Lawmakers rush to catch up on gay marriage

FILE - In this May 11, 2010 file photo, Kay Hagan, D-N.C. speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. For years, American opinion on gay marriage has been shifting. Now Washington is tripping over itself trying to catch up. In less than two weeks, seven sitting senators _ all from moderate or Republican-leaning states _ announced their support, dropping one by one like dominos. Taken together, their proclamations reflected a profound change in the American political calculus: For the first time, elected officials from traditionally conservative states are starting to feel it's safer to back gay marriage than risk being the last to join the cause. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File)

FILE - In this May 11, 2010 file photo, Kay Hagan, D-N.C. speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. For years, American opinion on gay marriage has been shifting. Now Washington is tripping over itself trying to catch up. In less than two weeks, seven sitting senators _ all from moderate or Republican-leaning states _ announced their support, dropping one by one like dominos. Taken together, their proclamations reflected a profound change in the American political calculus: For the first time, elected officials from traditionally conservative states are starting to feel it's safer to back gay marriage than risk being the last to join the cause. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2012 file photo, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. is seen in St. Louis. For years, American opinion on gay marriage has been shifting. Now Washington is tripping over itself trying to catch up. In less than two weeks, seven sitting senators _ all from moderate or Republican-leaning states _ announced their support, dropping one by one like dominos. Taken together, their proclamations reflected a profound change in the American political calculus: For the first time, elected officials from traditionally conservative states are starting to feel it's safer to back gay marriage than risk being the last to join the cause. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson. File)

FILE - In this March 28, 2012 file photo, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. For years, American opinion on gay marriage has been shifting. Now Washington is tripping over itself trying to catch up. In less than two weeks, seven sitting senators _ all from moderate or Republican-leaning states _ announced their support, dropping one by one like dominos. Taken together, their proclamations reflected a profound change in the American political calculus: For the first time, elected officials from traditionally conservative states are starting to feel it's safer to back gay marriage than risk being the last to join the cause. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2012 file photo, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. speaks in Billings, Mont. For years, American opinion on gay marriage has been shifting. Now Washington is tripping over itself trying to catch up. In less than two weeks, seven sitting senators _ all from moderate or Republican-leaning states _ announced their support, dropping one by one like dominos. Taken together, their proclamations reflected a profound change in the American political calculus: For the first time, elected officials from traditionally conservative states are starting to feel it's safer to back gay marriage than risk being the last to join the cause. (AP Photo/Matt Gouras, File)

FILE - In this March 21, 2013 file photo, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. For years, American opinion on gay marriage has been shifting. Now Washington is tripping over itself trying to catch up. In less than two weeks, seven sitting senators _ all from moderate or Republican-leaning states _ announced their support, dropping one by one like dominos. Taken together, their proclamations reflected a profound change in the American political calculus: For the first time, elected officials from traditionally conservative states are starting to feel it's safer to back gay marriage than risk being the last to join the cause. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? For years, American opinion on gay marriage has been shifting. Now lawmakers are in a mad dash to catch up.

In less than two weeks, seven senators ? all from moderate or Republican-leaning states ? announced their support, dropping one by one like dominos. Taken together, their proclamations reflected a profound change in the American political calculus: For the first time, elected officials from traditionally conservative states are starting to feel it's safer to back gay marriage than risk being the last to join the cause.

"As far as I can tell, political leaders are falling all over themselves to endorse your side of the case," Chief Justice John Roberts told lawyers urging the Supreme Court on Wednesday to strike down a law barring legally married gay couples from receiving federal benefits or recognition.

It was the second of two landmark gay marriage cases the justices heard this week, the high court's first major examination of gay rights in a decade. But the focus on the court cases ? replete with colorful, camera-ready protests outside the court building ? obscured the sudden emergence of a critical mass across the street in the Capitol as one by one, senators took to Facebook or quietly issued a statement to say that they, too, now support gay marriage.

For some Democrats, like Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the reversal would have been almost unfathomable just a few months ago as they fought for re-election. The potential risks were even greater for other Democrats like North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan and Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, already top GOP targets when they face voters next year in states that President Barack Obama lost in November. After all, it was less than a year ago that voters in Hagan's state approved a ban on gay marriage.

Those four Democrats and two others ? Mark Warner of Virginia and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia ? were swept up in a shifting tide that began to take shape last year, when Obama, in the heat of his re-election campaign, became the first sitting president to endorse gay marriage. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a potential contender in the next presidential election, followed suit in mid-March. As support among party leaders builds, rank-and-file Democrats appear wary of being perceived as hold-outs in what both parties are increasingly describing as a civil-rights issue.

"They're reflecting what they're seeing in the polls ? except the most extreme of the Republican base," former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican who supports gay marriage, said in an interview. "From a purely political perspective, if you want to be a leader of the future, you look at the next generation. They are overwhelmingly in favor of this."

Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican Party, cautioned in a USA Today interview that the GOP should not "act like Old Testament heretics."

Among Republicans, whose party platform opposes gay marriage, the shift in position has mostly been limited to former lawmakers and prominent strategists. Still, a distinct change in tone was palpable this month when Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican whom presidential candidate Mitt Romney vetted last year as a potential running mate, declared his support, citing a personal conversion stemming from his son coming out to him as gay.

Rather than blast Portman for flouting party dogma or failing an ideological litmus test, Republican leaders shrugged, indicating that even if Republicans, as a party, aren't prepared back gay marriage, they won't hold it against those in their ranks who do.

In the Republican-controlled House, where most members come from lopsided districts heavily skewed to one party or the other, GOP leaders are not wavering publicly from their staunch opposition. In fact, when the Obama administration stopped defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court, it was House Republicans who took up the mantle. Democrats said Thursday that Republicans have spent as much as $3 million in taxpayer funds to defend the law, now before the Supreme Court.

"It's like immigration. The party realizes they are on the losing side of some of these issues," said former Rep. Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican. Kolbe came out as gay in 1996 while in office and will mark another milestone in May when he and his longtime partner get married in Washington.

"They want to make the shift, but you have got to do it in a politic and strategic way," Kolbe said. "It's a matter of how and when you take down one flag and run up the other."

Kolbe and Whitman joined dozens of other prominent Republicans in signing a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down the law barring federal recognition of gay marriages. But with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, still defending the law and social conservative groups vowing payback for those who abandon it, prospects are slim that Congress will move any time soon to repeal it on its own.

"It's sort of a bandwagon effect among the cultural elite," said Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, which opposes gay marriage. "Some of these politicians who have changed their position, those who live in more conservative states, may pay for that shift with a defeat in their next election."

If public opinion continues to move in the direction it has been for the last 15 years, what's true for the next election may not be true just a few years down the line ? even for Republicans.

When Gallup first asked in polls about gay marriages, in 1996, just 27 percent felt they should be valid. That figure climbed to 44 percent two years ago, and reached a majority by last November, when 53 percent said gay marriages should be recognized. Among independents, a key barometer for politicians, support has jumped 23 points to 55 percent, including a six-point gain since 2010.

Even among Republicans, support has grown by 14 percentage points since 1996, although there's been no significant movement among Republicans since 2010, when 28 percent backed legal marriage.

"A lot of Republicans have come to the conclusion we can't live one life in private but advocate another life in public," said Republican strategist Alex Castellanos. "We all know families who are loving parents of the same gender who are raising great kids."

___

AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

___

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

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-28-US-Gay-Marriage/id-48cd515be6ea4b479bd0ac8ee5f66052

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Indochino Raises $13.5M Series B Led By Highland Consumer Fund, Launches New Line

Indochino, the online one-stop shop for a custom tailored suit, has just launched a brand new Ultimate Spring Collection, with some brand new looks and some Indochino best-sellers in new materials. The new collection comes hot on the heels of a $13.5 million Series B funding round, led by the Highland Consumer Fund alongside Madrona Venture Group, Acton Capital Partners and Jeff Mallett.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/jIxcBVt319E/

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Big Pharma waits nervously on India drug patent verdict

By Kaustubh Kulkarni

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Global drugmakers, battered by recent intellectual property decisions in India, are girding for a landmark court ruling next week with broad consequences for their ability to sell lucrative patented medicines in the country.

India's Supreme Court is due to decide on April 1 whether or not Swiss giant Novartis AG's cancer treatment Glivec deserves a patent in the country.

"Big Pharma is nervous because nothing has gone in their favor in the recent past," said Ajay Kumar Sharma, associate director of the pharmaceutical and biotech practice at business consultancy Frost & Sullivan.

"With this verdict, at least, things will get clearer about what is the definition of patented medicines."

Paul Herrling, head of tropical disease research at Novartis, said the spate of rulings over the past year curbing drug patents in India was a concern for research-based companies and worrying for the Glivec case.

"Looking at recent cases, the mood in India makes it more likely that we would have a more negative response," he told reporters on Wednesday.

Novartis has been fighting since 2006 to win a patent for Glivec, which many oncologists view as a major advance in treating chronic myeloid leukemia, which kills 80-90 percent of sufferers, and some gastrointestinal cancers.

India has refused protection for Glivec on the grounds that it is not a new medicine but an amended version of a known compound - a decision consistent with domestic patent law which sets tight restrictions on multiple patents for a drug.

By contrast, in the United States, amended versions can be patented.

Novartis is seeking to overturn a clause in Indian Patents Law that restricts patent protection for newer forms of existing molecules, and next week's ruling could set a precedent for how other similar patent claims are treated.

Ranjit Shahani, vice chairman and managing director of Novartis India Ltd, the firm's Indian unit, said cheap generics had an important role to play once drug patents expired, but the company was concerned about the non-recognition of patents that were ultimately needed to sustain drug research.

PROMISE AND PERIL

While Western companies see huge potential in India's rapidly growing $13 billion drugs market, 90 percent of which is made up of generics, they worry that India is failing to recognize valuable medical innovation.

Among Big Pharma's setbacks in the country, India last year allowed local drugmaker Natco Pharma to sell cheaper copies of Bayer AG's cancer drug Nexavar through the controversial mechanism of "compulsory licensing".

A global agreement, known as Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS, allows countries to issue compulsory licenses for certain drugs that are deemed unaffordable to large sections of their populations.

Also last year, India revoked patents granted to Pfizer Inc's cancer drug Sutent, Roche Holding AG's hepatitis C drug Pegasys, and Merck & Co's asthma treatment aerosol suspension formulation. They were all revoked on grounds that included lack of innovation.

In another potential hit, Mumbai-based BDR Pharmaceutical International this month applied for a compulsory license on a blood cancer drug, dasatinib, sold as Sprycel by U.S.-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

Last month, an Indian government panel proposed that prices of patented medicines be based on the country's per-capita income, a move that would substantially reduce prices of costly drugs made by global pharmaceutical firms.

"In the minds of global drugmakers, the recent developments will definitely hamper India's image," said lawyer Dominic Alvares of S. Majumdar & Co which represents Indian drugmakers.

But he said social justice and the public interest should come ahead of India's reputation as a future drugs market. "The developments would impact reputation but for the sake of reputation, do you sacrifice on public interest?"

PATENTS VS AFFORDABILITY

In almost every patent dispute, India has held affordability as a key reason to allow generic drugmakers to launch copycat versions of patented medicines in a country where nearly 40 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day.

For example, Natco Pharma was told by the patents office in its compulsory license ruling to offer generic Nexavar at 8,800 rupees ($162) for a month's dose - a fraction of Bayer's price of 280,000 rupees. Natco must pay a 7 percent royalty to Bayer.

BDR Pharma, in its application, has offered generic Sprycel at 8,100 rupees for a month's dose compared with Bristol-Myers' price of 165,000 rupees.

Generic versions of Glivec, which won its first patent in 1993, cost about $2,500 for a year's dosage in India, compared with nearly $70,000 in the United States where only the branded version is sold.

Discount programs mean the branded version is available for much less in poor countries. In India, more than 95 percent of patients using branded Glivec receive it free under a company donation scheme, Novartis has said.

U.S. industry groups this month demanded that the United States increase pressure on India to reform high-tech, agricultural and pharmaceutical policies they said blocked export access and damaged patent rights.

"India has essentially created a protectionist regime that harms U.S. job creators" in favor of India's generic drug manufacturers, Roy Waldron, chief intellectual property counsel for Pfizer, said in testimony to a U.S. House panel.

India's $25 billion drugs industry, a major exporter of generics, is growing at 16 to 17 percent a year.

"You can expect more muscle-flexing from the respective countries of the big pharmaceutical companies in the future," Frost & Sullivan's Sharma said.

($1 = 54.18 rupees)

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London; Editing by Tony Munroe and Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/big-pharma-waits-nervously-india-drug-patent-verdict-144843551.html

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Scripps scientists image deep magma beneath Pacific seafloor volcano

Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mario Aguilera or Robert Monroe
scrippsnews@ucsd.edu
858-534-3624
University of California - San Diego

Vast mantle melting region below world's largest volcanic system advances theory of plate tectonics

Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges. But where exactly does the erupted magma come from?

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego now have a better idea after capturing a unique image of a site deep in the earth where magma is generated.

Using electromagnetic technology developed and advanced at Scripps, the researchers mapped a large area beneath the seafloor off Central America at the northern East Pacific Rise, a seafloor volcano located on a section of the global mid-ocean ridges that together form the largest and most active chain of volcanoes in the solar system. By comparison, the researchers say the cross-section area of the melting region they mapped would rival the size of San Diego County.

Details of the image and the methods used to capture it are published in the March 28 issue of the journal Nature.

"Our data show that mantle upwelling beneath the mid-ocean ridge creates a deeper and broader melting region than previously thought," said Kerry Key, lead author of the study and an associate research geophysicist at Scripps. "This was the largest project of its kind, enabling us to image the mantle with a level of detail not possible with previous studies."

The northern East Pacific Rise is an area where two of the planet's tectonic plates are spreading apart from each another. Mantle rising between the plates melts to generate the magma that forms fresh seafloor when it erupts or freezes in the crust.

Data for the study was obtained during a 2004 field study conducted aboard the research vessel Roger Revelle, a ship operated by Scripps and owned by the U.S. Navy.

The marine electromagnetic technology behind the study was originally developed in the 1960s by Charles "Chip" Cox, an emeritus professor of oceanography at Scripps, and his student Jean Filloux. In recent years the technology was further advanced by Steven Constable and Key. Since 1995 Scripps researchers have been working with the energy industry to apply this technology to map offshore geology as an aid to exploring for oil and gas reservoirs.

"We have been working on developing our instruments and interpretation software for decades, and it is really exciting to see it all come together to provide insights into the fundamental processes of plate tectonics," said Constable, a coauthor of the paper and a professor in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps. "It was really a surprise to discover that melting started so deep in the mantlemuch deeper than was expected."

Key believes the insights that electromagnetics provides will continue to grow as the technology matures and data analysis techniques improve (last week Key and his colleagues announced the use of electromagnetics in discovering a magma lubricant for the planet's tectonic plates: http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=1331).

"Electromagnetics is really coming of age as a tool for imaging the earth," said Key. "Much of what we know about the crust and mantle is a result of using seismic techniques. Now electromagnetic technology is offering promise for further discoveries."

Key also has future plans to apply electromagnetic technology to map subglacial lakes and groundwater in the polar regions.

###

In addition to Key and Constable, coauthors of the paper include Lijun Liu of the University of Illinois and Anne Pommier of Arizona State University.

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Seafloor Electromagnetic Methods Consortium at Scripps.

The Scripps Marine Electromagnetics Laboratory currently supports five graduate student researchers and five full-time staff. More information about this project and the Scripps Marine Electromagnetics Laboratory is available at: http://marineemlab.ucsd.edu/Projects/EPR2004

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mario Aguilera or Robert Monroe
scrippsnews@ucsd.edu
858-534-3624
University of California - San Diego

Vast mantle melting region below world's largest volcanic system advances theory of plate tectonics

Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges. But where exactly does the erupted magma come from?

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego now have a better idea after capturing a unique image of a site deep in the earth where magma is generated.

Using electromagnetic technology developed and advanced at Scripps, the researchers mapped a large area beneath the seafloor off Central America at the northern East Pacific Rise, a seafloor volcano located on a section of the global mid-ocean ridges that together form the largest and most active chain of volcanoes in the solar system. By comparison, the researchers say the cross-section area of the melting region they mapped would rival the size of San Diego County.

Details of the image and the methods used to capture it are published in the March 28 issue of the journal Nature.

"Our data show that mantle upwelling beneath the mid-ocean ridge creates a deeper and broader melting region than previously thought," said Kerry Key, lead author of the study and an associate research geophysicist at Scripps. "This was the largest project of its kind, enabling us to image the mantle with a level of detail not possible with previous studies."

The northern East Pacific Rise is an area where two of the planet's tectonic plates are spreading apart from each another. Mantle rising between the plates melts to generate the magma that forms fresh seafloor when it erupts or freezes in the crust.

Data for the study was obtained during a 2004 field study conducted aboard the research vessel Roger Revelle, a ship operated by Scripps and owned by the U.S. Navy.

The marine electromagnetic technology behind the study was originally developed in the 1960s by Charles "Chip" Cox, an emeritus professor of oceanography at Scripps, and his student Jean Filloux. In recent years the technology was further advanced by Steven Constable and Key. Since 1995 Scripps researchers have been working with the energy industry to apply this technology to map offshore geology as an aid to exploring for oil and gas reservoirs.

"We have been working on developing our instruments and interpretation software for decades, and it is really exciting to see it all come together to provide insights into the fundamental processes of plate tectonics," said Constable, a coauthor of the paper and a professor in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps. "It was really a surprise to discover that melting started so deep in the mantlemuch deeper than was expected."

Key believes the insights that electromagnetics provides will continue to grow as the technology matures and data analysis techniques improve (last week Key and his colleagues announced the use of electromagnetics in discovering a magma lubricant for the planet's tectonic plates: http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=1331).

"Electromagnetics is really coming of age as a tool for imaging the earth," said Key. "Much of what we know about the crust and mantle is a result of using seismic techniques. Now electromagnetic technology is offering promise for further discoveries."

Key also has future plans to apply electromagnetic technology to map subglacial lakes and groundwater in the polar regions.

###

In addition to Key and Constable, coauthors of the paper include Lijun Liu of the University of Illinois and Anne Pommier of Arizona State University.

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Seafloor Electromagnetic Methods Consortium at Scripps.

The Scripps Marine Electromagnetics Laboratory currently supports five graduate student researchers and five full-time staff. More information about this project and the Scripps Marine Electromagnetics Laboratory is available at: http://marineemlab.ucsd.edu/Projects/EPR2004

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uoc--ssi032513.php

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How that smartphone makes you less manly

By Rob Walker

In an oversharing moment at the TED conference last week, Google co-founder Sergey Brin confessed to finding his smartphone ?emasculating.? You know about this, because the remark had the whole Internet aflutter, possibly because Brin himself looks so macho these days: fit, tousle-haired and evidently in possession of Ben Affleck?s recently abandoned beard. Throw in the Terminator-esque Google Glass that Brin says will remasculate the masses, and he seemed poised to annihilate us all. (By comparison, here?s what Brin looked like pre-Glass.)

Lulz ensued, of course. But if you set aside Brin?s surprising word choice and dubious eyewear, he?s getting at something that?s worth taking seriously. More and more of us are drifting away from PCs and laptops, and toward mobile, touch-screen devices. The benefits for consumers are clear enough, but what about the downsides?

One answer turns very specifically on that word choice: ?consumers.? Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, observed in a recent interview on the Australian radio show "Future Tense" that Wikipedia participants who transition to tablet devices seem to contribute less as a result, because those devices ?are better for watching videos and surfing the internet than for typing text.?

Her real point was that this is not just a problem for Wikipedia, it?s also a potentially profound shift in how to think about what the Internet is for. Instead of being a place where all sorts of people create all sorts of things for all sorts of audiences, Gardner continued, ?I think increasingly what's happening is, partly as a result of the kinds of devices that are being manufactured and that people are buying, people are moving toward a more consumption-based Internet experience from a production-based experience.?

Setting aside the cheap jokes about Brin and the art of manliness?mostly because I can?t think of any more?maybe these consumption-friendlier objects do emasculate, or ?make (a person) weaker or less effective? (to quote the top definition of the word that, um, Google kicked in my face). I now travel with an iPad instead of a laptop, and even when I bring a keyboard attachment, I definitely produce less. Beyond answering vital email and poking out a few ?likes? on one or another social network, it?s just much easier to watch something on Netflix, or catch up with whatever I?ve stashed in Instapaper.

Now, to offer an important but unfashionable caveat, I don?t think there?s anything wrong with consuming the Internet, as it were. There?s lots of great stuff out there. If it weren?t for the Internet, it?s unlikely I?d be able to enjoy Australian radio shows, for instance. And you wouldn?t be reading this column right now.

But Gardner?s point is a useful one for me to cite in my first column for Yahoo News. It?s a daunting thing to show up in 2013 and announce: ?I am writing about technology.? I mean, who isn?t? So first I should clarify that I?m interested in the digital world and the objects we use to access it, but also in physical technologies from crowd-funded drones to anti-surveillance hoodies, from weird new materials to tiny iPad-cleaning robots.

That said, what I won?t be doing is joining the race to post images of and quote press releases for the latest gizmo. To me, what?s really interesting about technology isn?t technology?it?s what people choose to do with technology, for better and for worse. Perhaps it?s quaint to say so, but I?m a fan of human agency. And although I think Gardner?s concern should be taken seriously, I?m optimistic that I?ll have plenty to write about.

That brings us back to Google Glass: While I can see how it might impact ?what you?re meant to do with your body,? as Brin put it, it?s less clear to me how it improves what you can do with your mind. Evidently you?re supposed to use it to display information and record ?lifebits.??

OK, but personally I can?t wait until people start figuring out not what they?re supposed to do with this technology, but what they can do. Google Glass, you could say, will be a lot more interesting once clever people emasculate it.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/are-smartphones-and-tablets-turning-us-into-sissies--175359859.html

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Usher's Stepson Death Linked To Georgia Man

Jeffrey Hubbard was indicted on several charges following a 2012 Jet Ski accident that killed Usher's 11-year-old stepson.
By James Montgomery

Usher Raymond V and Kile Glover
Photo: Raymond-Foster family

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702901/usher-stepson-death-charges-filed.jhtml

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No deal: Last-ditch meeting yields no new plan to avoid cuts (Los Angeles Times)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/288382771?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Bob Woodward On Hannity Talks Gene Sperling 'Threat' - Business ...

Bob Woodward told Fox News host Sean Hannity Thursday night that he never felt "threatened" from a White House adviser Gene Sperling's email telling him that he'd "regret" his reporting on the sequester. But he said Sperling's email felt like a "coded, 'You better watch out.'"

"They don't like to be challenged or crossed," Woodward said of the White House.

On Wednesday, Woodward said on CNN that he felt "uncomfortable" by Sperling's pushback of his reporting on the sequester, which charged President Barack Obama with "moving the goalposts" by requesting revenue be part of a deal to avert the forced spending cuts.

Woodward said Wednesday that it was troubling that the White House was telling reporters, "'You're going to regret doing something that you believe in."

On Thursday, Politico released the email exchange between Woodward and Sperling, which appeared to be a rather cordial back-and-forth.

Woodward said he didn't view Sperling's behavior as a "threat," but he said it was "not the way to operate." He said that Sperling was "very worked up" during a 30-minute call that came before Sperling apologized in the email.

"They got caught about being the father of the sequester," Woodward said. "...?When you say you?re going to regret challenging us, I just think that?s a mistake."

Watch Woodward's interview with Hannity below, courtesy of Mediaite:

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/bob-woodward-hannity-gene-sperling-threat-email-obama-sequester-2013-2

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