Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Texas town relying on tanker trucks for water

Mike Stone of Lower Colorado River Authority prepares a water transfer to well on Monday Jan. 30, 2012, in Spicewood, Texas. Two tanker trucks for the first time delivered thousands of gallons of water Monday to a Texas town that came precariously close to becoming the state's first community to run out of water during a historic drought. The 8,000-gallon water delivery arrived in Spicewood after it became clear the village's wells could no longer produce enough water to meet the needs of the Lake Travis community's 1,100 residents and elementary school, said Clara Tuma, spokeswoman of the Lower Colorado River Authority. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo B. Brazziell ) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; AP MEMBERS ONLY

Mike Stone of Lower Colorado River Authority prepares a water transfer to well on Monday Jan. 30, 2012, in Spicewood, Texas. Two tanker trucks for the first time delivered thousands of gallons of water Monday to a Texas town that came precariously close to becoming the state's first community to run out of water during a historic drought. The 8,000-gallon water delivery arrived in Spicewood after it became clear the village's wells could no longer produce enough water to meet the needs of the Lake Travis community's 1,100 residents and elementary school, said Clara Tuma, spokeswoman of the Lower Colorado River Authority. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo B. Brazziell ) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; AP MEMBERS ONLY

Mike Stone of Lower Colorado River Authority prepares a water transfer to well on Monday Jan. 30, 2012, in Spicewood, Texas. Two tanker trucks for the first time delivered thousands of gallons of water Monday to a Texas town that came precariously close to becoming the state's first community to run out of water during a historic drought. The 8,000-gallon water delivery arrived in Spicewood after it became clear the village's wells could no longer produce enough water to meet the needs of the Lake Travis community's 1,100 residents and elementary school, said Clara Tuma, spokeswoman of the Lower Colorado River Authority. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo B. Brazziell ) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; AP MEMBERS ONLY

SPICEWOOD, Texas (AP) ? Tanker trucks loaded with water have become the lifeline for a Texas lakefront village that came precariously close to becoming the state's first community to run out of drinking water during a historic drought.

Spicewood got its first delivery of water Monday under dark clouds and rain. The 8,000-gallon water delivery arrived after it became clear the village's wells could no longer produce enough water to meet the needs of the Lake Travis community's 1,100 residents and elementary school, said Clara Tuma, spokeswoman of the Lower Colorado River Authority.

The town uses wells, not the nearby lake, for its drinking water. Ryan Rowney, manager of water operations for the authority, said it plans to truck water into the Central Texas town for several more weeks while exploring alternatives, including drilling a new well or piping water from Lake Travis. But the agency doesn't want to rush into any project, and prefers for now to pay $200 per truckload of water while ensuring the tens of thousands of dollars it will cost to find a permanent solution are well spent.

Several towns and villages in Texas have come close to running out of water during the driest year in Lone Star State history, but until now none has had to truck in water. Most found solutions to hold them over, often paying tens of thousands of dollars to avoid hauling water, a scenario that conjures up images from the early 1900s, when indoor plumbing was a novelty.

"The hauling of water is just a Band-Aid approach. It's just a short-term approach," said Joe Don Dockery, a commissioner in Burnet County that oversees the Spicewood area.

The Lower Colorado River Authority realized last week how dire the situation was, and informed Dockery on Monday. By the next day, the situation was worse ? the well had dropped an additional 1.3 feet overnight. The severest forms of water restrictions were put in place, and the authority said there would be no new hookups to the town's water supply.

Water still ran Monday through the pipes and faucets of Spicewood. But instead of being pumped from wells into the community's 129,000-gallon storage tank ? a two day's supply of water ? the already treated liquid will be hauled in from 17 miles away, treated a second time and put into the town's water system.

"If we need to haul every day, we will. This will probably go on for several more months," Rowney said.

Trucks, including at least one 6,000 gallon tanker, will make about four or five deliveries a day, Rowney said, but the town will still have to remain under the severest water restrictions.

"All you can do is take a bath, a shower, and that's really all you're allowed to do. You can flush the commode, but even that we're asking people to do judiciously," Rowney said.

Spicewood, about 35 miles from Austin, is home to many retirees who spend their weekdays in the city and drive to their lakeside homes on the weekends. Residents are now being careful, taking shorter showers, and some are even bringing their clothes to Laundromats.

Until last week, when it became clear they could run out water, the most exciting event in Spicewood was the upcoming wild game chili cook-off advertised on a roadside sign at the entrance to the small community.

"When we had water it was pretty nice here," deadpanned Riley Walker a 73-year-old state transportation employee.

Walker bought land in Spicewood in 1988 when only a handful of families lived here. He built a house and moved into town full time in 2002.

"I have faith they will haul water in. They don't really have a choice; there are a lot of people here," Walker said.

Joe Barbera, president of the local property owner's association, said residents have been "really worried about this for a long time now," but have always been conservation minded.

"You look around and you don't see any immaculate lawns," he added. "This is just normal use for a normal community."

For more than a year, nearly the entire state of Texas has been in some stage of severe or exceptional drought. Rain has been so scarce that lakes across the state turned into pools of mud. One town near Waco, Groesbeck, bought water from a rock quarry and built a seven-mile pipeline through a state park to get water. Some communities on Lake Travis moved their intake pipes into deeper water. And Houston started getting water from an alternative, farther away reservoir when Lake Houston ran too low.

Although it has started to rain more this winter, it's not enough to fill the state's arid rivers and lakes.

A few inches of rain certainly won't be enough to fill Spicewood's wells.

"We're talking about rainfall events of 20 inches plus. Huge, huge flood events to bring the lake levels up," Rowney said. "The downside of that is that everyone's praying for a flood, well floods can be bad too."

___

Plushnick-Masti contributed to this report from Houston. You can follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com//RamitMastiAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-31-Texas%20Drought-Wells%20Run%20Dry/id-7a93c7a1f64c495c9bd68ee4b17d4ae0

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Romney credits change in tactics for Florida surge

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, in Pompano Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, in Pompano Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with his wife Callista, campaign at The Villages, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lady Lake, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Audience members listen as Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, in Pompano Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Residents arrive in golf carts for a campaign event by Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, at the The Villages, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lady Lake, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

(AP) ? Mitt Romney said Monday he has overcome his South Carolina setback and returned to the Republican primary forefront by aggressively returning Newt Gingrich's fire and by presenting himself as a Washington outsider. Gingrich said Romney is "pretending he's somebody he's not."

Romney said that in the days leading up to the South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary, he was getting beaten up rhetorically by the former House speaker on a variety of fronts and says he didn't fight back very well. Now, Romney said, he has "pushed back" more effectively. He said he feels Florida's voters are responding to his charges that Gingrich benefited from his business relationship with the mortgage giant Freddie Mac at a time when the housing market in the state was taking a dive.

For his part, Gingrich argued that the former Massachusetts governor has bought "an amazing amount of ads" to leverage himself into better position for Florida's primary Tuesday, but said it won't work. "I think he's going to find this a long campaign," the former speaker said of his rival.

Gingrich said that on the big, philosophical issues, Romney "is for all practical purposes a liberal, I am a conservative."

"It's closing here in Florida," Gingrich said, "and I think the next 24 hours in going to make a big difference."

Romney said he believes he has reinvigorated his campaign through a combination of changes in his message and a change in campaign tactics. He said that Gingrich's charges that Romney is the establishment candidate aren't working.

"It's not selling here in Florida. ... He was able to get away with it in South Carolina. If there's anybody that's a Washington insider, it's Newt Gingrich."

A day before voting begins in Florida's Republican primary, Romney is running?ahead of Gingrich in polls.?Romney earned positive reviews during two debates and has put the former House speaker on the defensive over ethics and Freddie Mac.?

"It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," Gingrich is complaining.?

But instead of stepping back and refocusing on President Barack Obama ? as he?did in Iowa when it became clear that Gingrich had lost?? Romney?is ratcheting up his rhetoric and continuing his attacks until the very end. He hopes to close the Florida campaign strongly to push Gingrich as far back as possible.

Gingrich said Monday he was closing the gap between him and Romney in Florida. He said the Republican Party needed a "clear conservative" to run against Obama in the fall, and that there was very little difference between Obama and Romney when it came to their policies and politics, such as health care.

"Mitt Romney will have a very, very hard time trying to differentiate himself," Gingrich said.

?"His record is one of failed leadership," Romney had said of Gingrich at a rally in Sunday night in Pompano Beach, in South Florida. And Romney challenged Gingrich to "look in the mirror" to figure out why the former House speaker has fallen back in Florida.

"His record is one of failed leadership. We don't need someone who can speak well perhaps or can say things we agree with, but does not have the experience of being an effective leader," he said.

Aides say Romney's attacks are partially a response to increasingly angry rhetoric from Gingrich, who on Sunday called the former Massachusetts governor "somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal."?Gingrich also accused Romney of lying. "I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said.

Romney's campaign on Sunday fired back immediately, starting with the candidate and continuing?with statements from top surrogates who cast Gingrich's assault as an unfair attack on Romney's character.

"Mitt Romney is man of impeccable character," said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. "It offends me that Newt Gingrich would attack the character of Mitt Romney."

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called the attacks "over the line."

Romney's supporters particularly defended his anti-abortion credentials following Gingrich's attack. Gingrich allies are also running radio ads attacking Romney's record on the issue.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi called Romney a "champion for pro-life values" as she introduced him at the rally.?Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen offered a similar defense during an earlier rally with the Cuban American community in Hialeah.

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, who just last weekend was staggered by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state's caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.

An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, skipped campaigning to be with his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized. He planned to campaign in Missouri and Minnesota early this week.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, looked ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

Romney has three events scheduled across the state Monday. He planned events in Jacksonville and the Tampa area. Gingrich has five planned events.?

Romney appeared Monday morning on NBC's "Today" show and on Fox News Channel. Gingrich was interviewed on "CBS This Morning" and ABC's "Good Morning America."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-30-GOP-Campaign/id-984120fed30a45359fded084ace1e0af

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Mitt Romney Attacks Newt Gingrich Himself After Campaign Ad Comes Under Fire

PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Mitt Romney went after fellow Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Saturday for the former House speaker's ethics violations while in Congress, a common line of attack by the former Massachusetts governor's campaign but less frequently employed by the candidate himself.

"I'm running against Speaker Gingrich, for instance, he's a very nice fellow," Romney said, as the crowd booed. "He's an historian. But that doesn't give him the right to rewrite history."

Romney tends to go after President Barack Obama in his stump speeches, leaving the attacks on Gingrich to his campaign staff. The campaign has hammered Gingrich for his ethics violations in multiple ads and statements, including one that congratulated him, mockingly, on the 15-year anniversary of the reprimand from his colleagues.

On Saturday, the campaign released an ad, "History Lesson" that used using archived news footage of NBC's Tom Brokaw on Jan. 21, 1997 -- the day that Gingrich was found guilty of ethics violations.

NBC promptly requested that the ad be taken down, quoting Brokaw as saying he was "extremely uncomfortable" with being a part of political ads. "I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign," he said in a statement released by NBC.

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters after the Panama City event that the campaign is reviewing the letter, but believes that the footage was taken under fair use and meant to expose Gingrich's explanations of the ethics violation as "fanciful."

"We thought it would be useful to go back and look at the 'Nightly News' opened on the very day that Gingrich was reprimanded, and what they pointed out is that Speaker Gingrich came to Washington preaching a higher standard and instead was laid low by his own ethics violations," Fehrnstrom said.

"I think it's useful to remind people that Newt Gingrich went to Washington to change things and he failed. Washington changed him," he added.

During the Panama City rally, Romney took up the same message in his own words. He said that the Republicans expected good things from Gingrich after he helped the party regain a majority in the House of Representatives and wrote the Contract for America. But his ethics violations ruined that reputation, and caused him to "resign in disgrace," Romney said.

After a man yelled out that Gingrich failed, Romney stopped mid-sentence. "You're right, he failed," he said.

"We have to go back and look at history and say, he may be a great guy with a lot of great ideas, but he is not the leader that we need at a critical time," he said of Gingrich. "This will be an historic election and we need to have someone who has been a leader and succeeded at being a leader. I have and I will lead America back to strength."

As HuffPost's Jon Ward reported, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond slammed the ad in a campaign press release titled, "Another Big Lie From the Romney Campaign."

"The Romney campaign is up with another false ad attacking Speaker Gingrich. This time their false ad shows news coverage from 1997 after the House of Representatives voted to reprimand Speaker Gingrich," Hammond wrote. "What the Romney campaign is hoping the American people don?t remember is that in 1999, the IRS cleared Speaker Gingrich of the substance of the ethics committee investigation."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/28/mitt-romney-newt-gingrich-tom-brokaw-ad_n_1239210.html

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Video: Gingrich endorsed from behind bars

Friends, family say goodbye to Etta James

??Etta James was remembered at a service Saturday attended by hundreds of friends, family and fans as a woman who triumphed against all odds to break down cultural and musical barriers in a style that was unfailingly honest.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46168985#46168985

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Need for courtroom artists fade as cameras move in

This Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, photo, shows courtroom sketch artist Carol Renaud in her Chicago home studio. Artists have drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera ban. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, amd three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

This Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, photo, shows courtroom sketch artist Carol Renaud in her Chicago home studio. Artists have drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera ban. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, amd three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

This 2009 sketch of Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson by courtroom artist Carol Renaud is seen at her Chicago home on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Artists have drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera ban. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, and three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Carol Renaud)

This Dec. 7, 2011 file courtroom sketch by artist Tom Gianni shows former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, left, speaking before U.S. District Judge James Zagel at his sentencing hearing at federal court in Chicago. Sketch artists have been drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera ban. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, and three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Tom Gianni, File)

FILE - In this May 14, 2008 file photo, courtroom sketch artist Andy Austin poses at Chicago's Federal Plaza with one of her works from the corruption trial of Conrad Black. Austin has worked as a court artist for 40 years. Artists have been drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera bans. Just 14 states still have the prohibitions in place, though three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs.(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

This May 20, 2008 file courtroom sketch by artist Lou Chukman shows R&B singer R. Kelly, right, watching in court as prosecutors played the sex tape at the center of his child pornography trial in open court in Chicago. Artists have drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera bans. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, and three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Lou Chukman, File)

CHICAGO (AP) ? One marker in hand and one in his mouth, Lou Chukman glances up and down from a sketchpad to a reputed Chicago mobster across the courtroom ? drawing feverishly to capture the drama of the judge's verdict before the moment passes.

Sketch artists have been the public's eyes at high-profile trials for decades ? a remnant of an age when drawings in broadsheet papers, school books or travel chronicles were how people glimpsed the world beyond their own.

Today, their ranks are thinning swiftly as states move to lift longstanding bans on cameras in courtrooms. As of a year ago, 14 states still had them ? but at least three, including Illinois this month, have taken steps since then to end the prohibitions.

"When people say to me, 'Wow, you are a courtroom artist' ? I always say, 'One day, you can tell your grandchildren you met a Stegosaurus," Chukman, 56, explained outside court. "We're an anachronism now, like blacksmiths."

Cutbacks in news budgets and shifts in aesthetic sensibilities toward digitized graphics have all contributed to the form's decline, said Maryland-based sketch artist Art Lien.

While the erosion of the job may not be much noticed by people reading and watching the news, Lien says something significant is being lost. Video or photos can't do what sketch artists can, he said, such as compressing hours of court action onto a single drawing that crystallizes the events.

The best courtroom drawings hang in museums or sell to collectors for thousands of dollars.

"I think people should lament the passing of this art form," Lien said.

But while courtroom drawing has a long history ? artists did illustrations of the Salem witch trials in 1692 ? the artistry can sometimes be sketchy. A bald lawyer ends up with a full head of hair. A defendant has two left hands. A portly judge is drawn rail-thin.

Subjects often complain as they see the drawings during court recesses, said Chicago artist Carol Renaud.

"They'll say, 'Hey! My nose is too big.' And sometimes they're right," she conceded. "We do the drawings so fast."

Courtroom drawing doesn't attract most aspiring artists because it doesn't afford the luxury of laboring over a work for days until it's just right, said Andy Austin, who has drawn Chicago's biggest trials over 40 years, including that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

"You have to put your work on the air or in a newspaper whether you like it or not," she said.

The job also involves long stretches of tedium punctuated by bursts of action as a witness sobs or defendant faint. It can also get downright creepy.

At Gacy's trial, a client asked Austin for an image of him smiling. So, she sought to catch the eye of the man accused of killing 33 people. When she finally did, she beamed. He beamed back.

"The two of us smiled at each other like the two happiest people in the world until the sketch was finished," Austin recalled in her memoirs, titled "Rule 53," after the directive that bars cameras in U.S. courts.

There's no school specifically for courtroom artists. Many slipped or were nudged into it by circumstance.

Renaud drew fashion illustrations for Marshall Field's commercials into the '90s but lost that job when the department store starting relying on photographers. That led her to courtroom drawing.

Artists sometime get to court early and sketch the empty room. But coming in with a drawing fully finished in advance is seen as unethical.

Some artists use charcoal, water colors or pungent markers, which can leave those sitting nearby queasy. Most start with a quick pencil sketch, then fill it in. Austin draws right off the bat with her color pencils.

"If I overthink it, I get lost," she said. "I have a visceral reaction. I just hope what I feel is conveyed to my pen."

These days, Chukman and Renaud fear for their livelihoods. They make the bulk of their annual income off their court work. Working for a TV station or a newspaper can bring in about $300 a day. A trial lasting a month can mean a $6,000 paycheck. Chukman does other work on the side, including drawing caricatures as gifts.

Austin is semiretired and so she says she worries less. She also notes that federal courts ? where some of the most notorious trials take place, like the two corruption trials of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich ? seem more adamant about not allowing cameras.

Still, though Rule 53 remains in place, federal courts are experimenting with cameras in very limited cases.

"If federal courts do follow, that will be the end of us," Austin said.

Renaud holds out hope that, even if the worst happens, there will still be demand from lawyers for courtroom drawings they can hang in their offices. Lien plans to bolster his income by launching a website selling work from historic trials he covered, including of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Chukman, a courtroom artist for around 30 years, jokes that if asked for his opinion, he'd have told state-court authorities to keep the ban in place a few more years until he retires.

"I recognize my profession exists simply because of gaps in the law ? and I've been grateful for them," he said wistfully. "This line of work has been good to me."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-28-Camera%20in%20Courts-Sketch%20Artist/id-25f27af7ccf040ff81e5339a7bbe83eb

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North Korea makes using a cellphone a war crime during 100 day mourning period

North Korea
Dear Leader may have blessed his subjects with the gift of 3G in 2008, but in his death he is taking it back... at least temporarily. As part of the country's 100 days of mourning, cellphones have been banned within its borders. If you're caught pulling out a portable to make a call, send a text or get directions to the nearest statue of the departed dictator you'll be charged as a war criminal -- that means serious time in a labor camp or death. Fun! Then again, in a nation where the average income is about $1 a month and cellphone ownership is a highly restricted privilege, we can't imagine too many people have anything to worry about. Sadly, this also means there's one less way to get information out of the already hard to crack territory.

North Korea makes using a cellphone a war crime during 100 day mourning period originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, January 27, 2012

13 killed in clashes in Russia's volatile Caucasus

(AP) ? Russian officials say an Islamist warlord, seven militants, four officers and one civilian have been killed in three separate incidents in Russia's violence-plagued southern Caucasus region.

Russia's Anti-Terrorist Committee spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said the leader of Islamist separatists in the province of Ingushetia was killed in a shootout Friday in the village of Ekazhevo along with two other militants.

Also Friday, police spokesman Vyasheslav Gasanov said four Russian military officers and five militants were killed in the neighboring province of Dagestan.

In another restive Russian province, Kabardino-Balkariya, three masked militants stormed into a school and stabbed a volleyball player in the gym, police spokesman Andrey Ushakov said.

An Islamic insurgency has spread across Russia's southern Caucasus region since two separatists wars against Russia were fought in Chechnya beginning in the 1990s. The insurgents now launch regular attacks on authorities who they blame for the abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings across the region.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-27-EU-Russia-Caucasus-Violence/id-5ccc6f41feb347588ad459481cbf81b5

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The Fink?s Royal Rumble Memories: 2008-2011

The Royal Rumble has been one of WWE?s most unusual and unpredictable events. From what I would call the ?best seat in the house,? I?ve witnessed - and on many occasions introduced - a number of defining occurrences through the years. Therefore, as we celebrate the 25th edition of this long-running WWE staple on Jan. 29, WWE.com revisits some of the magical moments that took place over the past 24 Royal Rumbles - some from the Royal Rumble Matches themselves, others?from clashes that took place in?the titularly named pay-per-view?event.

?

|:CENA'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN
1/25/08 ? New York, N.Y.
For a second consecutive year, the individual who drew entry No. 30 went right into the heat of battle and emerged as the winner of the Royal Rumble Match. To add further icing to the cake, John Cena was entrant No. 30, and made a successful return to action after recovering from a severe pectoral injury that forced him to relinquish his WWE Championship only months before.

|:SANTINO'S MOMENT ... LITERALLY
1/26/09 ? Detroit, Mich.
You have the opportunity of a lifetime in front of you. Enter the Royal Rumble Match, withstand the competition, win it, then go onto WrestleMania for either a WWE or World Championship Match. On this occasion, however, the popular Santino Marella found out that achieving this lifelong dream in such a match can also turn into a record-shattering, nightmarish instant.

|:FIGHT OF THE PHOENIX
1/27/10 - Atlanta, Ga.
A unique aspect of the Royal Rumble Match is the element of a surprise entrant. More times than none, when that individual enters the event, the word bearing follows. Such was the case in Gate City, as The Glamazon Beth Phoenix became the second Diva in WWE history to enter the fray ? and in the process eliminated The Great Khali!

?

|:THE EDGE GOES TO EDGE
1/28/11 ? Boston, Mass.
A very intense, personal issue building on Friday Night SmackDown set the stage for a one-on-one encounter between Edge and Dolph Ziggler. And in one of his final pay-per-view matches, The Rated-R Superstar would successfully defend his World Heavyweight Championship against the brash, cocky Ziggler and his personal Cougar, Vickie Guerrero.

?

MORE ROYAL RUMBLE MEMORIES: 1988-1992 | 1992-1997 | 1998-2002 | 2003-2007

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2012/finkel-royal-rumble-21-24

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Listening for a Safe Neighborhood

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Demi Moore seeks treatment for exhaustion

(AP) ? A spokeswoman for Demi Moore says the actress is seeking professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health.

Publicist Carrie Gordon says the decision is due to the stresses in Moore's life, and she looks forward to getting well.

Gordon did not release any other details about the nature or location of Moore's treatment.

The past few months have been rocky for Moore. She released a statement in November announcing she had decided to end her marriage to Ashton Kutcher following news of alleged infidelity. The two were known to publicly share their affection for one another via Twitter.

Moore still has a Twitter account under the name mrskutcher but has not posted any messages since Jan. 7.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-24-People-Demi%20Moore/id-ceece60d40834e19b7fa45a351a805d6

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Romney to release taxes, Gingrich ready for Obama (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Newt Gingrich worked to capitalize Sunday on his upset victory in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary, while Mitt Romney moved quickly to cut his losses before the next contest with a promise to release his income tax returns within 48 hours.

Gingrich said in a round of television interviews that his win, both unexpected and unexpectedly large, showed he was the Republican best able to go toe to toe with President Barack Obama in the fall. "I think virtually everybody who looks at the campaign knows I represent the largest amount of change of any candidate, and I think that's why they see me as representing their interest and their concerns, not representing Wall Street or representing the politicians of Washington," he said.

Romney argued that point, but not another, agreeing in a television interview that he had made a mistake by refusing to release his tax returns before the South Carolina vote. "If it was a distraction, we want to get back to the real issues in the campaign -- leadership, character and vision for America, how to get jobs in America, and how to rein in the excessive scale of the federal government," he said.

The former Massachusetts governor, who made millions in business, said he will make his 2010 return and an estimate for 2011 available online on Tuesday.

The decision marked a concession, as if one were needed, that Romney had stumbled on his way through South Carolina, a state where he led handsomely in the polls several days before the primary.

Florida votes next, on Jan. 31, a 50-delegate contest in one of the most expensive campaign states in the country, and one that Romney can ill afford to lose.

The former governor was an easy winner in the New Hampshire primary earlier in the month. Before that, he was a close runner-up behind former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in Iowa caucuses where the vote count was so confused that he was originally announced the victor.

Despite his loss on Saturday, Romney remains the contender with the largest and best-funded organization. "Three states in now, we got 47 more to go," he said, adding he was looking forward to the rest.

For all the political momentum gained in South Carolina, Gingrich made it immediately obvious that he is short on funds. He urged supporters via Tweet Saturday night to donate money, and then announced the name of his campaign website while making a nationally televised victory speech.

With their comments, both Romney and Gingrich indicated the race was a two-way competition, likely to go into the spring if not longer.

Santorum had other ideas.

"We're going to Florida and beyond," he said. As he did in a pair of debates in South Carolina, he criticized both Gingrich ? calling him a "very high-risk candidate" ? and Romney, whom he called a moderate ill-suited to appeal to conservative voters.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the fourth contender, has already said he will skip Florida and focus on Nevada and other caucus states.

Gingrich won South Carolina despite being outspent. But in addition to the prohibitive cost of campaigning in Florida, a long-term shortage of funds can cripple efforts to compete in the fast-paced series of primaries and caucuses ahead.

Aides say the former speaker raised $9 million in the final quarter of 2011.

Romney has reported taking in $24 million over the same period.

In addition, both men are supported by outside groups that have paid for millions in television advertising. So far, though, Romney's has spent more, and to greater evident effect.

When Gingrich surged in the polls two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Restore Our Future responded with hard-hitting ads that knocked the former speaker off-stride and protected Romney's standing.

Gingrich lacked the funds to respond effectively, lashed out angrily, and sank to a poor fourth place finish. He did not begin to recover until the final days of the race in South Carolina, when he was aided by Romney's missteps, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's mid-week withdrawal and endorsement, and his own strong debate performances.

Also in the interim, Gingrich supporters said that casino magnate Sheldon Adelson had written a $5 million check to an outside group set up to help the former speaker.

Allies of Gingrich have made no secret of their hope that Adelson will help again in Florida, where the pro-Romney organization shows no signs of slowing down.

Even before the polls closed in South Carolina, Romney and a group supporting him had spent $7 million on television advertising in Florida. So far, the only other political ads to run in the state were financed by ASCME, a labor union working to weaken the standing of the former Massachusetts governor.

While a protracted battle for the nomination could benefit Obama, the signs pointed toward a particularly bruising struggle in Florida.

"I don't think that the people of this country are going to choose as the next president of the United States a person who spent 40 years in Washington as a congressman and a lobbyist," Romney said. "That is not going to be, in my opinion, be the most effective way to replace the current president who also spent his career in politics."

Said Gingrich: "I think South Carolinians were the first state to really understand how liberal Governor Romney's record was" as Massachusetts governor said Gingrich. He said his main rival lost ground "as people began to realize that he'd been pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase in a whole range of areas that despite his advertising and his pretending, it was clear that he was way to the left of South Carolinians."

With votes counted from all of South Carolina's precincts, Gingrich had 40 percent to Romney's 28 percent. Santorum won 17 percent to Paul's 13 percent.

Gingrich won at least 23 of the 25 delegates at stake. The other two have yet to be allocated.

Gingrich appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," CBS' "Face the Nation" and CNN's "State of the Union." Romney was on "Fox News Sunday," while Santorum was on ABC's "This Week" and CNN.

_____

Eds: AP reporter Jack Gillum in Washington and Shannon McCaffrey in South Carolina contributed to this story.

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

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Michael Fassbender's Penis Is Hollywood's New Obsession

With a Golden Globe nomination, a flurry of press coverage and even a mention from George Clooney during his Globe acceptance speech, it's clear: Michael Fassbender's penis is the new toast of Hollywood.

Fassbender played an emotionally distant sex addict and went full frontal nude for Steve McQueen's drama "Shame," which earned the film an NC-17 rating and, ironically, far more press than it would have gotten otherwise. The German-Irish star's performance earned him a Best Actor nod at the Golden Globes, and should also scoop him up an Oscar nomination, but his immense talent has almost been overshadowed by incessant talk about his member.

Clooney thanked him for "taking over the frontal nude responsibly that I had," during his Globes acceptance speech, adding, "Really Michael, honestly, you can play golf like this with your hands behind your back."

Clooney again made mention of his anatomical club during an actors roundtable hosted by Newsweek, calling him the "expert" in issues of on-screen erection and drawing Fassbender into talking about a difficult urination scene in "Shame."

"I did actually pee on cue. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do that," Fassbender said, drawing Clooney to ask him how many takes it took for him to get it right. (Three).

Fassbender cracked a joke about his prominent personal co-star during an appearance on "The Late Show" last week, calling himself "flaccid most of the time" and then going on to talk about the embarrassment of shooting nude.

There is also the recurring MTV segment in which Fassbender is asked to identify celebrity penises.

He's smiled throughout the public commotion, but as he told The Huffington Post while promoting "Shame," he doesn't actually think of the nudity as a big deal, and certainly not something that should have earned the film an NC-17 rating.

"Half of us have a penis and the other half have probably seen one, and so why should it be more normal to, like, chop people's heads off and shoot people?" he said. "Does that mean that that's more acceptable or closer to us as human beings?"

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/michael-fassbenders-penis-hollywoods-new-obsession_n_1224116.html

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Identity theft insurance not always worth the cost ? Maine Business ...

The phrase ?identity theft? has become one of those terms that makes one?s blood run cold. We?ve heard so many stories of financial losses, ruined credit and related horrors that we react emotionally to the subject.

That emotional response has prompted many consumers to buy insurance that kicks in if some form of identity theft strikes the insured. The question before us is, is such insurance worth the cost?

There?s no simple answer, as is usually the case in consumer matters. The quick historical view back to 2006 finds Consumer Reports said such coverage was ?typically not worth the money.? The magazine notes more than half of ID theft protection is sold by banks, and that those premiums amount to a consumer subsidy for federally required loss protection through credit card and bank account fraud. The passing of time hasn?t changed CR?s opinion that you can ? and should ? take more effective steps yourself to protect your credit and good name.

ID theft insurance typically costs $120 to $300 a year. That?s more than victims often incur through the theft and misuse of their credit card numbers, the most frequent type of ID theft. Federal law limits liability in such cases to $50 per card.

Those who sell the coverage point to the time-consuming process of restoring credit and correcting information on their credit histories. The insurers say their policies can help consumers cope with what can be a trying and frustrating process.

Most people in the insurance industry give the same advice they would when buying other types of coverage. Find out what the policy limits are; the National Association of Insurance Commissioners says most ID theft policies have policy limits of $10,000 to $15,000. If the policy covers lost wages, find out how the coverage is triggered and what limits apply. Know if there is a deductible; some policies require the holder to pay as much as $500 toward the cost of reclaiming your financial identity before the insurer pays a penny.

Before buying, check your homeowner?s insurance policy. It may include ID theft coverage, or you might be able to add coverage more affordably than buying separate coverage. If you decide to buy a separate policy, compare the coverage of several companies.

The insurance commissioners warn against becoming a victim of insurance fraud by making sure the agent and company you?re dealing with are licensed to do business in Maine. Find the Bureau of Insurance online ( http://www.maine.gov/pfr/insurance), by phone (207-624-8475 or TTY 888-577-6690) or by writing to the Bureau at 34 State House Station, Augusta ME 04333.

David Leach, principal consumer credit examiner for the Maine?s Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection, advises people to be their own advocates. Leach says it?s critical for each of us to get one free credit report from one of the reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax and Trans Union) every four months. Do this by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com and only that site. That, plus keeping a close watch on all credit card activity, will help keep identity thieves at bay.

As to separate insurance, Leach says, ?Consumers who sign up for these types of services are paying close to $250.00 a year for a service they can essentially run themselves.? He notes that most financial institutions that issue credit cards will waive all losses in cases of identity theft or fraud. Visit the bureau?s website at www.credit.maine.gov.

For a rundown on federal ID theft laws and tips to protect yourself, visit the Federal Trade Commission website, www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast CONTACT, Maine?s membership-funded, nonprofit consumer organization. Individual and business memberships are available at modest rates. For assistance with consumer-related issues, including consumer fraud and identity theft, or for information, write: Consumer Forum, P.O. Box 486, Brewer 04412, or go to necontact.wordpress.com, or email atcontacexdir@live.com.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/01/22/business/identity-theft-insurance-not-always-worth-the-cost/

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Toddlers to tweens: relearning how to play

Children's play is threatened, say experts who advise that kids ? from toddlers to tweens ? should be relearning how to play. Roughhousing and fantasy feed development.

Havely Taylor knows that her two children do not play the way she did when she was growing up.

Skip to next paragraph

When Ms. Taylor was a girl, in a leafy suburb of Birmingham, Ala., she climbed trees, played imaginary games with her friends, and transformed a hammock into a storm-tossed sea vessel. She even whittled bows and arrows from downed branches around the yard and had "wars" with friends ? something she admits she'd probably freak out about if her children did it today.

"I mean, you could put an eye out like that," she says with a laugh.

Her children ? Ava, age 12, and Henry, 8 ? have had a different experience. They live in Baltimore, where Taylor works as an art teacher. Between school, homework, violin lessons, ice-skating, theater, and play dates, there is little time for the sort of freestyle play Taylor remembers. Besides, Taylor says, they live in the city, with a postage stamp of a backyard and the ever-present threat of urban danger.

"I was kind of afraid to let them go out unsupervised in Baltimore...," she says, of how she started down this path with the kids. "I'm really a protective mom. There wasn't much playing outside."

This difference has always bothered her, she says, because she believes that play is critical for children's developing emotions, creativity, and intelligence. But when she learned that her daughter's middle school had done away with recess, and even free time after lunch, she decided to start fighting for play.

"It seemed almost cruel," she says. "Play is important for children ? it's something so obvious it's almost hard to articulate. How can you talk about childhood without talking about play? It's almost as if they are trying to get rid of childhood."

Taylor joined a group of parents pressuring the principal to let their children have a recess, citing experts such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends that all students have at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. They issued petitions and held meetings. And although the school has not yet agreed to change its curriculum, Taylor says she feels their message is getting more recognition.

She is not alone in her concerns. In recent years, child development experts, parents, and scientists have been sounding an increasingly urgent alarm about the decreasing amount of time that children ? and adults, for that matter ? spend playing. A combination of social forces, from a No Child Left Behind focus on test scores to the push for children to get ahead with programmed extracurricular activities, leaves less time for the roughhousing, fantasizing, and pretend worlds advocates say are crucial for development.

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Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gL7HViEocwc/Toddlers-to-tweens-relearning-how-to-play

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Nick Christie Updates (Theagitator)

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Poker players sue over online cheating scheme

By Mike Brunker, msnbc.com

Eight?poker players who say they were victims of a cheating scheme?on the popular Ultimate Bet website are suing a Canadian company and unnamed individuals, alleging they violated U.S. laws aimed at combatting organized crime, defrauded players and?negligently offered?crooked card games.

The lawsuit, filed last Friday in U.S. District Court in California, alleges that the defendants?? 6356095 Canada Inc., formerly known as Excapsa Software Inc., and up to 10 Jane or John Does?? violated the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations?(RICO) Act, committed fraud and exhibited negligence by enabling the theft of at least $20 million from high-stakes poker players who gambled on the Ultimate Bet website.

It seeks compensation of at least $1.73 million and far more in punitive damages on behalf of the plaintiffs: Daniel Ashman, Brad Booth, Thomas Koral, Greg Lavery, Dave Lizmi, Daniel Smith, Joseph Sanders and Dustin Woolf.

Possibly more important in unraveling the longstanding mystery of the largest known case of online poker cheating, the lawsuit seeks documentation?that Ultimate Bet's shadowy parent companies and regulators with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) have never made public.


The KGC, the regulatory agency of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake in southern Ontario, announced in September 2008 that its investigation found that a single individual ? former World Series of Poker champ Russ Hamilton??? was behind the cheating case.?But many players believe that it was the result of a broader conspiracy.

Among them is Haley Hintze, a former writer and editor of PokerNews and now a poker blogger who is working on a book on the cheating scheme due out by summer. In it, she told msnbc.com on Thursday, she will identify at least three others who directly participated in the theft and attempts to cover it up.

Representatives of Excapsa Software could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman for the GC had no comment on the lawsuit or whether it would respond?to any subpoenas.

Ultimate Bet acknowledged that?$20 million was stolen from players at the site between 2003 and 2008, and that the operators of Ultimate Bet refunded most or all of that money. But the suit alleges that the company ?substantially underestimated? the losses by failing to consider money that wasn?t wagered when the cheaters realized their opponent had them beat.

Read 2008 story?about the case: Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit

?The key to the massive success of the cheating players is not simply that they were able to profit by bluffing when their opponent was weak or betting when they had the best hand, but that they were able to fold and not play ? whenever their hand was strong (but) not the best,? it argues. ?Thus every time a player had a flush, the cheater would fold a lower flush or straight; every time a player had a full house, the cheaters would fold a flush.?

?There are significant doubts about the methodology of the refunds given to players,? said Alan Engle, a partner in the Meador & Engle law firm in Anaheim Hills, Calif., who filed the suit. ?That?s always been a closed process and there are inherent difficulties in calculating the amount of the theft.?

Engle said the early part of the case will probably?focus on jurisdictional issues, but he said he is confident that he can prevail on any challenges because Ultimate Bet focused its marketing on U.S. bettors.

?Anyone victimized by someone in a foreign nation over the Internet is in no way required to bring a case in a foreign nation,? he said.

Excapsa Software, now known as 6356095 Canada Inc., is currently in the midst of liquidation proceedings in Canada.

Sheldon Krakower, who is handling the corporate dismemberment for XMT Liquidations of Montreal, said he would soon seek guidance from the Ontario court overseeing the case before responding to the lawsuit.

?We will be filing our seventh report to the Ontario court specifically addressing this matter imminently,? he told msnbc.com on Thursday. ?? We need direction from the court on that.?

In a report to Excapsa shareholders in May 2011, Krakower indicated that $7 million U.S. had recently been released to shareholders, and that $4.2 million was being held in escrow until the end of the year.?It is not clear whether that money remains in escrow.

Ultimate Bet, which merged with another online gaming site, Absolute Poker, in 2008 to form the Cereus Poker network, was among a handful of online Poker sites that had their U.S. operations shut down in April of last year when the U.S. Justice Department indicted them on charges of violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act?of 2006, money laundering and other charges. The feds also froze bank accounts holding the bankrolls of U.S. players, many of whom have yet to be repaid.

Source: http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10194014-poker-players-sue-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-online-cheating-scheme

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Poorest smokers face toughest odds for kicking the habit

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Quitting smoking is never easy. However, when you're poor and uneducated, kicking the habit for good is doubly hard, according to a new study by a tobacco dependence researcher at The City College of New York (CCNY).

Christine Sheffer, associate medical professor at CCNY's Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, tracked smokers from different socioeconomic backgrounds after they had completed a statewide smoking cessation program in Arkansas.

Whether rich or poor, participants managed to quit at about the same rate upon completing a program of cognitive behavioral therapy, either with or without nicotine patches. But as time went on, a disparity between the groups appeared and widened.

Those with the fewest social and financial resources had the hardest time staving off cravings over the long run. "The poorer they are, the worse it gets," said Professor Sheffer, who directed the program and was an assistant professor with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences at the time.

She found that smokers on the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder were 55 percent more likely than those at the upper end to start smoking again three months after treatment. By six months post-quitting, the probability of their going back to cigarettes jumped to two-and-a-half times that of the more affluent smokers. The research will be published in the March 2012 issue of the American Journal of Public Health and will appear ahead-of-print online under the journal's "First Look" section.

In their study, Professor Sheffer and her colleagues noted that overall, Americans with household incomes of $15,000 or less smoke at nearly three times the rate of those with incomes of $50,000 or greater. The consequences are bleak. "Smoking is still the greatest cause of preventable death and disease in the United States today," noted Professor Sheffer. "And it's a growing problem in developing countries."

Harder to Stay Away

Professor Sheffer suggested reasons it may be harder for some to give up tobacco forever.

Smoking relieves stress for those fighting nicotine addiction, so it is life's difficulties that often make them reach for the cigarette pack again. Unfortunately, those on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale suffer more hardships than those at the top ? in the form of financial difficulties, discrimination, and job insecurity, to name a few. And for those smokers who started as teenagers, they may have never learned other ways to manage stress, said Professor Sheffer.

For people with lower socioeconomic status (SES), it can be tougher to avoid temptation as well. "Lower SES groups, with lower paying jobs, aren't as protected by smoke-free laws," said Sheffer, so individuals who have quit can find themselves back at work and surrounded by smokers. Also fewer of them have no-smoking policies in their homes.

These factors are rarely addressed in standard treatment programs. "The evidence-based treatments that are around have been developed for middle-class patients," Professor Sheffer pointed out. "So (in therapy) we talk about middle-class problems."

Further research would help determine how the standard six sessions of therapy might be altered or augmented to help. "Our next plan is to take the results of this and other studies and apply what we learned to revise the approach, in order to better meet the needs of poor folks," she said. "Maybe there is a better arrangement, like giving 'booster sessions'. Not everybody can predict in six weeks all the stresses they will have later on down the road."

"Some people say [quitting] is the most difficult thing in their life to do," said Sheffer. "If we better prepare people with more limited resources to manage the types of stress they have in their lives, we'd get better results. "

###

City College of New York: http://www2.ccny.cuny.edu

Thanks to City College of New York for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116914/Poorest_smokers_face_toughest_odds_for_kicking_the_habit

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Body parts found in LA canyon; police seek answers

A hiker walks his dog in Griffith Park near the Hollywood sign after a plastic bag containing a human head was discovered Tuesday by two women walking their dogs on a nearby trail off Canyon Drive in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Investigators have since discovered a human hand. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

A hiker walks his dog in Griffith Park near the Hollywood sign after a plastic bag containing a human head was discovered Tuesday by two women walking their dogs on a nearby trail off Canyon Drive in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Investigators have since discovered a human hand. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

Suzanna Dellenger walks her dog Bear near a Los Angeles Police Department roadblock as search operations for more human body parts near an end in Bronson Canyon in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2012. Police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days, first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday. On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Police investigators work as search operations for more human body parts near an end in Bronson Canyon in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2012. Police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days, first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday. On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Police Cmdr Andrew Smith describes how fingerprints could be recovered - post mortem - as search operations for more human body parts near an end in Bronson Canyon in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2012. Police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days ? first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday. On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Area resident Gene Gelfan walks his dog Diva past the closed park gates as search operations for more human body parts near an end in Bronson Canyon Park in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2012. Police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days , first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday. On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

(AP) ? It's the perfect secluded hiking spot for those in the know, celebrities trying to keep clear of the paparazzi and others seeking a close-up view of the "Hollywood" sign or sweeping panoramas of downtown.

This week, someone apparently thought Bronson Canyon, a twisting, tiny warren of narrow streets just a mile up a hill from the studio where the TV show "Wizards of Waverly Place" was filmed, could also be the perfect place to hide a dismembered body.

A head. Feet. And hands.

Whoever it was that left the gruesome scene may be long gone now. That's one mystery, in a town that thrives on them and often rings up millions of dollars making up tales filled with gory scenes just like the one discovered Tuesday.

The other, more pressing mystery: Who do the body parts belong to?

So far, police believe the unidentified man is between 40 and 60 years old.

They also believe the body, found by a dog walker who let one of her animals off the leash, had been there only a short time. Just a few days at the most.

They note that the coyotes that roam rugged Bronson Canyon Park in packs at night ? their howls are the only sounds people hear after dusk ? would have destroyed the remains if they had been there longer than a few days.

"If it had not been for the dog walker, we might never have found it," police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said Thursday at the park.

As if to make Smith's point, a coyote strolled by a hillside at that moment, stopping no more than 30 yards away and turning its head curiously toward the assembled reporters as the officer continued to speak.

As 120 officers and firefighters on foot and horseback fought their way through 7 acres of brush this week looking for the victim's torso, some searchers used ropes to rappel into a steep drainage culvert. The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, meanwhile, was attempting to identify the remains.

Smith said they would try to identify the man through fingerprints first and, if that doesn't work, search DNA databases and dental records.

Police are still searching for a motive, reviewing hundreds of theories provided by both detectives and local residents.

They don't believe the head, feet and hands are connected to a torso police in Tucson, Ariz., found on Jan. 6, Smith said.

That was too long ago for the head and other parts to have survived in the condition in which they were discovered. The head was found inside a plastic bag. Police also believe the victim was killed somewhere else and brought to the park.

They don't believe a serial killer was involved.

"We have no indication there is a serial murderer running around," Smith said.

The discovery, just inside Bronson Canyon Park's front gate, also was the first time police could recall finding a head or other body parts there.

Griffith Park, a huge, rugged expanse on the other side of the hill, is usually the dumping place for bodies, Officer Bruce Borihahn said.

Bronson Canyon is a quiet neighborhood of homes of various architectural styles and sizes that dead-ends at the rustic park, which features picnic tables, hiking trails and the so-called "Bat Cave," where segments of the "Batman" TV show were filmed.

"We're the area even celebrities come to hike when they don't want paparazzi following them," said Susan Moss, who has lived just seven houses down from the park's gate for the past 12 years. "It's so quiet the paparazzi don't even come up here."

Until the remains turned up, the most serious things residents said they had to worry about were the coyotes and the smash-and-grab burglars who sometimes target hikers' cars.

Renee Dake Wilson, who was walking her boxer-pit bull mix, Sweet Pea, near the park, said she was unnerved by the find, especially the fact that the head was uncovered right off the trail where she and her dog walk every day.

"I'm a little worried," she said. "It's a concern to have such an event happen in your neighborhood. But I do think it's an isolated event."

___

Associated Press writer Bob Christie in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-19-Human%20Head%20Found/id-e30498b45c154460a694b95a0ce9cc8b

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