Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/10/28/last-minute-halloween-costume-idea-for-geeks/
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Monday, October 31, 2011
Last Minute Halloween Costume Idea for Geeks
Monday is Halloween, but all the parties are probably being held tonight or this weekend. If you still haven’t figured out what to dress up as, I have a great idea that might help and I bet it that you already have all the required costume components. Dress up like Steve Jobs This one is [...]
Madoff wife, son say knew nothing of scheme - CBS (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The wife and son of financial swindler Bernard Madoff said in their first interview to be broadcast on Sunday that they knew nothing of his estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme, but feel shame for his "unforgiveable" crime.
Madoff, 73, is serving a 150-year prison sentence after confessing to running a decades-long scheme that bilked investors out of billions, considered the biggest financial fraud in history.
Defrauded Madoff investors have long viewed the convicted swindler's sons, wife and other family member suspiciously, arguing it is impossible that they did not know about his lies. No family members have been criminally charged.
Madoff's younger son Andrew told the CBS program "60 Minutes" that the family was shocked when his sobbing father confessed his crime to them in December 2008. He said his mother Ruth's first question was "What's a Ponzi scheme?"
"She didn't even understand that. I think it was me who answered and said that "It means that it's all fake,'" Andrew Madoff said. "(Bernard Madoff) followed that up and said 'Yes, I've been lying to all of you - all of these years. I've been lying to everybody. I've been lying to myself.'"
Mark and Andrew Madoff -- who worked at their father's firm -- turned him into authorities and he was arrested on Dec. 11, 2008.
Madoff has insisted he acted alone in running the Ponzi scheme, a fraud in which early investors are paid with money from new ones. Such schemes often collapse when there are too few new investors or too many investors try to cash out at once.
Since he pleaded guilty in March 2009, seven other people have been arrested in the case, including several of his long-time employees and an outside accountant.
Mark Madoff, 46, hanged himself in his New York apartment last year on the second anniversary of his father's Dec. 11 arrest. Ruth Madoff said that the couple had also tried to kill themselves by taking pills on Christmas Eve in 2008.
"I can't explain it, I mean I trusted him," Ruth Madoff said when asked how she could not have known of her husband's crime. "Why would it ever occur to me that it wasn't legal?"
"There was nothing that would ever make me suspect anything," she said.
"UNFORGIVEABLE"
Andrew Madoff said his father's investment advisory business, the Ponzi scheme, was "a completely separate business" to the trading business where he and his brother worked.
"We were executing hundreds of thousands of transactions a day. And that kept all of us incredibly busy. And it just -- it just didn't occur to me that he could be involved in any kind of criminal activity," he said.
Andrew Madoff said one of the hardest things for him to come to terms with was the feeling that he and his brother were used by his father, who shielded his Ponzi scheme with their legitimate trading business.
"It's unforgiveable," he said. "No father should do that to their sons."
Ruth Madoff and her sons barely spoke in the two years after his father's arrest because, Andrew Madoff said, he and his brother could not understand her decision to stay by their father's side.
"I never though of leaving," Ruth Madoff said. "I didn't know what else to do but stay there."
"I think he got stuck, that's what he said. And he didn't have the courage to face things when they might have been able to be faced on a much smaller scale," she said.
After her son Mark committed suicide, she cut off contact with her husband and now lives in a three-room apartment in South Florida.
When asked why she hadn't filed for divorce, Ruth Madoff said: "It doesn't matter to me -- he's going to die in prison."
The Madoff scandal shook investors around the world and sparked criticism of market regulators for failing to catch him despite warnings and tips over many years. A court-appointed trustee is now trying to recover the money for investors defrauded by Madoff.
"What he did to me, to my brother, and to my family is unforgiveable," Andrew Madoff said. "What he did to thousands of other people, destroyed their lives -- I'll never understand it. And I'll never forgive him for it."
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
AP Exclusive: Bosnia raids after US embassy attack
An unidentified gunman stands with an automatic weapon in the center of the street in front of the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. The man shot several rounds at pedestrians and injured at least one police officer guarding the embassy before police surrounded him. After a 30-minute standoff, the sound of a single shot echoed and the shooter slumped to the ground. Police arrested the wounded man and took him away in an ambulance. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)
An unidentified gunman stands with an automatic weapon in the center of the street in front of the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. The man shot several rounds at pedestrians and injured at least one police officer guarding the embassy before police surrounded him. After a 30-minute standoff, the sound of a single shot echoed and the shooter slumped to the ground. Police arrested the wounded man and took him away in an ambulance. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)
An unidentified gunman stands in the center of the street in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 at a street in front of the U.S. embassy. An unidentified man shot several rounds at pedestrians in downtown Sarajevo on Friday and injured at least one officer before police special forces took him down. For at least 30 minutes the man stood at a street in front of the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo and shot around from an automatic rifle. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)
GORNJA MAOCA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) ? Special police units raided homes Saturday in a Bosnian village linked to the gunman who fired an automatic weapon at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in what authorities called a terrorist attack. The raids came as 17 suspected associates of the shooter, all said to be members of the ultraconservative Wahhabi Muslim sect, were briefly detained in Serbia.
A convoy of police vehicles entered the isolated northern village of Gornja Maoca, known to be inhabited by many Wahhabis, and officers wearing black masks and camouflage uniforms surrounded several houses, according to an Associated Press video. The reporter saw the security forces enter some homes before officers asked him to leave.
The gunman, identified by police as 23-year-old Mevlid Jasarevic, is accused of shooting at the embassy building in Sarajevo for at least 30 minutes Friday, wounding a policeman guarding the facility, before a police sniper immobilized him with a shot in his leg.
An amateur video obtained by the AP shows what appears to be Jasarevic roaming a deserted intersection, waving his gun and occasionally turning toward the embassy building, shooting at the fence and facade. Another video caught him dropping on the ground after the sniper shot him.
Jasarevic is believed to be a follower of the Wahhabi sect, and police said he visited Gornja Maoca several times this and last year. Both the gunman and the police officer were hospitalized and their wounds weren't considered to be life-threatening, authorities said.
Bosnian and Serbian police have coordinated the response to the embassy attack, and the raids in Bosnia on Saturday were part of a joint operation. The village appeared blocked with police setting up checkpoints, stopping cars and searching them.
Police were searching several locations in Bosnia and questioning people, State Prosecutor Dubravko Campara said.
"We are cooperating with colleagues in Serbia, working with them and the U.S. Embassy," he said.
In Serbia, police said in a statement that as part of the detentions of suspects, some 18 houses were searched and computers and mobile phones confiscated. The 17 people held were later released after questioning, police said.
Wahhabism is a very conservative branch of Islam that is rooted in Saudi Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Police raided Gornja Maoca in February 2010 because its residents were accused of posing a security threat in Bosnia by promoting racial and religious hatred and illegally possessing weapons.
Many Bosnian Muslims are extremely protective of their relations with the U.S. because it was the driving force behind NATO military intervention against the Serbs during the 1992-95 war and brokered a peace agreement that ended the conflict.
Furious callers on live radio shows suggested the Wahhabi movement should be banned and its members expelled.
"Here I am searching the newspapers every morning looking for news about foreign investments so this place can move forward and then an idiot like this comes and destroys everything. It will take years for us to wash this," cab driver Ismet Besic said.
"It looks as if he was just waiting for cameras to show up, to be seen all over the world," Nermin Muftic, 38, said watching videos of the shooter on YouTube on his mobile phone with his friends during morning coffee.
"He just wanted to pull this show and hurt Bosnia. Who knows what people in the world think of us now," he said.
Islamist extremists joined Bosnia's 1992-95 war for independence. They were largely tolerated by the U.S. and the West because of their opposition to late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's quest to create "Greater Serbia" out of the former Yugoslav republics.
Bosnian intelligence officials have said last year that at least 3,000 Wahhabis live in Bosnia.
Bakir Izetbegovic, one of Bosnia's three presidents, issued a statement Friday condemning "the terrorist attack on the embassy of the United States."
"The United States is a proven friend of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its government and its people supported us in the most difficult moments in our history and nobody has the right to jeopardize our relations," he said.
U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia Patrick Moon told reporters "this is a regrettable incident," and that his country has full confidence in Bosnian police and judicial authorities. He pledged "full cooperation" in the investigation, adding that an FBI team will arrive in Bosnia to assess the damage to the embassy.
___
Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade contributed to this report.
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Rangers' Lowe wanted Game 6 in his hands
By DAVE SKRETTA
updated 3:49 a.m. ET Oct. 28, 2011
ST. LOUIS - Mark Lowe wanted the ball in his hand Thursday night.
The Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals had already waged a thriller for the ages, and they were still tied at the start of the 11th inning. Lowe came into the game to face David Freese, who earlier had driven in the tying runs to send the game to extra innings.
"If you don't want to be in that situation I was in as a pitcher," Lowe said, "you're in the wrong business. This is what I've worked for my whole career and I was where I wanted to be."
Too bad his pitch wasn't.
Lowe's change-up drifted over the plate and Freese tattooed it to center field, the winning homer sending the record crowd of 47,325 at Busch Stadium into a delirious frenzy. The homer gave St. Louis a dramatic 10-9 victory and forced the first Game 7 in the World Series since 2002.
"Just worked the count, and I was worried about getting on base, leding off an inning, taking a walk, breaking a bat, single, whatever," Freese said. "Full count came, and I knew he had a good change-up. So I kind of had that in the back of my head. But sitting here, he threw a change up, he shook to the change up and I got the head out."
The rest will go down in baseball lore.
"I didn't have the results I wanted," Lowe said, "but tomorrow's a new day and I could get in there and get a big out and nobody remembers this game. That's baseball."
Lowe hurt his hamstring doing aerobic exercises in late September, and he wasn't on the roster for the first two rounds of the playoffs. He was finally added just before the World Series opener last Wednesday, and his allowed one run on two hits in an inning of work during Game 3 in Texas.
That was his first appearance since Sept. 20 against Oakland.
He hopes to get another chance in Game 7 on Friday night.
"We've been coming back all year long," Lowe said. "It's not our first walk-off loss. We'll come in here ready to go."
___
BLACK AND BLUE: Two of the biggest hitters in the World Series are in wait-and-see mode for Game 7 after picking up injuries Thursday night.
Texas slugger Nelson Cruz strained his groin late in the Cardinals' dramatic, come-from-behind 10-9 victory, while St. Louis could be without outfielder Matt Holliday, who hurt the small finger on his right hand while sliding into third base in the sixth inning.
Cruz followed a homer by Adrian Beltre with one of his own in the seventh inning, but he flied out to right leading off the 11th. Cruz could be seen limping down the dugout steps, and Esteban German replaced him in the outfield in the bottom half.
"Cruz sort of hurt his groin a little bit, and I didn't want to take the chance and run him back out there," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "I haven't had anything from the medical department as to the seriousness of it, but we'll just have to wait and see how everything is tomorrow."
Washington said that catcher Mike Napoli, who drove in his 10th run of the World Series earlier in Game 6, was OK after an awkward slide at second base. X-rays on his left ankle were negative.
"Napoli is fine," Washington said.
That doesn't appear to be the case with Holliday, who has been banged up a lot this season.
Holliday wandered too far off third base in the sixth inning. Napoli leaped from his crouch and fired a throw down the line, and Beltre slapped the tag on while guarding the base with his foot. Holliday's right hand bent at an awkward angle, and he was called out on the play.
Holliday said after that game he'll be ready Friday ? "I should be able to play," he said ? but manager Tony La Russa offered a more cautious assessment.
"We thought at first he had fractured it, but I was told by the trainer later that it's not a fracture," La Russa said. "I think it's swelling and he's got a pretty good bruise there. So it may be we need to replace him tomorrow."
___
SECOND FIDDLE: No matter how the World Series winds up, the Texas Rangers realize they won't be No. 1 back home. And that's all right.
"That's such a high standard, the Cowboys, in our marketplace," general manager Jon Daniels said. "But I don't really look at it as competition with them.
"I think that our fans are good enough and into the sports scene, especially the championship-caliber teams, that there's enough room for all of us," he added.
There's also the Mavericks to contend with.
Daniels notes attendance has picked up dramatically, with the Rangers drawing just under 3 million this season, "and it was the hottest summer on record."
"I know me being a pampered New Yorker, I had trouble handling it, and you would have, too," Daniels said. "And these guys are 40,000 strong in 106 degrees at 7:05 at night."
___
HALL OF FAME COIN: The House of Representatives voted this week to authorize the U.S. Mint to produce a series of coins honoring the 75th anniversary of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The bill, introduced in July by Reps. Richard Hanna of New York, Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and Joe Barton of Texas, passed by a vote of 416-3. It was co-sponsored by 295 members of Congress.
"The National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act unites every fan of the game in celebrating the timelessness of America's pastime," Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said.
"The Coin Act will connect every generation in commemorating the impact Cooperstown has had on the national landscape," Idelson said, "honoring our baseball heroes while educating future generations on the historical significance of the game and its lore."
___
AP Sports Writer R.B. Fallstrom contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsHow do you bounce back from this?
HBT: Sure, the Rangers are devastated after a dramatic Game 6 loss. But their ability to bounce back for tonight's Game 7 will have more to do with available players and execution than emotion.
HBT: Eventually, Game 6 was a thing of beauty
HBT: The final three innings of Game 6 were as exciting as can be. The first eight, well, they were rather iffy. But here we are, after a 10-9 Cardinals victory over the Rangers, a Game 7 left to decide who will be crowned champion.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45069462/ns/sports-baseball/
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Gunman attacks U.S. Embassy in Bosnia (San Jose Mercury News)
Obama cites income gap to push stalled jobs bill
President Barack Obama answers a reporter's question about the European debt deal as he meets with Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, not shown, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama answers a reporter's question about the European debt deal as he meets with Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, not shown, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
A Whirlpool logo is seen on a Whirlpool appliance on the Singers showroom floor Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011 in Philadelphia. Appliance maker Whirlpool Corp. says it will cut 5,000 jobs in an effort as it faces soft demand and higher costs for materials. The jobs to be cut are mostly in North America and Europe. They include 1,200 salaried positions and the closing of the company's Fort Smith, Ark., plant. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Florida Democratic Party State Convention Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Vice President Joe Biden said he and President Barack Obama have made progress on fixing the problems they inherited from Republicans, but the GOP is using obstructionist tactics to keep the administration from doing more for the economy and middle class. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is banking on a new report detailing the income disparity in the country as further evidence of the need for his $447 billion jobs bill.
A report this past week by the Congressional Budget Office found that average after-tax income for the top 1 percent of U.S. households had increased by 275 percent over the past three decades. Middle-income households saw just a 40 percent rise. For those at the bottom of the economic scale, the jump was 18 percent.
Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday that he would pay for his jobs plan with an added tax on people who make at least $1 million a year.
Senate Republicans have blocked action on the bill, which mixes tax breaks for businesses and public works spending, because they oppose much of the increased spending and the tax on millionaires.
"These are the same folks who have seen their incomes go up so much, and I believe this is a contribution they're willing to make," Obama said. "Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress aren't paying attention. They're not getting the message."
Obama is now trying to get Congress to pass the individual components of the bill. But Senate Republicans also stalled progress on the first of those measures, $35 billion to help local governments keep teachers on the job and pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other emergency services workers.
Saying the country cannot wait for Congress, Obama has begun bypassing Congress and taking steps on his own that he says will encourage economic growth.
On Friday, Obama directed government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace. The goal is to help startup companies and small businesses create jobs and expand their operations more quickly.
The president also called for creating a centralized online site for companies to easily find information about federal services. He previously had announced help for people who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth and for the repayment of student loans. The White House also challenged community health centers to hire veterans.
"We can no longer wait for Congress to do its job," Obama said. "So where Congress won't act, I will."
The congressional report, based on Internal Revenue Service and Census Bureau data, was released as the Occupy Wall Street movement spreading across the country protests bailouts for corporations and the income gap.
In the weekly GOP message, Illinois Rep. Bobby Schilling urged Obama to support bills that Republicans say would help create jobs by blocking various energy and environmental regulations and streamlining administrative procedures. The bills, passed by the Republican-controlled House, await action in the Democratic-run Senate.
Shilling said the bills give the White House and Congress an opportunity to build on the common ground created by the passage of recent free-trade agreements, and a measure to void a law requiring federal, state and many local governments to withhold 3 percent of their payments to contractors until their taxes are paid. Obama included repealing that tax in his jobs plan.
"Republicans have a jobs plan, one with some bipartisan support, but it's stuck in the Senate," said Schilling, owner of a pizza parlor in Moline, Ill. "We're asking President Obama to work with us and call on the Senate to pass the 'forgotten 15' to help the private sector create jobs, American jobs desperately needed."
___
Online:
Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov
GOP address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference
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Americans spending more with income almost flat
FILE - In this file photo taken Sept, 29, 2011, Elsy Santiago, left, and her sister Betsy shop at a store in Hialeah, Fla. Consumers boosted their spending in September at three times the pace of the previous month but their incomes barely budged. They financed the gains from savings, sending the savings rate to the lowest level since the start of the Great Recession. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
FILE - In this file photo taken Sept, 29, 2011, Elsy Santiago, left, and her sister Betsy shop at a store in Hialeah, Fla. Consumers boosted their spending in September at three times the pace of the previous month but their incomes barely budged. They financed the gains from savings, sending the savings rate to the lowest level since the start of the Great Recession. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2011 file photo, unidentified shoppers unload their shopping cart at a Pembroke Pines, Fla., Costco store. Consumers boosted their spending in September at three times the pace of the previous month but their incomes barely budged. They financed the gains from savings, sending the savings rate to the lowest level since the start of the Great Recession. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans are making a little more money and spending a lot more.
Under normal circumstances, that would be a troubling sign for the economy. But a closer look at some new government figures suggests another possibility: People are saving less money because they're earning next to nothing in interest.
Saving is already difficult because of more expensive gas and food. It's even tougher because of the lower returns ? the flip side of super-low interest rates that the Federal Reserve has kept in place since 2008 to help the economy.
Critics say the Fed is punishing those who play by the rules ? those careful enough to set aside money for savings or people who built up a nest egg and are living on fixed incomes that depend on interest.
Americans spent 0.6 percent more in September, three times the increase from the previous month, the government said Friday. Spending was especially strong on durable goods ? things like cars, appliances and electronics.
At the same time, what they earned was mostly flat. Pay increased 0.3 percent, and overall income just 0.1 percent. After deducting taxes and adjusting for inflation, income fell for a third straight month.
So to make up the difference, many have cut back on savings. The savings rate fell to its lowest level since December 2007, the first month of the recession ? and right about the time the Fed started its dramatic series of interest-rate cuts.
Considering how little you can get for parking your money at a bank, it hasn't been a tough choice.
"Consumers have hit a level of saturation in their savings," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with market research firm The NPD Group. "The propensity is to spend."
The annual yield on six-month certificates of deposit was unchanged this week at 0.23 percent, according to Bankrate.com. Five years ago, it was 3.62 percent. If you put your money in the six-month CD today, you'd make about enough to buy a burger.
Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said the trend could mean more spending by Americans. But it will take robust personal spending ? along with improvement in the depressed housing market ? to get the economy going again.
Ashworth said his firm is not too concerned with the decline in savings because it partly represents "a sharp decline in debt servicing costs." In other words, low interest rates mean it's cheaper to borrow money.
The Fed began cutting interest rates four years ago at the start of the financial crisis. The rate cuts took the federal funds rate, the key for short-term interest rates, from 5.25 percent down to near zero, where they have stayed since December 2008.
The central bank has said it will keep rates super-low into 2013 as long as the economy stays weak. While that means low returns for savers, it is designed to encourage people and businesses to borrow more.
Many borrowers tend to be young families who are spending most of their income anyway. The loss in interest income tends to hit older households, which are saving for retirement and counting more on bonds and other fixed-income securities.
Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity. A sharp rise in spending over the summer helped the overall economy grow in July, August and September at the fastest pace in a year.
Still, the economy would have to grow twice as fast to put a dent in the unemployment rate, which has stayed near 9 percent since the recession officially ended more than two years ago.
At the same time savings accounts and other fixed-income investments are paying less, the cost of food and gas has gone up.
Elizabeth Smith, who works in teacher education at the University of Arkansas, has cut her monthly contribution to her retirement savings in half to meet necessities.
"Every time I go to the store, butter, cheese and milk are more expensive," she said. Child care costs for her two children have also risen this year.
On the other hand, Smith has benefited from lower interest rates. She and her husband refinanced the mortgage on her home a year ago, which lowered their monthly payments by $200, freeing up more cash.
The Fed's policies are "designed to reward spending and effectively punish savers," said Eric Green, chief U.S. economist at TD Securities.
___
AP Business Writers Anne D'Innocenzio in New York and David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
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Mortgage rates for the past 52 weeks, at a glance (AP)
By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Thu?Oct?27, 12:51?pm?ET | The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was nearly unchanged for a second straight week after rising from a record low, Freddie Mac said Thursday. Three weeks ago, the average rate fell below 4 percent for the first time in history. Here's a look at rates for fixed and adjustable mortgages over the past 52 weeks. |
| Current week's average Last week's average 52-week high 52-week low |
| 30-year fixed 4.10 4.11 5.05 3.94 |
| 15-year fixed 3.38 3.38 4.29 3.26 |
| 5-year adjustable 3.08 3.01 3.92 2.96 |
| 1-year adjustable 2.90 2.94 3.40 2.81 |
| All values are in percentage points. |
| Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. |
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Copyright ? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Feds make slow progress on flood levee inventory
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? More than six years after Hurricane Katrina's rampage, authorities have taken only halting steps toward identifying weaknesses in a nationwide patchwork of levees intended to protect millions of Americans' lives and property during potentially catastrophic floods.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, accused of building substandard levees and floodwalls that failed when Katrina swamped the Gulf Coast in 2005, has spent $56 million since then developing the initial phase of a national levee inventory as required by Congress. The Corps on Thursday was releasing a database with information about nearly 14,000 miles of levees under its jurisdiction.
But the inventory doesn't include what is believed to be more than 100,000 additional miles of levees not covered by the Corps' safety program. Some are little more than mounds of earth piled up more than a century ago to protect farm fields. Others extend for miles and are made of concrete and steel, with sophisticated pump and drainage systems. They shield homes, businesses and infrastructure such as highways and power plants.
The National Committee on Levee Safety, established after the Katrina disaster to evaluate the system and recommend improvements, issued a report in 2009 calling for the Corps to catalog and inspect every levee so deficiencies could be fixed. But Corps officials say Congress has not provided enough authority or money to add non-federal levees to the database, a massive undertaking that would take years.
"The reality is, we don't know how many levees are out there," said Eric Halpin, the Army Corps' special assistant for dam and levee safety and vice chairman of the levee safety committee. He acknowledged the inventory presently includes only about 10 percent of the likely total.
"I think we've done a great job putting forward a state-of-the-art tool," Halpin said. "It's a first step. It will be much more powerful once we can get all the data in there."
For each levee system, the database will include its location, design and rating following one or more safety inspections.
Inspection ratings from nearly 700 of the roughly 2,000 levee systems under the Corps' jurisdiction have been added to the database thus far, said spokesman Pete Pierce.
Of those, 77 percent had ratings of "minimally acceptable," meaning they have "minor deficiencies" that make the levees less reliable but are not expected to seriously impair their performance. An additional 11.6 percent were rated "unacceptable," or likely to fail during a flood, while 11.3 percent were graded as "acceptable," or without deficiencies.
Experts say the government is moving too slowly to complete the inventory.
"We need to be really candid with the American people," said Sam Riley Medlock, policy counsel for the Association of State Floodplain Managers and a member of the levee safety panel. "This is yet another class of infrastructure that is aging and posing risks and we're going to have to do something about it."
Gerald Galloway, a former Army Corps district engineer and University of Maryland engineering professor, told a Senate committee this month the levee network has "significant" problems and received an overall grade of "D minus" from the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2009. The group estimated that $50 billion worth of improvements was needed over five years.
"So today hundreds of levees, whose integrity is in question, are in place in front of communities and properties with little realistic hope of funding for inspection, repair or upgrade," Galloway said.
Concern about the levees dates to the 1920s and 1930s, when killer floods on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers led Congress to order construction of more levees. Many were designed for the biggest flood likely to strike a particular area within 500 years or even 1,000 years.
But starting in the late 1960s, federal policies have inadvertently encouraged the building of levees according to a less protective standard, the safety committee report said. One required financially strapped local governments to help cover levee building and maintenance costs.
Relatively low death tolls from major floods in recent decades also fed complacency that ended with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the report said. Together, they killed more than 1,800 people and caused $200 billion in damages, spurring calls for a nationwide levee inventory and upgrades.
The portion of the inventory developed thus far includes data on about 13,500 of the 14,700 miles of levees covered by the Army Corps' safety program. Data on the rest will be added by the end of the year, officials said. Many of the levees are operated and maintained by the Corps, or were built by the Corps and turned over to local officials.
John Paul Woodley Jr., who served as assistant secretary of the Army for public works during the George W. Bush administration, said the Corps has made good progress on the levee inventory but acknowledged "we're definitely behind where everybody had hoped we'd be."
___
Flesher reported from Traverse City, Mich.
Associated PressFriday, October 28, 2011
US doubts diplomacy will sway North Korea on nukes (AP)
SEOUL, South Korea ? U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed doubt Thursday that diplomacy will persuade North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons and he raised the prospect of stalemate leading to "escalation and confrontation."
After daylong meetings with South Korea's government leaders, Panetta told reporters he was concerned by North Korea's pattern of deliberately shifting from periods of modest accommodation with the West to episodes of violent aggression, perhaps with no real intention of giving up its nuclear ambitions.
Asked whether he thinks a renewed effort by the Obama administration to explore a possible new round of international negotiations with North Korea will work, Panetta was blunt.
"We're not sure where those talks are headed at this point," he said, referring to discussions held this week in Geneva by American and North Korean diplomats. The talks yielded suggestions of progress but no apparent breakthrough.
"For that reason, I guess the word `skepticism' would be in order," he said.
The Pentagon chief said he believes, nonetheless, that efforts at a diplomatic solution must go on.
"On the one hand, we have to engage," he said. "We have to try to seek the hope that ultimately they'll do the right thing and join the international family of nations. ... But I think we always have to be cautious that at the same time, they're going to continue to develop their nuclear capability."
In the same session with reporters, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, Army Gen. J.D. Thurman, indicated that he suspects the North Koreans are determined to keep up the expansion of their nuclear capabilities.
"Based on what I have observed, they show a willingness to continue to develop and test capabilities that can be associated with their nuclear program," Thurman said. "This is something we've got to remain vigilant on."
Separately, the State Department's top Asia policy official, Kurt Campbell, was in the South Korean capital on Thursday to brief officials on the Geneva talks.
North Korea's foreign ministry issued a statement saying the talks "helped deepen each other's understanding." The statement said both sides agreed to further talks on whether to resume the international discussions involving North and South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States.
Panetta said China, a longtime North Korean ally, "can do more" to push North Korea to give up its nuclear program.
"There are moments when we think that they are urging North Korea to engage, but frankly I think China can do more to try to get North Korea to do the right thing," he added.
"I know that sometimes they make that effort and sometimes North Korea doesn't pay attention."
Panetta's first visit to South Korea as defense secretary is part of a broader U.S. effort to shore up South Korea's confidence in a military alliance that has endured for six decades.
Panetta met with the South Korean defense and foreign affairs chiefs and paid a courtesy call on President Lee Myung-bak.
In parallel talks, the new chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and top officers from the U.S. Pacific Command met with top South Korean military officers for an annual review of the U.S.-South Korean military alliance.
Panetta planned to attend a second round of alliance talks Friday before flying home.
Panetta has called the North "reckless" and a "serious threat" to peace on the Korean peninsula, which exploded in war in 1950 and drew the U.S. and other nations into a three-year conflict against the North and China.
Panetta was asked by reporters what he thinks can be done to break a cycle of North Korean behavior in which it alternately makes gestures of accommodation to the West, followed by provocations.
"The cycle ultimately has to be broken," he said. "There is either going to be an accommodation where they decide to make the right decisions with regards to their future and join the international family of nations ... or, if they continue these provocations, then obviously that's going to lead to the possibility of escalation and confrontation."
Among the maneuverings that influence U.S. thinking about the security threat posed by North Korea is the process now under way in which the supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, is expected to turn over the reins of power to his son, Kim Jong Un, a newly minted four-star general believed in his late 20s. He would be the third generation leader in a family dynasty that has ruled since Kim Il Sung founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948.
U.S. officials are unsure what timeline has been set for the leadership succession. But two senior American military officers in Seoul said it appears the process has slowed, possibly because Kim Jong Il's health problems seem to have eased. The officials spoke to a group of reporters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
U.S. and South Korean officials believe Kim Jong Il had a stroke in August 2008 that kept him out of the public eye for months.
The officials, who are privy to the latest intelligence assessments, said North Korea's recently more accommodating approach to the U.S. is judged to be only a tactical maneuver likely to be followed next year by demands for concessions. That would follow a decades-long pattern in which unmet concessions lead to a period of provocations from North Korea, such as the 2006 nuclear test that came just months after the North cut off nuclear disarmament talks.
The U.S. officials declined to say whether they believe the North can be persuaded to give up its nuclear weapons, but their analysis of the North's basic approach to the West strongly suggested that they do not expect it to change course.
___
Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
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Flat tax makes a comeback among GOP hopefuls, renewing dispute over 'trickle-down economics' (Star Tribune)
Stephen J. Cannell's "Wiseguy" gets NBC reboot (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Reboots have had a pretty spotty track record on TV of late, but NBC is apparently hoping that a chestnut from the Stephen J. Cannell catalog can reverse that trend.
The network has ordered a revamp of the Cannell series "Wiseguy," purchasing a script commitment with penalty, an individual with knowledge of the deal confirmed to TheWrap.
The project will be scripted by Alex Cary, who most recently has served as a writer and co-executive producer on Showtime's "Homeland."
The original series, which ran on CBS from 1987 to 1990, starred Ken Wahl as Organized Crime Bureau undercover agent Vincent Michael "Vinnie" Terranova, who serves an 18-month prison stint in order to establish his "Wiseguy" credentials. Through his criminal connections, he infiltrates criminal organizations in an effort to destroy them from within.
News of the "Wiseguy" reboot was first reported by Deadline.
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/tv_nm/us_wiseguy
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Republicans seek $2.2 trillion in deficit cuts (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republicans in Congress are calling for $2.2 trillion in deficit-reduction, including significant cuts to healthcare programs for the elderly and poor along with tax changes that they argue would boost the economy, congressional aides said on Thursday.
The plan offered by Republicans who serve on a congressional "super committee" tasked with slashing deficits calls for cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the poor and elderly and other health and welfare programs.
The panel of six Republicans and six Democrats have been negotiating behind closed doors, but the details of the Republican plan that have emerged show the two sides far apart over the issue of tax increases to reduce the deficit.
Aides said the Republican plan claims hundreds of billions of dollars in savings by lowering corporate and individual tax rates. They say that would increase economic activity and bring in more revenue. Democrats have argued that position is a non-starter for them.
In contrast to a Democratic plan that has an almost even balance between spending cuts and tax increases, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said the focus of deficit reduction efforts should be almost exclusively on cutting benefit programs.
He rejected the idea of additional defense spending cuts.
"When you look at what is yet to be done by the super committee, almost all of that is going to fall in the area, I think, of mandatory spending, which is more than two thirds of the budget. It is time for us to do our work there," Boehner told reporters.
PLAN DRAWS FIRE
Mandatory programs range from Medicare and Medicaid to the Social Security retirement plan and food stamp program for the poor. It also includes federal workers' pension plans.
Congressional aides, who asked not to be identified, said the Republican proposal has $785 billion in mandatory spending cuts, including $500 billion for Medicare, $185 billion for Medicaid and $100 billion for other health programs.
The Medicare cuts include premium increases for beneficiaries, according to a congressional aide.
There are an additional $400 billion in spending cuts for other mandatory spending programs that include government retirement programs and food stamps, according to other aides.
The proposal also includes a controversial plan to change the way annual benefit increases are calculated for Social Security and other government programs to reflect a lower rate of inflation than the current formula.
The Republican plan calls for tax changes, but would dedicate any revenues generated by closing tax loopholes and other breaks to reducing overall income tax rates, the aides said.
The Republican plan immediately drew fire from Democrats. They complained it was designed more to please Grover Norquist, who heads the conservative Americans Tax Reform, which opposes tax increases to reduce the deficit.
"Their offer is a joke," said a Democratic aide who declined to be identified.
The Republican offer came after Democrats on the panel proposed on Tuesday about $3 trillion in savings over 10 years through an equal mix of spending cuts, which also include cuts for Medicare and Medicaid.
The super committee has been asked to develop a plan for at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts over 10 years. If it fails to reach a deal an equivalent amount in automatic spending cuts would be triggered.
Boehner said he wanted to avoid the automatic spending cuts, which would fall heavily on the defense sector, traditionally favored by Republicans.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Paul Simao)
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First Solar surprises with solid 3Q earnings (AP)
TEMPE, Ariz. ? First Solar has surprised the market by releasing third-quarter earnings a week early, just one day after the company's stock plunged 24 percent on the sudden departure of its CEO.
The company said Wednesday that net income rose to $196.5 million, or $2.25 per share, from $176.9 million, or $2.04 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 26 percent.
First Solar Inc. would only say Tuesday that CEO Rob Gillette was no longer serving the company, but broadened its reasons Wednesday.
Founder and now acting CEO Mike Ahearn said the board believes the solar company "needed a leadership change to navigate through the industry turmoil."
Solar companies are threatened by overseas competition and falling prices. Several have failed.
Shares jumped 12 percent, or $5.09, to $48.36 when the market opened.
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'Screen-top' iPad keyboard takes typing old-school
TouchFire
By John Cook, GeekWire
The iPad is great for many things ? watching movies, reading magazines or playing games. But when it comes to typing, the onscreen keyboard leaves something to be desired.
Engineers?Steven Isaac?and?Brad Melmon?are looking to solve that problem withTouchFire, a lightweight, silicone rubber keypad that overlays the iPad?s touchscreen. The idea is to provide typists with the same tactile feel of typing on a laptop or desktop computer ? letting them simply enter text without the need to look directly at the screen.
The TouchFire device is slated to ship in December, Isaac said. It?s?currently available for preorder via the KickStarter?funding site, for a pledge of $45 or more to the company. The Seattle-area startup is looking to raise $10,000 through KickStarter.
Isaac has been tinkering with tablet computers since the early days. He was one of the first employees at?GO Corp., an early entrant in the tablet market that crashed in the mid-1990s. He also worked on Microsoft?s Windows CE mobile operating system.
When the iPad came out, Isaac said he was amazed with nearly every aspect of the device, except for the keypad.
"Typing on the iPad was certainly much better than anything that had come before, but it still wasn?t great," Isaac tells GeekWire. "But I wanted typing to be great, so I could use my iPad for everything. So I started thinking about a way to add the missing tactile features needed to have a true high performance typing experience on the iPad."
He started prototyping concepts, which he said proved challenging because he's "basically a software guy." After the initial concepts penciled out, Isaac partnered with Melmon to come up with a patent-pending design.
"We needed to provide the right sort of force resistance for typing to feel really good, and at the same time make the device be thin, lightweight and flexible enough to basically disappear in the cover when not in use," Isaac explained. "Brad had an amazing conceptual breakthrough that allowed us to meet all of these requirements, and TouchFire is the result."
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Arab delegation says Syria eager to end crisis
FILE - In this Friday, July 8, 2011 file photo, a pro-Syrian President Bashar Assad protester, hold Assad's portrait and wave their country flag as they protest against the visit of the US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford to the Syrian city of Hama, in front the US embassy in Damascus, Syria. The U.S. has pulled its ambassador out of Syria over security concerns, blaming President Bashar Assad's government for the threats. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday Oct. 24, 2011 that Ambassador Robert Ford returned to Washington this weekend after "credible threats against his personal safety."(AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman, File)
FILE - In this Friday, July 8, 2011 file photo, a pro-Syrian President Bashar Assad protester, hold Assad's portrait and wave their country flag as they protest against the visit of the US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford to the Syrian city of Hama, in front the US embassy in Damascus, Syria. The U.S. has pulled its ambassador out of Syria over security concerns, blaming President Bashar Assad's government for the threats. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday Oct. 24, 2011 that Ambassador Robert Ford returned to Washington this weekend after "credible threats against his personal safety."(AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman, File)
FILE - This Oct. 21, 2005 file photo shows Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha responding to a U.N. report at the Syrian Embassy in Washington. In an immediate response to the Obama administration pulling its ambassador out of Syria over security concerns, Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha promptly left the U.S. on Monday, Oct. 24, 2011, said Roua Shurbaji, a Syrian Embassy spokeswoman. She said no other steps were being taken by the embassy and declined to comment on U.S. allegations. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, file)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Arab officials held a "frank and friendly" meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad Wednesday, the head of the delegation said at the beginning of a regional effort to resolve a bloody 7-month revolt, the most serious challenge yet to the four decade Assad dynasty.
The Arab committee is trying to start talks between Assad's government and its opponents, but protest leaders reject any dialogue with the regime while it continues its brutal crackdown, which the U.N. says has killed more than 3,000 people since March.
Activists said at least 15 civilians were killed Wednesday in military operations across the country, 12 of them in the flashpoint central city of Homs.
The meeting between the Arab ministerial committee and Assad came hours after tens of thousands of Syrians packed a main square in the Damascus, chanting, "the people want Bashar Assad." Assad succeeded his father, and together the family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani was quoted as saying that the Arab delegation felt that the Syrian government is eager to work with the Arab committee "in order to reach a solution."
Sheik Hamad told reporters that the Arab committee and the Syrian government will hold another meeting on Sunday either in Syria or in Qatar.
"What is important for us is that there are no victims from any side in Syria," Sheik Hamad told reporters. "The fighting should stop and the dialogue should begin between the Syrian brothers so that, God willing, they agree on points that fulfill people demands."
Syria has rejected previous Arab initiatives, and it was not clear if this would be different, or if the regime was trying to gain time to try to crush the uprising.
The Arab officials' visit follows a meeting in Cairo last week by the 22-nation Arab League, which gave Syria until the end of the month to end military operations, release detainees arrested in the crackdown, and start a dialogue with the opposition.
Human Rights Watch quoted Syrian activists as saying at least 186 protesters and residents have been killed in Syria since the Cairo meeting.
The activists said towns and villages in southern and central Syria, as well as some areas in the north and east, closed their businesses in compliance with an opposition call for a general strike.
Amateur videos showed shops closed in different parts of the country as well as counter-demonstrations to the one held in Damascus. One of the largest took place in the village of Halfaya in the central province of Hama.
A giant banner raised on an electricity pole there read: "To the Arab League. How do you want us to have a dialogue with the killer of children and women when all laws say that the killer should not be negotiated with, but put on trial?"
The Syrian government has staunchly defended its crackdown on protesters, saying it is the target of a foreign conspiracy.
Bassma Kodmani, spokeswoman for the broad-based opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said it is "impossible" to talk about a dialogue within the current security crackdown.
"And even if the right conditions for dialogue prevail, the only thing to discuss would be a roadmap for the peaceful transfer of power," she told The Associated Press.
"Russia gives Bashar international protection, Iran gives him weapons, and Arabs give him time," read a banner carried by protesters in northern Syria Tuesday evening. "No dialogue with the killer of children," read another.
Human Rights Watch called on the Arab ministers to demand that the government allow independent, civilian monitors into Syria to observe the behavior of security forces.
In a pro-government rally timed to coincide with the Arab ministers' visit, tens of thousands of Syrians carrying white, red and black flags and posters of Assad gathered at Damascus' Omayyad square .
The opposition says authorities regularly stage such rallies in support of the embattled leader.
Assad still has significant support among Syrians, including those who benefited financially from the regime, minority groups who fear they will be targeted if the Sunni majority takes over, and others who see no clear and safe alternative to the president. He also still has the loyalty of the bulk of the armed forces, key to his remaining in power.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other rights groups said 15 civilians were killed Wednesday in shootings by security forces nationwide, including 12 in the rebellious city of Homs. The Observatory also reported 11 soldiers were killed in Hama province when the bus they were traveling in was hit by a rocket propelled grenade.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, also said 15 people were killed Wednesday nationwide, most of them in Homs.
___
Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Cellphones are dangerous / not dangerous: Danish study tilts toward the latter
Chalk one up for the chatterboxes. In a study spanning 18 years and more than 350,000 test subjects, researchers in Denmark have found no connection between cellphone usage and brain cancer. The landmark project, carried out by Denmark's Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, was published online last week in the British Medical Journal, and is just the latest in a series of similarly optimistic studies. Of the 358,403 cellphone owners examined, only 356 were found to have a brain tumor, while 856 were diagnosed with cancer of the central nervous system -- percentages that are comparable to those seen among non-mobile users. Even among long-term cellphone owners (13 years or more), incidence rates were not significantly higher than those observed among the general population. Hazel Nunn, head of evidence and health information at Cancer Research UK, described the study as "the strongest evidence yet that using a mobile phone does not seem to increase the risk of cancers of the brain or central nervous system in adults." The study's authors, however, acknowledge some shortcomings in their work, including the exclusion of "corporate subscriptions" -- people who use their mobile devices for work, and who probably use them more heavily than the average consumer. They also recognized the need for longer-term research and for more child-specific studies. You can check out the article in full, at the coverage link below.Cellphones are dangerous / not dangerous: Danish study tilts toward the latter originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 06:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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