Lady Gaga, Label, Sued By Bratz Doll Makers For $10 Million

Toy maker claims that Gaga and her management have delayed approval of a Mother Monster doll.
By Gil Kaufman

<P><P>The company behind the saucer-eyed Bratz dolls is suing <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/lady_gaga/artist.jhtml">Lady Gaga</a> and her management company for $10 million over claims that they've delayed the approval of a line of Gaga dolls.</P><P>According to <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-24/lady-gaga-sued-by-maker-of-bratz-dolls-over-contract-breach-1-.html" target="_blank"><I>Bloomberg News</I></a>, Bratz maker MGA Entertainment Inc., is alleging breach of contract in the New York state court filing, which also names as defendants Gaga's management company Atom Factory and Universal Music Group-owned merchandising firm Bravado International Group. The complaint claims that MGA agreed to in December 2011 to make dolls in Gaga's image at Bravado's "request and insistence," paying the company a $1 million advance fee amid planning to ship the dolls to retailers this summer to get a jump on the busy holiday selling season.</P><P></p><div class="player-placeholder right" title="Lady Gaga Has The Title And Concept For Her Next Album" id="vid:717202" width="415" height="255"></div><p></P><P>Then in April, Bravado reportedly told MGA that Gaga wanted to delay production and shipping of the dolls until her <a href="/news/articles/1686922/lady-gaga-new-album-title.jhtml">upcoming album</a>&#8232; is released next year. MGA claims that Gaga and her team have continued to withhold final approval on the designs in order to delay their production until next year, focusing instead on selling the new Gaga perfume <a href="/news/articles/1689786/lady-gaga-nude-perfume-ad.jhtml">"Fame."</a> "Defendants' conduct is egregious, in bad faith and is pretextual, especially in light of the fact that MGA has, among other things, paid Bravado a $1 million advance, agreed to an excessively generous royalty rate, invested millions in the preproduction of the Lady Gaga dolls and put its reputation and goodwill on the line in order to secure distributors and retail shelf space," MGA Entertainment said in the complaint.</P><P>A spokesperson for Gaga said the singer has no comment to <I>Bloomberg</I> on the suit, saying that the dispute is between Bravado and MGA and that, "there was no legitimate reason for dragging Lady Gaga into that dispute. Lady Gaga will vigorously defend MGA's ill-conceived lawsuit and is confident that she will prevail."</P><P>Bravado's parent company called the suit "meritless."</P><P>MGA estimated $28 million in revenue for the fall 2012 retail season from the Lady Gaga dolls, according to the complaint.</P><P><a href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1617615"><img src="http://www.mtv.com/news/photos/s/spotted/banner/spotted.jpg"></a></p></p>

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1690405/lady-gaga-label-bratz-doll-sued.jhtml

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Capital Outlook ? Akinyemi, EDC seek to place local businesses in ...

By Kanya Stewart

Associate Editor

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), small and home-based business owners experiencing growth or considering expansion can achieve some profitable gains from relocating their businesses to commercial property. The SBA cites that moving into a retail relocation can provide the attraction of additional customers as a result of more visibility and traffic, and help increase professional and community interaction. These cited benefits are also advantages that Leon County?s new vacant property re-use program intends to provide to area business owners.

The re-use program is the brainchild of Leon County Commissioner Akin Akinyemi and the Economic Development Council (EDC).

After performing a survey to find ways to improve the economy in Leon County, Akinyemi?s office, along with an ad-hoc committee of community representatives from various sectors, discovered that there are at least 250 buildings in Leon County that can provide more than 1.5 million square feet of unused office space to local business owners and non-profit organizations.

Examples of the caliber of proposed office space available through the program include:? the former Saturn dealership, located at 2412 W. Tennessee St. and 3019 Jackson Bluff Rd., an address once used by the Department of Children and Families.

?The reason why I am promoting this in particular is I am an architect; I am in construction,? Akinyemi said, adding that several businesses and non-profits have already shown interest in the program. ?I know how much the industry has suffered and I know how much of an eye sore or blight (vacant property) can create. It is a win-win. It can create jobs, improve the environment and make things better overall.?

Akinyemi said that the re-use program is just one part of a larger-scale plan to boost the local economy. Other initiatives that Akinyemi, the County and EDC are actively involved in include: bringing more manufacturers to the area through such entities as Innovation Park, projects to help encourage the county to be more technology-driven when it comes to business and? programs to develop and utilize the talents of young people in the area.

To assist existing and new business owners with taking advantage of the un-used space, Akinyemi and the EDC, along with organizations such as the Tallahassee Board of Realtors, the Capital City Chamber of Commerce, the Tallahassee Builders Association and the Florida A&M University Small Business Development Center, are working on potential policy changes and incentives that will help business owners overcome obstacles that can be associated with renting or purchasing office space.

These efforts are designed to not only assist business owners with increasing revenue and operations, but to also drive business to the local real estate industry and local contractors, increase tax dollars as well as promote employment (as business owners will most likely need to acquire staff to help them manage the office buildings).

The program will also help provide information and/or resources to business owners who may not be ready for retail property, but are seeking business development strategies to help get them to that point.

Through the assistance of the EDC, businesses considering relocation can also take advantage of the following information and services: site-selection assistance, labor market analysis, local industry contacts, job training assistance, regulatory assistance and coordination of state and local incentives.

According to EDC Executive Director Beth Kirkland, the vacant property re-use program presents an opportunity for local businesses, organizations, the real estate industry, consumers, the government and the like to unite in taking advantage of this new platform slated to help promote a better economy in Leon County.

?A lot of things have to come together in order for this to work. It takes a lot of pieces coming together to get that final success we are looking for. This is just the first step,? Kirkland said, explaining that everyone pulling together and sharing their resources is the best way to disseminate information about the project and get the ball rolling. ?Without finding the right end-user (to occupy the office space), this project won?t be successful, so it does take marketing (and) getting the word out.?

The coordinators of the property re-use program are currently seeking applications from viable businesses or organizations considering relocating to commercial property to ensure that there is enough interest to move the project forward. Business owners can find a preliminary list of proposed properties at www.taledc.com/vacant. The application deadline is July 6. For more information or to apply to participate in the program contact Carmen Trammell at TrammellC@leoncountyfl.gov or 850-606-5379.

Source: http://capitaloutlook.com/wordpress/?p=8369

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Va wants tough immigration curb; it&#39;s already law ...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? The results of last week's Quinnipiac Poll question on immigration were clear and loud: Virginia wants a tough Arizona-style "show me your papers" law allowing police to check the legal status of people stopped or arrested for other reasons.

By almost a 2-to-1 ratio, registered Virginia voters surveyed by the respected Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said they favor an Arizona-style crackdown ? at least the police checks provision of Arizona's sweeping law that wasn't voided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Guess what: Virginia put a version of that law in place in 2008, two years before Arizona. It requires Virginia officers to check every person they arrest and take into custody to determine whether they are in the United States legally. Virginia long ago mandated checks on arrests and in many other circumstances, including admission to a state hospital, to obtain a driver's license, Medicaid benefits and, in some cases, employment.

There are dozens of provisions in Virginia's statutes aimed at isolating illegal immigrants. Some go back generations. With an economy still in its sickbed four years after a frightful meltdown, a federal government pilling up $4 billion in new debt daily, and jobs easy to lose and hard to find, paranoia and anger find an easy foil in immigrants, particularly undocumented ones. And as Quinnipiac found, it stirs powerful feelings that politicians can harness to push for more ? even sometimes redundant ? restrictive laws targeting immigrants.

When asked if they supported the Arizona model allowing police to verify the legal status of people stopped or arrested, 64 percent of the 1,673 registered voters surveyed said yes and 31 percent said no while 5 percent offered no answer. The survey, based on telephone interviews, was conducted from July 10-16 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

Asked if Virginia should implement the same policy, 62 percent said yes, 34 percent said no and 4 percent didn't know.

Prince William County, which has a rich blend of Hispanic and other ethnic groups and has been on the front lines of skirmishes over immigration policy for years, tried a similar approach several years ago, but jettisoned it as a budget-buster.

In a twist, when poll respondents were asked what they thought of President Barack Obama's decision to allow young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children to obtain work permits and avoid deportation, 53 percent favored the decision to 40 percent who did not with 7 percent undecided.

For the past two years, conservative Republican House of Delegates members from Prince William County ? Virginia's premiere testing ground on immigration issues ? have unsuccessfully pushed bills that restate and make marginal advances to Virginia's 4-year-old check-on-arrest law.

"Some people say that what's on the books is already sufficient, but this clarifies the language and makes it more specific," said Del. Scott Lingamfelter, who sponsored the bill in 2011. Del. Richard Anderson, R-Woodbridge, carried the bill this year.

But Lingamfelter, who has announced his candidacy for the 2013 lieutenant governor election, conceded that police "can already make the checks right now. Any locality in the state can do it. It's considered acceptable police work."

This week's poll means the bill is probably bound for another encore before Virginia's GOP-ruled House and Senate starting in January, Lingamfelter said.

Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, the newly installed executive director of the Virginia ACLU who has spent years lobbying the General Assembly on behalf of Latinos and other immigrant groups, voices frustration over it.

"We have at least 50 laws on the books that directly affect immigrants, many of which require some sort of check on immigration status," she said Friday.

In the Legislature, she said, "the first reaction (to the poll) is, 'Well, we need to do something to respond to this public concern.' Well, no you don't because you already have."

And in more ways than one might imagine, according to a list Gastanaga gleaned from Virginia's statutes. The Department of Mental Health, under a law enacted before 1950 during the time of the state's shameful experiment with the discredited pseudoscience of eugenics, must determine the nationality of anyone admitted to a state facility and to report to federal immigration authorities anyone found to be an "alien."

Sheriffs and the Department of Corrections are required under another pre-1950 law to identify "criminal aliens" in the state's jails and prisons and report them.

"We've been at this a long time," Gastanaga said.

Politically, a tough line on illegal immigrants has been generally good for Republicans, said political consultant and retired Virginia Commonwealth University political science professor Robert D. Holsworth. They have to be careful, however, not to overdose on it.

"On one hand, you have a 2-to-1 majority in a poll showing people favor a show-your-papers law," Holsworth said. But the electoral consequences of enacting ever more strident illegal immigration laws could be damage to the GOP's prospects among the fast-growing ethnic and minority populations, he said.

"Then one day legal immigrants hear this and they start to worry and start asking themselves 'Who are you talking about here?' and they start talking about that," Holsworth said.

Bob Lewis has covered Virginia politics and government for The Associated Press

Source: http://washingtonexaminer.com/va-wants-tough-immigration-curb-its-already-law/article/feed/2014538?custom_click=rss

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PST: Another lesson in unfortunate irony of modern fandom

A small, obvious, but still brilliant part of soccer?s information age has been the acknowledgement of fan knowledge: the general acceptance supporters know more about their team than most media, particularly media on regional or national beats. This seems so obvious to us now that it?s hard to believe there was a time when this wasn?t a given. Of course people who live and bleed their teams are likely to know more than somebody synthesizing a league?s worth of data. Just because that knowledge wasn?t punched through a typewriter, put through a press and offered on a street corner didn?t mean it failed to exist.

Having knowledge, however, is not the same as using it wisely. People who?ve built reputations in the soccer information business use more than mere knowledge. They are the best filters of that information. They take the data and describe with a completeness ? an even-handedness ? that?s rarely seen in fan forums. When that description requires them to step onto one side of a debate, they made sure they?ve covered all relevant angles, assuring their depictions can transcend any reasonable accusations of partisanship.

Fanaticism is inherently partisan. You can?t cover yourself in a team?s colors and pretend they don?t obscure your view. At a minimum, it becomes a call you don?t get to make. If you?re conveying information about the Columbus Crew under a yellow and black banner, you?re forcing the reader to pause and consider motive.

In a vast majority of instances, issues are so cut-and-dry that partisanship has no effect on how information is processed. After all, 5-0 loss is bad no matter how much you support the Portland Timbers. How poorly the team played is a little more open to interpretation, though when you throw out the extreme voices on a given message board/comment thread, most fans people see the world through a similar prism.

But there are rare occasions where that prism screws everything up, usually on issues that hit at club identity. We saw this last year with Liverpool when many fans blindly followed Kenny Dalglish?s defense of Luis Suarez. For most fans, opposing Dalglish?s stance on Suarez was tantamount to turning their back on the club. Such was Kenny Dalglish?s stature at Liverpool. Such is the nature of being a supporter.

We also saw this late last season in Genoa, when fans lept onto the field to demand players remove their shirts. It was a powerful measure, one that brought about emotional responses from the team, but it was also completely inappropriate. An emotional response turned dangerous, with fans turning to violence in defense of the identity they?d ascribed to the club.

A similar identity crisis is developing in Milan, and as with the cases in Liverpool and Genoa, fans are letting their passion supersede their judgment. AC Milan ultras are protesting summer transfer window business that?s seen seven prominent players leave the club. A class action lawsuit on the part of season ticket holders alleges false advertising. The club?s started reimbursements. President Silvio Berlusconi is considering making a video addressing the uprising, while supporters recently held a funeral in front of club headquarters?commemorating?the team?s death.

After a decade at Milan, defender Alessandro Nesta left the club this summer. (Photo: Reuters)

It?s a harsh stance, one that looks downright foolish when you look at the seven transfers. For most of the season it was assumed many of Alessandro Nesta, Clarence Seedorf, Gennaro Gattuso, Pippo Inzaghi and Mark Van Bommel go. Was it shocking to see them all leave together? Of course, especially the first four names, but the five-some averaged 35.8 years old and 11.2 starts. Milan could have been sentimental and kept a couple of them, but the club?s decision to move on is justifiable. It certainly shouldn?t spur a mass uprising.

Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are another story, but consistent with the history of international soccer, every player has a price. Juventus had theirs for Zinedine Zidane. Manchester United had theirs for Cristiano Ronaldo. Just three years ago, Milan had theirs for Kak?, a more clearly motivated by money. The same reasoning applies to the Silva-Ibrahimovic sale. ?As James Horncastle noted on Twitter, the wages saved combined with the transfer fees mean Milan nets ?170 million.

Deconstructed, Milan?s summer business seems to be seven individually justifiable player moves, none of which were done capriciously. Had Paris Saint-Germain not backed an armored truck up to Via Turati, Milan would have probably held on to Silva and Ibrahimovic, and the club certainly could have moved on from their veterans sooner (Inzaghi was 38 and only make seven league appearances last year). Fans, scared the moves signal a new, less competitive era for Milan, are left protesting good business, demonstrations reminiscent of an infant rebelling against a parent?s ?No.?

You won?t find many with distance from Milan (emotional or physical) questioning the Rossoneri?s moves. They were tough decisions, but they were probably good ones. At a minimum, they?re decisions fans should understand, even if they don?t agree with them. There?s no need for funerals, law suits, or the kind of self-defeating view that would keep Milan a loyal-if-old team that could never balance their books for fear of ultra reaction to their taking advantage of a seller?s market.

Then there is that small, obvious irony belying the entire story. None of these assessments ? be they about aging players or the sale of Milan?s stars ? are news to Rossoneri supporters. They know more about Milan than any of us. They know the team was old. They know the club could use money. They know the recent past has seen the high-priced sale of Kak? and the painful departure of Andrea Pirlo. And they know that over the last two seasons, Milan?s had the best team. Still, they protest. They hold their funerals. They file suits.

Understandably, emotion has gotten the best of them. One year removed from winning Serie A, fans have seen a vision of a vastly less-competitive Milan, but with the Rossoneri rumored to be in for Montpelier?s Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (arguably the best young defender in Ligue 1), it seems unlikely Berlusconi will merely pocket the money. The club still has Alexandre Pato, Robinho, and Alessandro Cassano. They still have Antonio Nocerino, Maximo Ambrosini and Kevin Prince-Boateng. They?ve added Ricardo Montolivo and will bring back the likes of Ignazio Abate, Philippe Mexes, Mathieu Flamini and Sulley Muntari. They should still be a very good team. If they spend some of PSG?s money, they could be a title-contending one.

Not that any this needs to be told to any Milanistas. They know their club is still decent. They know Berlusconi has consistently funded competitive, trophy-winning teams. They just need this moment. Milan ultras need this moment to vent, to act on the emotion spawn from seeing so many favorites go.

But once that emotion is gone, hopefully they can have a good laugh at themselves. A funeral for the Rossoneri? It?s all so dramatic.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/22/ac-milan-fan-protests/related

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Source: http://hk.ibtimes.com/articles/16302/20120723/78307.htm

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Research and Markets: 2012 Outsourcing Guide for the Insurance ...

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The selection and placement of news stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program. All articles, images, audio, video and related copyrights belong to their rightful owners.

Source: http://globalizationtoday.com/research-and-markets-2012-outsourcing-guide-for-the-insurance-industry-business-wire-press-release/

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Business Consulting Client: The Velvet Lily | Evolvor Media

Posted by Eric Hebert on Jul 21, 2012 in Marketing |

The Velvet Lily is a female owned and operated adult sex-toy boutique that provides a safe and comfortable space for both males and females to shop for everything from lingerie to sex toys, erotic products and sex aids. The Velvet Lily offers an online store as well as a retail store located in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia, PA.

They are committed to providing body-safe, eco-sexy toys and products that enhance the sexual experience and intimacy of the couple as well as the individual. At The Velvet Lily you will have the confidence to shop in a safe and comfortable environment surrounded by a friendly, expert staff.

Source: http://evolvor.com/2012/07/21/business-consulting-client-the-velvet-lily/

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