Premier League - Liverpool given permission to approach Martinez - Yahoo! Eurosport

 

The Carling Cup winners fired Kenny Dalglish as manager on Wednesday and have moved swiftly in an attempt to replace the Kop legend. Martinez, 38, kept Wigan in the Premier League once again with a game to spare following a 1-0 win at Blackburn which relegated Rovers. The Latics had looked dead and buried as recently as March, and Liverpool's US-based owners Fenway Sports Group feel the Spaniard is the man to take them forward after a disappointing 8th-placed finish, just nine points above Wigan. Wigan chairman Dave Whelan was believed to have advised Martinez, an early favourite to succeed Dalglish, to avoid taking the job at Merseyside if it were offered to him. But Whelan admitted to several news sources on Thursday that his team manager will enter negotiations to leave the DW. "It is true," Whelan told The Times. "I don't know the exact timescales of when he is due to meet with the Liverpool owners but I will never stand in Roberto's way." The 75-year-old still hopes Martínez will choose to stay with Wigan, and told Sky Sports: "When Liverpool sacked Kenny I thought that they would be knocking on the door, and sure enough they have. "Unfortunately in this day and age of clubs looking for new managers, they all have a list of three or four that they would like to sign and Roberto appears to be on every one of them, but I would love to keep him

Mary Kennedy: 'Green' designer, wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - CNN.com

 

New York (CNN) -- Mary Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had been in the headlines for her alcohol and drug problems, but is remembered by relatives as a devoted mother and pioneer of "green" architecture. A dark-haired beauty, Mary Richardson met Robert F. Kennedy Jr. through her friendship with his sister Kerry Kennedy, a roommate from school. The couple married in a civil ceremony in 1994 when the designer was six months pregnant, according to the Westchester County Journal News in New York. One month before the wedding, Kennedy divorced his first wife, Emily Black, the mother of his two oldest children, the newspaper said. He and Mary Kennedy were together for 16 years before he filed for divorce two years ago, said her family attorney, Kerry A. Lawrence. The pair, who had four children together, were still married at the time of her death Wednesday at home in Westchester County. The 52-year-old died of asphyxiation due to hanging, said Donna Greene, a spokeswoman for the Westchester County medical examiner. Both sides of the family paid tribute to Mary Kennedy as a devoted mother. "It is with deep sadness that the family of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. mourns the loss of Mary Richardson Kennedy, wife and mother of their four beloved children. Mary inspired our family with her kindness, her love, her gentle soul and generous spirit," a statement by her husband's family said. Outside the home, Mary Kennedy made her mark as an architect who pushed the boundaries of eco-friendly design. She was "a tremendously gifted architect and a pioneer and relentless advocate of green design who enhanced her cutting edge, energy efficient creations with exquisite taste and style," her husband's family said. She also advocated finding a cure for food allergies and asthma and was a co-founder of the Food Allergy Initiative, the world's largest private source of funding for food allergy research, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s family said. Her own family paid tribute to "our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her," including the four children she loved "without reservation." Mary Kennedy's death was the latest for a family that has seen its share of tragedy. "We know from a history of this family, it's very hard being a Kennedy, either being a blood Kennedy or being married to one," Laurence Leamer, a Kennedy biographer, said on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "The overwhelming celebrity, the attention, the obligations, the expectations that you're supposed to do something with your life. It's very, very hard." In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy Sr. was assassinated in California while making a run for the White House. His death came less than five years after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, also died at the hands of an assassin. More than three decades later, in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr.; his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy; and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, died when a plane he was piloting crashed in the waters off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. David Kennedy died of a drug overdose in 1984, and Michael Kennedy was killed in a skiing accident in 1997. Both were sons of Robert F. Kennedy Sr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent environmental lawyer who is a professor at Pace Law School in White Plains, New York, is the third of 11 children born to Ethel and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Details of the couple's private life were exposed after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed for divorce from Mary Kennedy in Westchester County on May 12, 2010. The next evening, according to police records, police in Bedford, New York, responded to a 911 call. When police arrived at the Kennedy residence, they found the couple in an argument over taking their four children to a carnival at St. Patrick's School. According to a "domestic incident" report filed by the officer on the scene, "Mr. Kennedy stated that his wife was intoxicated and was acting irrational so he took the children to the carnival to remove them from the situation." No one was injured, the report said. Two days later, Mary Kennedy was arrested for driving while intoxicated. At the time, Bedford Police Lt. Jeff Dickans told CNN that a Bedford police officer saw Kennedy's 2004 Volvo swerving onto the curb of Greenwich Road in Bedford and asked her to pull over. Kennedy had slurred speech and a blood-alcohol content above 0.08%, the legal limit in New York. She was charged with driving while intoxicated. Lawrence, her family attorney, said the case resulted in a reduction to a violation, the criminal charge was dismissed, and her driver's license was suspended for 90 days. A second arrest occurred in August of the same year in the town of Pleasant Valley, in which she was charged with driving while impaired by prescription drugs, Lawrence said. Those charges were dismissed completely in July 2011 because all the drugs were prescribed and taken as her physician advised, the attorney said. As a designer, Mary Kennedy sought to advance environmental principles and green technologies. In a book titled "Kennedy Green House" that was co-authored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he describes how he and his wife restored their flooded, black-mold-infested home, transforming it into an eco-friendly residence. A website devoted to the project describes how it focused "on maximum energy and water efficiency and improved indoor air quality to benefit the future of our planet and health of our children." In the book, her husband wrote that she had worked for the design firm Parish-Hadley and worked on the renovation of the Naval Observatory in Washington, the official residence of the U.S. vice president. CNN's Nina Ibarra contributed to this report.

 

 

 

Elin Nordegren - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Elin Nordegren From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Elin Nordegren Visiting a U.S. warship in 2003 Born Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren January 1, 1980 (age 32) Stockholm, Sweden Residence Windermere, Florida Occupation Model, au pair, clerk Spouse Tiger Woods (m. 2004–2010) Children Sam Alexis Woods (b. 2007) Charlie Axel Woods (b. 2009) Parents Thomas Nordegren, Barbro Holmberg Relatives Axel Nordegren (brother) Josefin Lonnborg[1] (twin sister) Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈeːlɪn ˈnɔɖəɡreːn]; born January 1, 1980) is a former Swedish model and the ex-wife of professional golfer Tiger Woods.[2] Contents  [hide]  1 Early life 2 Marriage to Tiger Woods 3 Education 4 References 5 External links [edit]Early life Nordegren was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Her mother, Barbro Holmberg, is a politician and the former Swedish migration and asylum policy minister, and the current Governor of Gävleborg County. Her father, Thomas Nordegren, is a radio janitor who served as a bureau chief in Washington, D.C.[2] She has an older brother, Axel, and a twin sister, Josefin.[3] Nordegren and her sister worked odd summer jobs and as cashiers in supermarkets to finance their studies.[4] She started modeling in 2000, and appeared on the cover of Cafe Sport magazine in the summer of 2000. [edit]Marriage to Tiger Woods Nordegren took a job in a Stockholm clothing store called Champagne, where she met Mia Parnevik, wife of Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who hired Nordegren as the nanny to their children, a job that required her to move to the U.S.[5] He introduced her to Woods during the 2001 Open Championship. Parnevik also is being quoted as having said, "I'm kind of filled with sorrow for Elin since me and my wife are at fault for hooking her up with him, and we probably thought he was a better guy than he is." [People Magazine] Previously, Woods had asked for a year to be introduced to Nordegren, who was seeing someone else at the time. "She had no interest in Tiger and he was OK with that," Mia Parnevik said. "There was a big line of single golfers wanting to meet her. They were gaga over her."[6] She had hopes at the time of becoming a child psychiatrist. In November 2003, Woods and Nordegren attended the Presidents Cup tournament in South Africa and became officially engaged when Woods proposed at the luxury Shamwari Game Reserve. They were married in October 2004, by the 19th hole of the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados. The 150 guests included Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. Woods rented the entire complex for a week, including three golf courses and 110 rooms, costing almost $2 million.[7] Shortly after Nordegren's relationship with Woods became public, nude photographs purporting to be of Nordegren began circulating on the Internet, which were established to be fakes.[8][9] Despite the debunking, in 2006, Irish magazine The Dubliner published the nude photographs and stated they were of Nordegren.[10][11] On November 16, 2006, Nordegren filed a libel suit against The Dubliner.[12] Nordegren won the lawsuit, and as part of the settlement accepted by a Dublin court, The Dubliner was required to publish a lengthy apology in a variety of venues. Were the magazine to have failed to meet the conditions, the award would have been increased to $366,500 plus all of Nordegren's legal expenses.[12][13] On June 18, 2007, Woods announced the birth of the couple's daughter, Sam Alexis Woods, a day after finishing second in the U.S. Open.[14] On September 2, 2008, Woods announced they were expecting another child in late winter.[15] Five months later it was announced that Nordegren had given birth to a boy, Charlie Axel, on February 8, 2009.[16] In December 2009, her marriage to Woods was the subject of extensive media coverage after Woods admitted to infidelity, which had been revealed following his single-vehicle accident near the family's Florida home.[17] Woods subsequently announced he would take an "indefinite break" from golf to work on his marriage.[17] These efforts were unsuccessful, however, as Nordegren and Woods finalized their divorce in the Bay County Circuit Court in Panama City, Florida, on August 23, 2010.[18] Nordegren's legal team included her sister, Josefin (who is licensed to practice law in England and Sweden) and several of Josefin's U.S. colleagues at international law firm McGuireWoods.[19] Using the $100 million she received from her divorce with Tiger Woods, she purchased a $12 million mansion in Florida. After contacting an architect about bringing the home, built in the 1920s, up to current hurricane safety codes, it was in his opinion that it would make better sense to start over, so she had the entire structure demolished. Before demolishing the home in December 2011, she allowed Habitat for Humanity to come into the home for four weeks and salvage anything they found of value. During their salvage efforts, workers found extensive termite and insect damage in six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and other areas in the two-story home.[20] Many valuable contents of the estate went on the auction block at a Habitat for Humanity warehouse. Among the items donated to Habitat were a 12-foot fountain with water spouting out of three lion’s mouths, five subzero refrigerators, 14 vanities, temperature-controlled wine coolers, as well as other furniture. [21] [edit]Education Nordegren has been enrolled part-time as a student at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where she is studying psychology

 

 

 

Elin Nordegren is Single Again | The Big Lead

 

Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods’ ex-wife, is single again. Apparently, Elin has been single for months, having broken up with her boyfriend back in January. Nordegren, who lives with her two children in North Palm Beach, Fla., is a part-time college student working on her psychology degree while overseeing construction of a new ocean-front home for her family. You may remember Elin tore down a $12 million home so she could oversee the construction of a new home. She’s doing that with the $100 million she took from Tiger in their divorce. You have to appreciate her going back to school. Any guy in her classes who is not hitting on her like Steve Urkel going after Laura Winslow is doing it wrong. [People]

Analysis: Will mild winter mean summertime blues for retailers? - Yahoo! News

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the meteoric jump in shares of Apple Inc and turmoil in the bank sector garnering the spotlight in recent months, one group managed to fly under the radar despite strong gains - retailers. Since hitting a 13-month low in early October and flirting with bear market territory, the S&P 500 <.SPX> has risen 17.2 percent. During the same time frame the S&P retail index <.RLX> has climbed 22.6 percent. The gains were supported by a confluence of events: improvement in the domestic economy, a mild U.S. winter and a form of economic Darwinism that left stronger retailers intact after the recession. The mild winter may have helped retailers in the first quarter, but may work against them in the second quarter, if consumers who spent more than they anticipated are forced to pull back. Sales at U.S. retailers barely grew in April, indicating consumer spending may be losing steam. Home Depot , the world's biggest home improvement chain, for one, said this week that growth slowed in April after the warm winter boosted spending. "I can't definitively say that I am worried that the weather pulled ahead the spending, but the weather has gotten them up and out shopping, so I don't know if this is going to continue forever," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh. The latest monthly same-store sales results would seem to bear that out, with several large retailers missing expectations for April. Data for March showed consumer spending rose only 0.1 percent when adjusted for inflation, even though income rose the most in three months, indicating consumers were putting away more of their cash. "The thing that really jumped out on me on the personal income was the income growth had slowed on a year-over-year basis for four straight months - so I wasn't excited about seeing that," said Scott Armiger, portfolio manager at Christiana Trust in Greenville, Delaware. The recent strong performance of shares of discount retailers Family Dollar Stores Inc , Dollar General Corp and Dollar Tree Inc , which performed well during the recession when shoppers hunted for bargains, is another sign investors are shifting their portfolios ahead of the slower summer months. Since March 31, as the S&P 500 has weakened, those discounters have done well. The S&P is down 6.6 percent in that time, but Dollar General shares have risen 0.5 percent, Dollar Tree has climbed 2.8 percent and Family Dollar is up 3.1 percent. Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc , the world's biggest retailer, were up 5 percent on Thursday after it reported strong quarterly results, including a rise in U.S. same-store sales. The recession also forced retailers to sharpen business practices, with weaker players either falling by the wayside through bankruptcy or being gobbled up through acquisitions, with the bankruptcy of electronics retailer Circuit City perhaps being the most notable. More recently on the M&A front, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc agreed to acquire smaller competitor Cost Plus Inc . GAS PRICES FALL Should the recent economic slowing prove to be more a blip on the radar than the start of a trend, investors may be able to take advantage. The recent decline in gas prices gives consumers more disposable income, which may help retailers during their leaner sales periods. "If we get any kind of pop, any kind of economic growth or some help for the consumers - a nice drop in gas prices - they will do very well," said Armiger. An economic improvement in the back half of the year would also dovetail with the two biggest selling periods for retailers - the back-to-school and Christmas holiday seasons. "Do I think the consumer is going to roll over and die forever? No," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York. (Editing by Leslie Adler)

US unemployment aid applications stay at 370,000 - Yahoo! News

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, suggesting modest but steady gains in the job market. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly unemployment aid applications stayed at a seasonally adjusted 370,000, the same level as the previous week. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell from roughly 380,000 to 375,000. Applications for benefits surged in April to a five-month high of 392,000. They have fallen back since then and are near the lowest levels in four years. The decline suggests hiring could pick up in May after slumping in the previous two months. When applications drop below 375,000 a week, it generally suggests hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate. "Although another decline would have been preferred, the results weren't that bad," said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, in a note to clients. "It does raise the possibility that we may see a pickup in hiring in May." Investors didn't react much to the unemployment claims report, economists said. Stock markets are more focused on the Europe's financial crisis. Worries that Greece might have to exit the euro bloc drove stocks lower Thursday. Still, Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at BTIG LLC, said investors will likely be disappointed the coming weeks if applications don't fall further. "You'd like to see 350,000 or less to become convinced that monthly employment gains will accelerate," he said. A measure of future U.S. economy activity fell in April after reaching a three and a half year high in March. The Conference Board, a business research group, said that its index of leading economic indicators dipped 0.1 percent last month to 95.5. Before the recession began, the index regularly topped 100. Another report showed that manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region contracted in May, as companies received fewer new orders and cut their staffs. The unemployment rate has fallen from 9.1 percent in August to 8.1 percent last month. Part of the reason for the drop is that employers have added a million jobs over the past five months. But it has also declined because some people gave up looking for work. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively looking for a job. The pace of hiring slowed sharply in March and April, to an average of 135,000 jobs per month. That raised fears that the job market is weakening. But economists have cautioned that a warm winter led companies to move up some hiring and accelerate other activity that normally wouldn't occur until spring. That gave the appearance that the economy had strengthened in January and February and weakened in early spring. And temporary layoffs stemming from spring holidays likely pushed unemployment benefit applications higher in April, economists noted. If applications stay where they are or fall further, job growth should pick up. The gains may not match those from earlier in the year, when the economy averaged 252,000 jobs per month from December through February. But several economists said they expect somewhere in the range of 150,000 to 200,000 new jobs each month. A jump in job openings supports the notion of stronger hiring in the coming months. Employers advertised 3.74 million job openings in March, the most since July 2008. It usually takes one to three months for employers to fill openings. "Rising job openings and relatively flat new filings for unemployment benefits do not point to any underlying slowdown in job creation and we would expect, therefore, a pickup in May from April's rather subdued pace of employment growth," said John Ryding and Conrad DeQuadros, analysts for RDQ Economics, in a note to clients. The number of people on the unemployment benefit rolls is falling steadily, largely because many states are ending some extended benefit programs. The number of recipients dropped by almost 150,000 to 6.3 million in the week ended April 28, the latest data available. Other signs suggest the economy is strengthening after its early spring lull. Home construction rose to near a three-year high in April. And factory output has risen in three of the year's first four months. The gains, highlighted in data released Wednesday, suggest growth in the April-June quarter is off to a good start. Consumers are also finally seeing some relief from high gas prices. The average price of a gallon of gas was $3.72 on Thursday, according to AAA. That's 18 cents less than a month ago. So consumers should have more money for other purchases, which could also boost second-quarter growth and help lift hiring. Consumer spending drives roughly 70 percent of economic activity in the U.S.

U.S. Senate Republicans block new Iran sanctions bill - Yahoo! News

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans said on Thursday they needed more time to examine a revised packaged of new economic sanctions on Iran's oil sector on Thursday, a surprise move that drew anger from Senate Democrats, who had expected a unanimous Senate vote of approval ahead of Iran talks on May 23. "I feel I've been jerked around," Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor after the Republican objection. But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said his staff did not receive a draft of the bill until late on Wednesday night, and needed more time to review it. "There is no reason in the world why we can't resolve whatever differences we have and move forward. We certainly don't want to take a step backward, and there are members on my side of the aisle who are concerned that the way the measure is currently crafted could actually be a step in the wrong direction," McConnell said. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Jackie Frank)