BBC: Americas
6 Feb 2012 at 4:12pm
6 Feb 2012 at 2:33pm
6 Feb 2012 at 1:28pm
5 Feb 2012 at 1:34pm
5 Feb 2012 at 8:56pm
6 Feb 2012 at 1:21am
5 Feb 2012 at 2:38pm
5 Feb 2012 at 4:35am
5 Feb 2012 at 12:35pm
3 Feb 2012 at 12:48pm
5 Feb 2012 at 5:05am
3 Feb 2012 at 1:09pm
6 Feb 2012 at 4:09pm
Chicago Tribune
by Khaled Yacoub Oweis
6 Feb 2012 at 5:39pm
6 Feb 2012 at 5:32pm
by Estelle Shirbon
6 Feb 2012 at 5:26pm
6 Feb 2012 at 5:08pm
by By James Oliphant
6 Feb 2012 at 2:59pm
by By Robin Abcarian
6 Feb 2012 at 1:42pm
by Manuel Jimenez
6 Feb 2012 at 1:21pm
6 Feb 2012 at 12:54pm
6 Feb 2012 at 11:45am
6 Feb 2012 at 11:45am
by Brittany Green-Miner, Web Content Producer
6 Feb 2012 at 10:38am
by Laura MacInnis
6 Feb 2012 at 9:06am
by Greg Roumeliotis
6 Feb 2012 at 8:10am
Yahoo: US News
Amanda Knox appeals slander conviction in Italy
(Reuters)
Reuters - Lawyers for Amanda Knox, who was cleared of murder in October by an Italian court, on Monday asked an appeals court there to overturn her slander conviction as well, a spokesman said.
6 Feb 2012 at 3:25pm
Former lobbyist Abramoff balks at naming ex-associates
(Reuters)
Reuters - Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist at the center of a U.S. bribery scandal six years ago, said on Monday he does not want to publicly identify former associates because he does not want to see more people hurt.
6 Feb 2012 at 4:31pm
U.S. judge grants more time for accused Tucson shooter
(Reuters)
Reuters - A federal judge has agreed that the man charged with a deadly shooting spree last year that gravely wounded then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has made "measureable progress" in regaining his mental fitness to stand trial.
6 Feb 2012 at 4:27pm
Slab City: Living Off the Grid in California's Badlands
(Time.com)
Time.com - Deep in the badlands of California is a squatters' camp that many are increasingly calling home -- and a paradise of sorts
6 Feb 2012 at 1:30am
Inside Facebook's IPO: How the Social Web Will Reshape the Economy
(Time...
Time.com - Facebook's IPO -- the largest in Internet history -- is a once-in-a-generation milestone in the evolution of the web
6 Feb 2012 at 1:30am
Judge upholds controversial Texas abortion law
(Reuters)
Reuters - A federal judge on Monday upheld a controversial Texas law that asks abortion providers to play pregnant women the sounds of the fetal heartbeat, saying an appeals court ruling obliged him to enforce it.
6 Feb 2012 at 6:35pm
AP - Criticism of a Senate campaign ad featuring a young Asian woman talking in broken English about China taking away American jobs grew Monday as some warned it could revive discrimination against Asian-Americans.
6 Feb 2012 at 3:40pm
US to issue sanctions waiver for Myanmar (AP) AP - The United States on Monday eased one of its many sanctions against Myanmar as a reward for political reforms after five decades of direct military rule.
6 Feb 2012 at 7:04pm
AP - A federal judge ruled Monday that the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage that wounded former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will spend four more months at a federal prison facility where officials are forcibly medicating him.
6 Feb 2012 at 4:15pm
Judge temporarily blocks Mississippi execution (AP) AP - A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the execution of a Mississippi inmate who killed two men in a 1995 robbery spree. The man's attorneys sought the order, not arguing guilt or innocence, but that corrections officials prevented the inmate from getting medical tests that could prove he is mentally ill.
6 Feb 2012 at 5:00pm
US judge: Baroque artwork to return to man's heirs (AP) AP - A federal judge has ordered the return of a 16th Century Baroque painting depicting Christ carrying the cross to the heirs of a Jewish man who died shortly before the German occupation of France in World War II.
6 Feb 2012 at 6:36pm
AP - Josh Powell's boys were coming for a visit, and he had preparations to make.
6 Feb 2012 at 6:40pm
AP - People rarely pick a fight with Dirty Harry. But Chrysler's "Halftime in America" ad featuring quintessential tough guy Clint Eastwood has generated fierce debate about whether it accurately portrays the country's most economically distressed city or amounts to a campaign ad for President Barack Obama and the auto bailouts.
6 Feb 2012 at 6:33pm
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
'Halftime in America' ad creates political debate
'Halftime in America' ad creates political debate
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 06:13 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
[...] Chrysler's "Halftime in America" ad featuring quintessential tough guy Clint Eastwood has generated fierce debate about whether it accurately portrays the country's most economically distressed city or amounts to a campaign ad for President Barack Obama and the auto bailouts.
The 2-minute ad holds up Detroit as a model for American recovery while idealistic images of families, middle class workers and factories scroll across the screen.
Conservatives, including GOP strategist Karl Rove, criticized the ad as a not-so-thinly veiled endorsement of the federal government's auto industry bailouts.
Others questioned basing a story of economic resurgence in a city that remains in fiscal disarray, with a $200 million budget deficit and cash flow concerns that have it fending off a state takeover.
The company and its financial arm needed a $12.5 billion government bailout and a trip through bankruptcy protection to survive.
The ad with Eastwood, who previously publicly slammed the auto bailout, follows a highly popular one that aired last Super Bowl featuring hip-hop star and Detroit-native Eminem driving a Chrysler 200 through stark city streets ? and introduced the tagline "Imported From Detroit."
Rove told Fox News on Monday that he was "offended" by Chrysler's ad, saying it amounted to "using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising and the best-wishes of the management which is benefited by getting a bunch of our money that they'll never pay back."
Eastwood, a fiscal conservative who is more liberal on social issues including gay marriage and environmental protections, has mixed with politics before.
The former nonpartisan mayor of Carmel, Calif., who supported GOP presidential contender John McCain in 2008, told the Los Angeles Times last November that he can't ever recall voting for a Democrat for president but expressed admiration for California's Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.
US judge: Baroque artwork to return to man's heirs
US judge: Baroque artwork to return to man's heirs
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 06:45 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
(AP) ? A federal judge has ordered the return of a 16th Century Baroque painting depicting Christ carrying the cross to the heirs of a Jewish man who died shortly before the German occupation of France in World War II.
The work is believed to have been among more than 70 paintings from di Giuseppe's collection auctioned by the French Vichy government in 1941 in order to pay off debts, court records indicate.
The former chief executive officer for the Tallahassee museum said late last year that her organization did not know about the dispute over the painting when it arranged to bring it from Milan as part of an exhibit.
In 2000, two American museums reached settlements with the heirs of di Giuseppe that allowed those museums to keep two pieces of artwork that were in their collections.
Museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles have agreed in recent years to return artifacts to Italy that the Italian government says were looted or stolen.
Senate passes FAA bill that speeds switch to GPS
Senate passes FAA bill that speeds switch to GPS
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Published 03:14 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has passed a compromise bill that speeds up the Federal Aviation Administration's switch from old-fashioned radar to an air traffic control system based on GPS technology.
The bill was approved 75 to 20 on Monday despite labor opposition to a deal cut between the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House on rules governing union organizing elections at airlines and railroads.
Congress passes FAA bill that speeds switch to GPS
Congress passes FAA bill that speeds switch to GPS
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 07:22 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A bill to speed the nation's switch from radar to an air traffic control system based on GPS technology, and to open U.S. skies to unmanned drone flights within four years, received final congressional approval Monday.
Eventually, FAA officials want the airline industry and other aircraft operators to install onboard satellite technology that updates the location of planes every second instead of radar's every six to 12 seconds.
The U.S. accounts for 35 percent of global commercial air traffic and has the world's most complicated airspace, with greater and more varied private aviation than other countries.
The FAA is also required under the bill to provide military, commercial and privately-owned drones with expanded access to U.S. airspace currently reserved for manned aircraft by Sept. 30, 2015.
The agency has continued to limp along under a series of 23 short-term extensions, but its ability to commit to decisions on major acquisition programs that extend over many years, like air traffic modernization, was hindered by the uncertainty over how much it could spend and by a lack of direction from Congress.
A compromise reached two weeks ago by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, allows the mediation board's rules to stand, but it also toughens some lesser requirements that must be met in order to hold a union organizing election.
While the compromise was acceptable to some unions, more than a dozen other unions that represent airline industry workers ? including the Teamsters, Communications Workers, Machinists and Flight Attendants ? complained the deal was reached without their input and urged its rejection.
A push for family input to detect dementia earlier
A push for family input to detect dementia earlier
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 07:28 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
[...] specialists are pushing for the first National Alzheimer's Plan to help overcome this barrier to early detection, urging what's called dementia-capable primary care, more screenings for warning signs and regular checks of caregivers' own physical and mental health.
For a doctor to ask someone with brewing dementia, "How are you?" isn't enough, says Dr. Laurel Coleman, a geriatric physician at Maine Medical Center who is part of a federal advisory council tackling the issue.
The question is how to square that input with patient confidentiality, especially if the person never filed the legal forms clearing family members to intervene, as happened with McKenzie.
The Obama administration is drafting a national strategy to try to slow that coming avalanche ? with research aiming for some effective treatments by 2025 ? plus find ways for struggling families to better cope today.
[...] a long-married couple in a familiar routine and surroundings can appear far more normal than they really are ? until something upsets that balancing act, like the caregiving spouse getting sick, adds Dr. Gary Kennedy, geriatric psychiatry chief at New York's Montefiore Medical Center.
"Even if primary-care physicians don't consider themselves experts at evaluating for Alzheimer's disease, or don't feel comfortable, they can screen," Kallmyer says.
McKenzie says her father would never discuss naming a health care proxy and her parents were furious that she'd voiced concerns to their physician.
[...] she had to go to court to get her parents the care they needed in an assisted living facility near their hometown.
US judge says he can't block Texas sonogram law
US judge says he can't block Texas sonogram law
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 05:32 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? A federal judge on Monday upheld the Texas law requiring women to have a sonogram before having an abortion, saying an appeals court had forced him to declare the law constitutional.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services said the ruling clears the way for full-enforcement of the law, which was supposed to take effect Oct. 1 but has ping-ponged through the federal courts in legal challenges.
In 2011, Sparks struck down provisions that requiring doctors to describe the images and others that required victims of sexual assault or incest to sign statements attesting to that fact.
[...] a three judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Sparks' temporary ban.
"There can be little doubt (the law) is an attempt to discourage women from exercising their constitutional rights by making it more difficult for caring and competent physicians to perform abortions," Sparks wrote.
Top senators question Pentagon move on fighter jet
Top senators question Pentagon move on fighter jet
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 03:53 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee suggested on Monday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rushed a decision to develop the Marine Corps version of the next-generation strike fighter jet despite new technical problems with the troubled program.
Carl Levin, the committee chairman, and John McCain, the panel's top Republican, questioned whether the F-35B had met the criteria to warrant an end to its probation.
In their letter, Levin and McCain expressed frustration with the Pentagon's consultation with the committee about the aircraft and complained that they learned of Panetta's decision on ending probation from media reports.
Judge temporarily blocks Mississippi execution
Judge temporarily blocks Mississippi execution
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 07:04 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
The man's attorneys sought the order, not arguing guilt or innocence, but that corrections officials prevented the inmate from getting medical tests that could prove he is mentally ill.
James Craig with the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center argued at a hearing Friday that the state's corrections department policy prohibited Turner from getting tests that could prove he's mentally ill, a diagnosis they hope would help sway the U.S. Supreme Court to block the executions of Turner and others with mental illnesses.
"Mr. Turner has never had a fair opportunity to present the evidence that he is the sort of seriously mentally ill prisoner who should not be executed in a humane criminal justice system," Craig said in a statement Monday.
Turner's lawyers want the court to prohibit the execution of mentally ill people the way it did inmates considered mentally retarded.
Turner's face is severely disfigured from a self-inflicted gunshot wound from a suicide attempt when he was 18, in which he put a rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger, the lawyers said.
According to court records, Stewart said he and Turner were drinking beer and smoking marijuana when they decided to rob a store Dec. 13, 1995.
Earlier abuse claims to be allowed at priest trial
Earlier abuse claims to be allowed at priest trial
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 04:27 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Prosecutors overseeing a child sex-abuse case involving three Roman Catholic priests can reference molestation claims against more than 20 other clergymen to try to establish a pattern of how such allegations were handled, a judge ruled Monday.
"The trial court is not required to sanitize the trial to eliminate all unpleasant facts from the jury's consideration, where those facts ... form part of the history and natural development of the events and offenses for which the defendant is charged," Sarmina said.
Because of the statute of limitations, none of the priests was charged.
Prosecutors contend Lynn kept abusive priests on the job even though he was among a select few who had access to molestation complaints kept in "secret archives" at the archdiocese.
[...] at the hearing, defense lawyers said they learned only Friday about 22,000 pages of documents recently released by the archdiocese to the district attorney's office.
Report: Large charitable donations on the rise
Report: Large charitable donations on the rise
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 02:59 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports Monday in its annual report of the nation's most generous people that the top 50 donors made pledges in 2011 to give a total of $10.4 billion.
The Chronicle notes that 379 of the Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans did not report making any big charitable gifts.
The increase is more likely a sign of economic improvements than a response to outside pressure to give more, said Stacy Palmer, Chronicle editor.
The top donor of 2011 was philanthropist Margaret A. Cargill of La Jolla, Calif., an agri-business heiress who died in 2006 but her estate put $6 billion into the two foundations she set up to support the arts, the environment, disaster relief and other causes, the Chronicle reported.
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is No. 5 on the list, for giving $311.3 million to a total of 1,185 nonprofits that benefit the arts, human services, public affairs and other causes.
US to issue sanctions waiver for Myanmar
US to issue sanctions waiver for Myanmar
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 07:08 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
[...] administration officials and U.S. lawmakers, who have been instrumental in imposing myriad and overlapping sanctions on Myanmar since 1988, say more progress on democracy and human rights is needed before other sanctions can be lifted.
Myanmar received a "Tier 3" rating under its annual State Department assessment, meaning it has failed to comply with minimum standards for elimination of human trafficking.
The ambassador-at-large on human trafficking issues, Luis CdeBaca, who visited Myanmar in January, said Monday the waiver was rewarding Myanmar for its political reforms, including prisoner releases, the dialogue it has begun with Suu Kyi and cease-fires with ethnic minority armed groups.
[...] he said it also reflected the government's encouraging steps in improving its treatment of human trafficking victims, particularly those repatriated from other countries, although the U.S. remains concerned over authorities' use of forced labor and child soldiers.
Tax reform in this election year: It's not likely
Tax reform in this election year: It's not likely
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 05:53 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
[...] recommendations to trim the mortgage deduction made in 2005 by a tax-overhaul panel convened by then President George W. Bush and again in 2010 by a deficit-reduction committee set up by Obama were ignored by both those presidents.
The last major restructuring came in 1986, when Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill were able to put aside their political differences to strike a grand deal that both simplified the tax code and lowered rates on most individuals.
There's no way around that to be successful, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was the director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2003 to 2005 and now heads the American Action Forum, a conservative public policy institute.
Obama has proposed ending tax breaks for U.S. companies moving jobs or profits to foreign countries.
[...] he has suggested new tax breaks for businesses that move jobs back to the U.S., for domestic manufacturing and for companies that invest in towns that have suffered major job losses.
[...] few companies pay that much after taking various deductions.
Because of recent special deductions in the government's stimulus programs, including the ability to write off the full cost of purchases of new equipment, corporations last year paid just over 12 percent on average.
There is also a big political divide over whether to keep the current system of taxing investment income ? such as dividends and capital gains ? at lower rates than wages.
Romney, one of the richest presidential candidates ever, recently disclosed that he paid federal taxes at an effective rate of around 15 percent because most of his income came from investments that are taxed at that rate, compared to a top rate of 35 percent for wages.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would reduce the number of tax brackets to two ? 10 percent and 28 percent, exempt domestic manufacturers from the corporate tax and halve the top rate for other businesses.
The reduction in individual taxes was in large part paid for by repeal of the investment tax credit, which effectively raised corporate tax payments to the Treasury by 25 percent, or about $100 billion a year in today's terms.
SF's Dogpatch pier district braces for renewal
SF's Dogpatch pier district braces for renewal
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 10:15 a.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? There's a hidden corner of the City by the Bay where rusted cranes used to build WWII battleships loom over dilapidated artist studios, where working-class fishermen bob up against first-class ocean liners docked for repair.
Residents of San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood overlook the rough-and-tumble Pier 70 waterfront and bask in the smell of fresh fish, the cacophony of fog horns and Canadian geese, the jumble of Victorian cottages tucked between corrugated barns and industrial brick icons of the late 1800s.
A secret stash of cheap artist studios in old clapboard pier offices commands a view of the rusted bones of crumbling canneries, metal scrapyards and silent smokestacks.
The city plans to redevelop Pier 70, hoping to capitalize on its historic charms while providing badly needed jobs, commercial and residential space ? all while maintaining the neighborhood essence that dates back to the mid-1800s when the Union Iron Works, Bethlehem Steel, Pacific Rolling Mills and the Spreckels Sugar refinery dominated the waterfront.
The roughly 1,000 residents, artists and small business owners, shipyard workers, fishermen and boat builders are passionate that their historic surroundings and lifestyle not be harmed.
The restored piers along the Embarcadero waterfront from the stadium where the Giants play baseball, under the Bay Bridge and up to the historic Ferry Building are now filled with tony restaurants, bakeries, coffee sellers and pricey artisan cheese and chocolate shops.
The shipyard today has the largest floating dry dock on this side of the Pacific, where massive cruise liners come in for inspections and repairs and tiny tugs get their underbellies scrubbed free of barnacles.
The artists, filmmakers, architects and designers in the three-story, wood-frame Noonan Building at Pier 70, built in 1941 by the government as war production offices, overlook an auto impound yard and a rusted-out warehouse.
The historic ones include rare examples of modified Renaissance Revival in red brick that withstood the catastrophic 1906 earthquake, as well as rusticated stucco, granite staircases and fluted Doric pilasters alongside warehouses made of corrugated iron.