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The initial findings are part of a large federal study and the EPA into numerous complaints by thousands of home owners that their homes have been releasing an unpleasant odor. Moreover, there have also been health related complaints including nosebleeds and other breathing problems. The majority of complains have come from owners living in South USA (esp. Florida, Virginia and Louisiana), where the extensive devastation caused by hurricanes/flooding led to speedy reconstruction of damaged homes.

Another problem the owners claim is that many electrical appliances have failed and wiring in the homes have been rotting. During the reconstruction of these homes several years ago, close to seven million sheets of Chinese dry wall were imported and used to repair at least 60,000 homes.

The Federal dry wall tests were conducted in several homes and included sampling of air in many suspected homes. The final results of the study are going to be released sometime in November along with specific recommendations on how to reverse the problem.

Said Lori Saltzman, Director of Division of Health Science at the product safety commission, “The first sets of data released today start to explain the differences between Chinese and non-Chinese drywall. Although we know more now than we did just a few weeks ago, we are continuing to learn as much as we can.”

The Health Department has sent a memo to all warehouses not to disclose their location or sell any more Chinese drywall. The Department is now working with Homeland Security Agency to ensure that no new Chinese dry wall comes into the country via sea ports.

This is not the first time the government has investigated a Chinese product, and the costs are already adding up considering that the government has very limited funding. This investigation has also highlighted renewed concerns about Chinese products and the need to be vigilant.

The current issue has been a great source of friction between the US and China. The Chinese feel that they are unnecessarily being targeted but have taken the issue sincerely and are collaborating with US authorities on identifying the problem with the drywall. While homeowners are demanding that the Chinese pay for the damage caused, this issue has become very contentious.

In the last few months, several law suits have been initiated against Chinese Dry wall dealers but litigation has been difficult because there is no way to know who is the actual manufacturer or supplier. Throughout all this, the average homeowner has suffered the most because now many insurance companies are denying their health claims until a cause has been identified.

The new assembly line in Charleston will aid Boeing recover from the persistent delays that have set the Dreamliner back by at least two years. Boeing picked South Carolina because of its troubling union demands and failing to accomplish a non strike deal with its Seattle based workers. In the past 20 years, the union in Seattle has shut down Boeing offices four times including a prolonged two month strike in 2008.

Said Tom Wroblewski, president of Machinists local 751, “Boeing has betrayed our loyalty. The union offered Boeing a 10-year labor agreement and floated ideas on health-care costs, wages and pensions.” he went on to add, “Most of the time, they didn’t even take notes. It’s now clear that Boeing was only using our talks as a smoke screen, and as a bargaining chip to extort a bigger tax handout from South Carolina.”

The turning event was the union’s stipulation that Boeing not converse with employees if the union attempted to sort out in North Charleston, said Yvonne Leach, a Boeing spokeswoman in Everett, Washington. “We would be giving up the right to address our employees, and that wasn’t something we were willing to give up.” Unlike Washington, in South Carolina one does not have to be union member to work for any company.

Boeing plans to initiate assembling soon and hopes to add several thousand new employees in South Carolina.

The 787’s rear fuselage is already made in North Charleston, where Vought Aircraft Industries had a deal to transport parts and manufactured sections to Boeing for ultimate assemblage in Everett, WA.

South Carolina’s legislature agreed to an incentives wrap up yesterday that that would make available basic organization facilities, large machinery, training services and tax breaks. While Boeing has not directly been named a beneficiary of this package deal; it is more than likely that they will benefit from most of the incentives proposed. Of course the Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, is delighted. On the other hand, Washington Governor, Chris Gregoire, called it a disappointing day for the state.

Boeing remains the world’s largest commercial plane maker, trailing the French Airbus SAS by a small margin. While many orders of the Dreamliner have come, the construction of the new plane has been beset by many delays and part shortages. When the plane will be ready to fly is still unknown.

Boeing rose 4 cents to $47.26 at 6:40 p.m. after the regular close of New York Stock Exchange trading.

SciClone Pharmaceuticals is a profit-driven worldwide biopharmaceutical corporation with a flourishing international business and a drug portfolio of innovative treatments for various cancer and infectious disorders. For most of the past decade SciClone has had double digit return growth because of its increasing drug portfolio. Sales in countries like China and Russia have helped sustain SciClone international development program.

In a press release on its website, says Dr Friedhelm Blobel PhD, president and CEO of SciClone, “”Throughout the year SciClone has been strongly focused on containing costs and closely managing expenses. The decision to reduce our workforce in the wake of the RP101 trial discontinuation was inevitable yet difficult, considering the high degree of talent and dedication of our employees. We are committed to moving SciClone towards sustainable profitability. With streamlined operations, decreased expenditures, and expected robust global sales, we believe we are fully on track to realize that objective.”

The latest news about re-structuring comes after the company had to halt a drug trial for treatment of late stage pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is invariably fatal if it is not diagnosed early and treated promptly. The majority of people with pancreatic cancer die with 9-18 months and surgery has not had a big impact. SciClone claims that the drug monitoring safety committee suggested that the trial of the experimental drug RP 101 be halted. Anytime a drug trial is halted there are significant losses and expenses accrued. The company claims that this move will result in a loss of close to $300,000 which includes severance pay and other related expenses. SciClone expects to complete its restructuring by the end of the present quarter.

Successful SciClone products on the market include Zadazin (thymalfasin/thymosin alpha1) to treat hepatitis B, malignant melanoma and as an enhancer for novel HIN1 flu vaccines. Other products include commercialization of DC Bead to treat nausea and vomiting after radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

According to its website and annual report, SciClone had 227 employees last year and about 40 of these worked out of the laboratories in San Francisco. A 17 percent cut in the US job force means that 7 people will be let go. The professional status of people being let go has not been announced. So far no job cuts have been considered for international employees said company spokes person. SciClone shares dropped 15 cents to $2.37 in afternoon trading.

So far, Global Foundries has declined to make a statement. Drew Prairie, an AMD spokesman, said, “We are thoroughly reviewing the situation, but at this time we don’t have any more detail to discuss publicly. We are not aware of any allegation of criminal misconduct on the part of any current or former AMD employees, nor have any current or former AMD employees been charged with a crime.”

Galleon and New Castle bought AMD shares in the hope of making a profit when the deal was struck, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan US attorney’s office and a civil action by the SEC. The companies eventually did not profit amid the recession last winter.

So far Mr Ruiz has not actually been named in the case and has declined comment. The involvement of the 63 year old Ruiz adds yet another big name to a case in which Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire co-founder of the hedge fund galleon group has been ensnared. So far five other individuals face federal criminal and civil charges.

Mr. Ruiz is a much respected executive in the computing sector and is credited with innovative changes that helped AMD compete successfully against Intel Corp.

So far the US attorney’s office and SEX officials have not divulged much information about the role of Mr Ruiz, who appears not to have gained financially from this passage of information. What the officially authorized liabilities or potential charges against him will be made in the coming days. There are also several other unnamed executives also named in the case who did not trade information, nor did they benefit financially, who have been accused of insider trading, but all have denied wrong doing

The complaint against Mr. Rajaratnam also asserts he obtained insider information about some AMD deals from Anil Kumar, who was employed at McKinsey & Co., which provided financial advice to AMD. So far, Anil Kumar has denied the charges.

According to government sources, Mr. Moffat, an IBM senior manager, also shared insider information about AMD business deal with Ms. Chiesi. Like Anil Kumar, the attorney representing Mr Moffat says his client has not made any profit and hopes that all charges will be dropped.

While all parties involved with the Galleon hedge fund have denied wrong doing, wire taps and recorded conversations indicate otherwise. The facts will be revealed in due time when these high ranking people go to court.

As of today, Galleon has liquidated close to $3.7 billion in securities in its hedge funds’ portfolios.

Average daily circulation of all US newspapers have dropped over the past 20 years as papers face increasing competition for readers and advertising. On average close to 30 million Americans buy a daily newspaper and about 40 million do so on the weekends. The few newspapers which have survived the recession may have readership but are not profitable. Today, ads on internet newspaper sites sell for a few dollars compared with the exorbitant fees for ads on paper.

The top newspaper on cyberspace is the New York Times with an average readership of 21.5 million unique visitors a month but even this trend in readership is not constant. Most online newspapers have seen a drop in earnings. The Times has seen a 27 percent drop in ad revenues. The Washington Post which is also available online lost $143 million through the first 6 months of 2009 and its online readership is down by 29 percent to 9.2 million.

Some of the reasons why newspapers have lost their appeal is that many publishers no longer deliver to rural areas to save on gas and publication costs

Says Alan D Mutter, a former journalist and cable TV executive,

“Newspapers have ceased to be a mass medium by any stretch of the imagination,”

Across the board, the major beneficiaries of readerships are the small daily newspapers that serve local boroughs and counties. These newspapers with limited resources dish out local news that is not covered by the large media or TV. Such newspapers continue to thrive in all parts of America.

While the local small newspapers do well, the losses for the leaders in media continue to mount. In the last 6 months of this year, USA Today lost 15 percent of its circulation. Other top papers which have seen a continual decline in readership are the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Dallas Morning News and the Newark Star Ledger.

Experts think that the influence of internet has become too strong and most news is available online for free. Moreover, internet online news service produce updates on news every few hours, something a daily newspaper simply cannot do. Some newspaper readers in the North East mentioned that a primary reason why their communities stopped buying the daily paper was because of the large amount of paper collected in just one week- and when you have to pay for your garbage removal, reading a newspaper becomes even more costly.

For Britain this has been the 6th consecutive quarter where the Gross Domestic Product has dropped, taking the total loss of output since last year to 5.9 percent. These numbers indicate that Britain is in the grip of one the worst economic depression since the Statistic office began to collect recorded data nearly 50 years ago.

There was hope that the economy may contract but also grow judging by the demand for oil, but the news that the economy fell by 0.4 percent has come as shock to the soothsayers who predicted end of the recession.

The continual decline in economy persists despite massive attempts by the Bank of England to boost the economy; including maintaining interest rates at a record low down to 0.5 percent since March, an unparalleled injection of $290 billion into the money supply and billions extra have been shaved off through drastic economic actions.

The pound fell more than 1 cent to $1.65 after announcement by the statistics office as markets calculated in the possibility that the central bank of England will now boost the so-called “quantitative lessening program” – meaning purchasing assets from other banks to enhance the amount of money in the market — when it convenes in a few weeks.

Says, Arifa Sheikh –Usmani, an equity trader at Spreadex LTD, “Sterling is taking a hit on surprisingly weak GDP figures which means that the UK is not following France and Germany out of recession,”.
Bank of England governor Mervyn King and treasury chief Alistair Darling are hopeful that the economy will grow by the end of 2009. However, many economists have warned that despite the aggressive stimulus measures, the recession has intensified and unemployment continues to rise all over Britain. Friday’s numbers indicate that the hardest hit are hotel, restaurant and the service industry which fell 1 percent over the quarter.

Also noteworthy is that the industrial production in Britain fell by 13.7 percent since the recession began. Friday’s statistics were accumulated with approximately 40 percent of the necessary data and are subject to some minor deviations or changes in the preceding several months as more information from the statistics office become available. Of note is that the Statistic office’s initial GDP estimate for the previous April to June quarter was supposed to be shrinkage of 0.8 percent, which was soon after amended to a 0.6 percent drop once the exact numbers were available.

The Indianapolis pharmaceutical giant had significantly enhanced financial gains, but it there are some harsh times ahead. Over the coming years, the patency of its several best selling drugs is going to expire and it does not appear as if the company has many new blockbuster drugs in the near future.

To improve its position on the pharmaceutical market, Lilly has recently announced a major restructuring by reducing its workforce by 14% that will hopefully save at least $1 billion by the end of 2011. The company has also announced an agreement to sell its Tippecanoe laboratories manufacturing site to an affiliate of Evonik Industries AS, one of the world’s largest chemical companies.

The above moves are intended to help process Lilly’s 2008 purchase of ImClone Systems Inc. and offset a number of losses it expects starting in 2011 from generic competition to Zyprexa. With sales of close to $ 4.7 billion in 2008, Zyprexa remains Lilly’s top selling pharmaceutical product.

Lilly bought ImClone last year (November 08), and also added the anti cancer drug, Erbitux and the blood thinner Effient to its product line to help generate more revenue. Zyprexa now faces intense competition after release of the much cheaper generic form of Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal, a rival anti psychotic drug which went on the market last July. Sales of Zyprexa peaked to 2.8 percent to $1.22 billion in the quarter.

Lilly Chief Executive John Lechleiter credited the superior third-quarter results to high gross profit margins and a much tighter control of operating expenditure.

“Lilly continues to deliver very solid financial results,” said John C. Lechleiter Ph.D., Lilly’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Our performance in the third quarter once again was driven by volume-based sales growth, improving gross margins and tight control of operating expenses, allowing us to deliver very attractive earnings growth. These results are evidence of the strength of our current operations as we implement our new operating model, streamline our organization and take measures to accelerate the flow of new medicines through our pipeline.”

Marketing, promotion, and managerial expenses are still anticipated to show flat to low-single digit growth. Research and development operating expense are still expected to grow in the high-single digits on a pro forma non-GAAP basis and in the low-double digits on a reported basis.

Lilly shares fell 61 cents to $34.63 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

For the third quarter, Lilly accounted a net income of $941.8 million, or 86 cents a share, in contrast to a loss of $465.6 million, or 43 cents a share, the previous year.