Wednesday, May 22, 2013

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Rep.Grayson Hypocritically Says GOP ?Tramples? On Constitution

Rep.Grayson Hypocritically Says GOP ?Tramples? On Constitution

POSTED 05.22.2013 ON The Shark Tank

By JAVIER MANJARRES Florida Congressman Alan Grayson (D) is once again attacking Republicans by stating that the Northern Route Approval Act, which was introduced by...

READ MORE

Source: http://www.politicsinstereo.com/2013/05/22/rep-grayson-hypocritically-says-gop-%E2%80%9Ctramples%E2%80%9D-on-constitution/

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Restaurant learns online reviews can make or break

PHOENIX (AP) ? It was the customer service disaster heard around the Internet.

An Arizona restaurateur, fed up after years of negative online reviews and an embarrassing appearance on a reality television show, posted a social media rant laced with salty language and angry, uppercase letters that quickly went viral last week, to the delight of people who love a good Internet meltdown.

"I AM NOT STUPID ALL OF YOU ARE," read the posting on the Facebook wall of Amy's Baking Co. in suburban Phoenix. "YOU JUST DO NOT KNOW GOOD FOOD."

It was, to put it kindly, not a best business practice. Add to that an appearance earlier this month on the Fox reality television show "Kitchen Nightmares" ? where celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay gave up on trying to save the restaurant after he was insulted ? and you have a recipe for disaster.

"That's probably the worst thing that can happen," said Sujan Patel, founder and CEO of Single Grain, a digital marketing agency in San Francisco.

In the evolving world of online marketing, where the power of word of mouth has been wildly amplified by the whims and first impressions of anonymous reviewers posting on dozens of social media websites, online comments, both good and bad, and the reactions they trigger from managers, can make all the difference between higher revenues and empty storefronts.

Hotels, restaurants and other businesses that depend on good customer service reviews have all grappled in recent years with how to respond to online feedback on sites such as Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook and Instagram, where comments can often be more vitriol than in-person reviews because of the anonymous shield many social media websites provide.

No matter how ugly the reviews get, businesses need to be willing to admit mistakes and offer discounts to lure unhappy customers back, digital marketing experts said.

"In the past, people just sent bad soup back. Well, now they are getting on social media and telling all their friends and friends of friends how bad the soup was and why they should find other places to get soup in the future, so it takes the customer experience to another level," said Tom Garrity of the Garrity Group, a public relations firm in New Mexico.

"The challenge becomes ? how do you respond when someone doesn't think your food or product is as great as you think it is?"

In Amy and Samy Bouzaglo's case, the bad reviews were compounded by their horrible reality TV experience. The couple said during a recent episode of "Kitchen Nightmares" that they needed professional guidance after years of battling terrible online reviews. They opened the pizzeria in an upscale Scottsdale neighborhood about six years ago.

"Kitchen Nightmares" follows Ramsay as he helps rebuild struggling restaurants. After one bite, he quickly deemed Amy's Baking Co. a disaster and chided the Bouzaglos for growing increasingly irate over his constructive feedback. Among his many critiques: The store-bought ravioli smelled "weird," a salmon burger was overcooked and a fig pizza was too sweet and arrived on raw dough.

"You need thick skin in this business," Ramsay said before walking out. It was the first time he wasn't able to reform a business, according to the show.

Amy's Baking Co. temporarily closed last week after the episode aired. A Bouzaglo spokesman said the couple was not available for an interview Monday. The restaurant's answering machine was full. Emails and Facebook messages were not returned.

A wall post published last week claimed the restaurant's Facebook, Yelp and Twitter accounts had been hacked, but hundreds of commenters expressed doubt. Social media sites show someone posting as a member of the Bouzaglo family had been insulting customers over negative reviews since at least 2010.

The story bounced across the Internet, generating thousands of comments on Facebook, Yelp and Twitter, and prompting nearly 36,000 people to sign a petition on Change.org that asks the Department of Labor to look into the Bouzaglo's practice of pocketing their servers' tips.

While many corporations hire communications experts to respond to every tweet, Facebook message and online review, the wave of digital feedback can be especially challenging for small businesses with small staffs, digital consultants said.

For one thing, there is so much online content to wade through. Roughly 60 percent of all adults get information about local businesses from search engines and entertainment websites such as Yelp or TripAdvisor, according to a 2011 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

"Customer service is a spectator sport now," said Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert, a social media marketing consultancy in Indiana. "It's not about making that customer happy on Yelp. That's the big misunderstanding of Yelp. It's about the hundreds of thousands of people who are looking on to see how you handle it. It's those ripples that make social media so important."

In their "Kitchen Nightmares" episode, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo are seen yelling and cursing at customers inquiring about undercooked food or long delays. They blame online bullies.

"We stand up to them," Amy Bouzaglo tells the camera at one point. "They come and they try to attack us and say horrible things that are not true."

That's exactly how businesses shouldn't respond, the digital experts said.

"If your policy is to berate the customer online, that doesn't create good public relations," Garrity said.

Baer said he tells clients to create a response matrix representing different potential complaints that staff can refer to whenever bad feedback arises. Creating the comment chart before the bad publicity hits helps ensure businesses aren't responding to angry or disappointed customers with their own anger or disappointment, Baer said.

A 2011 Harvard study found Yelp's 40 million reviews disproportionately affect small businesses. The research found a one-star increase in Yelp's five-star rating system resulted in a revenue jump of up to 9 percent for some restaurants, while chains with sizable advertising budgets were unaffected.

"You have to respond 100 percent of the time, whether you like it or not," Baer said. "Businesses need to assign someone to stay on top of it."

In Arizona, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo had planned a grand reopening ceremony and news conference for Tuesday, but the news conference was canceled late Monday after legal threats from Fox.

Fewer than a dozen people were waiting when the restaurant reopened Tuesday. Four guards blocked the door and turned reporters away. Inside, a smiling Samy Bouzaglo posed for pictures and told customers that the tension captured in the episode was staged. That was a disappointment for some.

"I wanted it to be dramatic and people yelling," said Ricky Potts, a 29-year-old blogger who ate at the restaurant for the first time Tuesday only to declare the food good and the service routine. "Basically, I wanted it to be the circus that the TV episode was."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/restaurant-learns-online-reviews-break-072759344.html

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Encouraging signs for bee biodiversity

Encouraging signs for bee biodiversity [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 21-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Chris Bunting
c.j.bunting@leeds.ac.uk
44-113-343-2049
University of Leeds

Declines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years, according to a new study.

Researchers led by the University of Leeds and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands found evidence of dramatic reductions in the diversity of species in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands between the 1950s and 1980s.

But the picture brightened markedly after 1990, with a slowdown in local and national biodiversity losses among bees, hoverflies and wild plants.

Professor Bill Kunin, Professor of Ecology at the University of Leeds, said: "Most observers have been saying that the 1992 Rio Earth Summit targets to slow biodiversity loss by 2010 failed, but what we are seeing is a significant slowing or reversal of the declines for wild plants and their insect pollinators.

"These species are important to us. About a third of our food production, including most of our fruit and vegetables, depends on animal pollination and we know that most crop pollination is done by wild pollinators. Biodiversity is important to ensuring we don't lose that service. Relying on a few species could be risky in a changing environment," he added.

The study, published in the journal Ecology Letters, found a 30 per cent fall in local bumblebee biodiversity in all three countries between the 1950s and the 1980s. However, that decline slowed to an estimated 10 per cent in Britain by 2010, while in Belgium and the Netherlands bumblebee diversity had stabilised.

The picture was better for other wild bees, with an 8 per cent reduction in diversity in the Netherlands and a stable picture in Great Britain turning into significant increases (7 per cent in the Netherlands and 10 per cent in Britain) over the past 20 years. While these solitary bees continued to decline in Belgium, hoverfly diversity improved there, shifting from stable diversity in the 1980s to significant (20 per cent) increases in recent decades. British wildflower diversity had declined about 20 per cent from the 1950s to the 1980s, but again the declines have ceased in the past 20 years.

Not all groups fared so well. Butterfly diversity continued to fall in all three countries at roughly the same rates as in the past.

Dr Luisa Carvalheiro, lead author on the paper, said: "It is possible that by 1990 the most sensitive species had already gone. However, that's probably not the whole story, as there are still plenty of rare and vulnerable species present in recent records.

"There is a much more encouraging possibility: the conservation work and agri-environment programs paying farmers to encourage biodiversity may be having an effect. We may also be seeing a slowdown of the drivers of decline. The postwar emphasis on getting land into production and on more intensive farming has given way to a more stable situation in which the rate of landscape change has slowed and in which agrichemical excesses are regulated.

Dr Carvalheiro said: "If what we take from the Rio targets is that the investment in conservation gave us no results, then that is a counsel of despair. This study brings a positive message for conservation. But some important groups are undoubtedly still declining, so continued and increased investment in conservation practices is essential for guaranteeing the persistence of a diverse assemblage of species."

Co-author Professor Koos Biesmeijer, who works both at the University of Leeds and Naturalis, said: "This paper builds on a widely-publicised study we published in 2006 that established that the diversity of bees and of wildflowers had declined. Our new work is based on a much bigger dataset and improved analytic methods, and it reveals much more detail about the scale and timing of biodiversity losses.

"However, while we can use biodiversity records to measure changes in the diversity of pollinators, we can't tell what's happening to their overall abundance or to the quality of the pollination services they provide to wildflowers or agricultural crops. To study these issues would require a long-term monitoring programme."

The research team, including scientists from 18 institutions in Europe and the United States, used historical and contemporary records of species' presence held by organizations including the European Invertebrate Survey, Butterfly Conservation, the Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society, the INBO Research Institute for Nature and Forest in Belgium and the University of Mons, Belgium.

The study is published in Ecology Letters on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. This is the 21st anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity and has been designated by the United Nations as International Day for Biological Diversity.

###

The research was funded under the European Union Framework Program 7 projects Status and Trends of European Pollinators (STEP) and Securing the Conservation of biodiversity across Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales (SCALES), with additional support from the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative.

Further information

Professor Bill Kunin and Dr Luisa Carvalheiro are available for interview.

Images of bees, butterflies and hoverflies species recorded in the study are available on request.

Contact: Chris Bunting, Press Officer, University of Leeds; phone 0113 343 2049 or email c.j.bunting@leeds.ac.uk .

The full paper: Lusa G. Carvalheiro, et al. 'Species richness declines and biotic homogenization have slowed down for NW-European pollinators and plants'. Ecology Letters, doi: 10.1111/ele.12121 is published in Ecology Letters on May 22. It is also available on request from the University of Leeds press office.

Notes for Editors

The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise showed the University of Leeds to be the UK's eighth biggest research powerhouse. The University is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015. http://www.leeds.ac.uk


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Encouraging signs for bee biodiversity [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 21-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Chris Bunting
c.j.bunting@leeds.ac.uk
44-113-343-2049
University of Leeds

Declines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years, according to a new study.

Researchers led by the University of Leeds and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands found evidence of dramatic reductions in the diversity of species in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands between the 1950s and 1980s.

But the picture brightened markedly after 1990, with a slowdown in local and national biodiversity losses among bees, hoverflies and wild plants.

Professor Bill Kunin, Professor of Ecology at the University of Leeds, said: "Most observers have been saying that the 1992 Rio Earth Summit targets to slow biodiversity loss by 2010 failed, but what we are seeing is a significant slowing or reversal of the declines for wild plants and their insect pollinators.

"These species are important to us. About a third of our food production, including most of our fruit and vegetables, depends on animal pollination and we know that most crop pollination is done by wild pollinators. Biodiversity is important to ensuring we don't lose that service. Relying on a few species could be risky in a changing environment," he added.

The study, published in the journal Ecology Letters, found a 30 per cent fall in local bumblebee biodiversity in all three countries between the 1950s and the 1980s. However, that decline slowed to an estimated 10 per cent in Britain by 2010, while in Belgium and the Netherlands bumblebee diversity had stabilised.

The picture was better for other wild bees, with an 8 per cent reduction in diversity in the Netherlands and a stable picture in Great Britain turning into significant increases (7 per cent in the Netherlands and 10 per cent in Britain) over the past 20 years. While these solitary bees continued to decline in Belgium, hoverfly diversity improved there, shifting from stable diversity in the 1980s to significant (20 per cent) increases in recent decades. British wildflower diversity had declined about 20 per cent from the 1950s to the 1980s, but again the declines have ceased in the past 20 years.

Not all groups fared so well. Butterfly diversity continued to fall in all three countries at roughly the same rates as in the past.

Dr Luisa Carvalheiro, lead author on the paper, said: "It is possible that by 1990 the most sensitive species had already gone. However, that's probably not the whole story, as there are still plenty of rare and vulnerable species present in recent records.

"There is a much more encouraging possibility: the conservation work and agri-environment programs paying farmers to encourage biodiversity may be having an effect. We may also be seeing a slowdown of the drivers of decline. The postwar emphasis on getting land into production and on more intensive farming has given way to a more stable situation in which the rate of landscape change has slowed and in which agrichemical excesses are regulated.

Dr Carvalheiro said: "If what we take from the Rio targets is that the investment in conservation gave us no results, then that is a counsel of despair. This study brings a positive message for conservation. But some important groups are undoubtedly still declining, so continued and increased investment in conservation practices is essential for guaranteeing the persistence of a diverse assemblage of species."

Co-author Professor Koos Biesmeijer, who works both at the University of Leeds and Naturalis, said: "This paper builds on a widely-publicised study we published in 2006 that established that the diversity of bees and of wildflowers had declined. Our new work is based on a much bigger dataset and improved analytic methods, and it reveals much more detail about the scale and timing of biodiversity losses.

"However, while we can use biodiversity records to measure changes in the diversity of pollinators, we can't tell what's happening to their overall abundance or to the quality of the pollination services they provide to wildflowers or agricultural crops. To study these issues would require a long-term monitoring programme."

The research team, including scientists from 18 institutions in Europe and the United States, used historical and contemporary records of species' presence held by organizations including the European Invertebrate Survey, Butterfly Conservation, the Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society, the INBO Research Institute for Nature and Forest in Belgium and the University of Mons, Belgium.

The study is published in Ecology Letters on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. This is the 21st anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity and has been designated by the United Nations as International Day for Biological Diversity.

###

The research was funded under the European Union Framework Program 7 projects Status and Trends of European Pollinators (STEP) and Securing the Conservation of biodiversity across Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales (SCALES), with additional support from the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative.

Further information

Professor Bill Kunin and Dr Luisa Carvalheiro are available for interview.

Images of bees, butterflies and hoverflies species recorded in the study are available on request.

Contact: Chris Bunting, Press Officer, University of Leeds; phone 0113 343 2049 or email c.j.bunting@leeds.ac.uk .

The full paper: Lusa G. Carvalheiro, et al. 'Species richness declines and biotic homogenization have slowed down for NW-European pollinators and plants'. Ecology Letters, doi: 10.1111/ele.12121 is published in Ecology Letters on May 22. It is also available on request from the University of Leeds press office.

Notes for Editors

The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise showed the University of Leeds to be the UK's eighth biggest research powerhouse. The University is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015. http://www.leeds.ac.uk


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/uol-esf052013.php

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Xbox 720 vs. PS4 vs. PC: How the hardware specs compare ...

Xbox One/720 hardware

Updated: Microsoft has now confirmed the Xbox 720?s specs (aka, the Xbox One). They seem to be exactly the same as the rumored specs. In addition to the specs listed below, Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox 720 has 8GB of RAM, HDMI in/out, USB 3.0, and a 500GB hard drive. The Xbox 720 (Xbox One) seems to have virtually identical hardware to the PS4.

Microsoft has finally unveiled the Xbox 720. Not only have we found out its real name (the Xbox One), but more importantly we?ve found out how the Xbox 720?s hardware stacks up against the PS4 and gaming PCs. While we don?t know the exact hardware spec ? console makers never give away all their secrets ? all signs point to the Xbox 720 having very, very similar hardware to the PS4, and about on-par with a mid-range gaming PC. This is in stark contrast to the current generation of consoles, which were beastly, noisy, massively expensive machines that blew away all but the highest-end PCs. Merely comparing hardware specs is incredibly naive, though ? to find out why, read on.

For the most accurate Xbox 720 hardware specs, we look towards the games development sector, which has been programming Xbox 720 games since last year. The latest leaks suggest that the Xbox 720 will have an 8-core 64-bit x86 Jaguar AMD CPU @ 1.6GHz, coupled with a GPU that?s very close to the Radeon HD 7790. The PS4, in comparison, has an 8-core Jaguar AMD CPU, with a GPU that?s around the Radeon 7870. In both consoles, the CPU and GPU will be on the same die (an AMD APU). Just as the PS4 has 8GB of high-speed memory that is shared by the CPU and GPU, the Xbox 720 ? by virtue of being based on the same APU heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) ? will probably be the same. In short, while there will undoubtedly be small hardware differences between the consoles, they will ultimately have very similar performance characteristics.

AMD Radeon 7790In comparison to a modern PC, you can probably guess how the Xbox 720 compares. There?s no direct comparison for the 8-core Jaguar CPU ? AMD?s own parts based on the Jaguar core, Kabini and Temash, are quad-core parts destined for ultrathins and tablets. From leaked benchmarks, the Jaguar core is around 10% faster than its predecessor (Bobcat). A dual-core Brazos (Bobcat core) about 10 times slower than the latest Ivy Bridge parts, in a very naive comparison. So, all in all, an 8-core Jaguar might manage about half the performance of a current-gen Core i7. The GPU comparison is easier: The Radeon 7790 is a $150 card.

In short, then, today?s PCs will stomp all over the Xbox 720 (and PS4) in terms of raw computation power.

It?s now how big it is; it?s what you do with it

An awesome Xbox 720 controller conceptAnother way of looking at the Xbox 720 and PS4, though, is their power relative to their predecessors. In terms of raw, synthetic performance, the Xbox 360 could churn out around 300 gigaflops; the PS3 was around 400 gigaflops. The Xbox 720 and PS4, however, should both be above two teraflops ? about six times more powerful than their predecessors. Remember, the output resolution (1920?1080) is unlikely to change ? so, with six times more power, we?re looking at a significant improvement to image quality.

Using teraflops as a stand-in for real-world performance, though, to quote our hardware analyst Joel Hruska, is like ?giving the fuel efficiency of a car going downhill with an 80 mph tailwind on helium-inflated tires.? What it ultimately comes down to is how efficiently developers use the hardware ? and in that regard, we have high hopes. With the shift to x86, and a GPU architecture (AMD?s GCN) that?s well known, developers will be able to hit the ground running. Compare this to the Cell CPUs at the heart of the Xbox 360 and PS3, which took years for developers to fully understand.

PS4 DualShock 4 controller

It?s also important to remember that, in recent years, there has been a fundamental shift away from games that do the bulk of their computation on the CPU, to programs that use the CPU to offload computation to the (much more powerful) GPU. With the Xbox 360 and PS3, both consoles had a monstrous Cell-based CPU and an equally large GPU ? the PS4 and Xbox 720, on the other hand, have wimpy, many-core CPUs and much larger GPUs. With both consoles expected to fill more of a media center/set-top box role, rather than focusing on gaming, we can foresee those cores being dedicated to background tasks, such as downloading updates or listening for voice commands.

Ultimately, with both the Xbox 720 and PS4 having such similar hardware, real-world performance differences will probably come down to how well the consoles make use of those eight CPU cores and GPU offloading. It?s also important to bear in mind that a huge speed-up is available when developing games for a fixed platform, with known performance/latency characteristics. Realistically, we wouldn?t be surprised if games on the Xbox 720 and PS4, just like the current generation, look very similar. Likewise, games will probably look better on consoles for a few years, and then PCs will probably pull back ahead.

Now read:?Nvidia gave AMD the PS4 because console margins are terrible

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/156273-xbox-720-vs-ps4-vs-pc-how-the-hardware-specs-compare

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

FDA To Decide Fate of Triclosan, Commonly Used In Antibacterial Soaps

The awfulness of this post is pretty remarkable. Sidestepping the wrong "your":
*) This antibiotic isn't for "taking", it's for things that aren't edible like soap and toothpaste
*) Overuse of antibiotics doesn't "raise your resistance to them", at best it increases the bacteria's resistance to them, but in actually it just increases the chance of creating an antibiotic resistance strain. Almost all of the time, however, any resistant bacteria that may develop are killed by other means (like your immune system) and don't live on.
*) One should never save antibiotics, but rather take them when prescribed and as prescribed. While your post could be construed as saying that, the reality is that antibiotics generally require a prescription so it's unlikely anyone will have any to save unless they were sick but are feeling better halfway through the prescription. Saving them at that point is the worst possible thing you can do; not taking a full regimen is what is primarily responsible for resistance.

All that being said, the first point is the most important: this is an external antibiotic. Since it's not applying evolutionary pressure while the bacteria are in your body, there isn't a combined force to make deadly resistant bacteria: ones that survive the antibiotic may not be as effective in the body and thus no one cares. Further, even if that is not the case, the mechanism of action is not the same as other antibiotics so it can still be killed off effectively. For instance, MRSA which is resistant to basically every internal antibiotic can be killed by Triclosan (the chemical in question).

It's very important to understand that not all antibiotics are the same. Something like a blast furnace will kill bacteria and they will never develop a resistance to it, period. However, it will also kill all of humanity so it's not a fantastic treatment for infection. Ditto with chemicals like ethylene oxide or other physical means like gamma rays. Something like bleach is also very effective at killing bacteria, and can even do so on human skin, but obviously doesn't leave the skin doing so well on longer exposure. There are many many things that kill bacteria. The only ones that are really 'special' and need careful use are the ones that can kill bacteria without killing people. Triclosan kind of falls in the middle and while it deserves some consideration, that 'ZOMG RESISTANCE" response isn't really appropriate either.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/EYs73OkIBRQ/story01.htm

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Happy Anniversary, Jessica Alba and Cash Warren!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/happy-anniversary-jessica-alba-and-cash-warren/

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Monday, May 20, 2013

Tornadoes level homes in Okla., 21 injured

People survey damage from a tornado that hit Edmond, Okla., on Sunday, May 19, 2013. A powerful storm system rumbled through the Plains and upper Midwest on Sunday, spawning tornadoes that damaged roofs and structures near Oklahoma City and kicked up debris in Wichita, Kan. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)

People survey damage from a tornado that hit Edmond, Okla., on Sunday, May 19, 2013. A powerful storm system rumbled through the Plains and upper Midwest on Sunday, spawning tornadoes that damaged roofs and structures near Oklahoma City and kicked up debris in Wichita, Kan. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)

Residents of Edmond, Okla., survey storm damage from a tornado that hit their neighborhood Sunday, May 19, 2013. Forecasters had warned that the middle of the country would see severe weather throughout the weekend. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)

A tornado touches down southwest of Wichita, Kan. near the town of Viola on Sunday, May 19, 2013. The tornado was part of a line of storms that past through the central plains on Sunday. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying)

June McFarland reacts to the first sight of storm damage in rural Osage, Iowa on Sunday, May 19, 2013. A powerful weather system moved through the area on Sunday afternoon triggering tornado warnings, high winds and hail. (AP Photo/The Globe Gazette, Arian Schuessler)

Jerry Dirks, at right, hugs her friend Earlene Langley after a tornado hit Driks' home just south of Carney Okla., on Sunday, May 19, 2013. Dirks was in her cellar at the time the tornado hit. (AP Photo/The Oklahoman, Bryan Terry)

(AP) ? One of several tornadoes that touched down Sunday in Oklahoma turned homes in a trailer park near Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 100-mile corridor scurrying for shelter.

The tornadoes, high winds and hail across Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

At least four separate twisters touched down in central Oklahoma late Sunday afternoon, including one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a mobile home park.

Across the state, 21 people were injured, not including those who suffered bumps and bruises and chose not to visit a hospital, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

Following the twisters, local emergency officials went from home site to home site in an effort to account for everyone. Cain said that, many times in such situations, people who are not found immediately are discovered later to have left the area ahead of the storm.

Forecasters had been warning of a general storm outbreak since Wednesday, and for Sunday's storms some residents had more than a half-hour's notice that a twister was on the way. Tornado watches and warnings were in effect through late Sunday in much of the nation's midsection.

The trailer park west of Shawnee was among the hardest-hit areas, and among the hardest to reach, as tractor-trailers that forced the closure of a section of Interstate 40 north of the site and power lines draped across roads to the south.

James Hoke lives with his wife and two children in Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park. He said the family went into their storm cellar as the storm approached. When they came out, their mobile home had vanished.

"It took a dead hit," Hoke said.

A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth "scoured" at the mobile home park.

"It seemed like it went on forever. It was a big rumbling for a long time," said Shawn Savory, standing outside his damaged remodeling business in Shawnee. "It was close enough that you could feel like you could reach out and touch it."

Gov. Mary Fallin declared an emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties that suffered from severe storms and flooding during the weekend. The declaration lets local governments acquire goods quickly to respond to their residents' needs and puts the state in line for federal help if it becomes necessary.

Heavy rains and straight-line winds hit much of western Oklahoma on Saturday. Tornadoes were also reported Sunday at Edmond, Arcadia and near Wellston to the north and northeast of Oklahoma City. The supercell that generated the twisters weakened as it approached Tulsa, 90 miles to the northeast.

"I knew it was coming," said Randy Grau, who huddled with his wife and two young sons in their Edmond home's safe room when the tornado hit. He said he peered out his window as the weather worsened and believed he saw a flock of birds heading down the street.

"Then I realized it was swirling debris. That's when we shut the door of the safe room," said Grau, adding that they remained in the room for 10 minutes.

In Wichita, Kan., a tornado touched down near Mid-Content Airport on the city's southwest side shortly before 4 p.m., knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses but bypassing the most populated areas of Kansas' biggest city. The Wichita tornado was an EF1 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Randy Duncan said there were no reports of fatalities or injuries in Kansas.

There were also two reports of tornadoes touching down in Iowa on Sunday night, including one near Huxley, about 20 miles north of Des Moines, and one in Grundy County, which is northeast of Des Moines, according to the Des Moines Register. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

In Oklahoma, aerial television news footage showed homes with significant damage northeast of Oklahoma City. Some outbuildings appeared to have been leveled, and some homes' roofs or walls had been knocked down.

"When I first drove into the neighborhood, I didn't see any major damage until I pulled into the front of my house," said Csaba Mathe, of Edmond, who found a part of his neighbor's fence in his swimming pool. "My reaction was: I hope insurance pays for the cleaning."

"I typically have two trash cans, and now I have five in my driveway."

The Storm Prediction Center had been warning about severe weather in the region since Wednesday, and on Friday, it zeroed in on Sunday as the day the storm system would likely pass through.

"They've been calling for this all day," Edmond resident Anita Wright said after riding out the twister in an underground shelter. She and her husband, Ed, emerged from their hiding place to find uprooted trees, downed limbs and damaged gutters in their home.

In Katie Leathers' backyard, the family's trampoline was tossed through a section of fence and a giant tree uprooted.

"I saw all the trees waving, and that's when I grabbed everyone and got into two closets," Leathers said. "All these trees just snapped."

___

Associated Press writers Ken Miller in Shawnee, Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-19-US-Severe-Weather/id-cefcb8dcfb67428996ffb229bc4b7769

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Powerball jackpot could go higher than $600 million

By Karen Brooks

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Powerball jackpot Saturday night could exceed the $600 million figure being advertised, possibly rivaling the largest lottery payoff in U.S. history, a Texas Lottery official said on Saturday.

"Oftentimes, the advertised amount is lower than what the actual jackpot ends up being," said Kelly Cripe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Lottery. "It's entirely possible this $600 million jackpot will end up being a bigger jackpot."

Chances of winning the Powerball on Saturday were one in 175 million, Cripe said, but that did not deter people from buying up tickets at staggering rates. California was selling $1 million in tickets every hour on Saturday, said Donna Cordova, a spokeswoman for the California Lottery, which has only been selling Powerball tickets since April 8.

Texas Lottery officials reported $1.2 million in hourly sales between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. local time, with ticket sales for the Saturday draw topping $18.4 million.

The ticket sale rate on Saturday was nearly double Friday's rate, Cripe said, and a jump of some 686 percent over last Saturday.

The Powerball lottery, which has not had a winner in two months, is offered in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A Powerball lottery record was set in November with a $587.5 million jackpot that topped the $550 million figure that was advertised, thanks to last-minute sales.

The largest jackpot in U.S. history was the $656 million in the Mega Millions lottery in March 2012. That prize was split between winners in Maryland, Kansas and Illinois.

If Saturday's Powerball drawing yields no winner, all records will be shattered as the jackpot for Wednesday's drawing would go to $925 million.

Many Americans were playing the "if I win" game ahead of Saturday's drawing.

"If I win, I'm going to spend a lot of it on liquor, women and gambling," said Austin lawyer Donald Dickson. "I'll likely squander the rest of it."

In New York City, talent acquisition agent Michelle Amici was more philanthropic.

"Not sure that I'd buy anything," she said. "Rather, I'd attempt to quench my wanderlust by traveling the world. I'd also donate a large portion to education reform."

Lottery players such as Austin marketing professional Becky Arreaga was not discouraged by the long odds.

"As long as the odds are 1 in anything, I'm in," said Arreaga, a partner at Mercury Mambo marketing firm. "I truly believe I could be the one."

"It's only a couple bucks for a small daydream," said Russell Williams, 35, a salesman in Austin, Texas.

Bonnie Carreno of El Paso, Texas, rarely plays but was taking a chance on this one. "I only ever buy a ticket when I see the amazing numbers in the headlines," she said.

The $2 tickets allow players pick five numbers from 1 to 59, and a Powerball number from 1 to 35. The numbers will be drawn Saturday at 10:59 p.m. EDT (0259 GMT on Sunday) in Tallahassee, Florida.

(Reporting by Karen Brooks; Editing by Greg McCune, Doina Chiacu and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powerball-jackpot-could-higher-600-million-161816661.html

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Sunday, May 19, 2013

Nintendo partners with Best Buy so you can play unreleased Wii U games in store during E3 (video)

Nintendo partners with Best Buy so you can play unreleased Wii U games in store during E3

There's nothing more frustrating than watching a product or service get announced, then having to wait an age to try it out. Nintendo hears that, and has announced via Nintendo Direct, that during E3 week, Best Buy will have playable demos of as-yet released Wii U games in 100 stores across the US and Canada. Given that no one was likely expecting any new hardware from the firm, it's clear the gaming stalwart is looking for other ways to stir-up some interest. There's no mention of titles, so we're left to assume they'd be the games announced at the show. Either way, scratch out that week in June to make sure you find out first hand. Scrub right to the end of the video past the break to see the announcement for yourself.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/KmUY_J3HAXE/

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Authorities: Hofstra student was killed by police

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) ? A Hofstra University student being held in a headlock at gunpoint by an intruder was accidently shot and killed by a police officer who had responded to the home invasion at an off-campus home, police said Saturday.

Junior public relations major Andrea Rebello was shot once in the head early Friday morning by an officer who opened fire after the masked intruder pointed a gun at the officer while holding the 21-year-old student, Nassau County homicide squad Lt. John Azzata said.

In a tense confrontation with the officer, gunman Dalton Smith "menaces our police officer, points his gun at the police officer," Azzata said. The officer opened fire, killing Smith and his hostage.

Azzata said the Nassau County police officer fired eight shots at Smith, who police described as having an "extensive" criminal background. Smith was hit seven times and died. Rebello was shot once in the head.

"He kept saying, 'I'm going to kill her,' and then he pointed the gun at the police officer," Azzata said.

A loaded 9 mm handgun with a serial number scratched off was found at the scene, police said.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale said he had traveled to Rebello's Tarrytown, N.Y., home to explain to Rebello's parents what happened.

"I felt obligated as a police commissioner and as a parent to inform them as soon as all the forensic results were completed," Dale said.

The veteran police officer, who was not identified, has about 12 years of experience on the Nassau County police force and previously spent several years as a New York City police officer, Dale said.

The officer is currently out on sick leave. He will be the focus of an internal police investigation once the criminal investigation is completed, which is standard police procedure in any officer-involved shooting, the commissioner said.

Earlier Saturday, police announced that Smith, 30, had been wanted on a parole violation related to a first-degree robbery conviction and had an arrest history dating back nearly 15 years.

The shooting came just days before the school's commencement ceremonies, which are scheduled to take place Sunday.

A university spokeswoman said students will be handed white ribbons to wear in memory of Rebello. The shooting, which took place just steps from campus, has cast a pall over the university community as it geared up for commencement on Sunday.

"Today is the last day of finals and this should be a happy day on campus; but it's not," Hofstra freshman Scott Aharoni of Great Neck, said Friday as he passed through the area rife with yellow crime-scene tape. "It's really sad."

Rebello was in the two-story home with her twin sister Jessica, a third woman and a man when Smith, wearing a ski mask, walked into the house through an open front door, Azzata said. Smith demanded valuables and was told they were upstairs, Azzata said.

Smith, apparently unsatisfied with the valuables upstairs, asked if any of the four had a bank account and could withdraw money, Azzata said. The intruder then allowed the unidentified woman to leave and collect money from an ATM, telling her she had only eight minutes to come back with cash before he killed one of her friends, Azzata said.

The woman left for the bank and called 911, according to Azzata.

Minutes later, two police officers arrived at the home and found Rebello's twin sister Jessica running out of the front door and the male guest hiding behind a couch on the first floor, Azzata said.

One of the officers entered the home and encountered Smith holding onto Rebello in a headlock, coming down the stairs, Azzata said. Smith pulled Rebello closer and started moving backward toward a rear door of the house, pointing the gun at her head before eventually threatening the officer, Azzata said.

Rebello's family declined comment Saturday.

The Rev. Osvaldo Franklin, who gave Rebello and her sister Jessica their first communions, on Saturday night told The Associated Press their mother, Nella, couldn't even speak to him earlier in the day.

"She was so devastated," said Franklin. "She's just crying. We have to pray for Andrea, to pray for Jessica because she needs help."

Franklin said a funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at Teresa of Avila Church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., and will be in Portuguese.

"The family's a very good family, they have very good values," he said. "I gave them first communion to Andrea and Jessica and they started to help me in the mass for many years. They are a very good, very devoted family."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/authorities-hofstra-student-killed-police-003456565.html

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How Far Will 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Boldly Go At Box Office?

'Star Trek' is expected to kick 'Iron Man 3' from its #1 spot, but just how big will it be?
By Ryan J. Downey

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707530/star-trek-ninto-darkness-box-office-prediction.jhtml

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Saturday, May 18, 2013

Pinterest lets users send pins directly to friends, receive instant feedback

Pinterest lets users send pins directly to friends, receive instant feedback

Despite being one of the hotter social networks, Pinterest hasn't been on the cutting edge of sharing: members wanting to send their pins through official channels have had to use old-fashioned email. The service is catching up to the modern era in style, however, with a new option to send pins directly to friends through Pinterest's mobile and web apps. While email is still hanging around, both ends now just have to be mutual followers on Facebook or Pinterest for the magic to happen. Sharers will also receive any adulation (or criticism) right away -- comments, likes and repins on those items will appear as notifications. It will take weeks to fully deploy the direct sending feature, but it shouldn't be long before everyone is on the same page.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/17/pinterest-lets-users-send-pins-directly-to-friends/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Kevin Haskin: NHRA driver finds solace on tractor, farm | CJOnline ...

Sometimes NHRA dragsters find themselves needing to unwind from a weekend of racing.

Matt Hagan slows it down about as much as possible. He hops on a tractor.

No, it is not souped-up.

?I can?t hardly get my tractor to do 15 miles per hour,? Hagan said. ?Just a regular John Deere. Maybe pop a clutch to have some fun with it.?

Hagan lives in Christiansburg, Va., where he farms slightly more than 1,000 acres. He grows sorghum, alfalfa and grass as part of his cow-calf operation.

?It?s not a big chunk of land, but it?s about all I can say grace over, and I can raise my kids on,? Hagan said. ?We try to keep it as simple as we can and do as much as we can.?

Plenty of time exists to get more sophisticated given he races a Funny Car that burns nitro.

That regular transition from farming to fast lane does not faze Hagan in the least. Entering the Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka, he was inching toward the top of the Funny Car standings.

Hagan was the top qualifier at the Southern Nationals in Atlanta last weekend before reaching the finals and losing to Johnny Gray. The runner-up finish moved Hagan within 13 points of division leader Cruz Pedregon.

More importantly, the finish in Atlanta boosted Hagan?s budding respect for crew chief Dickie Venables. The two were teamed by Don Schumacher Racing at the beginning of the season and continue to work out various tuning details.

Entering the Southern Nationals final, Venables declined to get even more juice out of the car Hagan drives and instead kept most of the specs intact. The run was good, 4.160 seconds at 309.49 mph, but Gray sailed down the 1,000-yard strip in 4.077 seconds, pushing his dragster to 314.17 mph.

?We would do the same thing if we could do it over again,? said Venables, mechanic for two world championship runs by Tony Pedregon. ?We looked at the track and felt that we could win if we ran close to a 4.14. We never expected Johnny or anyone else to go out and run like that.?

Venables gambled a bit. He anticipated an opponent encountering some misfortune attempting to squeeze too much out of his car.

It did not happen. Gray ran great. Still, Hagan was impressed.

?Dickie showed me he knows how to race. We went out there and backed the car down to run it down the race track,? Hagan said.

?He was playing the chess game, and he showed me he?s got a lot of maturity in this deal, even though we didn?t walk away with the win, I was real proud of him.?

Hagan is only 30. Still young in the NHRA pro ranks. So the conclusion can be drawn a mature influence is necessary.

That assumption, however, is inaccurate. Hagan is quite grounded. Remember, he farms. That means he knows how to grow things, including the relationship with his new crew chief.

The combination was forged after Hagan finished a disappointing 11th last year in the points standings and missed the season-ending Countdown to the Championship. This, after Hagan claimed his first world championship in 2011.

?Like in any sport, when you?re at the pinnacle, it?s easy to float away,? Hagan said. ?But I?ve got a lot of great folks that bring me back down and keep me humble. That?s why we?ve had so much success. Our team?s humble.

?We were thrown together at the beginning of this year without a test run on a car. To come into Pomona when everybody else has 15 to 20 laps on you ... and they still have, we haven?t tested yet so everybody is 20-30 runs ahead of us, yet we?ve done so well. It just says a lot about Dickie Venables.?

And, for that matter, Hagan.

Although he will tell you the stops on the NHRA circuit tend to blend together rather quickly, he has an affinity for HPT fans. A lot of them are just like him. Down to earth, with rural roots and concerns they treasure and share.

?It?s farm country, so I love it,? Hagan said. ?I stand at the ropes and talk about farming as much as I do talking race car stuff. It?s cattle country out there, too. It?s good ol? boys, and it?s nice to sit back and listen to what?s going on in their world. Topeka just reminds me of home.?

?

Source: http://cjonline.com/sports/auto-racing/2013-05-17/kevin-haskin-nhra-driver-finds-solace-tractor-farm

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Woodward's 'Watergate' comparison: on, or off-target?

Bob Woodward compared Benghazi to Watergate during a Friday morning appearance on MSNBC?s ?Morning Joe.?

The famous Washington Post reporter and former antagonist of President Richard Nixon said the US government?s editing of talking points used by public officials in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, Libya, is ?a very serious issue.?

?I would not dismiss Benghazi,? Mr. Woodward said.

Woodward?s own main talking point was that he believed there are similarities between the process used to produce the Benghazi talking points and Nixon?s release of edited transcripts of the White House tapes.

RECOMMENDED: War with Iran? 5 ways events overseas could shape Obama's second term.

Citing the lengthy e-mail chain detailing the production of the talking points, released by the Obama administration earlier this week, the Watergate press hero said that in the wake of the Libyan tragedy ?everyone in the government is saying, ?Oh, let?s not tell the public that terrorists were involved, people connected to Al Qaeda. Let?s not tell the public that there were warnings.? ?

Forty years ago, Nixon went line by line through his tape transcripts and made his own edits.

?He personally went through them and said, ?Let?s not tell this, let?s not show this,? ? said Woodward on ?Morning Joe."

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Nixon, of course, was trying to deflate the increasing public and congressional pressure for him to release the tapes themselves. He wasn?t successful. The tapes revealed the extent of his involvement with the Watergate break-in and subsequent cover up.

As to Benghazi, Woodward concluded that the edits ?show the hydraulic pressure that was in the system not to tell the truth.?

Is Woodward right to make this comparison? After all, he is the media?s official arbiter of all things Watergate, and his words here carry special weight.

Well, it?s certainly possible that he?s hit upon the reason the talking points got changed around. But having read the 100 pages of e-mails on the editing process ourselves, we?d say it?s also possible that he?s jumping to conclusions. For at least some of the officials involved in the process, the reason to take out references to terrorists and Al Qaeda was not to hide the truth, but because they did not know what the truth was.

For instance, early in the editing process Stephen Preston, the CIA?s general counsel, e-mailed talking-point participants that ?in light of the criminal investigation, we are not to generate statements with statements as to who did this, etc. ? even internally, not to mention for public release.?

And the scrubbed ?warnings? Woodward referred to were fairly vague references to past CIA internal statements. The Post journalist may be right that the public should have heard about them. State Department officials, though, were transparently annoyed that the spy agency was trying to cover its rear end at their expense.

Look, things don?t have to be as bad as Watergate to be important malfeasance. Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein made that point earlier this week on his A Plain Blog About Politics.

But loosely comparing current scandals with Watergate is to forget the full extent of the Nixon-era scandal, wrote Mr. Bernstein in a post titled, ?You Call That a Cover-Up??

In Watergate the cover-up was essentially personally directed by the president, overseen by the White House chief of staff, and run by the White House counsel, Bernstein writes. They concocted a false story, destroyed important evidence, and raised hush money used to attempt to buy the silence of underlings who were facing jail time.

Oh, and the president of the United States ordered the CIA to falsely tell the FBI that national security was involved in the Watergate mess, so the FBI needed to pull back its investigation.

By the way, the Watergate hearings began 40 years ago on this date. Bernstein has been writing a fascinating series of pieces outlining the unfolding of the Watergate scandal day by day, as if it were occurring in real time. You can read that to catch up on the bad old days and decide if today compares.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bob-woodward-compares-benghazi-watergate-153412076.html

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Judge to hear insanity defense challenge in Colo. theater shooting case

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - The judge who will hear the capital murder case against accused Colorado theater gunman James Holmes has agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of Colorado's insanity defense law in death penalty cases.

Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. ruled on Thursday that he will consider a defense motion that argues the law is unconstitutional because it bars Holmes from calling his own mental-health experts at sentencing if he refuses to cooperate with court-appointed psychiatrists.

Holmes, 25, faces multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for allegedly opening fire inside a suburban Denver cinema during a midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" last July.

The rampage killed 12 moviegoers and wounded 58 others, and another 12 people were hurt as they fled the theater.

Prosecutors announced last month that they would seek the death penalty for the California native if he was convicted, and defense attorneys are moving to change Holmes' standard not guilty plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

Judge Samour ordered lawyers from both sides to present oral arguments on the issue at a hearing next week.

Earlier this year, public defenders had asked then-presiding Judge William Sylvester to declare the state's insanity defense law unconstitutional because it forces a defendant to cooperate with court-appointed psychiatrists.

They argued that compelling Holmes to possibly divulge information that could be used against him at trial and in sentencing violated his right against self-incrimination, especially in a death-penalty case.

Prosecutors countered that state and federal courts have upheld the legality of court-ordered mental health examinations for defendants who raise insanity defenses.

"It is well-established law in Colorado that submitting to court-ordered evaluation does not violate a defendant's Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination," they wrote in a court filing.

Sylvester declined to rule on the matter at the time because the insanity defense had not been raised, and prosecutors had not yet indicated if they would pursue capital punishment.

Samour, who was assigned the case last month, ruled on Monday that there was sufficient cause to allow Holmes to change his plea. The judge said he would not be able to advise Holmes of the consequences of an insanity plea until all the legal challenges were resolved.

Former Denver prosecutor and legal analyst Craig Silverman said the judge recognized the legal issues the defense raised.

"It is unusual that the law says you can't raise any mitigating factors in a death-penalty sentencing," he said. "It's not obvious that such a sanction is constitutional."

The Colorado theater attack ranks as one of the deadliest U.S. shootings. Along with the December 2012 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which killed 20 children and six adults, it helped reignite a national debate on gun control.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-hear-insanity-defense-challenge-colorado-theater-shooting-012238844.html

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Brothers arrested in New Orleans parade shooting

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Two brothers with a history of drug arrests and suspected ties to a neighborhood gang each face 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder in a shooting spree that brought a sudden bloody end to a Mother's Day parade in a New Orleans neighborhood.

The arrests by city police and U.S. marshals came less than four days after gunfire scattered the crowd and wounded 20 people ? 19 hit by bullets and one while trying to flee.

Akein Scott, 19, was arrested without incident late Wednesday at an eastern New Orleans residence. His brother Shawn Scott, 24, was arrested Thursday morning as he tried to flee another residence in the city, police said.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu and police Chief Ronal Serpas hailed the police work as proof of officials' determination to end sporadic violence that mars the image of the tourism-dependent city.

"We will not let up," Landrieu said. "We are demanding that the shooting stop. And we will make sure that we do everything in our power, which I hope people now see is substantial, to make sure that we protect the citizens of New Orleans."

A magistrate judge on Thursday morning set bond for Akein Scott at $10 million in the attempted murder case. Another judge ordered him held without bond pending a later hearing on an unrelated gun and weapon charge.

Shawn Scott's court appearances were not yet scheduled. His Thursday morning arrest was announced by Serpas, Landrieu and District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro at a news conference in the middle of the intersection where the shooting took place, off the beaten path for most tourists but less than two miles from the popular French Quarter. Surrounding the officials were dozens of uniformed officers and onlookers from the neighborhood.

Police said Akein Scott had been identified by an unnamed witness as the person seen on a surveillance video, appearing to fire into a crowd that immediately scatters as some fall. Shawn Scott's role in the shootings remained unclear Thursday afternoon.

Police have yet to outline a motive, other than to say it appears related to gang activity, which Landrieu called a major factor in New Orleans street violence.

"This small number of people in gangs and groups are responsible for the overwhelming number of murders and shootings in this city. They are in fact terrorizing our streets," Landrieu said.

Police said the Scotts are members of a gang called the Frenchmen and Derbigny Boys. Frenchmen and North Derbigny streets intersect a few blocks from the shooting site. Court records show Shawn Scott has a history of at least three drug arrests on one block of Frenchmen Street.

In addition to the brothers, police said they arrested four people who are accused of helping Akein Scott elude capture. Justin Alexander, 19; Brandy George, 28; Bionca Hickerson, 22; and Nekia Youngblood, 32, are charged with being accessories after the fact to attempted second-degree murder and obstruction of justice, according to a police news release.

At Thursday's court appearance, Akein Scott, shackled and in an orange jumpsuit, stood calmly and silently as his court-appointed attorney handled proceedings in the shooting case.

Prosecutors said a witness picked out a photo of Akein Scott from a lineup. An arrest affidavit said the unidentified witness told investigators that Akein Scott was the person seen in a surveillance video that police released to the public as they searched for him. The witness also said Akein Scott was carrying a silver-and-black semi-automatic handgun at the shooting scene, according to the affidavit.

Magistrate Judge Gerard Hansen set Akein Scott's bond at $10 million ? $500,000 on each of the 20 counts in the Mother's Day shooting case.

Police had been searching for Akein Scott since identifying him as a suspect Monday from the video.

Courtney Moles, whose apartment overlooks the shooting site, said Thursday that she didn't feel her safety was in jeopardy while police searched the city.

"I didn't really think he would come back. It's more personal than that," she said. "He wasn't going to that second line to make national news. He was probably settling some kind of score."

Edward Buckner, president of the Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club, which sponsored Sunday's second-line parade, said he was ecstatic at the news of the arrests.

"That's the best thing that could ever have happened," he said.

Police publicized a $10,000 reward in the case, and investigators received tips after images from the surveillance camera were released.

Gun violence has flared at two other city celebrations this year. Five people were wounded in a drive-by shooting in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting after an argument in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. Two teens were arrested in connection with the MLK Day shootings; three men were arrested and charged in the Mardi Gras shootings.

Mark Hertsgaard, a freelance writer who was shot in the leg Sunday, said in a phone interview from his home in San Francisco that he wouldn't let the violence turn him against the city.

"I love New Orleans, and I love anything that helps to heal New Orleans from this event, including bringing justice to the perpetrators," said Hertsgaard, who was stopping in the city on his way home assignment.

Hertsgaard said he still loves the people of New Orleans.

"Yes, there are pockets of idiots, and the other day one of them put a bullet in my leg," he said.

"But let's not let a few idiots tarnish the reputation of a great city that has great people in it."

__

Associated Press writers Chevel Johnson and Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brothers-arrested-mothers-day-parade-shooting-213807064.html

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