my travel holidays 2010: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Gay marriage opponents ask court to intervene

Cynthia Wides, right, and Elizabeth Carey file for a marriage certificate at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples have lined up outside City Hall in San Francisco as clerks have resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4-year freeze. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Cynthia Wides, right, and Elizabeth Carey exchange wedding vows at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples have lined up outside City Hall in San Francisco as clerks have resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4-year freeze. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Jen Rainin, left, laughs as her wife Frances holds up their dog Punum after they were married at City Hall in San Francisco, Friday, June 28, 2013. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving, "effective immediately," a stay it imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging the ban advanced through the courts. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Army Capt. Michael Potoczniak, center left, and Todd Saunders, of El Cerrito, Calif., are married by deputy marriage commissioner John Loschmann, center, as witnesses Bill Hershon, left, and Sean Boileau watch at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples waited excitedly Saturday outside of San Francisco's City Hall as clerks resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses, one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4 ? year freeze. Big crowds were expected from across the state as long lines had already stretched down the lobby shortly after 9 a.m. City officials decided to hold weekend hours and let couples tie the knot as San Francisco is also celebrating its annual Pride weekend expected to draw as many as 1 million people. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Army Capt. Michael Potoczniak, at left, and Todd Saunders, right, of El Cerrito, Calif., exchange rings as they are married by deputy marriage commissioner John Loschmann, center, at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013. Dozens of gay couples waited excitedly Saturday outside of San Francisco's City Hall as clerks resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses, one day after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the state of California to immediately lift a 4 ? year freeze. Big crowds were expected from across the state as long lines had already stretched down the lobby shortly after 9 a.m. City officials decided to hold weekend hours and let couples tie the knot as San Francisco is also celebrating its annual Pride weekend expected to draw as many as 1 million people. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Less than 24 hours after California started issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples, lawyers for the sponsors of the state's gay marriage ban filed an emergency motion Saturday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the weddings being performed in San Francisco.

Attorneys with the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom claim in the petition that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acted prematurely and unfairly on Friday when it allowed gay marriage to resume by lifting a hold that had been placed on same sex unions.

"The Ninth Circuit's June 28, 2013 Order purporting to dissolve the stay...is the latest in a long line of judicial irregularities that have unfairly thwarted Petitioners' defense of California's marriage amendment," the paperwork states. "Failing to correct the appellate court's actions threatens to undermine the public's confidence in its legal system."

The motion was filed as dozens of couples in jeans, shorts, white dresses and the occasional military uniform filled San Francisco City Hall on Saturday to obtain marriage licenses. On Friday, 81 same sex couples received marriage licenses.

Although a few clerk's offices around the state stayed open late on Friday, San Francisco, which is holding its annual gay pride celebration this weekend, was the only jurisdiction to hold weekend hours so that same sex couples could take advantage of their newly restored right, Clerk Karen Hong said.

A sign posted on the door of the office where a long line of couples waited to fill out applications listed the price for a license, a ceremony or both above the words "Equality=Priceless."

"We really wanted to make this happen," Hong said, adding that her whole staff and a group of volunteers came into work without having to be asked. "It's spontaneous, which is great in its own way."

The timing couldn't have been better for California National Guard Capt. Michael Potoczniak, 38, and his partner of 10 years, Todd Saunders, 47, of El Cerrito.

Potoczniak, who joined the Guard after the military's ban on openly gay service was repealed almost two years ago, was scheduled to fly out Sunday night for a month of basic training in Texas.

"I woke up this morning, shook him awake and said, 'Let's go,'" said Potoczniak, who chose to get married in his Army uniform. "It's something that people need to see because everyone is so used to uniforms at military weddings."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Proposition 8's backers lacked standing to defend the 2008 law because California's governor and attorney general have declined to defend the ban.

Then on Friday, the 9th Circuit appeared to have removed the last obstacle to making same sex matrimony legal again in California when it removed its hold on a lower court's 2010 order directing state officials to stop enforcing the ban.

Within hours, same sex couples were seeking marriage licenses. The two couples who sued to overturn Proposition 8 were wed in San Francisco and Los Angeles Friday.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Austin Nimocks said on Saturday that the Supreme Court's consideration of the case isn't done because his clients still have 22 days to ask the justices to reconsider the 5-4 decision announced Wednesday.

Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side in a legal dispute has 25 days to request a rehearing. While such requests are almost never granted, the high court said that it wouldn't finalize its judgment in the case at least until after that waiting period elapsed.

The San Francisco-based appeals court had said when it imposed the stay that it would remain in place until the Supreme Court issued its final disposition, according to Nimocks.

"Everyone on all sides of the marriage debate should agree that the legal process must be followed," he said. "On Friday, the 9th Circuit acted contrary to its own order without explanation."

Many legal experts who had anticipated such a last-ditch effort by gay marriage opponents said it was unlikely to succeed because the 9th Circuit has independent authority over its own orders ? in this case, its 2010 stay.

While the ban's backers can still ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing, the 25-day waiting period is not binding on lower federal courts, Vikram Amar, a constitutional law professor with the University of California, Davis law school, said.

"As a matter of practice, most lower federal courts wait to act," Amar said. "But there is nothing that limits them from acting sooner. It was within the 9th Circuit's power to do what it did."

Also waiting to wed Saturday were Scott Kehoe, 34, and his fiance, Aurelien Bricker, 24. After finding out on Facebook that the city was issuing same sex marriage licenses Friday, the San Francisco couple rushed out to Tiffany's to buy wedding rings.

"We were afraid of further legal challenges in the state," Kehoe said.

The city, home to both a federal trial court that struck down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional and the 9th Circuit, has been the epicenter of the state's gay marriage movement since then-Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered his administration in February 2004 to issue licenses to gay couples in defiance of state law.

A little more than four years later, the California Supreme Court, which is also based in San Francisco, struck down the state's one-man, one-woman marriage laws.

City Hall was the scene of many more marriages in the 4 1/2 months before a coalition of religious conservative groups successfully campaigned for the November 2008 passage of Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to outlaw same sex marriages.

Standing amid the beaming couples on Saturday, John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney of the advocacy group Marriage Equality USA looked like proud fathers. The men have been together 26 years, got married in February 2004, had their union invalidated six months later and then became one of the 18,000 couples estimated to have tied the knot in California before Proposition 8 was enacted.

"I don't think getting a license means as much to anyone who hasn't worked so long for it and fought so hard for it," Gaffney said. "It's been a very long engagement."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-29-Gay%20Marriage-California/id-4eeda45758114265a91c31d629b202f3

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Lionel Richie: My own songs saved me

Celebs

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper TODAY

2 hours ago

NBC

Lionel Richie says his own songs helped him.

Many people have turned to music at sad times in their lives. Singer Lionel Richie is no different -- except the music he turned to was his own.

Richie told the U.K. Mirror that in the 1990s, he was going through a divorce and fighting depression

"Then a friend said to me: ?Lionel, I have some inspirational tapes I want you to listen to,'" Richie recalled to the newspaper. "He handed me my own songs with certain ones underlined and I started listening to my lyrics ? this time from the point of view of someone who needed that message.

?I used to look out into the audience and wonder why that guy was crying to one of my songs and now I get it -? it just hits something in your core," Richie said.

The singer also admitted that he wasn't always there for daughter Nicole when she was growing up. ?When Nicole was young I was trying to become Lionel Richie," the singer said. "I wasn?t there as much as I should have been. ... These days we are incredibly close and I am a very proud grandfather. She?s a wonderful mother.?

Richie will start his first U.S. tour in a decade this fall. "I have never had a job in my life," he told the Mirror. "This is still my hobby and I want to use the gift for good."

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/lionel-richie-my-own-songs-saved-me-depression-6C10488483

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Prop 8 challengers wed in California after stay is lifted

Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, one of the couples who successfully challenged California's Proposition 8, marry in Los Angeles.

By Pete Williams and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

The two couples who challenged?the law that had?barred same-sex marriage in California?were married Friday afternoon after a federal appeals court dissolved its stay blocking same-sex marriage in the state.

On the eve of San Francisco's Pride Weekend,?State Attorney General Kamala?declared Sandra Stier, 50, and Kris Perry,?48, "spouse and spouse" shortly before 5 p.m. (8 p.m. ET) at San Francisco City Hall. In their vows, the couple took each other as?"lawfully wedded wife."

"Right now, we feel really victorious and thrilled and relieved to be at the end of this long journey and just move forward like a regular married couple," Stier said in a conference call with reporters ? but not before she introduced Perry as "my beautiful wife."

Stier said she and Perry hadn't had time to schedule a honeymoon. But Perry said that after a celebration with "all of the people we love ... Sandy and I will go somewhere alone."

Jeff Chiu / AP

Kris Perry, left, kisses Sandra Stier as they are married Friday at San Francisco City Hall in a ceremony officiated by state Attorney General Kamala Harris.

About 90 minutes later in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa married the other couple, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, on his last day in office.?

The ceremony, Katami said, was "about celebrating our private commitment and our public connection."

Many state officials, including Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown, celebrated the decision Friday on Twitter:

Twitter.com

Twitter.com

San Francisco City Hall will stay open until 8 p.m. Friday and will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday for marriage licenses. The Los Angeles County registrar and clerk's office said it was deputizing extra marriage commissioners and extending days and locations to accommodate an expected rush of weddings.

Gina Alcomendias, the clerk-recorder for Santa Clara County, said few people had shown up at the County Building because the appeals court's decision came late in the day.

But "we're going to be busy Monday, I think ? the whole week next week," Alcomendias told NBC Bay Area. "Probably for a long while."

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals lifted its stay two days after the Supreme Court declined to rule on Proposition 8, thereby upholding a lower court's decision overturning the ban.?The appeals court had blocked enforcement of that ruling pending the Supreme Court decision.

The justices also struck down?the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 federal law that barred recognition of same-sex marriages.

Supreme Court rulings generally don't take effect for 25 days. But Harris had called on the 9th Circuit to lift its stay as soon as possible Wednesday after Brown told the state's 58 counties to prepare for same-sex marriages.

Brown issued an order Friday afternoon making that official, declaring that "marriage licenses must be issued to same-sex couples immediately."

California Attorney General Kamala Harris instructs the Los Angeles County Clerk by telephone to begin same-sex marriages "immediately."

The Protect Marriage Coalition's?Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund, which sponsored the ballot initiative, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. But in a statement, the group said it had been deprived of "our right to ask for reconsideration," calling the appeals court's decision an "outrageous act of judicial tyranny."

"Homosexual marriage is not happening because the people changed their mind," the group said in a statement. "It isn't happening because the appellate courts declared a new constitutional right. It's happening because enemies of the people have abused their power to manipulate the system and render the people voiceless."

Theodore Boutros, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, said the appeals court was fully within its rights to lift its injunction, which simply restored the status quo in the circuit. Any attempt by opponents to seek reconsideration of the Supreme Court ruling is a separate matter, he said.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

Miranda Leitsinger, Norma Rubio and Sossy Dombourian of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Related:

Same-sex marriage supporters cheer 'Cinderella moment'; opponents vow to fight on

Historic day for gay marriage after two big court decisions

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:59 PM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2df2fe27/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C280C191940A790Eprop0E80Echallengers0Ewed0Ein0Ecalifornia0Eafter0Estay0Eis0Elifted0Dlite/story01.htm

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FCC looks set to sign off on Sprint-SoftBank merger

Well, the hits just keep on coming. Grease being Paula Deen has not just been dropped from her ham company in the wake of her racist remark scandal. She's also been dumped by Walmart, and now Home Depot, and diabeetus drug company Novo Nordisk. All because she admitted to saying and doing some racist things years ago in a deposition. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fcc-looks-set-sign-off-sprint-softbank-merger-013502386.html

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Scientists view 'protein origami' to help understand, prevent certain diseases

June 28, 2013 ? Scientists using sophisticated imaging techniques have observed a molecular protein folding process that may help medical researchers understand and treat diseases such as Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's and cancer.

The study, reported this month in the journal Cell, verifies a process that scientists knew existed but with a mechanism they had never been able to observe, according to Dr. Hays Rye, Texas A&M AgriLife Research biochemist.

"This is a step in the direction of understanding how to modulate systems to prevent diseases like Alzheimer's. We needed to understand the cell's folding machines and how they interact with each other in a complicated network," said Rye, who also is associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas A&M.

Rye explained that individual amino acids get linked together like beads on a string as a protein is made in the cell.

"But that linear sequence of amino acids is not functional," he explained. "It's like an origami structure that has to fold up into a three-dimensional shape to do what it has to do."

Rye said researchers have been trying to understand this process for more than 50 years, but in a living cell the process is complicated by the presence of many proteins in a concentrated environment.

"The constraints on getting that protein to fold up into a good 'origami' structure are a lot more demanding," he said. "So, there are special protein machines, known as molecular chaperones, in the cell that help proteins fold."

But how the molecular chaperones help protein fold when it isn't folding well by itself has been the nagging question for researchers.

"Molecular chaperones are like little machines, because they have levers and gears and power sources. They go through turning over cycles and just sort of buzz along inside a cell, driving a protein folding reaction every few seconds," Rye said.

The many chemical reactions that are essential to life rely on the exact three-dimensional shape of folded proteins, he said. In the cell, enzymes, for example, are specialized proteins that help speed biological processes along by binding molecules and bringing them together in just the right way.

"They are bound together like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle," Rye explained. "And the proteins -- those little beads on the string that are designed to fold up like origami -- are folded to position all these beads in three-dimensional space to perfectly wrap around those molecules and do those chemical reactions.

"If that doesn't happen -- if the protein doesn't get folded up right -- the chemical reaction can't be done. And if it's essential, the cell dies because it can't convert food into power needed to build the other structures in the cell that are needed. Chemical reactions are the structural underpinning of how cells are put together, and all of that depends on the proteins being folded in the right way."

When a protein doesn't fold or folds incorrectly it turns into an "aggregate," which Rye described as "white goo that looks kind of like a mayonnaise, like crud in the test tube.

"You're dead; the cell dies," he said.

Over the past 20 years, he said, researchers have linked that aggregation process "pretty convincingly" to the development of diseases -- Alzheimer's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, Huntington's disease, to name a few. There's evidence that diabetes and cancer also are linked to protein folding disorders.

"One of the main roles for the molecular chaperones is preventing those protein misfolding events that lead to aggregation and not letting a cell get poisoned by badly folded or aggregated proteins," he said.

Rye's team focused on a key molecular chaperone -- the HSP60.

"They're called HSP for 'heat shock protein' because when the cell is stressed with heat, the proteins get unstable and start to fall apart and unfold," Rye said. "The cell is built to respond by making more of the chaperones to try and fix the problem.

"This particular chaperone takes unfolded protein and goes through a chemical reaction to bind the unfolded protein and literally puts it inside a little 'box,'" Rye said.

He added that the mystery had long been how the folding worked because, while researchers could see evidence of that happening, no one had ever seen precisely how it happened.

Rye and the team zeroed in on a chemically modified mutant that in other experiments had seemed to stall at an important step in the process that the "machine" goes through to start the folding action. This clued the researchers that this stalling might make it easier to watch.

They then used cryo-electron microscopy to capture hundreds of thousands of images of the process at very high resolutions which allowed them to reconstruct from two-dimensional flat images a three-dimensional model. A highly sophisticated computer algorithm aligns the images and classifies them in subcategories.

"If you have enough of them you can actually reconstruct and view a structure as a three-dimensional model," Rye said.

What the team saw was this: The HSP60 chaperone is designed to recognize proteins that are not folded from the ones that are. It binds them and then has a separate co-chaperone that puts a "lid" on top of the box to keep the folding intermediate in the box. They could see the box move, and parts of the molecule moved to peel the chaperone box away from the bound protein -- or "gift" in the box. But the bound protein was kept inside the package where it could then initiate a folding reaction. They saw tiny tentacles, "like a little octopus in the bottom of the box rising up and grabbing hold of the substrate protein and helping hold it inside the cavity."

"The first thing we saw was a large amount of an unfolded protein inside of this cavity," he said. "Even though we knew from lots and lots of other studies that it had to go in there, nobody had ever seen it like this before. We can also see the non-native protein interacting with parts of the box that no one had ever seen before. It was exciting to see all of this for the first time. I think we got a glimpse of a protein in the process of folding, which we actually can compare to other structures."

"By understanding the mechanism of these machines, the hope is that one of the things we can learn to do is turn them up or turn them off when we need to, like for a patient who has one of the protein folding diseases," he said.

Rye collaborated on the research with Dong-Hua Chen and Wah Chiu at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Damian Madan and Zohn Lin at Princeton University, Jeremy Weaver at Texas A&M and Gunnar Schr?der at the Institute of Complex Systems in Germany.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/PfjFPU7j0xE/130628120759.htm

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Stress: It should never be ignored, experts say

June 27, 2013 ? Work pressure, tension at home, financial difficulties ? the list of causes of stress grows longer every day. There have been several studies in the past showing that stress can have negative effects on health (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure and more). The Inserm researchers at unit 1018, "The Epidemiology and Public Health Research Centre," working in collaboration with researchers from England and Finland have demonstrated that it is essential to be vigilant about this and to take it very seriously when people say that they are stressed, particularly if they believe that stress is affecting their health. According to the study performed by these researchers, with 7268 participants, such people have twice as much risk of a heart attack, compared with others.

These results have been published in European Heart Journal.

Today, stress is recognized as one of the main health problems. When people face a situation that is considered stressful, they may experience several physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms (anxiety, difficulty in concentrating, skin problems, migraines, etc.). Previous studies, particularly the recent studies performed within the Whitehall II cohort[1], composed of several thousand British civil servants, have already shown that the physiological changes associated with stress can have an adverse effect on health.

Herman Nabi, Inserm researcher at Unit 1018 "The Epidemiology and Public Health Research Centre," and his team went further and studied people who declared themselves to be stressed, in order to look more closely at whether there was a link between their feeling and the occurrence of coronary disease some years later.

Using a questionnaire prepared for the Whitehall II cohort, the participants were invited to answer the following question: "to what extent do you consider the stress or pressure that you have experienced in your life has an effect on your health," the participants had the following answers to choose from: "not at all," "a little," "moderately," "a lot" or "extremely."

The participants were also asked about their stress level, as well as about other factors that might affect their health, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and levels of physical activity. Arterial pressure, diabetes, body mass index and socio-demographic data such as marital status, age, sex, ethnicity and socio-economic status were also taken into account.

According to the results, the participants who reported, at the start of the study, that their health was "a lot" or "extremely" affected by stress had more than twice the risk (2.12 times higher) of having or dying from a heart attack, compared with those who had not indicated any effect of stress on their health.

From a clinical point of view, these results suggest that the patient's perception of the impact of stress on their health may be highly accurate, to the extent that it can predict a health event as serious and common as coronary disease.

In addition, this study also shows that this link is not affected by differences between individuals related to biological, behavioural or psychological factors. However, capacities for dealing with stress do differ massively between individuals depending on the resources available to them, such as support from close friends and family.

According to Hermann Nabi, "the main message is that complaints from patients concerning the effect of stress on their health should not be ignored in a clinical environment, because they may indicate an increased risk of developing and dying of coronary disease. Future studies of stress should include perceptions of patients concerning the effect of stress on their health."

In the future, as Hermann Nabi emphasizes, "tests will be needed to determine whether the risk of disease can be reduced by increasing the clinical attention given to patients who complain of stress having an effect on their health."

[1] Created in 1985, the Whitehall II cohort, consisting of British civil servants, is making a major contribution to research in social epidemiology and is considered internationally to be one of the main sources of scientific knowledge concerning social determinant factors for health.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/K2nponAqd5k/130627131839.htm

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Driver of bus that hit Mass. house was new to job

AUBURN, Mass. (AP) ? The man driving a regional transit bus that crashed into a house in central Massachusetts earlier this week was on his first day of service.

The Telegram & Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1227YGh) that the driver of the bus was 27-year-old Francis Artey of Worcester (WUS'-tur).

Worcester Regional Transit Authority official John Carney says Artey went through a rigorous, eight-week training program before "driving in service" for the first time Monday. Carney says Artey was an experienced school bus driver with a stellar driving record.

Police say it appears the brakes weren't applied before the bus smashed into the house in Auburn. They say Artey may have had a medical problem, or there may have been a mechanical problem with the bus.

The crash remains under investigation. Artey was hospitalized with fractures and cuts. No other serious injuries were reported.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/driver-bus-hit-mass-house-job-111859560.html

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

New York Moves to Require Audits of Preschool Special-Education ...

The New York Legislature is trying to tighten controls over the state?s preschool program for disabled children, the cost of which has soared to $2 billion annually.

The State Senate and Assembly unanimously approved a bill last week that would require audits of every special-education prekindergarten contractor by 2018.

The bill was proposed by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli after a series of audits by his office and articles in The New York Times highlighted soaring costs, poor regulation and other problems in the state?s special-education prekindergarten system, the most expensive in the country. Contractors have charged taxpayers for overseas vacations, spa trips, jewelry, groceries and home renovations; hired relatives for no-show jobs; given themselves exorbitant salaries and perks like luxury cars; billed for services they never provided; or lived in other parts of the country and rarely showed up for work, the audits and reports found.

The Times revealed how some prekindergarten evaluators appeared to be distorting their assessments of children to justify expensive instruction provided by their own companies.

The legislation now goes to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whose office did not indicate whether he would sign it. Under the bill, school administrators would not be permitted to assign a child?s services to the same prekindergarten contractor that evaluated him or her, unless they stated in writing that ?such placement is an appropriate one for the child? and notified the state education commissioner of the assignment.

That is intended to address conflicts of interest that have occurred when companies evaluated children, exaggerated their disabilities and then provided the services.

Contractors would have to post audit reports on their Web sites, and would be required to ?take measures to ensure? that their executive directors work full-time all year.

?Students and taxpayers deserve much better than they are getting,? Mr. DiNapoli said after passage of the bill, which was sponsored by Assemblywoman Catherine T. Nolan, a Queens Democrat, and State Senator John J. Flanagan, a Long Island Republican.

The legislation calls upon the State Education Department to study alternatives to the existing reimbursement and regulatory system.

Nearly all the department?s budget and personnel for oversight are devoted to calculating some 1,400 reimbursement rates for each of the prekindergarten contractors in the state. Little is left to verify that the money is spent properly or to ensure the quality of the services.

A result, officials say, has been rising costs for the state and local governments, which split the bill roughly 60-40. In New York City, annual costs now total $1.2 billion, about 6 percent of the $19.8 billion education budget. Statewide, costs have doubled in just six years.

Advocacy groups for contractors have said that they are devoted to helping children with disabilities, and that a few offenders are giving the industry a bad name.

Education officials have complained that influential lobbyists for contractors have blocked efforts in Albany to control costs.

The current push for reform has been halting: Mr. Cuomo obtained modest changes in the coming year?s state budget, but more aggressive proposals were rejected by the Legislature after contractors expressed opposition.

The final state budget included $5 million to pay for more audits by the State Education Department and by localities, but an Education Department spokesman called the shift of that responsibility to the comptroller a ?sensible next step.?

The proposal by Mr. DiNapoli, too, was watered down by lawmakers: Its initial draft would have required school administrators to obtain a second evaluation from an independent professional, and the approval of the state education commissioner, before assigning a child evaluated by one company to the same company for services.

?Regular and expected audits is really the single best way to get at the corruption,? said former Assemblyman Steven Sanders, a lobbyist for one group of contractors.

But Mr. Sanders said the state eventually needed to switch to a system with uniform, regional reimbursement rates for all providers. As it stands now, he said: ?The more you spend, the more you claim, the more you get back. I think that that methodology leaves wide open the possibility for overexpenditure.?

Stephen J. Acquario, executive director of the New York Association of Counties, which has lobbied for more stringent spending curbs in the program, said the bill did not go far enough but called it ?a step in the right direction.?

Source: http://www.ezymedia.com/mashup/2013/06/26/new-york-moves-to-require-audits-of-preschool-special-education-contractors/

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Michelle Ten Eyck, Military Sex Assault Victim: If I Had To Do This ...

Michelle Ten Eyck, a civilian employee at Fort Bliss, Texas, underwent months of physical and psychological trauma at the hands of an Army coworker before she successfully put it to an end. With her attacker, Maj. Geoffrey Alleyne, a chaplain and 24-year veteran, serving a six-month jail sentence, Ten Eyck spoke out last week about how difficult she found it to pursue action within the military's chain of command.

In an interview with KFOX following Alleyne's court-martial, Ten Eyck said her allegations had first been ignored by coworkers. Later, some reacted with "hatred," she said.

"If I had to do this over again, I would live in silent misery and I would never, I would never report again," Ten Eyck said, speaking about the "retaliation."

The only superior who would listen told her that she'd likely need to film the unwanted confrontations in order to bring charges against Alleyne. She set up a camera and waited for the next attack.

"The video showed him touching me, touching my breasts, licking my face," Ten Eyck told KFOX. "They made an issue of that yesterday that it was just kissing no, he licked my face. And he blocked me in my office, I had nowhere to go."

While Military.com reports that Alleyne's punishment is rare for a person in such a position -- especially considering that chaplains are often the officials service members are encouraged to seek out for counsel -- his sentencing was much lighter than it could have been. The initial charge of sexual assault could have led to a 20-year jail term, but Alleyne's decision to plead guilty to charges of assault, battery, making a false official statement and conduct unbecoming an officer, carried only a fraction of that.

Ten Eyck told KFOX that her experience was evidence that lawmakers currently weighing the issue of sexual assault need to "take all of this out of the military's hands."

Leaders from across the armed services have repeatedly spoken out on military sexual assault this year. President Barack Obama has called the acts a "betrayal" and ordered top brass to address the behavior. Congressional lawmakers have also picked up the issue, putting forth legislative proposals designed to hold the military more accountable for such crimes. The question of whether measures should take cases outside the chain of command -- as Ten Eyck suggeted -- has been the primary point of contention.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/michelle-ten-eyck-military-sex-assault_n_3499517.html

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Ecuador says Snowden asylum document unauthorized

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) ? An Ecuadorean diplomatic employee issued a safe conduct pass for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to travel to Ecuador to seek political asylum, but the action was unauthorized and the pass has no validity, government officials said Thursday.

Ecuador's scramble to explain the document, revealed by the Univision television network, came as President Obama was seeking to downplay the international chase for "a 29-year-old hacker" and lower the temperature of an issue that has already raised tensions between the U.S. and uneasy partners Russia and China.

Obama said in Senegal that the damage to U.S. national security has already been done and his top focus now is making sure it can't happen again.

Ecuadorean officials have repeatedly expressed sympathy for Snowden for revealing secret global U.S. surveillance programs, but have insisted they have taken no decision on granting him asylum, and they rushed to distance themselves from the unsigned letter shown by Univision.

Secretary of Political Management Betty Tola told a news conference that "any document of this type has no validity and is the exclusive responsibility of the person who issued it."

Another government official said that while the document is authentic, it was issued without approval from the Foreign Ministry or other officials in the capital and thus has no legal power. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Tola told reporters that Snowden's asylum application hadn't been processed because he was not in Ecuador as required by law. She also threatened legal action against whoever had leaked the document. She and other officials offered no further details about his case.

The back-and-forth over the document appears to be part of broader debate within Ecuador's leftist government about whether to offer asylum to Snowden, who is believed to remain in limbo in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after flying in from Hong Kong.

Snowden's American passport has been revoked by U.S. authorities. Ecuadoran officials have defended Snowden in public, saying his revelations of U.S. spying benefited the world, but also seem taken aback by the intensity of global attention and U.S. criticism focused on Ecuador for considering his asylum request.

Communications Minister Fernando Alvarado reacted defiantly on Thursday, saying the country rejects economic "blackmail" to force its hand. He said "Ecuador unilaterally and irrevocably renounces" tariff benefits on hundreds of millions of dollars in trade that are up for renewal by the U.S. Congress. Nearly half of Ecuador's foreign trade depends on the U.S.

The program, initially meant to help Andean countries aiding in the fight against drugs, was facing an uphill fight for renewal. Alvarado did not explicitly mention a separate effort to win trade benefits under a presidential order.

On Wednesday, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, promised to lead an effort to block extension of the tariff benefits aid if Ecuador grants asylum to Snowden.

In Senegal, President Barack Obama said Thursday that The United States won't be scrambling military jets or engaging in high-level diplomatic bartering to get Snowden extradited to the U.S.

"I'm not going to have one case with a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly be elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so he can face the justice system," Obama said at a joint news conference with Senegal's President Macky Sall.

Snowden's intercontinental efforts to evade U.S. authorities ? taking him from a hotel hideout in Hong Kong to an airport transit zone in Moscow, where he's believed to be holed up ? has already undercut Obama's efforts to strengthen ties with China and threatened to worsen tensions with Russia just as Obama is seeking Moscow's cooperation on Syria. At the same time, Snowden's attempts to seek asylum from Ecuador and other nations have underscored Obama's limited sway in a number of foreign capitals.

Obama's comment came on the first full day of a weeklong, 3-country trip to Africa, his first major tour of sub-Saharan Africa since he took office more than four years ago.

___

Pace reported from Dakar, Senegal.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ecuador-says-snowden-asylum-document-unauthorized-133014272.html

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Will Rising Rates Derail Housing Recovery?

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DIY Tip: Jack up your tablet?s volume with a Styrofoam cup

Gadgeteer reader Gary Henderson sent in a great tip for anyone who wants to increase the volume on their tablet without spending money on portable speakers or other accessories. All you need is a simple paper, plastic or Styrofoam cup and a pair of scissors or a knife. Cut a slot in the cup and [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/06/26/diy-tip-jack-up-your-tablets-volume-with-a-styrofoam-cup/

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Obama hit by Snowden setbacks with China, Russia

Aeroflot flight SU150 sits at the tarmac of the Jose Marti international airport after arriving from Moscow to Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 24, 2013. Confusion over the whereabouts of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden grew on Monday after SU150 Aeroflot flight filled with journalists trying to track him down flew from Moscow to Cuba with the empty seat booked in his name.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

White House press secretary Jay Carney pauses during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. Carney said the U.S. assumes that Edward Snowden is now in Russia and that the White House now expects Russian authorities to look at all the options available to them to expel Snowden to face charges in the U.S. for releasing secret surveillance information . (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Graphic shows the geographical career path and recent travels of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden; 3c x 5 inches; 146 mm x 127 mm;

WASHINGTON (AP) ? For President Barack Obama, National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden's globe-trotting evasion of U.S. authorities has dealt a startling setback to efforts to strengthen ties with China and raised the prospect of worsening tensions with Russia.

Indeed, Russia's foreign minister on Tuesday called U.S. demands for Snowden's extradition "ungrounded and unacceptable."

Relations with both China and Russia have been at the forefront of Obama's foreign policy agenda this month, underscoring the intertwined interests among these uneasy partners. Obama met just last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland and held an unusual two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California earlier this month.

Obama has made no known phone calls to Xi since Snowden surfaced in Hong Kong earlier this month, nor has he talked to Putin since Snowden arrived in Russia.

Former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said it wasn't clear that Obama's "charm offensive" with Xi and Putin would matter much on this issue. The U.S. has "very little leverage," she said, given the broad array of issues on which the Obama administration needs Chinese and Russian cooperation.

"This isn't happening in a vacuum, and obviously China and Russia know that," said Harman, who now runs the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

Both the U.S. and China had hailed the Obama-Xi summit as a fresh start to a complex relationship, with the leaders building personal bonds during an hour-long walk through the grounds of the Sunnylands estate. But any easing of tensions appeared to vanish Monday following China's apparent flouting of U.S. demands that Snowden be returned from semi-autonomous Hong Kong to face espionage charges.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, in unusually harsh language, said China had "unquestionably" damaged its relationship with Washington.

"The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust," Carney said. "We think that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. If we cannot count on them to honor their legal extradition obligations, then there is a problem."

A similar problem may be looming with Russia, where Snowden arrived Sunday. He had been expected to leave Moscow for a third country, but the White House said Monday it believed the former government contractor was still in Russia.

While the U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, the White House publicly prodded the Kremlin to send Snowden back to the U.S., while officials privately negotiated with their Russian counterparts.

"We are expecting the Russians to examine the options available to them to expel Mr. Snowden for his return to the United States," Carney said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected the U.S. request, saying Snowden hasn't crossed the Russian border, and angrily lashed out at the U.S. for warnings of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply.

"We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violation of U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable," Lavrov said.

The U.S. has deep economic ties with China and needs the Asian power's help in persuading North Korea to end its nuclear provocations. The Obama administration also needs Russia's cooperation in ending the bloodshed in Syria and reducing nuclear stockpiles held by the former Cold War foes.

Members of Congress so far have focused their anger on China and Russia, not on Obama's inability to get either country to abide by U.S. demands. However, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said in an interview with CNN on Monday that he was starting to wonder why the president hasn't been "more forceful in dealing with foreign leaders."

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton echoed the White House's frustration with China. "That kind of action is not only detrimental to the U.S.-China relationship but it sets a bad precedent that could unravel the intricate international agreements about how countries respect the laws ? and particularly the extradition treaties," the possible 2016 presidential contender told an audience in Los Angeles.

Snowden fled to Hong Kong after seizing highly classified documents disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of U.S. phone and Internet records. He shared the information with The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers. He also told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." SMS, or short messaging service, generally means text messaging.

Snowden still has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said over the weekend.

Hong Kong, a former British colony with a degree of autonomy from mainland China, has an extradition treaty with the U.S. Officials in Hong Kong said a formal U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with its laws, a claim the Justice Department disputes.

The White House made clear it believes the final decision to let Snowden leave for Russia was made by Chinese officials in Beijing.

Russia's ultimate response to U.S. pressure remains unclear. Putin could still agree to return Snowden to the U.S. But he may also let him stay in Russia or head elsewhere, perhaps to Ecuador or Venezuela ? both options certain to earn the ire of the White House.

Fiona Hill, a Russia expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said she expected Putin to take advantage of a "golden opportunity" to publicly defy the White House.

"This is one of those opportunities to score points against the United States that I would be surprised if Russia passed up," Hill said.

___

Follow Julie Pace on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-25-Obama-Snowden%20Diplomacy/id-f811e180002645bc817d3658e78575e8

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You Can Finally Buy the Magical Spray That Waterproofs Everything

We first heard about Rust-Oleum's liquid-repelling product, NeverWet almost two years ago. It looked absolutely magical, and now you can finally buy it.

Home Depot is carrying NeverWet for $20 a can. Spray the silicon-based coating on electronics, clothing, or almost any surface and it'll become almost completely impervious to moisture. Of course, we're skeptical until we try it out ourselves. But in the convincing demo you see liquid hit a surface and immediately scurry away without leaving any damage. Spill mustard on your white shoes? Don't worry about it. Drop your iPhone in the toilet? It will survive. We've all had accidents with our expensive gadgets, so a $20 waterproofing solution is hard to disagree with. Just, you know, try not to inhale it. [NeverWet via LancasterOnline]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/you-can-finally-buy-the-magical-spray-that-waterproofs-563613333

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South African stocks recover with global peers, retailers lead

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African stocks, led by blue-chip retail shares such as Truworths, rose on Tuesday in line with a global rebound after reports on manufacturing, business spending and housing added to signs of a pick-up in U.S. economic activity.

Snapping four straight sessions of decline, the benchmark Top-40 index added 1.17 percent to 34,187.43. The broader All-share index rose 1.07 percent to 38,484.19.

Retailers were among the biggest Top-40 gainers, with Truworths bounding 4.4 percent higher to 82.53 rand. Woolworths climbed 3.1 percent to 60.62 rand.

"Woolworths and Truworths have been hard hit not just in last week's pull back but in the last three months when foreigners sold every retail share they could find," said Abri du Plessis, chief investment officer at Gryphon Asset Management in Cape Town.

Both shares are also in a technical rebound from oversold territory, according to Reuters data. Truworths remains down about 24 percent in the year to data

The sector has been hard hit this year by a poor economic outlook for Africa's largest economy, reflected in poor retail sales data, and fading hopes for a domestic interest rate cut which could boost consumer spending.

South African gold and platinum producers extended losses as the bullion price eased in the face of a rising dollar and amid domestic nervousness over upcoming wage talks.

An exception was world No. 4 platinum producer Aquarius, which added 4.6 percent after it announced a one-year wage agreement with the National Union of Mineworkers which will see increases just above inflation - a rare deal in an industry rocked by labour unrest and huge pay demands.

The dollar and global shares recovered on the positive spate of U.S. data and markets also got a lift from Monday's remarks by two policymakers with the U.S. Federal Reserve who downplayed the notion of an imminent end to the central bank's money-printing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-african-stocks-recover-global-peers-retailers-lead-155722383.html

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

House investigators: Disability judges are too lax

FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 11, 2013 file photo, the Social Security Administration's main campus is seen in Woodlawn, Md. U.S. House investigators say Social Security is approving state-rejected claims for disability benefits at strikingly high rates for people who might not deserve them. Compounding the problem, the agency often fails to do required follow-up reviews to make sure people still qualify for benefits months or years later. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Social Security is approving disability benefits at strikingly high rates for people whose claims were rejected by field offices or state agencies, according to House investigators. Compounding the situation, the agency often fails to do required follow-up reviews months or years later to make sure people are still disabled.

Claims for benefits have increased by 25 percent since 2007, pushing the fund that supports the disability program to the brink of insolvency, which could mean reduced benefits. Social Security officials say the primary driver of the increase is demographic, mainly a surge in baby boomers who are more prone to disability as they age but are not quite old enough to qualify for retirement benefits.

The disability program has been swamped by benefit claims since the recession hit a few years ago. Last year, 3.2 million people applied for Social Security Disability or Supplemental Security Income.

In addition, however, management problems "lead to misspending" and add to the financial ills of the program, investigators from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee say.

"Federal disability claims are often paid to individuals who are not legally entitled to receive them," three senior Republicans on the House committee declared in a March 11 letter to the agency. Among the signers was the committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa of California.

Social Security acknowledges a backlog of 1.3 million overdue follow-up reviews to make sure people still qualify for benefits. But agency officials blame budget cuts for the backlog, saying Congress has denied the funds needed to clear it.

Social Security spokesman Mark Hinkle said the agency follows the strict legal definition of disability when awarding benefits. In order to qualify, a person is supposed to have a disability that prevents him from working and is expected to last at least a year or result in death.

"Even with this very strict standard, there has been growth in the disability program, and the primary reason for this growth is demographics," Hinkle said. He noted that approval rates have declined as applications for benefits have increased.

The most common claimed disability was bone and muscle pain, including lower back pain, followed closely by mental disorders, according to the program's latest annual report.

"Pain cases and mental cases are extremely difficult because ? and even more so with mental cases ? there's no objective medical evidence," said Randall Frye, a Social Security administrative law judge in Charlotte, N.C. "It's all subjective."

Nearly 11 million disabled workers, spouses and children get Social Security disability benefits. That's up from 7.6 million a decade ago. The average monthly benefit for a disabled worker is $1,130.

An additional 8.3 million people get Supplemental Security Income, a separately funded disability program for low-income people.

If Congress doesn't act, the trust fund that supports Social Security disability will run out of money in 2016, according to projections by Social Security's trustees. At that point, the system will collect only enough money in payroll taxes to pay 80 percent of benefits, triggering an automatic 20 percent cut in benefits.

Congress could redirect money from Social Security's much bigger retirement program to shore up the disability program, as it did in 1994. But that would worsen the finances of the retirement program, which is facing its own long-term financial problems.

The House oversight subcommittee on entitlements is scheduled to hold the first of several hearings on the disability program Thursday. The hearing will focus on the role of administrative law judges in awarding benefits.

Most Social Security disability claims are initially processed through a network of local Social Security Administration field offices and state agencies, usually Disability Determination Services, and most are rejected. If your claim is rejected, you can ask the field office or state agency to reconsider. If your claim is rejected again, you can appeal to an administrative law judge, who is employed by Social Security.

The hearing process takes an average of a little more than a year, according to Social Security statistics. The agency estimates there are 816,000 hearings pending.

So far this budget year, the vast majority of judges have approved benefits in more than half the cases they've decided, even though they were reviewing applications that had typically been rejected twice by state agencies, according to Social Security data.

Of the 1,560 judges who have decided at least 50 cases since October, 195 judges approved benefits in at least 75 percent of their cases, according to the data, which were analyzed by congressional investigators.

"This is not one or two judges out there just going rogue and saying they are going to approve a lot of cases," said Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Energy, Policy, Health Care, and Entitlements. "This is a very, very high rate" of approving claims.

The union representing administrative law judges says judges are required to decide 500 to 700 cases a year in an effort to reduce the hearings backlog. The union says the requirement is an illegal quota that leads judges to sometimes award benefits they might otherwise deny just to keep up with the flow of cases, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the judges' union in April.

"I wouldn't want to suggest publicly that judges are not following the law or the regulations," said Frye, the North Carolina law judge who also is president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges , But, he added, "Would you want your surgeon to be on a quota system, to have to do so many surgeries every morning? Mistakes are going to be made when you force that kind of system on professional folks whose judgment, skill and experience are critical to coming to a good result."

The agency denies there is a case quota for judges, saying the standard is a productivity goal. The agency has declined to comment on the lawsuit. Former Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said he set the goal in 2007 to help reduce the hearings backlog.

Once people get benefits, their cases are supposed to be reviewed periodically to make sure they are still disabled. The reviews are called continuing disability reviews, or CDRs.

For people whose disabilities are expected to improve, CDRs should be done in six to 18 months, according a 2010 report by the agency's inspector general. If improvement is possible ? but not necessarily likely ? reviews should be done every three years. People with disabilities believed to be permanent should get reviews every five to seven years.

At the end of 1996, there was a backlog of 4.3 million overdue reviews. In response, Congress authorized about $4 billion to fund a seven-year effort to wipe it out, and the backlog was erased in 2002.

But after the funding dried up, the number of annual reviews performed by the agency decreased and the backlog grew. Last year, the agency conducted 443,000 continuing reviews.

President Barack Obama's proposed budget for next year includes $1.5 billion to address the backlog, a nearly 50 percent increase over present funding. With the increase, the agency says it would be able to conduct slightly more than 1 million reviews.

"We have completed every CDR funded by Congress, but our administrative budget has been significantly reduced, resulting in three straight years of funding levels nearly a billion dollars below the president's budget requests," Hinkle said. "As a result, we have lost more than 10,000 employees since the beginning of (fiscal year) 2011. We currently have a backlog of 1.3 million CDRs, which we would be able to address with adequate, dedicated program integrity funding from Congress."

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-24-Social%20Security%20Disability/id-90fc4f7dc6304b69834a4c063b765f98

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Has Hollywood ignited an intern uprising? Examining the brewing revolution

By Tony Maglio

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Hey Hollywood: Be careful who you ask to get your latte.

Lawsuits by unpaid or underpaid interns against entertainment and media companies have accelerated to an epidemic pace in recent weeks following the success of interns who first sued Fox Searchlight two years ago.

In June alone, suits have been filed against Gawker, Warner Music Group and Conde Nast. In the same month, in what could amount to a landmark settlement in favor of the plaintiffs, Fox Searchlight was ordered to pay out wages to two unpaid interns who worked on production of the award-winning film "Black Swan."

And that doesn't count the unsuccessful first attempt by interns to sue Hearst, or the successful lawsuit by nearly 200 former interns from "The Charlie Rose Show" on PBS.

Here is the status of the latest intern lawsuits in and around Hollywood:

Gawker

Three former Gawker interns filed suit against the company on Friday in a Manhattan federal court. The plaintiffs allege that they worked at least 15 hours a week without pay to write, research, and promoting articles for Gawker's sites.

"We think it's a very important issue," attorney Andrea M. Paparella, who is representing the interns, said in a statement to TheWrap. "It's important for everyone to be paid the minimum wage at all levels of their career. We don't want to replace entry-level jobs with interns who aren't being paid. Not everybody can afford to take an unpaid job when they graduate college. And they could be shut out of certain industries if this was a norm of having certain industries having unpaid internship programs."

"Minimum wage law sets a minimum wage," Paparella continued. "Minimum wage law says, even if a person agrees to it, you can't pay them less than minimum wage. Imagine what the implications would be. It would make minimum wage meaningless."

At the time of this publication, Gawker did not respond to a request for comment.

Warner Music Group Corp./Atlantic Recording Corp.

A former intern of Warner Music Group filed a class action complaint Monday in New York County Supreme Court against the company for unpaid wages from October 2007 to May 2008.

Justin Henry - through his attorneys Virginia & Ambinder - is accusing WMG subsidiary Atlantic Recording Corp. of withholding wages from him and other employees beginning in or around June 2007. The suit, obtained by TheWrap, states that WMG has "failed to provide compensation at the statutory minimum wage for all hours worked."

It also accuses the defendant of not providing overtime compensation. The complaint asks for all wages plus interest, unspecified damages, attorneys' fees and costs.

Henry was an unpaid intern at Warner Music Group for roughly 7 months during the aforementioned time period. The complaint claims that in his role, Henry would answer telephones, make photocopies and pick up lunch for compensated employees, among other menial tasks. While he regularly worked from 10 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m., Henry was not compensated.

Conde Nast

Conde Nast interns filed a class-action lawsuit against the company on June 13, alleging that the publisher violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York labor law.

The class-action suit, filed on behalf of two former Conde Nast interns - Matthew Leib and Lauren Ballinger - contends that interns who are engaged in the operations of the employer or performing productive work benefit the employer and must be paid the minimum wage, even if they receive some benefits in the form of a new skill or improved work habits.

Advance Magazine Publishers, known as Conde Nast Publications, is named as the defendant in the suit.

The lawsuit seeks to recover unpaid wages, interest, and attorneys' fees and costs for any interns who worked in the fashion, accessories and fine jewelry departments of Conde Nast's magazine between June 13, 2007 and the date of a final judgment.

The suit states that there are more than 100 individuals in the affected class.

Fox Searchlight ("Black Swan")

In a possible foreshadowing of things to come, earlier in June, U.S. District Court Judge William H. Pauley III found that Fox Searchlight intern Eric Glatt and fellow "Black Swan" intern Alexander Footman were entitled to payment for their work on the film under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York labor law.

Pauley also determined that Eden Antalik, who worked as an unpaid intern at Fox Searchlight's corporate offices in New York, can pursue class-action claims against the company.

In his ruling, Pauley determined that the interns "performed tasks that would have required paid employees ? Menial as it was, their work was essential. The fact they were beginners is irrelevant ...he FLSA does not allow employees to waive their entitlement to wages."

Hearst

A class action lawsuit filed on behalf of unpaid interns against Hearst was thrown out in May, though the judge in the case said the plaintiffs kept the right to sue Hearst as individuals.

The class action lawsuit was deemed to not meet the standard for "commonality." The plaintiffs are requesting minimum wage back pay from Hearst. So while the door is still open for individual lawsuits, even if they won, the awards would be fairly small and thus make those potential cases less attractive to attorneys.

The plaintiffs can also try to create a group with better "commonality," according to New York Magazine.

The Charlie Rose Show (PBS)

In December, a judge awarded more than $207,900 to interns who worked on Charlie Rose's PBS show. The final approval hearing is this week, with checks to follow.

The class action lawsuit resulted in an award of $1,100 each to an estimated 189 interns. It stemmed from a single lawsuit filed by former intern Lucy Bickerton in March, 2012, who claimed she worked up to 25 hours per week at "The Charlie Rose Show," which did not pay her or "provide academic or vocational training."

(Pamela Chelin contributed to this report)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hollywood-ignited-intern-uprising-examining-brewing-revolution-173217407.html

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Egypt mob yelled 'infidels' at Shi'ites beaten to death

By Alexander Dziadosz

ZAWIYAT ABU MUSALLEM, Egypt (Reuters) - Kasbana Abdelaziz's house guests had barely arrived when the mob was upon them, hurling petrol bombs and smashing holes through the roof of her home.

The attackers then dragged four men - Shi'ite Muslims who had come to this Cairo suburb for a religious festival - out into the street and beat them to death.

President Mohamed Mursi condemned the "heinous crime" that happened on Sunday and promised swift justice, but his opponents accuse him and his Muslim Brotherhood of allowing ultraconservative Salafist allies to whip up anti-Shi'ite sentiment in return for their support.

"They called us infidels," Abdelaziz, said, sitting on her floor amid broken concrete, shattered glass and splintered wood. Two of her daughters stood weeping in the room behind her.

The mob killing in Zawiyat Abu Musallem has caused outrage among opposition leaders in Egypt at a time of deep political tension in the Arab world's most populous country.

Little is left of Abdelaziz's house in the Cairo suburb, an area of mud-brick and concrete-block homes, narrow dirt alleyways and fields of date palms in view of the Giza pyramids.

The kitchen is stripped bare; a battered refrigerator door lies amid dust, scraps of cloth and bricks on the floor. Daylight pours in through holes in the ceiling. An image of the shrine of Imam Ali in Iraq, one of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam, hangs on a wall in the ransacked bedroom.

Abdelaziz had no doubt who was behind the destruction. "It was the Salafists and the Brotherhood - they're the ones who attacked us," she said. "They did things you can't imagine."

"INFIDELS"

Shi'ites are a small minority in Egypt - though still number in the hundreds of thousands - and they keep a low profile in the overwhelmingly Sunni country of 84 million. But the war in Syria, which pits mostly Sunni rebels against President Bashar al-Assad and his Shi'ite allies, has worsened sectarian hatreds across the region.

The violence in Zawiyat Abu Musallem started in the early afternoon, Abdelaziz and her daughters said, just after Hassan Shehata, a Shi'ite dignitary, arrived as a guest of her husband, a plasterer from the area.

Hundreds of men gathered in the rubbish-strewn alley outside the house when they learned Shehata was inside. "He'd only just entered and come up when we found all the people upon us," Abdelaziz said. "There was chanting - 'you Shi'ites, you infidels'. People were chanting and people were throwing bricks."

A video posted online showed a crowd dragging four men wearing robes from the house and beating them with fists and rods until they fell, bloodied and motionless, in the alley.

One comment on the video, which has gained several hundred "likes" on YouTube, addressed Shehata: "May your filthy soul lie in hell forever and ever. Amen."

Another video posted by rights activists showed dozens of men and youths looking on as several others drag the bloodied body of at least one man along a street, one pulling on what may be a rope around his neck.

In other sequences, a group of black-robed women on a crowded, narrow street chant "No God but God!" Riot police are present in the video, which shows an officer yelling out in frustration: "They're beating us!"

Abdelaziz said she did not know what had become of her husband, Farhat, but he may have been taken to hospital after the attack.

Bahaa Anwar, a leader in Egypt's Shi'ite community, was quoted by state newspaper al-Ahram as saying Mursi and the Brotherhood were using the Shi'ites as a "scapegoat" to appease their Salafist allies.

Liberal opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood also accused the movement of stirring up sectarian passions by joining in Sunni calls for jihad against Syria's Assad and his Shi'ite allies from Lebanon and Iran.

Mursi and the Brotherhood angered Salafists by trying to improve relations with Shi'ite Iran after Mursi was elected a year ago but this month the Islamist group threw its weight behind calls for "holy war" against Assad, at a conference in Cairo.

Mursi's opponents are planning mass rallies on June 30 to call for his resignation and early presidential elections - he and the Brotherhood have staged their own shows of strength, prompting Egypt's army to warn it may step in to impose order.

(Additional reporting by Maggie Fick, Shaimaa Fayed, Shadia Nasralla and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-mob-yelled-infidels-shiites-beaten-death-163836476.html

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Methane leaks of shale gas may undermine its climate benefits

If methane leak rates are more than 3 percent of ?output, fracking of shale gas formations may be boosting greenhouse gas emissions rather than lowering them.

By Richard Schiffman,?Contributor / June 23, 2013

Workers tend to a well head during a hydraulic fracturing operation at an Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. gas well outside Rifle, Colo., in March. While the gas industry claims that gas is helping the environment by displacing dirtier coal, leaks of potent methane in the drilling and distribution of the fossil fuel may actually be creating more greenhouse gas emissions.

Brennan Linsley/AP/File

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Debate about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing or fracking usually centers around the potential risks to our water supply from contamination by toxic fracking fluids, which are pumped at high pressure over a mile under the ground to break up gas-bearing shale formations. In recent months, however, there has been renewed controversy over the effect that gas drilling has had on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

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