Breaking news from the Punxsutawney Spirit this morning, though it may be hard to believe after the 760-degree weather we had in New York yesterday. Phil’s verdict is in and he says we’re going to have six more weeks of winter. Speaking of New York, on Staten Island, Charles G. Hog, the borough’s “own prognosticating groundhog,” didn’t see his shadow, and predicted an early spring.

Lady Gaga’s parents’ new restaurant gets panned by New York Post restaurant critic Steve Cuozzo this morning. In fact, he warns you might gag. Apparently, the Italian trattoria wasn’t even close to being ready last night at its opening. Cuozzo says it took 50 minutes for appetizers to show up and then when they did, the grilled calamari “were the worst I’ve had in a lifetime of squid-mongering.”

If meetings run too long at your company, the answer may be to take away the chairs. Some companies are eliminating chairs at meetings to give people an incentive to keep their remarks brief. The Wall Street Journal says in a tech culture sitting “has become synonymous with sloth.”

Fury is mounting over the decision by a cancer charity to pull its funding for Planned Parenthood says the San Francisco Chronicle. Planned Parenthood is accusing Susan G. Komen for the Cure of bowing to pressure from anti-abortion lobbyists, something the charity denies.

Details about Facebook’s finances are trickling in as the company prepares for its IPO. The San Jose Mercury News says the company earned $1 billion in profit last year, on $3.7 billion in revenue. The filings also reveal that Facebook now has over 845 million users, which is about half of world’s Internet users. Not bad for a company everyone thought didn’t have a business plan.

Have you ever watched RAY WJ on YouTube? The Wall Street Journal says over 5 million people subscribe to be notified when he posts a new video. As one media expert points out—that’s bigger than the audience of some cable channels. Ray makes an estimated million dollars a year on his YouTube advertising share.

Don Cornelius, the man who created “Soul Train,” has died. The Chicago Tribune says Soul Train’s impact on style was just as monumental as its impact on music. Just look at the sales for one of its main sponsor, Johnson Products, maker of Ultra Sheen and other African-American hair products. When Soul Train first went on the air in 1971, sales were about $12 million. When the show relocated to LA in 1977, annual sales were up to $40 million.

There’s an interesting profile in the LA Times this morning, about a doctor who treats Jehovah’s Witness patients suffering from leukemia. Their religion does not allow them to get blood transfusions. Instead he builds up their white blood cell count with medication and when he must draw blood, he uses tiny tubes used for pediatric patients. 

Greg Brooks is convinced only 700 feet of water separate him from his fortune. The Maine man was granted salvage rights, says the Portland Press-Herald, to excavate the S.S. Port Nicholson, which sunk in 1942 and which Brooks believes was carrying $3 billion in platinum bars. Others are skeptical. But he’s undeterred: “I’m going to get it, one way or another, even if I have to lift the ship out of the water.”