Patients of Oklahoma doctor line up for tests

About 150 to 200 patients of Dr. W. Scott Harrington, who's accused of unsanitary practices, line up outside the Tulsa Health Department North Regional Health and Wellness Center to be screened for hepatitis and the virus that causes AIDS, Saturday, March 30, 2013, in Tulsa, Okla. Oklahoma officials say 7,000 patients of Harrington's in the past six years will receive letters that warn that poor hygiene at Harrington's two clinics created a public health hazard. (AP Photo/Tulsa World, James Gibbard) ONLINE OUT; TV OUT; TULSA OUT

About 150 to 200 patients of Dr. W. Scott Harrington, who's accused of unsanitary practices, line up outside the Tulsa Health Department North Regional Health and Wellness Center to be screened for hepatitis and the virus that causes AIDS, Saturday, March 30, 2013, in Tulsa, Okla. Oklahoma officials say 7,000 patients of Harrington's in the past six years will receive letters that warn that poor hygiene at Harrington's two clinics created a public health hazard. (AP Photo/Tulsa World, James Gibbard) ONLINE OUT; TV OUT; TULSA OUT

This Thursday, March 28, 2013 photo shows the dental offices of Dr. Scott Harrington at 2111 S. Atlanta Place in Tulsa, Okla. Health officials on Thursday, March 28, 2013 urged thousands of patients of an Oklahoma oral surgeon to undergo hepatitis and HIV testing, saying unsanitary conditions behind his office's spiffy facade posed a threat to his clients and made him a "menace to the public health." (AP Photo/Tulsa World, Michael Wyke) ONLINE OUT; TV OUT; TULSA OUT

This 1977 license picture provided by the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry shows Dr. Scott Harrington. Health officials urged thousands of patients of Harrington, an oral surgeon, to undergo hepatitis and HIV testing, saying unsanitary conditions behind his office's spiffy facade posed a threat to his clients and made him a "menace to the public health." (AP Photo/Oklahoma Board of Dentistry)

This Thursday, March 28, 2013 photo shows the dental offices of Dr. Scott Harrington at 2111 S. Atlanta Place in Tulsa, Okla. Health officials on Thursday, March 28, 2013 urged thousands of patients of an Oklahoma oral surgeon to undergo hepatitis and HIV testing, saying unsanitary conditions behind his office's spiffy facade posed a threat to his clients and made him a "menace to the public health." (AP Photo/Tulsa World, Michael Wyke) ONLINE OUT; TV OUT; TULSA OUT

TULSA, Okla. (AP) ? Hundreds of patients of an Oklahoma oral surgeon accused of unsanitary practices showed up at a health clinic Saturday, looking to find out whether they were exposed to hepatitis or the virus that causes AIDS.

Letters began going out Friday to 7,000 patients who had seen Dr. W. Scott Harrington during the past six years, warning them that poor hygiene at his clinics created a public health hazard. The one-page letter said how and where to seek treatment but couldn't explain why Harrington's allegedly unsafe practices went on for so long.

Testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and the virus that causes AIDS began at 10 a.m. Saturday, but many arrived early and stood through torrential downpours. The Tulsa Health Department said 420 people were tested Saturday at its North Regional Health and Wellness Center. Screenings resume Monday morning.

Kari Childress, 38, showed up at 8:30 a.m., mainly because she was nervous.

"I just hope I don't have anything," said Childress, who had a tooth extracted at one of Harrington's two clinics five months ago. "You trust and believe in doctors to follow the rules, and that's the scariest part."

Inspectors found a number of problems at the doctor's clinics in Tulsa and suburban Owasso, according to the state Dentistry Board, which filed a 17-count complaint against Harrington pending an April 19 license revocation hearing. According to the complaint, needles were reinserted into drug vials after being used on patients, expired drugs were found in a medicine cabinet and dental assistants, not the doctor, administered sedatives to patients.

One patient, Orville Marshall, said he didn't meet Harrington until after he had two wisdom teeth pulled about five years ago at the Owasso clinic. A nurse inserted the IV for his anesthesia; Harrington was there when Marshall came to.

"It's just really scary. It makes you doubt the whole system, especially with how good his place looked," said Marshall, 37.

An instrument set reserved for use on patients with infectious diseases was rusty, preventing its effective sterilization, and the office autoclave ? a pressurized cleaner ? was used improperly and hadn't been certified as effective in at least six years, according to the complaint.

Dr. Matt Messina, a Cleveland dentist and a consumer adviser for the American Dental Association, said creating a safe and hygienic environment is "one of the fundamental requirements" before any dental procedure can be performed.

"It's not hard. It just takes effort," he said.

Weekly autoclave testing can be performed for less than $400 annually, according to the website of the Autoclave Testing Services of Pearl River, New York.

Autoclaves typically can be purchased for $1,000 to $8,000, depending on their size and features. And an average dental practice can expect to pay more than $40,000 a year in equipment, tools and supplies alone, according to several dental organizations.

Attempts to reach Harrington have been unsuccessful. No one answered the door Thursday at his Oklahoma home, which property records show is worth more than $1 million. His practice a few miles away, in a tony section of Tulsa where plastic surgeons operate and locals congregate at bistros and stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, has a fair-market value of around $851,000.

Property and tax records show Harrington owns another residence in Carefree, Ariz., in an area of upscale homes tucked into in the boulder-strewn mountains north of Phoenix.

Nobody was at home Saturday at the low-slung, 1950s-style vacation home, across from the Boulders Resort. Neighbors said they had seen a lot of activity at the home in recent weeks.

Harrington's malpractice lawyer, Jim Secrest II, did not respond to phone messages left Thursday or Friday. A message at Harrington's Tulsa office said it was closed and an answering service referred callers to the Tulsa Health Department.

Suzy Horton, an old friend of Harrington's, said she can't believe the allegations about the man who removed two of her teeth in the early '90s. Horton's ex-husband sold Harrington his home in Carefree ? a home where she once lived.

"I've been to dentists my whole life, so I know what a professional office looks like," Horton, who now lives in Phoenix, said in a telephone interview. "His was just as professional as anybody."

Horton hasn't seen Harrington in years, but she said he has sent her a Christmas card and wreath every year since her 1999 divorce.

"It was a long time ago, so I suppose anything can change, but the kind of person they're portraying in the news is not the kind of person who sends you a Christmas" card, she said.

___

Associated Press writers Traci Carl in Carefree, Ariz., and Jeannie Nuss in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-30-Dentist%20Investigation-Testing/id-19d4d577670640b3b74a2ce8f44643ef

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Is Sonianomics An 'Occult' Form Of Economics? - india news network

Is Sonianomics An ?Occult? Form Of Economics?

Instead of economics, are Congress president Sonia Gandhi?s pet welfare schemes drawn from the occult?

In an Indian Express column that evaluates 15 years of Sonia Gandhi?s leadership, Chairman of Oxus Investments Surjit S Bhalla says that the Congress chief?s economic policies, which were aimed at helping the poor, but ended up hurting them the most, defy ?pure reason? and dubs them ?occult economics?.

Her policies have their origin in the creation of the Congress in 1885 by the Theosophical Society, an occultist movement, he says.

?Sonia UPA?s alchemy raised procurement prices of food grains beyond reason, helped a few rich farmers (say 20 million) and massively hurt ten times as many landless agricultural workers. And by generating super-inflation for four years, transformed the Indian economy beyond recognition,? says Bhalla.

Bhalla also analyses the economics of MGNREGA, a UPA pet scheme aimed at giving employment to the rural poor.

According to Bhalla, as per the NSS data of 2009-10, of the Rs 1,70,000 crore spent on MGNREGA, only a fifth reached the intended beneficiaries. In other words, about Rs 1,40,000 crore went to the non-poor. The scheme has helped nothing but corruption, says Bhalla.

Another example of ?occult economics? is the 2013-14 budget, in which the government aims at 13 percent GDP growth and 16 percent expenditure growth, which is to be financed with a 19 percent growth in tax revenue.

A third example of this brand of economics is the Food Security Bill, which is slated to be presented in the current Budget session of Parliament. The bill seeks to provide subsidised food grains to 67 percent of the country?s population.

According to a recent report in The Hindu, the bill would burden the government with a subsidy bill of about Rs 1.35 lakh crore.

Such economic policies have already halved the GDP growth, doubled inflation, depreciated the rupee by 20 percent and widened the current account deficit to 6.7 percent of GDP.

For the country to come out of the economic rot, Sonia has to change her occult spots by resorting to economic reforms, the Bhalla says. Otherwise, the Congress?and with it the country?will perish.

Source: http://hyd-news.blogspot.com/2013/03/is-sonianomics-occult-form-of-economics.html

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Judge denies transgender pregnant man's divorce

PHOENIX (AP) ? An Arizona judge on Friday refused to grant a divorce for a transgender Arizona man who gave birth to three children after beginning to change his sex from female.

Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach ruled that Arizona's ban on same-sex marriages prevents Thomas Beatie's 9-year union from being recognized as valid.

Thomas Beatie was born a woman and later underwent a double-mastectomy, and began testosterone hormone therapy and psychological treatment to become a man, but he retained female reproductive organs and gave birth to three children.

Gerlach said he had no jurisdiction to approve a divorce because there's insufficient evidence that Beatie was a man when he married Nancy Beatie in Hawaii. He said the Beaties never provided records to fully explain what Thomas Beatie actually had done and not done to become a man.

"The decision here is not based on the conclusion that this case involves a same-sex marriage merely because one of the parties is a transsexual male, but instead, the decision is compelled by the fact that the parties failed to prove that (Thomas Beatie) was a transsexual male when they were issued their marriage license," he wrote in Friday's ruling.

A spokesman for Beatie, Ryan Gordon, said the judge's comments came as a shock and that Beatie plans to appeal the ruling. He said Beatie legally was married as a man and never was required to disclose that he retained female reproductive organs when applying for and being granted a new birth certificate in Hawaii as a man. He said Beatie halted testosterone treatments so that he could give birth to his children.

"It's unfortunate that the judge out here doesn't recognize marriage in another state," Gordon said.

Beatie is eager to end his marriage, but the couple's divorce plans stalled last summer when Gerlach said he was unable to find legal authority defining a man as someone who can give birth.

Gerlach's ruling didn't address whether Arizona law allows a person who was born female to marry another female after undergoing a sex change operation.

A separate ruling issued Friday by Gerlach sets guidelines on how the Beaties will co-parent their three children and grants them joint authority in making legal decisions. Thomas Beatie is required to pay nearly $240 a month to Nancy Beatie for child support, but she won't get alimony because the marriage was declared invalid.

Nancy Beatie's attorney, David Higgins, praised Gerlach for the thoroughness of the decision on the marriage, although it wasn't the one she had hoped for.

"He still sees a same-sex marriage, but he gave us all the rulings that we're asking for as far as the children," Higgins said.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, which isn't involved in the Beatie divorce case, has said courts have declared marriages involving a transgender person invalid in a handful of cases across the country, but that those cases had different factual and legal issues than those in the Beatie case.

Thomas Beatie, known as "The Pregnant Man," was born Tracy Lehuanani Lagondino in Oahu, Hawaii. He began testosterone treatments in 1997 and underwent double mastectomy and chest reconstruction surgery in 2002. He changed his Hawaii driver's license to say he was a man and had a Hawaiian court approve his name change to Thomas.

Gerlach's ruling noted that Thomas Beatie halted the testosterone treatments and that he didn't provide documentation for any additional non-surgical efforts.

Thomas Beatie married his partner Nancy in early 2003 in Honolulu and became pregnant because Nancy was unable to have children. Thomas Beatie conceived with donated sperm and gave birth to children who are now 4, 3 and 2 years old. The couple eventually moved to Arizona.

Beatie has garnered a range of media attention, making the rounds on talk shows such as Larry King and Oprah Winfrey and winning a spot on Barbara Walters' list of "10 Most Fascinating People" in 2008, alongside President Barack Obama, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh and swimmer Michael Phelps. He also published a book, "Labor Of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy," the cover displaying an image of a shirtless Thomas sporting facial hair and holding a hand over his bare pregnant belly.

___

Fonseca reported from Flagstaff, Ariz. Associated Press Writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-rejects-divorce-transgender-pregnant-man-162832151.html

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Obama touts infrastructure in Florida trip focused on economy

By Jeff Mason

MIAMI (Reuters) - President Barack Obama walked into the mouth of a giant tunnel in Miami on Friday to highlight proposals to boost investment in U.S. infrastructure, a move designed to show a leader still focused on the economy in the midst of broader policy battles in Washington.

Obama's tour of the Port of Miami tunnel project and a subsequent speech were aimed at convincing members of the U.S. Congress to back proposals that would leverage taxpayer dollars into funds to rebuild American roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

"My main message is, let's get this done," he said. "Let's rebuild this country that we love."

Obama, as he has in the past, said he wanted to develop a national infrastructure bank and capitalize it with $10 billion. The idea is to pull in private-sector funding and pick projects based on merit.

He would also create "America Fast Forward Bonds" that would help state and local governments attract money for infrastructure projects. These would be direct subsidy bonds in which the issuer would receive a 28 percent subsidy of the borrowing cost as a way of attracting a wider set of investors.

In addition, Obama would add $4 billion to support two programs that are used to provide grants for infrastructure projects like the Miami tunnel.

It is unclear how far the proposals will go in Congress. Republicans are reluctant to support what they consider government stimulus spending after a much criticized $787 billion stimulus plan that Obama managed to push through Congress in 2009.

The president noted that some people on both sides of the political spectrum, such as labor unions and the Chamber of Commerce, had supported his infrastructure ideas.

"Building bridges and schools, that's not a partisan idea," he said.

Obama was criticized in his first term for focusing too much on his signature policy goal of revamping the U.S. healthcare system, which critics said resulted in him giving less attention to the slow economic recovery.

The White House rejects that charge.

Since his re-election in November and his January inauguration, Obama has steered a policy push focused primarily on passing both immigration reform and tighter gun control measures.

However, his State of the Union address in February included a series of measures to boost the economy, and the Florida trip fleshed out some of those ideas.

Alan Krueger, Obama's chief economist, told reporters traveling with Obama on Air Force One that the three main proposals outlined by the president would cost some $21 billion but that cuts would be made elsewhere to avoid increasing the budget deficit.

Obama's fiscal 2014 budget proposal, which will be released on April 10, would spell out how they are paid for, he said. All of the proposals require congressional approval.

Although Obama will not run for re-election again, Florida is still important for him and his fellow Democrats. The political swing state backed the president in 2012 and will be critical to determining whether a Democrat holds on to the White House or whether a Republican recaptures it in 2016.

The White House believes an increase in infrastructure investment would make the United States more competitive while providing a boost to the construction industry, which is still suffering high levels of unemployment.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-touts-infrastructure-florida-trip-focused-economy-185512785--business.html

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Leadership fight divides Occidental shareholders: report

(Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp chairman and former chief executive Ray Irani is pushing to replace the oil company's current CEO, Stephen Chazen, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing "investors and people familiar with the company's operations."

However, several big investors who support Chazen have considered the possibility of trying to vote some directors, including Irani, off the board, the newspaper said, citing "people familiar with their plans."

The debate over the leadership of the fourth-largest U.S. oil company has divided major shareholders ahead of the company's annual meeting on May 3, the newspaper said.

The boardroom drama comes as shares of Occidental have fallen 18 percent in the past year, compared with an 11 percent rise for California rival Chevron Corp and a 4 percent rise for giant Exxon Mobil Corp .

Occidental, in a brief press release on February 14, announced that it was searching for someone to succeed Chazen, 66, after less than two years in the top job.

Yet, earlier this month at an industry event in New Orleans, Chazen told a group of investors that he did not volunteer to leave, the newspaper said.

Chazen is only the third CEO at Occidental in half a century. Irani was named CEO in 1990 by Armand Hammer, a flamboyant tycoon who spent three decades building the company up from a small firm of just three employees.

Chazen and Irani found both themselves targeted over their high compensation, until a shareholder effort to take board seats sparked reform in 2010. Chazen ended up earning compensation worth $31.7 million in 2011, down from $38.1 million the year before, while Irani made $49.8 million in 2011, down from $76.1 million.

The 78-year-old Irani, who is scheduled to retire at the end of 2014, owns a substantial amount of Occidental stock, the Journal said.

Occidental's lead director, Aziz Syriani, said in a statement that the company's independent directors, and not Irani, were making decisions about Chazen's eventual successor.

"Any suggestion otherwise, or insinuation that Dr. Irani is guiding the process, is completely and flatly wrong," Syriani said in the statement, which Occidental provided to Reuters.

An Occidental spokeswoman had no additional comment.

(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fight-over-leadership-divides-occidental-shareholders-report-164541947--finance.html

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Exclusive! Ryan Gosling's Friends Tease Him for Being Hot

The fact that he has a coloring book, endless Tumblr pages and an awesome meme all dedicated to him can only mean one thing: The ladies love Ryan Gosling! 

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/ryan-gosling-my-friends-tease-me-about-my-heartthrob-status-0/1-a-530936?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aryan-gosling-my-friends-tease-me-about-my-heartthrob-status-0-530936

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MLB polishes At Bat 13 on iOS and Android ahead of Opening Day, brings app to BlackBerry Z10

With the 2013 season looming just around the corner, it's only natural for Major League Baseball to make sure its various applications on different platforms are all ready to go come this weekend. And as it did with MLB.tv on Xbox Live a couple days ago, MLB's now also updated the At Bat Android and iOS apps, leaving behind the spring training features from last month and making room for ones that are tailored for this year's Opening Day and forward. For subscribers, this means things such as multi-platform live audio, more video highlights, a virtual archive of classic games and a revamped news section within the apps. What's more, MLB has kept its promise of bringing At Bat 13 to the BB10 crowd, giving BlackBerry Z10 owners the ability to download the app starting today. Clearly, it's that time of the year again, that time where your Yankees-cheering friends tell you all about how A-Rod, when fit, is the best player in the game. Or, if they're Giants fans, how they really, really, hope the tale of Samson's hair won't apply to Tim Lincecum.

Filed under: Misc, Home Entertainment, Software, Mobile

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Source: MLB

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This Sculpture Makes a Highly Magnetic Material Move to Your Music

Ferrofluids are liquids that become super magnetized when they're in contact with a magnetic field. Ferrocious is a ferrofluid sculpture that uses the hyper-magnetic material respond to sound, like a high-tech musical lava lamp. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QdpduPo_22U/musical-sculpture-makes-a-highly-magnetic-material-move-to-the-beat

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Self Improvement-Wealth -Attraction-Success | Self Help Success ...

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

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The power of the gay kiss (Americablog)

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Egypt could hold delayed election in October: Mursi

By Tom Perry and Yasmine Saleh

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said on Wednesday parliamentary elections could be delayed until October, a postponement which could give his cash-strapped administration breathing space to negotiate an IMF deal.

Mursi's original plan was for a four-stage election that would start in late April and put a parliament in place by July.

But the schedule fell apart this month when a court canceled the presidential decree setting the dates. "Perhaps the elections will be held in the coming October," state news agency MENA quoted Mursi as saying.

The postponement removes one source of friction between Mursi and the secular-minded opposition that had planned to boycott the vote on the grounds that the election law had been drawn up to suit Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists.

But many tensions remain in a political landscape where divisions have deepened since Mursi was elected in June.

The acrimony will complicate efforts to build the consensus that the International Monetary Fund wants to underpin a loan deal likely to require cuts in unaffordable state subsidies.

This week Mursi's opponents accused him of instigating a crackdown on dissent when the prosecutor-general ordered the arrest of five bloggers alleged to have incited violence against the Brotherhood.

Mursi has in turn hardened his tone in response to recent violence triggered by protests against him and the Brotherhood. After promising on Sunday to take unspecified steps to protect the nation, Mursi vowed on Tuesday to "break the neck" of anyone who threw a petrol bomb.

The unrest is frustrating efforts to revive the economy.

Dwindling wheat stocks and shortages of imported fuel have increased the urgency of securing the IMF loan to plug the budget deficit and support foreign currency reserves that have dropped below the level needed for three months of imports.

The government has said it expects an IMF technical mission in Cairo soon to complete negotiations on the agreement.

The IMF, however, has not given a date. The planning minister said last week he expected a deal and payment of the first tranche of the loan by the end of June.

Masood Ahmed, director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia department, held talks in Cairo earlier this month, saying loan discussions would continue in the coming weeks.

A GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLE?

An IMF deal would unlock billions of dollars in further support for Egypt. But political consensus is seen as vital.

With elections postponed, Mursi may have to give ground to opposition demands including a change in government.

"This could increase the possibility of a reshuffle. It would force some concessions in line with opposition demands," said Mona Mansour, chief regional economist at CI Capital.

Ahmed Omran, Mursi's adviser for development issues, told a Kuwaiti newspaper this week that one way forward would be for Mursi to head the government himself.

But the arrest warrants for the bloggers appeared to have made the opposition less willing to talk of give-and-take.

"If he is going to arrest us, arrest the activists, threaten the opposition, I don't think this is showing any sign of compromise," said Khaled Dawoud, spokesman for the National Salvation Front, an alliance of non-Islamist parties that have come together to oppose Mursi.

Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science and a critic of Mursi, also questioned the Islamist leader's readiness for concessions. "If the president had wanted a dialogue, he would have postponed the elections a while ago," he said.

One opposition demand is for the removal of the prosecutor- general appointed by Mursi in November.

In a blow to the president, an appeals court on Wednesday ordered the reinstatement of the former prosecutor-general, a Hosni Mubarak-era appointee whom Mursi had sacked. It was not immediately clear whether Mursi would appeal.

Mursi had billed the parliamentary election as completing the transition from Mubarak's autocracy. A court dissolved the previous lower house, which was led by the Brotherhood, in June.

Mursi now expects the new lower house to convene by the end of the year, according to MENA, the state news agency, which said it would take two and a half months to complete a new election law and another two months to prepare for the vote.

Yasser Mehrez, a Brotherhood spokesman, said Mursi's critics should now "calm down" since the delay met one of their demands. "I really hope they react to it positively," he said.

(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mursi-sees-parliamentary-vote-october-mena-061926659.html

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BMW and Mini cars add iOS integration for Audible, Glympse, Rhapsody and TuneIn

BMW hasn't been quite as aggressive in pushing smartphone app integration as American counterparts like Ford or GM, but it certainly knows how to make up for lost time: the Munich automaker just greenlit tie-ins with the iOS apps from Audible, Glympse, Rhapsody and TuneIn. Plug in a device and it will be possible to wield the apps' respective audiobook, location sharing, subscription music and live streaming radio services from a BMW Apps-capable BMW or Mini, with an interface optimized for the center stack. Each of the developers will need to update their app to make everything click, which we're told may take weeks. There still shouldn't be much wait before fans of Teutonic (and British) rides can get lost while streaming favorite songs -- and tell everyone just how far they went off-course.

Gallery: BMW integration with Audible, Glympse, Rhapsody and TuneIn

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Mobile

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Source: BMW

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/bmw-integration-for-audible-glympse-rhapsody-tunein/

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US eyes anti-piracy effort along west Africa coast

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. and some of its allies are considering plans to increase anti-piracy operations along Africa's west coast, spurred on by concerns that money from the attacks is funding a Nigerian-based insurgent group that is linked to one of al-Qaida's most dangerous affiliates.

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has escalated over the past year, and senior U.S. defense and counter-piracy officials say allied leaders are weighing whether beefed up enforcement efforts that worked against pirates off the Somalia coast might also be needed in the waters off Nigeria.

There has been growing coordination between Nigeria-based Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which was linked to the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last September that killed four Americans, including the ambassador. Military leaders say AQIM has become the wealthiest al-Qaida offshoot and an increasing terrorist threat to the region.

It has long been difficult to track whether there are terrorist ties to piracy in the waters off Africa. But officials are worried that even if Boko Haram insurgents aren't directly involved in the attacks off Nigeria and Cameroon, they may be reaping some of the profits and using the money for ongoing terrorist training or weapons.

No final decisions have been made on how counter-piracy operations could be increased in that region, and budget restrictions could hamper that effort, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about emerging discussions between senior U.S. military commanders and other international leaders.

But officials say the solution could include continued work and counter-piracy training with African nations. The U.S. participated last month in a maritime exercise with European and African partners in the Gulf of Guinea.

"Maritime partnerships and maritime security and safety are increasingly important in the Gulf of Guinea region to combat a variety of challenges including maritime crime, illicit trafficking and piracy," said Gen. Carter Ham, head of U.S. Africa Command.

In recent weeks, Ham and other U.S. military commanders have bluntly warned Congress that the terrorist threat from northern Africa has become far more worrisome.

"If the threat that is present in Africa is left unaddressed, it will over time grow to an increasingly dangerous and imminent threat to U.S. interests, and certainly could develop into a threat that threatens us in other places," Ham told Congress earlier this month. "We've already seen from some places in Africa, individuals that ? from Nigeria, for example ? attempt to enter our country with explosives."

A Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was sentenced to life in prison last year for trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear on Christmas 2009. The bomb failed.

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has escalated from low-level armed robberies to hijackings and cargo thefts and kidnappings. Last year, London-based Lloyd's Market Association ? an umbrella group of insurers ? listed oil-rich Nigeria, neighboring Benin and nearby waters in the same risk category as Somalia.

Pirates have been more willing to use violence in their robberies, at times targeting the crew for ransom. And experts suggest that many of the pirates come from Nigeria, where corrupt law enforcement allows criminality to thrive and there's a bustling black market for stolen crude oil.

Typically, foreign companies operating in Nigeria's Niger Delta pay cash ransoms to free their employees after negotiating down kidnappers' demands. Foreign hostages can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.

Lately, however, the attacks, which had traditionally focused on the Nigerian coast, have spread, hitting ships carrying fuel from an Ivory Coast port. In January pirates made off with about $5 million in cargo from a fuel-laden tanker near the port of Abidjan, and two weeks later a French-owned fuel tanker was hijacked in the same area.

Just days after that, three sailors were kidnapped off a U.K.-flagged ship off the coast of Nigeria, and late in February six foreigners were taken off an energy company vessel in that same region.

The International Maritime Bureau has raised alarms about the Ivory Coast attacks, calling the first January incident a "potential game changer" in piracy in the region because was the farthest ever from Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea. And U.S. Navy Capt. Dave Rollo, who directed the recent naval exercise in the Gulf of Guinea that involved as many as 15 nations, said piracy in that area is not just a regional crime issue, it's "a global problem."

Meanwhile, over the past year, piracy off Somalia's coast has plummeted, as the U.S.-led enforcement effort beefed up patrols and encouraged increased security measures on ships transiting the region. After repeated urgings from military commanders and other officials, shipping companies increased the use of armed guards and took steps to better avoid and deter pirates.

According to data from the combined maritime force, nearly 50 ships were taken by pirates in 2010 in the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin and there were another close to 200 unsuccessful attempts. Last year, just seven ships were pirated there along with 36 failed attacks.

Even as defense officials warn about the growing threat, they acknowledge that increasing counter-piracy operations around the Gulf of Guinea presents a number of challenges.

In recent weeks, the U.S. Navy has had to postpone or cancel a number of ship deployments because of budget cuts, including a decision not to send the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman to the Persian Gulf. The U.S. has maintained two carrier groups in the Gulf for much of the past two years, as tensions with Iran have escalated.

U.S. Africa Command has no ships of its own, so any U.S. vessels needed for operations would have to come from other places, such as Europe or America.

And defense officials also note that it may be difficult to build as much international interest in the Gulf of Guinea attacks as those in the more heavily traveled shipping lanes on the northeastern side of the continent.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-eyes-anti-piracy-effort-along-west-africa-151649714--politics.html

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Global shares, crude oil rise in wake of U.S. data

By Herbert Lash

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equity markets and crude oil rose on Tuesday after housing and manufacturing data added to evidence of an improving U.S. economy and helped offset investor concerns about the Cyprus bailout.

Wall Street advanced on separate reports that showed demand for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods surged in February while U.S. single-family home prices started the year with the biggest annual increase since June 2006.

But the Conference Board, an industry group, reported that consumer confidence tumbled in March as Americans turned more pessimistic about short-term economic prospects, adding a note of caution to a market still skittish over Cyprus.

The S&P 500 surged in a late-day rally to close at its highest peak since this year's rally has attempted to break through the all-time closing high set in October 2007. The benchmark index closed 1.38 points below the record.

Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut, said investors needed to see further improvement in the economy for equities to move higher.

The euro edged higher against the U.S. dollar but remained near four-month lows as concerns lingered over implications of the rescue plan for Cyprus, and whether it would shape any future plans for other euro zone economies requiring bailouts.

The single currency remains vulnerable to concern investors may shun euro zone assets or withdraw money from banks in other debt-plagued countries like Spain and Italy.

"There's uncertainty in Europe as for what is the blueprint when (economies) need to be rescued," said Sheldon. "The market trend continues to be higher, but investors are gun-shy in light of recent gains."

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 111.90 points, or 0.77 percent, at 14,559.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 12.08 points, or 0.78 percent, at 1,563.77. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 17.18 points, or 0.53 percent, at 3,252.48.

Advancing volume and issues on the New York Stock Exchange were more than double declining volume and issues.

MSCI's all-country world index, which tracks 6,000 stocks in 45 countries, rose 0.42 percent to 359.29.

In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 of leading regional shares closed 0.21 percent higher at 1,188.89.

"Markets are struggling to find direction due to the confusing position taken by authorities in relation to Cyprus, although they're continuing to react to positive data from the United States," said Henk Potts, market strategist at Barclays.

Brent crude futures swung between gains and losses before settling higher, while U.S. crude pushed higher on the supportive economic data.

Brent rose $1.19 to settle at $109.36 a barrel. U.S. crude gained $1.53 to settle at $96.34 a barrel.

"Solid housing data showing rising home prices pointed to a U.S. economy that continues to rebound, helping boost U.S. crude," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

The euro last traded at $1.2858, up 0.007 percent in a session of choppy trading.

Political uncertainty in Italy and the divergence of the weak European economy compared with the recovery in the United States, along with concerns over any fallout from Cyprus' crisis, may limit the single currency's upside.

U.S. government debt traded most of the session lower, but prices moved higher toward the end of day. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 2/32 in price to yield 1.9111 percent.

Gold, which typically benefits from economic uncertainty, fell. U.S. gold futures for April delivery settled down $8.80 at $1,595.70 an ounce. Spot gold prices fell $6.00 to $1,598.90.

(Additional reporting by Marc Jones in London; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Bernadette Baum and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/global-shares-crude-oil-rise-wake-u-data-193830090--finance.html

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Column: Bubbles in food prices: John Kemp

By John Kemp

LONDON (Reuters) - A thoughtful new paper from researchers at the University of Illinois marks a significant step forward in research on how commodity futures prices are formed.

Until recently, the academic and policy debate about futures price formation has been locked in an acrimonious and polarized standoff between market fundamentalists, who insist all price moves reflect supply and demand fundamentals, and those writers who blame speculators for every rise in food and fuel prices.

Both views tend to be colored by the policy outcomes researchers favor. Anti-poverty campaigners focus on the role of speculation because they want governments to impose more controls on the cost of food and fuel. Free-market economists stress the role of fundamentals to deny governments any ammunition to meddle.

Both positions are extreme and unconvincing.

Now Xiaoli Etienne, Scott Irwin and Philip Garcia have published an innovative paper examining the evidence for temporary price bubbles in markets where prices are otherwise driven by fundamental factors.

According to the authors, futures prices for grains, livestock and soft commodities like sugar have all exhibited multiple bubbles over the last four decades, with bubbles more common in the 1970s and again in the 2000s than during the 1980s and 1990s.

Bubbles pre-date the rising popularity of indexing strategies and the "financialisation" of commodity markets. There is no evidence bubbles have become more frequent or larger following the entry of more financial investors into commodity futures markets since 2005.

"Bubbles existed long before commodity index traders arrived and the process of commodity market financialisation started," according to a paper on "Bubbles in Food Commodity Markets: Four Decades of Evidence" presented at an IMF seminar in Washington on March 21.

In fact most of the biggest and long-lasting bubbles occurred in 1971-76. Financialisation may have ensured bubble-like price movements are now smaller and reverse more quickly.

"Compared to the post-2000 years, speculators and irrational traders (may have) played a greater role influencing prices in the 1970s because markets were less actively traded. The arrival of new traders in recent years, coupled with a dramatic increase in trading volumes, has increased market liquidity, apparently reducing the frequency of bubbles," the authors write (http://www.imf.org/external/np/seminars/eng/2012/commodity/pdf/irwin.pdf).

PRICE MOMENTUM

The persistence of bubbles remains perplexing. The authors speculate bubbles may be driven by herding behavior, momentum trading or other "noise traders".

"One possible explanation may be that markets are sometimes driven by herd behavior unrelated to economic realities ... As markets overreact to new information, commodity prices may thus show excess volatility and become explosive."

"It may also be that there are many positive feedback traders in the market who buy more when the price shows an upward trend and sell in the opposite situation. When there are too many feedback traders for the markets to absorb, speculative bubbles can occur in which expectations of higher future prices support high current prices."

"It may be fads, herding behavior, feedback trading, or other noise traders that have long plagued futures markets were highly influential in recent price behavior. Recent empirical evidence does suggest that herding behavior exists in futures markets among hedge funds and floor participants."

The paper concludes with an appeal for more research to identify the source of bubble-like price behavior.

GREAT LEAP FORWARD

In most other asset classes, it is now accepted market prices are basically driven by fundamentals, especially in the medium and long run, but in the short term can department from them, sometimes significantly, as a result of speculative factors.

As billionaire investor Warren Buffett noted in 1988 about the hardline believers in efficient market theory: "Observing correctly that the market was frequently efficient, they went on to conclude incorrectly that it was always efficient. The difference between these propositions is night and day."

Now a new generation of researchers are developing theories which allow for a combination of both fundamental and speculative factors to affect commodity futures prices.

Etienne, Irwin and Garcia's paper is a big step forward because it carefully distinguishes between the influence of the commodity index traders and the short-term bubbles evident in commodity futures prices.

It also shows how behavioral factors could be integrated into a fundamental theory of commodity futures pricing, as has been accepted in every other major asset class.

Crucially, it shows how herding, momentum-based trading strategies and other noise trading may cause futures prices temporarily to depart from fundamentally determined levels, but suggests such deviations have been relatively brief and reversed within weeks or months.

Bubbles may always have been part of the operation of futures markets. For a sample of around 40 annual contracts in 12 different commodities, the authors found bubble-like behavior in about a third of the contract months studied. Bubbles occurred most frequently in sugar (55 percent of contracts studied) and least frequently in feeder cattle (25 percent) and wheat (24 percent).

BEHAVIOUR AND FUNDAMENTALS

The University of Illinois' Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics is one of the most respected institutions in the field of commodities and derivatives, so the findings cannot be readily dismissed.

In some ways, commodity research is catching up with developments elsewhere. The formation and subsequent collapse of bubbles in other markets has been extensively studied by George Soros ("The Alchemy of Finance" 1987), Didier Sornette ("Why Stock Markets Crash" 2003) and Robert Shiller ("Irrational Exuberance" 2009) for 25 years.

Etienne, Irwin and Garcia have shown how the same approach could help improve understanding of commodity futures markets.

The authors observe "speculative bubbles are not isolated phenomena in agricultural markets, but appear in other futures markets including energy and metals markets as well" citing work by Phillips and Yu ("Dating the timeline of financial bubbles" 2011) and Gilbert ("Speculative Influences on Commodity Futures Prices" 2010).

The paper does not investigate energy futures markets. But the approach could be usefully applied to see if energy and metals markets exhibit similar bubble phenomena.

A theory of commodity price formation that embraces both fundamental and behavioral factors would provide a much richer and more realistic understanding of how futures prices are set.

Accepting that bubbles occur in food (and possibly fuel) prices does not mean they should be regulated out of existence.

Bubbles may be an integral part of the normal process of price formation in any financial market, including commodities, as investors grope towards an equilibrium in the face of incomplete information and limited liquidity.

Trying to eliminate bubbles through regulation may do more harm than good. Accepting temporary bubbles may be the price for allowing the market to perform its long-term function of price discovery.

But the paper should finally move the academic and policy debate beyond its polarized focus on whether speculation impacts commodity futures prices to ask a more nuanced question: how?

(Editing by William Hardy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/column-bubbles-food-prices-john-kemp-211121742.html

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Bars test limits of legal-marijuana laws in WA, CO

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) ? John Connelly leaned forward on his barstool, set his lips against a clear glass pipe and inhaled a white cloud of marijuana vapor.

A handful of people milled around him. Three young women stood behind the bar, ready to assist with the preparation of the bongs, as the strains of a blues band playing downstairs sounded faintly off the exposed brick walls.

"It feels so comfortable in here," said Connelly, 33. "It's just a great social aspect."

Welcome to the Stonegate ? puns welcome. It's one of a tiny number of bars, cafes and private clubs catering to the stoner class in Washington and Colorado since voters last fall made them the first states to legalize marijuana for adults over 21.

Both states bar the public use of marijuana ? which typically would include bars and restaurants ? and most bars are steering clear of allowing pot use at least until officials come up with rules for the new weed industry.

But a few have been testing the boundaries of what's allowed in hopes of drumming up business and making a political statement.

"I've been running a bar a few years now, and people would always go outside around the corner, into the shadows, to smoke up," said Jeff Call, the Stonegate's owner. "People shouldn't have to hide. There's no rules yet, but I'm trying to do this thoughtfully and responsibly."

Washington's law bans pot distribution by anyone but a licensed seller ? and no such licenses will be issued until the end of the year at the earliest. There's also a statewide smoking ban that prohibits smoking where people work.

So the establishments are trying various strategies to allow on-site consumption.

Frankie's Sports Bar and Grill in Olympia is less than a mile from the headquarters of the Washington State Liquor Control Board, where officials are writing rules for the pot industry. It allows members of its private smoking room to use tobacco or marijuana.

The owner, Frankie Schnarr, said his revenue has jumped by nearly half since he started allowing pot smoking in December.

In Denver, Club 64 ? named after Colorado's law, Amendment 64 ? charges a $30 yearly membership for the privilege of getting high in a private social setting. Members receive emails alerting them to the locations of club "meetings," like a recent St. Patrick's Day party hosted by a local bar, featuring marijuana-infused green beer.

Club 64 owner Robert Corry, an attorney, wants to open a bar where he can welcome members on a daily basis.

"A marijuana club is exactly what the voters wanted," Corry said. "Colorado voters knew exactly what we were doing."

The Front Tea & Art Shop in Lafayette, about 20 miles north of Denver, offered "cannabis-friendly" evenings six nights a week at which customers over 21 were allowed to bring their own pot.

Owner Veronica Carpio said the cafe attracted 25 people a day ? until last month, when Lafayette declared a moratorium on pot use at businesses. She's suing, arguing the city overstepped its authority.

Anyone who wanders up the stairs to the Stonegate's second-floor smoking lounge is charged a nominal fee ? $1 a day to $20 a year ? to become a member of the private club. To evade the smoking ban, there's no smoking allowed ? only "vaporizing," a method that involves heating the marijuana without burning it.

Call provides space in the lounge ? an L-shaped bar of blond wood, painted with portraits of Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughn and other rock heroes ? to the proprietor of a local medical marijuana dispensary.

People who don't have a medical authorization have to bring their own pot, then rent a vaporizer ? $10 by the half-hour ? or pay to have one prepared for them. For $5, those who do have an authorization are offered various preparations of "shatter" ? a hardened oil of powerful marijuana extract.

Call opened his rum-and-pizza joint a few years ago in a brick building along a formerly seedy stretch of shops, bars and restaurants. The second floor had recently been operated as a brothel, he said.

On a recent Friday night, a gentle scent of fresh marijuana filled the room. At one table, a handful of twenty-somethings inhaled deeply from a rubber hose attached to a rented vaporizer, a black box that toasted the cannabis to 375 degrees.

Those who wanted a more powerful dose grabbed a seat at the bar, where Jenae DeCampo, a 21-year-old in a black tube-top, pulled out a small blowtorch.

DeCampo held the hissing flame to the metal stem of a clear glass bong until the metal glowed orange. With a wand, she picked up a small piece of what looked like amber ? a chunk of potent, hardened marijuana oil ? and rubbed it on the scorching metal.

A white cloud filled the pipe, bubbled through the water at the bottom and rushed into Connelly's lungs.

"A lot of people are shocked by what we're doing because it's so uncommon," DeCampo said. "I like being part of something that could possibly be big."

Tacoma's code enforcement staff is reviewing the Stonegate's operation, a city spokeswoman said.

Justin Nordhorn, the state liquor board's chief of enforcement, has some concerns about bars that allow pot use. Most importantly, he said, is that marijuana can compound alcohol's intoxicating effects, meaning people might be even more dangerous when driving.

He also doubted whether the "private club" aspect of the establishments would keep them out of trouble. A truly private club that serves alcohol ? say, an Elks Lodge ? would have to have a liquor license specific to private clubs, and members of the public couldn't be allowed in.

For now, Nordhorn noted, there is a loophole in the state board's ability to block bars from allowing pot use. Its rules require bars to address on-site criminal violations, but public use of marijuana is only a civil infraction ? meaning officials can't necessarily punish bars that let people partake, even if police could come in and write tickets to toking customers.

That's something the board could address as it makes rules for the new pot industry.

For now, Call's goal is to get more people into the bar ? people who will get hungry and order pizzas.

"People are just smiling and friendly and happy," Call said. "I just really like the feeling you get when you're up here."

___

Associated Press writer Alexandra Tilsley in Denver contributed to this report.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

Tilsley can be reached at http://twitter.com/atilsley

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bars-test-limits-legal-marijuana-laws-wa-co-090148596.html

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Aeromexico, Mexico's largest transcontinental airline and the Tesoros de Mexico...

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/TravelDailyNews/posts/10151375399511964

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Academic Services Manager at China Europe International Business

Location: Greater Accra Region
Description:

Job Title: Academic Services Manager

Job Location: Accra, Greater Accra Region

.

Responsibilities

Responsible for:

• Organization & delivery of all CEIBS Africa programmes through:
• Course coordination & administration
• Coordinating travel and protocol arrangements for Professors and International Students
• Coordinating Graduation arrangement & other CEIBS events
• Developing a virtual learning environment for all programmes
• Communicating with students and programme participants
• Supporting accreditation procedures
• Other relevant roles

Qualification and Requirements

Academic Qualifications

• A good first degree, plus additional relevant professional qualifications from world-class tertiary institution

Effectiveness Skills

• Excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing
• Proven leadership and management ability
• Strong IT proficiency
• Other relevant skills and ability, including language diversity

Experience & Ability

• At least 8 years professional experience, five of which must have been played in a similar role. A minimum of five (5) years is required for the Academic Service Manager role
• Proven experience in developing, marketing or managing executive education programmes in a superior academic context
• Exposure and ability to utilize Africa-wide links and networks for fulfilling the respective roles
• Ability to build and maintain effective partnership with strategic individuals and organisations
• Ability to related to individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds

If you are qualified for this position, Send your CV to 1526@jbgh.me or click http://www.jobberman.com.gh/job/6413/academic-services-manager-at-china-europe-international-business-school-ceibs/ to apply

Source: http://www.ghanamma.com/2013/03/academic-services-manager-at-china-europe-international-business-school-ceibs/

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Bar Refaeli Controversy: Model Criticized For Role in Pro-Israel Campaign

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/bar-refaeli-controversy-model-criticized-for-role-in-pro-israel/

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NJ liquor store sold $338M Powerball ticket

Baiju Amin hands lottery tickets to a customer at Union Food Store in Totowa, N.J. on Sunday, March 24, 2013. The lone winning ticket for a $338.3 million Powerball drawing was sold in New Jersey. Details on where and when the winning ticket was purchased and other related information were not disclosed Sunday by New Jersey Lottery officials, who also would not say if anyone claiming to hold the ticket had contacted them as of Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/The Record (Bergen County NJ), Tyson Trish)

Baiju Amin hands lottery tickets to a customer at Union Food Store in Totowa, N.J. on Sunday, March 24, 2013. The lone winning ticket for a $338.3 million Powerball drawing was sold in New Jersey. Details on where and when the winning ticket was purchased and other related information were not disclosed Sunday by New Jersey Lottery officials, who also would not say if anyone claiming to hold the ticket had contacted them as of Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/The Record (Bergen County NJ), Tyson Trish)

FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 file photo, a Powerball form and purchased ticket are on the counter at the Jayhawk Food Mart in Lawrence, Kan. A single ticket sold in New Jersey matched all six numbers in the Saturday night, March 23, 2013 drawing for the $338.3 million Powerball jackpot, lottery officials said. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File)

PASSAIC, N.J. (AP) ? One mystery was solved Monday in the $338.3 Powerball jackpot drawing ? the location in New Jersey where the winning ticket was sold. But a bigger mystery remained: Who bought it?

New Jersey lottery officials announced a liquor store in the city of Passaic, 15 miles northwest of New York City, had sold the ticket but said they hadn't heard from the winner ? who has a year to step forward and claim the prize.

Eagle Liquors owner Sunil Sethi said "a couple of people are telling us they got it, but nobody has confirmed it yet."

Liquor store employee Pravin Mankodia, 67, who has worked at Eagle for seven years, sold the ticket. "It feels awesome, we feel so lucky," he said.

The store will get $10,000. The owner said he'll probably use some of the money to fix up the store and also share some with employees.

As word spread that Eagle had sold the ticket, some patrons continued to dream about what could have been.

James Brown, 56, of Passaic, who described himself as a scrap man, as in scrap metal, said he would have returned to his home state if he had scored the big jackpot.

"I like it here, but I'd be back in South Carolina by now if I had won. I would like to go back home and retire," he said.

Brown buys lottery tickets twice a day and said he will keep doing so.

He then sought out Mankodia.

"Maybe he'll shake my hand and give me some luck, too," he said.

Other patrons were excited that someone from the area had apparently won the big jackpot.

"It's about time someone from Passaic wins something," said Gloria Brinson of Paterson, who buys lottery tickets at the store each week. "But now the question is what are they going to do with the money? Are they going to help the community? I hope so."

The winner will owe 25 percent of the jackpot in federal taxes and 3 percent in state taxes, which amounts to about $59 million, according to state lottery officials. The cash value of the jackpot after taxes is about $152 million, if the winner chooses a lump-sum payment of $221 million over an annuity.

State lottery director Carole Hedinger said it's not unusual for big winners to wait a few days or longer to claim the prize while they seek professional advice.

Lottery officials said it was the fourth-largest jackpot in Powerball history. The numbers drawn Saturday were 17, 29, 31, 52, 53 and Powerball 31.

No one had won the Powerball jackpot since early February, when Dave Honeywell in Virginia bought the winning ticket and elected a cash lump sum for his $217 million jackpot.

The largest Powerball jackpot ever came in at $587.5 million in November. The winning numbers were picked on two different tickets ? one by a couple in Missouri and the other by an Arizona man ? and the jackpot was split.

Nebraska still holds the record for the largest Powerball jackpot won on a single ticket ? $365 million ? by eight workers at a Lincoln meatpacking plant in February 2006.

Powerball is played in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The chance of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is about 1 in 175 million.

___

Associated Press writer Angela Delli Santi contributed to this report from Lawrenceville, N.J.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-25-US-Powerball-Jackpot/id-ac142d1f01c8400ebb2ca5abf6f06ac9

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Bloomberg: ?We're Going To Have More Visibility And Less Privacy,' Drones And Surveillance Coming

“We’re going to have more visibility and less privacy. I don’t see how you stop that,” admitted New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, in a surprisingly candid interview about the future of the surveillance state in the Big Apple. While admitting that increased surveillance was “scary” and that governments will have to be thoughtful with their laws, he seemed to side with prioritizing radical transparency, especially through the use of automated drones, “but what?s the difference whether the drone is up in the air or on the building? I mean intellectually I have trouble making a distinction.” This puts Bloomberg squarely at odds with the growing number of states and congressmen either enacting or proposing moratoriums on the use of drones. Indeed, he went on to imply that the fears against drones were somewhat unjustified, especially since security cameras already exist, “The argument against using automation, it’s this craziness– oh, it’s Big Brother. Get used to it. When there’s a murder, a shooting, a robbery of something the first thing the police do is go to every single building in the neighborhood and say let’s see your security camera.” NY Daily news notes that the New York Civil Liberties union has identified roughly 2,4000 cameras already affixed on Manhattan buildings–a presence that is likely to increase if Bloomberg’s most recent interview is to be believed. Lest Bloomberg be labeled as a surveillience hawk, the interview took on a tone of inevitability, rather than advocacy, “Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it.” Listen to part of the interview with WOR-AM host John Gambling, below. We’ll have more analysis soon.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/uV8cZfaFdTU/

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The drones are coming ... but our laws aren't ready

Nidhi Subbaraman , NBC News ? ? ? 6 hrs.

When a fire broke out in a church in Mesa County, Colo., in September 2011, the police department was ready with its flight team. Strapping a thermal camera to a Draganflyer X6, they flew the drone above the burning building. Together, police and firemen identified hotspots in the structure, and traced the direction in which the fire was spreading.

In 2010, a 5-pound Marcus drone was loaned to forest rangers in West Virginia by University Cincinnati researchers, in order to monitor a controlled burn. Now the group is developing an unmanned system to help control wildfires.

Even the Global Hawk, used by the U.S. Army, has entered civilian life. NOAA and NASA have decked two out with all kinds of sensors to watch storms as they brew. The crafts can endure (comparatively) long missions, letting researchers study large-scale weather patterns, like how grains from a Sahara sandstorm can seed a new hurricane when they reach the ocean.

There's no doubt drones can do a world of good. They can get to places humans can't, and do many jobs quicker ? for a fraction of the cost. Benjamin Miller, who manages the Mesa County Sheriff?s Office drone program, estimates that drones can do "30 percent of the missions of manned aviation for 2 percent of the cost." The two Mesa County drones cost $25 for each hour they are used.

But state-level bills cropping up across the U.S. could ground virtuous drones used in rescue and research. Meanwhile, privacy advocates and legal experts disagree over how effective the proposed legislation really will be.

In Oregon, one proposed bill requires that anyone who operates a drone, whether it's a local police department or a hobbyist, get a license from the Oregon Department of Aviation first.

An Indiana state bill wouldn't let a news station survey traffic on a highway, or let law enforcement send out an unmanned search party for lost hikers, the American Civil Liberties Union's Allie Bohm explained to NBC News. And a Nebraska bill wouldn't allow law enforcement to gather evidence or information via drone except in the case of a terrorist threat.

Two bills on the governor's desk in Virginia propose drone restrictions, but exclude select cases, such as search and rescue. Same for a bill proposed in Massachusetts last December, which would require police to get a warrant before sending a drone to collect aerial photography or thermal data as part of a criminal investigation.

Privacy advocates told NBC News they support this type of drone law.

"With drones, we have arrived at a moment when it is technologically possible to engage in constant mass aerial surveillance," the ACLU's Jay Stanley told NBC News. But don't surveillance cameras do some of that already? "We don't like those either," Stanley added, "But I think that drones raise the stakes considerably from there."

There's currently a trade-off between how maneuverable a drone can be and how long it can stay in the air. You can't combine the endurance of the solar-panelled QinetiQ Zephyr ? which stayed aloft in the Nevada desert for two straight weeks, but whose view can be blocked by clouds ? with the steady gaze of the Pentagon?s 1.8-gigapixel drone camera. Not yet.

One drone that captured the attention of Wednesday's senate hearing was AeroVironment's Nano Hummingbird, which can fly sideways or vertically by flapping two tiny wings. It weighs less than a AA battery, but records video. Not especially well, mind you, but cameras are always improving.

Regardless of current limitations, drones great and small still give law enforcement more reach than it had before. Yet while new legislation will surely be required, existing law may address some concerns.

"I believe that existing frameworks will provide more protection than is generally appreciated," John Villasenor a policy expert with UCLA and the Brookings Institution, told NBC News via email. By that he means that, when drones start snooping, courts will uphold certain privacies thanks to the Fourth Amendment.

Others say that current laws may be insufficient, but targeting drones misses the point.

?Whether data's being collected by Google or from cellphones or bank cameras or traffic cameras, I don't think the medium is the essence," Michael Toscano, president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, which represents drone manufacturers, told NBC News. "The question is what's being done with it, who's using it, who's collecting it, where's it being stored, where is it being deleted."

Toscano's organization may wish to keep drones out of legislation, but legal experts agree with the premise.

"Privacy law is not keeping up with surveillance technology, and drones are helping us see that," Ryan Calo, assistant professor of law at the University of Washington told NBC News. "But it's not limited to drones," he said, citing street cameras and vans like the ones driven by Google's mapping team.

"I think the good reason to get the privacy laws right here is to avail ourselves of this kind of technology," Calo said. And there's no time like the present, as the FAA has been asked to fully integrate drones into U.S. airspace by 2015.

More on drone policies: Lawmakers voice concerns on drone privacy questions

Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.

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