Kutcher takes on tech idol Steve Jobs in 'jOBS'

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Ashton Kutcher says playing Steve Jobs on screen "was honestly one of the most terrifying things I've ever tried to do in my life."

The 34-year-old actor helped premiere the biopic "jOBS" Friday, which was the closing-night film at the Sundance Film Festival.

Kutcher plays the Apple Inc. founder from the company's humble origins in the 1970s until the launch of the first iPod in 2001. A digital entrepreneur himself, Kutcher said he considers Jobs a personal hero.

"He's a guy who failed and got back on the horse," Kutcher said. "I think we can all sort of relate to that at some point in life."

Kutcher even embodied the Jobs character as he pursued his own high-tech interests off-screen.

"What was nice was when I was preparing for the character, I could still work on product development for technology companies, and I would sort of stay in character, in the mode of the character," he said. "But I didn't feel like I was compromising the work on the film by working on technology stuff because it was pretty much in the same field."

But playing the real-life tech icon who died in 2011 still felt risky, he said, because "he's fresh in our minds."

"It was kind of like throwing myself into this gauntlet of, I know, massive amounts of criticism because somebody's going to go 'well, it wasn't exactly...,'" Kutcher said.

While the filmmakers say they tried to be as historically accurate as possible, there was also a disclaimer at the very end of the credits that said portions of the film might not be completely accurate.

Still, realism was always the focus for Kutcher, who watched "hundreds of hours of footage," listened to Jobs' past speeches and interviewed several of his friends to prepare for the role.

The actor even adopted the entrepreneur's "fruitarian diet," which he said "can lead to some serious issues."

"I ended up in the hospital two days before we started shooting the movie," he said. "I was like doubled over in pain, and my pancreas levels were completely out of whack, which was completely terrifying, considering everything."

Jobs died of complications from pancreatic cancer.

Still, Kutcher was up to the challenge of playing Jobs, in part because of his admiration for the man who created the Macintosh computer and the iPod.

"I admire this man so much and what he's done. I admire the way he built things," Kutcher said. "This guy created a tool that we use every day in our life, and he believed in it when nobody else did."

The film also shows Jobs' less appealing side, withholding stock options from some of the company's original employees and denying child support to the mother of his eldest child.

Kutcher still found the man inspiring. Jobs had a singular focus, Kutcher said, and felt like anyone could change the world.

"I don't know if there's ever been an entrepreneur who's had more compassion and care for his consumer than Steve Jobs," Kutcher said. "He wanted to put something in your hand that you could use and you could use it easily... and he really cared about that."

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.

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Religious Groups and Employers Battle Contraception Mandate

Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency

President Obama, with his health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, offering a compromise on the contraception mandate last year.

In a flood of lawsuits, Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are challenging a provision in the new health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in employee health plans — a high-stakes clash between religious freedom and health care access that appears headed to the Supreme Court.

In recent months, federal courts have seen dozens of lawsuits brought not only by religious institutions like Catholic dioceses but also by private employers ranging from a pizza mogul to produce transporters who say the government is forcing them to violate core tenets of their faith. Some have been turned away by judges convinced that access to contraception is a vital health need and a compelling state interest. Others have been told that their beliefs appear to outweigh any state interest and that they may hold off complying with the law until their cases have been judged. New suits are filed nearly weekly.

“This is highly likely to end up at the Supreme Court,” said Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia and one of the country’s top scholars on church-state conflicts. “There are so many cases, and we are already getting strong disagreements among the circuit courts.”

President Obama’s health care law, known as the Affordable Care Act, was the most fought-over piece of legislation in his first term and was the focus of a highly contentious Supreme Court decision last year that found it to be constitutional.

But a provision requiring the full coverage of contraception remains a matter of fierce controversy. The law says that companies must fully cover all “contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures” approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including “morning-after pills” and intrauterine devices whose effects some contend are akin to abortion.

As applied by the Health and Human Services Department, the law offers an exemption for “religious employers,” meaning those who meet a four-part test: that their purpose is to inculcate religious values, that they primarily employ and serve people who share their religious tenets, and that they are nonprofit groups under federal tax law.

But many institutions, including religious schools and colleges, do not meet those criteria because they employ and teach members of other religions and have a broader purpose than inculcating religious values.

“We represent a Catholic college founded by Benedictine monks,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has brought a number of the cases to court. “They don’t qualify as a house of worship and don’t turn away people in hiring or as students because they are not Catholic.”

In that case, involving Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, a federal appeals court panel in Washington told the college last month that it could hold off on complying with the law while the federal government works on a promised exemption for religiously-affiliated institutions. The court told the government that it wanted an update by mid-February.

Defenders of the provision say employers may not be permitted to impose their views on employees, especially when something so central as health care is concerned.

“Ninety-nine percent of women use contraceptives at some time in their lives,” said Judy Waxman, a vice president of the National Women’s Law Center, which filed a brief supporting the government in one of the cases. “There is a strong and legitimate government interest because it affects the health of women and babies.”

She added, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Contraception was declared by the C.D.C. to be one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.”

Officials at the Justice Department and the Health and Human Services Department declined to comment, saying the cases were pending.

A compromise for religious institutions may be worked out. The government hopes that by placing the burden on insurance companies rather than on the organizations, the objections will be overcome. Even more challenging cases involve private companies run by people who reject all or many forms of contraception.

The Alliance Defending Freedom — like Becket, a conservative group — has brought a case on behalf of Hercules Industries, a company based in Denver that makes sheet metal products. It was granted an injunction by a judge in Colorado who said the religious values of the family owners were infringed by the law.

“Two-thirds of the cases have had injunctions against Obamacare, and most are headed to courts of appeals,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the alliance. “It is clear that a substantial number of these cases will vindicate religious freedom over Obamacare. But it seems likely that the Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the dispute.”

The timing of these cases remains in flux. Half a dozen will probably be argued by this summer, perhaps in time for inclusion on the Supreme Court’s docket next term. So far, two- and three-judge panels on four federal appeals courts have weighed in, granting some injunctions while denying others.

One of the biggest cases involves Hobby Lobby, which started as a picture framing shop in an Oklahoma City garage with $600 and is now one of the country’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 stores in 41 states.

David Green, the company’s founder, is an evangelical Christian who says he runs his company on biblical principles, including closing on Sunday so employees can be with their families, paying nearly double the minimum wage and providing employees with comprehensive health insurance.

Mr. Green does not object to covering contraception but considers morning-after pills to be abortion-inducing and therefore wrong.

“Our family is now being forced to choose between following the laws of the land that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families,” Mr. Green said in a statement. “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”

The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit last month turned down his family’s request for a preliminary injunction, but the company has found a legal way to delay compliance for some months.

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Diner’s Journal Blog: PepsiCo Will Halt Use of Additive in Gatorade

PepsiCo announced on Friday that it would no longer use an ingredient in Gatorade after consumers complained.

The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, which was used in citrus versions of the sports drink to prevent the flavorings from separating, was the object of a petition started on Change.org by Sarah Kavanagh, a 15-year-old from Hattiesburg, Miss., who became concerned about the ingredient after reading about it online. Studies have suggested there are possible side effects, including neurological disorders and altered thyroid hormones.

The petition attracted more than 200,000 signatures, and this week, Ms. Kavanagh was in New York City to tape a segment for “The Dr. Oz Show.” She visited The New York Times on Wednesday and while there said, “I just don’t understand why they can’t use something else instead of B.V.O.”

“I was in algebra class and one of my friends kicked me and said, ‘Have you seen this on Twitter?’ ” Ms. Kavanagh said in a phone interview on Friday evening. “I asked the teacher if I could slip out to the bathroom, and I called my mom and said, ‘Mom, we won.’ ”

Molly Carter, a spokeswoman for Gatorade, said the company had been testing alternatives to the chemical for roughly a year “due to customer feedback.” She said Gatorade initially was not going to make an announcement, “since we don’t find a health and safety risk with B.V.O.”

Because of the petition, though, Ms. Carter said the company had changed its mind, and an unidentified executive there gave Beverage Digest, a trade publication, the news for its Jan. 25 issue.

Previously, a spokesman for PepsiCo had said in an e-mail, “We appreciate Sarah as a fan of Gatorade, and her concern has been heard.”

Brominated vegetable oil will be replaced by sucrose acetate isobutyrate, an emulsifier that is “generally recognized as safe” as a food additive by the Food and Drug Administration. The new ingredient will be added to orange, citrus cooler and lemonade Gatorade, as well Gatorade X-Factor orange, Gatorade Xtremo citrus cooler and a powdered form of the drink called “glacier freeze.”

Ms. Carter said consumers would start seeing the new ingredient over the next few months as existing supplies of Gatorade sell out and are replaced.

Health advocates applauded the company’s move. “Kudos to PepsiCo for doing the responsible thing on its own and not waiting for the F.D.A. to force it to,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Mr. Jacobson has championed the removal of brominated vegetable oil from foods and beverages for the last several decades, but the F.D.A. has left it in a sort of limbo, citing budgetary constraints that it says keep it from going through the process needed to formally ban the chemical or declare it safe once and for all.

Brominated vegetable oil is banned as a food ingredient in Japan and the European Union. About 10 percent of drinks sold in the United States contain it, including Mountain Dew, which is also made by PepsiCo; some flavors of Powerade and Fresca from Coca-Cola; and Squirt and Sunkist Peach Soda, made by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

PepsiCo said it had no plans to remove the ingredient from Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew, both of which generate more than $1 billion in annual sales.

Heather White, executive director at the Environmental Working Group, said of PepsiCo’s decision, “We can only hope that other companies will follow suit.” She added, “We need to overhaul how F.D.A. keeps up with the latest science on food additives to better protect public health.”

Ms. Kavanagh agreed. “I’ve been thinking about ways to take this to the next level, and I’m thinking about taking it to the F.D.A. and asking them why they aren’t doing something about it,” she said. “I’m not sure yet, but I think that’s where I’d like to go with this.”

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 26, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the 15-year-old who started a petition on Change.org to end the use of brominated vegetable oil in Gatorade. She is Sarah Kavanagh, not Kavanaugh.

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/26/2013, on page B1 of the NewYork edition with the headline: PepsiCo Will Halt Additive Use In Gatorade.

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A Staff Shake-Up at the White House

WASHINGTON — President Obama shook up his White House staff on Friday, installing a new team largely made up of familiar faces moved to different positions as he gears up for an intense push on sweeping legislation early in his second term.

Mr. Obama named Denis R. McDonough, a longtime aide and currently the principal deputy national security adviser, as his new White House chief of staff, and shuffled around a series of other officials in the West Wing.

“I have been counting on Denis for nearly a decade,” Mr. Obama said in announcing the appointment in the East Room, flanked by Mr. McDonough and the departing chief of staff, Jacob J. Lew, the nominee for Treasury secretary. “I relied on his intellect and good judgment, and that has continued ever since.”

The president called Mr. McDonough “one of my closest friends” and an “indispensable member of my national security team” who has been central to every major foreign policy decision of the past four years, including the troop withdrawal from Iraq, the response to the earthquake in Haiti and the lifting of limits on service in the military by openly gay people.

Mr. McDonough, 43, has been in the president’s most inner circle, with influence that belied his title. Whenever he has advocated a position, other officials have understood that he is almost certainly channeling Mr. Obama, and no one is a fiercer defender of the president. Mr. McDonough at times has left bruised feelings among officials elsewhere in the administration, particularly in the Pentagon and the State Department, where he is viewed by some as a brusque enforcer. But he is enormously popular within the West Wing, where his loyalty and work ethic are highly valued.

His ascension was greeted by warm applause from his colleagues in the East Room on Friday, and the president poked fun at his round-the-clock work habits. “I actually began to think Denis likes pulling all-nighters,” he said. “The truth is nobody outworks Denis McDonough.”

Moving up to deputy chief of staff will be Rob Nabors, currently the president’s legislative affairs chief, and replacing Mr. McDonough at the National Security Council will be Tony Blinken, the national security adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director and another early Obama aide, will move up to senior adviser, replacing David Plouffe, who is departing this week.

Replacing Mr. Pfeiffer as communications chief will be his deputy, Jennifer Palmieri, a veteran of Bill Clinton’s White House. Serving as deputy senior adviser for communications and strategy will be David Simas, a former White House aide who served as head of polling and focus-group research for the president’s re-election campaign. Replacing Mr. Nabors running the legislative affairs office will be Miguel Rodriguez, a former aide to departing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and more recently Senate liaison for the Obama White House.

Lisa Monaco, currently the assistant attorney general for national security, will move over to the White House to replace John O. Brennan, the president’s adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, who has been tapped to take over as director of the Central Intelligence Agency if confirmed by the Senate.

The White House announced separately Friday that Christopher P. Lu, one of Mr. Obama’s early aides dating back to his Senate days, will be leaving as White House cabinet secretary, the liaison to the various government departments. Replacing him will be Danielle Gray, the deputy director of the White House National Economic Council. Katy Kale will become the president’s assistant for management and administration, moving up from deputy.

Mr. Obama released a statement praising Mr. Lu and his “dedication and tireless efforts.” The president made clear that he does not accept Mr. Lu’s departure, saying he has asked him to return in another capacity. “After he enjoys some time off, I hope he will consider those opportunities,” Mr. Obama said.

In a separate move, the first lady’s deputy communications director, Semonti Stephens, announced Thursday that she was leaving to move to San Francisco.

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Microsoft profit dips ahead of Office revamp

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's quarterly profit edged lower as Office software sales slowed ahead of a new launch, offsetting a solid but unspectacular start for its Windows 8 operating system and sending the company's shares down 1.4 percent.

The results mark a stark change from the 1990s, when Microsoft was the unchallenged king of computing and the release of a new Windows operating system would supercharge sales, generate excitement and generally boost its stock.

None of that appears to be true now, as Microsoft has been overtaken by Apple Inc and Google Inc in the rush toward mobile computing, while sales of traditional desktop computers are in decline.

"There's still no sign that Windows 8 is a gangbuster," said Andrew Bartels, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Compared to prior periods, where you saw a big increase when a new one came out, you're not seeing that."

Profit at the world's largest software company slid to $6.4 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the fiscal second quarter, from $6.6 billion, or 78 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Wall Street had expected 75 cents per share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Overall sales rose 3 percent to $21.5 billion, Microsoft said on Thursday, in line with analysts' estimates.

The biggest factor weighing on Microsoft was a 10 percent decline in sales at its Office unit to $5.7 billion, which took into account the loss of deferred revenue relating to discounted upgrades to the new version of the software, expected shortly.

"It's a pause before a product launch, which is typical," said Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones.

WINDOWS SHRUG

Windows sales jumped 24 percent to $5.9 billion, slightly ahead of analysts' average expectations, which had been gradually lowered over the last few months. That also included some deferred revenue relating to discounted upgrades.

Microsoft said it has sold more than 60 million Windows 8 licenses since its late-October launch, an unexceptional start for a product which has not gripped the public's imagination in the way of Apple's iPad.

The company already announced 60 million Windows 8 sales two weeks ago, broadly in line with Windows 7 sales three years before.

"Windows 8 continues to have an uphill battle in convincing investors this is going to be the key to the growth story for Microsoft," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. "It continues to be a major prove-me product cycle."

Microsoft did not detail sales of its new Surface tablet - a direct competitor to the iPad - although chief financial officer Peter Klein said the company was expanding production and distribution.

Windows executives suggest that Windows will win more people over when new touch-screen devices start hitting the shelves in coming months.

"Demand is stronger than supply across a number of key device types, whether Windows tablets, convertibles, or all-in-ones," Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Microsoft's Windows unit, told Reuters earlier this month. "Most of the opportunity is still ahead of us."

Analysts seem prepared to give Microsoft more time to prove its point.

"It's been disruptive but the PC market is far from dead," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial. "Even if they have minimal success with Surface, they don't need much to move the needle."

Microsoft shares have fallen 2 percent since Windows 8 was launched on October 26, compared to a 5 percent gain in the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index. They fell to $27.06 in after-hours trading, after closing at $27.23 on Nasdaq.

(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Richard Chang and Bob Burgdorfer)

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Shakespeare, his work, come to life in PBS series

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jeremy Irons has a suggestion for "Downton Abbey" fans: Give William Shakespeare a try, too.

Irons is among the prominent hosts of "Shakespeare Uncovered," an inventive series tracing the origins of eight of the writer's plays through a combination of history, new analysis, selected scenes — and, for Irons, a gallop on horseback across a fabled battlefield.

The series begins 9 p.m.-11 p.m. EST Friday (check local listings) on PBS, which happens to be the home of the hit period soap opera, "Downton Abbey."

"Shakespeare Uncovered," along with PBS' planned fall airing of new films of four of Shakespeare's plays, "open up to this huge American audience this gold dust," Irons told reporters recently, and demonstrates that TV "doesn't end with 'Downton Abbey.'"

After then mischievously comparing Shakespeare to an Aston Martin and "Downton" to a Ford Fiesta, Irons admitted he hadn't seen the serial and was just having a bit of fun. But he's serious about the Bard of Avon.

"Watch these Shakespeare productions and you'll see what real writing, what real stories, what real characters are about," he said.

The programs also present actor-writer-producer Shakespeare as a 16th-century impresario who knew how to please audiences and exploit his own work by bringing back popular characters and crafting "prequels."

"Shakespeare Uncovered" opens with Ethan Hawke's exploration of "Macbeth," including visits to the play's Scottish sites, a look at recent productions starring Patrick Stewart and Antony Sher, and an illumination of Shakespeare's grasp of the criminal mind.

It's paired with "Shakespeare Uncovered: The Comedies With Joely Richardson," about "Twelfth Night" and "As You Like It."

"Richard II" with Derek Jacobi and "Henry IV" and "Henry V" with Irons air on Feb. 1, with David Tennant's look at "Hamlet" and "The Tempest" with host Trevor Nunn concluding the series on Feb. 8.

There's travel as well as scholarship for the hosts. Irons visits the battlefield at Agincourt in northern France where, in productions of "Henry V," actors get to tear into the famed St. Crispin's Day speech ("We few, we happy few, we band of brothers").

Irons, who will star this fall in PBS' "Great Performances" adaptation of "Henry IV," said he was shooting the film when he was approached by "Shakespeare Uncovered" producer Richard Denton about taking part.

"Oh, that may be interesting if we can find the time. What do you want to do?" Irons recalled asking Denton. "And he said, 'Well, I want to put you in a boat. I want to put you on a horse. I want to take you to Agincourt.'"

"This sounds very interesting," the 64-year-old actor replied, which opened the door to an unexpected education — and more opportunity for Irons' colorful and unbridled wit.

"I learned, for instance, that the reason we won the Battle of Agincourt is because we had these amazing Welsh archers," while the French, in his words, "wore amazing stuff and great armor and (had) lovely horses, and they pranced around being gorgeous."

Irons' lively approach to the subject matter dovetails with the goal of "Shakespeare Uncovered" as described by producer Denton.

"The real drive (was) to make a series of films that would be entertaining, that would show Shakespeare with the kind of enthusiasm that Jeremy brings to it," Denton said, and would be accessible to those unschooled in the playwright's work.

To please Shakespeare buffs, the programs also include fresh insights into the connection between his life and his art, he said.

The bottom line on the Bard, according to Irons: Shakespeare endures as the greatest dramatist of all because he chronicled the eternal human condition in all its joys and sorrows.

"When we see those plays now, they still speak to us with a resonance that many hundreds of plays written between Shakespeare's time and today don't," he said.

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Online:

http://www.pbs.org

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Living With Cancer: The Good Patient Syndrome

I remember when being good seemed strategic.

After the technician took out a pad to draw an inscrutable diagram, I nodded and pretended to recognize a squiggle at the center of what looked like a snail. I discussed my oncologist’s research projects, instead of complaining about pain. Generally I answered a nurse’s opening query — “So how are you?”– with a cheery “Good! How are you?” Grumbles about waiting interminably for a scan in a freezing room never rolled off my tongue. When an interventional radiologist managed to remove two stents from my body, I didn’t fault the surgeon who left them there to trigger a massive infection followed by an allergic response to antibiotics: I sent a thank you note to the radiologist.

What was wrong with me? Outside the medical sphere, I am prone to impatience, candor and bouts of argumentative fervor. Had feminine socialization kicked in? As a girl, I was trained to be courteous to people in positions of authority and to revere the saving knowledge of physicians. But men also exhibit symptoms of the good patient syndrome.

Indeed, Anatole Broyard preached its virtues in his book “Intoxicated by My Illness,” although his version was less compliant, more ironic than mine. “If a patient expects a doctor to be interested in him, he ought to try to be interesting. When he shows nothing but a greediness for care, nothing but the coarser forms of anxiety, it’s only natural for the doctor to feel an aversion.” Following this logic, Broyard embarked upon an impersonation: “I never act sick. A puling person is not appealing.” He therefore set out to charm his physicians — to distinguish himself from boring, easily forgotten patients. I did this too, adding a pinch of obedience, a dash of gratitude, and a smidgen of eccentricity to the mix. One doesn’t want to be just any old patient; patients are replaceable.

Since illness had never intoxicated me, why was I behaving like Broyard? The short answer is terror: these people could hurt me.

Were I to seem boring or easily forgotten, should I appear crabby or disagreeable, I might get neglected or, in my anxious imagination, harmed. Not consciously neglected or intentionally harmed, of course, because doctors and nurses have dedicated themselves to helping people whose sickness often makes them boring and disagreeable. But neglected or harmed nonetheless. Like most patients, I am keenly aware that the medical staff at most facilities are overloaded. It is easy to get left for hours unattended on a gurney or starved and freaked when surgeries are perpetually postponed or distressed and bruised when the bindings on limbs are roughly or hastily applied.

But of course adopting the role of model patient does not provide a solution. Much of the caretaking in hospitals remains out of the control of our personal physicians and nurses. And in any case, too much ingratiating docility can be dangerous to a patient’s health.

If I had persisted in asking my surgeon about the fate of the stents that he had implanted in my body, he might have remembered to remove them. If I had not followed to the letter the dosage he prescribed of a heavy-duty antibiotic, especially as I began to get sick to my stomach and dizzy, I might not have had the full-body breakdown of an allergic reaction. Earlier still, if I had insisted on better bowel preps before my first abdominal surgery, or a postponement, maybe the stents and infection and the allergic reaction to antibiotics would never have happened.

Even before that, if I had challenged my general practitioner who diagnosed indigestion, maybe my cancer would have been found at an earlier stage. If my grandmother had wheels, she’d be an omnibus: that’s a family joke.

So much for the magical thinking that good patients receive the best care. Being a submissive or dutiful patient doesn’t always pay off. Who exactly was I being good for? Sometimes it’s good to be bad.

Was I good for nothing? When I was at my most puling and unappealing and too sick to be good, with pain so overwhelming that I had to be taken to my oncologist’s examining room in a wheelchair, she placed her hand on my knee and kept it there while explaining how she would take care of me. Though I could not look her in the eye, though I could not speak for groaning, I took her point. I had foisted the good patient role on myself. She had always seen through the pose to the mortally sick human being. Why else would I be here, I realized.

At that moment I resolved to renounce or rectify my goodness. I don’t always succeed.

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Susan Gubar is a distinguished emerita professor of English at Indiana University and the author of “Memoir of a Debulked Woman,” which explores her experience with ovarian cancer.

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Wealth Matters: What the Small Player Can Expect When Using a Lobbyist

Robert Caplin for The New York Times

Domenic Rom, a senior vice president at Technicolor, a postproduction company for film and television, became part of a group of similar companies that wanted to lobby for a tax credit.

IF there is one thing most small-business owners have in common, it is that they have far less ability than big corporations to affect what happens to them politically.

Few small-business owners — the kind of people who accumulate wealth through a service or manufacturing business and are working at it every day — have the deep pockets of a major corporation. Consider what Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, did to help win an exemption in the so-called fiscal cliff bill to extend its patent on a profitable dialysis drug for two more years at a great cost to Medicare. It sent its 74 lobbyists in Washington to meet with — and direct contributions to — a host of politicians who worked in its favor.

But even if small businesses can’t buy the kind of influence that a huge company like Amgen can, that does not mean they cannot buy influence at all. Still, as in other aspects of life, you get what you pay for.

Entrepreneurs would want to hire a lobbyist for a fairly straightforward reason: they have an issue they want addressed or changed and they have reached the point where they feel they need to act. What is more difficult is acting on that impulse effectively, knowing it could cost a lot of money.

Lawrence E. Scherer, a founder of State and Broadway, a lobbying firm in New York, said a typical retainer for a small-business client would be around $5,000 a month, but the assignment could last for a year or more. Suri Kasirer, once an aide to former Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York and president of Kasirer Consulting, said her typical retainer was $10,000 to $20,000 a month, with a three-month minimum.

“For small-business owners, the idea of having a lobbyist interact with a government is so novel and so out of their scope that $5,000 a month could seem daunting,” Mr. Scherer said. “But as government has more issues in front of it, it could be a cheap date.”

People who have success lobbying state and local governments — since the federal government is beyond the budget of individuals — tend to fall into three categories: they want something changed, they want something new or they want access.

Avik Kabessa, chief executive of Carmel Car and Limousine Service in New York City, said he became part of a group of livery car owners in 2008 that lobbied the state to establish a workers’ compensation fund for livery drivers and to repeal a sales tax on livery fares.

He said it took a year and a half for the lobbying efforts to work. The costs were split among members of the group, called the Livery Round Table. (Livery companies fall between higher-end black car and limousine services and city taxis.)

“I wish we had the expertise, knowledge and contacts to have been able to do this ourselves,” he said. “But just as you would go to a doctor when you’re sick, you go to a lobbyist for your legislative affairs.”

Ms. Kasirer is working on a similar case with a group of small-business owners who do not often work well together. She is representing seven expediters — companies that are paid by contractors and developers to handle getting various building permits in New York City. She said new rules could end their business.

“We were approached by a few of them, and we said ‘Let’s get as many of them together as we could,’ ” she said. “They realized that ultimately they could be put out of business or their business could be so severely handicapped that they would have to lay off people.”

For small-business owners, forming an ad hoc group and putting aside any competitive business interest to get something greater for their industry is important. So, too, is having the patience and the willingness to accept something short of their goal and then go back for more.

Domenic Rom, a senior vice president at Technicolor, a postproduction company for film and television, became part of a group of similar companies that wanted to lobby for a tax credit. While New York offered tax credits for shooting a film or television show in the state, it did not offer similar credits to the postproduction part of the industry, which includes editing, sound design and adding computer-generated effects.

Mr. Rom said the 14 companies created the Post New York Alliance and each paid $5,000 in dues. They began lobbying in 2009, working with Mr. Scherer. By the next year, they received a 10 percent tax credit for postproduction work.

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DealBook: Choice for S.E.C. Is Ex-Prosecutor, in Signal to Wall St.

President Obama is tapping Mary Jo White, a former United States attorney turned white-collar defense lawyer, to be the next chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the White House.

Mr. Obama is set to announce the nomination at the White House on Thursday afternoon. As part of the event, the White House will also renominate Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a role he has held for the last year under a recess appointment.

In its choice of Ms. White and Mr. Cordray, the White House is sending a signal about the importance of holding Wall Street accountable for wrongdoing. Both picks are former prosecutors.

Regulatory chiefs are often market experts or academics. But Ms. White spent nearly a decade as United States attorney in New York, the first woman named to this post. Among her prominent cases, she oversaw the prosecution of the mafia boss John Gotti as well as the people responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. She is now working the other side, defending Wall Street firms and executives as a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton.

As the attorney general of Ohio, Mr. Cordray made a name for himself suing Wall Street companies in the wake of the financial crisis. He undertook a series of prominent lawsuits against big names in the finance world, including Bank of America and the American International Group.

The White House expects Ms. White, 65, and Mr. Cordray, 53, to draw on their prosecutorial backgrounds while carrying out a broad regulatory agenda under the Dodd-Frank Act. Congress enacted the law, which mandates a regulatory overhaul, in response to the 2008 financial crisis.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said Ms. White has “an incredibly impressive resume” and that her appointment along with the renomination of Mr. Cordray sends an important signal.

“The president believes that appointment and the renomination he’s making today demonstrate the commitment he has to carrying out Wall Street reform, making sure we have the rules of the road that are necessary and that are being enforced in a way” to avoid a crisis like that of 2008, Mr. Carney said.

Another White House official added that Ms. White and Mr. Cordray will “serve in top enforcement roles” in part so that “Wall Street is held accountable and middle-class Americans never again are harmed by the abuses of a few.”

Ms. White will succeed Elisse B. Walter, a longtime S.E.C. official, who took over as chairwoman after Mary L. Schapiro stepped down as the agency’s leader in December. Mr. Cordray joined the consumer bureau in 2011 as its enforcement director.

The nominations could face a mixed reception in Congress. The Senate already declined to confirm Mr. Cordray, with Republicans vowing to block any candidate for the consumer bureau, a new agency created to rein in the financial industry’s excesses. It is unclear whether the White House and Mr. Cordray will face another standoff the second time around.

Mr. Carney argued that there were no substantive objections to Mr. Cordray’s confirmation, only political ones. “He is absolutely the right person for the job,” Mr. Carney said.

Ms. White is expected to receive broader support on Capitol Hill. Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, declared that Ms. White was a “tough-as-nails prosecutor” who “will not shy away from enforcing the laws to ensure that markets operate fairly.”

But she could face questions about her command of arcane financial minutiae. She was a director of the Nasdaq stock market, but has otherwise built her career on the law-and-order side of the securities industry.

People close to the S.E.C. note, however, that her husband, John W. White, is a veteran of the agency. From 2006 through 2008, he was head of the S.E.C.’s division of corporation finance, which oversees public companies’ disclosures and reporting.

Some Democrats also might question her path through the revolving door, in and out of government. While seen as a strong enforcer as a United States attorney, she went on in private practice to defend some of Wall Street’s biggest names, including Kenneth D. Lewis, a former head of Bank of America. She also represented JPMorgan Chase and the board of Morgan Stanley. Last year, the N.F.L. hired her to investigate allegations that the New Orleans Saints carried out a bounty system for hurting opponents.

Consumer advocates generally praised her appointment on Thursday. “Mary Jo White was a tough, smart, no-nonsense, broadly experienced and highly accomplished prosecutor,” said Dennis Kelleher, head of Better Markets, the nonprofit advocacy group. “She knew who the bad guys were, went after them and put them in prison when they broke the law.”

The appointment comes after the departure of Ms. Schapiro, who announced she would step down from the S.E.C. in late 2012. In a four-year tenure, she overhauled the agency after it was blamed for missing the warning signs of the crisis.

Since her exit, Washington and Wall Street have been abuzz with speculation about the next S.E.C. chief. President Obama quickly named Ms. Walter, then a Democratic commissioner at the agency, but her appointment was seen as a short-term solution. It is unclear if she will shift back to the commissioner role if Ms. White is confirmed.

In the wake of Ms. Schapiro’s exit, several other contenders surfaced, including Sallie L. Krawcheck, a longtime Wall Street executive. Richard G. Ketchum, chairman and chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street’s internal policing organization, was also briefly mentioned as a long-shot contender.

Peter Baker and Kitty Bennett contributed reporting

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Apple shares slide by most in over four years on disappointing iPhone sales

(Reuters) - Apple Inc's shares fell by as much as 12 percent on Thursday, staging their biggest percentage drop in over four years and slicing more than $50 billion from the company's market value, as disappointing holiday-period iPhone sales reinforced fears it is losing its dominance in smartphones.

Eighteen brokerages, including Barclays Capital, Mizuho Securities USA, Credit Suisse, and Raymond James cut their price targets on the stock of the world's biggest publicly traded company by an average $132 to $612.

Apple's shares slid to $450.66 at the open on the Nasdaq, before recouping some of their losses.

The stock hit a peak close of $702.10 on September 19, valuing the company at $658 billion. Since then, it has lost about $225 billion, or 35 percent, of its in market value -- or about the entire worth of Chevron Corp, the second biggest U.S. oil company.

Jefferies & Co cut its rating on Apple's stock to "hold" from "buy" and slashed its share price target by $300 to $500.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, who has previously raised red flags about Apple cutting orders to suppliers, said the iPhone slowdown was "real and material" and here to stay.

"We think Apple is losing the screen-size wars," Misek said, noting that demand was moving away from the iPhone's 3.5-inch and 4-inch screens to screens of 5 inches offered by rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, HTC Corp and Nokia Oyj.

Samsung, which is at the same time Apple's chief rival and biggest component supplier, overtook Apple as the biggest seller of smartphones in the third quarter, selling close to 500 handsets a minute.

Apple said it shipped a record 47.8 million iPhones in the December quarter, but this was well below the average analyst forecast of 50 million units.

The company's margins were also hit, sliding to 38.6 percent from 44.7 percent a year earlier, partly because its iPad is cannibalizing its high-margin Macintosh computers.

Expectations heading into the results had been subdued by news of possible production cutbacks, putting pressure on Chief Executive Tim Cook to keep up the company's momentum.

NEW PRODUCTS NEEDED

Analysts said Apple's growth would hinge on new products, but added that a new launch wasn't on the horizon.

"To re-accelerate growth, Apple likely needs to launch new products, yet few seem likely before June," Nomura's Stuart Jeffrey said.

The company has been long rumored to be working on a television but has so far deflected questions on its existence. Apple hasn't launched a new line of products in almost three years, apart from a smaller version of the iPad.

Some analysts questioned the company's strategy of betting its fortunes on one phone, while others said a cheaper iPhone could arrest losses of market share.

"Apple's modus operandi to date has been to cream the high-end off each market, but as the company's grown it may now need to target more of the mainstream," Evercore Partners analysts said.

Up to Wednesday, 24 analysts had lowered their price targets since October when Apple reported its fourth-quarter results, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Apple shares were down 10.3 percent at $460.66 in late morning trading.

The disappointing results also hit shares of some of Apple's suppliers. Cirrus Logic Inc, which gets nearly 80 percent of its revenue from Apple, fell 10 percent while shares of Skyworks Solutions Inc, which depends on Apple for about a quarter of its revenue, slipped 5 percent.

Cirrus makes audio-related chips while Skyworks provides power amplifiers for Apple products.

Apple is the lowest ranked stock among the marquee technology firms in the United States based on the change in analyst sentiment, or Analysts Revision Model (ARM), according to StarMine.

Apple's global ARM score of 10 is well below Google Inc's 34 and Microsoft Corp's 19 out of a possible 100. Nokia and Samsung have scores of 82 and 89, respectively.

Research in Motion Ltd has a perfect score of 100, according to the model, which measures analysts' revision of key indicators such as earnings and revenue estimates and changes to their ratings.

(Additional reporting by Saqib Ahmed; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Rodney Joyce and Ted Kerr)

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