Lancaster Colony is trading at the highest levels since it went public in 1969. 'I think it is the only company that has increased their dividends for the last 49 years,' says Elliott Schlang, Great Lakes Review managing director.
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FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2010, file photo, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, attend the skills competition at the NBA basketball All-Star Saturday Night in Dallas. Vanessa Bryant filed for divorce from the Lakers star, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, Calif., citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2010, file photo, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, attend the skills competition at the NBA basketball All-Star Saturday Night in Dallas. Vanessa Bryant filed for divorce from the Lakers star, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, Calif., citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
ORANGE, Calif. (AP) ? Kobe Bryant's wife, who stood by her husband when he was charged with sexual assault in 2003, filed for divorce on Friday from the Los Angeles Lakers star, citing irreconcilable differences after a decade of marriage.
Vanessa Bryant signed the papers on Dec. 1. Kobe Bryant signed his response on Dec. 7 and it was filed Friday, according to the documents.
"The Bryants have resolved all issues incident to their divorce privately with the assistance of counsel and a judgment dissolving their marital status will be entered in 2012," according to a statement from a representative for the couple.
In the filing, Vanessa Bryant asked for joint legal and physical custody of the couple's two daughters, Natalia, 8, and Gianna, 5. Kobe Bryant asked for the same in his response. Vanessa Bryant also requested spousal support.
The Bryants "ask that in the interest of our young children and in light of the upcoming holiday season the public respect our privacy during this difficult time," according to the statement.
Bryant met his future wife in 1999 on a music video shoot when Vanessa Laine was 18 years old. Six months later, she and the then-21-year-old Bryant became engaged. They married on April 18, 2001.
The Bryants have been through trying times together.
Vanessa Bryant appeared at a news conference with her husband when he was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman who worked at the exclusive Lodge & Spa at Cordillera near Vail, Colo., in 2003. She held his hand and stroked it tenderly as the NBA star admitted he was guilty of adultery ? but nothing else. Earlier she had issued her own statement to the media, vowing to stand by her husband.
"I know that my husband has made a mistake ? the mistake of adultery," she said in the statement at the time. "He and I will have to deal with that within our marriage, and we will do so. He is not a criminal."
A year later, prosecutors dropped the criminal charge against Kobe Bryant because the woman did not want to go ahead with a trial.
Last year, Kobe and Vanessa Bryant settled litigation with a former maid who accused the NBA star's wife of harassment. The Bryants countersued Maria Jimenez for violating a confidentiality agreement by talking to reporters about the family.
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(Reuters) ? Senate Republicans claimed victory on Saturday for a bill that may force President Barack Obama to make a speedier decision on a Canada to Texas oil pipeline, but a White House official indicated quick approval of the project is not likely.
The two-month payroll tax break extension bill passed by the Senate on Saturday included language that would make Obama decide within 60 days whether TransCanada Corp's 700,000 barrel-a-day Keystone XL oil sands pipeline is in the country's national interest.
But the U.S. State Department, which must approve the cross-border project, has said it will not be rushed into a decision before it has time to consider the environmental impact of alternative routes. That could leave Obama room to approve the project in principle but still keep construction at bay.
"This bill will stop President Obama's delaying tactics," said Senator Richard Lugar, who had introduced the measure to speed up a decision on the pipeline. "This is a tremendous victory for our security and for creating jobs."
The State Department in November delayed a decision on the line until after the 2012 presidential election, citing the need to study alternative routes in Nebraska where the proposed route would cross one of the country's largest aquifers.
An Obama administration official who briefed reporters said the State Department would "almost certainly" have to turn down an approval because there would not be enough time to complete its review of alternate pipeline routes through Nebraska's fragile Sand Hills region.
An energy policy analyst said the State Department's November ruling could be a large factor in Obama's decision.
"The foundation for plausible deniability has been laid already," said Kevin Book, an analyst at ClearView Energy Partners in Washington.
"The Obama administration has already said they won't be rushed, but they don't have to rush to say no, either."
Even if Obama ended up approving the line, it would not survive the court process, Daniel Weiss, of the Center for American Progress, said on Friday.
If Obama decides against the line before the election, he could face criticism from Republicans in the campaign that he gave up an opportunity to provide thousands of jobs.
And if the price of oil is high next summer, he could also face criticism that he did not do enough to fight energy prices. But environmentalists are part of Obama's political base and activists say oil sands petroleum emits more greenhouse gases than average crude oils.
Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive, said on Saturday his company would do whatever is necessary if the bill is passed and the 60-day deadline comes into effect to make sure the project is approved. The Republican-led House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill early next week.
"We will continue to focus our efforts on collaborating with Nebraska's Department of Environmental Quality, the state and the federal State Department on an alternative route that avoids Nebraska's Sand Hills," Girling said in a release.
Environmentalists also geared up for a battle. "We're of course ready to fight like heck," Bill McKibben, who led protests at the White House in November, said in a note to supporters on Saturday.
(Editing by Todd Eastham)
(Reporting By Timothy Gardner)
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By Reuters
Saturday, December 17, 2011
?
GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) ? A federal judge on Friday left the door open for former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards to call two campaign finance experts to testify at his trial next month on charges of using illegal campaign funds to hide an extramarital affair.
Prosecutors wanted to block two former Federal Election Commission members from testifying that they believe Edwards acted within federal campaign finance laws.
Edwards, 58, is accused of secretly accepting more than $900,000 from two wealthy supporters to help cover up an extramarital affair and a child conceived with his former campaign videographer, knowing that those revelations would doom his campaign.
The money was given to an Edwards aide to pay for former videographer Rielle Hunter?s medical visits, prenatal care, rent, car, air travel and other living expenses, according to the indictment.
Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina and John Kerry?s vice presidential running mate, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, taking illegal campaign contributions and making false statements. His trial is set for January in Greensboro, North Carolina.
If convicted, Edwards faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell argued the experts should be allowed to weigh in on whether Edwards? claim that he did not knowingly or willingly violate election laws was a reasonable mindset.
The defense contends the payments were intended to hide the affair from Edwards? wife, who died of breast cancer last year, and were not campaign contributions subject to campaign finance laws.
Prosecutors said the experts? opinions would usurp the roles of the judge and jury and should not be allowed. The government lawyers indicated they do not plan to call their own expert witnesses.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles withheld making a definitive ruling until the trial on whether the former FEC commissioners will be permitted to testify and to what extent, noting prosecutors had made some legitimate points.
?I see some real issues about putting everything in that the defense is proposing,? said Eagles, who in October denied Edwards? motions seeking to get the case dismissed.
The judge barred the defense team from referring to any of the experts? specific opinions in their opening statement at trial, but said ?the government should be prepared for the possibility that I will let some of this expert testimony in.?
(Editing by Greg McCune)
Mochila insert follows.
Reuters
Reuters.com brings you the latest news from around the world, covering breaking news in business, politics, technology, and more.
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![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 15-Dec-2011
Share ] Contact: Todd Datz
tdatz@hsph.harvard.edu
617-432-8413
Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, MA A new study led by Harvard School of Public (HSPH) researchers provides a novel explanation as to why some tuberculosis cells are inherently more difficult to treat with antibiotics. The discovery, which showed that the ways mycobacteria cells divide and grow determine their susceptibility to treatment with drugs, could lead to new avenues of drug development that better target tuberculosis cells.
The study appears December 15, 2011 in an advance online edition of Science.
"We have found that the consequences of the simple and unexpected patterning of mycobacterial growth and division means some bacterial cells have the capacity to survive in the face of antibiotics," said Bree Aldridge, a postdoctoral fellow at HSPH and co-first author of the study.
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that kills more than 1.5 million people annually. It is a difficult disease to treat; people are prescribed a combination of antibiotics to be taken daily for six to nine months, a regimen that is hard for patients to follow and for nurses and doctors to administer. Even after beginning appropriate treatment, it appears that some of the infectious cells survive for long periods of time.
The HSPH researchers, led by Aldridge, co-first author and visiting scientist Marta Fernandez-Suarez, and senior author Sarah Fortune, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, along with colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital, set out to determine what distinguishes a cell that lives from one that dies. They designed a unique microfluidic chamber in which they grew Mycobacterium smegmatis cells (which behave similarly to Mycobacterium tuberculosis cells) and filmed their growth with a live-cell imaging system.
The researchers thought that the M. smegmatis cells would divide evenly into similar-sized daughter cells, as bacteria such as E. coli do. Instead, they were surprised to find that the M. smegmatis daughter cells were incredibly diverse, with highly variable sizes and growth rates. They found that this diversity arises because M. smegmatis grow in an unusual fashion, elongating from only one end. When an asymmetric mother cell divides, it creates daughter cells that are very different from one another in fundamental ways, including their growth properties.
The researchers speculated that these physiologically distinct subpopulations of cells would translate into differences in their susceptibility to antibiotics, which target processes essential for growth and division. To test this hypothesis, they treated the cells with different classes of antibiotics and observed how subpopulations of daughter cells responded.
The results showed that the different daughter cells exhibited varying susceptibilities to the treatments, strong evidence that populations of mycobacterial cells contain cells that are inherently tolerant of antibiotics and providing an important piece to the puzzle of why tuberculosis is such a difficult disease to treat.
"It is surprising to discover that mycobacteria differ from other bacteria such as E. coli in such a fundamental way," said Fortune. "It is easy to assume that most bacteria work in a similar fashion. While that's true sometimes, this study shows that bacterial species, such as TB, may be strikingly different from each other and thus require different methods of treatment." The researchers hope that their findings lead to the development of treatment regimens in which antibiotics are combined to specifically target tolerant subpopulations of cells.
###
Support for this study was provided by a National Institute of Health Director's New Innovator Award, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the United States Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the Massachusetts General Hospital Executive Committee on Research.
"Asymmetry and aging of mycobacterial cells leads to variable growth and antibiotic susceptibility," Science, Bree B. Aldridge, Marta Fernandez-Suarez, Danielle Heller, Vijay Ambravaneswaran, Daniel Irimia, Mehmet Toner, Sarah Fortune, online Dec. 15, 2011
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 15-Dec-2011 Share ] Contact: Todd Datz
tdatz@hsph.harvard.edu
617-432-8413
Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, MA A new study led by Harvard School of Public (HSPH) researchers provides a novel explanation as to why some tuberculosis cells are inherently more difficult to treat with antibiotics. The discovery, which showed that the ways mycobacteria cells divide and grow determine their susceptibility to treatment with drugs, could lead to new avenues of drug development that better target tuberculosis cells.
The study appears December 15, 2011 in an advance online edition of Science.
"We have found that the consequences of the simple and unexpected patterning of mycobacterial growth and division means some bacterial cells have the capacity to survive in the face of antibiotics," said Bree Aldridge, a postdoctoral fellow at HSPH and co-first author of the study.
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that kills more than 1.5 million people annually. It is a difficult disease to treat; people are prescribed a combination of antibiotics to be taken daily for six to nine months, a regimen that is hard for patients to follow and for nurses and doctors to administer. Even after beginning appropriate treatment, it appears that some of the infectious cells survive for long periods of time.
The HSPH researchers, led by Aldridge, co-first author and visiting scientist Marta Fernandez-Suarez, and senior author Sarah Fortune, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, along with colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital, set out to determine what distinguishes a cell that lives from one that dies. They designed a unique microfluidic chamber in which they grew Mycobacterium smegmatis cells (which behave similarly to Mycobacterium tuberculosis cells) and filmed their growth with a live-cell imaging system.
The researchers thought that the M. smegmatis cells would divide evenly into similar-sized daughter cells, as bacteria such as E. coli do. Instead, they were surprised to find that the M. smegmatis daughter cells were incredibly diverse, with highly variable sizes and growth rates. They found that this diversity arises because M. smegmatis grow in an unusual fashion, elongating from only one end. When an asymmetric mother cell divides, it creates daughter cells that are very different from one another in fundamental ways, including their growth properties.
The researchers speculated that these physiologically distinct subpopulations of cells would translate into differences in their susceptibility to antibiotics, which target processes essential for growth and division. To test this hypothesis, they treated the cells with different classes of antibiotics and observed how subpopulations of daughter cells responded.
The results showed that the different daughter cells exhibited varying susceptibilities to the treatments, strong evidence that populations of mycobacterial cells contain cells that are inherently tolerant of antibiotics and providing an important piece to the puzzle of why tuberculosis is such a difficult disease to treat.
"It is surprising to discover that mycobacteria differ from other bacteria such as E. coli in such a fundamental way," said Fortune. "It is easy to assume that most bacteria work in a similar fashion. While that's true sometimes, this study shows that bacterial species, such as TB, may be strikingly different from each other and thus require different methods of treatment." The researchers hope that their findings lead to the development of treatment regimens in which antibiotics are combined to specifically target tolerant subpopulations of cells.
###
Support for this study was provided by a National Institute of Health Director's New Innovator Award, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the United States Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the Massachusetts General Hospital Executive Committee on Research.
"Asymmetry and aging of mycobacterial cells leads to variable growth and antibiotic susceptibility," Science, Bree B. Aldridge, Marta Fernandez-Suarez, Danielle Heller, Vijay Ambravaneswaran, Daniel Irimia, Mehmet Toner, Sarah Fortune, online Dec. 15, 2011
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/hsop-sue121311.php
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Talk about some serious bling!
Elizabeth Taylor's legendary diamonds fetched record prices at Christie's Auction House on Tuesday in NYC. According to Forbes, the late actress' jewelry brought in nearly $116 million at auction, a world record for a private collection of jewels.
PHOTOS: Stars we lost in 2011
According to Forbes, a pearl necklace belonging to Taylor, who passed away in March at age 79, sold for $11.8 million. Only two items sold within auction estimates, while others went for as much as triple and quadruple their expected value.
PHOTOS: Look back at Elizabeth's life
A 33-carat diamond ring given to the star by ex-husband Richard Burton (they married and divorced twice) sold for $8.8 million, while a diamond tiara fetched $3.7 million.
PHOTOS: Elizabeth and more celebs in the 15-carat club
Other sales of Taylor's art, clothing and memorabilia will be held in New York later this week; part of the proceeds from all sales will go towards The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly
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Researchers at the University of Toronto have found an explanation for how the intestinal tract influences a key component of the immune system to prevent infection, offering a potential clue to the cause of autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
"The findings shed light on the complex balance between beneficial and harmful bacteria in the gut," said Prof. Jennifer Gommerman, an Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology at U of T, whose findings were published online by the scientific journal, Nature. "There has been a long-standing mystery of how certain cells can differentiate between and attack harmful bacteria in the intestine without damaging beneficial bacteria and other necessary cells. Our research is working to solve it."
The researchers found that some B cells?a type of white blood cell that produces antibodies?acquire functions that allow them to neutralize pathogens only while spending time in the gut. Moreover, this subset of B cells is critical to health.
"When we got rid of that B-cell function, the host was unable to clear a gut pathogen and there were other negative outcomes, so it appears to be very important for the cells to adopt this function in the gut," said Prof. Gommerman, whose lab conducted the research in mice.
Textbook immunology?based mostly on research done in the spleen, lymph nodes or other sterile sites distant from gut microbes?has suggested that B cells develop a specific immune function and rigidly maintain that identity. Over the last few years, however, some labs have shown the microbe-rich environment of the gut can induce flexibility in immune cell identity.
Prof. Gommerman and her colleagues, including trainees from her lab Drs. J?rg Fritz, Olga Rojas and Doug McCarthy, found that as B cells differentiate into plasma cells in the gut, they adopt characteristics of innate immune cells?despite their traditional association with the adaptive immune system. Specifically, they begin to look and act like inflammatory cells called monocytes, while maintaining their ability to produce a key antibody called Immunoglobulin A.
"What intrigued us was that this theme?B cells behaving like monocytes?had been seen before in fish and in vitro. But now we have a living example in a mammalian system, where this kind of bipotentiality is realized," said Prof. Gommerman.
This B-cell plasticity provides a potential explanation how cells dedicated to controlling pathogens can respond to a large burden of harmful bacteria without damaging beneficial bacteria and other cells essential for proper function of the intestine.
It also may explain how scientists had failed to appreciate the multi-functionality of some B cells. "There are classical markers immunologists use to identify B cells?receptors that are displayed on their surface?and most of them are absent from plasma cells," said Prof. Gommerman. "So in some cases, what people thought was a monocyte could have been a plasma cell because it had changed its surface identity, although monocytes play an important role in innate immunity as well."
This transformational ability, the researchers also found, is dependent on bacteria called commensal microflora that digests food and provides nutrients. That relationship highlights the importance of the gut in fighting infection, and begs the question of whether plasma cells trained in the gut to secrete specific anti-microbial molecules can play a role in other infectious disease scenarios, such as food-borne listeria infection.
It also opens a line of investigation into whether a systemic relationship exists between those anti-microbial molecules and healthy cells in sites remote from the intestine. Understanding the nature of that relationship could improve understanding of inflammatory mechanisms in autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, in which immune cells attack and eventually destroy healthy tissue.
But the next step, said Prof. Gommerman, is to look at human samples for the same type of multi-potentiality they saw in rodent plasma cells that acquired their anti-microbial properties in the gut.
"We're really at the early stages of understanding what we call the microbiome in the gut," said Prof. Gommerman. "There is a role for plasma cells in many autoimmune diseases, and B cells can do a lot more than just make antibodies. We need to understand the full spectrum of their effects within the immune response."
###
University of Toronto: http://www.utoronto.ca
Thanks to University of Toronto for this article.
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MONDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- A new study finds abuse in childhood may be associated with changes in the teenage brain.
The research found that teens who've been abused or neglected have less "gray matter" -- tissue that contains brain cells -- in some areas of the brain than those who haven't been subjected to maltreatment.
Forty-two adolescents involved in the study had a history of abuse or neglect. They also had reductions of gray matter in the brain, even though they had not been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, the Yale School of Medicine researchers said.
The affected brain areas may differ between boys and girls, and may depend on whether the teens were exposed to abuse or neglect or whether the neglect was physical or emotional, the researchers noted.
Reductions in gray matter were seen in the prefrontal areas of the brain, no matter whether the teen had suffered physical abuse or emotional neglect. But reductions of gray matter in other areas of the brain depended on the type of maltreatment. For example, emotional neglect was associated with less gray matter in areas of the brain that regulate emotion.
In boys, reductions in gray matter tended to be concentrated in areas of the brain associated with impulse control or substance abuse. In girls, reductions were in areas of the brain linked to depression.
The study was published Dec. 5 in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.
"Here we have teenagers who may not have a diagnosable illness but still have physical evidence of maltreatment," senior author Hilary Blumberg, an associate professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Diagnostic Radiology and in the Yale Child Study Center, said in a Yale news release. "This could help to explain their trouble with school performance or increase their vulnerability to depression and behavioral difficulties."
She emphasized that this gray matter reduction likely is not permanent.
"We have found that the brain, particularly in adolescents, shows a great deal of plasticity," Blumberg said. "It is critical to find ways to prevent maltreatment and to help the youths who have been exposed."
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about child abuse.
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Italian scientist Andrea Rossi, who claims to have invented the world's first cold fusion machine, visited Massachusetts last week, meeting with a state senator and several scientists to explore the possibility of manufacturing cold fusion reactors in the state.
Despite heavy skepticism in the scientific community about his work, Rossi came stateside at the invitation of Massachusetts Senate minority leader Bruce Tarr, a Republican who has been active in pursuing alternative energy legislation. "My thought process was pretty simple: If it works, I want this technology to be developed and manufactured in Massachusetts," Tarr told The Boston Globe.
Rossi claims that his energy catalyzer, or "E-Cat," uses a small amount of input energy to trigger atoms of hydrogen and nickel to fuse together, giving off gobs of heat in the process. The excess heat, equivalent to more than 10 times the energy that was put in, can then be used to boil water to produce steam and ultimately generate electricity.
The process is an attractive energy solution for two reasons: Unlike in nuclear fission, cold fusion doesn't give off dangerous radiation. And unlike the fusion processes that take place in the sun, cold fusion doesn't require unachievably high temperatures.
However, in the two decades since experimentalists first claimed to have demonstrated the strange reaction, the line of research has largely been discredited. Most physicists think cold fusion is theoretically impossible, and devices that seem at first to demonstrate it generally fail to stand up to scrutiny. Today, the United States Department of Energy, academic journals and the U.S. Patent Office all consider cold fusion machines to be hoaxes.
Nonetheless, Rossi has heated up the cold fusion debate once again this year. He hasn't revealed much about the inner workings of his E-Cat machine, citing the fact that it isn't yet patent-protected, but a handful of scientists have attended demonstrations of the device in Bologna, Italy, and have given it a nod of approval, saying it produces too much excess energy to be utilizing a simple chemical reaction.
Rossi said he has sold 13 E-Cat units since a demo in October. [Italian Cold Fusion Machine Passes Another Test]
Along with Tarr, Rossi met with representatives from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts on his recent trip. Those in attendance said the meeting was mainly spent discussing the logistics of setting up manufacturing of household cold fusion power generators in the state, rather than the validity of the science behind cold fusion.
"Knowing the reputation of cold fusion, I went in with a very healthy level of skepticism," said Robert Tamarin, dean of sciences at University of Massachusetts, Lowell. That said, he added, "If it?s successful, no wants to have to say later that we walked away from it."
Rossi said he plans to come back to Massachusetts soon, and hopes things will move quickly. "We are all hoping to get something started in a matter of weeks, not months," he said.
Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.
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Off-price apparel seller TJX (NYSE: TJX - News) recently posted impressive third-quarter profits and is hopeful about the holiday season ahead.
Let's dig deeper.
The quarter
Net sales increased to $5.79 billion, a 5% increase compared to the same period last year. However, analysts were looking for higher overall sales. Although apparel sales were hurt by unexpected warm weather, they picked up toward the end of the quarter when the temperature dropped.
Third-quarter earnings increased to $406.5 million, gaining 9% compared to the year-ago period, as more consumers visited the company's off-price stores such as Marshalls and T.J.Maxx. Earnings per share of $1.06 beat Street estimates by a penny.
Same-store sales, which is an important measure of a retailer's financial health, increased 3% during the quarter. Same-store sales at T.J.Maxx and HomeGoods increased significantly by 4% and 5%, respectively. What pinched the company was the flat same-store sales growth in Europe because of softness in the economy there. Moreover, TJX stores in Canada saw a decline of 2% in same-store sales growth.
Retailer's season
The much-awaited holiday season is coming up in the fourth quarter. This is a very crucial time for all retailers as they earn a huge chunk of their annual sales from this period. With November starting off well for TJX, the management is confident about the upcoming season as well.
Several companies take on promotional activities and other strategies during the holiday season to attract customers. For instance, apparel retailers Gap (NYSE: GPS - News), Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO - News), and Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN - News) will be slashing prices and selling products with hard-to-resist tags. TJX plans to introduce new gift sets throughout the season and push marketing.
The Foolish bottom line
After a good performance this quarter, TJX has raised its same-store sales growth forecast for the next quarter to 2%-3%. Fools should watch TJX closely to know what happened during the holiday season.
Navjot Kaur does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares of Gap. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Species: Human
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Blood Type: AB+
Primary Arm: Right-handed
Birthday: Born on January 1st, 2213
Birthplace:
Home Planet:
Ageless: No
Immortal: No
Age Ranking-
Physical Age: 25
Mental Age: 20
True Age: 25
Mother: Nicole Weston
Father: Michael Cox
Siblings: None.
Children: None.
Other Relatives: Currently none.
General Love Life Status: Single
Occupation/Status: Private Investigator (Con artist)
Current Residence: None.
Religion: Predominantly Christian, although he leaves this open to interpretation.
Alignment: Neutral.
Economic Class: Lower Class.
Psychological Information:
Personality:
Ace is extremely charismatic, outgoing and sensitive to the thoughts and motives of others. While this would normally equate to a emotionally friendly, stable and personable person, Ace uses this to his advantage to learn about people and exploit their weaknesses through extortion, cheating, or stealing. He's generally calm, relaxed, and aloof to most situations; all the while calculating his moves. He's a witty (although sometimes snarky) conversationalist, known to avoid confrontation with his silver tongue and 'street smarts'. Ambitious and undaunted, Ace plans to own it all one day.
Likes in General: The finer things in life: a cigar and coffee, a fine glass of rum, and what he considers his remarkable (although quite less than so) ship.
Dislikes in General: Not being in control of a situation, sunny days, being broke.
Hobbies: Sparring. Collecting valuable antiques.
Intelligence Quotient: 96
Social Intelligence: Extremely High.
Emotional Intelligence: Extremely High.
Technological Intelligence: Very Low.
Words-Per-Minute: 93, Full Comprehension.
Education: Homeschool, Random Self Teaching.
Phobias: Arachnaphobia.
Allergies: Pineapple.
Diseases: None.
Primary Language: English
Secondary Languages: None.
Friends: None.
Friends [In which characters are not mine]: None.
Enemies: None.
Rivals: None.
Appearance:
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 213 Lbs 3 Oz.
Bust: 54 Cm.
Waist: 50 Cm.
Hip: 51 Cm.
General Muscle Build: Athletic
Skin Tone: Tan
Eye Color: Chocolate Brown
Hair Color: Jet Black
Hair Style: Trimmed on the sides, shorter on top with slightly longer bangs.
Markings: Several tattoos across his back and shoulders.
Primary Attire-
Top: Grey tank-top, beneath a white t-shirt and a light hooded jacket.
Waist/Hip: Blue jeans or cargo pants suited for space flight (a multitude of pockets and areas specified for buckling into a cockpit).
Shoes/etc: Most often a nice pair of leather strap over shoes, though he will wear ordinary sneakers in the rain.
Accessories: A silver watch with a black face, satellite phone attached to his wrist.
Battle Information:
Weapons-
A .40 caliber pistol (descended from Springfield Armory, Springfield-Powell Co.).
Natural Abilities- None.
Other Abilities- None.
Usable Energy Types- None.
Spiritual Battle Attributes- None.
Combat Styles- Just what Ace has picked up from a few fights in the slums.
Combat Levels (In relativity to average humans)- [1-10]
[1-3 Poor]
[4 Below Average]
[5 Average]
[6 Above Average]
[7 High]
[8 Abnormally High]
[9-10 Extremely High]
Physical Power Level: 5
Speed Level: 5
Agility Level: 6
Dexterity Level: 7
Flexibility: 5
Jumping Ability Level: 5
General Defense Level: 6
General Offense Level: 7
General Skill Level: 8
Teleportation: No
Flight: No
Quote: "Behind every king is a great puppet master."
Summarized Biography: Ace lived his youth with his parents in a middle class home, with not much out of the ordinary. In fact, life was far too ordinary for him. He aspired to live in greatness. Starting from a very young age, he began to swindle people. Jewelry, cash, and anything of value. If he wanted it, he found a way to get it. He played cards, stole, backstabbed, and cheated his way into the wrong circles. As he grew older, his parents began to find out about his dealings, threatening to kick him out, send him to a juvenile detention facility, and eventually turn him in to the authorities. Ace left home soon after. Although he was of legal age, (on this planet, 17) he kept to the slums, bumming about and building funds to start what he thought was his inevitable rise to fame and fortune. Though, to what lengths he would need to go to reach his ambitions, he was not sure.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/ehWwoidUD44/viewtopic.php
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Jamaipanese Source: http://twitter.com/Jamaipanese/statuses/143051879151190016
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Although China boasts of its green progress, the booming nation is also making major bets on North and South American tar sands, one of the most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet. This play for civilization-threatening energy comes even as the world?s nations jockey over the fragile international climate accords in Durban, South Africa:
On Monday, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) closed its acquisition of bankrupt Canadian tar sands producer OPTI Canada Inc. CNOOC gets OPTI?s 35 percent working interest in Long Lake and three other project areas located in the Athabasca region of northeastern Alberta, split with Canadian operator Nexen Inc. The deal cost $34 million for OPTI stock and $2 billion in debt. [Reuters]
On Wednesday, CNOOC and Nexen formed a joint venture, giving CNOOC a 20 percent working interest in the Kakuna, Angel Fire, and Cypress deepwater exploration wells in the Gulf of Mexico. [BusinessWeek]
These dirty investments in North American fossil fuel projects are just the latest in a rapid string of deals to give China access to high-polluting carbon energy from the Americas. Over the last three years, China-owned companies have invested over $18 billion in tar sands, shale gas, and coal projects in Canada and Venezuela:
November, 2011: China signs a $6 billion deal with Venezuela to develop tar sands ? $4 billion to the Chinese-Venezuelan tar sands company Sinovensa to increase production from 118,000 barrels a day to 1.1 million barrels a day in 2014, and $2 billion to Venezuela?s state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela for refining projects, drills, and equipment. [Channel News Asia]
October, 2011: Sinopec spends $2.2 billion to acquire shale gas producer Daylight Energy, which controls 300,000 acres of oil and gas property, at a 70 percent premium. [Bloomberg]
May, 2010: China Investment Corporation spends $1.25 billion on Alberta tar sands ? $817 million for a 45 percent stake in the Peace River tar sands project owned by Penn West Energy Trust, and $435 million for a 5 percent interest in the company. [Penn West Energy]
April, 2010: Sinopec spends $4.65 billion to buy ConocoPhillips? 9 percent stake in tar sands producer Syncrude Canada. [New York Times]
February, 2010: PetroChina spends $1.73 billion to purchase 60 percent of AOSC?s MacKay River and Dover tar sands projects. [CRI]
July, 2009: China Investment Corporation spends $1.5 billion to purchase 17 percent of Teck Resources, Canada?s largest metallurgical coal and copper mining company. CIC was recently granted a seat on Teck?s board of directors. [China Daily]
In 2005, PetroChina and Enbridge signed a $2 billion deal to help the Canadian tar sands company develop the Northern Gateway Pipeline, a project intended to deliver 400,000 barrels of tar crude a day from Edmonton, Alberta to the British Columbia port town of Kitimat, giving China access to direct tar sands shipping.
The pipeline has been unbuilt for years, facing stiff opposition and economic challenges. This Friday, Gitxsan First Nation announced it would become ?the first aboriginal partner? for the pipeline. On Thursday, 130 native groups in Western Canada pledged to block the project. Enbridge has offered up to a 10 percent stake in the pipeline to first nations who sign on.
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Public release date: 1-Dec-2011 Share ] Contact: Anders Troi
andtr@risoe.dtu.dk
45-46-77-50-57
Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, the Technical University of Denmark
The purpose is to ensure uniform standards for consumers and problem-free charging for electric car owners all over Denmark.
The new independent test center for electric car infrastructure named Nordic EV Interoperability Center (NEVIC), the first of its kind in the world, will ensure interoperability between electric cars and charging stations. The technology platform the so-called technical roaming will help create a more reliable and uniform market for consumers. The new test center will work to identify and address any technology issues in the market.
Behind the initial work are the electric car operators ChoosEV, Better Place and CleanCharge as well as DONG Energy, Ris DTU and Danish Electric Vehicle Alliance. The project is backed by Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster which receives funding from e.g. EU Structural Funds, the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand. GAP funding enables researchers to further-develop projects of commercial and industrial interest.
"The new center brings us to the very forefront of EV Interoperability, enabling us to test and bypass all the small problems and barriers that always occur when different providers and their technologies have to interact. And we will thereby be able to assist both the market players and consumers," says Anders Troi, head of programme at Ris DTU.
EV charging stations from different providers including both standard and fast chargers will be installed at the NEVIC test center. As more and more electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars as well as charging stations enter the Danish market, they will be tested at the NEVIC center before being cleared for the road.
Danish Electric Vehicle Alliance praises the test center initiative as it will address any interoperability issues between cars and charging stations. The Alliance played an important role in bringing components and electric car suppliers, electricity providers and the research community together to jointly accept the need for the new test center.
"The test center is unique and will help ensure that the EV industry and Ris DTU can collaborate on giving consumers peace of mind. The knowhow accumulated by the center will be used for developing a potential 'golden egg' for Denmark. The test center can help lay the foundation for meeting the goal of the Danish government of free access to charging stations for consumers and market players across Denmark," says Lrke Flader, Managing Director of Danish EV Alliance.
The test centre will be officially opened on 8 December 2011 at 2 pm at Ris DTU where visitors will be able to see the charging stations that are now being installed all over Denmark as well as test drive different types of EVs. For more information about the opening, visit www.nevic.dk
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 1-Dec-2011 Share ] Contact: Anders Troi
andtr@risoe.dtu.dk
45-46-77-50-57
Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, the Technical University of Denmark
The purpose is to ensure uniform standards for consumers and problem-free charging for electric car owners all over Denmark.
The new independent test center for electric car infrastructure named Nordic EV Interoperability Center (NEVIC), the first of its kind in the world, will ensure interoperability between electric cars and charging stations. The technology platform the so-called technical roaming will help create a more reliable and uniform market for consumers. The new test center will work to identify and address any technology issues in the market.
Behind the initial work are the electric car operators ChoosEV, Better Place and CleanCharge as well as DONG Energy, Ris DTU and Danish Electric Vehicle Alliance. The project is backed by Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster which receives funding from e.g. EU Structural Funds, the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand. GAP funding enables researchers to further-develop projects of commercial and industrial interest.
"The new center brings us to the very forefront of EV Interoperability, enabling us to test and bypass all the small problems and barriers that always occur when different providers and their technologies have to interact. And we will thereby be able to assist both the market players and consumers," says Anders Troi, head of programme at Ris DTU.
EV charging stations from different providers including both standard and fast chargers will be installed at the NEVIC test center. As more and more electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars as well as charging stations enter the Danish market, they will be tested at the NEVIC center before being cleared for the road.
Danish Electric Vehicle Alliance praises the test center initiative as it will address any interoperability issues between cars and charging stations. The Alliance played an important role in bringing components and electric car suppliers, electricity providers and the research community together to jointly accept the need for the new test center.
"The test center is unique and will help ensure that the EV industry and Ris DTU can collaborate on giving consumers peace of mind. The knowhow accumulated by the center will be used for developing a potential 'golden egg' for Denmark. The test center can help lay the foundation for meeting the goal of the Danish government of free access to charging stations for consumers and market players across Denmark," says Lrke Flader, Managing Director of Danish EV Alliance.
The test centre will be officially opened on 8 December 2011 at 2 pm at Ris DTU where visitors will be able to see the charging stations that are now being installed all over Denmark as well as test drive different types of EVs. For more information about the opening, visit www.nevic.dk
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/rnlf-nnt120111.php
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November has ended and December has begun with concern over increasing difficulties with Iran. More sanctions by the EU and the U.S. in response to Iran's nuclear aspirations led to the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, Nov. 29, as reported by Time. In addition, there is ongoing posturing between the Islamic Republic and Israel. But beyond the fear of the potential for violence against Iran's Western World adversaries and the country's nuclear program, there is a fear of what escalating tensions with Iran could do to the world's oil supplies and prices.
How much of the world's oil comes from Iran?
According to a report by Reuters, Iran supplies about 2.5% of the world's oil - about 300 million barrels a day. China is the largest importer of Iranian crude oil, with shipments of 547,000 barrels a day. Turkey and India also get a lot of their oil from Iran. Crude exports from Iran were exceeded last year only by Saudi Arabia and Russia, Bloomberg reported.
How is Iran's oil supply at risk?
Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic transport route for oil supplies coming out of the region, if the United States or Israel were to attack it, Reuters reported in early November. Approximately 40 percent of the world's oil passes through that strait. With the European Union, who currently receives a fifth of Iran's oil exports, plotting an all-out boycott of imports from Iran and the possibility of military action against the country by Israel, former White House energy advisor Bob McNally says oil prices could surge to $175 a barrel if Iran retaliates by closing the Strait of Hormuz.
When would the prices begin to rise?
Prices have already begun to rise. According to U.S. News & World Report, talks of European embargoes have caused countries to look to places like Russia in order to keep up with the oil imports they need. Already the price of Russian crude oil has risen. According to Bloomberg, several places are still reeling from price increases this past April that arose from a lesser supply of exports from Libya during its conflict.
What can be done?
Not much can be done to prevent the rise in the price of oil in response to the rising tide of concerns about Iran. For now, countries are simply making sure they can still obtain enough oil. While a growing list of countries are announcing sanctions against Iran, they're also scrambling for backup options if the situation in the region continues to degrade. China's Foreign Ministry is asking Iranian crude oil importers to review contingency plans if those oil shipments from Iran stop coming, Reuters' December 1 article reported, and India refiners are also looking for a plan B. Spain and Greece have also been forced to look at alternative resources as other European countries poise for a ban, an article from AFP stated.
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On the eve of landmark elections, Egypt's military ruler warned Sunday of ?extremely grave? consequences if the turbulent nation does not pull through its current crisis ? an attempt to rally the public behind his council of generals in the face of pressure from protesters to step down immediately.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi urged voters to turn out for the start of parliamentary elections Monday despite the chaos in the streets after nine days of protests and clashes that some have dubbed a ?second revolution.? The vote will be the first since Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February in a popular uprising and it was meant to usher in democracy after decades of dictatorship. However, it has already been marred by the new wave of demonstrations.
Mr. Tantawi claimed ?foreign hands? were behind the latest wave of unrest. His assertions were similar to those made by Mr. Mubarak in the final days before he was ousted. Mr. Mubarak frequently warned chaos would ensue if his regime fell, presenting his authoritarian rule as the alternative of order and security. Mr. Tantawi was Mr. Mubarak's defence minister for 20 years.
?We will not allow troublemakers to meddle in the elections,? he said in comments carried by the nation's official news agency. ?Egypt is at a crossroads ? either we succeed politically, economically and socially or the consequences will be extremely grave and we will not allow that.?
The military took power when Mr. Mubarak stepped down. But it has come under intense criticism for most of the past nine months for its failure to restore security, stop the rapid worsening of the economy or introduce the far-reaching reforms called for by the youth groups behind Mr. Mubarak's fall and the ongoing protest movement. Mr. Tantawi rejected calls for the ruling military council to immediately step down.
His warning came as thousands of protesters were filling Cairo's Tahrir Square for another massive demonstration demanding the military give up power in favour of a civilian presidential council and a ?national salvation? government to run the country's affairs until a president is elected.
It was the ninth straight day of a revival of the protest movement that toppled Mr. Mubarak. At least 41 protesters have been killed in and more than 2,000 have been wounded, most of them in Cairo.
At the same time, Egyptians were preparing to vote amid the chaos. With protesters in the streets, there are fears of violence at polling stations. And the population is sharply polarized and confused over the nation's direction.
Islamic parties are expected to dominate the election, but the political crisis casts doubt on the legitimacy of the vote and could render the parliament that emerges irrelevant.
?I am not going to vote tomorrow because everyone who is running is a thief and only cares for the seat they want to sit in,? said Abu Ahmed, a 36-year-old fruit vendor in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. ?Many times they've tried to buy my vote with a bag of food or money. They know that I'm poor and they want to take advantage of me. I don't read or write, but I know that Tantawi needs to go,? he said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and best organized political group in Egypt, is expected to dominate the elections along with its Islamist allies. The group has stayed away from the current wave of protests, careful not to do anything that would derail the vote.
However, the military has said the next parliament will have limited powers, and suggested that it will retain the right to appoint and dismiss the Cabinet. The issue promises to put the military and the Brotherhood on a collision course. A dispute between the two could destabilize the country further, adding to economic and security woes.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGlobeAndMail-International/~3/P6dcSymgwvQ/
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TALLADEGA, Ala. ? He's a mathematician, a minister, a former radio talk show host and pizza magnate. But most of all, Herman Cain is a salesman.
And how he sells.
"The sleeping giant called `we the people' has awakened," Cain thunders, pacing the stage in his trademark dark suit, brown fedora and "lucky" gold tie, delivering a rollicking, 45-minute performance that evokes an old-fashioned church revival, complete with cries of "Amen" from his audience.
Whether it's selling his book or his presidential aspirations, this is Cain at his best, grinning and joking and wooing a crowd, soaking in the adulation as he vows to lead the cheering masses to a promised land of "less regulation, less legislation and less taxation."
That's simplistic, of course. But so is Cain's message, and he makes no apologies for it.
"They want to confuse you with comp-lex-city," booms the self-styled "Hermanator," accentuating every syllable. "I want to lead you with sim-pli-city."
In the end, he takes no questions, sweeping off to his next stop to the tune of "Rock You Like a Hurricane." His smile disarms everyone whose hand he shakes along the way.
"Is he for real?" asks 75-year-old Jean Waggoner, a longtime Republican activist from Montgomery.
It is a question that has confounded political observers and pollsters alike: Just what to make of this unlikely candidate with an inspirational personal story, a magnetic personality and a campaign like nothing they have ever seen.
Allegations of sexual harassment may have tarnished the image of the 65-year-old Baptist minister. They have certainly rattled his style. His messy denials and memory lapses seem far more like the familiar evasiveness of the "inside-the-beltway" politicians he derides.
But Cain is still doing well in a series of polls, still raising money and still vowing that he's in the race to win.
So the question remains: Is he for real?
Cain himself doesn't offer much of an answer.
His speeches are mesmerizing, delivered with humor and aplomb. But they offer little insight into the man himself and his extraordinary journey from the projects of segregated Atlanta to the boardrooms of corporate America.
"I grew up po', which is even worse than being poor," Cain writes in the introduction to his book, "This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House."
The book is partly dedicated to his father Luther, a janitor, barber and chauffeur and his mother Lenora, a domestic.
Writing of his youth, Cain avoids any detailed examination of those tumultuous times. He glances over the indignities of having to sit at the back of the bus or drink from the "coloreds" water fountain.
While fellow students at the historically black Morehouse College were joining Martin Luther King Jr. in marches and staging sit-ins, Cain joined the glee club. (He is a gifted singer whose mellifluous baritone is often heard during the campaign.)
Cain gets visibly annoyed at suggestions that as a beneficiary of the civil rights movement, perhaps he should have participated more. He took his cues from his father, he says, who taught him never to expect a government handout, never to feel like a victim and to "stay out of trouble."
"Not all blacks in the `60s were activists," says Cain, who labels himself an "ABC ? American, black, conservative ? and proud of it."
Graduating with a degree in math, he married college sweetheart Gloria Etchison and went to work as a civilian mathematician for the Department of the Navy.
Dreaming of success in corporate America (he wanted to be president of "something ... somewhere," he writes) he left to work as an executive, first for Coca-Cola and then Pillsbury, eventually moving to its Burger King subsidiary in 1982.
Impressed by his performance, Pillsbury chose Cain in 1986 to revive the foundering Godfather's Pizza chain, based in Omaha, Neb.
"As a boss, he was demanding but fair. And he worked harder than anyone else," says longtime friend Spencer Wiggins, whom Cain first recruited as director of human resources for Burger King and then cajoled into joining him at Godfather's.
"But Herman, it's in Omaha, man!" Wiggins protested.
Cain's response: "Sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone if you want to make a difference."
Former employees says Cain blew into Godfather's like the hurricane depicted in his campaign song, shutting about 200 underperforming stores and eliminating hundreds of jobs. At Burger King, he had launched the "beamer" program, encouraging employees to smile at customers. At Godfathers, he started SIN ? Solve It Now, a rapid response program to deal with customers complaints.
"He was genuine, warm, demanding and funny; he was the best leader I ever met in my life," says Paul Baird, his regional manager in Seattle. "And he sounded like a preacher! Everyone was like, who IS this guy?"
At Godfather's, Cain regaled employees with motivational speeches, often ending with the same folksy anecdotes he tells in the campaign.
When he was a boy, his grandfather hooked mules to a wagon to bring a load of potatoes to town. Grandkids were scampering all over the place, until they heard the old man roar.
"Them that's going, get on the wagon! Them that ain't, get out of the way!"
The chant was to become a campaign mantra.
In 1988 when Pillsbury decided to sell Godfather's, Cain put together a group that bought the chain in a leveraged buyout. He remained its chief until 1996 when he moved to Washington to become CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a lobbying organization.
It was during his three years with the NRA that two employees reportedly received financial settlements after accusing Cain of sexual harassment.
Cain boasts that Godfather's "had one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel" when he took over, comparing it to the state of the U.S. economy today. In reality, though his stewardship made it profitable, it was never truly competitive with the larger pizza chains.
His years in Omaha were important in other ways. They won Cain recognition as a leader, a visionary, a man on the move. He became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas city in 1992, and would later serve one year as chairman.
He also served on other corporate boards, including Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Reader's Digest and Whirlpool. Ambitious and driven, a brilliant orator, he was one of the most popular speakers on the local business circuit.
"When Herman Cain was speaking at lunch, you knew people would leave in a great mood, not just because he was funny, which he was," says Loretta Carroll, a local news anchor who often hosted such events. "There was always the feeling that he empowered people a bit. They came away thinking that one person can do things and make a difference in the world."
In 1994 Cain was catapulted into the national spotlight in a memorable exchange with President Bill Clinton during a televised town hall meeting in Kansas City. Speaking via satellite, Cain politely but firmly pressed the president on his proposed health care overhaul.
"If I'm forced to do this, what will I tell those people whose jobs I'm forced to eliminate?" Cain asked, referring to the employer mandate. When Clinton began to explain, Cain persisted. "Quite honestly, your calculation is inaccurate."
Says Carroll: "The Clinton people were not very happy."
But others were enthralled. Jack Kemp, a former congressman, flew to Omaha to meet Cain and later asked him to join the Economic Growth and Tax Reform Commission, a congressional study group.
Kemp, who became Cain's political mentor and friend, is quoted as saying that Cain had "the "voice of Othello, the looks of a football player, the English of Oxfordian quality and the courage of a lion."
Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state and fellow African-American Republican who served on the commission, says he was impressed by Cain's ability to look at things analytically and state his case succinctly. Blackwell says there seemed no doubt that Cain would someday run for office.
Cain's first foray into politics was as an adviser to the Bob Dole-Kemp Republican presidential ticket in 1996. Cain flirted with running for president in 2000 but instead backed Steve Forbes.
In 2004, after moving back to Atlanta, Cain ran an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate.
Partly to stoke his political ambitions, Cain started a career as a talk-radio host, where he honed many of the ideas that later formed his platform and developed a loyal following of fiercely anti-Obama listeners, some of whom would later work for his campaign.
He also worked as a motivational speaker, most notably for Americans for Prosperity, the conservative anti-tax and regulation group founded with the support of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
Cain makes no apologies for his ties to big money. In a recent speech he joked, "I'm the Koch brothers' brother from another mother."
And then, in 2006, as Cain tells it, "God rocked my world."
Diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to his liver, he says doctors gave him a 30 percent chance of survival. Many supporters thought it was the end ? something Cain refused to believe.
Sustained by his faith, Cain says, he took solace in signs like the fact the surgeon's incision resembled a "J" ? as in Jesus. After a year of treatment, Cain says, he was declared cancer free and remains so today. God, he says, had another plan.
So with Gloria at his side, Cain announced his candidacy to cheering throngs in Atlanta on May 21.
Initially, the political establishment paid little attention, deeming him a fringe candidate more interested in promoting his book. It wasn't until Cain began leading in the polls that he came under serious scrutiny.
With that scrutiny came problems.
Cain provoked outrage with some early comments, such as that blacks had been "brainwashed" into voting for Democrats and that he would electrify a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico. Later he said he was joking.
He seemed muddled on abortion, saying while he opposed it under all circumstances, "the government shouldn't be trying to tell people what to do."
He incensed the Occupy Wall Street protesters and their supporters by saying, "If you don't have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself."
His shaky grasp of foreign policy has astounded seasoned commentators. In one interview he didn't understand a question about the "right of return" for Palestinians. In another he seemed unaware that China has nuclear weapons. In a third, he drew a blank when asked about the Obama administration's actions in Libya.
His catchy "9-9-9" tax plan ? a 9 percent income tax, 9 percent corporate tax and 9 percent national sales tax ? has been picked apart by experts as one that will shift more of the tax burden to the middle and lower classes and drastically reduce revenue.
"It's not just he hasn't thought it out ... he's winging it," conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News. "And that's a real problem."
Cain's initial response to critics was a breezy "I does not care", mimicking a favorite phrase of his grandfather. He'll surround himself with good people, he says, and figure out the answers when he's presented with all the facts.
In a rare moment of introspection Cain recently acknowledged that he thought the biggest misconception about him was that he was not serious. For an instant he seemed reflective. Then he turned on the salesman's charm.
"I'm Herman Cain," he said, grinning. "And I'm not running for second."
But even friends say some of the gaffes have been excruciating. "In terms of substance, he has mountains to climb," says Blackwell, a fellow cancer survivor. "I think he's smart enough to do it, but there are issues."
The issues include the fallout from sexual harassment charges and allegations of financial improprieties on the part of his campaign manager. Cain has flatly denied wrongdoing, calling the accusations a smear campaign.
At first, they didn't seem to dent his popularity. His campaign said it had raised $9 million in October and November.
Even before the charges surfaced, supporters were demanding more from Cain.
At a lavish fundraising dinner in Huntsville during his fall visit to Alabama, Danielle Sanford said that while she was captivated by the candidate's message ? "he seemed to hit every source of frustration the average conservative is concerned about" ? she chafed at the fact that he didn't take questions or get into specifics.
Having studied Cain's tax plan in depth, the 39-year-old restaurant owner had concluded that it would force her and her husband, Republican state Sen. Paul Sanford, to pay more taxes. "I'd like more clarity," she said.
James Reagan, who runs a small trucking business, agreed that "9-9-9" was too simplistic.
"It's a starting point," he said, after posing for a photograph with Cain and asking him to "help save my business I'm being taxed to death."
"That's my plan," Cain responded.
But his speech didn't offer any new details, just more soaring oratory and thundering delivery. Claiming the mantle of President Ronald Reagan, who "became president because he touched the hearts of the American people," Cain lamented the fact that Reagan's "shining city on the hill has slid to the side of the hill."
"If you give me the opportunity to be your next president," Cain continued, his voice rising to a crescendo, "together we will move it back to the top of the hill where it belongs."
The crowd was sold. It rose to its feet in deafening applause.
"Yes we Cain," they chanted. "Yes we Cain."
___
AP researcher Barbara Sambriski contributed to this report.
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