FC Sion files criminal complaint against FIFA

updated 3:05 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2011

SION, Switzerland - FC Sion says it has filed a criminal complaint against members of FIFA's executive committee over its threat to suspend Switzerland from world soccer

Sion said on its website Thursday that the threat made on Dec. 17 by soccer's ruling body amounts to unacceptable blackmail and a breach of basic legal rules.

FIFA said it wanted the Swiss national association to discipline Sion within one month over a long-running legal battle.

Sion is contesting its expulsion from the Europa League in September for fielding players signed during a FIFA transfer ban imposed in 2009.

If the suspension takes effect, FC Basel would be prevented from playing Bayern Munich in the Champions League round of 16. The first leg is scheduled Feb. 22.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Lebanon rallying around team

Ali al-Saadi gave Lebanon a 1-0 lead against South Korea and the sectarian chants echoing across Cite Sportive stadium suddenly gave way to a more hopeful cheer.

Off-field woes

Football in 2011 was dominated by events off the field rather than on it.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45817752/ns/sports-soccer/

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The Best Image Caches of the Year [Video]

This is probably one of the most beloved features of Gizmodo: image cache. It's where we put the most beautiful, the most striking, the most most images and videos of the web. Here are the best of 2011. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/DJu-5RG4WzY/the-best-image-caches-of-the-year

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Chile closes Allende case after confirming suicide (AP)

SANTIAGO, Chile ? A judge in Chile has closed the case on the death of President Salvador Allende after an authoritative autopsy confirmed it was suicide.

An international panel of experts convened by Judge Mario Carroza determined that Allende took his own life with an AK-47 while defending the presidential palace in Chile's 1973 coup.

Carroza ruled out the possibility that a soldier or bodyguard fired the fatal shots. He also disproved a range of other myths surrounding Allende's death 38 years ago.

Allende was among 726 people who died or disappeared when Gen. Augusto Pinochet seized power, and whose cases were stuck in the courts since then. Carroza is studying these cases anew under orders from the Supreme Court.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_allende

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The Year In Dirty Energy: Money, Corruption, And Misinformation

It is said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That statement has proven itself true time after time in both politics and business, but I would like to amend that statement slightly: Power corrupts, but money and power corrupt absolutely. This year has been no different. We?ve seen unprecedented amounts of money flowing from the dirty energy industry into the hands of politicians in order to achieve everything on their corporate wish?lists.

From near constant hammering of the Environmental Protection Agency, to getting approval for dirty energy projects, corporate money has corrupted every level of politics this year.

I already covered the extensive efforts of the Koch brothers in a previous post, but they are hardly the only culprits who are attempting to undermine democracy and decency by pouring money into politics. Here are a few other stories of interest that DeSmogBlog has covered over the last 12 months:

The biggest ?non-event? for climate denier dollars this year was the Heartland Institute?s ?Denial-a-palooza??conference:

The Heartland Institute gathered a who?s-who of the global warming denial network together in Chicago in May for the fourth International Conference on Climate Change.

As in years past, the event is expected to receive very little mainstream media coverage. The deniers like to think the reason is some liberal media conspiracy. In reality, the lack of interest stems chiefly from the fact that this denial-a-palooza fest is dripping with oil money and represents a blatant industry effort to greenwash oil and coal while simultaneously attacking the credibility of climate scientists.

Despite the lack of press interest, the show must go on. After all, the Chicago meet-up provided deniers and industry front groups a chance to coordinate their ongoing efforts to smear the reputation of the IPCC, and they can reminisce about the Climategate non-scandal like boys in the schoolyard kicking around a rusty old can.

For insight into the underlying aim of the Chicago denier conference, let us take a look at the funding sources for the sponsoring organizations.

19 of the 65 sponsors (including Heartland itself) have received a total of over $40 million in funding since 1985 from ExxonMobil (funded 13 orgs), and/or Koch Industries family foundations (funded 10 orgs) and/or the Scaife family foundations (funded 10 orgs).

This gathering was just the beginning of the massive astroturf campaigns that the dirty energy industry worked on this year:

The oil industry has put their astroturf and lobbying efforts into overdrive over the last few months, preparing for a bitter fight in the upcoming 2012 presidential election. In addition to their usual work of pushing for increased domestic oil production and the opening of federal lands for oil drilling, the industry is working around the clock to convince lawmakers to sign off on the Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport crude tar sand oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.

ThinkProgress reporter Lee Fang has helped uncover some of the oil industry?s recent astroturf tactics at townhall meetings across the country. But the oil industry isn?t just limiting themselves to townhall meetings ? they have also embraced social media as a means to manipulate public opinion. Rainforest Action Network blog The Understory and Mother Jones are reporting that oil industry insiders are creating fake Twitter accounts to tout the need for the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Chris Mooney offered a great analysis of why these astroturf groups have become so important to the industry, and how effective it can?be:

One obvious goal of astroturfing is to shape public policy, and public opinion, in a manner congenial to corporate interests. And indeed, the outrage over astroturfing in a sense presumes that this activity actually works (or else, why oppose it).

Yet there have been few scientific tests of whether the strategy does indeed move people?in part, presumably, because doing a controlled experiment might be hard to pull off. That?s why I was so intrigued by a new study in the Journal of Business Ethics, which attempts to do just that.

Charles H. Cho of the ESSEC Business School in France, and his colleagues, set up a study in which they created (ironically) fake Astroturf websites related to global warming?as well as fake grassroots websites on the same issue?and tested over 200 college undergraduates on their responses to them. To ensure a strong experimental design, only a few things were varied about these websites?what they claimed about the science, and what they disclosed about their funding sources.

Interestingly, when the results were gathered, it turned out that information about the site?s funding source didn?t have any significant effect on the study participants? views. However, readers of the astroturf sites were much more likely to feel that the science of global warming is uncertain, and to question the phenomenon?s human causation.

One finding was particularly disturbing: People found the Astroturf messages less trustworthy overall, and yet were still influenced by them. The most influenced were those study participants who were the least engaged in the climate issue?and thus, presumably, the most vulnerable to astroturf misinformation.

In cases where astroturfing isn?t effective enough at confusing the public, dirty energy companies like Exxon have attempted to just pay scientists to deny global climate change:

The Carbon Brief (TCB) has a nice analysis on the not-very-startling coincidence that at least nine of the top 10 ?skeptical? ?scientists? who are publishing on climate change have direct links to Exxon.

This is interesting, as well, in that it doesn?t account for the increasing amounts of money being invested invested by funders (such as the Koch brothers) who have been taking a less transparent approach than Exxon in acknowledging their links.

In a second instalment, TCB also took a closer look at both the quality and content of the purported ?900+? science papers identified by the Global Warming Policy Foundation as somehow skeptical of the science of climate change. The news, for the skeptics as for the climate, turns out to be all bad.

Only a small number of the papers actually appeared in reputable publications (eg., 34 in Nature, 33 in Science), and many of those either don?t address the climate question directly or do NOT come to the conclusion that the GWPF attributes.

The industry has even tried to push their agenda in our school systems:

Under fire from outlets like The New York Times, the education publishing behemoth Scholastic (of Clifford the Big Red Dog and Harry Potter fame) pulled an energy curriculum sponsored by the American Coal Foundation, which gave a nice PR sheen to coal without bothering to cover, uh, the whole environmental angle. The curriculum had reportedly already been mailed to 66,000 classrooms by the time it got yanked.

What?s currently seeping into classrooms across the country is far, far worse?more ideological, and more difficult to stop. We?re talking about outright climate denial being fed to students?and accurate climate science teaching being attacked by aggressive Tea Party-style ideologues.

Even with the propaganda taken from the schools, the dirty energy industry has found another way to covertly push their misinformation onto the?public:

There appears to be an increasingly sophisticated and planned effort by conservatives and polluter front groups to use ?persona management? software to pollute social media outlets and website comment forums with auto-generated sockpuppet swarms designed to mislead and misrepresent real people.

Leaked emails from Aaron Barr, CEO of a federal subsidiary for HB Gary, disclose the latest efforts and technology used underhandedly for ?ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise ?real? people to smear enemies and distort the truth.?

This phenomenon was first reported by Happy Rockefeller over at Daily Kos.

ClimateProgress is following this issue, particularly when it comes to the online discussion about climate change, noting that readers joke about pre-programmed ?denier-bots? and ?how the same arguments and phrasings keep cropping up in the comments? section of the many unmoderated news sites on the web.?

Public opinion is one thing, but political positions are another. That?s why American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard made the following admission this?year:

Oil industry lobbyist and president of the American Petroleum Institute (API) Jack Gerard made his industry?s goal clear in a recent interview with Fortune Magazine. Mr. Gerard said he hopes that in the near future there will be an oil lobbyist on the ground in every U.S. Congressional district in order to help his industry flourish, ?so when a policy proposal hits the industry?s bottom line, lawmakers from Seattle to Savannah will hear complaints about it from voters back home.?

And on the big issues of the year, like the Keystone XL Pipeline, the industry sent their dollars directly to the?source:

After applauding the House?s vote to rush a decision on TransCanada Corp?s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a new campaign to boost the controversial project. The Partnership to Fuel America is run out of the U.S. Chamber?s Institute for 21st Century Energy, and seems positioned to be the U.S. Chamber?s main influence channel to drum up support for Keystone XL. Supportive comments aside, it?s also the first time the U.S. Chamber has so publicly and overtly aligned with the Canadian company?s project.

And more:

TransCanada Corp, the company hoping to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, spent $540,000 on lobbying in the third quarter of 2011, according to lobbying disclosure records released this week.

In addition to $390,000 reported by Paul Elliott, TransCanada Pipelines, Ltd's infamous in-house lobbyist, two outside firms lobbied on TransCanada's behalf to promote the Keystone XL pipeline: Bryan Cave LLP, which reported $120,000 in earnings from TransCanda in quarter three; and McKenna, Long & Aldridge, which was paid $30,000 by TransCanada in the same period.

And when they feared that their generous tax breaks could be repealed, the dirty energy industry sent their best lobbyists to the members of the ?super committee?:

As the so-called ?Super Committee? works to figure out how to trim $1.2 trillion from the U.S. government?s federal deficit, the dirty energy industry has their lobbyists working overtime to make sure that their billions of dollars in annual subsidies aren?t among the items on the chopping block.

Not being ones to miss an opportunity, members on the committee have scheduled dozens of personal fundraisers for their campaigns before that deadline hits. And many of the companies who fear that their subsidies could be cut will be in attendance. After all, the lobbyist blitz contains more than 180 former staffers of members of the Super Committee, so access is not an issue, and no introductions will be necessary.

But money doesn?t always come from lobbyists or special interests; sometimes it comes from the most obvious source: The banks. Alternet has put together a fantastic piece detailing the top 20 banks that have helped fund anti-environmental efforts this?year:

A new study by Urgewald, a German environmental organization, establishes a strong link between large multinational banks and the coal industry, one of the biggest contributors to climate change.

The study (.pdf), "Bankrolling Climate Change," identifies the top 20 "climate killer" banks by the amount of financial support they give the coal industry. Number one is JP Morgan Chase, followed by Citi and Bank of America. That's despite lofty rhetoric from these companies about their work to address climate change.

Building a 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant - a typical size - is going to cost over $2 billion. That's not money that utilities usually have just lying around in the corner. Bank financing pays an important role, either through direct lending or banks organizing capital for utilities to pursue these projects. The two most important roles of banks are as providers of corporate loans for the coal industry and as providers of investment banking services, meaning helping the company to sell shares or bonds. In terms of our calculations of the amounts of money in the "climate killer bank" rankings, we didn't differentiate between these roles. We figured it's secondary whether a bank directly gives its own money or plays an organizing role: This is support the banks give to the coal industry.

So whether the money comes from banks, corporations, or lobbyists, the impact that big money has on politicians and policy is undeniable. Until the funds dry up, we?ll never be in short supply of politicians willing to do the dirty work of the dirty energy?industry.

Source: http://www.desmogblog.com/year-dirty-energy-money-corruption-and-misinformation

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Newt Gingrich: Nancy Pelosi Climate Change Ad Is 'Dumbest Thing I've Done In The Last Four Years'

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was pressed again Tuesday on one of the ghosts of his political past, when a notorious advertisement on climate change featuring him alongside then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was brought up on the campaign trail.

"The dumbest thing I've done in the last four years was sit on a couch with Nancy Pelosi," Gingrich said, according to The Hill's Mike O'Brien. "I can't defend it."

In the ad, Gingrich and Pelosi share a seat on a sofa in front of the Capitol and declare that "the country must take action to address climate change."

Gingrich has made similar comments about the spot before, though he has, in the past, been quick to temper his admissions of fault with clarifications about his position on climate change.

In November, Gingrich also claimed the commercial was the "dumbest single thing" he'd done in the past years, but quickly explained that he was against cap-and-trade. He later went on to urge conservatives "to be in the middle of the debate over the environment."

Gingrich also made another concession over the summer, admitting that he regretted making the ad. He followed up, saying that his participation in the ad had been "misconstrued," and that he "was trying to make a point that [Republicans] shouldn't be afraid to debate the left, even on the environment."

Gingrich's primary rivals continue to batter him over the decision, despite his repeated attempts to brush away the imagery of appearing in an ad campaign spearheaded by Al Gore and co-starring a vocal Democrat who was, at the time, preparing to push a cap-and-trade agenda.

On Tuesday, Mitt Romney's press secretary, Andrea Saul, appeared on MSNBC and referred to the ad while slamming Gingrich as a "desperate candidate trying to revive his failing campaign."

Earlier this month, Romney also used the commercial as evidence that Gingrich was an "extraordinarily unreliable leader in the conservative world."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/newt-gingrich-nancy-pelosi_n_1171530.html

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The nations weather (AP)

Weather Underground Forecast for Wednesday, December 28, 2011.

Both East and West Coast will be battling with cold and wet weather Wednesday. In the East, the storm system over the Northeast will continue to lift northward into Canada. Expect some wrap around and lake effect snow showers to continue over the eastern Great Lakes as well as the northern and central Appalachians. Northern New England can expect rain and snow to diminish by midday but cold northwest winds 20 to 30 mph will continue. These winds will likely to drop wind chill values to single digits.

Moving to the West, much needed precipitation finally arrives in the Northwest as a strong Pacific system moves ashore. This system is expected to bring abundant rain to the Pacific Northwest, with heavy snow possible in the Cascades and northern Rockies. Total rainfall is forecast to be 3 to 5 inches along the Washington and Oregon coastal ranges and lower elevations of the Cascades. Precipitation coverage is expected to reach as far south as northwestern California and eastward across the northern Rockies Wednesday.

Around midday, a warm front will reach the northern Plains and bring a mix of snow and freezing rain to northern Dakota. By evening, snowfall is expecte to spread across Dakota and Minnesota and continue through the Upper Midwest into Thursday. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Tuesday have ranged from a morning low of -9 degrees at Grants-Milan, N.M. to a high of 84 degrees at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_on_re_us/us_weatherpage_weather

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Romney's rivals attack in final Iowa caucus push (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Attacking in waves, Mitt Romney's Republican presidential rivals cast the former Massachusetts governor as a less-than-reliable conservative on taxes, gay marriage and more Tuesday in the final, intensifying phase of a costly Iowa caucus campaign.

"I think I'm going to get the nomination if we do our job right," countered Romney, sounding like the front-runner his rivals made him out to be a week before the first major test of the race.

In a measure of the political stakes, the candidates and allied groups have spent more than $12 million on television commercials to air through caucus day next Tuesday. Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and supporting groups account for nearly half the total, according to one estimate.

Most of Romney's rivals preceded him into the state during the day at the end of a holiday lull, seeking support in caucuses that are likely to dispatch one or more of them to a hasty campaign exit.

"My idea of gun control? Use both hands," said Perry, setting out on a bus tour in hopes of resurrecting his once-promising candidacy.

"I've been a conservative all my life," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. He called Romney a "Massachusetts moderate ... who campaigned to the left of Teddy Kennedy."

In Dubuque, the first stop of a bus tour through the state, Gingrich said his own economic proposal for an optional flat-tax as well as the elimination of all capital gains taxes was a more pro-growth approach than Romney's prescription.

In a radio interview, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Romney had "sort of gotten a pass'" when he said in a recent debate he had done all he could as Massachusetts governor to block same-sex marriages in the state.

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota had a bus of her own, and saw herself as the rightful Romney alternative.

"I am the only consistent conservative in the race and the only candidate with the proven leadership and experience to create more American jobs and repair our economy," she wrote in an email seeking donations for her underfunded candidacy.

Bachmann, Perry and Gingrich have all spent time atop the Iowa public opinion polls in recent months, either alone or alongside Romney, only to fall back.

Recent soundings suggest Texas Rep. Ron Paul is Romney's likeliest threat in Iowa. He is due in the state on Wednesday.

A conservative with libertarian leanings, Paul commands strong allegiance from his own supporters but appears to have little potential to expand his appeal and emerge as a serious challenger for the nomination.

Unlike his rivals and most Republican voters, he says the federal government should have no authority to ban abortion.

And Paul was alone among the GOP contenders in a recent debate in saying the United States should not consider preemptive military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, an issue of significant importance to Israel. He warned against jumping the gun, adding, "That's how we got into that useless war in Iraq."

Romney, making his second run for the nomination, has relied on a well-funded and disciplined organization, generally strong debate performances and deep-pocketed allies to keep his balance as others have risen to challenge him and fallen back.

According to one tally of television advertising in the state, the Massachusetts governor and a super PAC run by supporters have spent $3.7 million combined on ads through Jan. 3

The total was exceeded only by a combined $5.5 million for Perry and a super PAC set up by his supporters.

Whatever the outcome, there was a recognition that for some, Iowa might simultaneously be the first and last test of the campaign.

"If I finish dead last way behind the pack I'm going to pack up and go home," Santorum said in a radio interview on WHO in Des Moines. "But I don't think that's going to happen," he added instantly.

Santorum, more than any of the others, has campaigned in Iowa the old fashioned way by doggedly visiting all 99 counties and holding hundreds of town hall meetings.

In Mason City, on a final swing through the state, he, like the others, urged potential caucus-goers to look past the appeal of conservative pretenders.

"The siren song of `this person can win' has been the mantra of a lot of the candidates," he said. "Vote for me because I can win."

In the state where caucuses propelled Obama toward the White House in 2008, the president's campaign organization pointed toward Election Day next Nov. 6.

With offices in eight Iowa cities, officials said Obama's re-election campaign has placed hundreds of thousands of phone calls since April to potential supporters.

___

Associated Press writers Chuck Babington in Des Moines, Tom Beaumont in Mason City, Philip Elliott in Council Bluffs, Shannon McCaffrey in Dubuque and Steve Peoples in New Hampshire contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111227/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Tougher foreign policy vital to Canada: Baird - Montreal Gazette

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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF33t1hsi1Xh7Zbyy_EOb1aK3FRrA&url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/Tougher+foreign+policy+vital+Canada+Baird/5916863/story.html

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City approves tax break for jobs

City approves tax break for jobs
Times-Journal
Fort Payne Mayor Bill Jordan recommended the council approve the city's $18 million 2012 fiscal year budget. Jordan said the budget showed a deficit of $426000 but the city had $500000 due in the form of grant reimbursements. ...

Source: http://ftpayne.waff.com/news/news/65266-city-approves-tax-break-jobs

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Football: Moyes lauds O'Neill impact

Published: 25 Dec 2011 - 14:46:53

Everton coach David Moyes says Martin O'Neill has proved his managerial skills in just three weeks in the Sunderland hotseat.

Former Celtic and Aston Villa boss O'Neill ended 16 months out of the game by succeeding Steve Bruce earlier this month.

Two wins in three games have moved the Black Cats out of the drop zone and Moyes does not think that is a coincidence.

Moyes, whose men face Sunderland on Wearside on Monday, said: "What would you expect Martin to do? You would expect him to come in and make an improvement. He has already done that.

"It is the mark of a really good manager, someone who can come in and make a difference right away."

Moyes, in charge at Goodison Park for a decade, believes O'Neill's recent break from the game has likely been a bonus.

"I think once you have been out of it and you come back, you are full of it.

"No matter what job you are in, if somebody says you can have a break and you don't need to work, when you come back it is great, I am sure.

"It has suited Martin. I am not saying it would suit me or anyone else."

Everton are currently only three points clear of their rivals but have a good record against Sunderland, having not lost in their 13 previous meetings, winning 10 of them.

With the transfer window looming Moyes says his options are limited.

"Agents are ringing up now and some of the names they are putting in are ridiculous - far too much money for players who are well past it or not at the level we expect.

"If we can get someone who can score goals, that is what we need," added Moyes, in recognition that his side have scored just 17 goals in 16 league games.

Sunderland defender Wes Brown meanwhile says the same players who got Sunderland into early-season problems can bring about a resurgence.

Brown scored a late winner at QPR in midweek to lift the Black Cats clear of the drop zone and insists: "We have always had it. The players haven't changed, we have always had it in the team. We managed to get that break on Wednesday night, and hopefully we can carry on from there and have a good Christmas period."

---

Related Everton News

Source: http://www.football.co.uk/everton/football__moyes_lauds_o_neill_impact_rss2003190.shtml

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Dump GoDaddy Day Dec. 29 Declared by Reddit User [VIDEO] (Mashable)

[brightcove video="1347944471001 " /] Reddit user SelfProdigy has declared Dec. 29 Dump GoDaddy Day, following the domain registrar's short-lived public support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Although GoDaddy has announced that it no longer supports SOPA, the site is still facing the backlash from its initial position.

[More from Mashable: iTunes 12 Days of Christmas App Offers Free iPad Downloads [VIDEO]]

SEE ALSO: Stop Online Piracy Act: What You Need to Know [INFOGRAPHIC]

Despite the public reversal in a press release, Dump GoDaddy Day is quickly spreading among the Reddit community.

[More from Mashable: TwitWipe Gives You a Fresh Start by Deleting All Your Tweets [VIDEO]]

The domain registrar reportedly lost 20,000 accounts in a single day following the SOPA outcry, but only time will tell how many accounts they will lose.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20111226/tc_mashable/dump_godaddy_day_dec_29_declared_by_reddit_user_video

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Shelby church serves annual Christmas dinner

SHELBY ? The clatter of utensils and the smell of Christmas dinner filled a Shelby church.

Inside, volunteers wearing red and white Santa caps scurried around tables and filled plates with piping hot food.?

Central United Methodist Church in Uptown Shelby has served a Christmas meal for the community?s hungry since 2007. This year, the volunteers nearly outnumbered the people they served.

?Most of the (volunteers) who are here today have been here before,? said Barbara Schafer, a Central United Methodist Church member.

Schafer said the expected to serve about 50 people Sunday at the church. Nearly 40 people volunteered their time on Christmas Day to serve the annual holiday meal. Many others helped by cooking and preparing food for the meal several days in advance.

People who ate during the Christmas meal also received a bag of toiletries and other necessities. Children received special gifts, too, Schafer said.

?

Food prepared

-Five spiral hams

-Eight large-size containers of macaroni and cheese

-About eight green bean casseroles

-Rolls

-Numerous desserts including pies and cakes

?

What do you like about volunteering?

?We started doing this a couple years ago. It?s a family thing.?

-Christian Mabry, Shelby

?

?It?s Christmas, and God?s love needs to be shared with those less fortunate.?

-Bob Yelton, Shelby

?

?I love doing this. I just like helping people.?

-Virginia Lloyd, Shelby

?

Reach reporter Jordan-Ashley Baker at 704-669-3332.?

Source: http://www.shelbystar.com/news/shelby-60906-serves-annual.html

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FBI shooting range is popular deer hangout

QUANTICO, Va. (AP) ? Call it a playground for Bambi and G-Men, where imaginary criminals are hunted and deer are the spectators.

The 547-acre FBI Academy, where some of the nation's best marksmen fire off more than 1 million bullets every month, happens to be one of the safest places for deer during hunting season.

The property on the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., is home to some of the FBI's most elite forces and training programs as well as a de facto wildlife refuge where deer, fox, wild turkeys, groundhogs and vultures roam fearless and free.

In recent years, a black bear was spotted running across a parking lot, and a groundhog cornered an FBI agent coming out of the cafeteria, hoping to score some human food, FBI spokesman Kurt Crawford said. Turkey vultures are often seen perched atop the 500,000-square-foot national crime lab where the FBI analyzes evidence, including the remains of the former al-Qaida leader in Iraq.

The wild animals are as much a fixture at the academy as the hostage rescue team and criminal profilers.

The most common furry friends on the sprawling campus some 30 miles outside Washington are the deer, a regular at the shooting ranges, driving courses and physical training trails.

On a December afternoon, deer grazed above one of the academy's 16 practice shooting ranges. They stood just 15 feet away from the paper targets. Nearby, shots popped loudly from a Colt M4 Carbine rifle, and the white-tailed deer did not flinch.

"They're pretty immune to the sound," said Sean Boyle, supervisory special agent bomb technician and principal firearms instructor for the Critical Incident Response Group based at the academy. The deer typically graze on top of the berm, about 15 feet away from the targets and rarely go directly in the line of fire. Boyle said he doesn't recall an instance where a deer was shot accidentally.

"It's like they think, 'We've pushed the limit for this far, and all our generations have pushed the limit for this far,'" Boyle said. "They're just so docile around here. They don't know what a gun is."

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries does not keep direct tabs on the deer population at the FBI academy, but a spokeswoman said statewide the deer population has remained about the same over the past decade, partly because of regulated hunting. Licensed deer hunters are allowed on parts of the Marine Corps base but not at the academy where the FBI does not hunt its animals.

At the FBI Academy, the deer have even become part of the training in some of the driving courses, said Tim Moles, the supervisory special agent who oversees the Tactical and Emergency Vehicle Operations Center, where recruits learn to avoid crashing their cars and conduct surveillance without being spotted. The deer are convenient when recruits learn to avoid collisions, Moles said. "There's times when it seems like they're playing chicken with us," Moles said. "We respect them because they can do damage. We'd rather avoid all deer stories in this end of the academy."

For the most part, the deer have stayed out of trouble. Twice, however, deer have eaten freshly-planted pansies at the academy's 9/11 memorial courtyard, Crawford said. Eventually a fence was built to keep the flowers off limits.

Deer have been known to interrupt physical training, too.

"We've had the deer walk across the middle of the track during the 300-meter sprint," said Susann Dreiling, unit chief of the academy's physical training unit.

To become an agent, recruits must pass a physical fitness test. They are scored on how fast they can run and how many push-ups and sit-ups they perform. Sometimes, training will involve running a quarter-mile path along the lake area of the academy, stopping for push-ups, running some more and breaking to box, Dreiling said.

During these exercises, a mother and her fawns are often close by.

"They just stand there and watch as if they're evaluating them," Dreiling said, "just like the instructors are."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-26-FBI%20Academy-Deer/id-f1351187cfca46cf86f6b215eecb18aa

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European Companies Limit Always-On Communications (NewsFactor)

As the holiday vacation arrives, it's good to remember that there once was a time when people didn't get e-mail at all hours of the day or night. Now, Volkswagen has agreed to give German workers a taste of that world.

Following a union agreement, the largest European carmaker will limit work-related e-mails on the BlackBerry smartphones of about 1,200 workers to a half-hour before and a half-hour after the workday for its staff. Mobile devices will still be available for calls by those workers, at any time.

No Longer 'Switch Off'

According to news reports, the agreement only relates to those workers covered by collective bargaining, thus apparently leaving executives to the same always-on schedule. The Trades Union Congress has issued a statement cautioning that Volkswagen's solution may not work in other organizations.

Another German company, Deutsche Telekom, created a Smart Device Policy in 2010 that allows workers to have a communication-free time when they're not at work. At the time, the company said that mobile communication devices have advantages, but they also create conditions where employees can no longer "switch off" their worktime.

Communication overload is also being addressed by other European companies. For example, international IT services company Atos Origin proclaimed an ambition in February to become a "zero e-mail company" within three years. CEO and Chairman Thierry Breton said in a statement that "we are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and encroaching into our personal lives."

'Unsustainable for Business'

Thierry said the volume of work-related e-mail was "unsustainable for business," with managers spending five to 20 hours weekly on e-mails, using 25 percent of their time searching for information, and finding that only about 15 percent of the e-mails received in a day were useful.

He added that his company was "taking action to reverse this trend" of internal e-mail pollution, "just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution." To counter this informational time drain, Breton said that Atos Origin has set up collaboration tools and social community platforms, to track ideas on subjects.

"Businesses need to do more of this," he said, because "e-mail is on the way out as the best way to run a company and do business." The company said that the use of the social media tools has, according to initial feedback, reduced e-mail by 10 percent to 20 percent.

In an interview with the BBC, Breton, who has been the chief executive and chairman of France Telecom and the French minister of economy, finance, and industry, noted that newly graduated young employees were not using e-mail that much anymore, having transitioned to social media. He said using e-mail for external communications with other organizations is still useful, while internal e-mail is used largely as a communication tool, a place to store content, or for other uses beyond e-mail's original intent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111223/bs_nf/81513

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Breast Cancer Patients Face More Imaging Tests Today (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Women with breast cancer undergo many more imaging tests between diagnosis and surgery than they did in the early 1990s, a new study finds.

The tests -- breast ultrasounds, MRIs and mammograms -- help doctors determine the best course of treatment, but add to the hassles and expense of care, the study says.

"The burden to the patient is increasing substantially," said study leader Dr. Richard Bleicher, an associate professor of surgical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. For older patients, especially, coordination of care is needed, he said.

Bleicher, a breast surgeon, evaluated data on more than 67,000 women in the United States diagnosed with breast cancer from 1992 to 2005. His intent was to clock the time and inconvenience involved in multiple imaging appointments.

In 1992, he found that 1 in 20, or under 5 percent of patients, had imaging twice or more during the preoperative period of about 37 days. By 2005, 1 in 5 patients, or nearly 20 percent, had two or more imaging sessions.

"Patients are having a lot more imaging done overall," he said. "I can't tell you whether the imaging was appropriate or not appropriate."

The percentage of patients who had more than one type of imaging on a given day increased more than six-fold, from about 4 percent in 1992 to just over 27 percent in 2005, the study found.

A subgroup of 20 patients had five or more mammogram visits during the pre-op period, he found.

For the study, the researchers used Medicare claims linked to the U.S. National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology End Results data for women with breast cancer. They zeroed in on about 67,750 women over age 65 who had invasive cancer that hadn't spread and who were scheduled for surgery.

Bleicher presented the findings earlier this month at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. He urged his colleagues to consider ways of streamlining the testing, with an eye to improving treatment without raising costs.

The increase in imaging tests does not surprise Dr. Carol Lee, head of the communications committee for the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission.

"Practices have changed," she said. "Standards of care have changed." Since 1992, imaging technology has advanced greatly, she said, noting there are more, and better, options.

One limitation of the study, she said, is that the outcomes are not addressed. "This is not telling the whole story," she said. "What gets lost in the numbers is, what are the possible benefits of this additional imaging?"

"Yes, we are doing more tests," she said. "But we are not doing tests for the sake of doing tests."

Some states have laws that address self-referral, said Shawn Farley, spokesperson for the American College of Radiology. The specifics of the laws vary.

Lee agreed with Bleicher that doctors should strive for better coordination of imaging tests.

If your doctor orders imaging, Bleicher recommends asking why it's needed. You might also ask if the doctor expects more imaging will be needed and if so, whether it's possible to schedule tests together, he said.

The study was supported by the U.S. Public Health Service, the American Cancer Society, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and private donors.

Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

For more on breast cancer imaging, see the American College of Radiology patient information page.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111223/hl_hsn/breastcancerpatientsfacemoreimagingteststoday

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Previously unconnected molecular networks conspire to promote cancer

Thursday, December 22, 2011

An inflammation-promoting protein triggers deactivation of a tumor-suppressor that usually blocks cancer formation via the NOTCH signaling pathway, a team of researchers led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell.

Working in liver cancer cell lines, the team discovered a mechanism by which tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF?) stimulates tumor formation, said senior author Mien-Chie Hung, Ph.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology. Hung also is MD Anderson's vice president for basic research.

"We've discovered cross-talk between the TNF? inflammation and NOTCH signaling pathways, which had been known to separately promote cancer development and growth," Hung said. Liver cancer is one of several cancers, including pancreatic and breast, associated with inflammation.

Their findings have potential implications for a new class of anti-cancer drugs currently in clinical trials. "Pharmaceutical companies are developing NOTCH inhibitors," Hung said. "TNF? now presents a potential resistance mechanism that activates NOTCH signaling in a non-traditional way."

Pathways also unite in colon, lung, prostate cancers

"In addition, co-activation of these two pathways was also observed in colon, lung and prostate cancers, suggesting that the cross-talk between these two pathways may be more generally relevant," Hung said.

However, TNF? also presents an opportunity to personalize therapy, Hung said. The presence of TNF? or a separate protein that it activates called IKK alpha may serve as useful biomarkers to guide treatment.

"If a patient has only NOTCH activated, then the NOTCH inhibitor alone might work. But if TNF? or IKK? are also activated, then the NOTCH inhibitor alone might not work very well and combination therapy would be warranted," Hung said.

"We'll try this in an animal model and then go to clinical trial if it holds up," Hung said.

A path from inflammation to liver cancer

In a series of experiments, Hung and colleagues connected the following molecular cascade:

• TNF?, a proinflammatory cytokine, signals through a cell's membrane, activating IKK?, a protein kinase that regulates other proteins by attaching phosphate groups (one phosphate atom, four oxygen atoms) to them.
• IKK? moves into the cell nucleus, where it phosphorylatesFOXA2, a transcription factor that normally fires up the tumor suppressor NUMB.
• NUMB usually blocks a protein called NICD, the activated portion of NOTCH1 that slips into the cell nucleus to activate genes that convert the normal cell to a malignant one.
• But when FOXA2 is phosphorylated, it does not activate NUMB. With NUMB disabled, NOTCH1 is activated. New understanding, new targets for cancer therapy

In liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) tumors, IKK?, the phosphorylated version of FOXA2 and NOTCH1 are expressed more heavily than in normal liver tissue. Expression of all three is correlated in liver cancer tumors, the team found.

The authors conclude that identifying the link between TNF? and NOTCH1 pathways provides a new starting point for understanding the molecular basis for TNF?-related tumor growth and for identifying new targets for cancer therapy.

Finding ways to inhibit FOXA2 phosphorylation or to activate NUMB would provide new options for treating and perhaps preventing cancer, Hung said.

###

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: http://www.mdanderson.org

Thanks to University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116280/Previously_unconnected_molecular_networks_conspire_to_promote_cancer

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Sony Ericsson LT28at details rumoured, 4.55-inch display and 13MP camera

The largest 2012 Sony Ericsson yet could be on the cards, as a Bluetooth End Product List has apparently revealed that a 4.55-inch display packing LT28at is on the way.

The LT28at, heading to AT&T, will feature the aforementioned screen with 720 x 1280 pixel resolution, as well as a sizable 13 megapixel rear facing camera, with LED flash and a 720p shooter on the front.

Apparantly we?re also looking at s a 1.5GHz dual-core chipset too.

Early thoughts that the? LT28at could be the US version of the Nozomi seem unfounded given that this device is considerably larger.

Here?s hoping more deets emerge at the forthcoming CES event in January.

Xperia Blog

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Source: http://www.pocketpicks.co.uk/index.php/2011/12/22/sony-ericsson-lt28at-details-rumoured-4-55-inch-display-and-13mp-camera/

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Women's Basketball: Mason vs George Washington

To include your events on the Today@Mason Calendar, you can Fill Out the Request Form,
or e-mail gmutoday@gmu.edu. Inquiries about a specific event
should be directed to the event organizer or sponsor.

Women's Basketball: Mason vs George Washington

• December 22, 2011 at 7:00 pm

Patriot Center

Patriot Center Box Office, (703) 993-3000

Web Site

Source: http://today.gmu.edu/57938/

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Swype Beta for Android Updates with Dragon Dictation Built-In, Advanced Word Suggestions [Video]

Android: Swype, one of our favorite Android keyboards, has just updated to include support for the awesome Dragon Dictation speech-to-text engine.

Swype has replaced its voice-to-text button with a Dragon Dictation button, that uses Dragon's advanced transcription program for awesome hands-free texting. It also includes "advanced language modeling", which is a new algorithm that lets it better predict the words you're typing. Instead of just choosing from the popularity of individual words, it looks at what you typed before it and learns over time to pick the best word out of the bunch (for example, choosing "mosh pit" over "mosh pot"). The new version will be rolling out to existing beta users over the course of the next 72 hours. Hit the link to read more.

Swype + Dragon | Swype Forums via Android Police

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/MfObJ_oIMDM/swype-beta-for-android-updates-with-dragon-dictation-built+in-advanced-word-suggestions

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DealFind Launches Its Version Of Groupon Now: ?Everyday Deals?

Toronto-based deal provider Dealfind is on the move, having recently gone mobile, and, as of today, is launching something called "Everyday Deals." The feature is somewhat similar to GrouponNow in that it allows you to find deals you can buy and use right now. But really, the site is more of a deals database, where deals are searchable by location, category and redeemable time.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4dZnfOnKI4Q/

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President Obama: "This is good news, just in time for the holidays" (Washington Bureau)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/178119980?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Pilot told of icing before NJ crash that killed 5

A State Police helicopter lands on the southbound lanes of route 287 in Harding Township, N.J., where a small plane headed for Georgia crashed, raining debris down on the highway and local streets Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. The plane spiraled out of control and lost a section of the aircraft before hitting the wooded median strip, skidding into the roadway and exploding. All five people aboard were killed but no one on the ground was injured. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)

A State Police helicopter lands on the southbound lanes of route 287 in Harding Township, N.J., where a small plane headed for Georgia crashed, raining debris down on the highway and local streets Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. The plane spiraled out of control and lost a section of the aircraft before hitting the wooded median strip, skidding into the roadway and exploding. All five people aboard were killed but no one on the ground was injured. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)

A piece of a small plane hangs from a tree located between Hilltop Circle and James Street near Interstate 287 where the plane crashed forcing the police to close all lanes of the highway to conduct their investigation, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 in Harding Township, N.J. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)

A piece of a small plane that crashed Tuesday morning can be seen on James Street near Interstate 287, Tuesday Dec. 20, 2011 in Harding Township, N.J. Two New York City investment bankers are among the five dead in the small plane crash, which left debris on the highway and local streets, forcing the police to close the highway to conduct their investigation. The FAA says the plane departed Teterboro Airport for DeKalb Peachtree Airport near Atlanta Tuesday when there was a garbled transmission and it disappeared from the radar. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)

A firefighter walks along the northbound lanes of Interstate 287 looking for pieces of a small plane that crashed Tuesday morning, Dec. 20, 2011 on Interstate 287 in Harding, N.J. Two New York City investment bankers are among the five dead in the small plane crash, which left debris on the highway and local streets, forcing the police to close the highway to conduct their investigation. The FAA says the plane departed Teterboro Airport for DeKalb Peachtree Airport near Atlanta Tuesday when there was a garbled transmission and it disappeared from the radar. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)

A piece of debris from a plane that crashed in Morris Township, N.J. lies on the ground Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. The small plane heading for Georgia spiraled out of control and crashed Tuesday morning on a major New York-area highway, hitting a wooded median and scattering wreckage across the road. All five people aboard, including two investment bankers, were killed, but no one on the ground was injured. (AP Photo/The Asbury Park Press, Bob Karp) NO SALES

MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) ? After a normal takeoff and a routine conversation with air traffic controllers about potential icing conditions, a small plane carrying two investment bankers and three others to Georgia headed off into the skies over New Jersey on Tuesday morning.

Minutes later, the high-performance Socata TBM-700 turboprop had spun out of control and crashed in a fireball on a busy highway, killing all five people aboard and narrowly avoiding dozens of cars and trucks speeding by.

Federal investigators were to resume searching the area for wreckage Wednesday morning. The debris was scattered over at least a half-mile, with one section found lodged in a tree a quarter-mile away. The crash closed both sides of busy Interstate 287 for hours on Tuesday.

The New York investment banking firm Greenhill & Co. said two of its managing directors, Jeffrey Buckalew, 45, and Rakesh Chawla, 36, as well as Buckalew's wife and two children, were on the plane. Buckalew was the registered owner of the single-engine plane and had a pilot's license.

National Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday the plane wasn't required to have a black box, which would have recorded flight data, but they said investigators would be searching for other memory devices, including GPS, collision avoidance systems or any device with a recordable chip that might yield more information.

The NTSB didn't say what role icing may have played in the crash. But an audio recording available online of the pilot speaking to air traffic controllers in the minutes before the crash offered some early clues.

The pilot was told to maintain an altitude of 10,000 feet as he headed southwest over northern New Jersey as a controller warned him about the conditions in the clouds above ? specifically accumulations of ice particles known as rime.

"There are reports of moderate rime. ... If it gets worse let me know and when center takes your handoff I'll climb you and maybe get you higher," one controller said.

The pilot responded: "We'll let you know what happens when we get in there. And, yeah, if we could go straight through it, that's no problem for us."

Seconds later, another controller is heard telling a different pilot about reports of severe icing at 14,000 feet.

Ice can form on airplanes when temperatures are near freezing and there is visible moisture, such as clouds or rain. The ice adds weight to an aircraft, and rough accumulations known as rime interrupt the flow of air over wings. In extreme cases, a plane can lose so much lift that it falls out of the sky.

Several eyewitnesses to Tuesday's crash described an out-of-control descent.

Will Keyser, who works in maintenance at the Spring Brook Country Club in Morristown, is used to hearing small planes fly over en route to nearby Morristown Memorial Airport. He was near the 13th hole Tuesday when he heard a loud plane overhead.

"It didn't sound quite right," Keyser said, recalling how he and his co-workers all looked up simultaneously. "We kind of lost it in the clouds, it came out of the clouds on the other side of the course, and it didn't look right, it didn't look like the pilot had control."

Keyser said the plane pitched back and forth, and for a moment he thought it was a stunt pilot.

"It was kind of rolling and making circles ? 'cause I've seen air shows before ? so I thought: 'Oh, OK;' but then he finally did a nosedive and we realized that was completely wrong."

Greenhill & Co. said Buckalew's wife, Corinne, and the couple's two children, Jackson and Meriwether, were traveling with him.

"The firm is in deep mourning over the tragic and untimely death of two of its esteemed colleagues and members of Jeff's family," the company said in a written statement.

A resident at Chawla's Manhattan apartment building remembered him as being constantly on the go, leaving early and getting home late. Arthur Yellin said that Chawla and his family were "wonderful people" and that the banker doted on his three children.

Authorities said a dog aboard the plane also was killed.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Shawn Marsh and Beth DeFalco in Trenton, David Porter in Newark, Christopher Hawley and Cristian Salazar in New York, and Leonard Pallats in Atlanta.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-21-US-Plane-Crash-Highway/id-ad74ccce58a2439aa3ad57f7c737e186

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Fortress Investment says CEO Mudd takes leave of absence (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Daniel Mudd, the embattled former chief executive of mortgage financing company Fannie Mae, is taking a leave of absence from him current job as head of hedge fund Fortress Investment Group (FIG.N), the company said on Wednesday.

Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Mudd and other top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with understating the lenders' exposure to risky subprime mortgages.

Now he has announced plans to step down for the moment and the company tapped a co-founder, Randal Nardone, to take over.

"I have requested a leave of absence from my position as chief executive officer to ensure that any time or attention I need to focus on matters outside of Fortress will not affect the business or operations of the company, Mudd said in a statement.

Mudd, who had been forced out at Fannie Mae, said last week that he would fight the SEC charges, and Fortress said the matter was not having an impact on Fortress's operations.

But its share price, under pressure all year, sank even lower this week as investors worried about his future and outside analysts speculated that Mudd's presence might become a further liability for the company.

In mid-morning trading on Wednesday the shares were 1.2 percent lower at $3.30, leaving them down 41 percent for the year. Rival Och Ziff, another one of the small number of publicly traded hedge funds, has lost more than 47 percent this year.

"The bigger issue facing the firm right now, more so than a departure of Dan Mudd, is the performance issues in the private equity business and the liquid hedge funds," said Campbell Anthony, an analyst at Macquarie. "This isn't a big event in our view because Mudd is not a key man. We would be much more concerned if something were to happen to portfolio managers like Wes Edens or Michael Novogratz or Peter Briger."

"We doubt Mudd leaving will cause any kind of redemptions at an LP level," Anthony added.

Mudd, who came to New York-based Fortress in 2009 with a mandate to develop the company's global growth strategy after co-founder Wes Edens had run the company since its public stock listing in 2007, said it was his choice to step back. He did not say how long he would be gone and the company turned to another co-founder, Nardone, a trained lawyer, to run it.

"We are grateful to Dan for his service and leadership over the past two and a half years and support his decision to take a leave of absence at this point in time," said Nardone in an company statement. "We look forward to Dan`s return in the hope that matters are resolved favorably and expeditiously."

While the move is meant to improve the outlook for Fortress, which oversees some $46 billion in assets, it may raise more questions than it answers, industry experts said.

"With this leave, people will ask the board what was their rationale in bringing Dan Mudd on," said Charles Elson, director of the University of Delaware's Center for Corporate Governance, "And the board will have to explain its thinking," he added.

Given the troubles at Fannie Mae, Elson and others said it was a relevant concern for the hedge fund company's board to look closely at the cloud hanging over Mudd.

"Because someone has a problem at one place doesn't mean they will have one at the next place. But it does put you on notice to be careful in bringing that person on board," Elson said. "It is something to be concerned about."

When Mudd came in he was supposed to free up Edens and the other founders to concentrate more on running the company's hedge fund portfolios, which had been hurt during the global financial crisis.

Now the original team will have to have to take the reins back, several industry analysts said.

"The founders have a major investment in the firm and they want to protect it, so they need to step back in and it would not be reassuring for investors if they did not. That would be expected in any money management firm in a leadership crisis. They need to step in and right the ship, " said Chris Tobe, a principal at Stable Value Consultants and a trustee of the Kentucky state pension fund.

However, those executives have a balancing act to play, said Macquarie analyst Anthony.

"Investors want individual portfolio managers to be focused on their specific businesses. That's why Fortress brought Mudd in, in the first place."

(Reporting By Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston and Katya Wachtel in New York; Editing by Dave Zimmerman and Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/bs_nm/us_fortress_mudd

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'Dancing' winner J.R. Martinez to be a father

J.R. Martinez danced his way to the top on ?Dancing with the Stars? Season 13, claiming the coveted mirrorball trophy alongside professional partner Karina Smirnoff. Now, the Iraq war vet is about to receive an even more precious prize ? a baby!

The 28-year-old actor and girlfriend Diana Gonzalez-Jones are expecting their first child come spring, according to People.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Scenes From The ?Dancing With The Stars? Season 13 Finals

?We found out just last week it?s a girl and we are over the moon,? J.R. told the mag. ?Diana has a little baby bump now and it?s the cutest thing ever. With the holidays coming up, this is the biggest and best gift we could get.?

J.R., who won the hearts of millions of ?DWTS? fans this year with his seemingly unending optimism and triumphant story (he survived an IED explosion in Iraq and subsequently underwent 33 surgeries), said the excitement of becoming a father ?is sinking in,? but admitted he?s overwhelmed by the tremendous joy this year has brought to him and his family.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: ?Dancing? Champion & Soap Star J.R. Martinez Over The Years

?2011 has been full of a lot of surprises and opportunities and ultimately, a lot of blessings,? he said. ?Diana and I were just asking ourselves, ?How is 2012 going to top 2011?? Well, we have our answer!?

In addition to becoming a new daddy, the lovable veteran-turned-actor will serve as Grand Marshal of the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade on January 2.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, J.R. first met Diana when he joined the cast of ?All My Children? in 2008, where she was working as the assistant to the soap?s executive producer.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Celebrity Baby Bumps

?We were friends, and, you know, it was a workplace, so you don?t want to cross the line. I was respectful of that, and for about two years we were great friends,? J.R. told Access Hollywood Live?s Billy Bush and Kit Hoover during a visit to the show last month.

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   2. Child endangerment: TV's hottest new trend?
   3. 'M:I 4' gives Bond a run for his money
   4. 'Dancing' winner J.R. Martinez to be a father
   5. Why Howard Stern is perfect for 'Got Talent'

?Finally, something happened, something clicked, and I just said, ?[Do] you ever look at me differently than just a friend??? he continued, with a shy smile. ?And she kind of paid attention to it, and here we are! It?s great.?

VIEW THE PHOTOS: They Came, They Danced, They Conquered: ?Dancing?s? Mirrorball Winners

Though the relationship was slow to blossom, J.R. is glad he and Diana ? who was frequently seen in the ?Dancing? audience proudly supporting her man ? built their romance on a time-tested foundation.

?I think we did it a great way ? to have a friendship first, and then build on that,? he said.

A rep for J.R. was not immediately available for comment on the happy news when contacted by Access Hollywood on Saturday.

Copyright 2011 by NBC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45708493/ns/today-entertainment/

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