Drug for Advanced Skin Cancer Wins FDA Approval (LiveScience.com)

The Food and Drug Administration has for the first time approved a drug to treat advanced cases of the most common skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma, the agency announced yesterday (Jan. 30).

The drug, a capsule called Erivedge (generically known as vismodegib), treats basal cell carcinoma that has metastasized (spread through the body), or that cannot be treated with surgery.

In a clinical study in 96 people, 30 percent of those with locally advanced basal cell carcinoma (which had spread to surrounding tissue), and 43 percent of those with metastatic cancer (which had spread to distant sites in the body) saw their tumors shrink or heal while taking the drug, according to a statement from the FDA. Patients took one pill by mouth each day. ?

Doctors treat non-metastatic cases with surgery, radiation or topical treatments, and have an extremely high success rate. But no other treatments exist for inoperable cases, such as people with tumors that have extended into the brain, or people who would become disfigured from surgery.

"This is exciting," said Dr. D?sir?e Ratner, director of dermatologic surgery at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. "I treat high-risk cases that are doable with surgery, but now there is a nonsurgical medical option for large, very advanced cases."

Ratner said she once had a patient whose tumor covered her entire upper back, and spread into her neck. That patient was not eligible for surgery, she said, but would perhaps have been a candidate for this drug, she said.? ?

Stopping the spread

Basal cell carcinoma originates in the top layer of the skin, spreads slowly and accounts for 80 percent of all skin cancer cases in the U.S. Each year about 2 million people in the U.S. receive a diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma, making it the country's most common skin cancer. However, less than 1 percent of diagnoses are metastatic.?

Factors that raise a person's risk include having fair, freckly skin, and being chronically exposed to the sun.

The FDA statement noted that Erivedge caused a range of side effects, including muscle spasms, hair loss, weight loss, nausea, fatigue, decreased appetite, vomiting and loss of taste.?

Pregnant women should not take Erivedge, as it could kill or harm a fetus, the agency said.?

How it works

Basal cell carcinoma is linked to mutations in genes that are part of a signaling pathway called the hedgehog pathway. Erivedge works by inhibiting the hedgehog pathway.?

In addition to helping patients with skin cancer, Erivedge might also treat people with other cancers, such as medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor that occurs in children; pancreatic cancer; and a type of lung cancer. The drug is currently in trials for other cancers.

Erivedge is produced by the company Genentech.?

Pass it on: The drug Erivedge has been approved for the treatment of metastatic basal cell carcinoma.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Find us on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120131/sc_livescience/drugforadvancedskincancerwinsfdaapproval

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Japan's industrial output rebounds 4 percent (AP)

TOKYO ? Japan's industrial production rebounded 4 percent in December from November and household spending increased for a second month, suggesting the still-weak economy is gaining some steam after last year's tsunami disaster and flooding in Thailand that disrupted manufacturers' supply chains.

Output of automobiles, cell phones and semiconductors drove the gains last month after production fell 2.7 percent in November. Manufacturers project further production increases in January and February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday.

But Japan's unemployment rate edged up to 4.6 percent and Junko Nishioka, economist at RBS Japan Securities, cautioned that the economic outlook was "mixed."

While she was heartened by the 0.5 percent uptick in family spending, Nishioka said prospects for Japan's vital manufacturing sector remained tentative amid weak export demand.

"The pace of recovery will be slow," she said. "So far, we're seeing some recovery in the auto sector and electronic components, but still it's still not enough to compensate for the gap recorded after the March disaster and the Thai flooding."

The factory data showed that shipments grew 4.5 percent and inventories fell 2.9 percent, both healthy indicators. Broadly speaking, production was led by strength in the electronics, automobile and general machinery sectors, the report showed.

Looking ahead, manufacturers predicted that industrial output would rise 2.5 percent in January and another 1.2 percent in February, according to a METI survey.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy

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China to make Shanghai global yuan hub by 2015 (Reuters)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) ? China intends to establish Shanghai as the global centre for yuan trading, clearing and pricing over the next three years as part of broader plans to make the commercial hub an international financial centre by 2020.

The plan for Shanghai's financial innovations through 2015, published jointly by the country's economic planning agency and the Shanghai government on Monday, set goals on a wide range of areas aimed at further developing Shanghai, though some analysts said many of them appeared ambitious.

"This anticipated pace of development looks a bit quick to me," said Frances Cheung, a strategist at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong.

China wants to transform Shanghai into an international financial centre on par with the likes of New York and London by 2020. That goal was set in 2009 by the State Council and analysts have taken it as a broad deadline for liberalizing the currency.

The state economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, outlined a series of goals under the 2015 yuan plan.

These included making the daily yuan mid-point published by the central bank in the onshore yuan market serve as the benchmark for both domestic and foreign yuan trading markets.

Currency traders interpreted the statement partly as a message from Beijing that the yuan's movements, which have increasingly been influenced by the offshore market over the past few months, should be decided by the government.

"There have been recent developments that have put Hong Kong's offshore market in the spotlight from time to time, such as its pricing of the yuan quite differently from the onshore market," said a trader at a European bank in Shanghai.

"In this sense, the NDRC statement is published at a sensitive time and means the government once again wants to emphasize that it has the final say in the value of the yuan."

The plan also aims to make the government-backed Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor) the benchmark for yuan credit everywhere and targeting to more than double the annual non-forex financial market trading volume to 1,000 trillion yuan by 2015.

While the plan lacked details on how China would achieve these targets, analysts were skeptical on the feasibility of some of the planks in the platform.

"Shibor is not even a very well established benchmark onshore," Cheung said. Markets currently use the government's seven-day repurchase rate as the lending benchmark.

Analysts said the NDRC's plan gave no fresh insight into how quickly China would liberalize its capital account, a crucial step in Shanghai's attempt to become a global money hub.

China has taken a series of measures over the past two years to invigorate the offshore yuan market in Hong Kong as part of a longer-term plan to promote the use of the yuan overseas and make it a fully-convertible and international reserve currency along with the U.S. dollar.

Earlier this month, Britain said it was teaming up with its former colony to secure London a top spot as an offshore trading centre for the yuan.

The NDRC's plan would not threaten Hong Kong's current position as the main offshore yuan centre, analysts said.

"Promoting Shanghai as an onshore yuan centre complements Hong Kong's growing role as an offshore yuan center, and should help to strengthen the circle of onshore-offshore yuan flows underpinning the yuan trade settlement process," said Donna H J Kwok, economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.

China will also encourage overseas companies to sell yuan-denominated shares in its domestic stock markets, but the plan did not give a detailed timetable.

Authorities have been discussing launching a so-called "international board" on the Shanghai stock exchange for listing foreign companies' shares, seen as a centerpiece for the 2020 goal, but the city's mayor said this month that the time was not currently right for its launch.

Shanghai will explore M&A opportunities involving overseas stock exchanges to increase its global clout, the NDRC's plan said without elaborating.

(Additional reporting by Zhou Xin in Beijing, Saikat Chatterjee in Hong Kong and Lu Jianxin in Shanghai; Editing by Jason Subler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/bs_nm/us_china_economy_shanghai

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Santorum's Hypocrisy Highlighted by Daughter's Illness (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum suspended his bid for the GOP nod to run against Barack Obama when his daughter, Bella Santorum, was hospitalized, according to the Associated Press. Bella suffers from Trisomy 18, a rare genetic disorder in which a baby has some or all of an extra chromosome. While it is always tragic for a parent to face losing a child, the situation highlights a political issue: Santorum's hypocrisy on health care, abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

Santorum's campaign website discusses his views on these matters. He is emphatically against a woman's right to control her own body in reproductive matters and is adamantly opposed to embryonic stem cell research. He is against a single-payer national health care system provided to all citizens. He opposes the first two on religious grounds on the third for reasons of political dogma.

As to abortion, Santorum flip-flops on his opposition, according to a Care2.com report. It's easy for him to rail against abortion when such ranting might win him votes.

It's also easier for him to oppose it because he has the best health care in America available to him and his family -- provided at taxpayer expense, no less. He never had to consider whether care for a terminally ill child would destroy his family financially.

Unless the U.S. enacts a national health care plan most families will never be able to afford the care needed for a child with Trisomy 18. Santorum's family will never lack for health care or face crippling medical debt -- but as far as he's concerned it's fine for your family to have those problems.

Santorum's opposition to embryonic stem cell research is ludicrous for two reasons. First, such research involves the collection of cells from a blastocyst, a blob of about 150 cells so small the human eye cannot detect it, according to the National Institute for Health. Second, such research could save the lives of his daughter and countless others suffering from her condition. It's despicable for him to fight against the best possible hope for a cure to the very condition killing his child.

It makes me wonder how Santorum's opinion might change if he was an average American with a household income of less than $50,000 per year and no health insurance. I bet he'd sing a different tune.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120129/pl_ac/10899655_santorums_hypocrisy_highlighted_by_daughters_illness

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Drug Approved for Advanced Kidney Cancer (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Jan. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Inlyta (axitinib) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma in people who haven't responded to another drug.

Renal cell carcinoma is a form of kidney cancer that begins in tissue that lines the kidney's small tubes. Inlyta blocks proteins that help fuel tumor growth in this area, the FDA said in a news release.

Six medications had been sanctioned previously for advanced kidney cancer, the agency said.

In a study of 723 people with the advanced form of kidney cancer, the most common side effects of Inlyta included diarrhea, high blood pressure, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, loss of voice, weight loss, weakness and constipation.

Among some patients, Inlyta also caused significant bleeding, which in some cases proved fatal. The FDA also warned that people with high blood pressure should make sure the problem is well controlled before taking the twice-daily drug.

People with untreated brain tumors or gastrointestinal bleeding should not take Inlyta, the FDA said.

The drug is marketed by Pfizer.

More information

Medline Plus has more about renal cell carcinoma.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120127/hl_hsn/drugapprovedforadvancedkidneycancer

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Insert Coin: Dash car stereo gives your iPhone a new home, away from the cupholder (video)

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line.

We're pretty fond of new ways to integrate smartphones with car stereos here at Engadget, which is why we're particularly intrigued by a new Kickstarter project called Dash. Unlike MirrorLink, which reflects a phone's interface onto a larger touchscreen, this nifty creation puts the smartphone front and center in the stereo itself. While the Dash will initially support only the iPhone 4 / 4S and iPod Touch -- which connects via the dock connector -- the company seems ambitious to target other platforms in the future.

The Dash comes in two parts, the double-DIN stereo itself, along with a detachable aluminum faceplate that's held to the main unit with neodymium magnets. The only interface element is a volume knob, as every other interaction is performed on the iPhone's 3.5-inch display -- just promise to keep your eyes on the road when you sort through your tunes. The stereo contains four 50W channels and two 2V preamps. The Dash is currently projected to ship in July for $300, but a $250 donation serves as a discounted preorder right now. It'll be available in a variety of colors, which you can peep in the gallery below, and be sure to check out the project's video after the break.

Gallery: Insert Coin: Dash car stereo

Continue reading Insert Coin: Dash car stereo gives your iPhone a new home, away from the cupholder (video)

Insert Coin: Dash car stereo gives your iPhone a new home, away from the cupholder (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/27/insert-coin-dash-car-stereo-video/

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GOP Florida Clown Car, The Wrap-Up (Little green footballs)

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Video: The Holocaust remembered

The world is marking International Holocaust remembrance day. In Great Britain there was a promise never to forget the genocide. ITN's Sue Saville reports.

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Facebook, Washington state target online spam

SEATTLE (AP) ? Facebook is partnering with Washington state to combat a type of spam called "clickjacking" that is plaguing the social networking site, company and state officials announced Thursday.

Two separate lawsuits were filed in federal courts in California and Washington state against Delaware-based Adscend Media LLC, which officials say is behind the spamming.

"The way we think about it, security is an arms race," Facebook's general counsel, Ted Ullyot, said alongside Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna at the social media company's Seattle offices. "It's important to stay ahead of spammers and scammers."

In "clickjacking," links on Facebook promising shocking or salacious videos have code embedded in them that spreads the link to the user's page. That makes it seem like the user "liked" the link, with the aim of attracting more clicks from the user's friends. The links eventually lead users to a survey or information from an advertiser.

Adscend Media is spreading spam through misleading and deceptive tactics and has encouraged others to do the same, McKenna's office said.

An email inquiry sent to Adscend was not immediately returned, and an attorney for the company had not yet been listed in federal court records.

Social networking sites are popular targets for spammers because people are more likely to trust and share content that comes from people they know. This makes spam, scams and viruses easy to spread.

Still, Facebook says less than 4 percent of content shared on the site is spam. By comparison, about 74 percent of email is spam, according to security company Symantec Corp., though the bulk of it gets filtered out before reaching someone's inbox.

Facebook has more than 800 million users.

Named in Washington state's lawsuit are Adscend co-owners Jeremy Bash, of West Virginia, and Fehzan Ali, of Texas. The lawsuit says Adscend violated several state laws, as well as the federal CAN-SPAM act, which makes it unlawful to procure or initiate transmission of misleading commercial communication.

McKenna said Adscend has annual revenue of $20 million.

Washington state is the only state partnering with Facebook. The company said it partnered with Washington state because of a history in the state of technology consumer protection.

The attorney general said Washington state has been a leader in technology consumer protection since his predecessor, now Gov. Chris Gregoire, began filing suits against malware and spyware users.

"As spammers adjust their tactics, we adjust ours," McKenna said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-26-Facebook%20Scam/id-7414ecdfb88743c080961a953dddc7e6

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Common explains feud with Drake (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? The Sundance Film Festival became the unlikely center of hip-hop's latest feud when actor-turned-rapper Drake and rapper-turned-actor Common came to town.

Common was promoting his role in upcoming family drama "LUV," while Drake was performing at one of the many late-night parties.

The two have traded insults recently via their raps, but Common said he didn't want to say anything else about Drake not in rhyme form.

"I feel like I said everything I really needed to say on the record. I just looked at it as like `Hey, it's just a hip-hop battle,'" he explained in an interview this week.

"The time to talk is on record as far as I'm concerned. If we in the ring, then we just handle our business in the ring."

Common had the most recent entry into the battle, by adding his verse to a Rick Ross song and naming Drake directly ? a move that the Chicago native said he felt obligated to make.

"Ice Cube, when he was going at N.W.A., once he left N.W.A., you knew who it was. Jay-Z and Nas ? Jay-Z said, `Smarten up, Nas.' And you just knew. Cats would say names," he continued.

"So that's just the way that I feel like you've got to do it. I don't want to like leave anything _I don't want anybody else to think I'm talking about them. I want you to know, `Hey this is who I'm talking to.'"

Common, known more lately for his acting than his rapping, started the battle with a song called "Sweet" on his new album, "The Dreamer/The Believer."

"He (Drake) felt offended by it. And the song is really discussing how hip-hop has a softer side," said Common.

"And I made it clear that I'm not talking about anyone specifically. For me it was no different than when Jay-Z addressed with `DOA,' he was talking about Auto-Tune. I was talking about, `Hey, you know hip-hop is starting to become more just saturated with softer songs,'" he said. "And I don't see anything the matter actually with the love songs. I do love songs. So I don't see anything the matter with it, but when the music becomes saturated with it, I mean, I speak up. I love hip-hop music."

The festival continues through Sunday.

___

Online:

http://www.thinkcommon.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_en_mu/us_people_common

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China's 'Year of the Dragon' baby boom: A guide (The Week)

New York ? The Chinese new year just began this week, but the rush to have babies under the culture's luckiest zodiac sign has been underway for months

China is in the midst of a baby-making boom, as couples try to ensure that their children are born during the Year of the Dragon, which began Monday. The dragon is considered the most auspicious zodiac sign in Chinese culture. Once reserved for the emperor, it is believed to bring strength and good luck. Here, a brief guide to the coming wave of "dragon babies":

Why is the Year of the Dragon so lucky?
Eleven of the 12 zodiac symbols in Chinese culture are animals ? the dragon is the only one that is a mythical creature. That's one of the reasons it's so lucky, and that's why the state news agency Xinhua says China is expecting a 5 percent jump in the number of babies born in 2012. Boys, especially, are said to be destined for success and wealth if they're born under the sign.

SEE MORE: China vs. Harry Potter

?

So Chinese parents are scheduling their pregnancies accordingly?
They sure are. The math is easy enough to figure out: Parents have to get pregnant by May 2 of this year to squeeze in their due date before Feb. 9, 2013, when the Year of the Dragon ends, and the less auspicious Year of the Snake begins. Once the lunar calendar turns over, the baby boom is expected to come to a screeching halt. "The dragon baby boom seems unlikely to have a significant impact on the total fertility rates in the long run,'' Dr. Zhang Yanxia tells the BBC.

How else will this affect China?
Infertility clinics are bracing for a spike in women seeking in vitro fertilization treatment during the coming year, says Dr. Chen Shee-Uan, director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the National Taiwan University Hospital.?And parents are sparing no expense to prepare for their dragon babies. As a result, nannies in Beijing have been able to double their rates, and "beds in the Chinese capital's Maternity Hospital are booked until August," says Ian MacKinnon in Britain's Telegraph. And the effects won't end there. The baby boomlet means all those dragon babies destined for such greatness will soon be locked in fierce competition for spots in China's best schools, as the dragon babies of the year 2000 are now.

Sources: BBC, Huffington Post, Telegraph, TIME

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Sundance documentary examines rape in US military (omg!)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) ? The Department of Defense estimates that more than 19,000 military men and women were sexually assaulted by fellow troops in 2010 while serving in the United States armed forces. At least 20 percent of servicewomen and 1 percent of men ? an estimated 500,000 troops ? have experienced sexual trauma while serving.

These troubling statistics motivated documentarian Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering to make "The Invisible War," a film that examines the epidemic of rape within the military, how it affects victims and why so few cases are prosecuted. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it is a contender in the U.S. documentary competition.

The statistics "were just so astonishing that at first we didn't believe it," said Dick, adding that he was equally surprised that no film had been made on the subject.

Through interviews with rape survivors and military officials, "The Invisible War" suggests that it's not just the violence and harassment that traumatizes victims but the absence of impartial justice and personal retaliation they often experience after reporting the incident. A rape survivor's only judicial recourse is to report the attack to her commander ? even if he was the attacker ? and it's his decision whether to investigate and prosecute, regardless of the evidence.

"If they investigate it, and the investigator comes back and says, 'I've got a slam-dunk case. I can put this serial perpetrator behind bars,' the commander can, on his or her own, decide, 'No, we're not going to send this case to court martial,'" Dick said.

A 2009 study shows that only 8 percent of military sex offenders are prosecuted.

"The Invisible War" introduces viewers to Kori Cioca, who left the Coast Guard after being beaten and raped by her supervisor. Five years later, she still suffers from post-traumatic stress and has yet to receive Veterans Administration approval for the surgery she needs to repair the injuries she suffered during the attack. The perpetrator, who continues to serve in the Coast Guard, hit her so hard that he permanently dislocated her jaw.

Viewers also meet Marine Corps 1st Lt. Ariana Klay, who served in Iraq before being gang-raped by a senior officer and his friend while stationed at the elite Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. Klay's husband, also a Marine, cried as he described his concern and fear that his wife would commit suicide.

Other rape survivors shown in the film, including Cioca, said they also contemplated suicide.

Hannah Sewell, who comes from a military family, said she has trouble convincing herself that she is still a virgin after being raped while serving in the Navy. Her father, wearing his own military uniform, recounts the story through tears.

Dick and Ziering traveled the country to interview some 70 survivors of military rape.

"We weren't really ready for all the stories we heard," Ziering said. "Each one had a lot of similarities and all were equally horrific."

But the filmmakers said they remained optimistic throughout the project and have been gratified by the film's reception at Sundance, where politicians such as U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California; U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio attended the premiere. Grammy winner Mary J. Blige has also pledged to write an original song for the film.

"Our great hope was and continues to be that capturing (survivors') experience and their trauma will help change things for hundreds of thousands of men and women who are in the armed forces," Dick said.

There's also "a history of hope," he said, because when the military set out to banish the segregation and racism that reigned among troops in the early 1960s, they made significant strides in just over a decade.

"They can do the same thing with this," he said.

So why don't they?

"They don't take it seriously enough," Ziering said. "They don't really see, and what we're hoping the film will show is the repercussions of it. They don't understand the amount of damage this is doing and how it really is a national security issue, and also costing taxpayers billions of dollars in just caring for people with this kind of trauma.

"Once that message gets through to them, they will be motivated to make a change, because it's a no brainer. They have to do something."

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

___

Online:

www.invisiblewarmovie.com

www.sundance.org/festival

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_sundance_documentary_examines_rape_us_military101519990/44297205/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/sundance-documentary-examines-rape-us-military-101519990.html

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Anderson-KM gets TIF help with home base - Finance & Commerce

Anderson-KM gets TIF help with home base?

Posted: 3:43 pm Tue, January 24, 2012
By Matt M.?Johnson
Tags: Anderson-KM, KM Building Co., St. Louis Park, tax increment financing

Avoiding a fate similar to that of the cobbler?s children, a St. Louis Park construction company will put as much into the appearance of its new $3.5 million office building as it does into client projects. And the city is going to help. Last week, the St. Louis City Council unanimously approved a measure that will put ...

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Construction & Development, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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LA mayor signs law requiring condoms in porn films

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Actors in adult movies filmed in Los Angeles will be required to use condoms under an ordinance signed into law by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and porn industry leaders say the regulation could lead them to abandon the nation's porn capital.

The law, signed Monday, will take effect 41 days after it is posted by the city clerk, something that could happen as early as this week.

Officials with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which lobbied for years for such a law, expressed jubilation Tuesday and said they would now turn their attention to getting a similar condom requirement adopted elsewhere.

"The city of Los Angeles has done the right thing. They've done the right thing for the performers," said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which had pushed the measure for six years.

He said its adoption is crucial in protecting adult film actors from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Weinstein said his group's next move will be to get Los Angeles County to adopt a similar measure for its unincorporated areas.

The group is in the midst of a petition drive to put the issue on the ballot, but Weinstein said he hopes the county's Board of Supervisors will react as the Los Angeles City Council did and pass such an ordinance itself. The council gave its final approval last week.

Industry officials estimate as many as 90 percent of the porn films produced in the United States are made in Los Angeles. Most are filmed quietly in the city's suburban San Fernando Valley.

After the council's action, several of the industry's biggest filmmakers said they might consider moving just outside the county. That prompted Simi Valley Mayor Bob Huber to announce last week that he would ask the city attorney for his community, located just across the county line from the San Fernando Valley, to write a similar ordinance.

Weinstein said Tuesday his group would also be vigilant in keeping track of where porn producers might go.

Exactly how the law will be enforced is still to be determined.

It calls for makers of porn films to pay a fee, the amount still to be determined, that would be used to pay for spot checks at filming locations.

The City Council is creating a committee to determine the amount of the fee and who would make the spot checks.

Weinstein said he envisions enforcement would fall on nurses or other public health providers.

"It is not anticipated, based on what we desire or what has been discussed, that it would be uniformed police officers," he said.

Weinstein said he would be open to working with industry leaders to enforce the law.

He noted the ordinance does not require condoms when oral sex is involved because his group, which originally crafted it, agreed with the filmmakers that infection through oral sex was not as great as through other sex acts.

The industry already requires that actors be tested for HIV every 30 days, and filmmakers say they believe that is sufficient.

"It's not that I don't doubt the sincerity of their desire to protect the talent. And believe it or not, we have the same ambition," Christian Mann, general manager of Evil Angel Productions, said last week after the council's vote.

"We just don't believe their way is the best way," added Mann, who is also on the board of directors of the industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-01-24-Porn-Condoms/id-4bc501e4ca1b457eba8c0f03619cca38

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Why does Mitt Romney have money in the Caymans? Two potential reasons.

The Cayman Islands used to be known as a 'tax haven.' ?That's not necessarily true anymore, but there could be other reasons for Mitt Romney use the Caymans to store his millions.

Mitt Romney?s official residence is Belmont, Mass., a suburb of Boston. But at least a part of his money resides in the Cayman Islands, best known to many Americans as a nice place to escape winter.

Skip to next paragraph

Mr. Romney says he reports his income from there and pays his taxes ? and will prove it in April or whenever he releases his taxes ? assuming he does.

But why was it there in the first place?

The Cayman Islands used to be known as a ?tax haven,? a place where people could set up an account with a friendly banker whose lips were sealed. However, tax experts, say in 2009 the Caymans agreed to exchange tax information with at least a dozen IRS-type organizations around the world. Suddenly, it became more difficult to hide assets or income and some banks actually shut down their operations on its sunny shores.

But there could be other reasons to use the Caymans to store millions, other than the discreet bankers.

One of the reasons could relate to Bain Capital, which Romney founded and ran from 1984 to 1999. The company could have been trying to attract foreign investors who did not want to deal with the US tax code. A Cayman Islands-based company could invest in US companies and then move their profits offshore.

?A company that is set up in the Caymans would not subject their foreign investors to US taxation,? says Seth Cohen, a principal in the accounting firm WeiserMazars in New York.

But Romney is a US investor and must report his income to the IRS, which he apparently has done. ?Because he [Romney] is reporting this we know he is obeying the law,? says Mr. Cohen. ?If we did not know about his Cayman?s investment that would be a problem.?

However, some other tax experts think Romney may have had a different reason for having money in the Caymans.

While Romney says he paid taxes on his Bain investments,?Daniel Shaviro, a professor of taxation at New York University Law School, says Romney may have been trying to avoid paying a specific tax on investments made by his Individual Retirement Account (IRA).

Mr. Shaviro thinks Romney may have invested some of his IRA money in ?super high performers.? But Romney wanted to increase his return on investment by getting his IRA to borrow so that he could buy even more of the stocks. However, under IRS rules Shaviro says, nonprofits such as IRAs that borrow to hold investments?face?something called the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).

Shaviro hypothesizes that to avoid paying that tax, Romney?s lawyers set up a separate Caymans entity, which would borrow and buy the stocks. Romney?s IRA invested in that entity.

?Congress is sort of aware of this but has not changed the law,? says Shaviro. ?It is not a top secret tax planning trick but it is a common end-run around the purpose of the law.?

If Shaviro is correct ? that the funds are accumulating tax-free ? in the Cayman Islands, Romney may have no reason to repatriate them to the US. ?It?s not as if he needs the money back here to pay his rent,? says Shaviro. ?Plus, if he did the same thing using a US entity, then it would face US corporate tax on the income.?

Shaviro points out that Romney?s Cayman Islands stash is likely to be debated politically. ?If I was thinking of working with someone in business and I heard they had done this, I would not be upset,? he says. ?You could say he did something that any clever and savvy investor would do.? But, he adds, ?If you believe that someone who is running for President should live by a higher standard, then you could take offense at it.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/iZMtA26oqJ8/Why-does-Mitt-Romney-have-money-in-the-Caymans-Two-potential-reasons

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Thunderstorms, tornadoes possible in southern U.S. (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Severe thunderstorms were expected to spread across several southeastern U.S. states on Sunday into Monday with tornadoes, high winds and large hail possible, weather forecasters said.

The potential for severe storms stretched from the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi to southern Indiana and Ohio, according to AccuWeather.com meteorologist Bill Deger.

"Some of the thunderstorms are even expected to spawn tornadoes, making for an especially dangerous situation given the veil of night," Deger said.

In Alabama, residents were bracing for storms that could hit after dark on Sunday or overnight with a strong cold front from the west combining with warm moist air flowing up from the Gulf of Mexico, said Mary Keiser, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama.

"The best dynamics for this are going to be across the northwest part of the state and lesser so as you move to the southeast part of the state," Keiser said of the forecast for severe weather to strike in Alabama.

The weather service said thunderstorms could bring wind gusts up to 80 mph, tornadoes or gulf ball-sized hail in Mississippi. Farther west, the weather service warned of a high fire danger in Texas with wind gusts of up to 50 mph.

Weather.com said the greatest tornado threat appeared to be in eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, northern Louisiana and northern Mississippi.

In Reno, Nevada, meanwhile, snowfall provided welcome relief to firefighters who were monitoring remaining hotspots from a blaze that raged near the outskirts of the city beginning Thursday, destroying 30 houses and prompting thousands of people to flee their homes.

"As long as we keep on getting snow instead of rain, it looks like we'll be okay, at least for the next couple of days," said Mark Regan, spokesman for the Sierra Fire Protection District.

Rain had threatened the area with flash flooding on Friday night. Emergency responders had the blaze 100 percent contained as of Saturday, and all residents have been allowed to return to their homes, Regan said.

In the upper Midwest, freezing drizzle was expected to make roads and sidewalks slippery from southeastern Minnesota into Wisconsin, changing to snow later Sunday, the weather service said. Up to 4 inches of snow was expected farther north in southeast North Dakota and west central Minnesota.

In the northeast United States, a fast-moving storm from central Pennsylvania eastward dropped up to a foot of snow in parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts on Saturday.

(Reporting By David Bailey and Mary Slosson; Editing by Tim Gaynor)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/us_nm/us_weather

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Renowned Jamaica producer Winston Riley dies at 65 (AP)

KINGSTON, Jamaica ? Winston Riley, an innovative reggae musician and producer, has died of complications from a gunshot wound to the head. He was 65.

Riley died Thursday at University Hospital of the West Indies, where he had been a patient since November, when he was shot at his house in an upscale neighborhood in the capital of Kingston, his son Kurt Riley said Friday.

Riley also had been shot in August and was stabbed in September last year. His record store in Kingston's downtown business district also was burned down several years ago. Police have said they know of no motives and have not arrested anyone.

Kurt Riley told the Jamaica Observer newspaper that the family did not know what motivated the attacks.

"Unfortunately, Daddy didn't wake up so we could talk to him to find out if there was something he was not telling us," he was quoted as saying. "He was a straightforward man who was allergic to hypocrisy."

As a teenager, Riley founded an influential harmony group, The Techniques, which recorded for pioneer producer Arthur "Duke" Reid. Riley also toured with Byron Lee and later gained fame for producing songs such as "Double Barrel" by Dave Barker and Ansell Collins.

He worked with musicians including Gregory Isaacs, Johnny Osbourne, Sister Nancy and Buju Banton.

Musicologist Kingsley Goodison, who knew Riley for more than 40 years, said he was one of the people responsible for introducing reggae to England.

"Winston Riley is an unsung hero," he said. "He was one of the hardest workers in the business."

Riley also is credited with creating the stalag rhythm, which later influenced hip-hop and dancehall. Unlike his contemporaries who shunned dancehall music, Riley embraced contemporary reggae and had several big hits during the 1980s.

One of his biggest productions was singer Tenor Saw's "Ring The Alarm", which has been sampled by several hip-hop artists.

Riley is survived by several children and grandchildren.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_en_ot/cb_obit_winston_riley

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Rick Santorum Glitter-Bombed: Presidential Candidate Hit With Glitter In South Carolina (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

As Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum finished his speech on Saturday following his third-place finish in the South Carolina primary, he was glitter-bombed by members of the Occupy Charleston movement, Summerville Patch reports.

It isn't clear whether Santorum himself was hit with glitter, but BuzzFeed reports that at least one member of the Duggar family, the reality-TV stars who've endorsed the socially conservative candidate, were hit with glitter.

Summerville Patch's Lindsay Street reports:

As Santorum closed his speech focusing on building strong family values, a gay rights activist said: "Except when you're gay" and threw a handful of glitter in the air.

Members of the Occupy Charleston group joined in with chants of "Rick, Rick, Rick, bigot, bigot, bigot" and singing "Santorum, Santorum, you're a bigot."

Click over to Summerville Patch for more.

Video from of the incident, available above from WCSC-5, shows that the candidate appeared to take the glittering in stride. The Los Angeles Times reports that the protesters were escorted out of the auditorium.

Lindsey Boerma, a reporter for CBS News and The National Journal, tweeted a picture of the glitter mid-air from another perspective:

This isn't the first time Santorum has been the target of glitter. At an event in Iowa in December, a man who yelled "Stop the hate, taste the rainbow" threw glitter at the former Pennsylvania senator.

And Real Clear Politics reported on Thursday, just two days before the South Carolina primary, that people protesting Santorum's stance on social issues at a rally in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. threw glitter at the candidate.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/rick-santorum-glitter-bombed-photo_n_1221447.html

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Lady Gaga Announces Born This Way Foundation Launch

Mother Monster's nonprofit will promote youth empowerment and equality.
By John Mitchell

Lady Gaga in New Delhi, India
Photo: India Today Group/Getty Images

<P>Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation will launch February 29 with a fete at Harvard University, the singer and her mother and co-founder, Cynthia Germanotta, announced in a statement on Thursday (January 19). BTWF was created to promote youth empowerment and equality by encouraging self-confidence and well-being and bringing bullying to an end. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:683376.id:1669247" width="240" height="211"></div><p> Joining the pop star at Sanders Theatre will be her partners in the endeavor: Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the MacArthur Foundation and the California Endowment. Gaga has long been a staunch supporter of anti-bullying legislation, reportedly <a href="/news/articles/1672010/lady-gaga-obama-meeting.jhtml">meeting with President Obama</a> to discuss the topic in September and <a href="/news/articles/1675501/lady-gaga-white-house-bullying.jhtml">visiting the White House</a> in early December to discuss the issue with administration officials. She dedicated her performance of "Hair" at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas to <a href="/news/articles/1671190/lady-gaga-obama-call-teen-suicide.jhtml">Jamey Rodemeyer</a>, a 14-year-old fan who took his own life after years of anti-gay harassment. And last year, Gaga topped <a href="/news/articles/1676499/do-something-org-celebs-gone-good-justin-bieber-lady-gaga.jhtml">DoSomething.org's list</a> of the most charitable celebrities, in part for her work on behalf of gay rights causes. "My daughter's foundation was born out of her passion to create a better world where people are kinder and nicer to one another and are accepted for who they are, regardless of how different they may be," Germanotta said. "She has experienced many of the struggles that our youth encounter today, and identifies with the lasting effects they can have without proper support. Together, we look forward to creating a new movement that will engage and empower youth and accept them as valuable members of our society." </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:683377.id:1669247" width="240" height="211"></div><p> The Mother Monster's commitment to the gay community was again recognized Thursday (January 19) with a nomination for Outstanding Music Artist at the <a href="/news/articles/1677519/glaad-awards-lady-gaga-glee.jhtml">GLAAD Media Awards</a>.The awards recognize fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community across all media. In December, the diva was recognized with the Hero Award by the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that offers suicide-prevention services to LGBT youth. During her acceptance speech at <a href="http://newsroom.mtv.com/2011/12/05/lady-gaga-pays-tribute-to-little-monster-jamey-at-trevor-project-live-in-la">Trevor Project Live</a>, Gaga touched on her wishes to someday make bullying a hate crime. "I hope that we can acknowledge all together that where this needs to begin is in the schools," Gaga said. "I want my fans and people all over the world to know that there's always somebody that's listening. But I want them to know they're listening before it gets too late."</p>

Related Videos

• MTV First: Lady Gaga

Related Artists

• Lady Gaga

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677562/lady-gaga-born-this-way-foundation.jhtml

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Russell Brand to interview Ringo for Sirius XM (AP)

NEW YORK ? British actor-comedian Russell Brand will interview former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr for Sirius XM Radio.

"Town Hall With Ringo Starr" will air live from Los Angeles on Jan. 30.

Music producer Don Was will moderate the Q&A, and Starr will perform at the event.

A day later, Starr will release his 17th solo album, "Ringo 2012."

Brand said in a statement Thursday that he's a "massive fan" of Starr, "but like most people I am ignorant as to his life before he rose to prominence with `Thomas the Tank Engine.'"

Added Brand: "Now we can unravel the enigma of Ringo."

Past "Town Hall" specials have featured Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Coldplay and members of Nirvana.

___

Online:

http://www.ringostarr.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_en_mu/us_people_russell_brand

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Out & About

Ryan Seacrest presented the NOKIA LUMIA 900 with Microsoft?s Steve Ballmer during the company?s final Consumer Electronics Show keynote at the 2012 show in Las Vegas.

Tabatha Coffey celebrated the launch of the 4th season of her hit Bravo show Tabatha Takes Over.

Michelle Williams wore a Victoria Beckham dress and Chanel shoes to the 18th annual BAFTA Tea Party in LA.

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Melissa Rycroft stopped by the HBO Luxury Lounge, which featured products from L'Oreal Paris, New Era Cap and cashmere from Magaschoni.

Jason Wahler celebrated his 25th birthday at SBE's Hyde Lounge in West Hollywood.

Carmen Electra was styled by Lindsay Albanese with a hot white dress by SEDUCE at THE Hospitality Suite at Confidential in Beverly Hills.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InTouchWeekly/~3/fuTu1yVRR0I/out_about_197.php

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CampusMBA Extends Educational Partnership With Insurance ...

CampusMBA, the education division of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), has announced it has extended its partnership with Stamford, Conn.-based Insurance Advisors LLC. Under the agreement CampusMBA, in conjunction with Insurance Advisors, will continue to offer live online workshops addressing a variety of insurance issues for commercial/multifamily real estate loans.

"We are proud to continue to join Insurance Advisors to offer valuable industry education, especially in this challenging economic environment," said David H. Stevens, MBA's president and chief executive officer. "Commercial insurance issues continue to be vital for our commercial and multifamily members, and we look forward to continuing to offer relevant courses to educate industry professionals on important and timely insurance related issues."

Each workshop will cover both broad issues as well a specific topics that industry professionals address on a daily basis. The workshops are designed to provide practical information that is useful to commercial loan originators and underwriters, loan closers, drafting attorneys and loan servicers.?Course topics will include: Self insurance, captives and fronting arrangement. The workshops will also cover terrorism insurance, flood insurance and the principles of property insurance.

"We are very excited to continue our work with MBA and its members on such relevant issues facing the industry," said Bernie Brown, president of Insurance Advisors LLC. "By working with MBA and its education division, CampusMBA, Insurance Advisors is able to educate industry professionals on vital and timely insurance related issues. We are committed to providing superior educational assistance to MBA members and we are proud the MBA has chosen to continue our partnership with them."

Source: http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news28052/campusmba-extends-educational-partnership-insurance-advisors

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India army chief asks Supreme Court: How old am I? (AP)

NEW DELHI ? The Indian government and its army chief are asking the Supreme Court to answer a peculiar question: Just how old is the nation's top soldier?

Gen. Vijay Kumar Singh says he was born in May 1951 and will not reach the mandatory retirement age of 62 until next year. But India's Defense Ministry says its records show he was born a year earlier and must retire in four months.

The disagreement, the first time a serving general has dragged the government to court, is complicated because Singh's army records and school certificates show different dates. Like many Indians of his generation, Singh has no birth certificate.

Singh filed a Supreme Court petition Monday challenging the government's assertion that he is 61. On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry asked the court for time to present its own evidence.

Singh took over as army chief nearly two years ago and insists his case is not about getting an extra year in power.

"It's all about honor and integrity, not tenure," Singh was quoted as saying in the Times of India.

The Defense Ministry has said that it will stick to 1950 as Singh's year of birth.

Defense Minister A.K. Antony met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Cabinet members Tuesday to discuss the government's strategy in the dispute.

Opposition parties said the army chief's removal was likely to affect troop morale.

"The mindlessness of the government in handling a sensitive situation will have its consequences," Jaswant Singh, a former defense minister, warned Tuesday.

India has one of the world's largest armies, with 1.2 million soldiers and nearly another million in reserves.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_re_as/as_india_army_chief

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Wikipedia editors question site's planned blackout (AP)

NEW YORK ? Can the world live without Wikipedia for a day? The planned shutdown of one of the Internet's most-visited sites is not sitting well with some of its volunteer editors, who say the protest of anti-piracy legislation could threaten the credibility of their work.

"My main concern is that it puts the organization in the role of advocacy, and that's a slippery slope," said editor Robert Lawton, a Michigan computer consultant who would prefer that the encyclopedia stick to being a neutral repository of knowledge. "Before we know it, we're blacked out because we want to save the whales."

Wikipedia will shut down access to its English-language site for 24 hours beginning at midnight Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday. Instead of encyclopedia articles, visitors will see information about the two congressional bills and details about how to reach lawmakers.

It is the first time the English site has been blacked out. Wikipedia's Italian site came down once briefly in protest to an Internet censorship bill put forward by the Berlusconi government. The bill did not advance.

The shutdown adds to a growing body of critics who are speaking out against the legislation. But some editors are so uneasy with the move that they have blacked out their own user profile pages or resigned their administrative rights on the site to protest. Some likened the site's decision to fighting censorship with censorship.

One of the site's own "five pillars" of conduct says that Wikipedia "is written from a neutral point of view." The site strives to "avoid advocacy, and we characterize information and issues rather than debate them."

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales argues that the site can maintain neutrality in content even as it takes public positions on issues.

"The encyclopedia will always be neutral. The community need not be, not when the encyclopedia is threatened," he tweeted.

The Wikimedia Foundation, which administers the site, announced the blackout late Monday, after polling its community of volunteer contributors and editors and getting responses from 1,800 of them. The protest is aimed at the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate.

"If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States," the foundation said.

Both bills are designed to crack down on sales of pirated American products overseas, and they have the support of the film and music industry. Among the opponents are many Internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and AOL. They say the bills would hurt the industry and infringe on free-speech rights.

Social news website Reddit.com is shutting down for 12 hours on Wednesday, but most companies are staying up. Google Inc. said it will display its opposition to the bill on its home page in some fashion.

Dick Costollo, CEO of Twitter, said he opposes the legislation as well, but shutting down the service was out of the question.

"Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish," Costollo tweeted.

Since Wikimedia depends on a small army of volunteers who create and update articles, it's particularly concerned about a lack of exemptions in the bills for sites where users might contribute copyrighted content. Today, it has no obligation under U.S. law except removing that content if a copyright holder complains. But under the House version of the bill, it could be shut down unless it polices its own pages.

The plans for the protest were moving forward even though the bill's prospects appeared to be dimming. On Saturday, Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, said the bill would not move to the House floor for a vote unless consensus is reached. However, Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, said work on the bill would resume next month.

The White House raised concerns over the weekend, pledging to work with Congress to battle piracy and counterfeiting while defending free expression, privacy and innovation in the Internet. The administration signaled it might use its veto power, if necessary.

That the bill seems unlikely to pass is another reason Lawton opposes the blackout.

"I think there are far more important things for the organization to focus aside from legislation that isn't likely to pass anyway," he said. He's been contributing to Wikipedia for eight years.

Danny Chia, another contributor to the site, said he had mixed feelings about the blackout. The neutrality applies to the content, but a lot of people interpret it as being about the site as a whole, said the Los Altos, Calif., software engineer.

In an online discussion, others raised the same point about the blackout: Appearances matter, and if the audience sees Wikipedia taking a stand, it might not believe the articles are objective, either.

Wikipedia has seen a small decline in participation, from a peak of 100,000 active editors a year ago to about 90,000 now. Wikimedia Foundation blames this mainly on outdated editing tools, and believes it can get the number growing again with software upgrades.

___

AP Technology Writer Mike Liedtke contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_us/us_wikipedia_credibility

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Alienware announces X51 small form factor gaming PC, starting at $699

Alienware may have just upgraded its Aurora gaming rig, but that's not to keep the company from giving more diminutive form factors some love. Just this evening, the subsidiary of Dell announced the X51, a slim gaming PC that's designed to orient itself either vertically or horizontally on the desktop -- complete with an Alienware logo that properly rotates depending on orientation. The system will include both Core i3 and i5 options, and features a slot-loading optical drive with an option for Blu-ray. While it's no shocker, the system can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM and a full 1TB of storage. Further, the case accommodates a single, full size graphics card and features an external power supply, (available in 240W or 330W versions, depending on configuration). Users can also expect HDMI 1.4, on-board WiFi, USB 3.0 and digital 7.1 surround sound. As a nifty trick, the computer's accent colors can be modified conveniently with the included Alienware Command Center software. Touting immediate availability, customers can place orders for the X51 right away, with configurations starting as low as $699.

Gallery: Alienware X51

Alienware announces X51 small form factor gaming PC, starting at $699 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/17/alienware-announces-x51-for-699/

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Major cancer societies to support new Wiley Open Access Journal

Public release date: 16-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ben Norman
healthnews@wiley.com
44-012-437-70375
Wiley-Blackwell

Hoboken, NJ -- Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., today announced the launch of Cancer Medicine, a new Wiley Open Access journal. Cancer Medicine is a peer reviewed, open access, interdisciplinary journal providing rapid publication of cutting edge research from global biomedical and clinical researchers across all the oncologic specialties in cancer biology, clinical cancer research and cancer prevention. The journal's promise of full global reach is reinforced by its editorial leadership and support from prestigious journals and societies. Cancer Medicine has unprecedented support from three major cancer societies: American Cancer Society (ACS), Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and Japanese Cancer Association (JCA).

Chris Graf, Publisher at Wiley-Blackwell for Cancer Medicine speaks about the societies' involvement in the new journal, "We are thrilled that the ACS, the UICC, and the JCA are collaborating with us to launch our new open access journal, Cancer Medicine. This unique partnership of top-flight organizations reaches around the globe and is a great fit for Cancer Medicine's truly global editorial ambitions."

Jesper Konradsen, Journal Publishing Manager adds, "We believe that by supporting the journal these societies lead the way for others by showing that while publishing models may change, the core value of successful journals remain the same: to serve as the forums for what the research community considers the most significant current research."

Cancer Medicine is steered by Editor-in-Chief Dr. Qingyi Wei, a highly published and cited author based at the world's leading cancer research center in the United States. Dr. Wei's previous editorial work includes a role as a Senior Editor on the American Association for Cancer Research's journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. His research is aimed at identifying individuals at high risk of developing cancer.

Dr. Wei comments, "I am delighted to introduce Cancer Medicine, which will allow readers to have fast access to the most up to date global collaborations in cancer research and international approaches in practicing cancer medicine, as well as highlighting key achievements from the integration of basic, clinical and preventive research of cancer. In the years to come, I will work closely with the Wiley-Blackwell Cancer Medicine team to provide timely and impartial service to all contributors and readers, who will, without a doubt, make Cancer Medicine a success."

###

The journal is open to submissions now and aims to publish its first content online in Spring 2012. Please visit the journal's website www.cancermedicinejournal.com for further information and future updates.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 16-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ben Norman
healthnews@wiley.com
44-012-437-70375
Wiley-Blackwell

Hoboken, NJ -- Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., today announced the launch of Cancer Medicine, a new Wiley Open Access journal. Cancer Medicine is a peer reviewed, open access, interdisciplinary journal providing rapid publication of cutting edge research from global biomedical and clinical researchers across all the oncologic specialties in cancer biology, clinical cancer research and cancer prevention. The journal's promise of full global reach is reinforced by its editorial leadership and support from prestigious journals and societies. Cancer Medicine has unprecedented support from three major cancer societies: American Cancer Society (ACS), Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and Japanese Cancer Association (JCA).

Chris Graf, Publisher at Wiley-Blackwell for Cancer Medicine speaks about the societies' involvement in the new journal, "We are thrilled that the ACS, the UICC, and the JCA are collaborating with us to launch our new open access journal, Cancer Medicine. This unique partnership of top-flight organizations reaches around the globe and is a great fit for Cancer Medicine's truly global editorial ambitions."

Jesper Konradsen, Journal Publishing Manager adds, "We believe that by supporting the journal these societies lead the way for others by showing that while publishing models may change, the core value of successful journals remain the same: to serve as the forums for what the research community considers the most significant current research."

Cancer Medicine is steered by Editor-in-Chief Dr. Qingyi Wei, a highly published and cited author based at the world's leading cancer research center in the United States. Dr. Wei's previous editorial work includes a role as a Senior Editor on the American Association for Cancer Research's journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. His research is aimed at identifying individuals at high risk of developing cancer.

Dr. Wei comments, "I am delighted to introduce Cancer Medicine, which will allow readers to have fast access to the most up to date global collaborations in cancer research and international approaches in practicing cancer medicine, as well as highlighting key achievements from the integration of basic, clinical and preventive research of cancer. In the years to come, I will work closely with the Wiley-Blackwell Cancer Medicine team to provide timely and impartial service to all contributors and readers, who will, without a doubt, make Cancer Medicine a success."

###

The journal is open to submissions now and aims to publish its first content online in Spring 2012. Please visit the journal's website www.cancermedicinejournal.com for further information and future updates.

---

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/w-mcs011612.php

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