Softbank to sell stake in eAccess to Samsung, others: source

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Softbank Corp is in final talks to sell its stake in eAccess Ltd, representing around 67 percent of voting rights, to Samsung Electronics Co and 10 others, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The sale would ease concerns that Softbank could hold a monopoly on spectrum allocation designated by Japan’s Communications Ministry, the source said.

Softbank, which is awaiting regulatory approval to buy a 70 percent stake in No. 3 U.S. mobile carrier Sprint Nextel Corp , bought Japanese rival eAccess last October as it stepped up competition with its nearest competitor KDDI Corp .

Softbank turned eAccess into a wholly owned subsidiary on January 1 after a share exchange, using 220 billion yen ($ 2.47 billion) worth of its own shares.

After dividing eAccess shares into voting and non-voting shares, Softbank is considering reducing its ownership of eAccess voting rights to less than one-third, the source said.

Non-voting shares make up around 1 percent of overall shares. The sale of eAccess’ voting rights would total several billion yen.

Other than Samsung, likely buyers include Sweden’s LM Ericsson , Orix Corp , the source said, adding that the eAccess voting shares would be divided between companies into hundreds of millions of yen each.

Softbank said on Saturday the news was not announced by the company and that it continued to mull options regarding its share holdings.

The Nikkei business newspaper reported earlier on Saturday that Softbank was also considering selling the eAccess stake to Finland’s Nokia Siemens Networks and five Japanese leasing companies.

Softbank cutting its eAccess stake would allow the company to work around the Communications Ministry’s policy on spectrum allocation to telecom service providers and avoid suggestions of any monopoly, but still allow Softbank or eAccess to seek spectrum.

Under the policy, either a parent company, or one of its units in which it owns more than 33 percent, can apply for an allocation of spectrum.

Softbank will remain the top shareholder in eAccess but lose veto power after the sale, which is expected to close by end January and raise several billion yen, the Nikkei daily said.

(Additional reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bangalore, Writing by Mari Saito; Editing by Michael Perry)

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Britney Spears Split with Jason Trawick

After more than three years together, Britney Spears and her fiance Jason Trawick have split, her rep confirmed to People.

RELATED - Britney "Working Hard" on New Music

"Jason and I have decided to call off our engagement," Spears says in the statement. "I'll always adore him and we will remain great friends." Trawick adds, "As this chapter ends for us a new one begins. I love and cherish her and her boys and we will be close forever."

Spears, who got engaged to Trawick on his 40th birthday in December of 2011, previously said of her now-ex, "We're really normal. We just like to watch movies. We work out a lot. We love to work out. We do stuff together like that. We take walks."

VIDEO - More Shocking Celebrity Splits

Today has been a big day for sad Spears news as it was previously announced she wouldn't be returning for another season of The X Factor.

"I've made the very difficult decision not to return for another season," Spears told ETonline in a statement. "I had an incredible time doing the show and I love the other judges and I am so proud of my teens but it's time for me to get back in the studio."

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Subway platform door test

Stand clear of the closing platform doors.

The MTA is considering adding sliding doors at L-train stations to stop riders from falling on the tracks following the deaths of two straphangers pushed in front of trains last month.

The L would be the ideal test spot because it doesn’t share track with other lines and is used by only one type of train, said Thomas Prendergast, the agency’s acting executive director.

That means the doors in the pilot program would only have to fit one kind of subway train.

It would likely be at just one station to start and spread to others if successful, he said.

Adding platform doors system-wide could cost over $1 billion, he said.

But it’s possible the agency will get funding from private companies, who could take a share of the ad revenue on the doors, he said.

In addition, the agency is planning an “aggressive passenger information campaign” to warn riders to stand away from the platform edge.

And they also are considering expanding the “see something, say something” campaign to ask riders to look out for the mentally ill.

Both suspects in the subway shoving deaths last month — Naeem Davis and Erika Menendez — have a history of mental-health issues, cops said.

jennifer.fermino@nypost.com

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What the week’s big mortgage moves mean for consumers

This week brought three big developments to the nation’s beleaguered mortgage landscape. For consumers, the complex moves have been mostly mystifying, but experts say they all aim at turning the page.

“There is a strong desire to put behind us all this period of time — the aftermath of the darkest period in American finance. All these things [announced this week] are intended to do that,” said John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based community advocacy group. “There are good and bad things in it for consumers.’’

A new rule issued Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aims to prevent lenders from making the sort of toxic mortgages that forced many unsuspecting borrowers into ruin. Yet the new “qualified mortgage” rule, according to some lenders, also could perpetuate the nation’s tight credit problem and keep many would-be homebuyers on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, two settlements unveiled Monday with big banks should resolve some lingering issues from the mortgage meltdown that have kept banks focused on past errors instead of getting back to the business of lending.

Here is a quick primer on the week’s developments and some likely implications for consumers.

OCC Settlement

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates nationally chartered banks, Monday unveiled an $8.5 billion settlement with 10 giant banks that service mortgages.

As part of the controversial settlement, the OCC is scrapping its Independent Foreclosure Review, which was aimed at identifying victims of robo-signing and other improper foreclosure tactics by banks, but soon proved to be a badly flawed effort.

Instead, under the OCC’s new approach — which will be spelled out in enforcement actions in a couple of weeks — more than 3.8 million borrowers who faced foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2010 stand to get some payment regardless of whether they actually suffered any harm.

The mortgage servicing banks covered are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, SunTrust, PNC, Sovereign, U.S. Bank, MetLife Bank and Aurora.

The agreement provides for $3.3 billion to go directly to borrowers. Another $5.2 billion is earmarked for loan modifications and the forgiveness of deficiency judgments.

The OCC said the amount that eligible borrowers get will range from a few hundred dollars up to $125,000, depending on the type of error that possibly occurred in their mortgage servicing.

“If a borrower went through foreclosure with one of those 10 lenders, they should receive a couple hundred bucks, whether they deserve it or not,” said Guy Cecala, publisher and CEO of Inside Mortgage Finance Publications in Bethesda, Md., which tracks news and statistics in the residential mortgage industry. “The odds of getting $125,000 is the odds of winning the lottery. It would have to be a false foreclosure or where they were thrown out of their house illegally.”

The OCC will look to 13 broad categories of errors outlined in the Independent Foreclosure Review launched in April 2011.

Those include a litany of bumblings and misdeeds by the mortgage servicers, ranging from foreclosing on a homeowner who was following the rules during a trial period of a loan modification, to failing to offer a loan modification as mandated under a government program, to failing to follow up with a borrower to obtain needed documents under a government program.

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DOJ proposes overhaul of Florida’s program for disabled children

TALLAHASSEE --
In a new and even harsher indictment of Florida’s treatment of severely disabled children, federal civil rights lawyers have issued a comprehensive blueprint for overhauling the state’s system of care for frail youngsters.

The 17-page “settlement proposal” by the U.S. Justice Department demands the state stop slicing in-home nursing services for frail youngsters, stop ignoring the requests of family doctors who treat disabled children and stop sending hundreds of children to geriatric nursing homes — where they often spend their childhoods isolated from families and peers.

On the same day The Miami Herald obtained the “confidential” settlement proposal, the heads of three state agencies held a news conference in Tallahassee to defend the housing of hundreds of disabled children in nursing homes and to tout a newly minted program that matches medically complex children with specialized caseworkers.

“I can tell you that what I found was way better than I even thought I would find,” Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Liz Dudek said Thursday, a day after she toured two nursing homes in Miami Gardens and Plantation. “I have to wonder what the DOJ was looking at when they went through there and I would invite any of you to go to any of those facilities, because I certainly did not see what they were seeing.”

The Miami Herald asked to join several Department of Children & Families administrators, including Secretary David Wilkins, on a tour of the most-troubled nursing home last month — but was rebuffed.

The home, Golden Glades Nursing and Rehabilitation in Miami Gardens, is where two severely disabled children died in recent years — one of them, 14-year-old Marie Freyre, perished after caregivers failed to give her life-saving anti-seizure drugs.

Federal regulators fined the home $300,000 for the girl’s death.

“We were quite pleased with what was going on there,” Dudek said of Golden Glades and the two other homes she visited Wednesday. “One place had clouds in the sky and they had personalized activities; their rooms were very much personalized. Children had buddies who were there. They went out to school in all the cases where they could or were in in-home school,” Dudek said of the six homes in the state that house youngsters.

Dudek and the other agency heads called the news conference to offer details of a new program — announced last month — that offers “enhanced care” coordinators, or caseworkers, for every medically fragile child whose care is paid for by Medicaid, the joint state and federal insurance program for the needy.

The Enhanced Care Coordination program will enlist at least 28 nurse care managers throughout the state to work with families of disabled children and the nursing homes where they are being treated.

“The program is designed to help empower parents, to help them and to educate them and to help them personalize the experience that they have,” Dudek said, adding that the coordinators will be able to help some children return home from institutions.

Dudek extended an olive branch to the Justice Department, saying AHCA’s intent was “to work with the federal government.”

But she also said the state was eager to convince the DOJ that Florida is breaking no laws by housing so many children in institutions.

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Holiday sales of PCs slide for first time in five years: IDC

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Holiday season sales of personal computers fell for the first time in more than five years, according to tech industry tracker IDC, as Microsoft Corp’s new Windows 8 operating system failed to excite buyers and many opted for tablet devices and powerful smartphones instead of PCs.

PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Lenovo Group and Dell Inc sold 89.8 million PCs worldwide in the fourth quarter of last year, down 6.4 percent from the same quarter of 2011. That was slightly worse than expected by most.

For all of 2012, 352 million PCs were sold, down 3.2 percent from 2011. That was the first annual decline since 2001, according to IDC. (Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)

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They Dated Golden Globes Edition Part 2

Remember them?

Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon and Jake Gyllenhaal have a tendency to mix it up as far as dates go at the Golden Globes. With the 70th annual ceremony almost upon us, we're looking back at these celebs and their various plus-ones as they arrived to the star-studded event over the years.

Related: They Dated?! Golden Globes Edition - Part 1

Jolie has had the privilege of walking the Golden Globes red carpet multiple times in her career, often on the arm of a different gorgeous gentleman. The beauty's very first adult appearance was in 1999, with then-hubby Johnny Lee Miller. Just three years later, Jolie walked the carpet with new husband Billy Bob Thorton. In 2009, the actress debuted her latest beau, Brad Pitt.

Damon is now happily married to wife Luciana Barroso, but back in 2000 the Good Will Hunting star proudly held the hand of then-girlfriend Winona Ryder. A decade or so prior, his date arrived with her Square One co-star Rob Lowe.

Related: Pick the Winners With ET's Golden Globes Ballot!

Gyllenhaal has dated two award show beauties, Kristen Dunst and Reese Witherspoon. In 2003, the actor escorted Dunst to the ceremony and just three years later, Gyllenhaal would bring Witherspoon as his plus-one.

Click the video for more, and tune in to the Golden Globes on January 13 at 8 ET/5 PT on NBC.

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Man gunned down in Bed-Stuy

A man was gunned down in Bedford-Stuyvesant Thursday night, according to police.

The man, described by cops as a white male in his 30s, was shot in the torso near the corner of Macon Street and Throop Avenue at around 9:30 p.m., authorities said.

He was transported to Kings County Hospital where he later died.

Police are still investigating. No arrests have been made.

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Miami doctors, Walgreens join race for ACOs

With Walgreens joining insurers and hospitals in a race to reshape healthcare delivery in the country, a group of 75 doctors has become the first federally approved accountable care organization in Miami-Dade, Medicare officials announced Thursday.

South Florida ACO and the drugstore chain were on a list of 106 groups receiving approval to offer integrated care that is intended to improve quality and lower healthcare costs, with the providers sharing in any savings.

The concept, part of the Affordable Care Act, has sparked a race among major healthcare providers throughout the country. Many hospitals are hiring doctors and other groups are organizing networks that are expected to create a major shift in the nation’s healthcare system.

Many healthcare experts believe growing numbers of doctors will soon work for large entities. Jorge Acevedo-Crespo, a Miami pulmonologist, said he brought together the South Florida ACO to avoid that trend.

“I think it’s best for doctors to control healthcare — not hospitals, not insurance companies,” Acevedo-Crespo said Thursday.

One reason commonly given by Medicare for setting up ACOs is that many patients discharged from hospitals are quickly readmitted because they do not take required medications or have follow-up visits with their doctors.

Walgreens, the national drugstore chain, believes it can help fix those kinds of problems, starting with the three ACOs it has set up, including one in the Tampa area.

Jeffrey Kang, the physician who is running the Walgreens ACO effort, said one example of how coordinated care can work is a Walgreens pilot program in which pharmacists checked to see that patients were taking the proper meds after being released from hospitals. That program reduced readmissions by 40 percent, Kang said.

“Walgreens is a very natural partner” for physicians, Kang said. In Tampa, it is working with Diagnostic Clinics, which employs doctors. Many of the chain’s stores already contain Take Care clinics, which employ nurse practitioners to treat minor ailments.

“Walgreens provides 365-day-a-year, convenient, accessible, face-to-face health offering for the public,” Kang said. “We’re now the largest provider of vaccinations in the country. And we’re second in hypertension and diabetes screening.”

Walgreens is heavily promoting its virtues as it enters a competition that is growing increasingly intense. Fifteen other Florida entities were granted ACOs Thursday — most of them in the Tampa-Orlando-Jacksonville area.

Florida Blue has already set up informal ACOs, with Holy Cross doctors in Fort Lauderdale and with Baptist Health South Florida and a group of oncologists in Miami-Dade. But the state’s largest health insurer has not yet sought official federal approval, which carries with it a complex series of requirements.

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Wisdom from the mouths of babes

The other day, a friend of mine email me the following letter from a 7-year-old second-grader, Abigal Lily Alder, at Heron Heights Elementary in Broward County, and I want to share it with you, my dear Neighbors in Religion readers:

The title: "AUTISM SPEAKS to Me!"

"If I could help somebody it would be my brother, Grant, who has autism. People with autism like Grant sometimes have trouble communicating and they may act 'different.' I participated in a walk for Autism Speaks with my family, and learned that for every 88 kids one of them will have autism like my brother. If you have a conversation with someone who has autism they are not always able to focus on what you are saying and they may only want to talk about things that are important to them.

“Restaurants, playgrounds and shops can sometimes be too exciting for them at first. They may be loud, say things you may not expect or they may have trouble understanding what you are asking them.

I would like people to accept kids like my brother who are unique in their own way, and not judge them. Just be patient. If you see someone who you think may have autism, you should help them or just be a friend. I went to camp during the summer with kids who have autism like my brother, and I found out that they can be real friends just like anyone else. We laughed together and played games. It was a blast and I am still friends with many of them.

“There are good things about autism, too. My brother is the most fun and active person. He is awesome on computers and every morning when I wake up, my brother has a big smile on his face and he says, 'It is a beautiful morning.' He is still the BEST BROTHER EVER!

“I know I may be only seven, but I can make a difference and so can you."

Abby is in Mrs. Chiros' class and was the essay contest winner for her grade level.

Oh, thank you, so much Abby. You are wise beyond your young years. I know your parents are so proud of how sensitive you are — and that's a feather in their hats. God bless you and Grant. My godson Isaiah Swift, 6, has autism and I love him so much, and tell him often.

Although he had not been able to speak, one day at church he shocked my boots off, so to speak, when he said without any prompting, "I ... love ... you.”

It brought tears of joy to my eyes.

‘Why I am Thankful’

On Dec. 28, I asked readers to share reasons they are thankful. Here is a response from Charlotte Delascasas:

"I am grateful for the upcoming MLK Holiday and our national tradition of community service. Coral Gables Congregational Church will be having their annual food drive and Pastor Laurie Hafner will remain fasting up in the tower until 3,000 pounds (one dollar also equals one pound) is raised before the cherry picker brings her down, usually 7 p.m. Saturday night, when there will be a rock ‘n’ roll band in our parking lot in front of the Biltmore Hotel, to celebrate.

“Our church will also adult education about Dr. King from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m., each Sunday in January. I am thankful that our congregation welcomes everyone, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey, with an open door. Each Thanksgiving we join Temple Judea and Riviera Presbyterian for an interfaith service and we have welcomed theologians from all religions to speak as well. Our social justice program includes Green Christians, who have just started a community garden.

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