Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/melissa-joan-hart-nutrisystem-spokeswoman/
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Thursday, April 4, 2013
With Record Growth, Direct Capital Named Top 5 ... - Franchising.com
April 03, 2013 // Franchising.com // PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - Backed by remarkable growth that outpaced any other independent business lender and $330 million in new business volume, Direct Capital was named No. 4 on Monitor?s 2013 Top Independents list. The annual benchmark list measures the overall new business volume and percentage growth for all independent business lenders in the United States.
Direct Capital, which is celebrating its 20th year in business, recorded new business volume growth of nearly $100 million over the previous year, outperforming the next closest lender by more than $35 million. With 43.2% growth year over year, Direct Capital was the only company in the Top 5 to record double-digit percentage organic growth.
The company, a leading provider of equipment leasing, business loans and working capital, has been highly successful in delivering capital to the grossly underserved small business market by offering a wide range of finance options and deploying unique scoring algorithms that significantly expand its ability to approve businesses. That capability has been well received by the small business community, which has responded with very positive feedback on the company. Direct Capital?s Net Promoter Score ? which measures customer satisfaction ? reached 65% versus a financial industry average of 23%.
?Our goal is to deliver the financial products that small businesses need at competitive prices and with extraordinary speed and wrap it all in a remarkable customer experience,? said James Broom, CEO of Direct Capital. ?Our growth in 2012 is a strong endorsement that we are on the right track. I?m especially proud of our repeat business growth. When customers continue to return to us for their financing needs we are doing the right things. It?s that simple.?
To learn more, visit the Monitor website.
About Direct Capital
Established in 1993, Direct Capital (www.directcapital.com) is a financial technology company that delivers financial solutions for small & medium sized businesses, franchisors, and equipment and technology sellers. The company is headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H. and operates offices in New York, California, and Georgia. You can follow Direct Capital on http://blog.directcapital.com.
SOURCE?Direct Capital
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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130403_with_record_growth_direct_capital_named_top_5_us_i.html
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U.S.: N. Korea poses 'real and clear danger'
By Jack Kim and Phil Stewart
SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it from North Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called a "real and clear danger" from Pyongyang.
Hours later, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea had moved what appeared to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast. It was not clear if the North planned to fire the rocket or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying.
North Korea also barred entry to a joint industrial complex it shares with the South for a second day on Thursday and said it would shut the zone if Seoul continued to insult it.
Events on the Korean peninsula have begun to unnerve global financial markets long used to the rhetoric North Korea routinely hurls at Seoul and Washington.
"The assumption remains that this is more bluster ...," said Rob Ryan, a strategist with RBS in Singapore. "But from here, we've reached a level of tensions that say things can't get too much worse without an actual exchange of fire."
The broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.6 percent, dragged down by a 2 percent slump in South Korean shares, while the South Korean won slid 0.7 percent against the U.S. dollar.
U.S. stocks sank on Wednesday after Hagel's comments and the Guam deployment news.
North Korea also repeated its threat to launch a nuclear attack on the United States. Pyongyang said it had ratified a potential strike because of U.S. military deployments around the Korean peninsula that it claimed were a prelude to a possible nuclear attack on the North.
Washington had been informed of the potential attack by North Korea, a spokesman for its army said in a statement carried by the English-language service of state news agency KCNA. It was unclear how such a warning was given since North Korea does not have diplomatic ties with Washington.
The report from KCNA appeared to re-state many of the month-long fusillade of threats emanating from Pyongyang.
Experts say North Korea is years away from being able to hit the continental United States with a nuclear weapon, despite having worked for decades to achieve nuclear-arms capability.
North Korea has previously threatened a nuclear strike on the United States and missile attacks on its Pacific bases, including in Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.
Those threats followed new U.N. sanctions imposed on the North after it carried out its third nuclear test in February.
"Some of the actions they've taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger," Hagel told an audience at the National Defense University in Washington.
Despite the rhetoric, Pyongyang has not taken any military action and has shown no sign of preparing its 1.2 million-strong armed forces for war, the White House said on Monday.
That indicates its threats are partly intended for domestic consumption to bolster young leader Kim Jong-un ahead of celebrations marking the anniversary of the April 15 birthday of Kim Il-sung, the state's founder and the younger Kim's grandfather.
Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, criticized the latest North Korean statement.
"It is yet another offering in a long line of provocative statements that only serve to further isolate North Korea from the rest of the international community and undermine its goal of economic development," Hayden said.
HAGEL: TAKE THREATS SERIOUSLY
Hagel said he had to take the threats seriously, language he has used in recent weeks as the United States has revamped its missile defense plans and positioned two guided-missile destroyers in the western Pacific.
The United States has also flexed its muscles during annual military drills with South Korea, flying two radar-evading stealth bombers on a first-of-its-kind practice bombing run over South Korea.
In the latest move, the Pentagon said it was deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to Guam in the coming weeks. The THAAD system includes a truck-mounted launcher, interceptor missiles and an AN/TPY-2 tracking radar.
Last month, Hagel said the Pentagon would add 14 new anti-missile interceptors in Alaska and move ahead with the deployment of a second missile-defense radar in Japan.
Yonhap quoted multiple government sources privy to intelligence from U.S. and South Korean authorities as saying North Korea had moved what appeared to be a Musudan missile to its east coast.
The missile is believed to have a range of 3,000 km (1,865 miles) or more, which would put all of South Korea and Japan in range and possibly also Guam. North Korea is not believed to have tested the Musudan mid-range missiles, according to most independent experts
South Korea's defense ministry declined to comment.
The missile was moved to the coast by train. The North has a missile launch site on its northeastern coast, which it has used to unsuccessfully test-fire long-range rockets in the past.
The Yonhap report did not say if the missile had been moved to the missile site.
The South Korean government said the North would allow 222 South Korean workers to leave the Kaesong industrial zone on Thursday. That would leave another 606 South Koreans in the complex. Seoul has urged its citizens to get out.
North Korea has threatened to shut the complex, one of the impoverished North's few sources of ready cash.
The industrial park, just inside the border with North Korea, has not formally stopped operations since it was inaugurated in 2000. It houses 123 companies and employs 50,000 North Koreans making cheap goods such as clothing.
(Additional reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, Ju-min Park in PAJU, David Alexander in WASHINGTON and Vidya Rangananthan in SINGAPORE; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Paul Tait)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-send-missile-defenses-guam-over-north-korea-011546394.html
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Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Amazon's AutoRip now includes vinyl
For about as long as we can remember, each new CD we've purchased has made a trip to our computer for a good, old fashioned ripping, first thing out of the plastic. So the concept of offering up free MP3s with the purchase of a compact disc always felt a bit superfluous (particularly in these days when fewer and fewer are buying music in a physical form). The increasingly popular concept of offering up downloads with the purchase of a vinyl LP, on the other hand, makes an awful lot of sense -- after all, it's a lot harder for most of us to transfer that music onto our PCs. Amazon's embracing the concept by extending its AutoRip promotion to records, giving consumers a 256 Kbps cloud-based copy of the music they buy on vinyl. The promotion extends to thousands of titles -- anything sporting the AutoRip logo is fair game, including a number of top sellers like Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers. It's a nice way of supporting the growing boutique vinyl industry and helping keep a bit of focus on the album as self-contained work, rather than the move toward singles we've been experiencing as a result of the digital music explosion of the past several years.
Filed under: Amazon
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/amazons-autorip/
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California accident justifies crying over spilled milk
By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News
They say never to cry over spilled milk, but motorists headed for Los Angeles on busy Interstate 5 Tuesday night very well might have.
Two tractor-trailers, one of them a tanker loaded with milk, collided on the interstate, which serves as California's main north-south artery, just before 9 p.m. near Santa Clarita, police said.
The accident and accompanying milk spill closed three of the four southbound lanes of the interstate, causing a backup for almost two hours, California Highway Patrol Officer Cheyenne Quesada said.
The milk truck's driver might have shed a tear as well. He was traveling at 65 mph and apparently did not see the other truck pulling out from the road's shoulder and into his lane, Quesada said. He required medical treatment after the fierce impact, but both drivers left the scene under their own power, the officer said, adding that an investigation was continuing.
Traffic was light when the crash occurred, Quesada said, so the incident could have been significantly worse for other motorists, too. "If it was northbound when people were still leaving for work, it might have been a different story," he said.
As for the people who found themselves tied up at the scene, Quesada offered just one tip: "I said they needed some cookies."
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Cano switching agents from Boras to Jay-Z company
NEW YORK (AP) ? Robinson Cano plans to switch agents from Scott Boras to a new company formed by musician Jay-Z's Roc Nation and CAA Sports.
Cano will be represented in baseball matters by CAA Sports' Brodie Van Wagenen. The New York Yankees second baseman is making $15 million this season and can become a free agent at the end of the World Series.
"At this point in my career, I am ready to take a more active role in my endeavors both on and off the field," Cano said in a statement.
As of Tuesday, Boras remained Cano's agent listed with the Major League Baseball Players Association.
"I have yet to speak to Robinson, so I'm not going to comment until I talk with him," Boras said.
While the Yankees usually wait for contracts to expire before negotiating new agreements with players, they have said they hope to reach a deal with the 30-year-old Cano while he remains under their control. Boras usually prefers that his clients become free agents to increase bidders and maximize their values.
The new company, Roc Nation Sports, is led by Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, and Juan Perez, who will be the company president. Jay-Z, a part owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, is friendly with injured Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, a former Boras client.
"Because of my love of sports, it was a natural progression to form a company where we can help top athletes in various sports the same way we have been helping artists in the music industry for years," Carter said in a statement.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Feb. 28 that the team had made a significant offer to Cano for a new deal. The agent fees for Cano's next contract could become subject to litigation between Boras and the new company.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cano-switching-agents-boras-jay-z-company-173537052.html
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Singapore prime minister visits White House
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Singapore's prime minister on Tuesday becomes the third Asian leader to visit the White House this year, as President Barack Obama pursues closer ties with countries in the region in his second term.
It will be Lee Hsien Loong's first Oval Office meeting in six years and comes as the U.S. pushes for completion by fall of a trans-Pacific free trade pact. Singapore, a close ally, is one of 11 countries taking part in the negotiations.
The U.S. and Singapore also have strong defense ties. Next week, the U.S. will begin rotational deployments of Navy vessels in Singapore, part of its efforts to shift American military presence toward the Asia-Pacific as the U.S. disentangles itself from a decade of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defense cuts at home and turmoil in the Middle East have raised doubts in Asia about the U.S. ability to sustain its "pivot" to the region. But Obama made his diplomatic priorities clear by traveling to Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand soon after his November re-election, and then by hosting the leaders of Japan and Brunei. South Korea's new president will visit in May.
"The prime minister's visit underscores the strategic importance the president places on Asia and the value we place on our relationship with Singapore as a key partner," a White House statement announcing Lee's trip said.
Lee is the eldest son of Singapore's founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. He last visited the U.S. for a nuclear security summit in 2010. He'll address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after his White House meeting.
While much attention is currently on Northeast Asia, and North Korea's threats to attack the U.S. and South Korea, Lee's four-day visit also takes place against the backdrop of tensions in the South China Sea, where assertive Chinese actions near disputed islands have unnerved other claimants in Southeast Asia.
Singapore itself is not a claimant, but its prosperity depends on commerce through those busy waters. It is a strong supporter of the U.S. security presence in the region, although it retains cordial ties with China.
During his visit, Lee is also meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Secretary of State John Kerry. He'll also travel to New York City and meet with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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State Department background note on Singapore: http://www.state.gov/p/eap/ci/sn/
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/singapore-prime-minister-visits-white-house-070811591--politics.html
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