Web Development Live

Jaduka has expanded its enterprise, voice and transaction services team with the appointment of telecommunications and Internet industry veteran Patrick Murphy as Vice President of Business Development.

Mr. Murphy has eighteen years of business development, sales, and management experience in the telecommunications and Internet industries. In 2007, he co-founded and served as chief operating officer at The Thomas Howe Company, the industry’s first voice mash-up consultancy. At Thomas Howe, Murphy advised clients on the integration of real-time communications technologies into business processes. During his tenure, Thomas Howe was recognized as one of the most influential voices in the VoIP industry.

Jaduka President Jack Rynes said, “Jaduka technology innovation, network reliability and telecom experience are driving rapid adoption of our voice and transaction services. Patrick Murphy brings those same qualities innovation, reliability and experience to our business development team. We’re delighted to welcome him to Jaduka.”

Jaduka Vice President of Business Development Patrick Murphy added, “I’m delighted to be working at Jaduka. Their APIs and carrier-grade telco infrastructure, in my view, represent the defacto standard for integrating voice mash-ups and communications enabled business processes (CEBP) into enterprise applications.”

Mr. Murphy shares his expertise through blogs and speaks at industry events on topics including voice mash-ups, CEBP, and enterprise 2.0. He also serves on the Boards of several companies.

Developers eyeing construction projects in the 2nd Ward will now contend with a new group connected to the Web Development alderman that will consider and critique projects before they are submitted to the broader community.

The Citizen Advisory Committee was formed by the office of 2nd Ward Alderman Robert Fioretti to vet development proposals, said Hannah Jubeh, Fioretti’s campaign manager during his election.

“They basically review the project, they make recommendations, they say their kind of notes or feedback to the alderman, what they think works, what doesn’t work, what might work better,” Jubeh said of the Web Development committee. “The alderman will take those suggestions and make changes accordingly as part of the overall plan.”

Development was a major issue during last year’s aldermanic primary and runoff election, with former 2nd Ward alderman Madeline Haithcock perceived by some residents as nonresponsive to concerns about the impact of seemingly constant new building projects. Jubeh said under the “previous administration, there was no process at all.”

“These developers are not used to how the process works now, based on what they were used to it in the past. I heard that a lot-how does the process work?” Jubeh said. “We have to bring them in and reeducate them on how the process is going to work.”

The Citizen Advisory Committee has been up and running for a couple of months, Jubeh said. It has 18 members, from four different sub-areas in the ward: the south end, the west end, the Web Development central business district and the Taylor Street/medical district area.

The alderman’s office created the committee by emailing their 4,000-address email database, asking for participation. Forty people responded. Staff divided those 40 into geographic areas and held a lottery to determine who would join the committee. The committee meets as a whole and also can address specific projects in its sub-area.

The email list included Fioretti campaign contributors, people who signed up for information about the campaign through its Web site and Web Development people who have given their email address to the alderman at one of his community meetings, Jubeh said.

Jubeh, who now works as director of political affairs for the Chicago Federation of Labor, spent nine years advising 10th Ward Alderman John Pope on economic development. She said she continues to work with Alderman Fioretti as an unpaid volunteer.

New development projects do not go directly to the CAC. Jubeh and Alderman Fioretti first look at them before sending them to the group. Established community organizations also can weigh in on the Web Development proposal before the CAC contributes. A developer must also complete a development application before meeting with the alderman. But Jubeh said the group will play a key component in “smart planning” for the ward.

“If you go to a community meeting and you haven’t vetted the project per se with residents who live in that specific area, your process is going to be lengthier, and where do you go from there?” she said.

One longtime South Loop resident and development observer said he had not heard the CAC was staffed.

Dennis McClendon said he didn’t think many people know how the CAC was working. He also said Fioretti needs to better inform the Web Development community about projects.

“A bunch of projects have gotten pulled from agendas at the last minute, things like Congress Hotel and the Avalon Bay project,” McClendon said. “It’s not really clear what the process is for showing those to the community. Occasionally, we have these meetings but they’re convened at the last minute. Avalon Bay was done that way.”

Still, McClendon said Fioretti is making development decisions based on “more rational bases and much more understanding of the subject.”

McClendon said the committee is a good idea in the abstract but it must avoid being dominated by any one personality or view.

“I don’t think the alderman should consider himself bound by its recommendations because often what the good of the city may not be may not immediately please residents around the site,” McClendon said.

The CAC is exploring setting monthly meetings and using the Web Development alderman’s Web site to communicate about upcoming projects.

The results of Gov. Sarah Palin’s prenatal testing were in, and the doctor’s tone was ominous: “You need to come to the office so we can talk about it.”

Palin, known for a resolve that quickly launched her from suburban hockey mom to a player on the national political stage, said, “No, go ahead and tell me over the phone.”

The physician replied, “Down syndrome,” stunning the Republican governor, who had just completed what many political analysts called a startling first year in office.

She had arrived at the Capitol on an ethics reform platform after defeating the incumbent Republican in the primary and a former two-term Democratic governor in the general election. Her growing reputation as a maverick for bucking her party’s establishment and Alaska’s powerful oil industry quickly gained her a national reputation.

Now she is trying to balance caring for her special-needs child and running a state.

The doctor’s announcement in December, when Palin was four months pregnant, presented her with a possible life- and career-changing development.

“I’ve never had problems with my other pregnancies, so I was shocked,” said Palin, a mother of four other children.

“It took a while to open up the book that the doctor gave me about children with Down syndrome, and a while to log on to the Web site and start reading facts about the situation.”

The 44-year-old governor waited a few days before telling her husband, Todd, who was out of town, so she could understand what was ahead for them.

Once her husband got the news, he told her: “We shouldn’t be asking, ‘Why us?’ We should be saying, ‘Well, why not us?’”

There was never any doubt the Palins would have the child, and on April 18 she gave birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin.

“We’ve both been very vocal about being pro-life,” Palin said. “We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential.”

Down syndrome is caused by the presence of an extra chromosome in the fetus’ cells. It’s a genetic abnormality that impedes physical, intellectual and language development.

The mother’s age is a large factor in the chances of having a Down child. Once a woman turns 40, the chances of having a Down child is 1 out of 100, according to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

During her first year in office, Palin distanced herself from the old guard, powerful Republicans in the state GOP, even calling on tight-lipped veteran U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens to explain to Alaskans why federal authorities were investigating him.

She asked Alaska’s congressional delegation to be more selective in seeking earmarks after what came to be known as the “Bridge to Nowhere” turned into a national symbol of piggish pork-barrel spending.

She stood up to the powerful oil industry, and with bipartisan support in the statehouse she won a tax increase on oil companies’ profits.

She also found time to pose for the fashion magazine Vogue while she was pregnant, and she has been mentioned as a potential running mate for presidential candidate John McCain.

Three days after giving birth, Palin returned to work in her Anchorage office, accompanied by Trig and her husband.

This was not a mother’s typical visit to the office to show off the new baby; instead, she was serving notice that a child of special needs would not hinder her professional commitments.

“It’s a sign of the times to be able to do this,” she said. “I can think of so many male candidates who watched families grow while they were in office.

“There is no reason to believe a woman can’t do it with a growing family. My baby will not be at all or in any sense neglected.”

Neither, Palin said, will the state, as she prepares to lead deliberations for a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline. She calls it the economic future of the state, a means of getting North Slope natural gas to consumers throughout North America.

“I will not shirk my duties,” she said.

Other politicians have pressed forward with their careers despite jarring personal news.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards continued with his campaign despite the return of his wife Elizabeth’s breast cancer, though he eventually dropped out.

Another elected official who has a child with Down syndrome said that Palin will probably have detractors, but that it shouldn’t change ambitions for the mother or child.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington state Republican, has just celebrated the first birthday of her son Cole, her first child, who was born with Down syndrome. She is busy campaigning for a third term, and Cole often travels with her between Washington, D.C., and the Pacific Northwest.

“Cole opened my eyes to the pain and trouble a lot of families endure,” Rodgers said. “He’s allowed me to see people and circumstance more deeply, and the generosity of people.

“It’s in human nature to focus on the negative, on what the person can’t do. In our mind, we are focused on what he can do, what he will be able to do and do very well.”

PUBLIC radio is drawing its largest audience ever, some 28 million listeners nationwide each week. But if it’s a golden era, you wouldn’t know it from the frenetic activity to remake the genre.

In WNYC’s antiquated downtown Manhattan studios, the veteran National Public Radio and NBC journalist John Hockenberry and his co-host, Adaora Udoji, formerly of CNN, are rehearsing to find a comfortable rapport for their new live morning news program, which begins Monday. Flush from a $2 million Knight Foundation grant, this program, “The Takeaway” is designed with it partner, Public Radio International, and collaborators including The New York Times, the BBC World Service and the Boston public station WGBH, to be a stark counterpoint to the taped interviews on NPR’s venerable “Morning Edition.”

In the Chicago area, an 11-month-old FM station, :Vocalo, never mentions that it is affiliated with Chicago Public Radio. There’s no “All Things Considered” or “Car Talk”; instead hosts weave together interviews, commentary, reports and music, culled from user submissions to a companion Web site, vocalo.org.

NPR itself started the Web-radio hybrid “Bryant Park Project” last fall, hoping younger listeners would like to hear lively hosts banter about news and culture. And NPR’s year-old midday talk show “Tell Me More,” anchored by the former “Nightline” correspondent Michel Martin, aims at diverse new voices.

The urgency to find new formats is driven by audience research that can be read as glass half-empty or half-full. The 28 million weekly public radio listeners recorded by Arbitron in spring 2007 topped the previous high of 27.5 million in 2004. But the research also showed that the listeners were tuning in for shorter periods.

Public radio “had an enormous surge in listening over about a 10-year period from the mid ’90s up through about 2003, principally driven by a huge response to public radio’s news and information programming,” said Tom Thomas, co-chief executive officer of the Station Resource Group, a public radio consortium. But since 2003 “the audience has essentially been flat,” he said.

To address this, the consortium recently received a Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant to identify ways to get the audience growing again, and “Everything is on the table,” Mr. Thomas said.

Last year some 1,400 people entered the Public Radio Talent Quest, an online search for new hosts run by the Public Radio Exchange, a Web site, prx.org, where independent radio producers market their content. None of the three winners — a science blogger, a slam poet and a nonprofit executive who is a storyteller — reflect that typical public radio sound, said Jake Shapiro, the exchange’s executive director.

Executives stress that the new programming won’t abandon in-depth news, just “get away from a tone that feels too clubby,” said Graham Griffith, executive producer of “The Takeaway.” Nor do they want to tinker with existing programs; they just want more options for more people.

“A lot of the research that guided public radio’s direction in the last 30 years focused on us discovering a niche we could serve and serve well,” of highly educated, news-craving listeners, said Maxie Jackson, WNYC’s senior director for program development. But, he added, that formula “didn’t appeal to people of color.” He called it an issue of tonality.

“The Takeaway,” Mr. Jackson said, could be a model. It will be interactive, he said, and multicultural, with “voices, perspectives, contributors and stories that are relevant to a wide swath of people.” Its tone, he said, “has to be more compelling, with more verve.”

“People want to feel that the hosts are committed to the topic,” he added.

At a recent run-through, an Iowa State University economist discussed global food riots, and an assistant professor at Morehouse College dissected the Atlanta Ballet’s collaboration with the hip-hop star Big Boi. Listeners were encouraged to comment online about how fuel costs would affect vacation plans.

The morning hours where radio thrives have become a battleground, even though NPR’s “Morning Edition,” with 12.9 million listeners a week, is the second-most-listened to national radio program, behind Rush Limbaugh’s.

NPR itself created “Bryant Park Project” because the organization is “mission-driven, and if we can reach more people, great,” said Ellen Weiss, NPR’s vice president for news.

The program had a tough start. One host, Luke Burbank, quit just before the first day, Oct. 1, although he didn’t leave until mid-December. The Remaining host, Alison Stewart, is on maternity leave. Online listening is growing, and with few broadcast stations carrying the program, a plan to go Internet-only has been discussed. Ms. Weiss said that would not happen but declined to discuss coming changes.

Meanwhile in February, with competition looming, NPR cut the fees to carry “Morning Edition” that stations had long complained about by a total of $5 million (to take effect next fiscal year).

Still, stations in Boston, Cape Cod, Baltimore, Miami and across Wisconsin have committed to give “The Takeaway” a try, although “Morning Edition” will still be widely available in those places. On WNYC “Morning Edition” will shrink to five hours between the AM and FM stations, to make way for two hours of “The Takeaway.”

By June 30 the new program will be broadcasting four hours daily, although not all stations will carry the whole thing. Mr. Griffith envisions “The Takeaway” as a “breakfast table,” where a nationwide conversation can take place. Mr. Hockenberry uses a more high-tech metaphor, calling it in an interview “a massive multiplayer game, the rules and title of which are, basically, curiosity.”

Timeshare buyers are cautioned about labeling their weeks as “investments.” Think of it as prepaid vacations, timeshare developers famously say.

While an investment, especially in real estate, often stands an excellent chance of making money, the usual return on a timeshare typically centers on enjoyment rather than cash.

Timeshares continue to be big business — more than $8 billion a year — despite the sluggish economy. The American Resort Development Association reports that more than 4.5 million U.S. households own one or more timeshares in 1,604 resorts.

A growing number of entrepreneurs, with an exceptional grasp on how to purchase, close and sell timeshares have begun to acquire inexpensive weeks at upscale resorts via resale channels. They then rent out the properties at a weekly or a per-night rate comparable to what a nice hotel would charge.

“We have people who will go to our Web site and buy 10 weeks at a time,” said John Locher, vice president of sales and marketing for Redweek.com, an online conduit for timeshare buyers, sellers, landlords and renters. “They have studied certain resorts and markets and know what’s possible as far as rental income during a majority of the year.”

Steve Shermoen, a self-described “small-town attorney” from International Falls, Minn., said he now controls about 100 timeshare weeks and plans to spend most of his retirement years rotating through some of them in different parts of the world. Is he concerned about owning so many pieces of the only real estate asset class that always loses money when resold?

“You cannot make the rental concept work if you buy directly from the developer,” Shermoen said. “You have to be sure of what you are buying and purchase only on the resale market. The cost from the developer simply is too high for it to become a rental that will pencil out.”

Shermoen and others like him typically stick to Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and other upper level properties that they can pick up at a fraction of the original purchase price. They often seek sellers who are extremely eager, often desperate, to dump a timeshare contract because of unexpected circumstances including loss of job, divorce or death. Many timeshare bargains can be found online right after the annual fees are announced for the coming year. As an attorney, Shermoen also offers to close the transaction at a discounted fee.

“Many people are grateful that there is a buyer who is willing to take the week off their hands,” Shermoen said. “They simply are tired of paying the annual fee and can’t wait to get out from under it.”

I was one of them, yet I didn’t even consider renting it out. Nearly 20 years ago, I spent hundreds of dollars marketing the timeshare and considered myself extremely fortunate to get back most of my investment. While some people swear it’s the only way to travel with a family and that the international “bank” of resorts not only offers flexibility but also destinations they normally would not consider, it didn’t happen for us. Basketball tournaments, family reunions, budget restraints and four different school schedules, coupled with the fact that we are very picky about accommodations, led to a three-year timeshare shutout. We owned the “points” for three years and never spent one night in a timeshare resort.

Timeshares come in a variety of packages, including a points program where owners exchange a specific number of accumulated points for a week, weekend or individual nights at resorts that participate in the points arrangement. Some of the larger timeshare companies now offer a point system, permitting owners to split the traditional week into smaller segments. The concept has worked very well for out-of-town family reunions, weddings or simply a needed weekend getaway.

The idea of breaking up the timeshare week into a few one-or-two night stays can also make sense for vacationers traveling a country by car. The average worker typically receives two or three vacation weeks each year and often prefers not to spend a large percentage of that time in one location.

The value of the points can vary greatly. For example, weekend nights will require more points than weeknight stays, and popular resorts will demand more points than a run-of-the-mill getaway. In addition, the future value of points also can be a consideration — not unlike trying to predict the future value of money.

Similar to dollars, timeshare points can be worth a lot more today than they will be down the road. If a resort continues to increase the number of points necessary to rent the unit you covet, the value of your allotted points will decrease. You will need more annual points than the number you are receiving now to reserve the same unit. Seniors and other consumers on fixed incomes may not be getting the perpetual week they initially purchased, which could seriously curtail their dream vacations down the road.

Properly applying points and a resort’s bonus time are just two pieces to successfully renting timeshares. There’s also a huge caveat when shopping.

“Some people try to sell you weeks they don’t really own,” Shermoen said. “It’s another one of the pitfalls to consider when buying and selling. Acquiring and renting out timeshares is complicated and not for the unwary. If you are going to jump in, you have to do your homework.”

Activists trying to save a corner of historic Tiger Stadium are down to their final at-bats. So they’re opening a last-minute, Internet-based fund-raising effort in a bid to pull off a miracle win.

The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy is working against a June 1 deadline to come up with $369,000 in cash and proof it can raise $15 million to pay for its preservation project.

The nonprofit conservancy would like to save a dugout-to-dugout corner of the ballpark, about 25% of the stadium structure, and convert it to use as a community center and museum.

But June 1 is only five weeks away, which is the bottom of the ninth in any fund-raising effort. The conservancy has one employee, virtually no money in the bank, and its Web site, www.savetigerstadium.org, won’t be up for another week or so.

Despite the long odds, Gary Gillette, one of about a dozen board members of the conservancy, said recent presidential campaigns have proven the power of the Internet to raise cash in a hurry.

“No one thought five years ago that you could raise enough money to finance a presidential campaign by small donors on the Web,” Gillette said. “Of course, we’re not Barack Obama, but I think there’ll be a similar dynamic. People will say it’s easy to push that PayPal button and just donate $20 or $30 … . There are millions of Tigers fans everywhere.”

If the conservancy doesn’t raise the $369,000 in time and show proof of its ability to raise the $15 million long-term, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the city’s development arm, said it will proceed to tear down the entire structure, including the corner the conservancy wishes to save.

Skeptics of the conservancy’s efforts include George Jackson, president of the DEGC, who said Friday he thinks that the conservancy, if well-meaning, has no chance to succeed.

“We don’t need any more pie-in-the-sky financing schemes,” Jackson said. “Every time we come up with a deadline, they come up with a new financial fantasy, and that’s what this is.”

EPAM Systems, a software outsourcing services company, has announced the acquisition of B2BITS, a provider of solutions and consulting services to Capital Markets organizations within the financial services sector. According to the company, with this acquisition, EPAM now covers the entire value chain from domain knowledge and process consulting through customized high-performance architecture as well as development, testing and 24/7 support. Mark Bisker, CEO of B2BITS and industry veteran with over 25 years experience of leading technology development organizations at such companies as Schwab Capital Markets and Lava Trading heads EPAM’s new Competency Center.Competency Center consultants will be located in all major financial centers across the US and Europe, while production and support teams will be tightly linked into EPAM’s distributed development organization in Eastern Europe to combine cost efficiency with domain knowledge and strict SLAs.B2BITS has been delivering pre-built solutions, customizable frameworks, specialized testing tools as well as process consulting for Client Connectivity, FIX, FX, Options, Fixed Income, market data feeds, exchange gateways and electronic payment services since 2000.

Yahoo India has recently appointed Ram Narayanan as VP, Product Management, Marketing Products Division (MPD). With Yahoo India, he would be responsible globally for building platforms and products aimed at enabling advertisers to have different customized advertising options.Working closely with Shouvick Mukherjee, a Yahoo veteran, who has recently been given the responsibility of VP, Engineering for the MPD, Ram will be based out of Bangalore and report locally to Sharad Sharma, CEO, Yahoo India Research %26 Development, and functionally to Mark Morrissey, SVP, Product Management, MPD, Yahoo. Prior to joining Yahoo, Ram worked with Microsoft in India as well as Redmond, WA from 2000.

He was the Business Manager and Technical advisor to Chairman, Microsoft India and the founder of the High Performance Computing Group. From 1992 to 2000, Ram was responsible for founding two companies called Innosol Inc. and Engineering Dynamics Inc. in Michigan delivering engineering software and services to the automotive industry.These appointments are in line with the new initiative at Yahoo India to create a CoE (Centre of Excellence) for Mass Market Advertisement (MMA) in Bangalore. Yahoo said that, both Ram and Shouvick will drive the creation of the next generation of Mass Market Advertiser products for Yahoo and create value for the MMA CoE. The MMA CoE will help drive self-serve solutions for advertisers and agencies and the main focus of the team will be to provide small advertisers with a simple advertising platform that drive greater value to their businesses, further added the company.

WASHINGTON It’s a Herculean task: revamping a financial regulatory system dating back to the Civil War to deal with 21st century crises imperiling the country.Under an ambitious Bush administration plan, the Federal Reserve would take on the unwieldy role of uber cop in charge of financial market stability. Other regulatory agencies could see their influence diminished.The proposal won’t fix the host of economic and financial problems that threatens to plunge the United States into a deep recession, but it might help guard against future troubles. It would take years and a lot of political wrangling - in Congress, on Wall Street, in statehouses and elsewhere - to implement all the changes envisioned.Yet, the initiative, formally announced Monday, casts a fresh spotlight on the best way to protect the country from financial catastrophes in an intricate web of complex, often-changing financial products and the wide array of financial players using them in the United States and beyond. That debate probably will take center stage in the next president’s administration.—Stocks gain on last day of quarterNEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street managed a moderate gain in the final session of a dismal first quarter Monday, but stock prices and the major indexes still ended the first three months of 2007 with massive losses, the casualties of the still continuing credit crisis. The Standard %26 Poor’s 500 index, the benchmark for many widely held investments such as mutual funds, suffered a loss for the quarter of nearly 10 percent.The blip upward came from a better than expected reading in the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index, which is considered a precursor to the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing survey on Tuesday. The index rose to 48.2 in March from 44.5 a month earlier; economists had been expecting a reading of 47.3, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Though the number topped forecasts, a figure below 50 nonetheless indicates a contraction in manufacturing activity.The market’s reaction, however, was likely not as enthusiastic as it might seem from Monday’s gains by the major indexes. Price movements tend to be skewed when volume is as light as it was Monday.It was a difficult quarter on Wall Street, with financial companies’ ongoing credit market losses and the flagging economy wiping out many investors’ appetite for stocks. While the market saw a number of up days during the quarter, the overall trend was sharply lower, with reports of asset write-downs and shaky financial companies pummeling the market - in particular, the near-collapse of Bear Stearns %26 Cos. in mid-March.—Pernod Ricard buys maker of AbsolutSTOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Spirits group Pernod Ricard SA is adding Swedish flavor to a liquor cabinet stacked with Scotch whisky, French champagne and Cuban rum with its $8.34 billion purchase of the state-owned maker of Absolut vodka.The company said Monday it was delighted to add the premium vodka brand to its assortment of drinks, after the Swedish government accepted its bid for Absolut’s parent company, Vin %26 Sprit.The Swedish government celebrated the higher-than-expected price tag for Vin %26 Sprit, but investors were less exuberant, sending shares in France-based Pernod Ricard down 4.3 percent to $103.03 in Paris.Sweden said it selected the Pernod Ricard bid on Sunday over three other offers, by U.S.-based Fortune Brands Inc., Bermuda-based Bacardi Ltd. and an investment group controlled by Sweden’s Wallenberg family.—Less corn could mean higher food pricesWASHINGTON (AP) - From chicken nuggets to corn flakes, food prices at grocery stores and dinner tables could be headed even higher as farmers cut back on the land they’re planting in corn this spring.Corn prices already are high, and a drop in supply should keep them rising. Combine that with the huge demand for corn-based ethanol fuel - and higher energy costs for transporting food - and consumers are likely to see their food bills going up and up.Farmers are now expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the Department of Agriculture predicted Monday, down 8 percent from last year, which was the highest since World War II.Corn is almost everywhere you look in the U.S. food supply. Poultry, beef and pork companies use it to feed their animals. High fructose corn syrup is used in soft drinks and many other foods, including lunch meats and salad dressings. Corn is often an ingredient in breads, peanut butter, oatmeal and potato chips.—Merck, Schering-Plough sink on VytorinNEW YORK (AP) - Shares of Merck %26 Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. fell to record lows Monday, as analysts warned new clinical data would cause sales of their blockbuster cholesterol drug Vytorin to fall further.The companies market Vytorin through a joint venture, but earlier this year, partial results from a clinical study showed that it was no more effective at limiting plaque buildup than Merck’s Zocor, a drug that is already available in generic form. Full results of that study were released Sunday.Vytorin is a combination of Zocor and Schering-Plough’s drug Zetia.Schering-Plough shares plunged as low as $14, touching their lowest levels since August 1996. Merck shares fell as low as $36.82, their lowest since June 2006.Leading physicians are now recommending the use of older drugs called statins before putting patients on Vytorin. Many physicians had prescribed Vytorin in lieu of higher doses of statins because of what some said was an undue fear of side effects.— HUD chief resigns amid criminal probeWASHINGTON (AP) - HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, his tenure tarnished by allegations of political favoritism and a criminal investigation, announced his resignation Monday amid the wreckage of the national housing crisis.He leaves behind a trail of unanswered questions about whether he tilted the Department of Housing and Urban Development toward Republican contractors and cronies.The move comes at a shaky time for the economy when soaring mortgage foreclosures imperil the nation’s credit markets.Some Congressional Democrats had pushed for Jackson to leave.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said HUD will be called on to work with Congress on assisting refinancing for borrowers faced with imminent foreclosure.—Oil prices slide, retail gas hits recordNEW YORK (AP) - Prices surged at the gas pump, hitting a new record Monday even as crude oil accelerated its slide amid a broad-based commodities sell-off.The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded rose to $3.287, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices were highest in Hawaii and California, where the average price topped $3.60 a gallon.Gasoline prices are expected to keep rising as the summer driving season brings with it greater demand for the fuel. Last year, prices peaked in May before backtracking; with gasoline already at a record it will like only continue its advance.If crude oil prices, which set records of their own during March continue their advance, that will also add to the cost of gasoline at the pump.On Monday, however, light, sweet crude for May delivery dropped $4.04 to settle at $101.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, adding to a decline of nearly $2 a barrel on Friday. Even so, prices finished the first three months of the year 5.8 percent higher than where they started; crude set a record of $111.80 in March before giving up ground.—Citi splits consumer banking, card unitsNEW YORK (AP) - Citigroup named a veteran retail banker Monday to head its North American consumer banking unit, splitting it off from its credit-card business as Citi struggles to become profitable again after suffering its biggest quarterly loss in its 196-year history.The latest move is the biggest sign yet that CEO Vikram Pandit, appointed in December, wants to fix Citi’s major parts rather than sell them off to raise cash - at least for now.It also shows what steps Pandit would take to attract more consumers to Citi’s retail banking unit.Citi’s worst problems are in its investment banking segment, which made huge losing bets on the mortgage industry. But its bread-and-butter business of lending to and collecting deposits from average people has also been underwhelming shareholders.Citi is ubiquitous throughout the United States, but in recent years has lost customers to rival banks such as JPMorgan Chase %26 Co. and Wachovia Corp.—Major indexes rise, commodities slip as quarter endsOn the last day of the quarter, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 46.49, or 0.38 percent, to 12,262.89.Broader stock indicators also rose. The S%26P 500 index advanced 7.48, or 0.57 percent, to 1,322.70, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 17.92, or 0.79 percent, to 2,279.10.Light, sweet crude for May delivery dropped $4.04 to settle at $101.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, adding to a decline of nearly $2 a barrel on Friday. Even so, prices finished the first three months of the year 5.8 percent higher than where they started; crude set a record of $111.80 in March before giving up ground.In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 5.58 cents to settle at $3.0492 a gallon, while gasoline futures sank 10.07 cents to settle at $2.6163 a gallon. Brent crude futures fell $3.47 to settle at $100.30 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

WASHINGTON It’s a Herculean task: revamping a financial regulatory system dating back to the Civil War to deal with 21st century crises imperiling the country.Under an ambitious Bush administration plan, the Federal Reserve would take on the unwieldy role of uber cop in charge of financial market stability. Other regulatory agencies could see their influence diminished.The proposal won’t fix the host of economic and financial problems that threatens to plunge the United States into a deep recession, but it might help guard against future troubles. It would take years and a lot of political wrangling - in Congress, on Wall Street, in statehouses and elsewhere - to implement all the changes envisioned.Yet, the initiative, formally announced Monday, casts a fresh spotlight on the best way to protect the country from financial catastrophes in an intricate web of complex, often-changing financial products and the wide array of financial players using them in the United States and beyond. That debate probably will take center stage in the next president’s administration.—Stocks gain on last day of quarterNEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street managed a moderate gain in the final session of a dismal first quarter Monday, but stock prices and the major indexes still ended the first three months of 2007 with massive losses, the casualties of the still continuing credit crisis. The Standard %26 Poor’s 500 index, the benchmark for many widely held investments such as mutual funds, suffered a loss for the quarter of nearly 10 percent.The blip upward came from a better than expected reading in the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index, which is considered a precursor to the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing survey on Tuesday. The index rose to 48.2 in March from 44.5 a month earlier; economists had been expecting a reading of 47.3, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Though the number topped forecasts, a figure below 50 nonetheless indicates a contraction in manufacturing activity.The market’s reaction, however, was likely not as enthusiastic as it might seem from Monday’s gains by the major indexes. Price movements tend to be skewed when volume is as light as it was Monday.It was a difficult quarter on Wall Street, with financial companies’ ongoing credit market losses and the flagging economy wiping out many investors’ appetite for stocks. While the market saw a number of up days during the quarter, the overall trend was sharply lower, with reports of asset write-downs and shaky financial companies pummeling the market - in particular, the near-collapse of Bear Stearns %26 Cos. in mid-March.—Pernod Ricard buys maker of AbsolutSTOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Spirits group Pernod Ricard SA is adding Swedish flavor to a liquor cabinet stacked with Scotch whisky, French champagne and Cuban rum with its $8.34 billion purchase of the state-owned maker of Absolut vodka.The company said Monday it was delighted to add the premium vodka brand to its assortment of drinks, after the Swedish government accepted its bid for Absolut’s parent company, Vin %26 Sprit.The Swedish government celebrated the higher-than-expected price tag for Vin %26 Sprit, but investors were less exuberant, sending shares in France-based Pernod Ricard down 4.3 percent to $103.03 in Paris.Sweden said it selected the Pernod Ricard bid on Sunday over three other offers, by U.S.-based Fortune Brands Inc., Bermuda-based Bacardi Ltd. and an investment group controlled by Sweden’s Wallenberg family.—Less corn could mean higher food pricesWASHINGTON (AP) - From chicken nuggets to corn flakes, food prices at grocery stores and dinner tables could be headed even higher as farmers cut back on the land they’re planting in corn this spring.Corn prices already are high, and a drop in supply should keep them rising. Combine that with the huge demand for corn-based ethanol fuel - and higher energy costs for transporting food - and consumers are likely to see their food bills going up and up.Farmers are now expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the Department of Agriculture predicted Monday, down 8 percent from last year, which was the highest since World War II.Corn is almost everywhere you look in the U.S. food supply. Poultry, beef and pork companies use it to feed their animals. High fructose corn syrup is used in soft drinks and many other foods, including lunch meats and salad dressings. Corn is often an ingredient in breads, peanut butter, oatmeal and potato chips.—Merck, Schering-Plough sink on VytorinNEW YORK (AP) - Shares of Merck %26 Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. fell to record lows Monday, as analysts warned new clinical data would cause sales of their blockbuster cholesterol drug Vytorin to fall further.The companies market Vytorin through a joint venture, but earlier this year, partial results from a clinical study showed that it was no more effective at limiting plaque buildup than Merck’s Zocor, a drug that is already available in generic form. Full results of that study were released Sunday.Vytorin is a combination of Zocor and Schering-Plough’s drug Zetia.Schering-Plough shares plunged as low as $14, touching their lowest levels since August 1996. Merck shares fell as low as $36.82, their lowest since June 2006.Leading physicians are now recommending the use of older drugs called statins before putting patients on Vytorin. Many physicians had prescribed Vytorin in lieu of higher doses of statins because of what some said was an undue fear of side effects.— HUD chief resigns amid criminal probeWASHINGTON (AP) - HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, his tenure tarnished by allegations of political favoritism and a criminal investigation, announced his resignation Monday amid the wreckage of the national housing crisis.He leaves behind a trail of unanswered questions about whether he tilted the Department of Housing and Urban Development toward Republican contractors and cronies.The move comes at a shaky time for the economy when soaring mortgage foreclosures imperil the nation’s credit markets.Some Congressional Democrats had pushed for Jackson to leave.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said HUD will be called on to work with Congress on assisting refinancing for borrowers faced with imminent foreclosure.—Oil prices slide, retail gas hits recordNEW YORK (AP) - Prices surged at the gas pump, hitting a new record Monday even as crude oil accelerated its slide amid a broad-based commodities sell-off.The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded rose to $3.287, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices were highest in Hawaii and California, where the average price topped $3.60 a gallon.Gasoline prices are expected to keep rising as the summer driving season brings with it greater demand for the fuel. Last year, prices peaked in May before backtracking; with gasoline already at a record it will like only continue its advance.If crude oil prices, which set records of their own during March continue their advance, that will also add to the cost of gasoline at the pump.On Monday, however, light, sweet crude for May delivery dropped $4.04 to settle at $101.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, adding to a decline of nearly $2 a barrel on Friday. Even so, prices finished the first three months of the year 5.8 percent higher than where they started; crude set a record of $111.80 in March before giving up ground.—Citi splits consumer banking, card unitsNEW YORK (AP) - Citigroup named a veteran retail banker Monday to head its North American consumer banking unit, splitting it off from its credit-card business as Citi struggles to become profitable again after suffering its biggest quarterly loss in its 196-year history.The latest move is the biggest sign yet that CEO Vikram Pandit, appointed in December, wants to fix Citi’s major parts rather than sell them off to raise cash - at least for now.It also shows what steps Pandit would take to attract more consumers to Citi’s retail banking unit.Citi’s worst problems are in its investment banking segment, which made huge losing bets on the mortgage industry. But its bread-and-butter business of lending to and collecting deposits from average people has also been underwhelming shareholders.Citi is ubiquitous throughout the United States, but in recent years has lost customers to rival banks such as JPMorgan Chase %26 Co. and Wachovia Corp.—Major indexes rise, commodities slip as quarter endsOn the last day of the quarter, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 46.49, or 0.38 percent, to 12,262.89.Broader stock indicators also rose. The S%26P 500 index advanced 7.48, or 0.57 percent, to 1,322.70, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 17.92, or 0.79 percent, to 2,279.10.Light, sweet crude for May delivery dropped $4.04 to settle at $101.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, adding to a decline of nearly $2 a barrel on Friday. Even so, prices finished the first three months of the year 5.8 percent higher than where they started; crude set a record of $111.80 in March before giving up ground.In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 5.58 cents to settle at $3.0492 a gallon, while gasoline futures sank 10.07 cents to settle at $2.6163 a gallon. Brent crude futures fell $3.47 to settle at $100.30 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.