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"I hope that we, as a party, would welcome gay and lesbian supporters. I also think there needs to be, in the gay community, robust and bipartisan support [for] marriage rights."

Republican LGBT political advocate Ken Mehlman

Cadillac Elmiraj Concept // THE AUTO 100

See more 2013 LA AUTO SHOW Vehicles

Flaton, Formerly at Lazard, Joins Zolfo Cooper

By: Emily Glazer

Carol Flaton, most recently a Lazard banker specializing in restructurings, has moved to turnaround firm Zolfo Cooper LLC to help strengthen its advisory practice.

Ms. Flaton, 49, started as managing director at New York-based Zolfo Cooper, which has about 50 people.

“I’ve known the guys for 15 years,” she said of people she’s worked with at Zolfo. “The middle of the night conference room negotiations either on my side or against it – the mettle is tested.”

The closely held firm had an advisory practice since it was founded in 1985. It advised restaurant chain Friendly’s and creditors in American Airlines Inc. and Eastman KodakKODK -0.40%. Zolfo Cooper also worked on Enron Corp.’s bankruptcy and film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. before and during its bankruptcy proceedings.

The firm has an “interim management” business, where its executives serve as chief restructuring officers, a temporary role to improve companies’ operations in distressed situations.

Ms. Flaton most recently served as a managing director in Lazard’s restructuring advisory group until this past fall. She worked on situations including real estate finance company Capmark Financial Group Inc.CPMK -8.54%, telecommunications firm LightSquared Inc. and energy producer Dynegy Inc.

Among other prior roles, Ms. Flaton worked on creditor-side advisory work at CitigroupInc.C -0.79% and spent roughly a decade at Credit Suisse Group AG, including a five-year stint in Europe.

VIDEO: Syrian Rebels Say Plan To Aid Blockaded City Is A Ploy

The Syrian opposition delegation condemned on Monday, the government’s proposal to allow women…

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Master 1,775 S&P Level Tagged: Market Bounces Perfectly $$$

http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/EmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_mj_toptalk2_140127

Sen. Rand Paul took on the “war on women” debate on Sunday, saying women are succeeding and that the war is something Democrats have concocted against Republicans. The Morning Joe panel discusses.

VIDEO: Justin Bieber Mobbed by Tidal Wave of Girls During Panama Escape

Justin Bieber may be escaping his troubles while on a trip to Panama, but he can’t escape a…

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Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said there’s “no immediate need” to increase borrowing costs and indicated a debate has begun on forward guidance after U.K. unemployment fell faster than anticipated.

Continued

VIDEO: Mary J. Blige’s Father ‘Critical’ After Stabbing

Mary J. Blige’s father Thomas is stabbed multiple times in the neck and is in a critical…

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Alexander Navab co-heads KKR’s North American Private Equity business and heads the Media and Communications industry team in the U.S.

NASA launches LADEE spacecraft for moon mission

UFO Update – Featured videos:

A probe was launched from an Orbital Sciences Corporation Minotaur V rocket Friday night to eventually orbit the moon to collect information about earth’s lu… Video Rating: 0 / 5

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Our swing Forex trades from yesterday Jan 23rd 2014.

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Hobby Lobby's religious convictions aren't for sale

By Susan Thurston

ZEPHYRHILLS — The first clue that Hobby Lobby isn't your typical retail business is a sign at the front door saying the craft store is closed on Sundays "to allow employees time for family and worship."

Once inside, other clues dot the shelves, from the large selection of religious crosses to the decorations quoting biblical verses. Listen closely and you can hear Christian songs playing in the background.

The faith-based subtleties are backed by conviction. David Green and his family founded Hobby Lobby more than four decades ago with the guiding mission to run the business in a way that brings glory to God. Over the years, Green has donated an estimated $500 million to Christian charities, including Oral Roberts University, of which his son Mart Green is board chairman.

Last week, Hobby Lobby opened its second store in the Tampa Bay area, at 7333 Gall Blvd. in Zephyrhills in Pasco County. City Manager Jim Drumm described it as a big deal for the rural city of 15,000, where residents are used to driving a long way to get to top retail brands. A craft store had ranked high on a recent Chamber of Commerce survey asking what goods and services residents wanted in their community. Several singled out Hobby Lobby by name.Those beliefs are a footnote to most shoppers, who spend more than $3 billion a year on picture frames, craft supplies and home decor items. Even fewer know the Oklahoma-based chain is at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court dispute over a federal health care law mandate requiring employers to cover abortion-inducing drugs.

"We have a fair number of retirees, and a lot of times when you are retired, you have a lot of time on your hands and want to take up new hobbies," Drumm said. "People were really happy when Hobby Lobby was announced."

The store took over a Sweetbay supermarket that closed last year as part of a chainwide contraction that affected 33 underperforming locations. Hobby Lobby co-manager Kevin Ross said shoppers lined up outside before the soft opening on Dec. 31, and more than one customer has remarked that the store is busier than it ever was as Sweetbay. A surprising top seller so far? Yarn.

• • •

David Green founded Hobby Lobby out of his Oklahoma City garage in 1970. The son of a preacher, he and his wife, Barbara, started out making decorative frames, then added craft supplies, home decor and holiday decorations. They opened their first store in 1972 and have since expanded to more than 550 locations nationwide. The first Tampa Bay store opened in late 2010 in New Port Richey, another community a long way from the urban core.

Hobby Lobby chooses places where it can rent big-box buildings at an affordable rate. It doesn't target the corner of Main and Main, like Trader Joe's, which is opening stores along Fourth Street in St. Petersburg and off Dale Mabry Highway in South Tampa. It also doesn't need to be across from International Plaza, like the Container Store.

Hobby Lobby usually leases space previously occupied by another retailer. Former supermarkets, hardware stores and Kmarts in mid- to higher-income suburban areas are prime sites, said Justin Greider, vice president of Florida retail brokerage at Jones Lang LaSalle commercial real estate. The space costs 50 to 70 percent of what a new building would cost.

"They are very, very sensitive to the amount of money they can pay in rent," he said. "They are focused on families with some disposable income who like scrapbooking and decorating, but are price sensitive. They aren't competing with upper-income stores like Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel."

On average, stores draw from a 10- to 15-mile radius, significantly farther than a 3-mile reach for a grocery store or 5 to 7 miles for a Target. That makes it possible, for instance, to add a store in Carrollwood or Brandon but still attract shoppers from Tampa's urban core, Greider said.

Hobby Lobby stores can be as large as 90,000 square feet but, more recently, have taken over smaller retail space in order to facilitate growth. By comparison, Michaels and Jo-Ann stores are about 20,000 to 25,000 square feet.

Hobby Lobby has been referred to as a combo Michaels, Kirkland's and Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store on steroids. Stores carry 70,000 products, many of which are made at the company's manufacturing plant in Oklahoma. By comparison, Michaels, which has twice the number of stores, carries 37,000 items.

Hobby Lobby has been successful in more remote communities like Zephyrhills and New Port Richey, which have limited retail options, real estate officials said. In the case of the newest store, the nearest Michaels is 15 miles away in Wesley Chapel. The nearest Jo-Ann store is 24 miles away in New Tampa.

"If you locate in a more rural area, you tend to have the entire market to yourself," said David Conn, executive vice president of retail services for CBRE commercial real estate in Tampa. "You're not splitting the market with other competitors, and it's unlikely a competitor will go there."

Closing on Sundays, while welcomed by many employees and believers, comes at a price, he said. Competitors are open daily and have longer hours. Hobby Lobby operates 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. six days a week — a total of 66 hours, while Michaels is typically open 81 hours a week. To stay competitive, Hobby Lobby needs less expensive rent in areas with likely shoppers.

"It all comes down to the bottom line," Conn said. "They are running a business. They aren't selling Bibles."

• • •

Hobby Lobby has earned a reputation as a strong, solid retailer, particularly among government and real estate officials who have dealings with the company. The chain carries no long-term debt and starts its full-time hourly workers at 90 percent above the federal minimum wage — about $14 an hour — compared to other retailers that start at minimum wage. David Green, who owns the entire business with his wife and three children, was ranked 246th on Forbes' list of world billionaires in 2013, with a net worth of $4.5 billion.

The family's religious beliefs run companywide. The chain employs chaplains to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of its employees, who come from all faiths, a company spokesman said. Gruesome or bloody Halloween decorations are strictly prohibited.

Though not as widely known as Truett Cathy and his family from Chick-fil-A (another business closed on Sundays), the Greens are big names in Christian circles. Last week, Hobby Lobby president Steve Green, one of the sons, appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network to talk about his family's collection of 40,000 biblical documents and artifacts, which is said to be the largest private compilation of its kind in the world. Items from the Green Collection have been on display in St. Peter's Square and Vatican City and are part of a traveling exhibit called "Passages," currently in Colorado Springs. Eventually, the Greens plan to open a museum for their collection in Washington, D.C.

It hasn't been without controversy. A few months ago, Hobby Lobby officials apologized after complaints that the stores didn't carry Jewish merchandise. As a result, the company said it would sell some items at stores near large Jewish populations in New York and New Jersey before Hanukkah.

In September 2012, Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit against the federal government opposing a requirement that it provide the "morning-after pill" and "week-after pill" for free under its insurance plan. Compliance, the family said, would violate its religious beliefs.

Hobby Lobby won on an appeal but in October joined the government in asking the Supreme Court to take up the case. The court agreed in November and is expected to issue a ruling by June.

More than 90 lawsuits have been filed by nonprofit and for-profit groups nationwide against the Health and Human Services mandate involving contraceptives. Hobby Lobby is one of a few non-Catholic-owned businesses to sue and, so far, its case is just one of two headed to the Supreme Court.

Officials at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Washington, D.C., law firm that is representing Hobby Lobby for free, said a court victory would prevent the Greens from having to choose between violating their faith and violating the law.

"They hold their religious convictions closely. They are very sincere in that," said Becket Fund spokeswoman Emily Hardman. "They just want to operate their business the way they have been.

When I heard that the Supreme Court is seriously considering removing buffer zones at planned parenthood

JUST IN: Supreme Court agrees to consider whether police need a search warrant to look at cellphones of people they arrest, NBC’s Pete Williams reports

BofAML: Buy Any Dip In Treasuries; Stock Bulls “Watch-Out”

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VIDEO: Are Airbrush-Free Ad Campaigns Here to Stay?

Lingerie and apparel brand Aerie is saying goodbye to photoshop in its latest ad campaign,…

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The comedy of errors that are IMF forecasts is well known: it was covered most recently in “Hilarious Charts Of The Day: IMF’s “Growth Forecasts” Over Time.” Moments ago we got the IMF’s first forecast update for 2014 which also included the Fund’s first 2015 forecasts for growth around the world. Not surprisingly, they were largely higher across the board except for China which has seen its 2014 projected GDP growth collapse from 8.5% a year ago to 7.5% now, and is expected to drop modestly to 7.3% in 2015. The charts showing the progression of said hilarious forecasts are shown in their entirety below, about which one thing can be said with certainty: whatever the GDP growth rate in the world is in 2014 and 2015 it will be anything but what the IMF predicts it to be.

Continued

Former Bush aide now top private equity lobbyist

Ken Mehlman, the public affairs chief at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. who was previously a leading Republican operative in Washington, is now the top lobbyist for the private equity industry.

Mehlman was elected Thursday as the chairman of The Private Equity Growth Capital Council, the most prominent industry advocacy group for firms like TPG Capital, Silver Lake, Apollo Global Management, Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group.

He will continue several long-running fights in Washington, including higher taxes for PE firms from a potential change in the treatment of carried interest and increased registration and disclosure rules from the Dodd-Frank Act.

Mehlman succeeds Mark Tresnowski, the top lawyer for Madison Dearborn Partners. PEGCC, launched in 2007, is also led day-to-day by president and chief executive officer Steve Judge.

Mehlman joined KKR in 2008 from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he was a partner in the law firm's legislative and regulatory counseling practice. He is best known for his work on behalf of conservative politicians before: chairing the Republican National Committee and running George W. Bush's presidential reelection campaign in 2004.

Mehlman is also a prominent gay rights advocate and serves as a director of the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Mehlman's primary responsibilities will be to "help expand the PEGCC's outreach efforts to educate and engage a broad set of stakeholders about the value of a vibrant and dynamic private equity industry," according to a statement from the association.

"I have enormous respect for the PEGCC's important work engaging with public policy makers to encourage more economic growth and retirement security for millions of Americans," Mehlman said. "I also share the PEGCC's goal of building a community of investors who seek superior returns while also emphasizing active, responsible governance, long term investment and measuring success in years not quarters."

Mehlman also credited Tresnowski for his work in helping block changes to carried interest taxes as yet and countering negative views of the private equity industry that emerged during former Bain Capital executive Mitt Romney's failed presidential bid.

—By CNBC's Lawrence Delevingne

This past Sunday, the Denver Broncos beat the New England Patriots to win the AFC title. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers to capture the NFC title. Now the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks will face each other in the Super Bowl on February 2nd, 2014. Both football teams will help to bring in tons of revenue dollars for the economy and their respective cities. This coming Super Bowl is expected to be the most highly watched Super Bowl game ever. It features one of the best offensive teams in the NFL going against one of the best defensive teams in recent history. It has been estimated that a 30-second television commercial will go for about $4 million during this year’s Super Bowl.   At the start of 2014, two states began selling marijuana legally, Colorado and Washington. Since the two football teams that will be playing in the Super Bowl are coming from these two states it is safe to say that marijuana stores will likely do very well on Super Bowl Sunday. We can only expect marijuana sales to be up leading into such a major sporting event. After all, alcohol sales always increase during the week of the Super Bowl, so we should expect the same type of reaction from marijuana sales. Here are three marijuana related stocks that could benefit from the upcoming Super Bowl game. Please note, all of these companies mentioned below trade on the OTC-BB so they are equities that carry much higher risk. These stocks have also had big gains since the new year began. Traders and investors must make sure that they understand the risks involved before trading these stocks.   1. Cannabis Sativa  (OTC-BB: CBDS) 2. Medbox Inc (OTC-BB: MDBX) 3. Terra Tech Corp (OTC-BB: TRTC) Nicholas Santiago InTheMoneyStocks.com

E.T. UFO Worldwide Disclosure Movement - Steven Greer MD MUFON 2013 (Hidden Truth)

UFO Update – Featured videos:

http://www.mufonsymposium.org/speaker/steven-m-greer-md/ http://www.sirius.neverendinglight.com/ http://www.siriusdisclosure.com “Disclosure: Newest Evidence…

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Institutions and hedge funds are selling stocks. Consider yourself warned. How do I know this? Let me explain simply. There is classic distribution going on and this can be seen clearly in the charts. 1. December 31st, 2013 the S&P 500 hit a new all time high of 1,848.36. The next trading day (January 2nd, 2014) stocks were sold hard. This tells us that as soon as the new year came, money managers sold stocks, taking profits. Remember, window dressing was over as of the 31st of 2013 and taxes on these new sales do not have to be paid until April 2015. Notice how eager they were to sell at the start of the year. That tells us they do not think there is much upside to this market. 2. Last Wednesday, January 15th, 2014, the markets moved higher, making a new all time high of 1,850.84. However, this was just an intra-day all time high as heavy selling came in, pushing the S&P back below the December 31st, 2013 high. One must ask, why was there such selling pressure as soon as the markets broke that high last Wednesday? The institutions are eager to use any excuse to sell. They would not even allow the market to close at a new all time high. 3. Today, the markets opened higher and hit 1,849.31 on the S&P 500. This was shy of a new all time high intra-day by 1.53 points. Please note that the markets this time, could not even take out the high from Wednesday as sellers started selling quickly. The markets have since gone to the negative side. Notice the trend of distribution is getting stronger. First you had a strong close at all time highs on December 31st, 2013. Then you had a weaker move as the markets broke that high but quickly pulled back below by the end of the day on January 15th, 2014. Then today, the markets opened just underneath those all time highs and sold immediately. Strong, weak and weaker. That is the trend on the S&P 500 as institutions start selling more aggressively. In addition, please note that margin usage is at all time highs. This is the amount that the retail investor is borrowing to buy stocks. The last time margin usage was at an all time high was in 2007 (before the financial collapse) and in 2000 (when the tech bubble burst). In addition, note that mutual fund money flow (retail investors) has surged dramatically in the last year. The same thing happened in 2007 as well as 1999-2000. Scary stuff. The bottom line remains…the institutions and hedge funds are unloading their long positions and retail investors should be very scared. Watch the F&%k out! Gareth Soloway

InTheMoneyStocks.com