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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Nov 29, 2012
November 29, 2012
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Healthcare:
CNBC reports that the president's healthcare reform act is having a not-so-unexpected effect on some major companies' financial strategies. Some firms are taking on huge short term debt to pay out future stock divided payments. Why? Because one of the many tax increases in the Obamacare bill will hike taxes on certain dividend income for high wage earners to 43.4-percent!!
Yesterday, Costco announced a $7-dollar-a-share payout to stockholders and is issuing bonds to pay for the $3-billion-dollar dividend.
Editor's Note: Hey, just think of that dividend tax hike as a free prostate exam. (Pacelli)Guilty Pleasures:
There were two winning tickets for last night's $550 million Powerball Lottery drawing, sold in Arizona and Missouri. Winning numbers: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29; powerball: 6.
There was also seven two-million dollar "Power Play" winners (CO, CT, FL, MD, NM, OH, SC) who matched all five of the numbers, but didn't get the powerball, and a bunch of one million dollar "Match five" winners (AZ, CT, FL, GA, ID, IL, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, NC, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WI). Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington DC and the U-S Virgin Islands. Chances of winning the grand prize (all five numbers plus the powerball) are 1 in 175.2 million.Idle gossip & unconfirmed rumors:
MICHAEL JORDAN is fickle about his sports attire. Sources at the La Gorce Country Club in Miami Beach, Florida, tell the NY Post's Page Six gossip column the living legend ticked off a few peeps when he had the nerve to golf in cargo pants! Apparently the course has strict rules about wearing a collared shirt and Bermuda shorts, but the hoops legend refused to change and rumor has it he "won't be invited back."
MJ's rep swears he's played the course several times in slacks, was made aware of the faux pas on the 12th hole, didn't want to interrupt his game and if he's banned, it's their loss --the former Bulls champ is a "great golfer and a great guest." (Lee)On, off and way-off Broadway:
KATIE HOLMES' new Broadway play, "Dead Accounts," opens today at the Music Box Theatre on W 45th Street. In the show, Katie plays a woman who moves back in with her parents in Cincinnati after a relationship falls apart.
The show is scheduled to run thru Feb 24, 2013.Daily Variety says MIKE TYSON's one-man show, "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth," will be doing a 35-city, 10-week tour beginning early next year. The tour will kick off Feb 12-13 in Indianapolis, IN, and then move on to St. Louis, Cincinnati and Louisville, KY. Also on tap: stints in LA, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington as well.
Today's police blotter:
New York police were shocked to discover that all day Monday, for the first time anyone can remember, nobody was shot, stabbed or slashed in all of New York City.
The Reel Deal:
Are you as annoyed when somebody pops open their cell phone in a crowded theatre to read a text message, disturbing everybody around them with the light?
Here's a sad, pathetic sign of the times: Deadline.com reports the Cinemark theatre chain now says it's going to reward people for *not* texting while watching a movie at their theatres.
Last week, it unveiled a new app for iPhones and Android phones called CineMode.
Here's how it works --when you go to the theatre, before the movie begins, a message on the screen will urge you to launch the CineMode app, which in turn will dim your phone's screen and ask you to turn the volume off so incoming calls only cause the phone to vibrate.
If you can keep your hands off the phone for the duration of the film, Cinemark sends you a special coupon you can use at the theatre.
The chain didn't say whether it was a discount on a future ticket or perhaps a discount at the refreshment stand.
But JAMES MEREDITH, the VP of Cinemark's marketing and communications department, says "It's important to develop tools that maximize and preserve the movie-going experience."
Editor's note: it's just pathetic that people can't turn their phones off for the hour and a half it takes to see a movie. -
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