eMusic CEO steps down as site merges with e-book distributor

It's only March, but 2013's already proving to be quite the wild ride for music distribution trailblazer, eMusic. A month after eschewing its long time subscription-only model by adding direct music purchases, the site has merged with Ray Kurzweil-founded e-book distributor, K-NFB Reading Inc. The companies confirmed the move in a statement sent to record label partners, which highlights their plan to, "create a consumer-centric interface that makes discovering, interacting with, and purchasing all kinds of media content more accessible and seamless for consumers." The move also sees the exit of CEO Adam Klein. No tears there, however -- the exec (and recent Engadget interview subject) said that he's "very pleased with the significant repositioning of the company and its future direction."

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Source: Wall Street Journal

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/RhXw1W9j3Io/

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Iowa GOP: No more no-fault for parents, divorce too damaging

Seven Iowa Republicans are pushing a bill to end no-fault divorce for parents of minors, citing the negative impact divorce has on children.

Seven Iowa Republicans are promoting a bill in the state legislature that would prohibit parents of minors from obtaining a no-fault divorce. Iowa State Capitol pictured. (CC/Dave Parker)

Some Iowa republicans want to put an end to divorce for parents, reports Radio Iowa. All 50 states have ?no-fault? laws allowing couples to divorce without citing evidence of wrongdoing from either spouse. In 1970 Iowa became the second state in the nation to adopt a no-fault divorce law.

Representative Tedd Gassman was on a three-member subcommittee that debated the bill Monday. Gassman said the issue is ?near and dear? to his heart because his daughter and son-in-law recently divorced, putting his granddaughter at risk.

?There?s a 16-year-old girl in this whole mix now. Guess what? What are the possibilities of her being more promiscuous? What are the possibilities of all these other things surrounding her life that a 16-year-old girl, with hormones raging, can get herself into??

Under the proposed legislation, parents with kids under the age of 18 would be prohibited from obtaining a no-fault divorce. Instead, they?d have to show a spouse was guilty of adultery, had been sent to prison on a felony conviction, had physically or sexually abused someone in the family, or had abandoned the family for at least a year.

?This basically is an attempt on my part to keep fathers in the home,? Gassman said. ?I sincerely believe that the family is the foundation of this nation and this nation will go the direction of our families. If our families break up, so will this nation.?

Representative Marti Anderson, a Democrat from Des Moines who opposes the bill, said the tension in her childhood home lasted eight years, until her parents divorced back when fault had to be proven. ?The stay-together time was very, very damaging to my family,? said Anderson, the oldest of four children, ?and although we?re all adults now, I?m not sure any of us have ever really gotten past that.?

Source: http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/03/05/Iowa-GOP-No-more-no-fault-for-parents-divorce-too-damaging/6711362525611/

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Kerry to bring his own causes to State, including efforts in custody battle

WASHINGTON - With John Kerry poised to breeze through Thursday's Senate confirmation hearings to become America's next secretary of state, one thing is clear: he'll bring different qualities and causes to the job than his predecessor.

American environmentalists are already hopeful that the longtime Massachusetts senator ? one of the fiercest climate hawks in Congress ? will put the brakes to TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, something Hillary Clinton's State Department seemed loath to do.

But there's a lesser-known cause that also distinguishes Kerry from Clinton: his tireless attempts to reunite a Boston-area father with his children after they were spirited away to Egypt three years ago by the boys' non-custodial mother, an Egyptian consultant whose family had close ties to ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Kerry could face questions about the case from fellow senators on Thursday, when he's quizzed by the Senate foreign relations committee.

Kerry is currently the chairman of that panel and pushed through a Senate resolution last year demanding Egypt return the two boys to their father.

In 2009, Colin Bower had full, legal custody of his sons, then aged six and eight, when they were kidnapped by their mother, Mirvat El Nady, and taken illegally to Egypt. The FBI alleges El Nady unlawfully changed her childrens' names, acquired Egyptian passports, paid cash for a one-way plane ticket and abducted them.

Kerry has been actively involved in trying to reunite Bower with his sons, Noor and Ramsay, for the past three years. His efforts once included engaging in a heated argument with Mubarak.

"After my first calls and meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Bower's behalf, my next call was to then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak," Kerry wrote in an opinion piece in the Boston Herald in September.

"It ended in a shouting match, as it became clear Mubarak would do nothing to intercede and, in fact, he was determined to protect the abductors who had ties to his corrupt, crony regime."

Since then, Kerry wrote, he's been working with Egypt's new regime to help Bower get his sons back.

"Tenacity and more is required to complete this job and help a nascent government in Egypt to see the importance of facilitating the return of two abducted children and ending the nightmare that Colin Bower is living each day," he wrote.

"The rule of law must mean something, and respect for law cannot end at a border."

In a recent interview, Bower said he's hopeful one of Kerry's first moves as secretary of state will be to step up efforts to reunite him with his sons.

"Every Tuesday, I speak with two of his chiefs of staff and they reiterate that his priority is getting this done," Bower said.

"He really slammed this through the Senate to be sure he was the one who was owning this issue, and he continues to be the one to say he's committed to resolving it. And there's more that you can do as a member of the cabinet than you can as head of the foreign relations committee."

One of the challenges facing Kerry, however, is the fact that many mid-level bureaucrats in Egypt are from the Mubarak era, Bower said. His ex-wife's family owns a lucrative yeast business and allegedly has ties to the military.

"The family was part of the Mubarak elite, and there are still holdover people in government from Mubarak's regime," he said.

Nonetheless, Bower remains confident that Kerry can and will get the job done.

"He can do that, he's a true diplomat. They're going to have to deal with Sen. Kerry for four years; they're going to want to build up some goodwill."

A Kerry aide said Tuesday that the lawmaker will continue to fight on Bower's behalf.

"Sen. Kerry remains deeply and personally invested in working to reunite Colin Bower with his sons and has been focused on this tragic case since shortly after the illegal abduction from Massachusetts," the aide said.

"He's urged the reunion of Colin and his boys to the highest levels of the Egyptian and U.S. government, and it will remain a personal priority."

Kerry has the backing of congressional Republicans. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives introduced a resolution on the custody dispute late last year.

"The resolution is not calling for anything extraordinary," Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican congresswoman from Florida, said on the House floor in late December.

"We are simply appealing to the Egyptian government to uphold its responsibilities and return these two boys to their rightful home."

Kerry's first overseas trip, however, isn't to Egypt but to Turkey, according to the Turkish daily Milliyet.

The newspaper reported on Monday that a visit to Ankara will be Kerry's first visit to a foreign country as secretary of state. He'll be there for talks on Iraq and Syria.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-bring-own-causes-state-including-efforts-custody-213722242.html

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Why Natural Anxiety Treatments Are Popular Choice These Days ...

overcominganxiety1.net he Alternative Cure for Anxiety Medical Prescriptions It is said that it?s just ordinary for a person to have feelings of anxiety every now and then. Yet if the events of nervousness or worrying have become frequent and uncontrollable, it is considered to be a disorder that needs the help of anxiety treatments. A person suffering from an anxiety disorder must immediately seek cure because if the anxiety becomes worse, it can ruin the patient?s mental and emotional stability. If you are one of those individuals suffering from anxiety, you don?t have to be afraid to seek out treatment because there are various alternatives on the market nowadays which include natural cures for it. You can now evade those medical prescriptions that often bring fear to patients because of their anticipated side-effects and addicting elements. What?s the Difference of Using Natural Anxiety Treatments People will always look for a safe and natural way of treating their anxiety, which explains why natural anxiety cures are favored among other forms of treatments. The choice is obvious at all since going for natural treatments will spare you from any harmful drawbacks normally associated with taking drugs. This is a major advantage of going natural with your cure for anxiety as this kind of treatment rarely holds any bad results to your health. Natural cures also solve the main cause of your anxiety disorder through making you feel more comfortable and relax most of the ?

Source: YouTube

This entry was posted in Health Tutorials and tagged Health, Health Videos, Videos. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://health-ful-hints.com/2013/01/20/why_natural_anxiety_treatments_are_popular_choice_these_days/

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Samsung S380C TracFone | Prepaid QWERTY Cell Phone ...

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Source: http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SCH-S380ZKATFN

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US officials join 787 investigation in Japan

U.S. officials, center, inspect a All Nippon Airways jet which made an emergency landing Wednesday, at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan, Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. An official with Japan?s transport safety board says four U.S. officials, including two Boeing Co. representatives, have arrived at the airport in western Japan to inspect the troubled Boeing 787 jet. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

U.S. officials, center, inspect a All Nippon Airways jet which made an emergency landing Wednesday, at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan, Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. An official with Japan?s transport safety board says four U.S. officials, including two Boeing Co. representatives, have arrived at the airport in western Japan to inspect the troubled Boeing 787 jet. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

This Jan. 17, 2013 photo provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 which made an emergency landing on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan. U.S. safety officials and Boeing inspectors joined a Japanese investigation Friday into the 787 jet at the center of a worldwide grounding of the technologically advanced aircraft. The pilot of the ANA plane made an emergency landing Wednesday morning after he smelled something burning and received a cockpit warning of battery problems. All passengers evacuated the plane on emergency slides. (AP Photo/Japan Transport Safety Board) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

This Jan. 17, 2013 photo provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery and its lid, left, of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 which made an emergency landing on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan. At right are the model in normal condition. U.S. safety officials and Boeing inspectors joined a Japanese investigation Friday into the 787 jet at the center of a worldwide grounding of the technologically advanced aircraft. The pilot of the ANA plane made an emergency landing Wednesday morning after he smelled something burning and received a cockpit warning of battery problems. All passengers evacuated the plane on emergency slides. (AP Photo/Japan Transport Safety Board) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

A representative of the U.S. investigation team is surrounded by the reporters as they arrived at Takamatsu airport, following an emergency landing of a Boeing 787 exposed a battery fire risk in Takamatsu, western Japan, Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. Boeing, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were sending representatives to work with the Japanese government on the investigation, NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

Representatives of the U.S. investigation team arrive at Takamatsu airport, to investigate an emergency landing of a Boeing 787 which exposed a battery fire risk in Takamatsu, western Japan, Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. Boeing, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were sending representatives to work with the Japanese government on the investigation, NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

TOKYO (AP) ? U.S. safety officials and Boeing inspectors joined a Japanese investigation Friday into the 787 jet at the center of a worldwide grounding of the technologically advanced aircraft.

Japanese TV footage showed the American investigators ? one each from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board and two from Boeing Co. ? inspecting the All Nippon Airways jet on the tarmac at Takamatsu airport in western Japan.

The investigation is being led by the Japan Transport Safety Board.

The pilot of the ANA plane made an emergency landing Wednesday morning after he smelled something burning and received a cockpit warning of battery problems. All passengers evacuated the plane on emergency slides.

The American inspectors were expected to examine the battery later Friday, said Mamoru Takahashi, a JTSB official. Photos of the battery provided by JSTB show a blackened mass of wires and other components within a distorted blue casing.

In the wake of the incident, nearly all 50 of the 787s in use around the world have been grounded. Aviation authorities in Japan have directed ANA, which owns 17 of the planes, and Japan Airlines, with seven, not to fly the jets until questions over their safety have been resolved.

The 787, known as the Dreamliner, is Boeing's newest jet, and the company is counting heavily on its success. Since its launch after delays of more than three years, the plane has been plagued by a series of problems including a battery fire and fuel leaks.

An initial inspection by Japanese officials of the 787 in Takamatsu found that a flammable battery fluid known as electrolyte had leaked from the plane's main lithium-ion battery beneath the cockpit. It also found burn marks around the battery.

The 787 relies more than any other modern airliner on electrical signals to help power nearly everything the plane does. It's also the first Boeing plane to use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for its main electrical system.

GS Yuasa Corp., the maker of the lithium-ion batteries used in the 787s, said it was helping with the investigation but that the cause of the problem was unclear.

The FAA has required U.S. carriers to stop flying 787s until the batteries are demonstrated to be safe. United Airlines has six of the jets and is the only U.S. carrier flying the model.

Aviation authorities in other countries usually follow the lead of the country where the manufacturer is based.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-18-Japan-Boeing%20787/id-34a39834a1e34473b8fb45b003528139

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J.G. Wentworth Abandons Plans To Sell its Structured Settlement ...

The last few years have been a rollercoaster for J.G. Wentworth, the financial services firm that injected itself into public consciousness with a series of humorous commercials featuring the catchphrase, ?It?s my money and I need it now!?

Earlier this week Bloomberg reported that the owner of the company, New York private equity firm J.L.L. Partners, has reconsidered plans to auction off the company due to bids falling below the $1 billion asking price. The auction was reportedly handled by Deutsche Bank and Moelis & Co.

The $1 billion price tag is nearly ten times the company?s pretax profit.

The move to sell came after the company entered Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection in 2009, citing ?liquidity problems amid a tightening credit market.? The structured settlement company laid off 120 of its 200 employees, and its general corporate bonds were deemed ?almost worthless? by industry insiders during this period.

Less than six months after the layoffs, J.L.L. Partners invested $100 million in the company, and increased its staff to 178.

In 2011, J.G. Wentworth merged with Peachtree Settlement Funding. J.L.L. Partners retained control of both companies. J.G. Wentworth and Peachtree Settlement Funding reportedly control anywhere from 50-75% of the structured settlement market.

The decision to auction off the company came on the heels of several setbacks for the Radnor, PA, company. Earlier in 2012 J.G. Wentworth faced a lawsuit stemming from its acquisition of Peachtree Settlement Funding, alleging that the company was engaging in deceptive trade practices. The point of contention in the suit was that J.G. Wentworth was deceiving customers into believing that it and Peachtree were competing against each other, when in reality the companies were commonly owned and staffed.

One Ripoff Report told the story: the writer?s sister went back and forth between J.G. Wentworth and Peachtree, trying to find the best quote for the sale of her payments. After a while of this, the Peachtree representative told her that the deal Wentworth was offering was a good deal, and that Wentworth was a great company to sell to. A phone call from a different company some time later informed her that Wentworth and Peachtree were the same company, and that a conservative estimate of how much her payments were worth was $22,000 more than what she received from J.G. Wentworth.
?My sister is now in complete shock and depressed to the point where I had to take time off work to be with her during this terrible period.? She writes, ?She paid dearly for this settlement (the wrongful death of her child) and now she feels like she has been victimized all over again by J.G. Wentworth and Peachtree Financial. J.G. Wentworth is clearly using their recent purchase of Peachtree Financial as a means to deceive people just like my sister. I don?t care what they want to call it but it is just plain disgusting and criminal to steal from people who have already suffered terribly already.?

There have also been allegations that the company engages in ?bait-and-switch? tactics with their customers, wherein sales representatives and clients agree to a deal only to have the terms of the deal altered by J.G. Wentworth when the client is locked into the sale. ?One complainant on the Ripoff Report website detailed a situation in which the structured settlement company offered them $58,250 for their payments, had them sign a sales contract, then, just when the client?s court date had been set, informed them that a mistake had been made, and they could only pay them $51,000.

The structured settlement company has also been accused of anti-consumer practices by illegally preventing consumers from selling settlement payments to anyone other than J.G. Wentworth/Peachtree. In November of 2012, a Texas district court ruled against the company?s attempt to prevent a single mother from selling her structured settlement to a company other than Wentworth.

In July 2012 the company was accused of failing to pay Federal excise taxes on $550 million.

J.L.L. Partners paid around $170 billion for a 70% stake in the company back in 2005, which has since increased to 100%.

J.G. Wentworth was founded in 1991 as a merchant bank for the healthcare industry. Their first foray into buying payments was in 1992, when the company began buying auto insurance deferrals. They began focusing on the structured settlement and annuity market in the late 1990s.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2013 at 12:41 pm and is filed under J. G. Wentworth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.rslfundingllc.com/blog/j-g-wentworth-abandons-plans-to-sell-its-structured-settlement-business.html

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