Verizon to add $2 bill-pay charge, admits 4G network (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Verizon Wireless, which this month angered customers with three separate data service problems, said on Thursday it will add a $2 fee for one-time telephone and online bill payments.

The planned change, to take effect on January 15, was greeted by a storm of criticism.

Consumer blog Engadget said charging customers to pay was "downright ludicrous." Another tech website, cnet.com, said the move "made little sense."

"The fee is designed to address costs incurred by us for only those customers who choose to make one-time bill payments in alternate payment channels (online, mobile, telephone) and who choose not to use the other options available to them ...," Verizon Wireless spokesman Thomas Pica said in an email.

Verizon Wireless rivals AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp said they do not charge their customers for any bill-payment options.

In addition, some customers complained on Verizon's online forum on Thursday about problems activating their new phones.

The episode followed reports of a problem with the company's high-speed network on Wednesday. Verizon said on Thursday that it had resolved that issue overnight.

"GROWING PAINS" WITH 4G NETWORK

Verizon, the biggest U.S. mobile service provider, admitted on Thursday it was having "growing pains" with its new fourth generation, 4G, high-speed wireless network and had suffered several separate technical problems that caused service outages.

After saying earlier in the day that services on its older third generation, 3G, network were not affected, the company admitted Thursday night that 3G customers were also affected.

Verizon said it had proactively "moved" its fourth-generation (4G) wireless users onto its third-generation (3G) network to ensure all would have a data connection.

However, Verizon admitted that for brief periods, such as on Wednesday, 4G customers could not connect to the 3G Network as quickly as the company would have liked.

The company also said that it is working closely with its network suppliers to ensure smooth functioning of its 4G network, while estimating that connectivity has been available at about 99 percent of the time this year.

Verizon Wireless statement is available at:

http://r.reuters.com/wav75s

Some customers had earlier complained that they were having 3G service problems, while others said their 4G service was being restored on Thursday morning. One person complained about the lack of a public announcement.

"At least acknowledge there is a problem, do you really expect your paying customers to not notice??" one person wrote on Verizon's online message board.

Verizon Wireless spokesman Thomas Pica told Reuters that the company does not plan to compensate its customers who had experienced service problems.

Earlier this month the company, which has long boasted that its service is "most reliable," faced two data service problems.

On December 8 some Verizon customers were unable to access the Internet on their wireless devices for about 24 hours. The company had to fix another problem on December 21.

Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew and Sakthi Prasad; Editing by Dave Zimmerman, Matthew Lewis, Steve Orlofsky and Ed Lane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/wr_nm/us_verizon

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Heavy D Died Of Natural Causes

The Los Angeles coroner’s office says Jamaican-born rapper Heavy D died of natural causes. The self-proclaimed “overweight lover” of hip hop, who became one of rap’s top hit makers with a combination of humor and positivity, collapsed outside his Beverly Hills home on Nov. 8. The 44 year-old rapper, whose real name was Dwight Errington, [...]

Source: http://www.celebritymound.com/heavy-d-died-of-natural-causes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=heavy-d-died-of-natural-causes

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Video: After recent polls, more ?ire of Newt?

Arc: Big East loaded with good, not great, teams

Beyond the Arc: Georgetown's win over Louisville on Wednesday is the sort of thing we'll be seeing a lot of this season in the Big East, a league stocked with good teams, but no great ones beyond Syracuse.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45808888#45808888

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Small Business Energy Savings Kit- CO, MN, NM

Xcel Energy is a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company that provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.4 million electricity customers and 1.9 million natural gas customers through its regulated operating companies in eight Western and Midwestern states. Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis.

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Source: http://www.topsavings.com/index.asp?ID=46948&ref=rss

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Mark Speir new Western Carolina football coach

by Associated Press

WCNC.com

Posted on December 22, 2011 at 4:12 PM

Updated Thursday, Dec 22 at 4:12 PM

CULLOWHEE, N.C. (AP) -- Western Carolina has hired veteran Appalachian State assistant Mark Speir (SPEER) as its head football coach.

Western Carolina announced Thursday that Speir is taking over for Dennis Wagner, who resigned last month after going 8-36 in nearly four seasons.

Athletic director Randy Eaton calls Speir "a fit" in the athletic department, the campus and the community.

This marks Speir's first head coaching position at any level. He coached four different positions for the rival Mountaineers since 2003 and had been their recruiting coordinator since 2004. He coached inside linebackers this season.

The Kannapolis native was on Western Carolina's staff from 1991-94, coaching running backs and outside linebackers. He also coached at Presbyterian and Elon before moving to Appalachian State.
?

Source: http://www.wcnc.com/sports/Mark-Speir-new-Western-Carolina-football-coach-136099628.html

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Bachmann Wrong on Social Security, Jobs, Debt

Michele Bachmann argued that ?my facts are accurate? at the Dec. 15 debate, but a few days later, she got several facts wrong. On ?Meet the Press? the presidential candidate had a couple of exchanges with host David Gregory over the validity of her statements on Social Security and the debt. Among the inaccuracies:

• Bachmann said she didn?t support the payroll tax cut because ?it denied $111 billion to the Social Security trust fund?and ?put senior citizens at risk.? That?s false. The shortfall will be covered by the government?s general fund.
• She said, ?There isn?t one shred of evidence that [the payroll tax cut] created jobs.? Actually, there?s plenty of evidence. Several economists say extending the cut will boost employment, and the unemployment rate has gone down since the tax decrease took effect.
• Bachmann gave a false comparison of the increase in the debt under President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, using a deficit figure for Bush that makes the debt under Obama look worse.

Shorting the Trust Fund?

Bachmann said she didn?t support last year?s payroll tax cut, because it took money from the Social Security trust fund and ?put senior citizens at risk.? But that?s not true. The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees said that the tax cut would have ?no financial impact? on the trust fund.

Bachmann, Dec. 18: Well, I didn?t support it a year ago when it was first proposed, and the reason why I didn?t is because it, it denied $111 billion to the Social Security trust fund. I didn?t think that that was a good thing to do last year. I don?t think it?s a good thing to do this year. ? [I]t?s put senior citizens at risk by denying the $111 billion to the Social Security trust fund.

Reducing the Social Security payroll taxes paid by employees by 2 percentage points (to 4.2 percent) obviously brings in less money for Social Security. But the trust fund isn?t suffering as a result. The government must cover the shortfall with general fund money.

The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees said in its 2011 report: ?The loss of payroll tax revenue due to this one-year reduction will be made up by transfers from the General Fund of the Treasury to the OASI and DI Trust Funds and will thus have no financial impact on either program.?

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the tax cut, passed in December 2010, would reduce Social Security revenues by about $115 billion in fiscal 2011 and 2012. Again, that shortfall will be covered by the general fund. The trust fund isn?t being ?denied? any money, as Bachmann claimed.

Congress and the White House are now working to pass an extension of this tax cut, and arguing over how to pay for it. Paying for it, of course, would mean the trust fund again won?t be shortchanged.

Ignoring the Evidence

Bachmann claimed that there ?isn?t one shred of evidence? that the payroll tax cut created jobs. But there is actual evidence. This is the second time we?ve pointed this out this month.

Bachmann, Dec. 18: And remember, the reason why President Obama proposed it in the first place was to create jobs. There isn?t one shred of evidence that that created jobs. So it defeated its purpose ?

There are several pieces of evidence that Bachmann ignores. First, the country has added jobs since the payroll tax cut was enacted ? more than 1.4 million of them ? and the unemployment rate has gone down from 9.4 percent to 8.6 percent. Second, economists say that cutting the payroll tax rate leads to job growth.

The Congressional Budget Office?s director said in November that cutting the payroll tax would ?spur additional spending? and ?increase production and employment.? Economist Joel Prakken of Macroeconomic Advisers said extending the cut for one year would create 400,000 jobs. Mark Zandi of Moody?s Analytics said that the job growth would be even higher ? 750,000 ? if a deeper tax cut, to 3.1 percent, as the president wanted, was made.

Economists are not all in agreement as to how big of an impact the tax cut would have, however, or whether it?s needed to help the struggling economy. Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told us that he wasn?t sure he would ?go to the mat to get rid of? it. But he doubted the tax cut ?will do a heck of a lot to get the economy going.?

Even so, Bachmann is wrong when she says ?[t]here isn?t one shred of evidence? that the tax cut boosts jobs.

Debt, Deficit Confusion

Bachmann gave a false and confused comparison of debt figures under President Bush and under President Obama. She said in 2007 ?our debt for the entire year was $160 billion,? but under Obama, ?we?re going into debt $1.5 trillion every year.? It?s true that the federal budget deficit (not the ?debt?) for fiscal year 2007 was $161 billion, one of the lowest annual shortfalls during Bush?s term. It shot up to $459 billion the following year, which started and ended with Bush still in office and signing all the spending bills.

But Bachmann is wrong to say that ?we?re going into debt $1.5 trillion every year.? It?s true that the federal deficit was $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2009 (which was nearly one-third over when President Obama was sworn in) and came in at just under $1.3 trillion in fiscal 2010 and 2011 (which ended Sept. 30.) But for the current fiscal year, it is projected to be much less thanks to an improving economy and substantial spending cuts negotiated in budget deals. The most recent projection from the Congressional Budget Office estimated the deficit this year will be $973 billion ? well under Bachmann?s $1.5 trillion figure.

Gregory challenged the accuracy of Bachmann?s statement, saying that ?the debt exploded under the Bush administration.? Here?s part of that exchange:

Bachmann: What, what I?m doing is I?m ? what I?m doing is saying that what ? the decisions that Barack Obama is making is acting like a banana republic. It?s absolutely irresponsible what President Obama is doing to get behind measures to, to increase spending to such a level that we?re going into debt $1.5 trillion every year. This compares to President George Bush. Back in 2007, our debt for the entire year was $160 billion.

Gregory: Congresswoman, that just misstates the record.

Bachmann: Well, we topped that just in the month of November alone. ?

Gregory: ?the, the debt ? wait a minute, Congresswoman.

Bachmann: David, let me just finish.

Gregory: No, wait a minute. I just want to stop you for accuracy.

Bachmann: Let me just finish. We?re talking ?

Gregory: For accuracy, the debt exploded under the Bush administration.

Bachmann: For accuracy. For accuracy. David, David, then, then let me finish. Do a comparison. I agree with you that there was too much money that was spent under George Bush. But for the year 2007, the debt for the year was $160 billion. The debt for this last year was about $1 1/2 trillion. That?s almost 10 times more in debt than George Bush. And just for the month of ? for the month of, I think it?s November of this year, it was more than the entire year for 2007. So there?s no question that the debt has just skyrocketed under, under President Obama in comparison to George Bush.

It?s true that debt has risen faster under Obama than under Bush, for a variety of reasons. But Bachmann exaggerates.

In fact, total debt went up by $4.9 trillion, an 85.5 percent increase, from the day before Bush was inaugurated in 2001 until Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama took office. Under Obama, the debt has gone up by $4.47 trillion, a 42 percent jump. Of course, Obama has only been in office less than three years, and Bush was president for eight. Clearly, the debt has been increasing at a faster rate under Obama, but Bachmann twists her figures to make the difference look far larger than it actually is.

Bachmann also compares the 2007 deficit to the November increase in the debt, claiming that ?it was more than the entire year for 2007.? We wouldn?t recommend cherry-picking numbers in this way, but for the record, total debt went up by $116.8 billion in November, which is not more than 2007?s debt increase, nor 2007?s deficit increase. So Bachmann was wrong on that point as well.

Bachmann has been strongly objecting to accusations of inaccuracy. Also at Thursday?s debate, she said that her ?facts are accurate,? after Gingrich said that her facts were wrong. And we did find that she was correct when she said Gingrich did not take an opportunity to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood and that he campaigned for Republicans who supported so-called ?partial-birth? abortion ? though her claim about ?partial-birth? abortion could have used context.

But on Sunday?s ?Meet the Press,? her facts were not accurate at all.

? Lori Robertson

Source: http://wpress.bootnetworks.com/2011/12/bachmann-wrong-on-social-security-jobs-debt/

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California Creates Justice Unit for E-Crimes

TOOLS ? About Us ? Ash Center ? Webinars ? Innovation Awards ? Innovators Insights Newsletter ? Multimedia ? Calendar ? Groups ? TOPICS ? All Topics ? Criminal Justice and Public Safety ? Economic and Community Development ? Education and Training ? Environment & Natural Resources ? Finance ? Governance and Politics ? Civic Engagement & Social Capital ? Civil Liberties ? Democratization ? E-Government ? Electoral Politics ? Leadership ? Privatization ? Health and Social Services ? Organizational Management ? Public Infrastructure ? Technology ? GLOBAL THEMES ? All Themes ? *Access to Services & Social Justice ? *Accountability ? *Collaboration ? *Education ? *Environment ? *Government Performance & Management ? *Government, Civil Society, & Private Sector Partnerships ? *Health ? *Justice & Security ? *Participation ? *Pluralism, Diversity, Gender, & Inequality ? *Social Services ? *Sustainable Development ? *Technology ? California Creates Justice Unit for E-Crimes Government Technology December 15, 2011 ? ?

?

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Source: http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/2065724.html

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Drain retirement fund to pay debt?

Dear Debt Adviser,
I have about $17,000 in credit card debt (I paid one card completely off -- hooray!) and a total debt of about $33,000. I'm making my payments on time, and for several months I have managed to avoid charging anything on a card. I have about $150,000 in an annuity-stock account for retirement. It's not much, I know, for someone over 50. The $150,000 grows slowly, while the credit card rate is almost 15 percent. Would it be a poor choice to use some of my retirement fund to pay off my debts? I'm hesitant about touching my retirement fund, even though I intend to work as long as I am healthy.
-- David

Dear David,
Thanks for writing. Let's put your situation in a broader context. Intending to work forever in a fulfilling job is not just good, it's great. But the reality is that this decision isn't necessarily up to you in today's employment market. Besides illness, there are at least a dozen other things that may, or will, end your career prematurely.

Because you are in the over-50 crowd, it is important to get your unsecured debt paid down and, most importantly, learn how to stop using credit to extend your income. Why? Well, you touch on the main reason in your letter: You intend to work as long as you are able. Once you reach a certain age, you need to be prepared for when you won't be able to work. Building a safety net of retirement funds and emergency savings takes on added urgency.

I completely understand your desire to dump your $17,000 in credit card debt. Almost all of us would be uncomfortable with that level of debt. But I urge you to imagine being hit with a real emergency, and then think about what you'd need to get through it. What if you had a stroke or heart attack, got laid off or went through a divorce? In extreme situations, having a savings safety net is much better than being debt-free. So, keep the retirement savings and add to it.

Next, continue to avoid charging things on your credit card.

Instead of draining your retirement account, shop around for a credit card with an interest rate of 9 percent or less and low balance-transfer fees. If you are successful, you will need to make a monthly payment of $540 to be debt-free in three years -- that should be your goal. By becoming debt-free and adding to savings, you'll be better prepared for whatever life throws your way.

Get weekly advice on slashing debt and debt consolidation tips! Subscribe to Credit Card News.

To ask a question of the Debt Adviser go to the "Ask the Experts" page and select "Debt" as the topic. Read more Debt Adviser columns and more stories about debt management.

Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by Bankrate's Terms of Use.

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Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5664432808

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The 12 Days of Christmas: Sports Edition

On the third day of Sports-Mas, let me give to thee: Two of the Big Three.

In July 2010, ESPN aired a one hour program called "The Decision," dedicated to LeBron James' announcement that he would be taking his talents to South Beach. As if an unprecedented cable announcement wasn't going to create enough pressure for the emotional fragile forward, then he went and guaranteed the Heat would win eight championships or more.?

To clarify: Nobody is "hating" on LeBron. Dude was completely within his his rights to go wherever the crap he wanted to after serving his time in Cleveland. But when you leave your home state in favor of Miami and guarantee eight championships, you better dang well deliver in the playoffs.?

Well we all know that LeBron didn't deliver in the playoffs, particularly in the fourth quarter against the Mavericks when it mattered most. No. 6 was more than willing to take cheap shots at a flu-ridden Dirk Nowitzki when the Heat were still up in the series, but his postgame presser following Game 6 was vintage LeBron. Essentially saying: "Yeah, maybe my team lost in the NBA finals to a less talented team, but tomorrow I'm going to wake up a millionaire and you're going to wake up a loser."

In a December 2011 interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols, LeBron showed a genuine remorse for his actions and how things went down regarding his departure from Cleveland. Personally, I thought his responses were genuine and that he legitimately regrets some of the spectacle and the hurt...I guess we'll see in 2012. ??

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/995102-the-12-days-of-christmas-sports-edition

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Etta James hospitalized for breathing trouble (AP)

RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? Etta James' longtime manager says the terminally ill blues singer has been hospitalized after experiencing difficulty breathing.

Lupe De Leon says James' family is with her at a Southern California hospital where she was taken earlier this week.

De Leon, who has been James' manager for 30 years, says the singer is "in pretty bad shape" but it remains unknown whether she will be able to be released. He says James was taken to the hospital on Wednesday evening and is on a breathing apparatus.

James' doctor recently announced that the "At Last" singer has been diagnosed with terminal leukemia. The Grammy-winner and Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame member is also suffering from dementia. She has been receiving mostly at-home care.

A judge on Monday set aside $350,000 for James' treatment.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_en_mu/us_people_etta_james

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FOX5Atlanta: Storm reports of damage spread from DT Rome to Shannon to Adairsville and Calhoun. More at http://t.co/I0fLOzaP. #gawx

Storm reports of damage spread from DT Rome to Shannon to Adairsville and Calhoun. More at . 4:52 PM Dec 22nd via web

Source: http://twitter.com/FOX5Atlanta/statuses/150015775074304001

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Huge crowd of mourners gather for Kim Jong Il

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? Tens of thousands of mourners packed Pyongyang's snowy main square Wednesday to pay respects to late leader Kim Jong Il as North Korea tightened security in cities and won loyalty pledges from top generals for Kim's son and anointed heir.

Women held handkerchiefs to their faces as they wept and filed past a huge portrait of a smiling Kim Jong Il hanging on the Grand People's Study House, in the spot where late President Kim Il Sung's photograph usually hangs.

Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack Saturday, according to state media, which reported his death on Monday.

A huge crowd of mourners converged on Kim Il Sung Square with traditional white mourning flowers in hand. The crowd grew throughout the day, even as heavy snow fell, and some mourners took off their jackets to shield mourning wreaths set up in Kim's honor, just below the spot where he stood last year waving to crowds at the massive military parade where he introduced his successor, Kim Jong Un.

Two medical workers rushed to carry away a woman who had fainted.

"We chose to come here to care for citizens who might faint because of sorrow and mental strain," Jon Gyong Song, 29, who works as a doctor in a Pyongyang medical center, told The Associated Press. "The flow of mourners hasn't stopped since Tuesday night."

South Korean intelligence reports, meanwhile, indicated Wednesday that North Korea was consolidating power behind Kim's untested, twenty-something son.

Worries around Northeast Asia have risen sharply as Kim Jong Un rises to power in a country with a 1.2-million troop military, ballistic missiles and an advanced nuclear weapons development program.

South Korea has put its military on high alert. In another sign of border tension, Chinese boatmen along a river separating North Korea and China told the AP that North Korean police have ordered them to stop giving rides to tourists, saying they will fire on the boats if they see anyone with cameras.

Along the Koreas' border, the world's most heavily armed, South Korean activists and defectors launched giant balloons containing tens of thousands of propaganda leaflets, a move likely to infuriate the North. Some of the leaflets opposed a hereditary transfer of power in North Korea. Some showed graphic pictures of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's battered corpse and described his gruesome death.

Kim Jong Il ruled the country for 17 years after inheriting power from his father, national founder and eternal North Korean President Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994. Kim Jong Un only entered the public view last year and remains a mystery to most of the world.

Seoul's National Intelligence Service believes the North is now focused on consolidating the younger Kim's power and has placed its troops on alert since Kim Jong Il's death, according to South Korean parliament member Kwon Young-se.

South Korean military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of office policies that restrict comment on intelligence matters, confirmed that North Korea has ordered its troops to be vigilant but said that doesn't mean they're being moved.

North Korea announced Monday that Kim had died of a massive heart attack two days earlier at the age of 69 ? although some accounts put his age at 70.

Lawmaker Kwon said the NIS has told the parliamentary intelligence committee, which he chairs, that senior military officials have pledged allegiance to Kim Jong Un, and that more security officers have been deployed in major cities across the country. Intelligence officials declined to comment.

According to a Defense Ministry report submitted to parliament Tuesday and leaked to reporters by South Korean lawmakers, some North Korean units conducting winter drills returned to base following the news of Kim Jong Il's death. It also said official mourning events have begun in a number of front-line bases across the country. The report did not elaborate.

Unification Ministry spokesman Choi Boh-seon said in a briefing Wednesday that the government hasn't spotted particular troop movements in North Korea. Military officials said they also haven't noticed serious developments.

Initial indications coming out of North Korea suggest the power transition to the son has been moving forward.

The young Kim led a procession of senior officials Tuesday in a viewing of Kim Jong Il's body, which is being displayed in a glass coffin near that of Kim Il Sung. Publicly presiding over the funeral proceedings was an important milestone for Kim's son, strengthening his image as the country's political face at home and abroad.

State media showed video of Kim Jong Un receiving mourners, including foreign envoys, as he stood near his father's body with an honor guard. He was somber during the greetings, although footage at one point showed him teary-eyed. A report in the North's official Korean Central News Agency did not specify which foreign countries the envoys represented.

According to official media, more than five million North Koreans have gathered at monuments and memorials in the capital since the death of Kim Jong Il at what state media said was the age of 69 ? though some accounts say he was 70.

Hundreds of thousands visited monuments around the city within hours of the official announcement that Kim had died.

The North has declared an 11-day period of mourning that will culminate in his state funeral and a national memorial service on Dec. 28-29.

The propaganda leaflets sent into North Korea on Wednesday by South Korean activists are a sore point with the North, which sees them as propaganda warfare. North Korea has previously warned it would fire at South Korea in response to such actions. There were no immediate reports of retaliation, however. South Korean activists vowed to continue sending leaflets.

___

Reporting from Pyongyang by Associated Press Television News senior video journalist Rafael Wober and reporter Pak Won Il. AP writers Foster Klug, Hyung-jin Kim, Sam Kim and Eric Talmadge in Seoul, AP photographers Andy Wong in Dandong, China, and Lee Jin-man in Imjingak, South Korea, as well as Korea bureau chief Jean H. Lee, contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-21-AS-Kim-Jong-Il/id-d6455f6974b8416c900de4b8fcafd558

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Dollar trades in tight range after US jobs data

Associated Press

Posted on December 22, 2011 at 1:02 PM

NEW YORK (AP) ? The dollar is little changed against the euro after the U.S. government said the number of people applying for unemployment benefits dropped last week.

The Labor Department said first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell 4,000 to 364,000, the fewest since April 2008.

The euro edged up to $1.3050 in midday trading Thursday from $1.3044 late Wednesday.

In other trading, the British pound was unchanged at $1.5671 from late Wednesday. The dollar inched up to 78.12 yen from 78.09 yen.

The U.S. currency fell to 0.9357 Swiss franc from 0.9362, and to 1.0207 Canadian dollar from 1.0280.

Source: http://www.wfaa.com/news/business/136081978.html

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Cato throws 2 TD passes, Marshall beats FIU 20-10 (AP)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. ? Rakeem Cato threw for 226 yards and two touchdowns and Tyler Warner kicked a pair of field goals, helping Marshall beat Florida International 20-10 in the Beef `O'Brady's Bowl on Tuesday night.

Cato threw TD passes of 31 and 35 yards to Aaron Dobson, the latter putting the game away in the closing seconds. Warner's 39-yard field goal set up by a blocked punt snapped a 10-10 with 5:16 remaining.

Marshall (7-6) overcame a slow start to win five of its last seven games and avoid a losing record in its second season under coach Doc Holliday.

FIU (8-5) was denied a school-record ninth victory and there was speculation that coach Mario Cristobal may be a leading candidate to fill a job opening at Pittsburgh.

Cato, a freshman from Miami who is one of 28 players on Marshall's roster recruited from the state of Florida, completed 27 of 39 passes and was intercepted once. Dobson had seven receptions for 81 yards, including a TD catch that wiped out a 10-3 FIU lead just before halftime.

All-purpose threat T.Y. Hilton scored on a 2-yard run for FIU, which also got a 46-yard field goal from Jack Griffin. Hilton had eight catches for 88 yards, ran for 22 yards on three carries and returned two kickoffs for 36 yards, but quarterback Wesley Carroll had difficulty getting the ball to him in open space in the second half.

Carroll was 19 of 29 passing for 150 yards.

Marshall struggled early against a tough schedule, losing in September to West Virginia, Ohio and Virginia Tech before regrouping late win four of six down the stretch to become bowl eligible and finish second behind Southern Mississippi in the Conference USA East Division standings.

FIU is a relative newcomer to the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Panthers launched their program in 2002, joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2005 and has made steady progress in five seasons under Cristobal, who led the school to its first Sun Belt championship a year ago.

Hilton has been a big part of that success, setting FIU and Sun Belt records for career receiving and all-purpose yards. The senior from Miami caught a TD pass and scored on an 89-yard kickoff return to help the Panthers beat Toledo in last year's Little Caesars Bowl, and FIU showcased his versatility early against Marshall.

The 5-foot-10, 185-pound receiver took a handoff on FIU's first play from scrimmage and ran for 20 yards before fumbling 5 yards backward. He had a 17-yard reception on the next play, then later in the opening quarter gained 14 yards on a catch-and-run to the Marshall 2.

Hilton scored his first rushing touchdown of the season on the next play, giving the Panthers a 7-3 lead.

Marshall answered Jack Griffin's 46-yard field goal that put FIU up 10-3 with a six-play, 55-yard drive that Cato finished with his 31-yard TD pass to Aaron Dobson to make it 10-10 with 23 seconds left in the first half.

Neither team was able to generate much offense in the third and fourth quarters. Zach Dunston blocked a punt to set up Warner's go-ahead field goal, and Cato began the clinching drive from his own 40 after FIU fumbled.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/fbc_beef__o__brady_s_bowl

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Tool detects patterns hidden in vast data sets

Friday, December 16, 2011

Researchers from Harvard University and the Broad Institute have developed a tool that can tackle large data sets in a way that no other software program can. Part of a suite of statistical tools called MINE, it can tease out multiple patterns hidden in health information from around the globe, statistics amassed from a season of major league baseball, data on the changing bacterial landscape of the gut, and much more. The researchers report their findings in a paper appearing in the December 16 issue of the journal Science.

From Facebook to physics to the global economy, the world is filled with data sets that could take a person hundreds of years to analyze by eye. Sophisticated computer programs can search these data sets with great speed, but fall short when researchers attempt to even-handedly detect different kinds of patterns in large data collections.

"There are massive data sets that we want to explore, and within them, there may be many relationships that we want to understand," said Broad Institute associate member Pardis Sabeti, senior author of the paper and an assistant professor at the Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University. "The human eye is the best way to find these relationships, but these data sets are so vast that we can't do that. This toolkit gives us a way of mining the data to look for relationships."

The researchers tested their analytical toolkit on several large data sets, including one provided by Harvard colleague Peter Turnbaugh who is interested in the trillions of microorganisms that live in the gut. Working with Turnbaugh, the research team harnessed MINE to make more than 22 million comparisons and narrowed in on a few hundred patterns of interest that had not been observed before.

"The goal of this statistic is to take data with a lot of different dimensions and many possible correlations and pick out the top ones," said Michael Mitzenmacher, a senior author of the paper and professor of computer science at Harvard University. "We view this as an exploration tool ? it can find patterns and rank them in an equitable way."

One of the tool's greatest strengths is that it can detect a wide range of patterns and characterize them according to a number of different parameters a researcher might be interested in. Other statistical tools work well for searching for a specific pattern in a large data set, but cannot score and compare different kinds of possible relationships. MINE, which stands for Maximal Information-based Nonparametric Exploration, is able to analyze a broad spectrum of patterns.

"Standard methods will see one pattern as signal and others as noise," said David Reshef, a co-first author of the paper who is currently a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program and also worked on this project as a graduate student in the department of statistics at the University of Oxford. "There can potentially be a variety of different types of relationships in a given data set. What's exciting about our method is that it looks for any type of clear structure within the data, attempting to find all of them."

Not only does MINE attempt to identify any pattern within the data, but it also attempts to do so with an eye toward capturing different types of patterns equally well. "This ability to search for patterns in an equitable way offers tremendous exploratory potential in terms of searching for patterns without having to know ahead of time what to search for," said David Reshef.

MINE is especially powerful in exploring data sets with relationships that may harbor more than one important pattern. As a proof of concept, the researchers applied MINE to social, economic, health, and political data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners. When they compared the relationship between household income and female obesity, they found two contrasting trends in the data. Many countries follow a parabolic rate, with obesity rates rising with income but peaking and tapering off after income reaches a certain level. But in the Pacific Islands, where female obesity is a sign of status, countries follow a steep trend, with the rate of obesity climbing as income increases.

"Many data sets will contain these types of complicated relationships that are guided by multiple drivers," said Sabeti. MINE is able to identify these. "This greatly extends our capability to find interesting relationships in data."

Researchers can use MINE to generate new ideas and connections that no one has thought to look for before.

"Our tool is a hypothesis generator," said Yakir Reshef, a co-first author of the paper and a graduate student in the Weizmann Institute of Science. "The standard paradigm is hypothesis-driven science, where you come up with a hypothesis based on your personal observations. But by exploring the data, you get ideas for hypotheses that would never have occurred to you otherwise."

In addition to testing the ability of the suite of tools to detect patterns in biological and health data, the researchers examined data collected from the 2008 baseball season.

"One question that we thought would be particularly interesting would be to see what things were most strongly associated with salary," said David Reshef. The researchers generated a list of relationships, finding that the strongest associations with salary were hits, total bases, and an aggregate statistic that reflects how many runs a player generated for a team. "Given the stakes, baseball is so well documented. We're curious to see what can be done in this realm with tools like MINE."

Researchers from many different fields, including systems biology, computer science, statistics, and mathematics, all contributed to this project. "People are getting better at combining data from different sources, and in some ways, this project is in the spirit of that," said Yakir Reshef. "The project brought together authors from many disciplines. It symbolizes the kind of collaborations that we hope people will use this for in the future."

###

Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu

Thanks to Harvard University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116108/Tool_detects_patterns_hidden_in_vast_data_sets

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Big endorsement: Romney picks up SC governor's aid (AP)

GREENVILLE, S.C. ? Challenging Newt Gingrich's claim to South Carolina, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney charged into the state Friday with a key endorsement from the tea party-aligned governor, a packed campaign schedule and plans to start airing TV ads in the early primary state.

The show of force by Romney was a clear signal he intends to compete aggressively in a state that stymied him in 2008 and that Gingrich has made a cornerstone of his own campaign.

"It's a real kickoff of a major portion of our campaign," Romney told reporters after accepting an endorsement from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. "I want to win in South Carolina."

While Romney was planting his flag in a Gingrich stronghold, the former House speaker from neighboring Georgia spent the day off the campaign trail, with a book-signing near Washington and private family events in the capital city.

On Friday and in the previous night's debate, Romney steered clear of pointed attacks on Gingrich, entering the final sprint to the Jan. 3 leadoff Iowa caucuses with an air of confidence after a week of assailing Gingrich's leadership, judgment and temperament. That pivot suggested the Romney camp believes Gingrich's recent rise in opinion polls may have leveled off and Romney can campaign closer to his early stance as the all-but-inevitable nominee.

The New Hampshire primary follows one week after Iowa, then comes South Carolina on Jan. 21. While Romney was still in Iowa on Friday, Haley announced she was supporting him as the best Republican candidate to take on President Barack Obama in the battle for the White House next year.

South Carolina wasn't kind to Romney in 2008. He spent millions here only to come in fourth after disappointing losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. Critics suggested his Mormon faith caused problems with the state's significant conservative Christian vote.

On Friday, Haley argued that her state was past all that. "South Carolina just elected a 38-year-old Indian female for governor," said Haley, who was raised Sikh and converted to Christianity. "What the people of South Carolina care about is values and family and faith."

Not that Friday was all smooth sailing for Romney.

After more than a week of criticizing Gingrich as a loose cannon likely to be savaged by Democrats, Romney opened himself to similar complaints by saying he didn't understand Medicaid until he started working in government. One of the principal avenues of criticism against Romney is that he's spent his life among the privileged and is out-of-touch.

"You know, I have to admit I didn't know all the differences between these things before I got into government," Romney said, referring to the federal-state health care program for the poor, at a campaign stop in Iowa.

Romney later told reporters traveling with him to South Carolina that he understood the program but hadn't quite grasped how it was funded. He called his earlier comment a "self-deprecating understatement."

Meanwhile, he had no harsh words for Gingrich ? seeming content to leave that to his fellow Republican rivals and a political action committee that supports Romney. They have gone after Gingrich aggressively since he claimed the lead in national and Iowa polls this month.

The closest Romney came Friday was a veiled reference to the former congressional leader and longtime Washington consultant.

"What concerns me is that we have in Washington, D.C., a class of people who spent their whole time in Washington," Romney said.

His introductory South Carolina TV spot is upbeat.

The ad cost is modest, just $65,000 on cable television this week and next. But it signals an effort to cut into Gingrich's South Carolina showing heading into the bigger Florida primary, set for Jan. 31.

Romney was confident and relaxed campaigning Friday, traveling with his wife, Ann, and bringing reporters along on the campaign's charter flights for the first time this year.

Gingrich is still facing withering criticism from Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Romney also hopes to slow Gingrich heading into New Hampshire, a must-win state for Romney, who was governor in next-door Massachusetts. Romney, who has led comfortably in New Hampshire, began airing a new ad there featuring his conversations with New Englanders concerned about the economy.

Romney already had set aside campaign money to step up his South Carolina effort, although the focus will probably remain on advertising, not additional campaign staff.

No doubt in the works for South Carolina is another Romney ad before the Jan. 21 primary, one featuring Haley.

Haley's ties with Romney run deep. She endorsed him in 2008 when she was in the Legislature. Romney returned the favor when she ran for governor in 2010.

"Neither South Carolina nor the nation can afford four more years of President Obama, and Mitt Romney is the right person to take him on and get America back on track," Haley, a rising GOP star, said after announcing her endorsement on Fox News Channel.

She later told The Associated Press that Romney "has led in making decisions," a point Romney stresses in suggesting his decades in business and term as governor qualify him most for the GOP nomination.

Romney has focused heavily on winning New Hampshire's primary on Jan. 10. But he has been spending time, too, in Iowa, where he finished a disappointing second to Arkansas' Mike Huckabee after spending $10 million on his 2008 Iowa campaign.

The candidates ? except for Gingrich ? were making final pitches to voters on Friday before people begin focusing on the holidays.

Bachmann and Texas Gov. Rick Perry were taking their argument that Gingrich isn't conservative enough to lead the party to Iowa voters on separate bus tours in the state's conservative but lightly populated northwest.

Although Gingrich was off the trail, his campaign drew unwanted attention after two New Hampshire Republicans alleged in complaints filed with state authorities that they had received illegal political telephone calls from the Gingrich operation.

New Hampshire law prevents political campaigns from using recorded political messages, or "robo-calls," to contact residents who are registered on a national do-not-call list.

Gingrich's campaign denied wrongdoing.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Davenport in Spartanburg, S.C., and Steve Peoples in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Researchers identify phthalates in numeruous medicines and supplements

Public release date: 15-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gina DiGravio
gina.digravio@bmc.org
617-638-8480
Boston University Medical Center

(Boston) Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC), in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health, have found numerous prescription and over-the-counter drugs and supplements use certain chemicals called phthalates as inactive ingredients in their products. The findings appear on-line in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Phthalates such as dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) are used as inactive ingredients in FDA-approved medications where they may serve a variety of functions. Most commonly, they are used in the coating of a drug product to target the delivery of the active ingredients to a specific area of the gastrointestinal tract, or manage their release over time. Some phthalates, including DBP have been identified as causing adverse developmental and reproductive effects in laboratory animals. Limited human studies have suggested a possible association of DBP and DEP with male reproductive health outcomes.

Using a combination of resources, the researchers were able to identify over 100 drug and dietary supplement products that indicated they contained phthalates, including 50 prescription, 40 over-the-counter (OTC) and 26 dietary supplement products with labels that listed DEP or DBP, of which nine contained DBP. In addition, a large number of product labels listed phthalate polymers that are considered to be of little or no known toxicity but which are often used in combination with other phthalates.

"Given the thousands of orally-ingested products on the market (prescription, OTC and dietary supplements), it is difficult to know exactly how many contain phthalates. However, it is informative and important to identify the specific drug products that have included phthalates in their formulations," said lead author Kathy Kelley, MPH, RPh, a research pharmacist at BU's SEC.

According to the researchers, the potential health effects of human exposure to these phthalates through medications are unknown and warrant further investigation. "The present findings should assist researchers in conducting the necessary studies of potential risk of phthalates in human populations, but such efforts are limited by the lack of centralized, comprehensive, and publically-available information on the presence of phthalates in the full range of prescription, OTC and dietary supplement products," added Kelley.

The researchers recommend that future studies should pay particular attention to the amount of phthalate, specifically DBP, used in each dosage form so that estimates of exposure from medications and supplements can be quantified.

###

Funding for this study was provided by the National Institute of Health, The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

---

[ | E-mail | 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.

Public release date: 15-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gina DiGravio
gina.digravio@bmc.org
617-638-8480
Boston University Medical Center

(Boston) Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC), in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health, have found numerous prescription and over-the-counter drugs and supplements use certain chemicals called phthalates as inactive ingredients in their products. The findings appear on-line in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Phthalates such as dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) are used as inactive ingredients in FDA-approved medications where they may serve a variety of functions. Most commonly, they are used in the coating of a drug product to target the delivery of the active ingredients to a specific area of the gastrointestinal tract, or manage their release over time. Some phthalates, including DBP have been identified as causing adverse developmental and reproductive effects in laboratory animals. Limited human studies have suggested a possible association of DBP and DEP with male reproductive health outcomes.

Using a combination of resources, the researchers were able to identify over 100 drug and dietary supplement products that indicated they contained phthalates, including 50 prescription, 40 over-the-counter (OTC) and 26 dietary supplement products with labels that listed DEP or DBP, of which nine contained DBP. In addition, a large number of product labels listed phthalate polymers that are considered to be of little or no known toxicity but which are often used in combination with other phthalates.

"Given the thousands of orally-ingested products on the market (prescription, OTC and dietary supplements), it is difficult to know exactly how many contain phthalates. However, it is informative and important to identify the specific drug products that have included phthalates in their formulations," said lead author Kathy Kelley, MPH, RPh, a research pharmacist at BU's SEC.

According to the researchers, the potential health effects of human exposure to these phthalates through medications are unknown and warrant further investigation. "The present findings should assist researchers in conducting the necessary studies of potential risk of phthalates in human populations, but such efforts are limited by the lack of centralized, comprehensive, and publically-available information on the presence of phthalates in the full range of prescription, OTC and dietary supplement products," added Kelley.

The researchers recommend that future studies should pay particular attention to the amount of phthalate, specifically DBP, used in each dosage form so that estimates of exposure from medications and supplements can be quantified.

###

Funding for this study was provided by the National Institute of Health, The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

---

[ | E-mail | 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/2011-12/bumc-rip121411.php

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