In the introduction to her new book, "Homemakers," Brit Morin says she never expected to be undertaking such a big writing project.

"After all, I come from the digital generation. You know, the generation that prefers Instagram to Kodak cameras and can't focus on anything for longer than two minutes. The generation of which 72% downloaded at least one app in the past week," she writes.

"Yes, that generation." 

As a former employee of both Apple and Google, Morin is thoroughly entrenched in the tech world of Silicon Valley. Her husband, Dave Morin, is a former Facebook employee and the founder of social networking app Path. 

Brit's personal brand, however, is best defined as a blend between the digital and analog worlds.

She's the founder and CEO of Brit + Co., a DIY content and ecommerce site that's scored $7.6 million in funding from Index Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Marissa Meyer, and Oak Investment Partners. 

Brit + Co. features fun articles, recipes, tutorials and even online classes that teach skills like knitting, hand-lettering, and 3D printing.

Her book, which was published by HarperCollins' William Morrow Paperbacks imprint and officially hits shelves Tuesday, has more of the same content, with each chapter addressing a different room in the home. 

"So for example, you take the kitchen. I look at what has happened over the past decade — the way we cook, the way we entertain, and how that has evolved with technology," Morin told Business Insider.

She added that home automation and the Internet of Things will have an enormous effect on people's definition of home.

"I’m not sure people fully realize how advanced our homes are becoming," she said. "This is the new reality as of today, and it’s only going to advance more."

After Morin left her product marketing job at Google in 2011, she joined TechShop, a studio in San Francisco where you can pay a monthly fee for access to 3D printers, woodworking equipment, silk screening machines, and laser cutters. 

"I started taking classes and got obsessed. I loved that all you needed to know was how to design it online, then send it to print," she said. "It’s exciting to see the intersection of creativity and technology play out in real life."

Morin had officially joined the Maker movement, a name given to the use of new technology to create and build things. 

"The Maker movement is really just a new definition for a cultural shift that has been happening for decades," Morin said. "I like to use this example. At first people thought it was cheating to use cake mix instead of baking from scratch, but sales were soaring, so there was obviously demand for it. It was the same with the microwave, icebox, and the iPhone."

Most projects in her book —  tassel garlands, patterned tea towels, swirled cakes — aren't too time-intensive.

But with others, like a gadget-charging nightstand that requires using a charging mat and router, Morin shows off some of her Maker skills.

That combination of craftiness and tech has led some people dub her the "Martha Stewart of Silicon Valley."

She says she's flattered by the comparison.

"It’s definitely a huge compliment," Morin said. "She's really nice."

While brainstorming a title for her book, Morin found that some considered the word "homemaker" a derogatory term. She says that's because the term has carried a different meaning for previous generations of women, some more positive than others.

"Our grandmothers' generation was kind of forced to stay home and be a homemaker. For our mothers' generation, women were leaving the home and working," Morin said. "Now women have the choice, and it's OK to do both, and they want to do both."

Morin knows firsthand just how difficult that can be. She had her first child, a boy named Ansel, in October. 

"I do prescribe to outsourcing certain services. I don’t go grocery shopping — I use Blue Apron and Foraged for ingredients," she said. "I love having free afternoons to paint or 3D print. It's OK to make time to create and build with my hands."

SEE ALSO: How WhatsApp's billionaire CEO spent the year after the $19 billion Facebook acquisition

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NOW WATCH: This guy went from homeless to making $25,000 per Vine

The Bank of England battled against a panel of politicians today over its role in the alleged currency market manipulation scandal.

It also revealed some rather embarrassing details over its dismissed currency chief Martin Mallett.

Lord Grabiner, a prominent barrister whose report cost £3 million to put together, cleared the central bank and its employees of "improper conduct" last year, but the BoE's Governor Mark Carney still had to face the Treasury Select Committee over what happened with Mallett.

He confirmed that Mallett conducted at least 20 examples of "misjudgements."

This also included "inappropriate language on multiple occasions and included inappropriate attachments on emails." On top of that, after a review of millions of incidences of correspondence across the phone, email and through chatrooms, the BoE found that Mallett had given his personal opinion over the central bank's policy.

Carney said these incidences violated the BoE's information technology and confidentiality policies and, in turn, some of the information could have been misconstrued by traders.

Mallett was fired for "serious misconduct" in November last year.

BoE's Carney and Chairman of the Court Anthony Habgood fought with the Treasury Select Committee today over its governance and structure and how it was deemed by Lord Grabiner to have failed to spot potential market manipulation activities.

Grabiner's key findings were (emphasis ours):

• No evidence to suggest that any Bank officialwas involved in any unlawful or improper behaviour in the FX market.
• A substantial part of the FCA’s investigation concerns bank traders sharing confidential information, including aggregated information about their client orders, which was then used for improper behaviour. No [Bank of England] official was aware that this improper behaviour was happening.
• Since at least 16 May 2008, the BoE's chief FX dealer, Mallett, was aware that bank traders were sharing aggregated information about their client orders for the purposes of a practice known as “matching” and had concerns that regulators would take an interest in it. The practice is not itself improper but it can increase the potential for improper conduct.

In fact, Carney spent most of his time trying to highlight how the BoE is held to higher standards than what is admissable in the legal system.

"The bar is set very high. We are not asked about whether any bank official was aware of market manipulation, we're asked about whether we are aware of activities that have the potential for market manipulation," said Carney.

"We are judged by a higher standard than any legal standard."

According to the Bank of International Settlements, the global FX market £3.5 billion worth of FX swaps, forwards and options as well as spot transactions daily.

FX benchmark rates are published daily. While there are a number of these benchmarks, the two most commonly used are the WM/Reuters at 4 p.m. GMT (11 a.m. ET) and the ECB one at 1:15 p.m. GMT (8:15 a.m. ET).

Last year, Citi, HSBC, JPMorgan, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and UBS settled with US and UK authorities over the FX rigging scandal, while Barclays was notably left out of the joint settlement of £2.2 billion.

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Fiat Chrysler's US auto sales increased by just 5.6% in February, missing analysts' expectations for 8.9%.

Throughout the day, the big automakers will release their US auto sales stats.

Analysts estimate that the pace of US auto sales improved to an annualized rate of 16.7 million units in February from 16.56 million in January.

From Morgan Stanley's Ted Wieseman: "Mid-month industry surveys have pointed to a slight pickup in sales in February after the dip in January to a 16.6 million unit annual rate following the best two combined months in December (16.8) and November (17.1) in nine years. Much colder weather in the second half of February was probably a drag."

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NOW WATCH: Nationwide's Super Bowl commercial about dead children is about corporate profits ... in a way that we can all appreciate

IronSource, the massive Israeli software download company that is expected to file for an IPO in the next year or so, has denied that it fuels its business by turning a blind eye to malware.

The accusation was made by Ben Edelman, an associate professor at the Harvard Business School and frequent scourge of tech companies who use questionable tactics to drive their revenues. He said in a blog post that the company was "strikingly deceptive."

IronSource recently closed a $100 million-plus round of investment funding which likely values the company at more than $1 billion. The company is interesting because unlike most tech startups in the mobile app software market, a majority of its revenues — believed to be around $350 million annually — come from Google's Android platform rather than Apple's iOS competitor.

Because the company is expected to go public soon, IronSource can expect to find its business to be placed under a microscope by potential future investors. On Feb. 18, Edelman wrote a bruising analysis of IronSource, which alleged the company bundles unwanted adware with its downloads.

Although most people have no idea who Edelman is, tech execs ought to live in fear of him. His takedown of the video ad company Blinkx chopped 21% of the firm's stock. His work with eBay helped the auction company persuade the FBI to prosecute two of its top affiliate marketers, both of whom were ultimately sentenced to federal prison for defrauding the company of millions of dollars.

So any negative attention Edelman may focus on IronSource will likely be regarded as a huge headache.

IronSource's core business is software and app download technology. It's the company that app developers use when they need to absolutely make sure that their products are being successfully installed on users' machines. Download tech is also useful because once you have persuaded a user to install a new app, the download menu can prompt them to try other products. Indeed, IronSource has expanded its download business into a mobile app install ad network to do just this.

Edelman described IronSource as "deceptive":

IronSource installations are often strikingly deceptive: they promise to provide software IronSource and its partners have no legal right to redistribute (indeed, specifically contrary to applicable license agreements); they bundle all manner of adware that users have no reason to expect with genuine software; they bombard users with popup ads, injected banner ads, extra toolbars, and other intrusions. It's the very opposite of mainstream legitimate advertising. We are surprised to see such deceptive tactics from a large firm that is, by all indications, backed by distinguished investors and top-tier bankers.

Most of Edelman's analysis focuses on a step-by-step description of a download of Google's Chrome browser, which loaded unwanted adware onto his machine via IronSource in a way that Google would likely not approve of.

In fact, IronSource has thousands of companies using its download platform, and it cannot control them all, IronSource CEO Tomer Bar-Zeev told Business Insider. "We have a compliance team working hard to actively remove them from the network," he says. "We take compliance and security very seriously, and apply both automated and manual reviews for every developer using our SDK [software download kit]."

"There are now more than 10K developers that are using our product and services and I believe that most of them are honest, we do over 7M installs/day," he says. "Our compliance team is constantly checking the products and traffic sources and we are becoming better and better in eliminating the ones that are abusing our systems."

As an example of how hard it is to police bad actors on large networks, he pointed to Google's own Adwords ad program, on which he recently saw a deceptive ad for Chrome. "Even Google, with their massive compliance force, could not prevent a deceiving from appearing in Google Adwords, this shows how difficult it is to deal with abusers when you operate in massive scales like we do."

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NOW WATCH: This is what happens to your brain and body when you check your phone before bed

House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office went to absurd lengths to describe the popularity of the Israeli prime minister's speech Tuesday.

In a statement issued to The New York Times, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said:

"If Taylor Swift and Katy Perry did a joint concert at Madison Square Garden wearing white-and-gold and black-and-blue dresses, accompanied by dancing sharks and llamas, that’s the only way you’d have a tougher ticket."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to give a speech Tuesday morning that will likely criticize the White House's negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. In a controversial move, Boehner invited Netanyahu without first informing President Barack Obama.

According to The Times, the contentious nature of the speech and Washington's annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference made Netanyahu tickets one of the hottest commodities in town. 

"The tickets are hotter than fresh latkes," quipped Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York).

SEE ALSO: John Boehner Trolls Obama With A Bunch Of Taylor Swift GIFs

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NOW WATCH: 11 Facts That Show How Different Russia Is From The Rest Of The World

On Monday, the Nasdaq crossed 5000 for the first time in 15 years. Here is what CNBC's Carl Quintanilla looked like in 2000 via @IvanTheK.

Here's what he looks like today via CNBC.

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

The flat white, Starbuck's newest menu item, is like a latte but with one fundamental difference. The flat white is the most popular coffee drink in Australia and New Zealand but will it be a success in America? We visited Toby's Estate to find out. 

Produced by Joe Avella

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First Netflix made its mark on original television programing with shows like "Orange Is The New Black" and "House of Cards," finding rabid fans and critical acclaim. Now the company is setting its sights on feature films.

On Monday, reports came that Netflix was nearing a deal to nab the highly anticipated next film from Cary Fukunaga ("True Detective"), "Beasts Of No Nation."

The film stars Idris Elba and was shot in Ghana last year for $6 million. 

The news reveals Netflix's willingness to go up against the big boys, as reports say it outbid the likes of Fox Searchlight and Focus to acquire the film, paying nearly $12 million. 

Based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala, the story follows a child soldier who joins a militant group from an unnamed West African country that is led by a brutal warlord (Elba). The story and talent behind it have all the makings for an awards-season contender, but Netflix would have to release the film theatrically before putting it on its streaming platform for it to be eligible for an Oscar. Netflix has not divulged its release plans for the film.

"Beasts Of No Nation" is only the latest movie acquisition from Netflix. Here is a breakdown of other first-run films you will be seeing from the streaming site in the coming years:

A 'Crouching Tiger' sequel

News broke in September that Netflix inked a deal to release a sequel to Ang Lee's Oscar-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Titled "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend," the film will be released day-and-date in theaters and on Netflix on August 28. Details have not come out about the sequel, but we are planning for lots of swords and people floating on branches.

Adam Sandler movies

Shortly after the "Crouching Tiger" news, Netflix announced it signed Adam Sandler to a four-picture deal exclusively for streaming. Sandler will both produce and star in the films, which are likely to be similar in budget to his past films (ranging from $40 million to $80 million).

Nothing is out on what zany storylines we will get from Sandler, but with this quote from the comedian the day the deal was announced we can bet it will be filled with his classic juvenile humor: "I immediately said yes for one reason and one reason only. Netflix rhymes with Wet Chicks. Let the streaming begin!!!"

Duplass Deal

Netflix came out of this year's Sundance Film Festival making a deal with two of the fest's most successful alumni, Mark and Jay Duplass. Like Sandler the brothers got a four-picture deal, but their titles will stream and get limited theatrical windows. Given the Duplass' HBO series "Togetherness" or any of their intimate low-budget movies ("Jeff, Who Lives At Home,""Cyrus"), we're pretty confident their four films will cost as much as one of Sandler's. 

New Pee-wee movie

After years of rumors of a new Pee-wee Herman movie, last October Paul Reubens began making the rounds confirming that a new movie was in the works and that Judd Apatow was producing it. Then in December came word that Netflix would be the home for the film. No word yet on when it will show up on the site, but if you need your Pee-wee fix, Netflix has everything from "Pee-wee's Playhouse" to his previous movies. So throw on your red bowtie and start the binge.

SEE ALSO: Netflix just announced a bunch of new premiere dates

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NOW WATCH: Mark Cuban: Here's Why Netflix Won't Kill TV

Whether it is women having a lot of fun while eating salad or a suited and booted executive looking serious "doing business" in the boardroom, stock photos are horrendously cringeworthy.

In a stunt for the upcoming movie "Unfinished Business," Vince Vaughn and his co-stars including Dave Franco and Tom Wilkinson released some hilarious versions of the atypical stock photo.

Here are four versions that are available to download for free via iStock by Getty Images:

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NOW WATCH: This Video Of The Largest Breakage Of Ice From A Glacier Ever Filmed Is Absolutely Frightening

Abercrombie & Fitch announced earnings Wednesday, and the results are ugly.

Sales fell 14% in the quarter ending January 31, driven by a 10% drop in same-store sales in the US.

Online comparable sales also slowed because of a drop in website traffic in Europe, the company said.

Shares fell more than 6% in premarket trading Wednesday.

"2014 was a year of significant change for Abercrombie & Fitch," Abercrombie executive chairman Arthur Martinez said in a release. "For the full year, our results came in well below our initial expectations, as an expected improvement in comparable sales did not materialize, and further progress on expense reduction was insufficient to offset weaker sales."

The retailer made $80.8 million in the fourth quarter compared with $104.3 million for the same period the previous year. 

For 2015, the company is focusing on increasing same-store sales by marketing new fashions and improving customer service, he said. The company is also planning to find ways to cut costs while investing more money in web operations. 

"We expect the first half of 2015 to remain challenging, with declines in our logo business in 2014 persisting in the early part of 2015," he said. "However, we believe that the benefits of all of the changes we have made will be reflected in improved performance in the second half of the year."

Abercrombie has been struggling for the past several years to lure fickle teen shoppers, who are spending less on apparel than previous generations did.

The company's same-store sales fell 10% in fiscal 2013, and its namesake brand no longer ranks among teens' top 10 favorite brands as of fall 2014, according to Piper Jaffray's semiannual survey on teen spending.

Mike Jeffries, the company's CEO of more than two decades, resigned in December after failing to execute a turnaround.

The company hasn't named a successor.

SEE ALSO: I walked into Abercrombie and saw everything that's wrong with the brand

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NOW WATCH: This super sexy Carl's Jr Super Bowl ad has gone totally viral

Private payrolls grew by 212,000 in February while January was way better than first reported, according to the latest report from ADP. 

Expectations were for private payrolls to grow 219,000 in February, up from 213,000 the prior month. 

The big news out of this report is the January revision, which showed private payrolls grew by 250,000, up from the 213,000 ADP previous reported. 

In a release, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, "Job growth is strong, but slowing from the torrid pace of recent months. Job gains remain broad-based, although the collapse in oil prices has begun to weigh on energy-related employment. At the current pace of growth, the economy will return to full employment by mid-2016."

From ADP, here's the latest chart showing the monthly change in payrolls.

And the job gains by industry in February.

More to come ...

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NOW WATCH: Nationwide's Super Bowl commercial about dead children is about corporate profits ... in a way that we can all appreciate

Embellished with the American flag, the presidential seal, and the words United States of America, the world's most famous plane is as tall as a six-story building and gives an undeniable authoritative presence wherever it flies.

The three-leveled "flying Oval Office" is a custom Boeing 747-200B that has 4,000 square feet of interior floor space, including a conference room, dining room, private quarters for the president, offices for senior staff members, a medical operating room (a doctor flies on every flight), press area, two food-preparation galleys that can provide 100 meals, and multifrequency radios for air-to-air and air-to-ground communication.

President Barack Obama's Air Force One is the most expensive to operate, costing taxpayers $206,337 every hour it is in flight, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) letter obtained by the nonprofit Judicial Watch.

Here are more security details:

SEE ALSO: There is no car like the president's armored limo — aka 'The Beast'

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NOW WATCH: How A Samsung Executive Changed His Life After Surviving A Plane Crash

Lumber Liquidators will get back to you. 

In an announcement on Wednesday morning, the company said that it would not participate in the Raymond James Annual Institutional Investors Conference being held today.

The company will, however, hold a conference call on March 12 to provide a business update to investors. 

Lumber Liquidators has been under pressure since last week, when it first disclosed that it would be the subject of a "60 Minutes" report, which aired Sunday night and brought to light apparent health and safety violations and problems and some of the company's factories in China. 

Following that report, the company issued a statement saying that "60 Minutes" used improper testing methods to reach its conclusions, while some in the analyst community said the report was even worse than they had feared.

Here's the release from the company:

Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL), the largest specialty retailer of hardwood flooring in North America, today announced that it plans to host a conference call and audio webcast on March 12, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time to provide a business update. The conference may be accessed by dialing (877) 407-9039 or (201) 689-8470. A replay will be available approximately two hours after the call ends through March 19, 2015 and may be accessed by dialing (877) 870-5176 or (858) 384-5517 and entering a pin number that will be provided when available. The live conference call and replay can also be accessed via audio webcast at the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, www.lumberliquidators.com.

The Company also announced that it will not participate in the Raymond James' Annual Institutional Investors Conference being held today.

Robert M. Lynch, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We regret that we are not attending the conference today and apologize to our investors that planned to attend. We look forward to speaking with you next week regarding our business update."

In pre-market trade on Wednesday, shares of the company were up about 2%. 

SEE ALSO: LUMBER LIQUIDATORS: There is no guarantee our wood suppliers will play by the rules

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Soon we're all going to be buying things with our fridge. That's what Jonathan Vaux from Visa says, at least.

We met with Vaux, an executive director at Visa Europe during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"Your fridge will have a payment capability," he said. "People are immediately associating [Samsung Pay] with the phone, but they're the biggest provider of white goods and so I will have a fridge, I'm sure, that will have connected payments in it."

We asked Vaux whether having an internet-connected fridge in your kitchen, integrated with your bank account, is a security risk. "It depends what it's sharing on the internet," he said. "If I'm buying stuff through my fridge, it's probably going to be milk ... If I suddenly start to order a MacBook Air from my fridge then your fraud detection systems are probably going to start setting off some alarms."

People have been talking about "connected fridges" for years. In fact, it's a running joke amongst attendees at tech conferences. A Tumblr blog, F*ck Yeah Internet Fridge, collects photos and mentions of connected fridges.

In fact, here's a BBC News article from 1999 about internet-connected fridges:

You can actually buy a WiFi fridge already, if you really want to. Samsung sells an internet-connected fridge for $3,599. It says that it opens up "a world of interactive communication and entertainment."

SEE ALSO: More coverage of Mobile World Congress 2015

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Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and likely 2016 Republican presidential candidate, has an interesting theory about homosexuality.

Carson argued in a Wednesday CNN interview that people who come out as gay while in prison prove many them weren't born that way.

"Absolutely," Carson said when asked whether he believes homosexuality is a choice. "Because a lot of people who go into prison, go into prison straight straight. And when they come out, they're gay. So did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question."

Despite his opposition to gay marriage, Carson suggested he could get behind civil unions. 

"Why do gay people want to get married? Because they want to have various rights — property rights, visitation rights," he said. "Why can't any two human beings, I don't care what their sexual orientation is, why can't they have the legal right to do those things? Okay, that does not require changing the definition of marriage."

Though it is still early int he presidential race, polls have consistently placed Carson, a political neophyte and conservative favorite, near the the top of the pack.

Carson has not formally announced a campaign, but he launched a fundraising committee to explore a White House bid on Monday.

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NOW WATCH: 11 Facts That Show How Different Russia Is From The Rest Of The World

Apple may unveil a new MacBook Air with a Retina display and an even thinner design at its event on March 9, according to The Michael Report.

It's unclear how credible the report is, but The Michael Report claims it's recieved this information from "sources familiar with the matter within Apple."

Here's what we know about the new MacBook Air based on the report:

• It'll likely have a Retina display like Apple's MacBook Pro line of laptops.
• The new MacBook Air may run on Intel's new Broadwell Core M low-power processors, which suggests it could have excellent battery life just like Apple's previous MacBook Airs.
• It'll also be even thinner than previous models and fanless, which lines up with previous reports we've heard about Apple's upcoming MacBook Air laptops.
• Since it may be thinner, this also means Apple might remove the MacBook Air's full-sized USB ports, MagSafe connectors, and SD card slot.
• It's being called "MacBook Stealth" internally.

Reports of a new MacBook Air with a Retina display have been circulating for months, but we still have yet to hear any information from Apple. Previous rumors have suggested it will come in a new 12-inch screen size as well, and reliable analysts such as KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo have also predicted Apple will release a new MacBook Air with a Retina display. 

SEE ALSO: The best laptops you can buy

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NOW WATCH: How Apple Pay Could Destroy The Credit Card

One of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords was reportedly captured Wednesday in Mexico, according to Mexican newspaper El Informador.

Omar Treviño Morales, 41, was arrested around 4 a.m. Wednesday morning in Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, Mexico, by Mexican special forces.

Better known by his alias, "Z42", Morales is wanted by Mexican and US authorities for crimes relating to drug trafficking, kidnapping, homicide and extortion. 

After his brother (former drug lord Miguel Treviño Morales, a.k.a. "Z40,") was arrested in July 2013, Oscar Morales took over as leader of Los Zetas, which is considered by the US State Department to be one of the most dangerous drug organizations in Mexico.

The group — created by former Mexican commandos — is notorious for its barbaric tactics such as beheadings and "a June 6, 2010, torture/mass murder where six victims were found in a Cancun cave with their hearts cut out and 'Z' carved in their abdomens."

Los Zetas is a break away faction of the Mexican Gulf Cartel, which was founded in the late 1990's by former members of the Mexican army, according to CNN Mexico. It is the largest drug cartel in Mexico, operating in more than half the country as of 2011.

Both the Mexican government and the DEA have offered monetary rewards for information leading to his arrest, amounting to $30 million and $5 million, respectively.

Last week, Mexican authorities captured Servando "La Tuta" Gomez, head of another prominent Mexican drug cartel known as the Knights Templar. 

Mexico's president Enrique Peña Nieto vowed to crack down on drug trafficking organizations and their leaders in the wake of a mass kidnapping — and alleged killing — of 43 Mexican students and teachers by corrupt police officers in league with gang members last year.

SEE ALSO: 16 Maps Of Drug Flow Into The United States

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

Boston (AFP) - Boston will revisit the horror of the 2013 Marathon bombings Wednesday when the 21-year-old accused of carrying out the worst attack on US soil since the September 11 strikes goes on trial.

Kyrgyzstan-born US Muslim Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces the death penalty if convicted of using a weapon of mass destruction to bomb Boston's signature race, killing three people and wounding 264, on April 15, 2013.

He pleads not guilty to 30 federal charges in connection with the attacks and the killing of a police officer while he and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan were on the run from the FBI.

Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police, leaving the younger Tsarnaev to face charges for attacks that devastated the northeastern US city of 645,000 and revived American memories of 9/11.

It will be one of the most watched American trials since Timothy McVeigh was convicted and later executed for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people in 1995.

Prosecutors say the brothers, both of part Chechen descent, built their bombs based on instructions in Al-Qaeda's English-language magazine Inspire but that they appear otherwise to have acted alone.

An all white jury of eight men and 10 women was sworn in Tuesday, capping a fraught two-month selection process delayed by historic snowfall and repeated attempts to move the trial elsewhere.

The jury who were whittled down from more than 1,300 candidates to decide Tsarnaev's fate, includes a student, a house painter, an air traffic controller and an unemployed auditor.

The defense filed another demand for a change of venue Monday, claiming that 48 of the 75 provisionally qualified jurors either believe Tsarnaev is guilty, or have a connection to the attacks or both.

District Judge George O'Toole has rejected all attempts to move the case, as has the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, paving the way for opening statements to begin in the trial at 9:00 am (1400 GMT).

Government prosecutors are expected to revisit the horror of the attacks, when nails and ball bearings crammed into two pressure cookers detonated 12 seconds apart at a race attended by thousands.

More than a dozen of the wounded lost limbs, and an eight-year-old child was among those killed. Some victims and relatives have voiced determination to attend the three to four-month trial.

- Defendant attentive in court -

Tsarnaev supporters are also expected to gather outside, after O'Toole refused to ban them, following the defense's claims that wild conspiracy theories many of them espouse could taint their client.

The defendant, who was badly injured while on the run, has sat in court attentively, yet appearing tense, during the long-drawn out jury selection.

He is being held in near-solitary confinement in federal prison outside Boston, where his visitors and contact with the outside world are strictly limited to immediate family and his legal team.

Seventeen of the 30 charges against him carry the possibility of a death penalty under federal law. Massachusetts abolished the death penalty in 1984, and no one has been executed in the state since 1947.

Tsarnaev was arrested, seriously injured and hiding in a boat in Boston suburb on April 19, several hours after his brother died.

While Tamerlan was known to associates as a radicalized Muslim, media reports suggested that his younger brother had lived outwardly as a seemingly well-adjusted American.

He moved to the United States aged eight, lived in Boston's twin town of Cambridge, finished school and enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

He became a naturalized American citizen in 2012.

The only hint to his alleged motives appears in a rambling explanation purportedly scrawled on the inside of the boat, where he was arrested, criticizing the US government over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Now, I don't like killing innocent people, it is forbidden in Islam, but ... stop killing our innocent people, and we will stop," the message read.

His legal team includes defense attorney Judy Clarke, who has saved some of America's most notorious convicts from death row.

Among them are Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks; and Jared Loughner, who shot dead six people and seriously wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in 2011.

Tsarnaev's parents, who live in Russia, have not visited their son and his mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva accused the US security services of needlessly killing Tamerlan while trying to capture him.

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On Wednesday, the latest private payrolls report from ADP showed employers added 212,000 jobs in February. 

But ahead of Friday's big jobs report, this report might not be telling us much of anything.

Ian Shepherdson, economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the ADP report is simply not a reliable leading indicator. 

In a note following Wednesday's report, Shepherdson wrote:

The ADP number is generated by a model which includes lagged official data and the Philly Fed's ADS Business Conditions index, as well as data from companies using ADP for payroll processing. It is not a pure survey number comparable to the official data. Calling themselves a "Research Institute" doesn't make their number a valid leading indicator.

Notably, the big news out of the report was the revision to ADP's January report, which showed private employers added 250,000 jobs in the first month of this year, up from an initial report of 219,000 job adds. 

The official January jobs report from the BLS showed that nonfarm payrolls grew by 257,000. 

Shepherdson is forecasting nonfarm payroll growth of 220,000 for Friday's report. 

In a report in February, The Wall Street Journal declared Shepherdson the most accurate economic forecaster in 2014.

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Russia's Finance Ministry says that the car being sought in connection with the murder of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov belonged to a "in-house security service" for the ministry, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Nemtsov was shot dead last week in the highest-profile murder during Putin's 15-year reign.

Because of his status as an opposition leader and former deputy prime minister, many supporters believe that President Vladimir Putin is to blame for Nemtsov's death. He was also attacked "200 [meters] from the Kremlin walls," according to one reporter in Moscow.

While the car in question, which reportedly fled the scene of Nemtsov's murder, didn't belong to the Finance Ministry directly, the connection to a contractor for the state body raises fresh questions about Kremlin involvement.

The ministry's press office told TASS: "The Ford car we are talking about does not belong to the Finance Ministry. This is a vehicle of an in-house security service, an independent FSUE providing services to the Finance Ministry, Goznak and other bodies."

Police are investigating Nemtsov's murder. Russian security services claim they have identified several suspects.

Nemtsov served as a deputy prime minister and a regional governor in Russia in the 1990s, when he helped put free-market reforms in place. Ukraine's president believes Nemtsov was murdered because he had evidence that Russia armed forces in Ukraine.

The fact that Nemtsov was gunned down right outside the Kremlin and state officials are admitting a connection to the car that fled the scene of the murder is being interpreted by Putin's critics that no one is safe.

Putin's press spokesperson, however, has denied that the Kremlin was involved in Nemtsov's death.

The Russian government has even offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to the conviction of the killer of Nemtsov. However, Russia might have actually captured the shooting on tape — Nemtsov was killed in front of the Kremlin's own security cameras.

SEE ALSO: This quote from former chess champion Garry Kasparov captures the significance of a Russian opposition leader's murder

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