Home Rule Charter Cities in MN - Taxation and Assessment Powers

As addressed in the first week of class this semester, and in the League of Minnesota Cities? Local Government Handbook (www.lmc.org/media/document/1/chapter01/pdf), there two ?types? of cities in Minnesota: statutory cities and home rule charter (HRC) cities. Of the 854 incorporated places within the state, 107 are HRC cities. In short, the HRC is an alternative form of governance that allows cities more flexibility in the structure of the mayor/city council/city administrator, as well as other issues, such as the ability to propose amendments to the city charter (statutory cities need a state statute passed for similar changes). This flexibility and localized set of rules (the charter) doesn?t come without extra work and administrative time and cost, though, and many cities seem to have steered clear of this structure because of these reasons. So, what?s the deal with the non-statutory 13 percent of incorporated local governments, and exactly how do the charters of these cities relate to property taxes? (Before we get to the answers, check out this map to see just which 107 cities I?m talking about. Any familiar faces?) As it turns out, the impact of home rule charters on local governments, including property taxes, is very minimally researched. In my efforts to dig into this, I found this brief about HRCs in Midwestern states by researchers at Indiana University (go Gophers!). So, at least on fiscal issues, the fiscal independence of Home Rule cities is limited. Although I?ve always had an interest in local government power, and especially in terms of its role in economic development, land use, and transportation systems, my awareness to HRC cities peaked as I started working on my capstone project this semester. So, with the ?limited independence? tag from the IU summary, I kept digging. Here are a couple of things I found: The City of Minnetonka?s Economic Development Authority discussion of special service districts (SSD), which can be created through an ordinance in HRC cities (currently extended through June 30, 2013), instead of through a state statute process. SSDs are an additional fee structure on top of property taxes that are frequently used for additional maintenance, streetscaping, and other roadway improvements in a business district. Here?s a really interesting one, and I have yet to find it applicable to other charter cities: Minnetonka is able to defer the assessment of development fees, such as those related to a parking ramp to be used at a future LRT station, until the time that the development actually occurs. Statutory cities are only allowed to do so on a greenfield (non-developed) site, which can make assessments for redevelopment projects into much more of an upfront barrier. Interesting?they don?t teach you these things in school!

Source: http://pa5113.blogspot.com/2013/02/home-rule-charter-cities-in-mn-taxation.html

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Shared Genes May Link ADHD, Autism and Depression - Health ...

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) ? Autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia may all share common genetic risk factors, a new study says.

In this largest study of its kind, researchers spotted gene variations governing brain function that may raise the risk for these often devastating mental woes. In the future, these gene variants might become key targets for prevention or treatment, the scientists said.

?This study, for the first time, shows that there are specific genetic variants that influence a range of childhood and adult-onset psychiatric disorders that we think of as clinically different,? said lead researcher Dr. Jordan Smoller, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

?We also found that there was significant overlap in the genetic components of several disorders, especially schizophrenia with bipolar disorder and depression, and to a lesser extent autism with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,? he said.

The researchers don?t yet understand exactly how these variants are involved in the disorders, he noted. ?This is the first clue that specific genes and pathways may cause a broader susceptibility to a number of disorders. Now the important work will be to figure out how this actually happens,? said Smoller, who is also associate vice chair of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Alessandro Serretti, from the Psychiatry Institute at the University of Bologna in Italy, wrote an accompanying journal editorial on the study. He believes that ?we are now able to understand what are the pathways to [these] psychiatric disorders.?

There are potential clinical applications, both in the classification of disorders, predicting who?s most at risk, and perhaps new and better drug therapies, Serretti said. However, there?s no immediate clinical application for these findings, he added.

The report was published Feb. 28 in the online edition of The Lancet.

To look for common genetic markers, called nucleotide polymorphisms, that might be risk factors for the five disorders, the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium scanned the genes of more than 33,000 people suffering from these disorders and nearly 28,000 people without such issues. This is the largest study of the genetics of psychiatric illness yet conducted, the researchers said.

Smoller?s group found four gene areas that all overlapped with the five disorders, two of which regulate calcium balance in the brain.

These overlapping gene variants appear to increase the risk for bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia in adults, the researchers said.

Further analysis found that genes governing calcium channel activity in the brain might also be important in the development of all five disorders, autism and ADHD included.

Smoller noted these genetic risk factors may only account for a very small part of the risk driving these disorders, and just how big a share they account for isn?t yet known.

So, looking for these genes in an individual now would not be considered a diagnostic tool. ?They are not enough to predict any individual?s risk. And you might carry all of these variants and never develop a psychiatric disorder,? Smoller said.

However, the new findings add to the understanding of these conditions and may help in developing new treatments, he explained.

?It could also change the way we define and diagnose these disorders, based on the biological causes,? Smoller said. ?Some of the disorders we think of as clinically distinct actually have more of a relationship than we might have thought.?

Two experts not connected to the study agreed.

?This is the first genome-wide evidence showing that neuropsychiatric diseases share genetic risk factors,? said Eva Redei, professor of psychiatry at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

She noted that all five of the conditions tackled in the study can share certain clinical features and symptoms, including variation in mood, mental impairments, and even psychosis.

?Therefore, the question is whether the identified shared genetic risk factors are related to the diseases or to the shared clinical symptoms,? Redei said. ?Shared genetic contribution can identify some key regulators in the brain, and can also help to find new drug targets,? she said.

Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, agreed that the findings are ?an important next step? in understanding mental illness.

As more gene studies are conducted and analyzed, scientists will ?be in a better place to identify shared cause of psychiatric disorders at a molecular level,? he said. ?Ultimately, [this could] generate new models for drug interventions and possibly even prevention.?

More information

For more information on mental disorders, visit the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

Source: http://news.health.com/2013/02/27/shared-genes-may-link-adhd-autism-and-depression/

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Mike Ragogna: Starlight: A Conversation with Joan Armatrading , Plus a Mika Newton Exclusive, and Bill Levenson revisits Duane Allman's Legacy

MIKA NEWTON'S "COME OUT AND PLAY"

The Ukraine's Mika Newton, signed to American Idol judge & Grammy Award-winning producer Randy Jackson's label earlier this year, has a new Paul Oakenfold remix for her latest single, "Come Out And Play." FYI, she's already been featured in The New York Post, MTV, AOL, etc., and her social media stats are 120,000+ on Twitter; 38,000+ on Facebook, racking up millions of combined views on YouTube. Mika's debut single, "Don't Dumb Me Down," was released last summer to rave reviews. The song is co-written by Rune Westberg who's worked with Rebecca Black, Adam Lambert, etc., and BC Jean, who's responsible for the smash hit by Beyonc?, "If I Were A Boy." The music video premiered on MTV's Buzzworthy and was one of the site's Top 10 Most Viewed Videos with over 1.3 million views on YouTube/Vevo.

"I'm so happy that I have a chance to work with Paul," says Mika. "He is not just a great DJ , he is a musician and deep person with a light inside. And our combinations of music, love and lights is what you can hear in this remix."

A Conversation with Joan Armatrading

Mike Ragogna: Joan, tell us everything about yourself, and don't leave anything out.

Joan Armatrading: [laughs] That's just not going to happen, is it. That's not an interview!

MR: Fine. Then let's try this. Can you tell us what went into your new album Starlight?

JA: All right, that's a much easier question to answer. [laughs] In 2003, I made a CD called Lovers Speak and when I was making that CD, I decided that I wanted it to have a certain sound...like an acoustic sound, so it's got that kind of flavor to it. Then I thought when I was making it that it would be great to stick with a genre, because usually when I write, I kind of flip about; I do it with a rock song and a jazz song and a blues song and pop song, you know, all these different genres mixed up on the album. So I thought it would be good to do one genre and stay with that and I hit on coming up with a trilogy, and the trilogy would be blues, rock, jazz. Then in 2007, I wrote Into The Blues, which was very successful. It made me the first female UK artist to go to number one in the Billboard charts and I was nominated for a Grammy again. Then I did This Charming Life in 2010, which was the rock CD, all of the songs were kind of rock songs, then this one, Starlight, is jazz. So that's the trilogy: blues, rock, jazz, and this is the last of those three.

MR: Which begs the question, "What's next?"

JA: I have no idea what I'm going to do next. I'll be waiting, hopefully, like everybody else, with interest. So that's it, and it was just a way of giving myself a challenge of staying within these genres for the whole album to see if I could do it. On all of these albums I just mentioned, I play everything except on this, replacing the drums that I did. But I kept the drums that I did on this one and it's just me.

MR: You said, "It was just me." As you mentioned, you recorded blues, rock, and jazz. But for your music, you probably need to subcategorize it further to be "Joan Armatrading rock, Joan Armatrading blues, Joan Armatrading jazz."

JA: I'm certain, and I'm so glad that you noticed that, because that's exactly what it is. It's my take on the genres, it's my take on what's going on. I'm not trying to be Miles Davis or any other jazz person, so it sounds like me, I think.

MR: Yeah! Okay, let's get into some of the songs starting with "Single Life." When you're single, it's like all your married friends go, "I envy your single life," but there is that tradeoff. It's kind of like, "I am kind of happy I'm single, but on the other hand, you're lucky that you're married."

JA: I know lots of people who are in this situation, so I'm looking at people that I knew, hearing them talk and say that if they want to go off wherever they go, they don't have to think about the wife or the husband or whatever, they just go. Whereas the wife or husband can't just go, they've got the children. They've got to think about all these other people before they can just decide to go off wherever. So it's just looking at people and just thinking, "What's it like?" That's what I'm looking at, I'm looking at that kind of freedom, but at the same time, people can look at somebody else's life.

MR: So this isn't autobiographical.

JA: I'm not talking about myself. I write songs, as I've always said and is always the case, that are written from observation. I write them as if they're about me because that's the best way I know of writing. Everything I tend to do is in the first person. That's how I write. This is my twentieth album. I can't be writing every song about myself. I said that to somebody and they said, "Well some artists do write everything about themselves." If somebody's written twenty albums and every single song was about them, I'd think they were quite an insular person.

MR: Well doesn't it also make sense that as you're getting older and growing as an artist that it's more like you're having observations of the world that are more accurate and coming from not only wisdom from maturing but also from collective experiences in life. Maybe it isn't all about yourself, but don't you get to "discuss" lessons in life?

JA: Well, yeah, absolutely, it's just happens that I've always written from observation. That's what writers are, they're observers. You look at stuff. Most people see a certain situation happen, but they don't think, "Oh, that's a great story, I should write it down." Most people just kind of notice, or maybe they don't even notice it. But the writer, whether a songwriter or an author or even a painter, as a creative person, you tend to notice things that make you want to express them through interpretive dance, through music, through the written word or however. You tend to want to express that thing from that observation. So that's really what happens, and as you say, as you grow older, you have more experience, you probably notice things more. But in terms of myself, I've always been this observer looking at people but writing it as if it was me because that's the way I've always written, and that's the way I tend to write best. You fall into the thing that you do best.

MR: Joan, another concept many can appreciate comes up in your recording "Back On Track." Everybody wants to get things--life, love, etc.--back on track when things go wrong, even going as far as making a deal with, well, Mother Nature, in this case.

JA: Yeah, I've written this song and I've found myself saying this when I was on tour a couple of times, "Great, we're back on track," not because I'm thinking of the song necessarily, but the song did come to mind when I would use that expression. It's because things happen and you do want to get back on track, you're right.

MR: In "Close To Me," I love the concept of "...it's not the first time that I've been in love, but I've never been in love like this before." Do you think people feel like that whenever they come into a new love?

JA: Absolutely. These are themes of mine, "Close To Me," about people falling in love and getting to know each other, "Tell Me," which is about friendship, is about realizing that friendship is very important and that it's another kind of love. I wrote a song called "More Than One Kind Of Love," which, again, is about friendship, and "Starlight," which is about positivity. It's about helping yourself want to do something, have a go, use your talents, use your personality, do whatever you have to do. I'm not saying you have to go that far, but you do owe it to yourself to try and make things happen if that's what you really, really, want. I come back to these recurring themes. "Close To Me," the first time people had been hearing it live, it was incredible how they took to that song and you saw people kind of really get into it and look at each other and sing it. People were singing it straight away. It's incredible.

MR: When you look at "Starlight"'s lyrics, it's a very wise song. For some, the ends justify the means as far as "going for it" to be a star or get famous or whatever. On the other hand, at the end, you're saying, "Don't give yourself a reason to get knocked back." My impression of that was, "You don't have to go that route, you can just use your personality. Use what you've got that are attributes."

JA: That's right absolutely.

MR: So that leads nicely to my question what advice do you have for new artists?

JA: I don't know what advice I have for new artists, but what I did do on my 2012 tour when I went around Britain was I took fifty-six local artists, fine artists, with me. So instead of taking one person around who's my support, I had fifty-six people. In each city, if they were from Birmingham, then they played the Birmingham gig. If they were from London, they played the London gig. If they were from Brighton, they played the Brighton gig. There were fifty-six people each playing a different city on the tour. I think that's what I try to do. The great thing is if you're starting out, you should be able to play to people, get them to hear your songs, get them to see you, get them to know you and your personality, just introduce yourself and, hopefully, they will become friends of yours. That's what I did, and that's actually the answer to the question. That's my advice, to get out there and try and get people to see who you are. Because I was on tour and I could kind of do it, then I did it. It was hard work.

MR: It seems like you're always performing, so will you be touring further to support the album?

JA: I toured the UK and Europe all of 2012 and will tour Australia and New Zealand in March of 2013 to finish up the tour. Unfortunately, I won't get to North America with this CD. This will the the first time in my career that I will not be touring North America in support of a CD.

Tracks:
1. Single Life
2. Close To Me
3. Tell Me
4. Back On Track
5. I Want That Love
6. The Way I Think Of You
7. Always On My Mind
8. Starlight
9. Busy With You
10. Summer Kisses

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne

"MOST THOROUGH BOX SET EVER" AWARD GOES TO...

Ladies and gentleman, this is how you do a box set. Bill Levenson--the man who all but invented the medium with his iconic Eric Clapton and Allman Brothers projects over two decades ago--has researched and pulled tracks from virtually every musical nook and cranny Duane Allman's guitars have appeared in or on, gathering them within this fabulous 7-disc anthology, Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective. With the exception of historical "complete" sets (as in an artist's own recordings), this multi-disc retrospective nails it with tracks by The Allman Brothers, Herbie Mann, Boz Scaggs, Wilson Pikett, Laura Nyro, Delaney & Bonnie, The Grateful Dead, King Curtis, Clarence Carter, Arthur Conley, Aretha Franklin and beyond. Hopefully, Skydog resets the paradigm on how to put a proper box set together, presenting an artist--especially our most inspired instrumentalists--in a more complete light.

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Follow Mike Ragogna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ragz2008

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/-emstarlightem-a-conversa_b_2770475.html

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Atlanta Industrial Space Leasing Option- Flex Buildings | Lambert ...

One industrial space leasing option available in the Atlanta industrial real estate market is flex space. What is the difference between flex space and other industrial real estate leasing options? Flex space, typically located within industrial or business parks, provides tenants with affordable real estate that can be used for a number of different business activities. These uses could include office space, warehouse, light industrial and even research and development.

CoStar defines flex space this way- ?a type of building designed to be versatile, which may be used in combination with office (corporate headquarters), research and development, quasi-retail sales, and including but not limited to industrial, warehouse, and distribution uses. A typical flex building will be one or even two stories with at least half of the rentable area being used as office space, have ceiling heights of 16 feet or less, and have some type of drive-in door, even though the door may be glassed or sealed off.?

More Than 1200 Flex Buildings in Atlanta Industrial Market

In the Atlanta Industrial market there are more than 1,200 flex industrial buildings with an average vacancy rate of 18.6% which is much greater than the overall Atlanta industrial market. In fact in the Fourth quarter of 2012, the flex building category was the only industrial building type that had negative absorption. The largest submarket for Atlanta flex space is the Northeast Atlanta Industrial market. The average quoted rental rate for flex space is between $6.00- $8.00- a significant discount from typical office space.

When flex industrial buildings were first introduced they were popular with small businesses and start-ups that were looking for a less costly alternative to traditional office space. The rental rates were lower than office space but flex space did not offer many features or amenities. Air conditioning comes to mind! The flex space of today offers higher levels of office finish, enhanced technology, security and better locations.

Should you be leasing flex space in 2013?

Flex space may be the perfect industrial space leasing solution for your company. For more information on flex buildings and the best leasing deals available please- contact us for a confidential review of your real estate needs.

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Source: http://lambertcre.com/wordpress/atlanta-industrial-space-leasing-option-flex-buildings/

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2nd winter storm in days blasts central US

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Another blizzard bore down on the nation's midsection early Tuesday after lashing the Texas Panhandle with hurricane-force winds, closing highways and cutting power to thousands in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. At least two people were killed in the storm, and Midwesterners still digging out from last week's deep snowpack braced for more.

Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Sly James declared a state of emergency, an unwanted encore just five days after a major snowstorm dumped nearly a foot of snow on his city. Flights in and out of Kansas City International Airport were canceled, schools, government offices and businesses across the region were closed and James urged residents to stay home if they could.

Up to 15 inches or more were forecast for parts of western Missouri, with a foot or more in Kansas City alone: "This one has the potential to be quite serious," James said.

A strong low pressure system fueled the storm, which also included heavy rain and thunderstorms in eastern Oklahoma and Texas. Six counties in Arkansas and all parishes in Louisiana were under a tornado watch through Monday night.

The storm knocked power out to thousands of homes in Texas and Oklahoma and was blamed for the death of a 21-year-old man whose SUV hit an icy patch on Interstate 70 in northwestern Kansas and overturned Monday. In Oklahoma, a person was killed after 15 inches of snow brought down part of a roof in the northwest town of Woodward.

In the Texas Panhandle, wind gusts up to 75 mph and heavy snow had made all roads impassable and created whiteout conditions, said Paul Braun, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation. A hurricane-force gust of 75 mph was recorded at the Amarillo, Texas, airport. The city saw the biggest snowfall total in Texas with 17 inches.

Motorists were stranded throughout the Texas Panhandle, with the NWS in Lubbock reporting as many as 100 vehicles at a standstill on Interstate 27.

Texas Tech's men's basketball team stayed overnight at a hotel in Manhattan, Kan., after playing Kansas State on Monday night, rather try to drive back to Lubbock. Also late Monday, officials with Oklahoma State University announced it would be closed Tuesday due to the weather.

The American Red Cross opened a shelter Monday night in Woodward, Okla., for any travelers who get stranded. It also told its volunteers and workers in Kansas City to be prepared to help in the case of power outages or large numbers of stranded travelers.

Area hospitals closed outpatient and urgent care centers, and the University of Missouri canceled classes for Tuesday. The Missouri Department of Transportation issued a "no travel" advisory asking people to stay off affected highways except in case of a dire emergency.

Winds in excess of 30 mph were expected to cause whiteout conditions by early morning. There also was some concern that early rainfall could form a layer of ice beneath the snow, worsening driving conditions for those who dared the morning commute.

Greg Bolon, assistant Kansas City public works director, said the city's plow drivers had been working around the clock in 12-hour shifts since Wednesday and were bracing for several more days of extended schedules. City plows focused on arterial streets late Monday and early Tuesday.

Bolon asked local residents to be patient with plow drivers, even if they throw heavy snow back into already-shoveled driveways as they clear the streets. He said the long, often-thankless hours can take a toll on workers who are just doing what they're told.

"We're out there doing what we can to get streets open, and when people come out and shake their fists at you, it probably bothers you more mentally because you're doing what you're supposed to do," Bolon said.

He said supervisors were keeping an eye on drivers for signs of fatigue, but he thought most were doing fine because of 12-hour intervals between shifts.

National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Bowman in Pleasant Hill, Mo., said the most intense snow in the Kansas City area was expected from midnight to 6 a.m. Tuesday. Southern parts of the city and counties to the south were expected to see 10 to 12 inches of snow, he said, while the northern part of the city was looking at 6 to 10 inches.

Other weather outlets predicted well more than a foot of snow over a narrow swath of counties in Missouri, which Bowman said was possible but probably on the high side.

"The potential is there," he said. "We're probably being a little more conservative because you're getting into stuff that's never occurred before with that kind of snowfall. There is still some debate about whether we have enough instability to lead to that kind of accumulation."

Meteorologist Mike Umscheid of the National Weather Service office in Dodge City, Kan., said this latest storm combined with the storm last week will help alleviate the drought conditions that have plagued farmers and ranchers across the Midwest, and could be especially helpful to the winter wheat crop planted last fall.

But getting two back-to-back storms of this magnitude doesn't mean the drought is finished.

"If we get one more storm like this with widespread 2 inches of moisture, we will continue to chip away at the drought, but to claim the drought is over or ending is way too premature," Umscheid said.

_____

Associated Press writers Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, Nomaan Merchant in Dallas, Jill Zeman Bleed and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., Daniel Holtmeyer in Oklahoma City, Steve Paulson in Denver, Paul Davenport in Albuquerque, N.M., and Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-winter-storm-days-blasts-central-us-080407547.html

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Chrome for Android gets major update as ver. 25 graduates from beta

 

The stable version of Chrome for Android has received a major upgrade, from version 18 all the way up to 25 -- the version that was in beta until recently. Major changes include significantly improved scrolling performance, improved JavaScript and HTML5 processing speed and speedier pinch-to-zoom.

The new build is rolling out right now, so hit fire up the Play Store to update your devices. Alternatively, if you've yet to try Chrome for Android, you can pick it up using the Google Play link to the right.

When you're done updating, be sure to hit the comments and let us know how you're getting on.

 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/uI6x4tfqtrk/story01.htm

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Ultimate taboo: Actress takes on rape in Afghanistan

Fereshta Kazemi's film "The Icy Sun" breaks new ground for Afghanistan, where victims of rape can be forced to marry their attackers to preserve their families' honor. NBC News' Mandy Clark reports.

By Mandy Clark, Correspondent, NBC News

KABUL, Afghanistan ? A woman is raped. Instead going after her attacker, the law and society imprison the victim.

This is often the reality in Afghanistan. To bring attention to the issue, Afghan-American actress Fereshta Kazemi took the role of a rape victim in a recent film, "The Icy Sun."

"The concept of honor for the men rests on a woman?s shoulders," said Kazemi, 35.?"Her brothers and her family feel that they have been raped of their honor."

---

This perception of honor means that society often blames the women who are attacked, she says.

"There is this atmosphere where women are vulnerable to having people talk about them or say negative things or say that she wanted to be raped or say, 'Look at the way they were behaving,'" Kazemi said.

These deeply ingrained attitudes exist against a hostile backdrop for Afghan women and girls: The country remains one of the most dangerous countries in which to be a woman, according to a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey. Close to 90 percent of women face at least one form of physical, sexual or psychological violence in their lifetimes, according to a?Human Rights Watch annual report. Up to 80 percent of women face forced marriage, Thomson Reuters Foundation reports.

Additionally, many Afghan women are imprisoned for so-called moral crimes, which include running away from an abusive home or fleeing a forced marriage. Human Rights Watch estimates that around half of the approximately 700 women and girls in prison in the country are facing such charges.

One woman?s real-life story vividly illustrates the problems confronting women who are violently attacked.

In 2009, Gulnaz?s cousin?s husband tied her to a bed and raped her when she was home alone. She was left pregnant from the assault. Her family reported the crime to local police in the northern province of Kunduz, but instead of going after her rapist, officials jailed her for adultery. While in prison she gave birth to a baby girl, Masqa.

Her plight made international headlines over a year ago. American lawyer Kim Motley took on her case and helped Gulnaz get a presidential pardon in December 2011.

"I think in theory justice was done. She was released, she was exonerated," Motley said. "What trumped that once she was released was the culture. It was the ? perception of her probably going to fail as a woman, as a single woman with a kid in Afghanistan."

After her release, Gulnaz was confined to a women?s shelter for 13 months.? She felt it was no different from prison. Afghan officials blocked Gulnaz, now 22, from getting papers to apply for asylum in another country, Motley says.

The same officials pushed Gulnaz into a decision -- two weeks ago, Gulnaz married her rapist.

"Basically there were people in the Afghan government who helped to facilitate and pressure her to marry the guy," Motley said.

Many Afghan rape victims are forced to marry their attackers as a way of restoring the family honor.

Against this backdrop, Motley says she understands why women hesitate to go to the authorities.

"I can certainly understand a woman not wanting to report a rape," she said. "Frankly ? if I was raped here as an Afghan woman, I don?t know if I would do the same," she said.

A recent United Nations report found one positive trend: In some areas, such as the major cities of Kabul and Herat, more women are reporting rape. This does not necessarily mean that more are being assaulted, only that victims are willing to come forward. In contrast, in Taliban strongholds such as Logar and Wardak, there were no reports of rape. U.N. officials say in the report that this does not mean that no rapes occurred but that women were too scared to report them.

So when it comes to security, it is safety close to home that seems foremost in the minds of Afghan women.?

As one American diplomat speaking on the condition of anonymity said:

"I am always taken aback when I talk to Afghan women and ask them what worries them the most. Their reply is domestic abuse. They are more concerned with being beaten or set on fire by their husbands or uncles than any larger issue like Taliban."

Related:?

Afghanistan: Where actresses risk their lives for their art

'Game with a purpose': Vietnam vet, teen bring Scouting and help to Afghanistan

Photos: Afghanistan - Nation at a crossroads

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/25/17087773-ultimate-taboo-actress-takes-on-rape-in-afghanistan?lite

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Homebuilder ETFs Cheer New Home Sales, Housing ... - ETF Trends

February 26th at 2:43pm by John Spence

Homebuilder ETFs rallied Tuesday following a Commerce Department report that sales of new U.S. homes rose nearly 16% in January to the highest level in over four years.

The iShares DJ US Home Construction (NYSEArca: ITB) and SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSEArca: XHB) rose 3.8% and 3%, respectively, in afternoon dealings.

?Steady job creation and near-record-low mortgage rates are spurring more Americans to buy houses,? the Associated Press reported. ?At the current sales pace, it would take just 4.1 months to exhaust the number of new homes for sale, the lowest in eight years. Low inventories should encourage more construction.?

Separately, the S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices increased 6.8% from December 2011, the biggest year-to-year gain since July 2006, Bloomberg reports.

Also Tuesday, shares of Home Depot (NYSE: HD) rallied 5% after the home-improvement retailer reported solid quarterly earnings. The stock comprises over 3% of both homebuilder ETFs.

iShares DJ US Home Construction

The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of John Spence, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.

Source: http://www.etftrends.com/2013/02/homebuilder-etfs-cheer-new-home-sales-housing-prices/

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North Korea Widens 3G Coverage - for Outsiders Only

North Korea is modernizing its technologies -- as only North Korea can. Foreigners are now able to bring their phones -- with the caveat that they must purchase North Korean sim cards upon arrival. Now Koryolink, a North Korean mobile phone provider, plans to launch a 3G data service -- but only foreigners can use it.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/28f1d7e8/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C773860Bhtml/story01.htm

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The Pepperdine Graphic ? Intramural sports are underway

Huddle Up? Teammates of Bang Bang take a timeout during a blowout game against Sigma Chi. Both teams are in the intramural A-league. Photo by Connor Wheeler.

Even IM basketball gets intense

With former NCAA basketball players, the intramural leagues are more competitive than students might imagine.

?You gotta call it both ways!?

Such exclamations were a recurring theme last Monday night in the Fieldhouse. The refs took a (verbal) beating, the players were some of the best on campus and the will to win was alive and well. Did I mention this was the intramural league?

Intramural basketball at Pepperdine occurs rather inconspicuously on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights in the Fieldhouse from January to mid-March, with three leagues competing for championships titles and trophy t-shirts to show for it. Any Pepperdine student (undergraduate or graduate) can start an intramural team in one of three leagues.

A-league, the most competitive and intense league, consists of (but is not restricted to) all-male teams and plays on Mondays. B-league, which is also very competitive, plays on Wednesdays and boasts female players on a few teams. The C-league is less competitive and more social, which attracts more relaxed crews. C-league teams require that at least two females be on the court at all times.

Students from all over campus come to support intramural teams comprised of fraternity brothers, freshmen dorm-mates, apartment-mates, fellow law school students and international program classmates, just to name a few. Some Heidelberg 2011?2012 classmates joined up to form Die blode Zeigen, while several undergrad Washington, D.C., natives make up the Posse Crew (so named for the scholarship program they represent) ? not to mention the ageless faculty and staff members of Staff Infection.

Another notable squad is Bang Bang, whose best players are members of the men?s basketball coaching staff. Captained by senior and Student Manager Patrick Flesher, the team is one of the strongest in A-league, thanks to the talents of student athletic trainer Dominic Redix (a junior who played on the team last year) and Graduate Managers Ricky Fois and Jon Pastorek, the latter being a 6-feet-10 former Division I basketball player at UC Santa Barbara (?11).

Jordan Baker, Lorne Jackson, Niko Skouen and several members of the men?s basketball team hung out courtside to watch Bang Bang play Rep SigEp, one of several fraternity-based teams. The Waves were vocal fans, exchanging words with referee (and copyeditor for the Graphic) Nate Tinner throughout the contest (all in good fun, of course).

Jackson, a senior shooting guard, said he cheers for his team?s staff because they have been there to support the Waves at every game.

?They do so much for us, and it might not seem like much because it?s an intramural game, but we want to thank them,? Jackson said. ?They?re going to go all the way!?

Rep SigEp, a longstanding A-league contender, gave Bang Bang quite a scare in a very close game. After the first 20-minute half, the score was tied at 27-27. SigEp brothers freshman Matt Vander Woude, freshman James McCutchen and junior Reid Stewart all posted hefty point totals and won the affection of the playfully equivocal Waves with every three-pointer they sank and ?and-1? they drew. At the final buzzer, however, Bang Bang stood on top, 68-56.

Intramural basketball is a community within Pepperdine that requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work from Campus Recreation employee and Program Manager Janae LaGroue, Head Referee Rmani Crawford, event supervisors and the staff referees and scorekeepers who work each game.
?It?s been a joy and a challenge organizing the league,? said Rmani Crawford, referee and? captain of an A-league and B-league team. ?Everyone really enjoys the league, and it?s by far the most popular intramural sport. There are a lot of good teams in this league, and I?m hoping my team Django Unchained can make a run deep in the playoffs!?

Django Unchained is? one of the few undefeated teams in the A-league and features students Grayson Kennedy, Kendrick ?KennyBPoppin? Roberson and staff writer for the Graphic Ben Holcomb; they are a good team to watch.

The players? jerseys may be smelly after they?ve been passed on to the fourth team of the night (one-hour games run from 8 p.m. until midnight on Mondays), and there may not be music or free t-shirts, but intramural basketball is quality sports entertainment and a great way to have fun, get exercise and watch some b-ball.

IM soccer displays talent

A great man by the name of Stafford Heginbotham ? former Bradford City FC chairman ? once said: ?Football [soccer] is the opera of the people.?

At Pepperdine, that statement is most certainly applicable. The league, organized by Campus Recreation, started the first week of February. The nine participating coed squads play each other in a round robin league format, with the top four teams advancing to the playoffs.

The teams participating in this year?s league are Futbolers, Jamaican Hopscotch, JPEN United, Sig Ep, Sigma Chi, Silver Panthers, Striking Vikings, Team Legendary and the Gunners. Although the league is well underway, players can still join participating teams on IMLeagues.com.

Casey Gillam, director of Campus Recreation, pointed out that intramural soccer stands out over other sports due to the fact that it?s not a solo sport.

?You have to rely on other people to make it happen,? Gillam said. ?It?s all about seeing teamwork, about people coming together to accomplish a task.?

The league, which lasts up to six or seven weeks, hosts games on Friday afternoons, with starting times ranging from 2 to 6 p.m. Matches can become surprisingly competitive because many players have had previous NCAA or club experience.

?There?s good talent for sure,? Gillam said. ?Some law school teams have players that used to play NCAA Division I soccer, while other teams have players that participate in club soccer.?

The winners of the league will get commemorative t-shirts that read: ?Intramural Sports Champion? on one side and ?Number 1. Greater. Intramural Champions? on the other.

When the intramural soccer season is over, students will have another chance to be a part of the Kick Tournament. The tournament, organized by the Office of International Student Services, is a campus-wide event that will begin either in the final week of March or the first week of April.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Follow the Graphic on Twitter: @peppgraphic

Source: http://www.pepperdine-graphic.com/sports/intramural-sports-are-underway/

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Syria says ready to talk with armed opposition

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syria is ready for talks with its armed opponents, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Monday, in the clearest offer yet to negotiate with rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

But Moualem said at the same time Syria would pursue its fight "against terrorism," alluding to the conflict in which the United Nations says 70,000 people have been killed.

His offer of talks drew a dismissive response from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was starting a nine-nation tour of European and Arab capitals in London.

"It seems to me that it's pretty hard to understand how, when you see the Scuds falling on the innocent people of Aleppo, it is possible to take their notion that they are ready to have a dialogue very seriously," Kerry said.

He said U.S. President Barack Obama was evaluating more steps to "fulfill our obligation to innocent people," without giving details or saying whether Washington was reconsidering whether to arm the rebels, an option it has previously rejected.

"We are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind," Kerry said.

Obama has carefully avoided deeper U.S. involvement in Syria, at the heart of a volatile Middle East, as he has withdrawn troops from Iraq and extracts them from Afghanistan.

Assad and his foes are locked in a bloody stalemate after nearly two years of combat, destruction and civilian suffering that threatens to destabilize neighboring countries.

Syria's Moualem said in Moscow that Damascus was ready for dialogue with everyone who wants it, even with those who have weapons in their hands "because we believe that reforms will not come through bloodshed but only through dialogue."

"WAR AGAINST TERRORISM"

Russia's Itar-Tass, which reported his remarks, did not say if Moualem had attached any conditions for the dialogue.

"What's happening in Syria is a war against terrorism," the agency quoted him as saying. "We will strongly adhere to a peaceful course and continue to fight against terrorism."

Moaz Alkhatib, head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, told reporters in Cairo he had not been in touch with Damascus following Moualem's offer. "We have not been in contact yet, and we are waiting for communication with them," he said.

Syria's government and the political opposition have both suggested in recent weeks they are prepared for some contacts - softening their previous outright rejection of talks to resolve a conflict which has driven nearly a million Syrians out of the country and left millions more homeless and hungry.

The opposition says any solution must involve the removal of Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since 1970. Disparate rebel fighters, who do not answer to Alkhatib or other politicians in exile, insist Assad must go before any talks start.

Brigadier Selim Idris, a rebel military commander, told Al Arabiya television that a ceasefire, Assad's exit, and the trial of his security and military chiefs must precede any talks.

Damascus has rejected any preconditions and the two sides also differ on the location for any talks, with the opposition saying they should be abroad or in rebel-held parts of Syria, while the government says they must be in territory it controls.

"STATE COLLAPSE"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed alarm about events in Syria, which he said was at a crossroads.

"There are those who have set a course for further bloodshed and an escalation of conflict. This is fraught with the risk of the collapse of the Syrian state and society," he said.

"But there are also reasonable forces that increasingly acutely understand the need for the swiftest possible start of talks ... In these conditions the need for the Syrian leadership to continue to consistently advocate the start of dialogue, and not allow provocations to prevail, is strongly increasing."

Lavrov's warning that the Syrian state could founder appeared aimed to show that Russia is pressing Assad's government to seek a negotiated solution while continuing to lay much of the blame for the persistent violence on his opponents.

Russia has distanced itself from Assad and has stepped up its calls for dialogue as his prospects of retaining power have decreased, but insists that his exit must not be a precondition.

A deputy to Lavrov said the West had not matched Moscow's peace efforts. "Our Western partners ... have to some degree encouraged (the opposition) to continue the armed fight," Itar-Tass quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying.

The Syrian National Coalition said on Friday it was willing to negotiate a peace deal, but insisted Assad could not be party to it - a demand that the president looks sure to reject.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said Assad had told him he would complete his term in 2014 and then run for re-election.

International deadlock over how to bridge the political chasm between Assad and his opponents has allowed an increasingly sectarian conflict to rage on for 23 months.

Assad, announcing plans last month for a national dialogue, said it would exclude "traitors" and "puppets made by the West."

Kerry is to meet Lavrov in Berlin on Tuesday, but a senior U.S. official said he expected no breakthrough on Syria there.

The new secretary of state is also to meet Syrian opposition leaders at a "Friends of Syria" conference in Rome on Thursday.

The Syrian National Coalition said on Monday it would attend the Rome meeting, reversing a decision it made last week to stay away in protest at Syrian government missile strikes on Aleppo.

The change of mind came after Kerry called Alkhatib to urge him to attend.

"I want our friends in the Syrian opposition council to know we are not coming to Rome simply to talk. We're coming to Rome to make the decision about next steps," Kerry said earlier.

Following up on Kerry's call, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden phoned Alkhatib to welcome his decision to travel to Rome, stressing that the talks there would be an opportunity to consult on "ways to speed assistance to the opposition and support to the Syrian people," the White House said.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Ayman Samir in Cairo, Arshad Mohammed and Mohammed Abbas in London and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon, Michael Roddy and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-says-ready-talk-armed-opposition-022558519.html

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White House details budget fallout amid blame game

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The White House has detailed the potential fallout in each state from budget cuts set to take effect at week's end, while congressional Republicans and Democrats keep up the sniping over who's to blame.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said on "Fox News Sunday" that there was little hope to dodge the cuts "unless the Republicans are willing to compromise and do a balanced approach."

No so fast, Republicans interjected.

"I think the American people are tired of the blame game," Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Yet just a moment before, she was blaming President Barack Obama for putting the country on the brink of massive spending cuts that were initially designed to be so unacceptable that Congress would strike a grand bargain to avoid them.

The $85 billion budget mechanism could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms to meat inspections. With Friday's deadline nearing, few in the nation's capital were optimistic that a realistic alternative could be found.

And, yes, those cuts will hurt.

They would slash from domestic and defense spending alike, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of government workers and contractors.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said travelers could see delayed flights. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 70,000 fewer children from low-income families would have access to Head Start programs. And furloughed meat inspectors could leave plants idled.

White House officials pointed to Ohio ? home of House Speaker John Boehner ? as one state that would be hit hard: $25.1 million in education spending and another $22 million for students with disabilities. Some 2,500 children from low-income families would also be removed from Head Start programs.

Officials said their analysis showed Kentucky would lose $93,000 in federal funding for a domestic abuse program, meaning 400 fewer victims being served in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's home state. Georgia, meanwhile, would face a $286,000 budget cut to its children's health programs, meaning almost 4,200 fewer children would receive vaccinations against measles and whooping cough.

The White House compiled its state-by-state reports from federal agencies and its own budget office. The numbers reflect the impact of the cuts this year. Unless Congress acts by Friday, $85 billion in cuts are set to take effect from March to September.

As to whether states could move money around to cover shortfalls, the White House said that depends on state budget structures and the specific programs. The White House did not have a list of which states or programs might have flexibility.

Republican leaders were not impressed by the state-by-state reports.

"The White House needs to spend less time explaining to the press how bad the sequester will be and more time actually working to stop it," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner.

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/philip_elliott

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-25-US-Budget-Battle/id-9a7fa4d9807c403396f3f48847e2b151

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Governors: Looming cuts threaten economic gains

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Washington's protracted budget stalemate could seriously undermine the economy and stall gains made since the recession, exasperated governors said Saturday as they try to gauge the fallout from impending federal spending cuts.

At the annual National Governors Association meeting, both Democrat and Republican chief executives expressed pessimism that both sides could find a way to avoid the massive, automatic spending cuts set to begin March 1, pointing to the impasse as another crisis between the White House and Congress that spooks local businesses from hiring and hampers their ability to construct state spending plans.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a former congressman, noted that the cuts ? known in Washington-speak as "the sequester" ? could lead to 19,000 workers laid off at Pearl Harbor, site of the surprise attack in 1941 that launched the United States into World War II.

"That will undermine our capacity for readiness at Pearl Harbor. If that doesn't symbolize for the nation ... what happens when we fail to meet our responsibilities congressionally, I don't know what does," he said.

The budget fight came as many states say they are on the cusp of an economic comeback from the financial upheaval in 2008 and 2009. States expect their general fund revenues this year to surpass the amounts collected before the Great Recession kicked in. An estimated $693 billion in revenues is expected for the 2013 budget year, nearly a 4 percent over the previous year.

At their weekend meetings, governors were focusing on ways to boost job development and grow their state economies, measures to restrict gun violence and implement the new health care law approved during Obama's first term.

Some Republican governors have blocked the use of Medicaid to expand health insurance coverage for millions of uninsured while others have joined Democrats in a wholesale expansion as the law allows. The Medicaid expansion aims to cover about half of the 30 million uninsured people expected to eventually gain coverage under the health care overhaul.

Yet for many governors, the budget-cut fight remains front-and-center and fuels a pervasive sense of frustration with Washington.

"My feeling is I can't help what's going on in Washington," Gov. Terry Branstad, R-Iowa, said in an interview Saturday. "I can't help the fact that there's no leadership here, and it's all politics as usual and gridlock. But I can do something about the way we do things in the state of Iowa."

Indeed, right now no issue carries the same level of urgency as the budget impasse.

Congressional leaders have indicated a willingness to let the cuts take effect and stay in place for weeks, if not much longer.

The cuts would trim $85 billion in domestic and defense spending, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers at the Transportation Department, Defense Department and elsewhere.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces.

The looming cuts were never supposed to happen. They were intended to be a draconian fallback intended to ensure a special deficit reduction committee would come up with $1 trillion or more in savings from benefit programs. It didn't.

"We should go back and remember that sequestration was originally designed by both the administration and Congress as something so odious, so repellent, that it would force both sides to a compromise. There can't be any question, this is something that nobody wants," said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat.

Obama has stepped up efforts to tell the public about the cuts' negative impact and pressure Republicans who oppose his approach of reducing deficits through a combination of targeted savings and tax increases. House Republicans have said reduced spending needs to be the focus and have rejected the president's fresh demand to include higher taxes as part of a compromise.

Governors said they are asking the Obama administration for more flexibility to deal with some of the potential cuts.

"We know that the cuts are coming, but we also don't want to suffer disproportionately," said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a Democrat and chairman of the National Governors Association.

"We're just saying that as you identify federal cuts and savings, allow the states to be able to realize those savings, too," said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican and the association's vice chairwoman. "Give us the flexibility to be able to make the cuts where we think it will be the less harm to our citizens."

___

Follow Steve Peoples at: http://twitter.com/sppeoples and Ken Thomas at: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

___

Online:

National Governors Association: http://www.nga.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/governors-looming-cuts-threaten-economic-gains-133434444--politics.html

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Don't just blame cats: Dogs disrupt wildlife, too

Though they seem so natural in our homes, cats and dogs are natural predators, too. Most will attack birds, lizards and smaller mammals when given the chance, and scientists have demonstrated how their explosive populations can upset ecosystems.

The scourge of domestic cats has been thrown into the spotlight recently. A campaign in New Zealand is pushing to get rid of cats, or at least keep them confined indoors, where they can't prey on kiwis and other native birds. And a study out last month attached some staggering figures to cats' carnage in the United States: it found that the felines kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 billion and 20.7 billion small mammals, such as meadow voles and chipmunks, each year.

But defensive cat lovers should rest assured ? a new study from researchers at the University of Oxford reminds us that domestic dogs are also killers and disease-spreaders that can pose conservation problems when they're allowed to roam free outdoors.

Generalizing the ecological impact of the world's estimated 700 million domestic dogs can be tricky since they are treated very differently across cultures ? some kept in handbags, others chained outside or left to stray. In any case, the researchers say that free-roaming dogs (ones without an owner or otherwise left to run free) are thought to account for about 75 percent of the global dog population, and their interactions with other animals can be problematic. [The 10 Most Popular Dog Breeds]

Oxford researchers Joelene Hughes and David W. Macdonald reviewed 69 studies on canine-wildlife relations in rural areas. All but three of these articles found that dogs had a negative impact, mostly due to predation.

Free-roaming dogs can especially cause harm on islands, where ecosystems tend to be vulnerable in the face of non-native predators like dogs. For instance, in the late 1980s, researchers found that a single German shepherd on the loose in New Zealand's Waitangi State Forest was responsible for killing up to 500 kiwis. The dog had a collar, but was unregistered, and its owner was not found.

In another example from 2006, 12 ownerless dogs were thought to be wiping out populations of the endangered Fijian ground frog on the tiny Viwa Island. The Fijian villagers' solution was to "befriend" the dogs by feeding them scraps of food. Ten of the canines were eventually tamed and shipped off the island and the remaining two were killed.

The researchers note that much of the scientific literature on the problems posed by dogs focuses not on conservation issues, but health risks to humans. While canine rabies has been eradicated in the United States, dogs are responsible for nearly all of the 55,000 rabies deaths that occur worldwide, mostly in Asia and Africa. And rabies can disrupt wildlife, too, the researchers said, noting that dogs have been blamed for spreading the disease among several other animal species in Africa, including the extremely rare Ethiopian wolf.

"Despite the increasing recognition of the potential problem dogs may create for wildlife, few solutions to conservation issues were offered by the literature reviewed, particularly to non-disease related problems," Hughes and Macdonald write. "Local people and authorities may be reluctant to undertake dog population management or control because of the close nature of dog-human relationships, aversion to the methods that may be used to remove dogs" ? like poisoning and shooting the feral ones ? "lack of adequate alternative care options, and perceived prohibitive costs of action."

Their research was detailed last month in the journal Biological Conservation.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dont-just-blame-cats-dogs-disrupt-wildlife-too-020659115.html

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Huawei Prepares To Unveil Ascend P2 Smartphone ? Smaller Screen Sibling To The Ascend D2 Android Phablet?

After unboxing a pair of phablets at CES, Chinese mobile maker Huawei looks to be lining up a new flagship smartphone in its Android-based Ascend P line, ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona. Its MWC booth has a sign for an as yet unreleased Ascend P2 handset.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/kG8TuIrOYUI/

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Gov't downsizes amid GOP demands for more cuts (The Arizona Republic)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/286584416?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Stocks rally to close near session highs

JeeYeon Park , CNBC ? ? ? 12 hrs.

Stocks finished near session highs Friday, recovering from a two-day slump, lifted by upbeat economic data from Europe and after comments from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard that the central bank's aggressive easy money policy will stay for a "long time."

The Dow eked out a slim weekly gain, avoiding its third-consecutive weekly decline. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 posted its first weekly loss this year, snapping its seven-week win streak.

Read More: Pros: Is Market Bouncing or Turning Higher?

"We're seeing some signs that the weekend anxiety is not that heavy," said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services. "We have the Italian election coming up [this weekend] and a sign that I look at is the U.S. dollar?it was higher this morning on some anxiety and there was a bit of a flight to safety in Treasurys, but that's abating and that's telling me that [the market's] not too concerned about the weekend so that's why we're having a good rally."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied more than 100 points, led by Hewlett-Packard and Home Depot, while UnitedHealth dragged. Interestingly, the blue-chip index has so far posted a gain every Friday of this year, matching the Friday win streak from July through September of 2012.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also finished near session highs. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded below 15.

All key S&P sectors closed in positive territory, led by materials and techs.

Meanwhile, traders said leaked reports that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has been downplaying worries that quantitative easing has spawned asset bubbles also helped lift markets.

Bernanke is scheduled to testify before lawmakers next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Earlier, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said the Fed remained committed to aggressive easing measures in the form of its $85 billion a month bond-buying program.

Read More: Pimco's Gross: Fed Not Vigilant Enough

"It's true that the committee is thinking about how are we going to handle this later this year, but that's a natural thing for the committee to be talking about," Bullard told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "Fed policy is very easy and it's going stay easy for a long time."

Uncertainty about the future of the central bank's bond buying program weighed on the stock market in the last two days.

Minutes from the Fed's meeting in January, released on Wednesday, showed policymakers were growing concerned about the impact of quantitative easing, suggesting the central bank may taper off its $85 billion per month purchasesearlier than expected.

Read More: Don't Exit Market Due to Fed: Brown

Among earnings, Abercrombie & Fitch posted earnings that easily beat expectations, while revenue fell slightly short of estimates and the company handed in full-year 2013 earnings guidance that missed expectations. Meanwhile, the firm increased its quarterly dividend to 20 cents a share from 17.5 cents a share. Shares tumbled to lead the S&P 500 laggards.

Hewlett-Packard soared to lead the S&P 500 gainers after the computer hardware giant easily topped Wall Street expectations and handed in current-quarter and full-year earnings guidance that topped forecasts. At least three brokerages lifted their price target on the company.

Read More: Expect HP Revenue Growth in 2014: Whitman

Texas Instruments jumped to lead the Nasdaq 100 gainers after the chipmaker raised its dividend by 33 percent and boosted its stock buyback program.

Darden warned it expects to see third-quarter earnings of between $1 a share and $1.02 a share, against current Wall Street expectations for $1.12 a share, hurt by economic headwinds, including rising gas prices and higher payroll taxes.

European shares ended broadly higherfollowing positive economic news from Germany and ahead of Italy's general election this weekend.

German business sentiment jumped at its fastest rate since July 2010 in February, suggesting the country is rebounding after its weak fourth quarter.

U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington. Abe is expected to seek support for the hyper-easy monetary policies he has instigated to revive Japan's ailing economy.

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/stocks-rally-close-higher-1C8496354

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Credit Card Debt Fell While Delinquencies Rose in 4Q: Report

Americans racked up less credit card debt in the fourth quarter but more people fell behind on their payments.

Average credit card debt per borrower fell 1.6% from a year earlier, to $5,122, while the share of borrowers whose loans were at least 90 days past due rose seven basis points, to 0.85%, the credit agency TransUnion said Wednesday.

That compares with an average 90-day delinquency rate of 1.06% and average credit card debt per borrower of $5,389 during the fourth quarter over a 10-year period starting in 2003.

"The fourth quarter traditionally results in higher credit card balances and delinquencies, much of it to do with the holiday shopping season," Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion's financial services business unit, said in a press release. "Both credit card delinquencies and balances are below historic norms."

Borrowers in Alaska ($7,012), Connecticut ($5,820) and Colorado ($5,792) carried the highest credit card debt in the nation in the fourth quarter, while borrowers in Iowa ($4,048), North Dakota ($4,179), and South Dakota ($4,303) had the lowest debt.

The share of borrowers whose loans were at least 90 days past due ticked up the most from a year earlier in Alaska, where the ratio increased to 0.63% from 0.41%; Massachusetts, where it rose to 0.87% from 0.67%; and New Hampshire, where it grew to 0.83% from 0.67%.

Serous delinquencies fell the most in Oregon, to 0.60% from 0.69%; Idaho, to 0.70% from 0.78%; and Montana, to 0.53% from 0.58%.

Nationwide, delinquency rates rose in the fourth quarter from a year earlier in 39 states and Washington, D.C., fell in nine states and remained unchanged in two states.

Source: http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/178_36/credit-card-debt-fell-while-delinquencies-rose-in-4q-1056960-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

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