Sunday, September 30, 2012

Obama, Netanyahu seek to get past Iran differences

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a show of unity on Friday on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, seeking to tone down the acrimony between the two leaders that has become an issue in the final stretch of the U.S. presidential race.

Obama, widely seen as having snubbed Netanyahu by not meeting face to face with him during his U.S. visit, spoke instead by phone to the Israeli prime minister amid signs of movement toward a truce in their war of words over how to confront Tehran.

Netanyahu used his U.N. speech a day earlier to keep pressure on Washington to set a "red line" for Tehran, something Obama has refused to do. But in a softening of his approach, the hawkish Israeli premier signaled that no attack on Iran was imminent before the November 6 U.S. presidential election.

With an eye to the close presidential contest, Netanyahu also fielded a call during his New York visit from Obama's Republican rival, Mitt Romney, who has accused the president of being too hard on a close ally and not tough enough on Iran.

Romney has sought to use Obama's differences with Netanyahu to raise doubts with Jewish-American voters about Obama's commitment to Israel's security.

Obama's aides believe, however, that he has played his cards right with Netanyahu, with whom the president has had a notoriously testy relationship.

Netanyahu's strident complaints about U.S. policy on Iran in mid-September plunged U.S.-Israeli relations into crisis, but also spurred a backlash at home and in the U.S. media for seeming to meddle in American politics.

In recent days, the Israelis have sought to dial down the rhetoric, culminating in Netanyahu's speech to the General Assembly, which was seen as sending a message that Israel would not blindside Washington with a unilateral attack on Iran any time soon.

"The two leaders underscored that they are in full agreement on the shared goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," the White House said in a summary of their 20-minute phone conversation.

The White House said the two agreed to continue their cooperation, but it stopped short of saying Obama had given any ground on his resistance to issuing an ultimatum to Tehran, as Netanyahu has repeatedly demanded.

"I had a very good conversation with President Obama," Netanyahu told Israel television. "Our teams are talking."

An Obama aide went further, saying, "The temperature is lower than it had been."

TONING DOWN DIFFERENCES

Netanyahu dramatically ramped up pressure on Obama earlier this month when he insisted the United States did not have a "moral right" to hold Israel back from taking action against Iran because Washington had not set its own limits on Tehran.

That was followed by word that Obama would not meet Netanyahu during the Israeli leader's visit to address the United Nations. Obama later said pointedly that he would ignore the "noise that's out there" on the Iran issue.

Obama's aides were furious that Netanyahu was trying to put pressure on the president in the midst of the election campaign and refused to budge on the red-line issue, despite the risk of alienating pro-Israel voters in election battleground states like Florida and Ohio.

At the same time, Israeli officials - mindful of the danger of antagonizing the Jewish state's main ally and of poisoning relations with the man who could occupy the White House for another four years - moved into damage-control mode.

Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the United States, flew back to Jerusalem last weekend, during which he urged Netanyahu to tone down public statements that could be construed as interfering in the U.S. election or supporting Romney, according to sources in the Jewish community in Washington.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Chicago and met privately on September 20 with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former close Obama aide, raising speculation that Emanuel might be used as a back-channel conduit to mend ties with the president.

The Israeli desire to defuse the crisis may also have reflected an interpretation of recent U.S. opinion polls showing a widening of Obama's lead over Romney, who has suffered a series of political stumbles.

Romney, speaking to reporters on his campaign plane, said he and Netanyahu agreed Iran must be denied nuclear capabilities but did not agree on specific "red lines" to confront Tehran.

"I do not believe in the final analysis we will have to use military action," Romney said. "I certainly hope we don't have to. I can't take that action off the table."

In his U.N. speech, Netanyahu held up a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb with a fuse and literally drew a red line just below a label reading "final stage," in which Iran would supposedly be 90 percent along the path to having weapons-grade material.

Nevertheless, his warning that Iran would be on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon in less than a year was widely interpreted as some giving breathing space to Obama, who has urged more time for sanctions and diplomacy to work.

By referring to a spring or summer 2013 time frame for Iran to complete the next stage of uranium enrichment, the Israeli leader seemed to dispel fears that Israel might strike Iran before the U.S. election.

Iran denies it is seeking to build nuclear weaponry.

Netanyahu's praise for Obama's stern words for Iran in his own U.N. speech on Tuesday - although it lacked any specific ultimatum - was also seen as a sign that the Israeli leader wanted to quell the unusually public dispute with Washington.

"I think we are moving in a direction where the differences that were there, which were always tactical and not strategic, are in fact being managed at this point," Dennis Ross, Obama's former Middle East adviser, told MSNBC.

Still, White House officials were pleased at avoiding an encounter with Netanyahu, who used an Oval Office meeting in 2011 to lecture Obama on Jewish history. Obama instead kept a lower-than-usual profile at this year's U.N. gathering, making a campaign-style appearance on the popular talk show "The View" and then quickly returning to electioneering.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Jeffrey Heller, Sam Youngman and Ori Lewis; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-netanyahu-seek-past-iran-differences-012537002.html

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A tornado reported Saturday in Port Lavaca, Texas, damaged a store and downed power lines; no injuries reported - Victoria Advocate

A tornado in Port Lavaca damaged a store and downed power lines on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

An employee at the Tractor Supply Co. in the 700 block of state Highway 35 South reported damage in the range of several thousands of dollars after the storm hit the area about 6 p.m.

"Our roof was pretty much ripped off and all our tanks and fencing were thrown over the gate," said John Hunt, a store team member. "We were in the store, and the lights just shut off. We have automatic doors and they swung open like house doors ... and the whole store just rattled."

Hunt said he and the other two employees in the store ran for cover in the bathroom when the front doors swung open, but were almost hit by aisle signs that were torn from the ceiling and went whizzing by.

"One almost took my head off. I was running, and it just flew by," Hunt said. "My heart just stopped."

Port Lavaca Fire Capt. Joe Reyes said the department temporarily patched the roof to keep it from leaking.

He said they also had to patch holes from the old Wal-Mart, which is a vacant building.

Also in Calhoun County were reports of funnel clouds and water spouts, said Ian Blaylock, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Corpus Christi.

"Looking at the radar imagery, they certainly look like tornadoes to us," Blaylock said. "We have the signature appearance of tornadoes on radar. Going off that and the ground reports of funnel clouds, we decided to issue tornado warnings."

Hunt said water spouts were reported over San Antonio Bay and East of Aransas Pass, forcing the National Weather Service to issue a marine weather alert.

No injuries were reported in Calhoun County.

Steve Smart, of the National Weather Service in San Antonio, said there was a report of a possible tornado near Shiner, but the radar could not confirm the event.

Smart said some damage was reported in Lavaca County, including a damaged railroad guard and some downed trees, but no injuries were reported.

No damage was reported in Victoria, but the Victoria Regional Airport did receive record-breaking rain fall for Sept. 29 at 1.92 inches by 8:30 p.m.

The forecast for the Victoria area Sunday is a high temperature in the mid-80's but no rain is expected.




Source: http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2012/sep/29/ch_weather_093012_189739/?news

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Source: http://www.matr.net/article-52056.html

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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Maine Sports Legends inductees include Hackett, Kiah, McNally ...

WATERVILLE, Maine ? Maine Sports Legends will honor 10 individuals as inductees into its Hall of Honors on Sunday, Oct. 7, at the Alfond Youth Center.

The inductees are Charles Lockhart (posthumous), Ralph Sweetser (posthumous), Woodrow ?Woody? Dunphy, Dave Maxcy, Albert F. Hackett, Dennis B. Kiah, Moe McNally, John Osbourne, Bob Bourget and Karol L?Heureaux.

The inductees were chosen by regional committees for their accomplishments and contributions to youth and sports in Maine. Their participation will aid in the Maine Sports Legends fundraising for eight scholar athletes who will each receive $500 awards.

The eight scholar-athletes are: Brooke M. LaBelle, Ashland; Isaac L. LaJoie, Presque Isle; Mary Carmack, John Bapst; Tyler Beardsley, Ellsworth; Hannah Chavis, Lawrence; Taylor James Watson, Maranacook; Jessica MacDonald, Bonny Eagle; and Shawn Grover, Cheverus.

The banquet begins at 12:30 p.m., following a social half hour which begins at noon. Tickets are $35 at reserved tables of eight and can be obtained by calling 622-1539 or by email to PaulMcClay@msn.com.

Sweetser was a member of the 1928 County champion Presque Isle High basketball team and captained the team to two straight EM titles and a state title in 1932. He also competed in track and field and set a state-meet record in the shot put. In his later years he became an outstanding golfer, winning many tournaments locally, statewide and in New Brunswick.

Dunphy, a longtime athlete, principal, educator and coach, graduated from Houlton High and attended Ricker College for two years before transferring to the University of Maine. He was a four-year starter on the varsity baseball team and was captain for the 1955 and 1956 seasons. Elected to the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996, he was an outstanding shortstop, making only two errors in two years at UMaine.

Maxcy, a former high school and college athlete, was a longtime educator, assistant principal and coach before his retirement. He lettered at Scarborough High School in track and field, cross country, swimming and basketball. He was a member of the freshman track team at Bates College, transferring to UMaine his sophomore year, where he lettered in both indoor and outdoor track and field. He coached high school and college teams in Presque Isle and was a teacher at Presque Isle from 1958 to 2006.

Lockhart helped promote athletics in Fort Fairfield and became one of the town?s biggest volunteers and fans. For 37 years, Lockhart was scorekeeper for the Fort Fairfield High School basketball games. A 1938 graduate of Fort Fairfield High School, he participated in cross country skiing, tennis and Alpine skiing. Later in life he was an avid golfer and a member of the Aroostook Valley Country Club. In 2001 the Fort Fairfield Athletic Complex Field was named for him.

Hackett, who was born in Milo and is a graduate of Milo High School and the University of Maine, started working with youngsters in the 1950s when he became recreation director for his hometown. He played baseball all four years at the university and basketball for two. He went on to teach and coach baseball and basketball at Foxcroft Academy and then went on to Schenck High School in East Millinocket, where he served as guidance director and assistant principal before returning to UMaine as assistant director of admissions.

Kiah is a Bangor native who began coaching at Brewer High School even before graduating from the University of Maine. He was an assistant football coach at Brewer in 1970. The John Bapst grad played football and baseball in high school and played football for one year and baseball for four at UMaine. He coached and taught at Foxcroft Academy and Brewer High School and held administrative positions at Hermon High and Brewer until retiring last June.

McNally, a Gardiner native and 1970 Gardiner High grad, has been teaching for 33 years. She played three sports in high school and four in college. She became Gardiner?s field hockey coach in 1979 and her teams went on to compile a record of 384-134-21 with four Eastern Maine titles and two state crowns. She is a founding member of the Maine State Field Hockey Association and also also coached basketball and softball at the high school.

Osbourne, a native of Hull, Yorkshire, England, settled in Waterville in 1957, and became a founder of soccer in the Waterville area. He volunteered to begin league play at the Boys Club in Waterville in the late 1950s and continued into the 1980s. He serves on the Heritage Circle, the Alfond Boys and Girls Club and YMCA of Greater Waterville.

Bourget began his coaching career in 1969 and in 1978 he served as director of recreation for Standish. He later became men?s soccer coach at Saint Joseph College while still serving as a teacher at Bonny Eagle High School, where he also coached boys? basketball, softball, soccer, boys and girls track and field and girls basketball. His soccer teams won more than 300 games and his girls basketball teams made four consecutive tournament appearances.

L?Heureux completed her 31st year as head women?s volleyball coach at UNE this past season. Her teams have won 616 matches and have made an appearance in the postseason tournament in each of the last 10 seasons. Twice during the early 1990s, L?Heureux?s teams qualified for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national tournament. She oversees UNE?s club sports programs.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/28/sports/maine-sports-legends-inductees-include-hackett-kiah-mcnally-dunphy/

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US Postal Service to default on second $5B payment

(AP) ? The U.S. Postal Service, on the brink of default on a second multibillion-dollar payment it can't afford to pay, is sounding a new cautionary note that having squeezed out all the cost savings within its power, the mail agency's viability now lies almost entirely with Congress.

In an interview, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the mail agency will be forced to miss the $5.6 billion payment due to the Treasury on Sunday, its second default in as many months. Congress has left Washington until after the November elections, without approving a postal fix.

For more than a year, the Postal Service has been seeking legislation that would allow it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce its $5 billion annual payment for future retiree health benefits. Since the House failed to act, the post office says it's been seeking to reassure anxious customers that service will not be disrupted, even with cash levels running perilously low.

"Absolutely, we would be profitable right now," Donahoe told The Associated Press, when asked whether congressional delays were to blame for much of the postal losses, expected to reach a record $15 billion this year.

He said the two missed payments totaling $11.1 billion for future retiree health benefits ? payments ordered by Congress in 2006 that no other government agency or business is required to make ? along with similar expenses make up the bulk of the annual loss. The remainder is nearly $3 billion in losses, he said, which would have been offset by savings if the service had been allowed to move to five-day mail delivery.

Donahoe said the post office will hit a low point in cash next month but avert immediate bankruptcy due to a series of retirement incentives, employee reductions and boosts in productivity among remaining staff that saved nearly $2 billion over the past year.

But the post office has few tools left to build its revenue, he said, without either having to pay upfront money it lacks or get approval from postal unions or Congress.

"We've done a lot to reduce cost out of our system," Donahoe said. "The problem now is this: There's nowhere to go."

Postal unions also say Congress is mostly to blame for losses, but disagree that a reduction to five-day delivery is an answer.

"What is needed is for Congress to undo the harm it has done with the prefunding mandate and for the Postal Service to develop a balanced plan moving forward," said Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. He said cutting Saturday delivery would in particular hurt rural residents and the elderly who depend more heavily on the mail for prescription drugs and other goods.

The Postal Service last month failed to pay $5.5 billion, its first default ever on a payment. While it will miss a second payment Sunday, it expects to make a $1.4 billion payment due to the Labor Department on Oct. 15 for workers' compensation. Cash levels are expected to hit a low after that labor payment before rising again due to increased volume from holiday and election mail, including ballots for early voting.

The mail agency said the two payment defaults will not affect day-to-day operations. Post offices will stay open, and suppliers and employees will get paid. Longer term, however, Donahoe has cautioned that a "crisis of confidence" over postal solvency could damage growth.

The post office also remains vulnerable to shifts in the economy that could suppress mail volume. Both FedEx Corp. and UPS recently have cut their earnings forecasts, citing in part slow global economic growth.

"The key thing is Congress must act during the lame-duck session and get this whole thing behind us," said Donahoe, referring to the few weeks lawmakers will be in session after the election before a new Congress takes office in January. "We can't have a Postal Service where customers are constantly worried about our ability to make payments."

"That's no way to run a business," he said.

Congress will have a full agenda of pressing fiscal issues when it returns in November, and some lawmakers have raised the possibility that postal legislation will get pushed over to the next Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is a sponsor of the House bill, has said he believes some kind of legislation can be passed in the lame-duck session, although it may not be as comprehensive as initially sought.

The Senate passed a postal bill in April that would have provided financial relief in part by reducing the annual health payments and providing an $11 billion cash infusion, basically a refund of overpayments the Postal Service made to a federal pension fund. The House, however, remains stalled over a separate bill that would allow for aggressive cuts, including an immediate end to Saturday delivery. Rural lawmakers in particular worry about the impact of post office closures in their communities.

The Postal Service originally planned to close low-revenue post offices in rural areas to save money, but after public opposition it now is moving forward with a new plan to keep 13,000 of them open with shorter operating hours. The Postal Service also will begin closing more than 200 mail processing centers next year, but the estimated annual savings of $2.1 billion won't be realized until the full cuts are completed in late 2014.

"Once again, we are watching the days slip away before the U.S. Postal Service faces the second default of its history. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have now had 11 months to do the right thing and fix the serious, but solvable, financial challenges," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., a co-sponsor of the Senate bill. "Every day Congress delays fixing this problem, the financial challenge grows more difficult and the potential solutions become more expensive."

The Postal Service, an independent agency of government, does not receive tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.

Art Sackler, co-coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the private-sector mailing industry, said many businesses are preparing their budgets for next year and have no idea whether to expect disrupted service or higher postage costs.

"Congress needs to act quickly on comprehensive postal reform," he said. "These defaults, mounting debts and declining revenues aren't just going to hurt the Postal Service; they're going to hurt the 8 million Americans whose jobs depend on the mail."

___

Online:

State-by-state graphic showing post offices being considered for reduced hours: http://apne.ws/QMOOzh

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-09-28-Postal%20Problems/id-00af8f9f728c47a09d719152b613f8f7

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92% Neil Young Journeys

All Critics (48) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (44) | Rotten (4)

"Journeys" is simply a trip most need not take.

I'd say the movie does a fine job of completing the trilogy, but I wouldn't be surprised if Demme and Young have more in them yet.

Like Young, Demme often takes an iconoclastic route. This is in part a concert film, yes, but not a traditional one.

Forget Crosby, Stills and Nash and maybe even Crazy Horse. Jonathan Demme might be Neil Young's ultimate collaborator.

As a songwriter, Young can still deliver: one of the best tunes here is a lovely, piano-propelled number, "Leia," that he hasn't even released yet.

The wartsy antipode of Katy Perry: Part of Me, with an intimacy and intensity bordering on the overwhelming.

...just Young and his insinuating voice (which I'm inclined to credit more now than I was 40 years ago), various guitars, harmonica and piano, over which he displays a great and tender command.

Fans of folk rock legend Neil Young who are willing to accept that the guy is well past his prime will respond to the downbeat tone of Jonathan Demme's concert film.

The director is putting Young in the audience's lap, allowing the viewer to examine all the creases and crevices of his grizzled face as well as capturing the emotion the singer pours into his songs.

These two world-renowned and individualistic artists from the worlds of music and film clearly bask in each other's company. We, the audience, would be fools to respond otherwise.

Long may he run, sure, but 'Neil Young Journeys' has the feeling of a farewell.

"Journeys" is about looking back - not in sorrow or wistfulness, but in affection and, often, impassioned remembrance of times past and how they still resonate in the present.

A mesmerizing and intimate visit with a performer who is identified most closely with rock 'n' roll, but whose artistic curiosity has taken him in myriad directions musically throughout his 40-plus-year career.

Neil Young Journeys does for some of us what a rare film can do - it revives and renews our spirit. Neil Young and Jonathan Demme. Heart and soul. Wisdom and age. Fire and ashes. Lightning and thunder.

For fans, Journeys is like that box set of uneven rarities that they simply must own. For casual friends, it's 90 minutes in good company. For the rest - ho-hum.

An unusually fulsome tribute to the singer-songwriter from the director of The Silence of the Lambs.

On its own terms, "Neil Young Journeys" is an enjoyable concert film of a solo show in Toronto, interspersed with memories of his Canadian boyhood.

The concert camera work is sometimes a little tight for comfort (not really interested in Young's bridge work), though it adds to the intensity.

Movie fans probably don't need to hear him sing "Ohio" again, but "Neil Young Journeys" -- Jonathan Demme's second Young doc, if you're counting -- does have some new wrinkles.

In a sense, this film finishes a cycle that began with the homey and impressive "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" and continued with the raucous "Neil Young Trunk Show" of 2009.

"Look at Mother Nature on the run..."

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/neil_young_journeys/

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Friday, September 28, 2012

Cheers as NFL refs return: 'It's good to be back'

BALTIMORE (AP) ? The final pass of the game sailed out of the end zone, saving the regular refs from the same type of call that brought the replacements to the height of unpopularity just three days earlier.

Referee Gene Steratore and his crew didn't have to decide which player came down with the ball, and fans and players aren't going to spend Friday going ballistic that their team was robbed. From the pregame cheers to the final whistle, it was overall a good return for the NFL's veteran men in stripes, who ran a mostly smooth and efficient game Thursday night as the Baltimore Ravens beat the Cleveland Browns 23-16.

"It was great to have those guys back," Ravens running back Ray Rice said. "It looked like they knew what they were doing."

Yes, the real refs are back. Official harmony is restored to the NFL.

The league's experiment with replacement officials ended on "Monday Night Football" when a 24-yard desperation pass on the last play was ruled a touchdown ? even though replays appeared to show it should been an interception ? giving the Seattle Seahawks a disputed 14-12 win over the Green Bay Packers.

The stage was set for something similar Thursday. An fourth-down unnecessary roughness penalty on Baltimore's Paul Kruger ? a good call, given the way he shoved Cleveland's Joe Thomas after the whistle ? gave the Browns one final chance from the 18-yard line.

But Brandon Weeden's 18-yard pass sailed high as time expired. "Too much juice," he said. No controversial ending this time.

"I thought they handled (the game) great," Cleveland coach Pat Shurmur said. "I had all the confidence in the world that this was going to officiated in the right way."

The love for the officials was evident all evening. About an hour before kickoff, they walked on the field and heard cheers from the early arrivals. A few minutes later, Steratore was shaking hands with Shurmur near midfield and getting a hug from Ravens face-of-the-franchise Ray Lewis at the 30-yard line.

Later, when the crew returned, they received a standing ovation and doffed their caps to the crowd. One fan held up a sign that read: "Finally! We get to yell at real refs! Welcome back!"

"The other refs just made dumb calls," said Jessie Riley, a 15-year-old fan wearing an Ed Reed jersey. "I couldn't stand them. Now we won't get robbed; everything will be fair ? hopefully."

When Steratore then turned on his microphone to greet the captains for the pre-game coin toss, the crowd heard him say: "Good evening, men. It's good to be back."

The stadium erupted in a roar.

Steratore and his seven-man crew donned their familiar stripes for the first game of Week 4 after three weeks of replacement officials created moments of chaos throughout the league. They were inevitably serenaded with a hearty round of boos for one call that went against the home team, but there were no headline-making gaffes.

"You know we always pride ourselves in being a face without a name," Steratore, a 10-year league veteran, told The Associated Press about an hour before kickoff. "This will be a little different, but I don't expect it to last too long. And that's the goal ? is that we can let them get through that portion of this. It's happy to be back, it's happy to be appreciated. But then as soon as the game starts, it's happy to disappear again and let the entertainers entertain."

A lockout of the league's regular officials ended when an agreement was reached late Wednesday, two days after the Monday night finish brought debate over the use of the replacements to a fevered pitch nationwide. Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged the Seahawks-Packers game "may have pushed the parties further along" in the talks.

"Obviously when you go through something like this it is painful for everybody," Goodell said. "Most importantly, it is painful for our fans. We are sorry to have to put our fans through that, but it is something that in the short term you sometimes have to do to make sure you get the right kind of deal for the long term and make sure you continue to grow the game."

The deal is only tentative ? it must be ratified by 51 percent of the union's 121 members in a vote scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Dallas ? but both sides nevertheless went forward with the plan to have the regulars back for Thursday's game.

So Steratore hustled to Baltimore, making the 3?-hour drive Thursday morning from his home in the Pittsburgh area. He's usually in place the day before a game, but none of his regular pregame meetings had to be changed because the Browns-Ravens game was at night.

"Very elated to be back," he said. "It feels like being back home."

Steratore, who is a basketball official in the Big East Conference among others, also was fully aware he would be jeered the first time he makes a questionable call ? just like always.

"Without a question," he said. "I've been yelled at by my own children many times, so this won't be any different."

Sure enough, the same fans that cheered the coin toss let out a full chorus of boos when line judge Jeff Seeman toss his yellow flag some 20 yards to whistle Baltimore safety Bernard Pollard for a personal foul in the third quarter. Replays showed it was a good call: Pollard led with his helmet to make contact with a defenseless receiver, costing the Ravens 15 yards in a drive that led to a field goal for the Browns.

Less clear was Seeman's fourth-quarter holding call on Ravens left tackle Michael Oher, who was restrained by a teammate while vociferously protesting his innocence. Replays appeared to show Oher had a valid case for himself.

Steratore's crew nearly made a misstep in the first quarter, incorrectly spotting the ball by 2 yards after a misapplication of the rules following a holding call on the Browns. But two members of the crew caught the mistake and notified the referee before the next snap. A brief huddle ensued, and the ball was moved to its correct spot.

The crew made it clear it wouldn't tolerate the extra shoving and yelling after the whistle that had been frequently permitted by the replacements. Offsetting personal fouls were called on Cleveland's Johnson Bademosi and Baltimore's James Ihedigbo for extracurricular roughness on a punt return in the first quarter, and Shurmur was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct after an intentional grounding call against Weeden in the fourth quarter.

Again, replays appeared to validate the grounding call, and Shurmur took responsibility for his loss of temper.

"I can't do that," the coach said. "It's an emotional game, and I got to make sure I keep my emotions in check."

Steratore had to make a trip to the replay monitor for the same play to review a turnover in the first half. The replays clearly showed that Cleveland's Joshua Cribbs had fumbled, so Steratore confirmed the ruling on the field. Cribbs had his helmet knocked off and was injured on the play, creating the game's only lengthy delay.

There were 18 penalties called in the game, mostly the familiar calls for holding and false start. There were two rare ? and indisputable ? whistles for fair catch interference on punt returns, and a hands-to-the-face call on Baltimore's Kelechi Osemele was so obvious that it drew three flags.

Steratore and his crew set up shop in the designated "Officials Locker Room" in the bowels of the stadium. He emerged about 2? hours before kickoff to talk briefly to a stadium official about the wireless on-field microphone the referee wears. He later held a regular pregame meeting with stadium crew, telling them to "make sure we run this thing as smoothly" as they had in his previous visits to Baltimore.

The lockout ended after marathon negotiations produced an eight-year agreement to end the lockout that began in June. However, for the Packers, Redskins, Lions and other teams who voiced their displeasure with calls that might have swayed games, the agreement doesn't change their records.

The commissioner said he watched Monday night's frenetic Packers-Seahawks finish at home.

"You never want to see a game end like that," he said.

The new agreement will improve officiating in the future, Goodell asserted, reducing mistakes like those made Monday and making the strains of the last three weeks worthwhile.

Goodell acknowledged "you're always worried" about the perception of the league.

"Obviously, this has gotten a lot of attention," he said. "It hasn't been positive, and it's something that you have to fight through and get to the long term. ... We always are going to have to work harder to make sure we get people's trust and confidence in us."

The dispute even made its way to the campaign trail, with President Barack Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, calling Thursday "a great day for America."

"The president's very pleased that the two sides have come together," Carney said.

___

AP Sports Writer Rachel Cohen and AP Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner in New York, AP Pro Football Writer Howard Fendrich in Washington, and AP Sports Writers David Ginsburg in Baltimore, Larry Lage in Allen Park, Mich., Joe Kay in Cincinnati and Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

___

Follow Joseph White on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cheers-nfl-refs-return-good-back-005550961--nfl.html

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Los Angeles revives traffic jam warnings for "Carmageddon 2"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Car-crazed Los Angeles is preparing for a weekend of potential traffic gridlock that has earned the nickname "Carmageddon 2" amid fears drivers might not heed warnings to stay off the roads during a massive 53-hour freeway closure.

Warnings of nightmare jams last year in a phase of the same road-closing construction project kept so many people home that apocalyptic predictions of "Carmageddon" failed to materialize.

"Carmageddon, Schmarmageddon," Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said last year, after the 42-hour 405 Freeway shutdown was over.

But there are worries this year's project could result in more traffic, largely because it went so smoothly last year.

"If people don't think it's a problem, it will be one," Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz told Reuters.

The shutdown of a 10-mile (16-kilometre) stretch of the 405 Freeway will begin at midnight on Friday, with closures of on-ramps at 7 p.m. Friday (0200 GMT Saturday), Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Marc Littman said.

Lanes will open again at 5 a.m. on Monday, he said.

The shutdown is to allow workers to demolish the north side of a bridge that spans the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass as part of a $1 billion freeway widening project, Littman said. The south side of the bridge was demolished last year and has been rebuilt wider, just as the north side will be, he said.

A half million cars and trucks traverse the Sepulveda Pass stretch of the 405 Freeway on a typical weekend.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has held a dozen press conferences in recent weeks on the freeway shutdown and is spending $150,000 on advertising to remind the public about it, Littman said.

The California Department of Transportation has been warning about the closure for over a month on electronic freeway signs, some as far away as Sacramento, 360 miles north of Los Angeles.

Traffic information service INRIX said this week that if Los Angeles drivers do not heed calls to avoid travel, traffic could increase by 45 percent on Sepulveda Boulevard alongside the stretch of the 405 Freeway being shut down.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-revives-traffic-jam-warnings-carmageddon-2-194914169.html

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Canadian GM workers accept contract

(AP) ? Canadian auto workers at GM have voted to accept the new contract that their union leadership negotiated last week, the union said Thursday.

The Canadian Auto Workers union said 73 percent of its GM members accepted the four-year deal. The union said about half of the 5,500 workers at GM Canada cast ballots.

The union leadership also reached an agreement with Ford last week and Chrysler this week. Ford workers voted in favor of their deal last weekend and Chrysler workers are set to vote on their tentative agreement this weekend.

GM and Chrysler matched the deal the union reached with Ford.

The contracts cut wages for new hires and freeze pay for current workers. But the contracts also give them lump-sum payments to cover inflation and for ratifying the deal.

The deals with the three Detroit automakers avoided strikes and the possibility production will move to the United States in the next four years.

David Wenner, a General Director at GM, said Thursday they would work with the union over the next four years to enhance the competitiveness of the Canadian operations.

The auto companies had said Canada was the most expensive place in the world to make cars and trucks, and warned they could move production south if the CAW didn't cut costs. The CAW represents about 21,000 auto workers in Canada and about 16 percent of auto production in North America.

Canada's advantages in the past ? a weak Canadian dollar and government health care ? have all but vanished compared with U.S. factories.

Under the agreement new workers will receive 60 percent of the current top wage of $33.89 Canadian dollars (US$34.74). That would mean new workers would be paid around CA$20.33 ($20.84). They can move up the wage scale and reach the top wage in 10 years.

U.S. workers at the Detroit automakers approved a similar two-tier wage agreement five years ago, but in those agreements, workers don't automatically get the top wage after 10 years.

In addition, the United Auto Workers union in the U.S. has agreed to steeper concessions than the CAW, making U.S. labor costs cheaper. Going into the talks, the Detroit automakers were paying an estimated $60 to $62 an hour for labor and benefits in Canada, compared with $50 an hour at Chrysler, $56 at Ford and $58 at GM, according to the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit research group.

The federal Canadian and Ontario province governments worked in tandem with the U.S. government on auto bailouts in 2009 to maintain Canada's share of North American auto production. Canada's share peaked at 3.2 million cars in 1999, about 17.4 percent of North American production. In 2011, Canada produced 2.1 million vehicles, or about 16 percent.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-09-27-Canada-Auto%20Talks/id-0071af1aafb546aeb62b1f4bc02f1f44

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

State Bank of Mauritius year pretax profit up 31 pct

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Homebuilder Confidence Rises Again; Tops 40 | Crested Butte Real ...

Meet Heather Woodward, Realtor

Heather is a full-time Realtor and a consistent top producer in the local Crested Butte, Almont and Gunnison markets.

Heather takes great pride in giving unparalleled customer service and is dedicated to her clients and their individual needs. Her number one priority is to provide service above and beyond her clients? expectations. She will dedicate her time, attention, energy and knowledge during and after each transaction. Read More

Source: http://www.crestedbuttepropertyshop.com/homebuilder-confidence-september-2012/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=homebuilder-confidence-september-2012

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Novel materials become multifunctional at ultimate quantum limit

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) ? A University of Arkansas physicist and his colleagues have examined the lower limits of novel materials called complex oxides and discovered that unlike conventional semiconductors the materials not only conduct electricity, but also develop unusual magnetic properties.

Jak Chakhalian, Jian Liu, Derek Meyers and Benjamin Gray of the University of Arkansas and John W. Freeland and Phillip Ryan of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory present their ideas in Physical Review Letters.

"Contrary to what we have today in modern microelectronics devices based on silicon, here in a single quantum well, which is just four nanometers thick, we now have several functionalities in one device layer," said Chakhalian, professor of physics and holder of the Charles and Clydene Scharlau Chair in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. "Engineers can use this class of material to devise new multifunctional devices based on the electrons' spin."

The microelectronic materials -- semiconductors -- used in today's computers, have almost reached the lower limitation for size and functionality. Computers run on several semiconducting devices layered together in the very smallest of spaces, known as quantum wells, where nanoscale layers of a semiconducting material are sandwiched between two nanoscale layers of a non-conducting material. However, the researchers found that by using complex oxides with correlated electrons confined to quantum well geometry, they added a new dimension to the mix.

The new structure is based on the concept of correlated charge carriers, like those found in rust, or iron oxide. In rust, if one electron does something, all of the other electrons "know" about it. This phenomenon, called correlated electrons, does not exist in silicon-based materials that run today's computers, televisions, complex medical equipment,power cell phones and keep the electricity on in homes.

"In normal materials used today, electrons don't care about the movement of one another," Chakhalian said. "We can predict their properties almost on the 'back of an envelope' with the help of powerful computers." However, with correlated materials, the calculations for the movement of one electron involve tracking the interactions with billions of electrons, and this is beyond modern theory capabilities.

Chakhalian and his colleagues went down to four atomic layers of a correlated complex oxide material based on nickel and sandwiched it in between two layers of non-conducting oxide material based on aluminum. Unlike the semiconducting materials, the complex oxide structure revealed the unexpected presence of both electronic and magnetic properties.

These multiple properties in a single material may allow the semiconductor industry to push the limits of current conventional computers and develop multiple functions for a single device, possibly allowing everyday electronics to become smaller and faster than they are today.

Chakhalian is a professor in the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/physics/~3/VKAwoWOV_ig/120925091346.htm

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Officials: more than 100 animals rescued from a home in Person Co ...

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. ? More than 70 of the 100 or more animals seized in Person County on Tuesday have been transported to Greensboro to receive medical treatment for starvation, abuse and neglect.

Officers say nearly 100 animals including, dogs, cats, horses, birds and a donkey were found living in deplorable conditions after Person County deputies served a search and seizure warrant on the property.

Area organizations helped local animal control and rescued 39 horses and nearly 70 small-breed dogs, cats and birds kept at the property

?It was one of the saddest places I?ve been,? explained Marsha Williams, with the Guilford County Animal Shelter.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Guilford County Animal Shelter first heard about the situation last week.? A couple of workers went to Person County to help out and bring a few animals back, but once they arrived they realized the situation was bigger and worse than they thought.

?We had to think quick on our feet and figure out how we were going to make this happen,? explained Williams.

The horses were described as very thin. Some are suffering from medical issues that require immediate attention. Ten of them were brought to Guilford County.

The dogs and cats were kept in unsanitary housing and many are afflicted with eye infections, skin infections and other signs of severe neglect.

50 dogs and cats and about 25 birds will stay overnight in the trauma center to get food, water and rest. On Wednesday, the dogs and cats that need treatment will be seen by veterinarians for skin, dental and eye problems.

Source: http://myfox8.com/2012/09/25/officials-more-than-100-animals-rescued-from-a-home-in-person-co/

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DNA case backlog at FBI down 87 percent in 2 years

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The FBI laboratory has reduced its backlog of forensic DNA cases by 87 percent in two years, from 3,211 cases to 403 cases.

The Justice Department's inspector general attributes most of the decline to increased staffing and using automated technology. Also, the FBI is focusing on cases where DNA testing of biological evidence is more likely to yield useful information.

The lab conducts DNA tests on biological evidence taken from crime scenes and items like envelopes, clothing and drinking glasses.

Most reductions took place in the nuclear DNA Unit, which examines fluids, blood and semen. Also reducing its caseload was the mitochondrial DNA unit, which analyzes hair fragments, bones and teeth. The inspector general reported Tuesday that the backlog was reduced from March 2010 to March of this year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dna-case-backlog-fbi-down-87-percent-2-154855169.html

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Israel: Syrian mortars accidentally land in Golan

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Several mortars fired by Syrian government troops targeting rebels hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday but no one was hurt in the shelling, the Israeli military said.

The incident marks the second time Syrian mortars have landed on the border area since Syria's crisis erupted 18 months ago. In July, mortar shells fell about one kilometer (half a mile) from the Golan boundary.

Tuesday's shells were not aimed at Israel but at rebels in Syrian villages close to the Golan frontier and were part of the ongoing fighting in Syria, said an Israeli army spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations. Israel Radio said there was heavy fighting reported in the area of Quneitra in Syria, near the Israeli-patrolled border.

The Israeli army says it has filed a complaint to the United Nations peacekeeping force that patrols the tense region between Israel and Syria. There have been concerns in Israel that violence could spill over from Syria, and that the long-quiet frontier area could become a new Islamist front against the Jewish state.

The Israeli-annexed Golan Heights was captured from Syria in 1967.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-syrian-mortars-accidentally-land-golan-070228841.html

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Melting Greenland Weighs Perils Against Potential

[unable to retrieve full-text content]As warming temperatures are upending traditional Greenlandic life, they are also offering up intriguing new opportunities.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/science/earth/melting-greenland-weighs-perils-against-potential.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Monday, September 24, 2012

China jails ex-police chief, closes in on disgraced Bo

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court jailed ex-police chief Wang Lijun for 15 years on Monday after finding him guilty on four charges, including seeking to conceal the murder of a British businessman, in a scandal that felled ambitious politician Bo Xilai.

The verdict ends the career of one of China's most controversial police officers and moves the ruling Communist Party closer to deciding the fate of Bo whose contentious downfall has shaken a looming leadership handover.

The Intermediate People's Court of Chengdu in southwest China said Wang, former police chief of southwestern Chongqing municipality, received the sentence for "bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking", according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

"Wang Lijun stated to the court that he will not appeal," said the Xinhua report. Wang's lawyer, Wang Yuncai, was not available for comment immediately after the announcement.

The scandal that felled both men erupted after Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo, murdered British businessman Neil Heywood in November 2011 in Chongqing, where Bo was the flamboyant Communist Party chief.

As well as the conviction of sabotaging an investigation into the murder, Wang was found guilty of defecting to a U.S. consulate, taking bribes and conducting illegal surveillance.

Officials have said the murder arose from a business dispute in Chongqing, which Bo and Wang ran as their fiefdom.

After first helping Gu evade suspicion of poisoning Heywood, Wang then kept evidence of the murder, according to the official account of Wang's trial. In late January, Wang confronted Bo with the allegation that Gu was suspected of killing Heywood. But Wang was "angrily rebuked and had his ears boxed".

Days later, Bo stripped Wang of his post as Chongqing police chief. Wang, fearing for his safety, fled west to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu where he hid for more than 24 hours until Chinese officials coaxed him out.

In August, Gu was sentenced to a suspended death sentence, which effectively means life in prison.

Wang sealed his fate at a trial a week ago by admitting the charges, according to an official account of the hearing published by Xinhua news agency. Only official media outlets were allowed inside the courtroom.

"As for the crimes that the prosecution has alleged, I understand them, I admit to them and I am repentant for them," Wang told the court in Chengdu, a city about 300 km (190 miles) from Chongqing, according to that earlier account.

The Chinese government has not said what will happen to Bo, who in March was sacked as party boss and in April suspended from the ruling Communist Party's Politburo, a powerful decision-making council with two dozen active members.

So far, Bo has only been accused of breaching internal party discipline. But experts say the public citing of Bo's angry rebuke of Wang has raised the likelihood that he too will face criminal charges, probably after the party congress.

Before then, party leaders could first expel Bo from the party and hand him over for criminal investigation.

"The prosecutors said Wang exposed leaders to major crimes by others," said Li Zhuang, a Beijing lawyer who opposed Wang and Bo for mounting a sweeping crackdown on foes in the name of fighting organized crime. Bo was the likely target of Wang's allegations, said Li.

"That was a slap around the ears that changed history," Li said of Bo's alleged actions against Wang. "Otherwise, Bo might still be in power and hoping to rise higher."

(Additional reporting by Sally Huang and Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Nick Macfie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-jails-ex-police-chief-closes-disgraced-bo-012706111.html

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ND Senate: Booming economy, close race

FILE -This photo Aug. 11, 2012 file photo shows North Dakota Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp speaking in Dickinson, N.D. What does a pair of Senate candidates do when their state is booming amid a sluggish national economy? They focus on personal style. That's the case in North Dakota, where Democrat Heidi Heitkamp and Republican congressman Rick Berg are waging a surprisingly tight race for an open Senate seat. (AP Photo/Dale Wetzel, File )

FILE -This photo Aug. 11, 2012 file photo shows North Dakota Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp speaking in Dickinson, N.D. What does a pair of Senate candidates do when their state is booming amid a sluggish national economy? They focus on personal style. That's the case in North Dakota, where Democrat Heidi Heitkamp and Republican congressman Rick Berg are waging a surprisingly tight race for an open Senate seat. (AP Photo/Dale Wetzel, File )

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2012 file photo North Dakota Republican Senate candidate Rep. Rick Berg, R-N.D. speaks in Bismarck, N.D. What does a pair of Senate candidates do when their state is booming amid a sluggish national economy? They focus on personal style. That's the case in North Dakota, where Democrat Heidi Heitkamp and Republican congressman Rick Berg are waging a surprisingly tight race for an open Senate seat. (AP Photo/Dale Wetzel, File)

(AP) ? Off a dirt road a mile-and-a-half from the nearest town, Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp is standing in the loft of a barn, giving a campaign pitch heavy on personal appeal: She talks about her independent voice and a work ethic that she took to the state attorney general's office, all gleaned from a life firmly rooted in North Dakota.

"Ya know?" she says over and over, seeking connection to a crowd of mostly older Democrats.

Freshman Rep. Rick Berg, Heitkamp's Republican opponent, tends toward campaign riffs that are comparatively light on personal stuff, focusing instead on his conservative voting record, his concern about the nation's exploding debt and the "clear choice" voters face between Republicans and Democrats in this tight, tense election year.

The differing approaches are central to the candidates' neck-and-neck fight for an open Senate seat in a state with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. And that's made for a race with unique dynamics as the rest of the country struggles out of recession and Republicans and Democrats duke it out for control of the closely-split Senate.

North Dakota is one of three states that have shifted from nearly sure Republican wins to tossups fewer than two months before Election Day. The others are Missouri, where Rep. Todd Akin's comments on "legitimate rape" make him less of a threat to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, and Indiana, where tea party star Richard Mourdock is having trouble pulling away from Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly. In addition, Republicans are scrambling to hold on to the Maine Senate seat of retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe and have seen Democrat Elizabeth Warren gain ground on Republican Sen. Scott Brown in a tightly contested race.

North Dakota is an economic outlier, too.

The nation's 8.1 percent jobless rate, a top issue for President Barack Obama and GOP rival Mitt Romney, is not an issue here because North Dakota's booming energy industry has kept unemployment at roughly 3 percent. And unlike many Democrats, Heitkamp has long ties with the state's key energy industries: oil, natural gas and coal.

The anomaly of North Dakota has allowed Heitkamp to stay competitive with Berg in a race that, a few months ago, Republicans felt quite certain wouldn't qualify as, well, a race.

Heitkamp has survived a blizzard of ads, hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside spending from Republican-backed groups and the state's recent conservative tilt to pull into a virtual tie for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad.

In the first of three scheduled debates, Heitkamp attacked Berg for what she said was her Republican rival's support for cutting taxes for wealthy people and turning Social Security into a private pension system. Berg countered that the Democratic-controlled Senate has done nothing to rein in the debt and has failed to help the nation's economy.

The event did little to shake the perception that the Senate race will be close.

Heitkamp has put her likeability at the center of her campaign.

Pushing back on early Republican attacks that highlighted her support of Obama and his signature health care reform law, Heitkamp launched an ad in which she speaks directly to the camera about surviving breast cancer. In the spot, she says she supported some, but not all, of the health care law's features. And she attacked Berg for supporting changes to Medicare.

In another spot that aired during the summer, Heitkamp stood in the middle of a wind-blown field and recounted her work fighting a "government land grab" during her time as attorney general. The ad refers to her successful efforts to stop the federal government from seizing North Dakota farmland through environmental easements.

Republicans, meanwhile, have sought to counter Heitkamp's folksiness with a steady stream of attack ads. In them, Berg ties her to Obama's policies, particularly health care. Outside groups, such as the Karl Rove-backed Crossroads, have attacked her tenure as attorney general, alleging she hired out-of-state lawyers to represent North Dakota in tobacco litigation in exchange for campaign donors. Heitkamp has strenuously denied the charge.

She also has tried to use the outside spending of Republican groups to her advantage. Unmentioned, of course, is support she gets from Majority PAC, a group backing Senate Democrats, which has spent more than $1 million to boost her chances.

"They think this Senate seat is an auction," Heitkamp often says in campaign speeches, referring to Republicans and groups like Crossroads, which has aired more than $250,000 in ads attacking the Democratic candidate. The seat, Heitkamp adds, "does not belong to Karl Rove and his billionaire friends."

Many of Heitkamp's supporters say her personal touch is what attracts them.

"She gets down to brass tacks, she really talks to voters," said Bill Bohnsack, a 66-year-old retired teacher from Mayville, N.D., who plans to vote for Heitkamp.

Berg, meanwhile, has generally stuck to linking Heitkamp to Democrats in Washington.

"I think it's clear at the national level between policies under President Obama ... she is aligned with him," said Berg, who is part of the 2010 freshman class that handed House control to Republicans.

He says he's just as personable a campaigner as Heitkamp and recounted participating in a parade in the Democrat's hometown in which he had so many GOP supporters in the back of his pickup truck that the floor bottomed out. One of his ads features a testimonial from an Army veteran who says Berg helped him get a Purple Heart military decoration; another focuses on Berg as a young child. It closes with footage of Berg and his 12-year-old son, Jack.

"North Dakota is a small state, we know people, we know each other," Berg said in an interview. "And I think this election will be won with grass-roots, person-to-person campaigning."

But warmth is not all that matters to voters here.

Tracton Lewis and his wife, Victoria, both 35, said they thought Berg was plenty friendly. But they drove from their home in Park River, N.D., to Fargo to hear Berg speak for one reason.

Heitkamp, Tracton Lewis said, "is too liberal for us."

___

Follow Henry C. Jackson Twitter http://www.twitter.com/hjacksonap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-09-24-North%20Dakota%20Senate/id-2cf8e4ab1bd14a24b56276c194462279

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Ex-prof gets life in prison for meeting rampage

FILE - This Feb. 13, 2010, file booking photo provided by the Huntsville, Ala., Police Department shows college professor Amy Bishop, charged with capital murder in the Feb. 12, 2010 shooting deaths of three faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Bishop pleaded guilty to capital murder charges in an agreement that will send to her prison for the rest of her life and make her ineligible for the death penalty. A judge scheduled jury selection for Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, as a trial is still required under Alabama law because Bishop admitted to a capital charge of murder. (AP Photo/Huntsville Police Department, File)

FILE - This Feb. 13, 2010, file booking photo provided by the Huntsville, Ala., Police Department shows college professor Amy Bishop, charged with capital murder in the Feb. 12, 2010 shooting deaths of three faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Bishop pleaded guilty to capital murder charges in an agreement that will send to her prison for the rest of her life and make her ineligible for the death penalty. A judge scheduled jury selection for Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, as a trial is still required under Alabama law because Bishop admitted to a capital charge of murder. (AP Photo/Huntsville Police Department, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2012, file photo, Amy Bishop, accused of killing three and injuring three others in a Feb. 12, 2010 shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, walks into a courtroom at the Madison County Courthouse in Huntsville, Ala. Bishop pleaded guilty to capital murder charges in an agreement that will send to her prison for the rest of her life and make her ineligible for the death penalty. A judge scheduled jury selection for Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, as a trial is still required under Alabama law because Bishop admitted to a capital charge of murder. (AP Photo/The Huntsville Times, Eric Schultz, File)

(AP) ? A Harvard-educated biologist was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday after being convicted of going on a shooting rampage during a faculty meeting at an Alabama university, killing three colleagues and wounding three others in 2010.

The jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before convicting Amy Bishop. The former professor at the University of Alabama in Hunstville showed no reaction as the verdict was read. She did not speak in court, but her attorney said she has often expressed great remorse to the victims and their families.

"She is shattered beyond belief," attorney Roy Miller said.

Bishop avoided a death sentence by pleading guilty earlier this month to the shootings on Feb. 12, 2010. Before the guilty plea ? which she signed with a barely legible scrawl ? her attorneys had said they planned to use an insanity defense.

However, she was still required to have a brief trial because she admitted to a capital murder charge.

And she still could face a trial in Massachusetts, where she is charged in the 1986 killing of her 18-year-old brother. Seth Bishop's death had been ruled an accident after Amy Bishop told investigators she shot him in the family's Braintree home as she tried to unload her father's gun. But the Alabama shootings prompted a new investigation and charges. Prosecutors have said they will wait until after sentencing in the Alabama case to determine whether to put Bishop on trial in Massachusetts.

Bishop killed her boss, biology department chairman Gopi Padila, plus professors Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson. Professors Joseph Leahy, staff aide Stephanie Monticciolo and assistant professor Luis Cruz-Vera were shot and wounded.

A police investigator testified Monday during the brief trial that Bishop denied having anything to do with the rampage. During testimony Monday, Bishop shook her head anytime the judge or prosecutors described the killings as intentional.

Investigator Charlie Gray also said police believe Bishop opened fire during the faculty meeting because she was angry over being denied tenure, which effectively ended her career at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

"She would say, 'It didn't happened. I wasn't there. It wasn't me,'" Gray said.

Bishop wore a red jail uniform in court and was shackled at the feet, seated between two attorneys at the defense table.

Also in court, sitting behind prosecutors, were relatives of the people killed in the February 2010 rampage. At least one of the shooting victims who survived also was present, though none spoke to reporters.

The only other witness to testify Monday was Debra Moriarity, now the chairman of biological sciences at UAH. She testified about how a routine Friday afternoon faculty meeting turned into a scene of carnage with no warning.

Moriarty testified that Amy Bishop sat unusually silent during the nearly hourlong faculty meeting, during which discussions ran from a spring open house to plans for the following fall. People were seated around a crowded conference table in a small room on a chilly, overcast day, she said.

Moriarity said she glanced down at a piece of paper on the table. "And there was a loud bang," she said.

Moriarity said more shots followed in quick succession without Bishop ever saying a word. Moriarity said she was looking directly at Bishop when she shot professor Maria Ragland Davis, who was killed instantly while still seated at the table.

Moriarity said she dove under the table for safety and tried to grab Bishop's legs, but the woman stepped out of her grasp. "I was saying, 'Stop Amy, stop. Don't do this. I've helped you before, I'll help you again.'"

Moriarity said Bishop pointed the gun at her and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. She said Bishop continued trying to shoot her in a hall outside, but the gun had jammed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-09-24-Alabama%20University%20Shooting/id-729877c2058143f885a48cfe8b46e6d9

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