Important news from Sammie

Oct 20 2011 ∞

League approves sale of 76ers as lockout drags on


Comcast-Spectacor, led by Ed Snider, purchased the 76ers in 1996 and the team was valued at $330 million in a Forbes survey earlier this year, below the league average of $369 million.Harris, who co-founded the private equity player in 1990, is joined in the ownership group by David Blitzer, a senior managing director of global private equity giant Blackstone Group.”We are delighted that the NBA’s Board of Governors has approved Josh Harris and David Blitzer’s purchase of the 76ers,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said in a statement.”Josh and David bring vast business experience that will greatly benefit the team as it continues to grow both on and off the court.”The 76ers, who have not won an NBA championship since 1983, finished 41-41 last season and lost to the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs.The approval of the sale comes as the NBA is in the midst of a lockout that began July 1 and has forced the cancellation of at least the first two weeks of the 2011-12 regular season.

Oct 12 2011 ∞

GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks, euro jump as focus sharpens on Slovakia


(Recasts and updates with U.S. markets open; changes byline, changes dateline, previous LONDON)By Barani KrishnanNEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Stocks on major world exchanges hit 3-week highs on Wednesday while the euro rose to its highest in almost a month as investors bet Slovakia would reach a deal to expand the euro zone’s rescue fund.Commodity prices like those of crude oil in London CLc1 also rose broadly, for a third straight day. But U.S. Treasuries continued Tuesday’s downdraft as fewer investors took to safe-haven bonds amid the growing appetite for risk. [US/]Stocks on Wall Street were higher, extending the rally across Europe.”It’s like no bad news, we get to go up as long as you don’t see any horror stories,” said Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago. “At the moment it appears as if Europe has at least contained the crisis.”Slovakia is the last country in the 17-member euro zone that still needs to approve a plan to strengthen the currency zone’s rescue fund. Parties in the outgoing Slovak government began talks with the opposition to reach a deal on ratifying the plan. For details, see [ID:nL5E7LC0JT] and[ID:nTOPEURO]German Chancellor Angela Merkel weighed in, saying she expected full ratification by the European Union summit on Oct. 23. [ID:nB4E7KT01M]Investors are also looking to the European Union to announce a bank recapitalisation plan, which is due later on Wednesday and is designed to cushion the impact any default by Greece could have on the region’s banks.”Markets are clearly still hoping for a comprehensive plan to tackle the (euro zone) debt crisis. This may continue to support the market over the next couple of months,” said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets.The euro EUR= jumped against the dollar following the break of an options barrier at $1.3700, which took it through a series of stop-loss entry orders above that. The single currency gained more than 1 percent on the day to $1.3816 on the EBS trading platform, its strongest since Sept. 16.At 10:22 a.m. EDT (1422 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 114.51 points, or 1.00 percent, at 11,530.81. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX was up 15.49 points, or 1.30 percent, at 1,211.03. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 33.33 points, or 1.29 percent, at 2,616.36.Financials were among the best performers on Wall Street, with the KBW Bank index .BKX up 2.8 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) gained 3 percent to $33.28.Alcoa Inc (AA.N) fell 4.7 percent to $9.81 to become one of the biggest drags on the Dow. The largest U.S. aluminum producer’s third-quarter profit was lower than the second quarter and fell short of already reduced expectations due to a slump in global metals prices. [ID:nN1E79A1OO]The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS erased initial losses to gain 1.2 percent. The benchmark index is now more than 11 percent above a 15-month low hit earlier in October.European stocks .FTEU3 rose 1.4 percent to a five-week high.

Oct 11 2011 ∞

Another reason baseball is America’s game?


A speaker at the influential Values Voters Summit had a theory about why there has not been a major attack on U.S. soil by Islamic extremists since Sept. 11, 2001. And it isn’t just the hard work of U.S. intelligence agencies or the efforts of the thousands of U.S. forces who have risked their lives for 10 years. According to Bryan Fischer, a director of the evangelical Christian American Families Association,  baseball can take at least some of the credit. Fischer told an audience at the meeting that he believes there has not been another such major attack on the United States for a decade because Major League Baseball started singing “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch break during games instead of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” after 9/11. By singing “God Bless America,” baseball audiences are praying, and God has been hearing their prayers, Fischer said. “Major League Baseball has converted our stadiums into cathedrals,” he told the summit, a gathering of the socially conservative voters who will play a large role in selecting the Republican Party’s nominee to run against President  Barack Obama as he seeks re-election in 2012. All of the leading nominees for the Republican nomination describe themselves as conservative and all of them agreed to address the convention. Texas Congressman Ron Paul and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney addressed the meeting on Friday, before Fischer spoke. PICTURE CREDIT: Men in colonial costumes wave their hats at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, October 7, 2011.

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