Charter Schools -- Unsafe Pressure-Release Valves We Don't Need (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Sarah Butrymowicz on Time.com reports about myriad difficulties facing charter schools and the families of their students when those schools are forced to close. Charter schools are defined in as schools that "get public funds but operate without usual bureaucratic constraints." The purpose, to be sure, is noble: Help students who are not thriving in traditional public schools pursue academic success in smaller, more supportive environments.

Critics of charter schools allege the lack of "usual bureaucratic constraints" has relegated many such schools into breeding grounds of mediocrity, with students and faculty underperforming. Those same critics, and others, also complain regulations shutting down underperforming charter schools are insufficient and that, even if some charters close, new ones immediately open to take their place.

Obviously, this is an issue that has become more pressing as a result of the ongoing recession. In 2006, when the economy was humming, states like Ohio took a liberal approach to charter schools and let them proliferate, assuming parents could police schools' performance by sending their children only to the good ones and letting the bad ones shrivel and close. Now that public dollars are scarce and teacher layoffs loom in many states, educators and taxpayers are questioning the validity of nontraditional schools that receive state funding.

I don't think charter schools should receive public funding. While charters have many merits, I believe on principle that state money for education should be spent on improving traditional public schools, not creating "pressure release valves" for a small numbers of students. Due to their smaller sizes, charter schools might be less cost-efficient and have a harder time fostering large-group socialization skills among students who, for various reasons, might desperately need to develop those skills.

Also, charter schools might breed resentment. Who gets to go? Charter schools in a certain area might not have room for all students who wish to attend. There are constraints to their size and scope. In addition to numerous other controversies, you also must consider controversies related to equality of access.

Districts should focus on improving their traditional schools. Allowing charter schools to proliferate can divert state dollars from traditional schools, denying those schools up-to-date equipment and curricula materials. While the new charter schools are likely to have updated infrastructures and materials, the traditional schools must go without.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120131/pl_ac/10907835_charter_schools__unsafe_pressurerelease_valves_we_dont_need

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Mike Ragogna: From "Don't Mean Nothing" to "Dance With My Father": A Conversation With Richard Marx

A Conversation with Richard Marx

Mike Ragogna: Richard, last year, you released a Christmas EP, but what else have you been up to recently?

Richard Marx: The Christmas EP obviously came out around Christmas time, so I was working on that for a few months prior. All in all it was pretty painless. It was just an EP, so it was only five songs, but we're going to do a whole album for Christmas 2012, which I'm going to be recording in about 10 days time around April. But this one was pretty painless, it was fun. I got to sing live with me in a booth in one room and the band and strings in their booths - very old school. I had a lot of fun.

MR: Recording everything live, old school.

RM: Right. Or as opposed to all of the vocals being sung by Justin Beiber, I sang these myself.

MR: (laughs) Can you tell us what inspires you as an artist?

RM: Well, my process has been the same for a long time. Unless I'm collaborating with someone and have set a specific time to write a song with someone, I write alone and there is no set time or organization about it. I write something every day, but I don't usually sit down to write a song. Luckily, something forces itself on me every day. It may be a melody that hits me while I'm in my car or a lyric that hits me in the shower. I just make a point to collect these ideas. Some of them just demand to be worked on or finished immediately, some I just tuck away and I may not get to them for months. I don't use an instrument to write when I'm writing by myself. I've found that that's limiting, you know? No matter how good a player you are - and I'm not a good player - you still have to be able to play an instrument. But if that instrument is your imagination, then I'm not limited to anything, and I find that my songwriting is much more interesting. That's one part of my process.

The music almost always comes first and sort of tells me what the lyrics should be. Beyond that, I don't really try to write, I sort of just let it happen. Luckily , for decades now, it just keeps happening. I've found that some of the musicians that I admire so much are so proficient at their instrument or multiple instruments if they're lucky, but they have no freedom. I have had amazing artists tell me that they just know too much about their instrument and the music to use their imagination to its full musical potential. They're limited by their wealth of knowledge if that's possible. There are no limitations in your head to what you can come up with. I wouldn't have come up with a lot of the themes or musical landscapes that accompany my songs if I was sitting with an acoustic guitar or piano. It just wouldn't happen.

MR: That's a great insight. I usually wait with this question until the end of the interview, but let me ask you now. Do you have any advice that you might want to share with new artists?

RM: You know, I think it's a really bad time to start asking people for advice because it's pretty grim out there right now. The music business has gotten smaller since you and I started talking. (laughs) It's shrinking a little bit more every day. I don't have a crystal ball, nor have I ever been good at forecasting things like that. I only know that I'm super-grateful that I came into the business when I did. I feel really bad for young singer-songwriters now because the opportunities that existed for me in the early '80s before I was singed to learn about the business don't exist anymore. And they have been replaced with anything equally great. If I were starting out now, I would feel robbed - and I'm sure there are a lot of young artists out there who feel a little ripped off. The opportunities to really make it a lucrative career have diminished a lot, not that that should ever be anyone's motivation. Before, there was always that hope of writing a hit song and making tons of money. It's a shame because that opportunity and the fantasy of that have been demolished over the last few years, and I don't see that toothpaste going back into the tube. So, in my long-winded answer, I would say if you want to write songs and play in bands and perform because it feeds something in you and you're following your bliss, do it. If you feel like you need it to sustain yourself or to make a living, you're probably going to have to do something else in addition. And that's too bad.

MR: True. Though, I would argue that because of the Internet and social networking and other technologies, I would say that people have more of an opportunity to promote and proliferate their material more freely, more so than I've ever seen in the industry.

RM: Yeah, "getting your music out there" doesn't necessarily mean anything - everyone's music is out there. It doesn't mean it's connecting with anybody. If you've got 17 Facebook friends who all really like your music, that's awesome. And if that's enough to keep you writing songs, that's great. That doesn't mean that your music is "out there." It's great that we no longer have to rely on large record labels - they don't do anybody any good. Most major labels won't even sign someone who hasn't already done most of their social networking promotion ahead of time. It's almost a chicken or the egg situation because they may not sign someone who doesn't have 150,000 Facebook friends. But if they have 150,000 Facebook friends, what do they need a record company for, you know? The one glimmer of hope for the industry is that young people don't need a big corporate machine behind them to get their music heard. But in order to get it started enough to be able to sustain a career? Facebook ain't gonna do it.

It's much more complicated than people think, and I see super-talented people week after week that just aren't going to get by without having that one major hit unless they get by selling records on the DL, playing gigs, and can keep that train going. But if they want to live in a mansion in Beverly Hills, this is not for them. It's way more complicated than even I can understand. We could sit and have a round table discussion about it for hours and we still probably wouldn't come up with any answers. It's a tricky time for the music business. I think the saddest part is that we're at a time in our society where the competition for public attention is greater than ever, music is losing. People are still buying and downloading music, but I don't think the passion for music is what it was even five years ago. People are really taking music for granted now. Do you know why? Because it's tiny, you can't even see it now. It's all measured in megabites. When something gets that physically small, I think there's a brain correlation that says it's also not that important.

MR: Right, and the perceived value has dropped considerably because of pirating and such, wouldn't you say?

RM: Right. And frankly, maybe the next thing to be hit in this way will be sports and professional athletes, only because I feel like the general public has seen the rockstar excess and this legion of people that didn't look like they appreciated it. People don't want to support people like that. I feel it'll be the same with pro athletes. If we see them with everything and still bitching and moaning about it, the average man isn't gonna continue to support these people anymore. At the end of the day, for every negative part of the conversation, there's a positive. For instance, The Civil Wars have been carving out a name for themselves the old fashioned way - from the ground up. They're brilliant talents who are just now starting to get recognized for who great they are.

MR: Richard, before we get into talking about your records and many hit singles, can you tell us how your career started?

RM: Sure. I was about 17 and I'd written about five or six songs, but I had an amazing leg up in the fact that I was born into a musical family. My mom was and still is a great singer, and my dad was a jingle composer and producer. By the time I came along, his business was already growing and thriving, so he built an office in Chicago. Years later, when I had these songs that I'd written, I had this amazing place to go and have them demoed. It wasn't like I was home recording on a tape recorder. I could make really decent demos. I had to save up the money to pay the musicians - my dad didn't front the money. He told me that if I wanted to do this, I'd have to pay for all of it. I put together four or five really good sounding demos and sent them out to every record company, and every record company threw them in the trash. But some friends of mine would play demos like they were records and just listen to them all the time. So, a really good friend of mine was away at college playing the demo in his room and his roommate heard it and really liked it and said he knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who worked with The Commodores. Somehow, my tape with my number on the back wound up in Lionel Richie's hands and he called me up. I was about 3 or 4 months away from graduating from High School. He talked to me for about half an hour on the phone and was so encouraging and gave me some great sage advice. He didn't make me any sort of job offers or anything at the time. But he did tell me that he knew I probably planned on going to college or something but if I decided to come to LA and get my career going, look him up.

That completely rebooted my whole thought process. To have arguably one of the most talented guys in the music business at the time tell me I was talented changed things. So, I bailed on college and went out to LA. One day, I went to his studio to meet him - we'd only talked on the phone before and he put me up in the studio to sing background vocals on his song called "You Are." He was working on his first solo record at the time. For the next couple of years, anytime he was in the studio, he would invite me to be there. Sometimes, I would sing background vocals on things, but the rest of the time, he would just let me be in the room and watch and learn. I can't say enough about what a gracious and generous guy he is, even to this day. I owe a tremendous amount of my career to him.

MR: It seems as though you were in the prot?g? role, right?

RM: Yeah. I mean, I had that with a couple of different people, but he was the first one who was making records that let me sort of be a fly on the wall. It was actually Lionel who recommended me to Kenny Rogers who was also at the top of the charts at the time. That's how I started getting songs placed because the first couple of songs I had placed were with Kenny Rogers. I met Kenny during those recording sessions, and I wouldn't have gotten onto those sessions if it weren't for Lionel.

MR: Right. Some of the hits you had with Kenny were "Crazy" and "What About Me?"

RM: That's right, and those were both from the same album. There was another song on that album as well, but it wasn't a hit. I had three songs on that album and I was only 19, so it was crazy that I was in that situation. But it was all because of Lionel.

MR: Nice. And "What About Me?" was technically your first #1 hit.

RM: Yeah. And "Crazy" followed as the #1 country song. The first song I ever placed was a #1 AC song, though I think it hit #15 on the pop charts. But I definitely thought to myself that it was never going to happen again, I wasn't the kind of guy that thought it was just that easy. I really thought that it was great that it happened and that it would never happen again, but I was ready to do the work to get back to that again.

MR: You went on from there to work a little with the group Chicago.

RM: Well, I sang background vocals on a song on Chicago's 17 record. Robert Lamm, who I was a huge fan of, wrote all of my favorite songs and he and I just hit it off. He was another person that was a huge mentor to me. He asked me to write a song with him but it didn't make the 17 record because it wasn't really good enough. It ended up being on the We Are The World album by Chicago, so I can technically say that I have a Chicago cut. (laughs) It wasn't a spectacular song. I was still such a kid when I wrote that song. But it was so great to work with Robert and we're still friends to this day.

MR: Very cool. Then came Bruce Lundvall of EMI Manhattan who then gave you your break with your first album. Can you tell us about that?

RM: Bruce and I were introduced by a mutual friend, and he basically just heard the exact same songs that everyone else had rejected. Songs like "Endless Summer Nights," "Don't Mean Nothing" and "Should Have Known Better," and he loved them. I couldn't believe it. Not only did he give me a record deal finally, but he told me I should produce my own record, which was just unheard of. That guy just changed my life and is, again, someone I keep in touch with to this very day. I owe my career as an artist to Bruce Lundvall because he singed me when no one else wanted to and gave me tremendous artistic freedom from the get-go. He didn't micromanage. He's the kind of guy that has such an illustrious career, and his philosophy is that if he likes what you do, there is no reason for him to get in the way of it. He's just such a great cheerleader and a really sweet man. Again, for me to be able to make my first record under him was just a huge blessing because that guy is a prince.

MR: Then the Grammy nominations started rolling in, like for Best Rock Vocal Performance for "Don't Mean Nothing."

RM: Yeah. But I was only up against a bunch of no names like Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen. (laughs) There was no prayer I was going to win, but I was just really honored to be nominated.

MR: Which brings us to your second huge album, Repeat Offender. Can you tell us a little story behind at least one of the songs from that time period?

RM: Well, every song has a story but, "Children Of The Night" was unlike any song I had written up to that point because it wasn't personal. It wasn't about me and it wasn't a relationship song. I just happened upon a 60 Minutes profile of a woman by the name of Lois Lee who founded the charity by the same name. It's an organization in Los Angeles that houses runaway youths. Most kids who run away from home and stay away end up in jail or prosecuted for drugs or something else. It's horrendous. So, I reached out to them and talked to some of the kids in the program so that I could really understand their story. I wrote the song and decided to put it on the Repeat Offender album and donated all the royalties to them for that song. It ultimately built a new home for them in the Los Angeles area so they could house more kids. As nice as that is for them, what I got out of it was being able to meet some of the most extraordinary and courageous young people I've ever met. That's a really special song. I actually got a message on Facebook from one of the kids in the video and she's now married with kids and thriving. When I met her, and during the video shoot, she had just broken free of being a teenaged prostitute. There's a success story for you. I just love that song, and it features an amazing horn arrangement done by my late father, Dick Marx.

MR: Beautiful. Let's jump forward to your album Rush Street because it featured some pretty popular artists including Luther Vandross and Billy Joel. It also features my favorite recording you've done, "Hazard." Tell us about that song.

RM: Well, that song was musically inspired by Danny Lanois who is a brilliant arranger, producer, and musician himself. I was on tour and traveling all over at the time. He's made some of the most beautiful solo albums I've heard - they're very haunting and ethereal. I was sort of in this headspace from listening to a lot of Danny's music, so "Hazard" came out of that. It didn't particularly sound like any of his music, but it sounds like it could have been right at home on one of his records. It was just a piece of music and I didn't want to write lyrics like any other that I'd ever written. I had always wanted to write a story song, but it scared me. It's hard to tell a story in four minutes, you know? But I got an idea and I went after it. I thought it was the dumbest song that I ever tried to write, and my wife heard me playing around with it and kind of flipped out over it. She convinced me to record it and it became one of my biggest hits to this very day. Talk about a shock. I mean, I've never written a song that I thought was a hit but I was sure that nobody would care about that song. I still get people yelling it out at concerts all the time and I don't ever play a concert without doing it.

MR: Part of that, I'm sure, had to do with the spooky video that went with that song.

RM: That was a really great video. It was directed by a guy named Michael Hausman, who is a really great filmmaker. That was the closest thing to a movie that we've ever done for a video. It was a great cast as well - Jennifer O'Neill and Robert Conrad who plays the Sheriff. It's just a really great video and I can say that because I didn't do anything but appear in it.

MR: You've also worked with the late Luther Vandross.

RM: Luther and I started working together when he did background vocals on a song of mine called, "Keeping Coming Back." That experience just cemented our friendship. About a year or two later, he asked me to write a song with him for his Christmas album and we wrote a couple of other songs together after that. In fact, the last song he ever wrote called, "Dance With My Father," was a song that we wrote together, but that was much later.

MR: But that wasn't the first success you had outside your own recordings.

RM: I think the first thing I ever did after I'd had any success as an artist was working with an all-female heavy metal group called Vixen. I was on tour with them and they had finished their album, but everyone felt that they still needed their first hit single. So, I got together with a buddy of mine and we wrote a song called, "Edge Of A Broken Heart." I ended up producing that on the record for them and it was a big hit. I think that that was the first outside project that I ever took once I started touring and performing.

MR: So let's go back to "Dance With My Father," which was a huge hit and also won a Grammy, didn't it?

RM: It did - Best Song of the Year. It came about just like any other song - Luther called me up one day and said that he had an idea for a song called, "Dance With My Father." I told him that I loved the title, and we talked about the lyrics and the ideas he had for the song. The back story for that song is that my dad died in 1997, and it was very sudden and very painful because my dad and I were very, very close. The loss was so profound and it kind of sent me reeling for quite some time. One of the only people during that time who knew how to provide any sort of comfort was Luther. He would call me every couple of weeks and we would end up talking for hours. I can't even begin to tell you how much he helped me through that horrible period. Luther also came from a similar but very different situation because his father died when he was only 12. He didn't really get to know his father that well. The most vivid memory that he had of his father was seeing him come home and dance around the kitchen with Luther's mom and all the kids. It's such a sweet visual image. Luther said that he wanted to write a piece of music to remember his father, and asked if I would work on the music and we'd go from there.

I wrote a piece of music that night or the next day, and he took it and changed some stuff around and made it what he wanted, then added these amazing lyrics to it. The thing that's most beautiful about that song is everything that Luther brought to it because it was his story. I remember him saying that he thought that that song was the most important song of his career - he said that that was his "Piano Man." I was just excited that he was so excited about it. Ten days later, he had a massive stroke. He had just finished and recorded the song and then the stroke happened. It was about another year or so before he passed away, but the legacy of that song and what it means to me is so huge. I tried singing the song and I can't, I tried to sing it because I get asked to sing it a lot. It really has meant a lot to a lot of different people. People have adopted it into their lives like they have with several other songs that I've written, which I think is just incredible. But I can't sing that song because it just makes me too sad. Musical relationship notwithstanding, Luther and I were really close friends. I cherish my memories of him. But when I sing that song, it just bums me out too much, but I can and will say that I am extraordinarily proud to have been his collaborator on that song.

MR: You performed that song with Celine Dion on the night of the Grammys the year it won.

RM: Yeah, and Celine's father had passed away not too long before that. It was really hard for her to get through that. Luther was still alive at that point, though he was pretty incapacitated in the hospital. Celine is flawless though, so I went to Vegas to run through the song with her before the show. That particular year at the Grammys, there were a lot of big production numbers featuring Outkast, Earth, Wind & Fire, and 40 different people on stage at the same time. (laughs) Then we came out, very simply, I played the piano and Celine sang. It was really powerful. She really felt the song in her own way because, as I said, her dad had just passed. Simply the fact that I got to play the piano for Celine Dion is a big high point for me.

MR: You've also sung background vocals for Madonna.

RM: Yeah. That was actually one of the many sessions I did before I had a record deal.

MR: And you worked with Richard Carpenter as well, right?

RM: Yeah, I wrote a song with Richard. That was a great experience.

MR: What are some of your favorite Richard Marx hits from over the years.

RM: That's a nearly impossible question for any artist to answer. I've never heard any artist answer that question properly because there's no way to answer that question without denigrating some of the other songs. There's also no song that I've written that I've seen as a part of one of my live set lists and thought, "Oh, God, I can't wait until this song is over," you know? I'm sure that there are songs of mine that random people hate, but I don't have any. There are none that I'm embarrassed by or that represent a low point or anything. Believe me, I've written a ton of really crappy songs but you've never heard them. I'm not going to let anyone listen to anything that I don't think is the best I can do at any given time.

MR: Well, is there a song that you've written that has a particularly special place in your heart or story behind it?

RM: Again, for every song I've written, there are tracks on albums that are just as important or were just as powerful writing processes to me. When I came back from China, a crowd sang every word of "Right Here Waiting" with me; that was really special. Everywhere I go around the world, people know that song. It was very special and personal to me when it was written. Every song has its own story and life, and there isn't one song of mine that I would consider just a song. They all have a point and an origin, you know? They all have their own lives and entities and it's nearly impossible to just pick one out of the bunch.

MR: Do you have anything lined up for the near future besides beginning to work on that full length Christmas album?

RM: Well, I started touring and playing solo and acoustic last year after decades of playing with a band. I did it mainly because it frightened the hell out of me, but I have since found that it's some of the most exciting and rewarding performing that I've ever done. I'm so in love with it. It's almost like finding a new hobby or activity that you really love. Like all those guys who take up golf and then become obsessed with golf, I'm obsessed with my acoustic show. I'm just really enjoying putting all of my energy into all of those shows. I'm doing a bunch more of those shows this year all around the world. In addition to doing the new Christmas album, I'm also doing a new studio album over the summer, and I'm always writing with different people. I just worked with Keith Urban a few months ago, and I'm hoping to work with him again in the future. Beyond that, I don't make huge plans. I just sort of wait and see what happens. I'm actually working on a project later this year with my friend Fee Waybill who is one of the greatest rock performers ever and a brilliant songwriter on some new solo rock songs for him to be able to put out a record. I can't wait to finish that.

MR: Fee Waybill from The Tubes. You'll have to come back and talk with us about that. Well, Richard thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule to chat with us.

RM: Thanks so much for having me, Mike.

Transcribed by Evan Martin

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/from-dont-mean-nothing-to_b_1240740.html

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Obama uses tax proposals for his political message (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Aiming tax increases at millionaires and companies that ship jobs abroad may help frame the fairness theme of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, but it's a plan that stands virtually no chance of passing Congress.

Republicans have enough votes in the GOP-run House, and almost certainly in the Democratic-controlled Senate, to kill Obama's proposals. They say his ideas would discourage investment and job creation and further hurt an already ailing economy.

"He's got to know that none of those things he proposed really have much of a chance of going through both houses of Congress," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

"I don't think he's intending on passing any laws this year," said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. "He's in a campaign. That was his re-election speech."

The GOP's dismissiveness hardly matters to Obama and his Democratic allies.

After last year's hyper-partisanship bogged down routine business like financing the government and paying its debts, few expect much to move through Congress before November's election anyway ? especially not tax hikes that Republicans solidly reject.

"Even if there is little prospect of getting Republicans to agree with these proposals, they're important reference points for the public in identifying Obama as someone who's on their side," said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin.

Obama offered his plans, with scant detail, in Tuesday's State of the Union address. He used the word "fair" seven times to describe tax increases aimed at groups the Occupy movement has branded as the "one percent" of Americans who are doing extremely well while the rest of society struggles.

The president proposed ending tax breaks for U.S. companies moving jobs or profits to foreign countries and creating a minimum tax on their overseas profits. He also suggested new tax breaks for businesses that move jobs back to the U.S., for domestic manufacturing and for companies that invest in towns that have suffered major job losses.

Getting most attention was his plan to tax incomes above $1 million annually at a rate of at least 30 percent. That's a sharp and convenient contrast with the 15 percent tax rate enjoyed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, who earned about $21 million each of the past two years.

The proposals quickly became fodder for the GOP presidential contenders. Romney said the next day on CNBC's "Kudlow Report" that Obama's plan was "designed to come at me if I'm the nominee," and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said during last Thursday's presidential debate, "His proposal on taxes would make the economy worse."

Democrats immediately made clear that there will be Senate votes this year on the subject.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer, part of the Senate Democratic leadership, said he was relishing a push on "some kind of Romney rule, I mean Buffett rule." Obama has embraced a Buffett rule, named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has cited the inequity of laws that let him pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Such proposals, along with any efforts to deny tax breaks to U.S. companies that outsource jobs and profits, would never get the 60 votes they would need to prevail in the Senate this year, let alone win approval from the GOP-run House.

"If the president has proposals that will help create jobs, we'll take a look," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "But tax hikes on small businesses will make it even harder for them to invest and grow."

Republicans say boosting taxes on millionaires would hurt many of the people who run small businesses and create jobs, a claim Democrats call exaggerated. The GOP and business groups also marshal their own fairness argument, calling it unjust and impractical to raise taxes on companies that set up operations overseas.

"They locate their facilities to be close to the customer," said Dorothy Coleman, vice president for tax policy for the National Association of Manufacturers. "That's a big concern for us, targeting multinational companies as if there is something wrong with doing business overseas."

Democrats challenge that argument as well, saying many pharmaceutical and high technology companies that set up shop abroad are drawn by lower labor costs and taxes and still sell the bulk of their products in the U.S.

Those disputes underscore a political climate so difficult that neither the House nor Senate seem likely to even try advancing pre-election legislation that each party calls their top tax priority: overhauling and simplifying the tax code.

Even so, Obama's tax proposals can also be read as an opening gambit in what looms as a titanic partisan struggle to be waged after the November elections, perhaps in a lame duck session of Congress in December.

Next January, broad tax cuts will expire that were enacted under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 and were temporarily renewed by Obama and Congress in 2010. At the same time, $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts will kick in unless lawmakers vote otherwise.

Congress will also need to renew the government's authority to borrow money. And action will be needed on a package of expiring smaller tax cuts, mostly for businesses, and on preventing the alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at the wealthy, from trapping middle- and upper-middle-income families as well.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_congress_taxes

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Iolo System Mechanic 10.7

If sluggish PC performance is giving you the blues, you'd do well to invest in the $39.95 Iolo System Mechanic 10.7, a utility suite?designed to blow the virtual dust out of worn machines by repairing the registry, defragging the hard drive, and eliminating files that stymie snappy performance. Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 serves up a host of new features not present in previous builds we've reviewed, including Designated Drivers which manages drivers in an attempt to keep your PC problem free. All in all, Iolo System Mechanic remains one of the best PC tune-up utilities around, as it digs deep, cleans up PCs well, and offers informative, easy-to-understand help about the problems that plague computers.

System Requirements and Interface
Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP PCs, Iolo System Mechanics 10 requires just 30MB of disk space, 256MB of RAM, and an Internet connection for activating the license.?Unlike most PC tune-up utilities such as TuneUp Utilities 2012 (4 stars, $49.95), which limit you on the number of licenses, Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 lets you install the software on any number of computers provided that it's not for business purposes?a welcome feature in the age of the multi-PC household.

The interface looks very similar to previous entries in the Iolo System Mechanic family with the familiar red-white-and-blue color scheme. Like the previous version of System Mechanic, this version has several options in the left pane (Overview, Problems, Automated Tasks, Anti-malware, Firewall, All-in-One Tools, Individual Tools) the content of which appears in the main pane when clicked.

Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 also installs a useful widget on the desktop that gives you at-a-glance PC health and security readings. From this widget, you can launch any number of Iolo System Mechanic 10.7's features to begin the clean up process.

The Clean Up Process
The Overview screen opens by default when the program is launched, and it's where the "Analyze Now" button lives. Clicking the arrow next to it opened drop-down box that presented two choices: "Perform Quick Analysis" and "Perform Deep Analysis." The former is a one- to two-minute scan that looks for the most common PC problems; the latter is a five- to seven-minute scan that checks for all problems. Considering the heavy use that our test laptop had received, I went with the second option. Approximately six minutes later finished the scan and uncovered over 2,000 problems.

Beneath the reading appeared a highlighted message: "Boost speed and stability by removing redundant programs with CRUDD Remover." CRUDD is Iolo's acronym for Commonly Redundant or Unnecessary Decelerators and Destabilizers?fancy talk for duplicate programs that clog your system. The idea behind CRUDD Remover is to eliminate those extra programs as each application install theoretically slows your PC's performance a bit. After running CRUDD Remover, 9 problems were detected on the PC, which were explained in wonderful detail on the "Problems" screen.

What I found truly cool was that Iolo System Mechanic 10 didn't just serve up a number?it provided blurbs that explained why these problems negatively impact performance. I checked off all nine problems, clicked the "Repair All" button, and performed the required reboot. Performing another deep scan revealed that all but one problem was fixed, and that straggler was one beyond Iolo System Mechanic 10.7's scope: No installed anti-malware program was detected on the system.

I also ran Iolo's patent-pending Program Accelerator, which smartly re-aligns all of a program's dependent files on the hard drive. It's touted as being better than disk defragmenters, which can blindly compact and separate files even more. Program Accelerator took approximately 15 minutes for to work its magic, and, when it was done, I discovered that it had re-aligned over 30,000 files and eliminated nearly 100 file fragments. Four further files were defragmented after a restart.

Performance Improvements
I tested Iolo System Mechanic 10.7's ability to whip a PC back into shape by performing three tests?running the Geekbench system performance tool, measuring boot times, and transferring a 1.1GB folder of mixed media to external storage?before and after running the software to compare the computer's potency. Each test was run three times and averaged. Before AVG PC Tuneup 2011 scrubbed the system, the 2-GHz Intel Core i7 X990 Style-Note notebook with 4GB of RAM, and an 80GB Intel SSD drive achieved a 5,903 Geekbench score, booted in 50.3 seconds, and transferred the 1.1GB folder in 40.5 seconds.

After using Iolo System Mechanic 10.7, the system saw the most improved performance of all the tune-up utilities tested: The GeekBench score rose to 6064 (better than TuneUp Utilities 2012's 6045); the boot time decreased to just 37.1 seconds (on a par with TuneUp Utilities 2012's 37 seconds). The file transfer speed dropped to 40.8 seconds (swifter than TuneUp Utilities 2012's 41.1 seconds).?The overall system performance was incredibly fast and snappy?windows and menus opened in a blink.

Designated Drivers and NetBooster
Designated Drivers, a new feature to version 10.7, helps you find and install safe drivers for your computer?drivers that have been tested and certified by Microsoft. I liked that this driver utility is a part of Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 and not a separate application (which is the case with SlimWare Utilities SlimCleaner and SlimWare Utilities DiverUpdate). Designated Drivers found two driver updates for my PC, but Slimware Utilities DriverUpdate found a whopping 74.

The NetBooster internet booster is designed to stabilize and speed up your internet connection by optimizing settings?Iolo states that it's beneficial to run it before playing Web-connected video games and assists in opening Web pages faster. Cracked.com loaded in 5.9 seconds before running NetBooster, which decreased slightly (after clearing the browser's Internet history, rebooting, and activating the tool) to 5.3 seconds?a marginal increase.

Should You Use Iolo System Mechanic 10.7?
The answer is a resounding yes. Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 has simple interface, easy-to-understand problem definitions, and a deep array of performance-enhancing tools that produce excellent all-around scores. Iolo System Mechanic remains the PC tune-up-utility champion.

More Utility Suites Reviews:
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/w-7L2zSR7ZE/0,2817,2371043,00.asp

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What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?

Friday, January 27, 2012

In a study published in the journal Geology, scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggest that the large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as 'Snowball Earth,' are unrelated to worldwide glacial events.

"Our study suggests that the geochemical record documented in rocks prior to the Marinoan glaciation or 'Snowball Earth' are unrelated to the glaciation itself," said UM Rosenstiel professor Peter Swart, a co-author of the study. "Instead the changes in the carbon isotopic ratio are related to alteration by freshwater as sea level fell."

In order to better understand the environmental conditions prior to 'Snowball Earth', the research team analyzed geochemical signatures preserved in carbonate rock cores from similar climactic events that happened more recently ? two million years ago ? during the Pliocene-Pleistocene period.

The team analyzed the ratio of the rare isotope of carbon (13C) to the more abundant carbon isotope (12C) from cores drilled in the Bahamas and the Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The geochemical patterns that were observed in these cores were nearly identical to the pattern seen prior to the Marinoan glaciation, which suggests that the alteration of rocks by water, a process known as diagenesis, is the source of the changes seen during that time period.

Prior to this study, scientists theorized that large changes in the cycling of carbon between the organic and inorganic reservoirs occurred in the atmosphere and oceans, setting the stage for the global glacial event known as 'Snowball Earth'.

"It is widely accepted that changes in the carbon isotopic ratio during the Pliocene-Pleistocene time are the result of alteration of rocks by freshwater," said Swart. "We believe this is also what occurred during the Neoproterozoic. Instead of being related to massive and complicated changes in the carbon cycle, the variations seen in the Neoproterozoic can be explained by simple process which we understand very well."

Scientists acknowledge that multiple sea level fluctuations occurred during the Pliocene-Pleistocene glaciations resulting from water being locked up in glaciers. Similar sea-level changes during the Neoproterozoic caused the variations in the global carbon isotopic signal preserved in the older rocks, not a change in the distribution of carbon as had been widely postulated.

###

University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu

Thanks to University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117150/What_really_happened_prior_to__Snowball_Earth__

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One million children in Sahel at risk, UNICEF warns (Reuters)

GENEVA (Reuters) ? More than 1 million children in the Sahel are at risk of severe malnutrition and urgent action is needed to avert starvation akin to that in Somalia, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.

The agency appealed for $67 million for 8 countries in the region where it said instability fueled by increasing activities of al-Qaeda and Boko Haram was compounding humanitarian needs. They are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and the northern regions of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal.

"In the Sahel we are facing a nutrition crisis of a larger magnitude than usual with over 1 million children at risk of severe, acute malnutrition," Rima Salah, acting UNICEF deputy executive director, told a news briefing.

"The countries in the Sahel, for example, if we do not now attend to their needs, it will become like Somalia and other countries," she said. "We have to prevent it before it becomes a disaster."

She was referring to the anarchic Horn of Africa country where the U.N. says 250,000 still live in famine conditions due to drought and conflict and a total of 4 million need aid.

More than nine million people in five countries in Africa's Sahel region face food crisis next year, following low rainfall, poor harvests, high food prices and a drop in remittances from migrants, aid agency Oxfam said last month.

The funds for the Sahel, for an initial six-month phase, will provide therapeutic feeding to malnourished children and campaigns to prevent the spread of epidemics including cholera. Some families will receive cash to cover higher food prices.

It is part of UNICEF's overall appeal of $1.28 billion for 98 million women and children in 25 countries. Somalia and other Horn of Africa countries (Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya) account for nearly one-third of the total amount sought.

"There is growing instability in the Sahel region, fuelled by the Arab Spring and increasing activities of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram, all compounding the humanitarian needs of children and women in the region," UNICEF's report, "2012 Humanitarian Action for Children," said on Friday.

The Libyan civil war might have given militant groups in Africa's Sahel region like Boko Haram and al Qaeda access to large weapons caches, according to a U.N. report released in New York on Thursday.

The U.N. report on the impact of the Libyan civil war on countries of the Sahel region that straddle the Sahara - including Nigeria, Niger and Chad - also said some national authorities believe the Islamist sect Boko Haram, which killed more than 500 people last year and more than 250 this year in Nigeria, has increasing links to al Qaeda's North African wing.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay Editing by Maria Golovnina.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/hl_nm/us_africa_sahel_un

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Cruise ship fuel removal stalled due to rough seas (AP)

GIGLIO, Italy ? Rough seas off Italy's Tuscan coast forced a delay in the planned Saturday start of the operation to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded Costa Concordia, and officials said pumping may now not begin until midweek.

Recovery operations continued, however, and on Saturday yielded a 17th body: The woman who wasn't wearing a life jacket was found by divers on the submerged sixth floor deck, civil protection officials said.

The Concordia ran aground on Jan. 13 off the port of the island of Giglio port after the captain deviated from his planned route and gashed the hull of the ship on a reef. Some 4,200 passengers and crew endured a panicked evacuation after the abandon ship alarm didn't sound until the ship had capsized so much that some life boats couldn't be lowered.

Some 16 people remain unaccounted for and are presumed dead. The body discovered Saturday has not yet been identified.

The removal of the fuel aboard the Concordia is a key concern since the seas around Giglio form part of a protected marine sanctuary and are a favorite destination for scuba divers. So far, no leakage has been detected.

Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit has been contracted by the Concordia's owner Costa Crociere SpA, a unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp., to remove the fuel. Smit's divers have made the necessary preparations to begin pumping out fuel from six outer tanks that hold more than half of the 500,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil that are aboard the ship.

The rest of the fuel is contained in inner tanks that are harder to access.

So far, divers have drilled into four of the six outer tanks and fixed valves on them: one on top, one on bottom. Hoses will then be attached to the valves and as the oil ? which must be warmed to make it less gooey ? is sucked out of the upper hose, sea water is pumped in to fill the vacuum via the lower hose.

Smit spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer told reporters Saturday that the pumping operation may not begin now until midweek since the poor weather is forecast at least through Tuesday. Officials don't want to risk the possibility that a battering of the hoses caused by rough seas might lead to leakage.

On Saturday, the choppy waters partially dislodged Smit's barge that was hitched to the Concordia's hull and had served as a staging platform for the fuel removal operation. Smit brought it back into port, where it will stay until the weather improves, Schuttevaer said.

The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, remains under house arrest, accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before its passengers had evacuated. He has admitted he took the ship on "tourist navigation" to bring it close to Giglio but said the reef he hit wasn't marked on his nautical charts.

___

Winfield reported from Rome.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_ship_aground

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SKorea staging artillery drills at border island (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? South Korea staged live-fire drills Thursday from a front-line island shelled by North Korea in 2010, in the first such exercise since North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died last month. The North called the maneuvers belligerent.

Marines at Yeonpyeong Island and nearby Baengnyeong Island fired artillery into waters near the disputed sea border during the two-hour-long drills, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said later in the day that the South was "kicking up war fever" by simulating a pre-emptive strike.

Similar drills at Yeonpyeong in November 2010 triggered a North Korean artillery bombardment that killed four South Koreans.

The latest drills were routine exercises and there haven't been any suspicious activities by North Korea's military, the South Korean official said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.

South Korea last held artillery drills at the front-line islands on Dec. 12, five days before Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack, the official said.

Ties between the two Koreas remain frosty with North Korea vowing to retaliate against South Korea over its decision to bar all of its citizens, except for two private delegations, from visiting to pay respects after Kim's death.

The two sides are still technically at war because their conflict in the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Tension between the countries sharply rose in 2010 in the wake of North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong and a deadly warship sinking blamed on Pyongyang. North Korea has flatly denied its involvement in the sinking that killed 46 sailors.

South Korean and U.S. troops regularly conduct joint military drills, drawing angry responses from North Korea, which consider them as a rehearsal for a northward invasion.

On Sunday, the KCNA blasted South Korea and the United States over reports they plan a large-scale amphibious drills in March. A KCNA dispatch said the planned drills showed the allies' "wild design to stifle (North Korea) by force of arms."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_tension

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Zusi's goal lift US men to 1-0 win over Panama

/

By The Associated Press

updated 1:38 a.m. ET Jan. 26, 2012

Five months before the start of World Cup qualifying, the United States got an exhibition win in Central America under some of the conditions the players will face on the road to the 2014 tournament in Brazil.

Graham Zusi scored his first international goal in the eighth minute, and the Americans beat Panama 1-0 Wednesday night at Panama City for their third straight win.

"We wanted to introduce the players to those difficult games in different environments, especially away from home outside of their comfort zone," U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. "We wanted them to come here and experience this atmosphere and a different way of doing things. I think they did very well with all that."

Using mostly backups while the regulars remained with their European clubs and playing nearly the entire second half a man short, the Americans evened their record at 4-4-1 under Klinsmann, who replaced Bob Bradley as coach last summer.

"It was fun. The crowd was great. It was a fun environment to play in," Zusi said. '

Panama, which upset the U.S. in the first round of last year's CONCACAF Gold Cup, had a man advantage after Geoff Cameron received a red card in the 52nd minute for shoving Blas Perez from behind on a breakaway just outside the penalty area.

Perez nearly tied it in the 78th but sent a short downward header wide.

"In the first half I think we were the better team," said midfielder Jermaine Jones, who served as the U.S. captain for the second straight match. "The second half was difficult because we were a man down and Panama pushed hard."

Other than the goal, the Americans rarely threatened ? the U.S. didn't have its first corner kick until the fifth minute of stoppage time in the second half, just before the final whistle.

Goalkeeper Nick Rimando, making his first national team appearance in a year, had several difficult saves to prevent the hosts from scoring. The U.S. was coming off a 1-0 win over Venezuela on Saturday at Glendale, Ariz., its first victory over a South American opponent in nearly five years.

"To get two victories and come down to Central America and beat Panama is huge," Rimando said. "It's a testament to all the hard work everyone has put in."

During a three-week training camp, Klinsmann got to test the depth of his player pool as the Americans prepare for their opening qualifier, on June 8 against Antigua and Barbuda.

"It was good to help us prepare for what we will see in World Cup qualifying," midfielder Brek Shea said. "It's a battle. It's not always pretty, but you have to get the results."

Most of the top American players will return for the next game, an exhibition against Italy at Genoa on Feb. 29.

Zusi, a 25-year-old midfielder with Major League Soccer's Sporting Kansas City, made his national debut last weekend. His goal came after left back Zach Loyd's cross fell at Teal Bunbury at the top of the 6-yard box and appeared to bounce off him to Zusi, who slammed it in with a right-footed shot from 7 yards.

"Zach sent a ball in that took a fortuitous bounce in my direction, and I was just there to clean it up," Zusi said. "It's a cool experience to get that first goal, but the win is still the most important thing."

Rimando dove midway through the first half to block Luis Renteria's point-blank shot, which bounded in front of the net. Rimando then got up and managed to poke the ball away before the rebound could be knocked in.

Jones nearly made it 2-0 in the 30th, but goalkeeper Luis Mejia parried his 30-yard shot, then dived back to save Chris Wondolowski's header at the goal line. Five minutes later, Rimando athletically got his left leg out to block Perez's close-range shot.

"Our team had a very hard three weeks, and they had tired legs today and you could see that," Klinsmann said. "A lot of the young players learned their lesson today."

NOTES: After scoring in the seventh minute of stoppage against Venezuela. MF Ricardo Clark had started for the first time since June 26, 2010, when he was stripped of the ball leading to Ghana's opening goal in the 2-1 overtime loss that eliminated the U.S. from the World Cup. ... D Jeff Parke made his debut in the 55th minute, coming in for Wondolowski after Cameron's red card.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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'She wants the best for me'

U.S. defender Tim Ream cancels his honeymoon in Tahiti and heads east after being contated by English Premier League club Bolton.

Solo out?

Hope Solo has an ailing leg, the result of some extra work she was putting in to get back into playing shape after "Dancing With the Stars."

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46141711/ns/sports-soccer/

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Exclusive clip: Bernie Mac tribute movie

Image Entertainment

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

Comedian Bernie Mac died over three years ago, but his influence is still felt by comics and actors alike.

A new documentary about the late comic, "I Ain't Scared of You: A Tribute to Bernie Mac," will air on Comedy Central Feb. 19, with the accompanying DVD out Feb. 21.

The documentary looks at Bernie Mac's personal and professional life, including movie clips, early footage and never-before-seen performances.

Our exclusive clip below showcases numerous celebrities, from Chris Rock to Cameron Diaz to Zoe Saldana, remembering the comedian and what he meant to them.

"His number's in my phone right now," says Rock. "I won't get rid of the number. There's only one Bernie."

Bernie Mac died of complications from pneumonia in 2008. He was just 50.

Watch the exclusive clip and let us know what you think on Facebook.

Watch our exclusive clip from "I Ain't Scared of You: A Tribute to Bernie Mac," featuring many of the stars the late comic worked with, including Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson.

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Source: http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10242254-exclusive-clip-bernie-mac-tribute-movie

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Brown Fat Furnishes Physiological Furnace

60-Second Health | Health

Men with more brown fat burn more calories in the cold to keep warm. Katherine Harmon reports.

January 25, 2012?|

More 60-Second Health

Subscribe via iTunes

When it comes to the battle of the bulge, putting on more muscle will burn extra calories even when you're resting. But recent research suggests that there might be a particular type of fat that also uses up more energy than the typical off-white stuff that tends to congregate around American midsections: brown fat.

This tissue turns food energy directly into heat. It was thought to exist only in babies, to help them keep warm. But it?s recently been found?in small quantities?in adults, too. Mostly distributed in our necks and shoulders. And a new study finds that when adult men are chilly, those with more brown fat burn through more calories keeping warm. The results are in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. [Veronique Ouellet, et al, Brown Adipose Tissue Oxidative Metabolism Contributes to Energy Expenditure During Acute Cold Exposure In Humans]

The researchers found that those subjects with the most brown fat saw the biggest boost in their metabolism when they were subjected to cold for three hours.

Although scientists are interested in brown fat?s obesity-battling possibilities, don't count on a calorie-crunching injection in a meat locker anytime soon. For now, we have to burn calories the old fashioned way?or avoid them in the first place.

?Katherine Harmon

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]???
?

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Oscar nod for West Memphis 3 film angers parents (AP)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ? The parents of two of three Arkansas boys who were brutally murdered nearly two decades ago said they're disappointed that a documentary about the killings and the three men convicted, known as the West Memphis Three, was nominated Tuesday for an Academy Award.

Todd and Diana Moore had asked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to exclude "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" from consideration, saying it glorifies Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. The three spent 18 years in prison, long claiming their innocence and attracting attention from celebrities, before reaching a deal with prosecutors to be set free last year.

The film, directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, is the third in a series of HBO documentaries about the case. The 8-year-old Cub Scouts ? Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers ? were found dead in 1993 in West Memphis, a town along the Mississippi River. Two drowned in a drainage ditch, the other bled to death; all were found naked and tied up.

The Moores, along with Stevie Branch's father and stepfather, sent a letter to the Academy and reporters on Tuesday expressing their "sadness, disappointment, and outrage" about the Oscar nod.

"This film should be exposed as a fraud, not rewarded with an Academy Award nomination," they wrote.

Berlinger, who was at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, said in an email that he was sympathetic to the victims' families.

"We believe that the pursuit of the truth has been the best way to honor the memories of the victims of this unimaginable crime and our hearts go out to those who are criticizing us," he said.

The Academy didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The film was among five documentary features nominated for an Oscar.

The first film aired in 1996 and immediately raised doubts about the case. Over the years, celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder and the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines joined the effort to free Echols, who was sentenced to death, and Baldwin and Misskelley, who received life prison sentences.

The three men were freed in August after pleading guilty to lesser charges in exchange for sentences of the 18 years they'd already served. An unusual legal maneuver allowed the men to maintain their claims of innocence.

Since then, the men have been relearning to live outside prison walls and new films are chronicling the case. "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" premiered last year, and another film, "West of Memphis," premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this month.

The letter from the Moores comes shortly after Pam Hobbs, Stevie Branch's mother, asked the state to reopen the case after she saw new evidence in "West of Memphis." She believes Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley did not murder her son.

Prosecutor Scott Ellington, who handled the case in August, said Tuesday he had received a packet of materials from the defense team but had not had a chance to look at it. He has said previously he believes the real killers were convicted but promised to look at new defense evidence.

Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were convicted after Misskelley unexpectedly confessed and implicated the other two, describing sodomy and other violence. Misskelley, then 17, later recanted, and defense lawyers said he got several parts of the story wrong. An autopsy found there was no definite evidence of sexual assault, and Misskelley said the older boys abducted the Cub Scouts in the morning, when they had actually been in school all day.

___

Follow Jeannie Nuss at http://twitter.com/jeannienuss

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_en_mo/us_boys_slain_documentary

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Poet LLC launches joint venture with Dutch firm (AP)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. ? Sioux Falls-based Poet LLC says it will decline a $105 million federal loan guarantee for a cellulosic ethanol plant in Iowa and instead launch a joint venture with a Dutch firm.

The nation's largest ethanol company is working with Royal DSM, a company based in the Netherlands that will supply yeast fermentation technology. Each will own 50 percent of the $250 million venture named Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels LLC. If federal regulators approve, it will produce cellulosic ethanol and license the technology to other plants around the world.

The plant at Emmetsburg, Iowa, is expected to start operating in the second half of 2013 and convert corn crop residue into 25 million gallons of ethanol per year.

The federal loan guarantee had been finalized last fall by the U.S. Energy Department.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_bi_ge/us_poet_royal_dsm_south_dakota

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Woman who returned adopted Russian boy faces suit (AP)

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. ? A March trial has been scheduled in a child support lawsuit against an American woman who sent her adopted son back to Russia alone on a plane with a note saying she didn't want to be his mother anymore.

The adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, is being sued by her adoption agency, World Association for Children and Parents, for child support. Hansen was living in Shelbyville in April 2010 when she sent the boy, then 7, back to Moscow with a note stating he had psychological problems.

Trial is scheduled March 27 in Shelbyville's circuit court, Judge F. Lee Russell's office said.

Hansen has not been criminally charged. The incident drew international attention and prompted new adoption agreements between the U.S. and Russia.

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

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Tablet (read: iPad and Kindle) ownership almost doubled over the holidays

According to Pew Research, tablet ownership among U.S. consumers nearly doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent over the holiday season.

The Pew project conducted three surveys, one in mid-December

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/jGFsBU5lYDc/story01.htm

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Gingrich: Only I can go 'toe to toe' with Obama (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Emboldened by his victory in South Carolina's Republican primary, Newt Gingrich said Sunday his hardline conservative views and confrontational style will be needed by Republicans this fall to fight President Barack Obama's "billion-dollar war chest" and take back the White House.

In several televised interviews, the former House speaker said rival Mitt Romney was a moderate who left GOP voters cold and that only he, Gingrich, could go "toe to toe" with Obama.

"I think in South Carolina it began to become really clear that if you want to beat Barack Obama, then Newt Gingrich is the only person who has the background, the experience and the ability to get on the stage and drive home a conservative message with authenticity," he said.

Gingrich's win in South Carolina has helped invigorate his once struggling campaign and cast fresh doubt on Romney's ability to easily cinch the Republican nomination.

Returns from 95 percent of the state's precincts showed Gingrich with 41 percent of the vote to 27 percent for Romney. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was winning 17 percent, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul 13 percent.

Next stop is Florida, where Gingrich and Romney will compete with Santorum in the Jan. 31 primary. Paul has said he was bypassing the state in favor of smaller subsequent caucuses.

Romney and his supporters are dismissing Gingrich's win in South Carolina and say his nomination would be a disaster for the Republican Party, citing his rocky tenure leading House Republicans in the 1990s and allegations of ethics violations.

"I think Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party, over time," said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. "Whether he will do it again in the future, I don't know. But Gov. Romney never has."

Christie, who has endorsed Romney's nomination, said he would "listen" if Romney were to ask him to be his running mate this fall. But, he added, he expects to remain in his current position as governor.

Gingrich says his views on lower taxes, less government regulation and foreign policy put him in stark contrast to Obama and that the dynamics of a Gingrich-Obama fight are much more alluring to voters.

"I think Gov. Romney's core problem was that he governs (as) a Massachusetts moderate, which by the standards of Republican primary voters is a liberal. And he can't relax and be candid," he said.

Gingrich spoke on CNN's "State of the Union," NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS "Face the Nation." Christie spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich

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U.S. Deleveraging, Unlike Some (Powerlineblog)

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Can Mitt Romney recover from his South Carolina 'disaster'?

Newt Gingrich defied conventional political wisdom in coming back to win solidly in South Carolina. Can he do the same in Florida, and what must Mitt Romney do to recover from Saturday's drubbing?

Was Newt Gingrich?s very solid victory in South Carolina Saturday night a fluke ? as the Republican establishment fervently hopes?

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Or was it a clear sign that all bets are off in the GOP nomination race ? a time when the mix of social, economic, and political forces in the United States have combined to create a new landscape for electoral politics?

Just three contests into the primary/caucus season, the question may be unanswerable, the kind of thing that keeps pundits and political scientists gainfully employed. But the results are stark.

RECOMMENDED: Newt Gingrich: 8 of the GOP idea man's more unusual ideas

?South Carolina has proven to be a disaster for Mitt Romney,? write Larry Sabato and Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics in their morning-after analysis.

?The size of his defeat by Newt Gingrich ? a 12%+ landslide in a four-way race ? is virtually a repudiation of his candidacy in a state that has prided itself on picking the eventual nominee for 32 years,? they write. ?And we suspect Romney will have several more nights of heartburn, much like this one, as the nomination process unfolds.?

In the Palmetto State, Romney?s slide from presumptive front-runner was swift. Three days earlier, he?d had a clear lead in the polls. But back-to-back debates in South Carolina clearly showed Romney?s weakness and Gingrich?s strength in such crucial venues. Romney waffled on his wealth and income taxes; Gingrich dined on red meat when he took after the media over his marital infidelities.

Gingrich did well across the board in South Carolina, according to exit polls gathered by CNN: By gender (51 percent of men and 49 percent of women voted for him), age, education and income level, religion, ideology (Romney barely won among self-described moderates).

Most tea party supporters went for Gingrich. Importantly, so did most of those for whom the ability to defeat Barack Obama was the key to winning their vote ? ?electability,? which was supposed to be Romney?s strong point.

If Romney doesn?t want to be discouraged by the Sunday morning analysis of his defeat, he?d better stick to the funny papers.

Writing at Real Clear Politics, Sean Trende says there are three takeaways from South Carolina: ?There is no good news buried in here for Mitt Romney?. This is worse than George W. Bush?s loss to John McCain in New Hampshire?. Analysts are kidding themselves if they say Romney is the inevitable nominee.?

South Carolina was always going to be tough for Romney. In 2008, he came in just fourth there.

Now, Romney seems to be heading to ?more favorable ground,? as Sabato and Kondik put it.

According to 2008 exit polls from Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Michigan ? important upcoming contests ? the number of evangelical Christians and those who describe themselves as ?very conservative? is smaller there than it was this year in Iowa and South Carolina.

Although Gingrich?s South Carolina win no doubt will generate more financial support for his campaign, Romney at this point has more resources to get his message across in Florida (including expected attacks on Gingrich), which is a much larger state than the candidates have fought in so far.

As of Sunday, Romney was leading Gingrich by 18.5 percentage points (40.5-22.0) in Florida, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polling data. In national tracking data, he?s ahead of Gingrich by 8.2 points. But as this past week's experience shows, that can swiftly change. The extent to which Gingrich's momentum continues will be key.

Though the South Carolina results for Rick Santorum and Ron Paul were less than spectacular (17 percent and 13 percent respectively), both vow to stay in the race for now. That works to Romney?s advantage, avoiding the two-man race that at this point would seem to benefit Gingrich.

Still, all eyes are focused on the two men at the head of a dwindling pack ? especially as they prepare to do rhetorical battle in critical debates in Florida this coming week.

RECOMMENDED: Newt Gingrich: 8 of the GOP idea man's more unusual ideas

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Rb5CaZQmPFM/Can-Mitt-Romney-recover-from-his-South-Carolina-disaster

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Afghan Taliban say recruited soldier who killed French troops (Reuters)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) ? The Afghan Taliban said on Saturday they had recruited an Afghan soldier who shot dead four French soldiers in the country's east a day earlier, prompting France to threaten an early pullout from the NATO-led war.

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has recruited people in important positions. Some of them have already accomplished their missions," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone, using another name the Islamist group call themselves.

A regional Taliban commander added that incidents such as a video showing U.S. marines urinating on corpses was boosting support for the group among Afghans and threatened more attacks.

(Reporting by Jibran Ahmad, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman, editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/wl_nm/us_afghanistan_french_taliban

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