WASHINGTON -- Eight states will be raising their minimum wage next week, boosting the pay of more than a million workers across the country.
Most of the raises will be modest, on the order of 28 to 37 cents per hour, but the new rates will translate into hundreds of additional dollars annually for many people who are working yet remain in poverty.
Setting a new benchmark, Washington will become the first state to crack the $9 ceiling, raising its minimum wage from $8.67 to $9.04, which translates for full-time minimum-wage workers into an extra $15 or so in pretax pay each week. The other states raising their rates are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon and Vermont.
Workers in all of these states owe their raises to the cost-of-living adjustments written into their state laws. Such laws require that the minimum wage be tweaked every year to account for the rising cost of basic necessities, usually pegged to the consumer price index. Ten states, including the eight above, have such laws on the books. Nevada raises its rate during the summer, and although Missouri has a cost-of-living adjustment, this year it will not push the state rate above the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25.
In recent years, advocates for low-wage workers have tended to lobby hard for cost-of-living adjustments on the state level, arguing that such laws protect against the erosion of workers' purchasing power. The federal minimum wage is not automatically adjusted for inflation and requires new legislation each time it increases. Thirty-two states currently have minimum wages no higher than the federal rate.
Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project, called the cost-of-living adjustment "the most important sort of protection" keeping the minimum wage from losing its purchasing power over time.
"Workers in those states are enjoying substantially stronger wages than in others," said Sonn, who argues that such adjustments also offer the business community some predictability. "From our perspective, in the states that have adopted indexing, the minimum wage is preserving its real value."
But even in Washington state, with the highest rate in the country, today's minimum wage does not match its historical highs when adjusted for inflation, Sonn noted. Had the minimum wage kept pace with the rising cost of living since the 1970s, it would currently stand around $10 an hour.
Not satisfied with the rates set by their state governments, some cities have passed local ordinances establishing their own minimum wages. Among them is San Francisco, which next week will become the first major city with a minimum wage higher than $10.
Business owners and trade groups in San Francisco and elsewhere have argued that a relatively high minimum wage forces businesses -- restaurants in particular -- to cut back on staff and displaces jobs to other communities. Although the body of research is conflicting, recent some studies have concluded that raising the minimum wage has no significant impact on local job markets.
Americans will more than likely not be seeing a huge ticker-tape parade anytime soon for troops returning from Iraq, and it?s unclear if veterans of the 9-year campaign will ever enjoy the grand, flag-waving, red-white-and-blue homecoming that the nation?s fighting men and women werea able to receive after World War II and the Gulf War.
Officials in New York and Washington stated that they would be happy to help stage a big celebration, but Pentagon officials stated they have not been asked to plan one.
Majority of the welcome-homes have been on a smaller scale: hugs from families at military posts across the country, a somber commemoration by President Obama at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
With tens of thousands of U.S. troops continuing to fight a bloody war in Afghanistan, anything that looks like a big victory celebration could be seen as premature and unseemly, some are saying.
Don Mrozek, a military history professor at Kansas State University said it?s going to be a bit awkward to be celebrating too much, given how much there is going on and how much there will be going on in Afghanistan.
New York City councilmen, Republicans Vincent Ignizio along with James Oddo, are calling for a ticker-tape parade down the stretch of Broadway known as the Canyon of Heroes. A celebration that was similar after the Gulf War, was paid for with more than $5.2 million in private donations, a model the councilmen would be happy to follow.
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NEW YORK ? Stocks fell Wednesday after Europe's central bank reported that its overnight deposits hit another record, the latest indication of worry among European lenders.
The European Central Bank said the continent's banks parked a record $590.72 billion with it overnight. That means those banks are less willing to take the risk of making short-term loans to each other, opting instead to earn low interest rates from the ECB. The disclosure also hurt the euro, which fell over 1 percent against the dollar, to $1.29.
The worrying news from the ECB overshadowed two successful auctions of Italian government debt. Italy was able to pay much lower borrowing rates than it did in auctions last month. The strong demand from investors raised hopes that Italy would be able to avoid sinking into a financial crisis, as smaller countries like Greece and Portugal have.
John Merrill, chief investment officer at Tanglewood Wealth Management, said markets would remain vulnerable to flare-ups in Europe's long-running financial crisis until leaders there come up with more convincing solutions for paying down their enormous debt loads and keeping the 17-nation currency union intact.
"We live in a Band-Aid world," Merrill said. "Nobody really is addressing underlying issues."
European leaders agreed at a summit Dec. 9 to forge closer fiscal ties over the long term, but investors are still worried that Greece might default on its debt or be forced to leave the euro bloc. A Greek exit from the currency union would likely cause huge disruptions for the country's economy and losses for European banks that hold Greek government debt. Investors fear that could cascade into another global financial panic, as happened in 2008 following the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 137.82 points, or?1.12 percent, to 12,153.53. Materials and energy companies were leading the declines. Alcoa Inc. fell 2.7 percent and Caterpillar Inc. fell 1.8 percent. AT&T Inc. edged up 0.1 percent, was the only one of the 30 stocks in the Dow average that rose.
Trading was very quiet in a holiday-shortened week. Markets were closed Monday in observance of Christmas. The Dow closed 2 points lower Tuesday.
The S&P 500 fell?15.65 points, or?1.24 percent, to 1,249.78. It was the first decline for the S&P index after five days of gains, and turned the index negative for the year. The Nasdaq composite declined?24.84 points, or 1.33?percent, to 2,590.36.
The Bank of Italy raised $11.8 billion in two bond auctions, reflecting investor approval of the country's recently passed austerity measures. The yield on Italy's six-month bill offering was half the interest rate the country paid in a similar auction last month. The yield on the country's 10-year bond remained dangerously high, however, at 6.93 percent. It had risen to 7 percent Tuesday, a level that is considered unsustainable.
Italy is the euro zone's third-largest economy and is considered too big to save under the euro zone's current bailout funds. Investors have grown fearful over the past few months that Italy will find it difficult to pay off its massive debts, which stand at around $2.5 trillion.
The worries were reflected in U.S. bank stocks. Bank of America Corp. fell 3 percent, while Regions Financial Corp. fell 3 percent.
In other corporate news:
Sandridge Energy Inc. stock is down over 3 percent on news that it is selling drilling rights in two states to a Spanish energy company, Repsol YPF.
Cavium Inc. fell 2 percent, a day after the chipmaker said its fourth-quarter results will fall below its previous forecast.
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? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
HONDA CR-V 2.0 LS 5 DOOR 4X4 R REG DRIVES GOOD
E/W E/M E/SUNROOF NEW EXHAUST FITTED MOT TILL MARCH
THIS CAR HAS ROAD TAX TILL NOVEMBER 2012 BUT WILL NOT BE SOLD WITH THE CAR THE CAR DRIVES GOOD
However, if you want an honest opinion, it's usually best to go straight to the source. A former GM who used to work on Windows Phone 7 for Microsoft, Charlie Kindel, took to his personal blog today with some thoughts on why Microsoft's mobile efforts seem so stagnant.
It boils down to carriers, manufacturers, and the companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft who make the operating system are all locked in this big three-way pissing contest to see who gets the most say in marketing a device.
According to Kindel, Android is crushing iOS and Windows Phone 7 when it comes to marketshare simply because its open platform allows manufacturers and carriers to get away with whatever they want, while cranking out dozens of devices a year.
And yes, that means bloatware, nasty skins, and fragmentation on your Android phone. But it also means carriers get to promote the hell out of those phones thanks to their massive marketing budgets.
Here's Kindel:
Google has been wildly successful with Android (at least in terms of units) because Android was built to reduce friction between all sides of the market. It ?bows down? to the device manufactures AND the carriers. It enabled device manufactures to do what they do best (build lots of devices). It enabled carriers to do what they do best (market lots of devices). It enabled users tons of choice. My hypothesis is that it also enables too much fragmentation that will eventually drive end users nuts.
On the other hand, although Windows Phone 7 can be licensed to any device, Microsoft has a set of specs each manufacturer must follow in order to ensure the best user experience. It's not as perfect as Apple's approach of designing both the hardware and software, but it's a whole lot better than letting manufacturers and carriers run wild and causing a massive fragmentation problem where even phones that are barely a year old miss out on the latest updates.
Microsoft's approach seems nice and balanced. It evens the power struggle between the carrier, manufacturer, and OS developer. Unfortunately, as MG Siegler points out, it may be too late:
But Apple could also afford to do this because they were first to market. When the iPhone launched in 2007, the other smartphones on the market were shit. There was no actual competition for the iPhone. The first Android phones that launched over a year later were a joke.?
Contrast that with Windows Phone which launched far too late into the market. Kindel never mentions it, but you simply can?t downplay that fact. Had Windows Phone launched in 2007 or even 2008, the story would have been different. Instead, it launched in?late 2010.
I think next year is going to be the make or break moment for Windows Phone. The long awaited Nokia Lumia 800, which is an excellent device, will finally arrive in the U.S. With it comes all of Nokia's marketing might that Kindel thinks Windows Phone is missing. If Nokia delivers a dud, it could easily take Windows Phone down with it.
UPDATE:?Robert Scoble jumped into the conversation, so I figured it would be prudent to include his thoughts on why Windows Phone 7 continues to stink. Scoble thinks it's because Windows Phone still doesn't have the vibrant app ecosystem that you find on iOS and Android:
Now, let?s look at the ads on TV right now. There?s all sorts of people saying to get their app, including the local TV news departments. Do they talk about Android? Yes, of course. iOS? Of course! Windows Phone 7? Hell no. RIM/Blackberry? I haven?t heard that in an app advertisement in, well, forever.
So, when a consumer goes into a carrier store to buy a new phone, what is going on in the back of her/his head?
I agree, although I think Scoble downplays the Lumia's importance. Yes, it's going to be tough for Nokia to convince developers to start cranking out apps, but Google went through the same thing with Android. And they seem to be doing a lot better now.
MADALLA, Nigeria ? At a Nigerian Catholic church where a terror attack killed 35 people on Christmas, women tried to clean the sanctuary ahead of Mass on Monday while one man wept uncontrollably amid the debris.
Outside St. Theresa Catholic Church, crowds gathered among the burned-out cars in the dirt parking lot, angry over the attack claimed by a radical Muslim sect and fearful that the group will target more churches.
Rev. Father Christopher Jataudarde told The Associated Press that Sunday's blast happened as church officials gave parishioners white powder as part of a tradition celebrating the birth of Christ.
Some already had left the church at the time of the bombing, causing the massive casualties. In the chaos after the bombing, Jataudarde said one mortally wounded man, cradling his shredded stomach, begged him for religious atonement.
"Father, pray for me, I will not survive," the man said, according to the priest.
At least 52 people were wounded in the attack, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. Victims filled the cement floors of a nearby government hospital, some crying in pools of their own blood.
On Christmas, attacks by the radical Muslim sect left 39 dead across Africa's most populous nation. A bomb also exploded amid gunfire in the central Nigeria city of Jos and a suicide car bomber attacked the military in the nation's northeast.
After the bombings, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria's Muslim north. The sect has used the newspaper in the past to communicate with public.
"There will never be peace until our demands are met," the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying. "We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be released; we want full implementation of the Sharia system and we want democracy and the constitution to be suspended."
Boko Haram has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 504 killings this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
This Christmas attack comes a year after a series of Christmas Eve bombings in Jos claimed by the militants left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded. The group also claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria's capital Abuja that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.
While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes after the 2009 riot, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties.
That has fueled speculation about the group's ties as it has splintered into at least three different factions, diplomats and security sources say. They say the more extreme wing of the sect maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia.
Targeting Boko Haram has remained difficult, as sect members are scattered throughout northern Nigeria and the nearby countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Analysts say political considerations also likely play a part in the country's thus-far muted response: President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south, may be hesitant to use force in the nation's predominantly Muslim north.
Speaking late Sunday at a prayer service, Jonathan described the bombing as an "ugly incident."
"There is no reason for these kind of dastardly acts," the president said in a ceremony aired by the state-run Nigerian Television Authority. "It's one of the burdens as a nation we have to carry. We believe it will not last forever."
___
Jon Gambrell reported from Lagos, Nigeria and can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LONDON ? Britain's Prince Philip will spend a fourth night in hospital Monday, as he recovers from treatment for a blocked coronary artery.
Queen Elizabeth II's 90-year-old husband is making "good progress," but will remain under observation at Papworth, a specialist heart hospital in Cambridge, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said Monday.
The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with policy, said there are no details on when Philip may be released.
Philip underwent a successful coronary stent procedure at the specialist hospital, where he was taken Friday after complaining of chest pains.
"The Duke of Edinburgh continues to make good progress from the procedure. He remains in hospital under observation and in good spirits," the spokesman said.
It was the most serious health scare suffered by Philip, who is known to be active and robust. He has continued to appear at many engagements, most recently taking a 10-day tour of Australia with the queen.
He missed the Royal Family's traditional Boxing Day shooting party on Monday at the queen's private Sandringham estate in Norfolk, an event he usually leads.
Six of Philip's grandchildren, including Princes William and Harry, visited him Sunday in the hospital.
QALACHOWLAN, Iraq (Reuters) ? Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, wanted on charges he led death squads, called the case a plot to destroy opponents of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that could reignite the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07.
Iraq has been plunged into a political crisis in the week since the final U.S. troops withdrew, after Maliki's Shi'ite-led government unveiled an arrest warrant for Hashemi, who left Baghdad for the semi-autonomous Kurdish north of the country.
Maliki also asked parliament to fire his Sunni deputy prime minister, sidelining Iraq's two most powerful Sunni Arab leaders and potentially undoing a shaky power-sharing deal that Washington hoped would keep peace after nine years of war.
"Today the outcome of this crisis, which was unfortunately blown up by the prime minister, is very dangerous," Hashemi told Reuters in an interview at a guesthouse of Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, in the Kurdish north's Sulaimaniya province.
"Today Iraqis live under the atmosphere of sectarian tension that we lived through in the hard years of 2005-2007," he said.
Speaking about himself and his Sunni Arab community, Hashemi added: "Mr Maliki knows the supporters of Tareq al-Hashemi and which community he belongs to, and therefore he should have thought about the negative consequences of these issues."
Violence in Iraq has subsided since the sectarian civil war of 2006-07, when Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militia killed thousands of civilians each month, but without U.S. troops to act as a buffer, many Iraqis now fear a return to those days.
At least 72 people were killed in bombings across Baghdad in mainly Shi'ite neighborhoods on Thursday, in the first sign of a possible violent backlash against Maliki's moves.
The main goal of U.S. policymakers in the final years of the war was to prevent a recurrence of that bloodshed by ensuring that Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds all remained represented in the government in Baghdad.
A power-sharing deal reached a year ago kept Maliki in office at the helm of a fragile unity coalition. But that appears to have unraveled just as the final U.S. troops pulled out a week ago. Hashemi's Iraqiya bloc, the main Sunni-backed group has suspended its participation in parliament.
"POLITICAL HIT"
Hashemi said the timing of the accusations against him to coincide with the U.S. withdrawal was "deliberate."
"The target is clear, a political hit for Tareq al-Hashemi... The political dimension for this is to get rid of all those who oppose Nuri al-Maliki, it is clear. So Iraq can stay in the grip of one-man rule and one-party rule."
Shi'ite leaders say the case against Hashemi is criminal and not motivated by politics. It cannot be negotiated because it is now with the courts.
Iraq's interior ministry broadcast taped confessions it said were from Hashemi's security detail, talking about payments Hashemi made to them to carry out assassinations and bombings.
Hashemi denied all charges which he said were "fabricated." He said the three bodyguards worked for him but the confessions showed on Iraqi TV were "taken by force."
Hashemi said he had no plans to seek political asylum or flee Iraq, but had requested that the case against him be moved to a court in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, rather than Baghdad where "the executive power controls the judiciary."
"If they are seeking justice, let them agree to my request and I will stand trial and will accept any verdict by Kurdistan's courts," he said. "They are not part of Maliki's project and they are not part of Hashemi's project. Kurdistan will be the fair judge in this issue."
Asked if he would consider leaving Iraq or seeking asylum, he said: "This is my country, these are not my thoughts and not in my plans... I will not run from justice."
Looking weary during the interview, Hashemi said he had initially come to Sulaimaniya with a small suitcase and two suits - and had told his wife he would be back in Baghdad after 48 hours.
He planned to stay in the semi-autonomous Kurdish zone for now, and his family had left Iraq after a wave of raids by security forces on his house and office and arrests of his staff, he said.
The Karoo Array Telescope site in the Northern Cape will be operated remotely from Cape Town. Picture: AFP
AFRICA has long been a magnet for archaeologists. Now South Africa wants to draw leading astrophysicists to the continent as well with the world's most powerful radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an instrument that would be able to look back to the infancy of the universe.
South Africa and Australia are the two finalists in the competition to host the project, which will eventually link thousands of radio dishes to make a massive antenna with a total surface area of one square kilometre (250 acres).
The telescope, the brainchild of an international consortium of scientists, will be 50 to 100 times more sensitive than today's best radio telescopes and is projected to cost in the neighbourhood of US$2 billion (around $2.59 billion).
Like an archaeologist digging into ever deeper layers of soil, the telescope will pick up radio waves from deeper in space than ever before, ones whose sources are billions of years old and may not even exist anymore.
Scientists say that power will help them look back in time and see how the universe took shape after the big bang.
For African astronomers, next year will be decisive.
Scientists will decide by early March whether the South African and Australian SKA site proposals pass muster. The consortium will then choose the winner, a decision the South Africans say will be political and economic as well as scientific.
South Africa also plans to start construction next year on a 64-antenna radio telescope called MeerKAT that would be one of the five most accurate in the world.
Observation slots at the MeerKAT are already fully booked for its first five years.
A prototype, the KAT-7, is up and running in the Karoo, an arid expanse of sparsely inhabited land stretched across the country's western side.
The government has declared the site, a silent, rocky landscape that looks like a Western movie cast with a few sheep, a "Radio Astronomy Reserve".
The site, which had no trace of human settlement eight years ago, is an hour by road from the nearest town, itself an hour's flight from Cape Town. Like giant white saucers turned to the sky, seven dish antennas capture the noise of the universe with a small, refrigerator-like hum.
"It is a very difficult place to do farming," said Justin Jonas, an astronomer and engineer and the operating director for SKA Africa.
"Which is good for us. It means the fewest people, fewest cell phones and fewest interferences."
South Africa's SKA bid would also put the core of antennas in the Karoo.
Other antennas would be scattered around the continent in Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia.
Design and pre-construction on the SKA are scheduled to begin in 2013. The project is expected to be finished around 2024.
It is not an ideal time to be raising money for massive science projects. The US pulled out of the SKA last year, leaving it to Australia, Britain, China, Canada, Italy,New Zealand, the Netherlandsand South Africa to fund. Indiais still on the fence.
But South Africa is undeterred. It says it can build the SKA for less money than Australia, which would co-host with New Zealand.
The government has already invested 635 million rand (around US$75 million) in seven years to build MeerKAT and plans to spend another 500 million rand a year to 2016.
"With a project like this, you don't make money, but you get a lot more. You develop scientific capacity," said Nadeem Oozeer, 36, a researcher from Mauritius.
"In Mauritius, we've got five graduates with terminal (doctorate) degrees. Why not an African Nobel prize winner?"
But officials here say they have to overcome negative perceptions of Africa's scientific potential.
"Afro-pessimism is real," said Derek Hanekom, deputy science minister. "We believe we are the most suitable country to host successfully the SKA, we compete with the best in the world. But we are proceeding anyway and great astronomy is going to be done with or without the SKA."
Linebacker London Fletcher was credited with a season-high 17 tackles Saturday against the Vikings, which gives him 163 on the season.
That?s not only the league-high, it?s also a new career-high for Fletcher.
?That?s just typical London,? said linebacker Ryan Kerrigan. ?He brings it week in and week out. We could all try to emulate what he does on the field.?
Still, the 14-year veteran wasn?t doing much celebrating following theteam?s 10th loss of the season.
?It?s definitely a tough season for us,? Fletcher said. ?We?ve been in lot of games. For one reason or another, we haven?t been there to win the close games.?
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda arrived in Beijing on Sunday on an official visit expected to focus on regional security after the death of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Il.
Japan's PM heads to China amid N.Korea worries
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda arrived in Beijing on Sunday on an official visit expected to focus on regional security after the death of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Il.
Following his arrival, Noda was slated to hold talks with China's President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao during the visit, his first since coming to power in September, a Japanese embassy spokesman said.
Ties between the two regional powers have been dogged by economic and territorial disputes. Japan has repeatedly expressed concern over China's widening naval reach in the Pacific and what it calls the "opaqueness" of Beijing's military budget.
But Kim's death has shifted the agenda to worries about nuclear-armed North Korea, where Kim's untested son Kim Jong-Un appears to be taking the reins of power in the isolated communist state.
"I would like to hold discussions so as to deepen the strategically mutually beneficial relations between Japan and China," Noda told reporters in Tokyo before departing for Beijing.
"I would also like to make sure that Japan and China will work closely so that the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula will not be negatively impacted," he said.
Analysts say China holds the key to handling North Korea, where Japan has few ties overall and fewer still to Kim's untested son.
Japan, having no ties with the North, can do little other than to support China's engagement with Pyongyang, said Takehiko Yamamoto, professor at Waseda University.
"You might call it an achievement if Japan and China only confirm their joint resolve to work together to protect peace and stability in northeast Asia including on the Korean peninsula," he added.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi this week held telephone talks with his counterparts in the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan as Beijing seeks to ensure regional stability.
Efforts to revive six-party negotiations on scrapping the North's nuclear programme are also likely to be on the agenda after Seoul's chief nuclear delegate visited China Thursday and Friday for meetings with his counterpart.
The six-party talks, chaired by China and also involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan, have been at a standstill since December 2008.
Negotiations to resurrect them appeared to be making progress before Kim's death last Saturday. Media reports said Pyongyang would agree to suspend its uranium enrichment programme in return for food aid from Washington.
Noda's overnight visit was set for December 12 and 13, but rescheduled to Sunday and Monday at China's request, apparently for domestic reasons.
Some suggested the date change was tied to the anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese troops killed tens of thousands of Chinese civilians during 1937-38
The two countries are also expected to discuss issues including territorial disputes in the East China Sea.
Japan will urge China towards a framework dialogue to set rules for the development of gas fields in the East China Sea, near disputed islands called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.
The two are still trying to heal diplomatic wounds from a year ago when China reacted in fury over the arrest of one of its fishermen near the islands after he rammed his ship into Japanese coastguard vessels.
Noda is also expected to thank China for its assistance in the aftermath of Japan's March earthquake and tsunami, and to ask that Beijing send a pair of pandas to the hard-hit city of Sendai to boost morale.
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iPhone backup | does it contain my password?: Forum: All Things Apple Posted By: Royal Oak Post Time: 12-24-2011... bit.ly/uYEhcPIl y a environ 4 heuresvia twitterfeed
Intuit has just released some good news for ?"Quicken for Mac" users. ?The accounting software company says they will have a solution that makes Quicken 2007 for Mac "Lion-compatible" by early spring 2012. Yes, irony alert. Back in July, I wrote about the dilemma facing those users, because Apple Lion OS was dropping support for Rosetta. ?Without Rosetta, Quicken 2007 wouldn't run on the Mac with Lion. ?And I wrote each of the three options Intuit proposed (Quicken Essentials for Mac, Mint.com, Quicken for Windows) had their own flaws. Aaron Forth,?Intuit's General Manager of its Personal Finance Group which includes Quicken and Mint.com, wrote a note to existing customers saying "I am committed to creating products to help you reach your financial goals. ?I recognize, however, that we have not always delivered on this promise to Quicken Mac customers."
FILE - In this May 11, 2011 file photo, singer Britney Spears, right, and Jason Trawick arrive at an Evening of "Southern Style" in Beverly Hills, Calif. Trawick announced Friday, dec. 16, 2011, on ?Access Hollywood? that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
FILE - In this May 11, 2011 file photo, singer Britney Spears, right, and Jason Trawick arrive at an Evening of "Southern Style" in Beverly Hills, Calif. Trawick announced Friday, dec. 16, 2011, on ?Access Hollywood? that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Britney Spears is ready to walk down the aisle for the third time. The 30-year-old pop star has agreed to marry her longtime boyfriend and former agent Jason Trawick.
Trawick announced Friday on "Access Hollywood" that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009.
Spears hinted at the big news with a tweet Friday morning that read, "OMG. Last night Jason surprised me with the one gift I've been waiting for. Can't wait to show you! SO SO SO excited!!!!"
Spears was previously married to Kevin Federline, with whom she has two sons: 6-year-old Sean Preston and 5-year-old Jayden James. The couple divorced in 2006. Spears also briefly wed childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004, but the marriage was annulled after 55 hours.
When news broke that Howard Stern was joining the "America's Got Talent"?panel, there was no doubt that there would be plenty of folks who would be upset by the news. After all, the man is known for some rather raunchy stunts (Fartman, anyone?) and ... umm ... adult interviews and subject matter on his radio show?over the years.
But love him or hate him, the self-proclaimed King of All Media really is a great fit, and?not just for "AGT," but for talent competitions in general. Here's why:
1. He loves reality competitions! The worst type of judge a talent show can have is one who is bored. Remember Simon Cowell on his last season of "American Idol"? Dude was totally phoning it in with half-hearted criticisms, and he even admitted to GQ that "I was bored." That's not going to be Stern, at least, not during his first season on "AGT." As fans of his SiriusXM radio show know, the shock jock loves him some reality TV and isn't afraid to admit it. He's been ranting and raving?about performances on "Dancing With the Stars," "Idol," "AGT" and other programs during his satellite?show for awhile now.
2. He speaks the truth The best part of his ranting and raving? His honesty. While the actual judges on the talent competitions have often sugarcoated their criticisms of some truly awful efforts, Stern has called it like it is on his show. And he's not going to stop when he gets on national TV. "I, in no way, want to get in the way of the show," he told his SiriusXM listeners Thursday morning. "My job is to judge. You put the talent in front of me, I will give you an honest opinion. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but feelings are going to be hurt." So for those of you who have been complaining about judges fawning over everyone, you're getting what you asked for.
Howard Stern is expected to bring brutal honesty to "America's Got Talent" as a judge alongside Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne. Msnbc's Craig Melvin reports.
3. He knows how to behave Remember, the man was on terrestrial radio for nearly three decades before his "Howard Stern Show" moved to satellite radio. Plus, he's made numerous appearances on network TV. What does that mean? He knows the FCC rules, and he knows what he can and cannot say! Besides, he's not going to be judging porn stars on "AGT," he'll be judging average folks and their various family-friendly talents. If Steven Tyler can manage to not rack up sky-high fines from the FCC?on "Idol," Stern can do it on "AGT"?too. (Remember the numerous ick-worthy comments the rocker made to young female contestants last season? The too-many-to-count bleeps in his wacky comments? Yeah, Stern will be just fine. Besides, it's not like someone won't be sitting with their finger on the censor button, ready to bleep him -- or fellow judge Sharon Osbourne, for that matter.)
4. He's a great interviewer Stern knows how to get his subjects to dish on the good stuff, a feat that not everyone can manage. It's a talent that will be sure to help "AGT" drum up some extra shockers and drama -- in other words, ratings.
5. He's a family man Stern may come across as a sex-crazed guy on his radio?show, but that's his on-air personality. Away from the mic, he has always insisted he's a good guy. As he said during his interview on CNN's "Piers Morgan" (whose spot at the "AGT" judging table Stern happens to now be taking), he's never cheated on his wife -- not first wife Alison, not current wife Beth, whom he constantly gushes about. He raised three daughters, so he probably has at least some idea about how to tailor his comments to be family friendly. Did I also mention that he adores his dog Bianca Romijn-Stamos? So yeah, he has a raunchy radio personality, but his scandals aren't quite on the same level as others who have been part of the show. There wasn't this much outrage when Jerry Springer --?who has admitted to hiring prostitutes and has his own talk-show featuring cheaters, strippers and more --?hosted "AGT." ?
6. He's just plain entertaining There's a reason why Stern has been such a huge success, and it's not all thanks to the dirty talk. He's a hard-working man who's great at entertaining. Regardless of whether you like what he has to say, he'll get a reaction out of you, and you'll stay tuned.
What do you think will make Stern a success on "AGT"? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? The contents of the home where Michael Jackson lived with his three children just before his death have sold for nearly $1 million at auction.
Darren Julien, president of Julien's Auctions, was unable to provide a more specific figure as he continued to tally the totals Saturday after the daylong auction, which brought in nearly triple the company's pre-auction estimate of $200,000 to $400,000.
Among the highlights: A kitchen chalkboard where Jackson's children wrote "I love daddy," which sold for $5,000, and an armoire upon which Jackson wrote a message to himself on the mirror that fetched $25,750.
The auction also included furniture, artwork and other items from the rented mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive, where Jackson lived as he prepared for a series of comeback concerts in London before his death in June, 2009.
The headboard from the bed where Jackson died at age 50 was removed from the auction at the family's request, but the rug that was beneath the bed sold for $15,360. The estimate had been $400 to $600.
Julien's Auctions re-created the mansion inside its Beverly Hills showroom and invited fans to fill the space where the bed would have been with a tribute to the late King of Pop. Julien promised to deliver all of the tribute items to Jackson's children and family matriarch Katherine Jackson.
"Michael Jackson has the greatest fans in the world. I can see why he lived for them," Julien said. "They came out every day this week to bring gifts. It's unlike anything we've ever seen as it relates to a celebrity and their fans."
Julien's Auctions has conducted auctions for dozens of celebrities, including Cher, Barbra Streisand, William Shatner and Slash.
Jackson commissioned the company to sell the contents of his Neverland Ranch before the auction was called off in early 2009. Julien's also sold Jackson's famous "Thriller" jacket for $1.8 million earlier this year.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APSandy.
New York ? Congress reached an 11th-hour deal to keep federal agencies running. But the horse-trading isn't over
Just 27 hours before a deadline that could have shut down the federal government at midnight Friday, Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement on a $1 trillion spending bill that will keep the lights on through the end of the fiscal year in September, 2012. They still have to work out the particulars of another sticking point ? a separate measure extending a temporary payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. So what did both parties gain, and give up, to break the impasse? Here, a brief guide:
So, the parties settled their differences? Not exactly. They still have to work out how to pay for the $120 billion payroll tax cut extension for 160 million workers, to keep it from expiring on Dec. 31. But they got close enough that the White House and Senate Democrats figured it was safe to detach the payroll-tax issue from the spending bill, which they were delaying in an attempt to force the GOP to negotiate. Now Congress can approve the spending bill, and focus on settling lingering differences over the payroll tax.
SEE MORE: Why the GOP caved in the payroll tax fight: 4 theories
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Who caved? Both sides gave up a little on the spending measure. "The final bill strips out a Republican amendment to the Treasury budget to reinstate Bush-era restrictions on travel to Cuba" ? something President Obama opposed, says David Rogers at Politico. But it also includes some GOP provisions that are hard for Democrats to swallow, such as one blocking new, greener standards for light bulbs.
Will extending the payroll tax be easy now? Both sides say a deal is near, although anything can happen. Democrats have reportedly dropped their insistence on offsetting the cost with a surtax on people making more than $1 million a year, which was a dealbreaker for the GOP. But Republicans haven't budged on one provision Democrats have described as a poison pill ? a controversial proposal to expedite the review of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
SEE MORE: Congress' 'wild final month': 5 predictions for December
?
What happens if they can't agree? Both sides want to extend the payroll tax holiday. If they let it expire, the portion of Americans' paychecks withheld for Social Security and Medicare will rise 2 percent ? from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent. In such a scenario, someone making $50,000 would have to pay $1,000 more in payroll taxes. To avoid that, Congress is likely to pass a two-month extension if no long-term agreement is in sight. That way members will be able to head home for the holidays, and put off a final showdown until February.
Sources: CNN, NY Times, Politico, Washington Post
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Cancer from fetal exposure to carcinogens depends on dose, timing Public release date: 15-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Williams david.williams@oregonstate.edu 541-737-3277 Oregon State University
CORVALLIS, Ore. The cancer-causing potential of fetal exposure to carcinogens can vary substantially, a recent study suggests, causing different types of problems much later in life depending on the stage of pregnancy when the fetus is exposed.
The research sheds further light on the way in which toxic damage early in life can later manifest itself as cancer, due to "epigenetic" changes in cells. It was done by scientists in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, and other institutions, in laboratory studies with mice.
In this study, published in the journal Cancer Letters, mice received four separate doses of a carcinogen commonly found in air pollutants or other combustion products. As a result, they had triple the level of ovarian cancer at the rodent equivalent of middle age. About 80 percent of them also got lung cancer, and many of the male mice had abnormally small testes a phenomenon not seen before.
In previous research, by contrast, the same amount of this carcinogen given in a single dose had caused a much higher rate of T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, which this study found to almost disappear when the carcinogen exposure was spread out over time. Liver cancer also was largely absent.
"There's still a lot of uncertainty about how the fetus responds to carcinogens and at what points in time it is most vulnerable," said David Williams, a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at OSU.
"We know it's far more sensitive than adults for several reasons, including faster cell division and the lack of protective detoxifying enzymes," he said. "But it's interesting that the timing of fetal exposure makes such a difference in which organs are targeted. These results were somewhat surprising."
The mice in these experiments were exposed to one type of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, a group of compounds commonly produced by everything from coal combustion to automobile exhaust. The levels of carcinogen the mice received were far higher than humans would face in a normal environment.
In the research, tracking with radioactive labeling showed that the carcinogens clearly made their way into the mouse fetuses, although at about 10 percent of the tissue concentration of those in the mother. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, and included collaborators from OSU and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Increasing amounts of research are being done on PAHs, which are associated with the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, and may be on the rise in some areas, particularly China, Williams said. They can also get into soils, be taken up by plants and make their way into the human food chain.
The types of cancer that these carcinogens can cause in animal models include lymphoma and leukemia, and cancer is the number one cause of disease-related death in children. Epidemiological studies have shown that exposure of pregnant women to carcinogens such as cigarette smoke enhances the risk for offspring to develop a number of cancers.
"The fetal basis of adult disease is relevant to a number of chronic diseases in humans, including diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease and cancer," the researchers wrote in their report, "as well as neurological and behavior toxicities."
Research such as this, scientists say, suggests that a healthy diet is important during pregnancy, including a wide range of fruits and vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower, in particular, have high levels of some compounds believed to help protect against cancer.
###
Editor's Note: The study this story is based on is available in ScholarsArchive@OSU: http://bit.ly/vH4OTs
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Cancer from fetal exposure to carcinogens depends on dose, timing Public release date: 15-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Williams david.williams@oregonstate.edu 541-737-3277 Oregon State University
CORVALLIS, Ore. The cancer-causing potential of fetal exposure to carcinogens can vary substantially, a recent study suggests, causing different types of problems much later in life depending on the stage of pregnancy when the fetus is exposed.
The research sheds further light on the way in which toxic damage early in life can later manifest itself as cancer, due to "epigenetic" changes in cells. It was done by scientists in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, and other institutions, in laboratory studies with mice.
In this study, published in the journal Cancer Letters, mice received four separate doses of a carcinogen commonly found in air pollutants or other combustion products. As a result, they had triple the level of ovarian cancer at the rodent equivalent of middle age. About 80 percent of them also got lung cancer, and many of the male mice had abnormally small testes a phenomenon not seen before.
In previous research, by contrast, the same amount of this carcinogen given in a single dose had caused a much higher rate of T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, which this study found to almost disappear when the carcinogen exposure was spread out over time. Liver cancer also was largely absent.
"There's still a lot of uncertainty about how the fetus responds to carcinogens and at what points in time it is most vulnerable," said David Williams, a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at OSU.
"We know it's far more sensitive than adults for several reasons, including faster cell division and the lack of protective detoxifying enzymes," he said. "But it's interesting that the timing of fetal exposure makes such a difference in which organs are targeted. These results were somewhat surprising."
The mice in these experiments were exposed to one type of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, a group of compounds commonly produced by everything from coal combustion to automobile exhaust. The levels of carcinogen the mice received were far higher than humans would face in a normal environment.
In the research, tracking with radioactive labeling showed that the carcinogens clearly made their way into the mouse fetuses, although at about 10 percent of the tissue concentration of those in the mother. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, and included collaborators from OSU and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Increasing amounts of research are being done on PAHs, which are associated with the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, and may be on the rise in some areas, particularly China, Williams said. They can also get into soils, be taken up by plants and make their way into the human food chain.
The types of cancer that these carcinogens can cause in animal models include lymphoma and leukemia, and cancer is the number one cause of disease-related death in children. Epidemiological studies have shown that exposure of pregnant women to carcinogens such as cigarette smoke enhances the risk for offspring to develop a number of cancers.
"The fetal basis of adult disease is relevant to a number of chronic diseases in humans, including diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease and cancer," the researchers wrote in their report, "as well as neurological and behavior toxicities."
Research such as this, scientists say, suggests that a healthy diet is important during pregnancy, including a wide range of fruits and vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower, in particular, have high levels of some compounds believed to help protect against cancer.
###
Editor's Note: The study this story is based on is available in ScholarsArchive@OSU: http://bit.ly/vH4OTs
[ | 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.
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Public release date: 15-Dec-2011
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