Ron Johnson Concedes: J.C. Penney Isn’t Apple

Okay, so Ron Johnson is not the god of retail.

Even with his reputation for retail wizardry at Apple (AAPL) and Target (TGT), everyone knew it would be hard for him to work his magic at J. C. Penney (JCP). Instead of hawking cool, high-margin tech products for the hipster fan base of Apple, Johnson has to deal with busy moms, screaming kids, and the the broad swath of humanity that just wants a cheap pair of pants. Now, Johnson has been forced to reverse field, announcing that he’ll start holding sales again to boost the struggling department-store chain. It’s a bow to reality: Nobody goes to a J. C. Penney to drink in the ambience or check out what’s new with Joe Fresh. They’ve surfed the Web or seen an ad that tells them the store has Joe Fresh on sale.

Johnson has now displaced J.Crew’s Mickey Drexler as the most watched man in mass-market fashion. And with J. C. Penney’s stock price down about 40 percent since his appointment was announced in June 2011 (though it’s up almost 8 percent today, on the pricing strategy shift), he has plenty of critics on Wall Street. But it’s too soon to write off his tenure as a failure.

In late 2011, Johnson rode in from his heady success at Apple, promising to transform a ho-hum chain into the hub for a 21st century shopping experience. He has widened aisles, offered haircuts, set up jean bars, and brought in colorful newbies like Joe Fresh. As he told me in July, his goal is to have J. C. Penney look less like a merchandise mart than a retail street fair with “all the kinds of things that would entertain the kids while mom shops”—creating a relaxed social experience that brings families together and is “high touch.” Sounds good so far. That’s what Apple did, after all, with its Genius Bars and in-store events.

And what did he miss? That consumers want their coupons and sales, too. Unlike, say, the latest version of the iPhone, there’s nothing in a J. C. Penney that most ordinary people would classify as a “must have.” Even in July, Johnson was starting to realize his disregard for sales was perhaps misplaced. “I thought people were just tired of coupons and all this stuff,” he told me. “The reality is all of the couponing we did, there were a certain part of the customers that loved that. They gravitated to stores that competed that way. So our core customer, I think, was much more dependent and enjoyed coupons more than I understood.”

Back then, his answer was to reform the customer. The challenge, as he saw it, was to get people to understand they can get a good deal every day at J. C. Penney. Then he discovered they already have a place to do that. It’s called Wal-Mart (WMT). If cheap was the defining motivation for most shoppers, they’d never stray beyond Dollar Tree (DLTR) or Wal-Mart for most of their purchases. It’s not. Discounts and sales are just part of the game. It whets the appetite, gets people motivated to look twice at a pair of boots in the knowledge that someone else paid twice as much.

But that doesn’t change the real challenge for Johnson, which is to delight customers once they’re in his stores and motivate them to spend more. The reason J. C. Penney floundered in recent years was because it was boring: ho-hum merchadise, ho-hum layout, a lack of distinctive branding. That’s what has to transform if Johnson is going to move the needle on sales.

The mistake he made was in thinking people would simply visit out of curiosity or because they heard it’s a good deal every day. Wrong! Now he’s stepping up to bring back that sense of urgency. While spokeswoman Daphne Avila stressed in an e-mail this afternoon that “our return to sales in no way signifies a change to our pricing strategy, but rather an evolution of it,” the move feels like a reversal, of course. Good thing. As Johnson himself said, “We’ve got to earn traffic through merchandise and content and experiences.”

At Apple, even with the seamless experience, Johnson knew the products and brand essentially sold themselves. At J. C. Penney, he’s now discovered, customers need a reason to show up. If sales help, more power to him. The chain’s turnaround will ultimately be decided by what people find once they walk through the door.

Businessweek.com — Top News

Title Post: Ron Johnson Concedes: J.C. Penney Isn’t Apple
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/ron-johnson-concedes-j-c-penney-isnt-apple/
Link To Post : Ron Johnson Concedes: J.C. Penney Isn’t Apple
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Military Surgeon Selected as Co-Editor of the Canadian Journal of Surgery

OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Feb 2, 2013) – The Canadian Journal of Surgery has appointed Major Vivian McAlister, a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) surgeon, as co-editor, highlighting the high esteem in which CAF doctors are held in the medical community.

When not engaged in military duties, Major McAlister works at Western University in London, Ontario as a Professor of Surgery. He is also a member of the Council of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

“Major McAlister”s appointment as co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Surgery illustrates the very high quality of health professionals within the Canadian Armed Forces,” said the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence. “The health of Canadian Armed Forces personnel is a top priority for this government and medical officers such as Major McAlister represent the finest doctors in our country and abroad. I congratulate him on behalf of the Government of Canada.”

The mission of the Canadian Journal of Surgery, a publication of the Canadian Medical Association, is to contribute to the effective continuing medical education of Canadian surgical specialists, using innovative techniques when feasible, and to provide surgeons with an effective vehicle for the dissemination of observations in the areas of clinical and basic science research.

“As a professor of surgery who has completed six tours in combat, mentorship, and humanitarian assistance operations in Afghanistan and Haiti, Major McAlister brings a superb international reputation and an extraordinary wealth of experience to the Canadian Journal of Surgery,” said Brigadier-General Jean-Robert Bernier, the Surgeon General. “His contributions to the journal”s educational mission, his work at Western University, and his service on the Royal College”s council all exemplify the close collaboration and mutual support between the civilian and military medical communities. This close relationship has existed since before Confederation and benefits all Canadians.”

Major McAlister fills this position on a voluntary basis for a renewable five-year term. “I am eager to fill the position of co-editor for this esteemed journal,” said Major McAlister. “I look to this opportunity as a new challenge in my career as a medical officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, and my military experience will certainly enhance my effectiveness as co-editor.”

Notes to editor / news director: For more information on Canadian Forces Health Services please visit: http://www.forces.gc.ca/health-sante/default-eng.asp.

For more information on the Canadian Journal of Surgery, please visit www.cma.ca/cjs.

Marketwire News Archive – Yahoo! Finance

Title Post: Military Surgeon Selected as Co-Editor of the Canadian Journal of Surgery
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/military-surgeon-selected-as-co-editor-of-the-canadian-journal-of-surgery/
Link To Post : Military Surgeon Selected as Co-Editor of the Canadian Journal of Surgery
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights.

That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January.

Late-stage bull markets are typically marked by an influx of small investors coming late to the party - such as when your waiter starts giving you stock tips. For that to happen you need a good story. The "great rotation," with its monumental tone, is the perfect narrative to make you feel like you're missing out.

Even if something approaching a "great rotation" has begun, it is not necessarily bullish for markets. Those who think they are coming early to the party may actually be arriving late.

Investors pumped $20.7 billion into stocks in the first four weeks of the year, the strongest four-week run since April 2000, according to Lipper. But that pales in comparison with the $410 billion yanked from those funds since the start of 2008.

"I'm not sure you want to take a couple of weeks and extrapolate it into whatever trend you want," said Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "We have had instances where equity flows have picked up in the last two, three, four years when markets have picked up. They've generally not been signals of a continuation of that trend."

The S&P 500 rose 5 percent in January, its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997, driving speculation that retail investors were flooding back into the stock market.

Heading into another busy week of earnings, the equity market is knocking on the door of all-time highs due to positive sentiment in stocks, and that can't be ignored entirely. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ended the week about 4 percent from an all-time high touched in October 2007.

Next week will bring results from insurers Allstate and The Hartford , as well as from Walt Disney , Coca-Cola Enterprises and Visa .

But a comparison of flows in January, a seasonal strong month for the stock market, shows that this January, while strong, is not that unusual. In January 2011 investors moved $23.9 billion into stock funds and $28.6 billion in 2006, but neither foreshadowed massive inflows the rest of that year. Furthermore, in 2006 the market gained more than 13 percent while in 2011 it was flat.

Strong inflows in January can happen for a number of reasons. There were a lot of special dividends issued in December that need reinvesting, and some of the funds raised in December tax-selling also find their way back into the market.

During the height of the tech bubble in 2000, when retail investors were really embracing stocks, a staggering $42.7 billion flowed into equities in January of that year, double the amount that flowed in this January. That didn't end well, as stocks peaked in March of that year before dropping over the next two-plus years.

MOM AND POP STILL WARY

Arguing against a 'great rotation' is not necessarily a bearish argument against stocks. The stock market has done well since the crisis. Despite the huge outflows, the S&P 500 has risen more than 120 percent since March 2009 on a slowly improving economy and corporate earnings.

This earnings season, a majority of S&P 500 companies are beating earnings forecast. That's also the case for revenue, which is a departure from the previous two reporting periods where less than 50 percent of companies beat revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Meanwhile, those on the front lines say mom and pop investors are still wary of equities after the financial crisis.

"A lot of people I talk to are very reluctant to make an emotional commitment to the stock market and regardless of income activity in January, I think that's still the case," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $571 billion.

Joy, speaking from a conference in Phoenix, says most of the people asking him about the "great rotation" are fund management industry insiders who are interested in the extra business a flood of stock investors would bring.

He also pointed out that flows into bond funds were positive in the month of January, hardly an indication of a rotation.

Citi's Levkovich also argues that bond investors are unlikely to give up a 30-year rally in bonds so quickly. He said stocks only began to see consistent outflows 26 months after the tech bubble burst in March 2000. By that reading it could be another year before a serious rotation begins.

On top of that, substantial flows continue to make their way into bonds, even if it isn't low-yielding government debt. January 2013 was the second best January on record for the issuance of U.S. high-grade debt, with $111.725 billion issued during the month, according to International Finance Review.

Bill Gross, who runs the $285 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, commented on Twitter on Thursday that "January flows at Pimco show few signs of bond/stock rotation," adding that cash and money markets may be the source of inflows into stocks.

Indeed, the evidence suggests some of the money that went into stock funds in January came from money markets after a period in December when investors, worried about the budget uncertainty in Washington, started parking money in late 2012.

Data from iMoneyNet shows investors placed $123 billion in money market funds in the last two months of the year. In two weeks in January investors withdrew $31.45 billion of that, the most since March 2012. But later in the month money actually started flowing back.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Read More..

NFL's Goodell aims to share blame on player safety

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants to share the blame.

"Safety," he said at his annual Super Bowl news conference, "is all of our responsibilities."

Not surprisingly, given that thousands of former players are suing the league about its handling of concussions, the topics of player health and improved safety dominated Goodell's 45-minute session Friday. And he often sounded like someone seeking to point out that players or others are at fault for some of the sport's problems — and need to help fix them.

"I'll stand up. I'll be accountable. It's part of my responsibility. I'll do everything," Goodell said. "But the players have to do it. The coaches have to do it. Our officials have to do it. Our medical professionals have to do it."

Injuries from hits to the head or to the knees, Goodell noted, can result from improper tackling techniques used by players and taught by coaches. The NFL Players Association needs to allow testing for human growth hormone to go forward so it can finally start next season, which Goodell hopes will happen. He said prices for Super Bowl tickets have soared in part because fans re-sell them above face value.

And asked what he most rues about the New Orleans Saints bounty investigation — a particularly sensitive issue around these parts, of course — Goodell replied: "My biggest regret is that we aren't all recognizing that this is a collective responsibility to get (bounties) out of the game, to make the game safer. Clearly the team, the NFL, the coaching staffs, executives and players, we all share that responsibility. That's what I regret, that I wasn't able to make that point clearly enough with the union."

He addressed other subjects, such as a "new generation of the Rooney Rule" after none of 15 recently open coach or general manager jobs went to a minority candidate, meaning "we didn't have the outcomes we wanted"; using next year's Super Bowl in New Jersey as a test for future cold-weather, outdoor championship games; and saying he welcomed President Barack Obama's recent comments expressing concern about football's violence because "we want to make sure that people understand what we're doing to make our game safer."

Also:

— New Orleans will not get back the second-round draft pick Goodell stripped in his bounty ruling;

— Goodell would not give a time frame for when the NFL could hold a game in Mexico;

— next season's games in London — 49ers-Jaguars and Steelers-Vikings — are sellouts.

Goodell mentioned some upcoming changes, including the plan to add independent neurologists to sidelines to help with concussion care during games — something players have asked for and the league opposed until now.

"The No. 1 issue is: Take the head out of the game," Goodell said. "I think we've seen in the last several decades that players are using their head more than they had when you go back several decades."

He said one tool the league can use to cut down on helmet-to-helmet hits is suspending players who keep doing it.

"We're going to have to continue to see discipline escalate, particularly on repeat offenders," Goodell said. "We're going to have to take them off the field. Suspension gets through to them."

The league will add "expanded physicals at the end of each season ... to review players from a physical, mental and life skills standpoint so that we can support them in a more comprehensive fashion," Goodell said.

With question after question about less-than-light matters, one reporter drew a chuckle from Goodell by asking how he's been treated this week in a city filled with supporters of the Saints who are angry about the way the club was punished for the bounty system the NFL said existed from 2009-11.

"My picture, as you point out, is in every restaurant. I had a float in the Mardi Gras parade. We got a voodoo doll," Goodell said.

But he added that he can "appreciate the passion" of the fans and, actually, "couldn't feel more welcome here."

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

Read More..

Hillary: Secretary of empowerment

Girls hug U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a 2010 tour of a shelter run for sex trafficking victims in Cambodia.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Donna Brazile: Clinton stepping down as Secretary of State. Maybe she'll run for president


• She says as secretary she expanded foreign policy to include effect on regular people


• She says she was first secretary of state to focus on empowering women and girls


• Brazile: Clinton has fought for education and inclusion in politics for women and girls

Editor's note: Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and a Democratic strategist, is vice chairwoman for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee. She is a nationally syndicated columnist, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and author of "Cooking with Grease." She was manager for the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000.

(CNN) -- As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton steps down from her job Friday, many are assuming she will run for president. And she may. In fact, five of the first eight presidents first served their predecessors as secretary of state.

It hasn't happened in more than a century, though that may change should Clinton decide to run. After all, she has been a game changer her entire life.

But before we look ahead, I think we should appreciate what she's done as secretary of state; it's a high profile, high pressure job. You have to deal with the routine as if it is critical and with crisis as if it's routine. You have to manage egos, protocols, customs and Congress. You have to be rhetorical and blunt, diplomatic and direct.

CNN Contributor Donna Brazile

As secretary of state you are dealing with heads of state and with we the people. And the president of the United States has to trust you -- implicitly.

On the road with Hillary Clinton

Of all Clinton's accomplishments -- and I will mention just a few -- this may be the most underappreciated. During the election, pundits were puzzled and amazed not only at how much energy former President Bill Clinton poured into Obama's campaign, but even more at how genuine and close the friendship was.

Obama was given a lot of well-deserved credit for reaching out to the Clintons by appointing then-Sen. Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state in the first place. But trust is a two-way street and has to be earned. We should not underestimate or forget how much Clinton did and how hard she worked. She deserved that trust, as she deserved to be in the war room when Osama bin Laden was killed.

By the way, is there any other leader in the last 50 years whom we routinely refer to by a first name, and do so more out of respect than familiarity? The last person I can think of was Ike -- the elder family member who we revere with affection. Hillary is Hillary.

It's not surprising that we feel we know her. She has been part of our public life for more than 20 years. She's been a model of dignity, diplomacy, empathy and toughness. She also has done something no other secretary of state has done -- including the two women who preceded her in the Cabinet post.

Rothkopf: President Hillary Clinton? If she wants it

Hillary has transformed our understanding -- no, our definition -- of foreign affairs. Diplomacy is no longer just the skill of managing relations with other countries. The big issues -- war and peace, terror, economic stability, etc. -- remain, and she has handled them with firmness and authority, with poise and confidence, and with good will, when appropriate.

But it is not the praise of diplomats or dictators that will be her legacy. She dealt with plenipotentiaries, but her focus was on people. Foreign affairs isn't just about treaties, she taught us, it's about the suffering and aspirations of those affected by the treaties, made or unmade.

Most of all, diplomacy should refocus attention on the powerless.

Of course, Hillary wasn't the first secretary of state to advocate for human rights or use the post to raise awareness of abuses or negotiate humanitarian relief or pressure oppressors. But she was the first to focus on empowerment, particularly of women and girls.

She created the first Office of Global Women's Issues. That office fought to highlight the plight of women around the world. Rape of women has been a weapon of war for centuries. Though civilized countries condemn it, the fight against it has in a sense only really begun.

Ghitis: Hillary Clinton's global legacy on gay rights

The office has worked to hold governments accountable for the systematic oppression of girls and women and fought for their education in emerging countries. As Hillary said when the office was established: "When the Security Council passed Resolution 1325, we tried to make a very clear statement, that women are still largely shut out of the negotiations that seek to end conflicts, even though women and children are the primary victims of 21st century conflict."

Hillary also included the United States in the Trafficking in Person report. Human Trafficking, a form of modern, mainly sexual, slavery, victimizes mostly women and girls. The annual report reviews the state of global efforts to eliminate the practice. "We believe it is important to keep the spotlight on ourselves," she said. "Human trafficking is not someone else's problem. Involuntary servitude is not something we can ignore or hope doesn't exist in our own communities."

She also created the office of Global Partnerships. And there is much more.

She has held her own in palaces and held the hands of hungry children in mud-hut villages, pursuing an agenda that empowers women, children, the poor and helpless.

We shouldn't have been surprised. Her book "It Takes a Village" focused on the impact that those outside the family have, for better or worse, on a child's well-being.

As secretary of state, she did all she could to make sure our impact as a nation would be for the better.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Donna Brazile.

Read More..

Amazon unveils exclusive ‘Downton Abbey’ deal with PBS

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc said on Friday that it struck an exclusive deal to distribute seasons of the hit TV show “Downton Abbey” to members of its subscription-based video streaming service.

Beginning June 18, Amazon‘s Prime Instant Video service will be the exclusive subscription service for streaming Season 3 of “Downton Abbey,” as part of a new content licensing agreement with PBS Distribution, a unit of The Public Broadcasting Service.

The online retailer said that later this year, no digital subscription service other than Prime Instant Video will offer any seasons of “Downton Abbey.”

The phenomenally successful British period drama, now in its third season, has become both a critical success and a cult favorite among its many U.S. fans.

Written by Oscar-winning scriptwriter Julian Fellowes, the series follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants at an impressive country estate in the early 1900s.

Prime Instant Video will continue to be the exclusive subscription home through Season 4 and, if produced, Season 5 of the show, the company added.

The deal is the latest effort by Amazon, the world’s largest Internet retailer, to expand in digital content and take on Netflix Inc, the leading online video subscription service in the United States.

Amazon is spending heavily on licensing deals for movies and TV shows to attract more viewers to Prime Instant Video. The service is offered free to subscribers of Amazon Prime, the company’s broader online shopping subscription program, which costs $ 79 a year for two-day shipping in the United States.

Netflix and rival Hulu Plus, owned by Comcast Corp, News Corp and Walt Disney Co, currently offer some seasons of “Downton Abbey.”

As of July 1, no “Downton Abbey” seasons will be available on Netflix, according to a person familiar with the agreement between Amazon and PBS.

By obtaining exclusive rights later this year to stream “Downton Abbey” on Prime Instant Video, Amazon is hoping more people will sign up for its broader Prime service. When that happens, shoppers often spend more on Amazon.com, analysts say.

Amazon’s choice of “Downton Abbey” was likely driven by an analysis of buying behavior by existing customers, a strength of Amazon’s.

The company noted that Seasons 1 and 2 of the series are the most-watched TV seasons of all time on the Prime Instant Video service already.

“Our Prime customers have spoken,” Brad Beale, director of digital video content acquisition for Amazon, said in a statement. “The series is consistently in our top most watched TV shows each week.”

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Amazon unveils exclusive ‘Downton Abbey’ deal with PBS
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/amazon-unveils-exclusive-downton-abbey-deal-with-pbs/
Link To Post : Amazon unveils exclusive ‘Downton Abbey’ deal with PBS
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

US economy adds 157,000 new jobs

1 February 2013 Last updated at 10:27 ET

The US economy added 157,000 jobs last month, which was slightly below forecasts, but the number of new jobs at the end of 2012 was revised up significantly, official data has shown.

In November and December, the Labor Department’s revised figures showed that 127,000 more jobs were created than initially thought.

But the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9% in January, from 7.8% in December.

In 2012, an average of 181,000 jobs a month were created, the data showed.

The news helped lift shares on Wall Street to levels not seen since before the financial crisis. In early trading the Dow Jones index rose above 14,000 for the first time since October 2007.

The unemployment rate is based on a survey of households, while the job creation figure is taken from a survey of employers.

On Wednesday, government data indicated that the US economy unexpectedly shrank at an annualised rate of 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Meanwhile, an industry survey on Friday said that the US manufacturing sector grew in January at the fastest pace for nine months.

The latest purchasing managers’ index from financial data firm Markit rose to 55.8 last month, up from 54 in December. A reading above 50 indicates growth.

Markit said that its latest survey “suggests the underlying health of the industrial sector continues to improve, and rising production will help the economy return to growth in the first quarter, provided there are no set-backs in coming months”.

‘Positives and negatives’

The Labor Department said that in January, jobs were created in retail, construction, healthcare and wholesale trade, but jobs were lost in transportation and warehousing.

Employment in retail rose by 33,000, compared with an average monthly gain of 20,000 in 2012.

Employment in construction rose by 28,000. The Labor Department said that the industry had created 296,000 jobs since falling to a low in January 2011, but added that the current level of employment was still some two million below its previous peak in April 2006.

Healthcare added 23,000 jobs in January, while wholesale trade added 15,000.

There was little change in manufacturing employment, which has been essentially flat since July 2012.

On the downside, couriers and messengers lost 19,000 jobs, after strong seasonal hiring in November and December came to an end.

Darrell Cronk, regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank in New York, said: “Like most of our jobs reports, it seems like every month, there is something for everybody in this one – there are positives and negatives.

“It was certainly below expectations and a slight negative that we saw a tick up in the unemployment rate from 7.8% to 7.9%, especially with the labour force participation rate staying where it is, which suggests there aren’t a vast influx of those unemployed/underemployed coming back being job seekers. That was disappointing.”

BBC News – Business

Title Post: US economy adds 157,000 new jobs
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/us-economy-adds-157000-new-jobs/
Link To Post : US economy adds 157,000 new jobs
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Obama offers faith groups new birth control rule

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Friday announced a new accommodation for religious nonprofits that object to providing health insurance that covers birth control.

The new regulation attempts to create a barrier between religious groups and contraception coverage, through insurers or a third party, that would still give women free access to contraception. Whether religious groups will accept this new approach depends in part on the technical details of how it’s paid for.

The new health care law requires most employers, including faith-affiliated hospitals and nonprofits, to provide health insurance that includes artificial contraception, including sterilization, as a free preventive service. The goal, in part, is to help women space out pregnancies to promote health.

Religious groups which primarily employ and serve people of their own faith — such as churches — were exempt. But other religiously affiliated groups, such as church-affiliated universities and Catholic Charities, were told they had to comply.

Roman Catholic bishops, evangelicals and some religious leaders who have generally been supportive of President Barack Obama’s policies lobbied fiercely for a broader exemption. The Catholic Church prohibits the use of artificial contraception. Evangelicals generally permit the use of birth control, but some object to specific methods such as the morning-after contraceptive pill, which they argue is tantamount to abortion.

Obama had promised to change the birth control requirement so insurance companies — and not faith-affiliated employers — would pay for the coverage, but religious leaders said more changes were needed to make the plan work.

Since then, more than 40 lawsuits have been filed by religious nonprofits and secular for-profit businesses claiming the mandate violates their religious beliefs. As expected, this latest regulation does not provide any accommodation for individual business owners who have religious objections to the rule.

The latest version of the mandate is now subject to a 60-day public comment period. The mandate takes effect for religious nonprofits in August.

Policy analyst Sarah Lipton-Lubet of the American Civil Liberties Union said the group was assessing details of the proposal, but that it appeared to meet the ACLU’s goal of providing “seamless coverage” of birth control for the affected women.

Yahoo! Finance – Personal Finance | Insurance

Title Post: Obama offers faith groups new birth control rule
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/obama-offers-faith-groups-new-birth-control-rule/
Link To Post : Obama offers faith groups new birth control rule
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

S&P 500 rises one percent as Wall Street rallies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks hit five-year highs with each of the three major indexes up at least 1 percent on Friday, after jobs and manufacturing data showed the economy's sluggish recovery is still on track.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 139.22 points, or 1.00 percent, to 13,999.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 15.04 points, or 1.00 percent, to 1,513.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> advanced 35.47 points, or 1.13 percent, to 3,177.60.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Read More..

Goodell says he welcomes Obama's remarks on safety

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league will look at eliminating certain low blocks and improve the quality of playing fields as part of a program to improve player safety.

In his annual message on the state of the league two days before Sunday's Super Bowl, Goodell said neurosurgeons will also be added to game day medical staffs.

Goodell pledged to pioneer new approaches to safety and will continue to make it a priority.

He said he welcomed recent comments by President Barack Obama about football safety, and said there are improvements constantly in treating head injuries. He said the game can be made safer while making football better.

Read More..