Zimmerman sues NBC, alleging defamation

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man sued NBC on Thursday, saying the network intentionally edited and repeatedly aired a non-emergency phone call he made to police before shooting and killing unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin "to create the myth" that he was a racist.

Attorneys for George Zimmerman, who maintains he shot Martin in self-defense in February during a struggle, said the lawsuit seeking an undisclosed amount in damages was filed in the same central Florida court where he will stand trial in June for murder.

"NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, so it set about to create the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain," the defamation lawsuit says.

"NBC created this false and defamatory misimpression using the oldest form of yellow journalism: manipulating Zimmerman's owns words, splicing together disparate parts of the (police) recording to create the illusion of statements that Zimmerman never actually made."

But NBC denied any wrongdoing in a statement issued late on Thursday.

"We strongly disagree with accusations made in the complaint. There was no intent to portray Mr. Zimmerman unfairly. We intend to vigorously defend our position in court," the statement said.

The edit in question, which aired on the network's flagship "Today" morning show in April, made it appear that Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, told police that Martin was black without being asked.

In fact, the full tape reveals that Zimmerman only did so when responding to a question posed by a dispatcher.

NBC News president Steve Capus told Reuters in April that the edit was a "mistake, not deliberate" misrepresentation.

Capus said at the time that a producer made the editing error, and that the network's editorial controls - including senior broadcast producer oversight, script editors and often legal and standards department reviews of sensitive material to be broadcast - simply missed the selective editing of the phone call.

The network apologized to its viewers in a statement, and two NBC news staffers named as defendants in the lawsuit were fired.

But the complaint says the network never apologized to Zimmerman "for deliberately portraying him as a hostile racist who targeted Martin due to his race."

The misleading audio edit of the call led to significant pressure on the network from critics who claimed it had exacerbated already inflamed racial tension surrounding the case.

"You cannot look at the way that tape was crafted and aired, and not believe that there was intent there," Zimmerman's lawyer Mark O'Mara said on Thursday.

"I think what they were trying to do was beat everyone to the punch in calling him (Zimmerman) a racist," O'Mara said.

"In today's media environment you have to act immediately, and you have to act sensationally if you're going to get attention," he added.

NBC News is part of NBC Universal Media, a unit of Comcast Corp.

(Reporting By Chris Francescani and Tom Brown; Editing by Tom Brown and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/trayvon-martins-killer-sues-nbc-over-racist-myth-004028150.html

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VerioVelocity Small Business Service Bundles Website Design with ...

Verio's new VerioVelocity small business bundles a broad set of marketing and content services with the company's basic cloud hosting package.

Addressing what it refers to as a lack of ?high-impact? technology services designed for small businesses, web hosting provider Verio has bundled its web hosting services with a consulting-oriented package of website design, content creation, marketing and search engine optimization services, with the VerioVelocity service it announced on Wednesday.

Citing confusion among small businesses looking to develop their web presences, and a potentially-overwhelming number of options at every stage of creating and marketing a website for their business, along with hefty requirements on time and financial investment, Verio is attempting to appeal to those small businesses with a package of tools, services and hands-on consulting that it believes will remove a lot of guesswork and shorten the learning curve for small businesses looking to establish an online presence.

The company says the service is built on the Verio cloud hosting service, which the company introduced in April of this year, and which is priced at about $25 per month in its simplest configuration.

The new service touches on a couple of key trends in the mass-market hosting space. One is the drive to design solutions for small business customers, that large and still-fairly-untapped market of potential customers that have a pretty broad range of IT needs and are willing to spend a decent amount of money on services if they can see the value. It also addresses that next step that is the marketing of a website once it is online (the demand that has given rise to add-on search marketing services like Attracta).

SEO and marketing services are hardly new add-ons to a hosting package, and DIY website creators and outsourced development are more or less industry standard offerings. But the hands-on, consultative aspect of the VerioVelocity service is a far less common site in the hosting business, where services, no matter what they are, are most frequently hands-off.

At a monthly cost of $159 ? whereas its shared hosting plans range from $10 to $30 per month ? for Verio the new offerings mean a pretty significant bump to the revenue generated by a given customer, without requiring the up-selling of each individual feature and service. The challenge will be convincing small businesses that Verio has created a bundle that delivers precisely what they need from their online presence.

Specifically, the package includes ?individualized consulting? to determine the customer?s needs, development of a five-page website, along with logo design and copywriting services, the hosting itself, email hosting, chat and video conferencing services,? search engine optimization, submission to Google Maps, Google Places and other directories, a stats package and a mobile website. On its VerioVelocity micro-site, Verio estimates the total cost of those services, purchased individually, at almost $2,500.

?With well over half of small businesses looking to grow revenue and a third wanting to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, there is a clear deficit in delivering cost-effective , high-impact? technologies for the small business? market ,? says Rob Howard, vice president of global sales and marketing for Verio, quoted in the press release. ?The introduction of VerioVelocity quickly changes the small business landscape.?

Talk back: Do you think the VerioVelocity service is something that will resonate with small business hosting customers? Have you made any efforts to bundle design and marketing services like these with your hosting services? Do you have any hands-on, consultative services of this sort available to your customers? Let us know in the comments.

About Liam Eagle

Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle

Source: http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/veriovelocity-small-business-service-bundles-website-design-with-content-marketing

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Engadget's holiday gift guide 2012: speakers and docks

Welcome to the Engadget holiday gift guide! Picking presents for friends and loved ones is never a simple task, and with thousands of options for each category, buying technology can be an especially frustrating experience. We're here to help. Below you'll find today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to our hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. And don't forget to enter our giveaway -- leave a comment for a chance to nab AT&T's Samsung Galaxy Express.

Apple may have killed off the ubiquitous 30-pin connector, but that doesn't mean the dock is dead. Millions of older iPhones and iPads remain in use today -- and will for many years to come -- and Bluetooth and WiFi-equipped speaker rigs let you pipe in tunes regardless of your device's hardware port. Apple's Lightning adapter will also let last year's docks remain relevant, while standard 3.5mm inputs ensure compatibility with nearly any audio source. You should, of course, be aware of each system's connectivity before making a purchase, but don't let that previous-gen plug dissuade you from picking up an otherwise awesome setup. As always, we're happy to assist as you sort through the selection -- here are our top finds for every budget, so queue up some tunes and blast past the break.

Continue reading Engadget's holiday gift guide 2012: speakers and docks

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/05/holiday-gift-guide-speakers-and-docks/

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NHL owners, players meet late into the night again

NEW YORK (AP) ? NHL labor talks that began during the day Wednesday stretched to nearly nine hours, and both sides planned to meet again later Thursday.

It isn't known what progress ? if any ? was made during the second straight day of marathon talks in the dispute that is threatening the entire hockey season, but owners and players surely sense that time is now a factor and a deal must be made soon to get the game back on the ice.

"We had good, candid dialogue," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said early Thursday morning. "There continue to be some critical open issues between the two parties, and we understand the union should be getting back to us (Thursday) on some of those issues."

The players' association is expected to have internal discussions Thursday morning before meeting with the NHL.

"We had a series of candid discussions tonight. We will meet again tomorrow," said Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ron Hainsey, who like Daly didn't take any questions after the talks ended for the night.

Negotiations resumed Wednesday and stretched deep into the night again, this time in fits and starts, as the league and the players' association searched for an agreement. The sides began talks a little after 2 p.m. and kept going through the night, except for a two-hour dinner break.

Talks on Tuesday lasted about eight hours and wrapped up at midnight, with the promise that negotiations would continue Wednesday.

Very little information leaked out of the meeting room, but it is believed that each side submitted proposals to the other and spent lots of time apart discussing what was offered. One point of contention is the length of the new contract, with owners looking for a 10-year pact, and players wanting a shorter term.

Owners often retreated to their room one floor above the location of the bargaining session and then took the elevator back down to get talks going again. Some of the joint sessions lasted as few as 15 minutes.

Cautious optimism emerged Tuesday in the first round of talks that kept NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on the outside along with union executive director Donald Fehr, while six owners and about 18 players talked inside. The good feeling carried over into Wednesday morning when various team executives said they heard good reports during an NHL board of governors meeting.

Bettman spoke briefly after that, just before negotiations started again, and the sides remained silent the rest of the talks while discussions were ongoing. The reemergence of a podium with a lectern featuring the NHL shield in a media workroom sparked some hope that some sort of announcement would soon be coming. It remained unoccupied for quite some time, however it gained instant popularity on Twitter.

Bettman declined to take any questions earlier Wednesday when he stood at that podium in a Manhattan hotel. A ray of hope that a season-saving deal could be made emerged late Tuesday night after about eight hours of bargaining.

"We are pleased with the process that is ongoing, and out of respect for that process I don't have anything else to say," Bettman said.

Executives scurried on New York streets and hopped into cars after the two-hour board of governors meeting, some offering an opinion on the proceedings.

"We feel good about the information we got," new Columbus Blue Jackets President John Davidson said.

Larry Tanenbaum of the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of the six owners participating in these negotiations, also painted an optimistic picture as he walked the few blocks back to the hotel hosting the meetings.

"We're going to continue to talk up until we get a deal," said Tanenbaum, who added there is more clarity on both sides where each group stands. "All I can say is as long as we're talking we're hopeful."

If a breakthrough can be made soon, the delayed and shortened hockey season could get going quickly.

"I've always been hopeful there would be a season," said Lou Lamoriello, the New Jersey Devils president and general manager. "Right now we just have to leave it in the hands of the people that are talking."

The same negotiators participated in talks Wednesday, with minor tweaks to the large contingent of players.

Bargaining stretched Tuesday night until about midnight, and it was clear progress was made when Daly stood side by side with union special counsel Steve Fehr and issued a rare joint status report. Negotiations took place in a pair of sessions that included groups of various sizes.

The sides are trying to avoid another lost season. The NHL became the first North American professional sports league to cancel a full year because of a labor dispute back in 2005. The deal reached then was in place until this September, and the lockout was enacted on Sept. 16 after that agreement expired.

The lockout reached its 81st day Wednesday. The main issues are how to split revenue and issues surrounding how player contracts are set up. The league had more than $3 billion in the 2011-12 season, but an analysis by Forbes magazine recently showed a major gap between profitable teams and those that operate in the red.

"We had a long day," Steve Fehr said Tuesday. "We thought it was a constructive day. We had a good dialogue. In some ways I'd say it might be the best day we've had, which isn't too overly optimistic of a picture. There is still a lot of work to do and a lot to be done."

Daly echoed Fehr's comments, and spoke well of the talks.

"I appreciate the efforts of the players," Daly said. "Everybody is working hard. I think everybody wants to get a deal done, so that's encouraging. We look forward to hopefully making more progress."

That was the extent of the details revealed by the two sides, which could be another good sign that neither group wanted to say anything that could throw the discussions off the rails.

All games through Dec. 14, along with the New Year's Day Winter Classic and the All-Star game, have been wiped off the schedule.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nhl-owners-players-meet-night-again-035835319--nhl.html

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"Family Guy" executive producer lands animated cop series with Fox

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Despite - or perhaps because of - a robust cartoon slate that includes "The Simpsons," "American Dad" and "Family Guy," Fox apparently feels that it's just not animated enough.

The network has given a 13-episode order to a new animated series, "Murder Police," from "Family Guy" executive producer David Goodman and Jason Ruiz, Fox said Tuesday.

The series, which will be produced by Bento Box Animation ("Bob's Burgers," "Brickleberry") via 20th Century Fox Television, centers around a dedicated, but inept detective and his colleagues - some perverted, some corrupt, some just plain lazy - in a twisted city precinct. Goodman and Ruiz created and wrote the series, with Goodman as executive producer and Ruiz as co-executive producer.

In addition to "Family Guy," Goodman executive-produced Fox's short-lived animated series "Allen Gregory," which failed to receive a pickup after airing a handful of episodes last year.

Ruiz is one of the writers discovered through the network's Fox Inkubation program. He will also voice the program, along with "MADtv" alum Will Sasso, Chi McBride, Horatio Sanz of "Saturday Night Live," and other voice actors.

"David and Jason came to us with a really fresh take on law enforcement that we've never seen before," said Kevin Reilly, Chairman of Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company. "With 'Murder Police,' these guys are taking a staple genre of television - the cop show - and turning it on its head by pushing the warped comedic boundaries that only animation can offer. It's the kind of show our Animation Domination fans will absolutely love, and I can't wait to introduce it next season."

"Murder Police" will premiere during the 2013-2014 season.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/family-guy-executive-producer-lands-animated-cop-series-224022334.html

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Starbucks to open another 1,500 cafes in the US

NEW YORK (AP) ? Another Starbucks may soon pop up around the corner, with the world's biggest coffee company planning to add at least 1,500 cafes in the U.S. over the next five years.

The plan, which would boost the number of Starbucks cafes in the country by about 13 percent, is set to be announced at the company's investor day in New York Wednesday.

In addition, the Seattle-based company says it will eventually serve a new brand of tea in its cafes. Rather than its Tazo tea, Starbucks is turning its attention to Teavana, which it announced it would acquire last month.

Worldwide, the company says it will have more than 20,000 cafes by 2014, up from its current count of about 18,000. Much of that growth will come from China, which the company says will surpass Canada as its second-biggest market.

Although Starbucks has been intensifying its growth overseas and building its packaged goods business back at home, the majority of its revenue still comes from its more than 11,100 cafes in the United States.

In an interview ahead of its investor day, CEO Howard Schultz said the U.S. expansion plans to be announced Wednesday are based "on the current strength of our business"

Just a few months ago, the company had predicted it would open just 1,000 new cafes in the country over the next five years.

The upbeat expansion plans mark a turnaround from Starbucks' struggles during the recession. After hitting a rough patch, the company brought back Schultz as CEO in 2008 and embarked on massive restructuring effort that included closing 10 percent of its U.S. stores.

Cliff Burrows, who heads Starbucks' domestic business, said the problem wasn't that Starbucks was oversaturated, but that the company hadn't been careful about its store openings. That led to cafes in locations where signs or traffic might not be optimal, he said.

Burrows said Starbucks has gotten more sophisticated, and noted that the cafes opened in recent years are among the company's best performers.

Sales at new cafes are averaging about $1 million a year, for example, above the company's target of $900,000. It costs about $450,000 to build a new cafe.

Since Starbucks already has a broad footprint, the company's expansion is intended to "deepen" its presence with additional stores in markets across the country, said Troy Alstead, Starbucks' chief financial officer. And even as it expands, Starbucks said it expects to maintain growth at cafes open at least a year. The figure, a key metric of health, has ranged between 7 percent and 8 percent globally in the past three years.

The continued sales growth in the U.S. will be fueled by the new products, such as Evolution premium juices and Via single-serve coffee packets. Looking forward, Starbucks is also looking to improve its food menu and is testing a new menu of baked goods from La Boulange, a small San Francisco-based chain it acquired earlier this year. The new croissants, loaf cakes and other items will spread to about 2,500 cafes next year and go national sometime in 2014, Burrows said.

In a test aimed at building sales in the evening hours, the company also started serving beer and wine at about a dozen locations earlier this year, with food such as chicken skewers and dates wrapped in bacon.

And most recently, Starbucks announced plans to acquire Teavana, a chain that has 300 locations in shopping malls. When the announcement was made last month, Schultz said the company would "do for tea what it did for coffee."

That includes plans to expand Teavana's presence beyond the shopping mall with stand-alone shops that have "tea bars" that serve specialty drinks. The company declined to say when Starbucks cafes would begin serving Teavana drinks ? and it hasn't decided on whether it will continue to sell Tazo in cafes.

To build its packaged-goods business, Starbucks plans to let customers earn points on their My Starbucks loyalty card starting next year when they purchase Starbucks bagged coffees in supermarkets and other outlets. Customers currently earn points only when they make purchases in Starbucks stores.

The picture isn't rosy around the globe, however. Europe remains a sore spot for Starbucks, with a key sales figure falling in the region 1 percent during the latest quarter. In an effort to boost results, the company has been closing underperforming stores and licensing of some of its cafes in the region.

_________

Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-05-Starbucks-Expansion/id-88857c6e65cd49b4bf07e64ef809fde8

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DLL to Finance $52.5 Million in SunEdison Distributed Generation ...

DLL to Finance $52.5 Million in SunEdison Distributed Generation

SunEdison, a leading global solar energy services provider, and subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE: WFR), today announced that De Lage Landen Financial Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Rabobank Group, has committed to invest $52.5 million into a sale-leaseback fund. This fund will deliver financing to distributed generation solar PV projects developed by SunEdison within the United States.

The financing from DLL will help support SunEdison?s growing portfolio of distributed generation solar energy projects. SunEdison?s aggressive cost structure and DLL?s competitive financing allows SunEdison to offer their commercial and municipal customers energy savings with clean and reliable electricity.

?SunEdison is excited to expand our financing relationships in the U.S. to include DLL with the closing of this fund,? said Chris Bailey, Vice President of Project Finance North America. ?Developing scalable financial structures with strong partners like DLL is one of the keys to our success and we look forward to growing the fund in 2013.?

De Lage Landen Financial Services will provide financing through a long term lease agreement with a SunEdison project subsidiary that efficiently monetizes the tax benefits and cash flows from customer power purchase agreements. ?Our commitment to sustainability coupled with SunEdison?s leading industry reputation makes this partnership a great fit that we look forward to growing in the years to come,? stated Mark McGovern, GM ? Clean Technology, De Lage Landen.

About SunEdison SunEdison is a global provider of solar-energy services. The company develops, finances, installs and operates distributed power plants using proven photovoltaic technologies, delivering fully managed, and predictably priced solar energy services for its commercial, government and utility customers. In 2011 SunEdison interconnected approximately 300 Megawatts of solar throughout the world. For more information about SunEdison, please visit?www.sunedison.com.

About MEMC MEMC is a global leader in the manufacture and sale of wafers and related intermediate products to the semiconductor and solar industries. MEMC has been a pioneer in the design and development of silicon wafer technologies for 50 years. With R&D and manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, MEMC enables the next generation of high-performance semiconductor devices and solar cells. Through its SunEdison division, MEMC is also a developer of solar power projects and North America?s largest solar energy services provider.

MEMC?s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ?WFR?. For more information about MEMC, please visit?www.memc.com.

About De Lage Landen De Lage Landen, a fully owned subsidiary of Rabobank Group, specializes in asset-based financing programs for equipment manufacturers, dealers and distributors all over the world. Our programs cover our customers? total distribution chain, as well as the entire lease lifecycle. We care not only about our customers, but also about the communities in which we operate. We strive to have a positive social and environmental impact through our products and the way we conduct business. For more information, please visit our website:?www.delagelanden.com.

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Source: http://www.worldleasingnews.com/news/dll-to-finance-52-5-million-in-sunedison-distributed-generation/

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