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After 100 days, WGA members vote overwhelmingly to go back to work

The strike is over.

Hollywood's costly 100-day walkout came to a widely welcomed end Tuesday after members of the Writers Guild of America voted overwhelmingly to go back to work.

More than 90% of the 3,775 writers who cast ballots in Los Angeles and New York voted to immediately end the work stoppage, capping the entertainment industry's most contentious labor dispute in recent history.

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"Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as TV migrates to the Internet and platforms for new media are developed," said Patric M. Verrone, president of the WGA, West.

On Feb. 25, writers are expected to ratify a new three-year contract that ensures them a stake in the revenue generated when their movies, television shows and other creative works are distributed on the Internet. Whether the benefits from the new contract will be enough to offset the income writers and others lost because of the strike is a matter of debate.

Steven Beer, an entertainment attorney at Greenberg Traurig, predicted that working writers may have fewer opportunities as studios use the strike as a means to cut programming budgets, greenlight fewer pilots, reduce fees and limit the number of production deals on their lots.

"Writers got hard-fought and well-earned improvements, but it could be tougher sledding for the rank and file in the future," he said.

Other experts believe the writers won a victory that transcends any financial gains.

"It was a defining moment," said economist Harley Shaiken, a professor at UC Berkeley who specializes in labor issues. "It showed that a very disparate group of individuals could act with real solidarity -- and that packed real economic power."

The walkout, which began Nov. 5, proved to be far more economically damaging than the studios had expected, shutting down more than 60 TV shows, hampering ratings and depriving the networks of tens of millions in advertising dollars.

Labor experts said the crippling effect of the strike helped writers achieve gains they might not have otherwise attained.

The new contract gives them residual payments for shows streamed over the Internet and secures the union's jurisdiction for programming created for the Web.

"They successfully faced down six multinational media conglomerates and established a beachhead on the Internet," said Jonathan Handel, former associate counsel for the Writers Guild of America, West and an attorney at TroyGould. "When you consider what they were initially offered and the enormous odds they faced, that's quite an achievement."

Handel noted that studios had originally balked at writers' demands for new-media residuals, proposing a multiyear study instead.

Yet the new contract falls short of what writers were initially seeking.

"It's a good deal but not a great one," said Handel, adding that both sides made key compromises.

For example, writers received guarantees that any guild member hired to create original shows for the Web would be covered under a union contract. But the tentative contract enables studios to hire nonunion writers to work on low-budget Internet shows, giving them the flexibility they sought to compete in the burgeoning world of Web entertainment.

The writers agreement was largely patterned after a recent deal studios made with directors. Writers, however, got some important improvements, especially in pay for shows that are streamed on advertising-supported websites.

Writers were unsuccessful, however, in their efforts to shorten the 17-to-24-day window that studios have to stream their shows for promotional purposes without paying residuals. Many writers complained that most viewers watched repeats online within days after a program was initially broadcast.

With the strike now over, economists are tallying up the cost to the industry and the Los Angeles region. Measuring the financial losses is inherently difficult and estimates vary widely.

Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., estimates the walkout cost the local economy more than $3 billion. Of that total, an estimated $772 million came from lost wages for writers and production workers, $981 million from various businesses that service the industry, including caterers and equipment rental houses, and $1.3 billion from the ripple effect of consumers not spending as much at retail shops, restaurants and car dealers.

Still, the total is relatively small considering that the L.A. economy generates $1.3 billion a day.

The entertainment industry employs about 250,000 in the Los Angeles region, including thousands who are self-employed.

Orlando (dbTechno) - International Space Station astronauts were quite busy on Sunday getting ready for the first spacewalk since the arrival of the NASA space shuttle Atlantis, which brought with it the European Space Agency module Columbus. The spacewalk had to be delayed due to health issues with German astronaut Hans Schlegel.

Schlegel has been replaced by Stanley Love.

Love and Rex Walheim will perform tasks to get the International Space Statioin and the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory ready for installation.

They will have to install the Power Data Grapple Fixture on Columbus, as well as other tasks.

Schlegel and Pilot Alan Poindexter will coordinate the spacewalk from inside the orbiting complex according to NASA.

The European Sapce Agency stated that the current health condition of Schlegel is “not life or mission threatening in any way, but that could affect his efficiency during a spacewalk.”

It is possible that Schlegel will rejoin Rex Walheim for a second spacewalk. NASA has not given any further information though on the matter.

American and European astronauts inaugurated the Columbus science laboratory, the newest addition to the International Space Station and Europe’s largest contribution. The 14-ton module, which cost about $2 billion, was delivered last weekend and installed Monday during a spacewalk. It will expand the range of zero-gravity experiments aboard the station. NASA also said a section of thermal blanket that pulled free during the shuttle’s climb to orbit last week did not need repair and would adequately protect the shuttle during re-entry next week.

Yahoo on Tuesday introduced a new service called oneConnect, which will combine e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, and social networking in one mobile platform.

The company plans to roll out oneConnect as part of Yahoo Go 3.0 -- an all-in-one mobile offering -- and Yahoo's new mobile home page in the second quarter of this year. In the meantime, Yahoo is showcasing oneConnect at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona this week.

One of the more impressive features of oneConnect is a socially-connected address book, which will allow users to transfer activities from social networks, professional networks, and communities to their address book. For example, users will be able to stay on top of when a contact updates their status or uploads a photo to their profile.

Yahoo will also offer integrated mobile messaging. That means any messaging service provider will be able to use Yahoo's application program interfaces to integrate with oneConnect's messaging feature, according to the company. Yahoo said it will use an open communications platform to give users the freedom to send e-mail, instant messages, text messages, and access social networks through a single application.

Users may potentially be able to access both their personal and work messaging services. Yahoo also said it's in discussions with DataViz, which specializes in mobile access to Microsoft Exchange e-mail accounts and Microsoft Office documents. The two would team up to develop widget versions of DataViz's RoadSynch and Documents To Go applications.

Other features in oneConnect include the ability to set up messaging shortcuts to get in touch with people more quickly; a social contact card for collecting relevant information about contacts; and a location-sensing capability for locating, chatting, and exchanging information with nearby oneConnect users.

Yahoo expects oneConnect to support hundreds of mobile devices and mobile browsers worldwide.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama easily swept Democratic presidential contests in three states on Saturday, striking the latest blows in a bruising back-and-forth battle with Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama applauds at the end of his speech at the Virginia Democratic Party Jefferson Jackson dinner in Richmond, Virginia February 9, 2008. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

Among Republicans, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won contests in Louisiana and Kansas over front-runner John McCain, highlighting conservative discontent with the Arizona senator two days after he essentially sewed up the nomination.

Obama scored decisive wins in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington to gain a small dose of momentum in a deadlocked, state-by-state fight with Clinton for Democratic convention delegates who will choose the party's presidential nominee in the November election.

"Today, the voters from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the heart of America stood up to say yes, we can," Obama said at a party dinner in Richmond, Virginia, a state that votes on Tuesday.

"We won in Louisiana, we won in Nebraska, we won in Washington state, we won North, we won South, we won in between, and I believe that we can win Virginia on Tuesday if you're ready to stand for change," the Illinois senator said.

The wins by Huckabee, a Baptist minister whose campaign has been fueled by support from religious conservatives, came in states with big conservative voting blocs and did not change McCain's daunting advantage in the Republican race.

McCain managed to hold off Huckabee and the third candidate in the Republican race, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, with a narrow victory in Washington state, according to the two major newspapers in Seattle, the state's largest city.

McCain has more than 700 of the 1,191 delegates needed to capture the Republican nomination at this summer's convention. He virtually clinched the race on Thursday with the withdrawal of his chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

But Huckabee said he would not give up, telling a conference of conservative activists in Washington, D.C., he would continue his shoestring campaign until McCain mathematically won the nomination.

McCain still faces widespread opposition from conservatives unhappy with his views on immigration, tax cuts and other issues.

"I did not major in math, but I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them," Huckabee said at a rally at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Huckabee won about 60 percent of the vote in Kansas, more than double McCain's total. He narrowly beat McCain in Louisiana.

EASY WINS

Obama cruised to easy wins in Nebraska and Washington, doubling Clinton's tally by capturing more than 60 percent of the vote. He comfortably beat Clinton in Louisiana, winning more than half of the vote. Obama also won easily in the U.S. territory of the Virgin Islands.

Clinton, a New York senator, and Obama are about even in pledged delegates after contests in more than half of the U.S. states, but both are well short of the 2,025 needed to win the nomination.

Democratic rules allocate delegates on a proportional basis statewide and in congressional districts, meaning even the loser in each state can win big blocks of delegates. There also are another 796 "super-delegates," elected officials and party insiders, who can switch their support at any time.

It was not immediately clear how the delegate count would break down in Saturday's vote, with a combined 161 pledged delegates. The Obama camp said it won just more than 100 of those delegates up for grabs.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, had been the favorite in all three contests. In Louisiana, he benefited from a high percentage of black voters, his strongest supporters.

Exit polls showed blacks made up about half of the turnout in the state, and Obama won four of every five of their votes. Clinton captured about 70 percent of whites, with Obama taking about one-quarter of their vote.

The contests in Nebraska and Washington were caucuses, which require voters to turn up at specific times and typically attract more motivated voters. Obama has focused on caucus states, where his advantages in organization and grass-roots enthusiasm come into play.

Obama and Clinton will square off again on Sunday in Maine, a caucus state, before they head into Tuesday's round of contests in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.