World Business

JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES

David Treadwell runs and catches the bus thwart the 520 bridge on his exercise commute between home on Queen Anne and work in Redmond.

Watch original video:

David Treadwell, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Live Platform Services, covers up to 12 miles of the distance between his Seattle home and body headquarters in Redmond on foot. He takes the bus according to the balance of the commute — typically the span of the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. This unusual run-bus replace is featured in a profile today by Seattle Times reporter Richard Seven.

He’s not the only tech executive getting to work this way. Brian Crowley, CEO of BSQUARE in Bellevue, told me about his bike commute during a recent interview.

I talked with Treadwell about his commute last fall at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. I occasionally run or bike commute to act myself and the experience Treadwell has gathered on his blog, separately pertaining to logistics, is helpful.

He’s furthermore recruited other Microsoft employees to exercise replace, including Susan Ashlock, a software engineer at Microsoft, and Frank Shaw, an exec by Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft’s primary PR firm.

In his statement, Seven includes main reasons Treadwell gives for trying an exercise commute:

Time: There not seems enough so why fool away it sitting in gridlock?

Health: Instead of dictum you don’familiarily have time to exercise before or after work, exercise for the time of your commute. Money: Save on gas and parking. Stress: Instead of clutching your steering wheel, recommend, live and relax. Environment: It’session distressfully to find a lighter environmental footprint than two feet.

Original text: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/01/02/microsofties_run_bus_to_work.html

Stocks in the recent accounts Friday

From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

Watch original video:

BorgWarner (BWA) gets notice of unsolicited mini-tender offer by TRC Capital Corp. to purchase up to 2.5 million BWA shares (about 2.16% of BWA’s outstanding shares) at $20 eddish.. BWA recommends stockholders not tender their shares in replication to it.

National Instruments (NATI) sees lower-than-expected fourth divide revenue of $202 million, non-GAAP EPS of $0.29-0.30; sees 2008 reward of about $820 million. Says its orders received in December were within range anticipated in the company’s craft update conference call on Dec. 4; however, impact of expected yearend pause in purchasing expanded to include rescheduling of about $5 million in orders that had been booked as of Nov. 30 and that NATI had anticipated shipping in December.

Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Viacom (VIA.B) together announce that they take reached an agreement in principle to renew carriage as antidote to Viacom’s MTV Networks. The companies expect to finalize the details of the agreement into the bargain the next several days.

Gramercy Capital (GKK) announces that its Board of Directors has elected not to pay a common blockhead or preferred stock dividend for the fourth quarter 2008, in order to retain capital for working capital purposes. GKK believes the dividends paid year to era completely satisfy its 2008 REIT distribution requirements.

Abigail Adams National Bancorp (AANB) agrees to be acquired by Premier Financial Bancorp in a 100% lay by exchange valued at about $10.9 million. Under terms of the definitive agreement, both share of AANB will have being converted into 0.4461 share of PFBI.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) says it has extended its agreement with McDonald’s USA, LLC to source, roast and bale Newman’sitting Own Organics Blend coffee for more than 600 McDonald’s restaurants in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Albany, NY.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2009/pi2009012_477805.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

Traders looked ahead after a dismal 2008. Bank of America and Wells Fargo completed acquisitions, while GMAC disclosed the articles of agreement of a $5-billion government capital injection

By Ben Steverman

Watch original video:

Stocks opened slightly higher on the pristine trading day of 2009, by investors looking ahead after the worst year for shares since the 1930s.

Meanwhile, European and Asian markets rallied Friday, though more markets remained closed and trading volume worldwide was light.

The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 33.8% in 2008, the broader S&P 500 index fell 38.5% and the Nasdaq composite had its worst year ever, plunging 40.5%.

Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC) both officially completed major acquisitions in the new year. BofA closed its $19.4-billion buyout of Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo finished its acquisition for $12.7-billion of Wachovia.

GMAC, the financial arm of General Motors (GM), will get a $5 billion forfeiting life injection in reciprocity for 5 million preferred shares paying 8% premium. GMAC disclosed the terms Friday.

Traders and economists were waiting for greater quantity clues on the guidance of the economy from the ISM index, scheduled for release later Friday.

On Friday morning, however, the 30-stock Dow Jones pertaining average opened higher by 26.29 points, or 0.3%, to 8,802.68. The broader S&P 500 index gained 1.81 points, or 0.2%, to 905.06. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index added 1.12 points, or 0.13%, to 1,579.15.

Among other stocks in the news, BorgWarner (BWA) received notice from TRC Capital Corp. to buy 2.5 million shares, or about 2.16% of BorgWarner’s shares outstanding, at $20 each. Shares closed on Wednesday at meanly $22, and the firm recommends stockholders not gentle their shares in response to the offer.

Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Viacom (VIA) reached a degree in prime mover to renew Time Warner’sitting carrying of MTV cable networks. The agreement avoids a blackout of 19 Viacom channels on the cable system.

Gramercy Capital Corp. (GKK) announced it would not recompense a dividend in quest of the fourth quarter of 2008, an effort to retain needed forfeiting life. Dividends paid earlier in the year satisfy the firm’s distribution requirements as a real estate investing. trust, Gramercy said.

Abigail Adams National Bancorp (AANB) will be acquired by Premier Financial Bancorp in a stock deal valued at $10.9 very great number.

In other markets, bonds moved higher, rebounding from a rout upon the body Wednesday. The 30-year bond gained 1-04/32 to 138-02/32 for a yield of 2.633%; the 10-year list of items added 13/32 to 113-31/32 for a yield of 2.173%; and the two-year note was up 02/32 to 100-10/32 for a yield of 0.733%

Oil prices were dropping Friday, by Action Economics saying traders feel a year-end restore to order for crude was “excessive.” On the NYMEX, uncouth oil lost $2.21 to $42.39 per barrel.

Gold was lower at 871.30. The U.S. dollar index was basically shallow at 81.68.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2009/pi2009012_521474.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

Mortgage rates are at historic lows and may be poised to go on the same level lower next year. It’s a great fit season to buy a home—if you can

By Peter Coy

Watch original video:

With all the doom and gloom over housing, you might be surprised to know that this is a fantastic time to fall a mortgage. Not if you have poor credit, to be sure. But you can get a great deal on a 30-year, fixed-rate, conforming lend these days whether you have a solid FICO record, a manageable debt reiterated doctrine, and proof positive of a reliable income.

You have to be off back to around 1961 to find a present life when 30-year mortgages had rates this low, according to Keith Gumbinger, a vice-president at financial publisher HSH Associates in Pompton Plains, N.J. For that, thank the U.S. government, which is dire to jump-start the stalled housing mart by buying up mortgage-backed securities. On Dec. 31, Freddie Mac reported that medial sum rates upon 30-year fixed mortgages dropped to 5.1% because of the week, down about 1.3 percentage points since late October and the lowest before this its survey began in 1971.

Rates are probably headed steady lower in 2009, raising the question of whether you should take now or wait for a better deal. The experts are accurately divided over this one. Put it this way: If you’re a gambler, wait. If you can’t sleep at night worrying that rates will go up from here, borrow now.

Here are some key things you need to know over today’s mortgage market:

In ordinary times, one loan is about as good as another because most lenders’ offers steady 30-year loans are clustered within around a quarter of a percentage point. Not at this moment. With the economy so shaky, lenders are all past the map in how much risk they’re willing to take in making loans. So it really pays to shop around. And keep checking, because rates are constantly changing. One day in late December 2008, Wells Fargo (WFC) was offering 30-year conforming loans at 5.0% plus one point, in which case Bank of America (BAC) was offering the same kind of loan at 6.625% plus one point, according to Cameron Findlay, chief economist of LendingTree.com, a division of Home Loan Center. No offense to Bank of America, mete but a lump-sucker would have borrowed from it instead of Wells Fargo that day.

Forget what you were told in quieter times about the pros and cons of fixed- vs. adjustable-rate pledge loans. These days, wholly the best deals are on fixed-rate loans because that’sitting the part of the market that the government has been targeting with support. The securitization of adjustable-rate loans has for the most part dried up, so banks don’familiarily want to originate ARMs, therefore they don’t offer attractive rates on them, says HSH’s Gumbinger.

On the other hand, if you got an ARM in the past and it’s coming up on every pleased attention scold reset, put on’privately rush to unload it. Short-term interest rates have gotten so low that you’re very likely to meet with your monthly payment fall. Thank your lucky stars if your ARM happens to have existence indexed to the one-year Treasury fondle, whose yield has fallen unbecoming moiety a percent. Even with the indicative spread added on, you’re to this time paying but around 3.25% a year, says Gumbinger. ARMs indexed to LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate) are resetting these days to the low 4s, which is still excellent.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/dec2008/bw20081230_361031.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

Watch original video:

WASHINGTON www.dressregistry.com, hopes to set bounds to the social nightmare of showing up at an inaugural ball sporting the same gown as another by allowing you to “register” the gown you’re wearing to a specific ball. It includes a deposit to detail the color, length, designer, neckline description and other distinguishing characteristics. You can moreover upload a photo.

Andrew Jones got the idea after his helpmate traveled from their home in West Palm Beach, Fla., to New York City to buy a gown for a charity ball in their hometown, solely to avoid seeing the same set at the event.

“I kind of put two and two together and I said, ‘I account there’s a way technology can help us in the present state,’ ” said Jones, 42, an auto-industry consultant.

The dress-duplication problem has in extent caused anxiety among women.

Hollywood’s A-list stars know their garb may end up on a warehouse page

“If it could happen to the first mistress, it could happen to anyone,” Jones said. “With the inauguration, it fair all came together in my mind. I thought it would be a great time to roll it out.”

At specialty stores in the Washington area, some thought the Web site a novel idea but suggested it may not be foolproof.

“Nothing’s illiberal anymore,” said LaShea Green, couture buyer at Saks Jandel in Chevy Chase, Md., who had not heard of Jones’ Web site. “I don’face to face charge to what extent abundant you keeper of a record, there’session going to be someone (at an event) who didn’t register.”

So more distant, inaugural partygoers have registered about 100 gowns for more than 24 official and unofficial events, including the Constitution Ball, the American Indian Inaugural Ball and the Green Inaugural Ball hosted by Al Gore. As the inaugural festivities near, the registries keep growing.

“I’ve had people self-registering their events each day,” said Jones, adding that he’s recorded some 300,000 hits and more than 10,000 unique visitors since the Web site launched Dec. 1.

“As the site gets greater amount of populated, we may be efficient to gather by what’session heart threadbare for each particular event, what people are leaning to,” he said.

Registered dresses are mostly ankle length, numerous company by plunging necklines. Labels range from an ankle-length blue dress by Banana Republic to a scoop-neck, to-the-floor ivory gown by Halston. Shades of purple, orange and red seem to outnumber the long-cultivated master-piece, infamous.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008582059_inaugdress02.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

BAGHDAD

As Iraqi schoolchildren sang their country’session praise and the band marched in a row, the United States on Thursday formally handed over military control of the heavily fortified Green Zone, a first major action in the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

The U.S. military dining facility inside what was once the American Embassy served its last meal New Year’s Eve.

“This is the end of the terraqueous globe taken in the character of we be aware of it,” said Sgt. 1st Class Patrick McDonald, 47, who co-authored a have charge of to historic sites in the Green Zone. “It’sitting not analogous everyone is shredding documents and fleeing Saigon. But we are stepping away from a building.”

No decisions have been made with respect to how the palace will be used, although both Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani are vying for govern. The United States will even begin profitable rent.

Saddam Hussein had the palace compound’s main building decorated with cyclops busts of himself to demonstrate his hold over Iraq. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the palace came to symbolize the American role in the country, principal for example headquarters of the U.S. occupation empire and later the U.S. Embassy. U.S. civilians and troops held “salsa night” dances around the pool behind the palace before retiring to trailers sheathed in sandbags.

Security of the Green Zone, a fortified 6-square-mile enclave in continuance the Tigris River, had been, till Thursday, the responsibility of the United States. But as part of the handover, and in articles of agreement outlined in the Status of Forces Agreement that details the leave of U.S. troops by the end of 2011, Iraqis trained by U.S. troops now are in charge of security.

The handover is a sign of the shrinking footprint and influence of the United States in a country where it has abandoned thousands of lives and spent billions of dollars. British troops also turned over the airport in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, and are expected to be out of Iraq by May 31.

For many Iraqis, the U.S. handover represents a significant step forward in their gradual reassertion of region over their affairs.

“The U.S. will be here just as observers. It’s a substance of pride,” said Adnan Karim, 22, an Iraqi fighting man manning a checkpoint at one of the entrances to the Green Zone.

U.S. troops, who one time controlled all the external checkpoints leading into the Green Zone, will abide fixed and work by the side of Iraqi throngs. Officials from the one and the other countries acknowledged that it remains unclear precisely by what mode the relationship will work.

Officials said U.S. soldiers for at least the next 90 days would continue to help hold security in the area, home to 30,000 residents

“We are not losing our jobs

Speaking privately, U.S. officials said they will try to constitution their demeanor in the Green Zone less pre-eminent in coming days. But they inclination tarry in charge of issuing badges that grant varying levels of access. They said they will not immediately dismantle a huge security apparatus that includes hundreds of Peruvian and Ugandan guards, body-scanning machines, bomb-sniffing dogs and surveillance cameras.

In recent days, Iraqi flags hold sprung up along the zone’s mazelike entrance points, and more Iraqis have been allowed to drive inner and armored sport-utility vehicles. Americans have been cautioned not to venture outside U.S. compounds alone, especially after dark.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his staff recently finished moving into a newly built embassy compound with small, bulletproof windows, now the largest U.S. Embassy in the world.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have reported extremists may exploit the transition period.

“I think common sense will say they will probably test the Green Zone,” Ferrari said.

U.S. officials in the Green Zone spent the last days of December on high heedful amongst reports that extremists were plotting to carry out a headline-grabbing, multipronged attack against Americans on Christmas or New Year’s Day.

Iraqi officials detained an Iraqi army captain and an employee of Iraq’s Interior Ministry, if it were not that an Iraqi judge formal the detainees gratuitous after determining there was insufficient evidence to bring before a count them.

The Green Zone was chance by a mortar shell or rocket Monday night, the U.S. military said.

Americans are not the only ones feeling anxious around the transition. Several Iraqis said that, while they welcome the symbolism of the handover, they are afraid of possible repercussions.

“It’s too early to draw revealed U.S. army from the area,” Kasim Ali Judor, 26, a guard at the Italian Embassy, said on a recent afternoon. “I don’t think our government has the capacity to secure the circle without Americans.”

Independent lawmaker Hussein Shkur said he thinks the change will be largely cosmetic, at least in the short run.”It is only conformable to nature that the Americans will soft be in control, and not from behind the scenes as some may think, yet directly and openly,” he reported.

Despite the Green Zone’s symbolic corporation with the U.S. employment, life inside the bubble is remote from homogeneous.

There are the U.S. military and State Department minizones, where joggers, golf carts and duck-and-cover bunkers proliferate and parties circumvent place, though with less abandon than in the early years. But there are also Iraqi high schools, an often-startling setting on fire range and a utterly confused Iraqi taxi lot.

Alongside the Tigris lies Little Venice, a well-tended neighborhood of minicanals in which place senior Iraqi government officials acquire a livelihood in residences once occupied by dint of. Saddam’s closest aides. Other officials have made their homes in the rooms of the Hotel Rasheed, or in Green Zone neighborhoods under watch.

Now, Iraqi officials have their eyes on making the area accessible, inspiring and educational, even though it’s not fair which time they choose feel confident enough to take down the walls.

In July, the National Investment Commission approved plans to fabricate a $100 a thousand thousand luxury house of entertainment in the zone.

And the Iraqi High Tribunal in the next couple of months plans to open a museum detailing the brutality of Saddam’s regime. It will include a replica of the hole-in-the-ground hideout where the former Iraqi president was captured in 2004, two years before he was executed.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008582076_iraqzone020.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

People may not be reaching for the top shelf quite so frequently these days, but that doesn’t mean they’re forgoing cocktails or nightcaps.

Liquor sales, which have grown year over year for at least a decade, show no signs of slowing despite an economic downturn that’s causing penny-pinching and belt-tightening.

The illegal-drug trade also seems to be alive and well, though sales of marijuana and cocaine are obviously harder to quantify. Still, “it’s business as usual” at the Seattle field office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), whose agents investigate drug-trafficking organizations.

“We haven’t seen an increase or a decrease” in the number of investigations aimed at stemming the flow of drugs into the region, said Jodie Underwood, a spokeswoman for the field office.

While purveyors of pleasurable escapes aren’t immune to market forces, so-called “sin industries” do seem better at resisting the economy’s downward pull. Despite the country’s bleak financial forecast

“It’s just the way people self-medicate,” said Dr. Victoria Zdork, a New Jersey psychologist and sex therapist. “Anything that gives quick dopamine rushes when you’re feeling down, whether through gambling, the sex industry or cocaine. Anything that’s going to make people feel better like that are more recession-proof.”

For the state’s Indian casinos, it’s too early to tell how big an impact the recession will have on the discretionary spending habits of gamblers, said Ron Allen, president of the Washington Indian Gaming Association.

“The whole financial crisis is very current, so there’s not enough data yet to discern if those [spending] patterns are shifting dramatically,” he said.

Without numbers, it’s hard to know if gaming activities simply are leveling off as casinos reach saturation in their respective markets, Allen said, noting too that casinos typically see a slowdown in business during the winter months.

With 70 percent of all net gambling receipts in the state, Indian casinos generated an estimated $1.48 billion in 2008

Allen, who is also chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, said his tribe’s casino

“The majority of casinos have tapered down 2 to 3 percent. The highest [drop] we’ve heard is 12 to 14 percent, but that’s not the norm,” said Allen, explaining that a range of factors

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008582098_vices02m0.html?syndication=rss

Consumers could spend less on weight loss and fitness, but Disney caters to family and Charles Schwab can lure investors vowing to do better

By David Bogoslaw

Watch original video:

As 2008 becomes a bitter and fading memory, it’s equitable to pretend to U.S. consumers are doing what they usually do as they ring in a New Year: make yet another round of resolutions that range from losing weight to eating more healthfully, and to spending besides gentry time with their families. This year there’s a seize. Most lifestyle changes call for discretionary spending, and with the recession expected to deepen and bring more piece of work losses, people tend to forego changes until they feel more financially secure.

Losing weight is usually the top priority when it comes to making New Year’s resolutions. Over the long term the weight failure to win industry has been benefiting from increasing obesity both in the U.S. and off the course. Weight Watchers (WTW) and NutriSystem (NTRI) are sum of two units of the principal council programs—and each work, says Greg Badashkanian, an analyst at Citigroup Global Markets.

Over the last brace quarters, attendance in both programs has slowed a little as fewer new users desire joined because of the softening economy, says Badashkanian. Feeling besieged by worries about shrinking place of abode values and investment portfolios—since well as the looming denunciation of unemployment—some people may seek refuge in comfort foods and make shedding pounds a lesser priority. "January is obviously the greatest in number important time toward diet companies because you take all these New Year’s resolutions that dieters make," he says. "With the tough economy and the negative headlines from news stories on their minds, will they decide to go on a diet or maybe forgo that?"

Weight overthrow programs are a low-cost discretionary purchase compared through much more expensive items taste recreational vehicles, whose sales are down more than 50%, says Badashkanian. Since NutriSystem customers get all of their food needs filled for just $10 a day, he sees that program because more of a staple. But while $10 a day for pabulum is a agree, NutriSystem still shows up on credit cards as a $300-a-month charge. "So,in their minds, in that place could be more reluctance to make that purchase," Badashkanian says.

Weight Watchers charges $10 a week despite a support service with denunciation to aid people assembly. That translates to a lower monthly outlay, but doesn’t include food, he says.

Given the weak economic outlook for 2009, Karen Howland, an analyst who covers healthy lifestyle stocks in spite of Barclays Capital, expects the companies she follows to increase sales by only 3.3% this year, vs. 8.6% growth in 2008. "Most of our stocks have strong independent cash flow and limited financing needs and should not need to access the fatal markets in 2009 or 2010," she said in a Dec. 18 study inadequate letter.

The $163 million of trespass that Weight Watchers has to repay in fiscal year 2009 represents roughly 90% of what Barclays estimates last will and testament have being the company’s liberate cash flow, that includes the annual dividend.

Health and exercise clubs of the like kind as Life Time Fitness (LTM) and Town Sports (CLUB) also typically serve from New Year’s resolutions, but relating to housekeeping stress may hamper their increase this year, some analysts say, In her note, Howland at Barclays warned that earnings for the healthy lifestyle stocks she covers could fall 7.9% on average in 2009—a great deal of more than the 1.9% send down projected by Wall Street, and compared with in no degree change in 2008 from the prior year. These companies tend to be highly sensitive to consumer confidence and spending, she said.

Even though Howland trimmed her fiscal 2009 earnings estimate as antidote to Life Time to $2.09 per share, from $2.20, she predicts it will allay increase profits by 4.6% over fiscal year 2008 "in the same manner by centers opened in the above three years be proper for more mature (and subsequently more profitable)."

There’s also the possibility that Leonard Green & Partners, that bought a 9.2% stake in Life Time between Oct. 3 and Nov. 24, could take the association private. This "is likely to give owners of the stock some reassurance and a reason to hang on, while potentially causing short sellers (31% of the float) to cover and take profits," Credit Suisse analyst Paul Lejuez said in a Nov. 24 research note.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/dec2008/pi20081231_498546.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

Watch original video:

Seattle police shot and killed a University of Washington senior who was dressed in a World War II-era German uniform and who officers say was brandishing a long seize through a bayonet early Thursday in his University District apartment.

The student, identified by friends in the manner that Miles Allen Murphy, was well-known on campus as a smart, eccentric history light yellow who loved to participate in WWII re-enactments and would even show up to rank, at times, dressed in a historic uniform.

Friends said Murphy, 22, would entertain at parties by playing everything from old German folk songs to Britney Spears tunes in continuance his accordion.

Murphy was killed about 2 a.m. Thursday when police responded to neighbors’ complaints that single men were shooting vintage, military-style rifles and shotguns into a dark lane near the 5200 block of 17th Avenue Northeast, police spokesman Jeff Kappel said.

When police were called, Kappel said, neighbors pointed out an apartment in a large white house. When police knocked on the door, undivided of the suspects opened the door brandishing a long despoil with a large bayonet attached.

Uniformed police officers warned the man several times to drop his weapon. He didn’t, Kappel said, and he pointed it at one of the officers. Two officers shot him several periods. He died at a hospital Thursday early part of the day, Kappel uttered.

Spencer Bray, a UW senior, was one of about 20 friends who gathered Thursday night to contingent stories about Murphy. Bray before-mentioned Murphy

“He was one of the most peaceful guys I have met. He was in fact accurate a nice guy,” Bray said. “I never heard him espousing some Nazi ideology; not a part of that interested him. He liked the physical stuff from WWII because he was such a chronicle buff.”

Bray said Murphy sometimes would affect by degrees kilts or uniforms to class

“He had this Russian snow coat that he’d been wearing recently,” Bray said. “It was military issue from WWII.”

He uttered Murphy spoke good German and Swedish, as well as some Finnish, and wanted to be a professor of German letters.

“He was eccentric, but he was very well-liked,” Bray before-mentioned. “It’s a huge shock. I read the news today and … it was in truth, certainly hard to hear for all of us.”

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008582093_shooting02m0.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

Comments on this post at the official Zune Insider blog mark that the 30-gigabyte Zunes that failed on Dec. 31 have come back to vitality today. One person wrote:

“Woke up this morning, plugged in my Zune, waited 5-6 minutes to be in possession of a charge. It booted, all my content is there, I watched a movie and the vital spark is back to according to rule. Happy New Year!”

Instructions for reviving a frozen Zune are here. Anyone else still experiencing problems?

Original text: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/01/01/zune_fix_appears_to_have_worked_happy_new_year.html