ADVERTISEMENT 2
ADVERTISEMENT 3
Error: No articles to display
ADVERTISEMENT 1
ADVERTISEMENT 4
Children categories
NEW YORK (AP) —
Sean Penn says his article on Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman "failed" in its mission.
Speaking to CBS' "60 Minutes," the actor said his intention in tracking down the escaped drug kingpin and writing about him for "Rolling Stone" was to kick-start a discussion of the U.S. government's policy on the War on Drugs.
But the public's attention has instead been focused on the fact that Penn found and met with Guzman for seven hours in a mountain hideout last October while he was still evading Mexican officials. He was apprehended only last week after six months on the run.
Excerpts from the interview with Penn were released Friday. The interview airs on "60 Minutes" Sunday.
Penn has been drawn into a controversy over whether he may have assisted in the recapture effort, or, conversely, may have prolonged the search by keeping silent until the article was published last week.
Penn said the Mexican government was "clearly very humiliated" but insisted he had played no role in Guzman's eventual recapture.
"We had met with him many weeks earlier," he says. "On October 2nd, in a place nowhere near where he was captured."
Guzman's reason for agreeing to meet with the Hollywood star was first explained as resulting from his interest in having a movie made about him. Then it seemed his interest was in a face-to-face encounter not with Penn, but with the contact who was bringing them together: Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, with whom Guzman openly flirted in recently published text messages.
For his part, Penn said he had only one true mission.
Guzman, he said, was someone through whom "I could begin a conversation about the policy of the war on drugs. That was my simple idea."
The Rolling Stone article set off a bombshell, including criticism over the magazine's willingness to give Guzman approval of the article before it was published.
There was also suspicion about Penn's qualifications as a Hollywood star, not an established journalist, to report such a big story.
"When you get the story that every journalist in the world wanted, there's a lot of green-eyed monsters who gonna come give you a kiss," said Penn, who believes Guzman gave him access because he's not a professional journalist.
In an email exchange with the Associated Press Monday about his meeting with Guzman, Penn said, "I've got nothin' to hide." But he told "60 Minutes" he has "a terrible regret."
"I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the War on Drugs," Penn said.
"Let's go to the big picture of what we all want: We all want this drug problem to stop," he said, but added that the market for these illicit drugs includes many Americans. "There is a complicity there."
But what percentage of the discussion that resulted from the article has been focused on these larger issues?
"One percent — I think that'd be generous," Penn said. "Let me be clear. My article failed."
MUNFORD, Tenn. (AP) —
A Tennessee man pulled a folded Powerball ticket from the front pocket of his shirt and told a national television audience Friday that he held one of three winners of the world-record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot.
"Now I'll be nervous because everybody knows," said John Robinson, who appeared in the New York studios of NBC's "Today" show alongside his wife Lisa, their daughter and their lawyer.
The Associated Press could not immediately verify the Robinsons' claim. There have been hoax winners in the past. News of a winner in California was quickly deflated Friday when that feel-good tale was described as a prank. Lottery officials in Tennessee, California and Florida — the states where the winning tickets were sold — have yet to identify them.
The Robinsons said their lawyer advised them appear on national TV even before presenting the ticket to lottery officials, as a way to "control" the story. The family said they would go to the Tennessee lottery office in Nashville later Friday. Lottery spokeswoman Rachel Petrie said she could not confirm the win meanwhile.
Lawyers who have represented other lottery winners advise against going public until they are ready to manage such a huge windfall. Talking seriously with experts in tax law, financial planning, privacy, security and other safeguards can help keep them, and their winnings, safe, they say.
The Robinsons seemed aware of at least some of the risks, even as they flew to New York — bringing along the family dog — to tell the world that their future income has suddenly grown to more than half a billion dollars.
Robinson did say that he had signed the back of the ticket, showing his ownership of it.
"It's not going very far," John Robinson said, holding tight to the slip of paper.
The three jackpot winners can leave their winnings to be invested and thereby collect 30 annual payments totaling an estimated $533 million, or take their third of $983.5 million in cash all at once.
But first, they must turn in their tickets.
When even the "Today" show anchors said they were nervous for the Robinsons walking around New York with the ticket, Lisa Robinson said: "You can help escort us out."
Their neighbor Mary Sue Smith, told The AP that Lisa Robinson asked her Friday morning to put "No Trespassing" signs on their lawn while they're away from their modest single-family home in Munford, a town of about 6,000 where many residents work in Memphis, about 25 miles to the south.
"Who will be coming out of the woodwork?" said Mary Sue Smith, their neighbor since about 1995. "The thought is not reporters, but everybody you knew in high school and elementary ... You know what happens."
John Robinson works in information technology and his wife is employed at a dermatologist's office. Their son, Adam, is an electrician, and their daughter, Tiffany, who lives nearby, is a recent college graduate. They also have a second home on the Tennessee River, where Robinson "loves to fish," said Roy Smith, who described them as "fine people," dependable and hard-working.
"It could not have happened to better people," Roy Smith said. "He's a civic-minded person, and he probably will remember the town."
Tiffany Robinson said she wants to pay off her student loans. She also wants a horse.
"My first thought was, I've always wanted a horse," she said. "I get a horse now. My dad always said, "When I win the lottery.'"
John Robinson said they also want to help out certain friends, give some money to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, and donate to their church. "I'm a firm believer in tithing to my church," Robinson said.
Munford's mayor, Dwayne Cole, wished openly Thursday for an investment in the town, whose annual budget is $3.67 million.
"We're hoping that the person, as a local person, would recognize the benefit to be benevolent to the people of the town, to the community," Cole said. "There are a lot of needs, a lot of facilities that we could use," he added, rattling off a list including fire department equipment, an indoor athletic facility for local schools and a community gymnasium.
Robinson said he bought the winning ticket at his wife's request at the family-owned Naifeh's grocery on his way home from work, even though he wasn't feeling well. He bought four quick-pick tickets, one for each family member, then gave them to his wife and went to lie down when he got home. She stayed up to watch the Wednesday night drawing, carefully writing down the numbers.
After triple-checking the ticket, she started "hollering and screaming through the hallway saying, 'You need to check these numbers. You need to check these numbers,'" John Robinson said.
He did, four times, then thought: "Well, I'll believe it when the news comes in on the morning and they say there's a winner been in Munford."
The other two winning tickets were bought in the modest Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills, and at a supermarket in affluent Melbourne Beach, Florida. Each one overcame odds of 1 in 292.2 million to land on all the numbers.
NEW YORK (AP) —
Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, more than half of them in the U.S. and another big chunk in its challenging Brazilian market.
The stores being shuttered account for a fraction of the company's 11,000 stores worldwide and less than 1 percent of its global revenue.
More than 95 percent of the stores set to be closed in the U.S. are within 10 miles of another Wal-Mart. The Bentonville, Arkansas, company said it is working to ensure that workers are placed in nearby locations.
The store closures will start at the end of the month.
The announcement comes three months after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Doug McMillon told investors that the world's largest retailer would review its fleet of stores with the goal of becoming more nimble in the face of increased competition from all fronts, including from online rival Amazon.com.
"Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business," McMillon said in a statement. "Closing stores is never an easy decision. But it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future."
Wal-Mart operates 4,500 in the U.S. Its global workforce is 2.2 million, 1.4 million in the U.S. alone.
Wal-Mart has warned that its earnings for the fiscal year starting next month will be down as much as 12 percent as it invests further in online operations and pours money into improving customers' experience.
Of the closures announced Friday, 154 locations will be in the U.S., including the company's 102 smallest-format stores called Wal-Mart Express, which were opened as a test in 2011.
Wal-Mart Express marked the retailer's first entry into the convenience store arena. The stores are about 12,000 square feet and sell essentials like toothpaste. But the concept never caught on as the stores served the same purpose as Wal-Mart's larger Neighborhood Markets: fill-in trips and prescription pickups.
Also covered in the closures are 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount stores and four Sam's Clubs.
Wal-Mart will now focus in the U.S. on supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, the e-commerce business and pickup services for shoppers.
The retailer is closing 60 loss-making locations in Brazil, which account for 5 percent of sales in that market. Wal-Mart, which operated 558 stores in Brazil before the closures, has struggled as the economy there has soured. Its Every Day Low price strategy has also not been able to break against heavy promotions from key rivals.
The remaining 55 stores are spread elsewhere in Latin America.
Wal-Mart said that it's still sticking to its plan announced last year to open 50 to 60 supercenters, 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets and 7 to 10 Sam's Clubs in the U.S. during the fiscal year that begins Feb. 1. Outside the U.S., Wal-Mart plans to open 200 to 240 stores.
The financial impact of the closures is expected to be 20 cents to 22 cents per diluted earnings per share from continuing operations with about 19 cents to 20 cents expected to affect the current fourth quarter. The company is expected to release fourth quarter and full year results on Feb. 18.
Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fell $1.64, or 2.6 percent, to $61.42 in midday trading amid a broad market selloff.