Obama wooing veterans in campaign (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama ended one war and is winding down another, bringing home tens of thousands of U.S. troops. Now he wants them to pay him back ? with votes.

"You stood up for America. America needs to stand up for you," Obama told service members returning to Fort Bragg, N.C. from Iraq recently.

Expect to hear that pitch throughout the next year as the president's campaign, mindful that large numbers of veterans and military families live in states crucial to his re-election chances, highlights his efforts to promote jobs and benefits for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Republicans, meanwhile, already are countering his record, noting high unemployment among veterans.

The outreach to veterans is part of a larger effort by Obama to build inroads with voting blocs traditionally outside the Democratic umbrella while it tries to reactivate the coalition of women, minorities and young voters who helped propel him to the White House in 2008. Obama's campaign is free to focus on building a diverse base of support for the general election because he faces no primary opponent. His eventual GOP challenger doesn't have that luxury.

While Democrats have traditionally trailed Republicans on defense and national security matters, Obama senses an opening with veterans because he has generally received high marks from voters for his handling of terrorism ? especially after the U.S. raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden ? and in managing the U.S.'s relationships with other countries. A recent AP-GfK poll found that 59 percent of adults felt Obama would keep America safe, a mark that has remained steady throughout 2011.

Exit polls in 2008 showed that Obama received about 44 percent of voters who said they served in the military, while 54 percent voted for Republican John McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war for more than five years during the Vietnam War. Four years earlier, George W. Bush, who sought re-election as the U.S. waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, won 57 percent of voters who said they served in the military, compared with 41 percent for Democrat John Kerry.

There are obvious political reasons for Obama's effort.

Several states that will be heavily contested next year have a significant military presence. Florida, home to a number of military installations, has more than 1.6 million veterans, according to the Veterans Administration. Virginia and North Carolina, political battlegrounds that Obama carried in 2008, both have about 800,000 veterans while Colorado, another important state in the Obama re-election calculation, has more than 400,000 veterans.

This year, the playing field in the fight to woo veterans may end up being level if anyone other than Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Rep. Ron Paul ? the only two with military experience in the GOP field ? win the nomination. Obama had no military experience before becoming commander in chief. (The last time both parties didn't have a presidential candidate with military experience was 1944, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Thomas E. Dewey.)

As the nation winds down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have held numerous events at military bases and in communities heavily populated by veterans. During a bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia in October, the president and first lady stopped at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in the heart of a large military community in Hampton and Newport News, Va. Since entering the White House, the first lady has held about 50 events with military families in 14 states.

Obama also has talked up his work on a new GI Bill helping veterans and service members to attend college and on tax incentives for companies that hire veterans, a piece of his jobs bill that won passage in Congress during the fall. The Democratic National Committee featured the incentives in ads that aired in North Carolina, New Mexico and Ohio.

Bob Wallace, executive director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said Obama has been "very positive" for veterans. He said members of his organization are looking for specific ways the next White House administration ? Democrat or Republican ? intends to help veterans.

"The cost of war continues after the last shot is fired and after you pull the trucks over the border into Kuwait," Wallace said. "You've got a lot of expenses to take care of these guys and gals and that's the commitment we're looking for anybody who wants to be president of the United States."

Republicans challenge Obama's record on veterans' issues by pointing to high jobless rates among those returning from military service ? more than 11 percent for veterans who have served since the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks are unemployed. Republican presidential candidates also have raised concerns about defense spending and the move by Obama to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Scott Rutter, a retired Army lieutenant colonel from New City, N.Y., who serves as a veterans policy adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign, said many veterans are concerned about their job prospects after leaving the military along with a disability claims backlog that can leave a veteran waiting months or even years to get a claim processed.

"We need leadership. You've got to put a little do-ah in the hooah," Rutter said. "You can talk about it but you have to have results."

Surrounding Obama's trip to Fort Bragg, Romney wrote in an op-ed in The Fayetteville Observer that "words of welcome to our returning soldiers are not enough," calling it "a disgrace that those who are now returning from Iraq join other Iraq veterans suffering from unemployment above 11 percent." And in an October speech at The Citadel, South Carolina's military college, Romney vowed to increase defense spending and increase the number of Navy ships.

Perry, running behind in early voting states, has increasingly drawn attention to his military credentials, running ads featuring decorated veterans touting his leadership abilities. He has criticized Obama for troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, has opposed defense cuts except for waste.

Paul, who served as an Air Force physician during the Vietnam era, has opposed efforts to require military retirees to pay more for health care coverage. Both parties have discussed cost-cutting changes to the military's health care program to help deal with large deficits.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111230/ap_on_go_ot/us_obama_veterans

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How the 'Year of the Protester' played out in Europe

The protests in the Middle East and United States may have garnered more attention, but 2011 was just as much a year of awakening in southern Europe, where young people are worried their future.?

This year, no one waited for Dec. 31 to interpret the significance of 2011.?By early fall, it was being hailed as the year of people power, indignation, upheaval and revolt, of the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street.?

Skip to next paragraph

This month, Time Magazine named "the protester" its person of the year.

A deeply felt global impulse, a rejection of police control, a sense of inequality, outrage over?bankers that got bailed out, and a desire among youth for a stable future ? what the Polish poet and Solidarity godfather Czeslaw Milosz called ?the deepest secret of toiling masses, more than ever alive? ? found unexpected power and expression in 2011, even if, as Mr. Milosz says, this secret often ?finds no language to express itself.?

The language of the protester this year was greater dignity in ordinary lives, and it went viral.?In 1989, an East German pastor in Leipzig described the spirit of protest as "we lost our fear and went into the streets.?

The specifics of 2011's protests varied from place to place, but everywhere they cropped up, they highlighted the ?power of the powerless,? as Czech dissident and president Vaclav Havel, who left us two weeks ago, described it. Disillusionment with elites, autocrats, politicians, and policies of self-interest found a voice in places as disparate as Tunis, Athens, Madrid, New Delhi, New York, Oakland, Tel Aviv, and the suburbs of Damascus. It is now on display in Moscow, where Russians are challenging the tightly controlled ?democracy? of Vladimir Putin.

In Europe, protests reflected fears of a bleak future in the face of colossal debt, harsh austerity measures, and an epic lack of faith in political leaders. It rose up in Greece and coursed through the upper Mediterranean, through Italy to Spain.

In May, young people in Madrid launched protests after they were told they could not stay all night on Puerta del Sol square ? where only days before, they were allowed to camp out for tickets to a Justin Bieber concert ? to discuss?educational budget cuts.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/dGMiIOk7yGQ/How-the-Year-of-the-Protester-played-out-in-Europe

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Wanted: Amazing Business Intern ? UIE Brain Sparks

We?re looking for an amazing Business Intern for a paid, 4-month internship.

Fast Forward Four Months?

We?d like to thank you for doing a fantastic job as our 2012 Winter Business Intern. You started with a thorough analysis of the purchasing patterns in our UIE Virtual Seminar series. This led to some amazing insights on how we could restructure the program, which helped us with key initiatives we launched this spring.

At the same time, you put together a marvelous weekly social media outreach strategy. Once you started executing it, we saw a real lift in the conversations we?ve had with our customers, which has had a direct affect on our bottom line.

When you turned your keen attention to compiling the history of our revenue sources for the last few years, you uncovered some interesting patterns about who our customers are and how they like doing business with us. We?ll use those insights to drive new products for years to come.

You also created a database of our marketing partnerships, to help us know who to contact and what they?re interested in. This makes it easy for us to make our partners aware of our latest offerings.

To top it off, you?ve even helped us document our business development process to make life easier for future interns.

Thanks for your energy and enthusiasm during your internship. We know you?ll succeed at your future ventures.

Now Back To Today?

If you?d like this to be your story, send us your resume with a half-page write up of your most significant business accomplishment. While we?re less concerned with your skills and qualifications, we won?t compromise on your ability to deliver team results. We?ll be back to you in 24 hours if you have what it takes to achieve something special.

You might even want to check out our web site for some insight into what we?re doing. We think you?ll be excited by where we are today and the challenge to get us where we?re going.

You will work in our North Andover offices. (Sorry, we don?t hire remote employees.) We?ll provide all the equipment you need, including Apple hardware and Mac software to bring out the best in your talents and skills.

Send your resume and write-up to: BusinessInternJob@uie.com

or

Jared M. Spool, CEO
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike Street, Suite 102
North Andover, MA 01845

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 29th, 2011 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Careers, Hiring, UIE, UIE Hiring . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/12/29/wanted-amazing-business-intern/

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Muslims upset by NYPD to boycott mayor's breakfast

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly speaks at a news conference as Mayor Michael Bloomberg listens in Brooklyn, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. Activists upset at police efforts to spy on Muslims plan to skip the mayor's annual year-end interfaith breakfast on Friday, Dec. 30, saying Bloomberg shouldn't be defending the tactics. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly speaks at a news conference as Mayor Michael Bloomberg listens in Brooklyn, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. Activists upset at police efforts to spy on Muslims plan to skip the mayor's annual year-end interfaith breakfast on Friday, Dec. 30, saying Bloomberg shouldn't be defending the tactics. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur Rashid poses for a portrait, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011 in New York. Fifteen Muslim clerics and community leaders say they will boycott New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's annual interfaith breakfast Friday over a police effort to gather intelligence on Muslim neighborhoods, whose existence was revealed recently in a series of Associated Press articles. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Imam Shamsi Ali poses for a picture in New York, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. While Shamsi Ali plans to attend Mayor Michael Bloomberg's annual year-end interfaith breakfast, some clerics and community leaders said they will boycott the event over a surveillance program on Muslim neighborhoods, whose existence was revealed recently in a series of Associated Press articles. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Linda Sarsour, director of the Arab American Association of New York, poses for photos in front of a canvas painted by the association's youth group at its headquarters in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. Sarsour is one of the civic and religious leaders who signed a letter declining an invitation from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to attend an interfaith breakfast in protest of recent revelations about the New York City Police Department's surveillance activities. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Muslim leaders intent on showing Mayor Michael Bloomberg that they have no appetite for his support of the police department's efforts to gather intelligence on their neighborhoods are poised to make an impression by their absence at his annual interfaith breakfast Friday.

A letter they composed made a controversy out of a normally sedate end-of-the-year meeting. In all, 15 Muslim clerics and community figures say they won't show up to protest the surveillance program first revealed in a series of Associated Press articles.

But one man who signed the letter, Rabbi Michael Weisser, said he will attend the breakfast after friends in the Muslim community urged him to attend and engage the mayor in conversation about the dispute.

The breakfast is traditionally held at the historic New York Public Library building on 42nd Street and has long served to showcase the city's diversity during overlapping winter holidays.

Weisser, who is one of seven people who will give invocations at the gathering, said he will not address it in his remarks to the group because he had already submitted his text to the mayor's office before taking sides in the dispute. Still, he said he saw parallels to what Jews have faced.

"From a Jewish perspective, it reminded me of things that were going on in the 1930s in Germany. We don't need that in America," he said. "The Muslim community is targeted. It's stereotyped. When people think of terrorism, they immediately think Muslim."

He said he had no problem with the police department following leads, but objected to the sense that the department is targeting Muslim organizations because they are Muslim.

"We can't be painting a whole group of people with the same broad brush," he said.

Bloomberg's office has said it expects about two dozen Muslim leaders to attend the breakfast.

"You're going to see a big turnout tomorrow, and it's nice that all faiths can get together," the mayor said Thursday. Boycott participants "are going to miss a chance to have a great breakfast."

Among those disagreeing with the boycott is Imam Shamsi Ali of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York. "I believe that engagement is more important. I think everyone disagrees with the way the NYPD is penetrating the community, but I think generalizing everything else as bad is not appropriate," he said. "The mayor's not perfect, but there are many things about him we need to appreciate. And I think working with him is a way of appreciation."

Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have insisted their counterterrorism programs are legal.

"Contrary to assertions, the NYPD lawfully follows leads in terrorist-related investigations and does not engage in the kind of wholesale spying on communities that was falsely alleged," police spokesman Paul Browne said in an email Thursday.

Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, president of the Islamic Leadership Council of New York, a group of 35 clerics and their congregations, said those who won't attend don't feel comfortable "going to have coffee and doughnuts with the mayor knowing that this civil liberties crisis that's affecting all New Yorkers is not going to be addressed."

He and other Muslim activists and clerics sent a letter to Bloomberg this week turning down their invitations. About three dozen other people signed the letter as supporters, including rabbis, a Roman Catholic nun, Protestant pastors and a Quaker, though it was unclear how many had been invited to the breakfast.

"I couldn't be there while knowing that the mayor supports, if not established, this warrantless spying apparatus," said Hesham El-Meligy, founder of the Building Bridges Coalition of Staten Island.

Activists accused Bloomberg of squandering the goodwill built up last year when he fiercely defended a proposed Islamic prayer and cultural center not far from where the World Trade Center stood. The mosque is still in the planning stages.

Bloomberg had also won praise from Muslim leaders for criticizing anti-Islamic rhetoric and offering words of compassion after fires in the Bronx killed a large Muslim family and destroyed a mosque.

"However, despite these welcome and positive actions, very disturbing revelations have come to light regarding the city's treatment of Muslim New Yorkers," the letter said.

Records examined by the AP show the police department collected information on people who were neither accused nor suspected of wrongdoing.

The AP series detailed police department efforts to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods and mosques with aggressive programs designed by a CIA officer. Documents reviewed by the AP revealed that undercover police officers known as "rakers" visited businesses such as Islamic bookstores and cafes, chatting up store owners to determine their ethnicities and gauge their views. They also played cricket and eavesdropped in ethnic clubs.

The surveillance efforts have been credited with enabling police to thwart a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station.

Critics said the efforts amount to ethnic profiling and violate court guidelines that limit how and why police can collect intelligence before there is evidence of a crime. They have asked a judge to issue a restraining order against the police.

Participants in the boycott said they feel betrayed by the city.

"Civic engagement is a two-way street. We've done our part as a community; we're waiting for the city to do their part," said Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York.

The surveillance has revealed deep divisions in the city a decade after 9/11. Many New Yorkers say they empathize with Muslims living under the pall of suspicion, but also support aggressive police efforts against would-be terrorists.

The New York Daily News and New York Post defended the police in editorials this week, with the Daily News calling the AP's reporting "overheated, overhyped."

The AP's senior managing editor, Michael Oreskes, sent a letter to the newspaper Thursday in defense of the news organization.

"These were stories about where our city was drawing the line in protecting New Yorkers from another 9/11 attack," Oreskes wrote. "The stories were based on extensive reporting and documents. It is a journalist's job to report the activities of government. It is up to citizens to decide about those activities."

___

Online:

Read AP's previous stories and documents about the NYPD at: http://www.ap.org/nypd

Letter to Bloomberg: http://interfaithletter.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/hello-world/

___

Associated Press writers Samantha Gross and Tom Hays in New York and Adam Goldman in Washington contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-30-NYPD%20Intelligence/id-57ca1aeac4434c968293c3787106fc50

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UndergroundMgmt: Twitter account for sale on Craigslist? Sure. Why not? http://t.co/3iFbRoUv

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Golf Courses upon Hilton Head: Where to Find Premier Discounted Golf

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Source: http://www.golfgoodssite.com/articles/golf-courses-upon-hilton-head-where-to-find-premier-discounted-golf/

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Fundraising can distort college athletics' mission

Joe Paterno sat in his kitchen one morning in March 2002 as a graduate assistant described a locker-room shower encounter he saw between a boy and a longtime friend and colleague of Penn State's football coach. Paterno slumped in his chair, "shocked and saddened," according to court testimony.

Mike McQueary's words couldn't have come at a worse time. Paterno was trying to fix the Nittany Lions' moneymaking football program he built on a motto of "success with honor," after the low point of his coaching career. The university was near the end of a $1.4 billion fundraising campaign, six years removed from the opening of a $55 million basketball arena and had just expanded the football stadium to the nation's second-biggest.

Paterno, in his 37th year as coach, told McQueary he had done the right thing describing what he saw involving Jerry Sandusky, a former Nittany Lions defensive coach. The biggest man on campus then sent the case to his immediate bosses and did nothing else. That set the stage for his firing nine years later, 11 days after his record 409th win, amid a scandal over alleged child-sex abuse and coverup that has echoed far beyond Happy Valley.

"The revenue opportunities are so substantial that the pressure placed upon the athletic department and coach, specifically, make it ever more difficult to pursue a school's mission," said Warren Zola, 44, assistant dean of graduate programs at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

Paterno was unable to comment for this story because of health issues. He is being treated for lung cancer and broke his pelvis in a fall this month.

Sports fund all the rest

The dependence by universities on sports to help fund everything from money-losing women's sports teams to general scholarships has created a system where the needs of coaches and their programs supersede the educational values of their institutions, said Robin Harris, executive director of the Ivy League, whose schools don't give athletic scholarships.

"There is so much money tied into big-time college athletics that it forces some people to make bad decisions," Harris said. "They may be people affiliated with a program, or coaches and administrators who do things purposely wrong, or turn a blind eye, because they are focused on generating revenue and not necessarily the integrity of the enterprise."

Paterno and Graham B. Spanier, 63, Penn State's president, were fired Nov. 9, four days after Sandusky, 67, was charged with sexually assaulting eight boys from 1994 to 2009. While neither Paterno nor Spanier was charged in the case, the trustees said the two leaders should have done more.

Athletic director Tim Curley, 57, was placed on administrative leave and Gary Schultz, 62, a vice president in charge of finance and the campus police, retired after they were accused of lying to a grand jury.

System is broken

Winning generates money from television, ticket sales, sponsors and alumni, according to a 2010 report by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Networks will combine to pay the top five conferences and the BCS about $14 billion in rights fees through 2032. Football teams received a collective $281 million in bowl payouts last season, the NCAA said.

Winning requires universities to build facilities that lure top high-school recruits, and hire marquee coaches whose salaries often dwarf that of university presidents.

"We're talking big, big money here," said Jason Lanter, assistant professor of psychology at Kutztown University. "You need to have it to build the facility, to recruit, to get more money. It's a vicious cycle."

Of 53 universities surveyed by Bloomberg this year, 46 diverted money to sports in their fiscal years ended in 2010.

"There are a lot of people chasing the Holy Grail," Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby said. "Chasing leads to some bad decisions."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dp-sports/~3/30NL-wgWbzI/ci_19627999

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Israeli girl's plight highlights Jewish extremism

Naama Margolese, 8, sits with her mother Hadassa in their home in the central Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, Monday, Dec 26, 2011. The story of Naama Margolese, an 8-year-old American girl that has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war, drew new attention to the religious tensions in Beit Shemesh, a city of some 100,000 just outside Jerusalem, which has become a symbol of the growing violence of Jewish extremists in Israel in recent years. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Naama Margolese, 8, sits with her mother Hadassa in their home in the central Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, Monday, Dec 26, 2011. The story of Naama Margolese, an 8-year-old American girl that has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war, drew new attention to the religious tensions in Beit Shemesh, a city of some 100,000 just outside Jerusalem, which has become a symbol of the growing violence of Jewish extremists in Israel in recent years. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Two Ultra-Orthodox Jewish boys cover their faces as a man passes by a fence covered with torn posters, in a street in the central Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, Monday, Dec. 26, 2011. The story of an 8-year-old American girl that has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war, drew new attention to the religious tensions in Beit Shemesh, a city of some 100,000 just outside Jerusalem, which has become a symbol of the growing violence of Jewish extremists in Israel in recent years. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish schoolboys gather on the roof of a building to look down at Israeli police trying to remove a sign asking women not to walk in that area, near a synagogue in the central Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, Monday, Dec. 26, 2011. The story of an 8-year-old American girl that has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war, drew new attention to the religious tensions in Beit Shemesh, a city of some 100,000 just outside Jerusalem, which has become a symbol of the growing violence of Jewish extremists in Israel in recent years. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Naama Margolese, 8, sits in her family home in the central Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, Monday, Dec. 26, 2011. The story of Naama Margolese, an 8-year-old American girl that has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war, drew new attention to the religious tensions in Beit Shemesh, a city of some 100,000 just outside Jerusalem, which has become a symbol of the growing violence of Jewish extremists in Israel in recent years. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (AP) ? A shy 8-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war.

Naama Margolese is a pale, blue-eyed, ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader who is afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls school for fear of ultra-Orthodox extremists who have spat on her and called her a whore for dressing "immodestly."

Her plight has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness of extremists in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

"When I walk to school in the morning I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared ... that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting," she said softly in an interview with The Associated Press Monday. "They were scary. They don't want us to go to the school."

The new girls school that Naama attends in the city of Beit Shemesh, to the west of Jerusalem, is on the border between an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood and a community of modern Orthodox Jewish residents, many of them American immigrants.

The ultra-Orthodox consider the school an encroachment on their territory. Dozens of black-hatted men jeer and physically accost the girls almost daily, the students say.

Televised images of Naama sobbing en route to school have shocked many Israelis, elicited statements of outrage from the country's leadership, sparked a Facebook page with nearly 10,000 followers dedicated to "protecting little Naama" and plans for a demonstration this week in her honor.

"Who's afraid of an 8-year-old student?" blared Sunday's main headline in the leading Yediot Ahronot daily.

Beit Shemesh's growing ultra-Orthodox population has erected street signs calling for the separation of sexes on the sidewalks, dispatched "modesty patrols" to enforce a chaste female appearance and hurled stones at offenders and outsiders. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly in closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.

Naama's case has been especially shocking because of her young age and because she attends a religious school and dresses with long sleeves and a skirt. Extremists, however, consider even that outfit, standard in mainstream Jewish religious schools, to be immodest.

This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the violence.

"The Israel police are taking, and will take, action to arrest and stop those who spit, harass or raise a hand. This has no place in a free and democratic state," he told his Cabinet.

The abuse and segregation of women in Israel in ultra-Orthodox areas is nothing new, and critics accuse the government of turning a blind eye.

The ultra-Orthodox are perennial king-makers in Israeli coalition politics ? two such parties serve as key members of Netanyahu's coalition. They receive generous government subsidies, and police have traditionally been reluctant to enter their communities.

The ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 10 percent of Israel's population and are its fastest growing sector because of a high birth rate. In the past, they have generally confined their strict lifestyle to their own neighborhoods. But they have become increasingly aggressive in trying to impose their ways on others, as their population has grown and spread to new areas.

"It is clear that Israeli society is faced with a challenge that I am not sure it can handle," said Menachem Friedman, a professor emeritus of Bar Ilan University and expert on the ultra-Orthodox, "a challenge that is no less and no more than an existential challenge."

Most of Israel's secular majority, in cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa, is not directly affected, but in a few places like Beit Shemesh ? a city of 100,000 people that include ultra-Orthodox, modern Orthodox and secular Jews ? tensions have erupted into the open.

The abuse of the girls is an example. The girls' parents take turns escorting their daughters into school property to protect them. The parents, too, have been cursed and spat upon.

Hadassa Margolese, Naama's 30-year-old Chicago-born mother, an Orthodox Jew who covers her hair and wears long sleeves and a long skirt, says, "It shouldn't matter what I look like. Someone should be allowed to walk around in sleeveless shirts and pants and not be harassed."

On Monday, dozens of ultra-Orthodox men heckled AP journalists who were filming a sign calling for segregation of sidewalks outside their synagogue, chanting "shame on you," ''get out of here" and "anti-Semites."

Also Monday, several dozen ultra-Orthodox men threw rocks at a Channel 10 TV crew and at police and set a trash can on fire, police said. One man was arrested.

City spokesman Matityahu Rosenzweig condemned the violence but said it is the work of a small minority and has been taken out of proportion.

"Every society has its fringes, and the police should take action on this," he said.

For Margolese, the recent clashes ? and the price of exposing her young daughter ? boil down to a fight over her very home.

"They want to push us out of Beit Shemesh. They want to take over the city," said Margolese.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-27-ML-Israel-Gender-Segregation/id-95cfaecdaa73464cad0914623c47775b

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You.Are.A.Robophobe (talking-points-memo)

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Opting to track, not treat, early prostate cancer | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

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.

Enter the National Proactive Surveillance Network ? at?http://www.npsn.net?? a collaboration of two large active-surveillance programs, at Johns Hopkins University and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, with the Prostate Cancer Foundation. First, it aims to educate men about active surveillance.

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."

Source: http://psychologyofmedicine.blogspot.com/2011/12/opting-to-track-not-treat-early.html

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Round Two of T-Mobile?s Smartphone Battle See the Galaxy S II Take on the iPhone 4S [Sponsored Post]

Last week we saw T-Mobile?s HTC Amaze 4G put a serious hurting on the iPhone 4S, but it seems that wasn?t enough to quiet the Apple fanboy down at the arcade. He must be a glutton for punishment to challenge the Samsung Galaxy S II after taking an 8MP camera smackdown. Who will win this round? Here?s a hint: it?s the dual-core phone on T-Mobile?s 4G HSPA+ network. Is this week?s entry into the smartphone battle even better than the first? Decide for yourself by checking out the video above.

?

This post is sponsored by:?

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Source: http://phandroid.com/2011/12/22/round-two-of-t-mobiles-smartphone-battle-see-the-galaxy-s-ii-take-on-the-iphone-4s-sponsored-post/

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A Minute With: Steven Spielberg on "Tintin" and "War Horse" (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Steven Spielberg is among the most prolific film directors ever, and as if to prove it, he has two movies in theaters this holiday week during what is one of the biggest box office periods of the year.

"The Adventures of Tintin," a computer animated movie using motion capture technology, is based on the popular books by Belgian writer Herge about an adventurous boy journalist. Spielberg's "Tintin" follows the boy as he chases clues that lead to pirate treasure.

Spielberg's other film, "War Horse," is based on a book and play about the love between a boy and his horse that endures the ravages of World War One. It is the sort of drama that aspires to win Oscars.

Spielberg spoke to Reuters about both films. "Tintin" opens on Friday, December 23, and "War Horse" gallops into theaters on Christmas Day.

Q: You've said about "Tintin" that as soon as you read the first of the books, the idea of a movie never left you. Why?

A: "It was just that I had never seen before a character that had so much tenacity to achieve a goal. I think Tintin and I share one thing, we're both very goal-directed, and I really admired this character.

"Tintin has never ever departed from his goal of being a great journalist and getting to the bottom of a story. Of course, the expected consequence of being so tenacious is that he involves himself in the story, and I do the same thing. I'm a director. I'm always looking for a great story. And when I find one, I involve myself equally in that story."

Q: "You acquired the rights back in 1983. What took so long to get it to the screen? Was it that you wanted to animate it, but the technology didn't exist.

A: "In '83, not only was there no such thing as performance motion capture technology, there was no such thing as digital animation. This was the analog era. And I was mainly concerned with not getting a script that would (satisfy) the memory millions have of these illustrated characters. So I spent at least a decade trying to develop the script.

"I realized how to make the film when motion capture first reared its beautiful face in 'The Polar Express,' and I said, 'well, you know, I don't think the technology is there yet to tell 'Tintin,' but this is the art form I want to tell the story in. I'm just going to sit around and wait until the art form develops itself a little further.'

Then I thought instead of hiring American screen writers, I'm going to hire European screen writers who grew up and were born with Tintin in their lives ... So, two things: the script, number one, and getting people who were raised with Tintin to write the script. And number two, waiting for this new (animation) medium to reach a maturity where I thought I could bring these characters to photo-realistic life where nobody would be complaining that there was no soul in the eyes.

Q: "Tintin" is a rollicking adventure, and "War Horse" is a human tale set during wartime. Both seem very much in line with being "a Spielberg movie." Is that fair to say?

A: "I don't know how to define myself or talk about myself in that way because I'm at the disadvantage of being myself. I don't have that third person point of view. All I know is that I'm reactive to stories that move me, and 'War Horse' makes me cry and 'Tintin' makes me breathless and makes me laugh.

"I love changing it up and being able to emotionally tell stories that hit different high notes, and I think there are different high notes both films hit. I don't think there's a lot of relation between either, except that families can go to both -- older families, 'War Horse,' younger families, 'Tintin.'"

Q: But "War Horse" has that sort of old-school, epic nature with real actors and "Tintin" is very new-school animation. I remember you used to talk about loving to work on film, only. So now, you've done both. Which do you prefer?

A: "I'm very blessed that I'm able to do both when I want to do both, and I don't think I have to make a choice simply because the digital tools all make sense and let my imagination run free. The analog tools, which I still love, which is pure film, give me a chance to capture what nature provides, and we get to put our actors right in the center of nature and everything it does -- the way 'War Horse' turned out. So for me, I just feel lucky that I can do both."

Q: "You turned 65 this month. Retiring anytime soon?

A: "I don't know, one of my best friends is Clint Eastwood (81) and he's my guiding light, so as long as he's good to go, I'm good to go."

(Editing by Patricia Reaney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/film_nm/us_stevenspielberg

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Red Spit Is Eating This Steel Bridge [Image Cache]

Spitting's a gross habit. Spitting on a bridge hanger and weakening its structural integrity. Well that's just rude and really gross. More »

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European debt tops list of business stories of '11

NEW YORK?? Europe took the financial world on a stomach-churning ride in 2011.

The rising threat of default by heavily indebted European countries spread fear across financial markets and weighed on economies worldwide. As the year came to a close, banks and investors nervously watched Europe's political and financial leaders scramble to prevent the 17-nation eurozone from breaking apart.

Several of the other biggest business stories of the year highlighted the global economy's linkages: A British phone-hacking scandal shook the foundations of Rupert Murdoch's U.S.-based media empire; a nuclear disaster in Japan stymied auto plants in the U.S. and beyond; and the price of gasoline surged because of unrest in the Middle East and growing demand in Asia and Latin America.

In the U.S., political squabbling led to the first credit downgrade for government debt, the economy suffered its fourth straight disappointing year and Apple founder Steve Jobs died.

The European financial crisis was chosen as the top business story of the year by business editors at The Associated Press. The sluggish U.S. economy came in second, followed by the death of Jobs.

1. European financial crisis
The government-debt crunch rattled Europe's financial system and weighed on the global economy. Portugal became the third European country, after Greece and Ireland the year before, to require a bailout as its borrowing costs soared. And investors grew worried that countries with much larger debts, such as Spain and Italy, would also need help.

Financial markets were volatile all year as hopes rose and then were dashed that forceful steps would be taken to prevent the financial crisis from becoming Europe's version of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, which triggered a global financial panic and deepened the Great Recession.

Banks worried that they or their partners wouldn't be able to cover losses if governments defaulted, so they cut back on lending. European governments, facing ever higher borrowing costs, reined in spending ? a policy response that is expected to stunt much-needed economic growth. Analysts estimate the slowdown in Europe, America's No. 1 trading partner, will cut U.S. economic growth next year.

2. The U.S. downturn, year four
The Great Recession may have ended, but the economic recovery continued to disappoint. For the first six months of the year, the economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.9 percent. Growth improved to a 2 percent rate in the third quarter and a 3 percent growth rate is forecast for the fourth quarter.

Still, 2 ? years after economists say the recession ended, 25 million people remain unemployed or unable to find full-time work. The unemployment rate fell from 9 percent in October to 8.6 percent in November, providing a hopeful sign. Yet the housing market remained burdened by foreclosures and falling prices in many metropolitan areas. How to fix the economy became the top campaign issue for Republican presidential contenders.

3. Steve Jobs dies
The college dropout who helped popularize the personal computer and created the iPod, iPhone and iPad, died on October 5. That was two months after Apple Inc., which Jobs started in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp. as the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.

Jobs cultivated a countercultural sensibility and a minimalist design ethic. He rolled out one sensational product after another, even during the recession and as his health was failing. He first helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist's obsession to a necessity of modern life. In recent years, he upended the music business with the iPod and iTunes, transformed the smart phone market with the iPhone and created the tablet market with the iPad.

4. U.S. credit downgrade
The inability of political leaders to come up with a long-term plan to reduce the federal budget deficit led the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's to take away Uncle Sam's sterling AAA credit rating for the first time. The political bickering enraged voters, spooked investors and led to the lowest consumer confidence level of the year. But the nation's long-term borrowing costs fell after the crisis. The reason: U.S. debt still looks safer to investors than almost everything else, especially European debt.

5. Murdoch hacking scandal
The man whose worldwide media empire thrives on covering scandal became the center of a dramatic one. A British tabloid newspaper owned by Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, hacked the phone of a murdered schoolgirl. Murdoch was not charged with a crime, but an investigation by British authorities raised questions about Murdoch's ability to run his worldwide media empire. News Corp. fired several executives and closed the newspaper at the center of the scandal, the News of the World.

6. Japan earthquake
An earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor, owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co., cut off supplies of crucial Japanese parts and idled factories thousands of miles away. Auto companies, especially Toyota and Honda, were hit hardest. Inventory of certain models, especially hybrids, fell short at dealerships, reducing sales and sending retail prices higher. The worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl led countries around the world to reconsider nuclear power. Germany decided to abandon nuclear by 2022.

7. Gas prices set an annual record
The retail price of gasoline averaged $3.53 per gallon for the year, eclipsing the 2008 record of $3.24 per gallon. Americans drove less and switched to more fuel efficient cars, but it wasn't enough to offset the higher prices. A bigger percentage of household income went into the gas tank in 2011 than any year since 1981. Economists say the high prices shaved half a percentage point off U.S. economic growth.

8. Social media IPOs take off
Shares of the business social networking site LinkedIn more than doubled when it went public in May, recalling the froth of the dot-com boom. LinkedIn was followed by large IPOs from online radio company Pandora Media, online discount site Groupon and social gaming site Zynga. But the market is treacherous: shares of Pandora, Groupon and Zynga all traded below their offering prices soon after they were listed. Market anticipation is high for a Facebook IPO in 2012.

9. Occupy Wall Street
On Sept. 17, several hundred protesters gathered at a small plaza about a block from the New York Stock Exchange. They slept in tents, ate donated meals and protested income inequality and the influence of money in politics. The movement inspired protesters around the world who camped in city centers and business hubs to complain about unemployment, CEO pay and a decline in upward social mobility.

10. The downfall of MF Global and Jon Corzine
The former governor, senator and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs lost control of a small brokerage firm he agreed to run in 2010. Saddled with huge debt and risky bets on European bonds, MF Global was forced to file for bankruptcy protection on Halloween after trading partners and investors got spooked. It was soon discovered that $1.2 billion in customer money was missing. Corzine told Congress he had no idea where the money went.

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/45744366/ns/business-world_business/

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Traveling safely

A Christian Science perspective.

Last spring a friend was moving from Wisconsin to Arizona, and I agreed to help her drive. It was a road trip to remember as we motored west in a big moving truck with her car on a trailer behind. We had little experience driving such a rig, so our motto became ?Always forward!?

Skip to next paragraph

Whether I?m driving cross-country, traveling in a foreign country, or staying at home, I find great strength, inspiration, and forward mental direction in my study of the Christian Science Bible Lesson. One morning during the trip, I studied this passage from Psalms: ?[H]e shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways? (91:11).

The idea of God?s angels having ?charge? over me was an arresting idea and one that applied to our trip. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, described angels in this way: ?Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial visitants, flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God ?? (?Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,? p. 298). I felt myself agreeing: Of course God?s angels of comfort and insight are with me wherever I go.

This nugget of inspiration was needed as my friend and I were on the road. As we drove along, the radio reported that tornadoes had been leveling many cities and towns along our route.

Later that afternoon, when we stopped at a gas station to fill the tank, the tornado sirens went off and folks from all over the area swarmed to the station. We jostled into the walk-in cooler, the securest structure on site. As we huddled, the storm grew louder.

At first my thoughts recalled a radio report of a similar situation a few days before. I was actually thinking, Could this be the end for us?

But then I remembered the scriptural promise from that morning ? God?s angels had ?charge? over me, over the situation, and over everything. This brought a mental peace despite the outside storm.?

In the Bible, the burning bush was a symbol to Moses of inner peace; it was on fire but ?not consumed." This clarity of thought helped Moses respond to God?s call to lead the Israelites out of slavery.

These days we don?t come across many burning bushes, but it?s easy to be consumed by news reports, other people?s opinions, and our own fears. Praying or listening to ?angel messages? brings God into the equation or, better yet, dissolves fear by knowing that no one is outside God?s perpetual care. Looking to God in times of need is not foolish but totally reliable because it puts God in the driver?s seat.

As I recalled the words from Psalms, I felt I had a spiritual anchor. I looked around the walk-in cooler. I was grateful for the man who gave me a blanket to stay warm, the woman who was sharing weather updates that she received by text message, people?s humor, and unconditional love. I could see other people acting with their best selves, showing goodness and unselfishness to complete strangers.

After 40 minutes, the storm passed, and we were all able to return to our cars. You can imagine we were relieved to find the moving truck, my friend?s car, and her belongings all in place, without any damage.

That experience has revitalized my concept of God. At times, I?d thought that loving God was a stagnant or abstract thing. Now I can see that trust in God brings safety, clarity, hope, and endurance in perilous moments.

As you journey home this winter holiday, be open to feeling the divine presence of God?s angels advocating for you and guiding you in tangible ways.

To receive Christian Science perspectives daily or weekly in your inbox,?sign up today.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/UIT0mHCLYjg/Traveling-safely

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Russell Brand Lands FX Talk Show

Show will have Brand interacting with audience.
By Gil Kaufman

Russell Brand
Photo: Jemal Countess/ Getty Images

Russell Brand is rarely at a loss for words. In fact, the British comedian/actor/Katy Perry hubby can't seem to find enough ways to corral his torrent of thoughts, jokes and observations. And since he's already hosted awards shows, radio programs, headlined movies and perfected the art of erudite stand-up comedy on both sides of the Atlantic, an American late-night series seems like the next logical step.

According to Entertainment Weekly that's exactly where Brand will be headed in 2012. The "Arthur" star has signed up with the FX network to headline a series of six half-hour late-night comedy specials that will be filmed in front of a live audience. The shows will find Brand offering his, "unfiltered take on current events, politics and pop culture" while drawing heavily on audience interaction to keep the conversation flowing.

"I am so excited I'm on the point of climax, in fact I will put the 'O' into FX, which spells Fox, which is actually the channel's real name," Brand said in a statement. "That's the only thing that worries me about all this to be honest. At least I'll be able to have a Christmas drink with Bill O'Reilly." Though the format of the program is still being worked out, unnamed sources told the magazine that viewers should not expect a typical talk show. The programs are slated to debut this spring.

Brand will also voice a character in an animated comedy that he co-created that will air on the Fox network, following up on his voiceover work in the big screen animated features "Hop" and "Despicable Me." Deadline Hollywood reported that the show could be loosely focused on Brand's notoriously hedonistic lifestyle in his 20s.

Related Photos

• Lovebirds: Katy Perry And Russell Brand

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676112/russell-brand-talk-show.jhtml

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[OOC] Splice 2

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EPA set to impose tough mercury limit at power plants

Reporting from Washington?

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected Friday to approve a tough new rule to limit emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances from the country's power plants, according to people with knowledge of the new standard.

Though mercury is a known neurotoxin that can be profoundly harmful to children and pregnant women, the air pollution rule has been more than 20 years in the making, repeatedly stymied because of objections from coal-burning utilities about the cost of installing pollution-control equipment.

The new regulation is not expected to differ markedly in its rigorous emissions targets and timetable from a draft rule proposed by the EPA in March, said people who were briefed in broad terms about it. Scheduled to be formally announced Monday, the rule follows on the heels of several Obama administration decisions to shelve environmental standards to mollify a sharply critical business community, including a high-profile decision this summer to halt new standards to cut smog.

Some analysts cautioned that the rule still could be delayed if it got caught up in the political horse-trading in Washington to pass spending legislation. Still, if it lands as expected, the long-awaited rule governing toxic substances is sure to rile powerful utilities and their congressional allies who have doggedly lobbied the administration over the last few weeks to weaken or delay the standards.

"Clean air will be the biggest environmental accomplishment of the Obama administration, and the forthcoming mercury rule will be the crowning achievement of an already strong clean-air resume," said John Walke, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Clean Air Program.

Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, an industry lobbying group, said the sweeping implications of the new rule mean that utilities would not accept them easily.

"In the history of the Clean Air Act, there has never been a greater intervention into the power sector than with this regulation," Segal said. "So it stands to reason that we will likely see a substantial amount of litigation around this."

The EPA and the administration declined to comment on the pending rule.

The fight to dilute the new regulation has centered on the amount of mercury that can be emitted and the timetable to install pollution control equipment. In its draft rule, the EPA determined that the industry standard should be 1.2 pounds of mercury per million BTUs of energy produced. Industry wants 1.4 pounds. But the EPA arrived at its figure based on a formula set out under the Clean Air Act, and analysts said the agency therefore cannot deviate from it.

The act would give companies three years to clean up their emissions of mercury and about 70 other toxic substances, and utilities could appeal for at least one more year as they install the necessary equipment. Much of industry has argued that the timetable is too tight and could lead to rolling blackouts. One group, the American Public Power Assn., told the White House that its members needed more than seven years to comply with the mercury rule.

Over the last few weeks, however, the timetable argument has been undermined by dissension within industry. Most notably, Ralph Izzo, chairman of the Newark, N.J.-based utility Public Service Enterprise Group, wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal in which he said that companies have known for decades that the mercury rule would take effect and some, like his, have already installed the needed equipment at their coal-fired plants.

"EPA's proposed clean-air rules will have a modest impact on plant retirements," Izzo wrote in his rebuttal to a story in the newspaper. "Regulations are not the death knell you would have everyone believe, but provide a clear path for responsible coal generation. Action is long overdue."

About a dozen states have already approved rules to cut mercury and other toxic substances. Industry has argued that the health benefits of reducing mercury through a federal standard are overstated.

But Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council said the estimated public health effects had played a considerable role so far in getting the administration to stick to the standards it proposed in March. People get exposed to mercury mainly by eating contaminated fish. Mercury exposure damages the developing brains of fetuses and children.

The EPA estimates that by 2016, the proposed rules could avert between 6,800 to 17,000 premature deaths annually, a greater benefit than most other federal health and environmental rules are estimated to achieve.

neela.banerjee@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/wls73SL25tE/la-na-epa-mercury-20111216,0,3262996.story

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