Steve Ballmer will retire as CEO at Microsoft within the next 12 months, the software giant announced Friday.
According to the company:
"In the meantime, Ballmer will continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its transformation to a devices and services company that empowers people for the activities they value most."
The big idea in President Obama's new proposal for tackling the growing crisis in college affordability can be boiled down to this: linking federal higher education aid to a new grading system that would rate colleges and universities on the "value" they provide students.
While the president offered a series of ideas, the one with potentially the most bite would, come 2018, condition the size of Pell Grants — money the federal government provides for financially needy students — on how high the institution in question scores on the value index.
Obama described the factors he proposes throwing into the value mix:
"I think we should rate colleges based on opportunity — are they helping students from all kinds of backgrounds succeed ... and on outcomes, on their value to students and parents. So that means metrics like how much debt does the average student leave with? How easy is it to pay off? How many students graduate on time? How well do those graduates do in the workforce? Because the answers will help parents and students figure out how much value a college truly offers."
The Packard plant, which once symbolized the might of America's auto industry, is at risk of heading to auction if a pending development deal fails. If that happens, The Detroit Free Press reports, the 35-acre site could eventually be sold "for as little as $21,000."
That figure comes from Wayne County Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski, the Free Press reports. If such a sale were to take place, 3.5 million square feet of space could be acquired for less than $30,000.
For that low price to come about, the proposed deal would have to fall through. As The Detroit News reports, Szymanski hopes to finalize the transaction next week.
But the developer, Illinois-based William Hults, "acknowledges there are many hurdles to cross," the Free Press reports. "He has yet to secure project financing, forge development partnerships or meet with Detroit's development chief, George Jackson, who could provide assistance. And he has never completed a project of this magnitude."
If no deal is reached by Sept. 15, the Packard site would then go to an initial auction — at which it might not sell, because the minimum bides would be around $1 million, reflecting back taxes and interest owed on the property.
The next step would be for the property's 42 parcels to go up for auction individually in October, with a minimum bid of $500 each — a scenario that yields Szymanski's $21,000 figure.
In China, recent Communist Party show trials have featured cowed defendants acknowledging their crimes and offering apologies. Not this one.
The country's biggest trial in decades kicked off Thursday with the defendant, former politburo member Bo Xilai, denying guilt, claiming his confession was coerced and branding the testimony of one of his accusers — in this case his wife — "laughable."
Although the case was not broadcast live, the Jinan Intermediate Court in east China's Shandong province live-tweeted the proceedings. As court adjourned around dinner time, it wasn't clear whether Bo had gone off-script with his fierce denials or this was the script. If it was, it was unconventional by recent standards.
Bo is charged with abuse of power for allegedly obstructing the investigation of a case that saw his wife convicted of murdering a British businessman in the southwestern city of Chongqing, where Bo was party boss until he was removed last year. Bo also is accused of taking about $3.5 million in bribes from two businessmen in northeastern China, where he had earlier served in top political positions.
Tang Xiaolin, general manager of Dalian International Development Group, said in written testimony that he had bribed Bo. In response, Bo, wearing a white dress shirt and dark slacks, called Tang a "crazy dog snapping at things for reward" and said Tang was making claims to try to reduce his own prison sentence. Bo also called Tang's written testimony — Chinese defendants do not have a right to confront their accusers — "the ugly performance of a person selling his soul."
In other written testimony, Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, said she took large sums from their home safes in different cities and used the cash to pay for the education of their son, Bo Guagua, in England. Bo wondered whether Gu could remember the amounts she took, while his lawyer described her as "mentally unsound."
Bo's career began to unravel last year when his own police chief in Chongqing, Wang Lijun, fled to the safety of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu. Wang apparently revealed to American officials that Gu had killed the British businessman, Neil Heywood.
No one doubts that Bo will be found guilty at the trial. The case is largely seen as the result of a power struggle at the highest levels in China. The Communist Party is above the nation's judiciary, and despite officials' frequent protestations to the contrary, China does not have the rule of law.
Even before Bo mounted his robust defense this morning, the party's image-makers seemed to try to diminish his stature through a photo of him at court. Bo is actually a pretty tall guy, as the photo above suggests. (According to an article on the website of the People's Daily, the party's mouthpiece, Bo said he was just over 6 feet tall when in school, but had shrunk to about 5-foot-10-inches — still relatively tall for a Chinese man.)
But appearing for the first time in public in months, Bo was dwarfed by two very tall cops standing on either side of him in the courtroom in Shandong, which is known for strapping men. After seeing the courtroom picture, one Chinese netizen, or web-user, wrote: "I finally got why the trial is arranged in Shandong."