Union says strike by Dublin Bus drivers now ?99% certain?

Christopher McKinley

In anticipation of possible strike action tomorrow Dublin Bus have announced that no Nitelink services will operate toninght.

In a statement on Twitter the company said that ?due to probable industrial action (whereby) services may not operate tomorrow, no Nitelink services will operate tonight?.

The Irish Times takes no responsibility for the content or availability of other websites.

The announcement comes after Siptu transport organiser, Willie Noone, said it?s now ?99 per cent certain? that Dublin Bus drivers will go on strike tomorrow.

?I can?t see how anything is going happen between now and midnight,? he said. Siptu and National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) drivers at the State company are set to go on strike tomorrow in a long-running row over ?11.7 million in cost saving measures.

An expectation that talks between both sides could take place at the Labour Relations Commission today is receding.

Mr Noone said members of Dublin Bus had already taken pay cuts and had not been given many options regarding the cost savings.

Last night Dublin Bus wrote to all their employees urging them not to engage in industrial action.

If the industrial action does go ahead the strikers will start picketing outside bus garages at midnight.

Public demand for bus services was also expected to be high this weekend with both the Oxegen festival and All-Ireland football quarter finals taking place tomorrow.

The strike will affect an estimated 200,000 public transport users and cost Dublin Bus approximately ?200,000 per day.

The halting of bus services in the capital is also expected to disrupt businesses.

Unions have overwhelmingly rejected a Labour Court supported plan which includes reduced overtime, reductions in bank holiday payments and in annual leave.

Dublin Bus said that they have no choice but to implement the measures in order to stabilise the company?s finances.

A Dublin Bus spokeswoman said that the strike would cause disruption to customers and further losses for the company.

She said her information was that the unions planned to strike and said the company was urging them strongly not to.

?It?s really, really, disappointing, counterproductive and damaging?.

?We?d be hopeful that common sense would prevail,? she said. ?Striking is not going to solve the problem and the financial situation will worsen as a result of the strike?.

She said Dublin Bus was willing to enter talks if they were ?constructive around achieving the savings necessary?.

?Dublin Bus does not have a problem with talking,? she said. ?We?ve had exhaustive talks. We?ve exhausted the industrial relations mechanism?.

The company said that bus drivers? core pay of around ?40,000 per annum would not be cut while management and executives faced pay cuts of 3 per cent to 5 per cent. She also said that only about 25 per cent of drivers opted for overtime.

?We have nowhere else to go. We have met the unions 60 times and were at the LRC seven times and at the Labour Court,? she said.

There are also concerns the dispute may affect train users. NBRU assistant general secretary Dermot O?Leary said Irish Rail members would not stand ?idly by? while cuts were imposed on employees at their sister company Dublin Bus.

Both Siptu and the NBRU have said drivers had lost up to ?250 a week from cuts in 2009 and faced a ?94 cut for each day of the six Bank Holidays they worked per year, along with a cut of ?35 if they work a rest day.

Fianna Fail transport spokesman Timmy Dooley urged Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar to intervene and said an ?act of leadership? was required to bridge the divide.

On Thursday the Minister urged both sides to do everything to agree the necessary savings and avoid disruption. ?Payroll savings are needed to protect existing service levels. There have already been substantial fare increases,? he said.

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Ind. adds manufacturing jobs for 2nd year in a row

MUNSTER, Ind. -- Indiana added 8,020 manufacturing jobs in the 12-months span ending April 2013, marking the second straight year the Hoosier state has added manufacturing jobs, a research firm has found.

"Indiana is doing better than the nation as a whole," said Tom Dubin, president and chief executive officer of Evanston, Ill.-based Manufacturer's News, told The Times of Munster (http://bit.ly/1cwVNKq ).

Manufacturing News, which has surveys manufacturers across the nation, says Indiana is doing better than the nation when it comes to creating manufacturing jobs, with an increase of 1.4 percent.

"Industrial employment in other states grew by about 0.5 percent, but Indiana gained more than 8,000 jobs. The transportation industry in Indiana is especially strong, with Toyota, Subaru and automotive suppliers bouncing back from the economic downturn," Dubin said.

Nearly 9,700 manufacturers operate in Indiana, employing 556,367 workers, Manufacturing News estimates.

Indiana Manufacturers Association President Patrick Kiely says Indiana has added 64,000 manufacturing jobs since the industry bottomed out in June 2009.

But now all the new is great. Northwest Indiana has 88,945 industrial jobs, which is down 0.5 percent from last year. Kiely blamed the slight drop largely on the steel industry's recent struggles. Shipments to automakers are up, but steelmakers haven't been getting as many orders for construction and face trying economic conditions globally, Kiely said.

Dubin says Indiana remains attractive to manufacturers.

"It's centrally located, and manufacturers need transportation hubs to ship their products all over the world," he said. "They need to have access to highways, freightways and waterways."

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/03/3540977/ind-adds-manufacturing-jobs-for.html

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Flash floods kill 58 in eastern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Heavy rains swept across eastern Afghanistan, leveling homes and killing at least 58 people in five provinces, while an estimated 30 others remain missing, officials said Sunday.

Provincial spokesmen in Nangarhar, Kabul, Khost, Laghman and Nuristan said that all the floods struck early Saturday. Flash floods are common in those provinces and all are fed by rivers that eventually intersect in Nangarhar.

In Kabul's Surobi district, police chief Shaghasi Ahmadi said 34 people were killed in a remote and mountainous area. He said 22 of the bodies from Surobi were later found downstream in Laghman.

Surobi has a number of rivers running through it. It is also rife with Taliban activity.

Ahmadi said food, tents and other emergency supplies were being sent to the district from the capital.

Downstream in the adjacent province of Nangarhar, a government statement said 17 people were killed by the floods.

President Hamid Karzai's office said another seven died in Khost and Nuristan.

Rains quickly can weaken the structures of the mud-walled homes that dot the countryside in Afghanistan, causing the buildings to collapse during heavy downpours. In neighboring Pakistan on Saturday, the same storm system brought heavy rains that caused more than 100 homes to collapse and caved in a factory wall, killing at least 14 people.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/flash-floods-kill-58-eastern-afghanistan-133215142.html

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'We're the Millers': From Cancer-Treatment Project to All-Star Family Comedy

Invision/AP Images

The cast of "We're the Millers" at Thursday's premiere

The audience at Thursday night's premiere of We're the Millers in New York spent much of the movie laughing uproariously at the fictional follies of Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts and Ed Helms.

But when co-writer Steve Faber first started working on the script, roughly 11 years ago, he was dealing with a very serious reality: non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

As he was undergoing chemotherapy, he wrote the first draft of the film while he spent a year-and-a-half in the hospital, at times not thinking he'd make it out, Faber told The Hollywood Reporter at Thursday's premiere party.

VIDEO: 'We're the Millers' Red Band Trailer

Faber and his writing partner Bob Fisher sold the script to New Line Cinema where it spent more than a decade in development with various writers, including director Rawson Marshall Thurber, tinkering with the script.

Now Faber's cancer-free and the movie's finally being released.

New Line president Toby Emmerich defends the film's long gestation period, similar to that of the 2011 New Line hit Horrible Bosses, saying "This was the right way to make it and we didn't know that nine years ago. We were actively trying to make it, but it took a long time to get the right combination of filmmaker and cast where we really thought that it made sense and worked. It's a little daunting that it can take so long, but like Horrible Bosses, it's a reminder that if you really believe in the material and the idea, you should just stick with it."

Indeed Emmerich and New Line president of production Richard Brener have high hopes that the comedy will find an audience in a crowded summer marketplace.

STORY: Why Toby Emmerich Is Warner Bros.' Most Underrated Player

"Comedies tend to have an opportunity to compete against even the biggest movies?So hopefully with our Wednesday opening and the word of mouth that we anticipate, we'll have a good little run," Brener said. "And it's not just about the first weekend even though everyone kind of says that, there aren't a lot of comedies coming up for the rest of the month, so hopefully we'll have some legs."

"I think there hasn't been a comedy in a while and people love to see comedies in the summer," Emmerich added. "I think it's a great comedy, so hopefully people will enjoy it, and it offers counter-programming to so many other genres that have been more prevalent in the past few weeks."

Earlier on the red carpet, Thurber said of the film, "It's got lots of laughs, and it's got just enough heart to make you care."

STORY: 'Pacific Rim' Tepid; 'Elysium,' 'We're the Millers' Strong at CineEurope

Indeed despite some of the depressing production developments, the original idea for the story was light-hearted, Faber said.

"I did take these long, meandering drives down to the border," he explained. "And I would notice the same guy getting busted over and over again: hair down to his back in a VW bus, and I always thought to myself, 'Why not clean up?' "

Faber says the movie's ultimately about family, and Fisher compares it to another comedy the two wrote for New Line, Wedding Crashers.
?
"Wedding Crashers started off as a critique of marriage and ended up being an embrace of it," Fisher said. "This movie starts off as a critique of family and ends up as an embrace of it."

But while family is the focus of the movie, on the red carpet THR asked Sudeikis, Aniston and Helms about various developments in their careers.

STORY: Jason Sudeikis Not Returning to 'SNL'

Sudeikis was particularly nonchalant about his recent announcement that he won't be returning to Saturday Night Live in the fall, agreeing it was simply time to move on.

"I had my time with [SNL]. Gotta move on and do other things," he said.

"And I think the show benefits from people moving on; it loosens things up for the people that just got there or have yet to be there," he added.

And Helms said that while he's known Sudeikis for 10 years, he hasn't given him any advice on transitioning from TV to movies like he did and doesn't think he needs to.

Meanwhile, Aniston, who directed a short film for Lifetime, told THR she was eager to do more work behind the camera.

"I'm chomping at the bit to do that again," she said.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/film/~3/x1mPxRBdzQU/story01.htm

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Kolb hurts knee in off-field slip at camp

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) ? Buffalo Bills quarterback Kevin Kolb has been escorted into the locker room after he slipped on a rubber mat and hurt his left knee during practice.

Kolb, competing with first-round draft pick E.J. Manuel for the Bills' starting job, was switching fields with his offensive teammates. As he ran, Kolb slipped on a wet rubber mat and stumbled awkwardly at the Bills training camp facility in suburban Rochester on Saturday.

Though Kolb did not fall, he had trouble standing and put his arm around the shoulder of head trainer Bud Carpenter. Kolb then tossed down his helmet in frustration, before sitting down on the field.

Carpenter briefly examined Kolb's knee before escorting him to the locker room. Workers then began sweeping water off the mats.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kolb-hurts-knee-off-field-slip-camp-131612901.html

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Stocks open slightly lower after disappointing jobs data

markets

Justin Menza CNBC.com

1 hour ago

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the end of the trading day on August 1, 2013 in New York City.

Stocks closed modestly higher in thin volume on Friday despite a tepid jobs report. While the data was disappointing, it still showed job growth and may also make the Federal Reserve a bit more hesitant about curtailing its stimulus policies in September.

The U.S. economy created just 162,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in July after a downwardly revised 188,000 in June. The unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent.

The quality of the jobs being created is also an issue. Burt White of LPL Financial pointed out, "Over the last four months we've created 4.2 part-time jobs for every one full-time job. That trend is not going in a good direction."

After spending the session clawing back morning losses, the Dow Jones Industrial Average?finished 30 points higher at 15,658.36. The?S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended with slight gains, while both the S&P and Dow set new closing highs.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, fell to 12.1.

Among S&P sectors, consumer discretionary and materials stocks led the gainers. Energy fell after disappointing earnings from oil giant Chevron.

"I think the market grinds higher," Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management, said. "We're not going to go up another 18 percent as we have since the first of the year in my opinion. But I think the market ends higher than where it is today."

The jobs data may push back the timing, or at least scale, of a potential Fed tapering of its bond-buying program.

St. Louis Fed president James Bullard said in a speech Friday that the central bank "needs to see more data" before it makes a decision about slowing the pace of its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program.

(Read more: So-so summer: Job growth disappoints; rate drops)

Some economists, meanwhile, see just a small reduction in bond purchases next month.

"I think they'll only do $15 billion because the evidence will be still somewhat ambiguous," BNY Mellon economist Richard Hoey told CNBC of the potential cutback in bond purchases. "I don't think they'll do $25 billion. That's too strong a measure."

In other data, U.S. consumer spending increased 0.5 percent in June, lifted by automobile purchases and higher gasoline prices. Personal incomes rose 0.3 percent. June factory orders, meanwhile, rose 1.5 percent after an upwardly revised 3 percent in May.

(Read more: Escape velocity hopes give way to law of gravity)

Cable stocks rose on reports that Cox Communications and Charter Communications held merger talks. Cablevision was up sharply as well.

Viacom, meanwhile, reported a 14 percent rise in revenue helped by strong advertising and CBS affiliate fees at its cable networks. The media giant also doubled its stock buyback program to $20 billion.

LinkedIn shares surged following better-than-expected earnings and after a number of brokers hiked their price targets on the social networking firm.

AIG stock rose after the company posted strong earnings and said it would return capital to shareholders.

But oil giant?Chevron posted a 26 percent decline in net income?due to lower oil prices and maintenance work at its U.S. refineries.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2f7aea00/sc/24/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cstocks0Eopen0Eslightly0Elower0Eafter0Edisappointing0Ejobs0Edata0E6C10A824614/story01.htm

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DP World?s London container port will create 27,700 jobs

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Source: gulfnews.com --- Thursday, August 01, 2013
The port to contribute ?2.4 billion to economy ...

Source: http://gulfnews.com/dp-world-s-london-container-port-will-create-27-700-jobs-1.1215705?localLinksEnabled=false&utm_source=Feeds&utm_medium=RSS&utm_term=Business_RSS_feed&utm_content=1.1215705&utm_campaign=DP_World%E2%80%99s_London_container_port_will

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New Tech Could Allow Super-Speed Internet on Old Phone Lines

Gigabit internet is fast and amazing. But that "Download entire movies in mere seconds!" line gets real old if you, like the vast majority of the country, don't have access to those lightning fast fiber lines. But thanks to a new approach from Alcatel-Lucent, your creaky old copper phone lines might be good enough. That's a really big deal if it actually works.

Read more...

Source: http://gizmodo.com/new-tech-could-allow-super-speed-internet-on-old-phone-1004361130

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Koch bros. keep beating anti-'Obamacare' drum

A conservative advocacy group that spent millions on issue ads during the 2012 election cycle plans to continue a seven-figure campaign that aims to convince people to think twice before signing up for health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

Americans for Prosperity, a group partially funded by donors David and Charles Koch, plans to release a? television ad Wednesday to raise questions about the law. Instead of focusing on the law?s repeal, AFP's newest effort will argue that health insurance premiums will rise for those who sign up for the exchanges. The group also is making plans to dispatch activists to sporting events, festivals and town fairs in multiple states for the next several months to warn people that they could have fewer medical choices under the law.

?This is more about going to folks where they are and talking to them,? AFP President Tim Phillips told Yahoo News. ?We?re saying, make sure you understand the impact this law will have on you if you sign up.?

The federal government will begin to implement key parts of the Affordable Care Act, the health insurance overhaul commonly called Obamacare that passed along partisan lines and was signed by President Barack Obama in 2010, as early as 2014. In order for the law to function as planned, millions of Americans must pro-actively sign up for health insurance plans enacted by the legislation. The Obama administration is urging people to enroll. An independent group, Enroll America, has launched a nationwide campaign to provide information about how to take part in the exchanges.

But a coalition of conservative groups is urging people not to sign up at all, which, if effective, would make it difficult for many parts of the law to function. The AFP campaign, which began with an initial $700,000 investment for an ad in July, won?t explicitly advise people not to sign up, but the insinuation is strong.

?The reason we?re doing this now is that this is the final run-up to final implementation,? Phillips told Yahoo News. ?As a lot of Americans decide what to do when the Enroll America paid community organizer shows up at an event in their community, we want them to consider exactly what this law means for them personally. So we want to run these ads now before they make that decision.?

Enrollment for the exchanges is set to begin in October.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/conservative-groups-continues-effort-to-warn-against-enrolling-in-health-care-law-124543669.html

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Cowboys S Barry Church sidelined by Jolly Rancher

OXNARD, Calif. (AP) ? Barry Church is finished with Jolly Ranchers. The candy-loving Dallas Cowboys safety missed a day of training camp because of a cherry-flavored one.

Church chipped a tooth on a piece of the hard candy about a week before reporting to camp. He felt pain off and on, but says it was unbearable when he woke up Monday morning.

The fourth-year pro missed a walkthrough and a full practice to get a root canal, but returned Tuesday.

Church says he "caught a couple of zingers" from coaches and teammates and isn't happy that he has to stay away from candy for a while.

Once he can eat candy again, Church says he'll "stick to the soft stuff."

Church missed the final 13 games last year with a torn Achilles' tendon.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cowboys-barry-church-sidelined-jolly-rancher-025040960.html

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Stocks open higher; S&P500 cracks 1700-point barrier

stocks

JeeYeon Park CNBC

2 hours ago

Stocks opened sharply higher on Thursday, with the S&P 500 topping the 1,700-point mark, as Wall Street cheered upbeat economic data from China and Europe and a better-than-expected jobless claims report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 118 points higher in early morning trading.

The S&P 500?rose 15 points to move through the 1700 barrier and the Nasdaq also rallied at the open. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near 13.

Major averages closed out their best July since 2010 on Wednesday. For the year, the Dow and S&P 500 have spiked more than 18 percent for the year, while the Nasdaq has surged nearly 20 percent.

On the economic front, weekly jobless claims tumbled 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, dropping to a 5-1/2 year low, according to the Labor Department. Economists surveyed by Reuters expected a reading of 345,000, compared with 343,000 in the prior week.

Also, the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms declined modestly in July, with employers announcing 37,701 cuts last month, down 4.2 percent from 39,372 in June, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Meanwhile, the pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector accelerated in July to the highest level in two years as new orders surged, according to a report by the Institute for Supply Management. The data supported the view the economy will pick up in the second half of the year.

The ISM said its index of national factory activity rose to 55.4 from 50.9 in June, topping expectations for 52. It was the highest since June 2011. New orders also racked up their best level in more than two years, jumping to 58.3 from 51.9.

The reports came ahead of Friday's widely-watched government jobs report. Analysts polled by Reuters expect to see a gain of 184,000 in July, after a 195,000 uptick in the previous month.

(Read more:July jobs report key to Fed action)

Stocks ended flat on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve did not signal when it would start tapering its bond-buying program. However, it did raise concerns about rising mortgage rates and flagged the risks of inflation falling too far below its target. In addition, the central bank slightly downgraded its outlook for economic growth.

(Read more:Best S&P valuestocks to get through August)

Asian stocks rallied on Thursday after China's official PMI (purchasing manager's index) data showed the country's manufacturing sector continued to expand in July, defying forecasts of a contraction. But the picture was mixed, with a private gauge of factory activity by HSBC showing an 11-month low of 47.7 in July. Japan's Nikkei rallied to a one-month peak on the news, the Shanghai Composite hit a one-week high and South Korea's Kospi touched a seven-week high.

"Official PMI is more skewed to larger companies, and the HSBC figure reflects the smaller companies and that is where you get this divergence," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC.

(Read more: Will China PMI mark the end of negative data surprises?)

In Europe, the European Central Bank kept its main interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.5 percent, and reiterated that rates would remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time.

"Labor market conditions remain weak. Looking ahead to the remainder of the year and 2014, euro area growth should benefit from a gradual recovery in global demand," said ECB president Mario Draghi in a press conference following the announcement. "Our monetary policy stance remains accommodative for as long as necessary. We have unanimously confirmed the forward guidance we gave last time."

Euro zone manufacturing activity grew for the first time in two years in July, with the purchasing manager's index (PMI) climbing to 50.3 in July. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion.

And the Bank of England left its interest rates unchanged at 0.5 percent, as expected, under its new governor, Mark Carney.

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