News | TV Online Latest News and TV Guide Online

‘The Voice’: What you didn’t see on TV

It has been four years since Sanjaya, err, graced the stage of American Idol, but he’s still apparently one of the greatest punch lines for the comics warming up the crowds at reality show singing competitions. Take last night at the live, semi-finals round of NBC’s The Voice, where warm-up comic Bill was pumping up the crowd before the competition. “Cee Lo is performing tonight!” he roared to the crowds inside Stage 16 on Warner Bros.’s Burbank lot, in an attempt to get the masses enthusiastic.

And then he added: “Sanjaya is performing! No, I wouldn’t do that to you…” When he said that, I found myself flashing back to the multiple times during my evenings in the American Idol studio, when the warm-up comic for Fox’s karaoke behemoth would use the very same joke. Ba-domp-ching! Sanjaya! To that I say: C’mon, give Sanjaya a break, folks! It has been four years — get a new joke!

But alas, Sanjaya was far from the only excitement inside The Voice dome last night, as the top eight contestants were whittled down to just four — one from the team of coaches Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton. What else happened on the inside that you might not have seen on screen? Well, since it was only an hour-long show, it was a short evening, but here’s what I spied for you all:

Welcome Your…Coaches! Carson introduced the coaches to the screaming throngs as they walked out to the stage to take their seats in their big red chairs. “Save your applause,” he said, after he got huge cheers himself, “for the celebs who are about to walk out!” And then proceeded to give a little commentary on each coach. “Sorry girls, he shoots squirrels,” Daly said while introducing Blake. His pithy comments about Adam, unfortunately, were so drowned out by the screaming girls in the crowd that this reporter couldn’t hear them. Of Cee Lo, Daly said without irony: “He’s the spiritual center of The Voice for all of us.” And he went into platitude mode for Miss Christina’s entrance, referring to her as “the greatest artist of our generation.”

A Presidential Delay President Barack Obama’s address to the nation pushed the live show back a bit, just about 15 minutes to be exact. But since The Voice is live to the east coast, everyone involved had to be ready and waiting, so that the show could begin just as soon as the president signed off. With everyone in place and not much to do, audience-centric antics began. First up: A screaming contest, led by warm-up comic Bill, where the crowd would yell for “Team Adam” or “Team Cee Lo” or “Team Blake” or “Team Christina.” Even Adam played into the game, encouraging the crowd, “Let’s hear it for Team Adam again!” And without fail, his team certainly got the most volume from the audience.

Christina Leaves Her Mark Amid the madness before the show went live, warm-up comic Bill encouraged the audience to ask questions of the coaches. No one, of course, had any questions — their requests, instead, were things like, “Can I give Adam a hug?” Bill kept telling one guy in the crowd that, No, Christina would not come over and sign his arm. But you know what? That seemed to inspire her to do just that — she dramatically marched over to the fan after grabbing a pen from a production person, and signed the guy’s arm. What a gal! And then, of course, came the requisite comment from warm-up comic Bill: “She signed it Britney Spears! That’s a cruel joke!” Christina, however, gave no response to the silly remark from the warm-up comic.

Blake’s Turn Not satisfied with letting Christina steal the pre-show, Blake took a microphone and began singing the lyrics to “Lady Marmalade,” to the delight of the lady coach to his right. Added warm-up comic Bill: “I said he could sing the Golden Girls theme song — because that’s his favorite show!”

Hot, Hot Balls of Fire During that opening number by the eight finalists, you no doubt saw the balls of fire blasting up from the back of the stage. Let me just tell you: Those things were hot, hot, hot! I was sitting in my regular spot five rows behind, and to the left of, Blake — which was quite a ways from the balls of fire — and I could seriously feel the heat. The coaches didn’t seem to react to the heat at all! And I didn’t notice any singed eyebrows in the rest of the crowd that was closer than me.

Cee Lo’s Special Treatment Of course, during most commercial breaks, the coaches’ hair and makeup teams come out to freshen them up. (Blake apparently uses hairspray!) Tonight — and maybe it was because of those hot fireballs I just mentioned or because of the general warmth in the studio — Cee Lo’s team kept patting his shaved head down repeatedly. Shine, in this case, clearly is not a good thing.

Cee Lo’s Post-Performance Salute As Cee Lo waltzed off the stage after singing “Bright Lights, Bigger City,” he passed right by my section of the crowd. He began stripping his clothes off (he seemed to be wearing several layers!), and then I saw it: He stuck his tongue out at the crowd. At no one in particular, but it was a pretty cheeky move.

Frenchie’s Super Confidence Frenchie is confident, we all know that for sure. But I watched as her and Beverly McCellan stood off to the side of the stage, as they waited to walk up and hear their fates. When it was time, Frenchie walked with a purpose — quickly taking her stride up next to Carson. As for Beverly? Well, she seemed a little more reluctant. I guess it worked out for her in the end, though, as it was Frenchie who eventually got the ol’ heave ho.

Post-Show Party As soon as the cameras went to black, members of The Voice‘s production staff wheeled out a huge birthday cake, lit up with candles. Apparently, it was Carson Daly’s birthday! (And Blake Shelton’s was last week, the powers that be told us.) It was a cute moment, seeing all the staff, the contestants, as well as the studio audience, singing “Happy Birthday” to Carson and Co. Happy Birthday, indeed.

Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky

Read more:‘The Voice’ Central‘Voice’ coaches Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine have collaborated on a new single

View post:

Louis CK Interview, Part 1: Fatherhood and Fear

FX’s Louie, the dark-comic vision of Louis CK, returns for a second season tomorrow. My feature on the comedian and the new season is in this week’s TIME magazine. For that article, last month I sat down with Louis CK in an apartment in Upper Manhattan that was doubling as the show’s set and production headquarters. Before he and his crew started shooting that morning, he had breakfast (an egg sandwich and fruit) and I asked him about the show’s themes, its comedy and its unusual, low-budget, high-freedom production arrangement.

The first part of the interview appears below; I’ll post part two tomorrow:

You’ve talked in the past about how there are certain things about the show are consistent from episode to episode and other things you feel kind of free to change, like the actress who played your mom. Are there going to be more connected stories or is it kind of the same approach?

Well, there is a—some of it is the same. I still think I’m finding stuff to reveal for the first time. And sometimes I just want to tell a story regardless of whether it fits what the show is saying. I’ve been in a lot of writing rooms where somebody says an idea and everyone’s dying, like laughing so they’re delirious. It’s like a black hole in a good way, everything starts to fall into it, you know what I mean.

And then after a few minutes everybody calms down and somebody says yeah, we can’t do it that way, it doesn’t make any sense, because it hurts this thing and this. And then everyone gets a little—has a moment of silence for the idea and moves on, and something amazing was kept away from the public.

And then the other side of it is people that are slogging through a painful, unappealing piece of scenery or whatever it is, because they’ve got to show it in order to make something work–one of these bitter pills you have to swallow in order to make your [series] work, you know what I mean? So I just don’t want to do that. If I have an idea that breaks the rules I’ve set out for or doesn’t really help make people understand more about the characters and stuff–I’m going to do it anyway; it’s worth doing.

But this season the kids are around more. I think there’s a sense of development with the kids and I’m more engaged with them this time.

Fatherhood is such a big part of the show. But I would hear more about your kids, directly, in your act than you saw in the first season of the show. While there was a lot of stuff about like being a father and the work of it and stuff, not a lot of stuff about the kids directly.

Yeah. It definitely informed some of the stories but it didn’t, it wasn’t what the stories were about… One very big reason for that was that it’s a pain in the ass to shoot with kids and it burns a lot of time. So I just didn’t want to do it. I like these kids too; they’re really nice kids. But I always also have thought that moments with kids have a certain saccharine to them that you can’t avoid. And also my overarching instinct the first year was showing that I was a new divorced father and that I was still kind of reeling from the adjustment. And I took on a big chunk by deciding to have shared custody of the kids but I wasn’t handling it well.

And this [season] maybe represents a couple of years down the road, where the kids become more the center of my life, where I become more engaged. Instead of just being a guy staring at a kid going “Why would I want to talk to this person?”–that’s just sort of what I represent in my act even though it’s not true. This is more crouching toward a kid and engaging. And also the exchanges I started to have–one of the reasons I don’t write ahead or think ahead is because you find stuff as you [shoot the show]. And when we came back this season I started shooting things with these girls, I found these scenes are really working and they feel good, they feel real, and they’re funny. So I just started writing to that.

So when you say you don’t write ahead you mean you literally start a season with just a small number of stories?

No, I write it. What I mean is I don’t think ahead, like where are we headed with this? What do I want to do? I had a sense that I want to look like a more successful dad because I am better at it than I used to be. But that’s not a sound reason to do something: “I want to show everybody I’m a good father.” Who the fuck wants to see that? And so I discarded that idea. But then I started writing stories about the kids. And then—I usually go into the season with like, I don’t know, about half the season written and then I start shooting. And then I learn shit when I shoot and then I start writing little pieces ahead. And then we usually take a couple of weeks’ break and then I try to write another war chest of stuff. But yeah, so this year I’ve learned from the first couple of episodes with the kids that they also got better, they got older, so. The kid stuff is going to be interesting this year I think. There’s more of it.

You’ve said that part of the reason that you did this show rather than do a show for NBC was the responsibility of being a father in real life. Can you just talk a little bit about how has being a single dad with shared custody has affected your career?

Well, it’s guided all of it. I mean I made a decision soon after getting divorced that I suddenly was faced with a really simple new problem, which was if I wanted to be with my kids I had to be alone, you know. I’m alone with my kids now so nobody [else] was home taking care of them. It changes everything. All of a sudden it’s if I work I can’t be with the kids. And so how do I—now I had to really make very deliberate choices about who wins when there’s a conflict. And I—by the way, this process itself of like thinking seriously about your life, thinking I had to make a rule for my life like the way my parents used to. We’re all going to live by this rule now. I’m a grownup now and I have to do it and I don’t even have a wife to say, “Well, this is what she says we should do.”

I had to be the head of the household really for the first time and say okay, I have to actually make a rule that we’re going to live by here. And I decided what it was is that the family comes over the work always. I mean, with the kids it’s a priority. Because I wanted them to have a feeling like they could count on me like I was really there, I wasn’t just visiting. I didn’t want one of these moments like, “Jeez, honey, I’m sorry I’m not going to see you this week or this month or whatever because I’m going to LA.” I got some offers early that go out to LA and do parts on sitcoms and I said no, because it meant going and being away for a month.

And I just—I wasn’t offered the part but I was asked to come in and “audition with strong interest” to be a second lead in a movie that shoots in Hawaii for a month. And I thought even if they offered it at two million dollars and it’s the lead and it’s Woody Allen or whatever it is, I’d say no, because how do you explain that to those kids, especially when they’re trying to get their feet on the ground? So I just made that rule and it made life so much better like immediately, because it simplified things. And I like being able to say to people I ain’t going. I don’t do stand-up on the road if it’s on a kid day. I don’t shoot on a kid day. I stay with them. I don’t have babysitters. I just take care of them all day and put them to bed at night.

So you literally shoot like half the week?

Yeah. Yesterday I dropped the kids at school in the morning and I came to the set. And then I’ll shoot today [Thursday], you know, full on, and tomorrow we’ll pack it all in to even Friday. And then I get my kids Saturday morning and I’ll have them through the weekend. And then Monday I have the kids I won’t shoot and Tuesday I have the kids I won’t shoot. Sometimes it’s Monday and Tuesday, sometimes it’s its Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays. I just shut down. I edit and I work when they’re at school but I don’t actually shoot because I have to be there to pick them up at school. So that’s made a big, huge difference is that life style.

But it’s kept me out of doing stuff that would—sometimes you’re kind of drawn to projects just because they really want you and there’s stars in it. And you get vain and you go oh, well I’ll do that. But it has to be a really fucking good reason for me to work. And also, the main thing it did was it made me concentrate on stand-up because that was the perfect thing to do with my schedule. Because I’d stay with the kids during my days and then I’d hit the road. And I’d come back and as soon as I’m done with the last show of the week I can forget about it, do you know what I mean. There’s no real preparing at home for stand-up. You just go and you just do it. So it was perfect. And then having them as a focus and having stand-up as almost the only thing made me a much better comedian.

One thing I loved about the first season, and that friends of mine with kids, men and women, would comment about, is that it gets across this sense of  just the physical work it is to be a parent. I feel like you don’t see that much on TV.

Yeah, very much so. I love, I really admire parents that really throw down and really do it, you know. You feel like—I remember I was watching “Platoon” once and these guys are, they’ve just got all this shit they’re slinging and they all have special—like three different guys are carrying one bazooka, you know, and then they have to sort of assemble it. And when a guy’s got to run into the woods by himself, you know how they always have this scene of a guy saying okay, I’m going to go and run through the woods. And he’s taking off all the fucking gear so he would just be in the tank top. And when they get up they sort of hold on to their M16 and push themselves up, every time they stand up they’ve got all this shit on, they clank and stuff.

That’s what being a parent is like. It’s like Platoon. You’ve got all this fucking stuff; you have an impossible amount of shit to carry, and usually, a kid sometimes too. And I see parents all over the place with skinny little ankles and, you know, with no particular features and they just—life’s worn them down to a basic like human shape, you know. Their personality and whatever they—the lines in their face and the chiseling is gone. They’re just this thing and it’s like ant strength, and you just have to, you just have to do it to get through whatever fucking, you know, we’ve got to get from here to there. And she didn’t want to be here any more, and she has to go to the bathroom, and I’ve got a stroller.

And it was so much harder with all that shit that’s supposed to make life easier. I’ve got a stroller, I’ve got a backpack diaper bag, I’ve got two kids, and you’re just fucking walking in a wheeze with all this stuff. Yeah. So that’s kind of like the physical—and then for me now it’s like just two kids by the hands going up the stairs of the school. You know, clomp, clomp, clomp, just getting up there to each class—you, your class; you, your class. And trying not to let them see too much of the distress that I’m going through and absorbing, you know, they’re having a bad day too.

Conversely, are there things about parenting that you look at and you think well, this is interesting to me but it’s not really interesting for a show?

Oh yeah. I mean I get massive amounts of joy from my kids. They keep me company. I would rather be with my kids than anybody else. It’s so easy to go shopping with my kids. We just go, now especially, they really take care of themselves. And we just talk for hours, spend time together. We joke and stuff. None of that would be the slightest bit interesting to—conflict with kids is much more interesting. But there are other things in between and I found some of them this season. We have an episode where we drive out into the country, me and the kids, and that was interesting to find different levels of stuff that can happen.

I guess the joy and the good stuff you get that across more telegraphically—I’m just thinking like the last scene of the last episode [of season one]. Three minutes of that would have ruined it, but…

Yes, it would have. And if you actually had like shots of us talking and, “Gee daddy, I love pancakes.” Ugh. But, you know, moments with your family whether you’re the kid or the parent or whoever, where you get to connect with the family–it’s such a constant conflict that when there are moments of levity and just enjoying each other’s company it’s pretty rare. And so people remember them and they connect with them. So you don’t have to say a lot. If you just show that, people go oh fuck, I remember that with my dad or jeez, those were the days, you know; or I never had that, whatever it is. So either way, seeing it through a window and getting further and more further away from it, it’s an appropriate way to show it.

Because people who have experienced it don’t need to see more, and if they see more complete representation it’ll become false to them. And people who haven’t really experienced it, and there are people–a lot of my life I didn’t have a lot of family joy like that–seeing it through a window is how it feels anyway. So those people are probably, it’s probably very sad for them.

I know a lot of people write to me and say that they cried when they saw that scene. It had to be because of their own experience. They did not care about us and our pancakes enough to cry. It was about them. Some of the people cried because it reminded them of the great things. Some people cried because they never got to have that, so it was a bitter, sad cry, which I’m thrilled to have invoked. That’s great.

To me the goal of comedy is to just laugh, which is a really high hearted thing, visceral connection and reaction. And any time I take laughs away on the show I have to replace it with something at least that high; it has to be that height. It can’t just be interesting. It has to be holy shit one way or the other; holy shit, that’s funny or holy shit that kind of scared me. I’ve been interested in scaring people too because it’s sort of, it runs by some of the same rules as laughing. Or oh my God, that’s so, I really feel that. Or what the fuck is this? I don’t understand this. These are all heightened responses and I have to be getting one of those. If it’s not funny it has to be super compelling in another way.

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but in the “Bully” episode last season, I probably more thoroughly believed that you were about to get the shit kicked out of you than if I were watching a TV drama. Like, “This is a scene that could actually happen. That kid could actually kick his teeth in.”

Yeah. And that was really important to me. If I’m going to go down the road like “Bully,” I just can’t make it dramatic. It has to be, “What the fuck is this? I don’t want this. I want to turn the channel. I don’t want to see this guy get his ass kicked. And oh my God, he’s such a loser.” You know, big, big feelings.

And then mystery is another important one to me. Mystery, a heightened what the fuck is he doing? Why is he following him? I have to be juiced up like that. So hopefully, I’ve kept that rule up this year. Hopefully—we have, you know, more shit that’s not particularly funny and some that is.

And one thing I got away from a little bit with a few of the [new] episodes was my reaction being the center of everything. There were a few episodes are a little more observation or where I really get off on creating characters and casting them and shooting them. So there’s a few episodes I think where people will say there wasn’t a center of the show, it was just sort of a jack-off of this character that he was portraying and it got away from him. It’s okay. They probably will say that and they’ll be kind of right.

But I think we have enough of the staple [comedy] in the show throughout the season. If [an experiment] succeeds and people like it, then I get to say now I get to do that too. I get to get away from me in the show. If it’s resoundingly rejected and people say we fucking hate when it’s not about this guy, I won’t do it any more. Maybe, you know, we’ll see.

View post:

Evan Rachel Wood Chops Her Locks

Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

Short story: Evan Rachel Wood chopped her hair! The actress showed up to the Hollywood premiere of True Blood Tuesday night sporting a modern blonde pixie cut. Wood, who most recently dated Marilyn Manson, accentuated her androgynous new look with a chic gray vest and form-fitting pants accessorized with red suspenders. Want to style your hair similarly? Hair guru Mara Roszak, who coiffed Wood for the event, says to apply Volumactive spray all over the roots of wet hair. Next, blow dry in different directions, off the face, then take a dime-size amount of hard wax, rubbing it between your hands and spreading it through the hair with your fingertips from the back forward. Lay the sides of the hair flat and mess up the top, adding more wax as needed. Twist random pieces, then spray all over with René Furterer hairspray. Wood, a self-proclaimed “free spirit” is no stranger to hair experimentation: she’s been ginger-hued, dark and mysterious and most recently, honey-blonde (though always long). She likes to get people talking, too; when she revealed her bisexuality in April, Wood told Esquire that she thought she was “a little controversial. I just try and keep some mystery, so hopefully people can’t really put their finger on it.” Tell us: What do you think of Wood’s new haircut? –Kim Peiffer

VOTE NOW ON STAR HAIR CHANGES!

Edited by Melissa Liebling-Goldberg

Privacy Policy

View post:

Glen Campbell: 5 Things You Didn’t Know

Mindy Small/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Glen Campbell has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he reveals in the new issue of People magazine.

The Grammy winner, 75, and his wife, Kim, say they are sharing the news because he hopes to give a series of goodbye concerts this fall — and they want fans to know his condition.

PHOTOS: Grammys most memorable moments

“Glen is still an awesome guitar player and singer,” says Kim. “But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn’t want people to think, ‘What’s the matter with him? Is he drunk?’ “

Here are five things you didn’t know about the singer:

1. He’s released more than 70 albums and has sold 45 million records. His biggest hits have included “Rhinestone Cowboy” (watch the video below), “Southern Nights,” “Galveston,” “Wichita Lineman,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.”

2. He was a touring member of the Beach Boys. Campbell filled in for Brian Wilson in 1964-65. He also played guitar on the group’s Pet Sounds album and other recordings.

PHOTOS: Hollywood attends the Grammy Awards

3. He was chosen by John Wayne to co-star in True Grit. Campbell also has ventured into acting, with Wayne handpicking him to co-star in the 1969 film True Grit. The award earned Campbell a Golden Globe nomination for most promising newcomer. Campbell also sang the title song, which earned him an Oscar nom.

4. He hosted his own variety show. Campbell hosted the 1969-72 show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour for CBS. Guests included country stars as well as Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, Lily Tomlin, Anne Murray and Dionne Warwick.

5. He sang a revised version of “Rhinestone Cowboy” at Alice Cooper’s Chrismas Pudding concert in December. Campbell changed the lyric “walkin’ these streets so long singin’ the same old song” to “singin’ good old songs.” ” ‘Good old songs’ to me sounds better,” Campbell told The Republic. “Same old same old same old — it was like I was complaining. I did change that for that reason to ‘singin’ some good old songs,’ ’cause that’s the way I feel now.”

Glen Campbell’s grim diagnosis puts spotlight on Alzheimer’s disease

Glen Campbell performing in Sydney, Australia on Jan. 30, 2008

(Credit: Getty Images)

(CBS) Glen Campbell may be an “awesome singer and guitar player,” as his wife says, but those talents weren’t enough to protect him from Alzheimer’s. The 75-year-old country music legend said he is battling the devastating neurological disease – and preparing a farewell tour.

Why go public with the diagnosis? “If he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn’t want people to think, ‘What’s the matter with him? Is he drunk?’” Campbell’s wife, Kim, told People magazine.

Campbell, whose hits include “Gentle on My Mind,” has battled memory problems in recent years but got the Alzheimer’s diagnosis only six months ago.

And it is a devastating diagnosis. An irreversible brain disease, Alzheimer’s slowly destroys memory and thinking ability and eventually makes it impossible to carry out the simplest tasks. Doctors don’t know the precise causes of Alzheimer’s, which affects an estimated 5 million Americans, but suspect that heredity and “lifestyle factors” play a role. These include high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic conditions.

Four prescription medications have been approved for the treatment of Alzheimer’s. But while the drugs can help maintain mental function and curb behavioral problems for a few months to a few years, they do nothing to change the underlying disease process.

How long does Campbell have? No one knows. But the Alzheimer’s Association says that, on average, people with Alzheimer’s live eight years after their symptoms become noticeable to others.

But Campbell isn’t laying down his guitar just yet.

“I still love making music,” he said. “And I still love performing for my fans.”

The National Institute on Aging has more on Alzheimer’s disease.

View post:

6.7 magnitude earthquake hits east of Japan

msnbc.com staff and news service reports msnbc.com staff and news service reports

WASHINGTON — A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the east coast of Honshu, Japan, 54 miles southeast of Hachinohe early Thursday, The U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning for Iwate Prefecture, but canceled it about an hour later. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it didn’t expect a destructive tsunami from the quake.

The earthquake hit at a depth of 19.9 miles, according to the USGS. It struck 325 northeast miles from Tokyo.

Thursday’s earthquake hit in the same area off the northeast coast of Japan where a devastating magnitude 9 earthquake hit March 11, causing a huge tsunami. Around 23,000 people were left dead or missing from the twin disasters.

Msnbc.com staff contributed to this report from The Associated Press

View post:

Federal Reserve gloomier on jobs, economic growth

Chris Isidore, On Wednesday June 22, 2011, 3:42 pm EDT

Ben Bernanke and the rest of the Federal Reserve have grown more pessimistic about the state of the U.S. economy.

At the conclusion of a two-day policy meeting, the central bank said that while the recovery is continuing at a moderate pace, growth is somewhat slower than expected. It also said the jobs market is “weaker than anticipated.”

It also issued new economic projections that call for slower economic growth, higher unemployment and higher inflation in 2011 and 2012 than in its previous forecast. At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Fed chairman Bernanke referred to the new forecast as a significant revision.

The Fed said in its statement that it believed some of the headwinds would be short-lived, including supply disruptions from the Japanese earthquake, and the “effect of higher food and energy prices on consumer purchasing power.”

But Bernanke said he and other Fed policymakers aren’t certain how much of the weakness is due to those temporary factors and how much is due to longer-lasting problems.

Read the Fed’s statement

He said continued problems in the housing market, excess private sector debt and weakness in the financial sector might be more serious than previously thought. And he suggested the labor market is a long way from being healed.

“We project unemployment to come down very painfully and slowly,” he said. “We’re still some years away from full employment of 5.5%. That’s very frustrating.”

He said that the Fed’s forecast assumes no additional shocks to the U.S. economy. But a default by the Greek government on its debt could be such a shock.

While U.S. banks have limited exposure to Greek sovereign debt, they do have significant exposure to European banks that would themselves be affected by such a default.

“The impact on the United States would be quite significant,” Bernanke said.

Stocks fell slightly following Bernanke’s press conference but traded in a fairly narrow range as there was little in the way of new news from the Fed chairman.

Still, there has been a significant slowdown in hiring and disappointing overall growth in recent months that have caused stocks to pull back. The weak economic readings have led many economists to cut their growth forecasts. It has also raised fears of the economy possibly falling into a new recession, although that is still seen as a long shot.

The Fed appeared to downplay the chance of another downturn, saying that it “expects the pace of recovery to pick up over coming quarters and the unemployment rate to resume its gradual decline.”

Bernanke brushes off Greek risk to banks

Bernanke said that even though the economy is weaker than had been hoped at this point, it is stronger than last August when he first signaled the Fed was looking at taking additional steps to help the economy.

He noted that last summer, the labor market was even weaker, and that there was a significant risk of deflation.

Keith Hembre, chief economist with Nuveen Asset Management, said he thinks despite the Fed’s projection of better growth ahead, the outlook is still uncertain.

“Officially they’re on the optimistic side, and they probably remain hopeful,” he said. “But they’ve probably got some doubts about it.”

The Fed also dismissed inflation fears voiced by some economists, saying that it believes “inflation will subside” and that “longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.”

But it did drop language in earlier statements that “measures of underlying inflation are still subdued,” suggesting that there are more concerns about the increase in core inflation readings.

The Fed’s latest effort to help the economy was through the purchase of $600 billion in long-term Treasuries, a program that ends this month. Known as the second round of quantitative easing or QE2 for short, it was designed to keep interest rates low.

But the controversial program is widely believed to have been of limited help to the economy. Some also argue that QE2 has contributed to the weakening of the dollar and an unwelcome rise in commodity prices, particularly oil.

While Bernanke dismissed the need for additional asset purchases or other steps in the near term, the Fed could be forced to come up with another round of quantitative easing later in the year if it doesn’t get the rebound in growth it is looking for, said Keith Springer, president of Springer Financial Advisors.

“They’re afraid to come out with a QE3, even though they know we’ll need one,” he said. “I think they feel like they’ll have egg on their face. But they didn’t do QE1 and QE2 to let the economy die now.”

The Fed also left the fed funds rate, its key interest rate used as a benchmark for a wide range of business and consumer borrowing, near 0%, where it has been since December 2008. It repeated that it believes economic conditions are likely to “warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period.”

And Bernanke, when asked just how long the “extended period” could last, suggested that rates will stay near zero for awhile.

“Depending upon how the economy evolves, it could be significantly longer,” he said.

View this article on CNNMoney

Follow Yahoo! Finance on ; become a fan on Facebook.

View post:

Food Lion still no. 1

This news reports becomes no. 1 in the hot trends of google and it stays several hours in the trends status.

Food Lion held off its rivals in the highly competitive Richmond grocery market to rank first in sales for the third consecutive year, despite seeing its percentage of sales fall. Meanwhile, Kroger increased its share, and Martin’s Food Markets’ results dropped slightly.

Continue reading: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2011/jun/20/11/food-lion-is-no-1-in-area-market-share-kroger-sees-ar-1121279/#comments

This article garnered 80 comments and 62 people recommends this

To give some reaction about this topic, I will show some of the comments so that the world will know too.

Voice your opinion by posting a comment.

Posted by nycjsw on June 21, 2011 – 4:31 p.m.

I agree with the previous poster – Kroger will be moving up the rankings. They continue to open new stores that take off. The store in western Midlo rocks, the new Carytown store will rock and their newer stores in the east end are also taking off. As they replace the old stores they inherited, you will continue to see them grab business. They also have A LOT of room for growth as Martin’s falters. Remember Martin’s is opened another day and selling beer/wine but still lost market share. Anyone have any input on the Martin’s/Ukrops cakes I posted about earlier? They insist they are the same thing b/c Ukrop’s still makes them.

Report Inappropriate Content

Posted by MeToo on June 22, 2011 – 7:53 a.m.

They are still the same cakes, what’s your “beef” with them? Because the sticker says Martins now?

Report Inappropriate Content

Posted by nycjsw on June 22, 2011 – 8:01 a.m.

The box still says Ukrop’s. My “beef” is the cakes don’t taste the same – not even close. The custom order sheet cakes are also not as thick. The cakes is very dry tasting where the old Ukrop’s cake was very moist. We have given them 3 shots post Ukrop’s and each cake had this flaw. So it could be that Ukrop’s is making the cake but Martin’s has them producing the cakes in a way that cuts costs or maybe Ukrop’s is cutting costs? Either way the cake does not taste the same. That is my beef.

Report Inappropriate Content

Posted by blue67ccm on June 21, 2011 – 1:07 p.m.

Food Lion leads due to having so many more stores and yes they do take advantage of growing suburban and rural communities where the others haven’t tread….yet.

I’ll state what I stated a year ago when I stepped into Martin’s for the first time, it felt like a Giant. And Giant already died once in Richmond. If Kroger takes over 2nd place anytime soon, they may leave again.

Report Inappropriate Content

Posted by urmom69 on June 21, 2011 – 2:21 p.m.

Rubbish. Its not even close to the same entity that failed back years ago. 2 Seperate divisions. Look it up before the lies snowball on you.. Kroger will never be 2. They have to get over Walmart first. Let me know how that works out.

Report Inappropriate Content

Posted by blue67ccm on June 21, 2011 – 3:15 p.m.

Wow–as I stated, the annual supermarket wars thread hasn’t disappointed. Not sure why you would assert I was lying since I was only stating an opinion about Martin’s future (and yes, Giant, once upon a time, left Richmond….)

To read all 80 comments please click this link: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2011/jun/20/11/food-lion-is-no-1-in-area-market-share-kroger-sees-ar-1121279/#comments

For the latest Zamboanga City and Philippine news stories and videos, visit ZamboTimes.com

View post: