Friday, November 9, 2012

JPMorgan reaches deal with SEC staff on two mortgage probes

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Private equity: Kinder and gentler? - Term Sheet - Fortune Finance

FORTUNE -- Ken Mehlman isn't a private equity investor, but he has been one of the industry's most influential figures this year. As global head of public affairs for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Mehlman has spearheaded a campaign to defend his firm and its peers from attacks that have resulted from Mitt Romney's presidential candidacy.

"Private equity is no longer private," Mehlman quips in an interview.

Indeed, for the past year firms such as Bain Capital, which Romney co-founded, have been very much in the public eye, portrayed in ads and remarks by President Barack Obama's campaign (and earlier, by Romney's GOP rivals) as job-slashing, greed monsters.

As the former head of the Republican National Committee and a campaign manager for President George W. Bush, Mehlman is particularly qualified to help financiers shape their message in an election year. Mehlman's main talking point? Private equity firms take the kind of bold financial risks that strengthen businesses in ways that benefit the American economy. "You can't invest in large businesses around the world today unless you are willing to help provide a thorough understanding of who you really are, and engage around issues that affect things like the environment, workers, and local communities," Mehlman explains.

MORE:?Congratulations, Mr. President - here's how to fix the economy

It hasn't been an easy sell. For starters, the men and women who run private equity firms are notoriously guarded; they don't like talking to the media about anything, let alone about how their operations really work. Even Romney shied away from discussing specifics of Bain's investments.

Mehlman's strategy has been to work through the Private Equity Growth Capital Council, a trade group formed in 2006, to spread the word.

Ken Mehlman

Ken Mehlman

In its early years, PEGCC was considered so ineffective that some of its earliest member firms bailed (including Bain Capital), and its founding CEO was sacked in the summer of 2011. Since then, the group has sprinted to relevance -- publishing data, putting out papers?explaining private equity's relationship with public pensions, and even producing a video series about private equity-backed companies.

And it's Mehlman who is widely credited with the group's new strategic direction, along with fellow PEGCC board member David Marchick (a former Clinton Administration official who now runs external relations for The Carlyle Group).

"Ken, and maybe to a bit of a lesser extent David, recognized early that we all had a lot at stake if Romney was the nominee," explains a senior private equity executive. "They've really put in place something that we probably should have had long before this."

Mehlman, of course, defers praise to others, including new PEGCC CEO Steve Judge and communications chief Ken Spain (a former?National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman). But the vision has mostly been Mehlman's, with Judge and Spain serving as translators into action.

Private equity executives will long remember 2012 as the year in which they were reluctantly thrust into the public spotlight. And they will remember that Ken Mehlman helped keep the unwelcome glare from burning too badly.

A shorter version of this story appeared in the November 12, 2012 issue of Fortune.

Source: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/08/private-equity-election/

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Sandy-battered NYC, NJ prepare for new storm

A sign warning against looting is posted in the Nejecho Beach neighborhood of Brick, N.J. Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, after the area suffered serious damage from last week's storm surge from Superstorm Sandy. Brick is ordering mandatory evacuations in advance of an approaching nor'easter. Residents in the low-lying waterfront sections of Brick Township have been told to leave their homes by 6 p.m. Tuesday. Those areas are prone to flooding and storm surges. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

A sign warning against looting is posted in the Nejecho Beach neighborhood of Brick, N.J. Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, after the area suffered serious damage from last week's storm surge from Superstorm Sandy. Brick is ordering mandatory evacuations in advance of an approaching nor'easter. Residents in the low-lying waterfront sections of Brick Township have been told to leave their homes by 6 p.m. Tuesday. Those areas are prone to flooding and storm surges. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Bill Klipp, of Florida works on cleaning out his father's flood damaged home Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Brick, N.J. Brick is ordering mandatory evacuations in advance of an approaching nor'easter and in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Jim Arasz, of Mount Laurel, N.J., carries trash bags of debris as he helps clean out a friends flood damaged home Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Brick, N.J., after the area suffered serious damage from last week's storm surge from Superstorm Sandy. Brick is ordering mandatory evacuations in advance of an approaching nor'easter.(AP Photo/Mel Evans)

(AP) ? Residents of New York and New Jersey who were flooded out by Superstorm Sandy waited with dread Wednesday and heard warnings to evacuate for the second time in two weeks as another, weaker storm spun toward them and threatened to inundate their homes again or simply leave them shivering in the dark for even longer.

"Everyone has major anxiety after what we just experienced a week ago," said Anthony Ferrante, whose house is less than a thousand feet from the Staten Island shoreline. "I think everybody's freaked out about what happened."

Ferrante was back at his house on Wednesday, waiting for an insurance adjustor. "But if it starts, I'm getting out of here," he said of the nor'easter.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered police to use their patrol car loudspeakers to warn vulnerable residents about evacuating, one of a number of measures that the beleaguered city was taking even as weather experts said Wednesday's nor'easter could be weaker than expected.

"Even though it's not anywhere near as strong as Sandy ? nor strong enough, in normal times, for us to evacuate anybody ? out of precaution and because of the changing physical circumstances, we are going to go to some small areas and ask those people to go to higher ground," Bloomberg said Tuesday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency put a number to the storm's homeless in New York and New Jersey, saying 95,000 people were eligible for emergency housing assistance. In New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, more than 277,000 people have registered for general assistance, the agency said.

In New Jersey, winds were kicking up Wednesday morning and some battered shore communities were ordering mandatory evacuations for later in the day.

Atlantic County, in the southern part of New Jersey, activated its emergency operations center and told residents to restock their emergency supplies.

Officials were waiting for the first high tide around 1 p.m. to see if flooding would occur and also hoping the winds would not lead to more power outages.

"We have almost everyone who possibly can be reconnected back on. The idea we could now be facing power outages again does not come at a good time," county spokeswoman Linda Gilmore said.

Major airlines were scrapping flights in and out of the New York area ahead of the storm.

United, the world's largest airline, suspended most New York City service starting at noon American Airlines was shutting down in New York at 3 p.m. Wednesday, and was also stopping flights to and from Philadelphia at noon.

Most other airlines asked passengers to reschedule their Northeast flights for a later date.

While New York City officials strongly encouraged storm-ravaged communities to seek higher ground, some refused, choosing to stick close to the belongings they have left.

And weather experts had some relatively good news. As the storm moves up the Atlantic coast from Florida, it now is expected to veer farther offshore than earlier projections had indicated.

Storm surges along the coasts of New Jersey and New York are expected to reach perhaps 3 feet, only half to a third of what Hurricane Sandy caused last week. While that should produce only minor flooding, it will still likely cause some erosion problems along the Jersey coast and the shores of Long Island, where Sandy destroyed some protective dunes.

And it still carried the threat of wind gusts that could bring down tree limbs weakened by Sandy. High winds, which could reach 65 mph, could extend inland throughout the day, potentially stalling power restoration efforts or causing further outages.

"Our house is already in shambles. What worse can happen?" said a resigned and overwhelmed Lilly Wu.

Last week, her family huddled upstairs as the flood rose 10 feet inside their four-story Staten Island home; her 7-year-old daughter was "shaking from head to toe." They were rescued the next day.

Now they're bunking in the kids' room and basement at their friends' home in Brooklyn.

Her 6-year-old son has told her: "'I want my bed, Mommy; I want my blanket.'"

The city was closing all parks, playgrounds and beaches, as well as ordering all construction sites to be secured. Tuesday evening, the mayor ordered three nursing homes and an adult care facility evacuated from Queens' vulnerable Rockaway Peninsula because of fears the weather might knock out electricity already being provided by generators. About 620 residents were being moved.

Since the superstorm made landfall more than a week ago, killing many of its more than 100 victims in New York City and New Jersey and leaving millions without power, police said overall crime has actually gone down. There are few reports storm-damaged homes being looted.

But Alex Ocasio wasn't convinced. The nursing home worker planned to ride out the latest storm in his first-floor Rockaway apartment ? even after seeing cars float by his front door during Sandy.

As the water receded, men dressed in dark clothes broke down the door and were surprised to find him and other residents inside, he said.

"They tried to say they were rescue workers, then took off," he said.

He put up a handmade sign ? "Have gun. Will shoot U" ? outside his apartment and started using a bed frame to barricade the door. He has gas, so he keeps the oven on and boils water to stay warm at night.

"It gets a little humid, but it's not bad," he said. "I'm staying. Nothing can be worse than what happened last week."

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said it wasn't wise to stay put. "I think your life is more important than property," he said.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Malcolm Ritter, Eileen AJ Connelly and Jennifer Peltz in New York and Larry Neumeister and Frank Eltman on Long Island.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-07-Superstorm-Sandy/id-cc3bab0178a642b98c2c49a73d969303

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Cisco RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall


The Cisco RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall offers security-conscious small businesses an easy-to-set-up box that functions as a router, firewall, VPN server, and a wireless access point all in one.?best of the Year 2012 43x85 The well-organized Web interface is chock-full of management options, including port forwarding, firewall access rules and creating VPN user accounts. As a router, however, the RV110W is fairly basic as it doesn?t support Gigabit Ethernet or offer dual-band wireless. While those two things would have been nice to have, their omission is not surprising, considering the RV110W?s sub-$100 price tag.

Features
The key selling point for the RV110W is its built-in support for a VPN server. Remote workers can use the RV110W's VPN to connect and access office printers, databases, and applications as if they were physically in the office. Deploying VPN usually means investing in a more expensive router or other specialized hardware, so getting a VPN router for $99 or less is quite a bargain.

As a VPN server, RV110W supports both PPTP and QuickVPN. PPTP is the easier connection protocol as it is supported by Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and even iOS devices. The App Store has PPTP clients for Apple?s iPads and iPhones.

Another impressive feature in the RV110W: it supports IPv6 out of the box. Businesses thinking about updating their networks to use the newer Internet address standard want IPv6-certified products. Considering that most modern operating systems have IPv6 support built-in, a router that supports the standard makes the transition much smoother.

For wireless connectivity, RV110W broadcasts on 2.4 GHz-band. Looking for the higher 5 GHz-band? Look elsewhere. Being single-band is not a huge drawback for the RV110W, since many business routers still don?t offer dual-band wireless, but it would have been nice to have.

The Hardware
The Cisco RV110W has one WAN port for Internet connectivity and four LAN ports in the back. There are two external antennas on the back for wireless networking. Square and compact, it has four rubber feet on the bottom to stand-alone or can be wall-mounted. There?s even a lock on the side to physically secure the router in place.

The square and compact box measures 1.18? x 5.91? x 5.91? (HWD) and weighs a mere 0.61 lbs. The black box is pretty nondescript, except for the glossy front panel with indicator lights for power, wireless activity, Internet connectivity, and for each of the four LAN ports. The front panel also has a button for Wi-Fi Protected Setup that makes it adding Wi-Fi clients to the network a snap.

The router offers at most 100Mbps over its wired network as none of the four ports support Gigabit Ethernet. While Gigabit Ethernet is not yet a must-have on most business routers, the increasing number of applications, file-sharing, and video streaming within the office makes it a should-have.

Setup
Unlike other similarly priced Cisco routers, the RV110W does not come with the Cisco Connect software for setup. Instead, I followed the printed Quick Start Guide to connect the firewall and configure the wireless network. When I logged into the Device Manager to finish the process, the Web interface automatically launched a Setup Wizard to collect configuration information. The entire process took less than 10 minutes.

I was impressed that Cisco put in some effort in the wizard to make the router secure. In one of the tests, I tried to quit the setup wizard since the router is configured as a basic gateway by default. The Device Manager forced me to change the admin account?s default password before quitting.

Cisco also requires the password to be strong. When I tried to disable the ?strong password strength? rule in order to set up a weak password, Device Manager displayed messages warning me about the risks. Many routers are vulnerable because the user forgot to change the default password or had set weak ones.

When configuring the wireless network, the wizard prompted me to turn on wireless encryption on the network, such as WPA Personal with TKIP/AES or the stronger WPA2 Personal with AES. Considering that open wireless networks expose users to man-in-the-middle attacks and packet sniffing, I appreciated the wizard selected encryption by default. In fact, when I tried to set up an open wireless network, the wizard displayed warning messages.

The wizard takes care of assigning IP addresses, setting the time, configuring the gateway, and turning on the wireless network. All the other configuration tasks are available in a menu on the Device Manager?s left pane. Clicking on the menu name, such as Firewall, VPN, Wireless, Networking, and Status displayed all the tasks available. After I turned on VPN, I could see when a user was connected to the network. I found it effortless to navigate and understand.

Cisco released the latest firmware update in the middle of testing. After copying the downloaded file to a USB key, it was a snap to upload the firmware to the router using the Web interface.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/o02y6CwtIUs/0,2817,2401754,00.asp

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Drift HD Ghost helmet cam available to pre-order today for $400 (video)

Drift

Drift has updated its HD action camera to help you better document your Baumgartner-esque death defying acts. The Drift HD Ghost gets a two-inch LCD screen with a refreshed control setup and chunky, 1,700mAh battery. The company is boasting that audio on this new unit should be greatly improved (something we took issue with last time out) so the world can hear your blood-curdling screams as you plummet through the stratosphere. It's available to pre-order from today for $399, with the device set to begin shipping from November 19th.

Continue reading Drift HD Ghost helmet cam available to pre-order today for $400 (video)

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Video: Senator-elect Donnelly: ?I bet on the people of Indiana?

Post superstorm, travelers prepare for busy Thanksgiving

High fares, crowded roads and the lingering effects of Superstorm Sandy and its successors: When it comes to Thanksgiving travel, it?s going to take more than a ?perfect storm? of travel hassles to stop Americans from heading to the airport or hitting the road this year.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/49734214#49734214

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Toddler's death shows no zoo is 100 percent safe

Keith Srakocic / AP

The overlook platform where a boy fell into the exhibit home to African painted dogs is seen at the Pittsburgh Zoo on Nov. 5, 2012.

By Andrew Mach, NBC News

The?fatal mauling of a toddler by African wild dogs at the?Pittsburgh Zoo highlights an uncomfortable truth for all zoos: No exhibit is fail-proof.

Striking a balance between providing a safe and yet authentic experience is an evolving science on its own, with the ultimate goal being to protect both animals and visitors, said Doug Warmolts, Director of Animal Care at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.?

?Short of putting everything behind glass and solid barriers, it?s hard to make everything absolutely safe,? Warmolts said. ?People?s expectations when they come to a zoo or aquarium are to have a meaningful experience where they have that connection with the animals, and it?s hard to do that if they?re looking through a chain-link fence.?


Gene J. Puskar / AP file

An African Painted Dog yawns at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium in Pittsburgh as he lays in a pile of hay Thursday, March 12, 2009.

Maddock Derkosh, 2, fell into an African painted dog exhibit late Sunday morning at the?Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. The boy?s mother had put him on a wooden railing at the edge of a viewing deck to see the animals, officials said, and the boy fell into the exhibit. He initially landed on the netting below the deck but bounced several times before dropping about 11 feet into the dog?s enclosure. ?

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Witnesses said at least three dogs surrounded quickly, attacking him at his head, neck and legs. An autopsy revealed Monday that the boy was killed by the animals, not by the fall.

The exhibit housing the wild dogs remained closed Tuesday pending an investigation by police, who said it was still too early to determine whether criminal charges will be brought against the zoo or the boy?s mother. The zoo opened for visitors Tuesday.

Accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums in September ? the gold standard for zoos in the U.S. ? the zoo met or exceeded all safety standards for animals and visitors, Mary Baker, the zoo?s president and CEO, said Monday.

Warmolts said exhibits at accredited zoos are designed by?architecture, engineering and design firms that?understand zoo animals? behavior, from their abilities to jump, climb and dig to how to properly care and set standards for them in a zoo setting.

?We have to blend those together to create an exhibit that?s not only a suitable and enriching environment for the animals and a safe experience for people to feel immersed into that environment,? Warmolts said.

?We have fences and barriers and moats and signs and even zoo staff that can keep visitors at a certain distance from the animals. That?s why what happened is very rare. But we can?t always monitor them," he said.

In San Diego, officials said the incident in Pittsburgh is likely to prompt larger, industry-wide reassessments.

?The way humans interact with animals has changed drastically over the last hundred years, so certainly one of the things that zoos have had to be is highly adaptive, especially in these situations when tragic accidents happen,? Christina Simmons, a spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo, told NBC News.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com?

In Chicago, officials at the Brookfield Zoo said Monday that the events at the Pittsburgh Zoo have so far not prompted the change of any of their practices or protocols.

"We have, like all other accredited institutions, procedures and policies that we follow in the event of an accident -- even a person having a heart attack -- and we also drill on those events too," said Bill Zeigler, the Brookfield Zoo's Senior Vice President of Collections and Animal Programs.?

Even with safety standards enforced, Wamolts said, the zoo industry is constantly dealing with "human error" by its visitors.?

"What happened is very rare," Warmolts said. "We?re always in the process of evaluating and reviewing and making adjustments as needed, and it?s an art to try and determine how to do that. What?s more common is people exhibiting inappropriate behavior. It?s just unfortunate."

Medical examiners say a 2-year-old boy who fell into a Pennsylvania zoo exhibit was killed by the dogs and not by the fall. WPXI's Cara Sapida reports.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/07/14974451-zoo-officials-toddlers-death-in-pittsburgh-shows-no-zoo-is-100-percent-safe?lite

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