Source: www.cbsnews.com --- Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Last year, the Brooklyn Nets Coach smashed his Cadillac SUV into a utility pole in Long Island, N.Y. while intoxicated, police said ...
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/YsDBGAumh1c/
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By Alister Bull and Pedro da Costa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the U.S. central bank still expects to start scaling back its massive bond purchase program later this year, but he left open the option of changing that plan if the economic outlook shifted.
While sticking closely to a time line to wind down the bond buying that he first outlined last month, Bernanke went out of his way in testimony to Congress to stress that nothing was set in stone.
"Our asset purchases depend on economic and financial developments, but they are by no means on a preset course," he said in remarks prepared for delivery to the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.
The remarks pushed up U.S. stock futures and government bond prices, while the dollar softened against the euro and the yen.
"There is something in these comments for everybody," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington. "Bernanke has done a good job of leaving himself plenty of maneuver room in terms of policy."
Bernanke's semi-annual testimony to Congress, which may be his last if the chairman steps down when his term ends in January, as many expect, will be followed by a lengthy question and answer session with the committee's members when the hearing begins at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT). He appears again before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
The Fed has held overnight interest rates near zero since December 2008, while more than tripling its balance sheet to about $3.46 trillion with a series of bond purchases. In its third and latest asset purchase program, it has been buying $85 billion in U.S. Treasury and mortgage-related bonds each month to drive down borrowing costs and spur investment and hiring.
Bernanke set off a brief but fierce global market sell-off last month when he outlined plans to reduce this quantitative easing program, and he has joined a slew of officials since then who have spelled out their intention to keep rates near zero well after the bond buying ends.
Under the timeline Bernanke laid out on June 19, Fed policymakers would likely reduce their monthly bond buys later this year and halt them altogether by mid-2014, as long as the economic recovery unfolds as expected.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Bernanke said the pace of asset purchases could be reduced "somewhat more quickly" if economic conditions improved faster than expected. On the other hand, the current pace "could be maintained for longer" if the labor market outlook darkened, or inflation did not look like it was rising back toward the Fed's 2 percent goal.
"Indeed, if needed, the (Fed's policy-setting) committee would be prepared to employ all its tools, including an increase (in) the pace of purchases for a time, to promote a return to maximum employment in a context of price stability," Bernanke said.
STILL EASY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
While the end of the Fed's bond buying may be in view, Bernanke repeated that officials will keep rates near zero at least until the unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent, as long as inflation remains in check. Most do not expect rates to rise until sometime in 2015.
He also said that the Fed would look closely at any decline in unemployment to see whether it was being driven by strength in hiring or a decline in the number of Americans looking for work, in which case the central bank would be more patient before raising rates.
Any rate hike cycle, he said, would be gradual.
Some Fed officials have been concerned about the low level of inflation, with the central bank's preferred price gauge running well below its target.
Data on Tuesday, however, showed that inflation firmed last month, while confidence among home builders soared to a 7-1/2 year high this month.
On Thursday, however, the government said groundbreaking for homes fell to a 10-month low. In addition, retail sales were weak in June, and second-quarter GDP is expected to come in at around a dismal 1 percent annual rate, painting a very mixed picture for Fed policymakers.
Bernanke said the economic recovery was continuing at a moderate pace thanks to a stronger housing sector, which was helping conditions in the labor market improve gradually.
He also repeated that the Fed felt the risks to the economy had decreased since the fall.
But he said higher taxes and cuts in federal spending could still turn out to exert a larger drag on U.S. growth than expected, and that worsening conditions overseas could hurt conditions back home.
"With the recovery still proceeding at only a moderate pace, the economy remains vulnerable to unanticipated shocks, including the possibility that global economic growth may be slower than currently anticipated," he said.
(Additional reporting by Paige Gance in Washington and Nick Olivari in New York; Editing by Neil Stempleman and Tim Ahmann)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facing-lawmakers-bernanke-walk-fine-line-fed-policy-041029383.html
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Source: www.greencarcongress.com --- Tuesday, July 16, 2013
California?s Interagency Working Group on Refinery Safety released its draft report outlining steps and recommendations to improve public and worker safety at and near the state?s oil refineries. The Interagency Working Group, composed of thirteen agencies and departments and the Governor?s office, was formed following the fire at Chevron?s Richmond oil refinery last August. The fire created a vaporized plume that spread to surrounding communities. The Working Group met over eight months to examine ways to improve public and worker safety through enhanced oversight of refineries, and to strengthen emergency preparedness in anticipation of any future incident. Regular internal meetings were informed by meetings with a wide variety of stakeholders including those from industry, labor, community and environmental groups, academic institutions, and local emergency response units. The report includes an assessment of the current state of refinery safety with input from stakeholders, a study by the RAND Corporation, and findings by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal OSHA), the US Chemical Safety Board, and Chevron?s own internal investigation. Recommendations of the working group include: Create an Interagency RefineryTask Force by 1 September 2013, housed within the California Environmental Protection Agency, to coordinate agencies? activities and carry out the recommended actions. As directed by the Governor?s Office ...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~3/fJSwzwJBZzg/caref-20130716.html
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Israel has launched a forced repatriation of Eritrean migrants that amounts to a grave violation of their human rights because of the risk of persecution in their reclusive homeland, an advocacy group said on Monday.
Authorities have been trying to curb African immigration as Israelis fear that they may eventually be outnumbered. But humanitarian groups say that forcibly returning African migrants home often exposes them to rights abuses including torture.
Some 60,000 Africans, including 35,000 Eritreans, have walked over a long porous desert border with Egypt into Israel since 2006, Israeli government figures show, and many live in gritty districts of Tel Aviv.
Israel regards most as illegal job-seekers but rights agencies say many should be considered for political asylum because of poor human rights records of their home governments.
Hotline for Migrant Workers (HMW), an Israeli human rights group, said an initial group of 14 Eritrean men were flown to Asmara, the Eritrean capital, on Sunday, after receiving $1,500 each from Israeli authorities.
They were driven to the airport from one of two desert detention centers that Israel has expanded. A law passed a year ago, and now being contested in its high court, allows the country to jail migrants it says arrived illegally.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry declined to comment on the HMW report, other than to say that some "people are returning hom." She did not give their nationalities.
The men who left on Sunday were the first sent back to Eritrea, which was accused last year by the UN human rights chief of practicing torture and summary executions.
Israel had said in the past that it was seeking third-country destinations for Eritreans.
Sigal Rozen, public policy coordinator for HMW, a group that objects to most deportations of migrants, told Reuters the latest repatriations were "a grave human rights violation."
Rozen said those repatriated had signed consent forms but she argued their agreement could not be seen as voluntary because Israeli authorities made clear the only way they would be freed from detention was by returning home.
She said at least one of the Eritreans had said he was a military deserter, and could face punishment at home.
A Tel Aviv-based representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees monitoring migrants' treatment in Israel had no immediate comment. She said she was seeking confirmation from Israel of the Eritreans' repatriation.
New York-based Human Rights Watch also condemned the new repatriations. In a statement emailed to news media, Gerry Simpson, a senior HRW refugee researcher, accused Israel of "using the threat of prolonged detention to force Eritrean and Sudanese nationals to give up their asylum claims."
Worldwide, HRW said, around 80 percent of Eritrean asylum seekers are granted some form of protection because of credible fears of persecution relating to punishment for evading indefinite military service in Eritrea and other widespread rights abuses in the small Horn of Africa state.
At least one group of Africans was flown out of Israel to South Sudan in the past year and other migrants have been offered cash to leave voluntarily. Some 2,000 Africans are being held in the southern detention centers.
(Reuters)
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The approach has unlocked a trove of microbial diversity, obtained from nine diverse environments on Earth, such as hydrothermal vents, a bioreactor and a gold mine
Image: Nature magazine
How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect?s tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they...
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An emerging technique for analyzing genomes has given scientists a look at microbes that were until now difficult to study, revealing unexpected links among different branches of the tree of life.
Led by Tanja Woyke, a microbiologist at the US Department of Energy?s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, researchers used single-cell sequencing to read the genomes of 201 bacterial and archaeal cells taken from nine diverse environments, such as hydrothermal vents and an underground gold mine. None of the organisms had ever been sequenced or cultivated in a laboratory. The results are published today in Nature.
?This is an astounding paper,? says Norman Pace, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado?Boulder. ?The achievement of hundreds of genome sequences from single cells at a shot is an entirely new level of microbiology.?
Single-cell sequencing enables scientists to decipher the genome of just one cell by amplifying its DNA by 1-billion-fold,?opening the way to studying ?microbial dark matter?. These are organisms that have been discovered through methods such as metagenomics studies ? which examine batches of micro-organisms living in a common environment ? but are difficult or impossible to grow in the lab.
Woyke and her group attempted to explore this dark matter by selecting a highly diverse range of microbes and sequencing a portion of their genomes (which could range from less than 10% to more than 90% depending on the cell). The sequences clarified the microbes? relationships to one another and to other species.
The work reveals that some conventional boundaries between the kingdoms of life are not as rigid as has been thought. For instance, the researchers suggest that one bacterial lineage synthesizes purine bases ? building blocks of DNA and RNA ? using enzymes previously thought to exist only in archaea. Meanwhile, three of the archaeal cells sequenced in the study harbor sigma factors, which initiate RNA transcription and have previously been found only in bacteria.
The researchers also found a bacterium that has ?recoded? the three-letter series of bases UGA ? known as the opal stop codon. In almost every other organism, this nucleotide sequence signals the cell to stop translating RNA into protein. But in this organism, it tells the cell to make the amino acid glycine. The team propose to place it into a new bacterial phylum, called Gracilibacteria.
A similar recoding has been found in another bacterium, suggesting that the code of life may be more flexible than scientists have assumed.
?If you consider all the novelty we found in these 201 genomes, it?s astounding, because we?re only looking at a small part of the tremendous diversity out there,? Woyke says.
The researchers say that their work can help put more leaves on the bare branches of the tree of life. Woyke and her colleagues estimate that although there are millions of microbial species falling into at least 60 major phyla, 88% of all cultivated microbes fall into just four bacterial phyla.
Their in-depth studies gave enough new information about microbial relationships to better classify about 340 million sequence reads from previous metagenomics projects. But, they estimate, some 16,000 cells would need to be sequenced to cover even half the world?s unstudied microbial lineages. So the field still has a long way to go, says Jeffrey McLean, a microbiologist at the J. Craig Venter Institute in San Diego, California.
?This highlights the power of single-cell genomics, but also reveals the need to increase our efforts to close this huge knowledge gap of the microbial diversity on Earth,? McLean says.
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on July 14, 2013.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/ScientificAmerican-News/~3/Vnna3jnHwRE/article.cfm
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The City of San Jose and its more than 5,000 employees will now be using Microsoft Office 365, Windows Azure and StorSimple to expand productivity, reduce operational costs, and deliver improved services to more than 984,000 residents in the Silicon Valley.
?The combination of these services supports both our long-term technology strategy and the immediate needs of our employees and residents,? said Vijay Sammeta, San Jose?s chief information officer. ?We turned to Office 365 for secured cloud productivity, which in turn will help us lower our total cost of ownership and support a more mobile and connected workforce of the future. The combination of Windows Azure and StorSimple will enable us to streamline storage infrastructure support, which enables our people to make the shift from basic backend operations to citizen engagement and service delivery.?
The city?s transition to Microsoft?s enterprise cloud platform will begin this summer, and cross-organization implementation will take about six months. For more on the benefits and reasons the ?capital of Silicon Valley? is moving to Office 365, Windows Azure, and StorSimple, check out the Microsoft press release, the Office 365 blog, the?Azure team blog,?or the Microsoft on Government blog.
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Many US retailers use a variety of sales-boosting strategies, including tracking shoppers in stores. Retailers can track individuals? movements throughout the store, sensors collecting information from smartphones as they connect to Wi-Fi, NYT reports.
The sensors can monitor which departments the shoppers? visit and how much time they spend there.
Today many retailers use the tracking system to have proper sales, The New York Times reports. Companies can recognize returning shoppers by their smartphone identification codes and even gather data about the mood and behavior of the clients. When a customer downloads a retailer?s app or provides an email address while using an in-store WiFi, the service shows his full profile with the number of? recent visits, preferences and? purchase history.
Another retailer Nordstrom has used tracking since October 2012, claims it is no longer using data collection in the stores.
While retailers assure customers they do not collect sensitive data and the tracking is anonymous, the majority of shoppers get nervous about it. ?I think it?s outrageous?, John Soma, executive director of the University of Denver Privacy Foundation, told Denver?s ABC7. ?What are they going to do with that data? Are they going to keep it forever? Are they going to aggregate it? Are they going to sell it to 'affiliates?' We just don't know. That's what's so troubling to me".
Still, physical retailers argue that they are doing nothing more than e-commerce sites do online, only aiming to serve their customers better.
Meanwhile, some consumers are happy to trade privacy for deals and bonuses. Gift cards and cash in exchange for tracking apps seem not so frightening.
?I would just love it if a coupon pops up on my phone. Stores are trying to sell, so that makes sense,? - Linda Vertlieb, a blogger from Philadelphia, told The New York Times.
Anyone can turn their phone off and take the battery out before heading into one of the stores that are equipped with those sensors.
Source: http://rt.com/business/smartphone-us-store-wifi-112/
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Husband, wife serve as pastors at Ga. church
The Rev. Jason Peterson, rear, left, watches as the Rev. Andrea Windsor-Peterson speaks at Advent Lutheran Church in Augusta during the morning service June 23. The Revs. Jason Peterson and Andrea Windsor-Peterson, who are husband and wife, were recently installed as dual pastors of Advent Lutheran Church.
The Associated Press
The Augusta Chronicle
AUGUSTA ? At work, he calls her ?Pastor Andrea,? and she calls him ?Pastor Jason.?
At home, they do without the formal titles. They?re just Andrea and Jason, husband and wife.
The Revs. Jason Peterson and Andrea Windsor-Peterson were recently installed as dual pastors of Advent Lutheran Church.
The church of 300 on Washington Road in Augusta called the new pastors this spring.
?We?re a team,? Jason said. ?We share a calling.?
Together, they hope to work with the congregation to help it continue to grow as a welcoming, life-giving church.
?We want to help everyone to feel they belong and they have purpose in Jesus Christ,? Andrea said. ?All people are welcomed in this place.?
The two met on the first day of class at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, on the steps of their dorm building. Three months later, they were engaged. They married two years after that, in 2002.
After working with separate congregations in South Carolina, they accepted a shared call to Memphis, Tenn., where they worked as ?mission redevelopers,? tasked with reviving a small congregation. They stayed for nine years.
They made the move to Augusta with their two children ? Kate, 8, and Timmy, 7 ? this summer. Jason?s first day was April 28, the 50th anniversary of the church. Andrea stayed in Memphis for a few weeks, while the kids finished school. After three weeks in Augusta, she said, ?I?ve learned just how generous people are. They?re just so wonderful. I can?t tell you what a joy it is to work with them and equip them. It?s sort of a dream call.?
The church was really just looking for one pastor.
?They looked to interview one candidate, but got two,? Jason said. ?There was a real excitement about it.?
While they considered taking separate calls, it?s easier, in some ways, to work together. The family is able to worship together on Sundays. There?s no question about which church the children should attend. Both pastors get time away from preaching, which helps avoid burnout.
The church also benefits from two pastors.
?The gift is you have a choice,? said Andrea. ?You have two different perspectives on how to do something.?
They have different passions in ministry, different styles of teaching and different communication styles.
?It?s becoming a little bit more common, especially in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America),? Jason said.
Each preaches two Sundays in a row before switching off. When one prepares the sermon, the other administers the sacraments.
?We have this joke that we?re off duty and get to worship,? Andrea said with a laugh.
They spend more time together than most married couples, Jason said. Sometimes it feels as though their marriage and family life are on display, even more so than the average pastor?s, and that?s OK, Andrea said.
?You are on display and it?s humbling,? she said. ?If the people of God weren?t so gracious, it wouldn?t work.?
A few years ago, they set some ground rules.
?We do have one rule,? Andrea said. ?We don?t talk about our moms and the church in our bedroom.?
Source: http://mdjonline.com/bookmark/23126283
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Cool Planet Energy Systems has developed a technique to convert biomass into high-octane gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel.
According to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel ( http://tinyurl.com/nc4vm7d), the company plans to move its corporate headquarters to Greenwood Village, but the Western Slope may also get conversion plants to convert corncobs and trees killed by pine and spruce beetles.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel, http://www.gjsentinel.com
Source: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_23662201/western-slope-hoping-biofuels-jobs?source=rss
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Thanks to the Internet, it didn?t take long for the 30 to 40 Scottsdale Christian Academy football players to get familiar with their head coach?s top two assistants.
A click or two away, they could find out that offensive line coach Dale Hellestrae played on three Super Bowl teams with the Dallas Cowboys as a long snapper and backup offensive lineman, and that defensive coordinator Ron Pritchard played nine seasons in the NFL with the Houston Oilers and the Cincinnati Bengals and was a star linebacker in the late 1960s under Frank Kush at Arizona State and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Those credentials alone have the attention of high school athletes trying to find their way on the football field, as Kevin Allen takes over the program, bringing in two assistants with NFL playing backgrounds.
?I think it gives you some credibility when you first talk to them,? said Hellestrae, 51, a Saguaro High alum who played collegiately at Southern Methodist. ?For both of us, they look at you and they trust what you?re going to do football- wise.?
Pritchard spent the past three seasons helping out Allen at Chandler Valley Christian. Hellestrae, who had two daughters play sports at Scottsdale Christian, has been helping out SCA?s program before Allen came in.
Coaching works into Hellestrae?s schedule during the week, because he does color commentary on weekends for TV football games, from high school to college to pro. He currently does the color commentary for Cox7 on Rattlers home games.
Pritchard is a former school administrator, who served as athletic director at Gilbert Christian, formerly Surrey Garden.
Allen met 35 players in spring football. It?s now up to 43. Eighteen players graduated from last year?s 9-2 team. So it?s important to get a young team motivated off the bat. That?s where Hellestrae and Pritchard come in.
?I?m fortunate for me as a head coach to have Dale and Ron with their experience in football,? said Allen, who played high school football in New Mexico and never reached the pro level. ?It doesn?t get any better. The teaching that takes place even for our little school, it?s huge for us. We?re so fortunate and blessed to have that. When you add the things about concussions, academics, playing at the next level, we have a great environment of teaching here. This is the best situation I?ve been in as a head coach.?
Both Pritchard and Hellestrae came from a playing era when concussion wasn?t a big topic of discussion ? ?If they said two and you put up four fingers, that was?in the neighborhood,? Pritchard said).
But they know it?s something that has to be addressed among young athletes. They know how compromise needs to come into play at a small school when you?re dealing with fewer players than at the big, public schools, and if a star player?s family decides to go on a 10-day, out-of-state vacation in October, you have to learn to accept it.
?When you have a smaller population, you have to manage your players differently,? Pritchard said. ?You don?t have the depth level. It?s not like the old days of Frank Kush, where if you go down, he says, ?Just move him aside, put in someone else.? I think Kevin would agree, you have to be conscious of how you?re managing the kids emotionally and physically. You?re not just reloading.
?You have to manage people. You have 40 different personalities. It takes time to do that. ? You want to start winning their souls, their minds, to get them to trust you. Coach Allen does a great job with that. Then you can show them how to win, not just on the scoreboard, but win in life, too.?
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July 13, 2013 at 5:02 AM ET
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Sharonton Taylor, 27, left, meets with case manager Alysha Sturgeon at The Center for Family Resources in Marietta, Ga., on Friday, July 12, 2013. Despite her job as a certified nursing assistant, Taylor started getting assistance from SNAP in May. "I'm a single parent with three kids and I don't make enough to get by, " Taylor said.
For one in seven Americans, the federal government?s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka food stamps, is all that stands between them and too little food.
But the complicated calculus of financial survival for the working poor also means any cuts to the roughly $80 billion SNAP, as it?s known, being considered by Congress would be felt well beyond the grocery checkout line. Buying new school clothes, family outings, even getting a toehold in the financial mainstream could be thrown into limbo.
For many of the working poor, wages just don?t go far enough. The National Employment Law project says nearly 60 percent of jobs created in the post-recession recovery pay $13.83 or less an hour, and hourly wages for some low-wage occupations fell by more than 5 percent in just three years.
Food service and temporary employment make up 43 percent of the post-recession job growth, according to NELP policy analyst Jack Temple. "They overwhelmingly pay low wages,? Temple said. ?For that lower segment, you?re going to see increased use of safety net programs to make up the difference."
Sharonton Taylor of Marietta, Ga., is a single mom of three, even working full-time and earning $9.50 an hour as a certified nurse's aide qualifies her for $500 a month in food stamps. (Like Medicaid, SNAP is federally funded but administered at the state level.) That?s still about $150 less than the U.S.D.A.'s average monthly estimate of what a ?low-cost food plan? should cost for Taylor?s family.
If that $500 were cut, Taylor wouldn?t be able to buy new clothes for her daughter and two sons, or take them on the kind of outings middle-class kids take for granted. ?We?d play Uno or do something around the house, try to make it fun for them, instead of going to the zoo, to the aquarium, stuff like that,? she said.
Taylor said it?s hard trying to explain to her kids, who are eight, five and four, about the family?s dire financial straits. ?I have to tell them, ?Mom don?t have it right now. Don?t you want a roof over your head??... I have to keep telling them that.?
Buying less food
The next step would be simply buying less food, she said. As it is, Taylor says she often struggles to make it until the 9th day of each month, when her SNAP card is refilled. ?I?ll try to make the food last? It feels hard to stretch, especially if you cook everyday. I get low at the end of the month and I have another week to go.? During that week, cheap, filling staples like spaghetti fill the gap.
?As finances get worse, the dietary quality also gets worse,? warned Dr. Deborah Frank, founder and principal investigator of Children's HealthWatch at the Boston University-affiliated Boston Medical Center. ?Poor nutrition isn?t obvious to the lay person,? she said. ?This is a health problem. I think that?s the connection that people miss.?
But there are sharp disagreements in Washington about how to fix the system. Proponents of cutting SNAP funding say the program is bloated, poorly managed and subject to abuse.
"There are 21 programs that provide food-purchasing assistance at the federal level. Isolating SNAP is distorting the debate," said Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. " We spend too much on the social welfare safety net for too little gain."
Calling SNAP "the fastest-growing welfare program that we have," Tanner said even cuts of nearly $21 billion over the next 10 years proposed by the Republican-led House of Representatives don't go far enough.
Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
Gracie Shannon-Sanborn, 5, holds a sign as she joins her father Allen Sanborn (L) and members of Progressive Democrats of America and other activists as they hold a rally in front of Rep. Henry Waxman's office on June 17, 2013 in Los Angeles.
Kevin Concannon, undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, countered that the program?s growth was a necessary response to the recession and unemployment it produced. ?Most of the increase in SNAP is attributable to the depth and severity of the economic downturn,? he said.
Anti-hunger advocates say the program has become a political football. ?A lot of the racial and gender and other cultural politics of the country play out through the food stamp program,? said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center. ?They shouldn?t, but they do.?
On Thursday, the House voted to decouple food stamps from a five-year farm bill, setting the stage for a battle with the Democratic-led Senate and the White House. But whichever party wins, the real losers will be families who have benefits cut or eliminated, said Lisa Davis, senior vice president of government relations at nonprofit Feeding America.
Other proposed changes to SNAP would have longer-term ramifications for people struggling to lift their families out of poverty.
Juggling jobs
Krystal Cole juggles two jobs in pursuit of that goal. A single mother of two in Marietta, Ga., Cole works Monday through Friday in an on-the-job training internship that pays roughly minimum wage for 20 of the 40 hours she works. On weekends, she works as a waitress for two seven-hour shifts at a waffle restaurant. Nearly all of that paycheck goes toward her health insurance; virtually her only take-home pay on weekends is the roughly $100 she pulls down in tips.
"I work hard but I still don?t make enough money," Cole said. "Food is expensive, and you don't really realize it until you have all these mouths to feed." Cole gets $160 a month in SNAP benefits, and estimates that she pays another $100 or so out of pocket each month (her kids are in programs that give them breakfast and lunch on weekdays).
In one sense, though, Cole is lucky. Feeding America says the average SNAP household has only $333 in assets. The Center for Family Resources in Marietta helped Cole set up a savings account about a year and a half ago and taught her the importance of budgeting and saving. She's been socking away a little bit ? $20 here, $50 there on a good week ? ever since.
Currently, the government lets states lift a $2,000 asset cap on SNAP participation so families aren?t forced to wipe out their savings before becoming eligible. But changes proposed under the House?s original farm bill would take away that option. If Cole?s eligibility for food stamps were at risk because of her small nest egg, she would face a difficult decision: benefits now, or a more secure financial future.
Farm bill aside, food stamp benefits are going to drop by an average of $20 to $25 per family in November anyway when a stimulus increase expires, Davis said. The U.S.D.A. estimated that last year's drought will make food prices rise up to 3.5 percent over the course of the year.
Families are already feeling the pinch. ?I?m barely making it, even with the program,? said Michelle Tyson, a school bus aide and single mother to three teenaged boys in Buffalo, N.Y., who gets nearly $400 a month in food stamps despite working 30 hours a week and taking every extra shift that comes her way.
If her benefits were cut back, ?There would be no more cookies or chips, I tell you that. I don't buy a lot of it, but I buy enough that it could be cut back.? Next, Tyson said she would start rationing. ?I would cut out portions? It's no fun not being able to eat what you want to eat or not having any food in the house,? she said.
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By Josh Rubin, CNN
updated 2:20 AM EDT, Sat July 13, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Austin, Texas (CNN) -- A bill that places new restrictions on abortion passed the Texas Senate on Friday after days of debate that galvanized activists nationwide.
It was the second attempt by the measure's supporters to pass the bill in the Senate -- it originally failed to gain approval because of a filibuster by Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis.
The Senate voted 19 to 11 to approve the restrictions.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who supports the new abortion laws, called the state Legislature back into a second special session to continue consideration of the bill, which passed the Texas House on Wednesday.
The measure bans abortions past 20 weeks of gestation, mandates abortion clinics become ambulatory surgical centers, tightens usage guidelines for the drug RU486 and requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic at which they're providing such services.
Opinion: It's the real Texans who count
Critics of the measure say it would shut down most abortion clinics in Texas -- denying access to many in rural communities -- and force women to seek dangerous back-alley abortions.
The Republican legislators who support it say the bill isn't about banning abortions, but rather about protecting women's health.
The special session was marked by loud protests and high-profile voices from both sides of the abortion debate.
Taking a swipe at former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, who came to Austin to support the bill, Democratic Sen. Kirk Watson made a final appeal to the Republicans to vote no, asking them to: "Take this chance to stop, take this chance to think, take this chance to stop listening to the partisans and failed presidential candidates."
However, for supporters of the bill such as Sen. Jane Nelson, the bill's measures are long overdue.
"There is a clear choice in this vote tonight," she said. "Do we keep the lax standards, do we forgo safeguards, do we ignore the evidence that at 20 weeks we have a child who can feel? Or do we choose life?"
The roars of the crowd in the rotunda were audible throughout the Senate debate and at one point, abortion rights protesters disrupted the proceedings in the Senate gallery. One protester, singing quietly to the chamber, chained herself to a railing in the gallery and brought the session to a brief halt.
The bill now make its way to Perry, who will sign it into law.
"Today the Texas Legislature took its final step in our historic effort to protect life," Perry said after the bill's passage. "This legislation builds on the strong and unwavering commitment we have made to defend life and protect women's health. I am proud of our lawmakers and citizens who tirelessly defended our smallest and most vulnerable Texans and future Texans."
Planned Parenthood, a leading reproductive health provider, decried the passage and called on voters to throw out the politicians who voted for it.
"If you are angry about what happened in Texas tonight -- and what's happening in other states all around the country -- there is something you can do about it," spokeswoman Dawn Laguens said. "Register to vote, and vote for candidates who will protect women's access to health care."
CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/13/politics/texas-abortion-measure/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular
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Lower precious metals prices are a "temporary phenomenon" and will reach a bottom, Mexico-focused Endeavour Silver (TSX: EDR, NYSE: EXK) CEO Bradford Cooke said in...
This news article is one of hundreds published daily by Business News Americas about the commodities, markets, movements, companies, projects, economics and politics integral to the development of Latin America. Including news and insight from South America, Central America and the Caribbean, BNamericas includes Metals insight and forecasts for business opportunities in Mexico. The business development service focuses on major projects, active companies, such as Endeavour Silver; and business and sales contacts, providing networking opportunities with leading executives throughout Latin America.
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Like a fevered dream by embattled ex-Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, this naughty claymation short by Dadomani Studios makes no sense in context outside of its own logical universe. Still, there are worse things to find in a box:
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LONDON (ShareCast) - - Markets react to Bernanke comments
- Jobless claims rise unexpectedly
- Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - news) jumps after Ballmer announces shake-up
Dow Jones (DJI: ^DJI - news) : 1.11%
Nasdaq: 1.63%
S&P 500: 1.35%
US stocks rose strongly on Thursday, with the S&P and Dow Jones indices closing at record highs, as markets reacted to dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made the night before.
The Nasdaq meanwhile finished at its best level in 13 years.
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After Wednesday's closing bell, a Q&A session with Bernanke caught the attention of investors as the Fed chief looked to reassure markets that short-term interest rates wouldn't be rising anytime soon, even if the unemployment rate falls dramatically. "It may be well sometime after we hit 6.5% before rates reach any significant level," he said.
"This admission appears to have put the prospects of any tapering programme on the back burner in the short term, and helped drive European equity markets to one-month highs," said Senior Market Analyst Michael Hewson from CMC Markets.
Markets appeared to be largely ignoring a report that showed that initial US weekly unemployment claims rose by 15,000 to hit a two-month high of 360,000. The consensus estimate was for a reading of 335,000.
The Labor Department said that "seasonal adjustments are typically difficult in July due to the traditional auto sector layoffs, school closings, and the holiday that occurs early in the month".
Tech group Microsoft gained sternly as investors welcomed Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer's "far-reaching alignment" of the company. In an e-mail to employees, the chief shook up top management and reorganised divisions in an effort to boost Microsoft's "speed, efficiency and capability".
Sector peer Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD - news) soared after Canaccord Genuity upgraded the chip maker from 'hold' to 'buy'.
Banking groups JPMorgan Chase (Other OTC: JPMLZ - news) and Wells Fargo (Other OTC: WFCNO - news) were in focus ahead of their quarterly results on Friday.
S&P 500 - Risers
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) $4.45 +11.81%
D. R. Horton Inc. (DHI) $22.98 +9.17%
Lennar Corp (NYSE: LEN - news) . Class A (LEN) $37.44 +8.33%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $134.92 +7.87%
PulteGroup Inc (NYSE: PHA - news) . (PHM) $20.39 +7.20%
Teradata Corp. (TDC (Other OTC: TDCAF - news) ) $56.17 +6.38%
Apollo Group Inc (NasdaqGS: APOL - news) . (APOL) $18.97 +6.04%
Peabody Energy Corp (NYSE: BTU - news) . (BTU) $16.28 +5.78%
F5 Networks Inc (NasdaqGS: FFIV - news) . (FFIV) $76.09 +5.75%
Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) $28.12 +5.67%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S - news) (S) $0.00 -100.00%
Nabors Industries Ltd (NYSE: NBR - news) . (NBR) $14.60 -2.60%
Regions Financial Corp. (RF) $9.88 -2.47%
TripAdvisor Inc (NasdaqGS: TRIP - news) . (TRIP) $60.44 -2.41%
Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) $21.47 -2.14%
First Horizon National Corp. (FHN) $11.86 -2.06%
Abercrombie & Fitch Co (NYSE: ANF - news) . (ANF) $50.48 -1.90%
Keycorp (NYSE: KEY - news) (KEY) $11.57 -1.87%
SunTrust Banks Inc (NYSE: STI - news) . (STI (KOSDAQ: 039440.KQ - news) ) $33.34 -1.74%
Range Resources Corp. (RRC) $77.73 -1.72%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Intel Corp. (INTC) $23.99 +3.18%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $35.69 +2.84%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $66.58 +2.57%
Alcoa Inc (NYSE: AA - news) . (AA) $8.10 +2.27%
Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT - news) . (CAT (Taiwan OTC: 4990.TWO - news) ) $86.70 +2.05%
United Technologies Corp (NYSE: UTX - news) . (UTX) $99.69 +1.94%
Cisco Systems Inc (NasdaqGS: CSCO - news) . (CSCO) $25.87 +1.81%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $26.38 +1.74%
General Electric Co. (GE) $23.94 +1.70%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $82.70 +1.39%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Randgold Resources Ltd. Ads (GOLD) $67.88 +11.83%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $134.92 +7.87%
F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $76.09 +5.75%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NasdaqGS: REGN - news) . (REGN) $247.87 +4.72%
Equinix Inc (NasdaqGS: EQIX - news) . (EQIX) $199.51 +4.54%
Baidu Inc (NasdaqGS: BIDU - news) . (BIDU) $97.08 +3.91%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $84.70 +3.75%
PACCAR Inc (NasdaqGS: PCAR - news) . (PCAR) $56.82 +3.74%
Linear Technology Corp. (LLTC) $39.50 +3.65%
Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) $44.46 +3.61%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class A (NWSA) $15.13 -1.69%
Nuance Communications Inc (NasdaqGS: NUAN - news) . (NUAN) $18.98 -0.52%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $67.02 -0.31%
Expedia Inc (NasdaqGS: EXPE - news) . (EXPE) $63.08 -0.22%
Dollar Tree Inc (NasdaqGS: DLTR - news) (DLTR) $54.17 -0.22%
BC
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-close-dow-p-record-081000027.html
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David Murphy has been tapped as the new president of Team Detroit, Ford's marketing agency.
The move is effective Aug. 1.
Team Detroit -- owned by British conglomerate WPP -- is the largest agency of Global Team Ford, which has outlets representing Ford and Lincoln in London, Shanghai, China, Sao Paulo, Brazil and New York.
Murphy joins Team Detroit from WikiBranding, a marketing consultancy he founded in 2007. He also co-founded Barrie D'Rozario Murphy.
Prior to Barrie D'Rozario Murphy, Murphy served as president of Saatchi & Saatchi in Los Angeles, North American managing partner for Young & Rubicam in Irvine, Calif., marketing communications director for Aetna Healthcare and worldwide client service director at Ogilvy & Mather in New York.
Murphy will report to Mark LaNeve, COO of Global Team Ford. LaNeve's influence over Ford's ad strategy has grown since he arrived last August as COO. LaNeve is the former top North American marketer at General Motors and former head of Cadillac. He joined Global Team Ford in April.
"David will be a valuable addition to our team, as we build a global marketing enterprise to align and serve the Ford business and brands," LaNeve said in a statement. "Ford's marketplace success continues to grow around the world, and we are committed to adding top-notch talent and resources to support that growth."
Bradford Wernle contributed to this report.
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Indian IT outsourcer Infosys has reported a 3.7 per cent rise in quarterly net profit, matching estimates, on contract wins and foreign exchange gains, sending shares surging nearly 15 per cent.
Consolidated first quarter net profit for the Nasdaq-listed company rose to 23.74 billion rupees ($A433.64 million) for the three months to June from 22.89 billion rupees a year earlier, it said on Friday.
The company said it was also retaining its outlook for annual revenues, which along with the improved earnings data, saw shares rise as much as 14.96 per cent to a high of 2,905.0 rupees in early trade.
Analysts had expected Infosys to report profit of 23.5 billion rupees, after it last month reappointed its founder Narayana Murthy as executive chairman, who retired two years ago aged 65.
Revenues for the quarter rose 17.2 per cent to 112.67 billion rupees, said the company, whose results kicked off India's quarterly earnings season.
India's second-largest outsourcer by revenues said it retained its revenue outlook in the fiscal year to March 2014 to grow by 6.0-10.0 per cent.
"Despite facing an uncertain macro environment, changing regulatory regime and a volatile currency environment, we have done well in Q1 and are cautiously optimistic about (the) rest of the year," said Infosys chief executive S.D. Shibulal in a statement.
Murthy's return comes at a time when the company is struggling with weak earnings and falling market share to rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services and HCL.
The Bangalore-based Infosys is seeking to reinvent itself with a strategic overhaul to focus on higher value software and consulting services instead of labour-intensive outsourcing services.
Source: http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/aap/8689027/indias-infosys-q1-profits-up-shares-rise
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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) ? Rwanda's next presidential election is still four years away, but a movement is growing there for term limits to be removed so President Paul Kagame can hold power beyond 2017.
Although Kagame has often said he doesn't want to lead Rwanda beyond his current term, some say his position on the matter has become vague as his supporters debate the likely consequences of his exit.
Eleneus Akanga, a Rwandan human rights lawyer based in London, said it is becoming clear Kagame would seize "this opportunity for him to stay on."
Carina Tertsakian of Human Rights Watch said Kagame has become "less categorical" about retiring in 2017.
Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for Kagame, did not respond to requests for comment, but recently Kagame said succession talk diverts attention from development issues.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/movement-grows-rwanda-president-rule-longer-113959575.html
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Though terrorism has been ruled out in the train crash that killed at least 15 in Quebec on Saturday morning, officials are examining whether criminal tampering is to blame. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News
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The body count after an oil train derailed in a Quebec town rose to 20 people Wednesday with 30 others missing now presumed dead, and the railway's chief said a train engineer is "under police control" for the tragedy.
Ed Burkhardt, chairman of Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway, was met by jeers from residents and cries of "murderer" as he spoke at an impromptu news conference in Lac-Megantic on Wednesday in which he said the engineer had been suspended without pay, CBC TV reported.
?It was our employee that was responsible for setting the brakes on the train ? That employee is under investigation and is not working,? Burkhardt said, CBC reported.
Burkhardt said the engineer was originally believed when he said all 11 hand brakes had been applied on the train, but now there are doubts about the worker's story.
?We think that he applied some handbrakes, the problem is that he didn?t apply enough of them,? Burkhardt said, according to CBC.
The engineer parked the train late Friday night, investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada have said, then went to sleep at a nearby hotel.
Paul Chiasson / The Canadian Press via AP
A runaway oil train derailed and exploded in a small Quebec town, killing 20 people and leaving another 30 missing and presumed dead.
A fire was reported on the train later that night by another employee, according to the TSB. After firefighters left the scene the train started to roll downhill, derailed and exploded in a huge fireball Saturday in the town of 6,000 near the Maine border.
The move to suspend the engineer came on a day police reported the confirmed death toll in the tragedy had risen to 20 people after five more bodies were recovered, with another 30 still considered missing but likely dead.
"Now we are standing here with a number of 50 persons that we are considering now as missing and most probably dead in this tragedy," police?spokesman Michel Forget told reporters.
Police are investigating whether the disaster involved foul play or criminal negligence, but Forget deflected questions about potential criminal charges. Forget said any charges were up to Quebec prosecutors.
There have been no arrests to date, he said.
Lac-Megantic is about 160 miles east of Montreal and close to the border with Maine and Vermont.
The engineer, named by Canadian media as Tom Harding, lives on a quiet street in Farnham, Quebec, some 90 minutes west of Lac-Magentic, in a two-story stone and vinyl-siding home, Reuters reported. Nobody answered the door at the house on Wednesday.?
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related:
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This story was originally published on Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:27 PM EDT
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In Egypt, the United States is once again confronted with a tough choice between backing the champions of the status quo ante ? a military-endorsed regime that resembles that of deposed President Hosni Mubarak ? or accepting an Islamic state. As much as anything else, Egyptian economics dictates that the forces for modernism and a genuinely-inclusive democracy are simply too weak and disorganized to offer a viable third option.
After World War II, Egypt pursued what economists call an import-substitution strategy. It sought to develop domestic industries ? through stiff tariffs, mercantilist regulations, subsidies and state ownership ? to push out imports from Europe and America and cultivate exports.
A national flag waves on the barbed wire as army soldiers guard at the Republican Guard building in Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 9.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On Tuesday the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood rejected a new timetable announced by the military-backed interim leadership that sets a fast track for amending the Islamist-drafted constitution and holding new parliamentary and presidential elections by early next year.
Source: Associated Press
As throughout Latin America and significant parts of Asia, this policy resulted in massive government borrowing and collapse in the sovereign debt crisis of the 1980s. The government of Hosni Mubarak instigated notable reforms that engendered a more modern, market-oriented economy. But the Egyptian economy remains hamstrung by considerable state involvement and a bloated, corrupt government sector.
It does boast substantial food processing, textile, metals, petrochemical, tourism and light manufacturing industries. It has also has managed to university-educate large numbers of youth. However, the legacy of protectionism is corruption, self-dealing and nepotism in government and business, and not enough economic prosperity and democratic freedoms to satisfy the rising expectations of young, western looking Egyptians.
The distribution of wealth and income are too uneven and many Egyptians are stuck in near poverty ? not too dissimilar to many oil-dependent states in the region. The Mubarak and Morsi governments placated the poor and middle class with food and fuel subsidies, but those require large government deficits and foreign aid to sustain.
Within the middle class are two opposing and important groups. On the one hand, there are entrepreneurs and mandarins, who often exhibit remarkable thrift and political acuteness, know how to work the corrupt political system, establish businesses, staff the bureaucracy and prosper.
On the other hand, an idealistic and less enfranchised class exists, who were in the streets during the Arab Spring and brought down Mubarak's government. It has high-minded notions of political freedom, but it lacks the political skills to organize the urban workers and rural poor to accomplish an electoral majority. Nor could it run the country in the way that the more pious entrepreneurial and mandarin class has accomplished.
The Muslim Brotherhood tapped into the disenfranchised poor to elect President Morsi, and its fundamentalist Islam poses a threat to both groups. The Saudis shrewdly see all this ? having similar tensions within their equally undemocratic society ? and along with a few other autocrats in the region, they throw their support behind the military coup.
Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi holds some promise as a reformer. A former finance minister, he is a liberal economist and committed to a more open Egyptian economy. However, he will likely prove hesitant to quickly move reforms that substantially lessen the privileges of the self-dealing bureaucrats.
To be sure, the military should step aside and encourage him to try, but his biggest obstacle will be the entrenched bureaucracy. Their only wealth is control of a corrupt system of government regulations and largess that must be dismantled, and as they proved during the Morsi presidency, are quite adept at throwing sand, stones and boulders into the gears of government if provoked.
If el-Beblawi or a similar successor fails at initiating substantial reforms, then the choice is really between a strong military that imposes order and limited democracy, or an Islamic Republic.
To the Obama administration's great discomfort, the advocates of an Islamic state won a majority that elected Mohammed Morsi, but are clearly more hostile to western values and modernism than whatever the military imposes.
That reality crystallizes why President Obama may ultimately have to come down squarely in support of the military, instead of the forces for a genuine democracy.
Peter Morici is professor of international business at the University of Maryland.
WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR Letters to the Editor: E-mail to letters@ocregister.com. Please provide your name, city and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published). Letters of about 200 words or videos of 30-seconds each will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity.
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/government-516350-military-morsi.html
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Just about every NBA team would like Dwight Howard.
Only the Houston Rockets could get him, and on Wednesday some of his other suitors either announced their backup plans or were still working on them.
Paul Millsap is headed to Atlanta. The Dallas Mavericks are considering Andrew Bynum. The Golden State Warriors have acquired Andre Iguodala.
The Los Angeles Clippers never had to look beyond their top target, with Chris Paul committing to stay on the first day of free agency. They also added Darren Collison, Jared Dudley and J.J. Redick to a team that won the Pacific Division last season, surpassing the Lakers as the best team in Los Angeles.
It's hard to see that changing after Howard passed on re-signing with the Lakers and instead opted for the Rockets in a deal that still hadn't become official as of Wednesday night.
That was the first day transactions could be completed and contacts signed following the completion of the NBA's moratorium period. The Rockets couldn't wait to talk about their All-Star center, getting fined $150,000 by the league on Tuesday for premature comments about Howard on TV and in social media.
The rest of the league waited until rules allowed Wednesday.
The Clippers held a press conference for Paul, the three new players and the re-signed Matt Barnes and Ryan Hollins on what Paul called "one of the biggest days in franchise history."
While they were celebrating, Bynum was meeting with Dallas, another team that wanted Howard.
Bynum was part of the four-team trade that sent Howard from Orlando to Los Angeles last summer, but never played a game for Philadelphia because of knee problems. The Cleveland Cavaliers have already offered him a contract, and the Mavericks are weighing the risk.
"At this point, we're having medical discussions and we'll have the opportunity to get with him and his agent and better understand the risks involved and make a good decision for our franchise," said Donnie Nelson, the team's president of basketball operations. "Currently, we still need help and support in our front court and we're going to turn over every stone."
Charlotte got bigger by adding former Utah center Al Jefferson, while his former Jazz teammate Millsap is also bound for the Southeast Division with the Hawks.
Atlanta missed out on Howard, and forward Josh Smith left for a $54 million, four-year deal with Detroit, but the Hawks bounced back by giving Millsap a two-year, $19 million contract.
The Jazz also got involved in the deal that landed Iguodala with the Warriors, who gave him a four-year, $48 million deal last week. Golden State cleared more than $24 million by sending Richard Jefferson, Andris Biedrins and Brandon Rush to the Jazz along with four draft picks and cash. Denver received guard Randy Foye from the Jazz.
Chris Andersen signed a $1.7 million, one-year deal to stay with the Miami Heat, who will have to hold off some stronger challengers next season in the Eastern Conference. Indiana re-signed power forward David West and added C.J. Watson as a backup point guard, while the Chicago Bulls improved their outside shooting by signing Mike Dunleavy.
The New York Knicks hope they did, too, with the acquisition of Andrea Bargnani. However, the former No. 1 overall pick from Italy struggled during an injury-plagued 2012-13 season for the Toronto Raptors, who shipped him to New York for Steve Novak, Quentin Richardson, Marcus Camby and three future draft picks.
The NBA's other big deal of the offseason, the trade sending Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from Boston to Brooklyn, will be completed Friday. The Nets could pay more than $70 million in taxes in the first season of the NBA's harsher penalties for teams who exceed the limit.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/trades-contracts-become-official-around-nba-004120107.html
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NEW YORK ? The FBI has for the first time released materials from its files on former New York Mayor Ed Koch.
The papers posted on an FBI website Tuesday don't offer any bombshells. They focus mostly on an investigation of an alleged plot in 1977 to circulate fake letters that tried to paint then-Congressman Koch as a racist.
A summary of an FBI interview says a suspect in the case denied any involvement. But he also told agents he hated Koch and would beat him up if he got the chance.
Koch served three terms as mayor from 1978 to 1989. He won a national reputation with his feisty style and his trademark question, "How'm I doing?"
He died earlier this year at age 88.
Source: http://www.startribune.com/politics/214798531.html
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