Authorities Bust National Drug Ring That Brought in $30,000 Weekly

photo by NBC San Diego

Three men in Pacific Beach, CA were arrested as part of a marijuana-trafficking ring that extended to multiple states. The bust was part of a yearlong investigation by U.S. Postal Service and the Southwest Border Anti-Money Laundering Unit, and the three bosses were accused of shipping between 10 and 20 pounds of weed to customers everywhere from Texas to Massachusetts. Investigators say the operation netted the men about $20,000 to $30,000 a week.

The trio—28-year-old Matthew Schneider, 25-year-old Kyle Gillen and 24-year-old Chris Gillen—was arrested on Wednesday. Authorities recovered 300 marijuana plants and $500,000 in assets including cars, an SKS rifle and shotgun and $35,000 in cash. All three of them have been charged with selling and transporting marijuana, conspiracy and money laundering.

source

DirecTV, Two Others Bid Over $1 Billion For Hulu

By GWOP

June 1, 2013

GWOP

1 Comment

Satellite operator DirecTV and two other bidders have offered more than $1 billion apiece to buy Hulu according to sources.

The Hulu service has more than 4 million subscribers and generates revenue of about $700 million through subscriptions and a free ad-supported service.

Hulu offers ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, TBS, and many other networks and studios.

Aliko Dangote Is Africa’s First $20 Billion Man

By GWOP

June 1, 2013

Aliko Dangote, GWOP

Leave a comment

Nigerian billionaire and Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has become the African entrepreneur to lay claim to a $20 billion fortune as the stock value of his largest holding, Dangote Cement, leaped just about three-fourths since March when Forbes released its annual ranking of the world’s richest people.
Aliko Dangote’s 93% stake in the cement company is now worth $19.5 billion. Add this to his controlling stakes in other publicly-listed companies like Dangote Sugar and National Salt Company of Nigeria and his significant shareholdings in other blue-chips like Zenith Bank, UBA Group and Dangote Flour; his extensive real estate portfolio, jets, yachts and current cash position, which includes more than $300 million in recently awarded Dangote Cement dividends, Dangote is now worth more than $20 billion. Read More

Female Directors In Hollywood [infographic]

By GWOP

May 30, 2013

GWOP

Leave a comment

Chicago Suntimes Lays Off Entire Photo Staff

By GWOP

May 30, 2013

GWOP

2 Comments

Chicago-sun-times

Reports are emerging that the The Chicago Sun-Times has laid off its entire photo staff.

According to The Chicago Tribune, 20 full-time staffers in the photo department received layoff notices Thursday. In a statement shared with its chief competitor, the Sun-Times said it was looking to shift more resources to video and other multimedia elements:

“The Sun-Times business is changing rapidly and our audiences are consistently seeking more video content with their news. We have made great progress in meeting this demand and are focused on bolstering our reporting capabilities with video and other multimedia elements. The Chicago Sun-Times continues to evolve with our digitally savvy customers, and as a result, we have had to restructure the way we manage multimedia, including photography, across the network.” Read More

Nicolas Cage says Filmmakers Want To Shoot In Nevada

By GWOP

May 29, 2013

GWOP

1 Comment

Movie star Nicolas Cage traveled to Carson City earlier this month to urge state lawmakers to pass a movie tax incentive bill, promising to use his connections in the industry to help spark a filmmaking boom in Nevada.

“My name is Nicolas Cage, and I’m an American filmmaker,”

“I have four scripts that could easily be shot in Nevada,” said Cage, who described himself as a Nevada resident, adding he’d like to wake up at home, go to work shooting a film and return home at the end of the day. Read More

More Than 500 Million Photos Are Shared Every Day

By GWOP

May 29, 2013

GWOP

1 Comment

Mary Meeker, a renowned analyst with Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, estimates that there are now more than 500 million photos uploaded and shared every day on average, and she projects that number will grow to be twice as much as the year prior. Read More

Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 5/26/2013

By GWOP

May 29, 2013

GWOP

Leave a comment

#1. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories – 339,000 (340,000)

#4. French Montana – Excuse My French – 56,000 (56,000)

#5. The Great Gatsby Soundtrack – 54,000 (286,000)

#17. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist – 24,000 (754,000)

#23. Lil Wayne – I Am Not A Human Being II – 15,000 (453,000)

#42. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city – 8,800 (905,000)

#113. Eve – Lip Lock – 3,500 (12,000)

#160. LL Cool J – Authentic – 2,700 (26,000)

#165. Snoop Lion – Reincarnated – 2,600 (40,000)

#175. Gucci Mane – Trap House III – 2,500 (2,500)

* data comes from Nielsen Soundscan, rounded to nearest thousandth for units above 10,000, nearest hundredth for units below 10,000.

Weekend Box Office: May 24-27, 2013

By GWOP

May 28, 2013

GWOP

Leave a comment

Title / Weekend Gross (in millions usd)*

Fast & Furious 6 $120 m
The Hangover Pt III $51.2 m
Star Trek Into Darkness $47 m
Epic $42.6 m
Iron Man 3 $24.3 m
The Great Gatsby (2013) $17 m
Mud $2.4 m
42 $1.6 m
The Croods $1.6
Oblivion $1 m

4 Day studio total via BoxOfficeMojo

WordPress Is 10 Years Old Today

By GWOP

May 27, 2013

GWOP

2 Comments

WordPress is 10 years old today. Here is how wordpress is used around the world.

WordPress, the blogging and content management system, is 10-years old today. The platform has evolved in the past decade from being a basic blogging service to a news and media platform for major brand names and businesses around the world.

Started by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, WordPress is an open source service where anyone can make modifications to the code to improve their blog and make it something that works for them.

Bloggers who use WordPress are able to apply design themes to their sites while also integrating third-party plugins easily. Since it’s open source software, there isn’t a need for an approval process before someone can implement a new feature. GWOP Magazine, CNN, TechCrunch, Mashable, Dow Jones, UPS, TED, BOSSIP, RAPRADAR all use a wordpress platform to get the message across for their business.