Danny Puff

House Speaker John Boehner (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON Despite nine defections from fellow Republicans, Ohio Rep. John Boehner was re-elected as speaker of the House Thursday in a voice vote.

Boehner won the backing of 220 Republicans, who retained a majority in the chamber after November's election. But a handful of GOP members voted no or abstained. Most Democrats voted for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Boehner's grasp on his speakership seemed tenuous going into the vote.

The Ohio congressman has come under fire from conservatives in recent weeks for supporting a "fiscal cliff" deal with President Barack Obama that allowed tax rates to increase. He allowed a vote on a package brokered by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden that most House Republicans opposed. The bill passed Tuesday with the support of Democrats.

Several northeastern Republicans loudly criticized Boehner for stalling a $60 billion relief bill for states hit by Superstorm Sandy. Boehner has pledged to hold a vote on Sandy relief on Friday.

Before the speakership vote, rumors swirled that enough conservative Republicans would vote against Boehner to force a second ballot some reporters took friendly bets on Boehner's future but they were unable to muster enough opposition to bring him down. Inside the House chamber Thursday, the defectors sat together in a clump near the center of the aisle during the vote and shouted several different nominees when their names were called.

Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash, still furious after Boehner revoked his committee assignment last year, voted for Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador instead.

Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine, New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce and the newly elected Florida Rep. Ted Yoho voted for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. (Cantor supported Boehner.)

Georgia Republican Rep. Paul Broun and Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert nominated former Rep. Allen West of Florida, prompting Democrats to respond with laughter on the other side of the aisle.

North Carolina Rep. Walker Jones voted for former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, Kentucky Rep. Tom Massie voted for Amash, and Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp supported Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Republicans Labrador, Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon and South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney did not vote, and Republican Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas voted present.

Once the votes were cast and Boehner was announced the winner, Republican and Democratic leaders joined the Ohio delegation in escorting Boehner to the speaker's chair, where he will serve for two more years.

In his first speech to the 113th Congress, Boehner urged members to remain true to the Constitution and focused his remarks on the national debt.

"Our government has built up too much debt. Our economy is not producing enough jobs. These are not separate problems," Boehner told the members in the chamber. "At $16 trillion and rising, our national debt is draining free enterprise and weakening the ship of state. "The American Dream is in peril so long as its namesake is weighed down by this anchor of debt. Break its hold, and we begin to set our economy free."

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(Reuters) - News website BuzzFeed, one of the more interesting news business models to emerge in recent years, has raised $19.3 million in new capital, the company said on Thursday.

The round was led by venture capital firm NEA along with previous investors RRE, Hearst, SoftBank and Lerer Ventures. The founders of Buddy Media, Michael and Kass Lazerow, also participated.

The money will be used for mobile and video development, editorial hires and international expansion, the company said in a release.

BuzzFeed has skyrocketed in popularity and has caught the eye of media watchers for its innovative mix of news and advertising, including a mix of high- and low-brow content, photos driven by social media and sponsored stories.

The company said it has 40 million unique visitors a month. Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith runs an editorial team of 70.

BuzzFeed was started by Jonah Peretti, the co-founder of the Huffington Post, in 2006. It has raised $46 million in total.

(Reporting By Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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(Reuters) - New York State's $150-billion public pension fund has sued Qualcomm Inc., seeking to force the chipmaker to reveal its political spending, according to the state comptroller.

The suit was filed late on Wednesday in Delaware Court of Chancery, after Qualcomm refused the request by the New York State Common Retirement Fund -- a Qualcomm shareholder -- to inspect records detailing the use of corporate resources for political activities, said state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees the fund.

"Without disclosure, there is no way to know whether corporate funds are being used in ways that go against shareholder interests," DiNapoli, a Democrat who is up for re-election in 2014, said in a statement.

The suit opens a new front in the fight over corporate political spending, which has risen dramatically since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in Citizens United.

That decision lifted restrictions on corporate political spending and led in part to an unprecedented $6 billion of spending on the recently held U.S. elections.

While other companies have agreed to increase their disclosure of political spending, Qualcomm has not, the lawsuit said.

A spokeswoman for San Diego, California-based Qualcomm said the company had no immediate comment.

The New York State fund, the third-biggest public pension plan in the United States, owns more than 6.1 million Qualcomm shares, which are valued at about $396 million, based on Thursday's share price. The stake represents 0.36 percent of outstanding Qualcomm shares and makes the fund the company's 52nd largest shareholder, according to Thomson Reuters data.

New York is Qualcomm's largest U.S. public pension fund shareholder. The California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund with $241 billion in assets, owns about 4.3 million Qualcomm shares.

Since at least August 2012, the pension fund has repeatedly attempted to get the information from Qualcomm, but the company has refused to divulge it, the suit claimed.

New York's pension fund is "concerned that it cannot determine whether senior executives and directors of Qualcomm are spending corporate resources to support their favored political candidates" or on causes that aren't focused on boosting shareholder value, the complaint said.

Other sources show that in 2012, Qualcomm spent more than $4.7 million on federal lobbying efforts, according to the complaint.

The precise total is not known, DiNapoli told Reuters.

"Qualcomm has been particularly resistant in terms of disclosure," he said.

"The real question is we don't know what kind of spending they're doing," he said. "We have the right to have access to books to see where the spending is going."

In 2010, the fund and a group of other institutional investors asked most of the 500 biggest U.S. companies to disclose contributions.

Over the past two years, the group filed 27 related shareholder resolutions seeking more transparency, reaching deals with 10 companies, the comptroller said.

WITH NOVEL APPROACH, SUCCESS UNCERTAIN

The suit is believed to be the first in Delaware, where Qualcomm and most major U.S. companies are incorporated, to use the state's books-and-records law to compel political spending disclosures, a DiNapoli spokesman said.

As an institutional investor, the fund could attempt to remove directors from Qualcomm's board or sue board members if they were found to have wasted assets, the complaint said.

DiNapoli's office previously asked Qualcomm to provide documents that identified the date, recipient and amount of each political expenditure the company has made since January 21, 2010, as well as documents detailing the company's expenses for trade associations and other tax-exempt groups.

DiNapoli's office also asked for minutes of board meetings during which political causes or candidates were discussed.

The case would be tough to win if New York State claims that shareholders are entitled broadly to all documentation about political spending, according to Larry Hamermesh, a professor at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware.

"I can't see a court saying that is correct any more than what a company spends on business in China are a legitimate subject for shareholder inspections," he said.

Hamermesh said investors might gain access if they take a targeted approach such as seeking contributions to specific races or contributions approved by the CEO.

Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said that if DiNapoli's legal team cannot point to evidence -- such as news reports that raised suspicions about the company's spending -- the lawsuit might not survive scrutiny by a judge who sees it as a fishing expedition,

But if it passes muster, the suit could become a model for other shareholders, Elson said.

DiNapoli's complaint said that studies indicate that corporate political spending is, in general, negatively correlated with enterprise value and can indicate widespread deficiencies in corporate governance.

Political donations can also backfire on corporations. For instance, Target Corp. in 2010 donated $150,000 to a political group that supported Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who opposed same-sex marriage. The contribution sparked backlash and led Target to later apologize, the suit noted.

(Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Leslie Adler and M.D. Golan)

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(Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook unit reported weak holiday season numbers on Thursday as it sold fewer e-readers and tablets at its own stores, and its e-books sales growth slowed, raising questions about the future of its digital business.

The Nook, launched in 2009 to compete with Amazon.com Inc's market-leading Kindle, has been the cornerstone of Barnes & Noble's strategy to counter the shift by many book readers to digital books. Early growth attracted a big investment last year from Microsoft Corp.

And last week, British education and media publisher Pearson Plc said it would take a 5 percent stake in Barnes & Noble's Nook Media unit, which also includes its college bookstore chain, giving it a $1.8 billion value, about double the company's value as a whole.

But questions swirled about whether it is worth that much, after the retailer said that the Nook segment's revenue fell 12.6 percent from a year earlier during the nine weeks ended December 29, hurt by lower unit sales and prices.

Sales of digital content like e-books and magazines rose 13.1 percent during the holidays, a much slower pace than the 38 percent gain last quarter and 113 percent in the 2011 holiday season, suggesting Barnes & Noble is having trouble holding on to its 25-30 percent share of the U.S. e-books market.

"We are way beyond the point where you should see content sales accelerate," Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom told Reuters. "That hasn't materialized and that's concerning."

The numbers were all the more disappointing given that in late November, Barnes & Noble had told investors Nook device sales doubled over the Black Friday weekend, which follows Thanksgiving and kicks off the holiday season in earnest.

That suggests the rest of season was a debacle, analysts said, and Chief Executive William Lynch said in a statement that Barnes & Noble is "examining the root cause" of the shortfall and will adjust its strategy.

"The investment question for Barnes & Noble in 2013 is the Nook's staying power as a legitimate tablet device," Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter wrote in the note, predicting the retailer will face stiffer competition this year from the likes of Apple Inc and Google Inc, since tablets now have improved functions that make them more appealing to book readers.

The drop in Nook sales came despite the launch of two well-reviewed high-definition Nook tablets in October and promotions at large chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Target Corp, both of which stopped selling Kindles last year.

Despite the holiday results, Barnes & Noble still expects Nook Media sales of $3 billion this fiscal year, keeping a forecast it gave in October.

That steady forecast helped lift shares 2.6 percent to $14.88 in morning trading.

The company will report full quarterly results in late February.

The results follow a warning from Barnes & Noble in a filing last week that holiday sales would come in below its expectations. The warning erased most of the gains in its share price that followed the news of Pearson's investment.

FEWER VISITORS IN STORES

Compounding Barnes & Noble's troubles, fewer shoppers came into its bookstores during the Christmas period.

Barnes & Noble, which had enjoyed a sales bump after onetime rival Borders Group liquidated in 2011, reported a 10.9 percent decrease in sales at its bookstores and on its website over the holiday period.

Sales at stores open at least 15 months fell 3.1 percent, excluding Nook products, despite the benefit of some store closings -- Barnes & Noble operates 689 bookstores, 14 fewer than a year ago.

"The Borders tailwind is over," Morningstar's Wahlstrom said.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; editing by John Wallace and Nick Zieminski)

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AKRON, Ohio (AP) Aiden and Donavyn didn't wait until New Year's Day to come screaming into the world, but the circumstances of their births are still pretty special: The babies were born about two hours apart to Ohio mothers who are identical twins.

The Akron Beacon Journal (http://bit.ly/YQpn3X ) reports that the 19-year-old mothers Aimee and Ashlee Nelson weren't raised to do things alike and did not plan the births to come at the same time. In fact, their due dates were about a week apart.

Aimee's son, Donavyn Scott Bratten, was born just after noon on the last day of 2012. Ashlee's son, Aiden Lee Alan Dilts, made his appearance at about 2 p.m.

They were delivered by the same doctor at Summa Akron City Hospital.

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Information from: Akron Beacon Journal, http://www.ohio.com

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NEW YORK (AP) Tim Gunn has advised divas for years on "Project Runway," so working with a princess is no big deal.

In the new Disney Junior animated series "Sofia the First," Gunn's royal steward character, Baileywick, helps the young Sofia adapt to royal life after her mother marries a king. Baileywick not only helps Sofia (voiced by Ariel Winters) dress like a royal, but he also guides her on developing manners, grace and an independent spirit.

"I feel very comfortable in this role," he says.

Certainly, 2- to 7-year-old children are a new audience, Gunn says, but being a teacher who knows when to give congratulations and critiques and how to look after his charge are skills he's honed for most of his professional life. Before Heidi Klum came calling for him to work on TV with aspiring designers, Gunn was chair of Parsons The New School for Design fashion department.

Gunn, 59, says he enjoys sometimes veering from the expected career path. A few years ago, Marvel Comics turned him into a superhero to save a fashion exhibit.

"When Marvel asked if I would do it, they asked with trepidation. They were nervous that I wouldn't, but who doesn't want to be their own comic book superhero?" Gunn says. "I said I'd do it in a heartbeat, and it was the same way with Disney."

Disney launched the characters in a TV movie just before Thanksgiving. It attracted an audience of 5.2 million viewers. The regular series debuts Jan. 11.

The message of "Sofia the First" is a good one, Gunn says: Looking the part only gets you halfway there and then you have to act like a leader and be nice to people at the same time. "If I had a child, I would want my child watching this for the lesson in moral character."

It might be harder for kids or the parents watching with them to glean any real-life style tips.

"I'm dealing with royalty here," says Gunn. "They can make their own fashion rules."

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Online:

http://disney.go.com/disneyjunior/sofia-the-first

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Samantha Critchell tweets fashion at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Fashion and can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/Sam_Critchell

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A sign welcoming Sandy Hook students is displayed across the street from Chalk Hill School. (Dylan Stableford/Yahoo!

MONROE, Conn. Sandy Hook Elementary School teachers, students and parents are preparing for an emotional return to school on Thursday at a repurposed facility here, less than a month after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults including principal Dawn Hochsprung at their school in Newtown, Conn.

On Wednesday, a day before classes are set to resume, students and parents are scheduled to attend an open house at Chalk Hill School, a former middle school that workers have prepared to house the Sandy Hook children. School officials say they have tried to completely re-create classrooms in an effort to make students as comfortable as possible.

Parents are being encouraged to attend school with their children on Thursday.

"I want to reassure you that we understand many parents may need to be near their children on their first day(s) of school and you will be welcome," interim principal Donna Page wrote in a letter to parents. "That being said, we encourage students to take the bus to school in order to help them return to familiar routines as soon as possible. Parents choosing to join their children may come to school after our 9:07 a.m. opening and will be welcome in the classroom or the auditorium throughout the day."

To "ensure a safe and secure environment," Page continued, "we ask that no more than one adult family member accompany his/her child."

[Related: Scenes from Newtown, Connecticut]

Some of the therapy dogs that have blanketed Newtown in the wake of the shootings will also be present at the school to comfort the children. Ten golden retrievers from Chicago's Lutheran Church Charities, which were sent to Newtown to comfort survivors last month, traveled back to Newtown on New Year's Day to prepare for the school's reopening.

Other public schools in Newtown reopened within a week of the shootings, but Sandy Hook Elementary has remained closed since Dec. 14, when 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza shot his way into the school and opened fire before turning a gun on himself. Lanza also killed his mother in their Newtown home before going on the rampage, one of the deadliest in U.S. history.

"I want parents and families enduring the loss of their precious children to know their loved ones are foremost in our hearts and minds as we move forward," Page also wrote. "We recognize your needs are paramount in our preparations and planning. Your strength and compassion has been and will continue to be an inspiration to me and countless others as we work to honor the memory of your precious children and our beloved staff."

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) South Korean pop star Rain is facing questions after paparazzi photos showed him out on the town with a top actress.

Seoul's Defense Ministry said Wednesday it is investigating whether Rain broke military rules by meeting actress Kim Tae-hee while on duty.

Rain is fulfilling his compulsory army service as an entertainer for the military. He is not allowed to have private meetings while outside his Seoul base for official duties such as recording and performing.

The ministry says a brief lockup in a military jail cannot be ruled out as a penalty.

Kim's agency admits that the two have dated for a month. Rain's agency neither denies nor confirms it.

Rain joined the military in October 2011 and is scheduled to be discharged in July.

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PASADENA, Calif. (AP) Thousands of people in Southern California are lining the route of the 124th Rose Parade in Pasadena.

The die-hards staked out their spots early Monday with folding chairs, hammocks and portable barbeque grills. They brought in the new year by throwing marshmallows, shaving cream and tortillas, and then hunkered down to stay warm in sleeping bags.

The parade features floats covered with flowers and plant material and marching bands from across the country. It will be broadcasts around the world.

College student Brandy Grueter (GROO'-ter) spent the night on the sidewalk with her younger brother and saved spots for about 20 friends and family. She says she slept 20 minutes but would rally enough energy once the parade started.

The pre-dawn line at a Starbuck's stretched around the block.

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Gov. Tom Corbett scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit against the NCAA over stiff sanctions imposed against Penn State in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

The news conference announcing the filing in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg was set to be held at the university's State College campus.

A person associated with the university and knowledgeable about the matter told The Associated Press that it is an antitrust action. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the lawsuit hasn't been filed.

The university agreed in July to the sanctions, which included a $60 million fine that would be used nationally to finance child abuse prevention grants. The sanctions also included a four-year bowl game ban for the university's marquee football program, reduced football scholarships and the forfeiture of 112 wins but didn't include a suspension of the football program, the so-called death penalty.

In announcing the news conference, Corbett, a Republican, did not indicate whether his office coordinated its legal strategy with state Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, who is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 15.

Kane, a Democrat, ran on a vow to investigate why it took state prosecutors nearly three years to charge Sandusky, an assistant under legendary football coach Joe Paterno. Corbett was the attorney general when that office took over the case in early 2009 and until he became governor in January 2011.

State and congressional lawmakers from Pennsylvania have objected to using the Penn State fine to finance activities in other states. Penn State has already made the first $12 million payment, and an NCAA task force is deciding how it should be spent.

The NCAA, which declined to comment Tuesday on the planned lawsuit, has said at least a quarter of the money would be spent in Pennsylvania.

Republican U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent called that an "unacceptable and unsatisfactory" response by the NCAA to a request from the state's U.S. House delegation that the whole $60 million be distributed to causes within the state.

Last week, state Sen. Jake Corman, a Republican whose district includes Penn State's main campus, said he plans to seek court action barring any of the first $12 million from being released to groups outside the state.

Sandusky, 68, was convicted in June on charges he sexually abused 10 boys, some on Penn State's campus. He's serving a 30- to 60-year state prison term.

Eight young men testified against him, describing a range of abuse they said went from grooming and manipulation to fondling, oral sex and anal rape when they were boys.

Sandusky did not testify at his trial but has maintained his innocence, acknowledging he showered with boys but insisting he never molested them.

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