Finance & Business World

Walmart has already posted maps online showing where low-priced laptops and Xbox 360 consoles will be placed throughout its stores on Black Friday.

Old Navy is handing out a limited number of free digital cameras to customers who spend at least $40. And Best Buy is playing the movie “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ on a big screen and offering free kettle corn and energy drinks to folks waiting in line outside of its Fairview Heights store.

And yes, many stores and shopping malls are opening earlier than ever

London officials attached eviction notices to protest tents outside St. Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday, asking the demonstrators to remove them within a day or face legal action.

The notices posted by the City of London Corporation said the protest camp was “an unlawful obstruction” of a sidewalk, and asked protesters to take down “all tents and other structures” by 6 p.m. (1800 GMT, 1 p.m. EST) Thursday.

The cathedral and the corporation had suspended legal action to remove the camp two weeks ago, and offered the protesters a deal to allow them to stay until the new year if they then agreed to leave. But the corporation said Tuesday that talks had failed and it was resuming legal action.

If the tents are not removed, the corporation says it will go to court seeking an eviction notice _ a process that could take weeks.

More than 200 tents have been pitched outside the iconic church since Oct. 15 in a protest against capitalist excess inspired by New York’s Occupy Wall Street, and the protesters said they would resist attempts to move them.

“We will contest it,” spokeswoman Naomi Colvin said. “We will be speaking to our legal team and we will be fighting it.”

The governing Chapter of St. Paul’s Cathedral said in a statement that it recognized “the local authority’s statutory right to proceed with the action it has today,” but would continue to meet with protesters in a bid to find a peaceful solution.

Police in the U.S. have been moving in to clear away similar protests, breaking up camps in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, Oakland, California, on Monday and on Tuesday in New York, where about 200 people were arrested.

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MADISON COUNTY

FedEx expects to handle more than 17 million packages on its busiest day of the year in mid-December, as holiday shoppers continue to buy more online.

That volume represents a 9 percent increase from last year’s busiest day, and is almost double what FedEx ships on a normal day. The world’s second-largest package delivery company thinks its busiest day will fall on Dec. 12.

The number of shipments handled on the busiest day has climbed steadily through the recession as holiday shoppers skip stores and have gifts shipped after buying them online.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, FedEx Corp. expects more than 260 million shipments. That’s a 12 percent increase from 2010.

The Memphis, Tenn. company plans to add about 20,000 seasonal workers to handle the surge.

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Air Canada has filed an unfair labour practice complaint against the union representing flight attendants who are now barred from walking off the job pending a labour board hearing.

The bad-faith bargaining complaint against the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 6,800 flight attendants, comes after Labour Minister Lisa Raitt intervened in the dispute on Wednesday, asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to rule on two matters.

Asking whether a deal between Air Canada and unionized employees is even possible and citing health and safety concerns for the nation because the airline offers essential services, Raitt asked the board for a ruling, thereby making a strike illegal.

Airline officials have repeatedly noted that two tentative agreements, both recommended by top union executives, were soundly rejected by the rank-and-file.

The complaint argues that

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has withdrawn his slate of directors for consumer products company Clorox’s board, ending a proxy fight.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn said he continues to think the best way to maximize shareholder value is through a sale of the company. He also said that he has concluded that most shareholders don’t support the idea.

Icahn, known for shaking up struggling companies, has proposed to either sell the company or buy it himself, which Clorox has dismissed as not credible. In August, Icahn said he wanted to install himself and 10 other directors on the company’s board. Clorox makes salad dressing, beauty and cleaning products and other consumer products.

Clorox shares fell $2.60, or 3.8 percent, to $66.80 in aftermarket trading.

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The Associated Press emphasized its efforts to strengthen state news reports and investigative and accountability journalism in its annual presentation to media executives Thursday.

AP leaders told the members of the Associated Press Media Editors that the news cooperative continues to beef up state news reports, despite staff reductions and budget pressures shared with the industry.

The news cooperative is continuing its “Broken Budgets” multimedia series launched this year. The joint reporting project with AP members expands statehouse coverage to explore cutbacks in state budgets. The series has examined dozens of aspects of state finances, from spending on roads and schools to the nuts-and-bolts of how states borrow and spend.

The AP has also changed staffing in some areas to expand early morning news.

“We have to take that breaking news and drive it faster than we ever had before,” said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor and a senior vice president for the AP.

The AP also told media executives that the company has expanded state photo reports and reaffirmed its commitment to investigative journalism, highlighting an award-winning “Aging Nukes” series that detailed problems at U.S. nuclear plants.

AP leaders said the company has never placed a higher priority on accountability journalism, putting a greater emphasis on seeking public records and fact-checking claims by political candidates and public officials. Across the company, AP staffers filed some 1,500 requests for public documents last year, said Kristin Gazlay, AP vice president and managing editor for financial news and global training.

Political editor Liz Sidoti said the AP is bulking up analysis pieces to check statements by politicians, at times assigning a dozen reporters to scrutinize facts at a single presidential debate fast cash advance loan. She told news executives to expect more analysis to guide political coverage, especially as politicians step up claims about the economy.

Sidoti said the cooperative considers its top assignment over the coming to year to cover “the economy intersecting with the presidential campaign.”

She predicted a lively year.

“We’re all going to have a very competitive presidential race to cover next year,” Sidoti said.

AP Director of Photography Santiago Lyon told the executives that increased cooperation has meant many more photos in the U.S.

Lyon said domestic photo transmissions were up 9 percent in the second quarter of this year. He also said AP is better sharing photo coverage plans with members to avoid overlap.

“We continue to make good progress toward increasing the quality, and the volume, of the state photo reports,” he said.

AP also presented a good-natured look at its famed AP Stylebook, created in 1953 and the definitive style guide for publishers in all formats. AP in the last year added a new guide on food and recipes to its 2011 Stylebook, and quizzed media executives on some of the year’s style changes.

Every hand in the room went up to identify the correct style on “email.” The editor of the AP Stylebook, David Minthorn, said it was the best-known style change of the year.

“It was the dropped hyphen heard by copy editors around the world,” he said.

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I continue to receive complaints from readers about problems that they discover after closing their home purchase. Most complain about sellers who fail to disclose defects or home inspectors who fail to find them. The system is far from perfect. However, there are steps that buyers can take before and during a home inspection to protect their interests.

Check all electrical outlets to make sure that they work.

Open windows, even in the winter, to make sure they are not stuck or painted shut.

Look under any area rug or bed and behind any picture to check for cracked tiles, stained carpets or walls. Lift anything on the kitchen counters to look for defects.

Do any of the appliances show any rust? How old are they? If they are discontinued models, you will likely have to replace them if they break down because of the difficulty of finding replacement parts.

Start the dishwasher at the beginning of any home inspection. By the end, it should have gone through its entire cycle, without leaking.

Put a thermometer inside the oven and turn it on to 350 degrees. After 10 minutes, check the temperature. Test stove burners.

Put a cup of water in the microwave for 45 seconds. Does it heat up?

Flush every toilet and see whether it stops running after it is filled.

Check sinks, tubs and showers in the house. Is there proper water flow from each faucet and does everything drain properly?

You may want to consider turning all the faucets on at the same time and then flushing a toilet upstairs to see whether the water pressure slows or stops in any sink. This could indicate a problem with the system.

In older homes, consider a separate sewage inspection. Stan Collini, the President of Roto-Rooter Plumbing and Drain Service in the GTA, tells me that for $295, you can do a video camera of a property’s sewer system to see if there are any problems that would not be visible on a typical home inspection.

Check under the water heater for leaks or stains on the floor.

Ask how old the air conditioning unit is and when was it last serviced Is there sufficient hot or cold air reaching all of the rooms in the house?

Does the owner have a plan with their gas company to inspect the furnace once a year? When was the last inspection conducted?

If the house has an addition, ask whether any upgrade was done to the heating or cooling systems to account for the additional living area.

Look for water stains in the ceiling which could indicate leaking from the roof or other problems with the plumbing system.

When your inspector is on the roof, ask them to check for broken or cracked shingles. If it is a flat roof, look for the low spots where water can collect for any evidence of a problem. Check the eaves to see if there is any rot or decay. If any concerns are noted, consider bringing in a roofing contractor for an additional opinion, especially if the home is 15-20 years old and it is still the original roof.

You may also want to consider a separate inspection for mould or termites, as these may not be visible on a home inspection but can result in significant costs to repair later. Check if this is a known problem in the area.

Always ask the seller and the seller’s agent if they know about any hidden defects that are not visible. They must answer truthfully if you ask them.

Consider looking into after-sale warranty protection. Many of these products on the market will generally cover problems with a home electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling system, as well as the major appliances. But like any warranty, ask about deductibles and what is excluded from coverage.

By being properly prepared and asking the right questions both before and during any home inspection, you will be better protected against costly surprises after closing.

Also read:

Which GTA homes Chinese investors are buying

17 things to know about closing your house deal

Mark Weisleder is a lawyer, author and speaker to the real estate industry. Email mark at mark@markweisleder.com

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U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories fell 21 in August to $649 million, according to market researcher NPD Group, partly because the popular “Madden NFL 12″ released later in the month than usual.

In its monthly report, the NPD Group said Thursday that video game software sales _ which refers to sales of the games themselves _ sank 34 percent in August to $265 million, compared with nearly $404 million in August 2010.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier said much of this drop stemmed from video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.’s decision to release its latest “Madden” football game, “Madden NFL 12,” at the end of August, which is later than it usually rolls out a new version of the game. She added that the next several months includes a “strong release schedule” and that full-year game sales may end up flat or up slightly compared with 2010.

The research firm does not include game downloads and online games in its monthly retail sales data, so the numbers can sometimes show a decline even if more people are playing games on Facebook, their mobile phones and elsewhere payday loan.

Sales of video game hardware, which includes hand-held game systems and gaming consoles such as Nintendo Co.’s Wii and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360, dropped 12 percent to $249 million from $283 million a year earlier. Sales of video game accessories inched down 1 percent to $135 million.

Adding in sales of PC games, overall U.S. sales dropped 23 percent overall to $670 million.

The top-selling games during the month included “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” from Square Enix Inc., “NCAA Football 12″ from Electronic Arts Inc. and “Call of Duty: Black Ops” from Activision Blizzard Inc.

For the current month, Frasier expects “Madden NFL 12″ to take the top spot.

Source

OTTAWA