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The Great Chicago Pizza Debate: Chicagoist just released its list for the Top 20 Best Pizzas in the Chicago Area, with Pizzeria Da Nella, Father and Sons Pizzeria and Cafe Luigi earning spots. Did your fave make the cut?

Anonymous Yelp reviewers outed in Virginia court rulin

Whether several scathing reviews posted to a local Virginia carpet cleaning business were actually…

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Yield Boosts Lazard

By: StockoptionChannel.com

Shareholders of Lazard (LAZ) looking to boost their income beyond the stock's 2.3% annualized dividend yield can sell the June 2014 covered call at the $45 strike and collect the premium based on the $1.80 bid, which annualizes to an additional 7.9% rate of return against the current stock price (at Stock Options Channel we call this the YieldBoost), for a total of 10.2% annualized rate in the scenario where the stock is not called away. Any upside above $45 would be lost if the stock rises there and is called away, but LAZ shares would have to climb 4.4% from current levels for that to occur, meaning that in the scenario where the stock is called, the shareholder has earned a 8.6% return from this trading level, in addition to any dividends collected before the stock was called.

In general, dividend amounts are not always predictable and tend to follow the ups and downs of profitability at each company. In the case of Lazard, looking at the dividend history chart for LAZ below can help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue, and in turn whether it is a reasonable expectation to expect a 2.3% annualized dividend yield.

Below is a chart showing LAZ's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $45 strike highlighted in red:

The chart above, and the stock's historical volatility, can be a helpful guide in combination with fundamental analysis to judge whether selling the June 2014 covered call at the $45 strike gives good reward for the risk of having given away the upside beyond $45. (Do most options expire worthless? This and six other common options myths debunked). We calculate the trailing twelve month volatility for Lazard (considering the last 252 trading day closing values as well as today's price of $43.24) to be 26%. For other call options contract ideas at the various different available expirations, visit the LAZ Stock Options page of StockOptionsChannel.com.

In mid-afternoon trading on Tuesday, the put volume among S&P 500 components was 642,577 contracts, with call volume at 1.08M, for a put:call ratio of 0.60 so far for the day. Compared to the long-term median put:call ratio of .65, that represents high call volume relative to puts; in other words, buyers are showing a preference for calls in options trading so far today. Find out which 15 call and put options traders are talking about today.

Until recently, I have not used the term

Until recently, I have not used the term “stock market crash”. I do not take using this term lightly. It brings with it major repercussions. I am now breaking out this phrase because of the current state of the stock market. This stock market crash will occur within the next 6 months from today, October 24th, 2013. The markets will fall within a combined day/few days a total of at least 20%. Bookmark this article. Poor earnings continue to hammer individual names in almost all regions of the stock market. The U.S government continues to bicker over the debt ceiling and spending. The global picture is showing another real estate bubble in China and Europe is still an absolute mess, contrary to what the big players are saying to the public. All these negatives have meant nothing as the Federal Reserve continues to and will continue to print tens of billions of Dollars a month, inflating the stock market. Recently, word has now come out that the Federal Reserve feels like they have the power to print unlimited amounts of money. In other words, ‘whatever it takes’ to bring the dual mandate in line. A reckoning day will happen and for the first time in years I am seeing the epic signals clearly. I call this technical signal the Devil Tail Formation. It is something I have not seen in the charts since 2007. The likely scenario would be for it to happen in 2014 but there is a small chance it happens prior. The house of cards will unfortunately fall as the biggest bubble ever created crumbles. Let’s be clear about bubbles. They are all Federal Reserve induced. Every one in the history of the stock market has been a manipulation technique headed by the biggest bankers in the world. My other prediction for the future will be that at some point years out, there will be talk of bringing federal charges against the top Federal Reserve officials as the people demand it. I have said my piece. Have a wonderful and happy evening! Gareth Soloway InTheMoneyStocks.com

Washington State tears off GMO label bill

Washington state experienced an expensive fight over the labeling of genetically modified foods or GMOs. The bill in question would have mandated that all foods containing GMOs are labeled clearly for consumers, including cereals, soft drinks chips and many other items. The bill was ultimately voted down by Washington voters by a 10 point margin.

The for labeling campaign calling for greater consumer transparency through labels of all products containing GMOs. The against labeling side claimed that labeling GMO foods would create an increased cost to consumers. The opposing side had a lot of large financial backers including the Grocery Manufacturers Association which represents big food corporations such as Campbell Foods, General Mills, Hillshire Brands, and PepsiCo. Together they raised contributed $1 million dollars to oppose the bill. Other donations against the bill came from big agricultural companies such as DuPont, Monsanto and Bayer CropScience. Their contributions totaled around $11 million. So now that the bill didn't pass and GMOs are not labeled we should ask ourselves, how much of our food is GMO and does this make a difference? If we look at the GMOs crops grown today, around 95% of U.S. commodity crops are GMO. This includes 94$ of sugar beets, 90% of soybeans, and 88% of cotton and feed corn. Papaya are an interesting case that demonstrates the benefits of GMOs. In the 1980s basically all papaya was wiped out of Hawaii due to a ringspot virus. Today papaya's grow again on the islands due to virus resistant GMO crops. In the actual stores GMO foods include basically any processed foods with sugar. For the most part non-processed foods are not GMO, for example tomatoes, potatoes, wheat and rice are not GMO in the U.S. Now there is a lot of talk about GMO foods being unhealthy. This for all intents and purposes is not true. If we look at sugar as a general example, by the time it is processed and put into your food the sugar has no chemical difference between non-GMO sugar. There are also claims that crops that are genetically modified with other animals DNA are some how bad for us. The idea that DNA is somehow owned by one animal or another is also absurd. DNA and RNA create the language or code that define life. Essentially all living things have this code and share similar parts of it. Taking code from a fish to create corn with protein may sound weird but it is just a length of code. Humans may share 99% of our DNA with apes but we also share 30% of our DNA with a potatoes. I think GMOs are a amazing step forward for science, being able to make crops resist viruses and grow more effectively with less water has huge agricultural advantages.

Don’t say “student loans” three times fast or else a debt collector might appear!! #TheLivingDebt bit.ly/1biOrYy