Jolly holiday shopping season already underway

Lilian Stoppa and Renata Rosa stepped out of Target in Midtown Miami with a cart piled high with holiday gifts.

Landing in Miami on Thursday morning for a five-day shopping spree, they already had spent $800 by mid-afternoon on presents for family members: toys for Rosa’s daughter, beauty items for Stoppa’s mother, plus lots of other stuff.

“This is just the start,” giggled Stoppa, 30, who works with Rosa, also 30, at a Sao Paulo telecom company. Their next stops: Sawgrass Mills, Aventura Mall and Bal Harbour Shops, if their money holds out. “We came to Miami to shop because it’s very much cheaper than in Brazil.”

Tourists like Stoppa and Rosa are exactly the reason retail experts predict Florida’s holiday shopping season will see its highest increase since the recession.

Across South Florida, stores are getting a head start on the holidays in hopes of cashing in. Sales are already underway everywhere from Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, to Macy’s, Toys“R”Us and Anthropologie.

The Florida Retail Federation forecasts that Florida will see a 5.2 percent jump in holiday spending from $55 billion in 2011 to $58 billion this year, marking the highest percentage growth predicted since the economic slump began. Pre-recession, retail sales peaked at $54.3 billion in 2006.

“All of the indicators point to what we believe will be a very robust holiday shopping season,” said Florida Retail Federation President and Chief Executive Rick McAllister.

That also translates into more than 42,000 new retail jobs, he said.

Buoyed in large part by tourists and snowbirds, Florida is expected to outpace the nation in spending for the holiday season, as it did before the recession.

This year, the National Retail Federation is predicting holiday spending nationwide to rise 4.1 percent. On average, consumers are expected to spend about $750 each.

Economists point to strong consumer confidence as a major factor contributing to a stronger shopping season.

“By and large the consumer is very confident right now, and that usually leads to spending,” McAllister said.

Other indicators also point to a healthy season. ICSC, a trade association for the shopping center industry, this week released its ICSC-Goldman Sachs 2012 Holiday Spending Intentions Survey, which found that 19 percent of consumers plan to spend more, and 5 percent substantially more, on holiday gifts this year versus last year. It was the highest percentage of consumers reporting they intend to increase spending over the previous holiday season since ICSC began asking the question in 2004.

Retailers like West Elm are ready, beckoning gift givers. Stores are decked out with sparkly, eye-catching displays of items like candlesticks, ornaments and crystal paperweights.

“We’ve had lots of people shopping early, for several weeks,” said Ana Meza, an assistant manager at West Elm in Midtown Miami.

Without question, the holiday season is critical for retailers, a period when they typically generate 20 percent to 40 percent of the full year’s revenue.

This year brings an added bonus. With Thanksgiving falling early, the shopping season is stretched to 32 days, giving retailers more valuable time to rack up sales.

Shoppers like Jose Hernandez aren’t waiting for the last minute. Hernandez, who works as a civilian supervisor at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Miss., and spends every other three months home in Miami, started his holiday shopping this week. He figures he spent $2,000 at Carter’s, GUESS, Marshalls and Target in Midtown, and plans to spend a total of $5,000 — up 40 percent from last year — before Christmas Day.

“The economy is going up,” said Hernandez, 44.

Yet experts say that many holiday revelers will avoid the stores all together, opting instead for online purchases.

Retail experts expect e-commerce to continue to post a dramatic increase this holiday season, up 15 percent. Though it still represents only about 5 percent of all shopping, online buying is the fastest-growing segment of the retail industry, McAllister said.

Many online sites are offering percentage discounts starting this weekend. Disney Store will offer a selection of “Magical Friday” deals on sale beginning Monday, at DisneyStore.com. Kohl’s is letting customers shop more than 500 “Early Bird specials” on Kohls.com starting Wednesday.

While apparel is expected to be the top category for purchases, gift cards are again projected to outsell any single article of merchandise. The National Retail Federation’s 2012 holiday consumer spending survey showed that 81.1 percent of shoppers will purchase at least one gift card, spending an average of $156.86 on them.

“Gift cards are the best invention ever,” said Jennifer Mayer, 44, a drug representative who has three daughters and lives in Miami Beach. “It’s not for everyone, but it’s great for those you don’t intimately know.”

This year, Mayer plans to buy gift cards at places like Starbucks, H&M, Forever 21 and Barnes & Noble.

“They’re great for bosses. They’re great for teenagers,” she said. “They’re a lifesaver.”

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Weather alert: Cool temperatures will stay into the weekend

Mild temperatures will continue into the weekend, with highs in the low-80s and lows in the mid-60s.

The weekend will remain partly cloudy, with a low chance of showers at 20 percent.

No advisories have been announced and wind will be low at 10 to 15 miles per hour each day.

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Exclusive: Facebook offering e-retailers sales tracking tool

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc wants more credit for making online cash registers ring.

Facebook will begin rolling out on Friday a new tool which will allow online retailers to track purchases by members of the social network who have viewed their ads.

The tool is the latest of the new advertising features Facebook is offering to convince marketers that steering advertising dollars to the company will deliver a payoff.

Facebook, with roughly 1 billion users, has faced a tough reception on Wall Street amid concerns about its slowing revenue growth.

“Measuring ad effectiveness and outcomes is absolutely crucial to all types of businesses and marketers,” said David Baser, a product manager for Facebook’s ads business who said the “conversion measurement” tool has been a top customer request for a long time.

The sales information that advertisers receive is anonymous, said Baser. “You would see the number of people who bought shoes,” he said, using the example of an online shoe retailer. But marketers would not be able to get information that could identify the people, he added.

The conversion tool is specifically designed for so-called direct response marketers, such as online retailers and travel websites that advertise with the goal of drumming up immediate sales rather than for longer-term brand-building.

Such advertisers have long flocked to Google Inc’s Web search engine, which can deliver ads to consumers at the exact moment they’re looking for information on a particular product.

But some analysts say there is room for Facebook to make inroads if it can demonstrate results.

“The path to purchase” is not as direct on Facebook as it is on Google’s search engine, said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst with research firm eMarketer. But she said that providing information about customer sales conversion should help Facebook make a stronger case to online retailers.

“It lets marketers track the impact of a Facebook ad hours or days or even a week beyond when someone might have viewed the ad,” said Williamson. “That allows marketers to understand the impact of the Facebook ad on the ultimate purchase.”

Marketers will also have the option to aim their ads at segments of Facebook’s audience with similar attributes to consumers that have responded well to a particular ad in the past, Baser said.

Online retailer Fab.com, which has tested Facebook’s new service, was able to reduce its cost per new customer acquisition by 39 percent when it served ads to consumers deemed most likely to convert, Facebook said. Facebook defines a conversion as anything from a completed sale, to a consumer taking another desired action on a website, such as registering for a newsletter.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Shares of Facebook, which were priced at $ 38 a share in its May initial public offering, closed Thursday’s regular session at $ 22.17.

In recent months, Facebook has introduced a variety of new advertising capabilities and moved to broaden its appeal to various groups of advertisers.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in October that Facebook saw multi-billion revenue opportunities in each of four groups of advertisers: brand marketers, local businesses, app developers and direct response marketers.

Facebook does not disclose how much of its ad revenue, which totaled $ 1.09 billion in the third quarter, comes from each type of advertiser. Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser estimates that brand marketers and local businesses account for the bulk of Facebook’s current advertising revenue.

Earlier this year, Facebook introduced a similar conversion measurement service for big brand advertisers, such as auto manufacturers, partnering with data mining firm Datalogix to help connect the dots between consumer spending at brick-and-mortar and Facebook ads.

And Facebook has rolled out new marketing tools for local businesses such as restaurants and coffee shops, including a revamped online coupon service and simplified advertising capabilities known as promoted posts.

The new conversion measurement tool is launching in testing mode, but will be fully available by the end of the month, Facebook said.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; editing by Carol Bishopric)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan Reveals Suicide Attempt

Cesar Millan -- who became a TV star by utilizing his "dog whispering" skills -- has revealed that he reached such a low point in 2010 that he tried to commit suicide.

The 43-year-old reality star opens up about the the overdose that left him unconscious and hospitalized in a new documentary, Cesar Millan: The Real Story," which airs November 25 on Nat Geo Wild.

While promoting the documentary, Millan explained to the Associated Press that 2010 was a very rough year. In February of that year, he lost his beloved 16-year-old pit bull Daddy, whom he often used to help troubled dogs become more calm and submissive. In June 2010, Millan's wife of 16 years, Ilusion Millan, filed for divorce.

VIDEO: Dog Whisperer Takes On Kelsey's Troubled Pups

"I felt defeated, a big sense of guilt and failure... I was at the lowest level I had ever been emotionally and psychologically," Millan wrote in June on his official website, without specifically mentioning the overdose. He told the AP that after surviving the overdose, he opted for work, exercise and affection over antidepressants.

In Cesar Millan: The Real Story, he does open up about the loss of his dog. "Daddy was my Tibet, my Himalaya, my Gouda, my Buddha, my source of calmness," Millan said. He also revealed that he's now met the woman he calls "the one," Jahira Dar, and plans to propose to her soon.

In addition to the documentary, Millan's seventh book, A Short Guide to a Happy Dog, is due out January 1. His new Nat Geo Wild show Leader of the Pack will premiere on January 5, after the conclusion of his previous show, Dog Whisperer.

VIDEO: How the Dogs Were Trained For Chihuahua 3

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Coast Guard: Gulf rig fire sends 4 to hospitals

WEST COTE BLANCHE, La. — Coast Guard officials said an oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, sending four people to hospitals Friday. Two were believed to be missing.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, did not immediately have information on the conditions of those taken to hospitals.

The rig, a production platform owned by Black Elk Energy, is about 25 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La.

Lally says two helicopters, an airplane and small boats were sent to the area. He did not know if the fire caused by the explosion had been put out yet.

The platform is a production platform, unlike the Deepwater Horizon rig, which was drilling an exploratory well for oil giant BP in mile-deep water well to the east of Friday's reported explosion.

A spokesman for Black Elk Energy could not immediately be reached for comment.

Black Elk is an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Houston, Texas.

The company's website says it holds interests in properties in Texas and Louisiana waters, including 854 wells on 155 platforms.

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South Florida’s hiring comeback hits a setback

Shrinking government payrolls slammed hiring in South Florida last month, with Broward losing jobs overall and Miami-Dade expanding payrolls at the slowest pace in more than two years.

The anemic job-growth figures are preliminary, and could turn around in a moment if next month’s revisions find more hiring in Florida’s largest regional economy. But they also could signal the start of a new and more dismal chapter in South Florida’s slow recovery on the hiring front.

Statewide, one side of the employment picture looked positive for October. Florida’s unemployment rate dropped from 8.7 percent in September to 8.5 percent in October, even as the pool of job seekers grew. Florida’s labor pool increased by 40,000 people, but the number of people listed as employed in the monthly household survey increased at a faster rate, to 60,000 people. When both numbers are increasing, that’s generally a sign of real improvement in hiring.

The state’s labor agency said businesses and governments added almost 15,000 jobs in Florida, most of them in the private sector.

Florida’s unemployment rate is adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in the economy, so it’s considered more accurate than the raw unemployment rate, which dropped to 8.2 percent. Seasonally adjusted rates were not available for Broward or Miami-Dade. In Broward, the raw unemployment rate fell from 7.6 percent in September to 7.1 percent in October. For Miami-Dade, the raw unemployment rate inched up slightly from 8.8 percent to 8.9 percent.

Payroll counts come from a separate survey — this one of businesses, not households. Locally, those surveys showed overall hiring increased by only 800 positions in Miami-Dade. That’s paltry compared to the 24,000 jobs Miami-Dade employers were adding as recently as March and marked the worst month for hiring in Miami-Dade since June 2010. All of the losses came from the public sector, since private employers added a still-paltry 5,200 jobs from a year ago.

Broward saw a loss of 1,100 jobs over the past 12 months. Broward has not enjoyed the same kind of strong economic rebound that Miami-Dade has, and October is the second month of 2012 to show an overall decline in payroll slots in Broward. Government hiring also accounted for all of the employment losses in Broward, with the county’s private sector eking out a 700-job gain.

Combining both counties’ totals, October was the first month since June 2010 that the region lost jobs in the payroll survey. For both Broward and Miami-Dade, the bulk of the government jobs were lost at the local level. That category includes public hospitals and school systems.

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Crime Watch: Don’t leave valuable gifts in the trunk while shopping

The holiday shopping season starts next Friday, and we all will try to get the best deals. Criminals are in the same state of mind, looking for easy victims.

So let’s look at some ways we can deter them from ruining our holiday spirit while shopping and assist the police at the same time.

Women, is it really necessary to carry a purse at all times? It may be wiser to just put the essentials, such as keys, credit cards and ID cards, in our pockets. If you must take a purse, use one that crosses your body, keeping it always in front of you and thus making it harder for someone to grab. Carry as little cash and as few credit cards as possible.

Men, put your wallet in your front pockets to avoid pickpockets. It’s easier to steal a wallet from your back pocket than the front pocket especially if you are dealing with a distraction team.

Be aware of camera phones. There have been instances in which these phones have been used to steal someone’s merchandise.

Here’s how it works: You’re standing in line making your purchases while the person behind you is pretending to be on the phone. That person is actually taking a picture of you.

By the time you have finished paying, that picture has been sent to a contact outside. They’ll follow you to your car and either wait for you to put all the merchandise in your trunk and continue shopping or follow you home and pop the trunk open. There are ways to protect yourself from this scheme. For example, when you’re shopping — and this usually happens when you’re buying big items such as electronics — don’t go to your car and leave the packages in your trunk and then continue shopping.

When you go home, remove all your purchases from the trunk before doing anything else, including rushing inside to use the restroom. Pay attention to your surroundings and look for tell-tale signs such as a car or a pedestrian near your home. If someone is home, ask them to come outside, if its dark make sure the porch lights are on.

When using an ATM to make withdrawals, make sure it is in a well-lit and not-secluded area. Once you get your money, wait until you get into your car to count the cash, with the windows up and doors locked. An added recommendation is turn your car alarm on.

Many malls and shopping areas are working with law enforcement to keep crime down. You may see an increase in the number of uniformed officers in and around malls, but many places also will have undercover officers.

It may put us at ease to know that we have police officers protecting us while we shop, but those officers cannot be everywhere at all times. We need to remember to take extra measures to protect ourselves from becoming crime victims.

Be safe, be alert and call the police if you see anything suspicious.

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In UK, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail

LONDON (AP) — One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should “go to hell.” A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead.

All were arrested, two convicted, and one jailed — and they’re not the only ones. In Britain, hundreds of people are prosecuted each year for posts, tweets, texts and emails deemed menacing, indecent, offensive or obscene, and the number is growing as our online lives expand.

Lawyers say the mounting tally shows the problems of a legal system trying to regulate 21st century communications with 20th century laws. Civil libertarians say it is a threat to free speech in an age when the Internet gives everyone the power to be heard around the world.

“Fifty years ago someone would have made a really offensive comment in a public space and it would have been heard by relatively few people,” said Mike Harris of free-speech group Index on Censorship. “Now someone posts a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook and potentially hundreds of thousands of people can see it.

“People take it upon themselves to report this offensive material to police, and suddenly you’ve got the criminalization of offensive speech.”

Figures obtained by The Associated Press through a freedom of information request show a steadily rising tally of prosecutions in Britain for electronic communications — phone calls, emails and social media posts — that are “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character — from 1,263 in 2009 to 1,843 in 2011. The number of convictions grew from 873 in 2009 to 1,286 last year.

Behind the figures are people — mostly young, many teenagers — who find that a glib online remark can have life-altering consequences.

No one knows this better than Paul Chambers, who in January 2010, worried that snow would stop him catching a flight to visit his girlfriend, tweeted: “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your (expletive) together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high.”

A week later, anti-terrorist police showed up at the office where he worked as a financial supervisor.

Chambers was arrested, questioned for eight hours, charged, tried, convicted and fined. He lost his job, amassed thousands of pounds (dollars) in legal costs and was, he says, “essentially unemployable” because of his criminal record.

But Chambers, now 28, was lucky. His case garnered attention online, generating its own hashtag — (hash)twitterjoketrial — and bringing high-profile Twitter users, including actor and comedian Stephen Fry, to his defense.

In July, two and half years after Chambers’ arrest, the High Court overturned his conviction. Justice Igor Judge said in his judgment that the law should not prevent “satirical or iconoclastic or rude comment, the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, banter or humor, even if distasteful to some or painful to those subjected to it.”

But the cases are coming thick and fast. Last month, 19-year-old Matthew Woods was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail for making offensive tweets about a missing 5-year-old girl, April Jones.

The same month Azhar Ahmed, 20, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for writing on Facebook that soldiers “should die and go to hell” after six British troops were killed in Afghanistan. Ahmed had quickly deleted the post, which he said was written in anger, but was convicted anyway.

On Sunday — Remembrance Day — a 19-year-old man was arrested in southern England after police received a complaint about a photo on Facebook showing the burning of a paper poppy. He was held for 24 hours before being released on bail and could face charges.

For civil libertarians, this was the most painfully ironic arrest of all. Poppies are traditionally worn to commemorate the sacrifice of those who died for Britain and its freedoms.

“What was the point of winning either World War if, in 2012, someone can be casually arrested by Kent Police for burning a poppy?” tweeted David Allen Green, a lawyer with London firm Preiskel who worked on the Paul Chambers case.

Critics of the existing laws say they are both inadequate and inconsistent.

Many of the charges come under a section of the 2003 Electronic Communications Act, an update of a 1930s statute intended to protect telephone operators from harassment. The law was drafted before Facebook and Twitter were born, and some lawyers say is not suited to policing social media, where users often have little control over who reads their words.

It and related laws were intended to deal with hate mail or menacing phone calls to individuals, but they are being used to prosecute in cases where there seems to be no individual victim — and often no direct threat.

And the Internet is so vast that policing it — even if desirable — is a hit-and-miss affair. For every offensive remark that draws attention, hundreds are ignored. Conversely, comments that people thought were made only to their Facebook friends or Twitter followers can flash around the world.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that First Amendment protections of freedom of speech apply to the Internet, restrictions on online expression in other Western democracies vary widely.

In Germany, where it is an offense to deny the Holocaust, a neo-Nazi group has had its Twitter account blocked. Twitter has said it also could agree to block content in other countries at the request of their authorities.

There’s no doubt many people in Britain have genuinely felt offended or even threatened by online messages. The Sun tabloid has launched a campaign calling for tougher penalties for online “trolls” who bully people on the Web. But others in a country with a cherished image as a bastion of free speech are sensitive to signs of a clampdown.

In September Britain’s chief prosecutor, Keir Starmer, announced plans to draw up new guidelines for social media prosecutions. Starmer said he recognized that too many prosecutions “will have a chilling effect on free speech.”

“I think the threshold for prosecution has to be high,” he told the BBC.

Starmer is due to publish the new guidelines in the next few weeks. But Chambers — reluctant poster boy of online free speech — is worried nothing will change.

“For a couple of weeks after the appeal, we got word of judges actually quoting the case in similar instances and the charges being dropped,” said Chambers, who today works for his brother’s warehouse company. “We thought, ‘Fantastic! That’s exactly what we fought for.’ But since then we’ve had cases in the opposite direction. So I don’t know if lessons have been learned, really.”

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Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Walking Dead episode 6 Exclusive Sneak Peek

First Look!

The Walking Dead continues this breathless third season this Sunday, with an all-new episode titled Hounded, and ETonline has your exclusive first look at the outing!

VIDEO - On The Walking Dead Set

Following his complete emotional breakdown -- and unexpected phonecall -- last week, Rick briefly returns to the group in Sunday's episode and finds them running low on ammunition. So Maggie continues to step outside the prison walls and takes Glenn on her next potentially deadly run in search of food and firepower.

As you can see, all does not go as planned.

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US Postal Service reports record loss of $15.9B for year

WASHINGTON — The struggling U.S. Postal Service is reporting a record annual loss of $15.9 billion.

The financial losses for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 were nearly $11 billion more than the previous year.

The numbers cap a tumultuous financial year in which the post office was forced for the first time to default on more than $11 billion in payments to avert bankruptcy.

The mail agency for months has been urging Congress to pass an overhaul bill to let it trim letter delivery to five days a week and reduce annual payments for future retiree health care.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe says the large losses cannot be sustained.

The mail agency forecasts billions in additional losses next year as it awaits financial relief from Congress.

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