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By Liana B. Baker
(Reuters) - One of the top executives of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc has raised questions about Comcast’s potential dominance of the U.S. broadband Internet market if regulators allow its $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner Cable to be completed.
Speaking at an investor conference on Tuesday, Chase Carey, Fox president and chief operating officer, said the “broadband issue” will be front and center when U.S. regulators review the tie-up that merges the No. 1 and No. 2 cable operators.
Asked about concerns over the merger, Carey said, “Probably the issue that will come out of it, and that will ultimately get focused on, is really the broadband issue. Is there choice in broadband? Are you really headed toward every home having simply one broadband provider, and what are the implications of that?”
If its bid for Time Warner Cable is approved, Comcast would be the Internet provider to about 40 percent of U.S. households paying for high-speed Internet access, analysts estimate.
As TV service becomes more personalized with new navigation tools and targeted advertising, broadband infrastructure, and who controls that service, will become even more critical, Carey said. There has not been any pushback so far from companies against the Coupon, he added.
“We haven’t seen any filings yet and how does that get addressed? I assume there will be aspects of that that are addressed,” he said.
“Potentially, you may have for most of the country, simply one wired broadband pipe and again that’s the piece that will get, at the end of the day, most focused on,” he said.
Comcast did not respond to a request for comment.
Also at the same conference, Time Warner Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes predicted a government role in bolstering post-merger competition.
“In the longer run there are some questions on competition that any deal like this will look at, the government will look at and make sure the appropriate conditions are in place to optimize competition,” Bewkes said.
DirecTV’s CEO Mike White, who was already called for regulatory scrutiny of the deal, said on Tuesday, that the government will likely focus on “all the aspects of Internet, from net neutrality to you name it.”
He also said the government should consider whether Comcast is a national business instead of a local one which “requires the government to take a different perspective.”
Once Comcast files its merger documents with regulators, the Justice Department and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will both take months to review the merger’s impact on competition, focusing on antitrust and public interest concerns respectively.
(Reporting by Liana B. Baker; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Cynthia Osterman)
During a panel titled, “How Legal Skills Translate into Sports Agency,” hosted at Chapman University Fowler School of Law on Friday, February 7, speakers quickly migrated to the topic of Jay Z and his role in a changing sports agency landscape. Jay Z was criticized at length for entering into a field that was seemingly beyond his intellect and he was denounced for failing to land a single prospect for the 2014 NFL Draft. South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney and Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater were supposedly main targets for Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports, and the rap mogul failed to land either prized prospect.
However, days later Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports signed one of the most coveted players in the NFL. Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has chosen Roc Nation Sports as his on-field and off-field representatives after leaving his former agent less than three weeks ago. His prior representative was Roosevelt Barnes of Relativity Football, who had started serving on Suh’s behalf before the defensive tackle was the second overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.
Jay Z is not currently certified as an NFLPA Contract Advisor, and thus he will not be engaging in any direct negotiations with NFL teams concerning any immediate future on-field deals for Ndamukong Suh. It is not yet known whether football agent Kimberly Ann Miale, who is the representative of one NFL player (New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith) or representatives from Creative Artists Agency will be handling team contract negotiations henceforth. When the robinson cano wiki-cano/“>Roc Nation Sports entity was first announced, in conjunction with the signing of second baseman Robinson Cano as its first official client, a concurrent statement was released indicating that Roc Nation Sports established a strategic partnership with Creative Artists Agency. While Geno Smith is not represented by Creative Artists Agency, that may not be the case for Ndamukong Suh.
"Curious decision if Kim Miale is negotiating Suh’s extension because of her inexperience,” said NFL contracts and salary cap expert Joel Corry on Twitter. “Cruz’s CAA/Jay-Z combo is safer.” Corry was referencing Jay Z’s representation of New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, which established Creative Artists Agency as the entity charged with negotiating his on-field contracts.
What may not be so curious is Jay Z’s blueprint for developing his sports agency. Instead of focusing time, attention and money on recruiting a plethora of draft eligible players, Jay Z may be better served to sign athletes already in the NFL. Victor Cruz, Geno Smith and now Ndamukong Suh were all represented by other agents and already drafted by professional teams prior to moving over to Roc Nation Sports.
Upon hearing that Suh selected Roc Nation Sports as his new agents, one NFLPA Contract Advisor said to FORBES, “unless Roc Nation does it strictly by-the-numbers, this could be their ‘Master P moment.’” The agent was making a subtle reference to former NFL running back Ricky Williams leaving one-time agent Andrew Brandt for Master P and then Master P botching a major contract for Williams. He continued, “[the] Lions and other potential suitors must be pumped! Crazy how Suh goes from a firm with one of the best negotiation track records to one with nearly zero NFL negotiating experience.”
In 2001, Jay Z rapped, “Money pourin in, clientele growin now.” It was a line in the track called “Blueprint.” Thirteen years later, same song, different game, and still a lot of haters.
Want to learn more about the business of sports? Pre-order my book How to Play the Game and follow me on Twitter.Follow @DarrenHeitnerPosted: Thursday, March 6, 2014, 9:48 AM
UPDATE: “Too little, too late,” says David Strasser, analyst at Janney Capital Markets, of the latest store closings at Staples, the Massachusetts-based office-supply chain that is also the second-largest online retailer after Amazon.com. “To close and shrink stores is the correct strategy,” but sales are falling faster than expected, and Staples’ “limited” technology and consumer electronics offerings (e.g., no Apple iProducts) and its weak store personnel “skill set” (compared, say, to Review’s Geek Squad) will make Staples’ store-improvement plan “tough to succeed.” Staples was “early and good” online, but now faces price-cutting, and the company overpaid for its Corporate Express acquisition, Strasser added. He’s recommending clients stop buying Staples stock.
EARLIER: Staples says it plans to close another 225 of its 2,000 stores by 2014, after closing a net 40 stores last year. The chain announced the closings after reporting sales fell last year. More here. The move follows yesterday’s announcement by Radio Shack that it hopes to close 1,200 of its 5,000 stores
JACKSON, MI - Discount is open after a gas leak temporarily closed its doors.
Shandra Tollefson, a Best Buy public relations spokesperson, said the store 1014 Jackson Crossing re-opened after being closed for about two hours.
Store employees were notified of an odor of gas outside, and contacted the Jackson Fire Department and Consumers Energy about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25.
The source of the leak was from a gas pipe on the roof of the building, which was heavily covered in snow, said Terry DeDoes, a Consumers Energy spokesman.
DeDoes said heavy snow and ice can create pressure inside pipes, causing a break in the fuel line.
“We recommend people keep meters free of snow and ice,” DeDoes said.
When clearing pipes, DeDoes said shovels should not be used, because they can damage pipes.
Promo Codep>In the pantheon of movies based on television shows, there’s way more bad than good. Actually, now that I think about it, they probably don’t even deserve their own pantheon&;-more like a dimly lit janitorial closet or a Burger King bathroom. Sure, there’s some high-quality examples like The Untouchables or The Fugitive, but more often than not you end up with Lost in Space or Land of the Lost. When the content’s flowing in the other direction, from big screen to small, there’s a slightly better hit-to-holy-bananas-what-a-miss ratio, but still for every M*A*S*H or The Odd Couple, there’s a handful of Ferris Bueller s.
Showrunner Jason Katims, however, has a pretty snappy track record when it comes to making Movie: The TV Show. He’s responsible for turning films like Friday Night Lights and Parenthood into strong multi-season character dramas. Now, he has taken on About a Boy, the 2002 comedy-drama in which Hugh Grant broke out of his typecast as a lovably awkward wag to play a lovably curmudgeonly wag who befriends a young social misfit and his single mother. This isn’t the first time this has been tried-Patrick Dempsey starred in an attempt to adapt the film to series back in 2003, but it was dropped presumably because of excess levels of McDreaminess. In Katims’ version, which premieres Feb. 22 on NBC after the Olympics, he has replaced London with San Francisco, and Grant with Bent ’s David Walton.
The pilot essentially takes the plot of the film and hits fast-forward: Will, a lovably rakish wag, tries to pick up a woman at a single parents support group despite the fact that the only child living in his Painted Lady is himself. Then the 11-year-old Marcus (Benjamin Stockham) and his high-strung vegan mother (Minnie Driver) move in next door and invade his life. If you’ve seen the movie, you might be better off just skipping the first episode since it’s mainly a retread, but Katims nails its sweetly wry tone-and that of the Nick Hornsby source material-and Walton is genuinely engaging as a bro-ier version of Will. Stockham, too, is great as the half-dopey, half-precocious Marcus. Overall, it’s a whole lot of premise-setting and foundation-building, but there’s enough here to be optimistic that this will be one more tick in the Good column of movie/TV synergy. B+
It’s thanksgiving time in South Korea. Friday actually is the lunar new year, which is observed in many Asian countries, but from my kids’ description of what will go on in Seoul, it sounds like Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.
Our son, Sam and his wife, Jennifer, and our daughter Elizabeth teach English at a private Korean elementary school in Seoul, and I asked them how Koreans will celebrate the year of the horse, which is the animated chinese new year cards zodiac sign for this year.
Elizabeth said that in general, people go to visit relatives.
“A lot of people will leave Seoul to travel to where their parents or grandparents live,” she said. “The city gets pretty quiet around this time. Unlike the Chinese celebrations, there isn’t much to see in the streets. It’s a more private family holiday…Families basically get together to eat and do things like play cards and watch movies.”
Lunar new year is called “seollal” in Korean, Sam said, and some Koreans wear traditional clothes called “hanbok” on that day.
“It’s a big family day,” he said. “People travel back to their hometowns to feast and catch up with one another. Ancestral rites are also a major activity. This usually involves setting up a low table loaded with food and liquor as offerings.
"Family members, dressed in hanbok, take turns performing ritual bows to this table, which usually has pictures of the departed placed above it. Older family members give little envelopes of money to the kids.”
Those nice little envelopes.
Elizabeth, who teaches first grade, said her students get excited about getting lucky money for the lunar new year and some students get excited about getting to go to their grandparents’ homes outside of Seoul.
Sam’s fourth-graders are mostly excited about “those envelopes of money.”
Thanksgiving meets Christmas, at least for the children.
The bookstores and gift shops are selling horse items like new year’s cards with horse images, Elizabeth said, and some of the department stores are selling big new year’s gifts like fruit baskets or gifts of good cuts of meat.
“There are even Spam gift boxes,” she said.
I thought Sam was kidding when he said Emart completely rearranges its store every year to make way for lunar new year sets of shampoo and Spam. Apparently Koreans - or at least some Koreans - like Spam. The New York Times recently published a story about Spam’s popularity as a lunar new year gift in Korea.
Elizabeth has been in Korea since fall 2009, so this will be her fifth lunar new year there. She’s ushered in the years of the tiger, rabbit, dragon and snake.
She said she’s probably not going to do too much to celebrate this year.
“Generally it’s nice to get around the city when it’s not so crowded,” she said.
Sam and Jennifer have lived in Korea for 7 ½ years. When they arrived, it was the year of the dog. They’ve seen lunar new years of the pig, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon and snake.
Sam’s still a little confused about the Korean birthday thing.
“The traditional food to eat on new year’s is rice cake soup, ‘tteokguk,’” he said. “It’s believed that eating tteokguk on new year’s adds another year to your age. Regardless of whether you ate the soup or not, every Korean turns one year older on seollal. Yep, that means they have two birthdays a year. What?”
His favorite new year’s tradition: “A popular activity on seollal is to get up early and watch the first sunrise of the new year. Koreans do this both on regular new year’s (Jan. 1) and seollal.”
No word on whether my children will be exchanging Spam gift baskets on Friday.
Sally Gray is the Advocate’s news editor.
By Nadia Damouni, Nicola Leske and Gerry Shih
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Lenovo Group said on Wednesday it agreed to buy Google Inc’s Motorola handset division for $2.91 billion, in what is China’s largest-ever tech Buy Cheap as Lenovo buys its way into a heavily competitive U.S. handset market dominated by Apple Inc.
It is Lenovo’s second major deal on U.S. soil in a week as the Chinese electronics company angles to get a foothold in major global computing markets. Lenovo last week said it would buy IBM’s low-end server business for $2.3 billion.
The deal ends Google’s short-lived foray into making consumer mobile devices and marks a pullback from its largest-ever acquisition. Google paid $12.5 billion for Motorola in 2012. Under this deal the search giant will keep the majority of Motorola’s mobile patents, considered its prize assets.
Shares of Google climbed 2.6 percent to about $1,136 in after-hours trading. Google Chief Executive Officer Larry Page said that Google would be best served by focusing on smartphone software rather than devices.
Reuters reported the deal earlier on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the deal.
The purchase will give Lenovo a beach-head to compete against Apple and Samsung Electronics as well as increasingly aggressive Chinese smartphone makers in the highly lucrative U.S. arena.
In 2005, Lenovo muscled its way into what was then the world’s largest PC market by buying IBM’s personal computer division. It has powered its way up the rankings of the global smartphone industry primarily through sales on its home turf but had considered a U.S. sortie of late.
“Using Motorola, just as Lenovo used the IBM ThinkPad brand, to gain quick credibility and access to desirable markets and build critical mass makes a lot of sense,” said Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett.
“But Motorola has not been shooting the lights out with designs or sales volumes in smartphones. So the value is simply in brand recognition to achieve market recognition faster - and to expand the design and marketing team with talent experienced at U.S. and Western markets.”
RISE OF THE CHINESE
The deal is subject to approval by both U.S. and Chinese authorities.
Chinese companies faced the most scrutiny over their U.S. acquisitions in 2012, according to a report issued in December by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Analysts say political issues could cloud the Motorola sale, especially with Lenovo trying to seal the IBM deal at the same time.
Lenovo will receive over 2,000 “patent assets” as part of the transaction, the companies said, but it remains unknown which will change hands and whether they might be subject to extra scrutiny from regulators.
For Motorola, Lenovo will pay $660 million in cash, $750 million in Lenovo ordinary shares, and another $1.5 billion in the form of a three-year promissory note, Lenovo and Google said in a joint statement.
“The acquisition of such an iconic brand, innovative product portfolio and incredibly talented global team will immediately make Lenovo a strong global competitor in smartphones,” Lenovo’s chief executive, Yang Yuanqing, said in a statement.
In two years, China’s three biggest handset makers - Huawei, ZTE Corp and Lenovo - have vaulted into the top ranks of global smartphone charts, helped in part by their huge domestic market and spurring talk of a new force in the smartphone wars.
Although Huawei and ZTE have made some inroads in the United States, where the Chinese companies continue to grapple with low brand awareness, perceptions of inferior quality and even security concerns. Lenovo has until now stayed out of the U.S. market.
In the third quarter of last year, ZTE and Huawei accounted for 5.7 percent and 3 percent of all phones sold in the United States, respectively, trailing Apple’s 36.2 percent and Samsung’s 32.5 percent, according to research house IDC.
Huawei declined to comment on the Lenovo deal on Wednesday. ZTE did not immediately offer comment.
Globally, Lenovo ranked fifth in 2013 with a 4.5 percent market share, according to IDC. That’s up from 3.3 percent in 2012 and virtually nil a couple years before that.
STEP BACK
For Google, the sale represented a solution to a persistent headache as Motorola’s losses widened in recent quarters. It also showed Google is willing to step back from the handset arena and throw its weight behind device makers that propagate its Android software, Kantar analyst Carolina Milanesi said.
“It all points to Google thinking in the short run that they’re better off betting on Samsung and keeping them close,” Milanesi said. “And of course now they’re enabling a second strong runner (Lenovo) in the Android ecosystem.”
In 2012, analysts saw Google’s Motorola acquisition as primarily a way to secure the company’s trove of patents amid the technology sector’s increasing legal battles - rather than a bona fide push into the handset business.
Many industry observers were surprised that Google did not immediately sell the hardware division after the deal closed, choosing instead to operate Motorola a separate company.
It did sell Motorola’s cable television set-top box business to Arris Group Inc for $2.35 billion at the end of 2012.
In a blog post on Wednesday, Google’s Page highlighted the strategic choice in selling the Motorola handset business.
“The smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices,” Page wrote. “This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere.”
Lenovo is being advised by Credit Suisse Group while Lazard Ltd advised Google on the transaction.
(Writing by Edwin Chan; Editing by Soyoung Kim, Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler)
scandal castp>The Real Housewives of Atlanta fans are in surprise and shock about the latest allegations against Phaedra Parks’ husband Apollo Nida. The cast member who is seen often in the reality show series was charged with fraud and identity theft. According to Access Atlanta on Friday, the complaint was filed by the U.S. District Attorney’s office in Atlanta and Apollo Nida has already surrendered to authorities.
The criminal complained against Apollo Nida is very detailed on the allegations surrounding an investigation from the Secret Service. With the charges being fairly substantial, the reality star was in front of U.S. District Judge Gerrilyn G. Brill. Apollo Nida was released on a pretrial bond of $25,000 and a preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 12, 2014.
The situation for Apollo Nida looks serious for him as well as his wife Phaedra Parks. While Parks has not been named in any of the legal proceedings, the reality star is an attorney who has a very successful part on Real Housewives of Atlanta. If the producers decide that Nida is a liability, it could jeopardize Phaedra Parks’ story line.
Apollo Nida was previously imprisoned from 2004 to 2009 in charges related to auto title fraud. The outcome of this situation might have fans shocked, but also showing sympathy to Phaedra Parks.
Peyton Manning’s grass-stained jersey. Eli Manning’s grass-stained jersey. Whatever your poison, the Coupon Code Bowl Live Auction has it.
Now through Feb. 1, an auction preview and appraisal fair is ongoing at the NFL Shop at Super Bowl, located in Macy’s Herald Square.
The actual auction is on Feb. 1, Super Bowl eve. What prices are we looking at? Anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 for Peyton’s Broncos jersey, and $5,000 to $7,500 for Eli’s Giants jersey. Hey, we know which Manning made the Super Bowl, amirite?
But shirts of the brothers Manning aren’t the only memorabilia on offer. There’s also a Colin Kaepernick-worn 49ers jersey ($6,000 to $8,000), Super Bowl XLVII opening kickoff coin ($3,000 to $5,000) and 1997 Denver Broncos Super Bowl ring (a whopping $20,000 to $30,000), in addition to a slew of other valuable items - 150 in total. Auction proceeds benefit NFL-supported charities such as the Wounded Warrior Project and the American Cancer Society.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who will play Super Bowl halftime with Bruno Mars, are also participating in an NFL auction of a drum kit and drum sticks, to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The drums will go to auction after they’ve been used in the halftime show - that auction runs until Feb. 7 at nfl.com/auction.
Throughout the Hunt Auctions appraisal fair, visitors can have their own sports memorabilia valued for free. To call ahead and reserve an appraisal appointment, call (610) 524-0822.
NFL Shop at Super Bowl is in the fourth floor of Macy’s, at 151 W. 34th St. in New York; the store is also hosting a series of appearances from athletes and celebrities.
To see the auction items, visit nfl.com/auction. Pre-bidding on the website ends at 6 p.m. Jan. 31. The live auction starts at noon on Feb. 1. Bids can be made either in person or by phone. Call (610) 524-0822 or email info@huntauctions.com to reserve a phone line.
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A recent California state court held that Overstock.com, Inc. (“Overstock”) must pay the Deal News for its allegedly deceptive pricing practices. Seven district attorneys throughout California brought a complaint against Overstock in 2010, alleging five separate violations of state law. The focus of these claims was that Overstock allegedly made false and misleading statements in reference to the “advertised reference price” (“ARP”) that appeared on its website. Specifically, the attorneys general stated that Overstock was deceiving consumers about the savings the company promises by routinely fabricating or inflating the prices its competitors reportedly charge, and that where Overstock did examine the competing prices for a certain product, it deliberately lists the highest retail price rather than the price most often encountered. Last week, the trial court issued an injunction against the online seller, and assessed an approximately $6.8 million civil penalty.
In examining the claims, the court paid special attention to Overstock’s terminology on its website, as well as its pricing policies. First, it distinguished between Overstock’s use of the term “list price” from its later use of the phrases “compare” and “compare at.” It also noted that until September 2008, Overstock had no processes or procedures in place to confirm that for any given list price there was in fact at least one instance of a sale at this price. However, at that point Overstock created a “Pricing Validation Team” to document the sources of ARPs. Still, Overstock would seek and use as the ARP, the highest street price it could find.
The court explained that the analysis differs depending on whether the ARP was described as “list price” or “compare” price. When called a “list price,” the court found that Overstock was making a false representation because this price was not always the actual list price of the product being sold. Rather, it sometimes was a price based on a formula or the price of a similar but non-identical product.
For the “compare” and “compare at” eras, while not literally false, the court found Overstock’s practices were misleading in certain circumstances. The court held it was misleading to use formulas or similar products to set ARPs, and that it is misleading to set ARPs based on the highest price found without disclosing that practice. The court went on to provide examples of what acceptable disclosures should entail:
The court then issued an injunction that would:
The court denied the restitution request for consumers who were misled by Overstock’s pricing practices, but did hit Overstock with a stiff civil penalty. The court assessed a daily civil penalty of $3,500 from March 24, 2006 September 24, 2008 (the approximate date of the pricing validation team implementation), and a daily penalty of $2,000 thereafter. The total civil penalty assessed was therefore $6,819,000.
Overstock has already said it plans to appeal both the injunction and the amount of the penalty. And we are glad. This is one of the few litigated cases involving allegations around sales pricing claims. And while we are all opposed to fraudulent pricing claims, as we have written before, these laws and enforcement of them really seems to deter good faith discounting, as well. Marketers discount their prices only if it will promise more traffic in their stores. And more traffic can only be generated if the price savings is advertised. The investigatory hurdles set up by this decision may make offering legally compliant sales an impossibility for all but the most sophisticated retailers. And even for the big guys, the cost of such a compliance program would surely mean consumers are paying more. But in the meantime, discounting retailers would do well to pay attention to these California developments.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.More Popular Related Articles on Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment from USA
San Francisco, CA
We all know social media is a hugely valuable element of online marketing when it comes to building a customer base, search engine rankings, and brand recognition. As a major player, Twitter is one of the most important and popular social media networks frequented by users around the globe.
Obtaining a high number of followers is a landmark goal of many Twitter users. Getting those followers isn’t always easy though, which leads some innocent businesses to wander down the shady path towards the ominous castle black-hat, wherein lies the dark tactic of buying Twitter followers.
With a simple swipe of a credit card, you can obtain legions of your own mindless Twitter drones! To buy or not to buy? Let’s review the reasons for and against buying Twitter followers.
In this post, we’ll be looking at:
Let’s face it, a lot of social media activity is already just thinly veiled narcissism. Those who give themselves a pat on the back when their newest instagram post gets 13 likes must certainly be temped by the idea of buying more Twitter followers.
Businesses have the advantage of labeling their self-promotion as branding, but ultimately it’s two sides of the same coin. There’s no judging here though - we’ve all felt the rewarding confirmation that comes with a retweet.
While boiling down the value of your online presence to a mere number on Twitter sounds ridiculous, there’s really no denying that one’s Twitter following, despite being a vanity metric, is often thought to correlate with a user’s importance. For clubs booking comedians or venues hosting bands, a high Twitter following can easily put you ahead of the competition. A large Twitter following shows promise and possibility - not just of a good show, but of bringing in more followers and fans in to see the show, and therefore bringing in more money.
Even if the followers are fake, the clout that comes with a high Twitter following is very much real. A boost in Twitter followers can transform a stand-up amateur into a professional comedian, a garage band into a rising star, a movie extra into fresh new talent, and a small business into an authoritative source. Individuals have even been hired for job positions as a result of their high Twitter following, since the number serves as a representation of how powerful your online word can be.
With fake followers it’s all a masquerade, so it really comes down to how long you can push the act or live the lie.
Bandwagon SyndromeRelated to the previous section, once real users see your Twitter numbers rising, they’ll be more likely to follow you as well. If someone claims to be an expert food critic but only has 23 followers, most will think that the only food they’re judging is their mom’s mac and cheese. If that number is more like 800 or 2,000, they become a considerably more reputable source - one that users will be much more likely to follow. This means your Twitter robot followers are actually generating real followers as a result of your imagined prestige.
Easier & CheaperIt’s a heck of a lot easier to buy followers on Twitter than earn them. Gaining a real Twitter following takes time and effort - you need to consistently be sharing great content, posting hilariously witty remarks, or broadcasting the latest news.
You could put in all that effort… or you can grab your wallet and buy a militia-sized army of Twitter followers for less than a Starbucks Frappuccino. On Fiverr, where users provide various products or services (often web related) for only $5, marketers are promised as many 8,000 Twitter followers within 24 hours in exchange for an Abraham.
Start-ups, celebrities, and politicians alike have been known to buy more Twitter followers - it’s a fairly common practice for those who have something to gain from amassing a large number of Twitter followers in a short period of time.
According to the Fake Follower Check tool from StatusPeople, which claims the ability to determine how many of a user’s Twitter followers are fakes, 71% of Lady Gaga’s over 35 million followers are fake or inactive, along with 70% of President Obama’s nearly 30 million followers.
It’s Not All That BadIf the President of the United States has fake Twitter followers, it can’t be all that bad, right?
While purchasing bot Twitter followers is against Twitter’s terms and white-hatters might scoff at the idea, it’s completely legal. One also has to question how corrupt buying Twitter followers really is compared with regular Twitter marketing practices like paying for a promoted hashtag - is it just a matter of splitting hairs?
You’re not really buying Twitter followers so much as mindless spam bots. You won’t have any interaction or engagement with these robo-accounts. Do you really want to be the sad kid who only has robots for friends - robots you had to buy?
It’s An Empty NumberAll the fake Twitter followers in the world won’t do much to raise your Klout score. Social media influence scores tend to look at interaction and Twitter engagement rather than sheer numbers, so you won’t be getting any added SEO or influence bonus with the inflated metric. Those skewed Twitter numbers also make it much more difficult to properly measure social media ROI and the true effect of your social media efforts.
Is Buying Twitter Followers Safe?There are a number of dangers associated with buying Twitter followers. Many of the sites that offer to sell you more Twitter followers are a scam - you may put up your hard earned cash and come away with absolutely nothing. Often these nefarious groups are simply looking to take advantage of businesses that don’t know any better, or are hoping to cash in on desperate marketers looking for a quick fix. Providing them with your credit card might not be the brightest idea.
Your fake followers could also end up doing damage against your real Twitter followers by hacking, phishing, and infecting real followers with link spam. Is it worth buying Twitter followers when you consider all the risks?
With tools like the Fake Follower Check tool, it’s pretty easy to discover who is desperate enough to buy friends.
While the high Twitter number may feel cool, your real followers aren’t likely to share your perspective, and you might end up a laughing stock and lose the few real followers you do have. Especially for businesses hoping to be viewed as industry experts, being caught cheating can do serious damage to your reputation.
While Twitter isn’t making huge efforts to clean up spam accounts at the moment, who knows what action they may take in the future. If Twitter does decide to clean up the spammers, it’ll be pretty embarrassing when your follower count drops by half.
All right, you understand both sides. If you’re still interested in buying…
There are a couple different approaches you can take for buying Twitter followers.
Discount Fake Twitter Followers: You can buy cheap Twitter followers, but the most economical Twitter services provide only fake bot followers. It doesn’t take Jack Dorsey to figure out that this profile isn’t real.
Buying Twitter followers cheap gets you faceless, bland bot accounts - these are referred to as generated followers. Pricier services provide Twitter followers with more finely polished profiles, with pics and bios filled out.
Buy Real Twitter Followers: If fake doesn’t float your boat, buying real Twitter followers is a preferred option, although it isn’t likely to be as cheap as buying fake followers.
You can buy access to real followers using Twitter follower software that searches through and finds Twitter users with interests similar to yours and automatically follows them, hoping that they will follow you in return. This process is referred to as buying targeted Twitter followers.
If you’re set on buying Twitter followers, here are some sites that sell them.
Search Fiverr for “buy Twitter followers” and you’ll immediately find a long list of sellers offering to provide you with anywhere from 100 - 15,000 followers in less than 24 hours. While the legitimacy of some offers is questionable, it doesn’t get much cheaper than this.
Fast Followerz: This group claims to provide real, active followers that regularly tweet, update, and are engaged. They also offer a Followerz Protection five-year warranty, guaranteeing the top-notch quality of the targeted followers offered.
FollowerSale: FollowerSale uses a credit system to encourage real users to follow their customers, providing live, active followers as a result.
Devumi: Devumi provides cheap followers, doesn’t require a password, and doesn’t make you follow anyone in return. They also offer credit card alternative payment methods like PayPal.
The best sites to buy Twitter followers from are those that provide targeted Twitter followers that are real and active. Stay safe by avoiding sites that ask for your Twitter password or unnecessary info.
If you’ve decided to take the moral high ground and not buy Twitter followers, don’t despair about missing out - there are plenty of ways to get Twitter followers naturally. These legitimate, earned followers are more valuable because you’ve built a relationship with them. These relationships will prove much more prosperous than those silly faceless egg accounts.
Increasing your followers on Twitter naturally isn’t easy, but it’s worth it in the end. Just a handful of engaged, active followers is infinitely more valuable than hundreds of fake accounts that do nothing more than add to an ego-stroking number.
Buying Twitter followers harkens back to the old days of SEO, evocative of outdated black-hat logic that grows less fruitful and more damaging as an increasing emphasis is put on quality over quantity. Buying Twitter followers may provide some temporary sense of instant gratification, but the potential backlash of being found out as a liar or fraud can quickly undo any advantages and permanently destroy your reputation.
For small businesses, such growing pains are essential for character development -Twitter is a valuable space for businesses to test and hone their personality, be it humorous, technical, or offbeat. Brand persona and Twitter following grow together as a result. Discovering and becoming a power player in your niche is what really increases your Twitter following, and bypassing such steps results in a hollow brand trying to survive off a vanity metric.
So fight the good fight, earn your followers the old-fashioned way! Or don’t. It’s your call.
This post originally appeared on WordStream, and is reprinted with permission.
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robinson cano fangraphsp>Homer Bailey Still, Kinda, Maybe Available
The Cincinnati Reds have made more headlines for what they’ve lost (Dusty Baker, Shin-Soo Choo) since their season ended in Pittsburgh.
We could add one more name to that list: Homer Bailey, though at least moving him would bring something back to build for the future.
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports that Bailey’s name is still floating around in trade circles, even if there’s no evidence the Reds want to deal him.
The Reds have been very quiet this offseason, but Bailey’s name has come up quite often as possible trade bait. In fact, the Reds could possibly bring back Arroyo if they can deal Bailey.
Bailey’s name was floated around as a potential trade candidate at the winter meetings, but general manager Walt Jocketty told reporters that wasn’t true because the Reds were trying to re-sign the right-hander.
It’s going to cost the Reds a pretty penny to even get in Bailey’s ball park on an extension, let alone entice him with enough money to sign.
He’s going to be 28 years old in May, coming off a career year in 2013 with 209 innings pitched, 199 strikeouts, 3.49 ERA and will be a free agent at the end of next season.
The Reds are in a very precarious position because they are built to compete now even though they have lost their second-best position player (Choo) and a reliable cog in the rotation (Bronson Arroyo).
I still think they are the No. 2 team in the National League Central, but the farm isn’t going to offer much help for 2014. Top prospect Robert Stephenson won’t be ready until 2015, at which time he could take Bailey’s spot, but that doesn’t do anything to add depth to an aging, expensive roster.
Exploring trades for Bailey would be in Cincinnati’s best interest, though it’s not hard to understand why they want to keep him and try to sign him long term.
If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter. Follow @adamwells1985Promotional Codesimg src=“http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/2448038956cdaf42683a5f131397418d?s=52&d=http%3A%2F%2Fres.dallasnews.com%2Fresources%2Fimages%2Fngo.jpg%3Fs%3D52&r=G”>
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Dear cigars lover, I am back with few more new cigars which I tried this week, First of all wish you all very very happy new year, Hope you all have very good 2014. This is my first post of 2014 and I wish you all cigar lover like this post. Today I will tell you about very good cigar brand. Visit at : www.burningleaf.in
Today we will talk about Padron cigars. Padron cigar was founded in 1964. Padron cigar founded by Cuba-native Jos&; Orlando Padr&;n. Jos&; Orlando Padr&;n was born I in 1926 in Cuba and his family has been working in the tobacco fields since the 1855, Jose Padr&;n began using the Nicaraguan tobacco in 1967 so now the Padron cigar is Nicaragua tobacco brand and all the leaves contained within the Padron Cigars are grown in Nicaragua.
The Piloto Cigars Inc. is a privately held company which produces the Padron cigar brand. The company produced more than 170 cigars a day and company use typical Cuban rolling style. The Padr&;n cigar company is making three different blends of cigar and all have their own unique flavor points and sizes.
The Padr&;n cigar company’s Padron 1926 line is very good.
Size (Length" x Ring) : 4 x 48
Shape / Strength : Robusto / Medium to Full
Wrapper : Nicaragua
Binder : NicaraguaFiller : Nicaragua
The cigar has cinnamon brown wrapper and cut is very clean and firm. If you move cigar under your nose you will feel strong of cedar and tobacco aroma, After few mins burn, You will feel a nice cedar with some hints of white pepper flavor. As you finish the one third of the cigar you will feel the taste of coffee and coffee taste will keep developing nicely as you go on. You can take a Padron cigar with smooth scotch.
Emily J. Reynolds/The Enterprise
A longtime love of angels inspired Peg Driscoll, 62, of Rockland to take on an anna griffin christmas cards project that was voted as The Enterprise Newspaper’s winner of the Christmas card contest.
Driscoll is currently searching for a job in her field as a software consultant. But her love of art has been a lifelong passion and something she has recently devoted more time to.
“I’ve always loved doing art, and in the past few years got back into it,” said Driscoll. Her winning Christmas card painting was actually done back in the fall, long before she knew about the contest. The internet influenced Driscoll’s subject matter.
“I started poking around on the web and finally found this angel done by an unknown French artist from the 15th century,” she said.
The striking painting which features a peaceful and whimsical angel bathed in a rainbow of reds took her about 25 hours to complete.
“I wanted to do a painting using gilding, which is the process of applying gilt to the surface,” she said. It was the first time she created a painting that was completely gilded.
Gilding is the process of applying fine gold leaf or powder to a solid surface.
“I used a very thin adhesive on a canvas board and used very thin sheets of gold-colored metal, about a dozen sheets, for the background to burnish it,” said Driscoll. She then used oil paints for the subject.
The painting which measures 12" by 16" is currently hanging in her living room. But this fall, the painting was on display with a host of others painting enthusiasts at Gallery Four in Rockland.
Driscoll has been drawn to many different fields of art and can also quilt, knit and crochet. Her next project will also use gilding, and she wants to paint an antique map.
For Driscoll, who’s winning Christmas card cover entry was chosen out of a large group of candidates, the news came as a surprise.
“I was flabbergasted when I found out I won, I was pleasantly surprised,” she said.
One of her friends urged her to submit photos of her angel painting right before the deadline.
“It’s nice to know you can still come up with these ideas and make them happen,” said Driscoll.
Jennifer Bray may be reached at jbray@enterprisenews.com or follow her on Twitter @JenniferB_ENT.
A longtime love of angels inspired Peg Driscoll, 62, of Rockland to take on an art project that was voted as The Enterprise Newspaper’s winner of the Christmas card contest.
Driscoll is currently searching for a job in her field as a software consultant. But her love of art has been a lifelong passion and something she has recently devoted more time to.
“I’ve always loved doing art, and in the past few years got back into it,” said Driscoll. Her winning Christmas card painting was actually done back in the fall, long before she knew about the contest. The internet influenced Driscoll’s subject matter.
“I started poking around on the web and finally found this angel done by an unknown French artist from the 15th century,” she said.
The striking painting which features a peaceful and whimsical angel bathed in a rainbow of reds took her about 25 hours to complete.
“I wanted to do a painting using gilding, which is the process of applying gilt to the surface,” she said. It was the first time she created a painting that was completely gilded.
Gilding is the process of applying fine gold leaf or powder to a solid surface.
“I used a very thin adhesive on a canvas board and used very thin sheets of gold-colored metal, about a dozen sheets, for the background to burnish it,” said Driscoll. She then used oil paints for the subject.
The painting which measures 12" by 16" is currently hanging in her living room. But this fall, the painting was on display with a host of others painting enthusiasts at Gallery Four in Rockland.
Driscoll has been drawn to many different fields of art and can also quilt, knit and crochet. Her next project will also use gilding, and she wants to paint an antique map.
For Driscoll, who’s winning Christmas card cover entry was chosen out of a large group of candidates, the news came as a surprise.
“I was flabbergasted when I found out I won, I was pleasantly surprised,” she said.
One of her friends urged her to submit photos of her angel painting right before the deadline.
“It’s nice to know you can still come up with these ideas and make them happen,” said Driscoll.
Jennifer Bray may be reached at jbray@enterprisenews.com or follow her on Twitter @JenniferB_ENT.
Nikon D5300 Offersp>
Nikon has spared no amount of hype getting ready for the release of the rumored Nikon DF full-frame retro-styled camera. But all of this throwing around of high-brow terms like “pure photography” and five full teasers worth of mechanical whirrs and clicks and peeks at the camera’s design has also opened the company up to a little bit of mockery.
Put together by Australian portrait photographer Matt Granger (formerly ThatNikonGuy), the video above offers a little bit of comic relief from all of the anticipation by poking fun at the way Nikon has chosen to get folks excited about its new camera.
From the nature sounds looping in the background, to the loud clicks and inspirational tidbits, to the dimly lit shot of the camera, Granger hit the “Pure Photography” nail on the head. But, of course, it’s not the rumored DF he’s teasing in the video:
I want something simple, timeless and elegant. I want something with astounding build quality, and full manual controls… So i bought myself… a film camera. They still sell ‘em. This cost less than a hundred bucks.
So check out the video at the top to get your laughs in for the day, and check back over the next couple of days so you don’t miss the official announcement.
There are several noteworthy improvements in Nikon D5300 Buy Cheap’s new D5300 APS-C (DX) DSLR from its predecessor, the D5200. One of Nikon’s best-selling and most popular models, the midrange 24.1-megapixel D5300’s smaller and lighter body has improved ergonomics - there’s more surface area on the grip for a tighter hold and more clearance between your fingers and the lens. Despite the body being smaller, the vari-angle flip-out LCD got bigger (3.2 inches from 3 inches in the D5200). With the Expeed 4 image processor the ISO range has increased (100-12,800). But the big addition is that Wi-Fi is now built into the camera &;- a first for Nikon DSLRs.
Another big change, Nikon has removed the optical low pass (anti-aliasing) filter from the 24.2-megapixel CMOS sensor, to improve the image quality of stills and videos - a trend that’s happening with many new cameras. The D5300 has the same 39-point autofocus system and 5 frames-per-second continuous shooting as the D5200. There’s also Nikon’s Scene Reconigtion System that uses the 2,016-pixel RGB metering system to automatically select exposure, AF, and white balance based on the scene conditions.
Wi-Fi has been available in Nikon cameras via an optional adapter, but the D5300 will be the first to have it built in. It’s also the first Nikon DSLR to have onboard GPS, which lets you geotag your images before you upload or e-mail them from the camera via a connected smartphone or tablet. You can also use a connected smart device as an external monitor for remote shooting.
For video capture, Nikon has added Full HD 1080p at 60p. There are nine special effects you can use to edit in-camera, including a “HDR painting” feature that lets you alter the colors of an image to make it look as if it was shot as a high-dynamic range photo.
The D5300 is on sale now for $1,400, which comes with the AF-S Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR kit lens; if you’re stepping up and you already have a set of Nikkor DX lenses, you can pick up just the body for $800. The camera comes in three colors: black, red, and a new gray option.
In addition to the D5300, Nikon has also announced a new pro-level prime lens, the AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G. Carrying the legacy of popular Noct Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 lens, this fixed 58mm focal length (35mm/FX equivalent; 87mm DX/cropped format) is ideal for shooting portraits, landscapes, and street photography, Nikon says, but it’s all about achieving bokeh - that artistic background blurring - with the nine-blade diaphragm. Made for low-light capture, the lens has Nikon’s Nano Crystal coating to avoid ghosting and flare. The Silent Wave Motor operates quietly when autofocusing, which is key for recording video.
This premium lens will go on sale later this month for $1,700.
There are several noteworthy improvements in Nikon D5300 Deals’s new D5300 APS-C (DX) DSLR from its predecessor, the D5200. One of Nikon’s best-selling and most popular models, the midrange 24.1-megapixel D5300’s smaller and lighter body has improved ergonomics - there’s more surface area on the grip for a tighter hold and more clearance between your fingers and the lens. Despite the body being smaller, the vari-angle flip-out LCD got bigger (3.2 inches from 3 inches in the D5200). With the Expeed 4 image processor the ISO range has increased (100-12,800). But the big addition is that Wi-Fi is now built into the camera &;- a first for Nikon DSLRs.
Another big change, Nikon has removed the optical low pass (anti-aliasing) filter from the 24.2-megapixel CMOS sensor, to improve the image quality of stills and videos - a trend that’s happening with many new cameras. The D5300 has the same 39-point autofocus system and 5 frames-per-second continuous shooting as the D5200. There’s also Nikon’s Scene Reconigtion System that uses the 2,016-pixel RGB metering system to automatically select exposure, AF, and white balance based on the scene conditions.
Wi-Fi has been available in Nikon cameras via an optional adapter, but the D5300 will be the first to have it built in. It’s also the first Nikon DSLR to have onboard GPS, which lets you geotag your images before you upload or e-mail them from the camera via a connected smartphone or tablet. You can also use a connected smart device as an external monitor for remote shooting.
For video capture, Nikon has added Full HD 1080p at 60p. There are nine special effects you can use to edit in-camera, including a “HDR painting” feature that lets you alter the colors of an image to make it look as if it was shot as a high-dynamic range photo.
The D5300 is on sale now for $1,400, which comes with the AF-S Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR kit lens; if you’re stepping up and you already have a set of Nikkor DX lenses, you can pick up just the body for $800. The camera comes in three colors: black, red, and a new gray option.
In addition to the D5300, Nikon has also announced a new pro-level prime lens, the AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G. Carrying the legacy of popular Noct Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 lens, this fixed 58mm focal length (35mm/FX equivalent; 87mm DX/cropped format) is ideal for shooting portraits, landscapes, and street photography, Nikon says, but it’s all about achieving bokeh - that artistic background blurring - with the nine-blade diaphragm. Made for low-light capture, the lens has Nikon’s Nano Crystal coating to avoid ghosting and flare. The Silent Wave Motor operates quietly when autofocusing, which is key for recording video.
This premium lens will go on sale later this month for $1,700.
funny halloween quotesp>Posted by Darin Gantt on October 16, 2013, 7:44 AM EDT
After a Sunday night loss to the Cowboys in which he ran well but threw poorly, Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III said he was trying to keep his own counsel.
In a post-game interview with the Redskins Radio Network (via the Washington Post), Griffin said he needed to be instinctive at times.
“Yeah, you know, I’m just really focusing on being the playmaker that I know I can be and not letting anybody else tell me how to play this game,” Griffin said, in response to a prompt about his running plays. “You know, I got here for a reason, and I’ve got to make sure I use all of my abilities to their maximum. And running the ball is one of those, when I do get the opportunity.
"It’s not that I’m looking for it, but if it is there, I will take it.”
It’s possible that it was simply an unfortunate choice of words immediately after a disappointing loss.
But after an offseason spent wondering whether Griffin and coach Mike Shanahan were on the same page ( full of denials from both sides), it might also be reasonable to suggest the possibility that it’s a window to what he’s feeling about the way he’s being used, and how he was handled in the playoffs last year and through the preseason this year.
cajunp>Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bf5fgm/global) has announced the addition of the"Global Epinephrine Auto-Injector Market 2012-2016" report to their offering.
The analysts forecast the Global Epinephrine Auto-injector market to grow at a CAGR of 13.34 percent over the period 2012-2016. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increasing prevalence of allergies. The Global Epinephrine Auto-injector market has also been witnessing the development of chlorofluorocarbon-free epinephrine auto-injector inhalers. However, the adverse side-effects of epinephrine drugs could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.
The key vendors dominating this space include ALK Abello A/S, Amedra Pharmaceuticals LLC, Lincoln Medical Ltd., Mylan Inc., and Sanofi SA.
The other vendors mentioned in the report are Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp., Antares Pharma Inc., Hospira Inc., Intelliject Inc., and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.
Commenting on the report, an analyst from the team said: The inhalers used for the treatment of asthma patients in the past combined a mixture of epinephrine powder and CFC as an aerosol. However, the government in the US imposed a ban on the use of CFC as a propellant in inhalers. Primatene Mist, the only FDA-approved over-the-counter epinephrine inhaler containing CFC, was pulled by the FDA on December 31, 2011. Primatene Mist was the only FDA-approved epinephrine inhaler available in the market for the temporary relief of occasional symptoms of mild asthma. Hence, vendors are increasing their investment in R&D to develop a CFC-free epinephrine inhaler using hydrofluoroalkane as a propellant.
According to the report, though epinephrine is produced in the body, chemically synthesized epinephrine drugs are used in the treatment of anaphylactic shock that occurs in people who are suffering from allergy, cardiac arrest, and asthma. The increase in the number of people who are allergic to food, food additives, dust, and insect venom has led to an increase in the use of epinephrine drugs. This is one of the major factors that drive the growth of the Global Epinephrine Auto-injector market.
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bf5fgm/global
About Research and Markets
Research and Markets is the world’s leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
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Josh Smith is Editor of GottaBeMobile and Notebooks.com. He’s always looking for ways to help you get the most of your mobile gear and loves to talk about tech on numerous radio programs. Josh uses an iPhone 5, Galaxy S4, HTC One, iPad mini, MacBook Air and Review Windows notebooks on a daily basis. Find Josh Smith on Google+. Email: [email protected]
Meanwhile, some services for U.S. citizens and legal residents, which are financed by customer fees, will continue to be provided. Court hearings or other procedures for any immigrant who is in federal custody will also continue on schedule, and the Board of Immigration Appeals will hear requests for emergency relief from deportation as well as appeals for detained immigrants, according to the Justice Department.
Nationwide, 16 immigration courts are closed and 42 remain open, 23 of which handle only 5s iphone cases my disney experience of detained immigrants.
The asylum process, advocates in the Washington area and elsewhere said, is especially backed up, with about 350,000 cases pending before immigration judges. Even under normal circumstances, most cases take more than a year to complete.
“This is a nightmare. It is already a nightmare, because of the huge backlog in the court system,” said Judy London, a lawyer with the Public Counsel agency in Los Angeles. “When we go into court, we are often told the first available trial date is a year later. This could mean more delays of months, or even another year.”
One of London’s clients is Didier Vakumbua, 43, a medical doctor who fled his native Congo five years ago after he said police jailed and brutalized him for revealing human rights atrocities to foreign monitors. He spent several years in California while his asylum petition worked its way through the system. His wife and children, meanwhile, sought refuge in another African country.
Last week, Vakumbua won his case on appeal and began preparing to fly his family to the United States. Because one child has a brain tumor, he had been granted emergency permission to bring them quickly. But he still needed one more judge’s signature on some paperwork - and after the shutdown Tuesday, that court was suspended.
“I am happy because I finally won my case, but I am frustrated, too,” Vakumbua said Tuesday afternoon, speaking a mixture of French and Spanish. “I have been waiting a very long time to see my family.”
In the Washington area, officials at the American Immigration Lawyers Association expressed similar concerns. They noted that only about 10 percent of asylum applicants are detained and therefore will be allowed to keep any scheduled court date. For the rest, they said, every delay in the judicial process can make a crucial difference.
“Situations change. Memories fade. Evidence gets lost,” said Greg Chen, advocacy director for the association. “If you have a court date now, and it is kicked off the calendar, it could be a matter of life and death.” Chen noted that because of heavy court backlogs, canceled hearings cannot be quickly rescheduled.
Abel Nu&;ez, executive director of the Central American Resource Center in Northwest Washington, said many of his agency’s clients are involved in more routine matters, such as waiting to become a U.S. citizen or renewing temporary protective status as a refu&;gee from conflict. Still, he said, delays in these procedures can also be stressful and confusing.
On Tuesday morning, Nu&;ez was told that a Salvadoran student in the District, who qualified for legal residency under President Obama’s “Dream Act” order, was scheduled to have her fingerprints and other biometrics taken Wednesday. At first, he was told the service had been canceled by the shutdown. A few hours later, he learned that the tests were being offered after all, and that her appointment was still on.
“It’s good to have a little positive news, but what really worries me is that this fight over the shutdown and other issues is pushing immigration reform out of the picture,” Nu&;ez said. “There is a lot of friction and smoke in the air, and there are bigger noises out there now. This is taking the focus off immigration, and the window is shrinking fast.”
Users reporting widely off-the-mark readings from the iPhone 5s iphone cases otterbox defender green’s compass and wonky gaming experiences with the new device’s accelerometer may be facing an unfixable hardware hurdle.
(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)
Apple Maps may still be sending clueless drivers off the beaten path and onto active airstrips, but the company is facing a far deeper problem with its new flagship iPhone 5S’s directional capabilities. Widespread reports are claiming that the new device’s motion sensors are highly error-prone, and the problem could be on the software side or a calibration error built into the handset itself.
The staff over at Gizmodo took the iPhone 5S to task in multiple tests, finding the iPhone 5S’s motion sensors giving readouts that are wildly different than those of the iPhone 5.
The app most affected is Apple’s native compass. In displaying direction, it shows discrepancies on average of eight to 10 degrees compared with the iPhone 5 with both running iOS 7.
Gaming is also affected as the accelerometer is used to maneuver in many driving and physics-based games that rely on the tilting of the screen to achieve in-game motion. Gizmodo found that by starting a match in EA’s Real Racing 3 on a level plane and without any exterior movements, the iPhone 5S’s accelerometer immediately registered a leftward tilt and veered the car in that direction.
(Credit: Gizmodo)
Testing the two devices accelerometer data on a level surface did indeed display a massive change in readouts.
The iPhone 5S’s directional faults aren’t the only issues with the the compass app. The new inclinometer and gyroscope, available in iOS 7, are opened by swiping left on the compass’ first screen and are, again, showing faulty information when compared with the iPhone 5.
On a flat surface, the gyroscope on the iPhone 5S typically reads -3 degrees, something both Gizmodo’s and my own 5S displayed. The inclinometer
Vernon LaFontaine, one of Montana’s 12,000-plus federal government workers, showed up early to clock in Tuesday morning. He just didn’t know whether he’d be furloughed.
“They told us to show up today,” LaFontaine said as he arrived at the Bureau of Reclamation office in Billings. “I haven’t heard anything more than just what I’ve heard from fellow employees.”
Shortly afterward, LaFontaine a department veteran of 30 years and other Bureau of Rec employees were getting the news about the federal government shutdown.
In the Billings-based Great Plains Regional Office, 152 employees were being furloughed, while 46 would stick around to provide critical services. In another Bureau of Rec office dedicated specifically to Montana, 55 more employees were being furloughed, while 35 would stick around to monitor dams or complete projects that had to be done before the winter freeze.
Stay at work or go home, none of the employees would be paid - at least not until Congress approved funding for the 2014 federal fiscal year, which began Tuesday with no spending authorized for most government services.
Early government estimates were that 800,000 of the nation’s 2 million government employees would be sent home without pay.
The scene at the Bureau of Reclamation was played out at federal offices across Montana. In some 5s iphone cases bauer speck elementary school, entire agencies closed. The Farm Service Agency, which issues roughly $312 million a year to Montana farmers for conservation reserve and direct crop payments, closed all 49 of its Montana offices. All 200 FSA workers were sent home.
“We may find out how broad a reach the federal farm programs have and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has,” said Lola Raska, Montana Grain Growers Association executive vice president.
The data stream of USDA market reports and other information that often pushes commodities prices up or down within seconds of their release, dried up. Other data sources like the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, also stopped.
The shutdown stopped federal funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. States like Montana planned to use WIC money left over from the 2013 year to keep the program running, with no idea how long before the money runs out. As LaFontaine said before walking getting the shutdown news for his office: “The question for all of us is, how long is it going to last?”
Big Sky Honor Flight still scheduled: Montana World War II veterans will fly to Washington, D.C. on Oct. 13 to visit the World War II memorial no matter what, said Bill Kennedy, honor flight vice president.
Pictures emerged early Tuesday of 91 World War II veterans from Mississippi crossing through a barricade intended to shut down the memorial dedicated to them.
Kennedy said the Montana veterans would do the same. The average age of honor flight participants is 92, Kennedy said. There’s no time to lose.
“It doesn’t matter what they do, we’re going,” Kennedy said. “Government shutdown or whatever, we’re going to the monument.”
Huge refuge closed: Archery hunters spread out across the vast 1.1 million-acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in central Montana will be told when seen by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement personnel that the area has been closed and will be asked to leave, according to Rick Potts, manager of the refuge. Those intercepts won’t be easy, though, considering there are 670 miles of road on the refuge.
In addition, signs will be posted at entry roads.
Potts was not happy about the situation.
“We have been placed in an untenable position where we must ask the owners of this refuge to respect that order and leave,” he said.
At nearby Fort Peck Reservoir, 23 of the 27 recreation areas that include boat ramps and campgrounds are under management of the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps issued a press release on Monday saying that sites would be closed and that campers would be required to leave by 8 p.m. Wednesday. Those with reservations could receive refunds. The other four sites are managed by the state of Montana and include the Dredge Cut Trout Pond, Hell Creek, Rock Creek fishing access site and Duck Creek FAS.
Veterans health services unaffected: Veterans clinics across the state remain open and fully operational during the federal government shutdown. The Veterans Health Administration received its funding for the 2014 federal fiscal year, which began Tuesday, before the shutdown. All services, including shuttle services for disabled veterans, are functional.
“All of our medical services and counseling will remain fully operational,” said Terrie Casey of VA Montana. “If a veteran walks through the door and they haven’t enrolled before, we will get them enrolled and get them started with a primary healthcare professional.”
Gov. Steve Bullock on the shutdown: “Montana state government is open and our employees stand ready to serve the citizens of our state. All employees are on the job today, and all Montanans should be demanding that Congress gets its act together before we have to even consider furloughing state employees who are paid partially or fully with federal dollars.
"But don’t fool yourself into thinking that this shutdown doesn’t matter - it impacts the services we expect from our federal government and over 10,000 Montana federal employees. This morning we had to send home nearly 600 Montana National Guard soldiers and airmen who are Department of Defense employees. We sent home more soldiers and airmen than there are members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives combined.”
Furloughed workers eligible for benefits: The Montana Department of Labor and Industry wants furloughed federal employees to know they are eligible for Unemployment Insurance Benefits. Those affected by the shutdown can file for Unemployment Insurance Benefits online at www.ui4u.mt.gov. If those employees do receive back pay, they will have to repay their benefits.
The department is strongly encouraging claimants to file online.
Gun background checks continue: As hunting seasons kick into high gear across the West, gun buyers will be happy to know that federal background checks required at purchase will continue despite the government shutdown.
Lon Bauer, owner of Butts Gun Sales in the Heights, said a blanket email went out to all Federal Firearms Licensees notifying them the federal service is considered essential. Bauer added that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System has done a good job of keeping up with the increased volume of gun sales over the past year.
Camping or hunting at a federal site: Due to the government shutdown, any place with a gate will be closed to the public. This includes Forest Service campgrounds, picnic areas and national wildlife refuges.
The Gallatin and Custer National Forests are furloughing all personnel except those essential to public safety, such as firefighters and law enforcement. In Montana, the Department of Agriculture employs more than 3,700 employees. In some small Montana towns, federal workers are a large portion of residents earning outside income.
The U.S. Forest Service office in Billings was closed Tuesday. A sign posted on the door of the office at 1310 Main St. in the Heights reads: “This U.S. Department of Agriculture office is currently closed, due to the lapse in federal government funding. The office will reopen once Congress restores funding.”
According to a press release from the Forest Service, employees were required to report to their supervisor for direction and then, if nonessential, were told to fill out their time sheets, sign a furlough notice and informed about filing for unemployment benefits. Any employees on the road were told to return to the office and all leaves were cancelled.
Contracts with outside companies were being shut down as well, unless the work was deemed necessary for public safety.
The Forest Service had attempted to run on unappropriated funds to keep services open to the public, but that was denied on Monday.
Economic statistics: When the federal government shut down at midnight, so did the flow of economic data that businesses, individuals and governments rely on.
The heart of the country’s data collection, the U.S. Census Bureau, has shut down, “due to the lapse in government funding,” according to its website.
That means economists across the country, like Scott Rickard at Montana State University Billings, no longer have access to basic numbers about jobs, wages and other economic issues.
BLM Wyoming: Most services on land in Wyoming managed by the Bureau of Land Management have been suspended. The exceptions are law enforcement and emergency response.
Approximately 4,000 recreation facilities, including visitor centers, facilities, campgrounds, boat ramps and other recreation sites are closed.
Issuance of new oil and gas permits also will cease. The BLM will maintain the minimum staffing levels required to ensure continued safe management of the nation’s energy resources. Limited work will continue to ensure safe operations of domestic energy supplies, including inspection and enforcement activities for more than 16,489 oil and gas leases on federal land in Wyoming
Recreation on BLM-managed lands will be similarly impacted. In addition to the closure of recreation facilities such as campgrounds and boat ramps, the BLM will also close the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper.
The BLM Wyoming will furlough nearly all of its approximately 600 employees during the funding lapse.
The BLM website will not be maintained during the shutdown. Additional information will be available at www.DOI.gov/shutdown as well as at OPM.gov.
Billings Area Indian Health Service: The IHS, which provides health care services on Montana’s reservations and also in some urban centers, continues to serve patients, said Charlene Johnson, associate area director for the Office of Health Care Programs. “We’re still providing direct clinical services as well as referrals for contracted services,” Johnson said Tuesday. “So basically, all of our direct health care services are still functioning.” Nationwide, she said, about 94 percent of the IHS staff will remain on duty.
Wolf hearings postponed: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is postponing public hearings on delisting the gray wolf and listing the Mexican wolf on the Endangered Species List.
FWS will reschedule the hearings when the funding lapse is resolved and the FWS returns to work. The FWS said it hopes to be able to hold hearings scheduled for Oct. 17 in Denver.
No ag reports: Livestock, grain and hay market reports will not be issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture due to the government shutdown. An email from Kaye Orton, who provides market news, said she has been furloughed.
Montana National Agricultural and Statistics services shared with the state Department of Agriculture showed up looking for desk space in the state office Tuesday morning after finding NASS doors close, said Ron Zellar, state Department of Agriculture spokesman.
Gazette reporters Brett French and Chris Cioffi contributed to this report.This time on The BastardCast, Jason and Jeremy board the Botany Bay and find Matt Jackson, naked, alone, and full of evil intent. Together, they crash the serene quiet of the cosmos with a ghetto blaster, a crappy but lovable star cruiser, and a mission to stab at the heart of this week’s nerdy halloween costumes for women news with acid wits and embarrassing bitch tits.
WHAT WE TALKIN BOUT BRUCE WILLIS? We talkin bout nananana Batman! Is Wonder Woman going to crash DC’s upcomming spandex sausage fest and will anyone care about a Batman-less Jim Gordon/Gotham City TV show? We’re also talking about the upcoming Constantine TV show, and whether DC is building it’s own wide universe on the small screen.
More Batman? But of course, we’ve got EXCLUSIVE and surprising audio from casting sessions all throughout Batman’s long on-screen history. Eion Bailey ain’t got shit on the Godfather in spandex!
Alright, maybe you’re an acolyte of Marvel. Part of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. For you, we have our views on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and later, we discuss Avengers 2: Age of Ultron in TRAILERGASM (and also Need for Speed, bitch!)
We also realize that the name Michael Jordan is somewhat common, that Alan Moore is not a clown (sorry, Grant), why Dumb and Dumber makes us sad now, the Firefly comic, our Halloween plans, and what the world’s worst rap battle looks like.All that and MOAR (We’re contractually obligated to spell more like that. Please help.)
The BastardCast: The gentleman you see in the image above is our God, worship him with mutton in your mouth and a Pegasus in your soul.
halloween costumes baby boysp>Our favorite holiday will be here before we know it. And in order to be able to enjoy all of the pumpkin carving, trick or treating, candy eating, and spooking that comes with Halloween, we need to get one very important decision out of the way
Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926.
He had a fascination with the occult and before he died left a message with loved ones that he would pass on from the other side if successfully contacted in a seance.
Tonight he establishes contact, setting loose forces of evil.
That is the fact-based premise of “black halloween costumes Magic,” a new maze at Knott’s Scary Farm’s Halloween Haunt.
Some say it is the stand-out maze of the season.
It takes place in an ancient and sinister theater that is beautifully executed.
It is filled with backstage types such as chorus girls who literally don’t have their faces on, and it evokes great magic tricks. Don’t miss the rabbit in the hat at the end.
“Black Magic” replaces “Uncle Bobo’s Big Top of the Bizarre” under the Xcelerator ride in the Boardwalk area of the park. It is about as far from the main entrance as you can get, but well worth the walk.
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Albany, New York (PRWEB) September 29, 2013
The automotive industry provides a strong base for the global sensor market.. The basic applications of sensors in the automotive industry are electronic and electrical systems for more comfort and safety. Automobile manufacturers are making use of advanced electronic elements to provide safety, eco-friendliness, and fuel efficiency.
The automotive sensor market has experienced a surge over the past few years with a demand for sensors with increased safety and control applications like anti-lock braking system (ABS), airbags, and engine emission control.
Browse report with request TOC: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/automotive-sensor-market.html.
The automotive industry provides a huge scope for research and development in technology. Sensors are expected to play a key role in the automotive market in developed countries. Emphasis on vehicle fuel efficiency and power-train performance features will result in secure gains for sensors like oxygen sensors, reverse parking sensors, airbag accelerometer sensors, and tire pressure monitoring sensors among others.
This research report analyzes the global market for automotive sensors discussing the detailed overview and market figures. This report also analyzes the industry growth rate&; industry capacity, and industry structure. It includes the study of current developments in the automotive sensors market, Porter’s five force analysis, and detailed profiles of top industry players. The research report on automotive sensors provides a detailed review of macro and micro factors significant for existing market players and new entrants with value chain analysis.
Automotive Sensors Market Segmentation
Automotive sensors market is segmented as follows:
There are different types of sensors used in automotives that include pressure sensors, temperature sensors, load sensors, position sensors, acceleration sensors, current sensors, engine oil sensors, humidity sensors, image sensors, distance sensors, light sensors, knock sensors, mass air flow sensors and speed sensors.
The major geographies considered under this research study are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world.
Related Report:
Automotive Plastics Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/automotive-plastics-market.html
The key players dominating this market include Allegro MicroSystems Inc., Analog Devices Inc., Aptina Imaging Corporation, Autoliv Inc., Continental AG, Corrsys-Datron Sensorsystem GmbH, CTS Corporation, BEI Sensors, Kavlico Corporation, Delphi Corporation, Bourns Inc., Denso Corporation, ELESYS North America Inc., Freescale Semiconductor Inc., GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies, Custom Sensors & Technologies Inc., Hamamatsu Photonics KK, Hamlin Electronics LP, Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., Hitachi Automotive Systems, Honeywell Sensing & Control, Infineon Technologies North America Corp., Magneti Marelli Holdings S.p.A, Melexis Microelectronic Integrated Systems N.V, Melexis Inc., Omron Corporation, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, etc.
Browse blog: http://rahul28feb.blogspot.com/
Browse all market research reports: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com
Events listed here are open to the public and sponsored by nonprofit groups unless otherwise noted. Press releases may be sent to Goings on, Gloucester Daily Times, 36 Whittemore St., Gloucester, MA 01930, sent via email to gdt@gloucestertimes.com or faxed to 978-282-4397. Please include a contact person’s name and telephone number and send at least two weeks prior to the event. The Times will do its best to run the announcement at least once prior to the event. Due to the volume of goings on listings received by the paper, listings are alternated once they run and the same listings are not printed every day.
Manchester TRIAD
The Essex County TRIAD - a partnership involving the sheriff and district attorney, police and fire chief, and the Council on Aging - is a community safety initiative focusing on empowering, educating and improving the safety, security and peace of mind of the senior population. New members are welcome to attend meetings on the third Tuesday of each month, 9:30 a.m., in Town Hall, Room 5. Next meeting is Sept. 17. Call 978-526-7500.
Hearthside Book Group
On Tuesday, Sept. 10, the Manchester Public Library’s Hearthside Book Group meets at 4 p.m. to discuss John Adams by David McCullough. The group chooses both fiction and non-fiction books for their discussions, and new members are encouraged to join. The library provides the books a month ahead of time. Drop by and see if this book club is right for you!
CAAA golf tournament
The third annual Christopher Cutler Rich Golf Tournament to benefit Cape Ann Animal Aid will take place Monday, Sept. 23, at Bass Rocks Golf Club, Gloucester. Features a day of golf, followed by a celebration dinner with awards, prizes and a live auction. Players will receive a take-home gift and compete for top prizes and a special hole-in-one contest for a new car. To register, visit www.CapeAnnAnimalAid.com or call 978-283-6055, ext. 23.
Mothers’ Club
The Manchester Mothers’ Club will meet Wednesday, Sept. 11, 7 to 10 p.m., at The Trask House, across from Manchester Public Library. New to town or know someone who is? Bring them along. Visit www.manchestermothersclub.com.
Youth choir auditions
Auditions for the 2013-14 season for the Honors Youth Choir of Chorus North Shore will be held Thursday, Sept. 12, 4 p.m., at the First Baptist Church, 2 High St., Rockport, and Thursday, Sept. 19, 3:30 p.m., at Ascension Memorial Church, 31 County St., Ipswich, followed by the first rehearsal. Auditions are open to all youth ages 10 through high school. The choir is sponsored by Chorus North Shore and is tuition free for youth.
Zoo passes
The Manchester Public Library is offering passes for the Franklin Park Zoo and the Stone Zoo at reduced rates. Each pass admits six at $6 per adult, $4 per child. Visit hundreds of exotic animals from around the world right in the middle of Boston. Explore the wonders of a tropical rainforest, Australian outback and African savannah. Get close to and learn about animal lives and habitats. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library. For reservations, visit www.manchesterpl.org or call 978-526-7711.
Museum passesManchester Public Library offers passes for reduced entry fees to Cape Ann Historical Association, Children’s Museum of Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, JFK Presidential Library and Museum, New England Aquarium, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science, Peabody Essex Museum, and Wheelock Family Theater. The library also offers a Massachusetts State Parks parking pass. Passes may be reserved in person; call 978-526-7711 or visit www.manchesterpl.org. The pass program is sponsored by the Friends of the Manchester Public Library.
COA redistributionsDonations of old eyeglasses and old cell phones will be collected for recycling and, or redistribution programs. Call the Council on Aging at 978-526-7500.
Manchester historyThe Centennial Historical Committee of the Manchester Bath & Tennis Club is looking for photos, menus, dance cards and other memorabilia to compile a memory book recounting the past 100 years. All submissions will be catalogued and returned to the owners when the project is finished. Email MBT100th@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/groups/mbt100th.
Knit, crochet groupThe Council on Aging knitting and crocheting group invites all knitters to meet Mondays at 3 p.m., in the Plains Community Room. Get together with friends, compare knitting notes, get help on a project or learn a new stitch. Transportation available. To register, call 978-526-7500.
SHINE counseling
SHINE (Serving the Health Information Needs of Elders) provides free, confidential health insurance information, education, counseling and assistance to Medicare beneficiaries of all ages, their family members and other caregivers. Trained counselors are certified by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs in areas of health insurance including original Medicare, Medicare Advantage Plans, Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage, Medicare Rights and Protections, Prescription Advantage, MassHealth and other programs for people with limited income and resources, and other Medicare, government and private health plans. Call Nancy Hammond at 978-526-7753.
Homebound booksThe staff of the Manchester Public Library reminds residents that they may drop off and pick up library materials for residents who are homebound, either temporarily or permanently. Call 978-526-7711.
VNA clinicVNA Care Network offers free health care clinics for residents 60 and older at Congregational Chapel on Chapel Lane, on the first and third Thursday of every month, 10 a.m. to noon. Call 1-888-663-3688, ext. 5603, or 978-283-2020, ext. 5603.
Manchester SingersManchester Singers meet Mondays, 7:30 p.m., at Congregational Chapel on Chapel Lane. New members, men and women, are welcome. Community chorus is led by Fred Broer. Call 978-283-9021, email feb3@earthlink.net or visit www.manchestersingers.org.
Open Door pantryThe Open Door food pantry, 28 Emerson Ave., Gloucester, serves residents of Manchester, Essex, Gloucester, Rockport and Ipswich with a full-service pantry of milk, eggs, bread, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, and a variety of dry and canned goods. The pantry can be used once every seven days. Valid identification required. For hours, call 978-283-6776 or visit www.foodpantry.org.
WASHINGTON - The White House promised a veto of a Republican effort to gut President Barack Obama’s health care law as part of a temporary funding bill in the House to prevent a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1.
The official policy statement issued Thursday said the GOP attempt to block “Obamacare” “advances a narrow ideological agenda that threatens our economy and the interests of the middle class” and would deny “millions of hard-working, middle-class families the security of affordable health coverage.”
The veto threat was expected and wasn’t going to stop House Republicans from pressing their effort to defund the health care law.
While raising the possibility of a government closure, the latest GOP plan is actually aimed at avoiding one. GOP leaders are looking to shift the fight over health care to even more important legislation required to prevent the government from defaulting on its financial obligations.
Even top advocates of the strategy to defund Obama’s health care law by attaching it to a stopgap government funding bill acknowledge it has no future in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Senate Democrats have the votes to strip away the health care provision and send the stopgap measure right back to the House.
Republicans in the House spent Wednesday talking about how hard they would fight to derail the health care law on the eve of its implementation and weren’t conceding that their Senate rivals would undo their handiwork. A key force in the tea party drive against the law conceded the point even before the fight officially began, but urged the House to force a government shutdown rather than retreat.
“Harry Reid will no doubt try to strip the defund language from the continuing resolution, and right now he likely has the votes to do so,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “At that point, House Republicans must stand firm, hold their ground and continue to listen to the American people.”
A more likely outcome would be that the House would vote to pass a funding bill stripped of the health care provision and send it to Obama to avert a shutdown. Top GOP leaders in the House and Senate made it clear they have no appetite for a shutdown showdown.
“I don’t think that any reasonable person thinks there’s anything to be gained by a government shutdown,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. “Rather than a shutdown of government, what we need is a Republican victory in 2014 so we can be in control. I’m not sure those are mutually compatible.”
House leaders are likely to hold a vote on Friday.
GOP leaders telegraphed that they would likely concede to the Senate’s demand for a stopgap spending bill shorn of the Obamacare provision but that they would carry on with the fight on legislation to increase the government’s borrowing cap.
“There should be no conversation about shutting the government down,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “That’s not the goal here.”
The debt-limit measure, required to allow the government to pay all of its bills on time, would be brought to the House floor as early as next week and would allow the Treasury to borrow freely for one year.
Republicans vow to load that bill with a GOP wish list, including another assault on the health care bill and a provision to force the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries, a project that environmentalists oppose and that the Obama administration so far has refused to approve. Other elements will reflect different Republican budget priorities, including as-yet-undisclosed savings from health care and government benefit programs and steps to speed work on an overhaul of the tax code.
Democrats strongly denounced the Republican move. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said the GOP was pursuing an “insane plan.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said, “A group of extremists is threatening to hold our government hostage.”
Obama, speaking Wednesday to business executives at a meeting of the Business Roundtable, said, “You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling or the threat of not raising the debt ceiling being used to extort a president or a governing party and trying to force issues that have nothing to do with the budget and have nothing to do with the debt.”
Separately, the Obama administration’s budget director, Sylvia Burwell, issued a memo to department heads that said, “Prudent management requires that agencies be prepared for the possibility of a lapse” in funding.
Also on HuffPost:
Amanda Knox Retrial Update: Amanda Knox says she won’t go back to Italy to face trial again. Amanda Knox gave her first TV interview on The Today Show with Matt Lauer about the retrial that is coming up in Florence, Italy, on Sept. 30.
Amanda Knox retrial extradition won’t happen unless she is found guilty. Lawyers said Amanda Knox will not return to Italy for the new appeals trial in the 2007 killing of her roommate.
Amanda Knox’s attorney Luciano Ghirga told La Nazione that after meeting with Amanda Knox and her legal team that the former Seattle college student said she will not go back to Italy for the new trial. The Amanda Knox murder trial is scheduled to start on Sept. 30 in Florence, Italy.
Amanda Knox, 25, was convicted of the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy. Amanda Knox spent four years in prison before the conviction was thrown out by an Italian appeals court in 2011. The Italian Supreme Court rejected the Appeals Court ruling in March. Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 29, have been ordered a sit for a new trial. The Supreme Court filed its papers on June 18 that said the Supreme Court judges supported the prosecutors’ original theory. Prosecutors claimed that Amanda Knox and Sollecito caused Kercher’s death during a forced “erotic game” that turned violent. The Supreme Court judges ruled on the Appeals Court process, not the testimony or evidence in the case.
The Supreme Court judges said the appeal should be annulled “due to the multiple shortcomings, contradictory events and manifest lack of logical reasoning.”
In her first TV interview, Amanda Knox she told Matt Lauer “I was already imprisoned as an innocent person in Italy, and I can’t reconcile the choice to go back with that experience. It’s not a possibility, as I was imprisoned as an innocent person and I just can’t relive that. I don’t think I’m going to be put back in prison. I think that we’re going to win. That’s why I’m fighting this fight, that’s why I continue to put forth the defensive argument in court.”
Amanda Knox doesn’t see that as an admission of guilt. Amanda Knox she told Matt Lauer “I look at it as an admission of innocence, to be quite honest. Besides the fact that there are so many factors that are not allowing me to go back - financial ones, ones where I’m going to school, ones where I want the court to proceed without distraction. I was imprisoned as an innocent person. It’s common sense not to go back.”
In an essay Amanda Knox wrote for TODAY.com, she says she is haunted by the idea of going back to prison. Amanda Knox she told Matt Lauer “I imagine it all the time because I have to think the worst-case scenario. I have to prepare in my mind what that would be like. I thought about what it would be like to live my entire life in prison and to lose everything, to lose what I’ve been able to come back to and rebuild. I think about it all the time. It’s so scary. Everything’s at stake.”
This will be Amanda Knox’s third trial for the alleged murder of British roommate Meredith Kercher. Amanda Knox spent almost four years in an Italian prison starting in 2009. On Oct. 4, 2011, Amanda Knox and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were acquitted on appeal and released from prison. The Italian Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Knox in March after they rejected the appeals court ruling.
If Amanda Knox is convicted again, her lawyers can appeal to the Italian Supreme Court. We don’t know if the U.S. will let Amanda Knox be extradited if she is convicted again.
Amanda Knox she told Matt Lauer “That’s not the primary concern of my lawyers right now. I don’t believe that they have, precisely because they’re still confident that we can win this. What is being on trial here is not my character. It shouldn’t be. What should be on trial is the facts of the case. If you look at the facts of the case, there’s proof of my innocence. There’s no trace of me in the room where my friend was murdered. There’s traces all over the place of the man who actually did this. Rudy Guede was convicted, his DNA was everywhere, and it’s impossible for me to have participated in this crime if there’s no trace of me.”
By Sarah Wolfe
Associated Press Sunday September 22, 2013 5:03 AM
Looking for a cheaper way to fertilize flowers or keep pests at bay? Need a better tool for planting tiny seeds?
The answers might lie in your home. Household products such as coffee grounds or old pie tins can become easy, eco-friendly tools to give your garden a boost without breaking the bank.
“You can take anything you have and upcycle it,” says Stacy Tornio, editor of Birds & Blooms magazine.
Here are some simple ways to repurpose household items for the garden.
It’s easy to spend a fortune on pots and vases. But herbs, flowers and houseplants can be planted in everything from worn boots to old teapots.
“They contribute a touch of whimsy and even a ‘settled’ look to a garden scene,” Tornio says.
Justin Cave, an Atlanta-based landscaper and former host of HGTV’s Ground Breakers, turned shipping pallets into a vertical garden by covering the backs and sides with landscape fabric, stuffing them with dirt and planting succulents and flowers in the openings.
“It turned out awesome and was very cost-effective,” he says.
In need of new garden tools? Check your kitchen drawers.
Table utensils such as spoons, forks and knives are tough and sharp enough to do many gardening jobs without causing damage, Tornio says.
Use them to separate flats, lift seedlings and tease apart dense root balls.
Tornio has also seen utensils repurposed as garden markers and borders for flower beds.
Even something as innocuous as nylons can be reused in the backyard to tie up floppy plants or line the bottom of pots.
Packing peanuts are also a good drainage medium and lighten the load when large pots need to be moved around, Tornio says.
Old wives’ tales abound for solving all types of garden problems, but many of them actually work.
And much of what you need might be in your kitchen and bathroom cabinets.
Coffee grounds, for example, can be sprinkled at the bottom of any plant to improve drainage in clay soils, Tornio says.
Soap can keep deer from feasting on trees and plants, Tornio says. She suggests breaking a bar into pieces and hanging them from strings or in old nylons or net bags near prime feeding areas.
Finely crushed eggshells can be used as compost or a way to add calcium to soils, while larger pieces keep snails and slugs at bay, according to Florida’s Manatee County Extension Service.
Household items can also add a touch of whimsy to gardens.
Use an old musical instrument like a tuba to build a water fountain, or fill an old cheese grater with flowers, plants or outdoor chalk, says Sara Jenkins-Sutton, vice president of Chicago-based garden and floral design firm Topiarius Urban Garden.
Scatter vintage chairs or old farm equipment throughout your garden to add height and depth, and make a funky wind chime out of wine bottles.
Worried about your reused junk looking like, well, junk?
Tornio suggests covering old containers with wallpaper or tying a ribbon around them to freshen them up.
PUBLISHED: 17:29 EST, 21 September 2013 | UPDATED: 17:29 EST, 21 September 2013
Bayern Munich took full advantage of Dortmund’s draw in the evening game, drawing level on points at the top of the table with a 4-0 rout of Schalke.
Two quick goals from Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Mandzukic effectively ended Schalke’s hopes midway through the first half before Franck Ribery and Claudio Pizarro finished the Royal Blues off.
Meanwhile, Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer maintained his record of never having conceded against his former club.
Bayern were on the back foot at the start of the game before hitting the home side with a double sucker-punch. Schweinsteiger and Mandzukic both scored with their heads in the space of a minute at the Veltins-Arena.
Ribery scored with 15 minutes remaining before substitute Claudio Pizarro rounded off the victory.
Bayern went joint top of the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund after Jurgen Klopp’s side drew 1-1 with Nuremberg.
We haven’t seen Brandy in a while, so imagine our delight to see how gorgeous she looked leaving the BBC Radio studios in London earlier today.
The singer appeared on BBC’s 1Xtra - Nick Bright show in an episode titled “Breakfast with Brandy.”
According to the Daily Mail, it’s going to be a big week for the Grammy-winning R&B artist. She has an upcoming performance at the O2 Arena and a rumored appearance onstage with Jessie J at the iTunes Festival, with whom she collaborated on the track “Conquer the World.”
It’s certainly a step up for the 34-year-old still remembered for her role of Moesha. Last month, Brandy performed in South Africa for a nearly empty 90,000-person stadium. According to The Guardian, no one knew of her surprise appearance and thus only 40 people were in attendance for the concert.
Also on HuffPost:
by Eve Sonary Heng, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on September 21, 2013, Saturday
KUCHING: From scrumptious food to a Sarawak cultural dance, the 836 Christians from various countries had one of their most memorable nights during a welcoming dinner held at Crown Square on Thursday.
The dinner was organised by the Global Hakka Evangelism Association to welcome the participants of the ‘Third Global Hakka Evangelism Conference’ held here at the Chin Kwong Methodist Church.
The participants who came from Taiwan, USA, Hong Kong, Australia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Mauritius, Korea as well as West Malaysia were visibly thrilled and entertained by the local cultural performance and traditional musical instrument played during the function.
All those present were also given the opportunity to exchange greetings with one another.
Among the distinguished guests invited to the dinner were Bengoh assemblyman Dr Jerip Susil, Padawan Municipal Council chairman Lo Khere Chiang, Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei and Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong.
Objectives of the dinner and conference included to gather Hakka Christians throughout the world to foster closer ties and exchange experience as well as knowledge.
The conference, which started on Thursday until tomorrow begins from 10am until night time daily.
There are also exhibition booths held at the Chin Kwong Methodist Church and members of the public are welcomed to visit.
To enable your comment to be published, please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. This includes vulgar user names.
Samsung’s commercials may make fun of Apple fans waiting in lines for the next iDevice, but the South Korean tech giant may not be above trying to figure out just what drives those fans to queue up hours and days in advance.
Customers line up outside Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store. Thanks to AppleInsider reader Ryan.
As Apple fans lined up to get the new generation of iPhone, the Cupertino company’s chief rival sent a video and photography crew to document the lines at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan. Their goal samsung-sends-spies-to-uncover-apples-iphone-line-phenom/“>according to CNET: figuring out what had those customers so excited that they would stand in line for hours &; even days &; to be the first to get their hands on a new phone.
"Other companies release new phones, but there’s not as much passion and heat,” one Samsung operative said. “It’s only Apple. Why? We’re curious.”
Reportedly, the crew only documented the scene in front of the Fifth Avenue store, occasionally asking line-sitters questions: “Is the line shorter or longer this year than last?” and “Is the crowd more excited or less excited than previous years?” The crew seemed most interested in whether Apple’s “cool factor” was waning and the degree of loyalty among Apple fans.
CNET notes that the video group was not from Samsung’s electronics arm; it was instead from the conglomerate’s broadcasting segment, Samsung Broadcasting Center/Cheil Worldwide. That segment occasionally works with Samsung Electronics on projects, and both are divisions of the parent company Samsung Group, but there is so far no indication that the video documenting was done at the request of Samsung Electronics.
Apple and Samsung have been locked in bitter combat for years now for supremacy in the global smartphone market, both in terms of sales and in the courts. Combined, the two firms take in all of the industry’s profits, with other manufacturers losing money or just breaking even.
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told House Democrats to stay unified as Washington’s latest budget crisis unfolds.
In a letter sent to her colleagues on Friday, Pelosi said her party’s caucus "stood firmly” against the House Republicans’ continuing resolution. The bill passed Friday on a party-line vote - only two Democrats voted for it, Reps. Jim Matheson (Utah) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.) - to keep the government up and running until mid-December but defund ObamaCare.
Democrats have rejected any move to end the Affordable Care Act and said Republicans are risking a government shutdown on Oct. 1. The Senate is expected to strip the anti-ObamaCare provision from their version of the spending bill.
The Democratic leader asked that lawmakers keep “their powder dry” as they wait for the Senate spending bill.
“The strength that we demonstrated as House Democrats in voting against the Tea Party continuing resolution gives us leverage as we go forward. That is why I’m requesting that members keep their powder dry with respect to our next steps as we await a continuing resolution from the Senate,” Pelosi said.
Staying unified will also help Democrats when the debt ceiling needs to be raised by mid-October, according to Pelosi. Republicans have also threatened to include a repeal of ObamaCare with legislation to lift the debt ceiling.
“Our continued unity will only strengthen our leverage in this fight and the upcoming debt ceiling debate as well. Thank you for your leadership and please contact me should you wish to discuss this critical matter further,” Pelosi said.
Did you miss something while you stepped away from your computer? We’re tracking some of the best Big Ten social media happenings and posting them all right here. Check out today’s edition, including this awesome photo of Michigan State’s Branden Dawson.
Like what you see? We do this every weekday. Visit our Clicks archive.
Our take: Awesome photo! Looks like that knee is doing just fine.
@ espncfb Hoosiers bringing back the Chrome this week. . http://t.co/Y1LVWylWeM-
Hoosier Football (@HoosierFootball) September 20, 2013
Our take: Merry Christmas!
You snooze, you … win? football team studying ZZZs. Trib story: chicagotribune.com/sports/college…-
Teddy Greenstein (@TeddyGreenstein) September 20, 2013
Our take: Players wearing sensors to analyze sleep patterns… Is this going to be a new trend?
Coach handing out a few tickets to some student fans! See you tomorrow! http://t.co/XbSbQmpvz4-
Minnesota Gophers (@GopherSports) September 20, 2013
Our take: If you follow B1G football, how do you not love Jerry Kill?
Our take: Ohio State love all over the world
Max Bullough portrait photo from Monday’s interview session with @ NBCSports. http://t.co/ocNEbmEXTe-
Spartan Football (@MSU_Football) September 20, 2013
Our take: Now that’s some serious school pride!
Sales of Apple’s new iPhone models - the 5s and 5c - began in earnest Friday around the world.
Although Apple has yet to release any early numbers on what demand for orders looks like at this stage, the delivery dates for some models in the U.S. - ordered through Apple’s U.S. website - are already starting to be pushed back to October.
The iPhone 5s and 5c go on sale Friday in the U.S., U.K., China, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Last year, Apple sold 5 million units of its flagship iPhone 5 during the first weekend of its here launch and Apple stores in the U.S. mostly sold out by midday Saturday.
WALL STREET: Watching early iPhone sales nervouslyHere are some pictures from around the globe as customers wait, applaud and ponder Apple’s latest unveiling.
Chinese employees cheer customers at an Apple store in Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing.
Chinese employees cheer customers after they bought new iPhones at an Apple store in Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing on Sept. 20, 2013.(Photo: Andy Wong, AP)
Customers wait to buy Apple’s new smartphones in front of the Apple store in Paris.
Customers wait to buy Apple’s new iPhone 5s and 5c smartphone in front of the Apple Store in Paris on Sept. 20, 2013.(Photo: Lionel Bonaventure, AFP/Getty)
Outside an Apple store for the start of the new iPhone sale in Oberhausen, Germany.
People queue outside an Apple store for the start of the new iPhone sale in Oberhausen, Germany, on Sept. 20, 2013.(Photo: Frank Augstein, AP)
Customers wait to buy Apple’s new smartphones in front of the Apple store in Paris.
Ex-U.S. here soldier Eric Harroun, who allegedly fought alongside an Al Qaeda affiliate against the forces of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Thursday and was sentenced to time served, The Military Times reported.
Harroun, a Phoenix native, was charged in June with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to use destructive devices overseas, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Those charges, one of which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted, were reduced to a charge of conspiring to violate arms-control laws, the report said. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton accepted the plea on the lesser charge.
According to court documents, Harroun allegedly participated in multiple attacks with Jabhat al-Nusra
OAKLAND
20 Sep 2013  by  Peter Parrish
Creative Assembly’s imperial task of patching up Total War: Rome 2 continues apace with another major patch entering beta today. Patch 3 can be downloaded through Steam by right-clicking on Rome 2 in your games list, going to properties, navigating to the here ‘betas’ tab and then choosing patch 3 from the drop-down menu. Then, simply wait for a bit and it should install. The 'official’ version should follow in a few days time.
Like Patch 2, this one has a whole load of fixes, from technical and performance to balance and user interface changes. A few that stand out to me from reading the gigantic list of notes are that multiplayer campaign speeds should be “significantly” improved, armies in 'forced march’ being attacked will now trigger an ambush-style assault and victory point battles have been altered to extend the time it takes to capture points (plus, the AI will now prioritise capture points in siege and city assaults rather than open plains.)
There have been quite a few changes to the way tactical battles play out too, with all units being given more hit points (presumably to extend the overall length of fights) and … well, loads more honestly. Why not just take a look at the changelog below? My favourite: “Reduced the mass of camel units in battle.” (Booo!)
Technical and Performance Issues Gameplay Improvements Balancing Changes Usability ImprovementsSAN ANTONIO - The San Antonio area, all of South Central Texas, along the Rio Grande River and western Hill Country could see heavy rain and flash flooding Friday, as the National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch, effective until 7 a.m. Saturday.
The warning area is for people living in Bandera, Bexar, Blanco, Burnet, Comal, Gillespie, Hays, Kendall, Kerr, Llano, Medina, Real, Travis, Uvalde and Williamson counties.
Widespread rainfall from two to four inches is expected, and some areas could get as much as six inches.
Intense tropical downpours that have the potential to dump two inches of rain in an hour are expected to remain in the area throughout Friday night.
The area heaviest hit should be along Interstate 35 and the Hill Country with the most intense rains hitting between 3 p.m. here Friday and 3 a.m. Saturday. The volume of rain has caused a flash flood watch for Bexar County as well as to the north and west, according to the weather service.
The chance for rain remains about 90 percent Friday morning and is expected to continue throughout the day and into the night.
Steve Smart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service cautioned that Friday night football games, as well as any outdoor activity, could be affected by the rains.
Because of the moisture rich nature of the storm, lightning is expected but not nearly on the level of the typical spring time storms that mix warm and cool air, Smart said.
If flash floods hit, it likely would be to small streams and low lying areas according to the weather service
Any possible flooding wouldn’t be nearly on the scale of what San Antonio experienced in late spring. The rains that caused that flooding were “more stable and had features to keep it stationary” as opposed to the fast-moving rains that are expected for the next couple of days, the weather service said.
Temperatures should dip down to the high 80s for Friday, but have the potential to bounce back to the mid 90s once the wet weather clears out after the weekend.
dpalacio@express-news.net mmondo@express-news.netDAPHNE, Alabama - For the second year in a row, the United States Sports Academy’s College Football Game of the Year could be the one between Alabama and Texas A&M. That’s because the Crimson Tide’s 49-42 victory over the Aggies on Saturday is the U.S. Sports Academy’s third College Football Game of the Week for the 2013 season.
Each week during the season, the U.S. Sports Academy’s College Football Game of the Year Committee selects a Game of the Week. Each week’s winner joins the competition to become the College Football Game of the Year.
Clemson’s 38-35 victory over Georgia on Aug. 31 was the first Game of the Week for the 2013 season. Michigan’s 41-30 victory over Notre Dame on Sept. 7 was the second Game of the Week for the 2013 season.
Just as readers predicted in an AL.com poll last week, the Alabama-Texas A&M game garnered the honor for the third week of the season.
The 2012 College Football Game of the Year was Texas A&M’s 29-24 victory over top-ranked Alabama on Nov. 10 in Tuscaloosa
The College Football Game of the here Year Committee is chaired by Jack Lengyel, a former athletic director at the U.S. Naval Academy. Lengyel also was a college football coach best known for being the head coach who resurrected the Marshall University program after the Thundering Herd’s devastating plane crash.
Daniel Moore, the American Sports Art Museum and Archives 2005 Sport Artist of the Year, is commissioned annually by the U.S. Sports Academy to create a painting of the College Football Game of the Year. USSA donates Moore’s painting along with $5,000 to the general scholarship fund of the College Football Game of the Year Award winner.
Other members of the committee are Moore, former National Football Foundation CEO Robert Casciola, former National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics executive director Mike Cleary, former Temple football coach Ron Dickerson, former Georgia athletic director and football coach Vince Dooley, former Ohio State athletic director James Jones, American Football Monthly and Gridiron Strategies managing editor Rex Lardner, former Washington athletic director Mike Lude, former California athletic director Dave Maggard, former Arizona State athletic director Dick Tamburo, former Notre Dame associate athletic director Roger Valdiserri and former Oklahoma State and Washington State athletic director Dr. Richard Young.
The College Football Game of the Year Award is a part of the U.S. Sports Academy’s Awards of Sport series. USSA is the largest graduate school of sport education in the world and is the only free-standing, accredited university in the United States devoted entirely to sport programs.
Other Game of the Year winners have been Rutgers for its 28-25 victory over Louisville in 2006, Appalachian State for its 34-32 victory over Michigan in 2007, Texas Tech for its 39-33 victory over Texas in 2008, Alabama for its 32-13 victory over Florida in 2009, Auburn for its 22-19 victory over Oregon in 2010, and Alabama for its 21-0 victory over LSU in 2011.
Sensors are being fitted to taxis in Dubai to automatically start the meter once a passenger gets into the here vehicle.
The Roads and Transport Authority said the move was part of its plans to use the latest technology in a bid to improve customer service.
In June, the RTA said sensors were being fitted to taxi cabs to monitor speeds in a bid to improve road safety.
Muhammad Yusuf Saleh, director of Fleet Driver Affairs at Dubai Taxi Corporation, said the sensors would automatically start working when a passenger gets into the car.
He said that it would eliminate “all unacceptable practices” and would result in correct fares being demanded “in case the driver fails to operate it for any reason… whether because of forgetfulness or deliberately”.
He added: Providing this feature aims at controlling taxis, ensuring the right of the client, reducing some of the complaints and negative remarks related to drivers, and maintaining operational and technical efficiency.“
The sensors will be implemented in phases and will be evaluated to see if it increases operational revenue and reduce complaints.
The US Department of Justice’s internal oversight body did not investigate complaints by federal intelligence court judges that government lawyers misrepresented how the NSA gathered and analyzed data from American phone and internet communications.
Two judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ( FISC), which oversees the spying operations of the National Security Agency (NSA), on several occasions admonished federal officials for misstating the scope of the NSA’s collection of communication data.
In 2009, Judge Reggie Walton threatened to hold the officials in contempt or refer them to outside investigators. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers asked the judge to do neither, claiming that any misinformation was solely due to confusion and that the NSA had “self-reported” the issues to its own inspector general.
In 2011, Judge John Bates said that government lawyers distorted the monitoring of internet traffic. “The court is troubled that the government’s revelations regarding NSA’s acquisition of internet transactions mark the third instance in less than three years in whic
h the
government has disclosed a substantial misrepresentation regarding the scope of a major collection program,” he wrote in a previously disclosed 2011 order.
The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is charged with probing judicial allegations of government lawyer misconduct and ethical violations. However, OPR said in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by USA Today here that it had no record - nor was it even aware - of any investigations of the FISC complaints.
The allegations within the judges’ opinions - which did not allege wrongdoing nor point to any specific individual of the DOJ’s National Security Division - are enough to warrant an investigation, said former OPR attorney Leslie Griffin.“There’s enough in the opinions that it should trigger some level of inquiry,” sh
e
said.
The FISC complaints were declassified in August following numerous disclosures leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden on the breadth of the agency’s mass surveillance programs.
A Justice Department spokesman said Thursday that the DOJ lawyers“did exactly what they should have done. The court’s opinions and facts demonstrate that the department attorneys’ representation before the court met the highest professional standards.”
National Security Division lawyers help the NSA prepare spy orders to the FISC. Records show that on at least two occasions, the DOJ’s lawyers alerted the secret surveillance court that the government had misled the nature of NSA surveillance. FISC judges have since requested that DOJ lawyers play a larger role in oversight.
“These were not abuses of surveillance authority, and the errors were not made intentionally,” said Carrie
Cordero, a lawyer who worked for the National Security Division in 2009.“This was lawyers translating highly technical information.”
Critics see the lack of investigation as a sign of weak oversight of the surveillance apparatus.
“What’s surprising to me is that the FISA Court judges remain surprised” about having been misinformed, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) privacy lawyer Mike German said.
The DOJ requires its lawyers and their supervisors to notify the OPR of“any indication by a judge or magistrate judge that the court is taking under consideration an allegation of professional misconduct.”
The OPR monitors complaints about government lawyers made by judges in federal court decisions. It then decides whether to investigate the claims. For example, the OPR conducted a five-year investigation of George W. Bush-era DOJ lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who provided legal memos justifying the use of torture on terrori
sm
suspects.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement last week that“significant steps” were taken to address the issues that Walton raised in his 2009 opinion when DOJ lawyers said that misinformation was due to confusion within the NSA about how surveillance programs were allowed to operate.
A spokeswoman for the NSA said she was unable to comment on what was done to remedy the discrepancies.
Neither Walton nor Bates would offer an opinion on whether the DOJ should have done its own investigation.