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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Pitt to attend New Orleans homebuilding group gala (AP)
NEW ORLEANS ? Talk show host Ellen Degeneres and "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson are hosting a star-studded gala in New Orleans to benefit Brad Pitt's Make It Right home rebuilding effort.
Pitt will attend the $1,000-per-person gala on March 10 called "A Night to Make It Right," which will include performances by singers Sheryl Crow, Rihanna, Seal and Dr. John, said foundation spokeswoman Taylor Royle.
Pitt launched Make It Right in 2007 to help Lower 9th Ward residents who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Lower 9th Ward was one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods when Katrina caused levees to fail, inundating roughly 80 percent of the city with floodwater.
Pitt worked with architects to come up with designs for stronger, safer and more energy-efficient houses than the ones residents lost. So far 75 homes have been built, six more are under construction and construction is set to begin on roughly eight others in coming months.
"Our goal is 150 houses, and this fundraiser is going to help us reach that goal," said Royle, noting that all proceeds will benefit Make It Right.
Royle said it has taken more time and money than the foundation originally thought to build 150 homes. Getting in touch with families, making decisions about their homes, getting finances in order and clearing paperwork takes months, she said.
"It's been a long road to get these families home," Royle said. "But we're happy with our progress, and we're looking forward to celebrating the progress we've made."
Royle said a video of Make It Right's work over the past four years will be presented at the gala. A four-course dinner organized by chef John Besh will include courses by chefs Emeril Lagasse and Giada de Laurentiis.
Degeneres, a New Orleans native, has already donated more than $2 million to Make It Right.
"She's been one of our biggest supporters," Royle said.
Jackson, a Baton Rouge native, was quick to offer his participation in the event, Royle said.
Other celebrities serving on the event's host committee who may also be attending include actors Josh Brolin, Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey and director Spike Lee.
The gala will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans. Comedian Aziz Ansari will host an after party. Tickets for that event start at $150.
___
Online:
Tickets are available online at www.nighttomakeitright.com.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Megaupload founder joked about his 'hacker' past (AP)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand ? Two years ago, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom joked in emails with his new neighbors in New Zealand about his bad-boy reputation before telling them his criminal past was behind him and he was coming to the country with good intentions.
"I am a former hacker" who was once convicted of insider trading, he wrote, before going on to say "In all seriousness: My wife, two kids and myself love New Zealand and 'We come in peace.'"
Dotcom's emails came to light Wednesday, the same day a New Zealand judge denied him bail following his arrest on U.S. accusations of copyright infringement and a U.S. official confirmed the arrest of a fifth member of his company.
Judge David McNaughton in Auckland denied Dotcom bail pending a hearing Feb. 22 on his possible extradition to face trial in the United States, saying Dotcom poses a flight risk. Dotcom, 38, insists he is innocent and poses no flight risk.
New Zealand police arrested three other Megaupload employees last week on U.S. accusations they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. McNaughton is expected to make bail rulings on the three later this week or early next week.
In Washington, a U.S. Justice Department official said Dutch police have arrested a fifth suspect ? software programmer Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and a resident of both Turkey and Estonia. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is still pending.
In New Zealand, Dotcom's neighbor Kevin Crossley said Dotcom cut an imposing figure when he took a lease on the $24 million luxury mansion in their sleepy neighborhood of Coatesville, near Auckland. Crossley said he never met Dotcom, but he would see him zooming past in luxury cars when he went horse riding.
Dotcom sent emails to Crossley's wife France Komoroski and other neighbors, joking that "a criminal neighbor like me" could help them with insider stock tips and tax fraud. But then he turned serious.
"Fifteen years ago I was a hacker and 10 years ago I was convicted for insider trading," he wrote. "Hardly the kind of crimes you need to start a witch hunt for. Since then I have been a good boy, my criminal records have been cleared, and I created a successful Internet company that employs 100+ people."
Dotcom first developed a reputation as a computer hacker in his native Germany, where he was born Kim Schmitz.
Later, in 2002, he received a 20-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of manipulating stock prices to earn himself $1.1 million.
The flamboyant Dotcom also made headlines after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when he offered a $10 million reward on his website for information leading to the capture of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister John Key faced awkward questions Wednesday about how immigration officials could have granted Dotcom residency despite his prior convictions ? and then the government could later turn down his application to buy the Coatesville mansion due to questions over his character prompted by those same convictions.
Key said Dotcom had disclosed his convictions in his immigration application but that enough time had elapsed to give him a clean slate. Key acknowleged it seemed inconsistent that the test for buying land would be higher than the test for residency.
"What I've asked my officials to do, is to go away and have a look, because there's clearly a potential anomoly there," Key told reporters Wednesday.
In all, U.S. authorities have charged seven men in the conspiracy case and are still seeking the arrest of the remaining two men.
Authorities in the U.S. are seeking to extradite the four men arrested in New Zealand and are also expected to seek Nomm's extradition.
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Even With Insurance, Unemployed Have Worse Health Outcomes (HealthDay)
TUESDAY, Jan. 24 (HealthDay News) -- People without jobs who have health insurance are less likely to get medical care or prescription drugs than people with jobs who have such coverage, U.S. health officials reported Tuesday.
During the depths of the recent recession, unemployment reached 9.6 percent, a level not seen since 1983. Because health insurance affects access to care and most people rely on getting insured through their employer, researchers wanted to look at the effect of unemployment and lower income on access to health care, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Insurance without a job is a difficult position to be in," said report author Anne Driscoll, a senior fellow at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
In the study, Driscoll and her colleague, Amy Bernstein, wanted to find out whether having private, public or no insurance mattered if you were employed or unemployed.
They found that private insurance, which experts think is the most comprehensive, was no guarantee of better health care.
"If you had private insurance but weren't employed, you had worse mental health, worse physical health and were less likely to get prescriptions you needed or care that you needed than if you had a job," Driscoll said.
Cost of care appears to be the overriding factor why having private insurance and no job was associated with lack of access to care, she said.
"Because you don't have a job, deductibles and co-payments are the reasons you can't use your insurance to the fullest. You're better having insurance than no insurance, but it's not a panacea. A job and insurance is the most advantageous category to be in, not just being insured," Driscoll said.
For their study, the authors used data from the 2009 and 2010 U.S. National Health Interview Survey and compared the health insurance status, health and access to health care of employed and unemployed adults aged 18 to 64.
Highlights of the report include:
- 48 percent of unemployed adults had health insurance, compared with 81 percent of employed adults.
- More of the unemployed had public insurance than those employed.
- The unemployed had worse physical and mental health than the employed, whether they had insurance or not.
- The insured unemployed were less likely to get medical care because of cost than the insured employed.
- The insured unemployed were less likely to get prescription drugs because of cost than the insured employed.
- The uninsured were less likely to get medical care and prescription drugs because of cost than people with public or private insurance, regardless of whether they had jobs or not.
- The unemployed were more likely to be black, have less than a high school education and have an income below the poverty level.
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a visiting professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, doesn't hold out hope that health care reform will make things better for the unemployed.
"During the recession, the use of health care plummeted. We had a 19.5 percent drop in primary care in the United States," she said.
This study shows that even if people lost their jobs and held onto their insurance, they couldn't afford to use health care, Woolhandler said.
"That's a uniquely American issue because we have such high co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services that people can't afford to use care," she said.
Woolhandler noted that health care reform will help some people because the number of uninsured is expected to be cut by over half.
"While there will still be 23 million uninsured after health reform is fully implemented, it's a whole lot less than it would be otherwise," she said.
But, having health insurance will not mean that you can afford care if you lose your job, Woolhandler added.
"It will be a little worse after health reform, because the new policies that will be offered will be quite a bit skimpier than an employer policy is now. And there will be high co-pays, high deductibles. So even if you hang on to your insurance you likely won't be able to afford care," she said.
More information
For more on health insurance, visit the Commonwealth Fund.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Sumatran elephants could be extinct in 30 years (AP)
JAKARTA, Indonesia ? Environmentalists say the Sumatran elephant could be extinct in the wild within the next three decades unless steps are taken to slow the breakneck pace of deforestation.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently listed the animals as "critically endangered," after their numbers dropped to between 2,400 and 2,800 from an estimated 5,000 in 1985.
The decline is largely because of destruction of their habitat, with forests all across the Indonesian island of Sumatra clear-cut for timber, palm oil or agricultural plantations.
Carlos Drews of the environmental group WWF says if urgent action is not taken to reverse this trend, "these magnificent animals are likely to go extinct" in less than 30 years.
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Ch?vez appointment - a slap to Colombia?
Venezuela President Hugo Ch?vez's?new defense minister is worrying officials in both the US and Colombia because of his links to Colombia's FARC rebels.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has tried to build better relations with?his counterpart in Venezuela, Hugo Ch?vez, who?once accused the Colombian president of trying to have him assassinated.
Skip to next paragraphBut as Mr. Ch?vez enters election year with stepped up rhetoric aimed at?Washington and the opposition at home, Mr. Santos may be caught in the?crossfire. One of the primary sources of antagonism between the two?nations was Ch?vez?s alleged links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces?of Colombia (FARC).
The links are personified by Venezuelan Gen. Henry Rangel Silva,?who was accused by the United States in 2008 of aiding drug?trafficking and pushing for cooperation between the Venezuelan?government and FARC.
Ch?vez swore in General Rangel Silva this week as Venezuela?s new defense minister.
The ceremony came just days after two major Colombian news outlets?published correspondence which they claim proves that Rangel Silva was?for a long time the principle contact between the Venezuelan?government and FARC and also shows links between the general and?FARC?s newly appointed leader Rodrigo Londono, also known as?Timochenko.
Authorities in both Washington and Bogot? will have grimaced at the?appointment. Ch?vez, however, defended his decision in typically?theatrical language.
?If our defense minister is attacked by imperialism and its lackeys?and if our defense minister is attacked by the Venezuelan bourgeoisie,?it is because we have a tremendous defence minister,? said Ch?vez as?he spoke to the thousands of troops gathered at Fort Tiuna in Caracas.??[They] have no proof,? Ch?vez added. ?It is all untrue.?
It is not just US and Colombian diplomats who will be worried. With?elections due in less than 10 months, and primaries within a month,?there are concerns that Ch?vez is asserting his control on the army in?preparation.
Rangel Silva even declared last year that the Venezuelan military was??absolutely loyal? to Ch?vez.
If elections don?t go Ch?vez?s way in October, there are worries that?the military will fail to support the alternative successor; this?would inevitably destabilize the OPEC-member country.
Ch?vez did say in a 10-hour state of the nation speech on Friday that?he would honor election results and show off the ?political maturity??the country had acquired during his now 13-year Bolivarian revolution.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Patterns of chromosome abnormality: The key to cancer?
Monday, January 23, 2012
A healthy genome is characterized by 23 pairs of chromosomes, and even a small change in this structure ? such as an extra copy of a single chromosome ? can lead to severe physical impairment. So it's no surprise that when it comes to cancer, chromosomal structure is frequently a contributing factor, says Prof. Ron Shamir of the Blavatnik School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University.
Now Prof. Shamir and his former doctoral students Michal Ozery-Flato and Chaim Linhart, along with fellow researchers Prof. Shai Izraeli and Dr. Luba Trakhtenbrot from the Sheba Medical Center, have combined techniques from computer science and statistics to discover that many chromosomal pairs are lost or gained together across various cancer types. Moreover, the researchers discovered a new commonality of chromosomal aberrations among embryonic cancer types, such as kidney, skeleton, and liver cancers.
These findings, recently published in Genome Biology, could reveal more about the nature of cancer. As cancer develops, the genome becomes increasingly mutated ? and identifying the pattern of mutation can help us to understand the nature and the progression of many different kinds of cancer, says Prof. Shamir.
Looking at the big picture
As cancer progresses, the structure of chromosomes is rearranged, individual chromosomes are duplicated or lost, and the genome becomes abnormal. Some forms of cancer can even be diagnosed by identifying individual chromosomal aberrations, notes Prof. Shamir, pointing to the example of a specific type of leukemia that is caused by small piece of chromosome 9 being moved to chromosome 22.
When analyzing many different kinds of cancer, however, the researchers discovered that chromosomal aberrations among different cancers happen together in a noticeable and significant way. The researchers studied a collection of more than fifty thousand cancer karyotypes ? representations of chromosomal layouts in a single cell ? and charted them according to commonalities. The researchers were not only able to confirm different chromosomal aberrations that appeared in specific cancer types, but also for the first time identified a broader effect of pairs of chromosomes being lost or gained together across different cancer types.
It was also the first time that researchers saw a connection among solid kidney, skeleton, and liver cancers. While it was known that these cancers all develop in the embryo, they were previously analyzed independently. The TAU researchers have now confirmed that they share chromosomal characteristics and aberrations, much like various forms of leukemia or lymphomas.
Aberrations a driving force for cancer
Under normal circumstances, even a small change to a person's chromosomal structure can be devastating. For example, Down's syndrome is caused by a single extra copy of Chromosome 21. "But in cancer, there are many cases of extra or missing chromosomes. Yet cancer cells thrive more effectively than other cells," Prof. Shamir says.
Prof. Shamir hopes that future investigation into these chromosomal aberrations will give researchers more clues into why something that is so detrimental to our healthy development is so beneficial to this disease. Cancer is the result of sequences of events, he says, each causing the genome to become more mutated, mixed, and duplicated. Tracking these changes could aid our understanding of the driving forces of cancer's progress.
###
American Friends of Tel Aviv University: http://www.aftau.org
Thanks to American Friends of Tel Aviv University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116946/Patterns_of_chromosome_abnormality__The_key_to_cancer_
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Facing long odds and steep climb, Santorum digs in (AP)
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich has the momentum. Mitt Romney has the money.
Rick Santorum? He has neither at the moment.
Not that he's going to let details like that stop him from pressing ahead in his White House quest. Or, for that matter, hurdles like scant cash in an expensive state and a rapidly disappearing opportunity to emerge as the consensus candidate of conservative voters now that Gingrich has emerged as the leading anti-Romney candidate.
"Our feeling is that this is a three-person race," Santorum insisted on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that he felt "absolutely no pressure at all" to abandon his bid given Gingrich's rise.
Still, Santorum acknowledged a hard road ahead in what he called "a tough state for everybody."
"It's very, very expensive. It's a very short time frame," he said.
The former Pennsylvania senator placed third in Saturday's South Carolina primary.
Gingrich scored his first win, entering the Florida campaign with the political winds pushing the former House speaker from behind. Romney, who has raised mounds of cash, came in second and was ready to regroup with sophisticated political machines in the upcoming states, Florida included.
Underscoring Santorum's challenges, he was taking a few days away from the campaign trail in Florida this week to restock his thin campaign bank accounts. He plans fundraisers in other states, leaving Gingrich and Romney with free rein in Florida, while he stops in states such as Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Money is a necessity in a state like Florida with numerous expensive media markets and where campaigns are usually won on TV.
That's not a natural fit for Santorum, who has run his campaign on a shoestring and won the Iowa caucuses ? albeit narrowly ? by spending more than a year making house calls to voters and traveling the state in a pickup truck.
To make up ground and perhaps earn some free media, Santorum is going on the attack.
Standing in a strip mall's parking lot here Sunday before heading to fundraising events, Santorum cast Romney as an inconsistent figure who would not be an effective foil to President Barack Obama's re-election bid and argued that Gingrich was too "high risk" to be the Republican standard-bearer.
"Trust is a big issue in this election," Santorum told several hundred people. "Who are you going to trust when the pressure is on, when we're in that debate? It's great to be glib, but it's better to be principled."
He also met privately Sunday with pastors and delivered a sermon at Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, where he emphasized his conservatism. Santorum, who sprinkles his campaign speeches with his Catholic faith, is banking on evangelicals to coalesce around him over the thrice-married Gingrich or Romney, a Mormon.
"Can he win? Only God knows," said David Babbin, a voter here who works at the nearby children's hospital and likes Santorum. "But I believe in miracles."
Still, he noted one of the candidate's challenges: "Rick Santorum is one of us. And that's his biggest flaw ... We live in a society that is `American Idol' and Rick Santorum is not like that."
Santorum has other hurdles beyond what even admirers call his lack of charisma.
His tough talk on Social Security and Medicare ? ending benefits for wealthier retirees, cutting payments to those who don't need them ? is going to dog him here in a state of 3.3 million seniors, or 17 percent of the population. AARP estimates that more than a third of those seniors would have incomes below the poverty line without Social Security and one in three seniors rely on Social Security as their sole source of income.
Santorum didn't mention those proposals at his first public campaign event since the primary in South Carolina.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Oil falls below $98 amid Greece debt deal talks
BANGKOK (AP) ? Oil fell below $98 a barrel Monday in Asia as the crude market waited for the outcome of Greece's negotiations with creditors on a deal to cut the face value of its debt by half.
Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 35 cents at $97.98 a barrel at early afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.21 to end at $98.33 per barrel in New York on Friday.
Brent crude was up 29 cents at $110.15 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange in London.
Benchmark oil has ranged from ranged from about $98 to $102 in the past week. It has been buffeted by tensions in the Middle East after Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and the likelihood that Europe will slide into recession amid the region's sovereign debt crisis.
Iran has threatened to close the strait if the U.S. and other countries impose more sanctions on it because of its nuclear program. Many analysts doubt that Iran could set up a blockade for long, but any supply shortages would cause supplies to tighten.
Over the weekend, the representative of Greece's private creditors said the talks are continuing even after his unexpected departure from the country.
A deal in Athens would allow the country to receive a second bailout package from other European governments and the International Monetary Fund, and cut Greece's debt from an estimated 160 percent of its annual economic output to 120 percent by 2020.
That is still painfully high, but without the help, Greece will not be able to pay 14.5 billion euros in debt due March 20. A Greek default would send borrowing costs higher across Europe and could trigger chaos in the global financial system.
In other energy trading on Nymex, gasoline was almost unchanged at $2.79 a gallon and heating oil was up 0.9 cent at $2.99 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 6.6 cents to $2.28 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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Conservatives, economy fuel Gingrich win in SC (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Strong backing from conservative and religious voters and people fretting about the uncertain economy fueled Newt Gingrich's victory Saturday in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary, an exit poll of voters showed Saturday.
The figures also showed that for the first time, the former House speaker had grabbed two constituencies that his chief rival, Mitt Romney, has captured in the year's two previous GOP contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. By slight margins, he bested Romney among voters looking for someone to defeat President Barack Obama this November, and those who considered the economy the top issue in deciding which candidate to back.
Gingrich benefited most from the campaign's final, tumultuous week, the figures showed. Just over half said they'd chosen a candidate in the last few days, and they backed Gingrich over Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, by 2-1. By a slightly stronger margin, the roughly two-thirds who said campaign debates were an important factor also supported Gingrich. There were two GOP debates in South Carolina during the past week.
In the last days of the campaign, Romney stumbled badly when asked repeatedly whether he will release his income tax returns. Gingrich endured an allegation by one of his two former wives, Marianne, that he had asked permission for an open marriage while he was having an affair with his current wife, Callista.
That accusation seemed to take only a slight toll on Gingrich. Gingrich got less than 10 percent support from people who said what they most wanted in a candidate was strong moral character, but these voters were less than 1 in 5 of those who showed up Saturday at the polls.
In addition, Gingrich did slightly better than Romney among women, and polled a bit more strongly among married than unmarried women.
Gingrich won healthy margins among the state's conservatives, who comprise more than 6 in 10 voters in the state. While that was bad news for Romney, it was even more damaging to Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who has been dueling with Gingrich to become the GOP's conservative champion and alternative to Romney.
Gingrich won among conservatives and tea party supporters by nearly 2-1 over Romney. Santorum was slightly behind.
Illustrating the sweep of Gingrich's victory over Romney, Gingrich triumphed among all age groups. The only income group that Romney won was people making above $200,000 a year ? 1 in 20 of those who voted Saturday.
Nearly two-thirds of voters Saturday said they are born again or evangelical Christians, and they backed Gingrich over Romney by 2-1 also.
More telling, 6 in 10 voters said it was important that their candidate share their religious beliefs. Nearly half of such voters backed Gingrich, while only around 1 in 5 chose Romney or Santorum.
About 8 in 10 voters said they were very worried about the direction of the country's economy, and they picked Gingrich over Romney by about a 4-3 edge.
Romney's earlier career heading Bain Capital, a venture capital firm, clearly wounded his prospects. During much of the campaign, Gingrich and others accused Romney and his company of killing jobs in the companies they bought and restructured.
Those blows showed on Saturday. According to the exit polls, Gingrich and Romney broke about even among the 6 in 10 voters who said they had a positive view of Romney's activities at Bain. But among those who viewed Romney's work negatively, half picked Gingrich and almost none backed Romney.
Underscoring how poorly Romney fared in South Carolina, only about 4 in 10 voters Saturday said they could enthusiastically back Romney should he eventually win the GOP nomination.
The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters left their polling places at 35 randomly selected sites in South Carolina. The survey involved interviews with 2,381 voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
___
Associated Press global polling director Trevor Tompson contributed to this report.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Fab Sale Round-Up: Gilt Groupe, Giggle and More!
Check out our round-up of this week's best baby and mommy deals!
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Carol Pierson Holding: Why Mileage-Based Insurance Should Be a ...
In this election season, we're hearing a lot about reducing the role of the federal government. Letting the states decide the issues. Turning national legislation like Roe v. Wade back to the states. Even shuttering federal agencies like the EPA. The cry for smaller government runs through both Republican and Democratic campaigns.
But then you run into something as sensible as mileage-based auto insurance, which has lingered for years in state legislatures while people who don't drive much continue to pay up to 30% more than they should for insurance. Society suffers too: an effective economic incentive for driving less is lost so accident rates remain unnecessarily high and the environment suffers. Doesn't this seem like something that should have been federally mandated?
I'm not advocating a federal mandate that insurance companies offer Pay-As-You Drive (PAYD) -- I do believe in free markets -- but a mandate that states figure out how to adjust their labyrinthine insurance statutes to accommodate this potentially game-changing option. With a deadline.
Mileage-based insurance or PAYD was first explored in 1925. Since then, the issue has been studied and analyzed and reformulated dozens of times. With the advent of technology that would allow real-time mileage monitoring, the issue gained steam among environmentalists, social justice advocates and safety proponents, all of whom found remarkable benefits from PAYD.
And for a time, the federal government seemed poised to get involved. In 1998, the US Environmental Protection Agency sponsored an effort to examine concerns expressed about PAYD auto insurance. The idea was to explore a reformulation taking into account issues of pricing and availability in states whose statutes were created around time-based policies. In 2001, Texas, a state that had no statutory restrictions that would block PAYD, was the first to allow it. The major insurance companies also began to look seriously at the market, exploring the method that the monitoring would take and creating actuarial tables to help determine pricing.
I'd never heard of PAYD or mileage-based insurance until I read about it in a newsletter from Climate Solutions, a local environmental organization rallying support for legislation that would allow insurers to offer PAYD to Washington state drivers. Partnering with Transportation Choices, their goal is environmental improvement: the Brookings Institute recently estimated that if all motorists bought PAYD, driving would decline by 8% and CO2 emissions by 2%. PAYD is second only to carbon pricing in effectively reducing carbon from automobiles and far more useful than HOV lanes or congestion pricing:
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-pierson-holding/mileage-based-insurance_b_1214340.html
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Cops: Gunman robs choir group at church
By msnbc.com staff and news services
Police in Goose Creek, S.C. say a man armed with a shotgun robbed a choir group as they practiced at a church.
According to WCSC in Charleston, authorities responded to the St. James United Methodist Church around 8 p.m. Wednesday after reports of an armed robbery.
One of the victims told police?that a man entered the church through an unlocked door and aimed a shotgun toward the choir area, WCSC reports. According to the station, the suspect then told the choir?to get on the floor and keep their heads down.
The robber made off with purses, wallets and cell phones from the choir members. No one was hurt, WSOC-TV reports.
Investigators say the suspect is a black male between 5'10" to 5'11 and 230 pounds.
The robber escaped on foot. Police are continuing the investigation.
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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10198923-cops-gunman-robs-choir-group-at-church
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Women in Malawi protest attacks over skirts, pants
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) ? It's been 18 years since the late dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda's "indecency in dress" laws were repealed in Malawi, but mobs of men and boys in the largely conservative southern African country have recently been publicly stripping women of their miniskirts and pants.
Friday, hundreds of outraged girls and women, among them prominent politicians, protested the attacks while wearing pants or miniskirts and T-shirts emblazoned with such slogans as: "Real men don't harass women." A recording of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" got a loud cheer when it was played during the protest. Men also took part.
"Some of us have spent our entire life fighting for the freedom of women," Vice President Joyce Banda told the protesters. "It's shocking some men want to take us back to bondage."
During Banda's 1963-1994 dictatorship, women in Malawi were banned from wearing pants and short skirts. Banda lost power in the country's first multiparty election in 1994 and died three years later.
"Life President" Banda led the nation to independence from Britain, only to impose an oppressive rule. Whims that reflected a puritanical streak were law. The U.S.-trained physician and former Presbyterian church elder, himself always attired in a dark suit and Homburg hat, also banned long hair on men.
"We fought for a repeal of these laws," Ngeyi Kanyongolo, a law professor, said at Friday's protests. "Women dressed in trousers or miniskirts is a display of the freedom of expression."
While Banda is gone, strains of conservatism remain in the impoverished, largely rural nation. Some of the street vendors who have attacked women in recent days claimed it was un-Malawian to dress in miniskirts and pants. Some said it was a sign of loose morals or prostitution.
The attacks took on such importance, President Bingu wa Mutharika went on state television and radio on the eve of the protest to assure women they were free to wear what they want.
Other African nations, including South Africa, have seen similar attacks and harassment of women. Last year, women and men held "SlutWalks" in South Africa, joining an international campaign against the notion that a woman's appearance can excuse attacks. "SlutWalks" originated in Toronto, Canada, where they were sparked by a police officer's remark that women could avoid being raped by not dressing like "sluts."
In Malawi Friday, protesters also wore T-shirts with the slogan: "Vendor: Today, I bought from you, tomorrow, you undress me?" Street children and vendors have been accused of carrying out the attacks.
The president ordered police to arrest anyone who attacks women wearing pants or miniskirts. Police had already made 15 arrests.
"Women who want to wear trousers should do so as you will be protected from thugs, vendors and terrorists," the president said in a local language, Chichewa. "I will not allow anyone to wake up and go on the streets and start undressing women and girls wearing trousers because that is criminal."
Vice President Banda has speculated the attacks were the result of economic woes in a country that is currently racked by shortages of fuel and foreign currency.
"There is so much suffering that people have decided to vent their frustrations on each other," she told reporters.
A vendors' representative at Friday's protest, Innocent Mussa, was booed off the stage. Mussa insisted those who were harassing women were not true vendors.
"I'm ashamed to be associated with the stripping naked of innocent women," he said. "Those were acts of thugs because a true vendor would want to sell his wares to women, he can't be harassing potential customers."
Mussa blamed the harassment on unemployed young people.
(This version CORRECTS Retransmitting, deletes incorrect reference to South Africa "neighboring" Malawi.)
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Scenarios: Can Iraq survive its own politics? (Reuters)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Iraq's political crisis shows no sign of easing a month after the Shi'ite-led government sought the arrest of a Sunni vice president, triggering fears that Iraq, without the buffer of U.S. troops, could return to sectarian conflict.
Accused of running death squads, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi is holed up in Iraqi Kurdistan as a guest of Iraq's Kurdish president. The government of the semi-autonomous region has not responded to requests from Baghdad to hand him over.
The move against Hashemi, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's attempt to fire his Sunni deputy, Saleh al-Mutlaq, prompted a boycott of parliament and cabinet by the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc.
This has put stress on the fragile coalition of Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish parties forming Maliki's power-sharing government.
Some of the worst militant attacks against Shi'ites in the past year followed quickly on the heels of the political crisis, which threatens to unravel Iraq's hard-won coalition government and to worsen the country's sectarian divide.
Here are some possible scenarios.
MALIKI STAYS HIS COURSE
Hashemi, accused of running death squads, has demanded his trial be held not in Baghdad, where Maliki's control runs deep, but in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, officially in the central government's hands but where the Kurds have influence.
Kurdish officials appear to be backing his demand. Maliki said Hashemi must be tried in the capital. A court panel has rejected Hashemi's bid to move the case.
With no sign of a quick resolution on Hashemi, Maliki's Shi'ite-led government appears poised to take advantage of obvious rifts in Iraqiya.
The political blocs are working out details of a conference to help sort out the political turmoil but it may not happen this month. The conference, some politicians say, could ease tensions and allow Sunni lawmakers to save face and go back to their jobs, ending the boycott.
In Sunni-majority Salahuddin province a bid to win more autonomy from Baghdad is gaining steam, although a quick resolution is unlikely. Petitions have been distributed, a constitutionally necessary step toward a referendum on greater self-rule.
Maliki's Shi'ite allies are trying to take advantage of the turmoil to win government jobs, power within ministries and provincial councils and the release of prisoners.
Kurdistan may use the presence of Hashemi and support for Maliki as bargaining chips to win concessions in its ongoing disputes with Baghdad over oil and land rights and the region's share of the national budget.
The government's moves could increase feelings of political isolation among Sunnis, leading to attacks by insurgent groups including al Qaeda.
While some analysts and politicians believe the current problems could lead to Iraq's separation into Sunni, Kurdish and Shi'ite regions in the long-term, the near-term result could be a consolidation of national power by majority Shi'ites.
IRAQIYA BREAKUP?
The government's moves against Hashemi and Mutlaq have put strains on the Iraqiya bloc, a loose cross-sectarian alignment that has long been in danger of crumbling.
Not all members are observing the parliamentary and cabinet boycotts. Three ministers attended cabinet this week.
Iraqiya's attempts to rally support in parliament for a "no confidence" vote against Maliki have gone nowhere. Potential replacements for the premier have little support.
Iraqiya won 91 seats in the March 2010 election but two groups of lawmakers have split -- one a group of 11 Shi'ites and secular Sunnis who call themselves "White Iraqiya" and the second an alliance of six secular Sunnis. A third group of 14 may join them.
The bloc decided at a meeting on Wednesday to continue the boycott. But Iraqiya leader Iyad Allawi suggested Maliki should be replaced or early elections should be held if the national conference fails to make peace.
If Iraqiya disintegrates completely, Maliki may get what he appears to want -- a majority government with the help of the Kurds -- without further moves against the Sunni-backed bloc.
But the inclusion of Iraqiya in the coalition government was considered a key to preventing sectarian tensions, and its exclusion could exacerbate Sunni fears.
MORE ATTACKS?
Since the departure of the last U.S. troops on December 18 and the start of the political crisis, Iraq has seen some of its worst attacks in the past year.
On December 22, more than 10 coordinated bombings in mainly Shi'ite areas of the capital killed 73 people and wounded 200.
On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed more than 50 people and wounded 130 as Shi'ite pilgrims moved through a security checkpoint in the southern oil hub Basra.
Many of the recent attacks bore the marks of al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, which may be flexing its muscle amid political turmoil. U.S. and Iraqi security officials say the group has been severely degraded in recent years but it still has the punch to carry out some large-scale attacks.
The Shi'ite militia Asaib al-Haq, one of the main players on the Iraq battlefield in recent years, has announced it will lay down arms and join politics as an opposition faction.
But the announcement itself apparently stirred the anger of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose political movement is an important but wary ally of Maliki in parliament. Sadr denounced Asaib as "killers" who had no place in politics.
Security officials have warned of tensions and the potential for violence between Sadrists and Asaib al-Haq in the streets, where Sadr has legions of devoted young followers.
A reinvigorated Sunni insurgency, conflict between Shi'ite militias and meddling by neighbors as part of a wider regional realignment of Sunni and Shi'ite power could spark renewed violence in Iraq, where the rebuilt security forces are still learning to cope without the presence of U.S. troops.
(Writing by Jim Loney)
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