Byline: -- Dow Jones News
NEW YORK -- Fidelity Investments' flagship Magellan Fund may be on track in August to do something it hasn't been able to do in 16 consecutive months -- take in more money from investors than it has to give back.
The $62.9 billion fund had $9.9 million in net inflows through …
WHEATON, Ill.-The American Assn. of Insurance Services is preparing a nationwide filing of new terrorism endorsements insurers can use in anticipation of the scheduled sunset of the federal terrorism reinsurance program.
In anticipation of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program's scheduled Dec. 31, 2005 sunset, AAIS has prepared a series of commercial lines endorsements with exclusions that would take effect if the program terminates or is substantially changed. The Wheaton, Ill.-based insurance advisory organization has prepared equivalent endorsements for commercial coverages provided under farm policies.
If the federal program is terminated, the definition …
A celebrity pathologist went on trial Monday on charges accusing him of using public resources to further his multimillion-dollar private practice.
Cyril Wecht, who earned fame for his investigations in the cases of Elvis Presley and murdered child beauty queen Jon Benet Ramsey, has denied wrongdoing, and his attorneys have maintained that the charges are politically motivated.
His trial opened with U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab reading detailed instructions to the jury.
Wecht, 76, is charged with 41 counts, including wire fraud, mail fraud and theft. The trial is expected to last about two months.
Wecht remains a consultant, …
It created a nationwide stir in 1965 when several hundred formerprisoners of war from Stalag Luft III paid the expenses for four oftheir German ex-captors to attend a reunion in Dayton, Ohio.
Nazi Germany, after all, had murdered millions of POWs andcivilians in its 12 years of wholesale barbarism. Fifty Alliedinmates of Stalag Luft III, the great majority of them American andBritish officers, had been shot to death in 1944 on Adolf Hitler'sdirect order after the mass getaway dramatized in the 1963 movie "TheGreat Escape."
"We cannot help but give the German …
SCHENECTADY -- Citing a lack of evidence, a City Court judge acquitted a jailed city cop of drunken-driving charges on Wednesday, marking the second time in the past two years that John Lewis has been cleared of misdemeanor offenses.
"There was no indication that the vehicle was swerving, weaving or being operated in any way by a person that was impaired," said Judge Guido Loyola on Wednesday, recounting the evidence the prosecution presented during the two-day nonjury trial last week.
He also noted that the surveillance footage from a street camera failed to show clearly who was behind the wheel of a black sport utility vehicle that prosecutors had accused …
Byline: DAVID HEUSCHKEL Hartford Courant
Rockies6 Red Sox3 DENVER -- There was plenty of time to overcome the one-run deficit. It didn't seem like a daunting task, given the opponent and park.
Few believed the Boston Red Sox wouldn't be able to overcome the slim margin at Coors Field, especially to a team that had lost eight in a row and 20 of its previous 24.
Except for one inning, the Red Sox offense was completely shut down in a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies Tuesday.
It was 4-3 until the eighth when Todd Helton hit a two-run homer off Alan Embree.
``I thought we were going to win,'' Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. …
Opened in 1978, Northridge Hills Liquors was a step away from the wholesale game for Paul Smith, a former Young's Market Co. salesman. But that shop suited Smith's idea that he would be the key wine and spirits retailer in an emerging area at the north end of the San Fernando Valley.
The Valley was booming about then, and a major freeway was scheduled to open. Smith figured he'd be the fastest-growing beverage retailer in the area. And for a time he was. But almost from the day he moved into the store, he could sense that things wouldn't be smooth.
"The freeway didn't go in on schedule," he says today with a wrinkled brow, "and the area didn't grow in housing the way we thought it would. Also, we had only 180 degrees of consumers. Our backs were against a wall--the hills."
When Smith first opened his 2,800-square-foot Northridge Hills location, nearly half his sales were in distilled spirits; however, patrons were increasingly asking for more and more wine, of all types and prices. In fact, the top wine shop in the Valley at the time, David Breitstein's Duke of Bourbon in Canoga Park--closer to the major north-south freeway--was doing a land-office business in fine wine.
In the 12 years he'd been working for Young's wholesale operation, Smith had become very much aware of the burgeoning market in "boutique" and prestige California wines. So, he knew early on in his retail career that this profitable segment would be a way to capture the more enthusiastic wine customer.
Indeed, by 1981, only three years after he moved into retail, Smith was traveling to the Napa Valley and Sonoma County five times a year to track down the new, exciting wineries, and buying their wares.
"Establishing Relationships"
"I also knew that we had to establish great relationships with them, so if it meant skipping a paycheck to make sure the wineries got paid, that's what we would do," said Smith. In fact, that did occur.
For the first 11 years of the Napa Valley Wine Auction, Smith attended the event, and in his second year got into a controversial bidding confrontation with his rival, Breitstein, that earned Smith headlines as well as a reputation as a maverick. (See sidebar)
Almost coincident with that episode, Smith also began to discover the greatness and potential for imported wines of ultra-high quality, and began laying the groundwork for what later became his stock in trade: having wines many other wine shops sell out of quickly.
Moreover, he also discovered another fact of life: you don't have to like a wine to sell it. "There were many wines that [Robert] Parker liked that I didn't like that we carried and sold. If it was blessed by Parker, we would carry it."
Another key strategy he employed: By the …
