David Magee

Google is considering a move to take on Amazon with Internet-based, one-day shipping retail shopping, according to a report.

The Humane Society has a firm position against horse slaughter. The organization argues that plants in the U.S. are not a better alternative to foreign-owned plants across the border, in Canada and Mexico where slaughter has been primarily conducted with many exported U.S. horses in the five years since a ban was effectively imposed before recently being lifted.

President Barack Obama and family will light the new national Christmas tree in Washington Thursday evening, according to the National Park Service.

So why is horse slaughter for meat likely coming back to the U.S. very soon? The most compelling reasons lawmakers slipped this one through is a matter of economics.

Recently, a top tech analyst predicted that Amazon is likely to release its own smartphone for under $200 next year. Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney said in a research note that Amazon may sell the smartphone for as little as $170. Citing supply-chain channel checks in Asia, he said Amazon may release its first-ever smartphone by the fourth quarter of 2012.

Suffolk Downs, the thoroughbred race trace in East Boston, Massachusetts, will spend almost $1 billion to expand the racetrack into a major casino as well, according to a top track executive.

Residents of a city in Alaska may soon by paying $9 for a gallon of gas -- making for an expensive winter.

While I haven't read the entire Bible, I've been through enough of it so far to know that so far there is no person named Santa Claus in it. Yet the way so many who profess to celebrate the birth of Jesus who hold up Santa Claus instead, I can't help but wonder if I don't just need to keep reading and maybe this Santa Claus dude is going to show up sooner or later and valiantly save the day, like some kind of John Grisham plot.

Horse meat is a bit sweet in taste. Some think it is a blend between beef (a cow) and venison (deer). People use it similar to the way they use beef, putting it in sandwiches, or serving it in a slab. The cooking time is generally shorter than that of beef, in part because of its lean qualities.

In states like South Dakota and Texas, and others in the Midwest, the movement to get the horse slaughter business up and running again in the U.S. is active. State lawmakers in South Dakota, for instance, had introduced a state constitutional amendment to provide for the purchase, construction and operation of a horse processing plant. The proposed legislation failed, but it's a sign that combined with the end of the federal ban that horse meat slaughter houses may be back in the U.S...

Yahoo Inc. will be closely watched in the U.S. stock market on Thursday after a report that Alibaba, Softbank Corp., Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are said to be in advanced discussions to make a bid for all of Yahoo.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile USA, have held preliminary discussions about forming a joint venture should the merger bid be dashed in court. Multiple sources were cited as confirming the report.

Groupon Inc. shares are on the move Wednesday, up almost six percent, after the company said its Thanksgiving holiday sales were up more than 500 percent compared to the year before. Chicago-based Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) emerged from its post-IPO quiet period and company CEO Andrew Mason shared the good news.

Show-Me Cannabis Initiative, a petition now circulating in Missouri, seeks to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2012 ballot to legalize marijuana in the state for people aged 21 or over. The Show-Me Cannabis petition would allow Missouri to regulate the sale, distribution and legal enforcement of marijuana in the same way the state currently regulates alcohol sales.

Khan is buying the Jaguars from team majority owner Wayne Weaver. Khan will have 100 percent control of the team, according to Weaver, calling the businessman a great American success story and someone who is committed to restoring a winning tradition in Jacksonville.

Barney Frank announced his retirement from Congress this week, effective at the end of his term in 2013. The Democrat from Massachusetts, first elected to the House of Representatives in 1980, stood out more than others in Washington over the years, and his absence will be notable though some think that is a good thing, and others think it's a bad thing.

R Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in New York despite the fact that the company has more than a reported $4 billion in cash on hand. AMR shares, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, were halted earlier on the news. But after trading resumed, AMR Corporation common stock is trading down 85.93 percent on the day to 23 cents -- near a 52-week low of 20 cents.

Quill.com will sell Dunder Mifflin branded paper thanks for a licensing deal from NBC, which will get six percent of all revenues for parent company NBC Universal, owned by Comcast Corp. The paper, priced higher than private label paper, will come with popular slogans from The Office including Our motto is, Quabity First and Get Your Scrant on.

he owner of the small London bakery -- Need a Cake bakery in Reading, Berkshire -- had to make 102,000 cupcakes in a money-losing proposition after a Groupon deal she did became wildly popular. The owner, Rachel Brown, offered a 75 percent discount on the Groupon deal for 12 custom cupcakes that typically sell for $40.

Hillary Clinton for President 2012 may be gaining momentum. Two Democratic pollsters, including one who worked for Bill Clinton and another who worked for Jimmy Carter, have stepped out and said suggesting that very thing. They argue that President Barack Obama should give up on another four years in office to roll out the political red carpet for Hillary Clinton.

Some economists are warning that failure to reach a plan by the super committee could cause another credit rating downgrade for the U.S., similar to the S&P downgrade, which sent shock and uninspired awe rippling through global financial markets. Reasonably, one might expect the super committee to reach agreement on a plan, considering the amount of money they are dealing with -- $1.5 trillion -- is small in the big scheme of things.

A top tech analyst is predicting that Amazon is likely to release its own smartphone for under $200 next year. Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney said in a research note that Amazon may sell the smartphone for as little as $170. Citing supply-chain channel checks in Asia, he said Amazon may release its first-ever smartphone by the fourth quarter of 2012.

From the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street protest on the day New York evicted participants from their encampment in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, it became clear that the effort which may or may not be a movement is at a defining moment.

Under normal circumstances, we could feel sorry for Herman Cain, who has never before held political office. If he were still just a businessman, it would all be horribly unfair. But Cain is more than that now, for the moment at least. He became a legitimate contender for the highest office -- President of the United States. With that comes the terrible trail, the one candidates must must be able to navigate like carefully stepping through a mine field with 1,000 pounds on their back if they hop...

Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette offers in a research note some valuable perspective on Research in Motion, which trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol RIMM. Acknowledging that his firm has been quite negative of RIMM for a long time, Faucette writes that the firm believes that it may be time to lift our foot. A little. For a while.

It's virtually not possible that Paterno had never before heard the allegations. So when Paterno was approached iin 2002 by an assistant coach in alleging that he saw Sandusky, the former Penn State coach who still had access to the athletic department including workout and locker Anrooms, engaged in a sex act with a child, he should have done more than simply pass a report to the school's athletic director, Tim Curley.

It's now a case of she said, he said and who to believe. It's her word against his -- Sharon Bialek vs. Herman Cain.

Herman Cain is right that once he got to the top, somebody let all the dogs out, and the media is working itself into a frenzy over the sexual harassment allegations, dogging the Republican presidential candidate who has never before held elected office about the story, trying to pin down what did or did not happen.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs. That fact is already evident in Cook's first couple of months on the job filling in for Jobs, who retired in August and died in October at the age of 56 after a long tenure as Apple's CEO.