Tenn. protesters to defy curfew a 3rd time

An arrested woman watches from the ground of the Legislative Plaza in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011, while one of her fellow protesters is led away by state troopers. It was the second straight night of arrests after Republican Gov. Bill Haslam imposed a curfew on areas surrounding the Capitol in an effort to disband a three-week demonstration by Wall Street protesters. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

An arrested woman watches from the ground of the Legislative Plaza in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011, while one of her fellow protesters is led away by state troopers. It was the second straight night of arrests after Republican Gov. Bill Haslam imposed a curfew on areas surrounding the Capitol in an effort to disband a three-week demonstration by Wall Street protesters. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

State troopers lead people arrested on Legislative Plaza toward a bus parked outside the state Capitol in in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. It was the second straight night of arrests after Republican Gov. Bill Haslam imposed a curfew on areas surrounding the Capitol in an effort to disband a three-week demonstration by Wall Street protesters. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

State troopers attend to an arrested protester on the Legislative Plaza in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. It was the second straight night of arrests after Republican Gov. Bill Haslam imposed a curfew on areas surrounding the Capitol in an effort to disband a three-week demonstration by Wall Street protesters. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

Arrested protesters lie face down on the Legislative Plaza in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011, while state troopers wait to process them and place them on a bus. It was the second straight night of arrests after Republican Gov. Bill Haslam imposed a curfew on areas surrounding the Capitol in an effort to disband a three-week demonstration by Wall Street protesters. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

A state trooper films protesters while a demonstrator records arrested people being placed onto a bus in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. It was the second straight night of arrests after Republican Gov. Bill Haslam imposed a curfew on areas surrounding the Capitol in an effort to disband a three-week demonstration by Wall Street protesters. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? Occupy Wall Street protesters and state officials in Tennessee squared off for a third consecutive night Saturday, even though a local judge has consistently refused to jail the demonstrators and said the state lacks the authority to set a curfew on the property.

The protesters, some of whom have been arrested two straight nights, were galvanized by the friction between state officials and the local magistrate. Several new demonstrators showed up at the state-owned plaza near the Capitol for the first time Saturday.

"My heart has been here all along, but the arrests gave me the momentum to come," said Vicki Metzgar, 61, director of a Nashville Public Schools science and math initiative. "This (plaza) belongs to us, not the politicians."

The Nashville arrests came after a week of police crackdowns around the country on Occupy Wall Street activists, who have been protesting economic inequality and what they call corporate greed.

In Oakland, Calif., an Iraq War veteran was seriously injured during a protest clash with police Tuesday night. In Atlanta, helicopters hovered overhead Wednesday as officers in riot gear arrested more than 50 protesters at a downtown park. In San Diego, police arrested a similar number of people who occupied the Civic Center Plaza and Children's Park for three weeks.

Nashville magistrate Tom Nelson has said there's no legal reason to keep the demonstrators behind bars and he has released them after each arrest. He has refused each night to sign off on arrest warrants for more than two dozen people taken into custody.

Some legal experts agreed with the judge.

The arrests appeared to be a violation of First Amendment rights that allow for people to peacefully assemble, said attorney David Raybin, a former prosecutor. He and others said the nature of the arrests, coupled with the judge's refusal to sign off on the warrants, could become ammunition for lawsuits.

"The government is exposing itself to serious liability here by doing this," Raybin said.

Nelson did not return an email seeking and a phone number for him could not be found.

The curfew at the Legislative Plaza, which state troopers began enforcing Thursday night, runs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Others questioned the timing of the curfew. The protesters had been demonstrating for about three weeks before it took effect, a point that Nelson said he factored into his decision.

"You can't pass a curfew mid-protest because you disagree with this group of protesters," said criminal defense attorney Patrick Frogge, who is representing some of those arrested.

The state Department of Safety is carrying out the arrests. Commissioner Bill Gibbons, who until he joined the Haslam administration was the district attorney in Memphis, said he didn't have a role in developing the curfew but assured Haslam his department could enforce it.

Gibbons developed a reputation as an able and tough prosecutor in Memphis, where gang and drug violence have been problems for years. He ran against Haslam for governor in the GOP primary, touting his law-and-order credential and sharply attacking his multi-million-dollar opponent for refusing to divulge how much income he gets from the family-owned chain of Pilot truck stops.

Cecily Friday, one of the original Occupy Nashville protesters, said the administration's attempt to get rid of the demonstrators has "completely backfired."

"Over 1,000 people have been added to our Facebook page since the arrests," she said.

On Saturday afternoon, about 150 people showed up for an Occupy Nashville meeting. Lisa Keylon, a city planner, was there for the first time. She said she was recently in Atlanta, discussing with friends how unorganized the protests seemed, wondering how long they could last.

Then people were arrested in Atlanta, followed by those in Nashville.

"Now people are fired up because their First Amendment rights are being violated," she said.

Among those arrested Friday night was journalist Jonathan Meador, who told troopers he was a reporter covering the story for the Nashville Scene alternative newspaper. On Saturday, the owner of the newspaper sent a letter to Haslam's staff.

"I expect the governor to publicly apologize to him for this violation of his rights and to assure the people of Tennessee that this administration will not interfere with the right to a free press that has been a fundamental right in this country since our founding," SouthComm CEO Chris Ferrell wrote. "I'm sure you understand that every media outlet in this country will vigorously defend our right to cover government action without fear of arrest or reprisal."

A gala arts event honoring a prominent Republican fundraiser is happening at an adjoining state-owned plaza Saturday night. Near the scene of the Fest De Ville Gala, one enterprising protester stuck new placards beside those announcing the curfew. They were similar in size and color with text from Article 1 of the Tennessee Constitution: "Citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble together for their common good."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-29-Occupy%20Nashville/id-e5a791e64e4c4c45924485cdab50664a

king arthur king arthur september 11 2001 september 11 2001 pomegranate pomegranate 9 11

Ponder's Vikings top Cam's Panthers 24-21

Minnesota Vikings' Christian Ponder (7) scrambles against the Carolina Panthers during the second quarter of an NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Minnesota Vikings' Christian Ponder (7) scrambles against the Carolina Panthers during the second quarter of an NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Minnesota Vikings' Adrian Peterson (28) runs for a touchdown as Carolina Panthers' Greg Hardy (76) pursues during the second quarter of an NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Carolina Panthers' Cam Newton (1) is upended by Minnesota Vikings' Husain Abdullah (39) during the fourth quarter of the Vikings' 24-21 win in an NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Minnesota Vikings' Adrian Peterson, right, breaks the tackle of Carolina Panthers' Sherrod Martin, left, while running for a touchdown during the third quarter of an NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Minnesota Vikings' Ryan Longwell, left, kicks a field goal late during the fourth quarter of the Vikings' 24-21 win over the Carolina Panthers in an NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? With a big assist from Adrian Peterson, Christian Ponder came out on top of his rookie quarterback matchup with Cam Newton.

Peterson had 162 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns and Ryan Longwell kicked a 31-yard field goal with 2:43 left to lift the Minnesota Vikings to a 24-21 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Ponder completed 18 of 28 passes for 236 yards and one touchdown as the Vikings (2-6) ended a two-game losing streak.

Newton threw for 290 yards and led the Panthers back down the field in the final two minutes, completing a 44-yard pass to Brandon LaFell on fourth-and-15. But Olindo Mare missed a 31-yard field goal wide left with 26 seconds left.

Newton threw a season-best three touchdown passes, but had two fumbles on blindside hits that led to a pair of Minnesota touchdowns in the first half.

The Panthers led 21-14 after a 22-yard touchdown catch by Steve Smith with 11:07 left in the third quarter, but Carolina's offense sputtered most of the second half ? going three-and-out on three straight possessions. The Vikings tied the game on a 9-yard touchdown run by Peterson, his ninth of the season.

Minnesota took the lead for good on a 13-play, 72-yard drive in the fourth quarter that took 7:10 off the clock.

Things looked dire for the Panthers, but Newton completed his long pass to LaFell to move the ball into Vikings territory. Newton then had a first down run inside the 10 called back on a holding penalty on Smith. Mare, who had connected on 13 of 15 field goals coming into the game, then shanked the kick wide left and the Vikings ran out the clock.

Smith, who came into the game leading the NFL in yards receiving, had seven catches for 100 yards. Tight ends Jeremy Shockey and Greg Olsen also had touchdown catches for Carolina.

Peterson ran for 86 yards and had 76 yards receiving, including a 19-yard scoring catch in the second quarter.

Jared Allen, who entered the game leading the NFL in sacks, had a big game for the Vikings with five tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Both of Minnesota's first-half touchdowns came after Newton fumbles in which he took blindside hits from Allen and E.J. Henderson. The Vikings scored within a minute of both of those turnovers.

Percy Harvin had four catches for 58 yards and scored on a touchdown run for the Vikings.

The game began with a crazy flurry of plays.

Marcus Sherels returned the opening kickoff and raced 78 yards to the Carolina 27. However, the Vikings went three-and-out and Longwell missed a 45-yard field goal.

It seemed Carolina had seized the early momentum with that defensive stop, but on their first play from scrimmage Henderson sacked Newton and Allen recovered the ball at the Carolina 16. Harvin, lined up in the backfield, scored two plays later on a 10-yard run to give the Vikings a 7-0 lead.

The Panthers evened the score in the second quarter when Shockey hauled in his first touchdown pass of the season, a 1-yarder from Newton, and celebrated by blowing kisses to the crowd. Less than four minutes later, following an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Harvin, Newton took advantage of great field position at midfield and connected on a 39-yard touchdown strike down the seam to Olsen to give Carolina a 14-7 lead.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-10-30-FBN-Vikings-Panthers/id-c3ea8f0fff024c46824c27ab7e979908

last house on the left last house on the left hoppin john jack dempsey devin hester devin hester dan wheldon

Vegas man gets 5 years for Iraq weapon conspiracy (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? A Las Vegas man who helped federal prosecutors convict an active-duty Navy SEAL of selling war weapons and machine guns from Iraq in the U.S. was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

Omar Aguirre, 36, apologized to U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in Las Vegas and blamed his participation in the weapons trafficking conspiracy on an acute addiction to painkillers that he said he has been working to overcome.

Aguirre said therapy he has received since his arrest almost a year ago also helped him deal with the effects of childhood molestation.

"I know I'm going to be locked up," he told the judge. "But at least in my mind and heart and soul, I'm free."

Aguirre and two other men pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors in a case that led a federal jury to find Petty Officer Nicholas Bickle guilty earlier this month of 13 federal conspiracy, weapons, machine gun and explosives charges.

Bickle, 34, of San Diego, headed the weapons selling scheme, according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents and federal prosecutors. He could face decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines at sentencing Feb. 3, but sentencing guidelines are expected to get him a prison sentence of less than 20 years. He also faces discharge from the military.

Aguirre pleaded guilty Dec. 23 to conspiracy to sell firearms without a license. Prosecutor Timothy Vasquez told Hunt on Friday that Aguirre kept his promise to help investigate and prosecute Bickle.

Hunt sentenced Aguirre to the statutory maximum, ordered him to serve three years of supervised release after prison, and allowed him to remain free until Jan. 6.

Two other former co-defendants who cooperated with prosecutors are scheduled for sentencing Jan. 6.

Richard Paul, 35, of Durango, Colo., faces 15 years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty in January to conspiracy and explosives transport charges. ATF agents reported finding five pounds of military C-4 explosives at his home.

Andrew Kaufman, 37, of Las Vegas, faces five years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine. He pleaded guilty last December to conspiracy and illegal transfer of a machine gun charges.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_re_us/us_weapons_conspiracy_navy_seal

chely wright paul williams flight search jackie kennedy ringer ringer cathedral high school

Cancun area resorts empty as hurricane approaches (AP)

CANCUN, Mexico ? Tourists abandoned Cancun and other resorts while Mexican authorities evacuated hundreds of residents from low-lying areas ahead of a weakened Hurricane Rina's pass along Yucatan's Caribbean coast Thursday.

Civil protection officials moved some 2,300 people from Holbox, an island where the Caribbean meets the Gulf of Mexico, and the federal government closed the archaeological sites that dot the coast. NASA cut short an undersea laboratory mission near Key Largo, Florida, bringing the crew back to land.

Lines snaked from ticket counters in Cancun's crowded airport Wednesday as jumbo airliners heading to Canada and Europe waited in pouring rain. Many travelers said they were already scheduled to leave on Wednesday. But Janet Gallo, 41, of New York City decided to cut short her five-day trip to the town of Playa del Carmen.

"At the hotel, they told us they would make a decision whether to evacuate later today, but we didn't want to wait. We would rather be home when it hits," Gallo said.

Ports closed to navigation for recreational, fishing and small boats in the state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun, and neighboring Yucatan state, while the island of Cozumel was closed to larger vessels, including the ferry that connects the island and Playa del Carmen.

Rina was forecast to remain a hurricane as it swept along Mexico's most popular tourist destinations of Cancun, Cozumel and the Riviera Maya, though forecasters predicted it would continue to weaken.

Rina's maximum sustained winds were near 75 mph (120 kph) early Thursday, down from 110 mph (175 kph) on Wednesday. It was about 115 miles (190 kilometers) south of the island of Cozumel and was moving northwest at about 6 mph (9 kph).

About 275 people living in the fishing town of Punta Allen, south of Tulum, were moved to emergency shelters and a smaller group was evacuated from the atoll of Banco Chinchorro.

Luh McDevitt, 56, a furniture and interior designer in Cozumel, said her family was fitting hurricane shutters to the house and securing furniture.

"I am not really scared," said the Cincinnati, Ohio, native who has lived in Cozumel since 2000. "Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was a Category 5. The worst part of the hurricane is after. We didn't have electricity in our house for three weeks."

Mexico's government said it was sending nearly 2,400 electrical workers plus cranes, vehicles and generators to repair and maintain services as quickly as possible after the storm.

Jorge Arturo Cruz, spokesman for Quintana Roo's education department, said schools were ordered closed in communities along the coast and on Cozumel in anticipation of the storm.

The coastal area around Tulum is dotted with Mayan ruins and farther north is Playa del Carmen, another popular spot for international tourists and the departure point for ferries serving Cozumel.

State Tourism Director Juan Carlos Gonzalez Hernandez said there had been about 83,000 tourists in the state, with about 28,000 of them in Cancun and 45,000 more on the stretch of coast south of Cancun that includes Tulum and Playa de Carmen.

He estimated 10,000 tourists had left by Wednesday night. There were only about 1,719 tourists on Cozumel, and many of them had left, he said.

At least eight cruise ships were changing itineraries away from the storm's path, said a spokesman for Carnival Cruise Lines, Vance Gulliksen.

The area was badly damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, when Cancun's white-sand beaches were largely washed away. Insurance officials estimated total damage at $3 billion.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from north of Punta Gruesa to Cancun.

The projected track showed Rina curving east toward Cuba and the Straits of Florida after crossing the eastern tip of Yucatan, though the U.S. National Hurricane Center cautioned "there is great uncertainty as to where Rina will be located by the weekend."

___

Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon in Mexico City contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_us/tropical_weather

brewers harbaugh the walking dead season 2 milwaukee brewers will power will power indy 500

Report says security improved in Afghanistan (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Security has improved in Afghanistan but the insurgency's safe havens in Pakistan and the Kabul government's limitations pose significant risks to a "durable, stable Afghanistan," according to a Pentagon progress report released Friday.

More than a decade since the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the start of the Afghan war, the U.S. and its allies have reversed violent trends in much of the country and the transition to Afghan security taking the lead has begun in seven key areas, including major cities such as Kabul and Herat.

"Security gains during (the past six months) have provided a firm foundation for the transition of security responsibilities to the Afghan government" and its security forces, the report said.

However, cross-border attacks have increased in recent months due to insurgents' safe havens in Pakistan and the support they received from within its borders.

"The insurgency remains resilient and, enabled by Pakistani safe havens, continues to contest" Afghan security forces throughout the country, especially in the east, the report said.

The Pentagon sent the semi-annual report to Congress, and The Associated Press obtained a copy from congressional officials.

The Unites States has some 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and plans to bring most forces home by the end of 2014. President Barack Obama announced this past summer that 10,000 troops will be redeployed by the end of the year. The 33,000 troops that Obama sent as a surge force will be out by the end of September 2012, leaving about 68,000 troops.

"Transition remains on track with no demonstrated effort by the insurgency to target the process," the report said.

The latest progress report ? the last one was in April ? strikes a more critical tone than previous Pentagon reports about Pakistan's failure to crack down on insurgent safe havens along the border with Afghanistan, arguing that these havens enable militants considered the greatest threat to American troops.

The report said the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan had improved early on, but several events severely strained the ties. Most notably was the May 2 U.S. raid deep inside Pakistan that led to the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Cross-border attacks diminished in August, but high-profile attacks in September, including the assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul, were a significant setback.

The report said these attacks "were carried out by the Haqqani network and directly enabled by Pakistani safe haven and support."

The United States in recent weeks has stepped up criticism of Pakistan and its counterterrorism cooperation but has at the same time sought to cajole the increasingly angry and resistant Pakistanis into doing more. As tensions rose between Washington and Islambad, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an unusually blunt warning to the Pakistanis, saying during a visit to Kabul last week that they "must be part of the solution" to the Afghan conflict.

Clinton said the Obama administration expects the Pakistani government, military and intelligence services to "take the lead" in not only fighting insurgents based in Pakistan but also in encouraging Afghan militants to reconcile with Afghan society. She said the U.S. would go it alone if Pakistan chose not to heed the call.

After leaving Kabul, Clinton made the same points to Pakistani officials in Islamabad, where she led a high-level U.S. team, including CIA director David Petraeus, seeking to repair badly strained ties. Those meetings appear to have dulled the intensity of Pakistan's anger but there has not yet been any clear sign that the crisis is over.

Clinton told a congressional committee on Thursday that while the administration has reached out to the Taliban-linked Haqqani network, it is also pressuring Pakistan to do more to crack down on the militant group.

Last month, then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said the Haqqani network, which is affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida, "acts as a veritable arm" of Pakistan's intelligence agency. Mullen accused the network of staging an attack against the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul on Sept. 13 as well as a truck bombing that wounded 77 American soldiers. He claimed Pakistan's spy agency helped the group.

The report identified chronic problems with the Afghan government, including widespread corruption, delays in reforms and political disputes.

___

Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_go_co/us_us_afghanistan

tyler bray tyler bray rashard mendenhall san antonio weather ohio state football austin box austin box

Video: Is Cain able?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45068483#45068483

derrick mason derrick mason lamichael james lamichael james epstein glen campbell harrisburg pa

Lindsay Lohan's father arrested again in Tampa (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? The estranged father of actress Lindsay Lohan was back in police custody Thursday, hours after being released from a Tampa jail on domestic violence charges.

Tampa police answered a 911 call from Michael Lohan's on-and-off girlfriend early Thursday. Kate Major told police Lohan, 51, made a harassing phone call to her shortly after being released from jail Wednesday afternoon.

Lohan called again while police were at Major's condo. Major, 28, put the call on speaker so police could listen. After hearing what Lohan said, the police notified the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office of a violation of Judge Walter Heinrich's pre-trial release orders that Lohan stay away from Major and an arrest order was authorized.

Officers went to the Tahitian Inn in Tampa, where Lohan was reportedly staying. According to the police, Lohan spotted the officers, tried to hide and then ran from them, eventually jumping off a third-floor balcony in an attempt to escape.

Lohan "apparently leaped up from his balcony and grabbed a hold of the roof. He then must have scurried across the roof (about 30 feet) until he thought he was hanging over top of the next balcony," according to a report by Officer J. Ladd, one of two police who initially responded to the call.

The report says Lohan let go but missed the balcony. "He came crashing down on top of wooden high chairs that were laying on the ground."

Lohan was arrested after a short pursuit on foot and was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail. Deputies suspected he may have broken his foot when he jumped off the balcony, so he was then taken to Tampa General Hospital for evaluation.

Authorities said he will be returned to the jail once he's been cleared by doctors.

Lohan was arrested Tuesday on domestic violence charges involving Major, a former reporter for the Star tabloid. Police say he grabbed her arms and pushed her down multiple times during a daylong argument. When Lohan was released from jail Wednesday, he said he "didn't do anything" and the charges were Major's way of making money.

The St. Petersburg Times ( http://bit.ly/txPQkt) reported that Lohan claimed Major set him up to be overheard by police Thursday. "She needs help, she calls me, and I'm a sucker so I call her back. I'm an idiot," Lohan said as he was being put into the back of a police cruiser.

But in the police report, officers noted Major's phone number did not appear among recent calls on Lohan's phone.

According to police, Wednesday's incident began when Lohan sent his friend and trainer David Dominique to Major's apartment to pick up his personal belongings. Lohan initially called her to speak with Dominique. Major told him he was not supposed to call her. After Dominique left, Lohan called back seeking to work things out with Major. She later told police he sounded "very drunk," according to the report.

According to Ladd's report, he and his fellow officer were gathering information and listening to messages left by Lohan on Major's answering machine when Lohan called again from his cell.

"We had the victim put the phone on speaker when she answered. During this conversation (Lohan) kept asking things like "how can we work things out, where you moving to, you know I didn't threaten you, I didn't throw the remote at you I threw it at the floor," Ladd wrote.

The officers eventually whispered to Major to hang up and to tell Lohan not to call again, which she did.

Lohan called again, but Major did not pick up.

In an interview with police, Dominique told police, "there is always drama between these two."

Earlier this year, Lohan appeared on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew."

He is not the first reality show celebrity that Major has dated.

In 2009, Major also dated Jon Gosselin from the TLC reality show "Jon & Kate Plus 8."

According to a People Magazine story from that year, Major and Gosselin even stayed at Lohan's house.

"Jon is a friend, he's a great guy, he needed a place to get away to and my doors were open to him and Kate Major," Lohan told People.com, adding, "Kate's like a daughter to me. When she needed a place my doors were open."

In July, a misdemeanor domestic violence charge against Lohan stemming from a fight with Major was dismissed in Los Angeles after she failed to show up for the trial. Lohan's attorney said Major declined to cooperate to avoid a court spectacle.

Lohan has a history of arrests in New York over allegations of harassment from ex-girlfriends.

One of those incidents occurred with Major in 2010 in exclusive Long Island beach community of Southampton. Major dropped those charges.

Meanwhile, his daughter Lindsay Lohan could also return to jail in California after a judge last week ruled she violated probation involving a community service assignment. A Nov. 2 court date was set to decide whether Lindsay Lohan should be jailed.

The 25-year-old actress was given probation for a 2007 drunken driving case and a misdemeanor theft case this year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_en_mo/us_people_lindsay_lohan_s_father

gold rush alaska bcs standings bcs standings waldorf school waldorf school new orleans saints world series game 4

A RP based on Supernatural Hunters (Yes, like the TV series)

I'm looking for players for my roleplay Hunters: Beginings, you can either be an original character or one from the TV series (I will post a list of available one in a mo) If you are a character from the TV series then this RP runs along S1, however I'm trying to keep it AU therefore you may create new story lines and hunts for your characters, things that won't directly affect the original characters, for example the apocalypse.

List of Characters available:

-OC's (as many as possible)
-Sam Winchester
-Bobby Singer
-John Winchester
-Ash
(If you email me with who you would like to play or post in the OOC I will gladly reserve it for you)

Hope you guys find it interesting and will possible join, email me if you have any queries!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/Mx5DDJ9Dz7Y/viewtopic.php

kate gosselin astaxanthin diverticulitis silhouette leonardo dicaprio the view bastrop texas

Anne Hathaway Has a Puzzler

Anne Hathaway is making the transition from actress to producer. The star has closed a deal to produce and topline Puzzler, a thriller set up at Paramount.

The project is described as a female-driven, paranoid thriller in the vein of?Three Days of the Condor. Karl Gajdusek, who wrote the recent Nicolas Cage-Nicole Kidman thriller Trespass, will pen the script. The project would mark Hathaway's first producing effort. Joining her as producers are Adam Schulman, Sarah Perlman and Stefan Sonnenfeld, who has a first-look deal with Paramount.

Hathaway's recent credits include One Day,?Love and Other Drugs and Alice in Wonderland. She co-hosted the Oscars in February and will star as Catwoman in next summer's The Dark Knight Rises.

PHOTOS: Anne Hathaway's Style Evolution

Perlman and Sonnenfeld are producing the planned Lionsgate thriller Dead Island, based on a popular video game.

Hathaway is represented by CAA and Management 360.?Gajdusek is represented by Verve and Management 360.

Email: Daniel.Miller@THR.com; Borys.Kit@THR.com

Twitter: @DanielNMiller; @Borys_Kit

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923830/news/1923830/

columbus dispatch social security increase menagerie ows herman cain ron paul social security

Is America getting 'kicked out' of Iraq? (The Week)

New York ? President Obama announces that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by year's end. Actually, says Michele Bachmann, Iraqis are giving us the boot. Is she right?

Barack Obama, who made a name for himself with a?passionate speech?in 2002 arguing against the Iraq War before campaigning for president in 2008 on the promise that he'd end the war once and for all,?announced on Friday that, "as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year." That timetable was actually set in place by a 2008 agreement George W. Bush signed with Iraq, which called for all troops to be out by year's end. In fact,?the Obama team had been negotiating with Iraq for a few thousand U.S. troops to stay on past 2011. Iraq balked at American demands that U.S. troops retain legal immunity, and a new deal was scuttled. So really, the U.S. "is being kicked out by the very people that we liberated," says GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). Is that a fair assessment?

America is being ejected due to Obama's ineptitude: This irresponsible withdrawal of all U.S. troops is a politically motivated military retreat, says Jennifer Rubin at?The Washington Post. And if not for Team Obama's "inept negotiations," U.S. forces could have stayed on to help Iraqis and fend off Iran, as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki, U.S. generals, and apparently even Obama himself wanted. Congress should investigate this "bungled diplomacy."
"Obama: A dishonest withdrawal from Iraq"

Actually, this is cause for "real celebration":?Pulling out by Jan. 1, 2012 "is the right decision, at the right time," says Marc Lynch at?Foreign Policy. "It may have been forced upon the administration by Iraqi political realities," but that's the democracy we fought for. Except for some Iraqi elites who privately hoped U.S. troops would stay in larger numbers, our military isn't wanted or, increasingly, even needed. That's why Obama's negotiators "seem satisfied with the outcome, as they should."
"Yes, the U.S. is withdrawing from Iraq"

Good riddance to a bad situation:?Let's be honest, says Reid Smith at The American Spectator.?The withdrawal is an "absolutely political" move by Obama, aimed at his anti-war base.?But it's also the only decision that makes sense, since America isn't willing to greatly expand our troop presence. Fewer than 5,000 troops would be nothing more than a polarizing target for politicians and armed militants. Iraq will stand or fall on its own now, and it's "just as well American soldiers and Marines do not remain as fodder."
"And that's a wrap in Iraq"

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get 4 Free Issues of The Week

Other stories from this topic:

Like on Facebook?-?Follow on Twitter?-?Sign-up for Daily Newsletter

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111024/cm_theweek/220650

all my children online all my children online sly and the family stone

Tokyoflash Kisai Seven tells time with Tron design, makes fan dreams come true

Tokyoflash has always been more about the showy aspects of time, rather than the practical telling of it. And that trend continues on here with a Tron-inspired schema that's gone from original fan concept to wrist-wrapping product completion. Dubbed the Kisai Seven, this watch takes its cues from the aforementioned Disney flick, and incorporates two pulsing LED rings -- available in blue or white -- that are customizable via three animation pre-sets. Timepiece collectors interested in this bit of avant chronographic kit can snatch it up late night on the 25th when it's set to be released. You might wanna order up quickly, though, as the company's offering a special two-day only price of $99 that'll get a bump to $139 shortly after. Like what you see fellow '80s nostalgist? Then get your credit cards at the ready. Tomorrow's only a day away.

Continue reading Tokyoflash Kisai Seven tells time with Tron design, makes fan dreams come true

Tokyoflash Kisai Seven tells time with Tron design, makes fan dreams come true originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Tokyoflash  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/24/tokyoflash-kisai-seven-tells-time-with-tron-design-makes-fan-dr/

andy cohen andy cohen rimm bill of rights constitution day constitution day apple juice

Is Fisker Automotive Another Solyndra Style Waste Of Money ...

<a href=?http://motorsportsunplugged.com/f1/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fisker-Karma0621.jpg?><img src=?http://motorsportsunplugged.com/f1/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fisker-Karma0621.jpg? alt=?" width=?580? height=?387? /></a><em>ABC News focuses on the one Fisker assembly line already running in Finland. Some of those federal energy dollars were used on design plans. ABC interviewed Fisker head, Henrik Fisker who assured reporter Brian Ross the federal money was not being used to pay workers at the plant. Image Credit: Fisker Automotive, Inc.</em>

&nbsp;

<strong>Is Fisker Automotive Another Solyndra Style Waste Of Money?</strong>

We, at The EDJE, have a neighbor whose family was happy to tell me, about six months ago, that they had private investments in Fisker Automotive, Inc.

News broke this week stating that Obama?s Department of Energy was acting as a venture capitalist by issuing a <a href=?http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/10/20/7152/energys-risky-1-billion-bet-two-politically-connected-electric-car-builders?>500 million dollar plus loan to a car manufacturing company</a> on the heels of the bankruptcy announcement of Solyndra, a solar cell manufacturer where the Obama Administration thought it was a good risk to place taxpayer money at risk in a company that they knew would go bankrupt.

<a href=?http://motorsportsunplugged.com/f1/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fisker-Karma0021.jpg?><img src=?http://motorsportsunplugged.com/f1/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fisker-Karma0021.jpg? alt=?" width=?580? height=?387? /></a><em>The Fisker Karma, front view. Image Credit: Fisker Automotive, Inc.</em>

<strong>This excerpted and edited from Newsworks -</strong>

<strong>Tactics of Delaware carmaker Fisker questioned by ABC News</strong>
By John Mussoni ? October 21, 2011

ABC News partnered with the Center for Public Integrity to do a series of reports that aired on various broadcasts over Thursday and Friday. It pointed to over $500 million in U.S. Energy Department loans for Fisker to build new-age fuel efficient cars.

The failed new energy company, Solyndra, is also casting a shadow over Fisker Automotive and other new technology companies. The ABC News report raised questions about how federal dollars are being spent in getting the Fisker assembly line up to speed in the old Boxwood Road GM plant in Delaware.

The report points to a General Accounting Office report saying there is not enough oversight on how the money is being spent. The GAO report also states there aren?t enough trained engineers who can analyze whether companies like Fisker and its chief competitor, Tesla Motors, are spending money appropriately.

ABC News focuses on the one Fisker assembly line already running in Finland. Some of those federal energy dollars were used on design plans. ABC interviewed Fisker head, Henrik Fisker who assured reporter Brian Ross the federal money was not being used to pay workers at the plant.

There is a tone of skepticism in both reports about whether there could be another company that fails despites federal backing.
?-
Delaware has money tied to Fisker as well.

The state of Delaware has a big stake in Fisker?s success. Part of the deal struck in October 2009 was a $9 million grant that would off set utility charges while Fisker started the necessary changes needed to change the assembly process from what was left behind with General Motors to the Fisker assembly line. To date the state has paid $5 million, according to Governor Jack Markell?s office.

The state has also invested another $12.5 million in a loan to Fisker that will be converted to a grant if hiring goals are met. There have been 100 people hired so far in 2011. The goal is over 2,000 workers to be in place by 2013.
?-
A Fisker spokesman told Fox Business Channel what the company meant to say was that full distribution would not begin until 2013. The spokesman said the company was still on track to begin production a year from now.

The Delaware facility looks about the same as it did when General Motors shut down the plant in July 2009. The water tower still has the GM logo. There are padlocks on the fences where hundreds of workers used to work.
[<a href="http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/component/flexicontent/item/28681-tactics-of-delaware-carmaker-fisker-questioned-by-abc-news">Reference Here</a>]

<a href=?https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKsgywCeX8fFuWEywwlJMZEu-wEpj7LvlCuAmCp1jP2_PFNSXofMHU_xykEnendTvUqJc6qtk4lXZMC1FJqT37qsGvKxnjGkgLAmG9fBqka0S4f0Dp6xhi7nxulGQbvuEY0Z3PhQFTU1yO/s1600/Fisker+Karma016.JPG><img src=?https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKsgywCeX8fFuWEywwlJMZEu-wEpj7LvlCuAmCp1jP2_PFNSXofMHU_xykEnendTvUqJc6qtk4lXZMC1FJqT37qsGvKxnjGkgLAmG9fBqka0S4f0Dp6xhi7nxulGQbvuEY0Z3PhQFTU1yO/s400/Fisker+Karma016.JPG alt=?" border=?0? /></a>Karma, rear view. Image Credit: Fisker Automotive, Inc.

<strong>When I came home, I could not wait to write the following:</strong>

<em>?I just found out today in the news that you (and your dad) have nothing on me, in that, I am an investor in the Fisker Automotive, Inc. too! We have great taste.</em>

<em>This is NOT a Solyndra type of deal that the Obama Government made because there is actually a market for well conceived, well designed, limited production run boutique automobiles ? no matter the sales price. The solar panels that were supposed to be produced at the Solyndra could only be made for $6.00 in a $3.00 solar cell market price world.</em>

<em>I hope to see Henrik Fisker again at the LA Auto Show.?</em>

<a href=?http://motorsportsunplugged.com/f1/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fisker-Karma0531.jpg?><img src=?http://motorsportsunplugged.com/f1/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fisker-Karma0531.jpg? alt=?" width=?580? height=?340? /></a><em>As per Fisker ? Not a single dollar of the DoE loans has been, or will be, spent outside of America. All expenditures are reviewed by PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) on behalf of the DoE. Image Credit: Fisker Automotive, Inc.</em>

<strong>This excerpted and edited from Fisker website -</strong>

<strong>Fisker Statement re: Misleading News Reports</strong>
<strong>ID: 567 | 10.21.2011</strong>

There have been stories in the media today commenting on the Department of Energy (DoE) loan guarantees Fisker Automotive received. We wanted to give you some more information.
?-
Not a single dollar of the DoE loans has been, or will be, spent outside of America. All expenditures are reviewed by PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) on behalf of the DoE.

After receiving the DoE loan, Fisker made it a priority to create U.S. jobs which led to the purchase its own assembly plant in Delaware where we plan to establish production of our second, higher volume, line of vehicles (Project Nina).

There are currently over 100 workers reconfiguring the Delaware plant so that Fisker will be ready to begin hiring a skilled hourly workforce to producing its Nina platform vehicles in the U.S. for sale around the world. Many of these Delaware costs are covered by the DoE loans.

For the Karma program, the DoE loan money was used solely in the U.S. to fund design, engineering, and integration work.

Only private equity financing, of which we have raised over $600 million so far, has been used for costs not covered by the DoE loans, of which only a small part is production costs in Finland.

The majority of our private funding has been used to create jobs, including 650 people at Fisker?s headquarters in California, over 100 at the Delaware plant and many more at various suppliers throughout the U.S.

At the inception of the company, Fisker explored the possibility of producing the Karma in the U.S. However, there are no contract manufacturers like Valmet in the U.S., and none of the established domestic automakers were willing to partner with Fisker to provide a manufacturing option in the U.S. that would work for the Karma program. Our assembly arrangement for the Karma was in place before the DoE loans were approved, and has been widely reported on since 2009.

There is no link between Fisker Automotive and any political party. We are politically neutral ? our focus is on building luxury electric vehicles.

More than 45% of the components of the Fisker Karma sedan are manufactured by approximately 40 suppliers located in the U.S. Some of our biggest suppliers in the U.S. include A123 Systems (Li-ion battery), General Motors Springhill Engine Plant (gasoline engine), Goodyear (tires) and TRW (regenerative braking system).
?-
With the help of DoE loans, Fisker has already created hundreds of U.S. jobs, with thousands more in the near future. Ultimately Fisker is a high-tech American car company that we?re confident will be an American success story to be celebrated.
[<a href="http://media.fiskerautomotive.com/global/en-us/Media/PressRelease.aspx?mediaid=567&amp;title=fisker-statement-re-misleading-news-reports" target="_blank">Reference Here</a>]

So, is Fisker Automotive another Obama/Solyndra style waste of taxpayer money? If the former design director of Aston Martin and the once president and CEO of BMW?s DesignworksUSA, Henrik Fisker has his way, we think not.

? notes from The EDJE

&nbsp;

<span style=?font-size: xx-small;?>[<span>Article first published as<a href="http://technorati.com/lifestyle/autos/article/is-fisker-automotive-another-solyndra-style/"> Is Fisker Automotive Another Solyndra Style Waste Of Money?</a> at Technorati</span>]</span>

Technorati Tags: ABC News, Brian Ross, Department of Energy, DoE, Fisker Automotive, General Motors, Henrik Fisker, Obama administration, Solyndra, The EDJE

• Print, E-mail or Tweet Story
• Share

Post Published: 22 October 2011
Author: The EDJE
Found in section: Business, Green, Lifestyle, Politics, Top Story, Trending, White House

Tags: ABC News, Brian Ross, Department of Energy, DoE, Fisker Automotive, General Motors, Henrik Fisker, Obama administration, Solyndra, The EDJE

Source: http://politisite.com/2011/10/22/is-fisker-automotive-another-solyndra-style-waste-of-money/

hes just not that into you hes just not that into you eagle rock music festival eagle rock music festival arbor apple crisp recipe apple crisp recipe

Iraq's Government, Not Obama, Called Time on the U.S. Troop Presence (Time.com)

President Barack Obama's announcement on Friday that all 40,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq will leave the country by New Year's Eve will, inevitably, draw howls of derision from GOP presidential hopefuls ? this is, after all, early election season. But the decision to leave Iraq by that date was not actually taken by President Obama ? it was taken by President George W. Bush, and by the Iraqi government.

In one of his final acts in office, President Bush in December of 2008 had signed a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the Iraqi government that set the clock ticking on ending the war he'd launched in March of 2003. The SOFA provided a legal basis for the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq after the United Nations Security Council mandate for the occupation mission expired at the end of 2008. But it required that all U.S. forces be gone from Iraq by January 1, 2012, unless the Iraqi government was willing to negotiate a new agreement that would extend their mandate. And as Middle East historian Juan Cole has noted, "Bush had to sign what the [Iraqi] parliament gave him or face the prospect that U.S. troops would have to leave by 31 December, 2008, something that would have been interpreted as a defeat... Bush and his generals clearly expected, however, that over time Washington would be able to wriggle out of the treaty and would find a way to keep a division or so in Iraq past that deadline." (See TIME's photoessay, "Going Home from Iraq.")

But ending the U.S. troop presence in Iraq was an overwhelmingly popular demand among Iraqis, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appears to have been unwilling to take the political risk of extending it. While he was inclined to see a small number of American soldiers stay behind to continue mentoring Iraqi forces, the likes of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, on whose support Maliki's ruling coalition depends, were having none of it. Even the Obama Administration's plan to keep some 3,000 trainers behind failed because the Iraqis were unwilling to grant them the legal immunity from local prosecution that is common to SOF agreements in most countries where U.S. forces are based.

So, while U.S. commanders would have liked to have kept a division or more behind in Iraq to face any contingencies ? and, increasingly, Administration figures had begun citing the challenge of Iran, next door ? it was Iraqi democracy that put the kibosh on that goal. The Bush Administration had agreed in 2004 to restore Iraqi sovereignty, and in 2005 put the country's elected government in charge of shaping its destiny. But President Bush hadn't anticipated that Iraqi democracy would see pro-U.S. parties sidelined and would, instead, consistently return governments closer to Tehran than they are to Washington. Contra expectations, a democratic Iraq has turned out to be at odds with much of U.S. regional strategy ? first and foremost its campaign to isolate Iran.

The Iraq that U.S. forces will leave behind is far from stable, and the mounting tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia could well see a renewed flare-up of Iraq's disastrous sectarian civil war. A jihadist Sunni insurgency has reasserted itself in recent months with a steady uptick in terror attacks, and it could become a vehicle for Saudi proxy warfare against Iran, which backs the Maliki government and various Shi'ite political and military formations, including Sadr's. Kurdish-Arab tensions are growing in the north, where the fate of such contested cities as Kirkuk remains unresolved and a source of mounting security danger. Iraq's political future, also, remains contested, with sectarian and ethnic rivalries reflected in the continued failure to pass a low regulating the sharing of oil revenues, and mounting anxiety over the increasingly authoritarian approach of Prime Minister Maliki. (See photos of President Obama in Iraq.)

Iraq could yet fail as a state. But it's not as if the presence of 40,000 U.S. troops has been all that's holding it together: Those forces no longer patrol Iraq's cities, and are mostly involved in mentoring Iraqi units, although they have played a major role in mediating Arab-Kurdish conflicts in the north.

Given the unresolved political conflicts that continue to plague the country even after its transition to democratic government ? and in light of the rising levels of regional tension ? chances are high that the U.S. withdrawal will be preceded and followed by a sharp uptick in violence. Shi'ite insurgent groups are likely to escalate attacks on U.S. forces, hoping to claim credit for driving out the Americans ? and, no doubt, to please their Iranian backers. Sunni insurgent groups are likely to raise their own game, in order to challenge the Shi'ite dominated government and demonstrate its inability to ensure security ? an exercise that will suit the agenda of their own backers.

The key to ensuring security after a U.S. withdrawal has always been achieving a regional consensus on Iraq that could set the terms for political compromise inside Iraq ? or, at least, limit the likelihood of renewed violence. Unfortunately, instead, that withdrawal coincides with a sharp escalation in the Saudi-Iranian cold war, and that will spell trouble for Iraq. (See photographer Robert Nickelsberg's Iraq diary.)

Not that the U.S. will be out of the picture, by any stretch of the imagination. As things stand, the U.S. embassy in Iraq will have 17,000 employees ? including at least 5,000 "security contractors", i.e. non-uniformed military personnel. It's not hard to imagine that future training needs of the Iraqi military will be undertaken by privateers rather than under the auspices of the Pentagon. And that the CIA ? now under the command of Gen. David Petraeus, former U.S. commander in Iraq ? will play a more active role in pursuing U.S. objectives on the ground and in the neighborhood.

But as of December 31, no more American soldiers will be doing tours of duty in Iraq. The war that ousted Saddam Hussein, unleashing an insurgency that left 4,500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, and which will cost the U.S. upwards of $1 trillion, is finally over. Historians will note that the U.S. invasion of Iraq precipitated dramatic changes across the Middle East political landscape in the ensuing decade. But many of those changes were hardly the ones the war's authors had in mind.

See a brief history of photographing the fallen.

View this article on Time.com

Most Popular on Time.com:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20111021/wl_time/httpglobalspinblogstimecom20111021iraqnotobamacalledtimeontheustrooppresencexidrssfullworldyahoo

las vegas weather whole foods whole foods blood pressure uhs uhs google street view

Cory Silverberg: Of Meat, Sex Education, and Conservative Ideologies

Imagine you have a 10- or 11-year old child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class ostensibly about nutrition, your child was given "risk cards" that named and graphically depicted a variety of animal body parts that had been cut up, butchered for human consumption? Or if, in another lesson, your child was encouraged to disregard what you have taught them about cruelty and violence, and to rely instead on teachers and health clinic staff members?

Imagine you are a vegetarian or anyone who is committed to reducing violence and cruelty in the world. What are your rights as a parent to protect your child from the indoctrination of a public school education that teaches about the nutritional value of meat and the social value of farming animals for slaughter?

I'm guessing that most people, vegetarian and omnivore alike, would say that information about nutrition is important to children's health. And that vegetarians (and pacifists) can still raise their own, even (or perhaps especially) if they learn the facts about meat.

But this is ostensibly the same idea being trashed by Robert George and Melissa Moschella in their New York Times op-ed "Does Sex Ed Undermine Parental Rights?". The paragraph above is copied precisely from the first paragraph of their article, except where they talk about "a variety of solitary and mutual sex acts" I talk about the kinds of illustrations children are routinely shown to teach them about healthy eating.

The switch is a pedagogical tool that I use daily as a sex educator. It's necessary when teaching about sexuality, a topic whose construction is so rigid and reactionary in our society as to make the excessively conservative and controlling laws, social norms and expectations invisible to most of us. As a result most of us (including, it would seem, Robert George and Melissa Moschella) come to think and talk about sexuality (arguably the most complex and interdependent experiences in human phenomenology) as if we all obviously share a common language and common values with very little up for reasonable debate. One can almost feel the nudges and see the winks on the page as George and Moschella presume that surely we must all agree on the (excessively conservative) obvious when it comes to sex, especially when children are involved.

To illuminate the invisible hand at work in such assumptions, assumptions that would never fly, with say, eating meat, sex educators try to point out the ways that sexuality is artificially compartmentalized and isolated from its context in human experience in order for such control and silencing to be effective.

Consider the arguments made by George and Moschella.

They suggest that teaching about sexual behaviors is a form of indoctrination, and a tacit acknowledgement that engaging in these behaviors is okay. The crux of this argument suggests that talking about something makes it okay. But we teach our children about slavery in public schools, and it isn't something Americans condone.

They make the ultimate gesture of erasure by presuming that all parents would be horrified by the idea of their children knowing the names of adult sexual activities including, mutual masturbation. Not only, they simply, does talking about it amount to recommending it, they argue that acknowledging the very existence of mutual masturbation belongs a particular sexual ideology. They don't say it, but of course they mean a liberal ideology.

But as educators themselves, surely they know that the adoption of sexual behaviors does not align with religious, ideological, or party affiliation. In fact what little survey data we have on the subject suggests that some activities (like watching pornography online) are more popular in the so-called red states, and others (like using vibrators) are more popular among observant Christians.

The comparison I began with, of eating meat, is a personal one. I'm a vegetarian for reasons tied to reducing pain and suffering on the planet. But it's also an apt one as an educator. I don't think as a parent I have the right to block my child's access to basic knowledge about food, including meat.

Schools can and should teach about the nutritional value of meat. That's what schools do.

At home I can and should teach about the ethical and moral weight of eating meat. That's what parents do.

These two systems may clash often, but they aren't antithetical and in fact the points of conflict are what will make our children stronger.

The same is true for sex.

?

Follow Cory Silverberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aboutsexuality

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cory-silverberg/sex-education_b_1021147.html

cathedral high school terry fator terry fator rachel zoe gerard butler brady hoke brady hoke

Few Americans take immigrants' jobs in Alabama

Titus Howard of Birmingham, Ala., pulls plastic from fields as he tries his hand at field work in Steele, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Howard took on the job after migrant workers fled the area because of the stiff new Alabama immigration law, leaving many farmers without enough help to harvest their crops. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Titus Howard of Birmingham, Ala., pulls plastic from fields as he tries his hand at field work in Steele, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Howard took on the job after migrant workers fled the area because of the stiff new Alabama immigration law, leaving many farmers without enough help to harvest their crops. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Migrant worker Fellipe Chacoa of Mexico talks about his desire to continue to harvest produce during a meeting of farmers and state officials to discuss the impact of the Alabama Immigration law on their livelihoods in Oneonta, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Chacoa said he had picked tomatoes for 26 years and that the new immigration law was scaring Hispanic workers into leaving the state to find work elsewhere. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Titus Howard of Birmingham, Ala., pulls plastic from fields as he tries his hand at field work in Steele, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Howard took on the job on a produce farm after migrant workers fled the area because of the stiff new Alabama immigration law, leaving many farmers without enough help to harvest their crops. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Produce farmers and brokers listen during a meeting of farmers and state officials to discuss the impact of the Alabama Immigration law on their livelihoods in Oneonta, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. From left: Jonathan Clayton, Henry Clayton, Kevin Watkins and Wade Whited. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Produce farmers listen during a meeting of farmers and state officials to discuss the impact of the Alabama Immigration law on their livelihoods in Oneonta, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

ONEONTA, Ala. (AP) ? Potato farmer Keith Smith saw most of his Hispanic workers leave after Alabama's tough immigration law took effect, so he hired Americans. It hasn't worked out: They show up late, work slower than seasoned farm hands and are ready to call it a day after lunch or by midafternoon. Some quit after a single day.

In Alabama and other parts of the country, farmers must look beyond the nation's borders for labor because many Americans simply don't want the backbreaking, low-paying jobs immigrants are willing to take. Politicians who support the law say over time more unemployed Americans will fill these jobs. They insist it's too early to consider the law a failure, yet numbers from the governor's office show only nominal interest.

"I've had people calling me wanting to work," Smith said. "I haven't turned any of them down, but they're not any good. It's hard work, they just don't work like the Hispanics with experience."

Alabama passed its law in June and it was immediately challenged by the Obama administration as it has been in other states. Unlike those states' measures, Alabama's law was left largely in place while challenges played out in court, frightening Hispanics and driving many of them away.

The agriculture industry suffered the most immediate impact. Farmers said they will have to downsize or let crops die on the vine. As the season's harvest winds down, many are worried about next year.

In south Georgia, Connie Horner has heard just about every reason unemployed Americans don't want to work on her blueberry farm. It's hot, the hours are long, the pay isn't enough and it's just plain hard.

"You can't find legal workers," Horner said. "Basically they last a day or two, literally."

Horner, who runs an 8?-acre organic blueberry farm, said she tried to use the government's visa program to hire foreign workers, but it was too costly and time consuming.

She plans to stop growing organically and start using a machine to pick the berries.

"I did everything I possibly could to be legal and honest and not part of the problem," Horner said. "Morally, I can't knowingly hire illegal workers."

Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican who signed the law, started a program last week to help businesses, particularly farmers, make up for the lost labor. So far, about 260 people interested in temporary agricultural jobs have signed up. About three dozen of them have been hired, said Tara Hutchison, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. She didn't know whether any had quit.

Sen. Scott Beason, a Republican, said he has received several emails and phone calls from people thanking him for helping them get jobs. He described one getting promoted from a part-time job with no benefits to a full-time job with benefits because some other immigrant workers left. He said none of the workers who thanked him have wanted to talk to the media.

"They are paranoid of publicity. They are like, 'I don't want to get shredded up like y'all are.' ... I really can't blame them," he said.

Over the past two weeks, The Associated Press has reached out to the governor's office and other officials to provide the names of Alabama residents who have taken immigrant jobs. Either they were not made available, or didn't want to speak publicly.

Brent Martin, an Alabama resident, started working on a tomato farm in an area northeast of Birmingham after the law was passed. On Thursday, he and two other Americans were clearing about 24,000 tomato stakes off a 4-acre plot. He said few Americans who would stick with it.

"There are plenty who could do it, but would they? I don't know about that. I don't see why they wouldn't as bad as the economy is right now," Martin said.

Relatively high unemployment rates ? about 9 percent in the U.S. and 9.9 in Alabama ? are not likely to push Americans toward farm work, said Demetrios Papademetriou, president and co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute. He suggested the problem may be more deeply rooted.

"This is a sector and an industry ... that a long time ago, going back to the 1940s and probably before that was abandoned," Papademetriou said. "It was abandoned to foreign workers."

Stan Eury, executive director of the North Carolina Growers Association, said location matters, too.

"Agriculture jobs are primarily in remote, rural areas. We see higher numbers of unemployed people in the big cities," he said.

Tomato farmer Wayne Smith said he has never been able to keep a staff of American workers in his 25 years of farming.

"People in Alabama are not going to do this," said Smith, who grows about 75 acres of tomatoes in the northeast part of the state. "They'd work one day and then just wouldn't show up again."

At his farm, field workers get $2 for every 25-pound box of tomatoes they fill. Skilled pickers can make anywhere from $200 to $300 a day, he said.

Unskilled workers make much less.

A crew of four Hispanics can earn about $150 each by picking 250-300 boxes of tomatoes in a day, said Jerry Spencer, of Grow Alabama, which purchases and sells locally owned produce. A crew of 25 Americans recently picked 200 boxes ? giving them each $24 for the day.

It may make sense for some to sit on the couch. Unemployment benefits provide up to $265 a week while a minimum wage job, at $7.25 an hour for 40 hours, brings in $290.

Spencer said the Americans he has linked up with farmers are not physically fit and do not work fast enough.

"It's the harshest work you can imagine doing," Spencer said.

___

Caldwell reported from Washington. Phillip Rawls in Montgomery also contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-20-Alabama%20Immigration%20Law/id-ffaaa56f2ebe4311be87c1a94ad046f5

boise state football vanderbilt seth macfarlane costumes bobby flay clemson football the new girl

Boston Scientific reports 25 pct fall in 3Q profit (AP)

NATICK, Mass. ? Medical device maker Boston Scientific Corp. reported Thursday that its third-quarter profit fell 25 percent on a combination of lower product sales and thinner profit margins.

Revenue fell to $1.87 billion from $1.92 billion, mainly because of falling demand for implantable heart defibrillators. Sales of the devices fell to $503 million from $550 million in the most recent period.

The company's stock fell 11 cents, or 2 percent, to $5.53 in morning trading.

Like other medical device makers, Boston Scientific has struggled in recent years to make up for lower sales of those key products, amid cost-cutting efforts by hospitals and medical studies suggesting the implants are overused. Company executives said sales were further pressured by seasonal factors, including summer vacations when hospitals perform fewer procedures.

The company reported third-quarter net income of $142 million, or 9 cents per share, down from $190 million, or 12 cents per share, in the same period last year. The latest quarter's results were weighed down by $81 million in one-time expenses, including costs from the company's restructuring efforts and debt payments.

Excluding one-time costs, the company would have earned $223 million, or 15 cents per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected 9 cents per share on revenue of $1.91 billion, though that estimate included certain one-time expenses.

Revenue from the company's interventional cardiology business, including drug-coated stents, was flat for the period. Stents are mesh-wire tubes used to prop open arteries after they have been cleared of fatty plaque.

Boston Scientific's share of the global drug-eluting stent market slipped a percentage point to 36 percent amid increased pricing competition among the four companies that market the devices. In June, Johnson & Johnson announced it would phase out its drug-coated stent program after steadily losing market share for years. Although J&J pioneered the devices, its Cypher stents have fallen behind newer offerings from Boston Scientific, Abbott Laboratories and Medtronic.

The Natick, Mass.-based company announced last month it had hired Michael Mahoney, J&J's chairman for medical devices, to become its new CEO. Because of a non-compete agreement with J&J, Mahoney will not formally become CEO until Nov. 1. He faces the challenge of increasing the company's sales when the market for its best-selling products is shrinking. The market for implantable defibrillators is expected to decline 2 percent worldwide next year, driven by a 7 percent decline in the U.S., according to estimates by Cowen and Co. analyst Josh Jennings.

"I have made a very long-term commitment to Boston Scientific, I'm excited by this opportunity and I intend to make the most of it," Mahoney told analysts on a teleconference Thursday morning. Mahoney formally joined the company on Monday, Oct. 17.

Hank Kucheman, the company's president for cardiology, is currently serving as interim CEO.

For full-year 2011, the company estimates sales between $7.62 to $7.72 billion and earnings in the range of 27 to 33 cents per share, or a range of 67 cents to 70 cents per share excluding items.

Analysts expect full-year earnings per share of 45 cents and sales of $7.76 billon, on average.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111020/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_boston_scientific

namibia namibia 9 11 pictures 9 11 pictures randall cobb janet jackson brooklyn decker

US demands Pakistan action on Afghan insurgents

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, shakes hand with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar following their joint news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. Clinton said Friday that extremists have been able to operate from Pakistani soil for too long, increasing pressure on Islamabad to crack down on Islamist militants destabilizing Afghanistan who are allegedly supported by the government. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, shakes hand with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar following their joint news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. Clinton said Friday that extremists have been able to operate from Pakistani soil for too long, increasing pressure on Islamabad to crack down on Islamist militants destabilizing Afghanistan who are allegedly supported by the government. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

La secretaria estadounidense de Estado Hillary Rodham Clinton se re?ne con el primer ministro de Pakist?n, Yusuf Raza Gilani, en la capital Islamabad, el jueves 20 de octubre de 2011. (Foto AP/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton smiles while she waits to Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Clinton is leading an unusually large U.S. delegation to Pakistan for two days of talk with civilian and military leaders who have resisted previous U.S. demands to take harder tack against militants who attach U.S. soldiers and interests in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? The United States pressed a hard case with a difficult ally during an extraordinary two-day diplomatic offensive in Pakistan, arguing on one hand that Pakistan should send its army after militants the U.S. says get special protection from the Pakistani government and on the other that Pakistan should use its influence with Taliban militants to encourage peace in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is unlikely to do either to U.S. satisfaction, leaving a critical counterterrorism partnership on uncertain terms.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged Friday that U.S.-Pakistani ties are now badly strained. The U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May is one reason. The death of two Pakistanis at the hands of a CIA contractor is another.

"Our relationship of late has not been an easy one," Clinton said at the close of meetings centered on U.S. demands for more cooperation. "We have seen distrust harden into resentment and public recrimination. We have seen common interests give way to mutual suspicion. We have seen common interests give way to mutual suspicion."

Leading an unusually large and powerful U.S. delegation, including CIA Director David Petraeus and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey, Clinton met for four hours of talks with Pakistani officials late Thursday. On Friday, Clinton met alone with Pakistani President President Asif Ali Zardari and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who used a joint news conference to deny that Pakistan shelters or supports a particularly lethal wing of the Taliban, an issue at the heart of the talks with the Americans.

"There is no question of any support by any Pakistani institution to safe havens in Pakistan," for militants of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network, Khar said.

Kahr insisted that Pakistan and the U.S. shared the same goal.

"Pakistan takes the threat of terrorism seriously," she said, noting that thousands of Pakistanis had been killed by extremists over the past decade. "We are committed to this process, we would be willing to do whatever we can to be able to make this a success."

The United States claims the Haqqanis, based in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, are mounting direct assaults on U.S. soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan that justify a stepped-up U.S. military push against them in Afghanistan and more CIA drone strikes to kill clan leaders in Pakistan.

The U.S. has grown increasingly impatient with Pakistan's refusal to take military action against the Haqqani network and its ambivalence, if not hostility, to supporting Afghan attempts to reconcile Taliban fighters into society.

Clinton warned that that stance is no longer acceptable while American officials warned that if Pakistan continued to balk, the U.S. would act unilaterally to end the militant threat. She also confirmed that the U.S. had tried to directly enlist the Haqqanis in peace efforts.

Clinton is the first U.S. official to publicly acknowledge the outreach, which was first reported by The Associated Press in August. She said the meeting was organized by Pakistan's intelligence service and was preliminary "to see if (the Haqqanis) would show up."

The U.S. is asking for more Pakistani pressure on the Haqqanis, which the U.S. military considers the biggest threat to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. That's a tough sell for two reasons: Pakistan's army is already stretched thin by other counterterrorism operations the country's leaders consider a higher priority, and many in Pakistan view groups such as the Haqqanis as disaffected brethren, not enemies. By wide margins, Pakistanis also oppose any U.S. intervention in their country, including the clandestine drone campaign.

U.S. officials have accused Pakistan's military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, of harboring or helping the Haqqanis, which Pakistan's leaders deny. Clinton pointed to the joint U.S. and Afghan campaign against the militants on the Afghan side of the order and said that Pakistan must do the same. On Thursday, in the Afghan capital, she said those who allow such safe havens to remain would pay "a very big price."

U.S. officials have not been precise in public about what they are asking Pakistan to do militarily, and many privately acknowledge that any large military operation in the rugged tribal areas is unrealistic. Nor is the powerful Pakistani intelligence service likely to cut ties to the Haqqanis.

Clinton herself alluded to the utility of those ties, saying that the more important U.S. request of Pakistan is that it try to pressure Taliban militants to reconcile with the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan.

She said the military fight against the group must be intensified to persuade members to quit and rejoin society. "We don't know if this will work, but we believe strongly we must try it," she said.

"Pakistan has a critical role to play in supporting Afghan reconciliation and ending the conflict," Clinton said. "We look to Pakistan to take strong steps to deny Afghan insurgents safe havens and to encourage the Taliban to enter negotiations in good faith."

Clinton said the urgency of the situation required that action take place "over the next days and weeks, not months and years," and she warned that many in Congress are fed up and ready to pull back on the billions in aid the U.S. provides to Pakistan.

"We should be able to agree that for too long extremists have been able to operate here in Pakistan and from Pakistani soil," Clinton told reporters at the news conference with Khar. "No one who targets innocent civilians, whether they be Pakistanis, Afghans, Americans or anyone else should be tolerated or protected."

In Washington, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had tough words for Pakistan during a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.

"We have the right to target not only forces and artillery attacking our forces in Afghanistan from across the border in Pakistan, but to target the people controlling those forces as well," he said.

The U.S. and Pakistan remain at odds over the proper sequencing for peace talks with the Taliban and their allies, said a Pakistani security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. Pakistan thinks the U.S. strategy of additional military action will not work, the official said.

Speaking to a group of Pakistani journalists, Clinton said it was unrealistic to think Pakistan's intelligence service did not have connections with insurgents.

"Every intelligence agency has contact with unsavory characters, that is part of the job of being in an intelligence agency," she said. "What we are saying is let's use those contacts to try to bring these people to the table to see whether or not they are going to be cooperative." She noted that it was the Pakistani intelligence services that requested the U.S. meet with the Haqqanis

A senior official traveling with Clinton said the meeting took place over the summer at the request of Pakistani intelligence, but would not give an exact date or the venue for the talks. The official said the Americans had delivered a clear message that "the door is open to those who can meet these red lines" but that those who chose to continue to fight would face intensified attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Officials pointed out that after the meeting the Haqqanis attacked a U.S. base in Afghanistan and are believed to be responsible for a strike on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in September.

Several former and current U.S. and Afghan officials have told the AP that the U.S. met with Ibrahim Haqqani, the brother of the elder Jalauddin Haqqani, who heads the Haqqani network. The U.S. also held several meetings with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's former secretary Tayyab Aga. The talks were held in Bahrain and Germany, they said speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Washington's outreach to the Taliban has angered both Pakistan and the Afghan government. Talks with Aga ground to a halt earlier this year after they were leaked by officials in President Hamid Karzai's office, infuriated that Washington had opened up its own channels of communication with the Taliban.

___

Gearan reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Sebastian Abbot and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad and Donna Cassata in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-21-US-Pakistan/id-4e367132827a420394943a0933e01c14

teresa giudice tay sachs tay sachs watch the walking dead giuliana and bill giuliana and bill 2012 camry