Fed adds another $45B per month in stimulus

The Federal Reserve ramped up its stimulus to the economy on Wednesday, expressing disappointment with the pace of recovery in employment as contentious U.S. budget talks heighten uncertainty about the outlook.

The central bank replaced a more modest stimulus program due to expire at year-end with a fresh round of Treasury purchases that will increase its balance sheet. It committed to monthly purchases of $45 billion in Treasuries on top of the $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed bonds it started buying in September.

In a surprise move, the Fed also adopted numerical thresholds for policy, a step that had not been expected until early next year. In particular, the Fed said it will likely keep official rates near zero for as long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent, inflation between one and two years ahead is projected to be no more than 2.5 percent, and long-term inflation expectations remain contained.

The Fed noted unemployment remains elevated and that inflation is running somewhat below policymakers' 2 percent objective.

"The Committee remains concerned that, without sufficient policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions," the Fed said in a statement.

Policymakers also repeated a pledge to keep buying bonds until the labor market outlook improves substantially. A drop in the jobless rate to 7.7 percent in November from 7.9 percent in October was driven by workers exiting the labor force, and therefore did not come close to satisfying that condition.

Under the "Operation Twist" program that will expire at the end of the month, the Fed was buying $45 billion in longer-term Treasuries with proceeds from the sale of short-term debt. The new round of government bond-buying it announced on Wednesday will be funded by essentially creating new money, further expanding the Fed's $2.8 trillion balance sheet.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will discuss the central bank's latest decision at a news conference at 2:15 p.m. (1915 GMT).

SWEATING A WEAK RECOVERY

The Fed cut overnight interest rates to near zero in December 2008 and has bought about $2.4 trillion in bonds in a further effort to push borrowing costs lower and spur a stronger recovery.

Despite the unconventional and aggressive efforts, U.S. economic growth remains tepid. GDP grew at a 2.7 percent annual rate in the third quarter, but it now appears to be slowing sharply. According to a Reuters poll published on Wednesday, economists expect the economy to expand at just a 1.2 percent pace in the current quarter.

Businesses have hunkered down, fearful of a tightening of fiscal policy as politicians in Washington wrangle over ways to avoid a $600 billion mix of spending reductions and expiring tax cuts set to take hold at the start of 2013.

Bernanke has warned that running over this "fiscal cliff" would lead the economy into a new recession.

Fed officials will release a new set of quarterly economic and interest rate projections at 2 p.m. (1900 GMT) that could show yet another round of downward revisions to future growth prospects.

Back in September, the Fed predicted the U.S. economy would expand 2.5 percent to 3 percent in 2013, but even that modest rate is looking potentially rosy. The Reuters poll showed a median U.S. growth estimate of 2.1 percent for next year on the same fourth quarter over fourth quarter basis.

Read More..

Pilot in copter crash was turning back because of weather

Lee County Sheriff John Varga describes medical helicopter crash near Compton, Ill. Witness Michael Bernardin recounts hearing and seeing the aircraft go down in a nearby farm field. (Stacey Wescott, Chicago Tribune)

The pilot of a medical helicopter radioed that he had "encountered weather" and was heading back to Rockford Memorial Hospital when he crashed into a field about 30 miles away, killing him and two nurses, hospital officials said today.

A witness said it was sleeting when he heard the helicopter flying low over a field near the small town of Compton south of Rockford shortly after 8 p.m. Monday.

"It was really crappy out," said Micheal Bernardin, a Viola Township highway commissioner who lives near U.S. Route 30 and Illinois Route 251. "I'd call it sleet, I guess was coming in, and I think they ran into that stuff and I've got an idea that weather was an issue."

The National Weather Service reported light snow in the area at the time, with winds from the west at 7 mph and visibility around 7 miles. The temperature was 28.

Bernardin said it appeared the pilot steered clear of surrounding farm buildings before the helicopter dove into the ground.

“It sounded like it was going to hit the house,’’ Bernardin said. "All of a sudden I saw this red light come out of the sky and nosedive right into the ground out here. I thought it was going to hit the house, but evidently the guy steered her clear of everything."

Bernardin said he and his wife jumped into their pickup truck and spotted the wreckage in the headlights. "It was unbelievable, unbelievable," he said. "Oh my God, three people died."

Lee County Sheriff John Varga said it did not appear the helicopter hit any power lines or other structures. "The phone calls and witnesses we got last night said something didn't sound right, it was flying low," he said.

The helicopter was registered to Rockford Memorial Hospital and was en route to pick up a patient at Mendota Community Hospital, officials said. The patient was later taken by ambulance to Rockford.

The Rockford hospital identified the victims as:

-- Jim Dillow, 40, who joined Rockford Memorial Hospital in 1996 and had more than 10 years of experience as a flight nurse.

-- Karen Hollis, 48, who joined Rockford Memorial Hospital in 1986  and also had more than 10 years experience as a flight nurse.

-- Andy Olesen, 65, the pilot who was employed by Air Methods of Denver used by hospital. Relatives said he flew helicopters in the military and served in Vietnam. He was planning to retire next week and only had four more shifts left.

“Andy was an experienced pilot when he began flying for Air Methods in 1994 and had been a pilot for Regional Emergency Acute Care Transport for about five years,” said Dr. Dennis Uehara, chairman of emergency medicine at Rockford Memorial Hospital.

The hospital was contacted about 7:30 p.m. Monday by Mendota Community Hospital to pick up a patient, Uehara said, declining to disclose the nature of the patient’s illness.

The helicopter left from a hangar on the Rockford hospital campus a few minutes later, Uehara said. The dispatch center received word from Olesen that he and the crew had “encountered weather” and were turning back.

That was the last they were heard from, Uehara said. About 10 minutes later, the dispatcher tried unsuccessfully to contact the helicopter.

Varga said his office received a call from the Rockford hospital at about 8:15 p.m. saying they had lost contact with the helicopter.

The European-made helicopter was about 25 years old, according to Ron Meadors, director of the Regional Emergency Acute Care Transport (REACT) at the hospital. He said the helicopter had been continually updated over the years.

“The only original thing left is a panel with our name on it,” Meadors said.

He said the helicopter averaged about 600 flights a years. All the maintenance was up to date and the helicopter exceeded the minimum standards, Meadors said. It was they only helicopter used by the hospital.

Hospital president and CEO Gary Kaatz said officials are still figuring out what to do about the transport program. REACT was started in 1987 using a helicopter from the Illinois Department of Transportation based at the Rockford municipal airport, officials said.

A few years later, REACT acquired the helicopter that crashed Monday night.

Kaatz called the three crew members “heroes.”

“Our hearts are with the families of Jim, Karen and Andy," he said. "We ask for the community to join us in keeping them in our thoughts and prayers."

All three were natives of the Rockford area. Hollis grew up in Rockford. Dillow grew up on a farm west of town. Olesen had been a Rockford resident, had left and come back.

Kaatz said the hospital was cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board. “Our focus will be on identifying the needs of those families and doing everything possible to help them get through this awful tragedy,” he said.

On the hospital's Facebook page, hundreds of people, many of them paramedics and other emergency responders, offered their condolences to the victims' families.

The nurses and pilots who work in air ambulances are among the best trained in their fields, said Stephen Richey, a former flight respiratory therapist who lives in Indianapolis.

Pilots must be able to land on improvised landing sites on short notice, and the flight nurses on board often must deliver advance medical care to critically injured trauma patients.

The work draws those with years of experience and a deep commitment to helping patients, Richey said.

"You’ll never find a more dedicated group of professionals in your entire life," Richey said.

Medical flight crews also face daily risks. Richey became an aviation safety researcher after losing several friends in crashes, he said.

In October 2008, a medical helicopter crashed after striking a wire attached to a radio tower in Aurora, killing three crew members and a 1-year-old girl.

Read More..

Yahoo CEO Mayer unveils overhaul of email service

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc rolled out new versions of its popular Web email on Tuesday, the first major product makeover since Chief Executive Marissa Mayer took the helm of the struggling Internet company five months ago.

Yahoo released new versions of its Yahoo Mail product for smartphones and tablets - in keeping with Mayer's focus on mobile devices - and a revamped version of its Web-based mail product for PC users that cuts out ancillary features and that the company said delivers faster performance.

"You've told us loud and clear that you want fewer distractions when it comes to email. You want to quickly login, communicate, and get on with your day," Mayer said in a post on Yahoo's official blog on Tuesday.

Yahoo is the No. 1 Web email product in the United States and No. 3 worldwide, behind Google Inc's Gmail and Microsoft Corp's Hotmail, according to comScore.

But the number of unique users of Yahoo email declined 16 percent in November from a year earlier in the United States and 7 percent worldwide, according to comScore. Analysts say the decline owes partly to a younger generation of Internet users who prefer to communicate with text messages rather than email.

Mayer, a former Google executive who is widely admired in Silicon Valley for her Web product savvy, is moving to revitalize Yahoo's various Web products and reverse years of declining revenue.

She has said her top priority is to create a coherent mobile strategy for Yahoo and that she intends for at least half of the company's technical workforce to be working on mobile products.

As part of Tuesday's announcement, Yahoo unveiled an update to its mobile email app for smartphones based on the Android operating system, as well as Yahoo's first stand-alone app for Apple's iPhone.

Yahoo also released a version designed for tablets and PCs based on Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system.

Vivek Sharma, General Manager of Yahoo Mail & Messenger, said the group of new mobile apps was part of Yahoo's goal of ensuring that its products are available across all major mobile platforms -- a move that he said should help Yahoo's email stay popular with the younger generation of users.

"Most of the new users, especially young ones, are using mobile Internet devices. So the first order of things is to make sure there are native experiences for them," said Sharma referring to mobile apps that are specially designed for smartphones.

Shares of Yahoo were up 11 cents to $19.54 in midday trading on Tuesday.

Yahoo's stock has risen 25 percent since Mayer became CEO in July, reaching its highest level since September 2008 when Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang was CEO.

The years between Yang and Mayer were tumultuous ones at Yahoo, as the Web pioneer cycled through four different chief executives and a variety of strategies.

Yahoo ranks among the world's most popular websites, with roughly 700 million monthly visitors. But revenue has eroded due to competition from Google and Facebook and changes in the online advertising market that have compressed prices for the online display ads that are key to Yahoo's business.

Many analysts and tech-industry observers say Yahoo's online products have failed to keep up with rivals when it comes to integrating innovative mobile and social media features.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das and David Gregorio)

Read More..

Tagliabue overturns Saints suspensions

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has overturned the suspensions of four current and former New Orleans Saints players in the league's bounty investigation of the club.

Tagliabue, however, found that the players' conduct was detrimental to the league. He says they participated in a performance pool that rewarded key plays — including hard tackles — that could justify fines.

But the former commissioner said Tuesday that "this entire case has been contaminated by the coaches and others in the Saints' organization."

Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma initially had been suspended the whole season, while Saints defensive end Will Smith, Cleveland linebacker Scott Fujita and free agent defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove received shorter suspensions.

Read More..

‘Lincoln’ leads Critics’ Choice Awards nominees

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Film critics love “Lincoln.” The historical drama earned a record-breaking 13 nominations for the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced the nominees for its 18th annual awards ceremony Tuesday in Los Angeles.

“Lincoln” beat the 12 nods earned by 2010′s “Black Swan” with bids for director Steven Spielberg, star Daniel Day-Lewis and supporting actors Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones, as well as cinematography, adapted screenplay, costume design, makeup, editing, art direction, score and acting ensemble.

“Les Miserables” follows with 11 nominations and “Silver Linings Playbook” has 10. “Life of Pi” earned nine nods. “Argo,” ”Skyfall” and “The Master” each have seven.

Winners will be announced Jan. 10, 2013, at a ceremony set to be broadcast live on the CW network.

___

Online:

www.criticschoice.com

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers.

Employee benefits lawyer Chantel Sheaks calls it a "sleeper issue" with significant financial consequences, particularly for large employers.

"Especially at a time when we are facing economic uncertainty, (companies will) be hit with a multi-million dollar assessment without getting anything back for it," said Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary.

Based on figures provided in the regulation, employer and individual health plans covering an estimated 190 million Americans could owe the per-person fee.

The Obama administration says it is a temporary assessment levied for three years starting in 2014, designed to raise $25 billion. It starts at $63 and then declines.

Most of the money will go into a fund administered by the Health and Human Services Department. It will be used to cushion health insurance companies from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with medical problems. Under the law, insurers will be forbidden from turning away the sick as of Jan. 1, 2014.

The program "is intended to help millions of Americans purchase affordable health insurance, reduce unreimbursed usage of hospital and other medical facilities by the uninsured and thereby lower medical expenses and premiums for all," the Obama administration says in the regulation. An accompanying media fact sheet issued Nov. 30 referred to "contributions" without detailing the total cost and scope of the program.

Of the total pot, $5 billion will go directly to the U.S. Treasury, apparently to offset the cost of shoring up employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees.

The $25 billion fee is part of a bigger package of taxes and fees to finance Obama's expansion of coverage to the uninsured. It all comes to about $700 billion over 10 years, and includes higher Medicare taxes effective this Jan. 1 on individuals making more than $200,000 per year or couples making more than $250,000. People above those threshold amounts also face an additional 3.8 percent tax on their investment income.

But the insurance fee had been overlooked as employers focused on other costs in the law, including fines for medium and large firms that don't provide coverage.

"This kind of came out of the blue and was a surprisingly large amount," said Gretchen Young, senior vice president for health policy at the ERISA Industry Committee, a group that represents large employers on benefits issues.

Word started getting out in the spring, said Young, but hard cost estimates surfaced only recently with the new regulation. It set the per capita rate at $5.25 per month, which works out to $63 a year.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the major industry trade group for health insurers, says the fund is an important program that will help stabilize the market and mitigate cost increases for consumers as the changes in Obama's law take effect.

But employers already offering coverage to their workers don't see why they have to pony up for the stabilization fund, which mainly helps the individual insurance market. The redistribution puts the biggest companies on the hook for tens of millions of dollars.

"It just adds on to everything else that is expected to increase health care costs," said economist Paul Fronstin of the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The fee will be assessed on all "major medical" insurance plans, including those provided by employers and those purchased individually by consumers. Large employers will owe the fee directly. That's because major companies usually pay upfront for most of the health care costs of their employees. It may not be apparent to workers, but the insurance company they deal with is basically an agent administering the plan for their employer.

The fee will total $12 billion in 2014, $8 billion in 2015 and $5 billion in 2016. That means the per-head assessment would be smaller each year, around $40 in 2015 instead of $63.

It will phase out completely in 2017 — unless Congress, with lawmakers searching everywhere for revenue to reduce federal deficits — decides to extend it.

Read More..

TNT: Funeral coming for J.R. Ewing on new 'Dallas'

NEW YORK (AP) — J.R. Ewing will get a send-off with a proper funeral on "Dallas."

TNT begins the second season of its "Dallas" revival next month. The network said Tuesday that it will hold a funeral for Larry Hagman's memorable character at some point in the 15-episode season but that it hasn't been filmed or scheduled yet. Hagman died at age 81 over the Thanksgiving weekend.

TNT spokeswoman Erin Felentzer says the network isn't saying how Ewing will be killed off in the series. Hagman kept working until soon before his death due to complications of cancer, and will appear in several of the new season's episodes.

Hagman's character is a television icon dating back to the "Who Shot J.R.?" episodes in the 1980s.

Read More..

HSBC to pay record $1.9B fine

British-owned bank HSBC is paying $1.9B to settle a US money-laundering probe. The bank was investigated for involvement in the transfer of funds from Mexican drug cartels and sanctioned nations like Iran. (Dec. 11)

HSBC has agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion fine to settle a multi-year probe by U.S. prosecutors, who accused Europe's biggest bank of failing to enforce rules designed to prevent the laundering of criminal cash.

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday charged the bank with failing to maintain an effective program against money laundering and conduct due diligence on certain accounts.

In documents filed in federal court in Brooklyn, it also charged the bank with violating sanctions laws by doing business with Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba.

HSBC Holdings Plc admitted to a breakdown of controls and apologised for its conduct.

"We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes," said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver.

"Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters."

The bank agreed to forfeit $1.256 billion and retain a compliance monitor to resolve the charges through a deferred-prosecution agreement.

The settlement offers new information about failures at HSBC to police transactions linked to Mexico, details of which were reported this summer in a sweeping U.S. Senate probe.

The Senate panel alleged that HSBC failed to maintain controls designed to prevent money laundering by drug cartels, terrorists and tax cheats, when acting as a financier to clients routing funds from places including Mexico, Iran and Syria.

The bank was unable to properly monitor $15 billion in bulk cash transactions between mid-2006 and mid-2009, and had inadequate staffing and high turnover in its compliance units, the Senate panel's July report said.

HSBC on Tuesday said it expected to also reach a settlement with British watchdog the Financial Services Authority. The FSA declined to comment.

U.S. and European banks have now agreed to settlements with U.S. regulators totalling some $5 billion in recent years on charges they violated U.S. sanctions and failed to police potentially illicit transactions.

No bank or bank executives, however, have been indicted, as prosecutors have instead used deferred prosecutions - under which criminal charges against a firm are set aside if it agrees to conditions such as paying fines and changing behaviour.

HSBC's settlement also includes agreements or consent orders with the Manhattan district attorney, the Federal Reserve and three U.S. Treasury Department units: the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

HSBC said it would pay $1.921 billion, continue to cooperate fully with regulatory and law enforcement authorities, and take further action to strengthen its compliance policies and procedures. U.S. prosecutors have agreed to defer or forego prosecution.

The settlement is the third time in a decade that HSBC has been penalized for lax controls and ordered by U.S. authorities to better monitor suspicious transactions. Directives by regulators to improve oversight came in 2003 and again in 2010.

Last month, HSBC told investors it had set aside $1.5 billion to cover fines or penalties stemming from the inquiry and warned that costs could be significantly higher.

Analyst Jim Antos of Mizuho Securities said the settlement costs were "trivial" in terms of the company's book value.

"But in terms of real cash terms, that's a huge fine to pay," said Antos, who rates HSBC a "buy".

Read More..

Daley nephew pleads not guilty in Koschman death

Richard Vanecko, the nephew of former Mayor Richard Daley, pleaded not guilty this morning to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2004 death of David Koschman.

The case was randomly assigned today to Judge Arthur Hill, a former prosecutor when Daley was state’s attorney.

When Vanecko appeared before the judge this morning, Hill noted he had also been appointed to the board of the Chicago Transit Authority by Daley when he was mayor. He also held the No. 2 post under State’s Attorney Dick Devine, who has strong ties to Daley.

Hill told lawyers in the case that he won’t voluntarily remove himself from presiding over the case but would understood if special prosecutor Dan Webb, who charged Vanecko, asked for another judge.

“This court believes I can be fair and impartial in this case,” Hill said.

The case will be back in court next Monday to give to give time to Webb’s team to weigh whether they will seek another judge other than Hill.

As Vanecko walked out of the courthouse flanked by his attorneys, they made no comment.

Earlier, Vanecko strode into the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26^th Street and California just after 9 a.m. dressed in a gray suit and tie and charcoal overcoat accompanied by three of his attorneys.

A crowd of TV cameramen, photographers and reporters followed him inside, shouting questions that Vanecko did not answer.

Vanecko went through the security line and into presiding Judge Paul Biebel's first-floor courtroom.

Both sides have the option to ask for a different judge if there are conflicts of interest, something that could arise since Vanecko is such a high-profile defendant and there have been allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct surrounding the case.

Vanecko, who currently resides in Costa Mesa, Calif., turned himself in to authorities in Chicago on Friday afternoon and later posed for a mug shot in a jacket and tie.

Last week, a special grand jury found that Vanecko, who is the son of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s sister, Mary, “recklessly performed acts which were likely to cause great bodily harm to another.”

Koschman, 21, of Mount Prospect, had been drinking in the Rush Street nightlife district early on April 24, 2004, when he and his friends quarreled with a group that included Vanecko. During the altercation, Koschman was knocked to the street, hitting the back of his head on the pavement. He died 11 days later.

Police at the time said Koschman was the aggressor and closed the case without charges. In announcing the indictment, Webb, a former U.S. attorney, noted that at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, Vanecko towered over Koschman, who was 5-foot-5 and 125 pounds.

Webb also said the grand jury is still probing how the original investigation was conducted.

Vanecko’s attorneys issued a statement last week saying they were disappointed by the indictment and noted that at the time of the confrontation, Koschman’s blood-alcohol content was three times the legal limit for a motorist.

Koschman “was clearly acting in an unprovoked, physically aggressive manner,” Vanecko’s legal team said. “We are confident that when all the facts are aired in a court of law, the trier of fact will find Mr. Vanecko not guilty.”

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Vanecko faces from probation up to 5 years in prison. 

jmeisner@tribune.com

gknue@tribune.com

Read More..

Massive HP conference draws 10,000 attendees to ogle products, speakers, presentations

By Suzy Hansen

More than 10,000 customers, partners and attendees flocked to the Hewlett-Packard Discover conference in Frankfurt, Germany, this week to learn about HP's latest products, exchange ideas, swap business cards and basically examine whether HP can improve the way their companies are run. The event was held at Messe Frankfurt, one of the world's largest trade exhibition sites.

CEO Meg Whitman acknowledged in her speech on Tuesday that HP has gone through some rough times this past year. HP's stock price has been nearly halved during her tenure. Whitman, however, pointed out that HP has $120 billion in revenue and is the 10th-largest company in the United States. In Q4, HP has generated $4.1 billion in cash flow.

"We are the No. 1 or No. 2 provider in almost every market," Whitman told the crowd in Frankfurt.

Whitman emphasized  executives' increasing concerns about security and said that it will be addressed by "a new approach": HP's security portfolio, with Autonomy and Vertica, which helps "analyze and understand the context of these events." Executive Vice President of Enterprise Dave Donatelli spoke about converged infrastructure, or bringing together server, network and storage; their software-defined data centers; and their new servers, which "change the way servers have been defined." George Kadifa, executive vice president of software, said 94 of the top 100 companies use HP software. HP is the sixth-largest software company in the world, with 16,000 employees in 70 countries, Kadifa added.

Also at the conference was Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks and an old friend of Whitman's from their Disney days, who roused the crowd with a fun speech about his long relationship with HP. Katzenberg showed an old video of himself onstage with a lion, which nearly mauled him. This time, he appeared onstage with a guy in a lion suit. The lesson was to learn from past mistakes and move on.

"If I am smart enough to say 'scalable multicorps processing,' I am smart enough to not put myself onstage with a real lion again," he joked.

The Discover conference is a key vehicle for HP to show off products it's offering in the coming year. Among them were the latest ProLiant and Integrity servers, the 3PAR StoreServ 7000 and the StoreAll and StoreOnce storage systems. At the HP Labs section of the conference, attendees could learn about the cloud infrastructure or test HP's new ElitePad 900.

Throughout the three-day event, which saw attendance grow by 30 percent this year, attendees wandered the enormous halls, milling around displays, watching videos, listening to speeches and participating in workshops. People gathered on clustered couches and chatted with new acquaintances, frequently stopping to plug in their various devices and recharge themselves with coffee. With people coming from all over the world, you could hear many languages spoken, from Arabic to French to the most bewildering of them all: the language of technology. Despite the large crowds, it was hard not to notice there were very few women among the thousands in attendance. In fact, when asked about this phenomenon, one female HP employee said, "Trust me, you aren't the first person who has come up to me asking about this."

Indeed, the Discover conference was like a forest of men in suits. The few women stood out like rays of sunlight. 

Regardless of their presence at this conference, women are making big strides in information technology. Among the leaders are HP CEO Whitman, who also led eBay; Carly Fiorina, who ran HP before Whitman; Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer; and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Were the women at the Discover conference surprised by the low female turnout?

"No, for IT this is standard," said Stefanie, a 30-year-old product manager from Germany. "Many are afraid of all the technical stuff, and you have to prove that you are capable of it. You get more women in retail and distribution but not in high-tech areas, at least not in Europe. In America there are more women in management positions and in general."

Americans might assume that Europe, with its generous social programs that include free daycare, enables more women to ascend the corporate ladder. But that still doesn't mean that a woman trying to balance a high-tech career and a family is always accepted in European society.

"There is still a lot of emphasis on the family," Stefanie said. "It's easier to move up in the U.S., where there is a culture of 'having it all.' It's quite a fight to get there here."

Still, the IT industry might seem inhospitable to women. Could this male-dominated profession be male-dominant because women have a hard time breaking in?

Stefanie disagreed. "No, they actually like working with women," she said. "They want to."

One male conference attendee, who asked not to be named, was less certain.

"There's a lot of ego and testosterone," he said. "It can't be easy" for women.

Read More..