T-Mobile to axe grandfathered plans starting in November

Long-time T-Mobile customers who still enjoy the privileges of plans no longer offered by the company will soon have to say goodbye to them. That's the word confirmed by T-Mo to Engadget.

All the details are yet to be announced, but T-Mobile has confirmed that affected customers will get "similar or better features at a comparable price." The transition should begin in November, and customers are being given until the beginning of February to jump ship to another carrier without risking any penalties.

In a statement provided to Engadget, T-Mobile says that "simple is better," so it's reducing the number of older plans it maintains.

Source: Engadget

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/uGVse3VW3Wc/story01.htm
Similar Articles: Jake Locker   Nsync Vma   Riley Cooper Racial Slur Video   Reza Aslan   National Tequila Day  

Stocks slip as debt talks drag on in Washington

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are heading lower as lawmakers continue to work on a deal to avoid a U.S. default and reopen the government.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 39 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,261 as of noon Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down three points, or 0.2 percent, at 1,707. The Nasdaq composite index fell four, or 0.1 percent, to 3,809.

The U.S. is expected to reach its borrowing limit on Thursday, jeopardizing its ability to pay its bills. Meanwhile a partial shutdown of the federal government is in its 15th day.

Eight of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 fell, with the biggest declines in utilities and consumer discretionary stocks, a category that includes retailers.

Stocks were mostly higher in Europe.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-slip-debt-talks-drag-washington-160551990--finance.html
Similar Articles: Kwame Kilpatrick   Cristy Nicole Deweese   world trade center   The Butler   geraldo rivera  

Dream Wedding Bride Loses Battle With Cancer | NBC Bay Area

Dying Bride's Incredible Story

Faced with a terrible diagnosis, Jen Bulik says she "chose life." Erica Ota is helping her do just that. Read the full story here. You can donate to Jen and Jeff at giveforward.com













More Photos and Videos

A Bay Area bride whose story touched thousands of people around the world has lost her battle with lung cancer. Jen Bulik-Lang passed away at 8 a.m. Thursday in her home in Mountain View according to her husband, Jeffrey Lang.

"It was beautiful," Jeff said in a phone call, "very peaceful."

Jeff said Jen's condition worsened over the past week.

"She had periods of confusion, had difficulty moving, and was sleeping a lot," Jeff said.

When asked what message he would like to deliver to those who followed Jen's story, Jeff said, "She may have left her body, but she is still with me. She always will be."

WATCH: Wedding Preps

Jen, 35 years old, was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer earlier this year. She said the news she had just four to six months to live motivated her to "focus on life." Part of that committment meant marrying Jeff, her boyfriend of six years.

The two became engaged in mid-July, with a plan to wed just two weeks later.

Erica Ota, a wedding planner from Emeryville, heard about Jen's story and volunteered her services to help plan Jen's dream wedding.

WATCH: Jen and Jeff's Wedding Day

Using Jen's Pinterest page as a guide, Erica convinced more than 60 wedding vendors to donate more than $50,000 in goods and services, including a New Orleans style marching band that lead their guest from ceremony to reception. 

An NBC Bay Area story about the couple's wedding was viewed and shared by tens of thousands of people.

NBC's "Today" show aired a story about their wedding as well. As a result, the Langs recieved well-wishes, blessings, and donations to help with Jen's medical costs from people around the world.

In the weeks after their wedding the Langs took advantage of generous offers of places to stay in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Sausalito and Lake Tahoe.

On August 15, Jen posted an entry to her blog titled, "Uncertainty." "When will my life go back to normal?" she wrote. She ultimately decided it likely never would. She concluded by writing, "I have to laugh at the insanity because this is so out of my control. I think I should have some control over this but I really don't."

Source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Dream-Wedding-Bride-Loses-Battle-With-Cancer-227281031.html
Similar Articles: chrissy teigen   michael beasley   monday night football   Jason Dufner   jimmy fallon  

Macy's stores to open on U.S. Thanksgiving for first time

By Phil Wahba

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Macy's Inc said on Monday that most of its stores will open on the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday for the first time in its history, in a sign of how competitive the holiday season is shaping up.

Macy's will open the doors at most of its 800 namesake department stores, at 8 p.m. on Thursday, November 28. The company said the shift was voluntary for workers and that the move was "consistent" with what many rivals are doing.

The name of company, which has sponsored New York's Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade since 1924, is virtually synonymous with the holiday.

Traditionally, retailers have waited until Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving, to start their big end-of-the-year push for sales.

U.S. retailers have extended their Black Friday hours every year in recent years to get a jump on the sales events that kick off the holiday season, when they earn more than a third of their annual sales in the holiday season.

Many retailers, including Macy's, reported disappointing second-quarter sales, pressuring them to try to make up those sales during the holiday season.

Macy's opened most of its stores at midnight in 2011 and 2012 to kick off the Black Friday sales after opening later in the morning in prior years. But some of its rivals have opened earlier and earlier, pressuring Macy's.

Last year, Macy's rival Lord & Taylor, owned by Hudson's Bay Co , opened some stores for business on Thanksgiving for the first time. Sears Holdings Corp's namesake chain was also open.

In 2012, Target Corp opened at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, three hours earlier than a year earlier, when it was closed on Thanksgiving.

Macy's said in a statement that the earlier opening was to cater to shoppers who prefer to start shopping earlier.

One associate in the men's sportswear section at the Macy's flagship in Manhattan said he volunteered to work on Thanksgiving.

"I'm going to gladly work that shift because I don't want to work on Black Friday," he said.

But another associate said Thanksgiving with her family was too "sacred" for her to go to work.

Last year, several petitions were created on website Change.org suggesting that chains keep their doors shut on Thanksgiving, which is a major national, non-denominational holiday in the United States. Change.org is a website that allows people to create and sign petitions.

Rowland H. Macy opened R.H. Macy & Co as a dry goods store in New York City in 1858.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Carol Bishopric)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/macys-stores-open-u-thanksgiving-first-time-223936381--finance.html
Related Topics: gizmodo   Ozil   lsu football   Madden 25   Gia Allemand  

SF-area transit strike averted _ at least for day

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco Bay Area commuters faced another day of uncertainty Monday as a major regional transit agency and two of its largest unions held talks under the ever-present threat of a strike.

"I am so frustrated with the way they've been holding the riders hostage," said commuter Toba Villatore, 45, of San Francisco as she headed to work. "I'm tired of staying up until midnight wondering if there's going to be a strike or not."

Representatives of Bay Area Rapid Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 resumed negotiations Monday afternoon only hours after tense negotiations ended around 3 a.m.

The overnight talks came after the union backed off a threatened midnight strike deadline, instead giving management a 24-hour reprieve from what would have been the second strike in four months. Trains were running as usual Monday.

BART General Manager Grace Crunican said Sunday the "last best and final offer" presented to the unions Sunday is $7 million higher than Friday's proposal and includes a raise of 3 percent a year and contributions to their health and medical plans.

Josie Mooney, a chief negotiator for SEIU, said before Monday discussions that the parties are about $16 million apart over four years.

"It doesn't make any sense to issue a last, best and final offer that they knew in advance that we would not be able to accept," Mooney said. "Effectively, their offer is pretty much the same as it has been for the last 60 days."

Crunican said the unions have two weeks from Sunday to accept the deal before it is taken off the table.

"It is time to bring this to a close. The Bay Area is tired of going to bed at night and not knowing if BART is going to be open or not," Crunican said.

BART workers went on strike for nearly five days in July and were about to on Friday when a 60-day cooling-off period ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown expired, but continued negotiating over the weekend.

Ridership was light on Monday because of strike fears and the Columbus Day holiday.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement Monday that "people's very livelihoods hang in the balance," which only compounds the frustration.

ATU President Antonette Bryant complained that BART presented a last, final offer Sunday afternoon just as the parties came close to reaching a full agreement. SEIU 1021 executive director Pete Castelli said Sunday while the parties made progress on pay, pension and health care benefits they also were still at odds on issues related to work rules.

About 400,000 riders take BART every weekday on the nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system.

Sticking points in the 6-month-old negotiations include salaries and workers' contributions to their health and pension plans. BART workers currently pay $92 a month for health care and contribute nothing toward their pensions.

Workers from the two unions, which represent more than 2,300 mechanics, custodians, station agents, train operators and clerical staff, now average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually, BART said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sf-area-transit-strike-averted-least-day-114004117--finance.html
Related Topics: Kenichi Ebina   jimmy fallon  

LGBT TV Characters Down From 2012 Record, GLAAD Study Finds

Adam Rose/FOX

Fox's "Glee"

Following 2012's record, the number of LGBT characters on television dipped, with Fox, ABC and ABC Family among the most inclusive networks, according to a new GLAAD study.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's 18th annual "Where We Are on TV" report has found that of the series regulars on primetime broadcast scripted series, only 3.3 percent of the characters featured in the 2013-14 TV were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. That's down from last year's record high of 4.4 percent. But the report isn't all bad news: Of the 3.3 percent, there are an equal number of women and men LGBT characters, showing an effort on the networks' part to diversify storylines beyond those most typically seen on TV, GLAAD found. (The number of recurring LGBT characters also ticked down from 25 to 20.)

On cable, meanwhile, GLAAD tallied 42 regular LGBT characters, up from 35 year-over-year, with an additional 24 recurring characters. HBO led the pack with 11, followed by Showtime (eight). Of those characters, 39 percent are women and 29 percent are people of color. Only one was transgender (Adam on Degrassi, who no longer appears on the series.)

STORY: Network Axes Fall Hard on Gay Characters

Of the 796 overall regular characters on primetime, the number of female characters declined to 43 percent. People of color will again comprise 23 percent of all regulars, while only 1 percent are depicted as people with disabilities.

"Last season was a stellar one when it comes to the sheer number of gay, lesbian and bisexual representations on television, though diversity within those storylines showed room for improvement," GLAAD spokesman Wilson Cruz said. "Though the number of LGBT characters dropped this season, shows like The Fosters, with an interracial female couple raising a family, and characters like Unique (Alex Newell) on Glee have not only moved the conversation about LGBT people forward, but are also a hit with audiences."

Meanwhile, the watchdog group's annual Network Responsibility Index -- which rates LGBT content on networks during the since completed 2012-13 TV season -- GLAAD found that Fox was the most inclusive broadcaster with 42 percent of its programming hours having included LGBT images.

STORY: GLAAD Study Finds Record Number of LGBT Characters on Broadcast TV

Each network is assigned a grade on a scale of excellent, good, adequate or failing, with Fox earning a "good" rating. No network received the top marks in the seventh annual NRI. ABC came in second in terms of inclusive hours (33 percent, good rating). On cable, ABC Family was determined to be the most inclusive network GLAAD tracked last year, with 50 percent of its programming including LGBT impressions or stories. FX followed with 40 percent. History again received a failing grade, with no LGBT images on any of its programming last season.

The studies come after a year in which network cancellations drastically reduced the number of LGBT characters on primetime. NBC's gay-themed The New Normal was canceled after one season, as were Go On, Smash, Partners, Happy Endings, Southland, Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23, Malibu Country, 90210, Emily Owens, The Office and L.A. Complex, all of which featured openly gay or bisexual characters. (Glee's Heather Morris, who played bisexual cheerleader Brittany also exited the series.)

STORY: CBS, History, TBS Receive Failing Grade on GLAAD's Network Responsibility Index

Meanwhile, new series featuring LGBT characters include Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine, NBC's Sean Saves the World and ABC's Back in the Game joined returning gay-friendly series Grey's Anatomy (ABC), Glee (Fox) and The Carrie Diaries (The CW).

Here's a closer look at both studies, with the complete report available on GLAAD's website.

Network Responsibility Index
• Good: ABC, ABC Family, The CW, Fox, MTV, NBC, Showtime
• Adequate: CBS, FX, HBO, TLC, TNT, USA Network
• Failing: History, TBS

Where We Are on TV
Percentage of LGBT characters:
ABC 5.4%
Fox 5.4%
The CW 3%
CBS 1.9%
NBC 1%

E-mail: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/4FoxrTh9P20/lgbt-tv-characters-down-2012-647281
Category: Namaste   twin towers   Olivia Nuzzi  

Seized Libyan PM a former rebel himself

Tripoli (AFP) - Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, seized by ex-rebels from a Tripoli hotel early Thursday and later freed, was instrumental in bringing about the downfall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The 63-year-old career diplomat and former rebel-in-exile played a major role in securing Western support for the successful 2011 uprising that toppled the veteran strongman.

Born in 1950 to a business family, Zeidan grew up in the central town of Waddan but then spent half of his life in abroad, mostly in exile.

After obtaining a degree in humanities in 1975, he joined the Libyan diplomatic corps.

In the late 1970s he was sent to work in Libya's embassy in India, alongside the then ambassador Mohamed al-Megaryef, who became president of Libya's ruling national assembly in the post-Kadhafi era.

In the early 1980s, both Zeidan and Megaryef defected and joined the opposition in exile under the banner of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya.

Still living abroad, Zeidan eventually left the National Front to become a Geneva-based advocate for human rights in Libya.

When the revolt against Kadhafi erupted in February 2011, he played a leading role, along with liberal Mahmud Jibril, in seeking international support for the National Transitional Council, the political wing of the rebellion.

As NTC representative in Europe, Zeidan succeeded in convincing the international community to intervene militarily in support of those battling the Kadhafi regime.

Britain and France led the creation of a NATO no-fly zone in Libya.

On Thursday, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed "great concern" after Zeidan was detained, saying the "stability and the rule of law are very important" in Libya as it seeks to rebuild.

Following Kadhafi's ouster and death in October 2011 at the hands of the rebels, Zeidan was elected to the General National Congress (GNC) in Libya's first ever elections in July 2012.

He presents himself as an independent but is considered close to transition leader Jibril's National Force Alliance.

Because of security problems plaguing the country since Kadhafi's ouster, Zeidan had been living in the Corinthia Hotel in the capital.

The official LANA news agency said he was seized at dawn by an anti-crime unit of former rebels, the Brigade for the Fight against Crime.

In principle, the unit reports to the defence and interior ministries.

Hours later, Zeidan was freed, but it was unclear how.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seized-libyan-pm-former-rebel-himself-140506925.html
Tags: savannah brinson   david wilson   Kendrick Lamar Verse   huntington beach   juror B37