Probe: Air Force illegally punished Dover whistleblowers

An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Spc. Jeremiah T. Sancho Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 at Dover Air Force Base, Del.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Air Force officials violated whistleblower laws when they retaliated against four civilian workers who reported the mishandling of war remains at the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, Del., independent federal??prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The Office of Special Counsel concluded that in 2009 and 2010, three Dover mortuary officials retaliated against the employee for reporting the misconduct and must be disciplined. The employees alleged that they faced job termination, indefinite administrative leave and five-day suspensions.

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??We applaud the whistleblowers for their courage in coming forward,? Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner said in a news release. ?We expect the Air Force will now take appropriate steps to discipline the wrongdoers and deter future acts of retaliation.?

In a written statement, Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley said ?there is no place for reprisal in the Air Force.? ?He said he has appointed a two-star general to review the findings and take "appropriate action." Donley said reprisals against whistleblowers are unacceptable.

?Throughout this process, the Air Force remains committed to this mission as a solemn obligation,? Donley said in the statement. ?We continue to care for America?s fallen with dignity, honor and respect and provide care and support for their families.?

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered the Air Force to review its handling of a major scandal at Dover Air Force Base, where the remains of deceased soldiers were lost of buried in landfills. Stan McDowell, whose son's remains went missing, talks to msnbc's Craig Melvin.

In an earlier investigation report released last November, the Office of Special Counsel said it had found "gross mismanagement" at the Dover facility, where small body parts of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan were lost on two occasions. The Air Force said at the time that it took disciplinary action ? but did not fire ? three senior supervisors there for their role in the mismanagement. The reprisal accusations were a separate matter and were investigated by the Special Counsel under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

According to The Associated Press the three disciplined in connection with the earlier Special Counsel included Air Force Col. Robert Edmondson, who commanded the Dover mortuary at the time of the incidents, and two civilian supervisors ? Trevor Dean and Quinton Keel.

Edmondson was given a letter of reprimand, denied a job commanding a unit at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and barred from future command assignments, The Associated Press reported. Dean and Keel took a cut in pay and were moved to non-supervisory jobs at Dover. All three have declined to comment publicly on the matter.

Although the Special Counsel did not identify the three accused of retaliating against the whistleblowers, two officials told The Associated Press that they are Edmondson, Dean and Keel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of privacy restrictions.

Report: Air Force dumped remains of 274 troops in landfill

The four whistleblowers had alleged that they suffered retaliation for their disclosures, including job termination, indefinite administrative leave and five-day suspensions.

James Parsons, one of the whistleblowers, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had not seen the investigators' report but was told Monday that its conclusions support his and the others' claims of retaliation.

Parsons is an embalming/autopsy technician. Two of the other whistleblowers are Mary Ellen Spera, a mortuary inspector, and William Zwicharowski, a senior mortuary inspector. Those three told The Associated Press last November, after the scandal broke, that the Air Force had retaliated against them. Parsons said he was fired in 2010 but reinstated almost immediately. Spera and Zwicharowski said they received letters of reprimand.

Zwicharowski also said he was put on administrative leave for eight months and at one point was labeled "mentally unstable."

Spera and Zwicharowski both said in interviews Tuesday that they had not seen the Special Counsel report.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed deep disappointment in the Dover revelations last fall, and he ordered Donley, the Air Force secretary, to report back to him on the adequacy of the disciplinary actions he had taken.

Panetta also appointed a retired Army general, John Abizaid, to lead an independent assessment of actions taken to improve mortuary operations at Dover. That review is due to be completed by the end of February.

Air Force officials have 30 days to review the OSC?s findings and recommendations, according to the Air Force Times. If they do not sufficiently respond, the OSC can can pursue disciplinary action through the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An investigation found "gross mismanagement" at the mortuary of the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Three of its officials have been reprimanded for losing or mishandling body parts of dead service members. NBC?s Brian Williams reports.

?

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10280790-probe-air-force-illegally-punished-dover-whistleblowers

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Video: Measuring the state of the race in Florida

Many parents skip booster seats for carpools

You set out with a crew from the birthday party, but find you?re a booster short. Do you make sure your own child gets one? Or do you let all the kids use belts only? A new survey found half the parents of 4- to 8-year-olds questioned sometimes let passengers go booster free.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46195933#46195933

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Streep's Thatcher, Williams' Monroe star at SAG (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The "Harry Potter" finale has earned some love from Hollywood's top acting union, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for best big-screen stunt ensemble Sunday.

The win for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" was a final triumph for the fantasy franchise that concluded last summer after a run of eight blockbusters.

Winning the TV stunt ensemble prize was "Game of Thrones." The stunt awards were announced on the arrivals red carpet before the show began.

Among the early arrivals to the cheers of enthusiastic fans on a warm afternoon were Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray of the old "Dallas" TV series, soon to be the new "Dallas" TV series on TNT.

For the main event, Sunday's 18th annual SAG ceremony is heavy on actors playing illustrious real-life figures.

Among them: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"; Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar"; and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier in "My Week With Marilyn."

Streep won a Golden Globe for "The Iron Lady" and is considered a favorite for the SAG prize and for her third win at the Academy Awards, which are set for Feb. 26.

The front-runners for the other SAG awards are actors in fictional roles, though, among them George Clooney as a dad in crisis in "The Descendants" and Jean Dujardin as a silent-film star fallen on hard times in "The Artist." Both are up for best actor, and both won Globes ? Clooney as dramatic actor, Dujardin as musical or comedy actor.

Octavia Spencer as a brassy Mississippi maid in "The Help" and Christopher Plummer as an elderly dad who comes out as gay in "Beginners" won Globes for supporting performances and have strong prospects for the same honors at the SAG Awards.

The winners at the SAG ceremony typically go on to earn Oscars. All four acting recipients at SAG last year later took home Oscars ? Colin Firth for "The King's Speech," Natalie Portman for "Black Swan" and Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for "The Fighter."

The same generally holds true for the weekend's other big Hollywood honors, the Directors Guild of America Awards, where Michel Hazanavicius won the feature-film prize Saturday for "The Artist." The Directors Guild winner has gone on to earn the best-director Oscar 57 times in the 63-year history of the union's awards show.

SAG also presents an award for overall cast performance, a prize that's loosely considered the ceremony's equivalent of a best-picture honor. However, the cast award has a spotty record at predicting what will win best picture at the Oscars.

While "The King's Speech" won both honors a year ago, the SAG cast recipient has gone on to claim the top Oscar only eight times in the 16 years since the guild added the category.

Airing live on TNT and TBS from the Shrine Exhibition Center in downtown Los Angeles, the show features nine television categories, as well.

Receiving the guild's life-achievement award is Mary Tyler Moore. The prize was to be presented by Dick Van Dyke, her co-star on the 1960s sit-com "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

___

Online:

http://www.sagawards.com

http://www.sagawards.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_ot/us_sag_awards

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911 call reveals frantic efforts to help Moore (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? A 911 recording revealed frantic efforts by friends of Demi Moore to get help for the actress who was convulsing as they gathered around her and tried to comfort her.

Moore was "semi-conscious, barely," according to a female caller on the recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.

The woman tells emergency operators that Moore, 49, had smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and that she had been "having issues lately."

"Is she breathing normal?" the operator asks.

"No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up," the friend says as she hurries to Moore's side, on the edge of panic.

Another woman is next to Moore as the dispatcher asks if she's responsive.

"Demi, can you hear me?" she asks. "Yes, she's squeezing hands. ... She can't speak."

When the operator asks what Moore ingested or smoked, the friend replies, but the answer was redacted.

Asked if Moore took the substance intentionally or not, the woman says Moore ingested it on purpose but the reaction was accidental.

"Whatever she took, make sure you have it out for the paramedics," the operator says.

The operator asks the friend if this has happened before.

"I don't know," she says. "There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out."

Moore's publicist, Carrie Gordon, said previously that the actress sought professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. She would not comment further on the emergency call or provide details about the nature or location of Moore's treatment.

The past few months have been rocky for Moore.

She released a statement in November announcing she had decided to end her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, 33, following news of alleged infidelity. The two were known to publicly share their affection for one another via Twitter.

Moore still has a Twitter account under the name mrskutcher but has not posted any messages since Jan. 7.

Meanwhile, Millennium Films announced Friday that Sarah Jessica Parker will replace Moore in the role of feminist Gloria Steinem in its production of "Lovelace," a biopic about the late porn star Linda Lovelace. A statement gave no reason for the change. The production, starring Amanda Seyfried, has been shooting in Los Angeles since Dec. 20.

During the call, the woman caller says the group of friends had turned Moore's head to the side and was holding her down. The dispatcher tells her not to hold her down but to wipe her mouth and nose and watch her closely until paramedics arrive.

"Make sure that we keep an airway open," the dispatcher says. "Even if she passes out completely, that's OK. Stay right with her."

The phone is passed around by four people, including a woman who gives directions to the gate and another who recounts details about what Moore smoked or ingested. Finally, the phone is given to a man named James, so one of the women can hold Moore's head.

There was some confusion at the beginning of the call. The emergency response was delayed by nearly two minutes as Los Angeles and Beverly Hills dispatchers sorted out which city had jurisdiction over the street where Moore lives.

As the call is transferred to Beverly Hills, the frantic woman at Moore's house raises her voice and said, "Why is an ambulance not on its way right now?"

"Ma'am, instead of arguing with me why an ambulance is not on the way, can you spell (the street name) for me?" the Beverly Hills dispatcher says.

Although the estate is located in the 90210 ZIP code above Benedict Canyon, the response was eventually handled by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

By the end of the call, Moore has improved.

"She seems to have calmed down now. She's speaking," the male caller told the operator.

Moore and Kutcher were wed in September 2005.

Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore's three daughters ? Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle ? from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly.

Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films "Margin Call" and "Another Happy Day." Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV's "Two and a Half Men" and is part of the ensemble film "New Year's Eve."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_en_mo/us_people_demi_moore

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Just Show Me: Great free to-do apps for your iPhone (Yahoo! News)

Welcome to?Just Show Me on?Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the?gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you two amazing to-do apps for your?iPhone.

In addition to the Reminders app that comes on iOS 5 devices, these to-do apps will help you stay on task like never before! You'll be able to sync your to-dos with multiple devices; including on your web browser and on your iPhone. Check 'em out and?increase your productivity!

Take a look at these other episodes of Just Show Me that'll help you become an iPhone master:

For even more episodes of Just Show Me?check out our complete episode list. If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover, just drop us a line in the comments.

This article originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120127/tc_yblog_technews/just-show-me-great-free-to-do-apps-for-your-iphone

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Nigeria sect leader threatens new attacks (AP)

LAGOS, Nigeria ? The leader of a radical Islamist sect launching increasingly bloody attacks in Nigeria has rejected offers for a negotiated peace, instead promising to kidnap government officials' family members and bomb schools, according to an Internet audio message allegedly posted by the group.

The message by Imam Abubakar Shekau of the sect known as Boko Haram comes amid continuing unrest in north Nigeria following the group's attack in Kano that killed at least 185 people. A daylight attack on Muslim traders in the north killed 15 people, while gunmen also have kidnapped a German there.

Shekau's 40-minute message also for the first time discusses Boko Haram's goal: Complete adoption of Islam across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people split largely between a Christian south and a Muslim north. And Shekau said he remains prepared to order more violence to accomplish that.

"If (Nigerian security forces) are going to places of worship and destroying them, like mosques and Quranic schools, you have primary schools as well, you have secondary schools and universities and we will start bombing them," Shekau said. "Touch us and see. That is what we will do."

The video posted to YouTube on Wednesday shows a still image of Shekau sitting on a beige sofa, a Kalashnikov rifle at his back. Speaking at times in Arabic, English and the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, Shekau said negotiations suggested by President Goodluck Jonathan between the sect and the government will not happen.

"He's lying. He cannot do it," Shekau said. "If Jonathan does not repent as a Muslim, even if I die myself, Jonathan's going to see. He's looking at me like I'm nobody, but he'll see."

In the message, Shekau acknowledged that Boko Haram carried out the Jan. 20 attacks in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city, that killed at least 185 people. Gunmen from the sect armed with explosives and assault rifles, some wearing army and police uniforms, others suicide car bombers, attacked police stations, immigration offices and the local headquarters of Nigeria' secret police.

However, Shekau denied killing civilians in the attack, claiming the sect's gunmen tried to protect the more than 9 million people who live in the important city in Nigeria's north. Government officials have said many of those killed by the sect were Muslim civilians.

"We're killing police officers, we're killing soldiers and other government people who are fighting Allah and Christians who are killing Muslims and talking badly about our Islamic religion," Shekau said. "I am not against anyone, but if Allah asks me to kill someone, I will kill him and I will enjoy killing him like I am killing a chicken."

Shekau also said the sect's attack on Kano came after the arrests, and in some cases torture, of sect members' wives and children. Nigeria's federal police often arrest family members to force those they want into turning themselves over to authorities.

The Associated Press could not immediately verify the authenticity of the recording, though it sounded like others attributed to Shekau in the past.

Boko Haram wants to implement strict Shariah law and avenge the deaths of Muslims killed in religious and ethnic violence across Nigeria. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, has now killed at least 262 people in 2012, more than half of the at least 510 people the sect killed in all of 2011, according to an Associated Press count.

The sect also began specifically targeting Christians living in the north at the start of the year, exploiting already existing tensions between the two religions in a nation where religious and ethnic rioting has killed thousands in recent years.

The attack by Boko Haram comes during continued unrest across Nigeria's north. In Kano, gunmen kidnapped a German citizen Thursday working for Dantata & Sawoe Construction Company Ltd.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told journalists Friday that the embassy and a ministry crisis unit were working hard to resolve the case.

"I can't yet report any substantial progress," Peschke said.

Meanwhile, Zamfara state spokesman Ibrahim Muhammad Birnin Magaji said Friday that gunmen killed 15 Muslim traders on their way to market. Birnin Magaji said the gunmen burned the bodies of their victims in a rural village in Katsina state on Thursday, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) from Kano.

He said authorities suspect an armed robbery attack, but no goods were reported missing.

___

Associated Press writers Ibrahim Garba in Kano, Nigeria; Yinka Ibukun in Lagos, Nigeria and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_violence

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'Barefoot Bandit' sentenced to 6 1/2 years

SEATTLE ?? A federal judge on Friday sentenced "Barefoot Bandit" Colton Harris-Moore to 6 1/2 years in prison for his infamous two-year, international crime spree of break-ins, and boat and plane thefts that ended in 2010.

Harris-Moore hopscotched his way across the United States, authorities said. He flew a plane stolen in northwestern Washington to the San Juan Islands, stole a pistol in British Columbia and took a plane from Idaho to Washington state, stole a boat in southwestern Washington to go to Oregon, and took a plane in Indiana and flew to the Bahamas, where was arrested.

He earned his nickname because he committed several of the crimes without wearing shoes.

Story: 'Barefoot Bandit' gets 7 years for crime spree

Harris-Moore apologized to his victims shortly before U.S. Judge Richard Jones imposed the sentence, which will be served concurrently with state prison time.

"I now know a crime that took place overnight will take years to recover from," the 20-year-old said in court.

He particularly apologized for stealing planes, saying his arrogance led him to keep alive his dream of flying.

"What I did could be called daring, but it is no stretch of the imagination to say that am lucky to be alive ... absolutely lucky," he said. "I should have died years ago."

Before Friday's sentencing, defense attorneys said federal prosecutors released cherry-picked excerpts from emails in an effort to make Harris-Moore appear callous and self-aggrandizing.

He called the Island County sheriff "king swine," called prosecutors "fools," and referred to reporters as "vermin." He also described his feats ? stealing and flying planes with no formal training ? "amazing" and said they were unmatched by anyone except the Wright brothers.

Story: 'Barefoot Bandit' emails ridicule law enforcement

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But Harris-Moore's lawyers claim the full emails show that he is sorry for what he did and thankful for the treatment he received from a state judge who called his case a "triumph of the human spirit." The state judge sentenced him last month to seven years, at the low end of the sentencing range.

The attorneys acknowledged that in certain instances he bragged, but they said those writings were simply the product of an impulsive adolescent and don't reflect his true remorse.

In court Friday, the judge asked Harris-Moore to speak to young people who may look up to him because of his exploits.

"I would say to younger people they should focus on their education, which is what I am doing right now," he said. "I want to start a company. I want to make a difference in this world, legally."

Federal prosecutors had asked for Jones to impose a 6-1/2 year sentence to be served while Harris-Moore serves his state time. His attorneys had asked for a federal sentence of just under six years.

There will be another hearing in a month to decide how much restitution Harris-Moore will be required to pay.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46166522/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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Obama courts Latino vote on economic tour (AP)

BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. ? President Barack Obama is courting Hispanics in politically important states, setting himself up as a champion of the crucial Latino voting bloc and as a foil to Republican candidates fighting for a share of support from the same groups.

With Latino voters voting overwhelmingly Democratic, Obama is not in danger of losing the support of a majority of Hispanics. But he does need their intensity, and a Gallup tracking poll shows that while a majority of Hispanics approve of Obama, that approval is not as high as it is among black voters.

Pitching his economic agenda during a three-day, five-state trip this week, Obama has not ignored the fact that three of the states ? Nevada, Arizona and Colorado ? all have Hispanic populations of 20 percent or more. A majority of them are Democratic, but they also could be a factor in upcoming nominating contests in those states. Nevada and Colorado hold caucuses within two weeks and Arizona has a primary Feb. 28.

In Arizona Wednesday, where he was drawing attention to his efforts to increase manufacturing, Obama playfully interacted with a supporter who shouted out: "Barack es mi hermano! (Barack is my brother!)"

"Mi hermano ? mucho gusto (My brother, a real pleasure)," Obama shouted back.

And it was no accident that he scheduled an interview with Univision, the Spanish language network that reaches a broad swath of the U.S. Latino population, while he was in Arizona and with local Telemundo affiliates Thursday in Las Vegas and in Denver. All that while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the rest of the Republican presidential field were battling in Florida, another state with a key Latino voting bloc.

"It's an important community in this country and he will continue to have those interactions," White House spokesman Jay Carney said of Obama's efforts to reach out to Spanish language media.

No issue reverberates more in the appeal to Latinos than immigration.

For Obama, it reared up suddenly for him Wednesday when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who signed one of the toughest laws to curtail illegal immigration, greeted him at the airport tarmac in Mesa, Ariz., with a handwritten invitation for the president to join her in a visit to the Mexican border.

Obama replied coolly, noting that he did not appreciate the way she had depicted him in a book she published last year, "Scorpions for Breakfast." In the book, Brewer writes that Obama was condescending and lectured her during a meeting at the White House to discuss immigration. "He was a little disturbed about my book," Brewer told two reporters shortly after the encounter.

Obama continued to promote his economic plan Thursday in Nevada and Colorado, focusing on energy policy and his attempts to expand oil and gas exploration while also emphasizing clean energy.

"Doubling down on a clean energy industry will create lots of jobs in the process," the president said at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado, where the Air Force has installed solar panels and tested jets that run on biofuels.

As such, he was indirectly pitching to Hispanics as well. A new Pew Research Center poll found that 54 percent of Latinos believe that the economic downturn has been harder on them than on other groups in the U.S.

"There is no question that Latinos were hard hit, especially by the bursting of the housing bubble and the resulting steep decline in construction work," Carney said Thursday. "Latinos are overrepresented in the construction industry. It's one of the reasons why, certainly, Latinos would greatly benefit from infrastructure investments that put construction workers back to work."

In 2008, Obama beat Republican John McCain by a 2-1 margin among Hispanics.

To win again, he will need that level of enthusiasm to make up for weaknesses elsewhere in his voter support. In a bright spot for Obama, the Pew poll found that even though Hispanics believe their economic condition is poor, two-thirds of those polled said they expect their financial situation to improve over the next year, whereas 58 percent of the overall population expect the same.

In his interview with Univision, Obama made a point of noting that both Romney and Gingrich have said they would veto legislation, known as the DREAM Act, that would give a pathway to citizenship to children who came to the United States illegally but who attend college or enlist in the military.

"They believe that we should not provide a pathway to citizenship for young people who were brought here when they were very young children and are basically American kids but right now are still in a shadow," Obama said. "They've said that they would veto the DREAM Act. Both of them."

At a debate Monday on NBC, however, both Gingrich and Romney said they would support modified legislation that only applied to young people who joined the military. "I would not support the part that simply says everybody who goes to college is automatically waived for having broken the law," Gingrich said.

Obama, in the interview, explicitly connected the Republican presidential field to congressional Republicans, who suffer from bottom-dwelling approval ratings right now. Asked why he had been unable to deliver on his promise for overhauling the immigration system, Obama replied:

"Well, it's very simple. We couldn't get any Republican votes. Zero. None," he said. "So this is the kind of barrier that we're meeting in Congress. We're just going to keep on pushing and pushing until hopefully we finally get a break."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama

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Courtroom battle splits star's Oklahoma hometown

A tower noting Yukon as the home of Garth Brooks is pictured in Yukon, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. A jury in the Oklahoma county where Brooks now lives agreed that the hospital, which sits along Brooks' namesake street, reneged on a pledge to use his $500,000 donation to build a women's health center in honor of his late mother. Jurors chipped in another $500,000 in punitive damages. After the jury announced its verdict Tuesday night, Jan. 24, 2012 Brooks indicated he wouldn't abandon the idea of honoring his mother in his hometown but made clear he was done with Integris.(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

A tower noting Yukon as the home of Garth Brooks is pictured in Yukon, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. A jury in the Oklahoma county where Brooks now lives agreed that the hospital, which sits along Brooks' namesake street, reneged on a pledge to use his $500,000 donation to build a women's health center in honor of his late mother. Jurors chipped in another $500,000 in punitive damages. After the jury announced its verdict Tuesday night, Jan. 24, 2012 Brooks indicated he wouldn't abandon the idea of honoring his mother in his hometown but made clear he was done with Integris.(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

The exterior of the Integris Canadian Valley Hospital is pictured in Yukon, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. A jury in the Oklahoma county where Brooks now lives agreed that the hospital, which sits along Brooks' namesake street, reneged on a pledge to use his $500,000 donation to build a women's health center in honor of his late mother. Jurors chipped in another $500,000 in punitive damages. After the jury announced its verdict Tuesday night, Jan. 24, 2012 Brooks indicated he wouldn't abandon the idea of honoring his mother in his hometown but made clear he was done with Integris. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

A vehicle turns from Garth Brooks Blvd. onto Health Center Parkway, where the Integris Canadian Valley Hospital is located in Yukon, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. A jury in the Oklahoma county where Brooks now lives agreed that the hospital, which sits along Brooks' namesake street, reneged on a pledge to use his $500,000 donation to build a women's health center in honor of his late mother. Jurors chipped in another $500,000 in punitive damages. After the jury announced its verdict Tuesday night, Jan. 24, 2012 Brooks indicated he wouldn't abandon the idea of honoring his mother in his hometown but made clear he was done with Integris.(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

A sign on Garth Brooks Blvd. welcomes people to Yukon, the home of Garth Brooks, in Yukon, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. A jury in the Oklahoma county where Brooks now lives agreed that the hospital, which sits along Brooks' namesake street, reneged on a pledge to use his $500,000 donation to build a women's health center in honor of his late mother. Jurors chipped in another $500,000 in punitive damages. After the jury announced its verdict Tuesday night, Jan. 24, 2012 Brooks indicated he wouldn't abandon the idea of honoring his mother in his hometown but made clear he was done with Integris. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

A tower noting Yukon as the home of Garth Brooks is pictured in Yukon, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. A jury in the Oklahoma county where Brooks now lives agreed that the hospital, which sits along Brooks' namesake street, reneged on a pledge to use his $500,000 donation to build a women's health center in honor of his late mother. Jurors chipped in another $500,000 in punitive damages. After the jury announced its verdict Tuesday night, Jan. 24, 2012 Brooks indicated he wouldn't abandon the idea of honoring his mother in his hometown but made clear he was done with Integris. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

YUKON, Okla. (AP) ? A water tower proudly proclaims that this is the hometown of country music star Garth Brooks. The main road through town? Garth Brooks Boulevard. So when the singer was awarded $1 million this week after suing the local hospital ? whose logo is on a slightly larger water tower across town ? residents felt torn.

A jury in the Oklahoma county where Brooks now lives agreed that the hospital, which sits along Brooks' namesake street, reneged on a pledge to use his $500,000 donation to build a women's health center in honor of his late mother. Jurors chipped in another $500,000 in punitive damages.

Now, residents in Yukon are stuck in the middle of a spat between their native son and one of the city's largest employers that sponsors dozens of programs, from local school events to the Yukon Senior Olympics. The hospital had argued that Brooks put no restrictions on the 2005 anonymous donation.

"My oldest kids grew up in this town with no medical facility," said Jeannie Benson, a local real estate agent and longtime resident. "If they got hurt, it was a 30-minute drive to the nearest place to get help. The hospital, to me, is a very, very big deal.

"I don't know Garth. I've never met the man. I do know the hospital and the people that work there," Benson said.

Brooks left Yukon as a teenager for Oklahoma State University and eventually a country music career in the 1980s, well before Integris Canadian Valley Hospital opened in 2001. Since then, Integris has become a vital part of this Oklahoma City suburb, which was among the state's fastest growing communities over the last decade.

The hospital employs 350 people and donates to dozens of local events and youth groups, including the high school choir, band and basketball teams and the annual Christmas in the Park. Integris also is Oklahoma's largest health care company and employs about 9,000 people at its 16 hospitals and nearly 100 affiliated clinics across the state.

Yukon and its roughly 24,000 residents are about 140 miles from where the two-week trial was held in Claremore. Brooks and his country music star wife, Trisha Yearwood, live in nearby Owasso, and locals there described the couple as generous philanthropists.

"He's a silent but engaged Owassoan," said Chelsea Harkins, the city's economic development director. "He oftentimes likes to remain anonymous, and we respect that. They're great community citizens and great community partners."

Brooks also has performed concerts to help victims of flooding in Nashville, Tenn., and for people who lost their homes from wildfires in California. In 1999, he founded the Teammates for Kids Foundation that raises money for children's charities by partnering with celebrity athletes.

After the jury announced its verdict Tuesday night, Brooks indicated he wouldn't abandon the idea of honoring his mother in his hometown but made clear he was done with Integris.

"This is how I feel: One day, mom's name is going to go on the women's center right there where the hospital is, but that hospital won't be owned by Integris when it happens, I can tell you that. That's my dream," he said after jurors ? many of whom said they were fans of his music but could be impartial ? awarded him double his original donation.

Hospital officials are looking forward to putting the matter behind them and hope it won't affect future donations, Integris spokesman Hardy Watkins said. During the trial, hospital attorneys noted that Brooks, while questioned during a deposition about conversations he had with the hospital's president, said he couldn't remember what promises had been made.

"I hope that people will come away with an understanding that this is one isolated, granted a high-profile, donor encounter," Watkins said. "There are numerous other examples of successful donations being received and those projects being completed and now serving the public.

"While it is uncomfortable to consider right now, I think and hope people will certainly look at the entire spectrum of our donor history and commitment to the communities we serve."

For now, though, the courtroom drama has been the topic around town, said Tamara Gray, a 19-year-old waitress at a diner near the hospital.

"My thought is, if you donate money, it should go where you expect it to go," Gray said Wednesday.

"I think they both have an important impact on the community," 31-year-old J.T. Chronister said as he sat in a coffee shop across from the hospital. "It seems like there was just a communication failure in there somewhere. That's my guess."

Catrina Steury, who works in a hair shop along Garth Brooks Boulevard, said "it's cool to have a big star from the community" but that the singer isn't usually a topic of conversation.

But most said there were clearly no winners in the case and wished the entire situation could have been avoided.

"It's given everybody a black eye: the city, Garth, the hospital, everybody," said Benson, the local relator. "I think it's very unfortunate."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-26-People-Garth%20Brooks/id-56b58c5b08cd4ff9a3d96b0f4db91d6d

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Column: A wise guy looks at the Super Bowl (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? Ask Lem Banker about the New York Giants and he tells the story of how he won a bet against them in the 1958 NFL championship game, when Alan Ameche bowled into the end zone from a yard out in overtime to win it for the Baltimore Colts.

The game, at Yankee Stadium, was a television classic that captivated the country and sparked its love affair with the NFL. If it wasn't the greatest title game ever, it was surely the most significant.

For the gambler, though, it was just a win.

"I've had plenty of good losers, too," Banker said. "You're never going to get them all right."

Maybe not, though Banker once had a streak of 13 straight Super Bowl winners picking against the spread. Good thing, because he's never had a real job and winners pay the bills.

They have over the years, starting when he began booking bets in the family candy store in Union City, N.J., where his father would take the neighborhood action in between dispensing sweets. The son was a good enough basketball player to get scholarship offers, but he became even better at betting sports.

He'll be 85 this year, and he can still recall the big bets and bad beats of a career spent betting on the fortune of sports. The phone still rings in his sprawling home with people asking him "Lem, who do ya like?"

If he's not the greatest sports bettor ? and many think he is ? he's certainly the one of the few who have been around this long. He was especially good at picking winners of big fights, not surprising since he was Sonny Liston's best friend when the fearsome slugger ruled the heavyweight ranks.

Right now it's all about football. Always is at this time of year, something Banker was reminded of this week when his manicurist gave him her pick for the Super Bowl while filing his nails.

"Everybody has an opinion on the Super Bowl," Banker said.

That's good news for this city's bookmakers, who could do record business in the matchup between the Giants and the New England Patriots. The wise guys will push their usual six-figure bets across the counter, but it's the massive flood of money from the squares betting $20 bills that will determine who is favored and by how much next week in Indianapolis.

Some will risk their money because they believe the Giants have a stifling defense or are a team of destiny. Others will wager because they like the way Tom Brady does his hair.

The smart ones, though, may look to a man who made his first Super Bowl bet on the first Super Bowl and ask:

So, Lem, who do ya like?

"I'm laying the points and taking New England," Banker said. "It's really very simple. To me, Tom Brady is the best quarterback I've ever seen ? and I've seen a lot of them back from when I was a kid and Sid Luckman was playing."

Some bookies in this gambling city are hoping Banker is right. They're the unlucky ones who were hit with sizeable wagers late in the regular season when the Giants were struggling and the odds were as high as 100-1 that they would win the Super Bowl.

They won't be run out of business, of course. Bookies always recover, because there are always more squares with money in their pockets who think they know more than the guys across the counter who have the point spread thing down to a science. Casinos have lost money only once on the Super Bowl in the last 10 years, taking a beating in 2008 when the Giants ? who were 13-point underdogs ? beat New England, 17-14.

And this could be one of the highest bet Super Bowls ever, rivaling the $94.5 million wagered in Nevada ? and untold millions elsewhere ? on the Steelers-Seahawks game in 2006.

"It's probably the best matchup there could be," said Jimmy Vaccaro, a longtime bookmaker who helps run sports books in several casinos for Lucky's Race & Sports Book. "The general public rules these events and they like these teams."

Banker won't be wagering that much himself. He never did make huge bets, preferring to make his money on volume instead.

And it's not like the old days when he had runners in different cities finding the best lines from bookmakers to lay his action on. Certainly not like the time he took a Minneapolis bookmaker for $30,000, only to be told he wasn't going to get paid. He got the money the next day, after asking a friend with, shall we say, connections, to look into the matter.

"There wasn't a bookmaker dead or alive that I didn't beat," Banker said. "I had runners everywhere, in New York, Miami, Chicago, all seeing different numbers. But now it's all the same numbers everywhere."

Computers and corporations have replaced pencils and candy store bookmakers. Online betting will dwarf anything even Las Vegas takes in on the game.

It's enough to make an aging gambler yearn for the days he once knew.

"It's very, very tough now," Banker said. "If I had to do it all again, I couldn't do it. I'd be driving a taxi."

____

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or follow at http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_tim_dahlberg012512

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'Open for business': Ind. House OKs right-to-work

Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, speaks during a session in the House Chamber at the Statehouse Tuesday, Jan. 24 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, speaks during a session in the House Chamber at the Statehouse Tuesday, Jan. 24 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Indiana's Republican-controlled House of Representatives cleared the way Wednesday to become the first right-to-work state in a traditionally union-heavy Rust Belt increasingly targeted by non-union foes.

The House voted 54-44 to make Indiana the nation's 23rd right-to-work state after Democrats ended a periodic boycott which had stalled the measure for weeks. The measure is expected to face little opposition in Indiana's Republican-controlled Senate and could reach Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' desk shortly before the Feb. 5 Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

"This announces especially in the Rust Belt, that we are open for business here," Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said of the right-to-work proposal that would ban unions from collecting mandatory representation fees from workers.

But Republicans have struggled with similar anti-union measures in other Rust-Belt states like Wisconsin and Ohio where they have faced a massive backlash. Ohio voters overturned Gov. John Kasich's labor measures last November and union activists delivered roughly 1 million petitions last week in an effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Indiana would mark the first win in 10 years for national right-to-work advocates who have pushed unsuccessfully for the measure in other states following a Republican sweep of statehouses in 2010.

Hundreds of union protesters packed the halls of the Statehouse again Wednesday, chanting "Kill the Bill!" and cheering Democrats who had stalled the measure since the start of the year.

"We did better than anybody ever expected," House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer told The Associated Press before debate began on the issue, adding that outnumbered Democrats fought the best they could in the divisive labor battle.

Republicans foreshadowed their strong showing Monday when they shot down a series of Democratic amendments to the measure in strict party-line votes. Democrats boycotted again for an eighth day

Republicans handily outnumber Democrats in the House 60-40, but Democrats have just enough members to deny the Republicans the 67 votes needed to achieve a quorum and conduct any business. Bosma began fining boycotting Democrats $1,000 a day last week, but a Marion County judge has blocked the collection of those fines.

The measure now moves to the Indiana Senate which approved its own right-to-work measure earlier in the week. Gov. Mitch Daniels has campaign extensively for the bill and said he would sign it into law.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-25-Indiana-Right%20to%20Work/id-585b5aaa9d0d45a3846e8ce075dcfd32

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Easy answers to kids' most burning questions

Why is the moon sometimes out during the day? Why is the sky blue? Will we ever discover aliens? How much does the Earth weigh? How do airplanes stay up?

Those are the five questions kids most often ask their parents, and in that order, according to a new survey conducted in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, they're tough nuts to crack ? probably why kids find them so universally puzzling in the first place. Of the 2,000 parents of children ages 5 to 16 who were surveyed about their kid's queries, two-thirds said they struggled with the questions. One-fifth of the parents admitted that if they don't know an answer, they sometimes make up an explanation or pretend that no one knows.

To help prove to your kids that you're no dummy, here are the easy-to-understand answers to their most burning questions.

Why is the moon sometimes out during the day?
The moon is just as likely to be visible during the day as it is at night ? it orbits Earth independently of the sun. When its orbit brings it to your part of the sky during daylight hours, it is illuminated by the sun, and we can see it.

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Why is the sky blue?
The light coming from the sun is made of many colors; light travels as a wave, and each color has a unique wavelength. Violet and blue light has shorter wavelengths, while red light has a longer wavelength, and the other colors have wavelengths in between.

When the different colors of light pass through the atmosphere, they run into molecules, water droplets and bits of dust. Because all these particles are closer in size to shorter wavelengths of light, they tend to scatter violet and blue light much more than red, and so they send rays of violet and blue ricocheting toward the ground ? and your eyes. More violet light actually gets scattered by atmospheric particles than blue light, but your eyes are more sensitive to blue, so the sky appears blue.

Sunsets are orange-red because in the evening, with the sun low on the horizon, sunlight must pass through more atmosphere to get to your eyes, and only the red light can make it all the way through. The shorter wavelengths have all been scattered toward the ground in the part of Earth where it is still daytime.

Will we ever discover aliens?
No one knows how rare alien life is in the universe, so there's no telling whether humanity will ever manage to discover it. However, scientists at the SETI Institute in California, who are engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, are hopeful that they'll detect alien signals within the next 20 years. The scientists scan the night sky looking for unnatural radio or light beams ? ones that could only emanate from an intelligent civilization.

Their 20-year estimate is based on the rapid pace with which astronomers are discovering planets beyond our solar system, including planets that seem suitable for life; it is also based on the assumption that, if there are intelligent beings out there, they, too, will seek contact with others, and will make their presence known by sending signals into space.

How much does the Earth weigh?
The first approach to answering this question is to get technical about it. Because the Earth is in free fall around the sun, it actually weighs nothing. The same goes for astronauts in orbit; because they are technically falling around the Earth ? and if they stood on a scale, it, too, would be falling ? the scale would read zero. There's no net force of gravity acting on them.

Alternatively, you could discuss the Earth's mass ? a property that is independent of where an object is in the universe, or what it is doing. Earth has a mass of 5.97 ? 10^24 kilograms ? the equivalent of 100 million billion Titanics.

How do airplanes stay up?
To overcome the forces of drag and gravity, an airplane must generate two forces of its own: thrust and lift.

Thrust is the force that propels an airplane forward on the runway. By Newton's third law ? every action has an equal and opposite reaction ? the plane's engine generates forward thrust by spewing fuel backward. Next, as the plane hurtles down the runway, each of its wings slices the air into two streams, one that flows above it and the other, below. The wings are shaped in such a way that the air flowing over them is ultimately deflected downward, and, again because of Newton's third law, the downward motion of the air causes an equal and opposite upward motion of the plane. This is lift.

Every airplane has a specific takeoff speed ? the point at which lift overcomes gravity. That critical speed changes based on how much a particular plane weighs. The plane's engine, meanwhile, has to work to provide enough thrust to overcome drag ? friction with the air.

Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @ nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @ llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.

? 2012 LifesLittleMysteries.com. All rights reserved. More from LifesLittleMysteries.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46132474/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Halliburton rides oil boom to 4Q profit (AP)

NEW YORK ? Halliburton can't move away from natural gas fast enough for investors.

The energy services company, a pioneer in North America's shale gas boom, on Monday warned that more customers will scale back gas production this year due to low prices. The forecast lowered the company's stock price by 3 percent.

The shift away from natural gas "will have a short-term impact on our margins," CEO Dave Lesar told investors.

But it also comes with some long-term benefits.

Halliburton, which drills wells and gets them ready for production, is moving with the industry to focus on fields that hold more oil than gas. That should generate higher revenues than before since oil production tends to be a more intensive, allowing Halliburton to charge higher contract rates.

But "this requires redeployment of people and equipment," Lesar said. "It disrupts a very efficient operation and as well is requiring us to make adjustments to our supply chain."

Shares fell 76 cents, or 2.1 percent, to close at $35.44 Monday.

Argus Research analyst Phil Weiss said investors are focusing on the short-term, punishing Halliburton for what probably will be a minor, 1 percent dip in profit margin in the first three months of the year. Afterward, Halliburton will benefit from more profitable oil drilling operations.

Petroleum companies have been moving away from natural gas production in the U.S. because it's created an oversupply that has lowered prices. They've become so good at extracting gas from underground shale layers that U.S. gas stockpiles have bulged well above the five-year average for this time of year. As supplies grow, natural gas prices have tumbled to the lowest wintertime price in a decade.

As gas prices dropped, drillers have put a premium on oil-rich fields and are increasingly turning away from deposits that contain mostly gas.

In the final three months of 2011, the price of benchmark crude jumped more than 10 percent while natural gas prices dropped by 13 percent.

Those moves are changing the priorities for energy companies.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., the nation's second largest natural gas producer, said Monday that it plans to cut its current daily production by 8 percent.

Meanwhile, Apache Corp. said it spend $2.85 billion for 254,000 net acres in the Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, where the company sees a strong potential for producing new sources of oil.

Halliburton, which has been involved in shale gas drilling for more than a decade, said the projects customers demand are changing after a rapid growth that boosted Halliburton's profits throughout 2011.

Net income spiked 50 percent in the final three months of 2011 to $906 million, or 98 cents per share. Revenue increased 36.9 percent to $7.06 billion.

Besides its shale business, Halliburton saw a surge in drilling in Gulf of Mexico during the fourth quarter. Gulf drilling projects generated more revenue for Halliburton in the quarter than they did before the April 2010 Macondo spill. Operating income also grew in Latin America, while falling in Europe and North Africa and holding steady in the Middle East.

Lesar said the company continues to export drilling techniques it learned in the U.S. with shale projects in Argentina, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Poland.

Overall, the company's completion and production business increased profits 58 percent while its drilling and evaluation business increased profits by 35.6 percent.

Lesar said he expects the company to increase revenue worldwide in 2012.

Schlumberger Ltd., another major oil services firm, reported a 36 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits last week.

___

Follow Chris Kahn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ChrisKahnAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_halliburton

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Supreme Court rules police need warrant for GPS tracking (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police cannot put a GPS device on a suspect's car to track his movements without a warrant, a test case that upholds basic privacy rights in the face of new surveillance technology.

The high court ruling was a defeat for the Obama administration, which had argued that a warrant was not required to use global positioning system devices to monitor a vehicle on public streets.

The justices unanimously upheld a precedent-setting ruling by a U.S. appeals court that the police must first obtain a warrant to use a GPS device for an extended period of time to covertly follow a suspect.

The high court ruled that placement of a device on a vehicle and using it to monitor the vehicle's movements was covered by U.S. constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures of evidence.

There are no precise statistics on how often police in the United States use GPS tracking in criminal investigations. But the Obama administration told the court last year it was used sparingly by federal law enforcement officials.

The American Civil Liberties Union rights group hailed the ruling as an important victory for privacy. "While this case turned on the fact that the government physically placed a GPS device on the defendant's car, the implications are much broader," Steven Shapiro of the ACLU said.

"A majority of the court acknowledged that advancing technology, like cell phone tracking, gives the government unprecedented ability to collect, store, and analyze an enormous amount of information about our private lives," he said.

SUSPECTED DRUG TRAFFICKER

The case began in 2005 when police officers went to a public parking lot in Maryland and secretly installed a GPS device on a Jeep Grand Cherokee used by a Washington, D.C. nightclub owner, Antoine Jones.

Jones was suspected of drug trafficking and the police tracked his movements for a month. The resulting evidence played a key role in his conviction for conspiring to distribute cocaine.

The appeals court had thrown out Jones's conviction and his

life-in-prison sentence, and ruled prolonged electronic monitoring of the vehicle amounted to a search.

All nine justices agreed in upholding the appeals court decision, but at least four justices would have gone even further in finding fault not only with the attachment of the device, but also with the lengthy monitoring.

In summarizing the court's majority opinion from the bench, Justice Antonin Scalia said attachment of the device by the police was a trespass and an improper intrusion of the kind that would have been considered a search when the Constitution was adopted some 220 years ago.

The administration argued that even if it were a search, it was lawful and reasonable under the Constitution. Scalia said his opinion did not decide that issue and some more difficult problems that may emerge in a future case, such as a six-month monitoring of a suspected terrorist.

Joining Scalia's opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.

Sotomayor wrote separately to say the case raised difficult questions about individual privacy expectations in a digital age, but said the case could be decided on narrower grounds over the physical intrusion in attaching the device.

LONG-TERM MONITORING

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a separate opinion that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan joined. He wrote that he would have decided the case by holding that Jones's reasonable privacy expectations were violated by long-term monitoring of his vehicle's movements.

Alito said in recent years many new devices have emerged that track a person's movements, including video surveillance in some cities, automatic toll collection systems on roads, devices on cars that disclose their location, cell phones and other wireless devices.

"The availability and use of these and other new devices will continue to shape the average person's expectations about the privacy of his or her daily movements," he wrote.

One law professor said those four justices were clearly concerned about the potential impact of new technologies and believed extended monitoring likely required a warrant so law enforcement should "be on the safe side and get a warrant."

"This is an indication that there are justices who are recognizing that privacy norms are shifting but the fact that people's lives take place increasingly online does not mean that society has decided that there's no such thing as privacy anymore," said Joel Reidenberg, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.

The Supreme Court case is United States v. Antoine Jones, No. 10-1259.

(Reporting By James Vicini; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/tc_nm/us_usa_police_gps

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Lifebook Design Combines All Your Gadgets into One Modular Laptop and More from TreeHugger.com [EcoModo]

This week on TreeHugger, 3D printers go on a road trip, tiny modular gadgets set to revolutionize electronics, watch a bike decompose on a NYC street, and more! More »

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Giffords says she's resigning from Congress

By Michael O'Brien, msnbc.com

?

Updated at 3:06 p.m. ET

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) will resign from Congress this week, she announced in a video message posted Sunday.?

Giffords, the victim of a gunshot wound to the head in an attack a year ago in her Arizona district, cited her continued work toward recovery as a reason for stepping down from her seat.?

"I have more work to do on my recovery so to do what is best for Arizona I will step down this week," she said in a video message posted to YouTube. "I will return and we will work together for Arizona and this great country."

According to a statement posted on her Congressional website, Giffords will attend?Tuesday night's State of the Union address as one of her final acts as a member of Congress before?submitting her resignation?to Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday.? The?statement also says Giffords plans to "finish" the Congress on your Corner event where the shooting happened before she leaves office.?

Giffords has enjoyed a remarkable recovery since being shot in that?Jan. 8, 2011 incident that left six dead.?

Prior to that shooting, she had been considered a rising Democratic star, and had been considering a bid for Senate this fall. During the course of her recovery, she has been absent from Capitol Hill except for a surprise return to vote in August on an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

?I salute Congresswoman Giffords for her service, and for the courage and perseverance she has shown in the face of tragedy.? She will be missed,? House Speaker?John Boehner said in a statement.?

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reacted to the announcement in a statement saying Giffords "has been a true bright star - a dynamic and creative public servant.? Gabby's message of bipartisanship and civility is one that all in Washington and the nation should honor and emulate."? Pelosi continued, "I join all my colleagues in Congress in thanking Gabby for the honor of calling her colleague and wishing Gabby and Mark great success and happiness.? She will be missed in the House of Representatives, but her legacy in the Congress and her leadership for our nation will certainly continue."

Source: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/22/10211134-giffords-to-resign-from-congress

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New malaria maps to guide battle against the disease

Monday, January 23, 2012

A new suite of malaria maps has revealed in unprecedented detail the current global pattern of the disease, allowing researchers to see how malaria has changed over a number of years.

In a study published in the Malaria Journal, a multinational team of researchers from the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP), funded mainly by the Wellcome Trust, present the results of a two-year effort to assemble all available data worldwide on the risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of the disease. Using computer modelling and data on climate and human populations, they have revealed the complex landscape of malaria across the globe. The maps build on the first ever Atlas of Malaria-Eliminating Countries published earlier this year.

Malaria continues to exert an huge burden of illness and death worldwide but, after decades of neglect, the war against the disease has entered an unprecedented era: it is high on the policy agenda, international funding is beginning to translate into real increases in populations protected by bed nets and other key interventions, and a growing body of evidence points towards important reductions in illness and death.

The maps have been made freely available, along with a wide range of other malaria resources via the launch of a new online portal at www.map.ox.ac.uk. The research was led by Dr Pete Gething from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. He says: "These new maps and our online portal are really aimed at everyone involved in the battle against the disease: from the major international organisations and funders, to other scientists, to those actually doing the disease control work on the ground."

However, in order to allocate funding where it is most needed, accurate maps detailing where the disease is most intense and where the largest concentrations of people at risk are found. The new maps reveal for the first time the startling variations in malaria risk, even over short distances.

Dr Simon Hay, who leads the MAP group in Oxford, explains: "It's increasingly clear that malaria transmission is extremely heterogeneous. This means a one-size-fits all approach to controlling is not appropriate. What works in one place might not work elsewhere. These maps are designed to help unravel that complexity and provide a practical guide to help target resources."

Sir Richard Feachem, Director of the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco, and Chair of the Malaria Elimination Group has welcomed the role the new maps can play in pursuing malaria elimination. He says: "From the perspective of elimination, the key message is that malaria transmission is actually very low across large swathes of the endemic world - including the 36 countries currently engaged in elimination programmes. Mapping transmission levels in detail helps to guide these initiatives and highlights how, with concerted effort and sustained financing, we can continue to shrink the malaria map."

###

Wellcome Trust: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk

Thanks to Wellcome Trust for this article.

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Robert Kuttner: Obama's Mixed Messages

Many Democrats are congratulating themselves that the final two in the 2012 Republican field are a stuffed shirt who can't motivate his own base and a wild man who seems to inspire only fundamentalists and Tea Party fanatics. But let's not pop the champagne quite yet.

According to a video sent to supporters Saturday, President Obama is planning to strike a "populist" note in his Tuesday State of the Union Address and in the themes he sounds in his re-election campaign. Obama will pledge "an America where everybody gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules."

"We can go in two directions. One is towards less opportunity and less fairness," Obama declared in the video, "Or we can fight for where I think we need to go: building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

Obama, say widely reported White House leaks, will double down on promises of tax breaks for manufacturing, job training and education initiatives, other help for the unemployed, and stronger efforts to deal with the foreclosure crisis. All of these, except for the tax breaks, by definition require activist government.

So despite Obama's fervent desire throughout his presidency to surmount ideological divisions, 2012 promises to be a great ideological debate.

If the Republican nominee is Mitt Romney, the general election will pit a president invoking the interests of the 99 percent against a man who for Democratic purposes is the ideal face of the one percent.

Alternatively, if the Republicans nominate Newt Gingrich, we will have a less predictable and more volatile far-right populist invoking cultural resentments to challenge a rather feeble center-left economic populism that seems to be reserved for electoral emergencies.

God knows, we need to re-elect Barack Obama. If the Republican nominee wins, he will probably take with him the House and Senate, as well as the Supreme Court. Today's Republican Party is more reckless, ruthless, and nihilist than anything we've seen in mainstream U.S. politics perhaps ever.

But Obama's new-found economic populism would be a lot more credible if it had been the consistent message and program of his presidency.

Since populism is used to mean different things, including jingoism, let me be clear about how I mean it. To me, populism represents the activist use of government to help the non-rich get a foot on the economic ladder. Populism entails a constructive politics of class, so that the broad majority is mobilized as a counterweight to the political influence of concentrated wealth. In policy terms, economic populism offers a managed form of capitalism necessary to keep a market economy on the rails. Progressive populism, as both a successful economics and politics, was epitomized by Franklin Roosevelt.

Obama's election-year populism is a confession that a message that champions the 99 over the one is good politics. But we needed populist deeds as well as words, beginning January 20, 2009. Instead, we got a continuation of policies to prop up and bail out the banks that caused the financial collapse.

Obama's original team of economic advisers, including Paul Volcker, was shoved aside in favor of set of prot?g?s of Robert Rubin. His newly appointed treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, had worked intimately with Republican Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Republican treasury secretary Hank Paulson to design the bank bailout and put off fundamental bank reform. Imagine Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 turning to Herbert Hoover's economic team, and you get the idea.

Once the key decision was made to bail out rather than break up Wall Street, it became impossible to provide the necessary relief for the mortgage crisis, for fear that bank balance sheets would have to acknowledge their true losses. The economy was condemned to a slow bleed.

As the result of his failure to embrace the reality of economic populism from day one, Obama's election-year rhetorical populism is now in danger of falling flat. Obama would have much more credibility as a populist now if he hadn't surrounded himself with Wall Street advisers and done so much of Wall Street's bidding.

To be sure, there is massive dishonesty and demagoguery in the rhetoric of Gingrich and Romney branding Obama a food-stamp president or blaming Obama for the huge job losses set in motion under George W. Bush. But with the economy still stuck in second gear, this rhetoric will nonetheless resonate with a lot of voters. All it will take is a deepening of the crisis of the Euro, or a spike in the price of oil, and the economic "green shoots" that are finally appearing will be crushed.

Republicans in Congress will block whatever Obama offers. But even if they were to let his program become law, tax breaks, job training programs and greater investment in education are not likely to alter fundamentally what ails the economy and the economic horizons of ordinary people.

Take the case of the crisis in defaults, foreclosures, and housing prices. The administration has lately been working with several state attorneys general to trade a contribution of mortgage relief from the banks in the range of $20-25 billion for a one-time cleanup of the legal mess made by the same banks when they were on their subprime binge. The problem is that the amount of mortgage relief needed to put a floor under the collapse in housing prices is well into the hundreds of billions.

To solve the problem would require a New Deal-scale break-up and recapitalization of several large banks. But the people making economic policy for this administration will not touch that idea with a rake.

Or consider the real manufacturing crisis. As a must-read piece in Sunday's New York Times reports, Apple does nearly all of its manufacturing in Asia because the United States has lost the capacity to provide many of the advanced industrial processes that Apple needs. This is not about education or even about wages, but about entire production systems.

If those jobs were done in the United States at decent wages, according to the Times, the shift would cost consumers about $65 more in the price of an iPhone. But each manufacturing job would generate more than twelve other jobs, and the country would be that much richer.

If the U.S. government were serious about manufacturing, it would be exploring a strategy to bring manufacturing back. China has been taking the United States to the cleaners, with government subsidy of factories, repression of labor, coercion on U.S. companies to transfer sensitive technologies. Companies like GE are only too happy to oblige, thanks to the subsidies and the captive labor force. The administration has belatedly identified China as a potential geo-political threat, but resists acknowledging the economic threat.

Instead, the Administration has proposed a Trans-Pacific Partnership with nine mostly smaller Pacific nations such as Malaysia and Vietnam -- which on balance would make it easier for American companies to outsource production to law-wage countries, easier to ship those products back to the United States, and harder for all participating countries to regulate finance.

China does not figure in the proposed deal, which is modeled on NAFTA. This is a politics in which government serves economic elites and blows off the national interest. It is about as far from economic populism as you can get.

Obama's sometime populism reminds me of the old joke about the man who
prays to the Lord, asking: Why can't I ever win the lottery? And the Lord sends back a message: It would help if maybe you bought a ticket.

This president would be far more believable with a populist message if he had been walking the talk since he first took office.

We are all the political hostages of Obama's mixed messages. We have no choice but to go all out for his re-election. If he fails to win, we will inherit a country in which the Right completes the destruction begun under Reagan and furthered under both presidents Bush. We will have a country with less liberty, less social justice, more extremes of inequality, and democracy itself will be increasingly at risk.

But we also need Obama to win and to govern as a true economic progressive. His failure to do so thus far not only denies the country the broad-based recovery that we need, but blunts a populist appeal that is a natural public response to the hosing that regular people have taken from financial elites. That failure permits cultural anxieties to displace economic ones. As a result, Obama's re-election is only a 50-50 proposition, even against an unstable carnival pitchman like Newt Gingrich or a glass-jawed fraud like Mitt Romney.

Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and a senior fellow at Demos. His latest book is A Presidency in Peril.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/obama-2012-election_b_1222598.html

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