Time’s up for holiday shopping procrastinators

Last minute shoppers like Josette Tyne are in luck this year.

With a long weekend before Christmas, retailers want to make it easier for procrastinators to finish their gift buying. Macy’s for the first time is keeping all its stores open around the clock from Friday until Sunday at midnight. Toys “R” Us and Walmart Supercenters will be open non-stop until Christmas Eve.

Even those retailers skipping the all nighter still have added extended hours often as late as 11 pm or midnight. Coupled with a flurry of last minute promotions, they hope to lure shoppers, many of whom have been largely sitting on the sidelines since Black Friday.

Tyne, 33, just starting her shopping this week at Aventura Mall, armed with a list of about two dozen people and the presents they wanted. The list would have been longer if the Fort Lauderdale resident hadn’t limited it to the kids in her family.

“I’ll probably be shopping every day from now till Sunday,” said Tyne, as she wheeled the youngest of her three boys around H&M in a stroller before heading on to Game Stop, Urban Outfitters and BCBG. “Whatever catches my eye. Luckily the kids usually like everything I get. I’m the awesome Auntie.”

A Consumer Reports Poll released earlier this week found that with just five shopping days left until Christmas, a whopping 68 percent of shoppers — a projected 132 million Americans — have yet to finish their holiday shopping.

With an early Thanksgiving leaving an extra week until Christmas and a long weekend before Tuesday’s holiday, shoppers have felt little need to rush. They also haven’t found December deals to be quite as compelling as the November sales.

Based on disappointing sales trends earlier this month, ShopperTrak said Wednesday it was cutting its holiday sales forecast. The company, which counts foot traffic and its own proprietary sales numbers from 40,000 retail outlets across the country, now expects a 2.5 percent sales increase to $257.7 billion, down from the 3.3 percent growth it initially predicted. The National Retail Federation is sticking with its prediction of a 4.1 percent sales increase.

Online sales trends are more encouraging, up 13 percent to $35 billion from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16, according to comScore, an online research firm. But that pace is below the forecast of 17 percent for the season.

“It’s coming down to the wire,” said David Bassuk, managing director and co-head of the retail practice at AlixPartners, a global consulting firm. “It’s going to require retailers to be more aggressive with their promotions than they were hoping heading into the weekend.”

While the economy is certainly in a better position than it was during the recession, many consumers still feel uneasy this year about their financial future. Some are worried about the U.S. job market and others fear the stalemate between Congress and the White House over federal “fiscal cliff’’ that could lead to tax increases and less disposable income for shoppers.

That was the case for Latonya Jones, on the hunt for bargains at Aventura Mall, coupon-loaded iPad in hand.

“I wasn’t going to buy anything this year, because I wanted to save money,” said Jones, 39, of Miami Gardens, who was shopping with her daughter Richelle, 12, this week in Macy’s. “But then I changed my mind.”

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Stand Your Ground motion denied in Janepsy Carballo case

It will be up to a jury to decide if Janepsy Carballo was justified in the killing of the man she said killed her husband.

The Stand Your Ground motion filed by her defense was denied on Friday, based largely on Carballo’s inadvertent confession to a confidential informant who was wearing a police wire to investigate an unrelated drug charge at the pain management clinic where she worked.

“The inescapable conclusion is that the defendant lured the victim to the home and killed him,” said Miami Circuit Court Judge Beth Bloom, reading in court from a statement explaining her decision. “The taped conversation between the defendant and the disclosed confidential source is compelling, incapable of being ignored, downplayed or interpreted in any other manner but one of revenge.”

In May 2008, Carballo shot Ilan Nissim six times in the back and arm when she said he came to her house uninvited. Cellphone records show that she called Nissim three times that day, asking him to come over.

The shooting came one month after Carballo’s husband and toddler son were shot in front of her house. Her son survived; her husband did not. Nissim was a suspect in the murder.

Carballo said her 37-year-old husband, Orlando Mesa, was an “entrepreneur” who worked as a mechanic and was involved in drug dealing. Mesa and Nissim were involved in some business transactions including a $180,000 real estate deal, the defendant said.

Explaining her decision, Judge Bloom read from the transcript of Carballo’s 3 1/2-hour conversation with the confidential informant, quoting the 34-year-old defendant as saying, “An eye for an eye. I want his daughter to grow up without a father just like my son.”

Since the Stand Your Ground statute was passed in 2005, it has been used in “fake defenses” all over the state of Florida, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in an interview.

The controversial law, which eliminated the duty to retreat when threatened, came under scrutiny in February when neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager in Sanford. Police initially declined to charge Zimmerman when he invoked the Stand Your Ground statute. Zimmerman now faces charges of second-degree murder.

In response to national outcry surrounding the Trayvon Martin case, Florida Gov. Rick Scott commissioned a 19-member task force to make suggestions about the law. Their findings, presented to the state Legislature in November, did not suggest major changes.

Other states have enacted similar laws, which are supported by the National Rifle Association.

Two days before the ruling on the Carballo case, Sen. Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale introduced a bill in the state Senate to amend the Stand Your Ground statute by removing immunity from prosecution for someone who initiates a confrontation or pursues a victim.

Fernandez Rundle also made suggestions to change the law, specifying that immunity should be granted only to someone “who does not initially provoke the force,” according to documents from the state attorney’s office.

“A lot of people are trying to abuse the good intentions of the statute,” Fernandez Rundle said. Although she declined to comment at length on the pending Carballo case, she said she “appreciated the judge’s order validating our position and our interpretation of the facts of the case.”

Carballo has been charged with first-degree murder. She goes on trial in April.

Follow Anna Edgerton on Twitter @AnnaEdge4.

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TSX ends flat as RIM buckles, gold miners bounce

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index ended little changed on Friday as gold miners gained on safe-haven buying amid U.S. budget uncertainty, while BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plunged more than 20 percent.

The index’s materials sector, which includes miners, rose 0.4 percent. Even though the price of gold was near its lowest level in four months, the gold-mining sub-sector added 0.9 percent as investors fretted over stalled U.S. budget talks that could throw Canada’s largest trading partner back into recession.

“As our tiptoes are over the (U.S.) fiscal cliff and we’re looking over the abyss, the markets are upset obviously, and this is sort of putting a damper on the stocks,” said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada.

“But we’ve had a mixed reaction in Canada, mainly because the resources have been much better, like gold for example, which is hedging into the uncertainty (around the budget talks),” he said, noting gold miners had been under pressure for the last two weeks.

Miner Barrick Gold Corp edged up 0.2 percent to C$ 33.29. Centerra Gold Inc jumped more than 3 percent to C$ 9.10.

Gold miners are playing catch-up after underperforming throughout the year and could rise further in 2013, said Gavin Graham, president at Graham Investment Strategy.

Shares of RIM dropped 22.2 percent to C$ 10.86 on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on the business that has set the company apart from its competitors.

The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> fell 3.01 points, or 0.02 percent, to end at 12,385.70. It gained 0.7 percent for the week.</.gsptse>

Efforts to avoid the looming U.S. “fiscal cliff” were thrown into disarray on Friday with finger-pointing lawmakers fleeing Washington for Christmas vacations even as the year-end deadline for action edged ever closer.

Graham said that until a deal is reached in the U.S. budget talks, investors will avoid economically sensitive Canadian stocks and those most closely tied to the U.S. economy: auto parts manufacturers, forestry companies and resource stocks generally.

“The resource sectors in Canada, which is half of the index, is going to be adversely affected, correctly or not,” he said.

“Chinese demand is likely to pick up somewhat now with the new leadership there but people will be focused on the U.S. given that it is still by far the most important export market for Canada.”

($ 1=$ 0.99 Canadian)

(Additional reporting by Claire Sibonney, Julie Gordon and Jeffrey Hodgson; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Best of 2012 Lists Movies TV Fashion Scandal

ETonline has spent the last week showing love to the Best of 2012 -- from film to television to fashion and celeb scandals, we reviewed and ranked the last 365 days, bringing you only the best!

In case you missed any of our Year End Roundups, they're all available below!

12 Most Exciting Stars of 2012

12 Best TV Shows of 2012

12 Biggest Celebrity Scandals of 2012

12 Most Gorgeous Gowns of 2012

12 Best Movies of 2012

12 Favorite Celebrity Couples of 2012

12 Most Memorable News Stories of 2012

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Wayne LaPierre: The voice behind the NRA

EPA

Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) Wayne LaPierre.

Wayne LaPierre showed again today that he’s rarely one to shoot from the lip.

His statement in the wake of the Newtown tragedy that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” and that no gun regulation can help public safety is in line with what he’s said after other mass killings.

During his 21 years as the NRA’s boss, LaPierre has consistently opposed anything that might be seen as regulating guns, and has always favored the idea that putting more weapons in citizens’ hands is the best way to ensure public safety.

After the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32 people, LaPierre said it would be pointless to regulate the number of bullets allowed in ammunition magazines.

“Whether [shooter Seung-hui Cho] carried five 10s [10-round magazines] or 10 fives, does it really make a difference? Anybody who thinks that’s the issue is kidding themselves,” he said.

He said much the same thing after the 2011 Tucson shooting that killed six and gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords: “When they tell you that a government ban on certain firearms or magazines will somehow make you safer, don’t buy it, not for one second.”

And after the 1999 Columbine HS shootings in Colorado, in which 12 students and a teacher were killed, LaPierre repeated the NRA’s long-held belief that more armed citizens means better public safety.

“A lawful, properly-permitted citizen who chooses to carry a concealed firearm not only deserves that right, but is a deterrent to crime,” he proclaimed at the October 1999 NRA convention, held in Denver.

LaPierre, 64, joined the NRA as a lobbyist in 1977, and gained full power as the NRA’s executive vice president — its top staff position — in 1991.

He won the job amid a heated debate within the organization between those who felt the NRA should be more oriented toward gun safety and hunter education and those who wanted to intensively lobby Congress and state legislatures for gun owners’ rights.

Those wanting to emphasize the push for more gun rights won — and LaPierre has been their aggressive champion, building the organization into an even more formidable lobby for gun owners and manufacturers than it was before.

In a rare misstep, LaPierre in 1995 called federal law enforcement officers “jack booted government thugs” amid a feud over President Bill Clinton’s semiautomatic assault weapon ban.

The comment caused former president George H.W. Bush to tear up his NRA membership, and led LaPierre to apologize.

LaPierre earned $961,074 in salary and benefits from the organization in 2010, public records show.

Even before the shocking Newtown shootings, LaPierre predicted that the NRA’s fight for gun owners’ rights would intensify during President Obama’s second term.

Obama’s inaction on gun issues during his first four years in office was a ruse, LaPierre said at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

“All that first-term lip service to gun owners is part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters,” LaPierre said, accusing the president of hiding his true intentions to “destroy the Second Amendment during his second term.”

bsanderson@nypost.com

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Brazilian carrier now offering daily flights at MIA

Brazilian budget airline GOL is now offering daily flights between Miami International Airport and Sao Paulo. The scheduled service started Dec. 15.

The airline had been offering weekly charter flights since July.

GOL is the third airline to fly daily between Miami and Sao Paulo, along with American Airlines and TAM. Brazil is the airport’s top international market; last year, more than 1.4 million passengers flew between Miami and seven destinations in the country.

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Defense questions Graham&#x2019;s former cellmate

A day after telling jurors that Geralyn Graham confessed in jail to killing 4-year-old foster child Rilya Wilson, jailhouse informant Robin Lunceford repeatedly sparred Thursday with a defense lawyer who sought to portray Lunceford as a malcontent and opportunist who would say anything to get out of prison.

Lunceford testified that she befriended Graham in jail in 2004, and, while the two shared a cell before attending court hearings, Graham admitted smothering Rilya with a pillow. Lunceford said she was outraged by the child’s death — “anything that has to do with a child, that’s my pet peeve”— but over the years she balked at testifying because of the abuse she said she endured from inmates and guards after being labeled a “snitch.”

“I went back and forth” about testifying, Lunceford said Thursday. But “justice for Rilya always wins over.”

Graham, 66, is accused of killing Rilya, a foster child in her care, sometime around Christmas 2000, when the girl was last seen alive. State welfare workers, however, did not realize Rilya was missing until April 2002.

Rilya’s body was never found, making Lunceford’s testimony all the more crucial to the state’s murder case against Graham, who is also accused of child abuse and kidnapping.

Michael Matters, a defense lawyer for Graham, argued that Lunceford testified not for justice but so she “could get a break” — early release from prison. Lunceford was serving a life sentence — for a May 2004 armed robbery — until 2011, when her prison stint was reduced to 10 years in a deal with prosecutors in exchange for her testimony. Lunceford said she had also turned down a previous 15-year plea offer.

Lunceford — who has 26 felony convictions, and has spent 28 of her 50 years in prison — said she would have gladly served her life sentence and was content to stay in prison. “I was perfectly comfortable. Nice babes. I was fine,” she said.

But Matters noted that Lunceford had filed court appeals seeking to get a new trial or reduce her sentence — appeals Lunceford dropped as part of her deal with prosecutors. And Lunceford filed 20 different complaints against corrections officers at one Miami-Dade jail facility alone.

“I file grievances every time the wind blows,” Lunceford said. “All truthfully.”

Graham’s lawyers had hoped to show Lunceford’s desperation to get out of prison by telling jurors that Lunceford had escaped from three different prisons over the years. But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez disallowed any mention of the escapes.

Matters also questioned Lunceford about her role in other murder cases: Lunceford was listed as a witness in three other murder cases involving female defendants Lunceford had met in jail or prison — including Ana Maria Cardona, the defendant in the notorious “Baby Lollipops” child murder case.

Lunceford said another prosecutor tried to coerce her into testifying in the Cardona case, and accused the prosecutor of trying to seduce her. She insisted that she was not seeking a plea bargain by gathering information on other inmates. “I never willingly offered to testify ever,” Lunceford said.

The defense lawyer also tried to cast doubt on Lunceford’s testimony about Graham’s confession by questioning how much interaction the pair had in jail, and challenging Lunceford’s motivation for befriending Graham.

“I flirt with everybody,” Lunceford said, explaining that the relationship changed “as soon as [Graham] indicated there was a child that was murdered and tortured.”

Graham’s murder trial will recess for the holidays and resume in early January.

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Video game shares down in wake of shooting

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shares of video game makers and sellers fell Thursday in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, which has renewed debate about violent games and their potential influence on crime.

Shares of GameStop Corp., whose stores sell video games as well as systems like the Xbox and Wii, fell 5 percent in afternoon trading.

Investors are seen as being increasingly concerned that the government may impose tougher rules on the sales of games rated for “mature” and older audiences.

Investors may be worried that parents will also avoid buying first-person shooter games like “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2″ after the tragedy Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary, in which 20 children and six adults were shot and killed by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

“Maybe there will be more stringent efforts to make sure youth are not playing games that they’re not old enough to play,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst with National Alliance Securities. “Maybe there will be a greater effort by parents in managing the content their kids are playing.”

Shares of companies involved in the video game industry, many of which had been dropping since the shooting, declined further Thursday.

— GameStop stock lost $ 1.37, or 5 percent, to $ 26.18. Shares have barely changed since last Thursday’s close, the day before the shooting, to Wednesday’s close.

— Shares of Activision Blizzard Inc., the publisher of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2,” fell 9 cents to $ 10.70. The stock had already dropped 5.6 percent.

— Electronic Arts Inc. shares fell 41 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $ 13.99. Shares had dropped 5.6 percent.

— Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. shares slipped 29 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $ 11.69. The stock had dropped 8 percent.

The declines came as broader markets rose. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.3 percent at 13,295.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Disney's New Holiday Classic

ET's kid reporter Lauren Kaplan is introducing your family to what's sure to become a new holiday movie tradition.

RELATED: New on Blu-ray & DVD

Disney's Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups stars a brand-new litter of puppies bringing comedy that the whole family will love. Hope, Jingle, Charity and Noble are on a mission to save Christmas around the world when the holiday spirit starts to dwindle. Watch the clip to see the animal stars' magical musical number.

Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups is available now.

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Bernie Madoff's brother gets 10-year sentence

The brother of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff has been sentenced in New York to 10 years in prison for crimes committed in the shadow of his notorious sibling.

Peter Madoff was sentenced Thursday after victims described their anguish at losing their life savings in the Ponzi scheme. The sentence was announced in a crowded Manhattan courtroom by Judge Laura Taylor Swain six months after Madoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy and falsifying books and records. He agreed then to serve 10 years in prison. It was four years ago this month that his brother revealed his multi-decade fraud that cheated thousands of investors out of their $20 billion investment. Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term.

Peter Madoff says he did not know of the fraud but committed other crimes.

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