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When the New York Hilton Midtown said it was dispensing with room service starting in August, it caught the attention of frequent travelers who, after getting in from a long flight, have come to count on being able to order a burger at 2 a.m. The news was particularly significant since room service itself was popularized about a half mile away in the 1930s at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which is now also part of the Hilton chain.   Plenty of hotels, however, are going the opposite way - trying to turn room service into a bigger draw. The number of hotels offering room service actually increased by 8 percent between 2011 and 2012, says Ned Barker, president of Grill Ventures Consulting Inc and spokesman on the issue for the American Hotel & Lodging Association. "I don't see room service going away any time in the near future," says David Morgan, vice president of food and beverage for Omni Hotels & Resorts. "We would lose customers if we did not have in-ro

Wall Street's Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is looking at how brokerage firms supervise their use of communication outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the industry-funded regulator said. FINRA, which conducts periodic "sweeps," or targeted checks on Wall Street brokerages, sent out letters to firms earlier this month requesting information about their use and monitoring of social media communications for the companies and individual employees. The letter, which FINRA posted to its website on Monday, included requests for information such as how firms monitor whether their use of social media complies with industry rules. FINRA also asked for specific data such as the URLs for each social media site used by firms and the identity of all individuals who post or update content of those sites. "Everyone is looking at social media these days," said Francis Curran, a New York-based lawyer with McCormick & O'Brien LLP, adding that FI

When the New York Hilton Midtown said it was dispensing with room service starting in August, it caught the attention of frequent travelers who, after getting in from a long flight, have come to count on being able to order a burger at 2 a.m. The news was particularly significant since room service itself was popularized about a half mile away in the 1930s at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which is now also part of the Hilton chain.   Plenty of hotels, however, are going the opposite way - trying to turn room service into a bigger draw. The number of hotels offering room service actually increased by 8 percent between 2011 and 2012, says Ned Barker, president of Grill Ventures Consulting Inc and spokesman on the issue for the American Hotel & Lodging Association. "I don't see room service going away any time in the near future," says David Morgan, vice president of food and beverage for Omni Hotels & Resorts. "We would lose customers if we did not have in-ro

European and Asian hedge fund firms are finding the potentially lucrative U.S. market impossible to ignore, but as tough as ever to negotiate. Delegates at the annual GAIM conference in Monaco this week talked about the difficulties, particularly for small funds, in attracting new money to an industry once at the top of investors' wish lists. With its pension funds, endowments and other investors now accounting for perhaps three quarters of new money flows into a funds sector increasingly desperate for new capital, breaking into the United States is seen as the holy grail for many foreign hedge fund managers.   But a mountain of regulation and local competition have made it hard going for some European managers, prompting some to wonder if it is worth the effort. "(In terms of regulation) the worst is the U.S." said one high-profile European hedge fund executive, who declined to be named. European industry insiders point to requirements to register with the Securit

Former chess grandmaster-turned hedge fund manager Patrick Wolff is betting on a stock market crash in China , where he says corruption and bad debts have spiraled to dangerous levels. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the GAIM conference in Monaco this week, Wolff said investors were too focused on trying to work out when easy money policies will taper off in the United States and ignoring a looming correction in China.   "People are talking way too much about the Federal Reserve and not enough about China," he said. "We've been saying that the U.S. is the safest place to invest, while China is a crash waiting to happen." He is short on Chinese stocks and generally long on U.S. equities. Financial markets have sold off heavily in recent weeks on fears that U.S. quantitative easing - money printing to fund asset purchases - will end off sooner rather than later. However, Wolff, who is managing member of San Francisco-based Grandmaster Capital, said

The Swiss government is expected to make a last-ditch attempt to protect its banks from criminal charges in the United States by issuing an executive order allowing them to pass data to U.S. authorities. _0"> After parliament blocked a bill that would have allowed the banks to sidestep strict secrecy laws, the government's seven-strong Federal Council will on Friday look for another way to facilitate the release of data. Swiss privacy laws have helped to make the Alpine country the world's biggest offshore financial center, but they have also drawn the ire of countries seeking to clamp down on tax evasion. Swiss banks have been the subject of investigations in Germany, France and the United States. The refusal by parliament's lower house to debate the bill passed the buck back to the government, with lawmakers calling on ministers to find a solution to the long-running tax dispute. Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said on Wednesday that the government

Home resales hit a 3-1/2-year high in May and factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region rebounded this month, backing the Federal Reserve's view that risks to the economy have diminished. While other data on Thursday showed more Americans than expected filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, the increase was not big enough to signal a material shift from the recent pace of moderate job growth.   Higher taxes and deep government spending cuts that took effect this year had raised fears that the economy could slow abruptly, but the recovery appears to moving to firmer ground. "The drag from tighter fiscal policy is starting to dissipate. We have passed the worst of the fiscal-induced slowdown," said Millan Mulraine, a senior economist at TD Securities in New York. The data came a day after the Fed painted a fairly upbeat picture of the economy and said it expected to slow the pace of its bond-buying stimulus later this year, bringing it to a halt aroun

Ann Marie Schmidt had knee replacement surgery last month. The operation was for an old injury that made walking painful, but the 71-year-old resident of Temple, Texas, has other, more serious conditions. She suffers from neuropathy (nerve pain), scoliosis and meningioma - a type of benign brain tumor. Schmidt is the kind of high-risk patient Medicare worries about as a candidate to land back in the hospital after surgery. Nearly one in five Medicare patients discharged from the hospital is readmitted within 30 days, at a cost of $17 billion every year to Medicare, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Aside from the expense to Medicare, readmission presents serious health risks for patients. "It's a long list," says Dr Eric Coleman, associate professor of medicine and a geriatrician at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. "But the big ones include infection, falls that cause fractures, medication errors, confusion or delir

Next week the Supreme Court is widely expected to hand down a ruling that will confer federal recognition on state-sanctioned same-sex marriages. If that ruling comes down as anticipated, it will send some gay and lesbian couples to the altar - but it is likely to send even more to financial planners, trust attorneys and tax accountants.   Such a ruling would open up a new world of financial planning for couples in same-sex-marriage states: There are more than 1,100 federal tax and benefit provisions that refer specifically to marriage or spouses. It would change the way they retire, pay taxes, accumulate wealth, plan their bequests and more - mostly, but not entirely, for the better. (Twelve states recognize same-sex marriage, and roughly 12 others are considering it.) "Everything we learn in law school is geared to a married couple with two kids," said J. Max Barger, an attorney with the Washington, D.C., firm Ackerman Brown. "It will be a pleasure to apply that

The trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff's victims suffered a big defeat as a federal appeals court rejected his bid to recover nearly $30 billion from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other class="mandelbrot_refrag"> banks he accused of aiding in the swindler's fraud. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said on Thursday trustee Irving Picard lacked standing to pursue a variety of claims on behalf of former Madoff customers. It also said that because Picard "stands in the shoes" of the former Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, he could not pursue other claims on behalf of the firm's class="mandelbrot_refrag"> bankruptcy estate over a fraud that the firm itself orchestrated. Thursday's 3-0 decision, written by Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, is a victory for JPMorgan, which had been Madoff's main bank, as well as Britain's class="mandelbrot_refrag"> HSBC Holdings Plc , Italy's UniCr

Hollywood stabbing ~ A Hollywood stabbing over $1 ended the life of a 23-year-old woman. Three panhandlers were arrested for this Hollywood stabbing as they held Christine Calderon up against a wall and stabbed her because she refused to give them $1 for a fee they demanded so she could take pictures. Calderon had her camera and was snapping pictures of the stars along the Hollywood Walk of Fame when three men demanded she give them $1. She refused and they killed her, all over $1. Dustin James Kinnear, 26, was charged with murder. Jason Joel Wolstone, 33, and Brian Joseph Widdoes, 34, were charged with two counts of accessory after the fact. Examiner reported , About 8:30 on Tuesday night, Calderon was found at a busy intersection on Hollywood Boulevard. She was taken to the hospital, but died of the injuries she received from this attack. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a place that street performers and panhandlers flock to because it is such a tourist destination. P

Woman off cliff: Peruvian love triangle crashes to earth as angry wife tosses alleged love rival over precipice LAST UPDATED AT 13:35 ON Thu 20 Jun 2013 FALLING in love has often been compared to falling off a cliff, but for a woman in the Peruvian city of Arequipa the experience was rather more literal. CCTV footage allegedly shows a woman called Lisset Lupo Mamani pushing a younger woman off a cliff after she discovered her "love rival" talking to her husband. Kmov reveals The images reportedly show the husband, Renezo Saavedra, having a "heated conversation" with a woman alleged to be his mistress, Examiner reports 25-year-old Sandra Bruna Morales. Seconds later, Mamani appears and a heated argument ensues. The older woman grabs Morales by her hair and drags her to the edge of the cliff before throwing her over. Luckily for Morales, she survived the 20ft drop and was treated at a local hospital for cuts and bruises. The wife expressed remorse at the incident, r

Hollywood Stabbing - A woman was stabbed and killed on Hollywood's walk of fame-over a dollar. A homeless panhandler murdered Christine Darlene Calderon over refusing to pay for a photo she took. Hollywood's iconic tourist area has been rocked by the incident. The stabbing victim, Christine Darlene Calderon, was walking down Hollywood's Walk of Fame with a coworker. She saw a cardboard sign with a panhandler she thought was funny. Calderon, 23, pulled out her cellphone to snap a photo of a the homeless man's four-letter request for money. Minutes later, she was dead. One of the homeless men demanded she pay $1 for the photo. Calderon refused and a man jumped on top of her, knocking her to the ground. Two other men allegedly pinned her coworker against a wall, holding her back.  The incident occurred in front of an American Eagle Outfitters clothing store at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Ave. Calderon got up to run with blood gushing from a stab

Wife throws other woman off cliff; husband walks away (video). There's a new video making the rounds online that's shocking and compelling to watch all the same, like a real-life episode of "Cheaters" caught on tape. In the video, we see a woman approach her husband, who is wearing a red jacket and talking with another woman. The wife assumes it's a woman having an affair with her husband, so she drags the woman away across the ground and tossing her over the edge of a cliff into a ravine, 20 feet deep. Thankfully, the woman tossed over the cliff didn't die, but only suffered cuts and bruises. As of this writing, no charges have been filed in the case, however, most folks are commenting on the fact that the cowardly husband just runs away from the melee and allows his wife to toss a woman over a cliff. The "other woman" states, in fact, that she was not having an affair with the attacking wife's husband, but claims that he was after her. Classi

Woman off cliff , Surveillance video caught a brutal fight between a woman and her perceived romantic rival in Arequipa, Peru, but it's pretty one-sided. A woman caught her husband walking with a younger woman while they were out on a stroll by a cliff back in January. She is seen grabbing the younger woman by the hair and dragging her off a cliff, where she reportedly plunged about 20 feet. She is okay after the fall - she only sustained some cuts and bruises, was treated at a hospital and released. As for the husband? He bolts as soon as his wife grabs the other woman and is nowhere to be seen for the rest of the video. He later confessed to America Noticias he was unfaithful to his wife. The younger woman, however, has denied having a romantic relationship with the man. She told America Noticias that the man was harassing her.

A Hollywood stabbing is stunning the American public this week, as the Huffington Post reported this Friday, June 21, that a 23-year-old woman was recently stabbed several times and killed in a violent murder after refusing to give panhandlers on the street just $1 in Hollywood Boulevard. The devastating Hollywood stabbing allegedly occurred on the star-studded “Walk of Fame” that the popular tourist location and celebrity venue is known for. The 23-year-old victim was found bleeding severely from numerous stab wounds by the time police arrived on the scene early Tuesday night, before 9:00 p.m. Law officials are reporting that the female victim and another woman were taking photos of Hollywood on their phones when three panhandlers holding signs cornered them. A still-unclear fight arose between them, though it appears that the men wanted $1 from the victim. When she refused, the three panhandlers revealed a knife and attacked her. The Hollywood stabbing victim was rushed to a local

Hollywood stabbing: The Los Angeles Police Department plans to increase patrols in the Hollywood tourist district after the fatal stabbing of a woman earlier this week by a transient, Chief Charlie Beck said Friday. In an interview with The Times, Beck said he had discussed the situation along Hollywood Boulevard with incoming Mayor Eric Garcetti and incoming City Atty. Mike Feuer. In addition to adding more undercover officers and horse-mounted patrols, Beck said there has been some discussion about how to better deal with the aggressive panhandling along the boulevard. We "don't want to lose any of the ground that's been gained in Hollywood," Beck said. "The whole area has changed for the better but all of that can be in jeopardy if you don't remain vigilan

Requests to pull money out of hedge funds rose in June as investors used the mid-year point to review their portfolios and release cash to spend elsewhere. _0"> Hedge fund administrator SS&C GlobeOp's forward redemption indicator, a monthly snapshot of clients giving notice to withdraw their cash which shows the percentage of assets under administration, stood at 3.88 percent in June, a moderate rise from May's measurement of 3.77 percent.   Bill Stone, chairman and chief executive officer at SS&C Technologies described the June increase as "typical semi-annual redemption activity", such as investors freeing up cash to spend on summer holidays. Hedge funds have profited from a sharp rally in financial markets since last summer, but some investors are disappointed that many hedge funds have failed to match equity markets. So far this year, hedge funds have returned 3.95 percent according to Hedge Fund Research, compared with a gain of almost 13 pe

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering bids from retirement plan managers to run its $15.6 billion 401(k) program, which has been administered by Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit for 15 years, according to three sources familiar with the situation. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer is talking to Wells Fargo & Co's retirement division about managing the program, the largest U.S. private sector plan, said the sources, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media. Bank of America is also in the running, they said. It was unclear if other plan providers were also being considered. Wells Fargo, the No. 4 U.S. bank by assets; Bank of America, the No. 2 U.S. bank; and Wal-Mart declined to comment.   While Wal-Mart accounts are much smaller than the average retirement account, the sheer size of the company makes it a coveted - and closely watched - client in the retirement industry. It could not be learned when Wal-Mart last conduc

Greenville shooting , A Greenville shooting near a local Walmart in N.C. is trending in the news today, though details on the shooting that wounded at least four civilians remain unclear, UPI confirmed this Friday, June 21. The Greenville shooting left four people seriously injured after a man allegedly revealed a gun and suddenly opened fire earlier today. The shooter apparently was firing a gun while passing from a Greenville law firm before ending up in the Walmart on Greenville Boulevard and Hooker Road. The gunman is now in police custody as of this afternoon. When the man began shooting at Greenville police officers, officials returned fire and shot the gunman down. His current condition has not been verified. At least four victims were injured in the Greenville shooting. Both the law firm, as well as the land between the firm and the adjacent Walmart, are being considered part of the overall crime scene. The gun violence victims were shot in each location, co

Hollywood stabbing , A Hollywood stabbing in which three panhandlers allegedly killed a young woman at the “Walk of Fame” was over nothing more than $1, police said, according to the Huffington Post on June 20. The Hollywood stabbing incident occurred on Tuesday evening when a woman and her friend were taking pictures in the tourist area at Hollywood’s famous star-studded “Walk of Fame,” police said. The three stabbing suspects were holding signs and panhandling. The picture-taking somehow led to a dispute, and the panhandlers demanded $1 from the victim. The woman was stabbed multiple times and later died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The Hollywood stabbing victim was identified as Christine Darlene Calderon, 23, of Lynwood, Calif., according to CBSNews . The suspects in the Hollywood stabbing were arrested Wednesday by Los Angeles police. Each of the suspects in the stabbing is being held on $1 million bail, ABCNews reported. The stabbing suspects were identified as Dustin Ki

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering bids from retirement plan managers to run its $15.6 billion 401(k) program, which has been administered by Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit for 15 years, according to three sources familiar with the situation. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer is talking to Wells Fargo & Co's retirement division about managing the program, the largest U.S. private sector plan, said the sources, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media. Bank of America is also in the running, they said. It was unclear if other plan providers were also being considered. Wells Fargo, the No. 4 U.S. bank by assets; Bank of America, the No. 2 U.S. bank; and Wal-Mart declined to comment. While Wal-Mart accounts are much smaller than the average retirement account, the sheer size of the company makes it a coveted - and closely watched - client in the retirement industry. It could not be learned when Wal-Mart last conducte

A company owned by Ronald Perelman has agreed to pay $720,000 to settle U.S. Department of Justice charges relating to a stock purchase, the second time this month that the billionaire financier agreed to penalties to resolve civil charges by the federal government. MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings agreed to make the payment to end an antitrust case over its failure to report its June 2012 purchase of more shares in Scientific Games Corp, which provides lottery and gaming services, after passing an ownership threshold requiring such reporting, the Justice Department said.   The accord follows an unrelated June 13 settlement in which Revlon Inc agreed to pay $850,000 to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it deceived shareholders and independent directors about a failed 2009 transaction with Perelman to take the cosmetics company private. MacAndrews & Forbes owns more than three-quarters of Revlon. Perelman was not charged in either case. The latest sett

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is playing a potentially dangerous game of chicken with global financial markets sent reeling by his threat to scale back the central bank's huge stimulus program. The Fed chief stood his ground at a news conference on Wednesday, laying out in detail a plan to begin winding down the central bank's $85 billion a month in bond purchases later this year. At the same time, he emphasized the Fed does not see such a move as an outright end to its supportive policy nor would it mark an imminent start to interest rate increases. Yet global financial markets honed in on the notion that interest rates will probably only go up from here. The response was unequivocal: a massive global selloff in assets of all stripes, especially in risky securities like stocks and corporate bonds. Emerging markets were hit particularly hard. In the Fed's view, just maintaining its bloated $3.4 trillion balance sheet should provide stimulus to the economy.

Stocks fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, extending the previous day's sharp decline as investors fretted over the Federal Reserve's plan to begin reducing its stimulus later this year if the economy strengthens. The S&P 500 recorded its biggest daily decline since November 11, 2011, on the year's heaviest day of trading. All 10 S&P sectors were sharply lower, with 94 percent of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange down for the day and more than four-fifths of Nasdaq -listed shares ending lower. The Dow Jones industrial average dived 353.87 points, or 2.34 percent, at 14,758.32. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 40.74 points, or 2.50 percent, at 1,588.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 78.57 points, or 2.28 percent, at 3,364.64. The Fed's program of bond-buying has fueled stock market gains this year, sending indexes to a series of all-time highs. A trend emerged of investors buying on market dips and limiting stocks' decl

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Sprint Nextel Corp raised its buyout offer for class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Clearwire Corp to $5 per share on Thursday and announced support from a key group of dissident shareholders, likely ending a bitter battle with rival suitor Dish Network Corp. Sprint, currently Clearwire's majority shareholder, has been fighting publicly with Dish over Clearwire since January as both companies want Clearwire's vast trove of valuable wireless airwaves to help them compete in wireless services.   Clearwire put its support behind the latest offer, representing the second major blow in a matter of days against Dish Chairman and founder Charlie Ergen, who wants to expand his satellite TV company into the wireless market. Earlier this week Ergen had to back out, at least for now, from a battle with Japan's SoftBank Corp to buy Sprint itself. Dish declined comment on the new Clearwire offer. Several analysts said they now expect