he could get through the teeming crowds.
Meanwhile, across Boylston, PR princess Marlo Fogelman made the most of her third-story office space by hosting what is becoming one of the hotter Marathon Monday invites.
Among those at Fogelman's office were developer Mark Goldweitz and his wife, Joyce ; Cartier biggie Cedric Tonello and his wife, Thanh ; PR maven Doris Yaffe ; restaurateurs Garrett Harker and Patrick Lee ; chef Anthony Susi ; Salon Capri's Nicholas Penna, who was keeping an eye out for his wife, Amy, who ran the marathon; Mary Chiochios of the Massachusetts Film Bureau; and cinematographer Terrence Hayes, whose local credits include Dave McLaughlin 's "On Broadway."
Bannon grew up in Somerville, attended the Prospect Hill Academy high school, and now calls Winthrop home. A lifelong Red Sox fan, he met the world champs when they toured Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington in February. Bannon asked fellow Purple Heart recipient Senator John Kerry to join him in throwing out the first pitch.
A boatload of prizes at the Nantucket Film Festival Writer director Judd Apatow, whose credits include "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," will receive the Screenwriter's Tribute Award at the Nantucket Film Festival in June.
Meg Ryan, a summer regular on Martha's Vineyard, will be the annual film gathering's first recipient of the Compass Rose Acting Tribute Award, established to honor actors who inspire writers to create roles for them. The four-day fest will open with Brad Anderson 's "Transsiberian" and close with "The Wackness," which stars Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, and Mary-Kate Olsen.
Margolis lights up BPL dinner Boston's literati gathered Sunday night to raise money for the Boston Public Library, but the real star of the "Literary Lights Dinner" was ousted library chief Bernard Margolis, who got a five-minute standing ovation from the black-tie garbed attendees. Margolis was forced out late last year after clashing with Mayor Tom Menino, who drew the ire of the keynote speaker, the Rev. Peter Gomes.
Without mentioning Menino by name, the Harvard professor and minister warned that the BPL was in danger of becoming "a minor bureaucratic sinkhole." The eight "Lights" celebrated at the swanky gala were authors Geraldine Brooks, Stephen Carter, Frances FitzGerald, Richard Ford, Tony Horwitz, P.J. O'Rourke, Gordon Wood, and the late David Halberstam.
Others attending included novelist Tom Perrotta and New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, both presenters, Lewis's wife, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, and several financial wizards including Peter Lynch, Tom Stemberg, and John Spooner, a former Literary Light.
Norton Award to Nicholas Martin Tony-winning actress Andrea Martin will kick things off next month when the Elliot Norton Awards present the Prize for Sustained Excellence to the Huntington Theatre Company's outgoing artistic director Nicholas Martin.
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BBC NEWS Business RBS 'plans to sell insurance arm'
The businesses could raise up to 5bn for RBS, the Sunday Telegraph said. The report comes as RBS executives meet to discuss plans to ask shareholders for up to 12bn of extra cash. The board is set to unveil the plan to raise money from existing investors on Tuesday. It will be the biggest rights issue in UK corporate history. RBS, wants to shore up its financial position amid the global credit crunch, declined to comment on the report that it was to sell its insurance arm.
However chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin is understood to be keen to keep the businesses. Prudent measure' Insurance giants AIG, Allianz, Axa and Generali have made "preliminary enquiries" about snapping up RBS's insurance business, the Sunday Telegraph said. WHAT IS A RIGHTS ISSUE? Should RBS ask for more cash?
The rights issue is thought to be a prudent measure to provide a capital cushion for the amount of risk on its balance sheet after RBS played a leading role in last year's takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro. The Sunday Telegraph said that Sir Fred held secret talks with the Financial Services Authority about the prospect of a rights issue.
Reports suggest other banks - including Barclays and HBOS - have talked with the City watchdog about similar plans. The paper added that the chiefs of other banks had also met with the head of the FSA, Hector Sants, over the possibility of going to their shareholders for cash.
Both Barclays and HBOS declined to comment on the report. However there has been no suggestion that the FSA has tried to force any bank into going to its shareholders to raise cash. Chancellor Alistair Darling has also said that more banks are likely to unveil plans to boost their capitalisation.
RBS, owner of NatWest, Ulster Bank and insurer Direct Line, has not yet commented on its plans to begin a rights issue. It will issue a trading update on Tuesday, ahead of its annual meeting on Wednesday. The statement is expected to reveal write-downs of about 5bn as a result of the bank's exposure to the credit markets.
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Mattel posts loss as Fisher-Price sales slip Reuters
Monday, hurt by lower sales of its Fisher-Price products, legal expenses and higher costs. The maker of Barbie dolls and toys tied to several big summer films said its first-quarter loss totaled $46.6 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $12 million, or 3 cents a share. Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 1 cent per share. Sales fell 2 percent to $919.3 million, below analysts' estimates of $932.5 million.
Wall Street analysts have said Mattel's margins should be pressured through the second quarter as the company grapples with higher testing and legal expenses stemming from last year's global recalls. The first quarter is typically a down period for toy companies as demand falls after the holiday shopping season, when most of the year's sales are made.
Price increases should help profitability in the second half of the year, Chief Executive Robert Eckert said in a statement. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes.
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US Congress debates expanding controversial visa programme World news guardian.co.uk
It was last updated at 15:39 on April 21 2008. Jack Brooks would prefer to hire Americans to clean and cook crabs for his seafood wholesaler. But it's tough, seasonal and low-paying labour, and native-born workers these days seem to have better things to do.
They have other opportunities," he said, noting that the local work force in his area is far better educated than when his family founded the company in 1890. We just don't have enough Americans to do that work anymore." So Brooks relies on Mexican workers willing to take jobs that last only through the 10-month crabbing season, and pay between $5.85 (2.95) and $15 (7.50) per hour.
Brooks and a coalition of business groups came to Capitol Hill in Washington to ask the US Congress to expand a controversial visa programme that allows foreign workers to take seasonal, low-wage, temporary jobs Americans will not do. The number allowed in the country is now capped at 66,000, down from roughly 130,000 last year. Labour and anti-immigrant groups have aligned against the expansion, with some calling for its overhaul or elimination.
The debate over the work permits, called H-2B visas has been subsumed in the larger debate over how the US government should handle the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country. With a new president set to take office in January, it's unclear when the issue will be resolved. Backers of the programme say it should be expanded from the current cap because companies in seasonal industries are burdened by a shortage of American workers willing to take those jobs.
Labour groups and some economists oppose expanding the programme and instead call for its elimination. They say that with the US on the brink of recession, unemployment on the rise and wage growth virtually stagnant, US companies should not be recruiting foreign workers.
Companies as diverse as hotels and seafood processors, however, say they cannot stay in business if they cannot bring in foreign workers to wait tables, clean guestrooms - and pick crabs.
One question central to the debate is whether a labour shortage actually exists, as the business groups claim, or whether companies would rather hire foreign workers at lower cost than recruit across a more broad swath of the US, or increase wages to attract Americans.
Our national policy is not that employers should be able to hire workers at whatever wage they choose to offer, even if that means recruiting from abroad," Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of think tank Economic Policy Institute, said in remarks prepared this week for a Wednesday hearing before a House of Representatives subcommittee.
At the hearing, congressmen of both parties from Maryland, Michigan and New York called for the programme to be expanded, saying their districts' economic wellbeing depends on the ability to recruit foreign workers.
Many landscaping businesses, resorts, restaurants, carnivals, seafood processing and other seasonal businesses are facing significant labour shortages this year," said Democrat Bart Stupak of Michigan, who has introduced legislation that would allow workers granted an H-2B visa to return the following year without counting against the national cap.
One of the most powerful unions in the nation, the AFL-CIO, maintains foreign workers recruited under the visa programme are subject to exploitation by unscrupulous recruiters and employers, and said the annual influx of foreigners drives down wages for US workers. Many employers find guest workers advantageous precisely because they will work for far lower wages and benefits than other US workers," union president John Sweeney said in a statement.
President George Bush and a bi-partisan Senate coalition sought last year to overhaul the immigration system and create a guest worker programme and a path to legal status for undocumented aliens. The push met fierce resistance from conservative Republicans who responded to an outcry among the party rank-and-file over what they viewed as an invasion of foreign workers.
Among the presidential candidates, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supported the bill, while Republican nominee John McCain did not vote on the measure.
The three presidential candidates have shown they are willing, in varying degrees, to consider what's known as comprehensive immigration reform, the combination of enhanced border security and some sort of path to legal status for undocumented workers. McCain, an Arizona senator, was an early proponent in his party of that approach, but has pulled back since his current run for president. He now says that securing the US borders is the most pressing part of the immigration issue.
Clinton, a New York senator, opposes a guest worker program that "exploits workers and creates a supply of cheap labour that undermines the wages of US workers," but it's unclear whether that includes the H-2B visa programme. Her campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Obama, a senator from Illinois, has called for increasing the number of people allowed into the country to meet "the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill."
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