Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Matt Harvey enjoyed the All-Star parade but has his sights set on a different ty...

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Source: http://www.micetrap.org/index.php/2013/07/30/obtaining-exclusive-through-payday-loans-online-buy-instagram-followers/

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AT&T updates Wireless Home Phone service with LTE internet in new bundle

Big Blue's been doing its best to catch the eye of nostalgic folks who miss the era of landlines. After introducing prepaid options for Wireless Home Phone in May, Ma Bell's now extending the service with internet over LTE. An AT&T spokesperson told us that the new Wireless Home Phone and Internet bundle debuted in select locations (listed below) on Friday. A two-year subscription comes with a free router that can connect up to 10 WiFi devices, but it'll cost you at least $80 a month for unlimited local calls plus 10GB of data. Ponying up $90 each month nets 20GB of data, while boosting the bill to $120 nabs 30GB. Thanks to an additional $10 charge for every gigabyte over your cap, however, wired home broadband may still be your best (read: cheapest) bet if you stream movies and TV shows frequently.

AT&T Wireless Home Phone an Internet bundle markets:

  • Baltimore
  • Delaware
  • Eastern Pennsylvania
  • Southern New Jersey
  • Virginia
  • Washington D.C.
  • West Virginia

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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Q&A With the Chicago Tribune Editors Who Put a Cat on Their Homepage

Q&A With the Chicago Tribune Editors Who Put a Cat on Their Homepage

Earlier today, visitors to the Chicago Tribune's homepage were greeted not with traditional lead story or splash image. Instead, there was an adorable kitty, a placeholder headline, and the word test over and over again. While it was a welcome break from the the usual gloom and doom, it was also very clearly a mistake. One that Trib Social Media and SEO Manager Amy Guth was kind enough to dissect for us over email.

Read more...

Source: http://gizmodo.com/q-a-with-the-chicago-tribune-editors-who-put-a-cat-on-t-968979032

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Worker shot dead near Lonmin's South Africa mine - police


JOHANNESBURG | Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:48am BST

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A 49-year-old worker was shot dead at the weekend near Lonmin's Marikana mine in South Africa, stirring worries of new labour tension in the troubled platinum mining belt which has been racked by a violent union dispute over the last year.

Police said on Tuesday the shooting took place on Sunday but they could not immediately confirm whether it was related to a bloody mining union turf war over the past year in which more than 50 people have been killed.

This included 34 striking miners shot dead by police last year at the Lonmin Marikana mine.

Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum producer, was forced to halt production for weeks last year due to the fight between rival unions, the established National Union of Mineworkers and the ascending Association of Mineworkers and Construction Workers Union.

The company's finances were left so battered that it had to tap shareholders for cash. It has been battling to return to full production since.

Lonmin's shares were down about 0.4 percent in early trade on the Johannesburg bourse at 47.80 rand.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/30/uk-safrica-lonmin-idUKBRE96T09P20130730?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

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Tough fight ahead for GOP governor contender

SALEM, Ore. (AP) ? A Republican state representative is getting an early start in his bid to be Oregon's next governor. But if history is a guide, then Dennis Richardson has a challenging road ahead.

No Oregonian younger than 27 has lived in the state under a Republican governor, and it's been more than a decade since a GOP candidate was elected to statewide office.

Richardson, who represents Central Point, announced his gubernatorial candidacy last week, taking an early stand and hoping other members of his party will stay out of the race.

Political observers say he faces a tough fight. He must introduce himself to voters and convince many traditionally liberal Portland-area residents to pick a conservative candidate.

Source: http://www.ktvz.com/news/tough-fight-ahead-for-gop-governor-contender/-/413192/21211828/-/ha6lbx/-/index.html

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Disabled children treated more harshly in developing world

Disabled children treated more harshly in developing world [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Alison Jones
alison.jones@duke.edu
919-681-8504
Duke University

DURHAM, N.C. -- Children with disabilities receive harsher punishment across the developing world, according to a new study based on interviews with nearly 46,000 caregivers in 17 low- to middle-income countries.

The study found that disabled children were more likely to be severely punished by being hit on the head or beaten with an object such as a stick or belt, said Jennifer Lansford, a research professor with the Duke University Center for Child and Family Policy. The work appears July 30 in Child Development.

Disabilities affect at least 93 million children worldwide, and are more prevalent in poor countries: Eighty percent of the world's disabled population resides in the developing world. Yet little scholarly attention has been paid to how children with disabilities fare in poorer countries.

Lansford said attitudes toward disabilities can vary markedly between cultures. While disabilities are often stigmatized, the opposite can also be true: In parts of India and Nepal, for instance, children with cognitive disabilities are believed to have divine qualities. Likewise, beliefs about appropriate discipline vary greatly from culture to culture.

The study is the largest to date to examine the link between children's disabilities and the discipline they receive. Field interviews were conducted with 45,964 caregivers of children between the ages of 2 and 9 in developing countries across the globe. The countries studied were: Albania, Belize, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Georgia, Ghana, Iraq, Jamaica, Laos, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Suriname and Yemen.

The study found remarkable consistency in the harsh discipline that parents and other primary caregivers used with their children with disabilities. Of the countries surveyed, only Georgia varied from the pattern, showing less prevalence of harsh treatment.

Previous studies have shown similar connections between disabilities and harsh parenting practices, and even abuse, in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe. But much less is known about how children with disabilities fare in poorer countries.

The study considered children with cognitive, language, vision or hearing and motor difficulties. All four groups were more apt to receive violent treatment, such as being hit on the head or beaten with an implement. Children with motor disabilities, such as difficulty or delays in walking, fared particularly badly. Motor disabilities were most consistently associated with harsh treatment, ranging from psychological aggression to physical violence.

What remains unclear is whether disabilities elicit harsh discipline, or whether some disabilities are actually the result of harsh treatment.

Past studies have suggested that parents of children with disabilities suffer higher levels of stress, in part from the extra effort required to manage the disability. But harsh discipline can also cause some disabilities. For instance, shaking infants can cause brain damage resulting in blindness.

"I was disheartened by the results, but not surprised," Lansford said.

More research into parental attitudes could help clarify why children are receiving harsh treatment, and how to change that, she added.

"Parents may believe that children with disabilities won't respond to less harsh forms of discipline," Lansford said. "Or they may be frustrated, and may not know what else to do. If that's the case, then community-level interventions could make a difference in changing community perceptions of disabilities."

The researchers relied on caregivers' own reports of parenting practices within their household. Thus, the problem may be even more widespread than the current paper suggests, said Marc H. Bornstein of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of the report's authors.

"Our study shows that disabled children often encounter a kind of double jeopardy," Bornstein said. "In addition to their disabilities, they are at greater risk for harsh treatment from their caregivers. Community education could make a difference. Informing parents about child disabilities may give them a better understanding of what types of interactions are most appropriate, constructive and effective for already disadvantaged youngsters."

###

The study was a joint project of Duke University and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a division of the National Institutes of Health. In addition to Bornstein and Lansford, the authors include Charlene Hendricks the NICHD and Kirby Deater-Deckard of Virginia Tech. The research was funded in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NICHD.

CITATION: "Associations between Child Disabilities and Caregiver Discipline and Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Charlene Hendricks, Jennifer E. Lansford, Kirby Deater-Deckard, and Marc H. Bornstein. Child Development, July 30, 2013.


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Disabled children treated more harshly in developing world [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Alison Jones
alison.jones@duke.edu
919-681-8504
Duke University

DURHAM, N.C. -- Children with disabilities receive harsher punishment across the developing world, according to a new study based on interviews with nearly 46,000 caregivers in 17 low- to middle-income countries.

The study found that disabled children were more likely to be severely punished by being hit on the head or beaten with an object such as a stick or belt, said Jennifer Lansford, a research professor with the Duke University Center for Child and Family Policy. The work appears July 30 in Child Development.

Disabilities affect at least 93 million children worldwide, and are more prevalent in poor countries: Eighty percent of the world's disabled population resides in the developing world. Yet little scholarly attention has been paid to how children with disabilities fare in poorer countries.

Lansford said attitudes toward disabilities can vary markedly between cultures. While disabilities are often stigmatized, the opposite can also be true: In parts of India and Nepal, for instance, children with cognitive disabilities are believed to have divine qualities. Likewise, beliefs about appropriate discipline vary greatly from culture to culture.

The study is the largest to date to examine the link between children's disabilities and the discipline they receive. Field interviews were conducted with 45,964 caregivers of children between the ages of 2 and 9 in developing countries across the globe. The countries studied were: Albania, Belize, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Georgia, Ghana, Iraq, Jamaica, Laos, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Suriname and Yemen.

The study found remarkable consistency in the harsh discipline that parents and other primary caregivers used with their children with disabilities. Of the countries surveyed, only Georgia varied from the pattern, showing less prevalence of harsh treatment.

Previous studies have shown similar connections between disabilities and harsh parenting practices, and even abuse, in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe. But much less is known about how children with disabilities fare in poorer countries.

The study considered children with cognitive, language, vision or hearing and motor difficulties. All four groups were more apt to receive violent treatment, such as being hit on the head or beaten with an implement. Children with motor disabilities, such as difficulty or delays in walking, fared particularly badly. Motor disabilities were most consistently associated with harsh treatment, ranging from psychological aggression to physical violence.

What remains unclear is whether disabilities elicit harsh discipline, or whether some disabilities are actually the result of harsh treatment.

Past studies have suggested that parents of children with disabilities suffer higher levels of stress, in part from the extra effort required to manage the disability. But harsh discipline can also cause some disabilities. For instance, shaking infants can cause brain damage resulting in blindness.

"I was disheartened by the results, but not surprised," Lansford said.

More research into parental attitudes could help clarify why children are receiving harsh treatment, and how to change that, she added.

"Parents may believe that children with disabilities won't respond to less harsh forms of discipline," Lansford said. "Or they may be frustrated, and may not know what else to do. If that's the case, then community-level interventions could make a difference in changing community perceptions of disabilities."

The researchers relied on caregivers' own reports of parenting practices within their household. Thus, the problem may be even more widespread than the current paper suggests, said Marc H. Bornstein of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of the report's authors.

"Our study shows that disabled children often encounter a kind of double jeopardy," Bornstein said. "In addition to their disabilities, they are at greater risk for harsh treatment from their caregivers. Community education could make a difference. Informing parents about child disabilities may give them a better understanding of what types of interactions are most appropriate, constructive and effective for already disadvantaged youngsters."

###

The study was a joint project of Duke University and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a division of the National Institutes of Health. In addition to Bornstein and Lansford, the authors include Charlene Hendricks the NICHD and Kirby Deater-Deckard of Virginia Tech. The research was funded in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NICHD.

CITATION: "Associations between Child Disabilities and Caregiver Discipline and Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Charlene Hendricks, Jennifer E. Lansford, Kirby Deater-Deckard, and Marc H. Bornstein. Child Development, July 30, 2013.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/du-dct072413.php

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UTEP student who was unwitting drug mule sues Ford

A UTEP student has filed suit against Ford Motor Co., claiming the automaker negligently handed out key codes that allowed smugglers to plant illegal drugs in his car in 2010.

The smugglers planted more than 500 pounds of marijuana in the vehicles of Ricardo Magallanes, the man suing Ford, and four others who lived in Ju?rez and worked in El Paso, FBI agents said in a 2011 affidavit. Once in El Paso, the marijuana was intended for distribution throughout the United States, the affidavit says.

Of the five vehicles FBI agents learned were targeted by the scheme, four were made by Ford. Agents were told by a locksmith that the automaker gave "widely available access

to Ford-key cut codes" while the biggest American carmaker, General Motors Co., did not, the affidavit says.

The document also said the codes in the Ford database were accessed by a single account at a Dallas auto dealer that gave out more than 2,300 codes for cars and trucks all over the United States during an 18-month period. But the documents don't say whether that was suspicious -- or if federal law enforcement is investigating the system that put innocents' car keys into the hands of drug smugglers.

Federal authorities and Ford did not respond to calls and emails for this story, which Magallanes' lawyer said raises a disturbing question: How many other times have customs

officers on El Paso's international bridges found drugs that were planted by smugglers who had improperly obtained keys to the vehicles of unwitting motorists?

"It's a quagmire for the government because every bridge case could be an innocent person," said Louis Lopez, who handled Magallanes' criminal case and is co-counsel in the civil suit against Ford.

Lopez said that for him and most other El Paso criminal-defense attorneys, such "bridge" cases are a major part of their practices and many of their clients claim no knowledge of the drugs customs officers find in their vehicles.

Magallanes was arrested on Nov. 16, 2010, as he tried to enter the United States on the Stanton Street Bridge. Customs agents found 112 pounds of marijuana in his trunk.

Magallanes, a music student, spent six months in jail awaiting trial. He was convicted in May 2011 and was facing more than 3 1/2 years in prison when charges against him suddenly were dropped.

Federal authorities had charged Jesus Chavez and Carlos Albert Gomez in a scheme to plant marijuana in cars of students and professionals who, like Magallanes, lived in Ju?rez and crossed every day into El Paso using special passes that expedited their trips over the city's crowded international bridges.

U.S. Senior District Judge David Briones called lawyers in the case together and told them he didn't like the jury verdict against Magallanes in light of the case federal prosecutors had developed against Chavez and Gomez, Lopez said.

Prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the case in June 2011.

"It was sheer luck," Lopez said. "You'll never see the Department of Justice or a federal judge do that again in my lifetime."

The El Paso media wrote and broadcast stories about many of the cases in which Gomez and Chavez were accused of using unwitting drug mules.

In one, Dr. Justus Lawrence Opot, who worked at El Paso Mental Health Mental Retardation, was briefly held in jail in Ju?rez after he reported to authorities there that he found two strange duffel bags in the trunk of his Mitsubishi.

Ana Isela Martinez Amaya, a fourth grade teacher at La Fe Preparatory Academy in El Paso, was held for more than three months in Ju?rez in 2011 after Mexican authorities found 105 pounds of marijuana in her 2003 Ford Focus.

James Ivan Diaz was arrested after U.S. Customs officers found 119 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of his 2001 Ford Focus. He was acquitted by a U.S. jury four months later, in May 2011.

The U.S. attorney declined to file charges against a fifth victim, Jorge Ramos, who along with his mother, told customs officers that there were two strange duffel bags in the trunk of his 2006 Ford Focus. They turned out to contain 129 pounds of pot.

Chavez was sentenced in September 2012 to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to his role in the scheme.

Charges that carry a 10-years-to-life sentence still are pending against Gomez, who got away from agents when they tried to arrest him on June 30, 2011, the FBI affidavit says.

Now Magallanes is suing Ford, saying it was negligent in the way it passed out key codes for cars and trucks it made.

Lopez said access to the key codes was essential to the smugglers' scheme.

"But for that, this couldn't have worked," he said.

The lawsuit doesn't set a dollar amount, but Magallanes is demanding compensation for his actual damages, lost wages, mental anguish, lost earning capacity and punitive damages.

"Ford had no adequate system, computerized or otherwise, to perform an integrity check as to whether access to its key-source information database was misused," said the lawsuit, the latest version of which was filed on July 9.

In court papers, the automaker denied that it was responsible for the events that ended with Magallanes improperly jailed without bond, convicted by a jury and facing a lengthy prison sentence.

Ford said Chavez and Gomez -- and the El Paso locksmith who gave them Magallanes' key -- were responsible for the harm Magallanes suffered.

Ford also blamed and "the person" who accessed the company's key-code database for the locksmith. That person apparently was working with an employee of a Dallas Ford dealer, according to the FBI affidavit.

"One or more of the acts or omissions of these independent agencies destroyed the causal connection between the act or omission alleged against Ford and (Magallanes') injuries and thereby became the immediate cause of the injuries," Ford said in a court pleading.

Federal authorities did not name the locksmith from whom Chavez and Gomez got keys to their victims' cars, but a confidential informant told federal agents it was an El Paso company.

In its pleadings in the Magallanes suit, Ford said the locksmith was El Candado Locksmith and Towing in El Paso.

Antonio Machuca, who is listed as the company's president in filings with the Texas Secretary of State, declined to comment when contacted by phone last week.

In its affidavit, the FBI said agents sent someone to "locksmith A" with a vehicle-identification number for a 2006 Ford Taurus. That person emerged with a key 18 minutes later, the affidavit said.

The document doesn't say how much, if anything, the person paid for the key or whether the person had to show proof of ownership. It quotes an employee of "locksmith A" as saying the key would work in the vehicle's doors, but not in its ignition.

From Ford's Global Investigations Department, FBI agents learned that key codes for all four Ford vehicles used in the El Paso pot-smuggling scheme were accessed through "user-account A" at a Dallas Ford dealership.

A spokesman for the El Paso FBI office and a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas did not respond last week when asked whether they were investigating possible misuse of the Ford key database. But the July 1, 2011, FBI affidavit makes it sound as if the unnamed Dallas dealership was passing out a lot of codes.

"Per Ford Motor Co., user-account A has pulled/accessed 5,321 vehicle key codes in the last 18 months, approximately 10 key codes per day," the affidavit, signed by Special Agent J. Daniel Clark, says. "Also, based on my review of this information, user-account A has pulled vehicle key codes for Ford vehicles which are registered all over the United States, not just in Dallas, Texas. Based on the high volume of key codes pulled, as well as the geographic dispersion of the registered locations of the associated vehicles, I believe that user-account A is being utilized to provide key codes to one or more 'key code source' companies" such as the one that provided Magallanes' code to the El Paso locksmith.

It's unclear whether the Dallas dealer was accessing more codes than other dealerships, or whether any of the code-source companies or locksmiths they did business with acted corruptly.

More details are likely to emerge as Magallanes' lawyers take depositions and gather evidence. The case is scheduled for trial in July 2014.

Marty Schladen may be reached at mschladen@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.

Source: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_23751589/unwitting-drug-mule-sues-ford-says-company-too?source=rss_viewed

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Monday, July 29, 2013

After debuting in a viral video in April, the first two hovercraft golf carts ha...

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St. Paul Mayor Coleman, Sir Richard Branson take a look at drug policy

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Source: www.twincities.com --- Sunday, July 28, 2013
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman touched on the thorny issue of drug policy reform Sunday at the Landmark Center after viewing a documentary about the war on drugs. ...

Source: http://www.twincities.com/health/ci_23750522/st-paul-coleman-wants-new-look-at-drug?source=rss

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Pope dons Indian headdress after Brazil speech

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? Pope Francis has delighted a crowd in Rio de Janeiro by donning a colorful Indian headdress handed to him by a member of a Brazilian tribe.

It came after the pontiff spoke Saturday at Rio's Municipal Theater to an audience mostly made up of Brazil's political, business and cultural elite.

After the talk, he was greeted by well-wishers on stage, including a few Indians.

A bare-chested man named Ubirai Matos from the Pataxo tribe met the pope while wearing a reed skirt, ornate red-bead necklace and large nose and ear piercings.

Matos took off his feather headdress and handed it to the pontiff.

Francis promptly placed it on his own head and flashed the crowd a smile.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-dons-indian-headdress-brazil-speech-162131717.html

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Rescuers say 37 dead in Italy bus plunge

AAA??Jul. 29, 2013?1:35 AM ET
Rescuers say 37 dead in Italy bus plunge
By FRANCES D'EMILIOBy FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press?THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES?

A bus lies on its side after plunging off a highway near Avellino, southern Italy, eraly Monday, July 29, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

A bus lies on its side after plunging off a highway near Avellino, southern Italy, eraly Monday, July 29, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

EDITORS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT - Covered bodies lie by the road following a bus crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Sunday, July 28, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

EDITORS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT - Rescuers stand by covered bodies following a bus crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Sunday, July 28, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

EDITORS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT - Rescuers stand by covered bodies following a bus crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Sunday, July 28, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Firefighters work on the site of a bus crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Sunday, July 28, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

(AP) ? A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers.

Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle.

Hours after the crash, firefighters said that they had extracted 37 bodies ? most of the dead were found inside the mangled bus, which lay on its side , while a few of the victims were pulled out from underneath the wreckage, state radio and the Italian news agency ANSA reported..

The radio report said 11 people were hospitalized with injuries, two of them in very critical condition. It was not immediately known if there were other survivors or any missing.

Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted metal to better probe the interior of the bus, stopping occasionally in silence to listen for any cries for help, even as the bodies were put into coffins to be taken to a morgue.

Reports said as many as 49 people had been aboard the bus when it ripped through a guardrail after slamming into several cars, then plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) off the highway and into a ravine near a wooded area. In its plunge, the bus tore away whole sections of concrete barriers as well as guardrail. The concrete lay in large chunks in a clearing in a wooded area where the bus landed.

State radio quoted Avellino police as saying the bus driver was among the dead.

Occupants of cars which were hit by the bus stood on the highway near their vehicles. One car's rear was completely crumpled, while another was smashed on its side. It was not immediately known if anyone in those cars had been injured.

The highway links western and eastern Italy across the south.

Early reports said the passengers had spent the day in Puglia, an area near the Adriatic on the east coast famed for religious shrines. But on Monday, a state radio reporter at the scene said authorities told him that the bus had been bringing the passengers home after an outing to a thermal spa area near Benevento, a town not far from Avellino. Others at the scene said the passengers might have visited a town near Benevento that was the early home of Padre Pio, a late mystic monk highly popular among Catholics in Italy.

Passengers came from small towns near Naples, and relatives streamed to the crash site.

The bus dove off the highway near the town of Monteforte Irpino in Irpinia, a largely agricultural area about 40 miles (60 kilometers) inland from Naples and about 250 kilometers (160 miles) south of Rome.

A reporter for Naples daily Il Mattino, Giuseppe Crimaldi, told Sky TG24 TV from the scene that some witnesses told him the bus had been going at a "normal" speed on the downhill stretch of the highway when it suddenly veered and started hitting cars. He said some witnesses thought they heard a noise as if the bus had blown a tire.

A local prosecutor arrived at the crash scene to begin an investigation into the cause of the crash.

___

Photographer Salvatore Laporta contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-29-EU-Italy-Bus-Plunges/id-f160ec62d5e4483ea798c0cdba333bc4

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JJ Cale Dies of Heart Attack: After Midnight Songwriter Passes Away in California Hospital

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Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Sunday, July 28, 2013
Legendary American singer/songwriter JJ Cale, who counted Eric Clapton and Neil Young among his biggest fans died on Friday ...

Source: http://www.ibtimes.comhttp:0//www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/495062/20130728/jj-cale-dead-twitter-midnight-eric-clapton.htm

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Pakistan troops fire at Indian post again, one BSF jawan injured

Srinagar:?In second incident of ceasefire violation on Saturday, Pakistani troops fired at a post of the Border Security Force (BSF) at Hiranagar in Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir. One BSF jawan was injured in the firing.

The Pakistani troops used mortars, RPGs and heavy machine guns leading to heavy firing exchanges, officers of the Army and BSF said.

Head Constable Baljeet Singh of 68 Battalion was injured in the firing and was hospitalised.

With these two incidents today, the number of ceasefire violations by Pakistan in July rose to six.

Earlier in the day, Pakistani troops fired at the Indian Army posts in Poonch sector near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Pakistani troops have targeted Indian posts by firing rocket projectile grenades (RPGs) and heavy machine guns along LoC in Doda Battalion forward area in Poonch district since 0730 hours today," a senior Army officer said.

Indian troops retaliated effectively, resulting in heavy exchanges which were on for five hours, the officer said.

There was no loss of life or injury to anyone in the firing, he said.

Top Army officials are monitoring the situation in wake of the heavy firing along the border line and troops have been asked in other forward areas to intensify round the clock vigilance.

This is fifth ceasefire violation in July this year.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NDTV-LatestNews/~3/Sd-d4MTH344/story01.htm

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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Miss., Ala. govs call for oil sands assessment

The governors of Mississippi and Alabama said Saturday their two states will partner to study oil sands resources.

Oil sands are a sandy mixture found below the surface containing bitumen. After extracting the sand, the bitumen can be transformed into crude oil that can be refined.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley announced the partnership Saturday while speaking to the Southern States Energy Board during a meeting in Mobile, Ala.

Republican governors signed a memorandum of understanding that commissions the assessment of oil sands in both states, according to a news release. The Southern States Energy Board will team up with various agencies from Mississippi and Alabama to conduct the study.

"As I have said before, for our nation to become more energy independent, we must recognize the importance of a forward-thinking approach to energy and continue to develop a comprehensive energy policy that works," Bryant said in a statement.

The resource is known as the Hartselle Sandstone, an underground layer that stretches from north-central and northwest Alabama into northeastern Mississippi. A recent study found an estimated 7.5 billion barrels of oil located in the reserves, the governors say.

"By taking this action, we're exploring the potential for safe and reliable development of energy right here at home," Bentley said in a statement.

Bryant said Mississippi and Alabama can learn from Canada, where the extraction of oil sands has been successful.

"Canada has proven to be a leader in oil sand recovery, and we hope through this evaluation process we can collaborate and share knowledge on best practices," Bryant said.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/27/3525648/miss-ala-govs-call-for-oil-sands.html

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Second Summit power plant to get furnace oil import permission

M Azizur Rahman

The government is set to allow yet another private firm, the second one, to import furnace oil from international market to run its oil-fired power plant 15 years after the previous approval, a top official said Friday.

He said state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has already issued a no-objection certificate to the proposal of the privately-owned 102 megwatt (MW) capacity Summit Narayanganj Power Plant to import furnace oil, BPC Chairman Md Eunusur Rahman told the FE.

He said the private firm, owned by local Summit Group, would be able to start import fuel from international market after getting final nod from the country's Energy and Mineral Resources Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, he said.

The state-run BPC is currently supplying HSFO to the power plant, he said.

The private firm would be able to import around 100,000 tonnes of furnace oil in a year as per its requirement, he said.

The private firm would, however, not be allowed to sell furnace oil in the open market in Bangladesh, Mr Rahman said.

The BPC will monitor the use of furnace oil by the power plant, he said.

State-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will make payment of furnace oil imports to the private power plant company as per the international market prices with 9.0 per cent service charge, a senior BPDB official said.

The BPDB, the sole electricity buyer from commercial power plants in Bangladesh, will continue purchasing electricity from the power plants as well, he added.

The service charge is supposed to be reviewed every year, the official said.

The BPDB will make payments to private power companies within three months of oil imports, he added.

The BPC Chairman said the clearance to import furnace oil is being given to the private firm in line with a January 2012 decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to allow privately- owned power companies to import petroleum products on their own.

The Summit Narayanganj Power Plant is the first private company that came up and got clearance from the BPC to import fuel to run its power plant in line with the Cabinet Committee decision, he said.

Currently, the Khulna Power Company Ltd (KPCL) is the only private firm in Bangladesh that has been importing fuel to generate electricity.

The KPCL, also owned by Summit Group, has been importing furnace oil from international market since starting operation of its 110 mw furnace oil-fired power plant in 1998.

It was granted permission to import furnace oil then under a special consideration, he said.

The KPCL is using around 600 tonnes of furnace oil per day to run its power plant, said a company official.

"We have been importing furnace oil for the KPCL for a long time to run our power plants. We shall start importing furnace oil for our Narayanganj power plant soon," Summit Group Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan said.

He said the firm has been importing furnace oil to ensure quality of the fuel oil and to get better output from the power plants.

The Summit will purchase furnace oil either from spot market or get involved with term deal with a supplier to import the fuel from the international market.

Mr Khan allayed the fear of selling furnace oil in local market saying it was not only against legal bindings but also for the reason that the price of furnace oil is lower in local market compared to the international market as it is subsidised by the government.

The BPC currently supplies to the rest of the country's oil-fired power plants the oil products sourced from international markets by three of its oil marketing units -- the Meghna Petroleum Ltd., the Jamuna Oil Company Ltd. and the Padma Oil Company.

Bangladesh launched a drive to increase oil-based power generation in mid-2010 amid fast-depleting natural gas resources, and targets commissioning of over three dozen new oil-based power plants by the end of 2013.

Currently 35 oil-fired power plants are operational across the country, according to data from the Power Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources.

Of the total, 23 with a combined generation capacity of 1,787 MW run on furnace oil and 12 with a capacity of 393 MW on diesel.

The BPC, which had imported a total of around 69,779 tonnes of furnace oil annually in the past decade at a cost of Taka 1.21 billion (US$ 15. 16 million) until mid 2010, is currently importing around 1.0 million metric tonnes of furnace oil to facilitate generation of electricity from the oil-fired power plants, the BPC statistics revealed.

Bangladesh's sole refinery, operated by the BPC subsidiary Eastern Refinery Ltd, has a refining capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year and remained operative since 1968.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thefinancialexpress-bd/IouH/~3/rkUB_zHVUU0/index.php

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#MissingThePoint: Companies alienate customers with Twitter bots, scripted responses

Technology

15 hours ago

From upset consumers whose gadgets broke prematurely to stranded air travelers stuck on the tarmac, Twitter has been an effective outlet to publicly shame companies, sometimes resulting in VIP treatment.

Those days may be over.

Some recent incidents suggest tweeting is starting to resemble being stuck on hold, or worse yet ? trapped in an automated telephone system pressing #1, #2, or #3.

Image: Missing the point

NBC News

The most extreme example involved Bank of America's @BofA_Help account, which last month repeatedly responded to a vitriolic cycle of foreclosure criticism with robotic-sounding, "Please let us know if you need assistance," messages. Public embarrassment soon followed. When an account called @OccupyLA wrote, "You can help by stop stealing people's houses!!!," @BofA_Help responded, "We'd be happy to review your account." And on it went from there.

Frank Eliason, often considered the founder of Twitter-based customer service as the voice behind @ComcastCares and author of "@YourService," said the latest trend is "breaking my heart." (NBC News is part of NBC Universal, which is owned by Comcast.)

"Companies are really looking at this more as a PR play as opposed to fixing the root cause of the problem, and that makes me really sad," Eliason said. "Companies do not want to talk to you, and it shows. The fact is most do not want to tweet with you either."

Cheesy stunts
As the Twitter customer service channel has matured, companies have turned to automated "bots" and scripted responses, ruining the personal touch that had made Twitter help so valuable, Eliason said. Rather than trying to be purely helpful, and enhance customer relationships, Twitter has become the land of cheesy public relations stunts, such as Chipotle faking that its account had been hacked to gain more followers.

"They haven't devoted the staff it would take to respond in real time with real answers,? said Carri Bugbee, a social media expert, discussing Twitter failures in general. "Whether it's a bot or a person with a script, it's a failure, and it's tantamount to outsourcing customer service to the lowest-level employee."

There's a pretty straightforward reason that Twitter help might be in trouble. When the channel was narrow, and the number of potential users was small, a single tweeter like Eliason could handle the volume. As success stories have proliferated, more consumers have tried, forcing firms to replace single agents with teams and processes.

In other words, the personal touch is hard to scale.

"Obviously, large companies that have a lot of relationships to manage are looking for ways to make it scale, to automate, but it really doesn't work," Bugbee said. "(Companies are) looking for cheap or easy ways to do things that aren't cheap or easy."

Making things worse?
Social media is hard work, and many companies aren?t getting it right. Simply Measured, which studies Twitter response, says 32 of the Interbrand top 100 companies have a dedicated customers service Twitter handle, meaning they have gone over and above the others to invite tweets.

Even among those 32 Twitter-focused firms, performance isn't great: The average response time to a tweet is 4.6 hours, and the average response rate is 45 percent, says Nate Smitha of Simply Measured.

"We have seen those continue to improve every time we take the study," Smitha said. "But the numbers do come across as low."

Of course, simply responding to a tweet doesn't equal a successful customer service exchange, as Bank of America proved. In fact it's easy to imagine that companies targeting improved response metrics by using bots or scripts actually make things worse.

"Those canned responses have to go the way of the past because (companies) will become a laughingstock ... and it will reach Wall Street," said Marsha Collier, author of several books on social media customer service.

Turn down the temperature
Failures come when company cultures won't allow Twitter agents to do the right thing, limiting their responses to scripts and legalese.

"These are large corporations who [are] bogged down in silos, who do not give their social media team the latitude to decide on the fly how to handle things," Collier said.

Collier says good Twitter responses also require deft hiring. Twitter agents must have a good sense of humor, be willing to take a punch, and be artful in written responses, she said ? a skill set over and above what companies are used to hiring in call centers.

Studies show most consumers who take to Twitter are already angry ? they've probably tried and failed using traditional channels ? so being able to deftly turn down the temperature of a conflict is a must.

"You have to know customer service, but you also have to understand marketing, understand corporate communication, human resources ? you have to understand all these components," she said.

'One of the crowd'
But Collier disagrees that Twitter help is dying out. The mistakes, she says, are a bump in the road.

"I argue that it isn't a death knell. We are observing an education," she said. "We are in our infancy ... We will always have examples of companies that don?t do it right, but the tools are getting better and better." Tools like HootSuite help firms do a better job of not missing angry tweets and managing responses, she said.

Still, Eliason is worried because he thinks there's only one way for Twitter help to work ? when consumers know they are working with a real human being who genuinely cares about their problem. And it also helps it the person behind the accounts is, as Eliason puts it, ?humanized.? When he tweeted for Comcast, he would also tweet personal pictures and thoughts, and just generally act like any other Twitter user.

"I was one of the crowd," he said. "There's an aspect to that that is actually important if you want to be a trust agent ... it's about being one with the community, not being the center of it. "

Follow Bob Sullivan on Twitter or Facebook.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663301/s/2f39f82c/sc/21/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cmissingthepoint0Ecompanies0Ealienate0Ecustomers0Etwitter0Ebots0Escripted0Eresponses0E6C10A760A870A/story01.htm

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Fri Jul 26 '13 Announcement from Village Health Center in West Africa

As you can see from our indiegogo webpage, the Village Health Center is a shovel-ready project. ?Unlike some other crowd-funded campaigns, we organized everything before starting to fundraise. ?In fact, you can download detailed budgets and blueprints to see exactly where your contributions go.

Since the indiegogo campaign only pays for the hospital's construction, it doesn't address the villages' plans to manage the hospital once it's built. ?Here are a few more details:

1. The Association of Cocoa Growers in Dagnigan--(the plateau region of Togo exports cocoa as a cash crop)--has donated money for the initial purchase of medicines. ?After that, the hospital will charge a modest fee for services to ensure financial sustainability.

2. A committee of Red-Cross trained volunteers including Yawobio Otchotcho, the project director, and other community leaders, will oversee hospital operations.

3. The villages will hire two full-time employees, a nurse and a midwife, to work in the Village Health Center. ?(In Togo, doctors only work in urban hospitals.)

4. Among many other services, the health center will vaccinate children against measles, yellow fever, hepatitis, typhoid, meningitis, and other preventable diseases.

5. The health center will also treat malaria, a leading cause of death among children, and substantially reduce complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

Dagnigan and the other villages are only waiting for funding to begin construction. ?This is a very rural area that desperately needs a hospital. ?Because the government of Togo has abandoned its responsibility to provide infrastructure in rural areas, they need our help. ?Every donation helps to provide a dignified qualify of life for 6,000 women, men, and children in Togo.

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far. ?Please continue to help us spread the word about the Village Health Center project.

Source: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/434725?c=activity

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Google thinks balloons may solve problem of Internet access in Third World

DOS PALOS -- Only half-filled with helium, and already more than 12 feet wide, the giant plastic envelope shimmered and shook in the breeze like some airborne jellyfish rising through a gentle current.

Soon it shot into the sky, soaring thousands of feet with a payload of sophisticated radio gear, processors and solar panels. Its launch Friday was part an offbeat experiment by Google (GOOG) in using lighter-than-air balloons, a concept pioneered in the 18th century, to solve the 21st-century problem of delivering Internet service to underserved parts of the

Bill Rogers of the Project Loon team from Google prepares to launch a high-altitude balloon carrying electronic testing equipment into the skies above Dos Palos on July 26, 2013. (Gary Reyes/Staff)

world.

"This is a great, big, hard problem," said Richard DeVaul, a Google engineer and chief technical architect for the company's Project Loon, so named in part because even Google concedes the idea sounds a little crazy.

But after a trial run in New Zealand earlier this year, DeVaul and other engineers on the project say they believe a global network of low-cost, high-altitude balloons could carry enough wireless transponders to beam Internet connections to remote parts of Africa, Asia and other developing regions.

They're now embarking on a new series of tests in California's Central Valley, aimed at working out the answers to a multitude of technical questions that must be resolved to make the project work.

Google invited a reporter and photographer to observe Friday's launch at a rural airfield that's primarily used by crop-dusting planes. More tests are planned this summer in the same area, chosen because of its relatively uncrowded air space and a driving distance of only two hours from Google headquarters in Mountain View.

"Our main challenge right now is power," said Sameera Ponda, an MIT-trained aerospace engineer hired by Google to work on the project. She explained that the Loon team needs

more data to decide how to configure the solar array and batteries so they can keep a balloon's radio equipment and computers running for weeks at a time, even at night, at frigid altitudes of 12 miles or more above the Earth.

The launch was also webcast for an audience of young tech enthusiasts, who watched the action and relayed questions to Ponda and another Loon project staffer, Paul Acosta. The kids participated through an Internet video "field trip" organized by Google and Maker Camp, a free online summer program for teens who like to build things and figure out how they work.

Project Loon is one of several undertakings by Google's secretive X division, overseen by co-founder Sergey Brin, which is responsible for so-called "moon shot" projects -- ideas that seem off the wall but could have huge potential -- including Google's self-driving car and the wearable computing device dubbed Google Glass. Google has been working on Loon for nearly two years, but it only recently went public.

"Our goal is to provide Internet service to people in areas that can't afford to throw down fiber lines or even cell towers," Ponda explained. "We're hopefully going to be able to make that a reality in the next few years."

The concept calls for a fleet of hundreds or even thousands of balloons that will float twice as high as most jetliners fly, in a circle around Earth. But while it sounds relatively simple, the logistics are mind-boggling.

Since the balloons drift with the wind, Google engineers devised a system to raise or lower them in order to catch the air currents needed to keep them floating just the right distance from each other -- and aligned so if one floats out of range from Internet users in a particular region, another will come along and take its place.

The balloon launched Friday is a test device; its radio equipment was not intended to deliver an Internet connection. It also was filled only with helium and is smaller than those tried in New Zealand, Acosta said. The larger models can be 45 feet in diameter and were designed by Google with separate chambers for helium and air, so the latter can be pumped in or out to raise or lower

the balloon.

Controlling the balloons is a massive computational challenge, DeVaul said. Fortunately, he added, "at Google we've got a bunch of really clever computer scientists and a lot of computing power. We now believe we can make the rest of this work, technically."

Google, of course, has an interest in helping more people get on the Internet. The multibillion-dollar tech giant makes most of its money by showing ads to consumers who use Google's online services.

But Richard Bennett, an expert on broadband networking and social policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said Project Loon is addressing "a very real problem" that affects two-thirds of the world's population, who are on the wrong side of the digital divide.

While the idea could work, Bennett said, it's still not clear who would pay for operating and maintaining the balloon network. Google has been vague about its plans; Bennett speculated the company may be hoping that telecommunications carriers will adopt the idea if Google can show it's commercially feasible.

Soon after Friday's launch, as the balloon dwindled ever smaller in the northeastern sky, project launch commander Bill Rogers and other members of his crew loaded their trucks and prepared to track its radio signal. This balloon was designed to travel only about 150 miles before losing altitude and returning to the ground.

Rogers planned to recover it, but in case someone else found it first, the plastic foam box holding its electronic gear carried a label that read, "Harmless Science Experiment," and another that provided a phone number to call.

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022; follow him at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23741048/google-thinks-balloons-may-solve-problem-internet-access?source=rss_emailed

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Saturday, July 27, 2013

HOORAY! Creepy San Diego Dem Mayor Will Enter Sex Treatment For 2 Weeks (Video)

ANOTHER DIMocrat that can?t keep his pants zipped up?..Papa Mike

San Diego Democratic Mayor?Bob Filner?announced today that he?will enter treatment?in August.
FOR TWO WEEKS.
That ought to do the trick.

Filner blamed his ?generation? for his groping behavior.

?The conduct I?ve engaged in at times is inexcusable. It has undermined what I?ve spent my whole professional career doing. And that is fighting for equality and justice of all people. It is simply not acceptable for me to try to explain away my conduct.?It is the product of the standards of a different generation.?


Really??How many 71 year-olds do you know that kiss, grope, put women in headlocks and tell them not to wear panties at work?
What a pig.

So far?seven women?have accused him of improper behavior.
Two weeks ought to cure him.

He will return on August 19th.
Anthony Weiner?was unavailable for comment.

SOURCE: The Gateway Pundit

This entry was posted in News by Papa Mike. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.papamiket.com/?p=68473

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Legendary brands: Why are consumers still fascinated by the Titanic?

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Brands do not necessarily need to present a clear, well-defined image in order to appeal to consumers, according to a new study. Consider the case of the Titanic.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/DIHq_cH_tpo/130726131258.htm

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Video: The big Obamacare 'uh-oh'

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52582459/

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Real estate investment firms acquire 4 office buildings at The Gateway

A privately owned international real estate investment firm has acquired four office buildings at The Gateway near downtown Salt Lake City. Courtesy The Boyer Company

A privately owned international real estate investment firm has acquired four office buildings at The Gateway near downtown Salt Lake City.

Hines, which maintains its European headquarters in London and its U.S. headquarters in Houston, said it purchased the four office buildings in partnership with a real estate fund managed by the Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management.

Hines/Oaktree?s new buildings at The Gateway:

One Gateway, a seven-story structure at 90 S. 400 West encompassing 161,704 square-feet and built in 2002.

Three Gateway, a six-story property at 440 W. 200 South, with 114,197 square-feet, built in 2001.

Five Gateway, at 178 S. Rio Grande, with four stories and 64,279 square-feet, built in 2001.

Six Gateway, 460 W. 50 North, five stores and 100,528 square-feet, built in 2012.

The four properties, which were acquired from The Boyer Co., contain a total of 440,708-square-feet of office space.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Hines previously purchased the Kearns Building on Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City, in 1988.

"Hines entered Salt Lake City in 1988, and we remain focused on growing our portfolio," said Dusty Harris, a Hines? managing director who heads the company?s Utah development and investment office.

The acquisition announced this week is the second joint purchase by Hines/Oaktree in Utah. Last year, the two companies joined together to buy the South Towne Corporate Center, a two-building 248,352-square-foot office complex in Sandy.

Harris described the four Gateway buildings as best-in-class assets in the healthy downtown periphery market.

The buildings are 91 percent leased with tenants including Barrick Gold, the Bureau of Land Management, The Salt Lake Tribune, Sungard Financial and Ernst & Young, according to Hines.

The properties, Harris said, ``have proven to be resilient though a difficult economic recession." And their future value has been strengthened, he said, by the new FrontRunner and TRAX airport lines.

story continues below

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/56643814-79/gateway-hines-buildings-office.html.csp

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