Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- It was to have been the dawn of a new era, private companies launching into space and on to the International Space Station.

The first such launch was set for before dawn this morning, and it came tantalizingly close.

But the SpaceX rocket never got off the ground.

The launch was aborted just half a second before liftoff.

It was so close, that even NASA announcer George Diller was caught by surprise.

“Three, two, one, zero and liftoff,” said Diller. Then he realized the rocket was still on the pad, “We’ve had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur.” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell blamed high combustion pressure in engine no. 5, one of nine engines needed for liftoff.

Onboard computers detected the problem, and shut everything down.

Shotwell said engineers will now being trouble shooting to find and fix the problem, and switch out the engine if necessary.

The next possible launch date is next Tuesday, May 22.

Despite the disappointment of today’s near-launch, Shotwell insisted, “This is not a failure. We aborted with purpose”, she said, “It would be a failure if we were to have lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.”

SpaceX is one of a handful of private companies racing to get into space, hoping to send cargo and eventually astronauts to the space station for NASA.

With the space shuttles parked in museums and NASA relying on the Russians for space transportation, the agency is looking to private companies to fill in the gap.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told ABC News, these commercial companies are “now going to be primarily responsible for building and operating, and we’re going to buy the service from them or purchase the service from them.”

NASA has shelled out $396 million to SpaceX for test flights, like this mission. It also has a $1.6 billion contract with the company for 12 cargo flights to the space station.

SpaceX is the dream of billionaire Elon Musk, who made his fortune creating PayPal.

He began his space efforts a decade ago.

Before the launch he was both realistic and optimistic.

Musk told ABC News, “I think we are more likely than not going to succeed in this mission but it is a test flight. And there is certainly any number of things that could go wrong. And so we may not actually. We have 2 more flights for later this year. So I’m confident that one of those flights will make it.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Tax revenue from Facebook's $104 billion IPO may not fill California's $16 billion budget deficit, but it will likely give a boost to Silicon Valley's already inflated real estate prices.

The median home value in Menlo Park, Calif., the home of Facebook's headquarters, is $1 million, up 4.5 percent year-over-year according to the Zillow Home Value Index.

Old and new Facebook workers are buying up property in the Bay Area, adding to the demand from tech workers at nearby companies like Google, Zynga and LinkedIn.

In the nearby town of Cupertino, home of Apple Inc., the median home value is also $1 million, up 1.6 percent year-over-year, according to Zillow.

Around the time that Facebook announced its IPO and started its road show, there was an influx of multi-million dollar real estate coming onto the market in Silicon Valley, said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries.

"Sellers clearly want to take advantage of those reaping rewards from this historic financial event," Humphries said.

Home prices have already been rising in many high-end neighborhoods and cities in the area, and Humphries said he expects they will continue to increase as the young Facebook IPO beneficiaries look to make moves in the real estate market.

Michael Dreyfus of Dreyfus Properties specializes in residential real estate in the towns of Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Woodside, Portola Valley and Atherton.

"There's no way there's not going to be an effect," Dreyfus said of Facebook's IPO and the local real estate market.

He said he knows sellers who have waited for two years, not yet listing their homes in anticipation of the IPO.

While Facebook's headquarters are in Menlo Park, Dreyfus said the hottest area is in neighboring Palo Alto.

"Palo Alto is ground zero for all of this, particularly because the younger money has always preferred Palo Alto because it's a more urban environment," Dreyfus said.

Downtown Palo Alto, by Stanford University, has numerous coffee shops, a movie theater, restaurants and bookstores.

"The schools are excellent, you can send your kid to public school and you are in the mix," Dreyfus said.

Dreyfus said the dotcom bubble and Google's IPO have educated property owners into becoming "savvy sellers."

"They've seen this song before, they think they can play it, and they may be right," said Dreyfus, who knows sellers who have held off and not responded immediately to increasing demand.

One reason for sellers' patience may be that companies and some regulations prevent some stockholders from selling their shares until a specified time. That "lockup" period means Facebook employees won't be using stock proceeds to buy homes in cash just yet. The period may be 90 days for institutional buyers and 180 days for employees. Companies like Zynga and LinkedIn have initiated more than one lockup period. Some lockup periods can encourage employees not to sell stock for as long as a year.

While most of his clients have been established executives who have moved to California to work at tech companies, the homes Dreyfus sold to Facebook employees in the past two years tend to have been to young families.

"I'm 50, so they all seem really young," he said.

When asked if he was participating in any Facebook employee-related sales on Friday, Dreyfus said one of his two offices was planning to host a party celebrating the IPO's completion.

"We're tired of hearing about it," Dreyfus said. "Imagine that every real estate conversation has worked Facebook in."

Though grateful for the boost from Facebook and every other tech economy, he hopes people will focus on living "fundamentals."

"The story is about all the companies in the Valley and how well they're all doing," he said. "And we want everyone to take a deep breath because we are really fortunate to live in this place."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- The Obama administration’s announcement that it is suspending sanctions on Myanmar, allowing American companies to invest in the formerly rogue nation, has received praise from the business community and skepticism from human rights groups.

Under Myanmar’s current president Thein Sein, the country once considered one of the world’s most isolated, has undergone remarkable progress toward democracy. In April it held its first parliamentary elections in more than 20 years. Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy activist who spent decades under house arrest, was elected to parliament. As a result of the reforms, the United States is appointing its first ambassador, Derek Mitchell, to the country in more than two decades, along with easing some of the sanctions.

After meeting with the foreign minister of Myanmar, which the administration refers to as Burma, Secretary Clinton told reporters that the U.S. is suspending sanctions, but not lifting them all together. “We will be keeping relevant laws on the books as an insurance policy,” said Clinton. “But our goal and our commitment is to move as rapidly as we can to expand business and investment opportunities.” Among the sectors considered most opportune for investment are agricultural, minerals, and oil and gas.

 Clinton stressed that the emphasis will be on responsible investment, and that U.S. companies will be held to “best practice” standards, representing transparency and respect for worker’s rights. Senior administration officials admit that those standards are still being hashed out, and will not be legally enforceable by U.S. law.

Human rights groups complain that it’s still too early to ease sanctions, and that the U.S. needed to establish a legally-binding conduct before the announcement. Activists express concern particularly about the oil and gas sector, which is owned and operated by some of the country’s top military leaders.

“This is a big problem,” John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told ABC News.  “There are certain activities that are not going to benefit reform and not going to benefit Burmese citizens; that will just benefit the wealthiest, most powerful.”

The State Department maintains that individual “spoilers” and “bad actors” who are found to be prohibiting democratic reforms will still be sanctioned, but in a recent joint letter to President Barack Obama, Human Rights Watch and other organizations noted that the current U.S. Treasury Department list of Special Designated Nationals, individuals and companies implicated in human rights abuses in Burma, had not been updated since 2009.

“Folks gotta’ remember this is … a country that has no independent judiciary system,” said Sifton. Myanmar tied with Afghanistan as the second most corrupt country in the world last year, according to the corruption-tracking group Transparency International.  “The corruption is rampant,” said Sifton. “The revenue is completely off the books.”

Human rights groups aren’t opposed to easing some restrictions as a way to help the country continue to progress, but are concerned that, like many countries without strong governance, a boom in oil investment could end up being more of a resource curse for the impoverished nation than a help.

“There are things that can be done that don’t directly benefit the military,” said Sifton. “Invest in agriculture, trading and financial services. But allowing in oil and gas companies is not one of those things.”

American businesses have already expressed interest in doing business in the Asian country, say administration officials. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Trade Council and the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council issued a joint statement praising the administration’s decision. The groups, whose membership includes some of America’s biggest oil and gas companies such as Exxon, said they support the opening of all of Myanmar’s economic sectors. Australia, the European Union and Canada have all made similar decisions regarding lifting sanctions. China also has a long history of trade with the country, even before the reforms took place.

“A situation where American companies are allowed to invest in certain sectors while excluding others will not prevent those sectors from being developed in Myanmar,” the statement read. “It will simply ensure that our competitors fill the void, as they are already doing, and that jobs which could be given to American workers will go elsewhere.”

Aung San Suu Kyi says the United States is right to suspend the harsh restrictions against her country, but warns that caution is needed.

“This is a possible first step,” said Aung San Suu Kyi via Skype at the Council on Foreign Relations  on Tuesday. ”I sometimes feel that people are too optimistic about the scene in Burma. You have to remember that the democratization process is not irreversible.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DALLAS) -- Five people in Texas said a biohazard removal company wildly overbilled them for cleaning up after their loved ones' deaths, charging tens of thousands of dollars for jobs that were quoted at a fraction of the price.

"They indicate to them the bill will be $3,000 or $4,000 and then it becomes $40,000 or $50,000. That's what you call bait and switch," said Ted Lyon, an attorney who is representing five Texas families who say they were unfairly billed by Aftermath, an Illinois-based biohazard removal company.

Laura McGowan, a spokesperson for Aftermath, defended the company's practices and said a designated family member was constantly updated on additional costs by a supervisor.

"We give them a transparent pricing sheet, and we have it spelled out detail by detail," she said. "We have to make sure we're preserving the health and safety of people in that home. We are of the opinion if another company is doing the job for $2,000, then they're not doing it right."

After paramedics and police leave the scene of a home suicide or another unexpected passing, a grieving family member is often left with a second trauma -- calling in a biohazard recovery team to decontaminate their home and scrub away the visible signs of heartbreak. The crews arrive hours after a death in their protective suits, ready to sop up tissue, cut away blood-stained carpet and remove the bits of skull. They interact with families in their most fragile state, said Mark Fagala, who owns his own North Carolina biohazard removal firm and has 25 years of experience.

"The situation itself is vulnerable and it takes integrity on our part," Fagala said.

But the lawsuit alleges Aftermath acted with "deception and false representations."

Ricardo Donato, who is one of the five people suing Aftermath, told ABC affiliate WFAA the hours after his son's suicide were a blur. "He showed me the contract; it was several pages long," Donato said.

He signed it and was quoted $4,000 to $5,000 and told his homeowner's insurance company would cover it. Weeks later he received a call from his carrier refusing to pay the $22,019.58 bill. Included in the bill were false charges for supplies and labor hours for employees who established a pattern of working only 15 minutes every hour, the lawsuit claimed.

Donato said he has been threatened with a lien on his home. Three of his fellow plaintiffs have had liens placed on their homes or their loved one's home, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the District Court of Dallas County.

"It's horrible because they relive this whole tragic accident, this whole event because it's traumatic to them when they receive this huge bill," Lyon said. "Our clients are not wealthy. They are middle class people."

McGowan said all five plaintiffs initially gave Aftermath stellar reviews.

McGowan added employees of Aftermath are required to take frequent breaks because of OSHA heat stress requirements and try to fill the rest of the billed hour doing paperwork. But with jobs stretching 10 to 12 hours, that can add up to a lot of sitting around.

Rich Ross, president of the American Bio-Recovery Association, an industry trade group of which Aftermath is not a member, said taking breaks and billing for them is not standard.

"A lot of things they're doing, they're justified in. Then there are things they do where we in the industry sit back and shake our heads and say this isn't right," he said.

For now, the families faced with sky-high bills will have to wait for their day in court, said Lyon, their attorney.

"They're stuck until they get this case resolved," he said. "That's the bad thing because this company can sit there and basically they don't have to worry. They are just holding these people up."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Facebook(NEW YORK) -- Facebook’s stock market debut seems to be creating a frenzy everywhere but at Facebook.

Shares closed at $38.23 after fluctuating between $40 and $42 for most of the day.  Gizmodo reported shares were trading at a record-breaking 2.7 million per second within the first 30 seconds of trading.

But after founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and a throng of cheering employees rang the Nasdaq opening bell from the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., at 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, the campus became a ghost town.

Nightline anchor Bill Weir talked with Justin Mitchell, a Facebook engineer, and Donna Gutman, who worked in Facebook’s user operations, in New York City’s Times Square shortly after trading began. Both said they had been with the company for more than four years but had recently quit, taking stock options with them.

On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering  at $38 a share, selling $16 billion worth in equity and valuing the company at $104 billion. It’s the largest tech IPO of all time.

All Facebook employees are stock holders, Mitchell told Weir. So why isn’t he out buying a Ferrari?

“It’s not the company culture to go out and celebrate this type of stuff,” Mitchell said. “The culture of the company is very much of not showing off money, not being ostentatious but instead, really just making good products, and that comes from the top.”

One of the big questions is, now that Facebook has gone public, will it have to tailor user experience to meet shareholders’ expectations. But Mitchell said he thought Facebook’s IPO filing would have little effect on how it does business.

“My hunch is that it’s not going to change the company culture that much,” he said. “Once we filed for the IPO people put up signs that said, ‘Stay focused, Keep shipping.’ I think it’s that type of mentality that you’ll see continue on in the future.”

Thursday night, Facebook celebrated its newfound wealth with a wild bash at company headquarters that only Facebook could throw -- a “Hackathon,” an all-night, a code-writing “rager,” where Facebook employees worked on their own special projects until the morning light. They do one every couple of months, according to the company’s blog. Those projects are what Facebook deems important, Gutman said.

“I think that the company needs to keep doing what its doing and the work people did last night shows that’s what people are focused on,” Gutman said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Zef Nikolla/Facebook(NEW YORK) -- The much anticipated Facebook IPO couldn't help stocks Friday. It was a bad end to a dead-end week on Wall Street.

The Dow closed down 59 points at 12,383 -- its 12th day of losses in 13 trading sessions. The Nasdaq lost 27 points to close at 2,787, while the S&P gave up eight points Friday and closed at 1,297.

The IPO everyone had waited for -- Facebook closed at $38.23, gaining just 23 cents.

After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public Friday at about $42.05 a share and drifted lower by mid-day. Shares were trading below $39 around 3:05 p.m. eastern time, just over the offer price of $38.

Earlier on Friday, the shares nearly dropped to its offer price, lower than what many analysts expected.

Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with investment firm Morningstar, said he was surprised to see Facebook only up a few percentage points given the pent-up retail demand for its shares.

"Clearly concerns regarding the company's valuation, increased insider selling, and GM news are weighing on the stock. Weakness in the stock market over the last several days is also likely playing a significant role," he said.

General Motors said this week it was pulling about $10 million of advertising from Facebook.

Out of four recent technology IPOs -- those of LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora and Groupon -- only LinkedIn has recently traded above its IPO price. LinkedIn's IPO price last May was $45 a share. Shares of LinkedIn were trading down around 5.8 percent on Friday late afternoon at $98.83.

A trend of other high growth tech offerings show that "the more the stock goes up in the first day, the more it declines in the ensuing weeks and months," he said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

PRNewsFoto/Verizon Wireless(NEW YORK) -- Hewlett-Packard may soon be reducing its workforce by at least 8 percent in an effort save money and offset declining sales.

According to multiple reports, the company is considering cutting between 25,000 and 30,000 jobs.  The layoffs come as HP struggles to sell computers amid the rising popularity of tablets.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports Hewlett-Packard’s enterprise services group, which is responsible for selling a range of information-technology services, may be reduced by 10,000 to 15,000.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

ABC News(JACKSON, Mich.) -- A Michigan teen found a finger tip in an Arby’s roast beef sandwich after he spit out a bite that he said was rubbery and hard to chew.

Ryan Hart, 14, said he ordered the sandwich last Friday at the drive-thru window of at a Jackson, Mich., Arby’s franchise.

“I was like, ‘That [has] to be a finger.’ I was about to puke. … It was just nasty,” Ryan told the Jackson Citizen Patriot.

An employee lost approximately one inch of her finger while operating a meat slicer.

Employees continued to fill orders until they were made aware of the fleshy find.

“Upon learning of the incident, the franchisee’s restaurant team shut down food production and thoroughly cleaned and sanitized the restaurant. The franchisee fully cooperated with the local Health Department, and the restaurant was given the approval to remain open,” said John Gray, vice president of communications at Arby’s, in a statement.

Gray said Arby’s is investigating the event and has been in touch with its 66,000 employees to reinforce safety protocols.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- It's gearing up to be a busy summer travel season: Airlines for America predicts there will be more than 206 million people flying this summer, and that's only on U.S carriers.  That breaks down to about 2.24 million passengers per day.

With all those people passing through airports, many of them infrequent fliers, there's sure to be plenty of angst -- from lost bags, lost children and parking questions, to rental car inquires, flight delays and cancellations.  So who can you turn to for help?

Your friendly airport greeters, of course. You'll recognize them by the white hats at Denver International, or the red vests at Calgary International in Canada.  And, very soon, the pins on their clothing at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

JFK airport rolls out a new program on May 22, just in time for the busy summer travel season. Called Edge4Vets N.I.C.E. Corps, the program plans to use the skills of military veterans to help alleviate passenger frustrations at the airport.  It takes airport employees who are also veterans and gives them N.I.C.E. (Neutralize Irritations Customers Experience) training.

The pilot program was designed by Tom Murphy, director of the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University.  He said the program would initially be in Terminal 4, and has 30 trained problem solvers ready to help.

"What travelers want most," he said, "is for someone to care when things go wrong.  They want someone who will step up and help."

Veterans employed at a variety of airport companies -- even airlines like JetBlue, Delta and American Airlines, and agencies like the Transportation Security Administration -- have signed up for the training.  The idea, Murphy said, is for veterans already involved in the pilot program to spot other airline employees going the extra mile and then report it.  Those employees will then be recognized and rewarded for their helpfulness.

Murphy said that in time he hopes the program will take on a life of its own, resulting in a more positive airport experience for employees and travelers alike.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Tim Boyle/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A Kentucky businessman showed a heart of gold by buying the entire inventory of a closing K-Mart and donating it to charity.

After turning aside calls from flea markets looking to buy the inventory valued at around $200,000, Rankin Paynter, the owner of a Winchester firm that buys up surplus goods, decided to donate the merchandise to a local charity.

"I told my wife, I can make $30,000 or $40,000 on this deal but let's give it to charity," Paynter told ABC News.

During a visit to the store, the good Samaritan was checking out the display cases and a safe for his jewelry buying business when he learned the store would sell all of the merchandise on the last day of business.  One requirement: You had to be a power buyer.

Paynter had to fill out an application with the company to purchase the goods, which had everything from winter clothes to over-the-counter medicine.  According to Paynter, the day before closing the store called to offer him the whole lot.  But there was one rule.

"They said you can buy it all but you must sign a contract and take everything left in the store," Paynter told ABC News.

And, he did.  On Sunday, May 6, the businessmen stood in line for six and half hours to purchase the inventory that had to be rung up at four different registers the evening the store closed.  It took the 77-year-old two trucks, two vans and six workers to move all the items from the store to storage.  However, Payntner had no clue then what he planned on doing with all the inventory.

During a discussion with his banker, Paynter learned about a charity in the area that could use the goods he purchased.  And, after viewing some of their financial records, the Winchester businessman decided to go with Clark County Community Services, which serves low- and middle-income residents in the area.

The inventory was an early Christmas gift for the organization, which plans on boxing up the winter goods to be distributed later on this year.

"This will be the first time we will have enough coats and gloves for everybody," said Judy Crowe, the director of the non-profit organization.  The organization's Christmas program "Operation Happiness" is one of the largest in the area, serving 1,500 families in one day.

It's a decision that makes Paynter proud.

"It makes me feel good [to give to charity]," he said.  "I come from real poor background.  I'm talking really poor.  I was able to pull myself out and make a lot of money."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Facebook's initial public offering, the biggest IPO for a U.S. technology firm, has gotten the attention of everyone from high school students to Wall Street professionals, many of whom are likely among the 900 million monthly users of the social media site.

While Facebook announced on Thursday that its initial public offering of common stock would be priced at $38 a share, raising $16 billion and valuing the company at $104 billion, the shares available for purchase by the public will likely be priced higher.  That's causing many analysts to caution individual investors not to rush into making any risky investments.

"Yes, it's the biggest investing storyline of the year, but I would tell the average investor: stay away from Facebook," Andrew Tonner, financial editor of The Motley Fool, said.  "Sit on the sidelines.  Having interest in the IPO doesn't necessarily mean you need to participate in it."

Some analysts say the long-term risks for the company are real.  Facebook has admitted that it has yet to make significant revenue from mobile advertising and that there is little it can do to make a foray into China, whose government has blocked the country's estimated 500 million Internet users.

Out of four recent technology IPOs -- those of LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora and Groupon -- only LinkedIn has recently traded above its IPO price.  LinkedIn's IPO price last May was $45 a share.  On Thursday, shares of LinkedIn closed down 7.5 percent to $105 a share.

To satiate the growing investor appetite for shares of the social media company, on Wednesday, Facebook increased the number of shares to be sold at the market debut by 25 percent.

The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A-class stock, which includes 180 million new shares sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders, such as early investors in the company and Facebook's founders.

Facebook's lead underwriter, the investment bank Morgan Stanley, determined who got shares of the company before shares are sold to the larger public on Friday, said Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with the Morningstar investment firm.

All of the 421 million shares were sold Thursday at the $38 offering price to those investors who met the minimum buy-in requirements.

Some of those "prestige clients" are large institutional investors who manage workers' 401(k) funds.  But an individual with a $10 million brokerage account at Morgan Stanley could buy Facebook stock on Thursday at the offering price.  And those individuals can sell those shares on Friday, when the price is expected to jump to $50.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Comstock Images/Thinkstock(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) -- Men determined to get ahead in the business world should learn to speak up, a Yale School of Management study finds.

On the other hand, the Yale researchers recommend that women in the workplace should hush up if they’re trying to climb the corporate ladder.

As chauvinistic as it sounds, the study concluded that female employees who tend to gab are viewed as “domineering and presumptuous,” and if they really want to succeed, they need to talk less, especially around their male peers.

Male workers don’t have to hold their tongue, the Yale study reveals; in fact, the more they verbalize their opinions, the more competent they appear to be.

In one experiment, participants were asked to rate a fictional chief executive in the following four categories: a talkative man, quiet man, talkative woman or quiet woman.  Talkative men were ranked higher in the competency scale than their quiet counterparts while the opposite was true of women chief executives.

Lead researcher Victoria Brescoll said, “When men talk a lot and they have power, people want to reward them either by hiring them, voting for them, or just giving them more power and responsibility at work.”

However, women will temper how much they talk, according to Brescoll, because they don’t want to seem like they’re coming on too strong.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GettyImages(NEW YORK) -- After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public Friday at about $42.05 a share, but the price dropped below $40, lower than what many analysts expected.

Shares were virtually unchanged from the offer price at $38 at 11:51 a.m. eastern time, after rising 11 percent at the open.

Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with investment firm, Morningstar, said he was surprised to see Facebook only up a few percentage points given the amount of pent up retail demand for its shares.

"Clearly concerns regarding the company's valuation, increased insider selling, and GM news are weighing on the stock. Weakness in the stock market over the last several days is also likely playing a significant role," he said.

Visit Yahoo Finance for real-time trading of Facebook shares.

General Motors said this week it was pulling about $10 million worth of advertising from Facebook.

But that didn't stop Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg from celebrating IPO day. The two executives gathered with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., to ring the Nasdaq's opening bell at 9:30 a.m. eastern time ahead of the social media network's long-awaited IPO.

Trading of the company's shares, designated with the ticker symbol, "FB," was scheduled to begin around 10:45 a.m. eastern time, but began almost an hour later because Facebook's underwriter, Morgan Stanley, was reportedly having trouble changing orders.

With a large monitor and stage set up outdoors in "Hacker Square," instead of visiting Nasdaq's New York exchange, hundreds of employees gathered in the early hours of the morning in California. Many of them had participated in Facebook's 31st "hackathon," a company tradition described as an overnight sleepover that encourages employees to work on anything but their normal work duties.

Nasdaq's CEO, Bob Greifeld, stood beaming next to Zuckerberg, 28, sans necktie, donning a t-shirt and clapping along with the other employees.

It was a long-awaited moment for the eight-year-old company that started in the Harvard University dormitory, Kirkland House.

Not to abandon Wall Street completely, Facebook CFO David Ebersman reportedly was at the Nasdaq in New York City during the opening bell. Instead of scrolling the usual stock prices of the day, Nasdaq's digital billboard at its market center in Times Square this morning read, "Nasdaq Welcomes Facebook."

On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, raising $16 billion and valuing the company at $104 billion. The company said it made $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011.

The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A-class stock, which includes 180 million new shares sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders, such as early employees.

The biggest IPO for a U.S. technology firm has gotten the attention of everyone from high school students to Wall Street professionals, many of whom are likely among the 900 million monthly users of the social media site.

Out of four recent technology IPOs -- those of LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora and Groupon -- only LinkedIn has recently traded above its IPO price. LinkedIn's IPO price last May was $45 a share. Shares of LinkedIn were trading down around 0.36 percent on Friday morning at $104.

While the IPO will make a number of billionaires out of early Facebook employees and investors, Facebook's lead underwriter, the investment bank Morgan Stanley, will also come out a winner by the fees it will earn. The investment bank determined who got shares of the company before shares are sold to the larger public on Friday.

Krapfel said the media hype and investor buildup are to be expected, despite Facebook's investment risks.

"It's the most hotly anticipated IPO of all time," Krapfel said. "Most of the U.S. population that uses the internet uses Facebook so there's no surprise there would be a lot of interest in the IPO. Certainly with this much hype, there's a lot of demand from investors."

A trend of other high growth tech offerings show that "the more the stock goes up in the first day, the more it declines in the ensuing weeks and months," he said.

Morningstar has valued the company at $32 a share but Krapfel said he expects the stock to trade into $50 and above.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Zef Nikolla/Facebook(MENLO PARK, Calif.) -- After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public Friday at about $42 a share, up 11 percent from its offer price of $38 a share.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg gathered with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., to ring the Nasdaq's opening bell at 9:30 a.m. eastern time ahead of the social media network's long-awaited IPO.

Trading of the company's shares, designated with the ticker symbol, "FB," was scheduled to begin around 10:45 a.m. eastern time but began almost an hour later because Facebook's underwriter, Morgan Stanley, was reportedly having trouble changing orders.

Visit Yahoo Finance for real-time trading of Facebook shares.

With a large monitor and stage set up outdoors, instead of visiting Nasdaq's New York exchange, hundreds of employees gathered early Friday morning in California.  Many of them had participated in Facebook's "hackathon," a company tradition described as an overnight sleepover that encourages employees to work on anything but their normal work duties.

Not to abandon Wall Street completely, Facebook CFO David Ebersman was at the Nasdaq in New York City during the opening bell.

On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, raising $16 billion and valuing the company at $104 billion.  The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A-class stock, which includes 180 million new shares sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Michael Tran/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) -- Paul McCartney may be about to be surpassed as the wealthiest rock musician in the world by U2 frontman Bono.  NME.com reports that the Irish rocker, who owns a 2.3 percent stake in Facebook, is expected to see his net worth increase significantly when the social-networking company goes public on Friday.

Facebook is valued at more than $100 billion, which will make Bono’s share worth in excess of $1.5 billion.  In comparison, the Beatles legend’s fortune is estimated to be slightly over $1 billion.

Bono bought his Facebook shares for about $90 million back in 2009 through his private equity company Elevation Partners.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Hemera Technologies/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Worry over the shaky situation in Europe forced the markets down again Thursday.
 
The Dow had its 11th loss in 12 days, closing down 156 points at 12,442. The Nasdaq gave up 60 to close at 2,813, and the S&P fell 20 points Thursday, closing at 1,308.
 
A temporary Greek cabinet, to be in power until at least next month's election, has been sworn in. Spain, meanwhile, was forced to pay sharply higher interest rates to raise more than $3 billion at a debt auction.
 
There's no change in the number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell from roughly 380,000 to 375,000.
 
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Facebook announced Thursday that its initial public offering of common stock will be priced at $38 a share, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest for a U.S. tech company.

As media and investor interest in Facebook’s IPO has grown over the past weeks, the company priced its IPO at the highest end of its earlier estimates. On Tuesday, Facebook raised its IPO price range to $34 to $38 a share, from $28 to $35.

To satiate the growing investor appetite for shares of the social media company, on Wednesday Facebook increased the number of shares to be sold at the market debut by 25 percent.

The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A stock, which includes 180 million new shares that will be sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders such as early investors and Facebook’s founders.

Facebook’s investment bank underwriter, Morgan Stanley, ultimately determines who gets shares of the company before shares are sold to the larger public on Friday, said Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with investment firm Morningstar.  All of the 421 million shares will be sold Thursday night at the offering price to those investors who met the minimum buy-in requirements, which was millions of dollars for institutional investors.

“The higher your account size and the more business you do with the company, or if your track record indicates you purchased technology IPOs in the past, you’re more likely to receive shares and are likely to get a higher allocation, but there’s no guarantee,” Krapfel said.

Investor consensus predicts the stock will trade higher Friday and close up, but to what extent is unknown, said Krapfel. Morningstar has valued the company at $32 a share.

“It wouldn’t be surprising to see the stock trade up into the 50s intraday and into the close,” he said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Jim Spellman/WireImage(WASHINGTON) -- Sens. Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey on Thursday delivered a scathing status update for “eye-spitting” Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin: Stop attempting to dodge your taxes by renouncing your U.S. citizenship or never step foot in the U.S. again.

“This guy just thinks he can rip us off by engaging in this scheme,” Casey, D-Pa., said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “We’ve got troops overseas that are sacrificing on our behalf every day, all the values that we hold dear. And Mr. Saverin spits in their eye, he spits in the eye of the American people. It’s an insult. He should be held accountable.”

Saverin, 30, relinquished his U.S. citizenship in September 2011 before the company announced its planned initial public offering of stock, which will debut this week. The move was likely a financial one because he owns an estimated 4 percent of Facebook and stands to make $4 billion when the company goes public.

“Saverin has turned his back on the country that welcomed him and kept him safe, educated him and helped him become a billionaire,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “This is a great American success story gone horribly wrong.”

Saverin, who was born in Brazil, raised in Miami and educated at Harvard, would reap the benefit of tax savings by becoming a permanent resident of Singapore, which levies no capital gains taxes. He has lived there for several years.

“This tax-avoidance scheme is outrageous,” Schumer added. “Eduardo Saverin wants to ‘defriend’ the United States of America just to avoid taxes we aren’t going to let him get away with it.”

So to stop Saverin, and others who have relinquished their citizenship for tax avoidance, Sens. Schumer and Bob Casey, D-Pa., unveiled the “Ex-PATRIOT” – “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” – Act. The act is intended to respond directly to Saverin’s move, which they call a “scheme” that would “help him duck up to $67 million in taxes.”

The plan would re-impose taxes on expatriates like Saverin even after they flee the United States and take up residence in a foreign country. If the Internal Revenue Service determines that people renounce their citizenship to avoid taxes, according to the proposal, they would then be subject to a 30 percent capital gains tax on future investment gains in the United States, regardless of where they live. But most notably, the plan would bar individuals like Saverin from ever re-entering the United States again.

The proposal would affect any American who has $2 million in net worth or an average income tax liability of at least $148,000 for the previous five years and then seeks to renounce his or her citizenship. The person will be presumed to have renounced his or her citizenship for tax avoidance purposes unless the individual can demonstrate otherwise to the IRS.

The burden of proof would be on people to show that they didn’t relocate for tax purposes. There would be no penalty if it turned out that they renounced their citizenship for legitimate reasons.

The law now is already supposed to bar re-entry for individuals like Saverin, but there have been problems enforcing it, the senators say, pointing to the 1,700 people last year who gave up their U.S. passports, up from 235 in 2008. The law, passed in 1996, contains no enforcement provisions. No individual has ever been barred from returning to the United States for tax avoidance, so the proposal would add an enforcement component.

“Pay your taxes in full or don’t ever try to visit the U.S. again,” Schumer said.

Saverin has defended his move to Singapore in a statement to ABCNews.com.

“My decision to expatriate was based solely on my interest in working and living in Singapore, where I have been since 2009," he wrote. "I am obligated to and will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to the United States government. I have paid and will continue to pay any taxes due on everything I earned while a U.S. citizen."

"It is unfortunate that my personal choice has led to a public debate, based not on the facts, but entirely on speculation and misinformation," he continued.

But some, like Schumer, don’t buy this argument.

“Anyone who believes Mr. Saverin didn’t do this at least in good part for tax purposes is quite gullible,” he said today.

If Saverin, or anyone else, changes his mind, he could pay his back taxes and return to the United States.

The Senators plan to move on this bill “as soon as possible” in the Senate.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Honda(WASHINGTON) -- Is the Segway a bit too big for you? Or does it require a too much standing for your liking? Well, Honda’s got a solution in the works — the Honda UNI-CUB.

Called a “personal mobility device,” the UNI-CUB looks like a unicycle sans the cycle or wheel part.

So how does it work? Sit in the saddle and Honda’s Omni Traction Drive System lets you control the speed and direction just by shifting your weight.

Honda touts the UNI-CUB as omnidirectional, meaning the two wheels allow it to move in all directions — side-to-side, backwards, diagonally, etc. Honda will also have a smartphone app that will function as an additional control option.

While the Segway, a similar electric powered scooter released in 2002, was designed for outdoor use and is frequently used by police or security guards, the UNI-CUB has been designed for indoor use. Honda claims the precision of its motion is good for “barrier-free indoor environments.”

This isn’t the first time an automaker has tried to take on the popular Segway. In 2008, Toyota announced its own personal mobile solution, called the Winglet. The Winglet was tested, but never marketed to consumers.

And that might be the way the way the UNI-CUB goes. Honda says it will start demonstrating and testing the UNI-CUB with Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in June. No additional information has been given on if and when it might be released to the public.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Chris Machian/Bloomberg News(WASHINGTON) -- Kim Hillyer, director of communications and public affairs for TD Ameritrade, was forthright about the sticky situation her company finds itself in, thanks to founder and former CEO Joe Ricketts' announcement that he's interested in launching a Super PAC to attack President Obama.

“It’s certainly a difficult situation,” said Hillyer, referring to the calls from clients and members of the public prompted by Thursday’s news, first reported by the The New York Times. “We respect the right of people to have their opinions, but as a company we can’t take sides. Really what we’re about is helping our clients, that’s the message we’re telling people today.”

The campaign garnered considerable attention Thursday because of a pitch to Ricketts and his Ending Spending Action Fund that suggested an attack on the president based on the comments of his former religious and spiritual leader, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., an attack the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., refused to do because of the racial animus it might conjure forth. Both the Romney and McCain camps disavowed the proposal.

Ricketts, a billionaire ranked on the Forbes 400 List in 2009,  retired from the TD Ameritrade board last fall, but he remains publicly identified with the company as its founder. His family is the largest individual shareholders, owning approximately 15 percent of the company. The company is an online broker based in Omaha, Nebraska.

Says Hillyer, “Obviously he is the founder of the company, but his thoughts, opinions and activities are not those of TD Ameritrade. His political work is independent from any involvement with the company.”

The Super PAC he is funding has stated its intent to spend at least $10 million on its activities. Last month, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ricketts sold 521,988 share of common stock in the company for $20.04 Per Share – worth $10.46 million.

So does it bother TD Ameritrade that he appears to be cashing in TD Ameritrade stock to run this campaign? “We have many shareholders and we can’t legislate what people do with their money,” Hillyer said.

Hillyer wanted to make sure that a reporter had seen the statement from Brian Baker, president of the Ending Spending Action Fund, noting that Ricketts is “neither the author nor the funder of the so-called ‘Ricketts Plan’ to defeat Mr. Obama that The New York Times wrote about this morning. Not only was this plan merely a proposal – one of several submitted to the Ending Spending Action Fund by third-party vendors – but it reflects an approach to politics that Mr. Ricketts rejects and it was never a plan to be accepted, but only a suggestion for a direction to take. Mr. Ricketts intends to work hard to help elect a President this fall who shares his commitment to economic responsibility, but his efforts are and will continue to be focused entirely on questions of fiscal policy, not attacks that seek to divide us socially or culturally.”

“His political activities are not those of the company,” Hillyer said again.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Nick M Do/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- While a growing euro storm may be brewing, the dollar has increased in value -- much to the delight of American tourists.

The trend over the past few months is clear: the dollar is worth more against the euro. And that means more bang for each tourist buck.

"Americans traveling in Europe have had a tough time with the weak dollar over recent decades," says market analyst Alec Young. "But we do get bouts where the dollar firms up."

"We've recently had a very nice run for the dollar and that would benefit the U.S. tourist traveling around the world," he says.

With the euro woes expected to linger, this summer might prove to be a great bargain for Americans heading overseas.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(MARIN COUNTY, Calif.) -- A defiant George Lucas showed his Indiana Jones-caliber feistiness when the filmmaker ended nearly 25 years of neighborhood opposition to a California studio by announcing the land would instead be used to build low-income housing.

Lucas has been trying for decades to build a state-of-the art film studio on his Grady Ranch in Marin County, Calif., but his well-to-do neighbors have blocked his plans at every step of the way. In an official statement released by his production company, Lucasfilm Ltd., he said, "enough is enough."

"The level of bitterness and anger expressed by the homeowners in Lucas Valley has convinced us that, even if we were to spend more time and acquire the necessary approvals, we would not be able to maintain a constructive relationship with our neighbors," Lucas said in the statement.

"We love working and living in Marin, but the residents of Lucas Valley have fought this project for 25 years, and enough is enough," he wrote.

He said that "movies are waiting to be made" so he needs to take his project elsewhere.

"We have several opportunities to build the production stages in communities that see us as a creative asset, not as an evil empire, and if we are to stay on schedule we must act on those opportunities," Lucas wrote.

But he saved the zinger for the last paragraph of the two-page statement.

"We plan to sell the Grady property expecting that the land will revert back to its original use for residential housing," he wrote. "We hope we will be able to find a developer who will be interested in low income housing since it is scarce in Marin. If everyone feels that housing is less impactful on the land, then we are hoping that people who need it the most will benefit."

Lucas' move to make the upscale neighborhood affordable-housing friendly raised questions about whether he's attempting to exact revenge on his stubborn neighbors or even whether he's bluffing about a plan that's not real.

Thomas Peters, president and CEO of the Marin Community Foundation, can vouch for the plan's seriousness. The foundation is one of the largest in the country for investing money in philanthropic projects, so Peters immediately put a call into Lucasfilm after reading the statement.

"Was this just an edgy comment or does it have something to it? I was pleasantly surprised that Mr. Lucas and his top company folks responded immediately that he was quite sincere about it," Peters said.

Peters has known Lucas, 68, for more than 20 years and Lucas has now made the land exclusively available to the foundation for development.

"[The proposal] was entirely focused on that positive outcome. It was not, as many people have speculated, 'This is how I'll show them,'" Peters said. "[Lucas] doesn't need, and doesn't have, any energy whatsoever for looking over his shoulder.

"He was passing a little frustration, as well he should after ... years of back and forth, but the fact of the matter is that he's done with that proposal. That's a set decision," he said. "The good news, depending on people's perspectives, is we'll get this done and we intend to do it here. He's also a guy that gets things done. We're going to do this."

The land in question is about 1,000 acres of "gorgeous, roaming land filled with oaks, eucalyptus trees and creeks," Peters said. Like Lucas' other two ranches, he builds on 3 percent of the land and preserves the rest.

That leaves the foundation with about 200 acres for the proposed housing project, which he says is more than enough. Early plans are looking at building about 300 apartments and condos on the land, most likely for senior citizens in need. Peters estimates the project will take about two years to complete.

"[Lucas has] been an extraordinarily good steward of the land and neighbor and planner and job creator," Peters said. "Most communities would bend over backwards to welcome him."

Lucas' projects in the county have created hundreds of jobs and brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, Peters said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Digital Vision/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- After a drumbeat of complaints from energy companies that the Obama administration is blocking domestic oil and gas production, the Interior department released a report claiming that U.S. oil and gas producers are sitting on millions of acres of idle government land leases.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar says that if producers were sincere about wanting to increase energy production, they would activate millions of acres of public land already leased to them. What should they be doing on that land? Drilling.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Salazar says the administration wants companies "to develop the tens of millions of acres they've already leased but have left sitting idle."

A report released by the Department of the Interior claims that of 36 million government acres leased offshore for oil and gas production, 72 percent sit idle. Onshore, in the lower 48 states, says the report, more than half of federally leased acreage sits idle, "neither producing nor under active exploration or development by companies who hold those leases."

The American Petroleum Institute calls the administration's claim "absurd" and "willfully misleading."

In a statement, API CEO Jack Gerard says that just because a lease doesn't fit the government's definition of active doesn't mean it's idle. Where a lease truly is idle, the reason often is that the producer must hold off drilling while they wait years to get the necessary government permissions.

Erik Milito, API director of upstream and industry operations, says there's another reason some leases aren't being used: There's only a 30 to 40 percent success rate to finding oil. A producer has to narrow down its leases to find the few ones good enough for drilling.

The fallacy behind Salazar's assertion--which Milito characterizes as being, "we don't have to open up any more public land to you, because you're not using the leases you've already got"--is the belief "that you just put a pipe in the ground, and you're ready to go--that there's always oil there."

Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government and public affairs for the Western Energy Alliance, whose members produce, she says, 27 percent of the natural gas and 14 percent of the oil in the U.S., cites a more basic reason a lease may be idle: Its oil and gas may be uneconomic to extract.

As energy prices fluctuate, and as technology improves, she says, idle leases are brought into production. The most dramatic and most recent example is the 200,000-square-mile Baaken oil field underlying North Dakota and Montana. As recently as five years ago, she says, many leases here sat idle. Then technology and economics made production possible, and production boomed.

The DOI report, she says, "Actually is useful, since it shows that we're becoming more efficient at operating on public lands. To have 44 percent of public lands in production is very high, compared to the 30 percent it's been historically. There will always be maybe 30 percent of leases that don't pan out. But of the rest, we estimate half are somewhere in the [drilling] process. If government is truly serious about increasing production, they would remove some of the red tape."

The Alliance says that when you add up the time required for prospecting, drilling, and waiting around for government approvals, 19 years can pass before a lessee actually sees oil. During part of that time, the government counts the lease inactive.

She says she knows the government can move energy projects ahead more aggressively when it wants to, because it has done exactly that with wind and solar projects. It's only politics, she says, that accounts for the different treatment accorded oil and gas.

A spokesman for the Department of the Interior, asked to respond to the industry's contention that DOI's report is both misleading and absurd, says, "The report speaks for itself. The notion that we have somehow locked up federal lands clearly doesn't square with the facts. Our goal is to continue expanding safe and responsible development, and we will continue to take steps to deliver on that priority."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Verizon Wireless(NEW YORK) -- While Verizon Wireless used to offer unlimited data plans for its customers, it stopped offering all-you-can-eat data plans last July for new customers. However, those that had been grandfathered in under an unlimited data plan have still been able to pay $30 a month for an unlimited data plan for 3G and 4G phones.

But that looks as if it might come to an end this summer, when Verizon announces new “data share” plans. “LTE is our anchor point for data share, so as you come through an upgrade cycle and you upgrade in the future, you will have to go onto the data share plan, moving away from the unlimited world,” Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference. Fierce Wireless first reported the story.

Verizon hasn’t shared much about its upcoming data share plans, but they will work similarly to the way you can share minutes now. “Customers have told us that they want to share data, similar to how they share minutes today. We are working on plans to provide customers with that option later this year,” Verizon said in a statement on its website.

“When you think about our 3G base — a lot of our 3G base is unlimited — as they start to migrate into 4G, they will have to come off of unlimited and go into the data share plan, and that’s beneficial for us for many reasons, obviously,” Shammo added.

Despite Shammo’s statements, Verizon PR would not confirm that those who currently have unlimited data would be forced onto another plan at the time of upgrade. Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney did say, "We do not change customers plans under contract.” Raney did not elaborate on what might happen to customers when their two-year contract expired and it is time to renew and upgrade to a new phone.

Most carriers have moved away from unlimited data plans. AT&T similarly does not offer an unlimited plan anymore. Sprint, on the other hand, does offer the plan and has hinted that it will continue to keep the unlimited data plan around even when it launches its LTE network later this year.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- In the wake of an ABC News investigation revealing extreme animal cruelty, Pepsi has canceled its sponsorship of the annual Tennessee Walking Horse championship, the Celebration.

The discontinuation of the relationship was "effective immediately," according to Pepsi spokesman Dave DeCecco.  The company said its logo was removed Wednesday from the Celebration website, prior to the broadcast of the ABC News report on Nightline.

The report featured undercover video made by the Humane Society of the United States that showed one of the top trainers in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry, Jackie McConnell, beating and torturing horses in his stables outside Memphis.

An ABC News investigation found that large numbers of the famed horses have been tortured and beaten in order to make them produce the high-stepping gait that wins championships.

"All too often, you have to cheat to win in this sport," said Keith Dane of the Humane Society.

The undercover video led to a federal grand jury indictment of McConnell.  The tape shows McConnell and his stable hands beating horses with wooden sticks and using electric cattle prods on them as part of a training protocol to make them lift their feet in the pronounced gait judges like to see.

In another scene, McConnell oversees his hands as they apply caustic chemicals to the ankles of the horses and then wrap them with plastic wrap so the chemicals eat into the skin.

"That creates intense pain and then the ankles are wrapped with large metal chains so the horses flinch, or raise their feet even higher," said Dane of the Humane Society.

McConnell is expected to enter a guilty plea to one count, according to his lawyers.

He declined to comment, or apologize for his acts, when approached by ABC News this week outside his home.

Leaders of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry maintain that such brutality is rare and that trainers do not have to cheat to win championships, which can add millions of dollars to the value of horses.

"They do not have to cheat to win," said Dr. Steve Mullins of the group called SHOW, which oversees inspections of horses before major events.  "You don't have to do this kind of junk to win. ... And we are terribly against this stuff."

The industry group maintains that the vast majority of horses are not subjected to the cruel practice of "soring."

But a random inspection by the agents of the Department of Agriculture at last year's annual championship found that 52 of 52 horses tested positive for some sort of foreign substance around front hooves, either to cause pain or to hide it.

Dr. Mullins told ABC News there could be innocent explanations for some of the foreign substances found by the inspectors. 

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Spencer Platt/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Jobless claims didn't budge last week, remaining at 370,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The figure for the week ending May 12 is a revision from the previous week's number, which was initially said to be 367,000.

The four-week average, however, did see some movement, dropping by 4,750 to 375,000.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Is the foreclosure crisis in the U.S. nearing its end?  New numbers out Thursday by RealtyTrac show that foreclosure activity is down to a near five-year low across the country.

"In April 2012, there were less than 189,000 properties with foreclosure filings during the month.  That was a 57-month low.  That's the lowest level we've seen since July 2007," says Daren Blomquist with RealtyTrac.

Blomquist credits the decrease partly to banks being more willing to work with struggling homeowners.

"More properties that would have become foreclosures otherwise are actually becoming short sales.  The lenders are becoming much more aggressive in agreeing to short sales," he explains.

This has likely helped lead to a drop in the number of filings in the West.  Foreclosure activity is down in Arizona, California and Nevada -- states that were hard hit by the foreclosure crisis -- according to RealtyTrac.

But, Blomquist cautions homeowners are not out of the woods yet.

"It's not that foreclosures have completely gone away by any means, but at least they're heading in the right direction and finally have kind of gotten through this very big batch of bad loans that triggered the foreclosure crisis in the first place," he says.

And while the outlook has improved on the West coast, the picture is grimmer towards the East.  Filings are up year over year in Florida, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, RealtyTrac reports.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- At the same time the price and public clamor for Facebook's blockbuster IPO is rising, experts' expectations for the company's performance are in decline.

The company on Tuesday raised the asking price of its offering -- expected on Friday -- from a range of $28-$35 to $34-$38.

In a survey of 124 portfolio managers and buy-side analysts conducted by Rivel Research Group, only 8 percent said they expect to see Facebook trading above its offering price six months after the initial public offering.  Thirty-one percent said they expect the offering to have no impact whatsoever on the overall market for IPOs.

Yet excitement among ordinary investors for the IPO continues to run high, given that past IPOs have made some investors rich.  An analysis by ABC News shows, for example, that a share of Johnson & Johnson bought at the IPO price of $375 would be worth $10 million today.  A share of Apple bought at the 1980 IPO price of $22 would be worth about $44,800 now.

The fact that Facebook's stock has been virtually impossible for little guys to buy in advance of Friday's offering may only have heightened the shares' appeal, on the principle that what people want most are things they cannot have.

Jay Ritter, an expert on the history of IPOs and a professor of finance at the University of Florida, says Facebook's offering is indeed historic.

"This is more than just another IPO," he says.  "It's the largest ever for an Internet company, and among the largest for any in U.S. company in history."  It's unprecedented, he says, for a company just eight years old to receive a market cap of $100 billion.

Ritter says other recent IPOs have raised comparable amounts, including Visa's IPO and GM's in 2010.  Both companies had name recognition: "Everybody knows GM.  Lots of people have a Visa card."  Yet neither offering generated anywhere near the excitement as Facebook's.

Of course, neither company had a chief executive of Mark Zuckerberg's star power or youth appeal.  And, says Ritter, neither had Facebook's "blistering" growth rate.

"People confuse rapid growth with a good investment," he says.

Now the $100 billion question is, can Facebook maintain that growth by better monetizing its 900-million-plus users?

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LAS VEGAS) -- Melodee Megia, a former employee at The Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, claims she was told she was fired from her job for saying "bye bye" on the telephone instead of "goodbye" while eight-months pregnant.

She has filed a lawsuit against the hotel for pregnancy discrimination and a class-action suit for workers' wages, saying employees were not paid for the time they had to wait for and change into their uniforms on a daily basis.

Megia worked at the hotel from November 2010 until September 2011, when she said she was fired "based on her pregnancy," according to court papers filed with the Clark County District Court in Nevada last week.

Megia was a "room service sales" employee answering the telephone when hotel guests called for room service, and occasionally assisting in room delivery, her lawyers said.

She is represented by labor attorneys Mark Thierman and Jason Kuller.

Thierman said "she was denigrated verbally and was mistreated because of her pregnancy," while having a "behind-the-scenes" job at the hotel.

Amy Rossetti, public relations director of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, said in a statement, "As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on pending litigation."

In March 2011, according to the lawsuit, Megia was asked to deliver a "pleasure packet" of condoms to a hotel customer, when Megia's supervisor said, "Isn't it too late for that?  You should have thought about it before getting knocked up."

"From that point forward, the director of room service frequently gave [Megia] dirty looks or shook his head disapprovingly," the suit said.

On Sept. 16, 2011, when she was eight months pregnant, the "stated reason for [her] termination was that she said 'bye bye' instead of 'good bye' on the telephone to a room service customer," according to the suit.

"In fact, this was merely a pretext as [Megia] had been subject to harassing conduct and other pretextual discipline leading up to her termination since the time her pregnancy was learned by [the hotel]," the suit added.

In the same filing to sue the hotel for unspecified damages for pregnancy discrimination, Megia also made class-action allegations for unpaid wages on behalf of the hotel's employees.

Workers were not permitted to wear their uniforms outside work and had to pick up and drop off their uniforms before and after their shifts, often leading to additional overtime for which they were not paid, the suit claimed.

The suit said employees also had to change into their uniforms on-site in an area away from where they clocked in and out for the day.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images(MENLO PARK, Calif.) -- It’s going to be a sleepover at Facebook the night before the big IPO.

Employees from the social networking site will be holding what the company calls a "hackathon" Thursday night. 

According to Facebook, "Hackathons are a big tradition at Facebook.  They serve as the foundation for some great (and not so great) ideas.  It gives our employees the opportunity to try out new ideas and collaborate with other people in a fun environment."

Basically, the company’s employees spend the night working on their ideas to see where they go.  Everyone at the company is invited.

This is something they have done in the past, but this will be their last such endeavor as a private company.

The next morning, Mark Zuckerberg will ring the opening bell on Wall Street, making many of these employees millionaires and billionaires.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio