Jenice notes

Scotty McCreery in best "Idol" album debut in 8 years

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:52:11 -0400

McCreery took the “American Idol” crown in an all-country music finale of the TV singing contest in May. “Clear As Day” , released on a Universal Music Group label, sold 197,000 copies in the first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures.”My hopes were just to go out there and have fun…Everybody hopes for the number one, but you never really expect it. To see it up there is pretty incredible,” the poised teen with the distinctive deep voice said in a statement.McCreery, a former grocery clerk from North Carolina, was the first “American Idol” winner since soul singer Ruben Studdard in 2003 to start a career at the top of the Billboard 200 chart.”Idol” Runner-up Lauren Alaina, 16, releases her first album next week.McCreery’s “Idol” win followed a judge’s revamp and efforts to attract younger contestants that helped the May final on Fox television see a 21 percent increase in viewers.He was the first country musician to win the “Idol” title since Carrie Underwood in 2005, who went on to become one of the talent contest’s biggest stars.Commercial success has not been as easy for other recent “Idol” champions. 2010 winner Lee DeWyze was dropped by his record label last week after poor sales and 2009 winner Kris Allen has largely failed to translate his victory into a mainstream music career.

WRAPUP 1-UK energy bills face overhaul in 1st wave of reform

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:02:13 -0400

* Ofgem says profit per customer has soared in recent months* Energy suppliers dispute Ofgem numbersBy Paul Hoskins and Oleg VukmanovicLONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - British energy companies will have to simplify their billing structures under plans announced by Ofgem, making it easier for consumers to compare prices and overhauling a system the regulator believes is stifling competition.Ofgem, unveiling what it says will be the first of four waves of reform, also released data showing recent price hikes mean the profit electricity and gas suppliers can expect to make from each household had soared in recent months.Publication of the proposed reforms coincided with comments by World Climate Service’s senior meteorologist Richard James who told Reuters Britain was set for a third successive winter of unusually cold and snowy weather.The energy market regulator’s strongly worded statement also chimed with recent speeches by senior members of the government who are under pressure to ease the pain for consumers at a time of high energy costs, spending cuts, rising unemployment and sub-inflation pay rises.Shares in British suppliers Centrica and SSE initially rose as investors focused on near-term prospects of bumper profits in the second half of this year but then dipped into negative territory as analysts flagged the mounting political risk faced by the companies.”We see good upside in SSE but are aware that investors in this company will need to have thick skin as the companies are operating in the political limelight,” analysts at Liberum Capital, who have a ‘buy’ rating on SSE and a 1,500p target on the stock, wrote in a research note.Shares in SSE were down 0.2 percent at 1,341 pence by 1040 GMT while Centrica was 0.1 percent weaker, underperforming a 1 percent rise for London’s FTSE 100 blue-chip index.Liberum said it believed utilities had little room to reduce overall costs while consumer group Which? said consumers should not expect to notice the impact of reforms in the short term.”This will help remove some of the complexity and confusion in the energy market that infuriates consumers,” Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said in a statement. “These important steps will take time to make a difference for hard pressed consumers.”Which? said it had recently asked 36 people, including a solicitor, an engineer and an accountant, to work out their domestic energy bill using nothing but information from the supplier’s website. Only the company director was able to.Ofgem said on Friday it continued to believe radical change was needed to address poor supplier behaviour and a lack of transparency in a system where consumers are currently faced with more than 400 tariffs to choose from.Electricity and gas firms will still be able to offer a mix of products but under the plans Ofgem will set a fixed standing charge on top of which the companies will be able to offer a variable price per unit, making bills clearer and price comparison easier. Extra layers of complexity such as discount structures will also be removed altogether.”So the lower the (unit) price the smaller the bill, with no exceptions,” Ofgem said in a statement.The regulator said the plan was the “first of four waves of reform” which would include plans due in November to help business users and in December decisions on proposals “to break the stranglehold of the Big Six in the wholesale electricity market”.Britain’s energy minister Chris Huhne last month pledged “to get tough with the big six energy companies”.Britain’s six largest utilities are German groups E.ON and RWE , British companies Centrica and Scottish and Southern Energy , French operator EDF and Spanish firm Iberdrola .Ofgem said its latest report on prices showed the average dual fuel bill in Britain now stands at 1,345 pounds ($2,115) a year.It estimates companies are making 125 pounds ($197) per customer in profit, compared with 15 pounds in June. Based on a graph provided by Ofgem that is the highest level since at least 2004 and is only expected to tail off gradually in the coming months.Energy companies disputed Ofgem’s figures though.Centrica’s British Gas arm said the regulator’s report was misleading and its methodology flawed but a figure provided by the company showing that its margin per dual household bill was 24 pounds in the first six months of this year was actually higher than the 15 pound June figure given by Ofgem.SSE said it did not recognise Ofgem’s estimated margin increase to 125 pounds, describing its calculations as entirely theoretical.

UPDATE 1-UK circulation auditor may probe WSJ Europe

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:31:13 -0400

* WSJ Europe parent Dow Jones to meet with ABC (Adds statement from Dow Jones)Oct 13 (Reuters) - Britain’s newspaper circulation auditor said on Thursday it may re-examine a sponsorship deal between the Wall Street Journal Europe and a Dutch consulting firm that raised questions about the Journal’s circulation data.The Audit Bureau of Circulations, which had earlier approved the sponsorship agreement, said it had recently looked at it again “based on some new evidence available.”“There now appears to be additional new information which may give grounds for further investigation,” ABC UK Chief Executive Jerry Wright said in an e-mailed statement.The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday that the WSJ Europe had used the Dutch firm, the Executive Learning Partnership, to secretly buy thousands of copies of its own paper, misleading advertisers about its true circulation.WSJ Europe publisher Andrew Langhoff resigned a day earlier over what the Journal said were ethical issues related to the paper’s relationship with ELP, which was not disclosed in articles that prominently mentioned the firm.The Journal, owned by the Dow Jones unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NWSA.O), said the Guardian article was “replete with untruths and malign interpretations.” [ID:nN1E79B17N]”Andrew Langhoff resigned because of a perceived breach of editorial integrity, not because of circulation programs, whose copies were certified by the ABC UK,” the Journal said on Wednesday.The Guardian said the WSJ Europe had used ELP to take up to 12,000 copies of the paper per day — about 16 percent of total circulation — for which it was paying just 1 cent per copy.As part of the deal, the WSJ Europe promised to write articles that would promote ELP’s activities, the Guardian said.NO PROMISEELP issued a statement denying that it had been involved in any scheme to artificially boost the Journal’s circulation, or that it had been promised any editorial coverage.”ELP is not pleased that our name appears in this context, which seems to be driven by internal dynamics in WSJE and the current investigative climate around News Corp organizations,” the company said.A Dow Jones spokesman said the company has been in contact with ABC UK since July and reached out again on Thursday.”We have always been transparent with the ABC, and they have certified this program over recent reporting periods,” said the spokesperson in an e-mail. “We plan to meet with them soon and review all the details with them again.”Sponsorship deals are controversial, but not unusual in the newspaper industry.ABC UK said it had examined the agreement when it was first set up in 2009 and again when it audited the July-December 2010 circulation figures, and found it to be in order.It said investigations were confidential until complete, and results were published only in cases where complaints are upheld.The Guardian has led an investigative campaign into phone-hacking practices at another Murdoch newspaper, Britain’s News of the World, which was shut earlier this year as a result.A spokesman for ABC in the United States said there was no additional audit or investigation planned of the circulation practices of the Journal’s U.S. edition.News Corp acquired the Journal, a trophy purchase for Murdoch, as part of Dow Jones in 2007.Dow Jones competes with Thomson Reuters Corp.

Chocolate lovers have fewer strokes, study finds

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:57:57 -0400

Researchers studying more than 33,000 Swedish women found that the more chocolate women said they ate, the lower their risk of stroke.The results add to a growing body of evidence linking cocoa consumption to heart health, but they aren’t a free pass to gorge on chocolate.”Given the observational design of the study, findings from this study cannot prove that it’s chocolate that lowers the risk of stroke,” Susanna Larsson from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm told Reuters Health in an email.While she believes chocolate has health benefits, she also warned that eating too much of it could be counterproductive.”Chocolate should be consumed in moderation as it is high in calories, fat, and sugar,” she said. “As dark chocolate contains more cocoa and less sugar than milk chocolate, consumption of dark chocolate would be more beneficial.”Larsson and her colleagues, whose findings appear in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, tapped into data from a mammography study that included self-reports of how much chocolate women ate in 1997. The women ranged in age from 49 to 83 years.Over the next decade, there were 1,549 strokes, and the more chocolate women ate, the lower their risk.Among those with the highest weekly chocolate intake — more than 45 grams — there were 2.5 strokes per 1,000 women per year. That figure was 7.8 per 1,000 among women who ate the least (less than 8.9 grams per week).Scientists speculate that substances known as flavonoids, in particular so-called flavanols, may be responsible for chocolate’s apparent effects on health.According to Larsson, flavonoids have been shown to cut high blood pressure, a risk factor for stroke, and improve other blood factors linked to heart health. Whether that theoretical benefit translates into real-life benefits remains to be proven by rigorous studies, however.Nearly 800,000 Americans suffer a stroke every year, with about a sixth of them dying of it and many more left disabled. For those at high risk, doctors recommend blood pressure medicine, quitting smoking, exercising more and eating a healthier diet — but so far chocolate isn’t on the list.