The Real World Press

Minority report? London police using facial recognition technology to track down rioters

2011-08-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

LONDON (AP) — Facial recognition technology being considered for London's 2012 Games is getting a workout in the wake of Britain's riots, a senior police chief told The Associated Press, with officers feeding photographs of suspects through Scotland Yard's newly updated face-matching program.

Chief Constable Andy Trotter of the British Transport Police said Thursday the sophisticated software was being used to help find those suspected of being involved in the worst unrest London has seen in a generation.

But he cautioned that facial recognition makes up only a fraction of the police force's efforts, saying tips have mostly come from traditional sources, such as still images captured from closed circuit cameras, pictures gathered by officers, footage shot by police helicopters or images snapped by members of the public. One department was driving around a large video screen displaying images of suspects.

"There's a mass of evidence out there," Trotter said in a telephone interview. "The public are so enraged that people who wouldn't normally come forward are helping us — especially when they see their neighbors are coming back with brand new TVs."

Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged Thursday that police were overwhelmed by rioting that began over the weekend in London and spread across the country over four days. Mobs of youths looted stores, set buildings aflame and attacked police officers and other people — a chaotic and humbling scene for a city a year away from hosting the Olympic Games.

At an emergency session of Parliament summoned to discuss the riots, Cameron said authorities were considering new powers, including allowing police to order thugs to remove masks or hoods, evicting troublemakers from subsidized housing and temporarily disabling cell phone instant messaging services. He said the 16,000 police deployed on London's streets to deter rioters and reassure residents would remain through the weekend.

A press officer with Scotland Yard — who also spoke anonymously, in line with force policy — confirmed that facial recognition technology was at the police's disposal, although he gave few other details. He said that generally the technology would only be used to help identify those suspected of serious crimes, such as assault, and that in most cases disseminating photographs to the general public remains a far cheaper and more effective way of finding suspects.

The facial-recognition technology used by police treats the human face like a grid, measuring the distance between a person's nose, eyes, lips and other features. It has recently been upgraded, according to an article published last year in Scotland Yard's bimonthly magazine, "The Job."

The March 2010 article said that the new program has been shown to work far better than older versions of the technology, with one expert quoted as saying that it had shown promise in identifying people from high-quality, face-on shots taken off of surveillance photographs, mobile phones, passports or the Internet.

A law enforcement official told the AP that to use the technology "you have to have a good picture of a suspect and it is only useful if you have something to match it against. In other words, the suspect already has to have a previous criminal record."

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss ongoing investigations.

In another effort to identify suspects, police have released two dozen photos and videos to the picture-sharing website Flickr, where they've already gathered more than 400,000 hits. Some of those photographs have also been published by Britain's brash tabloid press. The Sun recently plastered them across its front page, along with a headline urging readers to report looters to the police.

The photographs on Flickr are mainly grainy images pulled from cameras, which may not be of much use to face-matching software. But detectives are already scanning the Web for pictures of high-quality photographs of rioters' faces, according to photojournalist Guilherme Zauith, who witnessed some of the disturbances in London and later posted images of clashes to the Internet.

Zauith said he was recently contacted by a London detective "saying that they saw my photos online and if I could send it to them to help to identify the people."

"They were looking for all kind of photographs showing faces," he said. Zauith, a 30-year-old Brazilian national, said he turned the photos over to the detective.

The West Midlands police were trying another approach: driving a van equipped with a large screen displaying 50 images of suspects through Birmingham.

Police said the "Digi-Van" will stop at key locations around the city to give shoppers and commuters a good look at the photographs in hopes they can help identify suspects.

Facial recognition technology is already widely employed by free-to-use websites such as Facebook and Google Inc.'s Picasa photo-sharing program.

Such programs have been of increasing interest to authorities as well. A person with the Olympic planning committee, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of security preparations, said that facial recognition software was being considered for use as a security measure during the Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, detectives are employing a host of other tactics to take aim at the rioters. Police departments across the country have made arrests linked to riot threats and boasts posted to social networking sites.

Trotter said that while investigations had been helped by looters "who publicize their actions on things like Facebook," a lot of arrests have come the old-fashioned way, through officers simply spotting suspects they'd seen before.

"It's not just the face that is recognizable," Trotter said. "It's been in the way they walk, or the clothes they're wearing or even tattoos."

Foreclosures in US rise in August to new record levels

2010-09-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

US foreclosure activity rose in August from the previous month, and banks and lenders took ownership from homeowners at a record pace, according to a new report released Thursday.
Bank repossessions, often the final step in the foreclosure process after a home fails to sell at auction, increased about 2 percent from the month before to 95,364, a record high. At the same the number of properties that received default notices—the first step in the foreclosure process—decreased 1 percent from a month ago and fell 30 percent from a year ago, a sign that lenders are focusing on their backlog of foreclosure inventory before tackling new distressed loans, according to foreclosure listing website RealtyTrac, which released the report.

Overall, foreclosure fillings rose 4.18 percent in August from the previous month, and were down 5.48 percent from a year ago. In all, 338,836 properties were in the foreclosure process. One in 381 U.S. households received a foreclosure notice in August. (Foreclosure notices are defined as a default notice, auction sale notice or bank repossession.)

Losing the News: The Future of the News that Feeds Democracy (Institutions of American Democracy)

Census: 1 in 7 Americans Live in Poverty

2010-09-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

In the second year of a brutal recession, the ranks of the American poor soared to their highest level in half a century and millions more are barely avoiding falling below the poverty line, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
About 44 million Americans - one in seven - lived last year in homes in which the income was below the poverty level, which is about $22,000 for a family of four. That is the largest number of people since the census began tracking poverty 51 years ago.
The snapshot captured by the census for 2009, the first year of the Obama presidency, shows an America in the throes of economic upheaval.
Since 2007, the year before the recession kicked into gear, the country has almost 4 million fewer wage-earners. There are more children growing up poor. And for the first time since the government began tracking health insurance in 1987, the number of people who have health coverage declined, as people lost jobs with health benefits or employers stopped offering it.
With midterm elections less than two months away, the statistics bare the reality fueling much of the anger toward Washington.
In the Washington region, Virginia's poverty rate rose the most, to 10.5 percent from 8.6 percent. Maryland's edged up half a percentage point to 9 percent. The District's rate was the highest, but it declined from 18 percent to 17 percent.
Although the recession's impact was broad-based, there were disparities among groups. The official poverty rate increased for all races and ethnicities except Asians, who continued to have the highest median household income. More working-age adults lived in poverty, while the number of poor people 65 or older fell, largely as a result of increases in Social Security payments.
More than 51 million Americans lack health insurance, the census reported, and a greater-than-ever percentage of those who do have insurance are getting it from the government.
Scholars, nonprofit groups that work with the poor and President Obama all expressed concern about the gloomy picture.
Obama said the numbers could have been much worse were it not for government assistance.
"Because of the Recovery Act and many other programs providing tax relief and income support to a majority of working families - and especially those most in need - millions of Americans were kept out of poverty last year," he said in a statement.
Many conservatives, however, laid the blame on government programs that don't work.
"We're spending more money fighting poverty than ever before, yet poverty is up," said Michael D. Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "Clearly, we're doing something wrong."
Along with a rise in the number of people living in poverty, the census reported a decrease in the number of people who are living just above poverty level, suggesting that many of those just slightly above poverty slipped over the edge in the previous year.
Food banks and shelters around the country say they are seeing former donors asking for help.
Dale City resident Jamie Imler is one. She used to give money to charity and make quilts for homeless shelters. But since she began treatment for breast cancer last year, she has been too weak to work at either of the two jobs she held, one in a restaurant and one for a recruitment agency. Her income has dropped from $2,000 a month to less than $700 - not enough to cover her rent - and she has been coming for the past six months to a food pantry in Prince William County called Action Through Service.
"Things were good," she said. "I was a single mom, raised my son and needed food stamps."
"And now I'm here," she added.
While the number of the country's poorest people is higher than in any other recorded period, the rate is not without precedent. The last time it was this high was 1994. And in the early 1960s, it was over 20 percent.
Despite the jump in poverty, median income did not go down for those who still had jobs. Men working full time saw their median earnings rise 2 percent, to $47,000, while the median wage of women rose about the same amount, to a little over $36,000.
The median household income declined a little, to just under $50,000. But household income is down 4.2 percent since the recession began and 5 percent from its peak of more than $52,000 in 1999. Black households fared particularly poorly, as incomes dropped 4.4 percent compared with 1.6 percent for white households.
"We always have a situation where some population groups have higher poverty rates than others," said Margaret Simms, who directs the Low Income Working Families Project at the Urban Institute. "During recessions, we see who bears the brunt in hard times in the kinds of numbers we see today."
The statistics have quickly become fodder for a debate on the proper role of government in combating economic downturns.
"It's a strong indication that there is not enough focus on growth and investment in job production," said Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio state treasurer who is a fellow at the Family Research Council.
Ron Haskins, a head of the Brookings Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, said government programs do not have enough money to make up for the decline among private and employer-provided health care. "Is the government going to pick it up?" he said. "That means bigger government, bigger expenses, more taxes."
This summer, a proposal to extend jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed came under attack by Republicans, who objected to more spending that would add to the soaring deficit. The measure eventually passed.
Some of those who have struggled to find work are making their way to Good Shepherd Alliance, a food pantry in Loudoun County, which is one of the country's wealthiest jurisdictions.
Vickie Koth, executive director, said she has grown accustomed to hearing clients say, almost as if dazed by their dizzying descent, that they used to volunteer at nonprofits like hers. The downturn will end some day, she noted, and hard times should be remembered.
"A lot of the community is really seeing this issue for the first time," she said. ". . . Once this turns around, I hope that people will remember what we went through so that our communities will be more open to serving those around us who are in need."

John Stewart of "The Daily Show" and Stephen Colbert of "The Colbert Report" to hold political rallies in washington

2010-09-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- Two Comedy Central funnymen are apparently entering into the partisan political fray with rallies of their own in the nation's capital.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have set October 30 as the date for their respective rallies.
On Thursday night's airing of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," the comedian announced plans for a "Rally to Restore Sanity."
"See you October 30 on the National Mall to spread the timeless message, 'Take it down a notch for America,' " he said.
Stewart dubbed the event a "clarion call for rationality."
"A million moderate march, where we take to the streets to send a message to our leaders and our national media that says, 'We are here! We ... are only here until 6 though, because we have a sitter,'" he said.
On "The Colbert Report," which airs immediately after Stewart's show, Colbert fired back with plans for his "March to Keep Fear Alive."
"Now is not the time to take it down a notch. Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom," Colbert said.
Stewart said on his Thursday show that he had reserved a spot on the National Mall.
"The forms have been filled out, the checks have been written," he said.
Stewart and Colbert have submitted one application for a permit for the Washington Monument grounds on October 30, National Park Service spokesman Bill Line confirmed Friday.
"A permit is not finalized yet, and they are still working through a resolution as for any event," Line added.
Stewart is known more for commentaries on his 30-minute show than publicity stunts. But Colbert has engaged the public several times outside his show's New York studio, filing papers to run for president in South Carolina and shaving his head while taping his show in Iraq to show support for troops.
In a nonscientific online poll after the death last year of Walter Cronkite, Time magazine named Stewart "America's most trusted newscaster." Stewart captured 44 percent of that vote, with NBC's Brian Williams finishing a distant second at 29 percent.
See the poll results here
Actual scientific polling in 2007 by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press found Stewart tied for fourth place as viewers' favorite news person, ranking alongside Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams and CNN's Anderson Cooper, and just behind Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Bill O'Reilly.
See the Pew poll results here
In a separate Pew survey, 16 percent of Americans said they regularly watched "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report." Those numbers are comparable to some major news programs. For instance, 17 percent said they regularly watched Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," and 14 percent watched PBS' "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" regularly.
See the full survey results
The announcements come less than three weeks after conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck hosted a much-publicized "Restoring Honor" rally on the National Mall, urging large crowds to "turn back to God" and return America to the values on which it was founded.
That event drew criticism for its timing and location -- on the 47th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered in the same place.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson told CNN at the time that Beck was mimicking King and "humiliating the tradition." And other civil rights activists gathered nearby with the Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network in a "Reclaim the Dream" rally.
Stewart first publicly floated the idea of a counter-rally in a profile in the September 12 edition of New York magazine.
"Maybe we would do a 'March of the Reasonable,' on a date of no particular significance," Stewart says in the article.
Read the New York magazine profile
The website logos and icons created for the Colbert and Stewart rallies mimic Beck's, using identical typography and similar stylized images.
"We're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard," the website for the "Rally to Restore Sanity" says.
The "March to Keep Fear Alive" site takes a more alarmist approach: "Never forget -- 'Reason' is just one letter away from 'Treason.' Coincidence? Reasonable people would say it is, but America can't afford to take that chance."

The propoganda works: Low risker's demand swine flu vaccine

2009-10-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES – It was bound to happen: Some people who aren't at high risk for swine flu complications got the much-in-demand vaccine.

Sometimes they were healthy adults or senior citizens instead of kids, pregnant women and people with health problems.

Before Los Angeles County health officials stepped up screening at their flu clinics, Natalie Thompson sailed through the long line and got the vaccine along with her 8-year-old son, even though she's not in one of the priority groups.

"If I can get it, I'm not gonna say no," said Thompson, 35, of Hollywood Hills.

Another mom, Katy Radparvar, didn't say no either.

"Our doctor doesn't have it yet," said the 41-year-old woman who was vaccinated along with her three children at a public health vaccination site in suburban Encino last week.

Public health officials don't want to be vaccine police. Many don't turn anyone away who wants the vaccine, though some locations are tougher than others.

"For many this is a frustrating process and we really sympathize with those who show up at a clinic and can't get vaccinated," said Los Angeles County public health director Dr. Jonathan Fielding.

Across the country, thousands have waited in line and many have been turned away, as manufacturers have trickled out the slow-to-produce vaccine. Things are improving, and now about 25 million doses are available, the government says.

Aware of scant supplies up front, Santa Barbara County clinics administered their 4,400 shots to pregnant women only. San Diego County is only immunizing those on the priority list, but is taking the word of residents.

Nevada is using the honor system with vaccinations offered on a first-come, first-served basis to those who identify themselves as at-risk for the H1N1 virus.

"We really are hoping people go on the honor system and let us immunize people in the priority groups," Southern Nevada Health District spokeswoman Stephanie Bethel said. "I think, for the most part, it's working."

In Oregon, Portland metro area officials say pregnant women and children are moved to the front of the lines and inoculated before the general public.

"We assertively asked those who were not in the priority group to move to the end of the line, so when we ran out of vaccine, those people who were left were those who were not at risk," said health officer Dr. Gary Oxman. "And people have responded well to it."

The vaccine shortfall prompted Wisconsin state health officials this week to remind local health agencies "to strongly encourage" announcements about the limited vaccine supply and the focus on vaccinating high-risk groups first.

Robert M. Pestronk, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said local health departments are doing the best they can under challenging conditions.

"Despite those best efforts, it doesn't surprise me that people who are not in high priority groups are appearing at clinics for vaccination," he said. "It's difficult to restrict vaccine simply to the priority groups."

One of the doctors who helped draw up guidelines for vaccine priority groups also isn't surprised at how things are unfolding.

The government's vaccine advisory panel "did not expect vaccine police to be set up around the country," said Dr. William Schaffner, a flu specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who is on the panel.

If vaccine demand is low in some locations, it makes sense for non-priority groups to get it instead of wasting the supply.

"I don't consider it a problem," said Schaffner. "I consider it more of a problem if vaccine is left unused."

That's what happened in the 2004-05 flu season when there was a shortage of seasonal flu vaccine. Many older healthy people refused to get the shot so that those who had health problems would have access to vaccine.

"One of the things that was learned was to be careful about turning people away because we might end up with a lot of vaccine at the end of the year," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention But right now, there aren't many vaccine leftovers to be found. Every morning, Anne Jenkins of Shreveport, La., makes a round of calls to ask doctors and health clinics if they have the injectable swine flu vaccine. She is 23 weeks pregnant.

After seeing four elderly women requesting swine flu vaccine — to no avail — at a local military treatment facility she thought to herself, "you're not on the list."

Though local officials tell Jenkins the vaccine won't be available until mid-November, she's ready to compete for her dose when it arrives.

"You feel the animal instinct come out," she said.

Was clinton duped? Some say he met with a Kim Jong-Ill look alike

2009-10-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Seoul, South Korea – Will the real Kim Jong-il please stand up?

A number of analysts here are convinced that not all the photos being released of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, are really photos of Kim Jong-il.

Instead, they say, a look-alike has been standing in for him on some of the 122 trips he's reportedly made this year to the countryside, factories, cultural events, military units, and all sorts of other venues.

Some observers say the North Korean leader is too ill to make all these appearances. One Japanese analyst claims President Clinton didn't meet with Kim Jong-il in August – he met with a Mr. Kim double.

The evidence of Kim stand-ins is far from verified, but several North Korean refugees here say that Kim has not one but several look-alikes playing his role.

Still, it's logical that for security reasons, Kim has one or more stand-ins, as did former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before the US invasion in 2003. One argument is that Kim has no time for all those trips outside Pyongyang while his health remains uncertain and he's preparing his youngest son to take over as early as next year.

Ha Tae-young, president of Open Radio for North Korea, which broadcasts two hours a day via shortwave into North Korea, cites the word of one recent North Korean defector.

"He says he knows a girl whose father is the actor for Kim Jong-il," says Mr. Ha. "Recently Kim Jong-il loses fat. He's very skinny these days. The defector says, If Kim Jong-il looks skinny, the actor can do the same thing."

Some turn resemblance into acting career
Here in South Korea, there's a booming business in Kim Jong-il look-alikes. Dozens of people in recent years have portrayed Kim Jong-il in television comedy shows, nightclub routines, and serious movies and dramas.

After the inter-Korean summit of June 2000, in which Kim Jong-il received South Korea President Kim Dae-jung in Pyongyang, the South Korean government discouraged such satires for fear of upsetting reconciliation with the North.

Still, from time to time South Koreans delight in appearing on TV flaunting the curly-haired bouffant hairstyle, platform shoes, and protruding stomach for which the Dear Leader was known before he disappeared from view for months after reportedly suffering a stroke in August 2008.

The wave of public appearances reported by the North Korean propaganda machine since then to show he's in good health convinces some analysts that North Korean actors are portraying the Dear Leader, too – but in dead seriousness.

"That's possible," says Choi Jin-wook, senior fellow and specialist on North Korea at the Korea Institute of National Unification. "These dictators always need look-alikes for security reasons. Kim Jong-il is giving 'on-the-spot guidance' too often for his health."

Mr. Choi also says that North Korean photo editors are likely pasting in old pictures of Kim from previous times when he was in good health.

Did Clinton meet with look-alike?
No one here, however, is ready to go as far as Japanese writer Toshimitsu Shigemura, who has written two books and numerous articles claiming that Kim has been seriously ill for the past decade and may even have died.

Mr. Shigemura says that if the real Kim, looking wan and weak, appeared before the Supreme People's Assembly several days after North Korea fired a long-range missile on April 5, then it must have been a look-alike who hosted former US President Bill Clinton in August.

"They were totally different people," says Mr. Shigemura, a former correspondent for Mainichi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, who now teaches international relations at Waseda University in Tokyo. "In August, he looked very healthy."

Shigemura suspects that a skilled actor delivered the lines to Mr. Clinton during their three-hour, 17-minute meeting, which ended with Mr. Clinton flying back to the US with two journalists who had been held for 140 days.

Shigemura is equally convinced that an actor played Kim in recent meetings with China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and the head of Hyundai Asan, the South Korean company responsible for developing special economic and tourist complexes in North Korea.

After the June 2000 summit, says Shigemura, Kim "was bedridden with diabetes" and "cannot walk by himself." He cites the names of three Japanese who claim to have met his look-alikes, including one who was told flatly, "I am a double."

One of them, a magician named Princess Tenko, Shigemura describes as a "close friend" of Kim, saw him more than once in visits to Pyongyang.

Fully self-possessed
Some analysts here, however, have trouble with Shigemura's analysis.

"There have been such rumors," says Kim Tae-woo, a veteran North Korea specialist at the Korea Institute of Defense Analyses. "Dictators usually do that, but we don't know whether this is real or fake."

The North Korean leader's preoccupation these days, he says, is arranging the succession of his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, still in his late 20s.

Ryoo Kihl-jae, professor at the University of North Korean Studies, is dubious about such reports. Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law, Jang Song-taek, appears to be the most powerful figure after the Dear Leader, he says, "but his authority stems from Kim Jong-il" and two or three generals are vying for control.

For now, says Mr. Ryoo, Kim is "living well," and the reports of a double standing in for him are "just imagination."

Aiming low: schools lower standards for student achievement

2009-10-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – Many states declare students to have grade-level mastery of reading and math when they do not, the Education Department reported Thursday.

The agency compared state achievement standards to the more challenging standards behind the federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress.

State standards were lower, and there were big differences in where each state set the bar.

The Obama administration said the report bolsters its effort to persuade all states to adopt the same set of tougher standards for what students should know.

"States are setting the bar too low," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. "We're lying to our children when we tell them they're proficient, but they're not achieving at a level that will prepare them for success once they graduate."

The federal government can't impose a set of standards, because education is largely up to states.

But Duncan noted he is offering millions of dollars in grants to encourage states to accept a set of standards being developed by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. The grants come from the federal stimulus law, which set aside $5 billion to push Obama's vision of educational reform.

While the standards are not yet final, every state but Texas and Alaska already has committed to work toward adopting them.

The head of the department's Institute of Education Sciences said the biggest concern should be the wide disparity in standards among the states. A student who is proficient in one state might not be proficient in another, the report said.

"Why are these performance standards so far apart, and why are expectations set so widely from one place to another?" IES director John Easton said.

House Education Committee chairman George Miller said a child's education should not be determined by zip code.

"If we are serious about rebuilding our economy and restoring our competitiveness," Miller, D-Calif., said, "then it's time for states to adopt a common core of internationally benchmarked standards that can prepare all children in this country to achieve and succeed in this global economy."

The report by the department's statistics arm compared state achievement levels to achievement levels on NAEP. It found that many states deemed children to be proficient or on grade level when they would rate "below basic," or lacking even partial mastery, in reading and math under the NAEP standards.

Among the findings:

• Thirty-one states deemed fourth-graders proficient in reading when they would have rated below basic on NAEP. Mississippi's standards were lowest, and Massachusetts' were highest.

• Seventeen states deemed eighth-graders proficient at reading when they would have rated below basic on NAEP. Tennessee's standards were lowest, and South Carolina's were highest.

• Ten states deemed fourth- and eighth-graders proficient at math when they would have rated below basic on NAEP. Tennessee's standards were lowest; Massachusetts had the highest fourth-grade math standards, and South Carolina had the highest eighth-grade standards.

In addition, the report said more states lowered standards than raised them from 2005 to 2007.

North Carolina state education official Lou Fabrizio said states face a dilemma because of No Child Left Behind, the 2002 federal law that prods schools to boost test scores to meet annual improvement goals.

States can set easier standards that ensure schools will meet the federally mandated goals, or they can set more challenging standards that help kids improve.

His state chose the latter, but Fabrizio said it was tough to explain that higher standards meant lower scores.

"That was a really difficult job for us to do and communicate to the public that students did not all of a sudden become very ignorant," he said.

North Carolina still has below-basic achievement standards for fourth- and eighth-grade reading.

Public option is back- House Dem's unveil health care bill

2009-10-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – Cheered by President Barack Obama, House Democrats rolled out landmark legislation Thursday to extend health care to tens of millions who lack coverage, impose sweeping new restrictions on the insurance industry and create a government-run option to compete with private insurers.

But even as party leaders pointed toward a vote next week, there were fresh questions that went to the heart of their ambitious drive to remake the nation's health care system.

Congressional budget experts predicted the controversial government insurance option would probably cost consumers somewhat more than private coverage. At the same time, rank-and-file conservative Democrats sought additional information about the bill's overall impact on federal health care spending.

There was no official estimate on the total cost of the legislation, which ran to 1,990 pages. The Congressional Budget Office said the cost of additional coverage alone was slightly more than $1 trillion over a decade. But that omitted other items, including billions for disease prevention programs.

Yet another $230 billion or more in higher fees for doctors treating Medicare patients, included in an earlier version of the bill, was stripped out and will be voted on separately.

The measure "covers 96 percent of all Americans, and it puts affordable coverage in reach for millions of uninsured and underinsured families, lowering health care costs for all of us," boasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at a ceremony attended by dozens of Democratic lawmakers. She spoke on the steps of the Capitol, not far from where Obama issued his inaugural summons for Congress to act more than nine months ago.

Pelosi said the legislation would reduce federal deficits over the next decade by $104 billion, and congressional budget experts said it would probably reduce them even further over the following 10 years.

While saying they expected a vote next week, Democratic leaders were careful not to claim they had yet rounded up enough votes to pass the legislation. Still, the day's events capped months of struggle and marked a major advance in their drive — and Obama's — to accomplish an overhaul of the health care system that has eluded presidents for a half-century.

Across the Capitol, the Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to begin debate within two weeks on a bill crafted by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. It, too, envisions a government-run insurance option, although states could opt out, unlike in the bill the House will vote on. That portion of the Senate version appears likely to be weakened even further, as moderates press for a standby system that would not go into effect until it was clear individual states were experiencing a lack of competition among private companies.

Obama called the House legislation "another critical milestone in the effort to reform our health care system."

Republican reaction was as swift as it was negative. "It will raise the cost of Americans' health insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates, and it will cut seniors' Medicare benefits," said the party's leader in the House, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio. He carried a copy of the 1,990-page measure into a news conference to underscore his claim it represented a government takeover of the health care system.

Republicans have already signaled their determination to make the health care debate a key issue in next year's congressional elections, when all 435 House seats will be on the ballot.

But their ability to block passage in the current House is nonexistent as long as Pelosi and her leadership can forge a consensus among the Democratic rank and file. The party holds 256 seats in the House, where 218 makes a majority.

Broad in scope, the House Democrats' bill attempts to build on the current system of employer-provided health care. It would require big companies to cover their employees and include federal subsidies to help small companies provide insurance for theirs, as well. Most individuals would be required to carry insurance, and much of the money in the legislation is dedicated to subsidies for those at lower incomes to help them afford coverage.

For those at even lower incomes, the bill provides for an expansion of Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor. Adults up to 150 percent of the poverty level — individuals making up to $16,245 and a family of four up to $33,075 — would be covered, a provision estimated to add 15 million to Medicaid.

One of the bill's major features is a new national insurance market, in which private companies could sell policies that meet federally mandated benefit levels, the government would offer competing coverage and consumers could shop for the policy that best met their needs.

In a bow to moderates, Democrats decided doctors, hospitals and other providers would be allowed to negotiate rates with the Health and Human Services Department for services provided in the government insurance option.

Liberals had favored a system in which fees would be dictated by the government, an approach that would have been less costly than what was settled on, and also would have moved closer to a purely government-run health care system than some Democrats favor.

The Congressional Budget Office said the result would be fees comparable to those doctors receive from private insurers. But for consumers, government-backed plans "would typically have premiums that are somewhat higher than the average premiums for private plans" sold in competition. As a result, it said enrollment would be only about 6 million.

Conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs reacted to the overall CBO analysis by asking whether the bill would reduce the long-term rate of growth in federal spending. They noted the agency had said last summer that an earlier version would fail to do so, and they said they wanted updated answers "in order to make an informed decision."

Thursday's bill includes an array of new restrictions on the private insurance industry, in addition to forcing insurers to compete with the federal government for business.

Firms would be banned from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and limited in their ability to charge higher premiums on the basis of age.

They would be required to spend 85 percent of their income from premiums on coverage, effectively limiting their ability to advertise or pay bonuses. Additionally, the industry would be stripped of immunity from antitrust regulations covering price fixing, bid rigging and market allocation. And in a late addition to the bill, 30-year-old restrictions on the Federal Trade Commission's ability to look into the insurance industry would be erased.

In response, the industry's top lobbyist, Karen Ignagni, issued a statement containing a somewhat milder version of criticism than recently unleashed against the Senate's version of the legislation. "We are concerned" the House bill will violate assurances that individuals would be able to keep their insurance if they like it, she said. She said it would be responsible for "increasing health care costs for families and employers across the country and significantly disrupting the quality coverage on which millions of Americans rely today."

Ignagni added that the presence of a government-run insurance plan "would bankrupt hospitals, dismantle employer coverage, exacerbate cost-shifting from Medicare and Medicaid and ultimately increase the federal deficit."

While Democrats touted new benefits for seniors, the bill relies on more than $400 billion in cuts from projected Medicare spending over the next decade. Much of the money would come from the part of the program in which private companies offer coverage to seniors.

The bill's other major new source of revenue is from a proposed income tax surcharge of 5.4 percent on wealthy earners, individuals making at least $500,000 a year and couples $1 million or more.

The legislation includes other taxes, such as a 2.5 percent excise tax on the makers of medical devices, expected to raise $20 billion over a decade.

Russia wants a nuclear spaceship

2009-10-28T11:03:00.001-07:00

MOSCOW -

Russia's space agency is planning to build a new spaceship with a nuclear engine, its chief said Wednesday.

Anatoly Perminov told a government meeting Wednesday that the preliminary design could be ready by 2012. He said it will then take nine more years and 17 billion rubles ($600 million, 400 million euros) to build the ship.

"The implementation of this project will allow us to reach a new technological level surpassing foreign developments," Perminov told a meeting which focused on communications and space technologies.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the Cabinet to consider providing the necessary funding.

"It's a very serious project," Medvedev said. "We need to find the money."

Perminov's ambitious statement contrasted with the current state of the Russian space program, and sounded more like a plea for extra government funds than a detailed proposal.

Russia is using 40-year old Soyuz booster rockets and capsules to send crews to the International Space Station. Development of a replacement rocket and a prospective spaceship with a conventional propellant has dragged on with no end in sight.

Perminov described the proposed spaceship as a "unique breakthrough project," but offered few details.

He said that the ship will have a megawatt-class nuclear reactor, as opposed to small nuclear reactors that powered Soviet satellites. The Cold-War era Soviet spy satellites had reactors which produced just a few kilowatts of power and had a lifespan of just about a year.

Perminov didn't say what the new spaceship will be used for.

He and other officials have said that Russia needs a new spaceship to replace the old Soyuz for missions in Earth orbit, but they only have talked about a ship powered by a conventional rocket fuel so far.

Russian space agency also has mulled over prospective future missions to the moon and Mars, but hasn't yet set a specific time frame yet.

Corrupt bankers face the music, face protesters

2009-10-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A top banking industry group on Monday defended the practices of traditional banks while facing protesters who railed against Wall Street abuses.

The American Bankers Association, which has gathered for its annual convention, said the protests were misplaced because it is largely community bankers that are attending.

"You did not make any abusive subprime loans; you did not take big bonuses for products that later blew up," ABA President Edward Yingling said during his opening remarks.

The Service Employees International Union, a major labor group, estimates that up to 5,000 people from different organizations will join the protests over the next couple of days outside the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.

Protesters shook larger-than-life cutouts of JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon and retiring Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, while others dressed as grim reapers and held a sign saying "Greed Kills."

Andrea Frye, communications director with the Chicago nonprofit group National People's Coalition, said the ABA was an appropriate target for the protesters' anger because the group lobbies against regulatory reforms that would help consumers but hurt the big banks' profits.

"They're standing in the way by spending billions of dollars to fight meaningful rules," she said.

The ABA held security tight at its conference, checking badges with an ultraviolet light to ensure that the meetings proceeded uninterrupted.

Yingling, addressing the attendees, said the protest was "misdirected" and said it was frustrating to have traditional banks lumped together with Wall Street firms that engage in risky trading practices and have taken billions of dollars in taxpayers funds.

"I know it makes you angry, as it should," he told the convention attendees.

Smaller banks have also received bailout funds from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, although the amount of assistance has been much less.

The White House has said recently that banks can do more to help extend credit. President Barack Obama urged banks on Saturday to make more loans to small businesses.

"It's time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to help ensure a wider recovery, a more secure system, and more broadly shared prosperity," he said.

Experts say current Healthcare system wastes $800 billion a year!

2009-10-26T16:25:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday.

The U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, the report from Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters, found.

"America's healthcare system is indeed hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and the opportunities to slow the fiscal bleeding are substantial," the report reads.

"The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually. That's one-third of the nation's healthcare bill," Kelley said in a statement.

"The good news is that by attacking waste we can reduce healthcare costs without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care."

One example -- a paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records accounts for 6 percent of annual overspending.

"It is waste when caregivers duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient's record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed," the report reads.

Some other findings in the report from Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters:

* Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of healthcare waste or $200 to $300 billion a year.

* Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams.

* Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for 18 percent of healthcare waste.

* Medical mistakes account for $50 billion to $100 billion in unnecessary spending each year, or 11 percent of the total.

* Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes cost $30 billion to $50 billion a year.

"The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada," reads the report, citing dozens of other research papers.

"American physicians spend nearly eight hours per week on paperwork and employ 1.66 clerical workers per doctor, far more than in Canada," it says, quoting a 2003 New England Journal of Medicine paper by Harvard University researcher Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.

Yet primary care doctors are lacking, forcing wasteful use of emergency rooms, for instance, the report reads.

All this could help explain why Americans spend more per capita and the highest percentage of GDP on healthcare than any other OECD country, yet has an unhealthier population with more diabetes, obesity and heart disease and higher rates of neonatal deaths than other developed nations.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday that Senate Democratic leaders are close to securing enough votes to pass legislation to start reform of the country's $2.5 trillion healthcare system.

Castro's sister worked for the CIA

2009-10-26T16:21:00.001-07:00

MIAMI – One of Fidel Castro's sisters says in a memoir released Monday that she collaborated with the CIA against her brother, starting shortly after the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.

Juanita Castro, 76, initially supported her brother's 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly grew disillusioned. In a Spanish-language memoir published by Santillana USA and co-written by journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, she says the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to Cuba persuaded her to meet a CIA officer during a trip to Mexico in 1961.

By then, her house had already become a sanctuary for anti-communists, and Fidel Castro had warned her about getting involved with the "gusanos," or worms, as those who opposed the revolution were called.

Castro says in the book, "My Brothers Fidel and Raul. The Secret Story," that she traveled to Mexico City under the pretense of visiting her younger sister Enma. There she also secretly met a CIA officer who identified himself as "Enrique" at the elegant Camino Real hotel.

A spokesman for the CIA in Langley, Va., declined to comment on Castro's account.

Castro said that during the hotel meeting, she expressed her concerns that those who supported Batista's overthrow but were not communists were being pushed out of the new government. Castro writes she agreed to help the CIA gather information but refused to accept money for her efforts and said she wanted no part in any violence.

"I want to be very clear that agreeing to collaborate with you does not signify that I will participate in any violent activity against my brother, nor any official in the regime," she told the agent. "This is my most important condition. And moreover, I would say it is the only condition."

"Enrique," whom Castro says she later learned was a CIA officer in Cuba named Tony Sforza, then asked her to smuggle messages, documents and money back into the country hidden in canned goods.

He told Castro she would receive information through shortwave radio communications. Castro chose a waltz and a song from the opera Madame Butterfly as the signals her handlers would use to let her know if they had information for her.

Castro said she remained on the island while her mother was alive, believing she was protected from the full wrath of her brother. Her mother died in 1963 and she fled Cuba the following year, eventually settling into a quiet life in Miami, where she ran a pharmacy until 2007 and is generally well regarded by other Cuban exiles.

Fact Check: Will Illegal Immigrants benefit from a public option?

2009-09-10T18:15:00.000-07:00

Accusation: Obamacare public health care option will give illegal immigrants coverage

Fact: FALSE- Obama's health care plan specifically says that illegal immigrants would not share in any benefits from the public option. However, they will be able to purchase the public option just like everyone else. But, legal citizens of the USA will get federal tax credits and subsidiaries to cover costs. It is all in the article below, taken from Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – Rep. Joe Wilson is wrong.

In his speech to Congress Wednesday, President Barack Obama said the changes to health care that he's proposing "would not apply to those who are here illegally." That prompted Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, to shout "You lie!" from his seat in the House chamber. Wilson later apologized for the outburst, but he didn't back down from his claim.

THE FACTS: The House version of the health care bill explicitly prohibits spending any federal money to help illegal immigrants get health care coverage. Illegal immigrants could buy private health insurance, as many do now, and they could also buy into a new government-run insurance plan if Congress creates one. But unlike legal residents, they wouldn't get federal subsidies to help them. The bill's exact language: "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully in the United States." Health care legislation in the Senate is also being crafted to exclude illegal immigrants from coverage.

However, Wilson is far from alone in thinking that the prohibition in the House bill doesn't go far enough. For him and other Republicans, the problem is not what's in the bill, it's what the bill leaves out. There's no provision for how the prohibition would be enforced, or any requirement for people to prove they are citizens or legal residents before getting health care benefits. In fact, Democrats on the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees defeated Republican-offered amendments that would have required people to verify their legal status before getting care, with some Democrats saying such requirements would be unnecessarily burdensome for people legally entitled to coverage. Wilson cited the defeat of those two amendments Thursday when he discussed his outburst with reporters.

"I will tell you this, that it was spontaneous. It was when he stated, as he did, about not covering illegal aliens, when I knew we'd had those two amendments," Wilson said.

More bailout madness: FDIC asks for billions

2009-09-02T14:30:00.001-07:00

Americans are about to re-learn that bank deposit insurance isn’t free, even as Washington is doing its best to delay the coming bailout. The banking system and the federal fisc would both be better off in the long run if the political class owned up to the reality.

We’re referring to the federal deposit insurance fund, which has been shrinking faster than reservoirs in the California drought. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported late last week that the fund that insures some $4.5 trillion in U.S. bank deposits fell to $10.4 billion at the end of June, as the list of failing banks continues to grow. The fund was $45.2 billion a year ago, when regulators told us all was well and there was no need to take precautions to shore up the fund.

The FDIC has since had to buttress the fund with a $5.6 billion special levy on top of the regular fees that banks already pay for the federal guarantee. This has further drained bank capital, even as regulators say the banking system desperately needs more capital. Everyone now assumes the FDIC will hit banks with yet another special insurance fee in anticipation of even more bank losses. The feds would rather execute this bizarre dodge of weakening the same banks they claim must get stronger rather than admit that they’ll have to tap the taxpayers who are the ultimate deposit insurers.

Want a swine flu vaccine? you may not have a choice!

2009-09-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Taken from infowars.com

Last night Zero Hedge obtained some interesting documents from the CDC web site. They contain blank ‘forced quarantine’ orders from Iowa and Florida regarding novel H1N1 — including quarantine to a ’secure detention center’– which appear to be recent — dated April 2009. Some may be aware the NIH and CDC just held an H1N1 conference in DC — August 19-21 2009 — that focused on ‘mass fatality management’. For many, this should be cause for concern. As is becoming clear, our government is quite corrupt. The idea that this same government is now preparing for forced quarantine and mass vaccination should make anyone who has been following recent events shudder. There is something going on here, but governments have not come clean with the public. Why ’secure detention centers’ in the U.S. and ’secure vaccination centers’ in France if there is nothing to be concerned about? It is becoming increasingly clear that a global mass vaccination campaign is planned — likely to become mandatory in the 193 WHO member countries, despite serious safety concerns regarding these untested novel H1N1 vaccines, some of which are now known to contain high levels of the deadly adjuvent squalene.

Others may be aware that it was only last week that the Massachusetts State Senate passed a law making it a relatively serious crime to refuse a mandatory vaccination or to break a quarantine order. This law also includes rather astounding violations of the 4th Amendment, including warrantless searches and seizures of property if deemed necessary in an ‘emergency’. This new Massachusetts law also included authorizations for illegal arrest without a warrant and of forced vaccination of the public. But the political activity is not limited to the states. Yesterday Obama held meetings with senior cabinet officials regarding H1N1 ‘pandemic prepardness’ including HHS Secretary Sebelius. So this is not idle speculation. There is something going on here. Either the government knows something we do not, or this is the biggest hype since the dot com bubble.

Although the current H1N1 virus does not have lethal genes yet, we have been implicitly promised by the national and global health authorities that novel H1N1 will soon return with such genetic ‘upgrades’, just as it did in 1918. Here at ZeroHedge, we are expecting a flock of economic black swans soon, and a pandemic — whether real or hyped — may be part of this flock. An economic collapse will be no doubt be triggered soon , and it will be convenient for the political elites to blame the collapse on an external factor, such as a pandemic or a war. Furthermore, the fall H1N1 pandemic may be a convenient pretext by which dangerous levels of expanding social control can be established by elites which have proven themselves utterly corrupt and morally bankrupt.

To see the documents, go to: http://www.infowars.com/cdc-h1n1-forced-quarantine-docs-leak/

Real World Press is Back!

2009-02-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

That's right, after a short lived hiatus, the Real World Press is back and more excited than ever. With all the craziness going on in the world right now, we want you to come to us for the latest stories and important articles that effect you. We're glad to be back and we cant wait to start bringing you the most important and interesting news articles from all over the world!

President bush lifts ban on offshore drilling

2008-07-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said today he's lifting a presidential ban on drilling for oil and natural gas on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, setting up a showdown with Congress over a separate ban it put in place in the 1980s.

``Today I've taken every step within my power to allow offshore exploration of the OCS,'' Bush said in a statement at the White House. ``This means the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action by the U.S. Congress.''

Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress rejected the president's call, saying the move to end the moratorium would have no effect on prices and better options are available.

Pressure to permit drilling off the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean coastlines and in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico has been building as oil and gasoline prices have surged to records.

Congress has barred drilling since 1983 through an annual Interior Department spending bill. That ban could be lifted if Bush refused to sign the department's fiscal 2009 appropriations measure that is now being debated in the House and Senate. The president's father, George H.W. Bush, imposed the existing executive moratorium.

Kevin Book, senior analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group in Arlington, Virginia, said Bush's announcement probably won't lead to new drilling. Congress can restore the moratorium, and governors, many of whom oppose drilling, would have the final word, he said in a research report.

``While this will put pressure on national lawmakers and local governments, it is not by itself sufficient to conquer a complex web of competing incentives,'' Book said.

Florida, California

Florida Republican Governor Charlie Crist said last month he supports offshore drilling. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's Republican governor, opposes it, as do many East Coast governors.

``This is no short-term answer,'' New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat, told reporters in a conference call today. ``It would be stopped by most of the states on the east and west coasts.''

Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, today reiterated his support for allowing more drilling, although he said the states should decide whether to open coastal areas. His Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, opposes it.

``If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks. But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither,'' Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement today.

Available Supply

About 17.8 billion barrels and 76 trillion cubic feet of gas are off-limits to drilling as a result of congressional and presidential moratoria, according to the Minerals Management Service, an agency of the U.S. Interior Department.

The oil available would amount to just over two years of U.S. consumption. Bush today said the potential reserve from the restricted areas would last almost 10 years.

Democrats have blocked congressional efforts to lift the ban, arguing that Republican estimates of available energy resources are overstated and doing so would have no short-term effect. Democrats in both chambers are pushing legislation to force oil companies to start drilling on 68 million acres where they already hold leases.

``We've given the oil companies ample opportunities to increase supply but they have failed to deliver,'' Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said at a press conference today.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, in a statement, called the Bush plan ``a hoax'' that will ``neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence.''

`Positive for Consumers'

``The prospect of considerable supply, even though it may take some time to bring on line, changes decisions of energy buyers, hedgers and investors,'' said William Whitsitt, president of the American Exploration and Production Council, which represents oil and gas companies. ``There is no doubt in my mind that this can have a positive effect for consumers.''

Jim Presswood, an energy advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he isn't sure Bush will veto a spending bill that includes the moratorium because of the effect on other programs. Blocking government spending presents ``a much deeper political problem,'' Presswood said.

Crude oil for August delivery rose 10 cents to settle at $145.18 a barrel at 2:45 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures reached a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11 and have risen 96 percent in the past year.

Suprise Suprise: oil price at new record high

2008-07-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's only July, but it might be time to start loading up on blankets and sweaters. Oil spiked to a new trading record as hostilities rise between the West and Iran -- raising the likelihood that this winter's heating bills will be the priciest yet.

Crude oil's brief jump past $147 a barrel Friday arrived not only as the United States and Israel view Iran as a growing threat, but also as the U.S. dollar fell and worries erupted over possible supply disruptions in two other major oil-producing nations: Nigeria and Brazil.

Those factors contributed to new all-time trading highs in crude, gasoline and heating oil. It looks like $4-a-gallon gasoline might be here to stay, and that heating oil costs might cause further problems for consumers as the weather gets colder. Futures prices for natural gas turned lower Friday, but are still about twice as high as a year ago.

"If you think your gasoline bills are expensive now, wait till you get your home heating bill this winter," said Stephen Schork, an analyst and trader in Villanova, Pa.

Heating oil is used mostly in the Northeast United States; homes in most other parts of the country use natural gas. It's possible for people to cut back on heating as they do on driving, but it's not easy to slash the bill significantly.

"We've been building these ridiculous McMansions over the past few years. It's harder to trade in a McMansion than it is an SUV," Schork said. "But you can turn your thermostat down and throw on a sweater."

Political unrest in oil-producing regions -- along with production cutbacks by refineries and fairly resilient demand for diesel fuel -- have been keeping energy costs high.

Iran, which has long been under U.N. scrutiny for its uranium enrichment program, has been testing missiles this week, including a new missile capable of reaching Israel. On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned the oil-producing nation that the United States will defend its allies, and Iran responded with another missile launch. Neither the United States nor Israel has ruled out a military strike on Iran.

Then on Friday, there were rumors of Israeli military exercises taking place in Iraqi air space. The rumors were reportedly denied by Israeli officials.

"The war of words is quite heated," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc. in Winchester, Mass. "And it raises the possibility of some serious problems in the area -- either the cutoff of Iranian exports, or Iranian strikes on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz."

About 40 percent of the world's tanker traffic passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Brazilian oil workers were threatening to go on a five-day strike next week unless the state-run oil firm Petrobras gives them an extra day off at the end of their 14-day shift. Those supply worries added to those sparked Thursday when Nigeria's main militant group said it would resume attacks in the oil-rich region.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery soared to an all-time high of $147.27 a barrel before settling at $145.08, up $3.43. That's slightly below last Thursday's settlement record of $145.29 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the dollar weakened against other major currencies Friday. Because oil is bought and sold in dollars, oil's rise has not been as severe for countries with stronger currencies; meanwhile, traders have been using commodities as a hedge against the tumbling dollar.

In Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose to a trading record of $4.1586 before settling at $4.0766 a gallon, up 3.92 cents.

Gasoline futures also rose to a new trading record of $3.631 a gallon before finishing at $3.5632, up 5.23 cents.

The average U.S. retail price for gasoline was at $4.096 a gallon, down slightly from the record $4.108 a gallon reached on Monday, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

Natural gas futures fell 39.6 cents to $11.904 per 1,000 cubic feet, but only after rising as high as $13.694.

On London's ICE futures exchange, Brent crude settled at $144.49, up $2.46.

Associated Press Writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

Crystal skulls believed to be made by the aztecs ruled a fake

2008-07-09T11:40:00.001-07:00

How about this for the next instalment of the Indy franchise: "Indiana Jones and the Dodgy Antiques Dealer"?

Less than three months after the Quai Branly Museum in Paris discovered that a crystal skull once proclaimed as a mystical Aztec masterpiece was a fake, it is now the turn of the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution to find they were victims of skull-duggery.

Scientists from those two prestigious institutions on Wednesday said their crystal skulls were cut, honed and polished by tools of the industrial age, not by Mesoamerican craftsmen of yore.

"The skulls under consideration are not pre-Columbian. They must surely be regarded as of relatively modern manufacture," they say.

"Each skull was probably worked not more than a decade before it was first offered for sale."

The skulls became star exhibits in all three museums long before the Indiana Jones movie, "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," hit the movie screens this year.

The superstitious deemed them part of a collection of 12 skulls, endowed with healing or mystical powers, that dated back to the ancient culture of Central America.

Reuniting all 12 skulls, together with a putative 13th, would conjure up a massive power that would prevent the Earth from tipping over on December 21 2012, the "doomsday" in the Mayan calendar, according to one fable.

Legend-lovers had a bad day on April 18 when the Quai Branly said it had found grooves and perforations in its 11-centimetre (4.4-inch) -high quartz skull revealing the use of "jewellery burrs and other modern tools."

Doubts had also surfaced about the skulls in London and Washington, with art experts noting they were unusually large and with teeth markings that were exceptionally linear.

Seeking the verdict of science, researchers from those two museums examined the skulls with electron microscopes, looking at tiny scratches and marks left by the carving implements.

These were then compared with the surfaces of a crystal goblet, rock crystal beads and dozens of greenstone jewels known to be of genuine Aztec or Mixtec origin.

The study appears in the Journal of Archaeological Science, published by the Elsevier group.

The skull in the British Museum, purchased in 1897, is made of transparent rock crystal and is 15 centimetres (six inches) high. The Smithsonian skull, acquired by the museum in 1992, is of white quartz and measures 25.5 cms (10 inches) in height.

The investigators found that rotary wheels gave the British skull its sharp definition, a drill had dug out the nostrils and eyes, and diamond or corondum had been applied with iron or steel tools to smooth its upper surfaces.

As for the US skull, "faint traces" of tool marks remain, but these too are consistent with rotary wheels or grinding pads, the authors say.

No evidence has ever been found that rotary wheels were used to cut stones in Central America before the arrival of Europeans.

The investigators also found a black-and-red deposit in a tiny cavity of the Smithsonian skull. X-ray diffraction showed it to be silicon carbide -- a tough compound that only exists naturally in meteorites but is widespread in modern industrial abrasives.

Tiny irregularities in the quartz suggest the mineral for the London skull came from the European Alps, Brazil or Madagascar, while the quartz for the Washington skull had "many potential sources," including Mexico and the United States.

The sleuths pored over the archives of both museums, the Museum of Mankind in Paris, the French National Library, the Hispanic Society of America and newspaper records in a bid to find where the skulls came from.

The only documentation existing for the Smithsonian skull indicates it had been purchased in Mexico City in 1960. The scientists believe the skull was "probably manufactured shortly before it was purchased" there.

As for the British Museum and Quai Branly skulls, the paper trail leads to a French antiques collector by the name of Eugene Boban Duverge.

Boban had a shop in Mexico City and parlayed his way to the salons of Paris thanks to the 1863-67 "French Intervention," when troops of France's Second Empire invaded Mexico.

He built up a collection of 2,000 pre-Columbian artefacts, the biggest in Europe at the time. It included several crystal skulls, including the newly-unmasked fakes in London and Paris.

The skull that would eventually be bought by the British Museum was acquired by Boban between 1878 and 1881, possibly in Europe, the study says. In 1885, he tried to sell it to the National Museum of Mexico, but was turned down.

A year later, Boban sold it an auction to the New York jeweller's Tiffany's.

Two years later, Tiffany's sold the skull to a Californian businessman who nearly a decade later went bust and asked the jeweller to hunt for a new buyer.

So it was that Tiffany's vice president, George Kunz, made a pitch to the British Museum.

He recommended the purchase of "this remarkable object," sketched a past of colourful ownership, beginning with a Spanish soldier who had brought it back from Mexico, and quoting the opinion of others that the skull was of ancient Mexican origin but no-one knew for sure.

The rest, as they say, belongs to history... and human gullibility.

"Faceless Aliens" appearing at events all over the world

2008-07-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is pretty creepy stuff. Apparently, people are putting a skin-like mask on their face making it look like they have no eyes, mouth or nose. All I know is that if I ran into one of these i'd be pretty scared!

(Alex Millson)With the blankest of blank expressions on their faces, these mysterious figures have been popping up in the most unlikely of places.

The faceless mutants have a penchant for A-list celebrity bashes and have been spotted at Elton John's White tie ball and Harrods summer sale, opened by Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall.

With a membrane of skin stretched tightly over their eyes, noses and mouths, the alien-like figures were most recently snapped 'watching' a match perched on Murray Mount at Wimbledon.

Close inspection of the pictures rules out an alien invasion - small perforations around the eye areas of the masks allow the people beneath to see the world outside.

But nobody knows who the faceless figures, who often appear as motionless couples are, or why they are turning up at high profile events.

Theories include the possibilities that they are limelight-seeking pranksters, performance artists or that they are at the centre of a viral marketing campaign for an as-yet unknown product of forthcoming horror film.

Speculation has even arisen that the masks hide a pair of well-know faces, fed up with being harrassed by the paparazzi.

One blogger wrote on the Moue Magazine website: "They probably aren’t just random people off of the street.

"If it ends up being a pair of celebrities who have had it with being photographed all of the time and are staging a protest, I vow to support every project they appear on from now on.

"Whatever their purpose, I want to join them. And I have a new Halloween costume for this year."

Women prostitutes herself for....Gasoline??

2008-07-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

Wow its pretty obvious that gas prices are out of control when something like this happens:

JULY 2--A Kentucky woman is facing prostitution charges for allegedly trading sex for gasoline. Angela Eversole, 34, was nabbed last weekend during a police stakeout at a Days Inn, where she allegedly trysted with customer Kenneth Nowak. According to court records, Nowak admitted paying for Eversole's services, in part, with a $100 Speedway gas card. Eversole was hit with a prostitution rap and also charged with doing business without an occupational license. Nowak was charged with promoting prostitution. Eversole and Nowak are pictured below in mug shots snapped following their June 27 arrests. A local prosecutor noted that it was sad to see someone selling their body for gas, in this case about 25 gallons worth.

Were back!

2008-07-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, sorry the site hasn't been updated lately, but were back online and ready to bring you the best quality news stories from around the world.

Flying high? Pro-marijuana group calls for pot in airport smoking lounges

2008-06-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

DENVER (MyFOXColorado.com) - One pro-marijuana group is calling on the government to allow marijuana in smoking lounges at airports across the country.

Cigarette smoking at Denver International Airport and other airports across the country is restricted to smoking lounges.

Members of the Denver-based organization Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) will ask the government Tuesday to allow pot in airport smoking lounges.

The group says in a press release that the idea will address the growing number of in-flight problems involving drunk and disorderly passengers. Members claim marijuana is a better alternative to alcohol to help more fliers relax and deal with the anxiety of air travel.

Denver voters approved a measure that made possession of one ounce or less of marijuana in the city legal. That happened almost three years ago. It was the first city in the nation to pass such a law.

Possession of marijuana remains illegal under Colorado state law as well as federal law. Denver city attorneys can still use state and federal law to prosecute marijuana possession cases in the city.

Next stop Iran: Israel practices Iran attack

2008-06-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military's capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear program.

More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said.

The exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, American officials said.

Israeli officials declined to discuss the details of the exercise. A spokesman for the Israeli military would say only that the country's air force "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel."

One Israeli goal, the Pentagon official said, was to practice flight tactics, aerial refueling and all other details of a possible strike against Iran's nuclear installations and its long-range conventional missiles.

A second, the official said, was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter.

"They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know," the Pentagon official said. "There's a lot of signaling going on at different levels."

Several American officials said they did not believe that the Israeli government had concluded that it must attack Iran and did not think that such a strike was imminent.

Shaul Mofaz, a former Israeli defense minister who is now a deputy prime minister, warned in a recent interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that Israel might have no choice but to attack. "If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack," Mofaz said in the interview published on June 6, the day after the unpublicized exercise ended. "Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable."

But Mofaz was criticized by other Israeli politicians as seeking to enhance his own standing as questions mount about whether the embattled Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, can hang on to power.

Israeli officials have told their American counterparts that Mofaz's statement does not represent official policy. But American officials were also told that Israel had prepared plans for striking nuclear targets in Iran and could carry them out if needed.

Iran has shown signs that it is taking the Israeli warnings seriously, by beefing up its air defenses in recent weeks, including increasing air patrols. In one instance, Iran scrambled F-4 jets to double-check an Iraqi civilian flight from Baghdad to Tehran.

"They are clearly nervous about this and have their air defense on guard," a Bush administration official said of the Iranians.

Any Israeli attack against Iran's nuclear facilities would confront a number of challenges. Many American experts say they believe that such an attack could delay but not eliminate Iran's nuclear program. Much of the program's infrastructure is buried under earth and concrete and installed in long tunnels or hallways, making precise targeting difficult. There is also concern that not all of the facilities have been detected. To inflict maximum damage, multiple attacks might be necessary, which many analysts say is beyond Israel's ability at this time.

But waiting also entails risks for the Israelis. Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed fears that Iran will soon master the technology it needs to produce substantial quantities of highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

Iran is also taking steps to better defend its nuclear facilities. Two sets of advance Russian-made radar systems were recently delivered to Iran. The radar will enhance Iran's ability to detect planes flying at low altitude.

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said in February that Iran was close to acquiring Russian-produced SA-20 surface-to-air missiles. American military officials said that the deployment of such systems would hamper Israel's attack planning, putting pressure on Israel to act before the missiles are fielded.

Floods in Iowa continute to devistate

2008-06-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

Lets hope this doesn't turn into another Katrina:

Neighbors helped neighbors push back the floodwaters seething toward tiny towns along the Mississippi River Thursday as President Bush began his first tour of the damage.

Bush was in Europe when the flooding began, but expressed deep concern. He arrived in Cedar Rapids Thursday with FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison to begin examining the damage, and also planned to visit Iowa City.

In the state's neighbors, Illinois and Missouri, volunteers joined sandbagging operations in the frantic effort to contain the Mississippi. Forecasters predicted near-record crests from Quincy, Ill., to Winfield, Mo.

"There's one thing about Midwesterners," said Don Giltner, mayor of Louisiana, Mo., a picturesque river town north of St. Louis where 40 square blocks were under water Wednesday, three days before the Mississippi's expected crest. "We're resilient as hell. We're all worn out. We've put in a lot of long days."

Storms and flooding across six states this month have killed 24 people, injured 148 and caused more than $1.5 billion in estimated damage in Iowa alone — a figure that's likely to increase as river levels climb in Missouri and Illinois.

Even before the Iowa River used the town of Oakville as a shortcut to the Mississippi, there wasn't much here: a post office, a convenience store, a tavern and a little restaurant.

The largest employer was a pork-and-grain producer called TriOak Foods. The company's towering grain elevator was the tallest structure for miles around.

Then the floodwaters that soaked Des Moines and Iowa City began inundating the region's small communities — most with skylines that consist only of a water tower and maybe a couple of church steeples.

As the rivers rise, these modest towns survive because neighbors look after each other, and the people reinforcing the levees are business owners, farmers and fellow church members who have lived there for years.

"My house is past help. So we're trying to save everybody else's," said Bethany Frank as she helped fill sandbags in a church parking lot in Oakville. Her home on the outskirts of town was flooded up to the roof.

Federal officials predicted as many as 30 more levees could overflow this week, leaving industrial and agricultural areas vulnerable but sparing major residential centers. So far this week, 20 levees have overflowed.

At least 10 have been topped in Illinois and Missouri in recent days, including two south of tiny Gulfport, Ill., that threatened to swamp 30,000 acres of farmland near the evacuated town of Meyer, Ill.

A 280-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between Fulton, Ill., and Winfield, Mo., is expected to remain closed for at least 10 more days because of flooding. As many as 10 tows — each with as many as 15 barges — were believed stuck on the upper Mississippi River.

Residents in and around Winfield were urged to evacuate their homes after another levee breach Wednesday night.

"We are urging, my God, people to get out of homes and businesses east of Highway 79," said Cpl. Andy Binder with the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department. "Get out and get to higher ground."

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt sent 600 members of the National Guard to the northeastern part of the state, plus 100 more to the St. Louis area to help towns farther downstream. In Illinois, 1,100 Illinois National Guard troops have been sent to help flooded communities.

"My property is right on this street. I've got a lot to lose," said Tony Dye, whose home in Canton, Mo., stands beneath the levee and well below the river's expected crest Thursday at nearly 14 feet above flood stage.

The levee protecting Canton appeared to be holding Thursday morning after floodwaters dropped dramatically overnight. Forecasters had predicted a flood stage of 27.7 feet — just below the record height — but before sunrise water levels had dropped well below the top of sandbag walls built by volunteers atop the levee.

The river at Hannibal, Mo., the hometown of Mark Twain, is expected to crest Friday at or near the 31.8-foot high-water mark of 1993 — the second so-called 500-year flood in 15 years. Parts of town are under several feet of water, though government buyouts after the 1993 flood left only a few scattered homes and businesses in the flood plain. Downtown, though, is protected by a levee built to withstand a crest of 34 feet.

Levee breaches to the north eased pressure on some levees downstream. The river level dropped more than 3 feet in Canton and more than 2 feet in Quincy, Ill., and Hannibal, Mo., on Thursday after a levee breach at Meyer, Ill.

However, the National Weather Service predicts all three towns will still see crests on Friday that are just short of record levels reached in 1993.

In Iowa, parts of downtown Burlington remained flooded Wednesday, but sandbagging efforts had stopped and officials said they were confident levees would hold. The Great River Bridge at Burlington was still closed because of high water.

In Cedar Rapids, officials allowed more people into damaged homes and businesses. Residents were being urged to conserve water because the water system had only half its normal supply.

Outside the population hubs, some fear entire communities may be lost forever, possibly wiping off the map names such as Columbus Junction, Fredonia, Palo and New Hartford.

About 70 percent of Iowa towns have populations of less than 1,000. A little more than half of those places have fewer than 500 inhabitants.

Oakville sits at the bottom of a hairpin turn the Iowa River makes on its course to the Mississippi. When it became clear the levee would fail, trucking company owners Trina and Ward Gabeline scrambled to help friends save whatever they could.

They gathered about three dozen truck trailers and dropped them off at houses so families could load them with furniture and heirlooms. Then the company retrieved them and carried the cargo to higher ground.

"We didn't do it expecting to get paid," Trina Gabeline said, her eyes bloodshot from crying. "We did it to help the people. Because these things that are in these trailers, that's the only thing these people have left right now."

Meanwhile, Gabeline's three brothers helped shore up levees. One was filling trucks with sand, another hauled the sand to bagging stations and a third used an all-terrain vehicle to take finished sandbags to the flood walls.

The day of the flood, local excavating company owner Jon Fye braved the strong currents to rescue a grain elevator worker who became trapped at the TriOak plant. When river levels had stabilized, he went back with Gabeline to inspect the damage.

Fye steered the small boat gingerly around submerged cars and past a picturesque Victorian house where an American flag hung limply from the porch into muddy waters that reeked of diesel fuel and hog waste.

Gabeline stared at house after house flooded to the eaves and ticked off the names of the families who had lived there: "Hayes, Yotters, Kronfeldts, Beedings, Reids, Browns. There's numerous Kuntzes and Lanzes along here."

Fye said people in many small towns have already learned to live without comforts city folks take for granted.

"The small town suffers with no grocery stores anymore, hardly any gas stations," said Fye, who lives in the even smaller nearby town of Sperry.

Fye said wealthier farmers should bounce back from the disaster fairly quickly. But for many friends and neighbors already living on the edge, the floods could spell doom.

"For some it's a bad year, a terrible year," he said as he cleared corn stalks from the propeller of his boat. "But for some, it's the end."

Tiger Woods out for remainder of season

2008-06-18T11:10:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods is done for the year, but not without one last major that he said might have been his best ever.

Woods explained why Wednesday when he revealed he will have season-ending surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left knee that he injured 10 months ago.

He also suffered a double stress fracture of his left tibia two weeks before the U.S. Open, ignoring doctors’ advice to take six weeks off to let it heal. And he still won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, going 91 holes over five days on a knee that was getting worse.

“Now, it is clear that the right thing to do is to listen to my doctors, follow through with this surgery and focus my attention on rehabilitating my knee,” Woods said on his Web site.

He had arthroscopic surgery April 15 to clean out cartilage in his left knee, bypassing ACL surgery with hopes it could get him through the 2008 season. But the stress fracture and a ligament that could no longer sustain a powerful swing made it impossible to keep going.

Woods did not say when he would have surgery. His swing coach, Hank Haney, said the recovery is typically six to eight months.

“He’s been playing way less than 100 percent for a long, long, time,” Haney said. “It has limited him a lot in practice. He’s going to come back better than he’s ever been.”

Woods was last seen in public late Monday afternoon walking with a pronounced limp across Torrey Pines toward the parking lot, the U.S. Open trophy in his arms.

Upcoming surgery makes his 14th major title even more staggering—despite the stress fractures, he managed to win a U.S. Open that required five days of flinching, grimacing and a long list of spectacular shots that have defined his career.

“Although I will miss the rest of the 2008 season, I’m thrilled with the fact that last week was such a special tournament,” Woods said.

He won despite doctors telling him to rest.

Haney was with him in Florida when doctors told Woods the preferred treatment for the stress fractures was three weeks on crutches and three weeks of inactivity.

“Tiger looked at the doctor and said, ‘I’m playing in the U.S. Open, and I’m going to win.’ And then he started putting on his shoes,” Haney said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Come on, Hank. We’ll just putt today.”’

Woods’ ledger for 2008 is a career for some players.

He played only seven times worldwide and won five times, including a major that allowed him to join Jack Nicklaus as the only players to capture the career Grand Slam three times over.

But he will miss a major for the first time in his career—the British Open next month at Royal Birkdale and the PGA Championship in August at Oakland Hills, where Woods is the two-time defending champion.

“Tiger is an enormous attraction, there’s no denying that,” Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson said. “But the Open Championship has had many exciting finishes which Tiger has not been part of, and I’m sure there will be more. It’s very sad. We’re very sorry that he’s succumbed to the injury and he won’t be competing in the Open.

“We hope he has the speediest recovery.”

Woods also will miss the Ryder Cup in September, meaning the ninth player on the U.S. standings will qualify for the team.

The majors won’t miss Woods nearly as much as the PGA Tour, especially with its second year of the FedEx Cup that Woods won in a landslide a year ago.

“Tiger is our tour,” Kenny Perry said from the Travelers Championship. “When you lose your star player, it definitely hurts.”

The PGA Tour said in a statement that its concern—as it would be for any player—is for Woods’ health and well being, both on and off the golf course.

“We wish him the best toward a speedy recovery,” the statement said.

It will be the third surgery in five years on his left knee, although Woods said doctors have assured him the outlook is positive. When asked Monday if he further damaged his knee by playing in the U.S. Open, Woods said, “Maybe.”

Doctors have told him, however, that the stress fractures will heal with time.

Woods is ultra private with his health and personal life, never more so than at the U.S. Open. He never mentioned the torn ACL or the stress fracture, and wouldn’t say how he was treating it, only that it was more sore as the week went on.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was when the injury first happened.

Woods said he tore the ACL while jogging at home after the British Open last July. He chose not to have surgery and went on a run that included seven consecutive victories, including the Dubai Desert Classic in Europe and his Target World Challenge, an unofficial event.

He did not play overseas late last year for the first time since 2003, hopeful that rest could allow him to play more this year. But the pain intensified through the Masters, where he finished second, and Woods said the cartilage damage developed from the ACL injury.

What he didn’t anticipate were the stress fractures, discovered as he tried to get ready to play in the Memorial.

“The stress fractures that were discovered just prior to the tournament unfortunately prevented me from participating and had a huge impact on the timing for my return,” Woods said. “I was determined though, to do everything and anything in my power to play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, which is a course that is close to where I grew up and holds many special memories for me.”

Woods won for the eighth time at the public golf course in San Diego—a U.S. Open, a record six times at the Buick Invitational, and a Junior World Championship as a teenager.

Gas prices hitting you hard? Heres some ways to squash the effects on your wallet!

2008-06-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

With gas expected to exceed $5 a gallon towards the end of the summer, its clear: Gas is not getting any cheaper

But there are things you can do to ease the burden a bit.

1. Avoid prolonged warming up of engine, even on cold mornings - 30 to 45 seconds is plenty of time.

2. Be sure the automatic choke is disengaged after engine warm up... chokes often get stuck, resulting in bad gas/air mixture.

3. Don't start and stop engine needlessly. Idling your engine for one minute consumes the gas amount equivalent to when you start the engine.

4. Avoid "reving" the engine, especially just before you switch the engine off; this wastes fuel needlessly and washes oil down from the inside cylinder walls, owing to loss of oil pressure.

5. Eliminate jack-rabbit starts. Accelerate slowly when starting from dead stop. Don't push pedal down more than 1/4 of the total foot travel. This allows carburetor to function at peak efficiency.

HOW TO BUY GASOLINE

6. Buy gasoline during coolest time of day - early morning or late evening is best. During these times gasoline is densest. Keep in mind - gas pumps measure volumes of gasoline, not densities of fuel concentration. You are charged according to "volume of measurement".

7. Choose type and brand of gasoline carefully. Certain brands provide you with greater economy because of better quality. Use the brands which "seem" most beneficial.

8. Avoid filling gas tank to top. Overfilling results in sloshing over and out of tank. Never fill gas tank past the first "click" of fuel nozzle, if nozzle is automatic.

HOW TO DRIVE ECONOMICALLY

9. Exceeding 40 mph forces your auto to overcome tremendous wind resistance.

10. Never exceed legal speed limit. Primarily they are set for your traveling safety, however better gas efficiency also occurs. Traveling at 55 mph give you up to 21% better mileage when compared to former legal speed limits of 65 mph and 70 mph.

11. Traveling at fast rates in low gears can consume up to 45% more fuel than is needed.

12. Manual shift driven cars allow you to change to highest gear as soon as possible, thereby letting you save gas if you "nurse it along". However, if you cause the engine to "bog down", premature wearing of engine parts occurs.

13. Keep windows closed when traveling at highway speeds. Open windows cause air drag, reducing your mileage by 10%.

14. Drive steadily. Slowing down or speeding up wastes fuel. Also avoid tailgating - the driver in front of you is unpredictable. Not only is it unsafe, but if affects your economy, if he slows down unexpectedly.

15.Think ahead when approaching hills. If you accelerate, do it before you reach the hill, not while you're on it.

GENERAL ADVICE

16. Do not rest left foot on floor board pedals while driving. The slightest pressure puts "mechanical drag" on components, wearing them down prematurely. This "dragging" also demands additional fuel usage.

17. Avoid rough roads whenever possible, because dirt or gravel rob you of up to 30% of your gas mileage.

18. Use alternate roads when safer, shorter, straighter. Compare traveling distance differences - remember that corners, curves and lane jumping requires extra gas. The shortest distance between two points is always straight.

19. Stoplights are usually timed for your motoring advantage. By traveling steadily at the legal speed limit you boost your chances of having the "green light" all the way.

20. Automatic transmissions should be allowed to cool down when your car is idling at a standstill, e.g. railroad crossings, long traffic lights, etc. Place gear into neutral position. This reduces transmission strain and allows transmission to cool.

21. Park car so that you can later begin to travel in forward gear; avoid reverse gear maneuvers to save gas.

22. Regular tune-ups ensure best economy; check owner's manual for recommended maintenance intervals. Special attention should be given to maintaining clean air filters... diminished air flow increases gas waste.

23. Inspect suspension and chassis parts for occasional misalignment. Bent wheels, axles, bad shocks, broken springs, etc. create engine drag and are unsafe at high traveling speeds.

24. Remove snow tires during good weather seasons; traveling on deep tire tread really robs fuel!

25. Inflate all tires to maximum limit. Each tire should be periodically spun, balanced and checked for out-of-round. When shopping for new tires, get large diameter tires for rear wheels. Radial designs are the recognized fuel-savers; check manufacturer's specifications for maximum tire pressures.

26. Remove vinyl tops - they cause air drag. Rough surfaces disturb otherwise smooth air flow around a car's body. Bear in mind when buying new cars that a fancy sun roof helps disturb smooth air flow (and mileage).

27. Auto air conditioners can reduce fuel economy by 10% to 20%. Heater fan, power windows and seats increase engine load; the more load on your engine, the less miles per gallon.

28. Remove excess weight from trunk or inside of car - extra tires, back seats, unnecessary heavy parts. Extra weight reduces mileage, especially when driving up inclines.

29. Car pools reduce travel monotony and gas expense - all riders chip in to help you buy. Conversation helps to keep the driver alert. Pooling also reduces traffic congestion, gives the driver easier maneuverability and greater "steady speed" economy. For best results, distribute passenger weight evenly throughout car.

30. During cold weather watch for icicles frozen to car frame. Up to 100 lbs. can be quickly accumulated! Unremoved snow and ice cause tremendous wind resistance. Warm water thrown on (or hosed on) will eliminate it fast.

Other Options:

There are a few other options that require modification of your vehicle. Here are a few ideas that people have tried:

Half water/Half gasoline conversion kit found here
Gas economy improvement guide found here

Lakers get demolished by the Celtics, ends NBA Finals

2008-06-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

BOSTON (AP)—On a new parquet floor below aging championship banners, the Boston Celtics won their 17th NBA title and a first one—at last—for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen—their Big Three for a new generation.

After 22 long years, the NBA has gone green.

Lifted by ear-splitting chants of “Beat L.A.” from their adoring crowd, which included Boston legends Bill Russell John Havlicek and JoJo White, the Celtics concluded a shocking rebound of a season with a stunning 131-92 blowout over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 on Tuesday night.

Suprise Suprise: Bush and Mccain press for offshore drilling

2008-06-17T20:16:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush plans to make a renewed push Wednesday to get Congress to end a long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, echoing a call by GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

Congressional Democrats have opposed lifting the prohibitions on energy development on nearly all federal Outer Continental Shelf waters for more than a quarter-century, including waters along both the East and West coasts.

With oil prices soaring and motorists paying $4 a gallon for gasoline, political pressures have been growing for more domestic oil and gas production.

"The president believes Congress shouldn't waste any more time," White House press secretary Dana Perino told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"He will explicitly call on Congress to ... pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling," Perino said. "He wants to work with states to determine where offshore drilling should occur."

Bush also will reiterate his call for development of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Perino said. McCain has opposed drilling in the refuge, maintaining that the pristine areas in northeastern Alaska should be protected from energy development.

On Monday, McCain made lifting the federal ban on offshore oil and gas development a key part of his energy plan. The Arizona senator said states should be allowed to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts and receive some of the royalty revenue.

Bush has made clear in recent weeks that the drilling moratorium in coastal waters should end to allow for more domestic oil production and help "take the pressure off the price of gasoline."

Democrats, as well as some Republican senators from coastal states, have opposed lifting the drilling prohibitions, fearful that energy development could harm tourism and raise the risk of oil spills on beaches.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president, opposes lifting the ban on offshore drilling and says that allowing exploration now wouldn't affect gasoline prices for at least five years.

Congress imposed the drilling moratorium in 1981 and has extended it each year since by prohibiting the Interior Department from spending money on offshore oil or gas leases in virtually all coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico and in some areas off Alaska.

President George H.W. Bush imposed a separate executive drilling ban in 1990, which was extended by President Clinton and then by the current president until 2012.

Bush has been considering lifting the executive ban as a symbolic move to get Congress to take action, but he decided against doing so for the time being, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because internal deliberations were involved.

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to vote on legislation Wednesday that included a provision that would continue the drilling moratorium into late 2009. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., planned to try to strip that provision from the bill. A proposal Peterson offered last week that would open all federal waters 50 miles from shore to oil and gas development was rejected by an Appropriations subcommittee on a 9-6 party-line vote.

Indian army wants a space defense program

2008-06-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI (AP) - India said that it needs a military space program to defend its satellites from threats like China's newly revealed ability to shoot down targets in orbit.

The comments by India's army chief raise the possibility of a regional race that could accelerate the militarization of space and heighten tensions between the Asian giants, who have been enjoying their warmest ties in decades.

India urgently needs to "optimize space applications for military purposes," Gen. Deepak Kapoor said Monday at a conference in New Delhi on using space for military purposes.

He noted that "the Chinese space program is expanding at an exponentially rapid pace in both offensive and defensive content." His remarks were first reported by The Indian Express newspaper and confirmed by the Defense Ministry's spokesman on Tuesday.

China destroyed one of its own defunct weather satellites with a ballistic missile in January, becoming the third country, after Russia and the U.S., to shoot down an object in orbit.

In February the United States shot down a satellite that it said posed a threat as it fell to Earth. Kapoor did not mention that, singling out China in a statement analysts said was designed to send a clear message to Beijing.

"In an unsubtle way this is related to China," said Ashok Mehta, a retired Indian army general and leading strategic analyst.

Kapoor said that while militarization of space by India was at "a comparatively nascent stage," there was an urgent need for a military space command for "persistent surveillance and rapid response."

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Anil Kumar Mathur said, "We are not talking about deploying weapons, but about self-defense." Neither man elaborated on their remarks.

The Indian military does not have its own dedicated spy satellites and uses civilian ones to gather imagery and other intelligence. India has an advanced civilian space program and frequently launches both types of satellites for other countries, including an Israeli spy satellite in January.

Other Indian generals speaking at the conference said a military space race was almost certain.

"With time we will get sucked into a military race to protect our space assets and inevitably there will be a military contest in space," the Indian Express newspaper quoted Lt. Gen. H.S. Lidder as saying.

"In a life-and-death scenario, space will provide the advantage," said Lidder, who heads the military department that deals with space technology.

Ties between India and China—which together have one-third of the world's population—are at their closest since China defeated India in a brief 1962 border war. Last year, trade between India and China grew to $37 billion and their two armies conducted their first joint military exercise.

However, the two nations remain sharply divided over territorial claims dating back to the war. China claims India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and occupies a chunk of territory in Kashmir that Indian regards as its own.

Talks on the disputed border have gone nowhere, and Kapoor's "statement is in relation to what is happening on the border dispute and the Chinese taking an uncompromising position," Mehta said.

This, along with China's heavy military spending and a growing rivalry for regional influence, has alarmed the Indian military, which has been increasingly gearing up for possible conflict.

India has announced plans to have aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines at sea in the next decade and recently tested nuclear- capable missiles that put China's major cities well in range. It is also reopening air force bases near the Chinese border.

Chinese company designs flying saucer

2008-06-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

Chinese company has developed a prototype flying saucer that can hover in the air and be controlled remotely from afar, state press said Tuesday.

The aircraft is 1.2 metres (four feet) in diameter and is able to take off and land vertically and hover at an altitude of up to 1,000 metres (yards), Xinhua news agency said.

The unmanned disc is driven by a propeller and can be controlled remotely or sent on a preset flight path, it said.

Its top speed is 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour, it added.

It took the Harbin Smart Special Aerocraft Co Ltd 12 years and 28 million yuan (4.1 million dollars) to develop the prototype craft, which is designed for aerial photography, geological surveys and emergency lighting, the report said.

More Mideast termoil: Car bomb kills 50 in Baghdad

2008-06-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD - Iraqi police officials say at least 51 people were killed in a car bombing in a mainly Shiite section of Baghdad.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, say 75 people were wounded in Tuesday's attack in the northern neighborhood of Hurriyah.

Witnesses say the car that exploded was parked near a two-story building with shops on the bottom floor and residential apartments on top.

Earlier, officials said 12 people had died. One police officer says the death toll spiked after authorities extinguished the fire that had engulfed the building and found more bodies inside.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb struck a busy market area in a mainly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 42, officials said, the deadliest such attack in three months.

The attack occurred just before 6 p.m. as the market in the northwestern Hurriyah neighborhood was packed with shoppers preparing for their evening meals.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is known to use car bombs and suicide attacks.

A soft drink vendor who witnessed the blast, Kamil Jassim, said the car that exploded was parked near a two-story building with shops on the bottom floor and apartments on top. He said a nearby generator caught on fire, partially collapsing the building and burning several other houses.

The blast shattered the relative calm in the capital amid stepped up security measures. American commanders have consistently said they have al-Qaida in Iraq on the run but warned that the insurgents retain the ability to stage high-profile attacks.

A truck packed with rockets exploded on June 4, killing 18 people. But that was suspected to be an accident as Shiite extremists were transporting weapons.

Tuesday's attack was the deadliest car bombing since March 13, when a parked car exploded near a bridge in Tahrir Square, killing 18 people.

It occurred on the same day the Iraqi parliament announced it will start holding sessions outside the U.S.-protected Green Zone in the fall — the latest bid by Iraqi authorities to bolster public confidence in the security gains and assert their independence.

The 275-member legislative body currently meets in a heavily guarded convention center inside the Green Zone, a sprawling maze of concrete barriers and checkpoints in central Baghdad.

Deputy parliamentary speaker Khalid al-Attiyah told lawmakers they will move to the Saddam Hussein-era parliament building for the next legislative term, which is due to begin on Sept. 1.

The National Assembly building that was used by the Iraqi parliament under Saddam is in the Allawi district, about 500 yards away from the blast walls that form the perimeter of the Green Zone on the west side of the Tigris River.

It was looted and burned in the chaos that followed the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces in April 2003. But al-Attiyah said its reconstruction has been completed.

"There is progress in the security situation and the reconstruction has been completed of the new building," al-Attiyah said

The Green Zone, which also houses the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government's headquarters, is one of the main symbols of the continued American presence more than five years after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam.

Iraqi legislators hold sessions in a former convention center amid tight security that was reinforced after a suicide bomber slipped through the checkpoints and blew himself up in the building's cafeteria, killing a lawmaker, on April 12, 2007.

The relocation itself, however, was meant to be temporary until a new compound for the parliament can be built, al-Attiyah added.

His adviser, Wissam al-Zubaidi, also said the parliament planned to shorten its two-month break that was due to start in July and adjourn only for the month of August.

The legislative body has come under past criticism for failing to take advantage of the decline in violence to make sufficient progress on U.S.-backed legislation aimed at promoting national reconciliation among Iraq's divided Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government has been trying to assure a fearful public that recent security gains can be maintained and has launched a series of offensives aimed at clamping control on some of the most violent areas in Iraq.

It also is in talks with the Bush administration over a long-term agreement to replace the U.N. mandate for U.S.-led forces that expires at the end of this year.

In other violence Tuesday, an Iraqi state TV reporter was shot to death near his apartment in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

Colleagues said the slain journalist, 50-year-old, Muhieddin Abdul-Hamid, was a local anchor for the station in Mosul, the center of an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi operation against the most prominent remaining stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni extremist group.

Excluding Abdul-Hamid's death, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 129 journalists and 50 media support workers have been killed since the war started.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle also struck a Baghdad checkpoint manned by U.S.-allied fighters Tuesday, killing one and wounding four, in the latest attack targeting Sunni groups that have turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Another suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint in central Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding 19 other people.

Astronomers find several "Super Earths"

2008-06-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well.

They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common.

"Does every single star harbor planets and, if yes, how many?" asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory. "We may not yet know the answer but we are making huge progress towards it," Mayor said in a statement.

The trio of planets orbit a star slightly less massive than our Sun, 42 light-years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations. A light-year is the distance light can travel in one year at a speed of 186,000 miles a second, or about 6 trillion miles.

The planets are bigger than Earth -- one is 4.2 times the mass, one is 6.7 times and the third is 9.4 times.

They orbit their star at extremely rapid speeds -- one whizzing around in just four days, compared with Earth's 365 days, one taking 10 days and the slowest taking 20 days.

Mayor and colleagues used the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher or HARPS, a telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile, to find the planets.

More than 270 so-called exoplanets have been found. Most are giants, resembling Jupiter or Saturn. Smaller planets closer to the size of Earth are far more difficult to spot.

None can be imaged directly at such distances but can be spotted indirectly using radio waves or, in the case of HARPS, spectrographic measurements. As a planet orbits, it makes the star wobble very slightly and this can be measured.

"With the advent of much more precise instruments such as the HARPS spectrograph ... we can now discover smaller planets, with masses between 2 and 10 times the Earth's mass," said Stephane Udry, who also worked on the study.

The team also said they found a planet 7.5 times the mass of Earth orbiting the star HD 181433 in 9.5 days. This star also has a Jupiter-like planet that orbits every three years.

Another solar system has a planet 22 times the mass of Earth, orbiting every four days, and a Saturn-like planet with a 3-year period.

"Clearly these planets are only the tip of the iceberg," said Mayor.

"The analysis of all the stars studied with HARPS shows that about one third of all solar-like stars have either super-Earth or Neptune-like planets with orbital periods shorter than 50 days."

Romania confirms UFO crashed into fighter jet

2008-06-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

BUCHAREST, Romania, June 6 (UPI) -- The Romanian Defense Ministry has confirmed that a fighter plane was struck by four unidentified flying objects and released a video of the incident.

The ministry said the MIG 21 Lancer fighter plane was struck by the objects during an Oct. 31, 2007, check flight but was able to land safely, Hotnews.ro reported Friday.

Lt. Col. Nicolae Grigorie said a video recorded by cameras onboard the plane depicts "two solid bodies, which are not translucid."

Grigorie said authorities are working to determine what the objects could have been.

"They couldn't be birds because there are no birds in Europe able to fly so high. And they couldn't be ice bodies because it was a clear sky -- neither could they be pieces of another plane or a meteor," he said.

He said the government has ruled out rocket launches and ground artillery fires as causes of the incident.

Movie Trailor of the Week: Batman- The Dark Knight

2008-06-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

This movie looks rediculously good

Al Gore endorses Obama for president

2008-06-16T20:12:00.001-07:00

A huge endorsement for Obama for sure

(CNN) -- Former Vice President Al Gore endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday, urging Americans to reject what he called the Bush administration's legacy of "incompetence, negligence and failure."

"Americans simply cannot afford to continue the policies of the last eight years for another four," Gore, the party's 2000 presidential nominee, told Obama supporters at a rally in Detroit, Michigan.

Perceived as a senior statesman in the Democratic party, Gore brings a certain force to Obama's campaign, political analysts have said.

Monday marked Gore's debut in the 2008 election; he had not weighed in while Obama was still battling Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Amid thousands of cheering supporters, Gore began by addressing head-on the criticism that Obama doesn't have enough experience to lead the nation.

The former Vice President turned Nobel Prize winner playfully said he recalled one Republican nominee wondering out loud whether his Democratic rival for president was "naive and inexperienced."

"And yet another said the United States cannot afford to risk the future of the free world with inexperience and immaturity in the White House," said Gore. "Who were they talking about? Every single one of those quotes came from the campaign of 1960, when the the Republicans attacked John Fitzgerald Kennedy for allegedly lacking the age and experience necessary to be president."

Richard Nixon was the Republican nominee in 1960.

Joining Obama in the midst of the candidate's two week swing through the nation to talk about his plans to revitalize the economy, Gore praised Obama as someone who could mobilize people, young and old, who had never before taken part in politics. Gore went on to praise the nominee's vision on the environment, domestic and international issues.

Saying he will do whatever he can to support Obama's bid for the White House, Gore said Obama has "inspired" him. "I feel that same spirit in this auditorium tonight, building all over this country this year," he said.

"Take it from me, elections matter," Gore said.

"If you think the next appointments to our Supreme Court are important, you know that elections matter. If you live in the city of New Orleans, you know that elections matter. If you or a member of your family are serving in the active military, the National Guard or Reserves, you know that elections matter.

"If you are a wounded veteran, you know that elections matter. If you've lost your job; if you're struggling with a mortgage, you know that elections matter."painted toys and food safety -- even pet foods -- as other reasons to vote for the Democrat.

"After the last eight years, even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter," Gore said, adding, "After eight years of lost jobs and lower wages, we need change. After eight years of incompetence, negligence and failure, we need change."

Gore said the Bush administration has "dishonored and disrespected" the Constitution and led the nation through "eight years of the most serious foreign policy mistakes in the entire history of our nation."

The Tennessean newspaper noted Obama was among the few senators in either party who argued against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq prior to the invasion Gore called a "blunder."

He called for Americans to move beyond partisanship and select in Obama a leader who can "solve the climate crisis and create a bright future."

GOP spokesman Alex Conant reacted to Gore's criticism of President Bush. "This election isn't about changing the past, it's about changing the future," he told The Associated Press on Monday evening.

Calling attention to the fact that Gore's 2000 running mate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, has since left the Democratic Party to become an independent and is backing Sen. John McCain, he said, "It's telling that half of the 2000 Democratic ticket endorsed John McCain early in the campaign, while the other half waited until Barack Obama had been the presumptive nominee for weeks."

Kanye west booed off stage at Bonnaroo

2008-06-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

MANCHESTER, Tenn. - (AP) Kanye West's late night performance at Bonnaroo was delayed nearly two hours, angering the festival crowd who responded by chanting "Kanye sucks" and pelting the empty stage with glow sticks.
West had been scheduled to take the main stage at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival at 2:45 a.m. Sunday morning. While the sleepy thousands in the audience waited, a message on the jumbotrons told them West's show would be delayed until 3:15 a.m., and when that didn't happen, that he would start at 3:30. West didn't hit the stage until 4:25 a.m.

The delay was caused by problems setting up West's elaborate stage set, which included an interplanetary landscape of a wavy black platform with a slanted floor in the middle and a video screen above. West performed a spectacular galactic-themed concert complete with interaction with his spaceship, a disembodied female voice named Jane (a kind of sexier HAL).

Ken Weinstein, a spokesman for the annual festival held on a 700-acre site south of Nashville, said the delay was simply a matter of unloading the Pearl Jam stage (the band went an hour past its scheduled end time, playing until about 1:15 a.m.) and loading the West stage.

The festival, which boasted more than 150 acts spread out over four days, was otherwise very punctual. The West delay was all the worse because of its already very late schedule, and many campers lost energy before the concert and returned to their sleeping bags. Midway through his performance, the morning light showed that the crowd had dwindled substantially.

West had originally been slated to perform at 8:15 p.m. Saturday night, but requested a late night performance. At least in the first hour of his performance, West didn't address the crowd regarding the delay.

Later Sunday, the Bonnaroo crowd was still upset. Pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph led a "Kanye sucks" chant.

Lieberman a traitor to the democrats?

2008-06-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) - Joe Lieberman is fast becoming the Democrats' public enemy No. 1.

The four-term Connecticut senator, who came tantalizingly close to being Al Gore's vice president in 2000, not only has been campaigning for his pal, presumed Republican nominee John McCain, now he's publicly criticizing the Democrats' standard-bearer, Barack Obama. Lieberman has strayed before, most notably switching from Democrat to independent in 2006 to hold onto his Senate seat after a Democratic primary loss.

But the latest betrayal has upset Democrats, who often answer in clipped but polite tones when asked about Lieberman. The reason: The independent still caucuses with the Democrats on most issues except the Iraq war, and he holds their slim political majority in his hands.

"There's a commonly held hope that he's not going to be transformed into an attack dog for Republicans," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., an Obama supporter.

Lieberman has wasted no time in questioning Obama's positions on Iran and Israel, two topics on which Lieberman and McCain agree. Just one day after Obama clinched his party's nomination, Lieberman joined Republicans on a McCain campaign teleconference call assailing Obama following his foreign policy address to a leading Jewish group.

Lieberman accused Obama of blaming U.S. policies for "essentially sort of strengthening" Iran.

"If Israel is in danger today, it's not because of American foreign policy, which has been strongly supportive of Israel in every way," he said. "It is not because of what we have done in Iraq. It is because Iran is a fanatical terrorist, expansionist state."

Later that day, during a budget vote in the Senate, Obama led Lieberman to a corner of the Senate floor for a pointed private conversation. Without elaborating, Obama told reporters the chat was about politics. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had a similar private conversation with Lieberman.

For his part, Lieberman said he assured Obama he would avoid personal attacks.

"I said, and we agreed, that any time I get out there mostly I'm going to be talking positively about John McCain - and anytime I would take issue with Barack Obama, it would never be personal because I have the highest regard for him personally," he said.

Still, Democrats were irked. Lieberman seemed to be breaking new ground - shifting gears from simply promoting McCain to taking shots at Obama.

"I'm glad that Barack Obama had a direct conversation with Joe," Sen. Dick Durbin, Obama's fellow Illinois senator, told reporters. "I hope that Joe will realize that even though he's a friend of John McCain's and feels differently on the war, there are so many other issues Barack stands for that have been a part of Joe's career."

Lieberman's Connecticut colleague, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, said he's heard McCain talk about keeping a civil tone to the campaign.

"It might be a good message for him to convey to his supporters," said Dodd, also an Obama supporter.

Obama had backed Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut. After he lost to Ned Lamont, an anti-war candidate, Lieberman defied party leaders and ran as an independent in the general election. Leading Democrats - Obama, Dodd and Kerry among them - then backed Lamont. Lieberman was re-elected with support from the GOP, including praise from the White House and fundraising help from prominent Republicans.

Oddly, Lieberman befriended and dispensed advice to Obama when the Illinois senator arrived in Washington in 2005.

"We have established a very good relationship," Lieberman says. "I have a lot of affection for him."

Call it Lieberman's version of tough love.

The Connecticut lawmaker is willing to speak at the Republican convention this summer if McCain asks. He also has been mentioned as a potential McCain running mate.

Democrats have reason to tolerate Lieberman's actions. If he were to caucus with the GOP, the balance of power in the narrowly divided Senate would slip away, especially with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., battling brain cancer. Democrats need Lieberman to maintain their 51-49 Senate majority.

Beyond Iraq, Lieberman tends to vote with Democrats on major issues.

"Joe and I have known each other 40 years," said Dodd. "On almost every issue, Joe is a mainstream Democrat."

There is speculation that if Democrats bolster their Senate majority this fall, they could seek payback by stripping Lieberman of his Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairmanship.

While there's no serious talk afoot about punishing Lieberman, Kerry said, "I can't tell you what happens next year."

Oil hits a record $140 a barrel

2008-06-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AP) -- Crude oil futures blasted to a new record, then reversed course and fell in another volatile session Monday, a stunning change of course analysts blamed on options expiration and general market uncertainty. Retail gas prices rose to a record $4.08 a gallon.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $1.40 to $133.46 a barrel in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier soaring to a trading record of $139.89.

With little in the way of news to explain oil's decline, analysts pointed to Tuesday's expiration of crude options, or agreements to buy or sell futures at higher lower prices. Trading is often volatile in the days immediately preceding options expiration.

"That could be the cause of some of the volatility today," said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla.-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com.

The market is also facing genuine uncertainty about oil's future direction, he said. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, told U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon over the weekend that it would boost oil output by 200,000 barrels a day, or by 2 percent, from June to July. In May, the kingdom raised production by 300,000 barrels a day.

Earlier Monday, this promise was largely ignored by traders amid strong global demand and falling production elsewhere. But a sense that the Saudis may be getting serious about boosting output could be growing among some investors.

Also, crude futures failed to keep rising after reaching their new milestone in electronic trading just before the Nymex opened. Such a failure to follow through on a new move into record territory is sometimes perceived by the market as a bearish sign.

At the pump, meanwhile, the national average price of a gallon of gas rose 0.3 cent overnight to its latest milestone, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices are following crude prices higher, and likely have several more cents to rise before catching up with oil's latest advance.

If oil prices pass $140 and head even higher, the pain consumers are feeling at the pump will intensify.

Lakers squeeze by Celtics, force game 6

2008-06-15T22:31:00.001-07:00

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Pack up the championship trophy and book a flight back to Boston, the NBA finals aren’t over yet.

The Los Angeles Lakers are headed East to try a historic comeback of their own.

Kobe Bryant scored 25 points, including a decisive dunk in the final minute — and Lamar Odom added 20 as the Lakers, playing with pride on their star-studded stage, prevented the Celtics from winning a 17th title with a 103-98 win in Game 5 on Sunday night to close to 3-2 in this restored rivalry.

“We didn’t want to see any champagne popping,” Odom said. “It wasn’t easy. I wouldn’t expect it to be.”

No team has overcome a 3-1 deficit in the finals to win a title. The first 28 failed, and now the Lakers, who blew a 24-point lead and lost Game 4 and nearly squandered a 19-point lead in Game 5, have a chance to do something extraordinary.

They’ll have to win on the Celtics’ parquet floor Tuesday night to force a winner-take-all Game 7, where anything is possible.

BMW's Shape Shifting car?

2008-06-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

BMW unleashes "Shapeshifting" car

Sorry for all the car posts, but this one is just too cool

BMW GINA Light Visionary Model

BMW just unveiled its latest design philosophy — via a radical concept car — that will sure to raise some eyebrows in the automotive industry. Touted as the "game changer" for the "development of tomorrow's mobility," the new concept centers around the GINA principle, for Geometry and Functions In "N" Adaptions. What this means is the ability for BMW to think outside the box and innovate maximum ideas with mininum amount of the usual constraints associated with car design.

The first translation of the GINA philosophy into physical being is demonstrated in the Light Visionary Model concept. The only specs that may be familiar are the car's realistic 8-cylinder powertrain package residing in a roadster built from an aluminum space-frame chassis with two double tailpies and 20-in. alloy wheels at the corners. Other than that, it is the Visionary's exterior body that will catch all of us by surprise. It is skinned by four large pieces of flexible material that can stretch and contract based on a number of substructures that can move about on the chassis with electro and electrohydraulic controls.

There are four main pieces of skin that make up the Visionary's body: The largest component starts at the front of the car and extends all the way to the base of the windscreen, then down and across the two doors, ending at the rear edge. The next two fabric-like skins begin at the front lower rocker panels, then run across the rear wheel arches to the back. The last piece of skin makes up the rear deck. The roadster's scissor-type doors open with its outer skin wrinkled in a very clearly defined pattern, but they are stretched back into a silky-smooth surface when the doors close.

The fabric that covers the Visionary's body is constructed from a waterproof and temperature-resistant mesh netting on the outer layer, supported by a flexible metal- wire structure underneath to maintain the skin's tension and smoothness. Around a few areas where curvatures of the skin are called for, carbon struts are added to allow for higher flexibility while keeping the rounded contours.

The Light Visionary Model is striking not only because of its fabric outer skin, but also its utility in form following function. Because of the flexible skin, the headlights can be hidden or exposed when necessary. The side markers to signal lane changes are not visible on the outside until they are turned on during use — their light shines though the translucent (but not transparent) cover. Airflow around the car can be managed actively as the skin can be closed, opened or stretched based on need; the rocker-panel shape can be adjusted for better aerodynamics. And because the rear deck is covered by one single piece of fabric, the spoiler can be completely hidden when it is not in use.

Chris Bangle, Head of BMW Group Design, says, "Personal customer requirements will broaden the context of our products and change the core values that define our industry along the way." That's why BMW is focused on breaking new ground and finding innovative design solutions. And by the looks of the GINA Light Visionary Model, BMW is in the forefront of ingenious automotive design.

Apple Icar Revealed!

2008-06-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

The New Apple Icar???

Rumor has it that Apple and Volkswagon are teaming up to create the "Icar", which will integrate Ipod technology and Volkwagon engineering into one nice little vehicle. This picture just hit the net, and is being called the concept version of the car, but nothing has been confirmed by either parties.

This is a German magazine with the so called Icar on the cover. It makes you wonder why they chose to put an Iphone right next to it.....