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Donald Trump Stokes Presidential Bid Rumors

Bill Clark/Roll Call/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Donald Trump is keeping the door open to a possible presidential bid, stoking rumors again Sunday that he could toss his hat into the ring and run as an independent if he does not believe the eventual Republican nominee can beat President Obama.

“It’s not something I want to do, but if I don’t see a person that, number one, is going to win I would certainly think about doing it after the show ends,” Trump said on CBS’ Face the Nation, referring to his reality TV show The Apprentice, which ends in May.

Trump said he is considering endorsing one of the current GOP candidates. If the man he endorses wins the nomination, Trump said he “absolutely would not run.”

But the millionaire real estate mogul said the Republican candidates are “hurting themselves” and their chances of beating Obama because the “level of hatred” in the primary race is so high.

Obama advisor David Axelrod agreed, telling NBC’s David Gregory that the primary process “isn’t helping” Mitt Romney, in particular, and that as a result, the primary race “will go on for a while.”

“I still think he is a weak frontrunner,” Axelrod said on Meet the Press. “He overpowered [Newt] Gingrich in Florida with a spending advantage and very negative campaign. He’s still under water nationally.”

But former GOP candidate Michele Bachmann said the often scathing back-and-forth between frontrunners was just “the normal rough and tumble of a campaign.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus agreed, saying “tough” primaries such as this serve to make the eventual nominee “tougher and battle tested.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio?

Occupy Oakland: 300 Protesters Arrested

Kimihiro Hoshino/AFP/Getty Images(OAKLAND, Calif.) -- Oakland police arrested about 300 Occupy Oakland protesters Saturday, after demonstrators broke into a vacant convention center, a YMCA and City Hall, where they burned an American flag.

Police fired tear gas, flash grenades and bean bags in an attempt to control the crowd after some protesters threw rocks, flares, bottles, and other objects at police officers.

Police arrested about 20 people for throwing objects.

“I did see some rocks. I saw some projectiles. I didn’t see who got hit or how many people,” Oakland police officer Anthony Rachael said.

Later in the day, police rounded up several others for failing to disperse.

Kristin Hanes of ABC News San Francisco station KGO was one of several reporters briefly arrested.

We were all walking down the same street and the protesters came at us from both sides, issued us a dispersal notice, but there wasn’t anywhere to go, Hanes said. “They kind of herded us all into this little area, pushed up to this building and I heard a bullhorn saying that you are being arrested and we are essentially surrounded, kind of pushed together like sardines here.”

Hanes was eventually released and de-handcuffed.

Police say at least three officers were hurt at the protests.

Oakland mayor Jean Quan said people have to stop making excuses for violent behavior.

“Occupy Oakland has got to stop using Oakland as its playground,” said Quan at a press conference Saturday night.

“Once again, a violent splinter group of the Occupy movement is engaging in violent actions against Oakland,” Quan said.

Quan is not the only city leader who is fed up.

“It’s an escalation that in my opinion, basically amounts to domestic terrorism where people start taking buildings and costing the city an incredible amount of resources,” Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente said.

Saturday was not the first time Occupy Oakland protests have turned violent.

In November, clashes broke out between demonstrators and police trying to evict them from a city plaza. During the protests, 24-year-old two-tour Iraq veteran Scott Olsen’s skull was fractured by a rubber bullet or tear gas canister.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio?

'Twitterati' Protest New Twitter Censorship Policy With Blackout

Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images(SAN FRANCISCO) -- A worldwide boycott by the “twitterrati” erupted Friday after Twitter announced a new policy allowing it to censor messages on a country-by-country basis.

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content,” Twitter wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

Twitter said that it can now “reactively withhold content from users in a specific country, while keeping it available in the rest of the world.”

The social media website said it would attempt to let the user know when they withhold a Tweet in a specific country. In an effort to increase transparency, Twitter has expanded its partnership with Chilling Effects to make complaints to Twitter publicly available.

But many people have expressed fears that Twitter’s commitment to free speech may be weakening as the social media website expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and revenue. In reaction to Twitter’s decision, the “Twitterrati” unleashed a barrage of angry tweets in several languages, calling for a Twitter black out.

“Clearly, there’s a huge user-backlash against this latest move by Twitter. It was seen as one of the few platforms that was free of any kind of censorship, heavily used by users during the Arab Spring, for instance,” blogger Mike Butcher said.

“I’m afraid it’s a slippery slope of censorship. I understand why Twitter is doing this: they want to be able to enter more countries and deal with the local laws. But as Google learned, in China, when you become the agent of the censor, there are problems there,” said Jeff Jarvis, a social media commentator.

But Twitter, which has prided itself on promoting unfettered expression, has defended its decision.

“The Tweets must continue to flow,” Twitter wrote on Friday in its blog.

Referring to the Arab spring, Miriam Smith, a media law professor, says the new guidelines make things more difficult but not impossible.

“It’s not like we never had uprisings until we had Twitter,” Smith said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio?

Barnes and Noble Negotiates Deal to Sell Nook Devices Abroad

(NEW YORK) -- The country’s largest bookstore chain may soon offer its Nook digital services abroad.

Bloomberg News reports that Barnes & Noble Inc. is negotiating a deal to sell its Nook devices in stores outside the United States for the first time, according to a source close to the company.

The book superstore is working to develop a partnership with the United Kingdom’s Waterstones Booksellers Ltd., where it plans to launch its Nook tablet in 2012.

Waterstones is the largest bookstore chain in the U.K. with nearly 300 stores.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio?

Facebook IPO Next Week?

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Facebook could file papers for its IPO, or initial public offering of company stock, as early as next Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Facebook itself has not commented, nor have Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs, which have been vying to handle the offering.

Jonathan Thaw of Facebook sent an email to ABC News: “Our position on this is that we don’t participate in IPO-related speculation.”

Previous reports said Facebook would likely be valued at $75-100 billion.

“If it comes to pass, this will be the largest tech IPO in history, yielding around $10 billion for the social network,” wrote Chris Taylor of Mashable. “Google’s 2005 IPO, as big a deal as it was, didn’t even reach the $2 billion mark.”

Facebook claims more than 800 million active users worldwide.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

New Fed Task Force Subpoenas 11 in Mortgage Fraud Probe

Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A new federal and state task force was created Friday to investigate mortgage fraud that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, and the panel immediately subpoenaed 11 financial institutions.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the new unit would consist of 55 Justice Department lawyers and analysts and 10 FBI agents to work with state attorney general’s offices to investigate how mortgage backed securities were created, sold and valued by financial institutions. The creation of the unit was announced by President Obama in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

“The Working Group will streamline and strengthen current and future efforts to identify, investigate, and prosecute instances of wrongdoing in the packaging, selling, and valuing of residential mortgage-backed securities,” Holder said at a press conference on Friday.

Making the announcement the attorney general disclosed that the Justice Department has sent civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions as part of the investigation. They did not identify the targets of the subpoenas.

“You can expect more to follow,” Holder said in reference to the subpoenas being sent out. “Of course, I can’t go into detail about our existing investigations. But I can tell you that significant efforts are moving forward, by both federal and state authorities.”

The working group will be co-chaired by the heads of the Justice Department’s Civil and Criminal Division, John Walsh the U.S. Attorney from Colorado, Robert Khuzami the SEC Enforcement Director and Eric Schneiderman the New York Attorney General.

Although the FBI, SEC and Justice Department have been investigating numerous aspects of the financial crisis, officials hope the new working group may be able to use New York State’s Martin Act, which gives investigators broad powers to investigate fraud. The act allows New York to bring criminal and civil fraud charges without needing to show intent to commit fraud.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Lotto Jackpot Deadline Passes as Crime Probe Starts

Stockbyte/Thinkstock(DES MOINES, Iowa) -- As the deadline to claim a $16 million Hot Lotto jackpot passed without a winner Friday, the Iowa attorney general's office launched a criminal investigation into the only person who tried to claim the prize.

"We wanted to pay the prize, we were more than prepared to pay the prize," lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said. "But we didn't think it was a responsible thing to do."

The jackpot disappeared as the clocked ticked past 4 p.m. ET, reverting to the Iowa state treasury. And instead of a celebration, the state began an investigation.

"We opened a criminal investigation to learn more," said Geoff Greenwood, a spokesman for the attorney general's office. "We have some questions about the circumstances of this ticket, and we're trying to determine who purchased it and how it was presented."

Officials had set the deadline hoping to award the prize to the sole claimant, Crawford Shaw, a New York-based attorney who signed the winning ticket. But Shaw refused to disclose how he got the ticket or who his client was.

Shaw said that the ticket and winnings belonged to the Hexham Family Trust, but misspelled the name on the ticket, writing "Hexam." Shaw said he could not disclose who his client was and only confirmed that the trust he represented was based in Belize.

The investigation will try to determine how Shaw became the owner of the winning lottery ticket, purchased in Des Moines, Iowa, in December 2010. The lottery has obtained a surveillance video of the man who purchased the ticket at a Des Moines, Iowa, convenience store, but would not release details about the video.

Iowa Lottery officials drew the winning numbers for the jackpot in December 2010, but the prize went unclaimed for close to a year despite heavy advertising by the lottery for the winner to come forward. With two hours to go until the prize would be forfeited in December 2011, two Iowa attorneys presented the winning ticket, signed by Shaw, at the lottery headquarters.

They also did not provide any explanation of how Shaw obtained the ticket.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Report: 21 CEOs Landed $100M Plus in Separation Packages

Nick M Do/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- While TV viewers may love to hear the words, “You’re fired,” from Donald Trump, few would ever want to have that conversation with their own boss. But if they're the boss -- and managed to negotiate a hefty separation package -- getting fired could score them millions.

So-called "golden parachutes" are contractual provisions that compensate executives if they are terminated without cause. And according to a first-of-its-kind report, the payout practice has guaranteed several outgoing chiefs with nine-figure landings to help soften the fall from their corner offices.

The biggest parachute according to GMI Ratings Report: More than $400 million awarded to Jack Welch, after he served as General Electric’s CEO from 1981 to 2001. While Welch is widely credited with turning GE into a global conglomerate powerhouse, the report does not compare an executive’s performance with the amount of their compensation. Rather, its authors say the purpose of the survey was to cast light on the amount of compensation that was awarded above and beyond the salary provided during the CEO’s tenure.

"He [Jack Welch] was already paid for that performance, while he was acting as CEO. These parachutes are awarded after the fact, after they’ve left," said Paul Hodgson, Paul Hodgson, Chief Communications Officer and Senior Research Associate for GMI.

Hodgson helped gather data for GMI’s report that included executive packages from 2000 until 2012. While the company has been gathering information on executive compensation since it was founded in 2000, this is the first time the findings have been published in a comprehensive report.

[CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL REPORT

]

According to the study, 21 CEOs received more than $100 million each in “‘walk away” packages. In all, companies like GE, Exxon Mobil Corp., AT&T and Home Depot Inc., have collectively provided nearly $4 billion in golden parachutes. But according to Hodgson, those figures could be on the low-side.

"These numbers don’t include the perks -- the use of the corporate jet, the corner offices -- a lot of the compensation that doesn’t get listed on the public files," he said.

But despite the staggering amounts, golden parachutes serve a purpose when it comes to wooing a potential CEO to take the helm.

“The first thing someone asks is, ‘What happens if I get fired because of a merger or the company gets sold?’ These provisions compensate for taking that risk,” said Bill Catucci, adjunct professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Business.?

GDP Rose 2.8% in Fourth Quarter

Comstock Images/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Commerce Department reported Friday that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a 2.8 percent pace in the last three months of 2011, slightly less than expected but an increase over the prior quarter.

Economists expected a growth rate of about 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter, in part because of strong holiday shopping and car sales.

Real GDP, the output of goods and services produced in the U.S., increased at a revised annual rate of 1.8 percent in the third quarter. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the disappointing figure ahead of the holiday shopping season on Dec. 22.

Business News - ABC News Radio Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:44:20 +0000

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