Important news from Shelley

* Unveils combo music player/GPS/performance trackerBy Sinead CarewNEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Motorola Mobility revived its once best-selling Razr brand to tout its latest gadget, the Droid Razr, as the world’s slimmest smartphone.The company, which has agreed to be bought by Google Inc for $12.5 billion, hopes to compete with arch-rival Apple Inc’s iPhone when it kicks off pre-orders at Verizon Wireless on Oct. 27.But the device, which sports a more powerful chip than the iPhone and a higher-speed wireless connection, costs $299 — far more than $199 for the latest basic iPhone 4S.NPD analyst Ross Rubin said that while the phone could put a dent in iPhone sales at Verizon Wireless, it would be unlikely to sell as many as Motorola’s previous Razr, which sold more than 130 million units.Only about 10 percent of U.S. consumers would buy a $300 phone, Rubin said. “That’s a relatively small part of the market. At $199, it would be an explosive seller.”Outside of the U.S. market, the device will simply be called Razr. Motorola hopes to rekindle the popularity of its original Razr, which was the thinnest flip phone on the market when it debuted in 2004.Motorola also introduced MotoActv, a combined music player, performance tracker and GPS device aimed at fitness enthusiasts. This device will start at $249 for an 8 Gigabyte version. A 16 GB model will cost $299, Motorola said.Motorola uses Google’s Android software to power its smartphones. The Droid Razr, sporting Corning glass, will be able to download movies from Netflix Inc and comes with front-facing and back-facing cameras.The phone, unveiled days after Apple’s iPhone 4S hit markets, is the latest iteration of a line-up that helped stage a recovery for Motorola after years of market share losses.Motorola’s Razr was the most successful phone brand in the company’s history. The height of its popularity was from late 2004 until late 2006, when the device started to lose its luster amid tough competition and heavy carrier discounts.That led to years of market share losses as Motorola failed to come up with another hot device to replace Razr, after having focused on the brand for too long.Motorola started to turn around in late 2009 with the launch of its first Droid phone sold through Verizon Wireless.

* Navy abandoned contract when Solyndra filed for bankruptcyWASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - One of the largest private investors in failed solar firm Solyndra recommended the company’s panels for a U.S. Navy contract at a time when the company was struggling with cash flow, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.Kevin Kopczynski, a principal of RockPort Capital who is on a venture capital advisory panel to the Pentagon, promoted Solyndra for a program designed to look for new energy technologies, the newspaper reported.Kopczynski said he disclosed his firm’s $47.5 million stake in Solyndra but did not disclose that the company was in financial trouble because he said it was not required.”The Navy put out a request for solar technologies with certain attributes. Solyndra and the others I recommended fit the various technology requests,” Kopczynski told the newspaper.Neither Kopczynski nor RockPort could be immediately reached for comment.Solyndra received a $535 million government loan guarantee. It was raided by the FBI after it filed for bankruptcy.Republicans in the House of Representatives are investigating whether politics played a role in that decision, and whether the Energy Department broke the law by agreeing to restructure Solyndra’s debt earlier this year.A hearing set for Friday will examine the restructuring, and will feature testimony from the Treasury Department.The navy chose Solyndra for a pilot program that would have paid the company about $400,000, the newspaper said. “However, given how that played out, with their bankruptcy, we never pursued that as a contract,” said Thomas Hicks, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy.Hicks told the newspaper that he did not know RockPort was an investor in Solyndra, and said the program did not look at the finances of firms recommended by its venture capital advisers.RockPort is Solyndra’s fourth-largest investor with a 7.5 percent stake, the newspaper said. David Prend, RockPort’s managing general partner, is a Solyndra board member.

“I’m cleared for full contact. It’s a good step in the right direction. We’ll see how it goes for the next little bit,” Crosby, 24, told reporters on Thursday in a transcript made available on the team’s website. “It’s a big step, but with each step I have to see how things go.”Being cleared for full contact is a major step in Crosby’s recovery as the NHL’s leading scorer at the time of his injury had struggled with headaches and other setbacks all year.Crosby did not reveal when he would be cleared to join the Penguins, who are off to their best start to an NHL season in 17 years.”It’s up to how I respond to getting hit,” the former NHL most valuable player, Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist for Canada said.”I guess it’s up to me, but we have to see when we get to that point.”

Shares in cement maker Cemex added 13 percent.The Cemex stock has risen by more than a third since slumping to a 13-year intraday low last week on fears that slowing growth would undermine its ability to pay its debts.

But the government raised concerns about the proposal’s impact on consumers at Washington’s Reagan National airport where US Airways currently dominates and travelers pay some of the highest fares.”Under the antitrust laws, the division can and will take appropriate action, if warranted, at the conclusion of its investigation,” the agency said in a statement.

* Ads to general audiences exempted* Ads to children 2 to 11 broadly limitedWASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - A government regulator that is part of a working group concerned about junk food ads to children will announce on Wednesday it is backing off of some proposals for voluntary marketing principles.An interagency working group, made up of the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said in April companies should voluntarily end all food advertising to children unless they were for healthy choices, such as whole grains, fresh fruits or vegetables.Under the original proposal, salty, fatty or very sweet foods or foods with trans fats would no longer be advertised to children, defined as age 17 or under.But David Vladeck, head of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, is expected to testify to a congressional committee on Wednesday that the working group made major changes in its proposals.First, it lowered the age of the affected children to 11 or under.”FTC staff has determined that, with the exception of certain in-school marketing activities, it is not necessary to encompass adolescents ages 12 to 17 within the scope of the covered marketing,” according to Vladeck’s written testimony.The testimony was posted on the House Energy and Commerce Committee website.In the testimony, the FTC excluded advertising aimed at a general audience and advertising that was part of charitable or community events.It also said it would not recommend banning clowns and cartoon characters — think Ronald McDonald and SpongeBob SquarePants — used to advertise unhealthy foods.Advertisers, who had been lobbying hard on the issue, were pleased with the changes, but said the fight was not over.”I think the best thing that they can do is to withdraw the proposal and endorse the (industry-supported) Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative,” said Dan Jaffe, vice president of the Association of National Advertisers.The effort sets voluntary standards such as barring added sugars in juices and limiting flavored milk to 24 grams of sugar. It includes companies such as McDonalds Inc’s , General Mills Inc and PepsiCo Inc .”We believe that the food, beverage, restaurant and advertising community has done far more, unfortunately, than any other segment of society in regard to obesity problems,” he said. “We don’t see why the government really needs to step into this area.”Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said she was concerned Congress, which has oversight over the agencies, would press for the advertising principles to be scrapped.”The thing that worries me the most is that the congress is not asking for little tweaks to the standards … they’re asking the agencies to kill the whole thing,” she said. “The overwhelming majority of advertising to kids is for unhealthy food, about 80 percent.”A background memo prepared for the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee indicated some hostility to the proposed limits. Lawmakers sent a letter to the agencies in September asking questions such as what evidence is there that junk food advertisements are linked obesity and what would the proposal cost, in terms of ad revenues and jobs?The Obama administration, with its goal of containing healthcare costs, has emphasized children’s health. First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign has pushed children to eat better and exercise more.Concern about obesity rates prompted the campaign. About 17 percent of U.S. children aged 2-19 are obese, according to data on the CDC website. Nearly one in three U.S. children are overweight.