Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/97714
10A Daily News – Friday, December 7, 2012 Stocks edge up as investors keep eye on Washington NEW YORK (AP) — Apple and other technology companies led the stock market up for the second day in a row Thursday. The gains came a day after Apple took its worst fall in four years. In separate interviews, CEO Tim Cook said Apple will produce one of its Mac computers in the United States next year and will spend $100 million in 2013 to shift production of the line from China. The tech giant's stock gained $8.45 to $547.24 The Dow Jones industrial average rose 39.55 points to close at 13,074.04. Intel led the Dow, rising 31 cents to $20.16. Investors' biggest concern remains the automatic tax increases and federal spending cuts scheduled to start Jan. 1. ''Everybody is paying close attention to the soap opera in Washington,'' said John Canally, investment strategist and economist at LPL Financial. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the White House and Wall Street Republicans could reach an agreement ''in about a week'' if the Republicans drop their opposition to raising taxes on making more than $250,000 a year. Most investors believe President Obama and Congressional Republicans will strike a budget deal to avoid this ''fiscal cliff'' before the year is out. Until they reach an agreement, however, the stock market will likely be hostage to news out of Washington. In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.66 points to 1,413.94, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 15.57 points to 2,989.27. In the market for U.S. government bonds, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note ended the day at 1.59 percent, the same as late Wednesday. The U.S. Labor Department said unemployment benefits applications dropped 25,000 last week to 370,000, a level consistent with mod- est hiring. The decline was also a sign that the spike in applications caused by Superstorm Sandy has faded. The government will release its closely watched monthly jobs report Friday. Private economists forecast that hiring in November sank from the previous month. They expect the unem- ployment rate to remain unchanged at 7.9 percent. More companies announced plans to reward investors with dividends this month in case taxes rise next year. Sirius XM Radio said it will issue a one-time dividend of 5 cents per share at the end of the month and spend up to $2 billion buying back its stock. Safeway shifted a payment scheduled for January to Dec. 31. And Landstar Systems, a transportation company, will pay shareholders 50 cents a share this month instead of paying dividends for the next two years. Dividends, now taxed at 15 percent, will be treated like ordinary income next year unless Congress and the White House extend current tax breaks as part of a budget deal. Among other stocks making moves: — Akamai Technologies jumped 10 percent, the best gain in the S&P 500 index. Akamai, which helps websites work faster, forged a partnership with AT&T to deliver online content. Its stock gained $3.56 to $39.06. — H&R Block surged 5 percent after posting revenue and earnings that beat analysts' estimates. The country's largest tax preparation company reported a smaller loss, helped by cost-cutting efforts. It typically turns in a loss in the August-toOctober period because it takes in most of its revenue during the U.S. tax season. H&R Block gained 89 cents to $18.26. — The Men's Wearhouse dropped 84 cents to $30.51. The clothing company posted thirdquarter results missed Wall Street's estimates and cut its profit estimates for the fourth quarter and full year. Pearl Harbor survivor helps identify unknown dead HONOLULU (AP) — Ray Emory could not accept that more than one quarter of the 2,400 Americans who died at Pearl Harbor were buried, unidentified, in a volcanic crater. And so he set out to restore names to the dead. Emory, a survivor of the attack, doggedly scoured decades-old documents to piece together who was who. He pushed, and sometimes badgered, the government into relabeling more than 300 gravestones with the ship names of the deceased. And he lobbied for forensic scientists to exhume the skeletons of those who might be identified. On Friday, the 71-year anniversary of the Japanese attack, the Navy and National Park Service will honor the 91year-old former sailor for his determination to have Pearl Harbor remembered, and remembered accurately. ''Some of the time, we suffered criticism from Ray and sometimes it was personally directed at me. And I think it was all for the better,'' said National Park Service historian Daniel Martinez. ''It made us rethink things. It wasn't viewed by me as personal, but a reminder of how you need to sharpen your pencil when you recall these events and the people and what's important.'' Emory first learned of the unknown graves more than 20 years ago when he visited the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific shortly before the 50th anniversary of the attack. The grounds foreman told him the Pearl Harbor dead were scattered around the veterans' graveyard in a volcanic crater called Punchbowl after its resemblance to the serving dish. Emory got a clipboard and walked along row after row of flat granite markers, making notes of any listing death around Dec. 7, 1941. He got ahold of the Navy's burial records from archives in Washington and determined which ships the dead in each grave were from. He wrote the government asking why the markers didn't note ship names and asked them to change it. ''They politely told me to go you-know-where,'' Emory told The Associated Press in an interview at his Honolulu home, where he keeps a ''war room'' packed with documents, charts and maps. Military and veterans policy called for changing grave markers only if remains are identified, an inscription is mistaken or a marker is damaged. Emory appealed to the late Patsy Mink, a Hawaii congresswoman who inserted a provision in an appropriations bill requiring Veterans Affairs to include ''USS Arizona'' on gravestones of unknowns from that battleship. Today, unknowns from other vessels like the USS Oklahoma and USS West Virginia, also have new markers. Some of the dead, like those turned to ash, will likely never be identified. But Emory knew some could be. The Navy's 1941 burial records noted one body, burned and floating in the harbor, was found wearing shorts with the name ''Livingston.'' Only two men named Livingston were RED BLUFF UNION HIGH SCHOOL Reflections 50% off An Exquisite Christmas Concert All Gift Items with coupon expires 12/25 COUPON Gift Certificates Scarves, Jewelry, Hair Care Product & Gift Items Bonnie Burlison • Grace LeBaudour Candy Harman • Kathy Reed Kathy Hiebert • Chaunda Jensen Susan Williams 527-5557 • 848 Johnson Street, Red Bluff assigned to Pearl Harbor at the time, and one of the two was accounted for. Emory suspected the body was the other Livingston. Government forensic scientists exhumed him. Dental records, a skeletal analysis and circumstantial evidence confirmed Emory's suspicions. The remains belonged to Alfred Livingston, a 23-yearold fireman first class assigned to the USS Oklahoma. Livingston's nephew, Ken Livingston, said his uncle and his father were raised together by their grandmother and attended the same one-room schoolhouse. They grew up working on farms in and around Worthington, Ind. Livingston remembers his dad saying the brothers took turns wearing a pair of shoes they shared. by world acclaimed violinist Jaime Jorge Tuesday, December 11, 2012 • 7:00 p.m. Red Bluff Seventh-day Adventist Church 720 S. Jackson Street, Red Bluff, CA Admission is Free For more information call: Lori 200-2950 Calendar Changes for December & January December 14 Minimum Day Dismissal at 12:05 p.m. January 7 School in Session Dismissal at 1:19 p.m. January 14 Staff In-service No School for Students