Thursday, January 31, 2013

At least 3 dead in mass pileup on Detroit freeway

DETROIT (AP) ? Snow squalls, high winds and slippery roads led to a chain-reaction of crashes on a mile-long stretch of an interstate in Detroit Thursday, leaving at least three people dead and 20 injured.

Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw said visibility was poor when the mass of crashes happened on Interstate 75 on the southwest side of the city. The injured, including children, have been taken to hospitals, Shaw said.

SUVs with smashed front ends and cars with doors hanging open sat scattered across the debris-littered highway, some crunched against jackknifed tractor-trailers and tankers.

Motorists and passengers who were able to a get out of their vehicles huddled together on the side of the road, some visibly distraught, others looking dazed. A man and woman hugged under the gray, cloud-filled skies, a pair of suitcases next to them and a bumper on the ground behind.

"We're not sure of the cause," Shaw told The Associated Press. "Some witnesses said there were white-out conditions."

More than two dozen vehicles were involved in the pileups and scores of cars and trucks not involved in crashes were stuck on the freeway behind. Shaw said it could be hours before the freeway reopened.

Greg Galuszka was driving a fuel truck along I-75 when white-out conditions quickly materialized.

"I looked on my driver's side mirror, and I could see the trucks piling up back there," Galuszka said, pointing to a mass of twisted metal where vehicles had smashed into each other a short time earlier.

"Then, when I looked in my passenger side (mirror), is when I saw the steel hauler coming up," he said. "I just said my prayers from there and said, 'Please don't hit me.'"

Shaw said many people had to be pulled from their vehicles. Numerous fire engines and ambulances were at the scene.

The crash happened as a wave of snow and strong blustery winds reduced visibility across southeastern Michigan, said Bryan Tilley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oakland County's White Lake Township.

"There was a pattern of snow showers moving through the area in the midmorning hours," Tilley said. Nearby Detroit Metropolitan Airport had west winds at 20 miles per hour, with gusts to 33 mph around the time of the crash. The temperature of 24 degrees was about 30 degrees colder than a day before.

The crash happened near an elevated stretch of expressway where the road surface can cool quickly and make driving hazardous, Tilley said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-3-dead-mass-pileup-detroit-freeway-172914028.html

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Volkswagen?s Super Bowl Ad Isn?t Racist (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

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Greater transparency needed in publishing information from clinical trials, experts say

Jan. 29, 2013 ? An initiative from the drugs regulator, the European Medicines Agency, to commit to releasing all of the information from clinical trials once the marketing authorization process has ended, which has been greeted with cautious optimism by proponents of access to data but with much less enthusiasm by the pharmaceutical industry, sparks an interesting debate on the role of medical journals in publishing drug data, according to the Editors of PLOS Medicine.

Writing in an Editorial, the Editors state: "As 2013 begins, it is clear that critical times lie ahead for the publishing of clinical trials, which may define the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the public for many years to come."

The Editors argue: "It is no longer going to be the case, if it ever was, that a trial report published in a journal will be sufficient as the record of a trial -- and if journals are not careful, such reports will become unnecessary as well."

The Editors continue: "So in addition to this being a critical time in the relationship of pharmaceutical companies to society in general, it seems that this is a good time to renegotiate the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and medical journals."

As data become more available for reanalysis, the Editors explain that report of a trial sanctioned by the pharmaceutical company and published in a journal will no longer be considered the definitive report of the trial. Instead, this report will become just one part of the large volume of information available around a trial, to be considered in conjunction with all analyses and data.

Over the course of 2013 as EMA defines the terms of reference for the release of data the importance of journal articles' reports of a trial will change. According to the Editors, "Some journals will find this harder to adjust to than others, especially those whose business model is heavily dependent on reprints of pharmaceutical companies' versions of trial reports."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. The PLOS Medicine Editors. Getting More Generous with the Truth: Clinical Trial Reporting in 2013 and Beyond. PLOS Medicine, January 29, 2013 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001379

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/PPSWFR34ors/130129190249.htm

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Fossilized conduits suggest water flowed beneath Martian surface

Fossilized conduits suggest water flowed beneath Martian surface [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kevin Stacey
kevin_stacey@brown.edu
401-863-3766
Brown University

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Networks of narrow ridges found in impact craters on Mars appear to be the fossilized remnants of underground cracks through which water once flowed, according to a new analysis by researchers from Brown University.

The study, in press in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, bolsters the idea that the subsurface environment on Mars once had an active hydrology and could be a good place to search for evidence of past life. The research was conducted by Lee Saper, a recent Brown graduate, with Jack Mustard, professor of geological sciences.

The ridges, many of them hundreds of meters in length and a few meters wide, had been noted in previous research, but how they had formed was not known. Saper and Mustard thought they might once have been faults and fractures that formed underground when impact events rattled the planet's crust. Water, if present in the subsurface, would have circulated through the cracks, slowly filling them in with mineral deposits, which would have been harder than the surrounding rocks. As those surrounding rocks eroded away over millions of years, the seams of mineral-hardened material would remain in place, forming the ridges seen today.

To test their hypothesis, Saper and Mustard mapped over 4,000 ridges in two crater-pocked regions on Mars, Nili Fossae and Nilosyrtis. Using high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers noted the orientations of the ridges and composition of the surrounding rocks.

The orientation data is consistent with the idea that the ridges started out as fractures formed by impact events. A competing hypothesis suggests that these structures may have been sheets of volcanic magma intruding into the surrounding rock, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At Nili Fossae, the orientations are similar to the alignments of large faults related to a mega-scale impact. At Nilosyrtis, where the impact events were smaller in scale, the ridge orientations are associated with each of the small craters in which they were found. "This suggests that fracture formation resulted from the energy of localized impact events and are not associated with regional-scale volcanism," Saper said.

Importantly, Saper and Mustard also found that the ridges exist exclusively in areas where the surrounding rock is rich in iron-magnesium clay, a mineral considered to be a telltale sign that water had once been present in the rocks.

"The association with these hydrated materials suggests there was a water source available," Saper said. "That water would have flowed along the path of least resistance, which in this case would have been these fracture conduits."

As that water flowed, dissolved minerals would have been slowly deposited in the conduits, in much the same way mineral deposits can build up and eventually clog drain pipes. That mineralized material would have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock. And indeed, Saper and Mustard found that these ridges were only found in areas that were heavily eroded, consistent with the notion that these are ancient structures revealed as the weaker surrounding rocks were slowly peeled away by wind.

Taken together, the results suggest the ancient Martian subsurface had flowing water and may have been a habitable environment.

"This gives us a point of observation to say there was enough fracturing and fluid flow in the crust to sustain at least a regionally viable subsurface hydrology," Saper said. "The overarching theme of NASA's planetary exploration has been to follow the water. So if in fact these fractures that turned into these ridges were flowing with hydrothermal fluid, they could have been a viable biosphere."

Saper hopes that the Curiosity rover, currently making its way across its Gale Crater landing site, might be able to shed more light on these types of structures.

"In the site at Gale Crater, there are thought to be mineralized fractures that the rover will go up and touch," Saper said. "These are very small and may not be exactly the same kind of feature we studied, but we'll have the opportunity to crush them up and do chemical analysis on them. That could either bolster our hypothesis or tell us we need to explore other possibilities."

###

The research was supported by a grant from NASA's Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium and through a NASA subcontract with the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Fossilized conduits suggest water flowed beneath Martian surface [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kevin Stacey
kevin_stacey@brown.edu
401-863-3766
Brown University

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Networks of narrow ridges found in impact craters on Mars appear to be the fossilized remnants of underground cracks through which water once flowed, according to a new analysis by researchers from Brown University.

The study, in press in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, bolsters the idea that the subsurface environment on Mars once had an active hydrology and could be a good place to search for evidence of past life. The research was conducted by Lee Saper, a recent Brown graduate, with Jack Mustard, professor of geological sciences.

The ridges, many of them hundreds of meters in length and a few meters wide, had been noted in previous research, but how they had formed was not known. Saper and Mustard thought they might once have been faults and fractures that formed underground when impact events rattled the planet's crust. Water, if present in the subsurface, would have circulated through the cracks, slowly filling them in with mineral deposits, which would have been harder than the surrounding rocks. As those surrounding rocks eroded away over millions of years, the seams of mineral-hardened material would remain in place, forming the ridges seen today.

To test their hypothesis, Saper and Mustard mapped over 4,000 ridges in two crater-pocked regions on Mars, Nili Fossae and Nilosyrtis. Using high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers noted the orientations of the ridges and composition of the surrounding rocks.

The orientation data is consistent with the idea that the ridges started out as fractures formed by impact events. A competing hypothesis suggests that these structures may have been sheets of volcanic magma intruding into the surrounding rock, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At Nili Fossae, the orientations are similar to the alignments of large faults related to a mega-scale impact. At Nilosyrtis, where the impact events were smaller in scale, the ridge orientations are associated with each of the small craters in which they were found. "This suggests that fracture formation resulted from the energy of localized impact events and are not associated with regional-scale volcanism," Saper said.

Importantly, Saper and Mustard also found that the ridges exist exclusively in areas where the surrounding rock is rich in iron-magnesium clay, a mineral considered to be a telltale sign that water had once been present in the rocks.

"The association with these hydrated materials suggests there was a water source available," Saper said. "That water would have flowed along the path of least resistance, which in this case would have been these fracture conduits."

As that water flowed, dissolved minerals would have been slowly deposited in the conduits, in much the same way mineral deposits can build up and eventually clog drain pipes. That mineralized material would have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock. And indeed, Saper and Mustard found that these ridges were only found in areas that were heavily eroded, consistent with the notion that these are ancient structures revealed as the weaker surrounding rocks were slowly peeled away by wind.

Taken together, the results suggest the ancient Martian subsurface had flowing water and may have been a habitable environment.

"This gives us a point of observation to say there was enough fracturing and fluid flow in the crust to sustain at least a regionally viable subsurface hydrology," Saper said. "The overarching theme of NASA's planetary exploration has been to follow the water. So if in fact these fractures that turned into these ridges were flowing with hydrothermal fluid, they could have been a viable biosphere."

Saper hopes that the Curiosity rover, currently making its way across its Gale Crater landing site, might be able to shed more light on these types of structures.

"In the site at Gale Crater, there are thought to be mineralized fractures that the rover will go up and touch," Saper said. "These are very small and may not be exactly the same kind of feature we studied, but we'll have the opportunity to crush them up and do chemical analysis on them. That could either bolster our hypothesis or tell us we need to explore other possibilities."

###

The research was supported by a grant from NASA's Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium and through a NASA subcontract with the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/bu-fcs012913.php

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Iran's first monkey astronaut survives flight, but doesn't look happy

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it had launched a live monkey into space, seeking to show off missile systems that have alarmed the West because the technology could potentially be used to deliver a nuclear warhead.

The Defense Ministry announced the launch as world powers sought to agree a date and venue with Iran for resuming talks to resolve a standoff with the West over Tehran's contested nuclear program before it degenerates into a new Middle East war.

Efforts to nail down a new meeting have failed repeatedly and the powers fear Iran is exploiting the diplomatic vacuum to hone the means to produce nuclear weapons.

The Islamic Republic denies seeking weapons capability and says it seeks only electricity from its uranium enrichment so it can export more of its considerable oil wealth.

The powers have proposed new talks in February, a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Monday, hours after Russia urged all concerned to "stop behaving like children" and commit to a meeting.

Iran earlier in the day denied media reports of a major explosion at one of its most sensitive, underground enrichment plants, describing them as Western propaganda designed to influence the nuclear talks.

The Defense Ministry said the space launch of the monkey coincided "with the days of" the Prophet Mohammad's birthday, which was last week, but gave no date, according to a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

The launch was "another giant step" in space technology and biological research "which is the monopoly of a few countries", the statement said.

The small grey monkey was pictured strapped into a padded seat and being loaded into the Kavoshgar rocket dubbed "Pishgam" (Pioneer) which state media said reached a height of more than 120 km (75 miles).

"This shipment returned safely to Earth with the anticipated speed along with the live organism," Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi told the semi-official Fars news agency. "The launch of Kavoshgar and its retrieval is the first step towards sending humans into space in the next phase."

There was no independent confirmation of the launch.

SIGNIFICANT FEAT

The West worries that long-range ballistic technology used to propel Iranian satellites into orbit could be put to use dispatching nuclear warheads to a target.

Bruno Gruselle of France's Foundation for Strategic Research said that if the monkey launch report were true it would suggest a "quite significant" engineering feat by Iran.

"If you can show that you are able to protect a vehicle of this sort from re-entry, then you can probably protect a military warhead and make it survive the high temperatures and high pressures of re-entering," Gruselle said.

The monkey launch would be similar to sending up a satellite weighing some 2,000 kg (4,400 pounds), he said. Success would suggest a capacity to deploy a surface-to-surface missile with a range of a few thousand kilometers (miles).

Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank, said Iran had demonstrated "no new military or strategic capability" with the launch.

"Nonetheless, Iran has an ambitious space exploration program that includes the goal of placing a human in space in the next five or so years and a human-inhabited orbital capsule by the end of the decade," Elleman said. "Today's achievement is one step toward the goal, albeit a small one."

The Islamic Republic announced plans in 2011 to send a monkey into space, but that attempt was reported to have failed.

Nuclear-weapons capability requires three components - enough fissile material such as highly enriched uranium, a reliable weapons device miniaturized to fit into a missile cone, and an effective delivery system, such as a ballistic missile that can grow out of a space launch program.

Iran's efforts to develop and test ballistic missiles and build a space launch capability have contributed to Israeli calls for pre-emptive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and billions of dollars of U.S. ballistic missile defense spending.

MANOEUVRING OVER NEXT TALKS

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the powers had offered a February meeting to Iran, after a proposal to meet at the end of January was refused.

"Iran did not accept our offer to go to Istanbul on January 28 and 29 and so we have offered new dates in February. We have continued to offer dates since December. We are disappointed the Iranians have not yet agreed," Michael Mann reporters.

He said Iranian negotiators had imposed new conditions for resuming talks and that EU powers were concerned this might be a stalling tactic. The last in a sporadic series of fruitless talks was held last June.

Iranian officials deny blame for the delays and say Western countries squandered opportunities for meetings by waiting until after the U.S. presidential election in November.

"We have always said that we are ready to negotiate until a result is reached and we have never broken off discussions," IRNA quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.

Salehi has suggested holding the next round in Cairo but said the powers wanted another venue. He also said that Sweden, Kazakhstan and Switzerland had offered to host the talks.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference: "We are ready to meet at any location as soon as possible. We believe the essence of our talks is far more important (than the site), and we hope that common sense will prevail and we will stop behaving like little children."

Ashton is overseeing diplomatic contacts on behalf of the powers hoping to persuade Tehran to stop higher-grade uranium enrichment and accept stricter U.N. inspections in return for civilian nuclear cooperation and relief from U.N. sanctions.

IRAN DENIES FORDOW BLAST

Reuters has been unable to verify reports since Friday of an explosion early last week at the underground Fordow bunker that some Israeli and Western media said wrought heavy damage.

"The false news of an explosion at Fordow is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence their process and outcome," IRNA quoted deputy Iranian nuclear energy agency chief Saeed Shamseddin Bar Broudi as saying.

In late 2011 the plant at Fordow began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent fissile purity, well above the 3.5 percent level normally needed for nuclear power stations.

While such higher-grade enrichment remains nominally far below the 90 percent level required for an atomic bomb, nuclear proliferation experts say the 20 percent threshold represents the bulk of the time and effort involved in yielding weapons-grade material - if that were Iran's goal.

Tehran says its enhanced enrichment is to make fuel for a research reactor that produces isotopes for medical care.

Diplomats in Vienna, where the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is based, said on Monday they had no knowledge of any incident at Fordow but were looking into the reports.

"I have heard and seen various reports but am unable to authenticate them," a senior diplomat in Vienna told Reuters.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which regularly inspects declared Iranian nuclear sites including Fordow, had no immediate comment on the issue.

Iran has accused Israel and the United States of trying to sabotage its nuclear program with cyber attacks and assassinations of its nuclear scientists. Washington has denied any role in the killings while Israel has declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by William Maclean and Marcus George in Dubai, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/six-world-powers-hope-meet-iran-atom-talks-120752016.html

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Roleplayers Needed

Family Is Just A Title

http://www.roleplaygateway.com/member/sjsh304/

It is a fight for survival in Westmont, Florida. In this town you learn fast that family is only a title whether you are from a rich family or a middle class family. Deception, corruption and lies are part of everyday life here. Each family has its secrets and while kids the kids are just as bad as their parents, their parents have studied the art of deception practically their whole lives. It is a fight between families and even in families. Friendships will be made, backstabbing will happen, and rivalries will occur.

Sometimes the greatest journey is the distance between two people
-The Painted Veil

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/4lAuBaqGPLM/viewtopic.php

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Bollywood star Khan caught in India-Pakistan spat

NEW DELHI (AP) ? Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has been caught in a verbal slugfest between India and Pakistan after he wrote a magazine article that led to heated exchanges between the rival nations.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik suggested that New Delhi beef up the actor's security after Khan wrote an account of how it felt to be a Muslim in India.

New Delhi reacted sharply to Malik's comments with Indian politicians and officials asking him to concentrate on looking after the security of Pakistani citizens.

Khan responded to the exchange late Tuesday by saying he was extremely safe and happy in India.

Khan is popularly known as 'King Khan' in the Indian film industry. He has acted in around 75 Hindi feature films, including many box-office hits.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bollywood-star-khan-caught-india-pakistan-spat-062137257.html

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Aaron Swartz and Motel Caswell: Book ends to prosecutorial reform?

A judge this week dismissed a drug forfeiture case involving a motel owner. The prosecutor, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, is also facing criticism for her role in the prosecution of Internet hacker Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide earlier this month.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / January 26, 2013

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz reacts during a news conference in Boston Jan. 17 as she speaks regarding her office's handling of the case against Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz. Ortiz has been sharply criticized following Swartz' suicide for her office's handling of the hacking case against him.

Elise Amendola/AP

Enlarge

A judge this week struck down a US government scheme to seize a Tewksbury, Mass., motel because it had become a haven for drug dealers, bolstering concerns about whether US prosecutors in some cases have too much power.

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The decision in the long-running forfeiture case comes as the US attorney in Boston, Carmen Ortiz, is already under fire for her role in the death of Internet hacker Aaron Swartz, who killed himself on Jan. 11 as he faced a potentially long prison term for what many in the technology field have noted was nothing more than a breach of a contract involving Internet documents.

The two cases are feeding a simmering groundswell among constitutional law professors and others about the inherent discretionary powers of federal prosecutors, especially in an era of books like attorney Harvey Silverglate's "Three Felonies a Day: How the feds target the innocent."

"[M]ost of the time, prosecutors can be expected to exercise their discretion soundly," writes University of Tennessee constitutional law professor Glenn Reynolds, in a Jan. 20 paper called "Ham Sandwich Nation: Due process when everything is a crime."

?Unfortunately, these limitations on prosecutorial power are likely to be least effective where prosecutors act badly because of politics or prejudice,? professor Reynolds writes.

In his article, Reynolds lists several possible solutions, including reform of the grand jury system ? a supposed check on prosecutors but where some now say a "ham sandwich" could be indicted ? as well as weakening prosecutorial immunity rules so US attorneys would have "some skin in the game." Banning plea bargains, the process by which the majority of prosecutors get their convictions, is referenced as the "nuclear option" in prosecutorial reform.

In the Swartz case, the young hacker and co-creator of the Reddit website faced 13 felony counts from Ms. Ortiz' office tied to his use of an MIT network to download millions of academic journal articles to his laptop computer. The problem, critics of the prosecution say, is that Swartz' actions constituted a breach of contract more than a felony crime.

On Saturday, the "Anonymous" hacker group announced it had infiltrated the US Sentencing Commission website in retaliation for Swartz's death. The group said it had copied sensitive documents that it may make public. The site was inaccessible Saturday.

"Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern," the group said in a statement. "We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the 'discretion' of prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/xQxyW29uq7c/Aaron-Swartz-and-Motel-Caswell-Book-ends-to-prosecutorial-reform

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Video: Casey Anthony: I am only worth $1,100

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50605202/

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Kenya elections observers to enhance transparency (The Arizona Republic)

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Monday, January 28, 2013

US gas prices rise 2 cents over past 2 weeks

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) -- The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline is up two cents over the past two weeks.

The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday says the price of a gallon of regular is $3.34. Midgrade costs an average of $3.52 a gallon, and premium is $3.65.

Diesel held steady at $3.96 gallon.

Of the cities surveyed in the lower 48 states, Albuquerque, N.M., has the nation's lowest average price for gas at $2.88. Los Angeles has the highest at $3.71.

In California, the lowest average price was $3.47 in Stockton. The average statewide for a gallon of regular was $3.61, up about three cents.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-gas-prices-rise-2-183115049.html

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Sexual abuse of students: What has Los Angeles done to stop it? (+video)

A new sexual abuse case involving a longtime Los Angeles teacher and, allegedly, 20 young students renews focus on record of reform in the nation's second largest school district. The case signals progress in more timely reporting of such allegations and swift notification of parents.

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo,?Staff writer / January 24, 2013

Elementary students' parents leave a meeting with school officials at the George De La Torre Jr. Elementary in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles on Jan. 24, after a teacher who worked for nearly 40 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing students at the school.

Damian Dovarganes/AP

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The arrest of Robert Pimentel, a longtime fourth-grade teacher accused of sexually abusing 20 students, has once again thrust the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) into the spotlight.

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The case prompts questions about how much progress has been made since another district teacher was charged a year ago for lewd conduct with more than 20 young students.

The district has made several policy changes in the past year, and advocates for abuse victims hope that attention to the issue will prompt further changes throughout California, and even nationally.

?I?m seeing more reporting of [such] incidents around the county.... Now we need to train and teach so that it doesn?t keep happening,? says Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., and an expert witness on behalf of a student who was molested by a teacher and recently won a $6.9 million in a jury verdict against LAUSD. ?There are lots of ways to see and stop [student abuse] early,? she says.

Law enforcement officials began investigating Mr. Pimentel in March, after several girls told their parents that he had touched them inappropriately at the George De La Torre Jr. Elementary School in Wilmington, Calif.

The district responded quickly ? one result of improvements made since last year?s shocking allegations of abuse at Miramonte Elementary School.

Pimentel was immediately removed from the school last March, and, based on the new rules, the district notified parents of the allegations within 72 hours. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing was also notified quickly.

Before the Board of Education could take action to dismiss Pimentel, he retired. He is being held on $12 million bail. The Los Angeles Times reports that the principal of the school was immediately removed, because the LAUSD superintendent was dissatisfied with how the incident had been handled. The principal had not properly reported allegations of misconduct by this teacher that arose in 2008, according to this report.

In November, a report by the California State Auditor found that many cases of employee misconduct against students had been reported to the credentialing commission a year or more later than they should have been. It also raised concerns about the time that elapsed between an investigation unit reporting on an allegation and the principal taking action against the teacher ? eight months in one case.

The audit found that LAUSD has had to spend $3 million in salaries on the 20 employees who have been relocated from classroom sites for the longest periods of time because of allegations of sexual misconduct against students.

The district has taken steps to address such concerns, including many launched before the audit?s release. Among them:

  • Training last February districtwide helped employees and parents learn how to identify and engage in discussions about suspected abuse. Each school site must receive biannual child-abuse awareness training as well.
  • Educational Service Centers in the district began to offer more specialists in each local area to advise school leaders on misconduct issues.
  • The district has been lobbying state legislators about the difficulties of dismissing teachers for misconduct. District officials say it costs on average $300,000 per teacher and can take years.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/96r-rCJLh9Y/Sexual-abuse-of-students-What-has-Los-Angeles-done-to-stop-it-video

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Tournament of THG Couples: Kim Kardashian & Kanye West vs. Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/01/tournament-of-thg-couples-kimye-vs-bennifer/

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Dear Tim Cook, The Retina Display Is Great But It?s Not The Best

Screen Shot 2013-01-23 at 5.54.42 PM“iPhone 5 offers a new 4 inch retina display, which is the most advanced display in the industry,” said Tim Cook. “No one comes close to matching the quality of the Retina Display.” He is, of course, obligated to both say and believe this despite the fact there are plenty of displays already available and forthcoming that surpass the iPhone 5′s Retina display. Now, when we’re talking about size, there are various schools of thought on what works best. But Apple has stayed strong with the 4-inch iPhone 5′s one-handed usability, after years of refusing to budge from the 3.5-inch screen size. “We put a lot of thinking into screen size and think we’ve picked the right one,” said the CEO. Cook explained that the iPhone 5 managed to offer a larger Apple-flavored display “without sacrificing the one-handed ease of use that our customers love.” It’s true enough, to him at least, for Apple to put out a whole commercial on it. It’s called Thumb. It’s cute. But with all due respect: To think that the iPhone 5 (like the iPhone 4 of yester-year) has the best display on the market is a little naive. Since size is based entirely on opinion, there’s no need to delve into that. But when it comes to pixel density and display technology, a 326ppi LCD screen doesn’t really compete with the brand new stuff coming out of the Android pen. Consider the 5-inch 1080p SLCD3 display on the Droid DNA, with 440ppi. It’s already available, and getting rave reviews. Then there’s the Xperia Z, from Sony. It hasn’t been released yet, so we haven’t played with it extensively, but some hands-on time at CES proves that Sony, too, is capable of a stunning 1080p 5-inch display, topping out at 440ppi. The LG Optimus G Pro, not yet announced, is also said to have a 5-inch 1080p display. But HTC, LG, and Sony aren’t primary concerns for Apple. Samsung, on the other hand, is one to watch, and the latest rumors suggest the Korean firm’s flagship Galaxy S IV will have a 5-inch 440 ppi display, too. And that one will feature Samsung’s premium Super AMOLED screen. Regardless of competition, though, the question is whether or not Apple will push along with everyone else and bump up size and/or pixel density in the coming generations of the iPhone. Jobs explained with the iPhone 4

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/y5RAXWM5C8E/

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Obamas, Bidens to attend Cathedral prayer service (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/278722228?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Netanyahu reaches left after Israeli elections surprise

Nir Elias / Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves the Likud-Yisrael Beitenu headquarters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

By Amy Teibel, The Associated Press

A badly weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambled Wednesday to keep his job by extending his hand to a new centrist party that advocates a more earnest push on peacemaking with the Palestinians after Israel's parliamentary election produced a stunning deadlock.

The results defied forecasts that Israel's next government would veer sharply to the right at a time when the country faces mounting international isolation, growing economic problems and regional turbulence. While that opens the door to unexpected movement on peace efforts, a coalition joining parties with dramatically divergent views on peacemaking, the economy and the military draft could just as easily be headed for gridlock ? and perhaps a short life.

Israeli media said that with nearly all votes counted, each bloc had 60 of parliament's 120 seats. Commentators said Netanyahu, who called early elections three months ago expecting easy victory, would be tapped to form the next government because the rival camp drew 12 of its 60 seats from Arab parties that traditionally are excluded from coalition building.

Ammar Awad / Reuters

Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, addresses supporters at his party's headquarters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. The surprise star of Israel's election is a former television news anchor whose centrist party soared to second place in the balloting.

A surprising, strong showing by a political newcomer, the centrist Yesh Atid, or There is a Future, party, in Tuesday's vote turned pre-election forecasts on their heads and dealt a setback to Netanyahu. Yesh Atid's leader, Yair Lapid, has said he would join a government only if it were committed to sweeping economic changes and a serious push to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, which have languished throughout Netanyahu's four-year tenure.

The results were not official, and the final bloc breakdowns could shift before the central elections committee finishes its tally early Thursday. With the blocs so evenly divided, there remains a remote possibility that Netanyahu would not form the next government, even though both he and Lapid have called for the creation of a broad coalition.

How Israeli elections work
Under Israel's parliamentary system, voters cast ballots for parties, not individual candidates. Because no party throughout Israel's 64-year history has ever won an outright majority of parliamentary seats, the country has always been governed by coalitions.

Traditionally, the party that wins the largest number of seats is given the first chance to form a governing alliance in negotiations that center around promising Cabinet posts and policy concessions. If those negotiations are successful, the leader of that party becomes prime minister. If not, the task falls to a smaller faction. President Shimon Peres has until mid-February to set that process in motion.

Netanyahu's Likud-Yisrael Beitenu alliance polled strongest in Tuesday's election, winning 31 parliamentary seats. But that is 11 fewer than the 42 it held in the outgoing parliament and below the forecasts of 32 to 37 in recent polls. Yesh Atid had been projected to capture about a dozen seats but won 19, making it the second-largest in the legislature.

Addressing his supporters early Wednesday, when an earlier vote count gave his bloc a shaky, one-seat parliamentary margin, Netanyahu vowed to form as broad a coalition as possible. Lapid also called for the formation of a broad government.

The goal will not be an easy one, however, and will force Netanyahu to make some difficult decisions. In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Lapid said he would not be a "fig leaf" for a hard-line agenda on peacemaking.

That stance could force Netanyahu to promise overtures to get peace negotiations moving again.

But a harder line taken by traditional and future hawkish allies could present formidable obstacles to coalition building.

Tensions with the United States, Israel's most important ally, also may have factored into the shift to Lapid. President Barack Obama was quoted last week as saying that Netanyahu was undermining Israel's own interests by continuing to build Jewish settlements on occupied lands the Palestinians want for a future state.

Related:

Charismatic ex-commando pressures Netanyahu from the right as Israel prepares to vote

Avast! Israel's Pirate Party angles for 2 percent of electoral booty

Israelis head to polls as shift to right is expected

?

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/23/16658592-surprisingly-centrist-vote-has-israels-netanyahu-reaching-to-left?lite

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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Larry Page Brags About Google iOS Apps - Business Insider

Summary

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers... More ?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-page-brags-about-google-ios-apps-2013-1

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Israeli election ends in dramatic deadlock

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman greet their supporters in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. According to exit polls Netanyahu's Likud Party emerged as the largest faction in a hotly contested parliamentary election on Tuesday, positioning the hard-liner to serve a new term as prime minister. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman greet their supporters in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. According to exit polls Netanyahu's Likud Party emerged as the largest faction in a hotly contested parliamentary election on Tuesday, positioning the hard-liner to serve a new term as prime minister. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Yair Lapid gestures as he delivers a speech at his "Yesh Atid" party in Tel-Aviv, early Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. The party, formed just over a year ago, out did forecasts by far and are predicted to capture as many as 19 seats, becoming parliament's second-largest party, after Netanyahu's Likud-Beiteinu bloc, which won 31, according to the exit polls. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Graphic updates Shas party from 12 to 11; shows results of Israel???s parliamentary election

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's parliamentary election ended Wednesday in a stunning deadlock between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line bloc and center-left rivals, forcing the badly weakened leader to scramble to cobble together a coalition of parties from both camps, despite dramatically different views on Mideast peacemaking and other polarizing issues.

Israeli media said that with 99.8 percent of votes counted, each bloc had 60 of parliament's 120 seats. Commentators said Netanyahu, who called early elections three months ago expecting easy victory, would be tapped to form the next government because the rival camp drew 12 of its 60 seats from Arab parties who traditionally neither are asked nor seek to join governing coalitions.

A startlingly strong showing by a political newcomer, the centrist Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, turned pre-election forecasts on their heads and dealt Netanyahu his surprise setback in Tuesday's vote. Yesh Atid's leader, Yair Lapid, has said he would only join a government committed to sweeping economic changes and a serious push to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, which have languished throughout Netanyahu's four-year tenure.

The results were not official, and there was a slim chance of a slight shift in the final bloc breakdowns.

Addressing his supporters early Wednesday, when an earlier vote count still gave his bloc a one-seat parliamentary margin, Netanyahu vowed to form as broad a coalition as possible. He said the next government would be built on principles that include reforming the contentious system of granting draft exemptions to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and the "responsible" pursuit of a "genuine peace" with the Palestinians. He did not elaborate, but the message seemed aimed at Lapid.

Netanyahu called Lapid early Wednesday and offered to work together. "We have the opportunity to do great things together," Likud quoted the prime minister as saying.

The prime minister's goal of a broader coalition will not be an easy one, and will force him to make some difficult decisions. In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Lapid said he would not be a "fig leaf" for a hard-line agenda on peacemaking. A leading party member, Yaakov Peri, said Yesh Atid it would not join unless the government pledges to begin drafting the ultra-Orthodox into the military, lowers the country's high cost of living and returns to peace talks.

"We have red lines. We won't cross those red lines, even if it will cost us sitting in the opposition," Peri told Channel 2 TV.

That stance could force Netanyahu to make overtures ? perhaps far more sweeping than he imagined ? to get negotiations moving again.

Conversely, a coalition joining parties with dramatically divergent views on peacemaking, the economy and the military draft could easily be headed for gridlock ? and perhaps a short life ? at a time when Israel faces mounting international isolation, growing economic problems, and regional turbulence.

The vote tally gave Netanyahu's Likud-Yisrael Beitenu alliance 31 parliamentary seats, 11 fewer than the 42 it held in the outgoing parliament and below the forecasts of recent polls. Yesh Atid had been forecast to capture about a dozen seats but won 19.

Under Israeli law, the party with the best chance of putting together a coalition is given six weeks to do so, and Netanyahu is expected to be handed the task. In the event he fails to form a government, another party ? presumably Lapid's ? would be asked to try.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-23-ML-Israel-Election/id-132c7bd13f534ddb9e1cec4a6f1f094e

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'CHANGE THE LANGUAGE'

"I loved it. Especially when the president talked about ending the name-calling. We need to change the language we use." ? Patricia Cooper, 51, of Upper Marlboro, Md. who teaches technology in the Washington, D.C., schools.

? Jocelyn Noveck ? Twitter http://twitter.com/jocelynnoveckAP

___

A look at the issues that those who govern the country will face during Barack Obama's second term. Up now: the Republican Party.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/change-language-015457381.html

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