Sean clears the air about his supposed Cudi dis on 'Switch Up' with MTV News.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Lauren Child
Big Sean
Photo: MTV News
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705286/big-sean-kid-cudi-good-music.jhtml
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?Kitchen organizing systems? conjures up images of expensive custom closet solutions (at least in my mind). However, there are kitchen organizing systems that are free or cheap, and can be made with items that you already own. With time, patience, and some creativity, your kitchen could become the organized haven that you always dreamed of. Here?s how to get magazine-quality results, on the cheap.
These kitchen organizing systems are especially useful if you are staging your house in order to sell it. Systematizing your kitchen organization is an important part of the clearing of clutter that you need to do when staging a house for a sale.
Keep clutter off the counter: I spotted this ingenious kitchen organizing system on Hometalk.com. Christina K. from the blog No. 29 Design did the coolest thing: she took all of the objects that she stored on her kitchen counters, and she suspended them above the counters. She did it in a very aesthetically pleasing way. Christina K. hung rails above her counters, and hung cute matching baskets from those rails. Into the baskets went matching canisters with chalkboard labels, in which she stashed all of the stuff that had been living on her counters. A word of advice: Find the studs in your kitchen walls before hanging the rails, as Christina K. did. She avoided a costly call to a Boston drywall repair contractor by patiently and assiduously using a stud finder.
Create zones: This system of kitchen organizing takes zero dollars, but a lot of sense. Divide your kitchen storage spaces into zones. Group items by type and by frequency of use. For example, divide your cooking utensils into two groups: The utensils that you cook with on a daily basis, and the utensils that you cook with less frequently. Store the utensils that you cook with on a daily basis within reach of your range or food prep area. Group pantry ingredients by type and by the frequency in which you use them. Put the spices that you cook with every day on the lowest cabinet shelf, and store lesser used ingredients on the hard-to-reach top shelf. Group pots together, plates together, and cups together. Thank you to Anna Moseley of Ask Anna for posting pictures of how she organized her own kitchen this way.
Man the command center: Do papers and mail clutter your kitchen counters and/or table? If the answer is ?yes?, you need a kitchen command center. A kitchen command center is essentially a staging area for paper. A bulletin board and three wall-mounted bins are a perfect solution. Mark bins according to the kind of paper clutter you have, for example: Unopened mail, bills to be paid, and coupons. A local handyman can hang the baskets for you, or you can do it yourself.
Photo by chuckcollier/istockphoto.com.
Related
Kitchen Storage Inspired By Julia Child
Natural Ways to Banish Kitchen Odors
4 Chic and Simple Storage Ideas
Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/a-few-ingenious-kitchen-organizing-systems.html
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Blair is back!On April 29, when "One Life To Live" starts its new life online (weekdays, via Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes), Kassie DePaiva will once again bring to life Blair Cramer -- part sexy single mom and part club-running businesswoman, with a sprinkling of mischief thrown in for good measure.
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Apr. 10, 2013 ? New research from Harvard University helps to explain how waterborne bacteria can colonize rough surfaces -- even those that have been designed to resist water.
A team of materials scientists and microbiologists studied the gut bacterium Escherichia coli, which has many flagella that stick out in all directions. The researchers found that these tails can act as biological grappling hooks, reaching far into nanoscale crevices and latching the bacteria in place.
The scourge of the health care industry, bacteria like E. coli are adept at clinging to the materials used in medical implants like pacemakers, prosthetics, stents, and catheters, spreading slimy biofilm and causing dangerous infections. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on March 18, suggest that antibacterial materials should incorporate both structural and chemical deterrents to bacterial attachment.
E. coli are equipped with two types of appendages: pili, which are short, sticky hairs, and the whip-like flagella, which are often twice as long as the bacterium itself. Pili had previously been recognized as playing a critical role in the formation of biofilms. These short hairs, up to only a micron in length in E. coli, can stick to surfaces temporarily, while the bacteria secrete a thick slime that holds them permanently in place.
Flagella, on the other hand, typically play a propulsive role, helping bacteria to swim and steer in liquid environments. As it turns out, though, when it's time to settle in one place, flagella also contribute to adhesion on rough surfaces, where the pili would have access to fewer attachment points.
Nanoscale crevices, such as those deliberately built into superhydrophobic materials, often trap air bubbles at the surface, which initially prevent E. coli from attaching at all. The new research shows that the bacteria can gradually force these bubbles to disperse by, essentially, flailing their arms. Once the cracks and crevices are wet, although the cell bodies can't fit into the gaps, the flagella can reach deep into these areas and attach to a vast amount of new surface area.
"The diversity of strategies and methods by which bacteria can adhere reflects their need to survive in a huge variety of environments," says lead author Ronn S. Friedlander, a doctoral student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. "Of course, if we could prevent biofilms from forming where we didn't want them to, there would be immense benefits in medicine."
Friedlander studies in the lab of Harvard professor Joanna Aizenberg, who holds a joint appointment as Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and as Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB). Aizenberg's laboratory group has been working to develop extremely slippery surfaces that repel water, dirt, oil, and bacteria.
The surface chemistry of antibacterial materials appears to be just as important as the topography. E. coli flagella have previously been known to adhere to certain proteins on the surface of cells in the gut wall, indicating that the bacteria are capable of bonding with specific molecular matches. But in the 1970s, biologists observing E. coli on microscope slides had also seen something curious: bacteria wheeling about under the coverslip, as if tethered to the glass by a single flagellum. This ability to stick to any surface at all -- termed nonspecific adhesion -- is part of what makes it easy for bacteria to survive on the surface of medical implants.
Rather than having to find a perfect molecular match, the flagella of E. coli appear to cling to surfaces using a combination of many weak bonds.
"The ideal antibacterial material would be topographically patterned with tiny crevices to limit the amount of surface area that was immediately accessible to bacteria via their pili, but also engineered in terms of its surface chemistry to reduce the ability of the flagella to make bonds within those crevices," says Aizenberg. "Surface structuring alone will not achieve this goal."
In 2012, Aizenberg's group demonstrated a material they call SLIPS (for Slippery, Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces). It was patterned with nanoscale pores, which were filled with a fluorinated lubricant that was shown to prevent biofilms from attaching.
The findings from this line of research are relevant beyond the field of medicine, as biofilms also pose problems for the food industry, water treatment, ship maintenance, and other industries where slime can clog pipes and filters, corrode metal, or cause contamination. But this latest work also helps to explain, on a basic level, how bacteria succeed at colonizing such a wide variety of environments, including the human gut. Having many flagella, the authors note in their paper, "may be particularly important in an intestinal environment coated with microvilli."
In addition to her appointments at Harvard SEAS and CCB, Aizenberg is Director of the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard; a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard; and Director of the Science Programs at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; among other roles at the University.
Coauthors included Hera Vlamakis, an instructor in microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School; Philseok Kim, a researcher at the Wyss Institute; Mughees Khan, a staff scientist in nanofabrication at the Wyss Institute; and Roberto Kolter, Professor of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School.
The research was supported in part by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (N00014-11-1-0641), the BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard University, and a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. The researchers also benefited from the facilities of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Microsystems Technology Laboratories and the Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems, a member of the NSF-supported National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (ECS-0335765).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
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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/top_news/~3/5qXEJRoOA0Q/130410103352.htm
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Apr. 10, 2013 ? Think of a stereotypical salesperson and you're likely to conjure up someone who's extraverted, gregarious, and assertive. But a new study reveals that "ambiverts," people who are neither introverted nor extraverted but who fall somewhere in between, tend to be the most effective salespeople.
The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Researcher Adam Grant of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was driven to explore the relationship between sales and personality traits after realizing there was a significant gap in research on the topic.
"Although there are plenty of claims in the literature that more extraverted salespeople would perform better, the evidence was surprisingly weak," says Grant.
Based on his own research, Grant predicted that extraverts wouldn't outshine everyone else -- rather, people who had qualities of both extraversion and introversion would be the most effective in making and closing sales.
Grant is a widely recognized expert on the science behind initiative, leadership, and work motivation, and is the author of the new book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success. For this particular study, he conducted a personality survey and collected three-month sales records for more than 300 salespeople, both men and women.
Just as he predicted, the people who had intermediate extraversion scores turned out to be the best salespeople. They raked in about 24% more in revenue than introverts, and a whopping 32% more in revenue than extroverts over the three-month period.
Grant was surprised to find that people on the two ends of the spectrum -- extreme introverts and extreme extraverts -- brought in relatively equal amounts of revenue.
The study's findings suggest that the classic stereotype of the extraverted salesperson misses an important concept: Personality traits like extraversion have costs and benefits. The same attributes that facilitate job performance at moderate levels can become "too much of a good thing" at extreme levels.
Extreme extraverts might lose sales because they don't listen carefully enough to their customers, dominating the conversation with their own perspectives and ideas. At the same time, extraverts might be assertive and enthusiastic to a fault, leaving customers wary and cautious about being manipulated.
Ambiverts, on the other hand, seem to strike a balance between the two personality traits:
"The ambivert advantage stems from the tendency to be assertive and enthusiastic enough to persuade and close, but at the same time, listening carefully to customers and avoiding the appearance of being overly confident or excited," Grant explains.
Personality data indicate that most people fall into the ambivert range, so the average Jane or Joe may actually be better suited for sales than the stereotypical salesperson we're likely to think of.
Grant believes that this research has the power to inform job applicants, managers, and training staff alike.
Managers, for example, can work to make sure that their selection and hiring processes aren't biased in favor of extraverts. And training staff should keep in mind that training extraverts to hone their listening skills may be just as important as training introverts to develop their assertiveness and enthusiasm.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/7Lvk1Tm1cW0/130410141539.htm
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PHOENIX (AP) ? The prosecutor in Jodi Arias' murder trial worked Tuesday to portray the defendant as a manipulative liar as he questioned a defense witness' contention that Arias suffered domestic abuse at the hands of the boyfriend she has admitted killing.
Psychotherapist Alyce LaViolette has been testifying for more than a week about her conclusion that Arias was a victim of both physical and emotional abuse.
Arias says the killing was self-defense and has described how Travis Alexander grew more abusive in the months before his death, once choking her into unconsciousness. She says on the day of the killing in June 2008 at Alexander's suburban Phoenix home, he attacked her and she was forced to fight for her life.
However, no other evidence or testimony ? other than Arias' accounts ? have been presented at trial showing Alexander had ever been physically violent.
Authorities say Arias planned the attack in advance. She initially denied involvement, then blamed it on masked intruders. Two years after her arrest, she said it was self-defense.
She faces a possible death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder.
LaViolette has described for jurors Arias' volatile relationship with Alexander, portraying the man as a womanizing cheater who courted multiple women simultaneously while berating Arias with derogatory names.
She said she came to her conclusions based on more 40 hours of interviews with Arias, and reviews of thousands of pages of text messages, emails and other communications between Arias and the victim, as well as messages between Alexander and other women.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez pointed out how Arias lied repeatedly in the months after her arrest, asking LaViolette how she could be certain the defendant isn't still lying.
"I found the defendant to be credible," LaViolette said.
"Which means you found her to be truthful, right?" Martinez countered.
"Alright," LaViolette replied defiantly. "There is always reasonable doubt, Mr. Martinez," she continued.
"You didn't talk to Mr. Alexander, did you?" he snapped back.
"No, I did not," LaViolette said.
"You didn't talk to any other witnesses, correct?" Martinez prodded.
"No, I did not," the witness said.
The judge then removed the jury from the courtroom as Martinez worked to introduce as evidence a video of police questioning Arias' father, William Arias, on the day his daughter was arrested. The man tells a detective, "She's never been honest with us."
LaViolette said she was unaware of the statement but added that she would have only used it to come to her conclusions in the context of everything else she reviewed, including Arias' contention that her father abused her as a child.
"I would not take a sound bite of anything and make a decision on it," she said.
Martinez argued that the video was relevant since he said LaViolette is "taking the defendant's word in this case about the events."
"Anything that goes to whether or not the defendant is telling the truth is relevant," he said.
The judge allowed the line of questioning based on the content but did not permit the video to be shown to jurors.
Martinez later reminded LaViolette of a statement made by a high school classmate of Arias that the defendant "liked playing the victim."
"That was about high school," LaViolette said, explaining that she found no evidence of such behavior in Arias' adult life.
"The defendant is very manipulative, isn't she?" Martinez asked.
LaViolette dodged answering the question directly, and instead explained that Arias lied after the killing in an attempt to "feel normal."
Martinez then returned to a familiar topic in the trial ? sex. He questioned LaViolette about a telephone call Arias recorded on which she and the victim are simulating graphic acts.
"They were being tender to each other, weren't they?" Martinez asked.
"There was tenderness," LaViolette replied.
"There was no indication from the tape itself that Ms. Arias wasn't enjoying herself as much as Mr. Alexander, right?" Martinez said.
LaViolette agreed.
The defense has worked to portray Arias as having only participated in raunchy sex acts with Alexander to please him and to tame his temper.
Martinez has repeatedly pointed out how there is no evidence to support that.
Testimony on the topic grew so graphic and bizarre that LaViolette struggled to respond to questions about whether Arias may have been faking her pleasure on the phone call.
"My expertise is in domestic violence, not in orgasms," she told the prosecutor.
At one point, LaViolette, who counsels domestic abuse victims and abusers, lashed out at Martinez as he raised his voice in frustration when she dodged his questions.
"If you were in my group, I would ask you to take a time out, Mr. Martinez," she said.
The judge admonished her to only answer the questions she is asked as Martinez objected to her scolding.
LaViolette resumes testimony Wednesday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutor-paints-jodi-arias-manipulative-liar-201250562.html
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By Anna Chan, TODAY
Luke Bryan pulled off a shocking win on Sunday night when he beat out heavyweights Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift to win the Academy of Country Music Award's biggest prize of the evening: entertainer of the year. The winner is chosen by fan votes.
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
Luke Bryan accepts the entertainer of the year award during the 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 7.
The musician, who co-hosted the show with Shelton, was stunned after his name was announced, and appeared to cry as he slowly walked out from backstage to accept the award from Shania Twain, who was making her first appearance at the ACMs in 10 years. Even with his trophy in hand, Bryan stood in silent shock at the microphone for a long while.
"This is ... I don't know what to say, you guys," he finally started. "Thank you guys so much, fans, for doing this to me, thank you so much for making my life what it is. What I always wanted to be was just a country singer that got to ride on a tour bus and show up on a new stage and play music every night. ? I just started headlining! ? Every time I step on stage, it is a blessing to me to play for fans. ... This is the defining moment of my life!"
Bryan, 36, been on the scene since his debut album was released in 2007, but wasn't a headlining act until his single "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" exploded after he started delivering booty-shaking performances of the catchy tune at awards shows in 2011.
Al Powers / AP
The other big winner of the night was Shelton's wife, Miranda Lambert. She took home three of the four trophies she was nominated for: song and single record of the year for "Over You," and female vocalist for the fourth year in a row. Lambert shared the song of the year victory with her husband, who co-wrote the tune.
"Last time this happened, you didn't get a chance to talk, and you're not going to get a chance either this time," he joked as he and his wife accepted their trophies. "I'll?tell you all something: I?ve learned so much from this human being standing next to me ? she blows me away, but as far as standing here right now, I used to think I was a decent songwriter until I started hanging out with her."
Notable moments from the show included Garth Brooks and George Strait's performance together; Reba McIntire's announcement that the ACM was "renaming its most prestigious honor to the ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade Award"; and Stevie Wonder closing the show with "Signed, Sealed, Delivered."
The complete list of winners:
The 48th Annual ACM Awards was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Public release date: 8-Apr-2013
Share ] Contact: Dawn Fuller
dawn.fuller@uc.edu
513-556-1823
University of Cincinnati
An analysis of U.S. Supreme Court decisions suggests "historical amnesia" regarding the growing power of speech rights for corporations in electronic media, versus the First Amendment rights of individuals. Jeff Blevins, associate professor and head of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Journalism, will present his research on Tuesday, April 9, at the 58th annual convention of the Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas.
Blevins' presentation, titled "Historical Amnesia in First Amendment Jurisprudence on Corporate Power and Electronic Media," suggests that recent decisions from the nation's highest court have "allowed corporations' power to speak to become even greater than that of human citizens."
Blevins examined eight U.S. Supreme Court cases over a 30-year period that defined speech rights for corporations.
The study analyzed:
"In a bygone era, the U.S. Supreme Court had once predicated commercial speech rights on the public's right to receive information, and also understood the need to limit corporate speech even in the political arena in the interest of protecting the integrity of the public's electoral process," says Blevins. "However, the court's most recent decisions have dramatically extended power under the First Amendment and have marked a new, gilded age of free speech."
The research examined the following court cases:
Buckley v. Valeo (1976) A challenge to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 which limited the amount of money that individuals could contribute to election campaigns. The court made the distinction between contributions and expenditures, lifting limitations on expenditures. The ruling resulted in significant growth of Political Action Committees (PACs.)
Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) The challenge involved a Michigan state law that prohibited corporations from using money from their general treasuries to support or oppose candidates in state elections. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce challenged the law because of its interest in purchasing newspaper advertisements in support of a particular candidate running for state office. The Supreme Court ruled that limiting speech based on corporate identity was permissible under the law and that the law did not silence corporate speech.
McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) (1990) The campaign finance case, brought by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, was a challenge to the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, which banned campaign advertising by corporations and other organizations 30 days prior to a primary election and 60 days prior to a general election. The ruling upheld most of the act, including prohibitions on corporate advertising during pivotal periods of political campaigns.
Citizens United v. FEC (2010) The case involved a challenge to the BCRA in that a nonprofit wanted to release a documentary a movie holding negative criticism of Hillary Clinton via on-demand cable television, 30 days before the primary election in which Clinton was seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for U.S. President. Citizens United opposed the BCRA in that it wanted to advertise the film within 30 days of the primary. The organization appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after a lower court found Citizens United in violation of the federal rules. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision, stating the ban on corporate independent expenditures violated the First Amendment. Blevins cited the ruling as a case of "historical amnesia," in that the ruling appeared to be in contradiction to the high court's decision in the case of McConnell v. FEC. The decision also contradicted the high court's judgment in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce.
Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976) A consumer group challenged a rule by the Virginia State Board of Pharmacy that forbade pharmacists to advertise the price of prescription drugs a rule aimed at discouraging price wars among drug companies.
Blevins states that in this case, the high court brought commercial speech under First Amendment protections, but found commercial speech deserves less protection than political speech.
Central Hudson Electric and Gas v. Public Service Commission of New York (1980) This involved a challenge to the Public Service Commission of New York's order to cease all utility company advertising that promoted the use of electricity, an effort to conserve energy amid concerns that consumer demand would grow greater than the energy supply. The order was upheld under the New York Court of Appeals and then reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which found that the commission's order unduly burdened free speech.
Sorrell v. IMS Health (2011) The challenge was against a Vermont State law prohibiting pharmaceutical "detailing," on drugs that doctors prescribed to their patients, allowing marketers and manufacturers to gather that information for their own marketing strategies. The case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court by William Sorrell, Virginia State Attorney General. Several information mining companies challenged the law, citing it was a violation of their freedom of speech under the First Amendment. After conflicting rulings in the lower courts, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law as an unconstitutional restriction of corporate speech.
FCC v. AT&T (2011) Under the Freedom of Information Act, government records and documents can be made publicly available, unless those records result in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. This case resulted in action from AT&T, after a trade organization requested documents from an FCC action on AT&T. AT&T filed to have the Freedom of Information Act apply to both individuals and the corporation, which was upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals but struck down by the Supreme Court, which found that the Freedom of Information Act only applied to individuals.
Blevins suggests the rulings indicate that the court actions imply that more speech is better, yet Blevins emphasizes that the First Amendment was written at a time when only humans, not corporations, were doing the communicating. "The real value of commercial speech resides in the receiver's interest and not the speaker's. It is the interest of humans to receive information that is more important than the speaker's self interest," writes Blevins.
"Through the evolution of Supreme Court jurisprudence, it seems that corporations' limited right to speak to serve the people has become an interest superior to that of the people it purports to serve," concludes Blevins.
The paper was awarded first place in the Broadcast Education Association's History Division open paper competition.
Blevins' research focuses on U.S. telecommunication law and policy, and engages critical political economy theory. His research has examined media ownership regulation, First Amendment jurisprudence on media ownership regulation, Internet media policy and the politics of the telecommunication policymaking process.
###
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Public release date: 8-Apr-2013 Share ] Contact: Dawn Fuller
dawn.fuller@uc.edu
513-556-1823
University of Cincinnati
An analysis of U.S. Supreme Court decisions suggests "historical amnesia" regarding the growing power of speech rights for corporations in electronic media, versus the First Amendment rights of individuals. Jeff Blevins, associate professor and head of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Journalism, will present his research on Tuesday, April 9, at the 58th annual convention of the Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas.
Blevins' presentation, titled "Historical Amnesia in First Amendment Jurisprudence on Corporate Power and Electronic Media," suggests that recent decisions from the nation's highest court have "allowed corporations' power to speak to become even greater than that of human citizens."
Blevins examined eight U.S. Supreme Court cases over a 30-year period that defined speech rights for corporations.
The study analyzed:
"In a bygone era, the U.S. Supreme Court had once predicated commercial speech rights on the public's right to receive information, and also understood the need to limit corporate speech even in the political arena in the interest of protecting the integrity of the public's electoral process," says Blevins. "However, the court's most recent decisions have dramatically extended power under the First Amendment and have marked a new, gilded age of free speech."
The research examined the following court cases:
Buckley v. Valeo (1976) A challenge to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 which limited the amount of money that individuals could contribute to election campaigns. The court made the distinction between contributions and expenditures, lifting limitations on expenditures. The ruling resulted in significant growth of Political Action Committees (PACs.)
Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) The challenge involved a Michigan state law that prohibited corporations from using money from their general treasuries to support or oppose candidates in state elections. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce challenged the law because of its interest in purchasing newspaper advertisements in support of a particular candidate running for state office. The Supreme Court ruled that limiting speech based on corporate identity was permissible under the law and that the law did not silence corporate speech.
McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) (1990) The campaign finance case, brought by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, was a challenge to the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, which banned campaign advertising by corporations and other organizations 30 days prior to a primary election and 60 days prior to a general election. The ruling upheld most of the act, including prohibitions on corporate advertising during pivotal periods of political campaigns.
Citizens United v. FEC (2010) The case involved a challenge to the BCRA in that a nonprofit wanted to release a documentary a movie holding negative criticism of Hillary Clinton via on-demand cable television, 30 days before the primary election in which Clinton was seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for U.S. President. Citizens United opposed the BCRA in that it wanted to advertise the film within 30 days of the primary. The organization appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after a lower court found Citizens United in violation of the federal rules. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision, stating the ban on corporate independent expenditures violated the First Amendment. Blevins cited the ruling as a case of "historical amnesia," in that the ruling appeared to be in contradiction to the high court's decision in the case of McConnell v. FEC. The decision also contradicted the high court's judgment in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce.
Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976) A consumer group challenged a rule by the Virginia State Board of Pharmacy that forbade pharmacists to advertise the price of prescription drugs a rule aimed at discouraging price wars among drug companies.
Blevins states that in this case, the high court brought commercial speech under First Amendment protections, but found commercial speech deserves less protection than political speech.
Central Hudson Electric and Gas v. Public Service Commission of New York (1980) This involved a challenge to the Public Service Commission of New York's order to cease all utility company advertising that promoted the use of electricity, an effort to conserve energy amid concerns that consumer demand would grow greater than the energy supply. The order was upheld under the New York Court of Appeals and then reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which found that the commission's order unduly burdened free speech.
Sorrell v. IMS Health (2011) The challenge was against a Vermont State law prohibiting pharmaceutical "detailing," on drugs that doctors prescribed to their patients, allowing marketers and manufacturers to gather that information for their own marketing strategies. The case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court by William Sorrell, Virginia State Attorney General. Several information mining companies challenged the law, citing it was a violation of their freedom of speech under the First Amendment. After conflicting rulings in the lower courts, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law as an unconstitutional restriction of corporate speech.
FCC v. AT&T (2011) Under the Freedom of Information Act, government records and documents can be made publicly available, unless those records result in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. This case resulted in action from AT&T, after a trade organization requested documents from an FCC action on AT&T. AT&T filed to have the Freedom of Information Act apply to both individuals and the corporation, which was upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals but struck down by the Supreme Court, which found that the Freedom of Information Act only applied to individuals.
Blevins suggests the rulings indicate that the court actions imply that more speech is better, yet Blevins emphasizes that the First Amendment was written at a time when only humans, not corporations, were doing the communicating. "The real value of commercial speech resides in the receiver's interest and not the speaker's. It is the interest of humans to receive information that is more important than the speaker's self interest," writes Blevins.
"Through the evolution of Supreme Court jurisprudence, it seems that corporations' limited right to speak to serve the people has become an interest superior to that of the people it purports to serve," concludes Blevins.
The paper was awarded first place in the Broadcast Education Association's History Division open paper competition.
Blevins' research focuses on U.S. telecommunication law and policy, and engages critical political economy theory. His research has examined media ownership regulation, First Amendment jurisprudence on media ownership regulation, Internet media policy and the politics of the telecommunication policymaking process.
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The Broadcast Education Association is the professional association for educators, industry professionals and graduate students who are interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises.
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoc-rec040813.php
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A structural biologist at the Florida State University College of Medicine has made discoveries that could lead scientists a step closer to understanding how life first emerged on Earth billions of years ago.
Professor Michael Blaber and his team produced data supporting the idea that 10 amino acids believed to exist on Earth around 4 billion years ago were capable of forming foldable proteins in a high-salt (halophile) environment. Such proteins would have been capable of providing metabolic activity for the first living organisms to emerge on the planet between 3.5 and 3.9 billion years ago.
The results of Blaber's three-year study, which was built around investigative techniques that took more than 17 years to develop, are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The first living organisms would have been microscopic, cell-like organizations capable of replicating and adapting to environmental conditions ? a humble beginning to life on Earth.
"The current paradigm on the emergence of life is that RNA came first and in a high-temperature environment," Blaber said. "The data we are generating are much more in favor of a protein-first view in a halophile environment."
The widely accepted view among scientists is that RNA, found in all living cells, would have likely represented the first molecules of life, hypothesizing an "RNA-first" view of the origin of living systems from non-living molecules. Blaber's results indicate that the set of amino acids produced by simple chemical processes contains the requisite information to produce complex folded proteins, which supports an opposing "protein-first" view.
Another prevailing view holds that a high-temperature (thermophile) environment, such as deep-ocean thermal vents, may have been the breeding ground for the origin of life.
"The halophile, or salt-loving, environment has typically been considered one that life adapted into, not started in," Blaber said. "Our study of the prebiotic amino acids and protein design and folding suggests the opposite."
Without the ability to fold, proteins would not be able to form the precise structures essential for functions that sustain life as we know it. Folding allows proteins to take on a globular shape through which they can interact with other proteins, perform specific chemical reactions, and adapt to enable organisms to exploit a given environment.
"There are numerous niches that life can evolve into," Blaber said. "For example, extremophiles are organisms that exist in high temperatures, high acidity, extreme cold, extreme pressure and extreme salt and so on. For life to exist in such environments it is essential that proteins are able to adapt in those conditions. In other words, they have to be able to fold."
Comet and meteorite fragments, like those that recently struck in the Urals region of Russia, have provided evidence regarding the arrival of amino acids on Earth. Such fragments predate the earth and would have been responsible for delivering a set of 10 prebiotic (before life) amino acids, whose origins are in the formation of our solar system.
Today the human body uses 20 common amino acids to make all its proteins. Ten of those emerged through biosynthetic pathways ? the way living systems evolve. Ten ? the prebiotic set ? can be made by chemical reactions without requiring any living system or biosynthetic pathway.
Scientific evidence exists to support many elements in theories of abiogenesis (the emergence of life), including the time frame (around 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago) and the conditions on Earth and in its atmosphere at that time. Earth would have been made up of volcanic land masses (the beginning of the formation of continents), salty oceans and fresh-water ponds, along with a hot (around 80 degrees Celsius) and steamy atmosphere comprising carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Oxygen would have come later as a by-product of green plant life and bacteria that emerged.
Using a technique called top-down symmetric deconstruction, Blaber's lab has been able to identify small peptide building blocks capable of spontaneous assembly into specific and complex protein architectures. His recent work explored whether such building blocks can be comprised of only the 10 prebiotic amino acids and still fold.
His team has achieved foldability in proteins down to 12 amino acids ? about 80 percent of the way to proving his hypothesis.
If Blaber's theory holds, scientists may refocus where they look for evidence in the quest to understand where, and how, life began.
"Rather than a curious niche that life evolved into, the halophile environment now may take center stage as the likely location for key aspects of abiogenesis," he said. "Likewise, the role of the formation of proteins takes on additional importance in the earliest steps in the beginnings of life on Earth."
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Florida State University: http://www.fsu.edu
Thanks to Florida State University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127621/Researcher_offers_clues_on_the_origins_of_life
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By Niklas Pollard and Sven Nordenstam
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson struck a deal on Monday to buy Microsoft Corp's Mediaroom IPTV business, which makes software used by phone companies to deliver television over the Internet, making it the world's leader in a growing business.
The sale marks the end of Microsoft's two-decade effort to put itself at the front of a technology shift toward internet television that did not materialize the way it expected. The world's biggest software company said it will now focus its TV ambitions on its popular Xbox game console, which is a vehicle for all types of entertainment.
Ericsson said it expected to close the deal for the business, which employs more than 400 people worldwide, during the second half of 2013. It did not disclose a purchase price, though a company official provided a ballpark figure.
"This deal is within range where we previously bought a company called Optimi for $99 million and where we also bought LG Nortel for $234 million," said Ove Anebygd, Vice President and Head of TV at Ericsson. "So this is somewhere in between the two."
Ericsson said the deal would make the company, already the world's biggest mobile networks maker, the leading provider of IPTV with a 25 percent market share. Microsoft said the Mediaroom platform was offered by more than 40 operators and powered 22 million set-top boxes around the world.
FOCUS ON SERVICES
Internet protocol television (IPTV) uses the same technology that powers the Internet to transmit multimedia content over telecom and cable networks. Ericsson wants to cater to phone companies that are competing with cable, satellite and web-based media providers.
The Mediaroom platform is the TV technology used by television service providers such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Swisscom, Ericsson said.
"This makes a nice strategic fit, but it is hard to estimate the impact on key figures since they are providing no financial information," Alandsbanken analyst Lars Soderfjall said.
With competition from Chinese network providers stiff over the last few years, Ericsson has focused increasingly on services, such as managing networks for operators, and on software, where it has more of a competitive advantage.
It is a leading player in solutions that enable operators to charge for online services and as part of its shift from hardware-based products has also built up a presence in IPTV, a position underpinned by acquisitions such as that of video technology firm Tandberg Television in 2007.
"This completes Ericsson's IPTV offer, with ... Mediaroom nicely rounding up the Tandberg TV assets," said Alexander Peterc, analyst at Exane BNParibas.
Ericsson said the global IPTV market was estimated to reach 76 million subscribers in 2013 with revenues of $32 billion, growing to 105 million subscribers and $45 billion in 2015.
Ericsson said the deal was subject to customary regulatory approvals and that the business would be integrated into its Support Solutions unit.
MICROSOFT PUTS BETS ON XBOX
Microsoft entered the IPTV business in the mid-1990s. It never became a major source of revenue for the Seattle-based software maker as most growth in internet TV has come from widely available 'over the top' services like Netflix Inc and Hulu rather than internet TV supplied by phone companies.
The head of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business said Monday's deal allowed his company to "commit 100 percent of its focus on consumer TV strategy with Xbox."
From its beginnings at the turn of the century as an upstart rival to Sony Corp and Nintendo Co, Microsoft's Xbox has grown into the United States' best selling game center, with 76 million now in use around the world. Xbox owners can now buy TV programs, films and music through Microsoft's own store, or access content through Netflix and other suppliers.
Microsoft even set up its own studio last year to create original TV content, although it said on Monday it wants to "partner" with film studios, music labels, TV networks and content aggregators to expand offerings on the Xbox.
(Additional reporting by Oskar von Bahr and Simon Johnson in Stockholm, Leila Abboud in Paris and Bill Rigby in Seattle; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford and Andrew Hay)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ericsson-says-buy-microsoft-mediaroom-business-131808034--finance.html
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In this Friday, April 5, 2013 photo, a pedestrian walks past a pay phone advertising the New Museum's "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star" exhibit. The New Museum has launched an exhibit called "NYC 1993,? which fills five floors with works by more than 75 different artists. But the interesting part is how they've taken their show to the streets, with 5,000 payphones outfitted with stickers that say "1-855-FOR-1993." (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
In this Friday, April 5, 2013 photo, a pedestrian walks past a pay phone advertising the New Museum's "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star" exhibit. The New Museum has launched an exhibit called "NYC 1993,? which fills five floors with works by more than 75 different artists. But the interesting part is how they've taken their show to the streets, with 5,000 payphones outfitted with stickers that say "1-855-FOR-1993." (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
This Friday, April 5, 2013 photo shows a pay phone advertising the New Museum's "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star" exhibit. The New Museum has launched an exhibit called "NYC 1993,? which fills five floors with works by more than 75 different artists. But the interesting part is how they've taken their show to the streets, with 5,000 payphones outfitted with stickers that say "1-855-FOR-1993." (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
In this Wednesday, April 3 2013 photo, visitors to the New Museum in New York inspect the artwork on display during the "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star" exhibit. The exhibit fills five floors with works by more than 75 different artists. But the interesting part is how they've taken their show to the streets, with 5,000 payphones outfitted with stickers that say "1-855-FOR-1993." (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
In this Wednesday, April 3 2013 photo, visitors to the New Museum in New York inspect Matthew Barney's "Drawing Restraint 7" on display during the "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star" exhibit. The New Museum has launched the "NYC 1993,? exhibit which fills five floors with works by more than 75 different artists. But the interesting part is how they've taken their show to the streets, with 5,000 payphones outfitted with stickers that say "1-855-FOR-1993." (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
This Wednesday, April 3 2013 photo shows Felix Gonzalez-Torres' "Untitled" hanging while visitors walk and sit on Rudolph Stingel's "Untitled" at the "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star" exhibit at the New Museum in New York. The "NYC 1993? exhibit fills five floors with works by more than 75 different artists. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Want to journey to a grittier time in New York City's not-too-distant past, when the murder rate was sky-high, Times Square was a crossroads of crime and porn, Starbucks had yet to arrive, and hardly anyone owned a cellphone?
A project designed to promote an art exhibit has turned 5,000 Manhattan pay phones into time machines that take callers back to 1993, a pivotal year in the city's art, culture and politics.
Pick up a receiver on the rarely used phones that still dot the New York streetscape, punch 1-855-FOR-1993 and you will hear a notable resident recounting what life was like on that block 20 years ago.
"We liked, creatively, the idea of using a sort of slightly broken, disused system as the canvas of this project," said Scott Chinn of Droga5, the ad agency behind the campaign for an exhibit titled "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star."
An eclectic mix of artists, writers, food and fashion stars, and others has been recruited to reminisce, including chef Mario Batali, actor Chazz Palminteri, porn performer Robin Byrd and former Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott, who threw a no-hitter in 1993.
The narrators describe a New York that was dirtier, bloodier, raunchier and less gentrified than today ? but also an easier place for a talented young person to gain a foothold.
Batali says in his sound bite that opening a restaurant was easier in 1993 when he debuted his first restaurant, Po.
"You didn't have to have a rich daddy or an investor or put together a team or anything like that," he says. "It's sad to watch the cost of business push the real individualist entrepreneurs out of the game."
Bike shop owner Dave Ortiz remembers when the city's Meatpacking District, now home to trendy restaurants, nightclubs and pricey boutiques, was the wild, wild West.
"The rats were huge," he says. "They were as big as cats, so you had to walk in the middle of the street. It's amazing what they turned it into. It's cool but it's lost its, like, authenticity."
Rudy Giuliani was elected New York City mayor in 1993 and promised to crack down on crime and make the city more livable. The number of homicides in the city ? 1,960 in 1993 ? had already dropped from a high of 2,245 in 1990 but has plunged steeply since then. (There were 414 in all of last year.)
The city's AIDS crisis peaked in 1993 at 12,744 diagnoses. Terrorists staged the first attack on the World Trade Center. The look of the city has changed dramatically as national retailers have replaced independent merchants. New York City's first Starbucks opened in 1994.
"There was a presence of a kind of downtown underground scene which you really don't experience in New York anymore," recalled Gary Carrion-Murayari, curator of the exhibit at the New Museum featuring 161 works, many intended to shock with sexual imagery.
Lutz Bacher's "My Penis," for example, repeats a video snippet from the 1991 Florida rape trial of William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, in which Smith testifies about the organ in question.
In Pep?n Osorio's "The Scene of the Crime (Whose Crime?)," a blood-soaked sheet covers what appears to be a corpse. Four nude mannequins join hands and stare into space in Charles Ray's "Family Romance." Political issues are tackled head-on in works like Sue Williams' "Are you Pro-Porn or Anti-Porn?"
The exhibit and accompanying pay phone campaign run through May 26.
Pay phones in the Times Square area feature X-rated talk-show host Byrd describing the neighborhood before Disney musicals and theme-park stores made it safe for tourists.
"The area wasn't really as dangerous as people thought it was in those days," Byrd says. "Because most of the bums that you thought were bums on the street were really undercover cops."
She adds: "It was a great time. It's too bad it's changed because now it's very pasteurized, homogenized, and it looks like Vegas."
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TOKYO (AP) ? It's easy to write off North Korean threats to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile as bluster: it has never demonstrated the capability to deploy a missile that could reach the Pacific island of Guam let alone the mainland U.S.
But what about Japan?
Though it remains a highly unlikely scenario, Japanese officials have long feared that if North Korea ever decides to play its nuclear card it has not only the means but several potential motives for launching an attack on Tokyo or major U.S. military installations on Japan's main island. And while a conventional missile attack is far more likely, Tokyo is taking North Korea's nuclear rhetoric seriously.
On Monday, amid reports North Korea is preparing a missile launch or another nuclear test, Japanese officials said they have stepped up measures to ensure the nation's safety. Japanese media reported over the weekend that the defense minister has put destroyers with missile interception systems on alert to shoot down any missile or missile debris that appears to be headed for Japanese territory.
"We are doing all we can to protect the safety of our nation," said chief Cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga, though he and defense ministry officials refused to confirm the reports about the naval alert, saying they do not want to "show their cards" to North Korea.
North Korea, meanwhile, issued a new threat against Japan.
"We once again warn Japan against blindly toeing the U.S. policy," said an editorial Monday in the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of its ruling party. "It will have to pay a dear price for its imprudent behavior."
Following North Korea's third nuclear test in February, Japanese experts have increasingly voiced concerns that North Korea may already be able to hit ? or at least target ? U.S. bases and major population centers with nuclear warheads loaded onto its medium-range Rodong missiles.
"The threat level has jumped" following the nuclear test, said Narushige Michishita, a former Ministry of Defense official and director of the Security and International Studies Program at Tokyo's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
Unlike North Korea's still-under-construction intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, program, its arsenal of about 300 deployed Rodong missiles has been flight tested and is thought to have a range of about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles).
That is good enough to reach Tokyo and key U.S. military bases ? including Yokota Air Base, which is the headquarters of the U.S. 5th Air Force; Yokosuka Naval Base, where the USS George Washington aircraft carrier and its battle group are home-based; and Misawa Air Base, a key launching point for U.S. F-16 fighters.
Michishita, in an analysis published late last year, said a Rodong missile launched from North Korea would reach Japan within five to 10 minutes and, if aimed at the center of Tokyo, would have a 50-percent probability of falling somewhere within the perimeter of Tokyo's main subway system.
He said Japan would be a particularly tempting target because it is close enough to feasibly reach with a conventionally or nuclear-armed missile, and the persistent animosity and distrust dating back to Japan's colonization of the Korean peninsula in 1910 provides an ideological motive.
Also, a threat against Japan could be used to drive a wedge between Tokyo and Washington. Pyongyang could, for example, fire one or more Rodong missiles toward Tokyo but have them fall short to frighten Japan's leaders into making concessions, stay out of a conflict on the peninsula or oppose moves by the U.S. forces in Japan to assist the South Koreans, lest Tokyo suffer a real attack.
"Given North Korea's past adventurism, this scenario is within the range of its rational choices," Michishita wrote.
Officials stress that simply having the ability to launch an attack does not mean it would be a success. They also say North Korea is not known to have actually deployed any nuclear-tipped missiles.
Tokyo and Washington have invested billions of dollars in what is probably the world's most sophisticated ballistic missile defense shield since North Korea sent a long-range Taepodong missile over Japan's main island in 1998. Japan now has its own land- and sea-based interceptors and began launching spy satellites after the "Taepodong shock" to keep its own tabs on military activities inside North Korea.
For the time being, most experts believe, North Korea cannot attack the United States with a nuclear warhead because it can't yet fashion one light enough to mount atop a long-range ICBM. But Japanese analysts are not alone in believing North Korea has cleared the "miniaturization" problem for its medium-range weapons.
In April 2005, Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that North Korea had the capability to arm a missile with a nuclear device. In 2011, the same intelligence agency said North Korea "may now have" plutonium-based nuclear warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles, aircraft or "unconventional means."
The Pentagon has since backtracked, saying it isn't clear how small a nuclear warhead the North can produce.
But David Albright, a physicist at the Institute for Science and International Security think-tank, said in an email he believes the North can arm Rodong missiles with nuclear warheads weighing as much as several hundred kilograms (pounds) and packing a yield in the low kilotons.
That is far smaller than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki but big enough to cause significant casualties in an urban area.
Japan also is a better target than traditional enemy South Korea because striking so close to home with a nuclear weapon will blanket a good part of its own population with the fallout.
Regardless of whom North Korea strikes ? with a nuclear or conventional weapon ? it can be assured of one thing: a devastating counterattack by the United States.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Powerful winds raked much of California on Monday, toppling trees, spreading wildfires, causing scattered power outages, whipping up blinding dust storms, and sending waves crashing ashore as a vigorous spring weather system swept through the state on its way across the West.
Rising winds were reported in Arizona, where 34 miles of Interstate 40 near Winslow were closed to traffic.
In Phoenix, blowing dust obscured the mountains surrounding the city, and at least four people were injured in a pileup when two semi-trucks jackknifed in a dust storm on I-10 in southern Arizona. The injuries were not life-threatening.
New Mexico was expected to start feeling the impact late Monday, and in Colorado, the blustery system was expected to bring up to 2 feet of snow.
Northern California was first to feel the lashing blasts, which spread to the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.
At least a dozen trees came down in San Francisco, police officer John Tozzini told KGO-TV, which reported that more than 20,000 utility customers lost power in the region. A swath of electrical outages occurred across the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The wind sent a tree smashing into a Sacramento home where four friends were playing cards, but they didn't stop the game, according to KCRA-TV.
"It could've been worse," said Dodie Backus, who lives in the house.
"It's not going to stop our bridge game," said her game partner, Marilyn Baker.
The northwest-to-north winds were punctuated with gusts topping 80 mph at some Southern California points.
The blustery system was being fueled by a cold front.
"It's just a cold, really strong upper low," said Carol Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, Calif.
Whitecaps flecked the Pacific Ocean along the California coast, where gale warnings and small craft advisories were posted. Recreational boaters were warned to stay in port. Wind-driven swells slapped over the tops of breakwaters and turned waves into a churning froth under piers at points such as Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach on the Los Angeles County coast.
The wind turned small wildfires into big problems in some areas, including a blaze in Fillmore about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles that burned two homes and forced the evacuation of 84 homes.
Blowing dust forced the California Highway Patrol to close state Route 14 in the high desert Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles due to low visibility. Officer Michael Farrell said minor accidents occurred as motorists stopped and were hit from behind by other cars. No major injuries were reported.
The power went out for more than 13,000 Southern Californians because of the winds. Areas of the north San Fernando Valley experienced outages as tree branches tangled with power lines in at least two areas, said Michelle Vargas, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. About 740 homes in Sylmar and 15 homes in Pacoima were affected.
About 2,700 homes were without power because of at least five downed utility poles in the remote desert area of Borrego Springs in San Diego County, according to Amber Albrecht, spokeswoman for San Diego Gas and Electric.
Southern California Edison reported major weather-related outages throughout the San Gabriel Valley, with the lights out for thousands of customers in Rosemead, Monterey Park and Altadena.
In Ventura County, the power was out for 1,115 homes. Outages also affected more than 200 homes in Garden Grove and more than 80 homes in La Habra.
Air quality alerts were issued for northern Santa Barbara County and adjacent southern San Luis Obispo County because of blowing dust and sand.
The massive rush of air also had an upside. California's main power grid manager, the Independent System Operator, reported that turbines spinning within the ISO grid produced a record of 4,196 megawatts Sunday. The previous record was 3,944 megawatts on March 3.
___
Associated Press writers Greg Risling and John Antczak in Los Angeles; Paul Davenport and Walter Berry in Phoenix; and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this story.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/windy-spring-storm-sweeps-calif-arizona-034919431.html
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President Barack Obama heads to Connecticut on Monday to continue his push for ?common-sense measures to reduce gun violence.?
Obama will speak at the University of Hartford, and he?ll also meet with families affected by the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last December.
[Gun control fight in focus for President Obama]
The Senate could take up gun-control legislation this week, but it is unclear if Republicans will let it come to a vote. Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz have threatened to filibuster legislation that would ?infringe on the American people's constitutional right to bear arms, or on their ability to exercise this right without being subjected to government surveillance."
Also worth noting on Monday: Secretary of State John Kerry continues a three-day visit to Israel and the West Bank aimed at restarting peace talks; Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew begins a two-day visit to Europe for discussions on economic developments in the region; and the Senate returns after its Easter recess.
Immigration also will be a top topic in Washington this week. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday he thinks the bipartisan Gang of Eight will have its immigration plan completed by the end of the week.
[Immigration plan will be ready this week, Sen. Chuck Schumer says]
The other big topic this week: Obama?s 2014 fiscal budget, which White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday will not make Republicans or Democrats entirely happy. Meanwhile, reporters are invited Monday to watch copies of the budget running on binding lines at the Government Printing Office, and they?ll get an early look at the mobile web app for the budget.
[Obama aide: Budget will make both parties unhappy]
And then there is this: Former President Bill Clinton makes his first appearance on ?The Colbert Report? at 11:30 p.m. ET Monday.
Sources: Yahoo News? The Ticket, ABC News, Associated Press and Reuters.
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By Jane Chung
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.
Whatever the atmosphere in Pyongyang, the rain-soaked South Korean capital, Seoul, was calm. Traffic moved normally through the city center, busy with Saturday shoppers.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government official as saying diplomats were disregarding the suggestion they might leave the country.
"We don't believe there's any foreign mission about to leave Pyongyang," the unidentified official was quoted as saying. "Most foreign governments view the North Korean message as a way of ratcheting up tension on the Korean peninsula."
North Korea has been angry since new U.N. sanctions were imposed following its third nuclear weapons test in February. Its rage has apparently been compounded by joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on March 1.
China's Xinhua news agency on Friday had quoted the North's Foreign Ministry as saying the issue was no longer whether but when a war would break out.
Most countries saw the appeal to the missions as little more than strident rhetoric after weeks of threatening to launch a nuclear strike on the United States and declarations of war against the South.
But Russia said it was "seriously studying" the request.
A South Korean government official expressed bewilderment.
"It's hard to define what is its real intention," said the official, who asked not to be identified. "But it might have intensified these threats to strengthen the regime internally or to respond to the international community."
The United Nations said its humanitarian workers remained active across North Korea. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, however, remained "deeply concerned" about tensions, heightened since the imposition of U.N. sanctions against the North for its third nuclear arms test in February.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated Beijing's calls for dialogue to resolve the tensions in a phone call with Ban.
"We oppose provocative words and actions from any party in the region and do not allow troublemaking on China's doorstep," a statement on the ministry's website said, citing Wang.
The appeal to diplomats followed news reports in the South that North Korea, under its 30-year-old leader Kim Jong-un, had moved two medium-range missiles to a location on its east coast. That prompted the White House to say that Washington would "not be surprised" if the North staged another missile test.
Kim Jong-un is the third member of his dynasty to rule North Korea. He took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, who staged confrontations with South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.
North Korea has always condemned the exercises held by U.S. forces and their South Korean allies. But its comments have been especially vitriolic this year as the United States dispatched B-2 bombers from its home bases to stage mock runs.
"MADCAP NUCLEAR WAR"
North Korea's government daily newspaper said tension remained high because the United States was "waging madcap nuclear war maneuvers".
"This is aimed at igniting a nuclear war against it through a pre-emptive strike," the Minju Joson said in a commentary. "The prevailing situation proves that a new war, a nuclear war, is imminent on the peninsula."
A television documentary broadcast on Friday quoted North Korean leader Kim as saying, during a provincial tour last month, that the country needed to "absolutely guarantee the quality of our artillery and shells to ensure a rapid pre-emptive attack on our enemies".
But some commentators examining the outcome of meetings in Pyongyang last week - of the ruling Workers' Party and of the rubber-stamp legislature - concluded that Kim and his leadership were more concerned with economic than military issues.
Internet site 38 North, which specializes in North Korean affairs, cited the reappointment of reformer Pak Pong Ju as prime minister, the limited titles given to top military and security officials and the naming of a woman to a senior party post.
"These personnel appointments make a great deal of sense in the context of Pyongyang's declarations ... that its economic policy will be modified by introducing systemic reforms while also continuing the development of nuclear weapons," 38 North commentator Michael Madden wrote.
"(They) appear to be important steps in moving key economic development products and production away from the control of the military to the party and government."
North Korea has not shut down one symbol of joint cooperation, the Kaesong industrial zone just inside its border. But last week it prevented South Koreans from entering the complex and about 100 of them who have since remained were due to return home on Saturday, leaving a further 500 there.
The barrage of North Korean threats has created jitters in South Korea's financial markets.
Shares slid on Friday, but analysts said much of the decline was linked to the Bank of Japan's monetary easing policies and one analyst said further major falls were unlikely.
"In a sense, for now the yen is of greater concern than the North Korea risk," said Ko Seunghee, a market analyst at SK Securities. "There is a sense that the KOSPI (index) will not fall sharply or drop below the 1,900 level unless big news about North Korea breaks out."
(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing, Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Robert Birsel and Stephen Powell)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-asks-embassies-consider-moving-diplomats-022658803--business.html
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