Missing Maine toddler's blood found in dad's home

The parents of missing toddler Ayla Reynolds, Trista Reynolds, left, and Justin DePietro, right, speak on the steps of Waterville City Hall during a vigil for their missing daughter in Castonguay Square in Waterville, Maine on Saturday January 28, 2012. (AP Photo/The Kennebec Journal, Michael G. Seamans)

The parents of missing toddler Ayla Reynolds, Trista Reynolds, left, and Justin DePietro, right, speak on the steps of Waterville City Hall during a vigil for their missing daughter in Castonguay Square in Waterville, Maine on Saturday January 28, 2012. (AP Photo/The Kennebec Journal, Michael G. Seamans)

FILE - This undated file photo obtained from a Facebook page shows missing toddler Alya Reynolds. Investigators say they've found blood inside the Maine home where a toddler was reported missing six weeks ago. State police spokesman Steve McCausland said the blood was found in the basement early in the investigation into Ayla Reynolds' disappearance from her father's home in Waterville. The father, Justin DiPietro, said Ayla was missing from her bed when he checked on her the morning of Dec. 17. (AP Photo/obtained from Facebook, File)

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) ? Some of the blood found in a Maine home where a missing toddler was last seen six weeks ago belonged to the little girl, an official said.

State Police spokesman Steve McCausland on Sunday would not say how much of Ayla Reynolds' blood was found in her father's home in Waterville, where exactly it was found or how long it might have been there.

But investigators told Ayla's mother's family that the amount of blood was "more blood than a small cut would produce," according to a family-run website.

"Even in light of this evidence we are more determined than ever to find out what has happened to Ayla and we still cling to the hope that she is alive and will be returned to us," the website said. "We urge anyone that has information about Ayla to come forward now and unburden yourself of the truth."

Ayla's father, Justin DiPietro, reported her missing Dec. 17. He had put her to bed the night before and said she wasn't there the next morning. DiPietro told police she was wearing green pajamas with polka dots and the words "Daddy's Princess" on them and had a soft cast on her broken left arm.

DiPietro could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday; his cellphone voicemail was full and unable to accept messages.

Ayla was 20 months old when she disappeared. She had been staying with her father at the time in the house where DiPietro lives with his mother. Her mother, Trista Reynolds, lives in Portland.

The blood was among hundreds of pieces of potential evidence that were removed from the Waterville home as part of a criminal investigation into the girl's disappearance.

Trista Reynolds' father said the family was told late Saturday by McCausland that blood found in the home was determined to be Ayla's.

"It was a surprise," Ronald Reynolds said.

He said police did not give any indication what the discovery means.

Ronald Reynolds said he is convinced the family in DiPietro's house has more information than they have shared.

"Every day, it gets hotter and hotter," he said. "I hope they pull them back in, set them down and give them the opportunity to say something."

DiPietro, his mother and a third adult were home the night of Dec. 16, and police have questioned all three, McCausland said Saturday.

"We believe they have not given us the full story," he said.

DiPietro has said he took a polygraph test, but has declined to say what the results were.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-Missing%20Toddler/id-e520158c27754b81b54b84fe93b2aa0c

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SAG Awards Fashion Face-Off: Tina Fey vs. Sofia Vergara

Both Tina Fey and Sofia Vergara came up short last night in the Best Actress in a Comedy category, losing to Betty White (see our full list of 2012 SAG Awards winners).

Consider this their chance at redemption.

The 30 Rock star is best known for being one of the funniest people on earth, but she's no style slouch, either. Sofia Vergara? She wows us with her dresses almost as much as she causes us to double over with her Modern Family quotes.

Vote for your favorite style star in THG's Fashion Face-Off below!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/sag-awards-fashion-face-off-tina-fey-vs-sofia-vergara/

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Sandusky asks court to allow visits with grandchildren (Reuters)

HARRISBURG, Pa (Reuters) ? Former Penn State University football coach Jerry Sandusky, who is under house arrest on charges of child sexual abuse, has asked a Pennsylvania court to allow supervised visits with his grandchildren that are now prohibited.

Sandusky, 67, faces 52 criminal charges that he molested 10 boys over a 15 year period and has been tethered to his house under the terms of his release on bail in December that barred contact with anyone under age 18. He has maintained his innocence.

In a motion filed Friday, Joe Amendola, attorney for the former Penn State defensive coordinator, asked the Centre County Court to modify the terms of Sandusky's release to permit supervised contact with his 11 grandchildren.

"The Defendant's minor grandchildren have expressed their sadness to their parents about not being able to visit or talk with the Defendant since November 5, 2011," Amendola wrote.

If his grandchildren were allowed to visit him at his State College home, they would be accompanied by at least one parent, according to the motion.

Amendola is also asking the court to allow Sandusky to communicate with his grandchildren by mail, email, telephone, or by Skyping, a type of video-chatting over the Internet.

Sandusky was charged November 5 with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over a 15 year period. He had been freed after posting $100,000 after those charges were filed in November.

In December, he was arrested a second time and prosecutors added charges that raised the number of sex abuse victims to 10. He has been under house arrest since he was freed on $250,000 bail following his second arrest with restrictions.

Prosecutors say Sandusky used his position as head of The Second Mile charity to find his victims. Sandusky started The Second Mile charity to help troubled disadvantaged children.

His grandchildren are not the only people Sandusky would like to be in contact with.

Amendola said Sandusky wants "reasonable visitation" by friends at his home and he wants the ability to leave his home "for the purposes of assisting his attorneys, private investigators, and other professional individuals retained by the Defendant in the preparation of his defense."

The charges against Sandusky caused an avalanche of top-down changes at Penn State. Soon after his arrest, the school's board of trustees fired iconic head football coach Joe Paterno, who died of lung cancer on Sunday, and university president Graham Spanier.

Also on Friday, Amendola followed up a request for prosecutors to turn over the names of the people who accused Sandusky and the details of those crimes. The attorney said a week had passed since his original request.

Centre County Court Judge John Cleland is scheduled to consider both matters on February 10. Prosecutors have until February 3 to file responses to the requests.

(Editing by David Bailey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/us_nm/us_crime_coach_pennstate

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Source: http://www.apsg2006.org/business-insurance-an-overview/

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Arab League halts observer mission in Syria (AP)

BEIRUT ? The Arab League halted its observer mission in Syria on Saturday because of escalating violence that killed nearly 100 people the past three days, as pro-Assad forces battled dissident soldiers in a belt of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus in the most intense fighting yet so close to the capital.

The rising bloodshed has added urgency to new attempts by Arab and Western countries to find a resolution to the 10 months of violence that according to the United Nations has killed at least 5,400 people as Assad seeks to crush persistent protests demanding an end to his rule.

The United Nations is holding talks on a new resolution on Syria and next week will discuss an Arab peace plan aimed at ending the crisis. But the initiatives face two major obstacles: Damascus' rejection of an Arab peace plan which it says impinges on its sovereignty, and Russia's willingness to use its U.N. Security Council veto to protect Syria from sanctions.

Syria's Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar vowed the crackdown would go on, telling families of security members killed in the past months that security forces "will continue their struggle to clean Syria's soil of the outlaws."

Government forces launched a heavy assault on a string of suburbs and villages on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, aiming to uproot protesters and dissident soldiers who have joined the opposition, activists said.

Troops in tanks and armored personnel carriers attacked the suburbs of Kfar Batna, Saqba, Jisreen and Arbeen, the closest of which lie only a few miles from downtown Damascus, said the Local Coordination Committees activist network and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Dissident troops were fighting back against the attackers, they said.

In a nearby suburb, Douma, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying army officers, the state-run news agency SANA, calling the attackers "terrorists." It said seven officers were killed.

The assault in the suburbs seemed to be a sign of the growing presence of dissident soldiers closer to the capital. Although the tightly controlled Damascus has been relatively quiet since the uprising began, its outskirts have witnessed intense anti-regime protests and army defectors have become more visible and active in the past few months.

"The fighting today is the most intense near the capital since the uprising began," said Rami Abdul-Rahman who heads the Observatory for Human Rights. "The Syrian regime is trying to finish the uprising militarily now that the case is being taken to the United Nations."

In Saqba, electricity and phone lines were cut off and mosque loudspeakers told residents to say in lower floors for fear high buildings might get hit in the fighting, said Omar Hamza, an activist in the district. "Random shelling and sound of explosions terrified the people," he told The Associated Press.

He said army defectors had managed to stop the advancing troops. The regime forces are putting all their force to finish the Free Syrian Army and protesters in the Damascus suburbs," Hamza said.

The Free Syrian Army force of anti-regime military defectors is based in Turkey, and its fighters frequently try to cross into Syria through the mountainous border area in the northwest. SANA reported that Syrian troops prevented gunmen from crossing in from Turkey on Saturday in fighting that it said left many of the infiltrators killed or wounded.

The LCC and the Observatory also reported intense fighting between troops and defectors in the town of Rastan near the restive central city of Homs.

The Observatory said at least 36 people, were killed across the country Saturday, including 17 civilians, three defectors and 16 troops, while the LCC said 20 died, half of them in Homs province, which has been one of the areas hardest hit by government crackdowns. The new deaths come after two days of bloody turmoil killed at least 74 people, including small children.

In the eastern oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour, an oil pipeline took a direct hit and caught fire as government troops shelled a nearby town, the two groups also said, reporting at least one person dead. State media blamed "terrorists" in the attack.

The month-old Arab League observer mission in Syria had come under widespread criticism for failing to bring a halt to the regime's crackdown. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the U.N. Security Council to intervene.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement that the organization decided to halt the observers' work immediately because of the increasing violence, until the League's council can meet to decide the mission's fate.

He sharply criticized Damascus for the spike in bloodshed, saying the regime has "resorted to escalating the military option in complete violation of (its) commitments" to end the crackdown, Elaraby said. He said the victims of the violence have been "innocent citizens," in an implicit rejection of Syria's claims that it is fighting "terrorists."

Syria's state-run news agency quoted an unnamed official saying Damascus "regrets and is surprised" by the Arab League decision after Syria agreed to extend the observer's mission for another month. The official said the halt aims "to pressure the talks in order to call for external intervention in Syria's internal affairs," referring to the U.N. talks.

Elaraby's deputy, Ahmed Ben Heli, told reporters that the around 100 observers will remain in Damascus while their mission is "reevaluated." He suggested the observers could resume their work in the future...

Elaraby and the prime minister of Qatar were set to leave for New York on Sunday to seek U.N. support for the latest Arab plan to end Syria's crisis. The plans calls for a two-month transition to a unity government, with Assad giving his vice president full powers to work with the proposed government.

Syria has rejected the proposal, saying it violates its sovereignty. Elaraby had previously been due to travel Saturday, but his trip was pushed back to Sunday with no explanation.

The U.N. Security Council began closed-door negotiations Friday on a new Arab-European draft resolution aimed at resolving the crisis, but Russia's envoy said he could not back the current language as it stands.

Any resolution faces strong opposition from China and Russia, and both nations have veto power. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that the text introduced by new Arab Security Council member Morocco has "red lines" for Moscow, but he's willing to "engage" with the resolution's sponsors.

Churkin said those lines include any indication of sanctions, including an arms embargo. "We need to concentrate on establishing political dialogue," he said.

____

Batrawy reported from Cairo; Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

___

Bassem Mroue can be reached on twitter at http://twitter.com/bmroue

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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Friend says on 911 call Demi Moore was convulsing

FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, actress Demi Moore attends the premiere of "Margin Call" in New York. A spokeswoman for Moore on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 said the actress is seeking professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, actress Demi Moore attends the premiere of "Margin Call" in New York. A spokeswoman for Moore on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 said the actress is seeking professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Demi Moore smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and was convulsing and "semi-conscious, barely," according to a caller on a frantic 911 recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.

The woman tells emergency operators that Moore, 49, had been "having issues lately."

"Is she breathing normal?" the operator asks.

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

The recording captures the 10 minutes it took paramedics to arrive as friends gather around the collapsed star and try to comfort her as she trembles and shakes.

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

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

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

"Some form of ... and then she smoked something. I didn't really see. She's been having some issues lately with some other stuff. So I don't know what she's been taking or not," the friend says.

The city attorney's office advised the fire department to redact details about medical conditions and substances to comply with federal medical privacy rules.

"She smoked something. It's not marijuana. It's similar to incense," the friend says to the 911 operator.

While Moore's friends don't say exactly what she smoked, an increasingly popular drug known as Spice is sometimes labeled as "herbal incense."

Spice is a synthetic cannabis drug and also called K2. It's sold in small packets over the Internet, in smoke shops and at convenience stores. The packaging sometimes reads "not for human consumption" to conceal its purpose.

In 2011, there were twice as many spice-related calls to Poison Control Centers nationwide as in the previous year, according to the National Office of Drug Control Policy.

The adverse health effects associated with synthetic marijuana include anxiety, vomiting, racing heartbeat, seizures, hallucinations, and paranoid behavior.

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

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

The operator asks the friend if this has happened before.

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

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

The past few months have been rocky for Moore.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By the end of the call, Moore has improved.

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

Moore and Kutcher were wed in September 2005.

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

Moore and Kutcher created the DNA Foundation, also known as the Demi and Ashton Foundation, in 2010 to combat the organized sexual exploitation of girls around the globe. They later lent their support to the United Nations' efforts to fight human trafficking, a scourge the international organization estimates affects about 2.5 million people worldwide.

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

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-27-People-Demi%20Moore/id-c0afa84ed4ef4763abae213a217f5690

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'Man On A Ledge': The Reviews Are In!

Effects work 'frighteningly well' but 'premise is so devoutly ridiculous,' critics say.
By Kara Warner

Sam Worthington in "Man on a Ledge"
Photo: Summit

If your impressions about the new action thriller "Man on a Ledge" are based on the film's very-literal title, you're very likely correct in assuming to know a decent amount about the film before entering the theater. "Ledge" is the story of ex-cop and fugitive Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), whose seemingly obvious suicidal plan to jump off a building is slowly revealed to be something much more.

Thus far, the critical reception for the film is very different from initial audience reactions. The Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer has "Ledge" at a 22 percent fresh rating from critics, versus a 65 percent fresh audience rating.

Read on to see what has the two viewing bodies so divided as we sift through the "Man on a Ledge" reviews:

The Premise
"It's an arresting image, Sam Worthington out on that 40th-story ledge. He's a fairly tough-looking guy, after all, and we know him best as the tooth-gritting blockbuster hero of 'Avatar' and 'Clash of the Titans,' so it's head-spinning to see the man's beefy figure as a speck hovering so precariously close to New York's infinite sky. The camera swirls around Worthington's disgraced former cop Nick Cassidy, inching out past that thin strip of architecture, then back in. What if he trips, or jumps? For a while, anything seems possible, and it's both exhilarating and terrifying. Then the wool comes off, and it's clear that director Asger Leth and screenwriter Pablo Fenjves have ambitions considerably less grand than their protagonist's perch. Cassidy's ledge game — with all the studio-unfriendly moral ambiguities it entails — is just a con, a photo op for the crowds, and Nick's apparent desire to exit the material world is a front. What he truly, passionately wants to do is steal some jewelry." — Andrew Lapin, NPR

The Impact of Practical Effect
"I, on the other hand, was gripping anything in reach, palms dripping, thinking I might not have survived the effects had they been 3-D. Though there were other production sites, serious time was spent actually shooting on that 14-inch ledge wrapping the 21st floor of the Roosevelt Hotel to create the vicarious sensation of being there. Which worked frighteningly well, at least for the vertiginous among us. Oh, that the actual human dynamics of the unfolding story could have been as dramatic, as on the edge as that ledge." — Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

The Direction
"Mr. Leth, the son of renowned Danish documentarian Jorgen Leth, has directed only one other film, 'Ghosts of Cité Soleil,' a highly stylized doc that revealed a soul yearning to breathe free of nonfiction. He has an instinct for weaving sturdy narrative fabric out of intersecting plot lines. ... Amid the hoopla, Mr. Leth takes sobering assessment of media-circuses and mob mentalities: The people down below taking cellphone pictures, the ones yelling 'Jump!'; the callous nature of cops for whom it's all routine. There's the occasional goofy grace note: Kyra Sedgwick, playing a voracious and obviously Anglo television reporter named Suzie Morales, rolls the 'R' in her surname as she signs off, just in case someone missed the point (we've all heard it). In another scene, Mr. Leth takes such pains to strip the shapely Ms. Rodriguez down to her underwear that audiences, who may well be leering, will also be laughing at how obvious it is." — John Anderson, Wall Street Journal

The Final Word, Pro/Con Style
"Director Asger Leth, making his U.S. feature-film debut with 'Man on a Ledge,' keeps the pace brisk and never allows the tone to stray into self-seriousness, which is crucial for a movie whose premise is so devoutly ridiculous. The script, from Pablo F. Fenjves, provides enough feints and twists to keep us engaged. Jamie Bell and Genesis Rodriguez aren't the most believable of couples, but there's a screwball charm to their comic routine as amateur thieves charged with aiding Nick's scheme. (Leth can't resist inserting an entirely superfluous — but nonetheless greatly appreciated — scene of the criminally gorgeous Rodriguez stripping down to a thong in the middle of a heist.) Worthington makes for a likable populist protagonist, even if his Australian accent betrays him on copious occasions, and Harris' disturbingly emaciated frame lends an added menace to his devious plutocrat villain." — Thomas Leupp, Hollywood.com

"Like last year's action comedy 'Tower Heist,' 'Man on a Ledge' becomes something of a parable of the 99 percent, with Cassidy initially an object of prurient interest for the massed crowds below, then becoming a blue-collar folk hero. That gives the movie at least a frisson of contemporary relevance, but the filmmakers blow that advantage with plot and characterization that require not just a suspension of disbelief but a suspension of eye-rolling reflexes and the nagging impulse to burst into derisive laughter." — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

Check out everything we've got on "Man on a Ledge."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678092/man-on-a-ledge-reviews.jhtml

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Indiana House approves right-to-work bill (AP)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_indiana_right_to_work

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Keystone Automotive to Continue as NMRA's Series Sponsor | NMRA

Keystone Automotive, the leading distributor and marketer of specialty automotive equipment and accessories, will continue as the NMRA?s series sponsor for the 2012 event season. ?Keystone?s ?support your local speed shop? campaign is near and dear to the NMRA as many of their speed & performance accounts participate with the series. ?Expect to see Keystone speed & performance customers on display as a part of NMRA?s huge manufacturers midway at most events. ?Keystone has been the NMRA?s series sponsor since 2007 and their dealer locator program, 1-800-AUTOPARTS, will continue as the official performance parts supplier of the NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals.

Keystone Automotive sells and distributes specialty automotive products, such as light truck/SUV accessories, car accessories and trim items, specialty wheels, tires and suspension parts, and high performance products to approximately 23,000?wholesale customers in the U.S. and Canada. ?For more information on Keystone Automotive log on to www.keystoneautomotive.com.

Source: http://www.nmradigital.com/2012/01/25/keystone-automotive-to-continue-as-nmras-series-sponsor/

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Ben Watson: 'The LA Complex' Reveals Gay Black Character

Betcha didn't see that coming, huh? Episode two of the hot new MuchMusic (and soon-to-be The CW) show the "The L.A. Complex" ended with aspiring hip-hop artist Tariq (Benjamin Charles Watson) locking lips with his tough-as-nails hip-hop mentor/boss, King (Andra Fuller). It's the first time a TV show has explored the taboo topic of being gay in the hip-hop world, and it's already provoked quite the reaction from fans.

The Huffington Post caught up with Watson to find out what it's been like as a young actor tackling such a controversial character, chatting about everything from filming the nerve-wracking scene with Fuller to how he feels about his new life as an accidental role model.

You had a pretty major scene at the end of last week's episode! What kind of reaction have you been getting so far?

The second it ended I was getting tweets and Facebook messages with people saying, "Omigod! What just happened? I never saw that coming!" It was completely out of left field for a lot of people. It was the perfect response I was hoping to get. Everyone's dying to know what's going to happen in episode three.

What was it like filming that scene?

It was nerve-wracking because Andra and I knew it was coming, and it was one of the last scenes of the day. Plus there are so many people around us! We had two choices -- we could run away and hide or jump right in and fulfill the needs of these characters. So we jumped right in!

Offhand, I can't even think of an openly gay man in the rap or hip-hop worlds, so in that sense your characters are pretty groundbreaking...

It's controversial and it's amazing at the same time. There have already been a lot of comments on the 'net, and a lot of people are already turned off by it because it's not done in the hip-hop world by two black guys. It's just not done. I feel a lot of pressure -- good pressure and bad pressure. It's a story that has to be told and has to be told right. I can't think about the negative part, I just have to fulfill the story of Tariq.

How did your family react?

I'm black Jamaican, so it was a little controversial! There were a lot of people who were like "Awesome!" but there were some people who were turned off by it. They reacted a lot better than I thought they would have, let's put it that way. It shocked a lot of people, but what can I do?

Can you give some hints about what will happen in future episodes? Will this affair stay a secret?

I can guarantee you there are a ton of people on the down-low in the hip-hop world. We're not the type of show that's going to be like, 'Cool, we're going to tell the hip-hop world that it's time to come out!' and all of that stuff. It's going to be true to life, so it has to be a relationship on the DL. We can't just come out and be like, "cool, we're in the hip-hop world, we're proud, we're gay." As much as we'd like to do that, it's just not realistic. So yeah, it's going to be a relationship on the DL. And... things happen! A lot of things happen. These next four episodes are ridiculously amazing, so a lot of people are going to be stunned by what happens.

I'm dying of curiosity because HuffPost interviewed [co-creator] Martin Gero a couple of weeks ago, and he said that all of the characters are based on real people. Do you know who Tariq is based on? You don't have to name names, I'm just wondering if you know!

I don't know! I would love to say, "yeah, I know exactly who Tariq is," but I don't know! I have no idea. I would love to get into Martin's head!

Do you feel a sense of responsibility that comes along with this? Are you prepared to be a role model of sorts?

A lot of people have asked me that. I knew that in taking on a role like this, it was going to come with the territory. This is one of the last characters that they cast in the series. I knew that it would be a very tough role to cast, especially being a black guy whose character is gay on the show and in hip-hop -- it's a lot for someone to take on. A lot of people aren't going to be comfortable portraying this role on television. I want to help people. Hopefully I will get an opportunity to help through something like the It Gets Better campaign or PSAs. I would absolutely love the opportunity to do something like that.

Do you think the American reaction is going to be different when this starts airing on The CW?

Oh, man, wow. I'm freaking out because I don't know. With every good reaction there's going to be a counter bad reaction, so I'm just going to have to go with the flow! I'm freaking out thinking about it right now. Thanks for bringing it up! [Laughs]

At this point, do you think the positive reaction is outweighing the negative?

On my Twitter, nothing has been negative yet. Some of the negative reactions have been coming from a lot of older black Canadians. In our culture, it's totally fine to be gay and open and all of that fun stuff, but if you're from an older generation it's still "wrong." I've been reading some negative comments, but I can't let that stop me. I just have to embrace it.

Are you worried about being typecast as a gay character for the rest of your career?

Honestly, I don't care. It was a thought that if the show was a success I might be pigeonholed, but who cares, really? I'm an actor -- that's what I do. I take on roles and then I lose the role and become me again.

"The L.A. Complex" airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on MuchMusic.

You can watch the controversial scene below -- SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't seen it!

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/ben-watson-the-la-complex-muchmusic-cw_n_1223918.html

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NEC NP-V260X

The back of the NEC NP-V260X ($550 street) is bristling with ports and jacks that make it a good fit for a classroom or conference room?s data projection needs. Though it?s light enough to be easily portable, it?s best suited for use within a school or company rather than being lugged by a road warrior. In our testing, its image quality was decidedly better for data than for video. The DLP-based NP-V260X has an XGA (1,024 by 768) resolution, a 4:3 aspect ratio befitting data presentations. Its brightness is rated at 2,600 lumens.

The NP-V260X, a white projector with rounded corners, measures 3.7 by 12.2 by 9.7 inches (HWD) and weighs a reasonably light 5.5 pounds. Two factors make it less portable than it could be. Unlike most projectors in its weight class, it does not come with a carrying case. It also lacks a port for a USB thumb drive, meaning that it can?t run a standalone presentation and you?ll have to have a computer or other image source on hand for it to connect to (or at least access to a network).

As for connectivity, it does have an HDMI-in port, something we?re seeing in XGA as well as higher-resolution projectors. It also has S-Video, and the three RCA jacks for composite video and audio. There are 2 VGA-in ports for connecting to computers (each with its own audio-in jack) and one VGA-out for a monitor (with an audio-out jack). An Ethernet port for LAN connectivity and an RS232 port for PC control round out the picture.

Data and Video Image Testing

Although at 2,600 lumens of rated brightness, the NP-V260X is slightly dimmer than the similar the 3,000-lumen NEC NP-V300X ($779 direct, 3.5 stars), it?s still bright enough so the image, sized to about 65 inches in a diagonal to fill our test screen, stood up well even under considerable ambient light.

In my data image testing using the DisplayMate suite, the NP-V260X showed reasonably good image quality, and should be more than adequate for use in typical business and educational presentations. There was some color fringing at the borders between very bright and very dark areas, and some minor tinting of white areas. White-on-black type was reasonably sharp except at our smallest test size, which is typical of an XGA projector.

All single-chip DLP projectors are potentially subject to the rainbow effect, in which bright areas seem to break up into little red-green-blue rainbows. People vary in their sensitivity to it. I noticed it in the data test images that tend to bring it out, but wasn?t unduly distracted by it.

Video testing was a different matter. Rainbows were readily apparent in high-contrast test scenes, such as the apocalyptic battle scene at the beginning of Terminator 2. The effect was more pronounced than is usual with DLP projector, and was distracting to me?I seem to be about average in my sensitivity to the effect.? The NP-V260X is okay for short video clips as part of a presentation, but I?d hesitate to use it for longer clips, let alone movies.

Other Issues

The projector?s built-in audio system, which employs a single 7-watt speaker, is loud enough to fill a small conference room, with about average sound quality. The NP-V260X is 3D ready, using DLP Link, though you need active shutter glasses (which cost at least $50 a pair) to view content in 3D.

The NEC NP-V260X provides many more connection choices than most of the less expensive XGA business projectors we?ve looked at; the similarly priced Epson EX5210 Multimedia Projector ($549 direct, 3.5 stars) does add a port for a USB thumb drive as well as a USB port for connecting to a PC. The NEC NP-V300X provides similar features to the NP-V260X but at a higher brightness and price. If you need much higher brightness and better data image quality (and no rainbow effect) in an XGA-resolution projector, consider the Editors? Choice Epson PowerLite 1880 MultiMedia Projector ($1,399 direct, 4 stars). But apart from sticker shock, you?ll also pay a price in reduced portability, as it weighs 7.2 pounds?and like the NP-V260X, it lacks a carrying case. The NEC NP64 ($1,099 direct, 4 stars) is far more portable (3.9 pounds), bright at 3,000 lumens, and does come with a case.

More Projector Reviews:

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??? NEC NP-V260X
??? Epson EX5210 Multimedia Projector
??? Optoma HD8300
??? Sony VPL-HW30ES
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/FlpsQItdV20/0,2817,2399224,00.asp

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Neanderthals and their contemporaries engineered stone tools, anthropologists discover

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2012) ? New published research from anthropologists at the University of Kent supports the long-held theory that early human ancestors across Africa, Western Asia and Europe engineered their stone tools.?

For over a century, anthropologists have debated the significance of a group of stone age artifacts manufactured by at least three prehistoric hominin species, including the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis). These artifacts, collectively known as ?Levallois?, were manufactured across Europe, Western Asia and Africa as early as 300,000 years ago.?

Levallois artifacts are flaked stone tools described by archaeologists as ?prepared cores? i.e. the stone core is shaped in a deliberate manner such that only after such specialised preparation could a prehistoric flintknapper remove a distinctive ?Levallois flake?. Levallois flakes have long been suspected by researchers to be intentionally sought by prehistoric hominins for supposedly unique, standardised size and shape properties. However, such propositions were regarded as controversial by some, and in recent decades some researchers questioned whether Levallois tool production involved conscious, structured planning that resulted in predetermined, engineered products.?

Now, an experimental study ? in which a modern-day flintknapper replicated hundreds of Levallois artifacts ? supports the notion that Levallois flakes were indeed engineered by prehistoric hominins. By combining experimental archaeology with morphometrics (the study of form) and multivariate statistical analysis, the Kent researchers have proved for the first time that Levallois flakes removed from these types of prepared cores are significantly more standardised than the flakes produced incidentally during Levallois core shaping (called ?debitage flakes?). Importantly, they also identified the specific properties of Levallois flakes that would have made them preferable to past mobile hunter-gathering peoples.?

Dr Metin Eren, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University?s School of Anthropology and Conservation and the flintknapper who crafted the tools, said: ?The more we learn about the stone tool-making of the Neanderthals and their contemporaries, the more elegant it becomes. The sophistication evident in their tool-making suggests cognitive abilities more similar to our own than not.??

Dr Stephen Lycett, Senior Lecturer in Human Evolution and the researcher who conducted the laboratory analysis of the tools, commented: ?Mobility is a factor in the lives of all hunter-gatherer populations, including Late Pleistocene hominins. Since mobile hunter-gatherers can only carry a fixed number of tools, it is paramount that the potential usefulness of their tools is optimised relative to their weight. The new analyses indicated that Levallois flakes appear to optimise their utility in a variety of ways relative to other flakes. These flakes are on average thicker across their surface area than debitage flakes, and more uniformly thick. These properties would have optimised durability. However, relative to size, the maximum thickness of Levallois flakes is actually less than debitage flakes. This would have provided greater potential for use, resharpening, and re-use, time and again. The symmetry and evenly distributed thickness of Levallois flakes would also align the tool?s centre of mass with the tool?s motion during use, making them ergonomically desirable.??

Dr Lycett also explained that ?amongst a variety of choices these tools are ?superflakes?. They are not so thin that they are ineffective but they are not so thick that they could not be re-sharpened effectively or be unduly heavy to carry, which would have been important to hominins such as the Neanderthals?.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Kent, via AlphaGalileo.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Metin I. Eren, Stephen J. Lycett. Why Levallois? A Morphometric Comparison of Experimental ?Preferential? Levallois Flakes versus Debitage Flakes. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (1): e29273 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029273

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120124092742.htm

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Prosecution ready to wind up preliminary hearing (AP)

ALHAMBRA, Calif. ? A man who masqueraded as a Rockefeller and is now accused of murder was confronted in court Monday by witnesses who said he tried to sell them an Oriental rug with a blood spot.

Christian Gerhartsreiter, who is charged with murdering a San Marino man from whom he had rented a cottage in 1985, smiled slightly at witnesses Robert and Bettie Brown, an elderly couple who once welcomed him into their home for religious study classes and became his close friends.

Gerhartsreiter is charged with killing John Sohus, whose bones were found in 1994 in the backyard of his former home in San Marino, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, nearly 10 years after Sohus and his wife vanished.

Gerhartsreiter left town soon after they went missing. He is charged only with killing 27-year-old John Sohus. No sign of Linda Sohus has been found.

Robert Brown testified at a preliminary hearing about a day in 1985 when the man they knew as Chris Chichester showed up at their door with belongings he wanted to sell because he was going on a trip.

Brown said he called his wife to look at a small Oriental rug.

"She looked at it, and said, `Chris, this has blood on it.' He fairly quickly rolled it back up and left with it," Brown said, adding that his wife suggested a place he could take it to be cleaned.

Brown said Chichester, who was then pretending to be an instructor at the University of Southern California's film school, showed up on another occasion asking how to dispose of photo processing chemicals.

Chichester had told the Browns that he was descended from English peerage and was related to a famed British sailor of the same last name. He had also given them tea, saying it came from his family's Indonesian tea plantation.

About a week after the rug incident, Brown said Chichester disappeared, which was not surprising.

"He was something of a phantom. He was different, unusual. He was believable up to a point. You couldn't pin him down on details. Everything was loose and feathery," Brown said.

Another witness filled in the blanks of Gerhartsreiter's travels after he left San Marino. Gerhartsreiter was arrested in Boston in 2008.

Christopher Bishop, an Episcopal priest from Greenwich, Conn., testified that he met the man he knew as Christopher Crowe in 1985 when he appeared at the church where Bishop's father was the priest.

The younger Bishop said he was a film student at Columbia University at the time and his father told him there was a new parishioner who was also involved in film.

Crowe told Bishop that he was the brother of well-known film director Cameron Crowe and had been to film school in California. He said he was in Connecticut to produce the new "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" series, Bishop said.

"Did you believe it?" asked prosecutor Habib Balian.

"Yes," the witness said. "I gave him a screenplay I had written and he had critiqued it. He certainly was conversant in film."

In 1988, Crowe gave Bishop a truck, saying he had used it in a movie and didn't need it anymore. Bishop said he later found out there was a lien on the truck and it had fraudulent license plates. He dumped the truck at a train station, thinking he could get in trouble for it.

"I thought that was going to be the end of the story," Bishop said. "But one day, I was sitting at my parents' house and a Greenwich detective came to the door."

The detective asked about Crowe, saying he was involved in a missing person investigation. Bishop said he later asked Crowe who he really was.

"What was the defendant's response?" Balian asked, to which Bishop replied: "Gotta go, bye."

The truck was later found to be registered to John and Linda Sohus and had disappeared at the time Gerhardsreiter left the house, authorities said.

On the East Coast, Gerhartsreiter had claimed to be Clark Rockefeller, a member of the famous family, and married a woman with whom he had a daughter. She divorced him when she found out he had duped her.

Last year, Gerhartsreiter was convicted of kidnapping his daughter in Boston during a custody dispute. He is serving a four- to five-year prison sentence for that crime.

He would be eligible for parole this year if he was not facing the California charge, which could bring him 26 years to life in prison if he's convicted.

Other witnesses, including Linda Sohus' mother and her best friend, testified about the missing woman's life and the mystery of why she had disappeared. Susan Coffman said she and Sohus were best friends and that she kept a detailed diary of their conversations.

She said Linda Sohus had some unhappy romances before she met and married John Sohus, and that the woman said after the wedding she was happy for the first time.

Coffman testified that in February 1985, Sohus called to say she and her husband had to go to New York briefly for jobs. Both she and Linda Sohus' mother, Susan Mayfield, were told that Linda Sohus planned to be back in two weeks.

But the couple vanished and both women received cryptic postcards from Paris signed by John and Linda saying they had gone there instead of New York. Coffman found it suspicious and said many years later she was sure it was not her friend's handwriting.

She said she contacted the television show "Unsolved Mysteries" and had them investigate, as well as prodding police to do something. But until bones were dug up in the backyard of the Sohus home, she said there was little interest.

After the bones were found, she said, police promised to give the case another look but many years passed before anything happened.

Another neighbor in San Marino, Winslow Reitnouer, said she knew Gerhartsreiter as Chichester. She testified that she saw him visit the neighborhood in 1986.

She said she once got a phone call from him on a crackly line in which "he said he was in Stockholm and just calling to say hello."

The preliminary hearing will determine whether Gerhartsreiter is bound over for trial on the murder charge. The prosecutor estimated the hearing will end Tuesday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_us/us_rockefeller_mystery

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Attacks on Mitt Romney Over Tax Return Issue Are Unfair (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Few presidential candidates have faced more pressure to make available their tax returns than Mitt Romney. Despite the fact Rick Santorum and Ron Paul have also not released their tax returns, as revealed in a South Carolina debate, the former Massachusetts governor is being singled out by the media. The hyperbole scrutiny of Romney's tax returns reveals bias in the part of the media.

If Romney was a salaried man with less than eight-digit figures in his bank account, he would not have faced the same pressure to release his tax returns as he is now. People love a narrative. A successful and wealthy businessman must have a lot of skeletons in his closet, and hence we need see his tax returns. Even if Romney decides to release his tax returns at this instance, the media will follow up and demand to see returns from previous years and decades.

What the media seems to forget is that they are journalists and not auditors. It is the job of the IRS to scrutinize Romney's tax returns for problems. All the media will do is scouring the Michigan native's returns for politically inexpedient details and magnifies them. The decision to release tax returns should be his to make and for the public to judge.

Legally, Romney has the right not to disclose his tax returns. Moreover, he is only a candidate and not the president. If Romney is elected to the presidency, he will likely follow traditions and release his tax returns every year of his term. The media obsession over Romney's tax returns gives the impression that presidential candidates are required to make public their returns, which is incorrect.

Ultimately, it is more prudent for Romney to release his tax returns as soon as possible to temper the controversy. To his credit, the Michigan native has indicated that he will make available his tax returns in April. Four years ago, GOP nominee John McCain also released his tax returns in April. All in all, Romney's wealth is expected to continue to be a hotly debated topic in the 2012 Republican race.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120122/pl_ac/10866931_attacks_on_mitt_romney_over_tax_return_issue_are_unfair

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Congress has legal clout on Keystone pipeline: study (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Congress has the constitutional right to legislate permits for cross-border oil pipelines like TransCanada's Keystone XL, according to a new legal analysis released late on Friday.

The study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service could give a boost to Republicans drafting legislation to overturn a decision this week by President Barack Obama to put the $7 billion Alberta-to-Texas project on ice.

Historically, U.S. presidents have made executive decisions on pipelines that cross borders. But Congress had the power all along to weigh in on the permits, said the study, done by four legislative attorneys with the CRS.

"If Congress chose to assert its authority in the area of border-crossing facilities, this would likely be considered within its Constitutionally enumerated authority to regulate foreign commerce," the study said.

Republicans in Congress have elevated the Canadian pipeline and the construction jobs it would create into an election-year issue, accusing Obama of caving in to environmental groups. They pushed to include a deadline for a permit approval in a payroll tax cut bill that Obama signed into law in December.

But this week, Obama and the State Department said an environmental review of a portion of the proposed pipeline could not be rushed, closing the door on a quick start to the project.

BACK IN THE DAY

The CRS study examined the history of decisions by presidents on thorny issues involving approval of cross-border projects such as bridges and power lines stretching back to 1869, when President Ulysses Grant ruled on a French transatlantic cable used to send telegrams.

The report also looked at more recent court cases involving oil and gas pipelines crossing the Canada-U.S. border.

While the U.S. president has authority over foreign affairs, the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate foreign commerce, the report explains.

Until now, presidents have issued permits by executive order for pipelines, and Congress has stayed out of the matter.

The report did not comment on specific proposals floated by Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives, but said that "legislation altering the pipeline border crossing approval process appears likely to be a legitimate exercise of Congress's constitutional authority to regulate foreign commerce,"

Legislation on cross-border "facilities" like pipelines "is unlikely to raise significant constitutional questions, despite the fact that such permits have traditional been handled by the executive branch alone," it said.

REPORT 'HELPS THE CONVERSATION'

Any "plan B" drafted by Republicans would still have to clear a very big political hurdle. While legislation could easily pass in the Republican-controlled House, the Democratic-led Senate is another matter.

"Regardless of whether the Republican legislation seeking to rubber-stamp Keystone XL would pass constitional muster, it would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by the president, and that is not going to happen," a Senate Democratic aide said on Friday.

But the CRS report "greatly helps the conversation" among Senate and House Republicans strategizing about how to keep the project alive, said Ryan Bernstein, an energy adviser to Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, whose office requested the study.

"I think this confirms what we've been saying all along - Congress has the authority to approve the Keystone pipeline," said Bernstein, who is helping Hoeven draft legislation that would see Congress approve the project.

Earlier on Friday, Republicans in the House of Representatives said they were considering using upcoming payroll tax cut or highway construction bills to force quick approval of the pipeline.

Representative Lee Terry, whose home state of Nebraska would host part of the pipeline, has drafted legislation to shift the Keystone decision-making process from the Obama administration to the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates pipelines in the United States.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday about Terry's bill and other Keystone measures.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/pl_nm/us_usa_pipeline_legislation

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The Future of CGI Is Using Motion Capture to Recreate Inanimate Objects [Humor]

Some people complain that there's too much CGI in movies. Nothing is quote unquote real anymore. I say screw them. Let's CGI anything possible. Actors posing as furniture! Motion capturing non motion! Backgrounds! Guns! Lamps! All CGI everything, baby. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/54AAHr-iP0U/the-future-of-cgi-is-using-motion-capture-to-recreate-inanimate-objects

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Remains of the Day: Unsuspecting Accomplices Used in Yesterday's Anonymous Attack [For What It's Worth]

Thousands unknowingly participate in website shutdowns, Zoho down for most of the day, and banned Android apps will get their day in a new store.

• Anonymous Dupes Users Into Joining MegaUpload Attack: Anonymous used thousands of unsuspecting people in its attack yesterday on several websites, responding to the shutdown of MegaUpload. By sharing links to certain sites in Twitter that people clicked on, they were able to set off a Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC). [ComputerWorld]
• Power failure takes down Zoho: Zoho, who offers online office suite applications, has been offline for a good portion of the day today, due to a power outage at one of its data centers provided by Equinix. [ComputerWorld]
• Developer is Building an App Store for Banned Android Apps: Koushik "Koush" Dutta, creator of ClockworkMod and member of the CyanogenMod team, is building an app store for banned Android apps from Google's official market. It will feature gaming emulators, custom ROMs, and more. [TechCrunch]
• Pages With Too Many Ads "Above The Fold" Now Penalized By Google's "Page Layout" Algorithm: In response to customer complaints, Google will employ an algorithm that won't rank websites as highly if they have static ads in fixed positions above the fold when you go to their site. [Search Engine Land]
• Bing Maps Are Being Rebranded as Nokia, Across All Platforms: Nokia balances out its relationship with Microsoft by getting their name on Bing Maps, regardless of the platform. In return, Microsoft gets a better mapping service. [Gizmodo]
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/YWxKlHyhu5g/remains-of-the-day-unsuspecting-accomplices-used-in-yesterdays-anonymous-attack

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Google Comes Up Short In Q4 Earnings

Google has just released its Q4 2011 results, and they didn't live up to Wall Street's?expectations. Wall Street's consensus for the quarter was $10.49 in non-GAAP earnings per share and $8.40 billion in revenue. Google missed on both counts, with EPS of $9.50 and net revenue of $8.13 billion. Google shares are down around 10% in after-hours trading.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/iOSrTcG58_s/

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Do Great Things

We have a greater capacity to change the world today than the kings and presidents of just 50 years ago. Whether you're a programming prodigy or the office manager holding it all together, technology empowers small groups of passionate people with an astonishing degree of leverage to make the world a better place. Yet I fear that our industry is squandering its opportunity and its talent. In companies large and small, great minds are devoting their lives to endeavors that, even if wildly successful, fail to do great things.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/d82R3F8yy-Q/

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Sunday Times editor confirms 'blagging' (AP)

LONDON ? The editor of Britain's Sunday Times has confirmed that someone working for the newspaper impersonated Gordon Brown to obtain details about the former prime minister's finances.

John Witherow told Britain's judge-led inquiry into media ethics on Tuesday that the paper used deceit to obtain information from Abbey National bank as part of a 2000 investigation into Brown's purchase of an apartment. Brown, then Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, later became prime minister.

The Sunday Times has argued the story was in the public interest, and therefore obtaining information by deceit ? or "blagging" ? was defensible.

Witherow said while the paper sometimes used subterfuge for stories in the public interest it has never hacked phones.

The press-ethics inquiry was set up following revelations News of the World journalists had illegally eavesdropped on voicemails.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_phone_hacking

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