শনিবার, ২৬ অক্টোবর, ২০১৩

Grand jury indicted JonBenet Ramsey parents


BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A grand jury found enough evidence to indict the parents of JonBenet Ramsey for child abuse and accessory to first-degree murder in the 6-year-old's death, newly unsealed documents revealed Friday, nearly a decade after DNA evidence cleared the couple.

But the 1999 documents shed no light on who was responsible for the child beauty queen's death, and 14 years later, authorities are no closer to finding her killer.

The documents confirmed reports earlier this year that grand jurors had indeed recommended an indictment in the case, contrary to the long-held perception that the secret panel ended their work without deciding to charge anyone.

At the time, then-District Attorney Alex Hunter didn't mention an indictment, saying only that there wasn't enough evidence to warrant charges against the Ramseys, who had long maintained their innocence.

The grand jury met three years after JonBenet's body was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, the day after Christmas in 1996. Lurid details of the crime and striking video footage of the child in adult makeup and suggestive pageant costumes propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the U.S., unleashing a series of true-crime books and TV specials.

Many tabloid headlines later, tests in 2008 on newly discovered DNA left behind by someone who touched JonBenet's long underwear pointed to the involvement of an "unexplained third party" in her slaying, and not the Ramseys or their son, Burke.

The tests led Hunter's successor, Mary Lacy, to clear the Ramseys, two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. In a letter to John Ramsey, she called the couple "victims of this crime."

Finding a match in the nation's growing DNA database could hold the best hope for someday solving the killing of JonBenet, who would now be 23. Her slaying is considered a cold case, open but not under active investigation.

One of John Ramsey's attorneys, L. Lin Wood, said the documents released Friday are "nonsensical" and the grand jurors didn't have the benefit of having the DNA results.

"They reveal nothing about the evidence reviewed by the grand jury and are clearly the result of a confused and compromised process," he said.

While the killer's identity is still unknown, Wood said there's no mystery about the Ramseys' role.

"The Ramsey family is innocent," he said. "That part of the case, based on the DNA evidence, is a done deal."

Boulder police, who were criticized for their handling of the investigation, issued a statement saying the documents show the grand jury agreed with investigators that probable cause existed to file charges. However, the statement acknowledged that the evidence would have to meet a higher standard than probable cause for prosecutors to take the case to trial.

The current district attorney, Stan Garnett, declined to comment but will publish an op-ed piece on Sunday, given the complexity of the case, a spokeswoman said.

David Lane, a defense attorney not involved in the case, said prosecutors may have handed it over to grand jurors because problems in the investigation could have made it difficult to prosecute. But he said that could have backfired with a "runaway grand jury" that reached its own conclusions.

He said the indictments could have been an attempt to force the parents to turn against each other, which he said was unlikely because both were protected by laws that limit testimony of one spouse against another.

"Somebody killed JonBenet Ramsey," Lane said. "It sounds like they were accused of aiding and abetting each other, with the hope someone would crack and break. That didn't happen, and prosecutors may have decided not to go forward."

Although the grand jury foreman signed the 1999 indictments, prosecutors decided not to bring charges.

Christina Habas, a retired judge who oversaw grand juries in Denver, said it's at the discretion of the district attorney whether to file charges because prosecutors have to consider whether they can convince a trial jury of someone's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The indictments might have been a compromise among jurors who were divided on what counts should be approved, said Nancy Leong, an assistant law professor at the University of Denver. The release of only four of 18 charging pages, and the numbering of the charges, suggest other possible charges were passed over. The charge of accessory to a crime might have been an attempt to "meet in the middle," Leong said.

"And that would also explain why the prosecutor didn't want to continue with the prosecution of the crime, because there might not have been enough evidence to prove the parents helped someone else cover up the crime," she said.

Whatever the motivation behind them, the documents add little or nothing to the public understanding of what happened to JonBenet, Leong said.

"We don't know much more factually, if anything, than we did in 1996," she said.

The Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder reported earlier this year that the grand jury had issued indictments, and the documents were released in response to a lawsuit filed by its reporter, Charlie Brennan, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

_____

Associated Press writers Steven K. Paulson and Dan Elliott contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/grand-jury-indicted-jonbenet-ramsey-parents-222725272.html
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The MMA Hour - 204 - Rousimar Palhares


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Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/videos/2013/10/22/4866016/the-mma-hour-204-rousimar-palhares
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Starbucks Unveils 'Tea Bar' In New York City


NEW YORK (AP) — Starbucks is opening a new cafe in New York City, and it won't serve any coffee.


The Seattle-based company on Thursday plans to open its first Teavana "tea bar," where people can order specialty drinks and small dishes in a trendy, cafe-like setting. The sweets, flatbreads, salads and other food range in price from about $3 to $15. Drinks range in price from $3 to $6, and include novelties such as carbonated teas.


The menu of food and freshly made drinks is a change for Teavana, a chain of about 300 shops that sell boxed and loose tea and accessories. Teavana stores are mainly in shopping malls, but Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said he plans to expand the footprint to include more locations in urban areas. Already, it has opened traditional Teavana shops in New York City.


Starbucks also plans to transform additional Teavana stores to make them more like Starbucks cafes and the tea bar that's opening Thursday.


The opening of the New York City tea bar comes after Starbucks bought Teavana last year. The company has said it plans to use the acquisition to make tea a bigger part of American culture, as it has with coffee.


Starbucks Corp., which has about 12,000 U.S. locations, has been on a strong financial run even in the weak economy, boosting its profits by raising prices, revamping food offerings and adding items such as pricey bottled juices. In its latest quarter, it said sales rose 9 percent at cafes open at least a year.


At a media event at the new Teavana store, Schultz said executives noticed that tea orders were among the fastest-growing drinks at Starbucks cafes. People are also more likely to order food when they buy iced tea.


Schultz said he expects the average purchase at the Teavana shop to be higher than at a Starbucks cafe, although it probably won't get as many customers. The store is also expected to do more business throughout the day, compared with the early morning rush at Starbucks stores.


Starbucks opened a similar tea shop last year near its headquarters under its Tazo brand. Next month, that store will be converted into a Teavana tea bar as well.


The idea of a tea shop isn't new, of course. Jenny Ko, a part owner of the Culture Tea Bar in New York's Harlem neighborhood, notes that they're more prevalent on the West Coast, but that they've been popping up on the East Coast more recently as well.


Ko said she welcomes Starbucks' push into tea shops, even though the company has put many put many smaller coffee chains out of business. She said she thinks her tea shop has enough unique offerings to withstand the competition. Besides, she said Starbucks' push should lead to greater awareness about teas in general.


"That's how everyone got into coffee, after Starbucks opened," Ko said.


Already, Ko noted people are more knowledgeable about tea, with customers increasingly familiar with different varieties such as oolong and Darjeeling.


___


Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi.


Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240214555&ft=1&f=
Category: peyton manning   Malala Yousafzai   Battlefield 4 beta   Rosh Hashanah 2013   drake  

You can use your real name on PlayStation 4 at launch, but aliases are OK too


You can still be anonymous on PlayStation 4, but real identities are also welcome at launch


Earlier this year at the PlayStation 4's coming out event, Mark Cerny, the system's lead architect, announced that gamers would be able to use real names on PlayStation Network. Today, Sony re-confirmed that news to Kotaku, stating that it will be available as an option at launch, although gamers can still opt to elect an alias. The move clearly highlights a different, more social direction for PSN, which up until now has just been a digital storefront. Apart from live video streaming capabilities, we don't have many more details about Sony's planned evolution for PSN, but we do know that, unlike Microsoft and its Xbox One, gamers won't have to wait to unmask themselves online. For its part, Microsoft does intend to let gamers use real names within its Friends app, but that option isn't set to go live until sometime after next month's Xbox One release.


Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/23/Sony-PlayStation-4-real-names-psn/?ncid=rss_truncated
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JPMorgan Chase Agrees To Pay $5.1 Billion To Feds


JPMorgan Chase agreed pay $5.1 billion to settle litigation over mortgage assets sold during the housing bubble. The deal, announced late Friday afternoon, is to resolve claims the company misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing market crashed. It is part of a tentative $13 billion deal the company is trying to reach with federal and state agencies over its mortgage liabilities.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NprProgramsATC/~3/IDwHHcWM9h8/jp-morgan-chase-agrees-to-pay-5-1-billion-to-feds
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The NSA Says an 'Internal Error' Caused Its Outage Not a DDoS Attack

The NSA Says an 'Internal Error' Caused Its Outage Not a DDoS Attack

The completely competent folks of the NSA are saying that its nuked website is a result of an internal error, a glitch, a mistake and not because hackers launched a DDoS attack on it. That's cool, the NSA didn't go down because of hackers but because it screwed itself up.

Read more...


    






Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cvp3pvdoomY/the-nsa-says-an-internal-error-caused-its-outage-not-1452504459
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Tests prove Roma couple are mystery girl's parents

Mother Sasha Ruseva holds two-year-old Penka, one of her ten children, whom she claims is albino talks to journalists in the town of Nikolaevo , Bulgaria, Thursday Oct. 24, 2013. DNA tests have confirmed that a Bulgarian Roma couple living in the impoverished village with their nine other children are the biological parents of the girl found in Greece with another Roma couple, authorities said Friday. Genetic profiles of Sasha Ruseva, 35, and her husband, Atanas, matched that of Maria, Interior Ministry official Svetlozar Lazarov said Friday. Ruseva says she gave birth to a baby girl four years ago in Greece while working as an olive picker but gave the child away because she was too poor to care for her. She since has had two more children after Maria. Maria has been in a charity's care since authorities raided a Roma settlement in Greece last week and found she was not related to the Greek Roma couple she was living with. (AP Photo/BGNES) BULGARIA OUT







Mother Sasha Ruseva holds two-year-old Penka, one of her ten children, whom she claims is albino talks to journalists in the town of Nikolaevo , Bulgaria, Thursday Oct. 24, 2013. DNA tests have confirmed that a Bulgarian Roma couple living in the impoverished village with their nine other children are the biological parents of the girl found in Greece with another Roma couple, authorities said Friday. Genetic profiles of Sasha Ruseva, 35, and her husband, Atanas, matched that of Maria, Interior Ministry official Svetlozar Lazarov said Friday. Ruseva says she gave birth to a baby girl four years ago in Greece while working as an olive picker but gave the child away because she was too poor to care for her. She since has had two more children after Maria. Maria has been in a charity's care since authorities raided a Roma settlement in Greece last week and found she was not related to the Greek Roma couple she was living with. (AP Photo/BGNES) BULGARIA OUT







In this undated photo released by charity ''The Smile of the Child'' shows a 4-year-old girl at an unknown location. Greek authorities on Friday, Oct. 18, 2013 have requested international assistance to identify the four-year-old girl found living in a Gypsy camp with a couple arrested and charged with abducting her from her birth parents. A police statement says the child was located Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2013 near the town of Farsala, central Greece, during a nationwide crackdown on illegal activities in Gypsy camps. (AP Photo/The Smile of the Child)







Minka Ruseva, daughter of Sasha Ruseva, left, laughs in a Roma neighborhood of Nikolaevo, Bulgaria, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Sasha Ruseva, a Bulgarian Roma woman from this town, is under investigation by Bulgarian authorities trying to find out if she is the mother of a suspected abduction victim in neighboring Greece known as "Maria" whose case has triggered a global search for her real parents. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)







Minka Ruseva, daughter of Sasha Ruseva, left, dances along with other children in a Roma neighborhood of Nikolaevo, Bulgaria, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Sasha Ruseva, a Bulgarian Roma woman from this town, is under investigation by Bulgarian authorities trying to find out if she is the mother of a suspected abduction victim in neighboring Greece known as "Maria" whose case has triggered a global search for her real parents. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)







A Bulgarian Roma child stands next to a pig in a Roma neighborhood of Nikolaevo, Bulgaria, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Sasha Ruseva, a Bulgarian Roma woman from this town, is under investigation by Bulgarian authorities trying to find out if she is the mother of a suspected abduction victim in neighboring Greece known as "Maria" whose case has triggered a global search for her real parents. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)







(AP) — The mystery is solved — but the future of the young girl known only as Maria is still uncertain.

DNA tests have confirmed that a Bulgarian Roma couple living in an impoverished village with their nine other children are the biological parents of the girl found in Greece with another Roma couple, authorities said Friday.

Genetic profiles of Sasha Ruseva, 35, and her 37-year-old husband, Atanas, matched that of Maria, Bulgarian Interior Ministry official Svetlozar Lazarov said Friday.

By late Friday, the couple had not returned to their home that was surrounded by local and international reporters after the news was announced, and police said their whereabouts were unknown to them.

Three of the couple's youngest children were taken to a shelter for temporary care, said Diana Kaneva, director of social services for the central Stara Zagora region.

Ruseva had said she gave birth to a baby girl four years ago in Greece while working there as an olive picker but gave the child away because she was too poor to care for her. She since has had two more children after Maria.

Maria has been in a charity's care since authorities raided a settlement of Roma, also known as Gypsies, in Greece last week and found she was not related to the Greek Roma couple she was living with.

Her discovery triggered a global search for her parents, fears of possible child trafficking and interest from authorities dealing with missing children cases in Poland, France, the United States and elsewhere.

Human rights groups also have raised concerns that the news coverage about Maria and the actions taken by authorities were fueling racist sentiment against the European Union's Gypsy minority, who number around 6 million.

The Bulgarian prosecutor's office and Greek authorities were "seeking clarification on whether the mother agreed to sell the child," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

It wasn't clear if Maria had been told who her real parents are. The Greek charity Smile of the Child, which has been looking after her, would not comment on the case.

Social services director Kaneva, after visiting the Ruseva home, said the child would likely be returned to Bulgaria for adoption.

"Maria will first be brought to a family crisis center, and after they (authorities) will seek for suitable foster family," she said.

The Rusevs and their other children live in a dilapidated, mud-floored house outside the remote Bulgarian town of Nikolaevo, 280 kilometers (175 miles) east of the capital, Sofia.

The Roma quarter in the town houses some 2,000 people. Most are jobless, living in extreme poverty, trying to stay warm in shabby houses. Children played Friday in mud-covered streets as pigs, cats and hens ambled by.

Minka Ruseva, a 14-year-old who is one of the Rusev family's children, stood in front of their dilapidated two-room house. Minka said she saw pictures of Maria on TV and thought she was her sister.

"I like her very much. She looks very much like me, and I want her back home. We will take care of her, and I can help my mother," she said.

Stoyan Todorov, a neighbor of the Rusevs, complained of the hardships that he and his family face every day. He said Bulgarian authorities do not care about helping the Roma and come "only on the eve of elections, hoping to get our votes."

"Look how we are living in total misery," he continued. "Years ago, a man was murdered in our neighborhood and nobody paid attention. Now there are crowds of concerned people here because of one girl."

As he spoke, he pointed at the scores of reporters from across Europe who had descended on the remote area.

"The truth is that we do not have the money to look after our kids," Todorov said.

Greek officials, fearing that Maria's 2009 birth record contained false information, have ordered a nationwide check of all Greek birth records in the last six years to ferret out welfare fraud or other irregularities.

The Greek Roma couple, now in pre-trial detention, have been charged with allegedly abducting Maria and committing document fraud. They told authorities they had received Maria after an informal adoption and their lawyer said Friday they planned to seek legal custody of the girl.

Under Greek law, child abduction charges can include cases where a minor is voluntarily given away by its parents.

"We are very, very happy with this outcome, because we have proved what we said from the outset. ... The adoption, as it happened, was not of a legal nature but it was not abduction," the Greek couple's lawyer, Costas Katsavos, told The Associated Press.

"Now, as the birth mother has been found, we will ask to gain — through legitimate processes — custody of little Maria, whom the family truly sees as its own child."

At the Gypsy camp in Farsala, central Greece, where Maria was found, residents said the couple had been vindicated.

"They are saying the woman stole the girl. She didn't steal her. The Bulgarian gave the child to her. ... We've had Maria here for five years," neighbor Christina Pavlos said.

___

Paphitis reported from Athens, Greece. Konstantin Testorides in Skopje, Macedonia; Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece; and AP Television staff in Farsala, central Greece contributed.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-25-EU-Greece-Mystery-Girl/id-b3a6901b884643dda0b1a4b44ef1ac90
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Tori Spelling Has Officially Overshared in Her New Memoir

So Tori Spelling has written a new memoir. "I am so excited to tell you guys that my new book Spelling It Like It Is is on sale today!" she wrote in a blog post on her website on Tuesday. "A lot has gone on since my last memoir was published, and I am so excited to share some of the stories with you."

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/tori-spelling-trashes-katie-holmes-says-shes-broke/1-a-550840?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Atori-spelling-trashes-katie-holmes-says-shes-broke-550840
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শুক্রবার, ২৫ অক্টোবর, ২০১৩

Syria claims al-Qaida linked group's leader killed


BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state-run TV reported Friday the leader of a powerful al-Qaida-linked rebel group has been killed — a claim that if confirmed would be a huge blow to fighters trying to topple President Bashar Assad. At least one rebel commander denied the report.

Abu Mohammad al-Golani heads Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as Nusra Front, which has emerged as one of the most effective among rebel groups fighting Assad.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the fighting in Syria, said senior Nusra Front leaders contacted by activists in Latakia and the eastern Deir el-Zour province denied al-Golani had been killed.

Other Nusra Front sources said they could not confirm or deny the report "because contact with al-Golani was cut," the Observatory said in a statement. A rebel commander in a Damascus suburb contacted by The Associated Press said he believed al-Golani was "alive and well" based on his contacts with other fighters including those from Nusra Front. He declined to elaborate or be identified for security concerns.

The report comes as the fragmented rebels have suffered significant losses on the battlefield.

Syrian troops killed at least 40 opposition fighters, including Nusra Front members, earlier Friday in an ambush near Damascus, the government said.

Assad's forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah gunmen also seized control of a rebel ammunition supply route on a highway linking the capital to its eastern suburbs — part of a blistering government offensive to bolster its position amid an international push for peace talks.

State TV said al-Golani was killed in the coastal province of Latakia. It did not say when or give other details. News of his death was not mentioned in the main headlines of the TV's late night news bulletin.

Al-Golani, who fought previously in Iraq, is a shadowy figure who is believed to have spent time recently in rebellious suburbs south of Damascus. Rebels have also gained footholds in mountainous regions of Latakia, which is largely loyal to Assad, and he may have gone there to direct fighting.

The Nusra Front is on a U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings against government targets.

Al-Golani gained prominence in April when he rejected an attempted takeover of the group by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State of Iraq, revealing a growing rift within al-Qaida's global network.

Al-Golani at the time distanced himself from claims that the two groups had merged into a group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Instead, he pledged allegiance to al-Qaida's leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

He said that al-Baghdadi's announcement of the merger was premature and that his group will continue to use Jabhat al-Nusra as its name.

The group is more popular in Syria than the ISIL, which is largely made up of foreign fighters and has been criticized for its brutality and for trying to impose a strict version of Islamic law in areas under its control.

Al-Golani's death could strengthen ISIL at a time of growing infighting between al-Qaida extremists and the more moderate rebels from the mainstream Free Syrian Army.

Assad's forces have been gaining ground in rebel-held areas around the capital, the seat of his power, and have made progress against outgunned and fragmented fighters in several areas.

On Friday, the state-run news agency SANA said 40 rebels died in the ambush near Otaiba, adding that soldiers seized a large arms cache, including anti-tank rockets.

The area is part of a region known as Eastern Ghouta, which was the scene of a chemical weapons attack in August believed to have killed hundreds.

The state-run Al-Ikhbariya television station broadcast footage showing more than a dozen bodies near the largely dried-out Otaiba lake, some wearing flak jackets strapped with ammunition. Automatic rifles and hand grenades lay nearby.

An unidentified Syrian army officer in the area told Al-Ikhbariya that foreign fighters were among the dead and that the ambush followed an intelligence tip.

The Observatory said at least 24 fighters, some of them foreign, were killed in the ambush, but it gave no further details and the differing death tolls could not be immediately reconciled.

The offensive coincided with an international push for a peace conference to be held in Geneva. Both sides want to bolster their position on the ground ahead of the talks, expected next month. No final date has been set, however, and it is unclear whether the sides will reach an agreement on the agenda.

The Supreme Military Council, which brings together a collection of loosely-knit rebel brigades under the emblem of the Free Syrian Army, said Friday it refused to sit down with Syrian officials involved in killing Syrians. Comments carried by the Syrian National Coalition, the group's political wing, also dismissed the proposed talks for lacking a way to reach concrete results.

In other violence, a car bomb blew up near a mosque in in the village of Wadi Barada outside of Damascus shortly before Friday prayers ended. The Observatory said 40 people were killed in the blast and dozens wounded. SANA said the car blew up as it was being rigging with explosives. The agency said a number of people were killed.

The ambush near Damascus came hours after Assad's forces captured the town of Hatitat al-Turkomen south of the city, securing a key highway that links the capital with the Damascus International Airport.

North of Damascus, rebels and government forces clashed for a fifth consecutive day in the Christian town of Sadad. Al-Qaida-linked groups captured a checkpoint earlier this week that gave them control of the western part of the town.

Archbishop Silwanos Al-Nemeh told The Associated Press in a telephone interview as many as 3,000 civilians were trapped, and he appealed for international organizations to help civilians flee the area.

Also Friday, Norway rejected a U.S. request for it to receive the bulk of Syria's chemical weapons for destruction, saying it doesn't have the capabilities to complete the task by the deadlines set by an international chemical watchdog.

The United Nations has set a mid-2014 deadline for the destruction of Syria's arsenal — a deadline Brende said was too tight for Norway.

On Friday, the OPCW said its inspectors visited a site the day before and verified that all of its previous chemical weapons-related equipment has been dismantled. That brings to 19 the total number of sites visited by OPCW inspectors, of 23 that have been disclosed by Syria.

The Syrian conflict has left more than 100,000 people dead and driven nearly 7 million more from their homes.

___

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Elaine Ganley in Paris, Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Michael Corder in The Hague and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-claims-al-qaida-linked-groups-leader-killed-214853722.html
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A School's iPad Initiative Brings Optimism And Skepticism





Students at Coachella Valley Unified School District use iPads during a lesson. The district's superintendent is promoting the tablet initiative as a way to individualize learning.



Coachella Valley Unified School District


Students at Coachella Valley Unified School District use iPads during a lesson. The district's superintendent is promoting the tablet initiative as a way to individualize learning.


Coachella Valley Unified School District


A growing number of school districts across America are trying to weave tablet computers, like the iPad, into the classroom fabric, especially as a tool to help implement the new Common Core state standards for math and reading.


One of California's poorest school districts, the Coachella Valley Unified southeast of Los Angeles, is currently rolling out iPads to every student, pre-kindergarten through high school. It's an ambitious effort that administrators and parents hope will transform how kids learn, boost achievement and narrow the digital divide with wealthier districts.


But, as with tablet efforts across the country, this one faces skeptics and obstacles. Some wonder if its projected benefits are being grossly oversold.


Personalizing Education


Before becoming Coachella Valley's superintendent of schools, Darryl Adams was a keyboardist and singer with the '80s pop rock band Xavion. It was a one-hit wonder, complete with '80s hairdos and a slot on a Hall & Oates tour. He says it was the first all-black rock band on MTV.


Today, Adams still has a touch of the showman as he talks about his school district's latest project.


"Everyone will have an iPad!" he says with a broad smile. "It's gonna be exciting!"


Music was Adams' passion when he was young; it was what inspired him in school. And he sees the iPad plan as central to exciting kids in school today. He argues that since the federal No Child Left Behind initiative 10-plus years ago, school districts have often failed to inspire kids. Instead, he says, they've been teaching them how to take tests.


"And that's not what education is about. So for the first time in our history as a nation, I think in the world, we're going to be able to individualize and personalize education," Adams says.


The district has leased the tablets from Apple at a cost of nearly $9 million. Voters here approved a bond issue, backed by property taxes, to pay for most of it. Funds from Title I — a federal program designed to help low-income schools — and from California's Common Core initiative are also being used for training and implementation.


Some 80 percent of kids in his district live in poverty, Adams says. He sees the tablet plan as a civil rights issue, noting that the bond measure passed with nearly 70 percent support. "Some of our families live in trailer home parks. Some are migrant farmers," he says. "But they're putting money on the line for each other, and that's a true indication the community cares about each other."


'No One Is The Expert Anymore'


The district has set up headquarters in a trailer to coordinate the massive distribution of nearly 20,000 iPads and accompanying training, security, curriculum changes, parental consent forms, and more. Inspirational quotes dot the walls — not from famous educators, but from Apple's late founder, Steve Jobs.


Matt Hamilton, the district's educational technology coordinator, says educators and students are learning from each other. "No one is the expert anymore," he says. "The whole paradigm has really shifted. Teachers are no longer the possessors of knowledge. They're more the facilitators of learning."


Students in seventh grade and up can take their tablets home on evenings, weekends and every school break except summer. Sixth grade and below will have to leave the devices in a locked classroom cart.




The whole paradigm has really shifted. Teachers are no longer the possessors of knowledge. They're more the facilitators of learning.





The district set up a training program to highlight the best teaching practices and to brainstorm classroom curricula. Music teacher Michael Richardson, one of 120 pilot teachers, says he has involved students in figuring out the devices. One student, for example, found a promising music app and "he taught the class and taught me. It was kind of great," Richardson says.


Middle school English teacher Patricia Inghram was also in the pilot program, which tested the tablets in every grade and every subject matter throughout the district. She says she's been using them extensively and successfully in her classes for more than a year. Even though she's a longtime teacher who started out teaching on chalkboards, she says, "I feel comfortable enough to use it at this point, and I think they're fantastic tools."


High school geometry teacher Patrick Beal says the challenge is to make the tablet more than a glorified notebook. "The goal is to transform what I do in the classroom into something completely different: to take them outside of class, spark curiosity and inspire the learning process," he says.


Security Concerns


It's not clear how many schools or districts across the country are using tablets in the classroom. The U.S. Department of Education doesn't track the number, and an Apple spokesman declined to comment or provide numbers on how many schools have worked with iPad classroom initiatives.


Some districts have publicly stumbled with their initiatives. Los Angeles Unified students easily got around restrictions on their district-issued iPads last month: They simply deleted their personal profile info and then could surf the Web without restriction. LA quickly put on the brakes on its billion-dollar iPad rollout to boost security and make other changes. Several other districts across the country have also delayed their tablet plans because of security concerns.


Coachella Valley is trying to learn from LA's problems. It's working with Apple to strengthen profile security and will block harmful and inappropriate online content, as required under the rules for districts that receive federal tech dollars. For now, social media sites and YouTube will not be blocked.


Inghram says some security measures should be a classroom management issue. She has kids take a "tech oath" on digital citizenship and proper use of the iPad: no cyberbullying, harmful or inappropriate pictures or content, or social media during class time.


Some of the projects she's done in class include using the tablets to produce podcasts and link via Skype with experts at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum. Her favorite: virtually visiting the historic Globe Theatre in the U.K. during a lesson on Shakespeare.


Many of the kids never leave the area, Inghram says. "But being able to talk to someone who is sitting in the Globe Theatre and show them around the building and answer their questions about Shakespeare while you're reading his sonnets is an experience that, you know, it opens their eyes."


Lack Of Connection


But some teachers, parents and kids worry that there's a kind of iPad boosterism here that borders on naive. While school district officials are promoting the tablets as central to improving academic achievement, research on that so far is mixed at best.


At Coachella Valley High School, one of two high schools in the district, junior Cheyenne Hernandez says she's open to new media in the classroom but wonders if the iPad money might be better spent on other things. She says people will most likely steal them, break them or wear them out.


"And in a student's opinion, most of the kids are going to go on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram," she says.




That's where I see the difficulty. The disconnect is between giving students an iPad to use and making it relevant to the classroom.





And it's not clear how the district will integrate the curriculum with its ambitious tablet plan. Coachella Valley wants to make the iPads a central part of efforts to meet new Common Core state standards for math and English, and there are new Common Core apps coming out regularly.


But the head librarian of Desert Mirage High School, Rebecca Flanagan, wonders which ones the district will use, how well it will work and how it will all be integrated into a coherent plan.


"That's where I see the difficulty. The disconnect is between giving students an iPad to use and then making it relevant for the classroom," she says. "I mean, it's a toy for them."


Perhaps the biggest bug is connectivity: Large parts of the Coachella Valley are not covered by high-speed Internet. And even where it is available, many families here simply can't afford the service.


Tenth-grader Eli Servin is in a special education class at Coachella Valley High School. His teacher says he "really blossomed" using the iPad at school to help coordinate a recycling project. But at home, he has no Internet connection unless he's connecting to a hot spot on his sister's cellphone or using the Wi-Fi connection at a local McDonald's.


The district is using funding from the bond measure to boost Internet capacity and accessibility for its far-flung schools. But Adams, Coachella's superintendent, acknowledges that expanding connectivity to homes, especially in the district's many rural and impoverished pockets, will be much harder.


"I've told my staff: If we have to park a bus in the neighborhood with a Wi-Fi tower on it or whatever, we will do that to make sure that our students are connected," he says.


It's one of many issues that schools across the country will be intensely observing as the former pop rocker tries to pull off his biggest show yet.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/10/25/240731070/a-schools-ipad-initiative-brings-optimism-and-skepticism?ft=1&f=1019
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Anat Cohen: Bringing The Clarinet To The World





Jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen has a new album out called Claroscuro.



Jimmy Katz/Anzic Records


Jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen has a new album out called Claroscuro.


Jimmy Katz/Anzic Records


This interview was originally broadcast on Feb. 6, 2013.


Clarinetist Anat Cohen is one of a handful of Israeli jazz musicians making a mark on the American jazz scene. She's been voted Clarinetist of the Year six years in a row by the Jazz Journalists Association, and her album, Claroscuro, showcases the range of her talents and musical influences, from New Orleans-style jazz to Israel to Latin music — particularly that of Brazil.


Cohen says that the clarinet's somewhat old-fashioned reputation may be the result of the very thing that attracts her to the instrument.


"[T]he clarinet is still associated with older styles, with folkloric music," she tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "In Israel, the clarinet is associated with klezmer music and more folk music. So I think, in people's minds, it's something that is either dated or too religious. ... I'm working hard to put the clarinet in other scenarios that are not necessarily just folkloric or just traditional. ... I try to bring it to any kind of scenario and find its place."


This includes the music of Brazil. Cohen, who first encountered the country through friends she met as a student at Boston's Berklee College of Music, says Brazilians and the people of her native Israel are similar, and that that shock of recognition formed the spark of her initial attraction.


"We have this casual way of being with each other," she says. "But one thing that is different is they are much less suspicious of people that they don't know. And that's something that I found fascinating. ... We have an expression in Israel saying, 'Respect and suspect at the same time,' because you always want to know, 'What is this person about? And what are they after? And can I trust them?' And something about the nature of Brazilian people [is like], 'Okay, you're here, you're somebody's friend, you're our friends, we're all together, let's all be together.' And it applies to music. ... [T]he music is for everybody. The music is for the people. Everybody sings together."



Interview Highlights


On playing with a lot of breath in her sound


"It's kind of a no-no in the clarinet world, in the legit way of playing. But, you know, when you play jazz, I think, that the search for expression — that's what it's about. And if I want to say something and whisper it ... the air has an effect. It's like you're talking to someone, and you speak with more air in your voice. It gives a certain feeling. So it's just another vocabulary of sounds."



On being introduced to jazz by playing the music of New Orleans


"It was so new to me because, you know, that's not what you hear normally on the radio in Israel. So I just fell in love with the way it felt ... playing with everybody, everybody playing together, counter lines, trombone is playing melody, the other trumpet and clarinet playing lines behind it. Then, you get up and play a solo for 32 bars and that's it: Nothing is too exhausting, nothing is too long. It's just beautiful feeling. Everybody's smiling, everybody's happy. The music of New Orleans has this joy."


On how the singing style of cantors influenced her


"Cantors have an influence on anybody that listens, that is there. Because here is someone that is speaking out of their hearts and using one single melody, and all they do is express it in the most heartfelt way. And as a jazz musician — or as any musician — of course it would have an influence. I mean, that's what I try to do when I play music, when I play any music: When I play a cadence at the end of a song, you want to take one note and make it meaningful. And if you hear a cantor and they're doing it right, you're going to be so moved."


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NprTopicsInterviews/~3/W5seKyeKLkw/anat-cohen-bringing-the-clarinet-to-the-world
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FDA wants limits on most prescribed painkillers


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration is recommending new restrictions on prescription medicines containing hydrocodone, the highly addictive painkiller that has grown into the most widely prescribed drug in the U.S.

In a major policy shift, the agency said in an online notice Thursday that hydrocodone-containing drugs should be subject to the same restrictions as other narcotic drugs like oxycodone and morphine.

The move comes more than a decade after the Drug Enforcement Administration first asked the FDA to reclassify hydrocodone so that it would be subject to the same restrictions as other addictive painkilling drugs. The FDA did not issue a formal announcement about its decision, which has long been sought by many patient advocates, doctors and state and federal lawmakers.

For decades, hydrocodone has been easier to prescribe, in part because it is only sold in combination pills and formulas with other non-addictive ingredients like aspirin and acetaminophen.

That ease of access has made it many health care professionals' top choice for treating chronic pain, everything from back pain to arthritis to toothaches.

In 2011, U.S. doctors wrote more than 131 million prescriptions for hydrocodone, making it the most prescribed drug in the country, according to government figures. The ingredient is found in blockbusters drugs like Vicodin as well as dozens of other generic formulations.

It also consistently ranks as the first or second most-abused medicine in the U.S. each year, according to the DEA, alongside oxycodone. Both belong to a family of drugs known as opioids, which also includes heroin, codeine and methadone.

Earlier this year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that prescription painkiller overdose deaths among women increased about fivefold between 1999 and 2010. Among men, such deaths rose about 3.5-fold. The rise in both death rates is closely tied to a boom in the overall use of prescribed painkillers.

The FDA has long supported the more lax prescribing classification for hydrocodone, which is also backed by professional societies like the American Medical Association.

But the agency's top drug regulator, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said in a statement Thursday: "The FDA has become increasingly concerned about the abuse and misuse of opioid products, which have sadly reached epidemic proportions in certain parts of the United States."

The FDA says it will formally request in early December that hydrocodone be rescheduled as a Schedule II drug, limiting which kinds of medical professionals can write a prescription and how many times it can be refilled.

The Controlled Substances Act, passed in 1970, put hydrocodone drugs in the Schedule III class, which is subject to fewer controls. Under that classification, a prescription for Vicodin can be refilled five times before the patient has to see a physician again. If the drug is reclassified to Schedule II, patients will only be able to receive one 90-day prescription, similar to drugs like OxyContin. The drug could also not be prescribed by nurses and physician assistants.

The FDA's request for reclassification must be approved by officials in other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services.

News of the FDA decision was applauded by lawmakers from states that have been plagued by prescription drug abuse, many who have been prodding the agency to take action for months.

"Today was a tremendous step forward in fighting the prescription drug abuse epidemic that has ravaged West Virginia and our country," said Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, in a statement. "Rescheduling hydrocodone from a Schedule III to a Schedule II drug will help prevent these highly addictive drugs from getting into the wrong hands and devastating families and communities

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York noted that the FDA's own expert panel recommended the reclassification more than nine months ago.

"Each day that passes means rising abuse, and even death, at the hands of hydrocodone-based drugs," Schumer said in a statement.

Still, Thursday's action immediately sparked criticism from some professional groups that said that the tighter restrictions could have unintended consequences, such as burdening health care workers and patients.

"The FDA's reported decision will likely pose significant hardships for many patients and delay relief for vulnerable patients with legitimate chronic pain, especially those in nursing home and long-term care," said Kevin Schweers, a spokesman for the National Community Pharmacists Association.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-wants-limits-most-prescribed-painkillers-234427836--finance.html
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Ex-tycoon Khodorkovsky marks 10 years in prison


MOSCOW (AP) — Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Friday marked 10 years since his arrest, which has become a key turning point in Russia's recent history.

The jailing of Khodorkovsky was widely seen as a punishment for challenging President Vladimir Putin's power. His arrest and the subsequent dismantling of his Yukos oil company sent a chilling signal to others and allowed Putin to consolidate his power and tighten state control over the nation's energy sector.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was arrested Oct. 25, 2003, when masked special forces stormed his plane on the tarmac of a Siberian airport. He was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to eight years in prison.

In 2010, Khodorkovsky was handed a second prison term for stealing from his own Yukos oil company — the sentence interpreted by many as an instrument to keep him in jail until Putin won a third presidential term.

Khodorkovsky is set to be released in August 2014, and his partner Platon Lebedev, who was arrested a few months earlier, stands to walk free in May 2014. Their supporters fear, however, that investigators could be preparing yet another set of charges to keep them behind bars.

In May, a top liberal economist fled Russia, saying he wanted to escape pressure from a new probe focusing on an independent report that was critical of the 2010 verdict. Investigators claimed that its authors had a conflict of interest because they had previously received money from Khodorkovsky.

Speaking to The Associated Press in New York City earlier this week, Khodorkovsky's son, Pavel Khodorkovsky, said his father tries not to focus on the prospect of being released: "He is not going to think about any possibility of his release and is not going to try and worry himself too much about what's coming next because, as you can understand, for a person who has spent 10 years in jail, it's nerve-racking to try and always look forward to any particular date because that date has been changed in the past."

At the time of his arrest, Khodorkovsky was estimated to have a fortune of around $15 billion, making him Russia's richest person. During Putin's first term as president, Khodorkovsky challenged his power by funding opposition parties and also was believed to harbor personal political ambitions.

His actions defied an unwritten pact between Putin and top Russian tycoons, under which the government refrained from reviewing privatization deals that made them enormously rich in the years after the Soviet collapse on condition that they didn't meddle in politics.

While pressure mounted on Khodorkovsky in the months preceding his arrest, it still came as a shock for many, including himself.

Asked in an interview earlier this year what he would have done back then, if he had known before his arrest that he would spend the next 10 years in prison, Khodorkovsky answered: "I'm afraid I would have shot myself. For me back then, my experience today would have been quite a shock."

Khodorkovsky's company, Russia's biggest oil company at the time and a darling of portfolio investors, was sold off in pieces, with its most lucrative assets ending up in the hands of state-owned Rosneft.

Khodorkovsky's lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, described his arrest as a family tragedy that also has "broken lives of many people who worked in the company."

"It's obvious that it was the most important goal of his arrest or at least one of the most important goals: to break him, to make him do what they wanted him to do," Klyuvgant told the AP. "But they failed. ... His spirit is not broken."

On Friday, Amnesty International, which has declared Khodorkovsky a prisoner of conscience, called for his immediate release.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement reiterating its concern about "selective prosecution, politically motivated investigation, and lack of respect for due process rights" in the case of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-tycoon-khodorkovsky-marks-10-years-prison-062158844--finance.html
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Johnny Depp, Amber Heard Photographed Together for First Time Since July


Still going strong! Johnny Depp and Amber Heard reunited in London on Thursday, Oct. 24, to enjoy a romantic dinner date together. Their outing marks the first time they've been photographed together since July -- putting rumors of a breakup to rest.


PHOTOS: Costar couples


Depp, 50, was spotted leading his beautiful girlfriend, 27, out of Scott's Restaurant in London's Mayfair District. The newly blonde actor looked slim in a brown suit and white dress shirt. Heard styled a pretty pale pink lace dress with her blonde hair up in a ponytail. She accessorized the look with a sexy shade of red lipstick. 


PHOTOS: Johnny Depp's movie makeovers


Depp debuted his new bleached blonde hair at the 2013 BFI London Film Festival Awards on Oct. 19. He is currently filming the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical Into the Woods, in which he plays The Wolf alongside Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and other stars in the fairy tale movie.


PHOTOS: Can you believe these couples' age differences


Depp and Heard first met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009, and their relationship was confirmed in June 2012 -- shortly after Depp announced his split from longtime love Vanessa Paradis


In the September 2013 issue of Flare magazine, Heard opened up about why she prefers to keep her love life as private as possible. "It's not part of my professional life," she explained. "I want to be an artist. I don't want to be a celebrity."


"I guess I could not hold hands with who I want to, but what kind of life would that be?" she added. "I don't want to change just because people are watching."


Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/johnny-depp-amber-heard-photographed-together-for-first-time-since-july-20132510
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How to block specific websites from being accessed with Safari for iPhone and iPad

How to block specific websites from being accessed with Safari for iPhone and iPad

If you're a parent and you own an iPhone or iPad, odds are your children spend a great deal of time with them too. If you have teenagers in the house who have their own iPhone or iPads, there may be websites you want to completely block from their devices. Luckily, iOS 7 lets you easily do so. Here's how:

  1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap on General.
  3. Enable Restrictions and set a passcode if Restrictions aren't already enabled.
  4. Under Allowed Content, tap on Websites.
  5. Now tap on Limit Adult Content under the Allowed Websites section.
  6. A new section will populate towards the bottom. Tap on Add a Website... under the Never Allow section.
  7. Type in the full URL of the website you'd like to block and tap Done on the keyboard.

That's it. Just repeat this process for each site you'd like to block access to. Keep in mind that if certain websites have mobile sites, you may need to block them separately. For instance, to block CrackBerry completely, you would need to block www.crackberry.com, m.crackberry.com, and t.crackberry.com since they have specified sites for tablets, smartphones, and full blown browsers.

If you find a site not blocking after enter its URL, go to that site and look in the Address Bar in Safari to make sure you're blocking the correct URL. Copy it if you need to and paste it into restrictions.


    






Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/sID33jmH4ro/story01.htm
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2 shot at Nat'l Guard armory; gunman in custody

(AP) — A member of the National Guard opened fire at an armory outside a U.S. Navy base in Tennessee, wounding two soldiers before being subdued and disarmed by others soldiers, officials said Thursday.

Millington Police Chief Rita Stanback said the shooter was apprehended Thursday by other National Guard members, and that he did not have the small handgun used in the shooting in his possession by the time officers arrived. Stanback said two National Guard members were shot, one in the foot and one in the leg.

"I'm sure there could have been more injury if they hadn't taken him into custody," Stanback said.

The two people shot were taken to a hospital. Stanback said at a news conference that their conditions were not immediately known, though the Navy said on its official Twitter account that neither had life-threatening injuries.

The shooter was a recruiter who had been relieved of duty, said a law enforcement official briefed on the developments. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Stanback said the shooting happened inside an armory building just outside Naval Support Activity Mid-South. There are more than 7,500 military, civilian and contract personnel working on the base, according to the facility's official website. The facility is home to human resources operations and serves as headquarters to the Navy Personnel Command, Navy Recruiting Command, the Navy Manpower Analysis Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Finance Center.

The Navy said the base was briefly placed on lockdown as a precaution, though the lockdown was lifted in the afternoon.

On Thursday afternoon, yellow crime scene tape remained around the front of the building where the shooting happened. Law enforcement had blocked off streets with access to the armory, which is across the street from the army base.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-24-US-Navy-Base-Shooting/id-eb3808b1f3a1486bb54bf99d20f2dc4f
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Both sides agree: No major budget deal foreseen

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2013, photo, House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., laughs as he walks to his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. Forget a grand bargain. Reaching even a small budget deal will be a challenge when negotiators start meeting in an effort to salvage any kind of agreement in the aftermath of this month’s shutdown debacle and debt limit crisis. "If we focus on some big, grand bargain then we’re going to focus on our differences and both sides are going to require that the other side compromises some core principle and then we’ll get nothing done," Ryan, said in an interview on Oct. 24. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)







FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2013, photo, House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., laughs as he walks to his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. Forget a grand bargain. Reaching even a small budget deal will be a challenge when negotiators start meeting in an effort to salvage any kind of agreement in the aftermath of this month’s shutdown debacle and debt limit crisis. "If we focus on some big, grand bargain then we’re going to focus on our differences and both sides are going to require that the other side compromises some core principle and then we’ll get nothing done," Ryan, said in an interview on Oct. 24. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)







(AP) — On this, GOP budget guru Rep. Paul Ryan and top Senate Democrat Harry Reid can agree: There won't be a "grand bargain" on the budget.

Instead, the Wisconsin Republican and the Nevada Democrat both say the best Washington can do in this bitterly partisan era of divided government is a small-ball bargain that tries to take the edge off of automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.

Official Capitol Hill negotiations start next week, but Ryan and Reid both weighed in Thursday to tamp down any expectations that the talks might forge a large-scale agreement where several previous high-level talks have failed.

Long-standing, entrenched differences over taxes make a large-scale budget pact virtually impossible, according to lawmakers, their aides and observers who will be monitoring the talks.

Republicans say they simply won't agree to any further taxes atop the 10-year, $600 billion-plus tax increase on upper-income earners that President Barack Obama and Democrats muscled through Congress in January. Without higher taxes, Democrats say they won't yield to cuts in benefit programs like Medicare.

"If we focus on some big, grand bargain then we're going to focus on our differences, and both sides are going to require that the other side compromises some core principle and then we'll get nothing done," Ryan, who chairs the House Budget Committee, said in an interview Thursday. "So we aren't focusing on a grand bargain because I don't think in this divided government you'll get one."

In an interview Thursday with Nevada public radio station KNPR, Reid, the Senate majority leader, agreed that a large-scale grand bargain wasn't in the cards.

"They have their mind set on doing nothing, nothing more on revenue, and until they get off that kick, there's not going to be a grand bargain," Reid said. "We're just going to have to do something to work our way through sequestration."

Ryan, his party's vice presidential nominee a year ago, and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., are two of the key congressional figures in the talks. They both say they're seeking common ground between the sharply different Republican and Democratic budgets.

Common ground, however, is a much different concept than compromise. It involves finding ideas upon which they can agree rather than compromising principles such as Republican opposition to tax increases or the unwillingness by many Democrats to consider cutting future Social Security benefits by decreasing the annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Instead of a broad agreement encompassing tax hikes and structural curbs on the growth of benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid, Ryan says he's seeking a "smaller, more achievable objective."

The talks, he said, also will focus on alleviating another upcoming round of automatic spending cuts and replacing them with longer-term cuts.

Sequestration mostly hits so-called discretionary spending, the money approved by Congress each year to run agency operations. Ryan wants to cut autopilot-like spending on entitlement programs like Medicare to ease sequestration's effects on both the Pentagon and domestic programs.

"I think we all agree that there's a smarter way to cut spending" than sequestration, Ryan said. "If I can reform entitlement programs where the savings compound annually ... that is more valuable for reducing the debt than a one-time spending cut in discretionary spending."

The automatic spending cuts are required because a 2011 deficit-reduction supercommittee failed to reach an agreement. The cuts would carve $91 billion from the day-to-day budgets of the Pentagon and domestic agencies in 2014 compared with the spending caps set by a 2011 budget deal. The Pentagon would absorb almost 60 percent of the cuts.

While the first official meeting of the larger House-Senate negotiating team is scheduled for next week, Ryan and Murray have been talking already.

Republicans are looking at a bushel basket of cuts to Medicare health care providers contained in Obama's budget. They also have voiced support for curbing Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, an idea Obama has backed, but only in the context of a broader deal in which Republicans would allow tax increases. That proposal won't fly in the current talks.

There are also several supercommittee ideas like curbing Postal Service cost overruns, making federal workers contribute more to their pensions and raising premiums on higher-income Medicare beneficiaries.

Democrats, meanwhile, are wary of using cuts to Medicare and other entitlement programs to ease cuts in the defense budget. Negotiators still might explore curbing generous military retirement, health care and prescription drug benefits as a way to restore cuts to readiness and procurement of weapons systems.

"Congressional Democrats and the White House, rightly in my view, don't want to use domestic entitlement cuts to offset easing or eliminating the defense side of sequestration on top of the nondefense discretionary side," said Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-25-Budget%20Battle/id-77cb942b90bf4f7d942b583f4882dd2f
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Tweetbot 3 for iPhone has a new look, feel and pricetag

If you're a Twitter user and you own an iPhone, chances are you'll have come across Tweetbot, the popular Twitter client from Tapbots. Following Apple's iOS 7 announcement back in June, the two-man team has been hard at work rewriting the app to utilize the new features and fit with the cleaner look ...


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/GsmT4DlVrss/
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