NY fights site listing homes for tourists to rent

NEW YORK (AP) — Each night, people in apartments all over New York City are cleaning up, putting out fresh towels and clearing out — to rent their private space to strangers from around the world.

Thousands of city residents are using websites such as Airbnb.com to list apartments or rooms for as little as $35 a night, a phenomenon officials say is illegal in many cases, undercuts the hotel industry, avoids taxes and threatens apartment building safety.

New York's top prosecutor is demanding that Airbnb turn over data on city dwellers who have listed on the site as part of an investigation into whether residents are breaking a state law barring sublets for fewer than 30 days if occupants are not present.

But many residents in the nation's most expensive city say they're providing a service that's valuable to them and their guests. Subletting for nights at a time is often the only way they can afford to pay rents that average $3,000 a month and can top $6,000 in the most desirable areas.

"I use Airbnb to supplement my income, and it's allowed me to go back to school," says Mishelle Farer, a 32-year-old former U.S. Army sergeant who rents her second bedroom in Brooklyn's artsy Williamsburg neighborhood through Airbnb for $60 to $70 a night, depending on the season.

Farer says she covers about half her rent through such arrangements. And besides, "I've met so many wonderful people from France, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Brazil, the Philippines."

Pauline Frommer, travel guide author and publisher of Frommers.com, says Airbnb fills a need in a city where hotel prices average $275. Similar sites include Flipkey.com and housetrip.com.

"New York hotel prices are truly outrageous," Frommer says. "The city is overwhelmed with visitors, and it's practically impossible to find an affordable hotel room, so you need some kind of outlet."

Airbnb started five years ago in San Francisco, after two roommates couldn't afford their rent and inflated air beds for paying guests. It now operates globally in 35,000 communities, currently offering 500,000 listings, and is the world's biggest short-term rental company. The site takes 6 to 12 percent of every rental.

In New York, the company says about 15,000 people are offering short-term rentals ranging from $35 for a private space in a Brooklyn studio to a $60 walkup in Times Square to $120 for a garden apartment in Brooklyn's Red Hook to $921 for an antiques-furnished loft in Tribeca.

New York City has been aggressively challenging Airbnb, contending many sublets on its site are illegal because residents aren't there. And the city says such rentals are cheating the city of lodging taxes.

Since the mayor's office began examining short-term rentals in 2006, it has fielded more than 3,000 complaints and issued almost 6,000 notices of violation, including fire, safety and occupancy infractions, which carry fines.

Airbnb says 87 percent of hosts in New York share the space they live in with guests. The company has called the subpoena of customer information by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman an "unfounded fishing expedition" and says hosts are responsible for following varying laws around the world.

NYC & Company, the city's official tourism agency, issued a statement saying, "This illegal practice takes away much needed hotel tax revenue from city coffers with no consumer protections against fire- and health-code violations." Neither city officials nor hotel organizations would estimate how much revenue hotels and the city might be losing.

Landlords and tenant organizations have long complained that short-term sublets are a violation of most leases and a security issue.

Having strangers coming in and out of a residential building "is a terrible problem," says Tom Cayler, chairman of the Illegal Hotel Committee for Manhattan's West Side Neighborhood Alliance. "If you come home at night and there are people in the lobby or elevator who you don't know, you should be scared."

Sam Shaber, a musician who rented space on the Lower East Side for $150 to $225 a night, says she welcomed guests from France, Argentina, Sweden and elsewhere. And she said she always got a good sense of them from online exchanges and profiles before handing over the keys.

"In this day and age of Craigslist, we have a radar for who's weird," Shaber said. "We never had one problem."

Airbnb renters say they can offer an experience hotels can't — the opportunity to live like a native in funky neighborhoods off the beaten tourist paths.

Sergio Verdasco, 33, a mechanical engineer in San Sebastian, Spain, was hosted by Farer in Williamsburg for three nights.

"It was an amazing experience — a soft landing in a city where I don't know the people and don't speak the language well," he said by phone. "She told me where to go, what she likes."

"It's not the same as taking up a guide and doing what a million people do."

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ny-fights-listing-homes-tourists-rent-100038087.html
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Wednesday Morning Political Mix

Good morning.

Can you say lost day?

Can you say 24 hours closer to joining the pantheon of deadbeat nations?

Can you say turning on the default spigot of poison gas? (Warren Buffet can.)

That's where the nation is left this morning after the frantic, feckless and failed efforts Tuesday by House Republicans to agree on a path to avoid our nation's default and end our government's shutdown.

After the GOP House leadership waved the white flag, unable to appease factions that included the hard-line defund Obamacare crowd, the issue moved back to the Democratic-controlled Senate.

By late night, there were strong signs that a deal would emerge today to reopen the government until Jan. 15, and lift the debt ceiling until Feb. 7.

But not before Fitch Ratings put the U.S. government's AAA credit on "ratings watch negative." That signals a potential credit downgrade, directly related to the politics of the default/debt ceiling mess.

While Wall Street retreated Tuesday, early international market reports today suggested they were edging lower, but nothing precipitous as of this writing.

Neither the House nor the Senate, which adjourned at 10 p.m. Tuesday, has a set agenda today, but will be in session.

Here's how the stage has been set for today's efforts to avoid default:

• A scathing lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal advises the Republicans to "wrap up this comedy of political errors." The business bible accused the party of blundering by choosing an unachievable goal – trying to defund Obamacare – and picking the politically unsustainable tactic of using government shutdown and threats to "blow through the debt limit" to get there.

Bottom line from the WSJ: "Republicans can best help their cause now by getting this over with and moving on to fight more intelligently another day."

• Speculation continues over what tactics Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the leader of the GOP's anti-Obamacare caucus, may use to derail Senate efforts to craft a last-minute deal to avoid default. Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss told NPR's Morning Edition today that he doubts Cruz and his loyal lieutenant, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, will act to delay. "They're probably looking at the next round," Chambliss predicted.

• And Republicans are facing down one of the most damaging periods in recent memory, one that analysts including Josh Barro at Business Insider say raises the natural question of the party's competence and ability to take care of the nation's best interests. "There is not serious argument for Republican governance right now, even if you prefer conservative policies over liberal ones," Barro writes. "A party that is this bad at tactics can't be expected to be any good at policy-making."

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina put it more succinctly: "We screwed up."

Outside of Washington, here are some other stories we've been following:

• Former Secretary of State Senator/First Lady/prospective 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a closed-door appearance before a trade group reportedly took pains to note that Vice President Joe Biden opposed the administration's raid that ended up in the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden. Biden has not ruled out a presidential run in 2016.

• The Federal Reserve today releases its periodic "Beige Book" report that tracks economic conditions, including home sales, consumer spending, lending activity and employment. The anecdotal data is the Reserve's 12 regional banks. In September, the report found "modest to moderate" growth nationally.

• Voters in New Jersey go to the polls today to elect a new U.S. senator. Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat, is expected to prevail over Republican Steve Lonegan.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/10/16/235307606/wednesday-morning-political-mix?ft=1&f=
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Uneven enforcement suspected at nuclear plants

FILE - This June 26, 2011 file photo shows the control room of the Cooper nuclear power plant in Brownville, Neb. The number of safety violations at U.S. nuclear power plants varies dramatically from region to region, pointing to inconsistent enforcement in an industry now operating mostly beyond its original 40-year licenses, according to a congressional study awaiting release. For 2000-2012, this facility led all sites in the U.S. in lower-level violations per reactor with 363. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)

FILE - This June 26, 2011 file photo shows the control room of the Cooper nuclear power plant in Brownville, Neb. The number of safety violations at U.S. nuclear power plants varies dramatically from region to region, pointing to inconsistent enforcement in an industry now operating mostly beyond its original 40-year licenses, according to a congressional study awaiting release. For 2000-2012, this facility led all sites in the U.S. in lower-level violations per reactor with 363. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)

Graphic shows regional breakdown of nuclear plant violations in the U.S.; 2c x 2 1/2 inches; 96.3 mm x 63 mm;

FILE - In this May 18, 2011 file photo, a worker drives a tractor at a tree farm in North Perry, Ohio, near the cooling towers of the Perry Nuclear Power Plant. According to an unreleased Government Accountability Office report obtained by The Associated Press, the facility had 8 higher-level violations and 256 lower-level violations between 2000-2012. Lower-level violations are those considered to pose very low risk, such as improper upkeep of an electrical transformer or failure to analyze a problem with no impact on a system's operation, such as the effect of a pipe break. Higher-level violations range from low to high safety significance, such as an improperly maintained electrical system that caused a fire and affected a plant's ability to shut down safely. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

BOSTON (AP) — The number of safety violations at U.S. nuclear power plants varies dramatically from region to region, pointing to inconsistent enforcement in an industry now operating mostly beyond its original 40-year licenses, according to a congressional study awaiting release.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission figures cited in the Government Accountability Office report show that while the West has the fewest reactors, it had the most lower-level violations from 2000 to 2012 — more than 2½ times the Southeast's rate per reactor.

The Southeast, with the most reactors of the NRC's four regions, had the fewest such violations, according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The striking variations do not appear to reflect real differences in reactor performance. Instead, the report says, the differences suggest that regulators interpret rules and guidelines differently among regions, perhaps because lower-level violations get limited review.

The study also says that the NRC's West region may enforce the rules more aggressively and that common corporate ownership of multiple plants may help bolster maintenance in the Southeast.

However, the reasons aren't fully understood because the NRC has never fully studied them, the report says. Right now, its authors wrote, the "NRC cannot ensure that oversight efforts are objective and consistent."

Told of the findings, safety critics said enforcement is too arbitrary and regulators may be missing violations. The nuclear industry has also voiced concern about the inconsistencies, the report said.

The analysis was written by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, at the request of four senators. Before the government shutdown, the report had been set for public release later this month.

Steven Kerekes, a spokesman for the industry group Nuclear Energy Institute, declined to comment pending release of the report. The NRC's public affairs office had no comment, citing the government shutdown.

The GAO analysis focuses on lower-level safety violations known as "nonescalated." They represent 98 percent of all violations identified by the NRC, which regulates safety at the country's commercial reactors.

Lower-level violations are those considered to pose very low risk, such as improper upkeep of an electrical transformer or failure to analyze a problem with no impact on a system's operation, such as the effect of a pipe break. Higher-level violations range from low to high safety significance, such as an improperly maintained electrical system that caused a fire and affected a plant's ability to shut down safely.

The GAO's analysis shows 3,225 of these violations from 2000 through the end of 2012 across 21 reactors in the West. By contrast, there were 1,885 such violations in the Southeast. Yet that region is home to 33 reactors — 12 more than in the West. The West registered 153.6 violations per reactor, while the Southeast saw just 57.1.

The Midwest, with 24 reactors, had 3,148 violations, for a rate of 131.2 per reactor. The 26-reactor Northeast also fared worse than the Southeast, with 2,518 violations, or 96.8 per reactor.

The Cooper nuclear station in Brownville, Neb., led all sites in lower-level violations per reactor with 363. The next four were Wolf Creek, in Burlington, Kan., with 266; Kewaunee, in Kewaunee, Wis., 256; Perry, in Perry, Ohio, 256; and River Bend, in St. Francisville, La., 240.

The GAO found less regional variation in higher-level safety violations. The six plants with the most higher-level violations per reactor from 2000 to 2012 were Davis-Besse in Oak Harbor, Ohio, with 14; Cooper, 11; Kewaunee, nine; Perry, eight; Palisades, in Covert, Mich., eight; and Fort Calhoun, in Fort Calhoun, Neb., eight.

"I believe the oversight process is totally arbitrary," said Paul Blanch, an engineer who once blew the whistle on problems from within the industry and later returned to work on safety. He also said the NRC isn't providing consistent training to inspectors and regional staff. Blanch was made aware of the GAO findings by the AP.

The report also indicates that some regulators may be missing small problems or giving them short shrift, safety experts said. And they said little violations can pile up and interact with one another to create bigger risks.

"Any time you start tolerating minor problems, you're just setting the stage for major safety problems down the road," said nuclear engineer David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He once trained NRC staff.

Phillip Musegaas, a lawyer with the environmental group Riverkeeper, said regulators should do more to make sure that lower-level violations are fixed. "NRC's tracking to make sure these violations are resolved is completely ineffectual," he said.

In its official response to the report, the NRC defended the objectivity of its plant assessments. At the same time, it acknowledged the regional differences and promised to look deeper into why they happen.

According to the GAO, the NRC regulatory staff also offered several explanations, including regional variations in reactor ages and time spent on inspections. However, the congressional watchdog said those explanations are not supported by the data.

The agency did offer that regulators may be right when they cite the possible impact of joint ownership of sites, a circumstance most prevalent in the Southeast. Nuclear plants under one owner may benefit from more corporate resources and thus avoid violations, the GAO suggested. The NRC also said higher-level violations are more consistent because they are more deeply reviewed.

On other issues, the report said the NRC needs an easier-to-use internal database to help staff learn of historical safety issues that apply to current problems. It also pressed the agency to improve its public documents website to allow tracking of safety violations. The NRC said it would work to improve both tools.

Senators requested the report in reaction to the Japanese nuclear accident at Fukushima in 2011 and an Associated Press investigative series later that year about aging U.S. nuclear plants. The AP series found that federal regulators had relaxed safety rules to keep plants running beyond their initial licenses. It also reported leaks of radioactive tritium at three-quarters of plants and outdated estimates of evacuation times.

The GAO analyzed data for 104 commercial reactors, but four permanently shut earlier this year: Crystal River in Florida, Kewaunee, and the two units at San Onofre in California.

___

The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate@ap.org

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-10-15-Nuclear%20Safety/id-45c74be3a6174c97846f5bac33e10f1d
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Why You, Yes You, Might Enjoy A Superhero Documentary

Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie.

Courtesy Everett Collection/PBS

Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie.

Courtesy Everett Collection/PBS

Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, a documentary in three hour-long segments that will premiere back to back (to back) tonight on many PBS stations, begins with a curious image: Vincent Zurzolo of Metropolis Comics explains that a recent copy of Action Comics #1, which contained the first appearance of Superman, recently sold for over $2 million. He shows us Action Comics #1, and then ... he locks it in a safe.

It makes all the sense in the world: it's worth a couple million dollars. You lock it up. But locking it in a safe is an interesting image in part because it underscores what makes comics — and, more specifically, superheroes — a complex cultural phenomenon for a lot of people. As they've become more collectible, as they've become fetish objects, as they've become obsessions for their most ardent fans, they've become harder and more imposing for other people to wrap their minds around. And that's too bad, because comics — and, more specifically superheroes — make a marvelous lens through which to look at American popular culture more generally, even if you're not an enthusiast.

That's what Superheroes does well. None of what's here is going to be a big surprise to people who follow comics closely, but it's a fine three-hour tour of superheroes as an example for other people of the way popular culture is always in a dialogue with the other things that are going on around it.

In the evolution of superheroes over these three hours, you see the markings of immigration, World War II, the civil rights movement, the Space Age, censorship, feminism, corporatization of media, the evolution of print and the rise of digital, and the eternal nature of merchandising. You don't learn about superheroes just to understand how superheroes work; you learn about superheroes because it helps explain how everything in entertainment works and has worked for almost a hundred years. (This is also a recurring theme of Monkey See comics blogger Glen Weldon's book about Superman, by the way.)

There's a nice balance in the documentary between good and thoughtful placing of culture in context on one hand, and colorful stories on the other. Maybe you've heard all of Stan Lee's stories, but if you haven't, he's fun to listen to. The same goes for Jim Steranko, an artist who has maybe the best hair you'll see on PBS this year. (And that includes Downton Abbey.) And they speak pretty candidly at times — it's fascinating to hear one of the artists say he was always a pacifist, he always considered himself pro-civil-rights, but that when feminism came along, his first thought was that he should support it, rather than that he did entirely understand it.

You can't really understand current entertainment culture without comics and superheroes — for good or for ill — and while Superheroes isn't news to the ardent fan, it's a good and entertaining backgrounder for the curious, which is always to be appreciated.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/10/15/234837378/why-you-yes-you-might-enjoy-a-superhero-documentary?ft=1&f=1045
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Yahoo says to keep larger stake in Alibaba after its IPO

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday it will keep a larger stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd than originally planned after it goes public, hoping to profit from the Chinese e-commerce company's future growth.

Founded by billionaire Jack Ma, Alibaba is expected to file for an estimated $15 billion IPO in 2014, valuing the operator of retail, auction and content websites at more than $100 billion. The IPO is one of the most eagerly anticipated Internet debuts since Facebook Inc in 2012.

Alibaba has decided not to list its shares in Hong Kong, but has not yet committed to listing on any other exchange, including the New York Stock Exchange, CEO Jonathan Lu told Reuters last week.

Under the terms of an amended agreement that Yahoo announced alongside its quarterly results, the U.S. Internet company will sell up to 208 million of the 523.6 million Alibaba shares it owns, either directly to the Chinese company or through the IPO. That is down from a previously agreed maximum of 261.5 million.

After the IPO, Yahoo would have the right to sell its remaining Alibaba shares at its discretion, Yahoo said.

A spokesman for Alibaba said that the terms of the previous agreement, which permitted Yahoo to sell only after a one-year lock-up period following the IPO, would remain in force.

On Tuesday, Yahoo announced second-quarter results from Alibaba, in which it holds a 24 percent stake, underscoring the Internet, retail and content company's rapid growth.

Alibaba's revenue grew 61 percent to $1.74 billion in the April to June period, while net income jumped 159 percent to $707 million. That pace is down from 71 percent in the first quarter, but still exceeded BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis' forecast for about 54 percent.

(Corrects para 3 to say Alibaba has not yet committed to listing its shares on any other exchange, including the NYSE)

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Bernard Orr and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/yahoo-says-keep-larger-stake-alibaba-ipo-022806584.html
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Deadspin French Fry Shapes, Ranked | io9 These images show just how differently cats and humans see

Deadspin French Fry Shapes, Ranked | io9 These images show just how differently cats and humans see the world | Jezebel I'm Sorry For Making You Read Rielle Hunter's Hilarious Apology Letter | Lifehacker LightZone Is a Free, Awesome Photo Editor and Alternative to Lightroom

Read more...

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Michelle Obama Returning to 'Biggest Loser'

9:09 AM PDT 10/15/2013 by Kimberly Nordyke

Getty Images

Michelle Obama

The first lady is returning to The Biggest Loser.

Michelle Obama is set to appear on the NBC weight-loss competition in November. Her appearance will be in support of a campaign launched by Partnership for a Healthier America that encourages people to drink more water. Biggest Loser sponsor Brita has backed the campaign.

PHOTOS: The Top Celebrity Political Twitter Commentators

This will mark Obama's second appearance on Biggest Loser. She first appeared on the show in April 2012, when she took part in a workout at the White House as part of her Let's Move anti-obesity campaign. (Watch the video below.)

The 15th season of Biggest Loser debuts at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Among the contestants will be American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, with trainers Bob Harper, Jillian Michaels and Dolvett Quince all returning.

Broadcasting & Cable was the first to report the news of Obama's return to the show.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/television/~3/4vhGD6paND0/story01.htm
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