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The New York Police Department executed search warrants Tuesday at some offices of The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The New York Post and El Diario newspapers and at a labor union, with authorities saying they were conducting investigations into "business activity."
Local media reports categorized the action as searches of the newspapers' circulation offices in connection with an investigation of the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers' Union of New York.
Deputy Police Commissioner Paul J. Browne confirmed the searches to CNN but neither he nor other city officials would elaborate on the investigation or discuss Tuesday's actions.
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said in a statement, "Today police officers executed search warrants obtained by the District Attorney's office at locations including the offices of a number of print media organizations and a labor union.
"The investigation solely concerns business activity and practice and is completely unrelated to the content of any publication. The investigation is continuing. We can offer no further information at this time."
Reached by phone, the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers' Union's secretary-treasurer, Steven Goldstein, said that the union was not commenting.
Suzi Halpin, a spokesperson for The New York Post, declined to comment. Calls made to The New York Daily News and El Diario were not returned.
Diane McNulty, a spokeswoman for The New York Times, said that police executed a warrant to search the office of an employee at College Point in the Queens section of New York, but that, "The New York Times Company is not a target of the investigation."
When Laura Douglas-Brown got to work on Monday, she saw a note on the door.
"It is with great regret that we must inform you that effective immediately, the operations of Window Media LLC and United Media LLC have closed down." It asked employees to return Wednesday, adding, "Please bring boxes and/or containers that will allow you to collect all your personal belongings at one time."
And with that, Douglas-Brown lost her job at Atlanta, Georgia-based Southern Voice -- the South's main newspaper for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities -- where she has worked for more than 12 years.
Southern Voice, which was in print for more than 20 years and had a 100,000 circulation, was one of several gay newspapers and magazines, including the Washington Blade and South Florida Blade, that were shut down Monday when their parent companies, Window Media and United Media, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
"Certainly we knew finances were tight, but none of us were expecting this today," said Douglas-Brown, who spent her day greeting staffers at the office so they wouldn't find the note alone.
Calls to corporate offices of the parent companies were not immediately returned Monday.
Douglas-Brown said that an investment group, Avalon Equity Fund, owned the majority of Window Media, the country's largest gay and lesbian newspaper publisher. She said employees had heard that Avalon was in receivership with the federal Small Business Administration, which allows the agency to sell the company's assets to satisfy its loans.
However, "We had been told the impact on us would be minimal and that the company would be sold," she said.
Calls to Avalon's offices in New York went unanswered Monday.
Kevin Nass, the editor of the Washington Blade, the nation's the oldest gay newspaper and second-largest by circulation, said when he arrived to work at 8 a.m. Monday, he was met by two corporate officers, notifying him that his paper would be shut down immediately.
"The bottom line was they filed for Chapter 7, which means liquidation," Nass said. "I think a lot of us expected a Chapter 11 reorganization ... but they didn't go that route and I guess the creditors wanted out."
He said the Blade's staff of more than 20 employees would meet Tuesday to discuss their options.
"There's never been more news, more need of this niche," he said, noting that topics like same-sex marriage and the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy put gay publications in demand. The Blade, established in 1969, had a 33,000 circulation.
"The audience is there, the need has never been greater," he added, saying his team planned to launch a new, independent publication.
Douglas-Brown agreed, saying, "It's a tremendous loss. ... None of these publications have been shut down for a lack of stories."
The Federal Reserve announced proposed rules Monday to implement the gift card provisions of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009.
The Fed's rules would restrict fees and expiration dates for gift certificates, store gift cards and general-use prepaid cards.
MaUnder the credit card law enacted in y, Congress directed the Fed to implement these rules.
Specifically, the Fed said the rules would prohibit issuers from charging dormancy fees on cards unless they have been inactive for at least a year. After that, issuers are limited to one fine per month.
The rules would also prevent issuers from charging fees for monthly maintenance, balance inquiry, transactions, reloading, and at the point of the sale.
The Fed's proposal also prevents cards from expiring sooner than five years after the funds are loaded and issued or sold.
The Fed will accept comments from the public for the next 30 days, after which it can revise the proposed rules. The Fed must issue finalized regulations by Feb. 22, and they will be effective by Aug. 22.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who authored the gift card reforms included in the credit card act, said in a statement that the Fed's rules "are the right step, but it would be far better for them to take effect in time for this holiday shopping season. We will continue to push the Fed to speed up the effective date so that we end abuses by gift card issuers as soon as possible."
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According to the National Retail Federation, more than 55% of adults said they would like to receive gift cards this holiday season, but more than 12% will not give them as presents because they are too concerned about fees and expiration dates.
American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) announced in September that it will stop deducting the monthly $2 dormancy fees that it had charged after a year of inactivity on all its "general purpose" gift cards.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. Postal Service reported a $3.8 billion loss in the 2009 fiscal year, and plans to propose to Congress in 2010 that it drop Saturday delivery.
The agency already reduced expenses by $6 billion during the year ended Sept. 30.
Those measures included eliminating 40,000 jobs, however the cash-strapped agency still employs over 712,000 people. The Postal Service also reduced overtime hours and lowered transportation-related costs.
Additionally, the USPS lowered the payments it made for retiree health benefits by $4 billion in fiscal 2009.
"To say this was a difficult year might be a bit of an understatement," said the USPS chief financial officer Joseph Corbett, on a conference call with the media. Corbett blamed the agency's difficulties on the recession and "the continued migration [of customers] to electronic means."
Big changes
Corbett also said on the call that the Post Office will formally propose to Congress that it drop Saturday delivery. "We need more flexibility in our delivery schedule. We've talked a number of times about reducing from 6 to 5 days of service," he said.
That move alone would save $3.5 billion. But even a 5-day delivery schedule won't be enough to put the USPS into the black, Corbett said. So the agency will also propose to Congress that it reduce the $5.5 billion in annual payments to pre-fund retiree health benefits that it is slated to make until 2016.
Ongoing losses
This is the third year in a row that the agency has posted a loss; it lost $2.8 billion in fiscal 2008, and $5 billion in 2007. The USPS is a self-supporting government agency that receives no tax dollars. It relies solely on the sale of postage and products and services to generate sales.
The Postal Service reported operating revenue of $68.1 billion, down 9% from last year, while its operating expenses fell to $71.8 billion, down 7% from 2008.
The service's total mail volume plunged by more than 25 billion pieces, or 12.7%, to 177.1 billion pieces. That drop was twice as much as any mail volume decline in the Postal Service's history.
There is a strong correlation between unemployment and mail volume, according to Corbett, which means that mail volumes will continue to decline as the unemployment rate climbs
Cristopher Cuddihee, a solicitor who represents the father, confirmed the baby's death early Sunday but did not provide any more details.
The baby's father had been battling his mother and the hospital in London's High Court because they wanted the child's life support switched off "in his best interests." He disagreed, saying the baby could play and recognize his parents. The father withdrew his objection Tuesday and allowed the ventilator to be switched off.
The hospital defended its stance in a statement last week, saying the baby's birth defect "causes severe muscle weakness, feeding and respiratory problems, and the disease is progressive."
Baby RB's lungs filled with fluid every few hours, giving him the sensation he is choking and causing the child to suffer, lawyers representing the hospital said in court November 2.
Ultimately, the father agreed with the mother and the hospital that the best thing was for the baby to die "in a planned way, with the administration of a large dose of sedative, the removal of the ventilation tube and his consequent death," Judge Andrew McFarlane said Tuesday.
The baby's parents, who are separated, cannot be named because of a court order protecting their privacy
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected on Monday to meet with the Shanghai mayor and hold a town hall-style meeting with "future Chinese leaders" before heading to Beijing to meet his host, Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Trade issues are likely to be a major discussion topic between the two leaders; the United States imports billions of dollars in Chinese products each year.
At local markets, Chinese government officials banned a popular Obama shirt over fears that it would offend their guest. a
It depicts Obama wearing a Chinese Communist outfit made famous by Mao Zedong, the late Communist leader. The back has "Oba-Mao" printed on it.
Obama's visit comes as China relishes its spot as a key global player. It is involved in major international disputes such as the showdowns with Iran and North Korea and has used its position on the U.N. Security Council and its economic leverage to influence events around the globe.
China also is now the dominant regional player in northeast Asia, recently hosting a summit in Beijing with the Japanese and South Korean leaders.
The nation's economic expansion has led to a demand for raw materials around the world and the rapid expansion of China's presence in countries such as Guinea, Myanmar, Sudan and Venezuela. Human rights groups say China is propping up repressive regimes to secure its access to critically important raw materials.
China's rapid economic expansion outpaces growth in the United States, 8.9 percent in the past quarter versus 3.5 percent in the United States, giving Beijing huge economic leverage.
The difference in average wages between men and women in full-time employment in the UK has narrowed slightly this year, official figures have shown.
Males in full-time employment earned an average of £12.97 an hour before tax compared with £11.39 for women, said the Office for National Statistics.
This means women earn on average 12.2% less than men, although this is less than the gap of 12.6% recorded in 2008.
The ONS data came from a survey of 177,000 people conducted in April.
The figures do not include overtime, as men tend to do more of this, the ONS said.
It found that the gender pay gap continued to differ widely between different kinds of work.
The gap was narrowest for those in professional jobs, such as in banking, where men earn just 3.8% more.
The difference in pay was the largest in the skilled trades category - a wide sector that includes everything from plumbers to florists - where the gap reached 26.2%.
The New York Police Department executed search warrants Tuesday at some offices of The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The New York Post and El Diario newspapers and at a labor union, with authorities saying they were conducting investigations into "business activity."
