Guirgis' Broadway debut a blistering look at life

NEW YORK, New York (AP) — A fedora has never looked quite so menacing as it does resting on a side table when Stephen Adly Guirgis' gritty new play "The Motherf---- with the Hat" opens.

Ex-con Jackie has come home to the dingy apartment he shares with his girlfriend with good news: He just landed a job, the final piece of a resurrection that includes sobriety, meeting his parole obligations and landing Veronica, the woman he's loved since eighth grade.

Then he spies the hat, like an unwanted calling card. Or an unexploded grenade. It's not his hat. It's not Veronica's, either. The audience at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, where the play opened Monday, will leap to conclusions …

Colts open minicamp practice, stadium to Indy fans

The Indianapolis Colts added a new feature to minicamp practice Saturday _ fans.

Players and coaches boarded busses, made the short trip from the team complex on the city's west side to their downtown stadium where several thousand welcomed the defending AFC champions.

It was the perfect remedy for what might have gone down as just another mundane workout.

"When you're in the stadium, you up the ante a little bit with the energy level," Pro Bowl tight end Dallas Clark said before practice. "You give them (fans) a chance to see what our practices are like, from a coaching aspect and the drills that we do. It's a great opportunity …

Robb wants funds for S.C. library: Mayor says city should benefit if bond issue is approved

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Organizers of the effort to build a new library in downtownCharleston have not gone far enough, South Charleston Mayor RichieRobb said.

Robb has asked the board of the Kanawha County Public Library togive assurances that the South Charleston library would get somemoney if a bond issue is put before county voters and approved.

South Charleston's library is not a part of the county system, butRobb said it should benefit because residents there would be payinghigher taxes like everyone else.

"If they are expecting South Charleston people to vote on it andaffect their taxes, then some of it should come to South Charleston,"Robb …

Thousands in US mark 10th day without electricity after ice storm

More than 30,000 homes and businesses remained without power in the U.S. state of Oklahoma on Wednesday, more than a week after an ice storm hit the Midwest.

Customers in some rural areas were expected to be without power until Christmas, though Oklahoma's utility companies predicted that most service would be restored by Thursday.

The two-day storm caused 27 deaths in Oklahoma, most in traffic accidents, the state Medical Examiner's office said.

President George W. Bush issued a major disaster declaration Tuesday for seven Oklahoma …

Apple looks strong in advance of earnings report

Apple (AAPL) coasts into its first earnings report of 2012 with a strong wind in its sails, a clutch of envelope-pushing products in its hold, a record share price, and a steady hand at the tiller.
But its very success -- with the market-leading iPad and the voice-enabled iPhone 4S -- is luring cheaper rivals to the surface.
Google's (GOOG) Android, launched a few years ago and taking aim squarely at the high-end iOS, continues to attract cellphone makers. Amazon.com's Kindle Fire, half the cost of the iPad, is expected to have chipped away at the lower end of the tablet market.
Finally, though many on Wall Street, betting that an iTV and 4G iPhones and iPads will again pack its stores, continue to bank on a share-price climb to as high as $700, some begin to question the sustainability of Apple's torrid growth pace.
Apple tacked on $43 billion to its top line in fiscal 2011, lifting it to $108.25 billion -- a 65 percent increase from the previous year.
Barry Jaruzelski, a consumer hardware business expert and partner at consulting firm Booz & Co., said to sustain that is effectively to conjure a Fortune 500 company out of thin air -- year after year.
"You become a victim of your own success," he said. "Can you grow the existing products that much, or can you create a new category that creates $10 billion to $20 billion? That is the challenge."
When Apple reports earnings Tuesday, many investors for the first time might be watching for chinks in the armor, especially given Apple's first revenue miss since 2008 for the October quarter.
"The risk is the sustainability of what they have been doing," ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall said. "They have put up a huge number and the question is can they continue to penetrate with their current existing product portfolio at these price levels?"
The fear is that the number of people who can afford an iPad or an iPhone is dwindling, he added.
Apple has gone on a tear the past few years.
With $81.6 billion of cash, surging sales across product lines -- most notably its best-selling iPhone and iPad -- and fevered anticipation that it might make a big, game-changing bet on TV, many still say Apple has only one way to go this year: up.
As one of the companies that is a leader in major trends in technology -- mobile connectivity and the cloud -- Apple's revenue is expected easily to rise 30 percent this year and nearly 50 percent in its fiscal first quarter.
The average estimates for sales of Apple's products during the fiscal first quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season, are roughly 31 million iPhones, 13.5 million to 14 million iPads and 5 million Mac computers. But investors wouldn't be surprised if Apple handily beats these estimates.
Apple's stock trades at about 15 times earnings, versus 10 times for Microsoft and 21 times for Google. Some argue for excluding Apple's massive, $80 billion-plus in cash and investments from the valuation, meaning Apple trades at a much lower multiple.
"This is just a stepping point for it to go another 15 to 20 percent higher than it is now," said Michael Yoshikami, CEO of YCMNet Advisors, which owns Apple shares, adding that international expansion will drive much of the upside.
"The stock is cheap relative to companies like Google. It's a good value, especially considering what a growth trajectory this company is on."
Its stock gained 25 percent in 2011, adding about $77 billion to Apple's market cap, and touched an all-time high of $431.36 last week. That's a remarkable run for any company in a volatile stock market, yet the stock is way off from an average expectation for about $550.
Increasingly formidable competition and the pressure it could bring to bear on margins may be part of the story. The $200 Kindle, for example, is sold at a loss by Amazon as it tries to get a toehold in the tablet market.
For now, Apple's bulls hold sway, with 50 of 55 analysts covering the stock rating it a "strong buy" or "buy." Among its advantages are the global spread of the iPhone, which should sell more than 130 million units this year, and the mystique of an iPad that a plethora of rivals from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to Research In Motion have not been able to best.
Apple's MacBook Air has spawned a whole industry of thin and light laptops that everyone from Inte to HP to Asian computer makers is trying to match.
Some observers are now willing to bet that Apple can indeed pull a rabbit out of its hat with an "iTV," thereby producing a new multibillion-dollar growth business.

Poornima Gupta Reuters

Elton John wants to adopt Ukrainian toddler

Look out, Madonna and Angelina Jolie _ pop star Elton John has decided he wants to join the ranks of A-list celebrities with adopted children.

But it's not clear if John, 62, will be able to adopt, and the Rocket Man star has not yet started formal proceedings, which are often long and complicated.

John and longtime partner David Furnish are interested in trying to adopt a Ukrainian toddler named Lev they met during an orphanage tour there.

The singer told reporters in Ukraine on Saturday that Furnish has long wanted to adopt a child but that he was reluctant until he met Lev at an orphanage where many of the children's parents have died from …

Flying high

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