Saturday, June 29, 2013

Mitchell 2012 Ford F-250 Used Truck near Sioux Falls, SD Brookings, SD Vern Eide Ford Lincoln for $

  • F4902
  • 6.7L V8, Diesel
  • 1FT7W2BT2CEC83122
  • Automatic 6-Speed
  • 3,854 mi.
  • 4WD Truck (4 Door Crew Cab)

?

  • Convenience

    • Power steering
    • Tilt and telescopic steering wheel
    • Clock - In-radio display
    • External temperature display
    • Tachometer
  • Exterior

    • Trailer hitch
    • Engine hour meter
    • Pickup Bed Type - Regular
    • Intermittent window wipers
    • Privacy/tinted glass
  • Interior

  • Safety

    • 4-wheel ABS brakes
    • Head airbags - Curtain 1st and 2nd row
    • Passenger Airbag
    • Stability control - Stability control with anti-roll
    • Traction control - ABS and driveline
  • Technical

    • 4WD Type - Part-time
    • 4 Doors
    • Four-wheel drive
    • Automatic Transmission
    • Transmission hill holder

?

Contact Us at (800) 778-0215

EPA mileage estimates are for newly manufactured vehicles only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.

Before purchasing this vehicle, it is your responsibility to address any and all differences between information on this website and the actual vehicle specifications and/or any warranties offered prior to the sale of this vehicle. Vehicle data on this website is compiled from publicly available sources believed by the publisher to be reliable. Vehicle data is subject to change without notice. The publisher assumes no responsibility for errors and/or omissions in this data the compilation of this data and makes no representations express or implied to any actual or prospective purchaser of the vehicle as to the condition of the vehicle, vehicle specifications, ownership, vehicle history, equipment/accessories, price or warranties. 2012 Ford near Sioux Falls, SD 2012 Ford Brookings, SD

Source: http://www.verneideford.com/2012-Ford-F-250-Mitchell/vd/15555147

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Friday, June 28, 2013

What Paula Deen could teach the Supreme Court (Washington Post)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315737318?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Reusable e-Ink Luggage Tags Improve the Chances Of Your Bag Arriving

Reusable e-Ink Luggage Tags Improve the Chances Of Your Bag Arriving

Outside of the fear of flying, the most anxious part of traveling around the world is hoping your bags get to the same destination as you do. The paper tags in use today work, but if they get accidentally torn off your luggage, who knows where it might end up. So starting next month, British Airways will begin testing a brilliant re-usable luggage tag featuring an e-ink display that can be reprogrammed again and again using your smartphone.

Created by a British design shop called Designworks, once you've checked in for a flight the tags will be easily updatable to reflect your current destination, presumably using a low-power wireless NFC connection to your phone. The barcodes on the new e-ink tags can be scanned by existing luggage sorting equipment too, and if they're a success, the reusable tags could be further enhanced with more wireless options making it even easier for airports, and you, to keep track of where your bags are. [Designworks via Engadget]

Reusable e-Ink Luggage Tags Improve the Chances Of Your Bag Arriving

Source: http://gizmodo.com/reusable-e-ink-luggage-tags-improve-the-chances-of-your-596337769

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GOP House leader calls Senate immigration bill a 'pipe dream' (CNN)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315645441?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Girl doing well after second lung transplant

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl who underwent a double-lung transplant amid a national debate over the organ allocation process has undergone a second transplant after the first failed and is now taking some breaths on her own, the girl's parents said Friday.

Sarah Murnaghan's parents said in an email update that the first set of lungs failed after the June 12 transplant at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Sarah was placed on machines. She received a second set of lungs on June 15.

Sarah initially received lungs from an adult donor after her parents sued over national rules that place children behind adolescents and adults on the list for adult lungs.

The girl's mother, Janet Murnaghan, said Sarah's condition began to "spiral out of control" following the first surgery. A second set of lungs was found and were transplanted though they were infected with pneumonia, making the surgery extra risky.

Her family said the second transplant was a success and Sarah has taken a few breaths on her own.

"Her doctors continue to wean her from her ventilator, her last two chest tubes were removed today we are taking steps to prepare her for extubation again," her parents said. "We're not out of the woods, but Sarah's health is trending in the right direction."

It was not clear if the second set of lungs were from an adult or juvenile donor.

The Newtown Square girl suffers from severe cystic fibrosis.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pa-girl-doing-well-2nd-lung-transplant-193353953.html

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U.S. boss held hostage now free

BEIJING (AP) ? An American boss detained nearly a week by his company's Chinese workers left the Beijing factory Thursday after he and a labor representative said the two sides had reached agreement in a pay dispute.

Chip Starnes, who said he was "saddened" by the experience, told The Associated Press a deal was reached overnight to pay the scores of workers who had demanded severance packages similar to ones given to laid-off co-workers in a phased-out division, even though the company said the remaining workers weren't being laid off.

The workers at the medical supply plant in Huairou district, on the outskirts of Beijing, said that the company owed them unpaid salary, that they believed the entire factory was shutting down and that they saw equipment being packed and itemized for shipping to India.

Starnes said the workers' demands were unjustified. Neither he nor district labor official Chu Lixiang gave details of the agreed compensation. Chu said all the workers would be terminated, although Starnes said some would be rehired later.

"It has been resolved to each side's satisfaction," Chu told reporters at the plant. She said they had been sorting out paperwork until 5 a.m. and that 97 workers had signed settlement agreements.

Starnes, a co-owner of Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, had quietly departed the factory grounds by the time Chu spoke, returning to his hotel in Beijing.

"Yes!! Out and back at hotel," Starnes wrote in a text message. "Showered.. 9 pounds lost during the ordeal!!!!!!"

Police in Huairou district had made no moves to halt the labor action but guarded the plant and said they were guaranteeing Starnes' safety while local labor officials brokered negotiations.

It is not rare in China for managers to be held by workers demanding back pay or other benefits, often from their Chinese owners. Police are reluctant to intervene, as they consider it a business dispute, and local officials typically are eager to see the matter resolved in a way least likely to fuel unrest.

The labor action reflected growing uneasiness among workers about their jobs amid China's slowing economic growth and the sense that growing labor costs make the country less attractive for some foreign-owned factories.

About 80 workers started blocking all exits starting last Friday, and Starnes had spoken to reporters in recent days through the barred window of his factory office.

Earlier Thursday, he said in a telephone interview that he had been forced to give in to what he considered unjustified demands. He summed up the past several days as "humiliating, embarrassing." At the beginning of his captivity, workers had deprived him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office, he said.

"We have transferred our funds from the U.S.," he said. "I am basically free to go when the funds hit the account here of the company."

Starnes told the AP he planned to get back to business, and even rehire some of the workers who had been holding him.

He previously said the company had been winding down its plastics division, with plans to move it to Mumbai. When he arrived in Beijing last week to lay off the last 30 people, workers in other divisions started demanding similar severance packages.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-boss-held-china-leaves-plant-payout-044656354.html

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Identify Where Your Leads Coming From Using Call Tracking Utility ...

At its basic definition, call tracking utility tells a business or organization which ad campaign or marketing method is very effective and which is not through tracking the number of the phone calls that are made from a specific ad campaign.

Many businesses and huge companies assume that their marketing campaigns and ads are working and that they generate leads randomly from one to another. So, they kept spending on the same campaigns that they once have had without minding the expenses. What they mistook a lot is that they do not know which ad generates leads.

Many advertisers failed to know if the potential customer is calling because they found a listing on Google, or through receiving a flier in the mail, or clicked through an online banner, or watched on TV or heard over the radio. If you are so keen enough, most of the business websites will add a special poll question at the bottom of their page to inquire about where do you find their article or website.

Call tracking allows businesses to know which form of advertising or campaigns that keep the phone ringing. This helps them stop wasting money on the ads that aren?t so effective and focus on a campaign that is more effective in driving buying customers instead.

call tracking

How Does this Work?

Okay, let?s start with the most basic example. Let?s say you own a medium sized business. You occasionally do direct mail ads, radio commercials, banner ads, you listed your business on an online directory and Google PPC campaign. The call tracking software will assign a unique phone number to each of the campaigns and then the database will show you which ad or phone number generates the phone call and which is not.

You no longer need a tracking code after the call is connected or a coupon to bring into the store. You will simply put a unique phone numbers on each of the marketing pieces and wait which is working.

Who Could Benefit from Call Tracking?

If you pay to advertise elsewhere, especially on more than one platform, you could benefit from using call tracking software. You could waste a lot of revenues allotted for marketing campaigns if you do not use call tracking to identify which platform serves the utmost purpose.

Other Uses of Call Tracking Utility

Aside from the above functions, call tracking software also offers several other tools like call recording, call tagging, lead scoring, and goals and alerts.

Call recording allows you to record every call that comes in through a tracking number. You can also use call recording to gather customer feedback, concerns, problems, track employees customer handling performance and held them accountable, improve sales skills, improve customer service and gather important marketing data.

Call tagging allows you to tag or label calls in accordance to their marketing lead quality. The example is when a customer is calling simply to check the price but is not interested in buying the product, you can tag the call as ?far away from sale? or ?cold lead.?

Lead scoring allows you to score the call on certain criteria you choose to measure the lead quality. For instance, you can use the lead scoring to measure whether or not the caller is going to buy the product within 30 days, or whether they don?t have the money to buy now, or whether they are just hunting around.

Goals and alerts allows you to set goals and alerts for campaign ROI. You can use this tool to set a goal to generate specific amount of income from specific advertising campaign or set a goal to close a number of deals from specific ad campaign. It will also alert you when the deadline of your goals is approaching via text message or email.

With these crucial tools, you will never waste another amount of penny paid on advertising that does not work.

About the author...

Steven Wright ? who has written 1 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Steven Wright is a Marketing Expert at Dial800. His task is to reach out prospective clients through online marketing, and promotes their company's online social presence. He is passionate about virtual phone business, call tracking and the wonders of inbound marketing. You can connect with Steven via Twitter at @Dial800.


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Source: http://www.shoemoney.com/2013/06/26/identify-where-your-leads-coming-from-using-call-tracking-utility

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Rain-Dodging Headlights Can Now Handle Snow

Link Information - Click to View

Rain-Dodging Headlights Can Now Handle Snow
Last year we reported that researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Intel had developed a prototype headlight that could avoid lighting up raindrops, giving a driver a clearer view of the road ahead. That team has now developed a version able to cope with wind-blown snowflakes, too, and tested it during a snowstorm in Pittsburgh.

Source: Technology Review
Posted on: Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013, 8:19am
Views: 17

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128792/Rain_Dodging_Headlights_Can_Now_Handle_Snow

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Cone Health's Cancer Center wins national award | MyFOX8.com

cone health

Cone Health?s Cancer Center has earned the outstanding achievement award from the American College of Surgeon?s Commission on Cancer.

The award recognizes cancer programs that offer quality care to cancer patients.

Cone Health?s Cancer Center was the only one in the Triad to win the award, and just one in four in the state.

?

Source: http://myfox8.com/2013/06/25/cone-healths-cancer-center-wins-national-award/

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English for International Tourism | Blog About ESL

Here are 2 facts for you! Tourism is big business and English is the world?s most widely used language. Because of these two reasons, English for international tourism is a big industry. Although I?m more adept to teaching general English, I have in the past taught English for international tourism. I found it extremely difficult to obtain high quality teaching books and I often resorted to the internet to prepare my lessons. I subsequently found that this was extremely time consuming so I began looking for some decent books online.?

My search for books ultimately led me to Amazon, as is the usual when buying books online. Whilst browsing Amazon, I came across a set of 3 books called ?English for International Tourism?. One was for low-intermediate, one for intermediate and one for high-intermediate, all three were published by Pearson (a well respected publisher of ELT books). I did a little research and found a few teachers that had used them, so I decided to take the plunge and buy a copy for myself. After buying the books, I suggested to the hotel where I was working that they order these books for their in-house English course.

I taught the first two books in the series, pre-intermediate and intermediate. I enjoyed teaching them and my students enjoyed using them too. They weren?t just the same old lessons about ordering food in a restaurant or checking-in to a hotel (although these topics were covered). They included a lot of other topics too, including: customer services, things to do, marketing, air travel and more. Let?s take a closer look at each of the books one by one.

English for International Tourism Pre-Intermediate

This book was written by Iwonna Dubicka and Margaret O?Keeffe. The 144 page book also came with a 44 track CD covering each of the 15 chapters. The chapter?s are very diverse including, city tours, water cities, cruise ships, service and safety, winter holidays and more. Simple grammar tenses are taught as are things like count nouns, passive voice, modal verbs and more. The book contains a wide range of vocabulary that is relevant for each chapter and also covers pronunciation in parts too.

I found the book easy to follow, easy to teach and it had some great practice activities for the students. As always, however, I did need to prepare extra activities for my students where they needed more practice. The book covers speaking, listening, reading and writing alongside each other and the activities are well planned to keep the students interested. The book has chapters about Europe and Asia (Thailand to be specific) and is a good starting point for students that are interested in the tourism industry. This book is great for pre-intermediate students to give them an insight into the world of tourism and the associated English language.

English for International Tourism Intermediate

This book, written by Peter Strutt, follows a similar format to the pre-intermediate edition. This 144 page book has 12 chapters and it covers some topics like, careers, destinations, hotel facilities, dealing with guests, hotel reservations, sight seeing, eating out and more. It recaps on the grammar tenses studied in the first book and again has a wide range of vocabulary that is relevant for the chapter.

This book comes with 2 cds that cover the audio scripts for all the chapters. Once again, this book was well written and I enjoyed teaching it to my students. My students found the book interesting and their English definitely improved.

When teaching an English course for general tourism, you can?t go far wrong with this set of books. They are some of the best I?ve used and I will use them again if I?m asked to teach tourism. As students reach the more advanced levels, I would, however, prepare something more specific to the country that they are working in. But as a general tourism course book, the intermediate book is very good.

English for International Tourism High Intermediate

Although, I?ve never taught this book (I stopped teaching at the company before I finished the course!), I did buy it at the same time as the other 2. This 128 page book was written by Peter Strutt and Miriam Jacob. I?ve not read a lot of the book, but it does have the same clean layout with easy to follow practice activities for the students and a wide range of topics covered in the chapters.

If was going to be teaching English for International Tourism, I would have no hesitation in using these books for intermediate level students. They are a bit too easy for advanced level students, but would provide advanced students with some good practice material.

I did a lot of research before finding these books and they really are some of the best tourism English books that are available.

Categories: Book Reviews, Tourism | Tags: Book Reviews, Learn English, Tourism | Permalink



Source: http://blog.about-esl.com/english-international-tourism/

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

China's Sinopec buys Marathon's Angola oil fields for $1.52 billion

(Reuters) - China's Sinopec Group has agreed to buy Marathon Oil Corp's (MRO.N) Angolan offshore oil and gas field for $1.52 billion, Asia's largest refiner producer said.

Sonangal Sinopec International Ltd, the group's subsidiary, will acquire Houston-based Marathon's 10 percent stake on the Angolan field called Block 31, it said in a statement late on Friday.

China's oil majors has been on an aggressive hunt for overseas assets to bulk up their energy reserves to meet future demand from the world's second-largest economy.

CNPC agreed in March to buy a $4.2-billion stake in a Mozambique offshore natural gas field and on Friday agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in Novatek's (NVTK.MM) $20-billion Yamal-LNG project in northwest Siberia.

The Angolan Block 31 field, operated by BP (BP.L), has estimated proved and probable reserves of 533 million barrels, Sinopec said, adding that it would hold a stake of 15 percent in the block when the transaction was completed.

The $1.52 billion due to be paid by Sinopec is part of a $3-billion asset disposal target set by Marathon in 2011 to shore up its balance sheet to fund further exploration and development projects.

The deal is subject to approval by the Chinese and Angolan governments.

(Corrects name of company in headline and text as Sinopec, not CNPC)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-sinopec-buys-marathons-angola-oil-fields-1-141010174.html

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AK-47 creator to be flown to Moscow for treatment

MOSCOW (AP) ? Russia's Emergencies Ministry says it has sent a medically equipped aircraft to bring the 93-year-old creator of the AK-47 assault rifle to Moscow for treatment.

A spokeswoman for the ministry told Russian state news agencies that doctors will accompany Mikhail Kalashnikov on the flight to Moscow on Sunday from his home in Izhevsk, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to the east of the capital.

Kalashnikov spent two weeks in an Izhevsk cardiology clinic in May.

The AK-47 is the world's most popular firearm with an estimated 100 million spread worldwide. Its name stands for "Avtomat Kalashnikova," or Kalashnikov's automatic, and the year it went into production.

Kalashnikov continued working at least into his 80s as chief designer of Izhmash, the plant in Izhevsk that first built the AK-47.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ak-47-creator-flown-moscow-treatment-122328623.html

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

NSA leaker charged with espionage, theft

This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, in Hong Kong, Sunday, June 9, 2013. The man who told the world about the U.S. government?s gigantic data grab also talked a lot about himself. Mostly through his own words, a picture of Edward Snowden is emerging: fresh-faced computer whiz, high school and Army dropout, independent thinker, trustee of official secrets. And leaker on the lam. (AP Photo/The Guardian) MANDATORY CREDIT

This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, in Hong Kong, Sunday, June 9, 2013. The man who told the world about the U.S. government?s gigantic data grab also talked a lot about himself. Mostly through his own words, a picture of Edward Snowden is emerging: fresh-faced computer whiz, high school and Army dropout, independent thinker, trustee of official secrets. And leaker on the lam. (AP Photo/The Guardian) MANDATORY CREDIT

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Justice Department has charged former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government property in the NSA surveillance case.

Snowden, believed to be holed up in Hong Kong, has admitted providing information to the news media about two highly classified NSA surveillance programs.

A one-page criminal complaint unsealed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., says Snowden engaged in unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information. Both are charges under the Espionage Act. Snowden also is charged with theft of government property. All three crimes carry a maximum 10-year prison penalty.

The federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia where the complaint was filed is headquarters for Snowden's former employer, government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.

The complaint is dated June 14, five days after Snowden's name first surfaced as the leaker of information about the two programs in which the NSA gathered telephone and Internet records to ferret out terror plots.

The complaint could become an integral part of a U.S. government effort to have Snowden extradited from Hong Kong, a process that could turn into a prolonged legal battle. Snowden could contest extradition on grounds of political persecution. In general, the extradition agreement between the U.S. and Hong Kong excepts political offenses from the obligation to turn over a person.

It was unclear late Friday whether the U.S. had made an extradition request. On Saturday, Hong Kong legislators said the Chinese government should make the final decision on whether Snowden should be extradited to the United States.

Outspoken legislator Leung Kwok-hung said Beijing should instruct Hong Kong to protect Snowden from extradition before his case gets dragged through the court system. Leung also urged the people of Hong Kong to "take to the streets to protect Snowden." The charges against Snowden were first reported by The Washington Post.

The Espionage Act arguably is a political offense. The Obama administration has now used the act in seven criminal cases in an unprecedented effort to stem leaks. In one of them, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning acknowledged he sent more than 700,000 battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and other materials to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. His military trial is on-going.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, welcomed the charges against Snowden. "I've always thought this was a treasonous act," he said in a statement. "I hope Hong Kong's government will take him into custody and extradite him to the U.S."

But the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower advocacy organization, said Snowden should be shielded from prosecution by whistle-blower protection laws. "He disclosed information about a secret program that he reasonably believed to be illegal, and his actions alone brought about the long-overdue national debate about the proper balance between privacy and civil liberties, on the one hand, and national security on the other," the group said in a statement.

Michael di Pretoro, a retired 30-year veteran with the FBI who served from 1990 to 1994 as the legal liaison officer at the American consulate in Hong Kong, said "relations between U.S. and Hong Kong law enforcement personnel are historically quite good."

"In my time, I felt the degree of cooperation was outstanding to the extent that I almost felt I was in an FBI field office," said di Pretoro.

The U.S. and Hong Kong have a standing agreement on the surrender of fugitives. However, Snowden's appeal rights could drag out any extradition proceeding.

The success or failure of any extradition proceeding depends on what the suspect is charged with under U.S. law and how it corresponds to Hong Kong law under the treaty. In order for Hong Kong officials to honor the extradition request, they have to have some applicable statute under their law that corresponds with a violation of U.S. law.

In Iceland, a business executive said Friday that a private plane was on standby to transport Snowden from Hong Kong to Iceland, although Iceland's government says it has not received an asylum request from Snowden.

Business executive Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson said he has been in contact with someone representing Snowden and has not spoken to the American himself. Private donations are being collected to pay for the flight, he said.

"There are a number of people that are interested in freedom of speech and recognize the importance of knowing who is spying on us," Sigurvinsson said. "We are people that care about privacy."

Disclosure of the criminal complaint came as President Barack Obama held his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board as his intelligence chief sought ways to help Americans understand more about sweeping government surveillance efforts exposed by Snowden.

The five members of the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board met with Obama for an hour in the White House Situation Room, questioning the president on the two NSA programs that have stoked controversy.

One program collects billions of U.S. phone records. The second gathers audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas, and probably some Americans in the process, who use major providers such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Yahoo.

___

Associated Press writer Jenna Gottlieb in Reykjavik, Iceland, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-22-NSA%20Surveillance/id-05fc58eced5a44dcb635e8cd50e39862

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Keep Your Eyes on the Sky for Tonight's Gigantic Supermoon

Keep Your Eyes on the Sky for Tonight's Gigantic Supermoon

If there's ever a night to let the moon hit your eye like a big pizza pie, it's amore tonight. If you go gaze into the abyss over head this evening, you'll be treated to a supermoon,

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/SFe8aclwz04/keep-your-eyes-on-the-sky-for-tonights-gigantic-superm-543589526

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Bankruptcy judge in Vegas OKs Newton estate deal

FILE - This June 6, 2007 file photo shows singer Wayne Newton at the premiere of "Ocean's Thirteen" at the Palms Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas. A federal bankruptcy judge is poised to sign off Friday June 21, 2013, on a legal settlement will result in Newton moving from his sprawling ?Casa de Shenandoah? property after 45 years. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - This June 6, 2007 file photo shows singer Wayne Newton at the premiere of "Ocean's Thirteen" at the Palms Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas. A federal bankruptcy judge is poised to sign off Friday June 21, 2013, on a legal settlement will result in Newton moving from his sprawling ?Casa de Shenandoah? property after 45 years. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

(AP) ? A federal bankruptcy judge signed off on a sealed agreement that resulted in "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton moving from his sprawling "Casa de Shenandoah" property after 45 years.

Newton family members and attorneys weren't in court Friday while U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Bruce Markell accepted the plan submitted by lawyers for new property owner CSD LLC.

Landowner Lacy Harber says he still plans to open a tourist attraction on the 40-acre estate that Newton named "Casa de Shenandoah."

Harber isn't saying whether the Newtons will be involved.

Harber bought the property in June 2010 for $19.5 million with plans to open a "Graceland West" attraction commemorating the "Danke Schoen" crooner's show biz career.

Newton, his family and their menagerie of exotic animals moved this month to another nearby property.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-21-Wayne%20Newton-Estate/id-95d6631706424cba80edfe33a0ac304b

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Athletes pursue class action lawsuit against NCAA

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Lawyers for former student athletes are seeking to turn their lawsuit against the NCAA over compensation into a class action representing thousands of collegiate competitors.

A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments in Oakland Thursday afternoon. If the lawsuit is turned into class action and the athletes prevail, the NCAA could face billions of dollars in liability.

The lawsuit was initially filed by University of California, Los Angeles basketball player Ed O'Bannon and several other former college athletes in 2009who feel the NCAA is unfairly profiting from their likenesses and images in marketing deals with video games and others.

The NCAA argues many of the athletes receive scholarships in exchange for playing sports and to pay student athletes would ruin amateur athletics.

The judge isn't expected to rule Thursday.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Athletes-pursue-class-action-lawsuit-against-NCAA-4611522.php

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Analysis: Big business the winner in U.S. Supreme Court class action cases

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a series of rulings this year, the U.S. Supreme Court has steered a consistent course against consumers or small businesses that want to bring class action lawsuits against corporate defendants.

Comcast Corp , Whirlpool Corp and Sears Holdings Corp's Sears Roebuck & Co are among the companies that have benefited from the court's rulings in recent months.

American Express Co was the latest to benefit in a ruling on Thursday that marked the last Supreme Court class action ruling before the court's nine-month term ends next week.

Out of a total of seven class action-related cases that the court took action on, only once did a defendant lose. Amgen Inc lost in a case that experts say was limited to certain lawsuits involving shareholder claims against companies.

Class action lawsuits usually are driven by specialist plaintiffs' lawyers, who file claims on behalf of groups of consumers over such issues as defective products and unfair business practices. In the Whirlpool and Sears cases, which are ongoing, the claims concern defective front-loading washing machines.

If successful, lawyers can make millions of dollars in legal fees. Individual plaintiffs generally recover much less, but supporters of the practice say it can be the only way consumers can pursue grievances against deep-pocketed companies.

The rulings over the current term often have shown the court to be divided along ideological lines and on occasion have prompted vociferous dissent from liberal members of the bench.

Justice Elena Kagan, one of the liberals, expressed her concerns about the trend on Thursday when the court ruled on a 5-3 vote in favor of American Express, saying that, in effect, the conservative majority doesn't ever see a class action case it likes.

"To a hammer, everything looks like a nail," she said.

Lawyers representing plaintiffs in class action cases thought Kagan hit the nail on the head.

"I could not have put it better myself," said Deepak Gupta, one of the lawyers representing the small businesses that lost in the American Express case. The court ruled against merchants that challenged the legality of an arbitration clause in a contract with American Express that prevented them from coming together to pursue disputes against the credit card company.

The case rested in large part on to what extent class actions are affected by arbitration agreements that consumers or small businesses sign with a larger corporation. Those agreements can include language preventing claims from being litigated as a class.

In the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the conservative members of the bench, wrote the court's ruling was in line with a 2011 ruling in a case called AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, in which the court said an arbitration agreement prevented consumers from pursuing a class action under state law.

PRO-BUSINESS COURT?

The class action-related rulings are among those that have prompted liberal-leaning groups, including the Alliance for Justice, to claim the court is pro-business.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday after the American Express ruling, Michelle Schwartz, the group's director of justice programs, said the court was "brick-by-brick, building a wall of protection around big corporations."

Kate Comerford Todd, a lawyer with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's litigation arm, contested that view, saying the plaintiffs' lawyers' lobby was merely "trying to protect its lifeblood, which is the class action lawsuit."

Todd and others with ties to corporate defendants said the court's recent decisions had not led to any major shifts in the law.

Andrew Pincus, an attorney at the Mayer Brown law firm in Washington, said that both the American Express case and March's ruling in favor of Comcast, probably the two most high-profile on the list, were "foreshadowed by prior decisions."

In the American Express case, it was the AT&T ruling, and in the Comcast case, it was another 2011 ruling, concerning class action claims against Wal-Mart Stores Inc .

"I have a hard time seeing this term as cataclysmic for real people," he added.

LEGACY OF WAL-MART

The court's class action decisions this year indicate that a majority of the justices are keen to force home the message sent out by the 2011 Wal-Mart v. Dukes case. The ruling was unanimous, although the justices were split 5-4 on some issues.

The court said then that judges must make sure that claims are sufficiently similar before they are certified as class actions.

In that case the court decertified a class action of as many as 1.5 million Wal-Mart female workers who accused the world's largest retailer of bias in pay and promotions.

The ruling put the focus on Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which dictates how mass claims can be certified, meaning the cases can go ahead.

The Comcast decision, on a 5-4 vote in which Scalia wrote the majority opinion, saw the court reaffirm its finding in the Wal-Mart case.

The court repeated a "simple clear message" that the rule for certifying class actions "means what it says," the U.S. Chamber's Todd said.

As in the Comcast case, the liberal justices objected. There was another withering dissenting opinion, authored jointly by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, in which they wrote the court should never have taken up the issue.

"Today the court reaches out to decide a case hardly fit for our consideration," they wrote.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-big-business-winner-u-supreme-court-class-010535060.html

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Friday, June 21, 2013

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VA shows progress on backlog

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Veterans Affairs Department is chipping away at a massive inventory of disability claims for veterans, reducing the number of claims considered backlogged by about 15 percent in recent weeks.

Republican lawmakers are skeptical that the trend will continue, but they've been unable to agree on a solution to a problem that has become a major headache for the Obama administration.

The VA pays disability benefits to veterans who are injured or become ill as a result of their active service. For years, veterans have complained that it takes too long for their claims to be resolved. In late March, more than 633,000 claims, or about 70 percent, were pending longer than 125 days.

But in recent months, the department has taken steps to try to deal with the backlog. The oldest claims in the system were moved to the front of the line and claims processors were required to work at least 20 hours of overtime each month. That has helped to reduce the backlog to just over 531,000, the VA said Thursday.

Among the claims cleared were about 65,000 cases that had been pending for longer than two years. About 2,000 such cases remain.

VA spokesman Josh Taylor said long-term changes, including moving to a new computer system, also have had an impact.

Although the progress appears to have bought the department some time on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are still looking for a long-term solution to the backlog issue.

Rep. Jeff Miller, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Government Affairs, reiterated his calls for an independent commission to examine the root causes of the problem and more direct involvement from President Barack Obama.

"If we can't bring collectively all the people to the table to help resolve it, I don't see a solution out there," Miller said Thursday at an event sponsored by Concerned Veterans for America, a political advocacy group.

But Sen. Richard Burr, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said he views commissions as a tool to provide the VA with more time.

"Time has run out. Now is the time we need to begin to fix it," Burr said in an interview after his speech to the group. "I think if we set up a commission that is not charged with fixing the problem now, then all we've done is say, 'We're going to wait until 2015 to see if this works or not.'"

The backlog in claims exploded in 2010 after the VA expanded the list of illnesses presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange.

That decision pumped about 260,000 previously denied and new claims into the system and required the VA to redirect nearly a third of its disability claims workers to completing just those Agent Orange claims. The overall bottleneck grew exponentially when combined with other factors, such as the latest generation of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan returned from war.

Digging deep into the data, the Center for Investigative Reporting put the problem into greater context. It found that the number of veterans waiting more than a year for their benefits grew from 11,000 in 2009 to 245,000 in December, which also happened to track Obama's tenure in office.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said that some of the major veterans groups, including the Disabled American Veterans and the American Legion, have helped calm the waters on Capitol Hill. Those groups have said the department, led by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, is moving in the right direction.

"We've got to ask ourselves how this problem began," Sanders said. "Until Shinseki came in, until an Obama administration came in, there was no plan to move from an absurd and outdated paper system to a digital system."

Sanders backs legislation that would put new reporting requirements on the VA to help lawmakers more closely track whether the department is meetings its goal to eliminate the claims backlog by 2015. He said he believes the proposal would have bipartisan support. However, it wouldn't establish a commission, as favored by Republicans in the House.

Sanders said he believes the VA's progress is real, and that a commission would only complicate the job of VA administrators.

"Instead of doing the work they have to do, they're going to be reporting to a commission," Sanders said. "The key people who are supposed to be transforming the system are now going to meetings, answering questions and filling out forms instead of doing the job they're supposed to be doing."

But Miller said he's not convinced the problem is solved. Even if the numbers are showing progress, he said, it's a long way from ending the backlog in 2015, as Shinseki has promised.

Miller said the goal won't be met without a commitment from Obama and a conscious effort to look outside the government for help. He said the commission would bring in that perspective and generate an honest assessment about VA's capabilities.

Burr acknowledged that he's not sure what more Congress could do to help the VA attack the backlog, but he said the VA needed to spell out exactly what it needs.

Both Republicans took care not to blame Shinseki directly.

"I clearly don't think the staff has raised to the level of the secretary all the challenges that exist at the VA. If they did, I think the secretary would spend the majority of his time in Washington and not flying around the country looking at clinics," Burr said.

The organization that played host to the forum Thursday, Concerned Veterans for America, has called for Shinseki's resignation. The group's CEO, Pete Hegseth, didn't back off that call, saying it was a matter of accountability. But the organization is clearly in the minority. One of the groups at the event, AMVETS, warned earlier this week in an op-ed that "Shinseki's critics would eat their words."

One of Shinseki's predecessors, former VA Secretary Anthony Principi, said he believes calling for Shinseki's resignation was like seeking to fire a lighthouse keeper because the fog is so thick no one can see the light. He said too many veterans are qualifying for benefits even if it's not clear their illnesses or injuries are related to their active service.

"When everyone is first priority, no one is," Principi said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/va-shows-progress-backlog-200638941.html

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In northern Iraqi city, al-Qaida gathers strength

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Al-Qaida's Iraq arm is gathering strength in the restive northern city of Mosul, ramping up its fundraising through gangland-style shakedowns and feeding off anti-government anger as it increasingly carries out attacks with impunity, according to residents and officials.

It is a disturbing development for Iraq's third-largest city, one of the country's main gateways to Syria, as al-Qaida in Iraq makes a push to establish itself as a dominant force among the rebels fighting to topple the Syrian regime.

The show of force comes as Mosul residents vote in local elections that have been marred by intimidation by militants, as in the past. Al-Qaida's muscle-flexing is evident in dollar terms too, with one Iraqi official estimating that militants are netting more than $1 million a month in the city through criminal business enterprises.

Mosul and the surrounding countryside have emerged as major flashpoints in a wave of bloodshed that has killed nearly 2,000 Iraqis since the start of April ? the country's deadliest outbreak of violence in five years. Gunbattles have broken out between militants and security forces, and several candidates have been assassinated.

Just since the start of last week, attackers in and around the city have unleashed a rapid-fire wave of five car bombs, tried to assassinate the provincial governor and killed another local politician and four other people in a suicide bombing.

Other Sunni militant groups, including Ansar al-Islam and the Army of the Men of the Naqshabandi Order, are also active in Ninevah. Mosul is the capital of the Sunni-dominated province.

Al-Qaida's rise is particularly worrying because it is thought to be behind the bulk of the bombings across Iraq and because it is trying to assert itself as a player in neighboring Syria's civil war. The head of al-Qaida's Iraq arm last week defied the terror network's central command by insisting that his unit would continue to lay claim to al-Qaida operations in Syria, too.

"We're definitely concerned about it," said a U.S. diplomat about the deteriorating security situation in Mosul. The diplomat, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record, said al-Qaida's Iraq arm sees an opportunity to try to build support in the area and is "out blowing things up to show that the government can't protect and serve the people."

Voters in Ninevah and in neighboring Anbar province, another predominantly Sunni area bordering Syria, cast ballots for provincial council members Thursday. Iraqis elsewhere went to the polls in April, but the Baghdad government postponed voting in Ninevah and Anbar, citing security concerns.

Al-Qaida's growing strength in Mosul is painfully clear to businessman Safwan al-Moussili. Traders like him say they are once again facing demands from militants to pay protection money or face grave consequences. Merchants say that practice had largely disappeared by the time American troops left in December 2011.

"They tell us: 'Pay this amount.' And if it's higher than before, they say something like: 'You recently went to China and you imported these materials and you made such and such profits,'" he said. "It seems they know everything about us."

Small-scale shop owners, goldsmiths, supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies are all being hit up for money these days.

Al-Moussili and his fellow businessmen feel they have little choice but to pay up. About two months ago, he recalls, one businessman refused to pay, and insurgents planted a bomb inside his shop that killed the man.

"That forced everybody to pay, because we don't see the security forces doing anything to end this situation," he said.

A Mosul food wholesaler, who referred to himself only by the nickname Abu Younis out of concern for his security, said he and other traders resumed paying $200-a-month kickbacks to al-Qaida three months ago after finding threatening letters in the market hall where they operate.

Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who closely follows regional security issues, said al-Qaida in Iraq has long generated cash from businesses such as trucking and real estate, and through extortion of large firms such as mobile phone companies.

"If they're extending their extortion back out to local traders, that indicates they've got better street control," he said. "It just shows they're able to operate in the urban neighborhoods and don't see a security force retaliation like they did two years ago. And they don't fear informants identifying them."

Abdul-Rahim al-Shimmari, a member of the Ninevah provincial council, agreed that extortion is making a comeback.

He blamed rising political and sectarian tensions fueled in part by the civil war in nearby Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are trying to topple President Bashar Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Al-Qaida is also enjoying increased sympathy in Mosul because of what al-Shimmari called the central government's "brutal and irresponsible" handling of Sunni protests that have raged for months against the Shiite-led administration in Baghdad.

In March, security forces in Mosul opened fire on Sunni demonstrators demanding the release of a local tribal sheik who had been detained. At least one person was killed.

Human Rights Watch recently urged Iraqi authorities to investigate allegations that federal police executed five people, including a 15-year-old boy, south of Mosul in early May. Residents discovered the bodies more than a week later in the same area where the five were last seen being led away by federal police, according to the rights group.

Maj. Gen. Mahdi al-Gharawi, the federal police 3rd Division commander who was named in the rights group's report, called the allegations baseless. He said the five were no longer in police custody at the time of their deaths. He blamed al-Qaida for killing them in an effort to tarnish the image of the police.

A lack of trust from the people, who fear both the militants and the security forces, is hindering authorities' fight against al-Qaida and other militants, according to Iraqi officials.

"The problem is that nobody in Mosul will come forward and complain" about al-Qaida's increasing abuses, said a senior military intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss operational matters with reporters.

He estimated that al-Qaida is able to pull in between $1 million to $1.5 million from Mosul alone each month ? a considerable amount in Iraq.

"We want to catch these people red-handed, but the local government is not cooperating with the security forces," he complained.

___

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed reporting.

___

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/northern-iraqi-city-al-qaida-gathers-strength-062345092.html

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