Get Out Of Credit Card Debt

Consumers may not realize that allowing themselves to carry big balances could mean twenty to thirty years in repayments and no relief in sight. To get out of financial binds one needs to set specific rules about using them. The best way to tackle and get out of credit card debts is not to use them at all if possible. Don't authorize increases in limits and only charge up to half or less of the line offered and then put the brakes on so it's possible to get out of credit card debt.

Anyone can run into problems and need financial assistance at one time or another. However, without a plan to attack the problem one may never see the solutions to get out of credit card debt. Adopting a new attitude towards spending and how to get out of financial straits is necessary to seeing results to paying down those balances. If dealing with high interest cards, work towards attaining one that is lower in interest and annual fees and transfer existing balances to the lower one. To get out of credit card debts, tackle one balance at a time if needed, by paying more than the minimum payment until paid off and then start doing the same on the next.

Securing help from a counseling service who can give options to eliminate and get out of credit card debt is often the easiest solution. Access the sites online that offer a minimum payment and interest calculator and put in credit card information in to see what payments will be needed on the debt when only making the minimum payment. Get out of credit card debts by using motivation and determination one day at a time by starting today. "Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also." (2 Corinthians 8:7)

Source: http://www.christianet.com/debtrelief/getoutofcreditcarddebts.htm

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Woman's statement to Jackson jurors prompt inquiry

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A judge questioned two alternate jurors in the civil trial over Michael Jackson's death after a woman approached them and told them not to award the singer's family any money in the case.

Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos and attorneys on the case questioned the alternates, who said the woman approached them during a break Friday afternoon. Both said the woman told them not to award any money in the case against concert promoter AEG Live LLC.

The alternates said they told the woman she couldn't talk to them, but she persisted for several moments before finally leaving them alone. They described the woman but said they did not see her in the courtroom after testimony concluded Friday.

The alternate jurors said their interaction would not affect their judgment about the case. The judge told them to return to court Monday and report to bailiffs or court staffers if they saw the woman again.

Jackson family attorney Brian Panish said the interaction was jury tampering and is a felony.

Katherine Jackson mother is suing AEG Live over her son's death. The company denies wrongdoing.

The case has five alternate jurors remaining after one had to be dismissed because he is moving out of state.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/womans-statement-jackson-jurors-prompt-inquiry-011326428.html

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Biden asks Ecuador president to nix Snowden asylum

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Vice President Joe Biden has asked Ecuador to turn down an asylum request from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, the country's president said Saturday.

Rafael Correa, in a weekly television address, offered little sympathy for the Obama administration's view that Snowden is a criminal who should be swiftly returned to the U.S. At the same time, he vowed to seek American input on any asylum request and suggested Snowden will have to answer for his actions.

The Friday phone call between Correa and Biden ? it's the highest-level conversation between the U.S. and Ecuador to be disclosed since Snowden began seeking asylum ? added to the confusion about Snowden's status. Facing espionage charges in the U.S., Snowden is believed to be holed up in a Moscow airport's transit zone and seeking safe passage to Ecuador, the country seen as likeliest to shelter America's most wanted fugitive.

Julian Assange, founder of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, has been given asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London.

Correa said he had a "friendly and very cordial" conversation with Biden, and told the vice president that Ecuador hadn't sought to be put in the situation of deciding whether to harbor an American justice-dodger. He said Ecuador can't consider the asylum request until Snowden is on Ecuadorean soil.

"The moment that he arrives, if he arrives, the first thing is we'll ask the opinion of the United States, as we did in the Assange case with England," Correa said. "But the decision is ours to make."

White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan confirmed that the two leaders spoke by phone Friday and discussed Snowden, but she wouldn't disclose any details about the conversation.

A staunch critic of the U.S., Correa rebuked the Obama administration for hypocrisy, invoking the case of brothers Roberto and William Isaias, bankers whose extradition from the U.S. Correa said Ecuador has been seeking. "Let's be consistent. Have rules for everyone, because that is a clear double-standard here," he said.

The leftist leader sought to direct attention away from Snowden's actions and back to the U.S. spying secrets he exposed, summoning a theme he's invoked to the delight of his strongest backers since Snowden, a former NSA contractor, revealed the agency's massive Internet and phone surveillance to two newspapers, fleeing all the while from Hong Kong to Moscow in evasion of U.S. authorities.

"The really grave thing is what Snowden has reported," Correa said. "He will have to assume his responsibilities, but the grave thing is his reporting of the biggest massive spy operation in the history of humanity, inside and outside the United States."

Ecuadorean officials have acknowledged its embassy in London issued Snowden a letter of safe passage that calls on other countries to allow him to travel to asylum in Ecuador. But Ecuador's secretary of political management, Betty Tola, said the letter was invalid because it was issued without central government approval in Quito, the capital.

Obama and his aides have tempered their rhetoric about Snowden in recent days after more heated attempts to pressure China and Russia over his extradition raised tensions with those nations, threatening to undercut cooperation with the two major powers on other issues.

But Ecuador has seemed to delight in tweaking the U.S. over the issue, accusing America of human rights violations and blowing off warnings about how the U.S. might respond if Ecuador doesn't cooperate.

After the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on Wednesday threatened an effort to block renewal of Ecuador's tariff benefits on hundreds of millions of dollars in trade, Ecuador preemptively renounced the benefits themselves, claiming the trade deal had become "a new instrument of blackmail."

As for Biden, Correa suggested it wasn't personal. He praised the vice president for being more courteous than "those badly behaved and confused ones in the Senate who threaten our country."

___

Torres reported from Quito, Ecuador.

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/biden-asks-ecuador-president-nix-snowden-asylum-185813953.html

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India begins mass cremation of flood victims as hundreds missing

Indian Army / Handout / EPA

Mass cremations of victims were taking place in India's flood-ravaged state of Uttarakhand even as rescue operations to evacuate stranded people entered their last phase. More than 840 people died in flashfloods and landslides in the mountainous state from June 15 to 16.

By Nita Bhalla, Reuters

NEW DELHI ? India began the mass cremation of bodies recovered after devastating floods in the country's northern Himalayan region, government officials said on Thursday, adding that hundreds of people were still missing.

The floods, triggered by heavier than normal and early monsoon rains, have killed at least 822 people and displaced tens of thousands of inhabitants in Uttarakhand state, a popular destination for Hindu pilgrims due to its shrines and temples.

The disaster has been dubbed a "Himalayan tsunami" by the media due to the torrents of water unleashed in the hilly region, which sent mud and boulders crashing down, burying homes, sweeping away buildings, roads and bridges.

Eighteen bodies were cremated on Wednesday in the temple town of Kedarnath ? one of the worst affected areas ? and at least 40 would be cremated on Thursday, said a government doctor in Guptkashi, some 25 miles from Kedarnath.

Media reports said 600 bodies have been recovered from the site of Kedarnath alone, but government officials could not confirm this.

"Three of our doctors are currently in Kedarnath and they are trying to help identify bodies which have been found in the area," said Sunil Kumar Verma, one of a team of nine doctors from the Uttarakhand health department.

Verma said Kedarnath was only accessible by helicopter.

The disposal of corpses is important to eliminate the risk of contaminating the water supply and outbreaks of diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.

An air force spokesman said helicopters had been dropping items such as wood and clarified butter - essential materials for Hindus to conduct their last rites.

Heavy rains over the last three days have hampered rescue operations by the army and air force who have been evacuating survivors marooned in and around the four temple towns of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri since June 15.

Around 96,500 people have so far been evacuated by land and air, said media reports. Television channels have been broadcasting dramatic pictures of desperate pilgrims scrambling to get aboard helicopters.

Government officials said around 350 people had been reported missing, but added that it was likely that there were many more.

"It's very difficult to know the real figures and the scale of the disaster at the moment as many places are still blocked and we are still struggling to get to all the affected areas," said an official with the National Disaster Management Authority.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Obama clashes with African host over gay rights

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Thursday praised the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage as a "victory for American democracy" but clashed with his African host over gay rights in a sign of how far the movement has to go internationally.

Obama said recognition of gay unions in the United States should cross state lines and that equal rights should be recognized universally. It was his first chance to expand on his thoughts about the ruling, which was issued Wednesday as he flew to Senegal, one of many African countries that outlaw homosexuality.

Senegalese President Macky Sall rebuffed Obama's call for Africans to give gays equal rights under the law.

"We are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality," Sall said, while insisting that the country is "very tolerant" and needs more time to digest the issue without pressure. "This does not mean we are homophobic."

Obama said gay rights didn't come up in their private meeting at the presidential palace, a mansion that looks somewhat similar to the White House. But Obama said he wants to send a message to Africans that while he respects differing personal and religious views on the matter, it's important to have nondiscrimination under the law.

"People should be treated equally, and that's a principle that I think applies universally," he said.

A report released Monday by Amnesty International says 38 African countries criminalize homosexuality. In four of those ? Mauritania, northern Nigeria, southern Somalia and Sudan ? the punishment is death. These laws appear to have broad public support. A June 4 Pew Research Center survey found at least nine of 10 respondents in Senegal, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society.

Papi Nbodj, a 19-year-old student who stood by the road to the presidential palace to see Obama's arrival, said homosexuality is against the religious beliefs of most in Senegal.

"We are in a Muslim country, so we certainly cannot have it here," he said. "And for me it's not OK to have this anywhere in the world."

Sall sought to reassure Obama that gays are not persecuted in Senegal. But under Senegalese law, "an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex" can be punished by up to five years in prison.

Ndeye Kebe, president of a human rights organization that works with homosexuals called Women's Smile, disputed Sall's contention that gays are not discriminated against.

"I know of around a dozen people who are in prison for homosexuality as we speak," she said. "There wasn't any real proof against them, but they were found guilty and they are in prison."

And as recently as February of 2008, police rounded up men suspected of being homosexual after a Senegalese tabloid published photographs of a clandestine gay wedding in a suburb of Dakar. Gays went into hiding or fled to neighboring countries, but they were pushed out of Gambia by the president's threat of decapitation.

As for Wednesday's court ruling, Obama said he's directing his administration to comb through every federal statute to quickly determine the implications of a decision that gave the nation's legally married gay couples equal federal footing with all other married Americans.

He said he wants to make sure that gay couples who deserve benefits under the ruling get them quickly. Obama said he personally believes that gay couples legally married in one state should retain their benefits if they move to another state that doesn't recognize gay marriage.

"I believe at the root of who we are as a people, as Americans, is the basic precept that we are all equal under the law," he said. "We believe in basic fairness. And what I think yesterday's ruling signifies is one more step towards ensuring that those basic principles apply to everybody."

Obama also offered prayers for former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is gravely ill, ahead of Obama's planned visit to his country this weekend. Obama said he was inspired to become political active by Mandela's example in the anti-apartheid movement of being willing to sacrifice his life for a belief in equal treatment.

"I think he's a hero for the world," Obama said. "And if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we'll all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages."

Hundreds awaited Obama behind barricades later at Goree Island on Africa's westernmost point, where Africans were said to be have been shipped off into slavery across the Atlantic Ocean. Obama peered out at the crashing waves through the island's "Door of No Return," at first by himself and later joined by his wife, Michelle, and two daughters. Emerging minutes later, Obama said the site painted a powerful picture of the magnitude of the slave trade as he reflected on the ties many in the U.S. share with the continent.

"For an African-American, an African-American president, to be able to visit this site gives me even greater motivation in terms of human rights around the world," he said.

Obama's focus in Senegal is on the modern-day achievements of the former French colony after half a century of independence. Sall ousted an incumbent who attempted to change the constitution to make it easier for him to be re-elected and pave the way for his son to succeed him. The power grab sparked protests, fueled by hip-hop music and social media, that led to Sall's election.

"Senegal is one of the most stable democracies in Africa and one of the strongest partners that we have in the region," Obama said. "It's moving in the right direction with reforms to deepen democratic institutions."

But such people-powered democratic transitions are not always the story of the African experience. Fighting and human rights abuses limited Obama's options for stops in his first major tour of sub-Saharan Africa since he took office more than four years ago. Obama is avoiding his father's homeland, Kenya, whose president has been charged with war crimes, and Nigeria, the country with the continent's most dominant economy. Nigeria is enveloped in an Islamist insurgency and military crackdown.

Obama's itinerary in Senegal was designed to send a message, purposefully delivered in a French-speaking, Muslim-majority nation, to other Africans in countries that have not made the strides toward democracy that Senegal has. Obama also met with civil society leaders at the Goree Institute and visited the Supreme Court to speak about the importance of an independent judiciary and the rule of law in Africa's development.

___

Associated Press writers Rukmini Callimachi and Robbie Corey-Boulet in Dakar and Julie Pace in Goree Island, Senegal, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-clashes-african-host-over-gay-rights-134627018.html

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Afghanistan Reconstruction Inspector General Report Warns Of Major Waste In Aircraft Purchase

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is spending more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to buy Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft for an Afghan aviation unit that lacks the troops and expertise to operate and maintain the equipment, a government watchdog warned.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report Friday these shortcomings mean the helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft destined for the Afghan Special Mission Wing "could be left sitting on runways in Afghanistan, rather than supporting critical missions, resulting in waste of U.S. funds." The report recommended putting the purchases on hold until the Afghans develop the capacity to support the aircraft.

The findings are sure to reverberate on Capitol Hill, where there is stiff opposition to the purchase of the Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport, the state-run Russian arms exporter that is a top weapons supplier to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Pentagon announced June 17 that Rosoboronexport had been awarded a $554 million contract for 30 Mi-17s to be used by the Special Mission Wing, a move that came just days after the House approved a 2014 defense policy bill that included a prohibition on contracts with the Russian agency. The Senate Armed Services Committee included a similar ban in its version of the bill.

The defense policy bill for 2013 also barred the Pentagon from using funds from that fiscal year for contracts with Rosoboronexport. But the Pentagon said money from the 2012 fiscal year was being used for the Mi-17 acquisition, so the restriction does not apply.

A Defense Department spokesman said there was an "urgent, near-term need" to buy the wing the Mi-17s, a multimission aircraft designed to operate at high altitudes and uniquely suited for the wing.

"Careful consideration of all the information available to the department confirms that it would be in the public interest to procure the Mi-17s needed for the (wing) from Rosoboronexport," Army Lt. Col. Jim Gregory said in a statement.

In addition to the Mi-17s, the Pentagon is spending $218 million on 18 PC-12 cargo aircraft from the Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., to allow the Special Mission Wing to perform counterterrorism and counternarcotics missions, the report said.

The special inspector general is recommending the purchase be suspended until the wing's staffing, recruiting and training problems are resolved. Chief among them is finalizing a memorandum of understanding between the Afghan interior and defense ministries that would give the military control of the wing. But the document remains unsigned due largely to the interior ministry's "resistance to surrendering authority" over the wing, according to the report.

Michael Dumont, the deputy assistant defense secretary for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, said in comments included in the report that delaying the purchase of the aircraft until the agreement was signed "would unacceptably delay our efforts to develop the (wing) into a capable force."

The wing was to have 806 personnel by mid-2015, but as of late January had just 180, according to the report.

Filling out the wing's ranks won't be easy, the report said, due to challenges of finding Afghan recruits who are literate in their own language, competent in English and can pass the strict, 18- to 20-month U.S. vetting process that includes eliminating candidates who have ties to criminal or insurgent activities.

The flow of Afghan trainees from helicopter flight training at Fort Rucker, Ala., to more intense training in the Czech Republic "has been slow and uneven, ranging from a low of two up to eight trainees at a time," according to the special inspector general.

The report blamed a lack of steady funding for the training from the Defense Department, failed background checks for prospective pilots and flight engineers, and the Czech government's requirement that each Afghan trainee have a certificate signed by Afghan authorities.

Compensation, especially for mechanics, is another barrier to recruitment because Afghans with a basic command of English are in high demand and can get higher pay elsewhere, the report said.

Another key shortcoming is the dearth of pilots capable of flying at night, when most counterterrorism missions are conducted. As of late January, only seven of the 47 pilots assigned to the wing were fully mission qualified to fly with night vision goggles, the report said.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/afghanistan-reconstruction-inspector-general_n_3514215.html

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Investigator: No sign progressives mistreated

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Treasury Department watchdog who detailed Internal Revenue Service mistreatment of tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status says he has no evidence the IRS also mishandled progressive groups' applications.

In a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, the inspector general for tax administration, J. Russell George, acknowledged that the term "Progressives" appeared on a list of terms used by IRS screeners from 2010 to 2012 to look for applicants with potential problems that would merit close scrutiny.

But George said there was no evidence the IRS set aside progressive groups' applications because they appeared on that list.

George said his investigators have "multiple sources of information corroborating," including interviews with IRS employees, emails and other documents, that tea party groups' applications were set aside for care examinations.

But he added, "We found no indication in any of these other materials that "Progressives" was a term used to refer cases for scrutiny for political campaign intervention."

George's letter, dated Wednesday, was sent to Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. Levin is among Democrats who have complained that the report George released last month revealing IRS mistreatment of conservative groups unfairly focused on those groups and omitted mention of progressives.

Democrats also have criticized George for not disclosing the inclusion of progressives even though lawmakers asked him about it at hearings.

Levin wrote of "increasing evidence" that George's audit last month "was fundamentally flawed and that your handling of it has failed to meet the necessary test of objectivity and forthrightness."

Some progressive groups seeking tax-exempt status have complained about facing lengthy delays and detailed questions from the IRS.

It is unclear whether progressive groups faced the same extent of mistreatment as conservative organizations. Dozens of them ran into delays exceeding a year, and many received scores of detailed questions that officials have since said were overly intrusive, including demands for information about their donors.

The back-and-forth came as the IRS' acting commission readied for questions from Congress for the first time since revelations that progressives joined the tea party on a list of groups whose applications for tax-exempt status drew extra scrutiny.

Members of the House Ways and Means Committee planned to ask Danny Werfel about the report he issued Monday, six weeks after President Barack Obama named him to head the troubled agency. Werfel wrote that he found mismanagement but no purposeful wrongdoing at the IRS in a report that also pointed to the officials who have been replaced and other changes he has made.

The committee chairman, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Wednesday the report didn't answer key questions Republicans have had about the IRS' screening of conservative groups.

"Who started it? Why was it allowed to go on for so long? Why were conservative groups targeted for their political beliefs?" Camp said.

Democrats seem determined to shift the focus to this week's disclosure that the term "Progressive" was also on the agency's watch lists.

IRS regulations allow tax-exempt social welfare organizations to engage in some political activity but it cannot be their primary mission. The agency must decide whether each applicant's activities meet those vague guidelines.

The IRS has been under withering fire since May 10, when an agency official acknowledged that it had targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt designations for tough examinations. Until then, IRS officials had insisted that conservatives had not been singled out for such treatment.

Some Republicans have suggested that the focus on conservative groups came from the White House or other Obama allies.

There has been no evidence of that so far. Instead, according to investigators and testimony from IRS workers to congressional committees, workers in the agency's Cincinnati office that handled tax-exempt applications developed the lists to help them find groups that merited additional scrutiny.

Obama and members of both parties in Congress have said such targeting is inexcusable. At least five top officials, including former acting Commissioner Steven Miller, have been removed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/investigator-no-sign-progressives-mistreated-132046101.html

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Bonus Quote of the Day (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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British Airways teams up with Designworks for electronic bag tags that nab info from your smartphone

Tired of ripping off those old luggage tags after a trip? Well, those could be a thing of the past if all goes according to plan -- at least when flying British Airways. The airline cooked up an electronic bag tag that looks to discard the paper version with the help of the folks at Designworks. Once passengers have checked in, they simply need to hover a smartphone over the tag to beam (via NFC, we'd surmise) both flight info and the requisite barcode to the tag's display. The idea behind the whole thing isn't only to keep the paper-changing to a minimum, but to also save precious time at the check-in counter. A live trial of the tagging gadget is planned, so we'll soon be able to see if the concept stands up to baggage handlers.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

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Source: Designworks

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Wimbledon 2013 Day 1: Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova Among Players To Watch On Monday

LONDON -- Five things to watch at Wimbledon on Monday, Day 1 of the grass-court Grand Slam tennis tournament:

1. FEDERER, MURRAY, NADAL GET STARTED: Three of the men who comprise what's often referred to as tennis' Big Four are scheduled to play Monday. Seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who won the 2012 title, is up against Romania's Victor Hanescu in the first match of the year on Centre Court. Andy Murray, last year's runner-up, renews his bid to give Britain its first male champion in 77 years by taking on Germany's Benjamin Becker (best known, if at all, for beating Andre Agassi in the American's last professional match, at the 2006 U.S. Open). And Rafael Nadal, twice the champion at Wimbledon, plays his first match at the All England Club since last year's surprising second-round loss, facing Belgium's Steve Darcis. The No. 2-seeded Murray, No. 3 Federer and No. 5 Nadal all wound up on the same half of the draw, which is why they all start on the same day, prompting this wisecrack from No. 1 Novak Djokovic, safely ensconced on the other half: "Well, I think it's going to be a great Monday for tennis."

___

2. SHARAPOVA LETS RACKET DO THE TALKING: Two of the women other than top-seeded Serena Williams given any chance of winning Wimbledon this year are 2004 champion Maria Sharapova and two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka. Sharapova will follow Federer onto Centre Court for a first-round match against 37th-ranked Kristina Mladenovic of France. Sharapova, seeded third, helped add some extra juice to the tournament with a verbal jab in response to comments attributed to Williams in a recent magazine story. Azarenka, seeded second, opens the Court 1 schedule against 106th-ranked Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal, who is making her Wimbledon debut and only has won two main-draw, tour-level matches anywhere.

___

3. YOUNG AMERICANS FACE OFF: There are two matches that both pit a pair of young American women against each other. The most intriguing is 17th-seeded Sloane Stephens (who beat Williams en route to the Australian Open semifinals in January) against 25th-ranked Jamie Hampton (who beat 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova to reach the French Open's fourth round this month). Stephens is 20; Hampton is 23. While their match is last on Court 18, the last match on Court 10 is 70th-ranked Christina McHale against 147th-ranked Alexa Glatch. McHale is 21; Glatch is 23.

___

4. OLD CHAMP IN ACTION: The last man other than Federer (seven titles in the last 10 years), Nadal (two) and Djokovic (one) to win Wimbledon was Lleyton Hewitt in 2002. The former No. 1-ranked Hewitt also won the 2001 U.S. Open, beating Pete Sampras in the final. Hewitt is now 32, and ranked 70th, after a series of injuries derailed his career. But Hewitt knows his way around a grass court: His seven tournament titles on the surface are tied with Boris Becker for the fifth-most in the 45-year Open era and second to Federer's 13 among active men. Hewitt could present some problems on Court 1 for 11th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka.

___

5. NADAL'S NEMESIS AND OTHERS TO KEEP AN EYE ON: With such a full slate scheduled for Monday ? all told, 64 singles matches ? there are plenty of places to find something interesting. The guy who shocked the tennis world a year ago by eliminating Nadal in five sets under Centre Court's closed roof, Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic, will be out on Court 19. John Isner, the 18th-seeded American forever linked to his all-sorts-of-records-breaking 70-68 fifth-set victory over Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, is in action on Court 14. And Mahut ? whose first ATP title came at the age of 31 by beating Wawrinka in the final at Rosmalen, Netherlands, on Saturday ? will be on Court 5.

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/wimbledon-2013-day-1-schedule-federer_n_3489203.html

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Court: Compensation may be due for permit denial

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court says governments that withhold development permits may owe compensation to property owners.

The 5-4 decision came Tuesday in a case involving a 15-acre plot owned by Coy Koontz in the Orlando area. He wanted permits from the local water management district to develop land classified as environmentally sensitive.

Negotiations over the permits failed when the owner would not agree to conditions that included reducing the size of his project and paying for work on nearby government-owned land. Koontz sued, asserting that the agency's conditions were so strict that they amounted to a taking of his property, which the Constitution prohibits without "just compensation."

The Florida Supreme Court ruled for the agency, but the justices overturned that decision and sent the case back.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-compensation-may-due-permit-denial-152136751.html

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High court voids key part of Voting Rights Act

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court says a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act cannot be enforced until Congress comes up with a new way of determining which states and localities require close federal monitoring of elections.

The justices said in 5-4 ruling Tuesday that the law Congress most recently renewed in 2006 relies on 40-year-old data that doesn't reflect racial progress and changes in U.S. society.

The court did not strike down the advance approval requirement of the law that has been used, mainly in the South, to open up polling places to minority voters in the nearly half century since it was first enacted in 1965. But they said lawmakers must update the formula for determining which parts of the country must seek Washington's approval for election changes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-voids-key-part-voting-rights-act-141637132.html

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PFT: Nicks, Cruz no-shows for minicamp physicals

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Bengals cornerback Adam Jones had an eventful day.? After multiple years of staying out of trouble, trouble found Jones in the form of an assault charge against a woman outside a Cincinnati bar.

Jones joined ESPN 1530 by phone after being released from custody to tell his side of the story.

But Jones, based on the interview, apparently wanted to explain himself without being questioned.? He called the surveillance video ?self-explanatory,? and Jones said he was struck with a bottle and was merely ?defending? himself.

?I didn?t draw back and swing and hit her with my right hand,? Jones said.? ?It was just a quick reaction.?

Once the questioning began from host Mo Egger, Jones became reluctant and careful.? Jones didn?t want to talk, for example, about what the woman said before she (based on the video) stuck something in his face.

?I?m not gonna get into each piece by piece,? Jones said.? ?My point was coming on here just to let people know, like, I?m not out acting a fool.? I?m not out drinking, getting drunk.? All I was doing was protecting myself, man.? I wouldn?t like to harm no woman, period.? I have two beautiful little girls and a wife at home [and] my mother.? Most of my family are all women, I don?t even had a dad.? That?s not Adam.? That?s no part.? I?m not into that, and I don?t condone that.? So I don?t want you to try to tweak it and make it sound any other way.? All I was doing was protecting myself and trying to clear my space.?

Eventually, the call dropped after Egger asked if Jones suffered any cuts or marks from being struck ? with the signal failing because of a bad cell or a dead battery or Jones hitting the ?end? button.

Egger then opined that Jones? actions based on the video don?t seem to be justified by the circumstances.? It?s hard to disagree, given that Jones merely needed to step back from a barrier outside the bar, which would have prevented the woman from continuing to do whatever she was doing.? There was no need to strike the woman; at most, Jones should have knocked her arm away while also stepping away.

Moving forward, Jones? best move could be to say nothing more to anyone until the matter is resolved.? Apart from the pending criminal charges, his NFL career could soon be encountering another rough patch, given his history of off-field issues.

And while we truly believe Jones has turned his life around, the best way to avoid problems is to avoid situations in which problems could arise.? Hanging out at bars inevitably puts you in the presence of people who are drunk and who may be inclined to instigate an incident.? Players with an extensive history of charges and suspension aren?t likely to get the benefit of the doubt ? especially when the video evidence isn?t as helpful as the player thinks it is.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/10/neither-nicks-nor-cruz-arrive-for-physicals-monday/related/

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Breast cancer doctor accused of poisoning her lover's coffee | The ...

By Stephen C. Webster
Sunday, June 9, 2013 20:51 EDT

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Houston-based oncologist Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo was charged this week of poisoning her lover by putting a chemical commonly found in antifreeze in his coffee.

Her boyfriend is Dr. George Blumenschein, a fellow cancer specialist who works with Gonzales-Angulo at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He told police that she tried to poison him on the night of Jan. 27, several hours before he checked himself into the hospital suffering from kidney failure.

A criminal complaint obtained by The Houston Chronicle alleges that she slipped the odorless, colorless chemical into his coffee, and when he noticed that it tasted a little sweeter than normal, she urged him to drink up and explained she?d added Splenda sweetener. Then Gonzalez-Angulo allegedly served him a second cup of the laced beverage.

Urine testing later showed Blumenschein was under the effects of ethylene glycol poisoning. Ethylene glycol, a key ingredient in antifreeze, is also used in medical research and would have been present in the labs where both doctors work.

Gonzalez-Angulo denied the allegations through her attorney and is currently free on $50,000 bail.

This video is from CBS Dallas, aired Sunday, June 9, 2013.

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Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/09/breast-cancer-doctor-accused-of-poisoning-her-lovers-coffee/

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Koreas putting off planned talks, South says

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? South Korea says planned talks with North Korea won't happen on Wednesday but there's no immediate word on whether they're being canceled entirely.

The two-day talks were to be the Koreas' first high-level meeting in Seoul in six years and raised hopes of an improvement in ties marked by recent war threats.

But even on the eve of the talks it still wasn't decided who would head each delegation. Seoul wants the top officials responsible for inter-Korean issues to meet. But Pyongyang hasn't said whom it will send.

If Pyongyang sends a lower-level official, Seoul will likely respond in kind, leading to a possibly watered-down meeting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-11-AS-Koreas-Tension/id-b622ecc790d642da8d194d450b26994c

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Mice give new clues to origins of obsessive-compulsive disorder

June 10, 2013 ? Columbia Psychiatry researchers have identified what they think may be a mechanism underlying the development of compulsive behaviors. The finding suggests possible approaches to treating or preventing certain characteristics of OCD.

OCD consists of obsessions, which are recurrent intrusive thoughts, and compulsions, which are repetitive behaviors that patients perform to reduce the severe anxiety associated with the obsessions. The disorder affects 2-3 percent of people worldwide and is an important cause of illness-related disability, according to the World Health Organization.

Using a new technology in a mouse model, the researchers found that repeated stimulation of specific circuits linking the brain's cortex and striatum produces progressive repetitive behavior. By targeting this region, it may be possible to stop abnormal circuit changes before they become pathological behaviors in people at risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The study, which was led by Susanne Ahmari, MD, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia Psychiatry and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, was published in the June 7 issue of Science.

While the obsessions and compulsions that are the hallmarks of OCD are thought to be centered in the cortex, which controls thoughts, and the striatum, which controls movements, little is known about how abnormalities in these brain regions lead to compulsive behaviors in patients.

To simulate the increased activity that takes place in the brains of OCD patients, Dr. Ahmari and her colleagues used a new technology called optogenetics, in which light-activated ion channels are expressed in subsets of neurons in mice, and neural circuits are then selectively activated using light delivered through fiberoptic probes.

"What we found was really surprising," said Dr. Ahmari. "That activation of cortico-striatal circuits did not lead directly to repetitive behaviors in the mice. But if we repeatedly stimulated for multiple days in a row for only five minutes a day, we saw a progressive development of repetitive behaviors -- in this case, repetitive grooming behavior -- that persisted up to two weeks after the stimulation was stopped."

She added, "And not only that, when we treated the mice with fluoxetine, one of the most common medications used for OCD, their behavior went back to normal." The current study, as well as others currently being performed by Dr. Ahmari and her team, may ultimately provide clues for new treatment targets in terms of both novel drug development and direct stimulation techniques, including deep brain stimulation (DBS).

The study was supported by grants from NIMH (K08MH087718; K24 MH091555), the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Scholars Program, the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, the Gray Matters Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Rd5--ZehpAQ/130610095150.htm

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