Weekend Digest: The Stairway To Heaven Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

THE TOP PEOPLE WHO MAKE THINGS BETTER
Fast Company has compiled its annual list of people who do just that. Simply put, the Fast Company staff asks you to meet its 2014 creative list of “people whose sole mission is making things better.”

People like Max Ventilla at No. 29.

Dismayed by the lack of available school options for his young children, Max Ventilla developed two goals: grow a network of excellent tiny elementary schools, and use the schools as labs to learn, iterate, and improve on the model. Launching its first one-room school last year, AltSchool is now building a network of schools in the Bay Area and around the country.

For the complete list and a full summary of each honoree, click on this link.

LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREE
CNN Money reports, “Wall Street and Obama are not quite ready to kiss and make up. But they’re trying, sort of.”

At a hedge fund confab, top Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett says Wall Street and President Obama are on the same page. Hedge funders are not so sure about that.

On Thursday, Valerie Jarrett, a top advisor to President Obama, appeared at the SALT conference, the hedge-fund confab being held this week in Las Vegas. The conference, which is one of Wall Street’s most prominent get-togethers, has hosted George W. Bush in the past and is a regular stop for political operative Karl Rove.

Jarrett is the first member of the Obama administration to attend the conference, which launched in 2009. Jarrett told the audience that she believes Wall Street and President Obama are on the same page.

So what happened?  Well, it was kind of a “hedge.”  Go to this link for the full story.

WHAT IS YOUR OPENING LINE FOR NETWORKING?
LearnVest makes a chilling point that may be all-too-familiar?

For many people, simply walking into a room full of strangers can be terrifying — let alone one packed with potentially valuable work contacts and maybe even a future boss.

The answer to handle it? “Savvy Networking.”

Savvy networking can be one of the best moves you can make for your career, it’s time to learn how to fearlessly bust through the doors of any work event and own it.

So let’s go at this link.

STATE UNEMPLOYMENT TRUST FUND DEBT ‘MATTERS’
Why and what’s happened to the funds? In an in-depth post Stateline explains.

State unemployment insurance trust funds, the engines that finance jobless benefits for millions of Americans, were battered by the Great Recession and went deep into debt to meet the demand from the unemployed.

Years after the worst of the crisis, many states are still saddled with huge debt, according to a Stateline analysis of U.S. Treasury data showing trust fund balances from 2007 through the first quarter of 2014. Through the first part of 2014, 16 states still owe more than $21 billion to Washington. Many other states borrowed billions from the harder-to-track private bond market to cover funds that were insufficient to pay benefits.

For the complete story and analysis, click on this link.

HILLARY IS A FLESH EATING ZOMBIE
Who are we talking about here? Well, actually who she is not, according to her husband and former president of the U.S.

Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday mocked Karl Rove’s recent claim that Hillary Clinton may have brain damage, invoking a previous right-wing conspiracy theory about his wife’s December 2012 fall.

“Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” Bill Clinton said when asked about Rove’s comments at a fiscal conference. “First, they say she faked her concussion; now they say she’s auditioning for a part on ‘The Walking Dead’!”

For a complete story on the dustup and video of President Clinton’s remarks, click this link.

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE HUGE NEWS FROM ARKANSAS
In a headline story on Thursday, The Washington Post reported in-depth about Circuit Judge Chris Piazza’s decision to overturn a Supreme Court ruling against same-sex marriage in Arkansas.

A judge in Arkansas ruled Thursday that all gay marriages in the state could go forward, overturning a state Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that had halted the practice. The Arkansas decision Thursday came just 24 hours after a federal judge blocked the enforcement of Idaho’s same-sex marriage ban. Eighteen states plus the District of Columbia now allow gay people to marry; those states account for roughly half of the nation’s total population.

Of course the Arkansas Supreme Court’s stay on Friday at least temporarily changes the map. Take a look for yourself and read more on the story at this link.

HOW DO YOU STAND ON THE DEATH PENALTY?
Well according to POLITICO, “Approval for the death penalty has remained consistent in the past year, with a majority saying it’s morally acceptable, according to a new poll.”

Sixty-one percent of respondents are in favor of the death penalty, a new Gallup poll released Thursday shows. This number remains relatively unchanged from 62 percent in 2013, despite news of a botched execution in Oklahoma at the end of April. Thirty percent said it is wrong.

You can read the complete story at this link.

MUSICIANS AND IVORY: THE QUANDARY
The Hill reports that the music industry is concerned about a “crippling” new regulation from the Obama administration that it says could end the careers of musicians and reduce the quality of performances around the world.

Why?

In an effort to crack down on illegal animal trafficking, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued an order earlier this year that bans the trade of materials containing African elephant ivory.

Musicians say the order could keep them from traveling overseas, because they often perform with expensive antique instruments that contain ivory.

Go to this link to see how artists like Vince Gill and others fear this regulation could cause their instruments to be confiscated overseas.

‘STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN’ PRIMER
It made Led Zeppelin more than $560 million and is a standard that Bloomberg Businessweek says sold more copies “save Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the Eagles’ Greatest Hits (1971-75).”

To this day, Warner Music Group cites the song in its annual reports as an example of its publishing portfolio.

So how did it happen and what about those opening notes?  Find out at this link.

BARBARA WALTERS SAYS GOODBYE
After five decades in television and countless blockbuster interviews, Barbara Walters is signing-off.

On Friday, the 84-year-old Ms. Walters signed off from her ABC daytime show “The View” for the last time. After five decades in television, the woman who started her career on camera as a hawker for Alpo dog food and went on to cross the Bay of Pigs with Fidel Castro and to interview every American president (and first lady) since Richard M. Nixon is retiring.

Go to this link to learn more about this television icon’s storied career and her most watched interview that 50 million viewers saw according to the New York Times.