Ford Focus is the world's best-selling auto

Paul A. Eisenstein , The Detroit Bureau ? ? ? 2 hrs.

Ford's increasing focus on global small cars apparently is paying off. Make that the Ford Focus which was the world?s best-selling automobile overall last year, according to new data from R.L. Polk & Company.

The Detroit maker?s compact model rang up more than 1 million sales last year, almost 17 percent more volume than Toyota recorded for its traditional sales leader, the compact Corolla model. Ford also scored at the other extreme, its big F-Series pickups collectively coming in third on the global sales list. In all, Ford landed three different models in the Top 10, including the sixth-ranked Fiesta subcompact.

Toyota and Honda each had two models on the Polk chart, while Volkswagen and General Motors? Chevrolet brand each had one. But the Top 10 list also included a new name likely not recognizable to most Westerners: China?s Wuling Zhiguang which generated 768,870 sales, landing just behind the F-Series in fourth place.

?Focus and Fiesta represent the culmination of our One Ford global product strategy,? said Jim Farley, Ford executive vice president for global marketing, sales and service and the head of its Lincoln brand.

The Detroit Bureau: Maserati Goes for the Mainstream with New 4-Door Ghibli

While Focus saw a 40 percent jump in U.S. demand last year, Ford?s late push into China helped Focus surge to the top of the sales charts last year, with volume of 1,020,410. It only went on sale in what is now the world?s largest automotive market in March 2012. Yet that market snapped up 300,000 of the Ford compacts last year ? where it is sold in both the current version and as a prior-generation model known as the Focus ?Classic.?

Looking forward to Ford?s aggressive Chinese expansion plans, said Farley, ?With additional manufacturing capacity added last year, we now have a tremendous opportunity to further strengthen our global small car sales in 2013, with sales off to a very strong start already.?

The Detroit Bureau: Chinese to be First to Build Detroit's Radical New, High-Mileage OPOC Engine

Toyota?s second-place finish, with sales of 872,774, still underscores the power of its Corolla model, especially considering it is set for a complete redesign later this year. A prototype, dubbed the Furia, was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in January and Toyota officials recently hinted that the production version will be introduced before the Los Angeles Auto Show next autumn.

(For more on the next Toyota Corolla, Click Here.)

The fact that the Ford F-Series only came in third might surprise some Americans considering its continued strength in the U.S., where it has routinely heads the sales charts as both best-selling truck and best-selling vehicle overall for decades. But the U.S. was responsible for the vast majority of the full-size pickup?s volume of 785,630 last year.

(Redesigning an Icon: the secret concepts behind the next-gen Ford F-Series, Click Here.)

The F-Series is a real standout on the Polk Top 10 sales chart as the only classic truck on the list. In fact, the vast majority of the top-selling products are compacts and subcompacts, with the Toyota Camry, ranked fifth, the only midsize offering.

The Detroit Bureau: Honda and Acura Have Big Plans to Reveal at Shanghai Auto Show

As for the Wuling Zhiguang, it?s a pintsized people-mover barely the size of some of the sedans and hatchbacks on the Top 10 chart. Wuling is part of a joint venture between General Motors and its Chinese partner, Shanghai-based SAIC. '

Here?s the complete Top 10 list:

1. Ford Focus ? 1,020,410
2. Toyota Corolla ? 872,774
3. Ford F-Series ? 785,630
4. Wuling Zhiguang ? 768,870
5. Toyota Camry ? 729,793
6. Ford Fiesta ? 723,130
7. VW Golf ? 699,148
8. Chevrolet Cruze ? 661,325
9. Honda Civic ? 651,159
10. Honda CR-V ? 624,982

Copyright ? 2009-2013, The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a849ca7/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cford0Efocus0Eworlds0Ebest0Eselling0Eauto0E1C9275876/story01.htm

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Journalists watch as reporter faces jail time for not revealing sources ...

Doug Pensinger / Getty Images

Foxnews.com reporter Jana Winter returns to the court house after a midday recess to face Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester regarding evidence in the case of Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes at the Arapahoe County Justice Center on April 1, 2013 in Centennial, Colorado.

By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

When reporter Jana Winter wrote an exclusive story last July on the contents of a notebook that movie-theater massacre suspect James Holmes sent to his psychiatrist, she likely did not think it had the potential to ruin her career or send her to jail.

The day Winter broke the story, her work dominated the news cycle, frequently cited by Fox News reporters and commentators discussing the slaughter of 12 people during a midnight showing of ?The Dark Knight Rises? in Aurora, Colo.

Citing two law enforcement sources, Winter reported that Holmes sent a package to the psychiatrist, at the University of Colorado at Denver, with drawings that outlined his plans. The spiral-bound notebook?s pages were filled with stick figures holding guns and shooting other stick figures.

But the report quickly drew the ire of Holmes? defense team, which argued that leaking the information violated a gag order limiting pretrial publicity. ?

That is why Winter will be back in Colorado on Wednesday. A judge is deciding whether she should be forced to testify, a move that her lawyers say could destroy her reputation as a reporter and have devastating effects throughout journalism. Refusing to reveal her sources could land her in jail up to six months.

The hearing was supposed to be when Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. made his decision on whether Winter would testify. But Winter?s defense team won a minor victory earlier in the week, when Samour announced he would delay his ruling until he decides whether the notebook will be allowed as evidence in the first place.

?The notebook may or may not be introduced, and its contents may or may not be of significance. Given these uncertainties, the record is inadequate,? Samour wrote in his order Monday.?

Dori Ann Hanswirth, a lawyer with the firm Hogan Lovells, which is representing Winter, warned there is still uncertainty over the final ruling.

If Holmes? defense team decides to make his mental health an issue, the notebook will likely be significant evidence ? as will how its contents became public.

Hanswirth said that Samour, appointed to take over the case April 1, has shown hints that he believes Winter may be protected under the First Amendment. Still, regardless of the final ruling, damage has already been done, the lawyer said.

?The chilling effect of this is quite palpable. It has been very hard on my client, and it is a big tax on her and her employer that would be devoted to gathering news,? Hanswirth said. ?It?s chilling.?

In an affidavit in March, Winter said sources were already less willing to talk to her. Some fear that simply speaking to her will get them wrapped up in the legal battle, she wrote.

?I rely on the trust of my sources every single day,? Winter told the court. ?If I am forced to reveal the identities of persons whom I promised to shield from public exposure, simply put, I will be unable to function effectively in my profession, and my career will be over.?

Hanswirth said her client has the added pressure of defending not only herself but her profession.?

?She needs to stand up for her journalistic ethics and principles for all (reporters),? Hanswirth said.

In what is known as a shield law, Colorado provides some protection for reporters against being forced to reveal sources, but it is not nearly as strong as in other states, like New York, where Winter is based.

It is rare for journalists to face jail time for not revealing sources, and those cases frequently deal with national security. What may have been the highest-profile involved former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who served three months in prison for refusing to testify in a government inquiry of who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Miller has become one of Winter?s most ardent defenders and wrote a column praising her work.

?Those who believe in the importance of a free and independent press must support her. In a democracy, Jana Winter should not have to go to jail to protect her sources and do her job,? Miller wrote.

Others in the media have spoken out against making Winter testify, including affidavits to the court Tuesday from the Colorado Broadcasters Association and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

?The Court should be mindful of the ?chilling effect? subpoenas have on reporters,? wrote Bruce Brown, executive director of the committee.

He added: ?Journalists often have difficulty convincing reluctant sources to come forward and speak freely and openly. ... The task is even more challenging, if not impossible, if the sources sense that reporters may be compelled to serve as witnesses against those whom they interview.?

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/10/17678244-journalists-watch-as-reporter-faces-jail-time-for-not-revealing-sources

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The Algarve: Not just for golf-mad pensioners | CNN Travel

The southernmost region of Portugal, the Algarve has a reputation for being a retirement home for wealthy British pensioners.

While this is partly the case, the Algarve has moved into the 21st century with a more varied outlook on tourism.

Thanks to golf-mad Brit retirees, the region has become a serious golfing destination, winning awards as Europe's best place to swing a club.

But this delightful area with southern and western Atlantic coasts, and more than 300 warm to hot sunny days each year, has more to offer than the most maddening game ever invented.

The region

Fal?sia Beach, one of hundreds in the Algarve, unspoiled and often empty. The Algarve is a haven for sailors, with seven marinas along its southern Atlantic coast; a world class surfing destination; and a great place for swimming, deep sea fishing, body-boarding, diving and kite-surfing.

On land there's motor racing, tennis, athletics and skydiving. Many of Europe's top soccer teams stay in the Algarve for pre-season training.

When I stayed at the Hotel Quinta do Lago, the Libyan national soccer team was there preparing for a friendly match. OK, they're not Barcelona or Manchester United, but the Libyan team proves the area's worth on the national football circuit.

There are more than 100 beaches along the 200-kilometer coastline and a plethora of luxury spas.

Local heritage reflects the various peoples who have inhabited the Algarve -- Arabs, Romans, Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Celts.

The Algarve also has a reputation for some of the best seafood in the world, reflected in the excellent restaurants in the region, which has the highest number of Michelin stars in Portugal.

It's also a place for environmental tourism, centred around the Ria Formosa Nature Reserve, with its 60 kilometers (37 miles) of islands and channels creating a birdwatchers' paradise.

For a completely back to nature eco-tourist vacation, you can get away from modern civilization and backpack along the Via Algarviana.

The 300-kilometer (186 miles) footpath begins in Alcoutim near the Spanish border and ends at Cabo de S?o Vicente, where the southern and western Algarve coasts meet. The path travels through towns that still live according to the traditions of the rural world.

You can pitch your tent wherever you want or stay in local tavernas.

There's plenty of nightlife, especially in Vilamoura, the largest resort town in Europe, and Faro, the region's capital.

Food

Terrace at the Sea Breeze restaurant at the Hotel Quinta do Lago. In the Algarve seafood is king.

Caught daily in the Atlantic, crab, clams, king prawns, sea bass, sea bream, cod and other ocean delicacies are guaranteed to be superb.

Reflecting the region's Moorish heritage (five centuries of Islamic occupation),?Moroccan restaurants serve chicken couscous and traditional lamb tajine.

There are restaurants for every budget, from fast food to Japanese and, of course, Mediterranean.

As Dunas, Martinhal Resort: At the excellent As Dunas restaurant at the Martinhal Resort in Sagre, two people can have a lovely dinner including wine for less than ?40 (US$52).

Seafood, fresh fish and traditional Algarvean dishes adorn the menu; set among the sand dunes of Martinhal beach,?the location is superb.

Martinhal Beach Resort and Hotel, Quinta do Martinhal, Sagres; +351 282 240 200; www.martinhal.com

La Bella Vita: This Italian restaurant does the usual pizza/pasta along with more elbarorate dishes, like scallops with king prawns and rice. Ravioli and dishes featuring truffles are also a speciality.

Algarve Club Atl?ntico, 20 Alfanzina, Carvoeiro; +351 282 358 556; http://bella-vita.pt

O Costa: With panoramic views across the Ria Formosa lagoon and close to the Algarvean capital Faro, O Costa serves a mix of traditional Portuguese, Spanish and other Mediterranean recipes.

A great selection of tapas is available.

Avenida Nascente, Praia da Faro, Faro; +351 289 817 442; www.restauranteocosta.com

Activities

The fourth green at Onyria Palmares. These looks won't kill, but they might frustrate. Golf: The Algarve has a justified reputation as mainland Europe's finest golf destination.

From Onyria Palmares in the west through the five superb courses at Vilamoura, San Lorenzo and the Laranjal course at Quinta do Lago, to Monte Rei in the east (where you can see Spain from the fairways), there are more than 30 championship courses in the region.

For details go to www.algarvegolf.net.

Surfing/kite-surfing: Nowhere else in Europe offers year-round great surfing waves in the morning and steady kite-surfing winds in the afternoon like the southwest tip of the Algarve, between Cabo de Sao Vincente and Sagres.

For details on all watersports available in the Algarve go to www.algarve-watersport.com.

Sailing: With the Portuguese history of seafaring and seven marinas along its southern Atlantic coast it's no surprise that the Algarve has sailing in its blood.

Bring your yacht, hire one or just take a pleasure boat cruise along the 200 kilometer coastline.

Land and water sports: Other water sports include kayaking, deep sea fishing, swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving.

Land sports include ample tennis courts, motor racing at more than 300 kph (185 mph) on the Algarve racetrak, skydiving or soccer at a variety of sports complexes, horseback riding at the Vilamoura equestrian center, mountain biking or trekking through the Algarve mountains and ordinary road cycling.

Culture: Various peoples have inhabited the Algarve -- Arabs (five centuries of Islamic occupation), Romans, Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Celts.

The Algarve is home to 13th-century castles, 16th-century churches, modern museums, local arts and crafts, markets and music, from old folk through new wave.

Nature: From stunning Cabo de Sao Vicente, where the west and south Algarve coasts meet, to the Reserva Natural do Sapal de Castro Marim in the east on the Spanish border (and home to one of the largest flamingo habitats in Europe), the Algarve is awash with nature reserves.

The most beautiful is the Parque Natural de Ria Formosa around the region's capital Faro. You can leave civilization behind and rucksack along the 300-kilometer (186 mile) Via Algarviana, a great way to take in the Algarve's natural beauty.

Spa: Here SPA means Sanus Per Algarve ("Health through Algarve") and spa lovers can indulge in aromatherapy, thalassotherapy, sports and therapeutic massages, hot stone therapies, reflexology, yoga or reiki.

You can also visit Caldas de Monchique, a natural spa since Roman times when it was known as Aguas Sagradas (Sacred Waters).

Beach: The Algarve has more than 100 beaches along its 200-kilometer (124 miles) coastline, many of them usually deserted.

Hotels and resorts

The Algarve is home to numerous luxury resorts, many more affordable than you might think. The Algarve is filled with five-star hotels and resorts, plus options for those on a tight budget. For a complete list of accommodation in the Algarve go to www.visitalgarve.pt.

The Conrad: Opened in September 2012 and the only Conrad hotel in Portugal, this luxurious residence, created in the form of a Moorish palace to reflect the Algarve's Moroccan influence, is already winning awards.

Voted the World's Leading New Resort at the World Travel Awards in December 2012, it's spa includes a Caribbean storm shower complete with piped-in birdsong and thunder and lightning effects.

Quinta do Lago, Almancil; +351 289 350 700; from ?209 (US$272) per night; www.conradalgarve.com

The Pine Cliffs Resort: Voted Portugal's Leading Family Resort in 2009 by World Travel Awards, the Pine Cliffs Resort includes a Sheraton Hotel and 280 apartments, town houses and villas.

Its restaurants serve seafood, Portuguese, Italian, Moroccan and Mediterranean cuisine.

There's also a 7,000-square-meter Kids Club and almost every leisure and sporting activity known to man.

Praia da Fal?sia, Albufeira; +351 289 500 100; from ?66 (US$86) per night; www.pinecliffs.com

Vila Gal? Ampalius Hotel: Located 10 meters from the marina in Vilamoura, the Vila Gal? Ampalius is a four-star beauty.

It has two outdoor swimming pools, great views from room balconies and is ideally situated to explore Vilamoura, the biggest resort town in Europe, loaded with nightclubs, restaurants and a casino.

Alameda Praia de Marina, Vilamoura; +351 289 303 900; from ?68 (US$88) per night; www.vilagale.co.uk

The Hotel Quinta do Lago: This beautiful hotel has a gracious staff. The rooms are good, food is great and views from the upper floor rooms across the Ria Formosa Nature Reserve, the Atlantic Ocean and coastline make for spectacular sunsets.

Quinta do Lago, Almancil; +351 289 350 350; from ?335 (US$435) per night; www.quintadolagohotel.com

Quinta Monte Serra: This charming farmhouse in the eastern Algarve, close to Tavira, is owned by?Jean-Jacques de Coninck. He's transformed four of the farm buildings into beautiful cottages, retaining the old rural exteriors while completely modernizing the interiors with kitchens and bathrooms.

The tranquillity is disturbed only by the occasional sounds of the local wildlife.

Esti Rainanteus, Tavira; +351 961 142 562; from ?350 (US$455) per week; www.monte-serra.com

For more details on all the Algarve go to www.visitalgarve.pt.

Source: http://travel.cnn.com/algarve-no-longer-just-retirement-519301

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What to Expect in Obama?s Budget

If the budgets passed by Senate Democrats and House Republicans offered up competing worldviews, then President Obama will add a third entry to the mix on Wednesday as the White House unveils its spending plan for fiscal year 2014.

The major headline news is already known: Obama will offer to make cuts to Social Security benefits, as he did during the fiscal-cliff negotiations with Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

But, apart from the president?s plan to formalize cuts that he has already proposed, what else can Americans expect from a budget that?s roughly two months late and that follows both parties? congressional budget proposals?

ON TAXES: Obama will stick to his tax-the-rich theme in this budget, a political idea that helped him win the 2012 election and caricature his opponent, Mitt Romney, as an out-of-touch, country-club Republican.

On the individual side of the tax code, senior administration officials have said that the president will propose a 28 percent cap on itemized deductions for wealthy people, reviving this idea from his fiscal 2013 budget plan. There is one difference this time around. The fiscal-cliff deal made permanent the majority of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and, as a result, defined ?wealthy people? as those with a household income above $450,000 a year ($400,000 for an individual). This means the capped deduction will not draw as much revenue from taxes, though that may not matter as much because the cliff deal also raised $600 billion in new revenue over the next decade.

The capped deduction highlights one of the few areas of agreement between the two parties on tax policy. That?s the need to reexamine tax expenditures, breaks that cost the government more than $1 trillion a year. The Senate Democrats? budget called for limiting or eliminating tax expenditures for wealthy people to raise additional revenue, while the House Republicans want to get rid of unspecified tax breaks as a way to lower overall rates and simplify the tax code.

Both congressional proposals were far too vague, but the various budgets?including the president?s?point to a common target and potential area of compromise on tax policy, if and when Congress tackles tax reform.

ON SPENDING: The president?s budget blueprint is expected reflect the new reality that Congress simply will not pass any new stimulus money unless it can find a way to pay for it. Already, nondefense discretionary spending as a share of economic growth is on track to hit a historic low by 2017. The president?s blueprint will keep this script of reduced spending alive.

One new idea?to create more free pre-kindergarten programs for states?would be paid for by raising taxes on tobacco. This echoes a similar spending strategy that the president outlined in his State of the Union address, during which he also proposed raising the minimum wage?an idea in which the higher costs fall to the private sector rather than the federal government.

In the post-fiscal-cliff and sequester era, that may be the only way to propose any new spending programs: find a way to avoid the government having to pay for them.

ON BALANCE: The Obama blueprint will not balance the budget in 10 years, as the House Republican plan purports to do.

This remains a key area of disagreement between the two parties: the necessity of balancing the budget in a 10-year window by cutting spending, transforming social safety-net programs, raising taxes, or implementing some combination of these strategies.

Democrats argue that stabilizing the debt over the next decade goes far enough, especially as the economy continues to recover and unemployment remains high. Republicans, led by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, have argued that failing to balance the budget in 10 years will lead to such high spending levels that it will crowd out money for any other programs apart from the entitlements.

This remains the major sticking point in this round of the budget battles between the two parties?and Obama?s late entry into the budget fray is unlikely to offer a solution.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/expect-obama-budget-071827307--politics.html

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I Hope She Goes Straight to Hell (Balloon Juice)

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'Cookie Monster' arrested for pushing child in NY's Times Square

By Shimon Prokupecz, NBCNewYork.com

New York City cops arrested a man dressed as Cookie Monster in Times Square for allegedly pushing a 2-year-old boy after becoming angry the child's mother didn't give him a tip on Sunday, law enforcement sources say.

The mother told police the costumed Sesame Street character became aggressive after she snapped a photo of him with her son. She said he demanded $2 and started pushing her boy.

The man in the Cookie Monster suit then began to verbally assault the woman, she told police, cursing at her and calling her son offensive names.

He then allegedly pushed the child, the sources said. The boy was not injured.

The man in the suit, 33-year-old Osvaldo Quiroz-Lopez, was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child, law enforcement sources said.

Information on an attorney wasn't immediately available.?

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Cold case arrest prompts cross-country probe

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? When Los Angeles cold case detectives caught up with Samuel Little this past fall, he was living in a Christian shelter in Kentucky, his latest arrest a few months earlier for alleged possession of a crack pipe. But the LA investigators wanted him on far more serious charges: The slayings of two women in 1989, both found strangled and nude below the waist ? victims of what police concluded had been sexually motivated strangulations.

Little's name came up, police said, after DNA evidence collected at old crime scenes matched samples of his stored in a criminal database. After detectives say they found yet another match, a third murder charge was soon added against Little.

Now, as the 72-year-old former boxer and transient awaits trial in Los Angeles, authorities in numerous jurisdictions in California, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Ohio are scouring their own cold case files for possible ties to Little. One old murder case, in Pascagoula, Miss., already has been reopened. DNA results are pending in some others.

Little's more than 100-page rap sheet details crimes in 24 states spread over 56 years ? mostly assault, burglary, armed robbery, shoplifting and drug violations. In that time, authorities say incredulously, he served less than 10 years in prison.

But Los Angeles detectives allege he was also a serial killer, who traveled the country preying on prostitutes, drug addicts and troubled women.

They assert Little often delivered a knockout punch to women and then proceeded to strangle them while masturbating, dumping the bodies and soon after leaving town. Their investigation has turned up a number of cases in which he was a suspect or convicted.

Police are using those old cases ? and tracking down surviving victims ? to help build their own against Little.

"We see a pattern, and the pattern matches what he's got away with in the past," said LAPD Detective Mitzi Roberts.

Little has pleaded not guilty in the three LA slayings, and in interviews with detectives after his September arrest he described his police record as "dismissed, not guilty, dismissed."

"I just be in the wrong place at the wrong time with people," he said, according to an interview transcript reviewed by The Associated Press.

Still, as more details emerge, so do more questions. Among them: How did someone with so many encounters with the law, suspected by prosecutors and police officers of killing for decades, manage to escape serious jail time?

"It's the craziest rap sheet I've ever seen," said Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, who has worked many serial killer cold cases. "The fact that he hasn't spent a more significant period of his life (in custody) is a shocking thing. He's gotten break after break after break."

Deputy Public Defender Michael Pentz, who represents Little, declined to comment.

Authorities have pieced together a 24-page timeline tracking Little's activity across the country since his birth. His rap sheet has helped them pinpoint his location sometimes on a monthly basis. Law enforcement agencies are now cross-referencing that timeline with cold case slayings in their states.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is leading a review of that state's unsolved murders and helping coordinate the effort among 12 jurisdictions. The department published an intelligence bulletin alerting authorities in Florida, Alabama and Georgia about Little's case, noting he lived in the area on and off in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

"We strongly encouraged them to look at any unresolved homicides that they had during those time frames and then consider him as a potential suspect," said Jeff Fortier, a special agent supervisor at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The department is re-examining DNA evidence in about 15 cases that was collected before advances in forensic science allowed for thorough analysis, Fortier said.

"We are in the infancy stages of what we expect will be a protracted investigation," he said.

In Mississippi, Pascagoula cold case Detective Darren Versiga is re-investigating the killing of Melinda LaPree, a 22-year-old prostitute found strangled in 1982. Little had been arrested in that crime but never indicted, Versiga said. The detective has tracked down old witnesses and is working to reconstruct the case file because much of it was washed away during Hurricane Katrina.

Little, who often went by the name Samuel McDowell, grew up with his grandmother in Lorain, Ohio. His rap sheet shows his first arrest at age 16 on burglary charges. After serving time in a youth authority he was released and, months later, arrested again for breaking and entering.

In an hour- and 15-minute interview with Los Angeles detectives, Little spoke openly about his past and his time in the penitentiary, where he started boxing as a middleweight against the other inmates. "I used to be a prizefighter," he said.

In his late 20s, Little went to live with his mother in Florida and worked at the Dade County Department of Sanitation and, later, at a cemetery. Soon, he began traveling more widely and had more run-ins with the law; between 1971 and 1974 Little was arrested in eight states for crimes that included armed robbery, rape, theft, solicitation of a prostitute, shoplifting, DUI, aggravated assault on a police officer and fraud.

"I've been in and out of the penitentiary," he told the California officers.

"Well, for what?" a detective asked, to which Little responded: "Shoplifting and, uh, petty thefts and stuff."

Then came the 911 call of Sept. 11, 1976, in Sunset Hills, Mo.

Pamela Kay Smith was banging on the back door of a home, crying for help, naked below the waist with her hands bound behind her back with electrical cord and cloth. Smith, who was a drug addict, told officers that she was picked up by Little in St. Louis. She said he choked her from behind with electrical cord, forced her into his car, beat her unconscious, then drove to Sunset Hills and raped her.

Officers found Little, then 36, still seated in his car near the home where Smith sought refuge, with her jewelry and clothing inside. Little denied raping Smith, telling officers: "I only beat her." The case summary was recalled in court papers filed by prosecutors in Los Angeles.

Little was found guilty of assault with the intent to ravish-rape and was sentenced to three months in county jail. Pascagoula Detective Versiga, who reviewed the Smith case, believes Little may have pleaded to a lesser charge and received a shorter sentence because of the victim's lifestyle. The case file refers to Smith as a heroin addict who often failed to appear in court.

After that, the charges against Little grew more serious.

In Pascagoula, LaPree went missing in September 1982 after getting into a wood-paneled station wagon with a man witnesses later identified as Little. A month later her remains were found, and Little was arrested in her killing and the assault of two other prostitutes. Versiga believes grand jurors failed to indict in part because of the difficulty in determining a precise time of death but also because of credibility problems due to the victim and witnesses working as prostitutes.

Little, nevertheless, remained in custody and was extradited to Florida to be tried in the case of another slain woman.

Patricia Ann Mount, 26 and mentally disabled, was found dead in the fall of 1982 in rural Forest Grove, Fla., near Gainesville. Eyewitnesses described last seeing her leaving a beer tavern with a man identified as Little in a wood-paneled station wagon.

According to The Gainesville Sun's coverage of the trial, a fiber analyst testified that hairs found on Mount's clothes "had the same characteristics as head hairs taken from" Little. But when cross-examined the analyst said "it was also possible for hairs to be transferred if two people bumped together."

A jury acquitted Little in January 1984.

By October 1984, Little was back in custody ? this time in San Diego, accused in the attempted murder of two prostitutes who were kidnapped a month apart, driven to the same abandoned dirt lot, assaulted and choked. The first woman was left unconscious on a pile of trash but survived, according to court records. Patrol officers discovered Little in a car with the second woman and arrested him.

The two cases were tried jointly, but the jury failed to reach a verdict. Little later pleaded guilty to lesser charges of assault with great bodily injury and false imprisonment. He served about 2.5 years on a four-year sentence and, in February 1987, he was released on parole.

As he told the LA detectives in his interview, Little then moved to Los Angeles, where three more women were soon discovered dead: Carol Alford, 41, found on July 13, 1987; Audrey Nelson, 35, found on Aug. 14, 1989; and Guadalupe Apodaca, 46, found on Sept. 3, 1989. All were manually strangled.

It is for those slayings that Little now stands charged. No trial date has been set, though Little is due back in court this month for a procedural hearing. If convicted, Little would face a minimum of life in prison without parole, though prosecutors said they may seek the death penalty.

When the case landed on Detective Roberts' desk, she had no idea it would grow from two local cold case slayings to a cross-country probe into the past of a man with some 75 arrests. As she studied her suspect, Roberts also began calling agencies that had dealt with Little most recently.

He had been arrested on May 1, 2012, by sheriff's deputies in Lake Charles, La., for possession of a crack pipe and released with an upcoming court date. At Roberts' request, deputies tried finding him but came up empty. Then last September deputies called with a hit tracing an ATM purchase by Little to a Louisville, Ky., minimart. Within hours he was found at a nearby shelter.

In his interview with police, Little said he didn't recognize the slain LA women. Detectives said that DNA collected from semen on upper body clothing or from fingernail scrapings connect him to the crimes.

Roberts and others who've investigated Little through the years said some cases may not have gone forward because DNA testing wasn't available until the mid-1980s and, even when it was, wouldn't have been useful in these cases unless authorities tested clothing, fingernails or body swabs. Due to this perpetrator's particular modus operandi, DNA wouldn't necessarily be found through standard rape kit collection.

Even in those cases that did go to trial, they said, jurors may have found the victims less credible because of their backgrounds, and the witnesses ? often prostitutes ? in some cases disappeared. Because Little was also a transient, Roberts said: "I don't think he stuck in a lot of peoples' minds much."

"But what's different now, we're just not going to allow that to happen," she said. "I think we owe it to the victims. I think we owe it to the families."

Tony Zambrano was 17 when he learned his mother, Guadalupe Apodaca, was killed after going out for a drink one night.

"My brother told me she left, she went to go have a couple beers, and never came home," he recalls. Soon after he learned of her slaying.

For years Zambrano tried to find out what happened to his mother. When Roberts called him following Little's arrest, he was grateful. But he's also upset.

"My mom shouldn't really be dead now. For all those charges in San Diego, who gets four years?" Zambrano said. "This thing ain't over for a long shot."

___

Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cold-case-arrest-prompts-cross-country-probe-175509452.html

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The five year plan (Unqualified Offerings)

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Get Twitter Traffic ? How To Generate 100 - Danjur Online Men's ...

Image by: rosauraochoa
By Fabian Tan

Are you looking to get Twitter traffic to generate exposure for your business? Well, now is just about the right time to start using Twitter to ramp up your online web traffic. Recently, Twitter has undergone a massive popularity revival again. You can ride on the site?s popularity to get Twitter traffic to your business as well.

You may have heard about Charlie Sheen?s exploits and his unpredictable posts on Twitter. Sheen started his account at the beginning of March 2011 and has already amassed 2.8 million followers in just 2 weeks (at the time of writing this article). He is also far ahead for having the most followers per tweet. This shows the power of Twitter as a real-time information gathering and sharing tool.

After the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the number of Tweets from the country reached a peak of 1,200 per minute. Tweets from London and New York also hit 1,000 per minute during the disaster. Worried people also used Twitter to find out if their loved ones were safe as telephone lines were down. This terrible tragedy managed to highlight how Twitter is an extremely powerful communication tool.

Lest we forget, Twitter is still one of the most visited sites on the Internet. It is currently the 9th most visited website on the Internet according to Alexa. Now let?s look at some tips to tap into this traffic goldmine:

Tip #1: Get A Cool Background

To get visitors to be attracted to your Twitter page, you need a cool background. Obviously, this also ties in with having a relevant and easy-to-remember Twitter username and an interesting bio.

You can look for cool backgrounds just by searching for ?Twitter backgrounds? on Google. Many of the sites providing Twitter backgrounds can also design a customized background for you if you desire.

Tip #2: Post Tweets With Value

This almost goes without saying doesn?t it? If you intend to use Twitter as a business and communications tool with your followers, prospects and the public, you need to post tweets that are valuable, and not just inane stuff.

Sure, if you are a celebrity, you can get away with posting what you had for breakfast and have your followers hanging on to your every word, but if you are not, you need a plan. Tweets of value can be links to interesting and relevant content, new product announcements, special offers and coupon codes for your products.

Tip #3: Proactively Generate Followers

Again, unless you are a celebrity, you won?t get followers out of nothing so you have to do something to generate followers. The easiest way to do this is to start following the followers of mavens in your market. Mavens are authority figures in your market who have long, established followers. Once you follow the followers of these authority figures, many will start following back and you will grow a large base of followers. However, you should not follow more than a few hundred people per day, as Twitter looks down on people who follow too many other people aggressively in one day.

Tip #4: Get Your Tweets Re-Tweeted Like Crazy

The key to getting your Tweets to become viral is to get them re-tweeted like crazy. To do this, you need to be active in your account so people will pay attention to you and more importantly, you need to post tweets that are natural ?link bait?.

In the search engine optimization world where experts optimize their sites to gain top search engine rankings, link bait refers to any content that people feel the urge to link to, because the content is either very entertaining or helpful. The trick is to post tweets that have links to this type of content. You can also post tweets that do not have links but contain content that people will want to re-tweet to their followers.

Tip #5: Tweet During Prime Times

One of the surest ways to get more exposure for your Tweets is to tweet during what I call prime times. These are periods where Twitter users are most active. If most of your followers and prospects are in the USA, these times are usually in the morning Eastern Time, and in the night time Easter Time. So to get the best results, you will want to tweet during 8am to 11am EST, and 8pm to 12am EST. You can use the same times for the time zone you are targeting.

Tip #6: Make Connections With Other Twitter Users

Twitter is called a social network, so make connections with your followers. Respond to their tweets and ask for the opinions of your followers from time to time. Re-tweet good posts that you see and more people will start to pay attention to your own posts. It?s simple, if you re-tweet other people?s posts, they are more likely to re-tweet yours later on. It?s the law of reciprocity.

Tip #7: Use Twitter To Build Your Own Email List

Twitter is one of the best tools around for generating leads for your business. It is not a sound idea to promote links to direct sales pages and attempt to make the sale there and then, unless your followers are already your customers (in which case, you can post coupon codes or links to your products and make sales). Therefore, you will want to get your followers on to your own email list where you can follow-up with them on your content and offers.

Now go ahead and get Twitter traffic for your business!

(Ed. Note: With the right tools, an online business can quickly become very profitable. Discover 7 sure-fire methods of making up to $20,000 per month online in just 30 minutes a day with Fabian Tan?s Maximum Money Blueprints.)

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Source: http://www.danjur.com/1350/get-twitter-traffic-how-to-generate-100s-of-visitors-per-day-from-twitter/

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Sell Boats on Internet | eCommerce Investments

eCommerce Consultants and eCommerce Investors, Worldwide Online Business Developers in the Boating and Yachting Industry.

As eCommerce experts and specialists in the creation and develop of Boating Business on Internet, we can help you get the most from your business on internet

We work in partnership with entreperneurs and companies who have a physical business and want to update their business to internet, becoming in a ?internet partner?

For many years, we have to create Internet businesses,?and you can be assured that we will create the best business system to Sell Boats on Internet?for your company because our fees will be a percentage of sales ocurring online by direct purchases or by goal generation,?Always payments by results

If you already have a website to Sell Boats on Internet, we?ll adapt to produce online business,?There will be no cost to you, we take care of all costs to generate business. and when sales starts?you will?pay us a percentage of online sales

if you dont have website, we will build a new one,?with the same philosophy, no cost to you,?just a portion of sales when start to produce

Our mission is to become dedicated to our partnerships. We will make your online business generate sales, and this will mean we make money.

For That we will use our eCommerce web development experience to create the best eCommerce sites to promote and market online sales.

Over the last 10 years we have been successful growing our partner?s businesses with our eCommerce web development skill sets, again and again, with numerous Internet projects worldwide. Let us apply our knowledge and experience to help the best eCommerce sites for your business.

Do you have an online business idea? Let us know you want to collaborate.

We are a eCommerce consulting and eCommerce investments firm, and we will be the Internet Department of your company. We do eCommerce investments and eCommerce consulting creating a single commercial presence.

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Source: http://ecommerce-investments.com/sell-boats-internet/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sell-boats-internet

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Filipino Social Good Startups Win At IdeaSpace Competition

The results are in for Filipino accelerator IdeaSpace’s startup competition, and the top ten picks have a heavy focus on social projects. A glance at the list reveals a strong emphasis on environmental and health-related projects, especially those that will likely benefit the developing nation’s poorer regions. Armtech ? affordable water purification machine for households DateCola ? natural date-enriched beverages, a healthy alternative to soft drinks Mirand ? low-cost and high-quality total joint implants for the Asian market PGRS ? produces electricity via rumble strips installed on high traffic roads PinoyTravel ? provincial bus seat reservation system using mobile technologies PortfolioMNL ? online marketplace for creative professionals Prodigo ? a solution for highly targeted promotions for merchants using Big Data analytics Tech4Health ? solution for health monitoring of chronic conditions, including diabetes TimeFree ? SMS-based automated queuing system WeGen ? new design of wind turbine that is more efficient than current technology When the top 20 were picked, many of them were mobile-phone dependent and appeared to center around developing smartphone apps for urban cities. But it seems that many of those didn’t make the cut for the top ten. One of IdeaSpace’s co-founders,?Earl Martin Valencia, said: “All winners are viable business ideas based on science and technology, not just IT. They reflect the market needs of emerging markets such as the Philippines and we believe that it’s a big market also globally.” Jojo Flores, co-founder and vice president of Silicon Valley-based incubator Plug and PlayTech Center, was present at the pitching event all day. He said he is keen to invest in some of them and take them to the global stage as well. The top ten have each won six months incubation support (such as business operations covering accounting and legal services) and funding of up to $120,000 (PHP 5 million). IdeaSpace is a non-profit and was launched a little over a year ago. It has the support of various large Filipino conglomerates, and these are expected to provide mentorship to incubated companies. Some academic partners like the Asian Institute of Management and the University of the Philippines-Open University, as well as corporates like Microsoft and Amazon, will come onboard to mentor the winners of this competition.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/RaWbN0rq-NE/

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Indonesia Earthquake: Magnitude 7.1 Quake Strikes Eastern Part Of Country

An earthquake struck the eastern part of Indonesia measuring a 7.1 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Saturday. The quake shocked 159 miles along Enarotali in Irian Jaya, according to Reuters.

USGS also reported the earthquake ran 36 miles deep. No tsunami warning has been issued.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/06/indonesia-earthquake-strikes-eastern-part-of-country_n_3026262.html

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CA-NEWS Summary

Powers, Iran fail to end nuclear stalemate in Almaty talks

ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers and Iran failed again to ease their decade-old dispute over Tehran's disputed nuclear program in talks that ended on Saturday, prolonging a stand-off that risks spiraling into a new Middle East war. The lack of a breakthrough in the two-day meeting in Kazakhstan aimed at easing international concern over Iran's contested nuclear activity marked a further setback for diplomatic efforts to resolve the row peacefully.

Embassies staying put in North Korea despite tension

SEOUL (Reuters) - Staff at embassies in North Korea appeared to be remaining in place on Saturday despite an appeal by authorities in Pyongyang for diplomats to consider leaving because of heightened tension after weeks of bellicose exchanges. North Korean authorities told diplomatic missions they could not guarantee their safety from next Wednesday - after declaring that conflict was inevitable amid joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end of the month.

Two new bird flu cases in China amid poultry crackdown

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Two more people have contracted bird flu in Shanghai, China's health ministry said on Saturday, as authorities closed live poultry markets and culled birds to combat a new virus strain that has killed six people. State-run Xinhua news agency said authorities planned to slaughter birds at two live poultry markets in Shanghai and another in Hangzhou after new samples of the H7N9 virus were detected in birds at the three sites.

Five die in Christian-Muslim clashes in Egypt

EL KHUSUS, Egypt (Reuters) - Five Egyptians were killed and eight wounded in clashes between Christians and Muslims in a town near Cairo, security sources said on Saturday, in the latest sectarian violence in the most populous Arab state. Christian-Muslim confrontations have increased in Muslim-majority Egypt since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 gave freer rein to hardline Islamists repressed under his rule.

Portugal ruling poses difficulties for bailout goals: government

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's government said on Saturday the constitutional court's rejection of key austerity measures from this year's budget creates "serious difficulties" in meeting international commitments under a bailout. Following an extraordinary cabinet meeting after the court ruling late on Friday, State Secretary for Cabinet Affairs Luis Marques Guedes told reporters the decision "jeopardizes the country's hard-earned credibility" gained with its European partners and lenders.

Air strike kills 15 in Aleppo, Assad warns of regional turmoil

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian government air strike killed 15 people on Saturday, including nine children, in a district of the northern city of Aleppo where Kurdish fighters have been battling forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, a violence monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a warplane had bombarded the western edges of the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo, Syria's biggest city, where Assad's forces have been battling rebels for nine months.

Egyptian police fire tear gas to disperse Cairo protest

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police fired tear gas to prevent opponents of President Mohamed Mursi storming a court and the prosecutor-general's office in central Cairo on Saturday, witnesses said. Eight people were injured in Cairo during another protest in al-Fayoum south of the capital, the state news agency MENA said.

Kosovo too high a price to pay for EU, Serbian church says

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's Orthodox Church warned on Saturday against a 'betrayal' of Kosovo, piling pressure on the ruling coalition as it weighs whether to cede the country's last foothold in its former province in exchange for talks on joining the European Union. The appeal by the patriarch comes before a Tuesday deadline for the government to tell the EU whether it accepts a plan to tackle Kosovo's ethnic partition between its Albanian majority and a small northern pocket populated by Serbs.

New premier pledges to shield Lebanon from Syria dangers

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese politician Tammam Salam was named prime minister on Saturday after he won a sweeping parliamentary endorsement, pledging to bridge the country's deep divisions and shield it from the dangers of neighboring Syria's civil war. Salam was designated after the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose two years in office were dominated by efforts to contain sectarian tensions, violence and economic fallout from the Syrian conflict.

South Africa's Mandela leaves hospital after pneumonia

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela left hospital on Saturday after more than a week of treatment of pneumonia that raised global concern about the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader. "(He) has been discharged from hospital today ... following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition," the South African presidency said in a statement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-005824843.html

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Tech Point - Ramona Sentinel | Ramona Sentinel

By Terry Koehl

Being a technology service provider, I have the chance to meet many people and am given an opportunity to discuss the use of technology in their lives. One question that many have and often leads to much debate among everyone is whether you should leave a computer running all the time or turn it off when it?s not in use.

The answer is not a clear yes or no either way. Many years ago (until perhaps the early to mid 1990s) the general thought was that you should avoid turning the computer on and off as much as possible. This was due to poor power switches that could wear out, and some hardware not being resilient to the power cycles. Both issues are of no concern with today?s hardware, especially if we think of other similar devices such as televisions, which are rarely left running around the clock. This gives you the choice based upon your preferences and usage.

The biggest argument for turning the computer off is cost savings and conservation. Leaving the computer on will obviously consume more power, wasting both money and resources. If you own a business or have multiple computers in your home, this cost savings could be substantial over the course of a year.

Another reason often cited in favor of turning your computer off is that if it?s off it can?t be attacked by viruses or other malware. All of these points are valid and worth serious consideration.

On the flip side, leaving the computer on means that your system and software can check for updates, download, and even install the updates as well as perform maintenance routines. Often this is done when the computer is not being used to avoid using the computers resources at the same time you?re trying to get something accomplished.

Businesses may also wish to perform backups and other maintenance routines when the business is closed. Always turning the power off may prevent some of these important duties from ever occurring.

A prime example of this is the disk defragmenter, which from the Vista operating system on was automatically scheduled to run once a week in the middle of the night. This utility simply re-arranges data on the hard drive for higher efficiency. I?ve seen computers suffer serious performance loss because this utility was never able to run simply because of the default schedule set in Windows.

The good news is that we can now schedule most tasks to work around our schedules and allow us to still be able to conserve financial and power resources. So when it comes to the debate between you and your spouse, next of kin, co-worker, etc., my personal opinion is that you?re both right! Do whatever works for you. Use the technology to its fullest potential.

Related posts:

1. Tech Point: Free WiFi could cost you
2. Neo-Tech team gears up for ?10 Build Season
3. AccuTech provides computer repair and support
4. SDGE,Cox to pay state $16.3 million
5. Northrop Grumman makes district 400 computers richer

Short URL: http://www.ramonasentinel.com/?p=22403

Source: http://www.ramonasentinel.com/2013/04/06/tech-point/

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Obama's Catch 22: Budget Blueprint Won't Please Many, if Any

obama

When news began to emerge from of the White House Friday that President Obama's budget next week will propose cuts to Medicare and Social Security, the wave of reaction was not complimentary.

"We cannot force seniors to pay even more to fill the hole left by unnecessary and irresponsible cuts to Social Security," Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement Friday afternoon.

"Cutting benefits now, when people are already struggling to make ends meet, will mean unnecessary hardship for millions of people," Reps. Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva, the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote in a joint statement. "It is unpopular, unwise and unworkable."

RELATED: Guns, Budget, GOP: 5 Stories You'll Care About Next Week

Next Wednesday, the president is expected to release a plan that proposes cuts to Medicare by increasing premiums for wealthier retirees and Social Security by gradually reducing annual cost-of- living increases.

In the past, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said she's "agnostic" to a potential chained CPI proposal as long as it protects the most vulnerable.

But today, the president's defenders were silent as the president was dinged by enraged progressives for a perceived flip-flop on his campaign promise not to cut entitlements.

"President Obama, when it comes to cutting Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare benefits, over 200,000 progressive members of your own party don't 'have your back,'" Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America, said Friday. "We are prepared to fight you every step of the way."

RELATED: Budget to Include Social Security Cuts

Across the aisle, Republicans dislike the president's budget proposal for an entirely different reason: the president's call for additional tax increases on the country's wealthiest earners just months after tax rates were tackled during the fiscal cliff negotiations.

It's the political paradox the president faces on an annual basis. He needs to lay out a credible vision for bipartisan deficit reduction, but finding an amenable path there without enraging his supporters has proven to be elusive.

RELATED: Knives Come Out in Budget Battle

One senior Republican on Capitol Hill said the president's budget proposal "does little or nothing to bring both parties closer to a fiscal agreement" because, in the eyes of Republicans, it's essentially the same offer that was rejected by House Speaker John Boehner during negotiations with the president last December.

Leaked details about the president's latest desire for $600 billion in new tax revenue prompted a scathing paper response from Boehner, R-Ohio, who is agitated that President Obama wants additional revenue in exchange for what Republicans describe as "modest" entitlement savings.

"When the president visited the Capitol last month, House Republicans stated a desire to find common ground and urged him not to make savings we agree upon conditional on another round of tax increases," Boehner wrote in a statement. "If reports are accurate, the president has not heeded that call. If the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there's no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes. That's no way to lead and move the country forward."

The president's previous budgets have fallen flat in Congress. Given the initial reaction, this version is likely to suffer a quick death, as well, if it is ever brought to the floor for a vote.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-catch-22-budget-blueprint-wont-please-many-035300873--abc-news-politics.html

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Following Obama, Kerry to donate part of salary

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The richest member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet is giving back some salary, too, in the spirit of government-wide spending cuts.

A day after Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said they'd return 5 percent of their paycheck to the Treasury, Secretary of State John Kerry followed in somewhat similar fashion.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Kerry, however, will give his 5 percent to a charity for department employees. She says he already makes significant charitable donations.

Kerry makes $183,500 this year. His donation is worth $9,175.

The former Massachusetts senator was worth more than $184 million at the time of his 2011 Senate financial disclosure form.

His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune and is reportedly worth more than $1 billion.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-04-US-Kerry-Salary/id-27b26de67ebd477b8fa14c0192da183e

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Stem cells enable personalized treatment for bleeding disorder

Apr. 5, 2013 ? Scientists have shed light on a common bleeding disorder by growing and analysing stem cells from patients' blood to discover the cause of the disease in individual patients.

The technique may enable doctors to prescribe more effective treatments according to the defects identified in patients' cells.

In future, this approach could go much further: these same cells could be grown, manipulated, and applied as treatments for diseases of the heart, blood and circulation, including heart attacks and haemophilia.

The study focused on von Willebrand disease (vWD), which is estimated to affect 1 in 100 people and can cause excessive, sometimes life-threatening bleeding. vWD is caused by a deficiency of von Willebrand factor (vWF), a blood component involved in making blood clot. vWF is produced by endothelial cells, which line the inside of every blood vessel in our body. Unfortunately, they are difficult to study because taking biopsies from patients is invasive and unpleasant.

A group led by Dr Anna Randi at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London used a new approach to investigate the disease. Dr Richard Starke, a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Fellow and lead author of the study, took routine blood samples from eight patients with vWD, extracted stem cells called endothelial progenitor cells, and grew them in the lab to yield large numbers of endothelial cells.

By testing these cells, they were able to analyse each patient's disease in unprecedented detail. In some patients, the scientists found new types of defect, which may enable them to recommend improved treatments. Professor Mike Laffan, a collaborator in the study and in charge of patients with VWD at Hammersmith Hospital in West London, is looking to apply these findings to reduce severe bleeding in these patients.

Dr Randi believes that endothelial progenitor cells could become an invaluable resource for testing new drugs for vWD and other diseases. "We will be able to test the effects of a range of compounds in the patients' own cells, before giving the drugs to the patients themselves," she said.

This approach could have impact far beyond vWD. Endothelial cells derived from blood could also be isolated and reinjected into someone recovering from a heart attack, to help them grow new blood vessels and repair the injured heart tissue. Dr Starke says this approach avoids the main problem with transplant therapies, in which the immune system tries to destroy the foreign material. "The patients would receive their own cells, so they wouldn't face the problems of rejection," he said.

Work is well underway towards achieving this goal, but blood-derived endothelial cells are only now being explored. "There are already many studies where patients have been injected with stem cells to see whether damage to the heart could be repaired, and there are some promising results," says Dr Randi. "The door is open to such treatments, and our studies are a step towards identifying the right cells to use."

The group's previous research has already thrown up pointers for potential new treatments. Aside from producing vWF to form clots, endothelial cells are responsible for forming new blood vessels. In their last paper, the group showed that vWF is actually needed to build healthy blood vessels. Some patients with vWD suffer severe bleeding from the gut because defects in vWF cause their blood vessels to develop abnormally. "There are drugs already being used in other diseases which target abnormal blood vessel, that could be useful to stop bleeding in some vWD patients," says Randi. "Nobody would have thought of using them to treat vWD, but by testing them on the patient's own endothelial cells , in the laboratory, we can find out if these drugs work before giving them to the patient."

Scientists are now interested in the possibility of using endothelial cells as a treatment in themselves. For instance, haemophilia, the hereditary bleeding disorder which affected Queen Victoria's family, might one day be treated by taking these cells from a patient and replacing the gene that causes the disease, then putting them back into the patient.

Funding for the study came from the British Heart Foundation, the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Imperial College London. The original article was written by Eliot Barford.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. R. D. Starke, K. E. Paschalaki, C. E. F. Dyer, K. J. Harrison-Lavoie, J. A. Cutler, T. A. J. McKinnon, C. M. Millar, D. F. Cutler, M. A. Laffan, A. M. Randi. Cellular and molecular basis of von Willebrand disease: studies on blood outgrowth endothelial cells. Blood, 2013; 121 (14): 2773 DOI: 10.1182/blood-2012-06-435727

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/eQf7SwX_N2Q/130405094342.htm

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