Story Created: Dec 29, 2011 MST
Story Updated: Dec 29, 2011 at 10:37 PM MST
MSU at East Washington Women's Basketball, Southern Miss at Montana Women's Basketball, Bellview at Carroll College Men's Basketball.
Source: http://www.kfbb.com/sports/local/College-Basketball-1229-136402563.html
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Xcel Energy customers will see an increase on their bill come 2012.
The state?s Public Regulation Commission approved a nearly 4.7 percent rate hike for more than 100,000 customers in Southeast New Mexico.
Xcel requested the increase because it needs to pay for system improvements, a spokesperson said.
Xcel serves communities in Southeastern New Mexico.
Source: http://senewmexico.kob.com/news/news/105129-xcel-energy-customers-see-rate-increase
PHOTO: All-Lubbock Band members en route to California for Rose Parade bit.ly/s4PzsG 
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Source: http://twitter.com/lubbockonline/statuses/152153477534072833
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Source: http://twitter.com/jlevine/statuses/152219144035631104
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LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The Chicago Bears placed quarterback Jay Cutler and running back Matt Forte on injured reserve, meaning they will miss the season finale at Minnesota this week.
The moves on Tuesday were hardly surprising given Chicago's recent struggles. The Bears (7-8) have lost five straight since Cutler broke his right thumb late in a win over San Diego on Nov. 20, and things took another bad turn two weeks later when Forte sprained the medial collateral ligament in his right knee against Kansas City.
Cutler, who was scheduled to have surgically inserted pins removed Tuesday, threw for 2,319 yards with 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Forte finished with 997 yards rushing and 490 receiving.
The Bears elevated defensive tackle Jordan Miller from the practice squad and signed guard Mansfield Wrotto.
Cutler's injury sent Chicago into a tailspin, knocking out of contention a team that appeared on its way to the playoffs after last year's run to the NFC title game.
Atlanta: The Falcons placed linebacker Mike Peterson and cornerback Kelvin Hayden on injured reserve, ending the season for both. Peterson, a 13-year veteran in his third season with Atlanta, played four games in place of the injured Stephen Nicholas. Hayden played in eight games, but not since Week 11.
Cincinnati: The Bengals placed wide receiver Andre Caldwell on injured reserve with a hernia, ending his season. The fourth-year player saw action in 13 games this season with two starts, making 37 catches for 317 yards and three touchdowns. To replace Caldwell, the Bengals signed rookie receiver Armon Binns from the practice squad.
Green Bay: A mid-February trial date was set for Packers linebacker Erik Walden on a disorderly conduct-domestic abuse charge. He pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor, which stems from a dispute with his girlfriend. A judge set a trial date of Feb. 16, 11 days after the Super Bowl. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an e-mail to the Associated Press that the league will review the matter after the court case is resolved.
Washington: The Redskins released running back Ryan Torain, who started four games this season, but fell behind rookies Roy Helu and Evan Royster on the depth chart. Torain rushed for only 200 yards this year, with 135 coming in the win over the St. Louis Rams on Oct. 2. The Redskins also promoted receiver Aldrick Robinson from the practice squad.
A new analytical tool from IBM is helping scientists scan patents and other intellectual property for information about molecular data. The cloud-based strategic IP insight platform, or SIIP, uses image analysis and enhanced optical recognition of chemical images and symbols to quickly obtain the information, a process that otherwise could take months to do manually.
The platform, housed in the IBM SmartCloud, processes documents in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization, as well as the public domain documents in the U.S. National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database.
Originally In-House Tool
SIIP was originally developed for IBM'S own use, and it has been used by hundreds of IP experts in the company for management and licensing. The company said that many top life-sciences companies also use SIIP because of its special focus on sifting patents for biological and chemical information.
SIIP can process molecular structures drawn as chemical compounds, and is being used to extract molecular and chemical information from patents, abstracts and other documents within hours of their publication. To date, more than 200 million chemical instances, gleaned from more than 30 million documents, have been extracted.
A user can perform analytics through a Web browser. Searches can be conducted via a drug's trade name, generic name, chemical ID number, or even by drawing the chemical structure inside the tool. Identical or similar compounds will be returned within seconds. The tool can also show trends in the industry, a competitive landscape, a prior art search and other analysis.
Via the IBM SmartCloud, the information can be shared within an organization, or among organizations. The company said that the tool improves R&D productivity, increases IP licensing, supports open innovation initiatives, helps to identify potential collaborators or acquisition targets, presents competitive intelligence, and increases the rate at which patents and grants are awarded.
Contribution to NIH
Because of the value of the retrieved information to the scientific community, IBM has donated to the National Institutes of Health an SIIP-created database of more than 2.5 million unique chemical compounds, along with the references in the literature. The database, extracted from million of patents and scientific documents, is expected to allow medical researchers to more readily understand relationships between chemical compounds.
Dr. Ying Chen, IBM research scientist, said the database donated to NIH will be used in conjunction with NIH's existing "rich set of content," such as comparing uses for a given compound across the literature.
Chen said another major differentiator for SIIP is the ability for natural language processing, instead of the keyword-based searching common in other such search engines. She also noted that SIIP has applications in other industries that use chemical information, such as consumer electronics, automotive, or oil and gas companies, and that the software-as-a-service tool "can be extremely useful for smaller companies as well as larger ones."
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enterprise/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111228/bs_nf/81441
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FILE - Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at a Hy-Vee store in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in this Dec. 20, 2011 file photo. The former House speaker has moved to the top in recent polling in Ohio, just as Republican presidential candidates prepare for the Jan. 3 caucuses in Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at a Hy-Vee store in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in this Dec. 20, 2011 file photo. The former House speaker has moved to the top in recent polling in Ohio, just as Republican presidential candidates prepare for the Jan. 3 caucuses in Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
WEST CHESTER, Ohio (AP) ? For "Anybody but Romney" Republicans in a key conservative region of Ohio, Newt Gingrich has been picking up support as an alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.
The former House speaker has moved to the top in recent polling in Ohio, just as Republican presidential candidates prepare for the Jan. 3 caucuses in Iowa, followed closely by the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries. Ohio's presidential primary is scheduled for March 6, one of the biggest prizes for Republicans among about a dozen states voting on "Super Tuesday."
Mitt Romney hasn't excited some of the party's staunchest conservatives for reasons that include his past support of abortion rights and enactment of a Massachusetts health care plan that's often compared to President Barack Obama's overhaul.
Some conservatives had flirted with supporting Herman Cain, drawn to his business background and unconventional campaign style. But Cain suspended his campaign this month following allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior and a longtime extramarital affair. Cain's decision and Gingrich's performance in nationally televised debates helped some make up their minds.
"He's sold me," said Dan Keith, 61, of Hamilton. Keith and his wife, Pat, said they are convinced that Gingrich has the experience and savvy to be strong against Obama. "I can't see anybody else coming onto the scene that we would go to."
The Keiths said they were undecided when first interviewed three months ago.
"I think before, people liked the other candidates because they were an alternative to Romney. But I'm hearing more people who like Gingrich as Gingrich," said Bill Langdon, co-owner of the Grand Ole Pub, a popular gathering spot for Republican partisans in West Chester. Langdon had been interested in Cain, but doubted whether Cain could win the presidential nomination.
Gingrich is now his choice. "He's the guy they think can go toe-to-toe with the president," Langdon said.
Sandra Arno, of nearby Springdale, turned out for Cain's visit to West Chester in November and liked what she heard. She was deciding between him and Gingrich before Cain stopped campaigning, and most recently was leaning toward the former speaker.
"I think they're both very intelligent, and I think Newt will be good as the candidate," Arno said.
Republican-dominated suburbs like this one ? home of House Speaker John Boehner ? just north of Cincinnati provide a stronghold of votes in a state that no GOP nominee has ever reached the White House without winning. Their enthusiastic turnout to vote for George W. Bush by 2-to-1 margins in 2004 is credited with delivering Ohio to clinch his re-election. It's important for the Republican nominee to be able to attract big numbers in GOP-oriented suburban and rural regions to offset Democratic urban bastions led by Cleveland.
A series of Quinnipiac University polls tracked Gingrich's rise in Ohio from low single-digits to 36 percent between September and early December. Cain had fallen to 7 percent after leading the pack at 28 percent in October. The sexual harassment allegations against Cain surfaced in late October.
Lori Viars, a conservative activist and anti-abortion leader in Lebanon, predicted that a Romney nomination would keep some Christian evangelicals on the sidelines in November because of concern about his previous positions on issues, led by abortion. Some in her crowd ? Viars is among them ? might also hesitate over Gingrich's personal history, which includes two divorces and acknowledged marital infidelity.
"Newt makes a lot of sense," Viars said. "But everyone makes mistakes, and he certainly is right on a lot of issues."
Several of those who have come around to Gingrich say they're not put off by his personal past.
"Would I want him as marriage counselor? No," said Keith. "But that's not what we're electing."
Keith's wife thinks Gingrich's candidacy is on firmer ground because he's already undergone years of scrutiny.
"They've already raked him over the coals pretty good," Pat Keith said.
Other Republican activists say it's still too soon to pick a candidate in a state where there has been little campaigning, and with the GOP field likely to be smaller by the time of Ohio's primary in March.
This region of Ohio is home to some of the nation's first tea party groups, and a number of activists are loyal to Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has attracted a band of followers with libertarian-minded calls to bring home U.S. troops and keep the government out of personal decisions.
Cincinnati tea party leader Mike Wilson, though, is "watching and waiting."
Wilson's favorite candidate was Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor who dropped out in August. Wilson doesn't share the worry about Romney becoming the nominee. He also said a respectable Iowa finish by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann or Texas Gov. Rick Perry could give either of those conservative favorites some traction heading into the contests that follow.
Wilson said Romney can defeat Obama and would work with a Republican-controlled House, should it stay in GOP hands.
"I think we know who the ultimate opponent is ? Barack Obama," Wilson said. "With John Boehner as speaker, I think Romney will sign a lot of Republican legislation over the next four years."
___
Follow Dan Sewell on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell
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Wine OR Wine & Food
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Happy Hour??
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Stop by and enjoy some quality Texas and California Reds and light appetizers.? Learn how In Home Wine Tasting 4 You can "Bring the wine or beer to your Party" and enter a drawing for a Free In Home Wine Tasting for up to 10 people.?
Half of your tasting fee covers the wine and appetizers.? The other half will be contributed to The New Hope Foundation to assist their efforts improving lives of needy area residents.
Their Elves in Disguise program this year helped a single mother who was subjected to horrific abuse as a child, but thanks to her mother's sacrifice and grandmother's devotion, she made it out alive. Despite deep scars, she eventually attended college and received her associates degree.?Her husband recently passed away, leaving her to raise four children alone, who have asthma and other health and learning issues. Their apartment isn't safe or healthy. Words cannot express how little they have. But the children do not complain because it is better than the shelter where they used to live. During the year they help feed, clothe, tutor and provide safe after school programs for kids of working parents. ?Find out more at:? www.newhopefoundation.com
Come enjoy some wonderful wines; learn about a relaxing way to find new affordable, quality wines; help families in severe need in this season of giving; and enter to win a free wine and beer tasting of your own.
Visit Website: In Home Wine Tasting 4 You
No matter what your holiday is (or isn?t), things do slow down this time of year ? which is a nice change from the increasingly hectic path most people?s lives seem to be taking. One of wonderful things I find about that ?white space,? is that it gives me time to vision, plan and dream. If I make sure to punctuate my year with enough of these spaces (still working on that), then I?m fueled and focused during those more hectic times.
Today I want to share with you three free Getting Attention guides published this year ? on messaging that resonates, marketing wisdom from your peers and books that can lift and energize you.
1) Nonprofit Tagline Database & Report ? Get inspired by 4,800+ nonprofit taglines and the guide to making yours great.
Learn how to craft messages that connect, and motivate your audiences to move your mission forward with the:
?? Nonprofit Tagline Report: Your guide to high-impact taglines: 10 have-tos, 6 deadly sins?what not to do, what makes a winning tagline and more.
?? Nonprofit Tagline Database: Use these 4,800 taglines to scout the competition, get inspired and learn what not to do in your own messaging.
?
2)The Nonprofit Marketing Wisdom Guide ? Use these 127 lessons learned to strengthen your org?s marketing impact!
Your peers share their wisdom on the marketing challenges you face daily, including:
? Keys to drafting email subject lines to motivate opens
? How to know your supporters, so you can connect more strongly with them
? Tips for building strong relationships with donors, the media and your org?s leadership
? Simple planning techniques to keep you moving towards your marketing goals
? How to incorporate the unexpected, and much more.
?
3) The Book that Changed My Life: 129 book recommendations from nonprofit leaders around the world
When I asked nonprofit experts in a range of fields and functions?from public health to arms control, from fundraising to advocacy?to share the one book that has most influenced their professional lives, I had no idea what they?d say. I was thrilled to hear so many passionate stories about books that have made a huge difference in their lives. One of them could change yours!
Get your reading guide now.
Source: http://gettingattention.org/2011/12/nonprofit-communications-guides/
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Japan Finance Minister Jun Azumi said on Tuesday that Japan and India are in the final stages of deciding on a dollar swap agreement.
Further financial cooperation between Japan and India will be a key focus at talks between the leaders of the two countries, Azumi told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.
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(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Joseph Radford)
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9:25am UK, Monday December 26, 2011
The fund-raising campaign attracted more than ?7m in donations from Britons in just six months.
That total passes the previous record of ?6.8m for donations to the Asian Tsunami appeal.
The money raised for East Africa has been spent on providing clean water, food and healthcare to an estimated 1.7 million children affected by drought.
Save the Children's chief executive James Forsyth paid tribute to those who helped.
"Even when times are tough at home, this shows that British people care deeply about the world's most vulnerable children," he said.
"They know that their help - however small - can be the difference between life and death for children facing unimaginable suffering."
Some of the money raised has been spent on healthcare
Families in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are among those who were given assistance by the funding.
However, 250,000 people in Somalia still remain in urgent need of help.
The United Nations described the crisis as East Africa's worst drought for 60 years.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced last week that Britain would send 9,000 tonnes of food and medicine to the Horn of Africa.
LAGOS, Nigeria - Terror attacks across Nigeria by a radical Muslim sect killed at least 39 people Sunday, with the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.
Authorities acknowledged they could not bring enough emergency medical personnel to care for the wounded outside St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla near Nigeria's capital. Elsewhere, a bomb exploded amid gunfire in the central Nigeria city of Jos and a suicide car bomber attacked the military in the nation's northeast as part of an apparently coordinated assault by the sect known as Boko Haram.
The Christmas Day violence, denounced by world leaders and the Vatican, shows the threat of the widening insurrection posed by Boko Haram against Nigeria's weak central government. Despite a recent paramilitary crackdown against the sect in the oil-rich nation, it appears that Africa's most populous nation remains unable to stop the threat.
"These are cowardly attacks on families gathered in peace and prayer to celebrate a day which symbolises harmony and goodwill towards others," Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.
The first explosion on Sunday struck St. Theresa Catholic Church just after 8 a.m. The attack killed 35 people and wounded another 52, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.
Though billions of dollars of oil money flow into the nation's budget yearly, Luguard's agency could only send text messages to journalists asking for their help in getting more ambulances.
Those wounded filled the cement floors of a nearby government hospital, with television images showing them crying in pools of their own blood. Corpses lined an open-air morgue.
The bombing and the delayed response drew anger from those gathering around the church after the blast. The crowd initially blocked emergency workers from the blast site, only allowing them in after soldiers arrived.
"We're trying to calm the situation," Luguard said. "There are some angry people around trying to cause problems."
In Jos, a second explosion struck near the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church, state government spokesman Pam Ayuba said. Gunmen later opened fire on police guarding the area, killing one officer, he said. Two other locally made explosives were found in a nearby building and disarmed.
By noon Sunday, explosions echoed through the streets of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state where fighting between security forces and the sect already had killed at least 61 people in recent days. The most serious attack on Sunday came when a suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with explosives at the state headquarters of Nigeria's secret police, the State Security Service.
The bomber killed three people in the blast, though the senior military commander apparently targeted survived the attack, the State Security Service said in a statement.
After the bombings, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria's Muslim north. The sect has used the newspaper in the past to communicate with public.
Boko Haram has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 504 killings this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
This Christmas attack comes a year after a series of Christmas Eve bombings in Jos claimed by the militants left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded. The group also claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria's capital Abuja that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.
The sect came to national prominence in 2009, when its members rioted and burned police stations near its base of Maiduguri, a dusty northeastern city on the cusp of the Sahara Desert. Nigeria's military violently put down the attack, crushing the sect's mosque into shards as its leader was arrested and died in police custody. About 700 people died during the violence.
While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes after the 2009 riot, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties. That has fueled speculation about the group's ties as it has splintered into at least three different factions, diplomats and security sources say. They say the more extreme wing of the sect maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia.
Targeting the group has remained difficult, as sect members are scattered throughout northern Nigeria and nearby Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Analysts say political considerations also likely play a part in the country's thus-far muted response: President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south, may be hesitant to use force in the nation's predominantly Muslim north.
In a statement, Jonathan condemned the blasts as a "unwarranted affront on our collective safety and freedom."
"I want to reassure all Nigerians that government will not relent in its determination to bring to justice all the perpetrators of today's acts of violence and all others before now," Jonathan said.
However, Jonathan has made the same promises after a series of spiraling attacks by the group. His spokesman, Reuben Abati, defended the president by saying the country planned to spend more on security and had made arrests targeting the group.
"The administration is very determined to address this new threat of terrorism that seems to have slipped into our environment," Abati told the AP.
But anger continues to grow over the sect's apparent ability to strike at will - anger that could be seen at St. Theresa Catholic Church. After the blast, someone picked up a burnt piece of wood to scrawl: "Revolution now in the country" on its cement walls.
___
Associated Press writers Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria and Njadvara Musa in Maiduguri, Nigeria contributed to this report.
___
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/December/Scores-Killed-in-Nigeria-Church-Attacks/
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Broncos at Bills 1 p.m., no local TV
The Broncos can clinch their first division title since 2005 with a win and a Raiders loss in Kansas City. A Denver loss would put an awful lot of things up in the air for a team that has rallied from a 1-4 start to get into the postseason race. Broncos running back Willis McGahee will be motivated to play against his former team, and the Bills rank 29th against the run. The Bills have lost seven in a row.
Chargers at Lions 4:05 p.m. CBS
If it's December, the Chargers must be trying to sprint down the stretch again. They've won three straight. They were 3-1 down the stretch last season, won their final 11 in '09, their final four in '08, their final six in '07 and their final 10 in '06. They might have waited too long this time, however, since they need plenty of others to lose to sneak into the postseason. The Lions know how to hang in, however. They have won four games this season after trailing by 13 or more points - that's an NFL record. Detroit can clinch a wild-card berth with a win.
Eagles at Cowboys 4:15 p.m., Fox
The Eagles aren't going to the playoffs, but if they can put all their frustration, dysfunction and spotty play in the rearview mirror for at least one game, they could deal the Cowboys a painful loss. In his past three home starts against the Eagles, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is 3-0 with seven touchdown passes. Dallas running back Felix Jones has been bothered by a hamstring injury all week.
Source: http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/12/24/3621066/nfl-gameday-three-to-watch.html
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HOUSTON?? Jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is mentally competent to stand trial on charges he bilked investors out of $7 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme, a judge ruled Thursday
U.S. District Judge David Hittner's decision came after a nearly three-day competency hearing for the disgraced financier. Stanford's trial is set for Jan. 23.
Stanford had been declared incompetent in January due to an anti-anxiety drug addiction he developed while jailed in Houston. He spent more than eight months at a federal prison hospital in Butner, N.C., getting treatment for his addiction and being evaluated to determine if he had any long-term effects from being injured in a September 2009 jail fight.
A forensic psychologist who helped treat Stanford at the prison hospital testified the financier is now competent, can think clearly after being taken off the drug and has not suffered brain damage from the jail fight.
But four medical experts who testified on Stanford's behalf, including a neurologist and two forensic psychiatrists, said the financier suffered a traumatic brain injury in the jail fight that left him with severe memory loss and unable to think or communicate clearly.
Doctors who treated Stanford at the prison hospital and prosecutors accused him of faking symptoms of amnesia. He says he can't remember all events in his life prior to the prison fight.
Stanford's medical experts said they believed his memory loss was genuine. They said his brain injury, along with a major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder from the jail fight has left Stanford unable to assist his defense attorneys and to be ready for trial.
Those experts also testified his treatment for other medical conditions, including heart and liver problems, complicated his brain injury and memory loss.
Stanford and three former executives of his now-defunct Stanford Financial Group are accused of orchestrating a colossal pyramid scheme that advised clients from 113 countries to invest more than $7 billion in certificates of deposit, or CDs, at the Stanford International Bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua, promising huge returns.
Authorities say Stanford and the executives fabricated the bank's records, bribed Antiguan regulators with investors' money from a secret Swiss bank account and misused funds to pay for Stanford's lavish lifestyle.
Stanford became a billionaire whose financial empire stretched across the U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America. His attorneys say he ran a legitimate business. He has been jailed since he was indicted in June 2009 by a federal grand jury in Houston, where his companies were headquartered.
He faces 14 counts, including wire and mail fraud. .
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45768276/ns/business-us_business/
SAN FRANCISCO ? A Roman Catholic church in San Francisco that canceled a series of pre-Christmas services featuring gay ministers from other denominations is being criticized for sending a negative message to its predominantly gay and lesbian congregation.
Pastor Steve Meriwether of Most Holy Redeemer Church late last month rescinded the invitations he had extended to the three ministers at the direction of San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, the San Francisco Chronicle ( http://bit.ly/sHsd0F) reported Friday.
The story first was reported by the Bay Area Reporter, a gay newspaper.
Archdiocese spokesman George Wesolek told the Chronicle the archbishop felt the speakers were "inappropriate for the season of Advent, which should be a time to reflect on the coming of Christ."
Wesolek said he was unsure how the archdiocese learned Most Holy Redeemer had asked Otis Charles, a former Episcopal bishop, Presbyterian Rev. Jane Spahr and Metropolitan Community Church Rev. Roland Stringfellow. An article in California Catholic Daily mentioned the Nov. 30 scheduled appearance by Otis, who came out as gay after he retired.
"It's a very delicate pastoral situation," Wesolek said. "There are a lot of wonderful gays and lesbians who attend Most Holy Redeemer, but there are parameters that must be followed."
Stringfellow, a minister for the gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Church, had been scheduled to speak Wednesday. The cancellations were an insult to the clergy involved and sends a message to gay and lesbian Catholics that they are unwelcome within the Catholic Church, Stringfellow said.
"Most congregations invite speakers who can speak well to their community's concerns," he said. "We are all clergy within our own rites and denominations, and we were very disrespected by the idea that we can only give a talk that's about gay rights."
The archdiocese has stepped in before to draw a line when it felt Most Holy Redeemer's support for gay Catholics has trespassed into advocacy for gay rights.
Niederauer ordered the parish in 2009 to cancel a performance of a play that explores the subject of adolescent sexuality in a Christian context, according to the Chronicle. The parish also was told to end its official participation in San Francisco's annual Gay Pride parade.
___
Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com
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FORT WORTH, Texas?? American Eagle has announced plans to stop flying turboprop planes from its main hub in North Texas and will switch to regional jets.
Don't miss these Travel stories
Getting ready to brave the teeming masses at the airport later this week? Turns out you may need less courage than you might think.
The carrier, operating under bankruptcy protection, will replace turboprop planes at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with Embraer 44-seat and 50-seat jets.
American Eagle CEO Dan Garton on Tuesday notified employees of the changes, taking effect by Jan. 31, as the carrier seeks to streamline operations. The airline's parent, Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.
American Eagle uses turboprop planes to serve airports within about an hour's flight of DFW, including College Station, Longview, Lubbock, Killeen, San Angelo, Tyler, Waco and Wichita Falls.
The turboprop planes will be returned to a leasing company.
American Eagle last week stopped hiring new pilots.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45752728/ns/travel-news/
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Apple, true to form, makes it simple to put media and files on your iDevice but the road really only goes one way. It can be pretty difficult to copy anything (or everything) back to your computer without a lot of trouble and sacrifice, but it's even harder to find a good, free solution to that problem amongst the many choices available. You could spend the better part of your week sifting through your options, or you could just read this post instead.
We've tackled this issue before, but things have changed for the better since 2008. Here's a look at your best options for transferring media from your iDevice back to your computer, free of charge. We've broken up this guide into Windows, Mac, and Linux sections, so just choose the one that you need.
For quite awhile, Windows was bereft of a solid solution to the problem of transferring media from iDevice to computer. Thankfully Sharepod came along and made the world a better place?at least for those of you Windows users with music trapped on your 'pods. Not only can SharePod transfer the entire contents of your library, but it can also make any changes you want without iTunes. You can download SharePod here. Once you've got it installed, here's how you access your stuff:
That's all there is to it. If you simply want to play music, just double click on any file in your library and SharePod will start playing it. It's incredibly simple to use.
Mac OS X has long been blessed with Senuti. (That's iTunes spelled backwards, if you were wondering.) Senuti is very simple to use and can transfer your music back to your computer in just a few clicks. Technically it's not 100% free, but you can use it to transfer up to 1,000 songs for a trial period of 30 days. (If you want to go the 100% free route you can use the iExplorer method or Pod to Mac.) Here's how it works:
That's it. Senuti is a remarkably simple app that takes no time at all to use.
Linux users should check out gtkpod. As far as we know, it's really one of the only ways to sync an iDevice in Linux at all. They provide in-depth documentation on how to do everything from just connecting your iDevice to copying files back to your computer. Here's how it works, according to gtkpod's documentation:
- Mark the tracks you want to export and select "Export Tracks from Database" from the file menu (or use the context sensitive menu).
- A file selection dialog window appears and you can choose the directory you'd like the selected files to be written to.
- You can specify the output filename in the prefs dialog by specifying a template (e.g. "%A/%a - %t"). You can specify multiple templates for different file formats by separating them by a semicolon (e.g. "%A/%a - %t.mp3;%t.wav"). See the tooltip in the preferences window for a list of identifiers.
Although we haven't spent much time with it, it looks to be your best (and potentially only) option on Linux for managing and syncing your iDevice. If you have experience with gtkpod or another Linux option you like better, let us know in the comments.
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WASHINGTON -- John Shoemaker visited six doctors in his quest to find the best treatment for his early stage prostate cancer ? and only the last one offered what made the most sense to the California man: Keep a close watch on the tumor and treat only if it starts to grow.
Very few men choose this active surveillance option. Yet Shoemaker is one of more than 100,000 men a year deemed candidates for it by a government panel. That's because their prostate cancer carries such a low risk of morphing into the kind that could kill.
The risk for them is so low, in fact, that specialists convened recently by the National Institutes of Health say it's time to strip the name "cancer" off these small, lazy tumors.
In the meantime, the panel wants more of those men offered the option of delaying treatment until regular check-ups show it's really needed. That endorsement promises to fuel efforts by the Prostate Cancer Foundation and a few other groups to spread the word to the newly diagnosed.
Shoemaker's journey shows how difficult that may be, from doctors who don't even bring it up to the fear factor.
"With prostate cancer, you hear the "C" word, so to speak, and people freak out," says Shoemaker, 69, a businessman from Los Altos, Calif., who was intent on examining all his options.
Five years after his diagnosis ? and five biopsies plus numerous blood tests and ultrasound scans later ? Shoemaker's happy he found a surgeon who argued against immediate treatment. He's confident his prostate tumor hasn't grown, and avoided the pain and side effects of surgery or radiation.
Some 240,000 men a year in the U.S. are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Earlier this month, the NIH-appointed panel found that most have the low-risk kind, a legacy of using problematic PSA blood tests to screen healthy men for possible signs of this slow-growing cancer that will affect most men's prostates if they live long enough.
Yet 90 percent of such men choose immediate treatment such as surgery or radiation, risking serious and long-lasting side effects, such as impotence or incontinence, without good evidence about who will live longer as a result. One recent study tracked 731 men diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer for 10 years and found no difference in survival between those who had surgery and those who weren't treated unless they went on to develop cancer symptoms, an older option known as watchful waiting.
Active surveillance is much more aggressive than watchful waiting ? men get regular scans, blood tests and biopsies to check the tumor, although the NIH panel found the degree of monitoring can vary by medical center. Active surveillance is designed to monitor men closely enough that they can get curative treatment quickly if it looks like they'll need it, well before any symptoms would begin.
"It's not treatment versus no treatment; it's about timing of treatment," Shoemaker's physician, Dr. Peter Carroll of the University of California, San Francisco, told the NIH. He's a well-known prostate cancer surgeon who also leads one of the country's few large active-surveillance programs, tracking more than 900 men for over five years. Most are treatment-free so far, and none has gone on to die of prostate cancer.
What's the advice for men? The NIH panel said men with a PSA level less than 10 and a Gleason score that's 6 or less are candidates for this type of active surveillance. The Gleason score measures how aggressive prostate cancer cells look under the microscope. Urologists can provide those numbers.
Then what? Today, what men decide to do next largely depends on the advice of the specialist they wind up seeing, and many either don't offer active surveillance or present it in a negative way, as doing nothing, the NIH panel learned. There's also the patient's instinctive "get it out" reaction.
Within a few months, an interactive section of the site will be added to link men with doctors who offer active surveillance and track how they fare with input straight from the patients themselves, said Hopkins' Dr. H. Ballentine Carter.
"To me, it's an individualized approach rather than the one-size-fits-all approach of treating everyone," Carter says.
Beyond whether and how men choose surveillance, behavioral scientist Kathryn Taylor of Georgetown University wants to know how they decide to stick with it. About a quarter of men abandon the observation approach within two or three years, and as many as half by five years, the NIH panel learned. It's not clear how much of that was because they needed treatment, and how much was just the anxiety or getting tired of repeat biopsies.
Taylor is beginning a study of 1,500 newly diagnosed, low-risk prostate cancer patients at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California to see how many are told about active surveillance and what helped or hindered their decision.
"Living with untreated cancer is very difficult," she says, "and not everybody can do it, not surprisingly."
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press.
Also on HuffPost:
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CLEVELAND (Reuters) ? A soon-to-open Cleveland casino was bombarded with job applications from 16,000 people in just four days after announcing openings for 750 positions, a casino official said on Saturday.
Due to the high volume of responses, the Horseshoe Casino took down about half of the job openings on Friday and is now shifting through the resumes to find qualified candidates.
"We are utilizing employees all across the county to review applicants," Jennifer Kulczycki of Rock Gaming, parent company of the casino, told Reuters Saturday.
"We were blown out of the water by the numbers but we announced we would hire 90 percent of our staff from the Cleveland area and we are sure we will meet that goal."
This is the second round of job postings the casino, slated to open in March, has put on its website.
Ohio voters approved four casinos in the state in November 2009. Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers professional basketball team, also owns Rock Gaming, and partnered with Caesars Entertainment Corp. to build the casino in Cleveland.
According to Kulczycki, the most sought-after positions during this round were security, cage cashier, food and beverage workers and administrative assistants.
In September, the casino posted more than 600 job openings and 12,000 people applied over the course of one month. Eventually that number was whittled down to 4,000 and more than 600 are currently receiving free training.
According to Kulczycki, employees will sort through the applications from this round and invite about 4,000 to in-person interviews. Those who do well will be receive a conditional job offer.
(Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Jerry Norton)
WASHINGTON ? House Republicans have unveiled a massive $1 trillion-plus yearend spending package despite a plea from the White House for additional talks over a handful of provisions opposed by President Barack Obama.
The measure curbs agency budgets but drops many policy provisions sought by GOP conservatives.
But it contains language to roll back Obama administration policies that had loosened restrictions on the rights of Cuban immigrants to send money to relatives in Cuba or travel back to the island to visit.
The measure had been held up by Senate Democrats seeking leverage in talks on extending payroll tax cuts and unemployment insurance ? two pillars of Obama's jobs agenda.
A vote could come as early as Friday to avoid a government shutdown.
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New York ? The Republican presidential candidates made their closing arguments in the final forum before Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses. Did anyone gain a last-minute edge?
Frontrunner Newt Gingrich was on the defensive ? again ? as the Republican candidates made their closing appeals to voters in the last debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses officially launch primary season (and inevitably weed out a candidate or two). Gingrich fended off competitors' claims that he's an unreliable conservative, calling them "laughable," and defended his consulting work for Fannie Mae. His chief rival, Mitt Romney, tried to stay above the fray and focus his attacks on President Obama. Who came out best in Sioux City's "make-or-break" debate? Here, a consensus list of the winners and losers:
WINNERS
Mitt Romney
Among the three candidates with any chance of winning Iowa, says Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway, "the one that seemed to mostly dodge the fire this time around was Mitt Romney." He took the usual hits on the Massachusetts health care law and his history at Bain Capital, but he wasn't attacked nearly as aggressively as his chief rival Gingrich. "This may end up benefiting Romney in the long run since it seemed, once again, like he was the cool, calm guy standing above the fray while all the other candidates fought amongst themselves."
SEE MORE: Should GOP candidates skip Donald Trump's debate?
?
Michele Bachmann
The Tea Party favorite has tumbled since winning the Iowa straw poll in August, says Shawna Shepherd at CNN, but Bachmann held her own this time. She "had the sharpest attack lines" against Gingrich, saying he has made money through "influence-peddling," even if he's not technically a lobbyist. And she drew applause by calling Ron Paul's anti-war Iran policy the most "dangerous answer for American security" she's ever heard. Bachmann came off as a "true-blue conservative," says William Kristol in The Weekly Standard. This performance might be what she needed to start climbing back into the first-tier.
Newt Gingrich
The man to beat "did face criticism," says Kathie Obradovich at the Des Moines Register, "but it wasn't the open season on Gingrich that the Dec. 10 debate featured." The former House speaker "parried attacks for most of the first hour," and "gained back ground he may have lost in the second half." And the debate closed with the moderators handing Gingrich "a sugarplum," by making everyone "defend negative attacks on each other and giving Gingrich a chance to proclaim his positive campaign." Not a bad final impression with which to leave voters before a crucial vote.
SEE MORE: Democrats should fear a third-party challenge in 2012
?
LOSERS
Newt Gingrich
The "new Newt" ? the cool, unflappable frontrunner ? was on display much of the night, says Frank James at NPR. "But there were times when old Newt, the consummate Washington insider or proposer of crazy ideas, made an appearance." In those moments Gingrich did nothing to soothe the conservatives he needs to win the primaries, or the independents he would need in the general election.?
Ron Paul
Gingrich's most formidable rival in Iowa, according to polls, is Rep. Ron Paul, says Charles Babington at the Associated Press, but the libertarian-leaning Texan did himself no favors in Sioux City. He "expressed his anti-war, anti-interventionist views so vehemently that he may have turned off mainstream Republicans who otherwise might have helped him to a surprising first-place finish."
SEE MORE: Why Donald Trump dropped out of his own debate: 4 theories
?
Fence-sitters
This was the last chance for GOP primary voters to examine the candidates together, says Dan Balz and Philip Rucker at The Washington Post, but "there was no clear winner Thursday night and no obvious loser." Nobody committed a campaign-sinking gaffe, "and some of the strongest performances were turned in by candidates in the lower tier of the competition." Even Romney, who needs to gain lost ground from Gingrich, refrained from "direct encounters" and aimed his sharpest criticism at Obama. If voters were hoping for a game-changer, they were disappointed.
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It was an emotional ride during the finale of The Biggest Loser, as the remaining contestants looked back at their weight-loss journeys on the NBC reality competition. In the end, it came down to three men: Antone Davis, Ramon Medeiros and John Rhode, all of whom looked looked amazing with their newly toned bodies.
NEW YORK ? In the role that shot Luciano Pavarotti to superstardom, tenor Lawrence Brownlee tossed nine high Cs to a Metropolitan Opera audience ? in less than one minute.
The 39-year-old American pulled it off joyfully Monday on the season opening night of Gaetano Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" ("The Daughter of the Regiment").
The fiendish notes seemed a breeze for Brownlee, despite the inherent element of risk. He flies into the vocal stratosphere on his teacher's advice: Imagine you're in a parachute, soft-landing on the high Cs from above.
Still, in Donizetti's high-jinx 1840 comic opera, the Cs have to be what the tenor calls "nine bull's-eyes." Others have called them the "Mount Everest for tenors" ? a feat Brownlee last performed on a Moscow stage in September.
He plays Tonio, an Austrian peasant who falls hopelessly in love with a tomboyish young woman ? an orphan raised by invading French soldiers.
As Marie, soprano Nino Machaidze produced coloratura fireworks amid the slapstick humor of a romantic plot that requires her to show off her considerable skill as a clown with a broken heart. The spectacular vocal agility of the spunky native of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, still in her 20s, has made her a fast-rising international star.
The Laurent Pelly production also features a longtime star soprano from New Zealand, Kiri Te Kanawa, in the non-singing cameo role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp, whose meddling complicates life for the passionate pair.
Te Kanawa, 67, couldn't resist offering the audience a snippet of her famed singing voice ? gracing Donizetti's score with Puccini's "O fior del giorno" from the opera "Edgar," about a woman in love walking through a flower-filled village square. It was a sort of vocal bouquet thrown to the singer's still adoring fans.
Yves Abel conducted the Met orchestra with buoyant energy that embraced the exquisite vocal pyrotechnics.
Brownlee's high Cs popped up in Tonio's exuberant aria "Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fete!" ("Ah, my friends, what a day for celebrating!") ? greeted by a long, roaring ovation. His other showstopper was "Pour me rapprocher de Marie" ("To get close to Marie"), in which he declares that she's his whole life ? an aria delivered as a rich, seamless musical act of love that digs deeper than a series of lustrous high notes.
Brownlee, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, is not new to the Met stage.
His career got a jump start when he won the finals of the Met's National Council Auditions a decade ago, going on to become a globally prized tenor in the "bel canto" repertoire ? meaning beautiful singing in Italian, to describe technically challenging works like Gioachino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" that has become Brownlee's calling card.
The tenor appeared at the Met last season with soprano Renee Fleming in Rossini's "Armida."
He sang the role of Tonio at the house one other time, replacing Juan Diego Florez almost two years ago on a few hours' notice when the Peruvian tenor fell ill.
Pavarotti took on Tonio in 1972, opposite soprano Joan Sutherland, winning accolades for his nine high Cs. Donizetti actually wrote only eight, but it's now standard practice for tenors to add a final, ringing ninth one.
The current hit production, which updates the action from Napoleonic times to World War I, runs through Jan. 6.
___
Online:
http://www.metopera.org
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