Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/02/27/fast-furious-6-featurette/
texas tornado fantasy baseball jared sullinger jaleel white levi johnston 2013 srt viper scott walker recall
Thursday, February 28, 2013
'Fast & Furious 6' Featurette Previews Michelle Rodriguez Origin Story
Instead of progressing the "Fast and Furious" storyline in "Fast & Furious 6," star Vin Diesel and director Justin Lin are actually taking the movie a step backwards. As Diesel explained in a new featurette for the movie, this new installment of the fan-favorite series will serve to introduce audiences to the real version of [...]
With 'SNL' gig, Kevin Hart continues to rise
NEW YORK (AP) ? Like most people who get the chance to host "Saturday Night Live," Kevin Hart is excited to have the gig.
Unlike most hosts, Hart is proving to be complicated.
For starters, the 32-year-old comedian-actor doesn't like making eye contact. When he writes his jokes, he has to do it in a "think tank" ? alone, in his home.
He also has to stand on top of an apple box when performing. Sometimes, he has to stand on two of them.
That's why collaborating with the "SNL" cast and crew feels like a new process for Hart, who is hosting the NBC show this weekend.
"I am what you would a call a genius," said Hart, as the "SNL" cast and crew burst into laughter.
"So this process here is a little different. ... A lot of people came in the room and were looking into my eyes and it threw me off a little bit," he says jokingly, but in a serious tone. "So I just closed my eyes and let them talk and kind of took it all in. And then I recited everything they said."
Hart was in good spirits and self-deprecating ? as usual ? as he shot "SNL" promos with Jason Sudeikis and Bobby Moynihan on Tuesday.
His hosting gig on "SNL" is another notch on his growing resume: He hosted last year's MTV Video Music Awards, has appeared on ABC's "Modern Family" and starred in the romantic comedy "Think Like a Man."
He's also the star of the BET parody series "Real Husbands of Hollywood" (Tuesday, 10 p.m. EST) with Robin Thicke and Nick Cannon. The Philadelphia-born Hart said he's "anxious," but not worried, about hosting "SNL."
"You can't get nervous about what you love to do. This is what I love to do, so the opportunity to do it on this stage is ridiculous," he said.
Duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, known for their hit "Thrift Shop," will perform Saturday night. Hart says he's a fan of group ? sort of.
"I am a fan now 'cause I found out who they were when I realized they were going to be on the show with me. So because of the Internet and the Google search, I Googled them," he said, as others laughed. "I educated myself ? almost another genius move of mine ? to think to Google somebody that I didn't know."
So is Hart enjoying the group's massive, multiplatinum anthem about buying used clothes?
"I didn't hear that. Didn't hear that one. Don't know what that one is," he said. "But I heard some other stuff. Don't really know the titles. But I know (Macklemore's) white ? from Google."
___
Online:
http://www.khartonline.com/index.html
___
Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snl-gig-kevin-hart-continues-rise-180631248.html
blackout blackout congress censored jerry yang stop sopa justified
Why Wasn't Chris Christie Invited to CPAC? (Little green footballs)
Mars plan could be crazy enough to work
The Inspiration Mars Foundation, led by millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito, has unveiled plans for a 501-day round trip to Mars. They are aiming for a 2018 launch. Tom Clarke of Channel Four Europe reports.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
Millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito and his partners have had to tell questioners repeatedly that they're not "crazy" or "nuts" to think they can launch a man and a woman to Mars and back by 2019 ? but if the Inspiration Mars Foundation's "Mission for America" succeeds, it may well be because it's just crazy enough.?
Other private space ventures, ranging from SpaceX to the?Golden Spike Company?and Planetary Resources, are depending on turning a profit someday through the sale of rocket flights, or missions to the moon, or water and precious metals mined from asteroids. Tito, in contrast, freely admits the 501-day mission is a "one-shot deal" that's unencumbered by a long-range business plan. He's committed to supporting the five-year development effort for the first two years, during which time he and the rest of the team will try to raise the money and perfect the technologies for the three more expensive years to follow.
So how much is that going to cost him? "Who knows?" Tito said.
Tito expects to look in all the usual places for funding, including sponsorships, the sale of media rights, the sale of scientific data from the flight and private contributions. A 6-year-old boy has already sent in one of the first contributions, amounting to $10. "This is my Apollo," he was quoted as saying.
If Tito had a dime for every time the Apollo era was invoked on Wednesday, he'd be making a good start toward a fund-raising goal that is estimated to range around $1 billion. Some questioned whether the non-stop Mars flyby would be worth it, on scientific or economic grounds. But that's missing the point: Like Tito's eight-day trip to the International Space Station in 2001, the payoff would be purely inspirational rather than scientific.
"Inspiration Mars reminds me of Apollo 8 in 1968, going around the moon," software billionaire Charles Simonyi, who spent tens of millions of dollars buying two flights to the International Space Station, said in a Twitter update. "Inspiration is a goal for humans, science should be left to the rovers."
In a follow-up exchange of messages, Simonyi told NBC News that he wouldn't be spending millions more to support Tito's effort. He noted that his philanthropic foundation, the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, "has spent the $100M it had in 10 years, as planned."
"But I think Inspiration will have broad-based support," he said. "Very exciting."
NASA also voiced moral support, saying in a statement that the Inspiration Mars mission was "a testament to the audacity of America's commercial aerospace industry and the adventurous spirit of America's citizen-explorers." Inspiration Mars plans to pay NASA for access to the agency's know-how about thermal protection systems for re-entry, said Taber MacCallum, the foundation's chief technology officer and a co-founder of Paragon Space Development Corp.
Inspiration Mars
A graphic from Inspiration Mars shows the expected path of a spacecraft going around the far side of Mars during a 501-day round trip launched in 2018.
Technical issues
In addition to the craziness about the money, there's the craziness about thinking that the rocket and crew capsule will be ready to launch on Jan. 5, 2018, when the planets literally align. A launch?on or around that date would result in a straightforward, no-fuss?trajectory that would come within 100 miles of Mars' backside on Aug. 20, 2018, and bring the spacecraft back to Earth on May 21, 2019. The mission plan is outlined in a feasibility analysis prepared for an aerospace conference, but Tito and his co-authors acknowledge that the space vehicles cited in the paper don't yet exist.
The paper says it'd be feasible to use the still-under-development SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and a modified SpaceX Dragon capsule, with a Bigelow-type inflatable module added on. But MacCallum acknowledged that Inspiration Mars was still talking with potential industry partners on what the launch configuration might be. He said choosing that configuration, as well as designing the life-support system and the thermal protection system, were high priorities on the to-do list.
MacCallum stressed that simplicity would be the key. "This is going to be a Lewis and Clark mission to Mars," MacCallum said. "Keep it bare bones, keep it simple."
Tito provided scant details about the five-year development timeline but said that the mission would rely upon technologies developed for flights to the space station. "It uses low-Earth-orbit architecture ... and we're just adapting it in effect to a very large Earth orbit," he said. Responding to questions about the tight time frame, Tito pointed out that Apollo 8's around-the-moon mission took place just a year after the first unmanned test launch of NASA's Saturn 5 rocket in 1967. (However, it took five years to design and develop the Saturn 5 in preparation for that first launch.)
The trajectory for the "Mission for America" is designed such that only minor course corrections would be required along the way. There'd be no engine burn required for the return leg of the trip, and no deorbit burn. However, the spacecraft's speed at re-entry would be 32,000 mph (14.2 kilometers per second), or almost twice as fast as the space shuttle's re-entry speed. And if the trajectory went slightly off for some reason, there's a chance that the capsule could slam into Mars ? or?miss Earth entirely on the way back, dooming the crew to another deadly circuit.?
Who will go?
Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who has served as an adviser for several space ventures, acknowledged that "there's no question this is a risky and bold endeavor." He estimated that there was a roughly 7 percent chance that one of the two astronauts on board would experience a serious medical issue during the mission. That's the big reason why it'd be a two-person trip rather than a solo flight: so that one of the astronauts could serve as the backup for the other. That, and the fact that it'd be an awfully lonely year and a half for just one astronaut.
Tito insists that the two-person crew should consist of a man and a woman, preferably a married couple, in order to combat the loneliness and reduce the risk of crew incompatibility. Tito joked that one of the mission's media deals might involve Dr. Phil giving "marital advice" to the couple while they're in flight.
Like most of the spacecraft components, the crew would be American, Tito said. He described the key attribute for prospective crew members as "the Right Stuff times 10." MacCallum, meanwhile, said the astronauts would have to have "an amazing mechanical skill" in order to keep the onboard systems running smoothly.?MacCallum's wife, Paragon co-founder Jane Poynter, said they'd have to be "even-keeled" to get along for a?year?and a half?while cooped up in?the outer-space equivalent of an RV.?(MacCallum has said that he and Poynter would be interested in taking the Mars trip themselves.)
Clark estimated that it would take six months to a year to work out the process for crew selection.
Tito faced repeated questions about why he was taking on this mission?? and it was clear that American pride was part of the equation. One reporter asked whether Tito merely wanted to get to Mars before the Chinese. "Beat China to Mars?" he replied. "Wouldn't I want to do that? Wouldn't I want America to do that? Wouldn't you want America to do that?"
He also noted that if Inspiration Mars missed the launch opportunity in 2018, the next opportunity for a 501-day mission wouldn't come around again until 2031. "If we don't fly in '18, the next low-hanging fruit is in '31, and we better have our crew trained to recognize other flags," he said. "They're going to be out there."
Update for 8:25 p.m. ET: Tito's plan has also gotten a vote of support from Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who is writing a book titled "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Exploration." The Washington Post's Brian Vastag quotes Aldrin as saying, "I've talked with Dennis, and I've strongly encouraged him. The purpose is to inspire, to say we're going to do something and then we do it." It doesn't hurt that the schedule calls for the round trip to end two months before the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
More about flights to Mars:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the?Cosmic Log?community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space,?sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
kyra sedgwick honor killings mary tyler moore x games pro bowl 2012 rick santorum daughter gainesville
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Alton Coal pursuit of legal fees may have - The Salt Lake Tribune
Alton Coal Development won in its bid to strip-mine coal on private land near Bryce Canyon National Park and now wants to extract legal costs from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and other groups. AP file photo
Mining ? Company wants groups that challenged its strip mine to pay.
An attorney-fee dispute arising from the controversial Coal Hollow strip-mine in Alton could have far-reaching consequences on citizens and conservation groups? ability to legally challenge coal projects.
Alton Coal Development prevailed in its bid to strip-mine coal on private land near Bryce Canyon National Park after a string of legal skirmishes that ended last October in the Utah Supreme Court. Now the company wants to extract its legal costs ? it hasn?t detailed a dollar amount ? from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and three other groups.
But not content with state regulators? formal opinion that developers must show their adversaries acted "in bad faith" to collect legal costs, Alton Coal lawyer Denise Dragoo has asked the Utah governor to intervene and impose a much lower standard.
The matter, to be argued before the Board of Oil, Gas and Mining Wednesday, could result in environmentalists being liable for hefty legal costs every time they take a Utah coal project to court and lose.
A finding for Alton would deter groups from taking coal developers to court, according to Tim Wagner, head of the Sierra Club?s Utah chapter, which joined SUWA in the Alton suit.
"The availability of the courts for any groups, no matter their agenda, is a part of democracy," Wagner said. "These challenges are not frivolous. These projects are being challenged for good reasons."
The other plaintiffs are the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Parks Conservation Association. This consortium alleged that the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, or DOGM, failed to perform an adequate environmental review when it authorized the state?s only strip mine on 600 acres of private coal in 2009.
A separate proposal by Alton, to expand operations onto 3,500 acres, is still under analysis.
The environmentalists lost at every level and now Alton says it?s entitled to be reimbursed for its legal costs. The company contends that an old legal standard ? requiring the winner in coal disputes to show that its opponent sued simply to harass and embarrass ? no longer holds.
DOGM opposes that position, saying the bad-faith standard was "inadvertently omitted" from the state?s administrative code. In its filings with the mining board, regulators argue the state is obligated to abide by this standard as part of a deal it forged 32 years ago with the federal government to win primacy over coal mining regulation. The federal Office of Surface Mining is now threatening action against the state if it fails to apply the bad-faith standard in the Alton matter.
story continues below
Dragoo is seeking help from Gov. Gary Herbert, who received a $10,000 from Alton for his 2010 election campaign, and his energy adviser Cody Stewart.
In a Feb. 21 letter, she accused state regulators of "prematurely capitulating" their authority to the feds and asked the governor to allow the mining board "to proceed unfettered" by federal standards.
bmaffly@sltrib.com
Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55904038-78/coal-alton-utah-legal.html.csp
lindzi cox bachelor finale courtney robertson ben flajnik hunger games premiere red meat bachelor ben
Clearwire borrows $80 million from Sprint but still flirts with Dish
Who knew that the greatest love triangle of the decade would involve the mobile industry's own Bella Swan, Clearwire? The network provider has accepted an $80 million loan from nailed-on suitor and sparkly vampire, Sprint, but Clear is still pondering a buyout offer from Jacob, sorry, Dish Network. The scuttlebutt around Forks the industry is that Dish will withdraw its bid after spurned by Clearwire one too many times -- but you never can tell with true love, or multi-billion business deals.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sprint
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/27/clearwire-borrows-sprint-cash/
phantom of the opera agoraphobia andrew lloyd webber obscura grok cirque du freak paul pierce
Singer Morrissey says no to Kimmel, 'Duck Dynasty'
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The TV series "Duck Dynasty" is coming between Morrissey and Jimmy Kimmel.
The singer and animal rights activist says he canceled his appearance Tuesday on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" because "Duck Dynasty" cast members will be on the talk show.
Morrissey says he can't perform on a show with what he called people who "amount to animal serial killers."
A&E's "Duck Dynasty" reality show follows a Louisiana family with a business selling duck calls and decoys.
A&E did not immediately respond to requests for comment from it and the Robertson family.
A person familiar with the Kimmel show's plans confirmed that Morrissey was to appear. The person lacked authority to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The person says Morrissey's performance will be rescheduled.
ABC says the Churchill band will perform Tuesday on Kimmel's show but declined comment on the switch.
___
Reach AP Television Writer Lynn Elber at http://www.twitter.com/lynnelber .
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/singer-morrissey-says-no-kimmel-duck-dynasty-022936792.html
concede Obama Acceptance Speech Prop 30 Election 2012 Michigan Election Results Missouri Election Results Amendment 64
Nokia building TD-SCDMA variants of the Lumia 520 and 720 for China Mobile
Nokia is a company that goes out of its way to create tailor-made versions of its smartphones for its Chinese fans. At today's keynote, Stephen Elop announced that those in the far East without the bones to buy a Lumia 920T will soon see local, TD-SCDMA, versions of the Lumia 520 and 720. The ultra-budget duo are expected to arrive in the second quarter of the year, with the 520 expected to cost around $180.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia
Source: Nokia
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/nokia-china-versions-520-720/
time 100 bob beckel anna paquin warren buffett 2012 nfl schedule dishonored april 18
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Workout Schedule for Bodybuilding | Body Health ? Bodybuilding ...
Bodybuilding Workout Schedule
Whenever you decide to begin a bodybuilding program you will need a workout schedule. This will help you stay focused and is a necessary part of muscle growth. The schedule is what will get your muscles used to the rigors of strength training and help you gain muscle mass.
A workout schedule for bodybuilding will consist of two components: exercise and rest. You will need to strength train on a regular basis. Usually, trying to do this every day at the same time is a good idea as it helps your body get used to it and keeps you from not putting it off for later. Once you establish a schedule you will get into the rhythm of things and can begin transforming your body.
Rest is another important factor in your bodybuilding schedule. Your muscles need rest in order to recover from the training. When you strength train, your muscle tissues are broken down. They need time to repair themselves so they may grow. This part is just as important as the exercise itself.
If you are looking to gain muscle mass in a very short period of time, you will need to follow an intense exercise program. Begin each workout with a short warm up. This should be five to ten minutes of light cardio. Walking on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike will work well for this. You should also be sure to stretch your muscles after warming up so they will be ready for the workout.
Warm up before each exercise using approximately half the weight you will use during your working sets. Perform around four to six repetitions with the lighter weight. This will prepare your muscles to work under heavier loads.
Exercise each muscle group, doing two to three sets of each with eight to 12 reps. As time goes by, you will decrease the number of reps while increasing the amount of weight. This is what makes it an intense workout. You are pushing your muscles to the max by using heavier weights. More reps here won?t do you more good, in fact, they may wind up doing less. You don?t want to over train your muscles, you simply want to stimulate them, not annihilate them. More weight is what will do this for you in a short amount of time.
Move through all your exercises and cool down afterwards. Post-workout stretching will help you relax the muscles and begin the repair process. You muscles need to stay flexible, with msucle flowing nutrients to them in order to grow. Work out three to four days a week hitting different muscle groups on different days. Splitting it up like this also keeps you from over training. Rest the remaining days. Your muscles will thank you for it by beginning to grow stronger and before you know it you?ll gain more muscle mass in a short period of time than you ever thought possible.
Related Articles:
from your own site.
Source: http://mybodyhealth.net/workout-schedule-for-bodybuilding/
Olympic Games Dana Vollmer phillies phillies Ryan Dempster Phelps NBC Olympics Live
Monday, February 25, 2013
Indiana stays No. 1 in AP Top 25, Gonzaga No. 2
Gonzaga's Elias Harris fights for a rebound against San Diego during the first half of an NCAA basketball game in Spokane, Wash., on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
Gonzaga's Elias Harris fights for a rebound against San Diego during the first half of an NCAA basketball game in Spokane, Wash., on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
Indiana is No. 1 in The Associated Press' Top 25 for the fourth straight week, while Gonzaga moved to No. 2 for the first time in school history.
While the West Coast Bulldogs made some news at the top of the poll Monday, Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs from Down South, moved into the rankings for the first time since a 13-week run in 1984-85, their only appearance in the poll.
Louisiana Tech, which is 25th this week, was led back then to a ranking as high as No. 7 by a forward named Karl Malone. Gonzaga at that time had a point guard named John Stockton. They went on to become one of the greatest combinations in NBA history with the Utah Jazz, were members of the Dream Team and both were inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Hoosiers, who have been ranked No. 1 for a total of 10 weeks this season, received all but one first-place vote from the 65-member national media panel.
Gonzaga, which got the other No. 1 vote, was ranked third last week. The Bulldogs were also that high in the poll for the final two weeks of 2003-04.
Duke moved up three spots to third and is followed by Michigan and Miami, which dropped from second after falling to Wake Forest, the Hurricanes' first Atlantic Coast Conference loss this season.
Kansas is sixth, followed by Georgetown, Florida, Michigan State and Louisville.
Saint Louis, which beat Butler and VCU last week, moved into 18th in the poll, the Billikens' first ranking since being in for one week last season.
Colorado State, which was 22nd and lost twice last week, and VCU, which was 24th, dropped out.
Associated Presskelis dick clark dies ibogaine jamie moyer bone cancer hossa the cell
Don't Just Blame Cats: Dogs Disrupt Wildlife, Too
Though they seem so natural in our homes, cats and dogs are natural predators, too. Most will attack birds, lizards and smaller mammals when given the chance, and scientists have demonstrated how their explosive populations can upset ecosystems.
The scourge of domestic cats has been thrown into the spotlight recently. A campaign in New Zealand is pushing to get rid of cats, or at least keep them confined indoors, where they can't prey on kiwis and other native birds. And a study out last month attached some staggering figures to cats' carnage in the United States: it found that the felines kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 billion and 20.7 billion small mammals, such as meadow voles and chipmunks, each year.
But defensive cat lovers should rest assured ? a new study from researchers at the University of Oxford reminds us that domestic dogs are also killers and disease-spreaders that can pose conservation problems when they're allowed to roam free outdoors.
Generalizing the ecological impact of the world's estimated 700 million domestic dogs can be tricky since they are treated very differently across cultures ? some kept in handbags, others chained outside or left to stray. In any case, the researchers say that free-roaming dogs (ones without an owner or otherwise left to run free) are thought to account for about 75 percent of the global dog population, and their interactions with other animals can be problematic. [The 10 Most Popular Dog Breeds]
Oxford researchers Joelene Hughes and David W. Macdonald reviewed 69 studies on canine-wildlife relations in rural areas. All but three of these articles found that dogs had a negative impact, mostly due to predation.
Free-roaming dogs can especially cause harm on islands, where ecosystems tend to be vulnerable in the face of non-native predators like dogs. For instance, in the late 1980s, researchers found that a single German shepherd on the loose in New Zealand's Waitangi State Forest was responsible for killing up to 500 kiwis. The dog had a collar, but was unregistered, and its owner was not found.
In another example from 2006, 12 ownerless dogs were thought to be wiping out populations of the endangered Fijian ground frog on the tiny Viwa Island. The Fijian villagers' solution was to "befriend" the dogs by feeding them scraps of food. Ten of the canines were eventually tamed and shipped off the island and the remaining two were killed.
The researchers note that much of the scientific literature on the problems posed by dogs focuses not on conservation issues, but health risks to humans. While canine rabies has been eradicated in the United States, dogs are responsible for nearly all of the 55,000 rabies deaths that occur worldwide, mostly in Asia and Africa. And rabies can disrupt wildlife, too, the researchers said, noting that dogs have been blamed for spreading the disease among several other animal species in Africa, including the extremely rare Ethiopian wolf.
"Despite the increasing recognition of the potential problem dogs may create for wildlife, few solutions to conservation issues were offered by the literature reviewed, particularly to non-disease related problems," Hughes and Macdonald write. "Local people and authorities may be reluctant to undertake dog population management or control because of the close nature of dog-human relationships, aversion to the methods that may be used to remove dogs" ? like poisoning and shooting the feral ones ? "lack of adequate alternative care options, and perceived prohibitive costs of action."
Their research was detailed last month in the journal Biological Conservation.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dont-just-blame-cats-dogs-disrupt-wildlife-too-020659115.html
buffet rule carlos santana dodgers triple play baa samoyed kenny powers kenny powers
MIT on lockdown after reports of armed gunman
BOSTON (AP) ? The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says a man carrying a long rifle and wearing body armor was spotted in a campus building, and the school is on lockdown.
MIT said in a statement Saturday that several law enforcement agencies have responded.
The school advises students and workers to stay indoors and report suspicious activity to campus police.
More details were not immediately available.
Associated Pressjenelle evans jenelle evans mlb 12 the show sabu franchise tag lesotho a wrinkle in time
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Infographic: College Students Need Food, Sleep, and Wi-Fi
Alongside textbooks, pizza, and shower shoes, wireless Internet access is at the top of the college students' necessities list.
According to Online Colleges, a whopping 90 percent of university attendees consider Wi-Fi essential to their educational success ? just as much as classrooms and computers.
So important, they said, that they would be willing to abstain from alcohol consumption or wear their school's rival team colors than be without wireless access. Most won't even consider a school that doesn't offer free and fast Wi-Fi.
An Online Colleges infographic breaks down the reasons students say the love Wi-Fi: because it makes school easier (79 percent) and helps them earn better grades (75 percent). In-classroom access gives 44 percent of students an added push to begin research for an assignment before the class has ended.
The Web is important outside of the lecture hall, too. When searching for a place to hang out with friends, work on a paper, or grab some grub, many students remain on the hunt for free Wi-Fi.
But powerful and portable Internet access is more than another luxury of higher education; it offers American universities a means to retain their preeminence in international research, Online Colleges said. Losing out to academic communities in other countries could have "profound implications for the American economy and society," the site said.
According to ABI Research, an increasing number of universities worldwide are investing more in Wi-Fi access points and controllers than ever before. In 2007, colleges collectively dropped $137 million for wireless Internet. This year, ABI projected upwards of $837 million ? a 611 percent increase in six years.
The Gig.U, or University Community Next Generation Innovation Project, consists of more than 30 leading research universities working with local communities to strengthen the U.S.'s role as a leader in next-generation high-speed network services. A number of colleges participate in the Gig.U program, including Stanford University, where students and faculty have gained free access to the ultra-high-speed Google Fiber network, and the University of Maine, which will build a mega high-speed Gigabit Main Street Internet Network in the communities surrounding the campus.
For a closer look at college students' relationship with Wi-Fi, check out the full infographic below.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415721,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05079TX1K0000993
Daily Caller Staten Island Trick or Treat Amy Weber Happy Halloween! Star Wars Episode 7 luke bryan
Banks bail out thousands of California homeowners under mortgage settlement
California's struggling homeowners are on track to get at least $20 billion in mortgage reductions and other relief under a multistate settlement five major banks agreed to a year ago, according to a report Thursday.
A total of 175,000 California borrowers were helped last year, and nearly 72,000 of those had their mortgages reduced or forgiven, according to Katherine Porter, the state appointee monitoring the banks' compliance. Another 20,000 are in trial mortgage reductions under the agreement, which settled charges of improper foreclosures across 49 states.
"California is faring very well under this deal," Porter said.
She'll get no argument from Marona Nazlou, who operates a sandwich shop in Santa Clara.
"God bless," said Nazlou, who had a second mortgage forgiven by Bank of America last fall.
The second was for about $490,000, according to his broker, Myron Von Raesfeld.
"When he opened up the letter, I said you just got a half-million-dollar gift from Bank of America," Von Raesfeld said.
Nazlou said he fell behind on his mortgage payments as the economy soured and his house lost much of its value.
"We work very hard, but my situation got much worse," he explained. Now he is in the three-month trial period of a modification on his first mortgage.
Bank of America has focused on forgiving second mortgages, Porter said, adding that people are contacting her office after getting letters from the
bank telling them their second mortgage has been eliminated. "They say, 'Is this a scam?' It isn't."BofA has erased $3.8 billion in 37,000 second mortgages so far, she said.
"They don't reduce it, they eliminate it. You get a letter in the mail, and 30 days later they release your second mortgage and report it to the credit bureau 'paid in full.'"
California was the hardest hit by reckless subprime lending that ended with massive numbers of foreclosed homes across the state. Particularly hard hit were the Central Valley and Inland Empire, which are among the areas the state is targeting for the most relief.
About 59,000 short sales totaling $8.8 billion have been done under the agreement in California, according to the California monitor's office. Under a short sale, the home is sold for less than the value of its mortgage; banks must agree to such a sale and then absorb the loss.
But some people want fewer short sales, which cost people their homes.
"The hope of folks regarding the agreement was that it would keep people in their homes through first lien principal reductions," said Kevin Stein of the California Reinvestment Coalition.
Nationally, the banks have extended $45.8 billion in all forms of relief to 550,000 borrowers, the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight reported Thursday. California has received about $18 billion so far, about 40 percent of the total.
Under the national settlement, announced last February, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Ally/GMAC and Bank of America agreed to extend $25 billion in relief of various kinds to borrowers in 49 states. A scoring system gives less than a dollar's credit for a dollar's worth of some types of relief, so the total settlement has much more than $25 billion in relief flowing to consumers.
Under a special "California commitment" arranged by Attorney General Kamala Harris, three banks that do the most mortgage lending in California -- Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo -- agreed to provide $12 billion in mortgage relief under a system that rewarded speedy principal reductions on first mortgages and forgiveness of second mortgages. Extra credit was given for relief in the counties hit hardest by foreclosures.
Independently, Ally/GMAC has extended $71.4 million to 679 California borrowers, and Citi has helped 9,466 borrowers with $813 million in relief.
Although the agreement runs for three years from its signing last February, Wells Fargo, BofA and Chase have already exceeded their commitments by $3.9 billion and are likely to finish early, Porter said.
Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419. Follow him on Twitter.com/petecarey.
powerball winner Zig Ziglar lunar eclipse alabama football florida lotto dancing with the stars sean taylor
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Members of 1st U.S team to top Everest reunite
In this 1963 photo released by Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films, members of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition team and sherpas are shown with their climbing gear on Mt. Everest. Surviving members of the first American expedition team to reach the top of Mt. Everest are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their mountaineering milestones. Jim Whittaker rweached the top of the world on May 1, 1963, a decade after Britain's Edmund Hillary. Three weeks later, two other Americans, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, became the first men ever to scale Everest via more dangerous route on the mountain's west side. (AP Photo/Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films)
In this 1963 photo released by Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films, members of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition team and sherpas are shown with their climbing gear on Mt. Everest. Surviving members of the first American expedition team to reach the top of Mt. Everest are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their mountaineering milestones. Jim Whittaker rweached the top of the world on May 1, 1963, a decade after Britain's Edmund Hillary. Three weeks later, two other Americans, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, became the first men ever to scale Everest via more dangerous route on the mountain's west side. (AP Photo/Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films)
This 1963 photo released by Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films, shows the summit of Mt. Everest. Surviving members of the first American expedition team to reach the top of Mt. Everest are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their mountaineering milestones. Jim Whittaker rweached the top of the world on May 1, 1963, a decade after Britain's Edmund Hillary. Three weeks later, two other Americans, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, became the first men ever to scale Everest via more dangerous route on the mountain's west side. (AP Photo/Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films)
Dr. Dave Dingman is interviewed the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the First American Ascent of Mount Everest in Berkeley, Calif., Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Surviving members of the first American expedition team to reach the top of Mt. Everest are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their mountaineering milestones. Jim Whittaker rweached the top of the world on May 1, 1963, a decade after Britain's Edmund Hillary. Three weeks later, two other Americans, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, became the first men ever to scale Everest via more dangerous route on the mountain's west side. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Tom Hornbein is interviewed the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the First American Ascent of Mount Everest in Berkeley, Calif., Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Surviving members of the first American expedition team to reach the top of Mt. Everest are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their mountaineering milestones. Jim Whittaker rweached the top of the world on May 1, 1963, a decade after Britain's Edmund Hillary. Three weeks later, two other Americans, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, became the first men ever to scale Everest via more dangerous route on the mountain's west side. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Jim Whittaker is interviewed for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the First American Ascent of Mount Everest in Berkeley, Calif., Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Surviving members of the first American expedition team to reach the top of Mt. Everest are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their mountaineering milestones. Jim Whittaker rweached the top of the world on May 1, 1963, a decade after Britain's Edmund Hillary. Three weeks later, two other Americans, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, became the first men ever to scale Everest via more dangerous route on the mountain's west side. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) ? It might be hard to conceive now, in an era of extreme sports and ultra-light equipment, but there was a time when Americans who set out to conquer mountains engaged in a pursuit that was as lonely as it was dangerous.
But four men ? Norm Dyhrenfurth, now 94; Jim Whittaker, 84; Tom Hornbein, 82, and Dave Dingman, 76 ? remember. The leather boots that stayed wet for weeks. Oxygen canisters that weighed 15 pounds. The shrugs of indifference most of their countrymen gave a half-century ago to what it would take to get a U.S.-led mountaineering expedition to the top of Mt. Everest.
"Americans, when I first raised it, they said, 'Well, Everest, it's been done. Why do it again?'" Dyhrenfurth recalled Friday as he and three other surviving members of the 1963 expedition gathered in the San Francisco Bay area for a meeting honoring the 50th anniversary of their achievement.
The American Alpine Club is hosting lectures, film screenings, book-signings and a dinner this weekend recognizing the pioneering climbers and what their feat, captured in a Life magazine cover story, came to represent in the years after President John F. Kennedy honored the Everest team with a Rose Garden reception: the birth of mountaineering as a popular sport in the U.S.
"When they were talking about a reunion three years ago, I thought, who the hell cares about that? I figured we'd just get together for some beers," Dingman said between interviews with National Geographic, Outside magazine and the Alpine Club's oral history project. "It's turned into this big event, and I'm glad it has."
Whittaker, who lives in Seattle and went on to become chief executive of outdoors outfitter Recreational Equipment Inc., was the first American to summit Everest. He and his Sherpa companion, Nawang Gombu, reached the top of the world on May 1, 1963, a decade after New Zealand's Edmund Hillary and about six weeks after another climber on the U.S. expedition, Jake Breitenbach, died in an avalanche.
Memories of how close he came to his own death on Everest ? he and Gombu ran out of oxygen on the summit and had to climb up and back without water after their bottles froze ? infused every day of his life since with gratitude and child-like wonder, he said.
"I think I will probably take it with me into my next life, if I have one," Whittaker said.
Three weeks after Whittaker's ascent, two other Americans, Hornbein and the late Willi Unsoeld, became the first men ever to scale Everest via a more dangerous route on the mountain's west side. The next day, they descended by the southern route that Hillary, Whittaker and by then, two more members of the American team, had taken to the summit.
The adventure, which included spending the night without sleeping bags or tents at 28,000 feet, made them the first men ever to traverse the world's highest peak ? and cost Unsoeld nine frost-bitten toes.
Dingman has been lauded over the years for sacrificing his own chance to scale Everest to belay Hornbein, Unsoeld and two other climbers, Barry Bishop and Lute Jerstad, who had gotten stuck out in the open with them, back down to base camp.
Dingman never made it back to Everest. As a doctor in training, a Vietnam War draftee and then a physician with a young family, he never could find the time to make the trip. He said he had no regrets then and has none now.
"It would have made no difference to get two more people on to the summit, but if we had lost two or three people on the way down that would have been a very different story," he said.
Associated Pressveep los angeles kings earth day timothy leary jonathan frid pujols watchmen
What does a 'secure' border look like?
Once, the barren mesas and shrub-covered canyons that extend east of the Pacific Ocean held the most popular routes for illegal immigrants heading into the U.S. Dozens at a time sprinted to waiting cars or a trolley stop in San Diego, passing border agents who were too busy herding others to give pause.
Now, 20 years after that onslaught, crossing would mean scaling two fences (one topped with coiled razor wire), passing a phalanx of agents and eluding cameras positioned to capture every incursion.
The difference, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on a recent tour, is like "a rocket ship and a horse and buggy."
In pure numbers it is this: Where border agents made some 530,000 arrests in San Diego in fiscal year 1993, they had fewer than 30,000 in 2012.
There is no simple yardstick to measure border security. And yet, as the debate over immigration reform ramps back up, many will try.
"Secure the border first" has become not just a popular mantra whenever talk turns to reform but a litmus test for many upon which a broader overhaul is contingent.
"We need a responsible, permanent solution" to illegal immigration, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who is working to develop a reform plan, said in his State of the Union response this month. "But first," he added, "we must follow through on the broken promises of the past to secure our borders and enforce our laws."
In fact, the 1,954-mile border with Mexico is more difficult to breach than ever. San Diego is but one example.
Two decades ago, fewer than 4,000 Border Patrol agents manned the entire Southwest border. Today there are 18,500. Some 651 miles of fence have been built, most of that since 2005.
Apprehensions, meantime, have plummeted to levels not seen since the early 1970s ? with 356,873 in FY2012. Compare that to 1.2 million apprehensions in 1993, when new strategies began bringing officers and technology to border communities in California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Now sensors have been planted, cameras erected, and drones monitor the borderlands from above.
But for those who live and work in communities along the international boundary, "secure" means different things. In Arizona, ranchers scoff at the idea. In New Mexico, locals worry about what's heading south in addition to flowing north. And in Texas, residents firmly believe that reform itself would finally help steady the flow of people and drugs.
These places have been transformed. Sealed? No. But as one border mayor asked: "How secure is secure?"
___
SAN DIEGO: From "banzai runs" to Brooks Brothers
Don McDermott spent most of his 21 years in the Border Patrol working the San Diego sector. He remembers the "banzai runs," when hordes of immigrants would storm inspection booths at one international crossing, scattering as they ran past startled motorists.
Back then, migrants crossed with audacity ? even played soccer on U.S. soil as vendors hawked tamales and tacos. The "soccer field" was too dangerous to patrol, so agents positioned themselves a half-mile out, waiting for nightfall when groups would make a run for freedom.
"Hopefully you would catch more people that you saw going past you," said McDermott, who retired in 2008. "You caught who you could and knew they would be back before the night was over."
The tide turned when the U.S. government launched "Operation Gatekeeper" in 1994, modeled on a crackdown the previous year in El Paso, Texas. The effort brought 1,000 additional agents to San Diego. They parked their trucks against a rusting 8-foot-high fence made of Army surplus landing mats, and refused to yield an inch. They called it "marking the X."
As apprehension numbers fell, home values skyrocketed. In 2001, an outlet mall opened right along the border. It now counts Brooks Brothers, Polo Ralph Lauren and Coach as tenants.
More than manpower helped to shut down the path into San Diego. An 18-foot-high steel mesh fence extending roughly 14 miles from the Pacific Ocean was completed in 2009, with razor wire topping about half of it. A dirt road traversing an area known as "Smugglers Gulch," which border agents had to navigate slowly, was transformed into a flatter, all-weather artery at a cost of $57 million.
This past year the Border Patrol's San Diego sector, which covers 60 miles of land border, made fewer arrests than in any year since 1968. Agents averaged 11 arrests each, a change that marvels veterans. Agents today may even pursue just one crosser over several shifts.
"I'm not going to say it's impossible, but it's a lot more difficult to cross the border here," said agency spokesman Steven Pitts.
After Gatekeeper, smugglers tried new tactics. They pelted agents with rocks, hoping to create an opening for a mad dash when other agents rushed to help. Or one group would jump the fence to draw agents' attention long enough for another to try its luck.
Now, other threats have emerged. U.S. authorities identified 210 human and drug smuggling attempts at sea during FY2012, up from 45 four years earlier. A Coast Guardsman died in December when a suspected smuggling vessel struck him.
And nearly all of more than 70 drug smuggling tunnels found along the border since October 2008 have been discovered in the clay-like soil of San Diego and Tijuana, some complete with hydraulic lifts and rail cars. They've produced some of the largest marijuana seizures in U.S. history.
Still, few attempt to cross what was once the nation's busiest corridor for illegal immigration. As he waited for breakfast at a Tijuana migrant shelter, Jose de Jesus Scott nodded toward a roommate who did. He was caught within seconds and badly injured his legs jumping the fence.
Scott, who crossed the border with relative ease until 2006, said he and a cousin tried a three-day mountain trek to San Diego in January and were caught twice. Scott, 31, was tempted to return to his wife and two young daughters near Guadalajara. But, with deep roots in suburban Los Angeles and cooking jobs that pay up to $1,200 a week, he will likely try the same route a third time.
"You need a lot of smarts and a lot of luck," he said. "Mostly luck.
"It's a new world."
___
EL PASO, Texas: Steel bars still up; crossings and crime down
Burglar bars still protect many a home in the Chihuahuita neighborhood near downtown El Paso, a reminder of a time when immigrant crossers would break in looking for food or trying to duck the Border Patrol. Carmen Silva recalls those days. At 90, she tells of migrants hiding under cars and in backyards. Now, she says: "Nobody comes through anymore."
Patricia Rayjosa has lived in the same neighborhood as Silva for the past 18 years. Once, she said, migrants crossed 30, 40, 50 at a time to overwhelm agents standing watch. Others swam across the Rio Grande or waded north on tire tubes.
"One morning, as I went out to feed my dogs, I found ... wire cutters. I didn't see them but I could tell they went across my backyard," said Rayjosa, 53. But she agrees with Silva's assessment. Now, "It's not easy to cross."
In the early 1990s, El Paso ran second to San Diego in the number of illegal immigrants coming north. Then, in 1993, the Border Patrol launched "Operation Hold the Line," the first of a series of enforcement actions intended to gain "operational control" of the Southwest border.
It was a shift in strategy from apprehending migrants already in the U.S. to preventing entry in the first place, and the effect was almost immediate: Within months, illegal crossings in El Paso went from up to 10,000 a day to 500, according to a Government Accountability Office report in 1994 called "BORDER CONTROL: Revised Strategy Is Showing Some Positive Results."
Burglaries in neighborhoods like Chihuahuita decreased. Car thefts went down. And, as happened later in San Diego, apprehensions plunged: from nearly 286,000 in 1993 to about 9,700 last fiscal year in the El Paso Border Patrol sector, which encompasses 268 miles from West Texas across New Mexico. (Border Patrol staffing in the sector went from 608 agents in 1993 to more than 2,700 today.)
To El Paso Mayor John Cook, hinging reform to continued calls for a "secure border" seems absurd given the changes in his city.
"It is as secure as it has ever been. How secure is secure?" he said. "Some people who come with these ideas have no idea.
"I wish they would come down here and see."
But you don't have to drive too far into the New Mexico desert to see problems.
Marcus Martinez, the police chief in Lordsburg, N.M., recalled an incident in January where a local hotel manager stepped out to have a cigarette and saw a convoy of vehicles speeding through town. Four cars were eventually stopped ? 80 miles north of the border ? and 6 tons of marijuana were seized.
Patrick Green of the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office in Lordsburg, said northbound traffic is only part of the problem. Even as people and drugs are smuggled north, guns and money are flowing back south. He deals with constant reports by homeowners and ranchers about break-ins.
The area has seen a huge influx of Border Patrol agents, but officers like Green fear the government will always be behind the curve in dealing with sophisticated smuggling operations.
"If the Border Patrol puts more people in the ground, they will take to the mountains," Green said. "We are always playing catch up."
___
MCALLEN, Texas: In bicultural region, residents root for reform as the path to "secure"
Some 800 miles southeast of El Paso is the Rio Grande Valley, where rapid growth has overtaken sugar cane and cotton fields and sleepy hamlets are now thriving cities. More than 1.2 million people live in the two border counties on the U.S. side of this southernmost tip of Texas, and a similar number are directly across the border anchored by the sprawling cities of Matamoros and Reynosa.
Here, illegal crossers can quickly slip into communities without being forced to trek for days through wide-open spaces.
Part of the solution was the border fence, and 400 landowners ? most of them in this part of Texas ? had property seized to build it. The fence divided people from swaths of their own land, but also struck many as an offensive gesture in this bicultural, bilingual region that views itself as one community with its Mexican sister cities.
More effective, locals said, has been the influx of Border Patrol agents ? 2,546 in the Rio Grande Valley today, almost seven times more than 20 years ago.
And while some agents still patrol on horseback, others are aided now by night-vision goggles and unmanned Predator drones watching from 19,000 feet overhead with high-powered infrared cameras.
Definitions of a secure border vary here, but there's agreement that the premise should not stand in the way of immigration reform.
Tony Garza remembers watching the flow of pedestrian traffic between Brownsville and Matamoros from his father's filling station just steps from the international bridge. He recalls migrant workers crossing the fairway on the 11th hole of a golf course ? northbound in the morning, southbound in the afternoon. And during an annual celebration between the sister cities, no one was asked for their papers at the bridge. People were just expected to go home.
Garza, a Republican who served as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2002 to 2009, said it's easy to become nostalgic for those times, but he reminds himself that he grew up in a border town of fewer than 50,000 people that has grown into a city of more than 200,000.
The border here is more secure for the massive investment in recent years but feels less safe because the crime has changed, he said. Some of that has to do with transnational criminal organizations in Mexico and some of it is just the crime of a larger city.
Reform, he said, "would allow you to focus your resources on those activities that truly make the border less safe today."
Monica Weisberg-Stewart was born and raised an hour upriver in McAllen. Her father ran a store downtown that she runs today, filled with socks, underwear and jewelry. She echoes Garza's assessment that things feel less safe now but says that has more to do with the area's growth than with what's happening in Mexico.
"I thought that this was definitely the best place to raise my family," she said, "and I still believe that to be true today."
Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino points out that drug, gun and human smuggling is nothing new to the border. The difference is the attention that the drug-related violence in Mexico has drawn to the region in recent years.
He insists his county, which includes McAllen, is safe. The crime rate is falling, and illegal immigrants account for small numbers in his jail. But asked if the border is "secure," Trevino doesn't hesitate. "Absolutely not."
"When you're busting human trafficking stash houses with 60 to 100 people that are stashed in a two, three-bedroom home for weeks at a time, how can you say you've secured the border?" he said.
Trevino's view, however, is that those people might not be there if they had a legal path to work in the U.S.
"Immigration reform is the first thing we have to accomplish before we can say that we have secured the border," he said.
____
NOGALES, Ariz.: In nation's busiest illegal corridor, ranchers scoff at "secure"
Everywhere he goes on his cattle ranch, Jim Chilton has a gun at the ready. He has guns at his front door, guns in his pickup truck, guns on his horse's saddle. His fear? Coming across a bandit or a smuggler on his land northwest of Nogales, Ariz.
Cattleman Gary Thrasher frequently encounters immigrants and smugglers running through his property. Some have showered in his barn. He and his family live in constant dread.
"They really have secured the towns right along the border, but what that does is it drives all the traffic out into the rural areas around here," said Thrasher, a rancher and veterinarian for more than 40 years on the border east of Douglas, Ariz. "It sends the traffic right into our backyards."
The question of border security hits close to home to those who work the land in southern Arizona. It was here, in 2010, that cattle rancher Robert Krentz was gunned down while checking water lines on his property near Douglas. Local authorities have said they believe the killer was involved in smuggling either humans or drugs.
That same year, Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in a shootout near Nogales with Mexican gunmen that brought attention to the federal government's botched weapons-trafficking probe called "Fast and Furious."
"The border is not secure," said Chilton. "Period. Exclamation mark."
Defining "secure border" in Arizona is never easy. Just last week, U.S. Sen. John McCain hosted two town hall meetings on immigration reform in his home state, and was left defending a plan he's been developing.
During a heated gathering in the Phoenix suburb of Sun Lakes, one man yelled that only guns would discourage illegal immigration. Another man complained that illegal immigrants should never be able to become citizens or vote. A third man said illegal immigrants were illiterate invaders who wanted free government benefits.
McCain urged compassion. "We are a Judeo-Christian nation," he said.
The crackdowns in Texas and California in the 1990s turned Arizona's border into the busiest for human smuggling for 15 years running now.
In 2000, agents in the Tucson sector made more than 616,000 apprehensions ? a near all-time high for any Border Patrol sector. The number eventually began dipping as the agency hired more than 1,000 new agents and the economy collapsed. State crackdowns such as the "show me your papers" law ? requiring police enforcing other laws to question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally ? are also thought to have driven migrants away.
The result: the sector had 120,000 apprehensions in fiscal 2012.
But the amount of drugs seized in Arizona has soared at the same time. Agents confiscated more than 1 million pounds of marijuana in the Tucson sector last year, more than double the amount seized in 2005.
In Nogales, Sheriff Tony Estrada has a unique perspective on both border security and more comprehensive immigration reform. Born in Nogales, Mexico, Estrada grew up in Nogales, Ariz., after migrating to the U.S. with his parents. He has served as a lawman in the community since 1966.
He blames border security issues not only on the cartels but on the American demand for drugs. Until that wanes, he said, nothing will change. And securing the border, he added, must be a constant, ever-changing effort that blends security and political support ? because the effort will never end.
"The drugs are going to keep coming. The people are going to keep coming. The only thing you can do is contain it as much as possible.
"I say the border is as safe and secure as it can be, but I think people are asking for us to seal the border, and that's unrealistic," he said.
Asked why, he said simply: "That's the nature of the border."
___
Spagat reported from San Diego; Llorca from El Paso, Texas; Sherman from McAllen, Texas; and Skoloff from Phoenix. Also contributing to this report was AP writer Cristina Silva in Phoenix.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/does-secure-border-look-152824265.html
2012 oscar winners channel 3 news j lo j lo sacha baron cohen ryan seacrest octavia spencer meryl streep oscars
It's personal and business in GOP fight over Hagel
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The fierce Republican opposition to President Barack Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary is personal and business.
The nasty fight long has been seen as a proxy for the never-ending scuffles between the Democratic president and congressional Republicans, with barely any reservoir of good will between the White House and lawmakers, and the GOP still smarting over the November election results.
Barring any surprises, the drawn-out battle over Hagel's nomination probably will end this coming week with his Senate confirmation. But his fellow Republicans have roughed him up.
A vote is expected on Tuesday.
In the weeks after Obama secured a second term, Republicans knocked out a presidential favorite, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and dashed her secretary of state hopes over her widely debunked remarks about protests precipitating the assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya on Sept. 11.
Emboldened Republicans then set their sights on Hagel, whose GOP classification won him no points with the party.
The former two-term Nebraska senator was widely viewed as a political heretic. He disagreed with President George W. Bush over the Iraq war, stayed on the sidelines in the 2008 president race between Obama and the Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, and endorsed fellow Vietnam veteran and former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey in last year's Nebraska Senate race.
Republicans remember it well.
"There's a lot of ill will toward Sen. Hagel because when he was a Republican, he attacked President Bush mercilessly, at one point said he was the worst president since Herbert Hoover, said the surge (of U.S. troops in Iraq) was the worst blunder since the Vietnam War, which is nonsense, and was anti-his own party and people," McCain said in an interview on Fox News on the day Republicans stalled Hagel's nomination.
Hagel didn't help his cause with his past opposition to unilateral penalties against Iran, his comment about the influence of the "Jewish lobby" in Washington, his support for reducing the nation's nuclear arsenal and remarks that created widespread doubts about his backing for Israel.
His halting and uneven performance at his confirmation hearing also hurt his nomination.
McCain, one of Hagel's friends during their years in the Senate, would have been a crucial vote to help sway other Republicans to back the nominee. Instead, he is one of more than a dozen opposing Hagel.
"I think he will have been weakened, but having said that, the job that he has is too important," McCain told reporters Friday during a visit to Mexico. "I know that I and my other colleagues, if he's confirmed, and he very likely will be, will do everything we can to work with him."
The nomination fight also is about the business of re-electing Republicans in 2014. Challenging the Democratic president over his nominations and policies is clearly a winner with the conservative base, a point not lost on GOP incumbents wary of challenges from the tea party.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who's up for re-election next year, is getting high marks from Republicans for his relentless effort to get more information about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, and his fierce opposition to Hagel.
"Most people down here think he's dead-on in his arguments and hope that he continues to press the issues," said Warren Tompkins, a longtime GOP strategist.
The Libya attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans has been a political flashpoint for Republicans who accused the Obama administration of an election-year cover-up of a terrorist assault.
An independent review conducted by respected former diplomats failed to mollify the GOP, who demanded testimony from Hillary Rodham Clinton, secretary of state when the attack occurred, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
Graham has been at the forefront in seeking emails, communiques and videos while threatening to delay both Hagel's nomination and that of CIA Director-nominee John Brennan, who also has become entangled in the Libya dispute.
During a stop in Easley, S.C., this past week, Graham insisted that his effort has nothing to do with politics.
"It's not because he's a Democrat and I'm a Republican," he said, referring to Obama. "It's because it really was system failure and we need learn from it. We have not gotten the information, and we're going to get it if I have to die trying."
The White House has agreed to give the Senate Intelligence Committee additional documents related to the Benghazi attack, according to a congressional aide said. The material includes emails between national security officials showing the debate within the administration over how to describe the attack.
Graham also has been intense in opposing Hagel, portraying the former GOP senator as an out-of-the-mainstream radical. Some of the toughest questions of Hagel during his confirmation hearing last month came from Graham, who seized on Hagel's "Jewish lobby" remark and asked him to "name one dumb thing we've been goaded into doing due to pressure by the Israeli, Jewish lobby."
Hagel was often tentative in his response in the face of GOP grilling.
"He's leading, he's governing," Glenn McCall, the chairman of the York (S.C.) County Republican Party and a GOP committeeman, said of Graham. "More and more I talk to Republicans ? and even those that are conservative Democrats ? I think folks are looking for leadership."
Both Tompkins and McCall cited a Winthrop University poll released last week that showed Graham with strong support from registered Republicans in the state, with 72 percent holding a favorable opinion of the senator.
It's a turnaround from several years ago when Graham's work with Democrats on climate change and immigration as well as his votes for Obama's nominees for the Supreme Court angered South Carolina Republicans, with some calling him out of touch and Charleston and Lexington counties voting to censure him over his bipartisan work.
"It might be the right thing to do ... but when you partner with Hillary Clinton or you partner with John Kerry, you're going to be looked upon with a lot of suspicion in South Carolina," Tompkins said. "You have to be careful who you dance with."
Kerry, a former Democratic senator from Massachusetts, has just replaced Clinton as secretary of state.
Graham still may face a primary challenge, but he and other GOP incumbents are determined to head off any conservative uprising as Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch successfully did in his 2012 race. They want to avoid the fate of the only GOP primary loser last year ? Indiana's longtime Sen. Dick Lugar.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican and a candidate next year, took the lead on the Senate floor to block a vote on Hagel on Feb. 14 and was one of 15 Republicans last week to call for Obama to withdraw the nomination.
Cornyn got a primary challenger last week.
___
Follow Donna Cassata on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DonnaCassataAP
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/personal-business-gop-fight-over-hagel-135227159.html
cardinals san diego weather frances bean cobain north korea missile launch modesto st louis weather guinea bissau
Friday, February 22, 2013
Mondi posts slight drop in full-year earnings
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African Paper maker Mondi said on Thursday it expects to reap the benefit of recent acquisitions after reporting a slight drop in full-year earnings on lower prices.
Mondi, which is also listed in London, said diluted headline earnings per share for the year to end December totalled 63.1 euro cents, from a 69.1 euro cents a year earlier.
Headline EPS is the key measure of profitability in South Africa and strips out certain one-off and non-trading items.
"We started 2012 with a difficult first quarter where volumes were still below normal and prices were starting to bottom out," Mondi Group chief executive David Hathorn told Reuters.
"On average pricing for last year was lower than it was for the previous year."
Mondi, mainly involved in the manufacture of packaging paper, said underlying operating profit fell 9 percent to 568 million euros.
The company is focusing on fast-growing businesses such as consumer packaging and announced several deals last year to boost its market position.
Mondi said its total dividend rose 8 percent to 28 euro cents.
The company's shares were little changed at 113.43 rand as of 0739 GMT, compared with a 0.65 percent fall in the Johannesburg's All-share Index.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mondi-posts-slight-drop-full-earnings-093815403--finance.html
curacao home run derby kourtney kardashian kourtney kardashian DNS Changer ernest borgnine ESPYs 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)