They're still shining bright: Former H-DN stars who jumped to NCAA Division-I sports doing well

On Thursday night, while working on a project, I caught glimpses of the USC vs. Kansas men's basketball game on TV. Suddenly I saw No. 2 on USC -- 6-foot-3 junior guard Greg Allen -- nail a 3-pointer from the corner. I smiled as I thought, ?I've seen that guy make that shot a few times before.?

Allen, who played prep basketball for Eureka High and then went on to Navarro College in Texas for two years, is now at USC. Last year Allen started all 31 games -- and averaged 11 points per game -- for the Bulldogs (20-11). Now in his first season at Southern California, he has started four of 11 games and is averaging 3.2 ppg in 17 minutes. Allen has nailed 8 of 24 attempts from downtown, including a trio of 3-pointers in both his 14 point-performance in the Trojans' 65-62 win over Morgan State, and in his team-high 11-point performance in USC's 56-35 win over UC Riverside.

What about other recent Humboldt-Del Norte prep athletes playing NCAA Division I sports?

Well, here's what my research has uncovered about how 10 other athletes -- in alphabetical order -- have been doing:

Andrew Ayers (St. Bernard's) showed his versatility in his second season on the baseball diamond for Sacramento State last spring. Ayers started 55 games -- 28 in right field, 24 at second base and three in center field -- and won the team's Gold Glove Award after committing just one error all season. At the plate, Ayers stroked 50 hits, batting .249. His best game may have

been in March against Cal State Northridge when he batted 4-for-4 (two singles, a double and a homer) plus a walk. As a member of the Humboldt Crabs, Ayers scored 25 runs and knocked in 23 while hitting .259.

Tara Boynton (Ferndale) played her second year with the Fresno State varsity soccer team. Boynton started 16 games and played 1,191 minutes for the Bulldogs (11-5-5), members of the Western Athletic Conference. As a sophomore forward, Boynton launched 13 of her 21 shots on goal, for a solid .619 percentage, the highest among all Bulldogs who scored goals during the season. Boynton booted in the game-winning goal in the 1-0 win over Idaho. She added three assists for a total of five points during the Bulldogs' season.

David Del Grande (St. Bernard's) joined Ayers on the Sacramento State baseball team and won the Hornet's Most Improved Player award after playing in 56 games. The redshirt freshman started 50 games -- 30 at first base and 14 at second base -- and committed just nine errors out of 364 chances (.975 fielding percentage). At the plate, his .260 average was second-highest on the team. Del Grande was successful in all six of his stolen base attempts. He had a great year with the Crabs, being voted the team's Offensive Player of the year on the merits of his .340 batting average and other team-highs in hits (54) and RBIs (26).

Mallorie Franco (Fortuna) has started all 13 games for the Sacramento State varsity basketball team (5-8), who competes in the Big Sky Conference. The 5-foot-10 junior averages 23.1 minutes, and is sixth on the team in scoring (6.0 ppg). She has the team's second-highest field goal percentage (.434) among all starters. She is fourth in rebounding average (4.0 rpg), and second on the team with 23 offensive boards. Franco also has handed out 32 assists, third most on the team. She has scored 11 points in three different games, including the 89-85 home win over Eastern Illinois.

Kelsy Hintz (Del Norte) who set the all-time H-DN girls pole vault record of 12-06, is still vaulting skywards at San Diego State. After she redshirted in the 2008-09 season, Hintz finished in the top 10 in every meet she participated in during the 2009-10 season. On April 23, 2011, Hintz vaulted 13-7.25 at the UCSD Triton Invitational, tying for third place, establishing a personal best, and providing the fourth best vault in Aztecs' women's history. One week later, Hintz took first at the Steve Scott Invitational at UC Irvine with a 13-2.25. Two weeks after that, Hintz finished first at the Mountain West Conference championships at Colorado State University with a 13-04.50. On May 27, Hintz's 13-3.25 at the NCAA preliminary rounds in Eugene, Oregon qualified her for the NCAA championships in Des Moines on June 8. Although Hintz did not place, she had a fantastic season.

Kelsey Jacobs (Fortuna) has been playing as a redshirt freshman in 11 games for Wichita State (6-5) University in the Missouri Valley Conference. Jacobs recovered from the extensive ACL injury she sustained during her senior season with Fortuna, but missed most of last season with another injury. This year, the 6-foot-2 forward has averaged 3.5 rebounds, and is tied for the Shockers' team lead with 18 offensive boards despite playing just 14 minutes per game. In WSU's 64-56 home loss to the No. 20 ranked LSU Tigers, Jacobs pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds (five offensive) in just 20 minutes on the floor. She has continued to be a shot-blocking threat, with has the second most rejections on the team. Jacobs is averaging 2.9 ppg on 15-of-38 shooting (.395).

Cody Hoffman (Del Norte) has continued to put up big numbers during his sophomore year on the Brigham Young University (9-3) football team. The 6-foot-4 wide receiver has led the Cougars this year in pass receptions (53), receiving yards (821), yards/game (68.4), and hauled in 7 TD passes. On special teams, Hoffman returned 33 kickoffs for 838 yards (an average of 25.4 yards), including a 93-yard runback against Central Florida for BYU's first TD return in 13 years (158 games). As a freshman, Hoffman had 42 receptions, 527 yards and 7 TDs -- including 3 against UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl. Hoffman and the Cougars will face Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 30.

Mike Larson (McKinleyville) is ranked No. 18 among 184-pound wrestlers in D-I. As a junior at the University of Missouri --the No. 10 ranked D-I team -- Larson is 9-1, and leads the Tigers with 22 points in dual meets. On Dec. 4, Larson captured first place at the Kaufman-Brand Open in St. Louis. Last year, Larson won five matches and took the fourth-place medal out of 32 wrestlers in the 184-pound bracket at Northwestern University's prestigious 48th annual Midland Championships. Larson ended up 21-15 for the season, a year after he finished second in the Pac-10 championships while a redshirt freshman at CSU Bakersfield.

Sage Romberg (McKinleyville) is second in rebounding (4.5 rpg) and fourth in scoring (7.8 ppg) for Washington State. The 6-foot-1 sophomore is also second in blocked shots and third in steals for the Cougars (6-6). Romberg has started 8 of 12 games and averages 21.4 minutes. On Nov. 24, she tossed in a game-high 19 points, pulled down a team-high 8 rebounds and blocked two shots in WSU's 65-52 win over Marquette at the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands. As a freshman, when she led the Cougars in scoring (9.5 ppg), Romberg was selected to the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team and an honorable mention pick for the All-Pac-10 team.

Soma Vainuku (Eureka) followed up on his fantastic senior season (38 rushing TDs) for the 2009 North Coast Section Division II champion Loggers by heading south to USC. After sitting out in 2010, the 6-foot-2, 255-pound freshman did not carry the ball this year. But Vainuku, listed as the No. 3 fullback on the Trojan's depth chart (usc.rivals.com), should see plenty of action next year considering the fact that the two fullbacks ahead of Vainuku on the depth chart were both seniors. One of Vainuku's duties this year was playing the role of Notre Dame's junior middle linebacker Manti Te'o -- a finalist for The Butkus Award given to colleges' best linebacker -- for the USC scout team. The Trojans (10-2) subsequently beat the Irish 31-17.

Note: Due to time constraints, I focused this column on recent H-DN prep athletes playing NCAA Division I sports. In researching and writing about these 11 athletes playing in seven different sports, if I have inadvertently omitted any person, I apologize. Please contact me (707-441-0579 or ntarpey@times-standard.com) so I can include their information in a future column.

Source: http://www.times-standard.com/rss/ci_19620607?source=rss

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"At Last" singer Etta James terminally ill (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Grammy-winning R&B singer Etta James is terminally ill, her live-in physician said in an interview this week that confirmed reports of the singer's fading health.

Dr. Elaine James, who is no relation to the singer, told a California newspaper in a video interview that the 73-year-old "At Last" singer has leukemia, dementia and kidney disease among her "many, many illnesses."

"At the present time, Etta is considered terminally ill," the doctor told the Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, California, east of Los Angeles. Dr. James added that the diagnosis was made about two weeks ago by three medical specialists including an oncologist and an internist from a local hospital where the singer is frequently treated.

James' two sons, Donto and Sametto, told Reuters on Friday that they were not sure the terminally ill diagnosis was accurate and it was announced without the family's agreement.

The singer's sons are currently involved in a court battle with their stepfather Artis Mills over conservatorship of James' $1 million estate.

Both sons agree that their mother's health is deteriorating and felt that she should be admitted to hospital rather than receiving care at her home in Riverside.

"I saw her the day before yesterday, and I think she needs to be in the hospital. She doesn't look good," said Donto James.

With songs like "The Wallflower" and "Good Rockin' Daddy," James, a three-time Grammy winner, was a key figure in the early days of rock 'n' roll and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

The singer has battled obesity and heroin addiction throughout her life. She lost more than 200 pounds after undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2003.

More recently, she was hospitalized in 2010 with numerous ailments including a bloodstream infection. She become ill while being treated for an addiction to painkillers and over-the-counter medicine in a detoxification center.

James has remained active in the music industry despite her ailments, and she released an album in November this year entitled "The Dreamer."

"I don't think it was meant to be her final album, of course she wants to make more music," said Sametto James.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/people_nm/us_ettajames

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AP-GfK Poll: More than half say Obama should lose

More Americans say the economy got better in the past month than say it got worse, according to an AP-GFK poll.

More Americans say the economy got better in the past month than say it got worse, according to an AP-GFK poll.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A majority of adults say President Barack Obama does not deserve a second term but are evenly divided on whether he will win re-election next year, says a new Associated Press-GfK poll that highlights some of the campaign obstacles he faces.

Although the public would prefer Obama be voted out of office, he fares relatively well in potential matchups with Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Another bit of good news for the Democrat: For the first time since spring, more adults said the economy got better in the past month than said it got worse.

The president's approval rating on unemployment shifted upward ? from 40 percent in October to 45 percent in the latest poll ? as the jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, its lowest level since March 2009.

But Obama's approval rating on his handling of the economy overall remains stagnant: 39 percent approve and 60 percent disapprove.

Heading into the 2012 campaign, the poll shows the challenges facing Obama as he tries to win a second term among a public that does not support his steering of the economy, the most dominant issue for Americans, or his reforms to health care, one of his signature accomplishments. Yet voters appear to be grappling with whether to replace him with Romney or Gingrich.

For the first time, the poll found that a majority of adults, 52 percent, said Obama should be voted out of office while 43 percent said he deserves a second term. The numbers represent a clear reversal since last May, when 53 percent said Obama should be re-elected while 43 percent said he didn't deserve four more years.

Separately, 49 percent expected Obama to win re-election while 48 percent think he will be voted out of office.

Obama's overall job approval stands at a new low: 44 percent approve while 54 percent disapprove. The president's standing among independents is worse: 38 percent approve while 59 percent disapprove. Among Democrats, the president holds steady with an approval rating of 78 percent while only 12 percent of Republicans approve of the job he's doing.

"I think he's doing the best he can. The problem is the Congress won't help at all," said Rosario Navarro, a Democrat and a 44-year-old truck driver from Fresno, Calif., who voted for Obama in 2008 and intends to support him again.

Robin Dein, a 54-year-old homemaker from Villanova, Pa., who is an independent, said she supported Republican John McCain in 2008 and has not been impressed with Obama's economic policies. She intends to support Romney if he wins the GOP nomination.

"(Obama) spent the first part of his presidency blaming Bush for everything, not that he was innocent, and now his way of solving anything is by spending more money," Dein said.

Despite the soft level of support, many are uncertain whether a Republican president would be a better choice. Asked whom they would support next November, 47 percent of adults favored Obama compared with 46 percent for Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. Against Gingrich, the president holds a solid advantage, receiving 51 percent compared with 42 percent for the former House speaker.

The potential matchups paint a better picture for the president among independents. Obama receives 45 percent of non-aligned adults compared with 41 percent for Romney. Against Gingrich, Obama holds a wide lead among independents, with 54 percent supporting the president and 31 percent backing the former Georgia congressman.

Another piece of good news for Obama: people generally like him personally. His personal favorability rating held steady at 53 percent, with 46 percent viewing him unfavorably. About three-quarters called him likable.

The economy remains a source of pessimism, though the poll suggests the first positive movement in public opinion on the economy in months. One in five said the economy improved in the last month, double the share saying so in October. Still most expect it to stay the same or get worse.

"I suppose you could make some sort of argument that it's getting better, but I'm not sure I even see that," said independent voter John Bailey, a 61-year-old education consultant from East Jordan, Mich. "I think it's bad and it's gotten worse under (Obama's) policies. At best, it's going to stay bad."

Despite the high rate of joblessness, the poll found some optimism on the economy. Although 80 percent described the economy as "poor," respondents describing it as "very poor" fell from 43 percent in October to 34 percent in the latest poll, the lowest since May. Twenty percent said the economy got better in the past month while 37 percent said they expected the economy to improve next year.

Yet plenty of warning signs remain for Obama. Only 26 percent said the United States is headed in the right direction while 70 percent said it was moving in the wrong direction.

The president won a substantial number of women voters in 2008 yet there does not appear to be a significant tilt toward him among women now. The poll found 44 percent of women say Obama deserves a second term, down from 51 percent in October, while 43 percent of men say the president should be re-elected.

About two-thirds of white voters without college degrees say Obama should be a one-term president, while 33 percent of those voters say he should get another term. Among white voters with a college degree, 57 percent said Obama should be voted out of office.

The poll found unpopularity for last year's health care reform bill, one of Obama's major accomplishments. About half of the respondents oppose the health care law and support for it dipped to 29 percent from 36 percent in June. Just 15 percent said the federal government should have the power to require all Americans to buy health insurance.

Even among Democrats, the health care law has tepid support. Fifty percent of Democrats supported the health care law, compared with 59 percent of Democrats last June. Only about a quarter of independents back the law.

The president has taken a more populist tone in his handling of the economy, arguing that the wealthy should pay more in taxes to help pay to extend a payroll tax cut that is worth about an additional $1,000 to a family earning about $50,000 a year. Among those with annual household incomes of $50,000 or less, Obama's approval rating on unemployment climbed to 53 percent, from 43 percent in October.

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Dec. 8-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

___

Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Online: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-16-Obama-Poll/id-3bf3793d2fb54032865d2e6304d5e0cc

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Young couple buried under tons of coal in Florida

AP

Christopher Artes in a family photo.

A young couple with wanderlust and a love of trains were found dead this week buried under thousands of pounds of coal in Florida.

Workers at the McIntosh Power Plant in Lakeland, Fla., found the bodies of Christopher Artes and Medeana Hendershot.

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"Artes, 25, and Hendershot, 22, may have been aboard a coal train that arrived late Saturday night in Lakeland, police said," The Lakeland Ledger reports in a?story recounting the couple's itinerant-by-choice lives. "The couple appeared to have died as the coal, about 12,500 tons total, was dumped from the train, plunging the equivalent of multiple stories."

Artes, who grew up in Baltimore,?hopscotched the country on trains, his family said. He met?Hendershot in South Carolina.

Lakeland Ledger: Pair Found Dead in Coal Sought Freedom of Rails

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/16/9498324-young-couple-buried-under-tons-of-coal-in-florida

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KS-herpesvirus induces reprogramming of lymphatic endothelial cells to invasive mesenchymal cells

Public release date: 14-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Pivi Ojala
paivi.ojala@helsinki.fi
358-919-159-445
University of Helsinki

Human tumor viruses contribute to 15-20% of human cancers worldwide. Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) is an etiological agent for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and two other rare lymphoproliferative malignancies. KS is the most common cancer in HIV-infected untreated individuals and remains a primary cause of cancer deaths in many subequatorial African countries as a result of the AIDS pandemic. Researchers at the Institute of Biotechnology and Research Programs Unit (Genome-Scale Biology) at the University of Helsinki have discovered a novel viral oncogenesis mechanism in which KSHV oncogenes co-opt cellular signaling pathways and modify the cellular microenvironment more permissive for viral replication.

The findings by the group of Research Professor Pivi Ojala (Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki) demonstrates the first lymphatic-specific endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) induced by a human tumor virus. The virus-induced EndMT can contribute to development of KS by giving rise to infected, invasive cells, and providing the virus a permissive cellular microenvironment for efficient spread of the virus.

"This information can be used for developing targeted therapies to prevent or at least slow down the progression of KS in immunosuppressed patients", Dr. Ojala says.

By developing a novel three-dimensional (3D) cell model to better mimic the in vivo microenvironment, the researchers show that KSHV induces transcriptional reprogramming of primary lymphatic endothelial cells (LEC) to mesenchymal cells via EndMT, a process implicated in promoting tumor growth and cell invasiveness. Mesenchymal markers were found co-distributed in the same cells with KSHV in primary KS tumor samples, suggesting that the 3D culture in this work succeeds in recapitulating the known heterogeneity of the cell types in KS tumors.

The results also reveal a key enzyme in cancer cell invasion, MT1-MMP, as a previously unrecognized signaling molecule downstream of Notch to induce EndMT. Moreover, the 3D KSHV-LEC transcriptome showed significant up-regulation of invasion related genes, that were found co-regulated in 3D KSHV-LECs and KS biopsies and suggesting that virus-induced EndMT may contribute to development of KS. The results further demonstrate that the 3D culture provides a permissive microenvironment for continuous viral replication and persistence, indicating the importance of virus-cell interactions for viral spread and thereby for oncogenesis.

"The unraveled molecular mechanisms can lead to identification of novel cellular targets for pharmacological control in virus-associated cancers", Dr. Ojala says.

This work is a collaboration between the research teams headed by Kaisa Lehti, Kari Alitalo, Lauri Aaltonen, and Sampsa Hautaniemi (all from University of Helsinki), Chris Boshoff (UCL Cancer Institute, University College London) and Adam Grundhoff (Heinrich Pette Institute-Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology). The project involves scientists from two Academy of Finland National Centre of Excellence Programs, the Translational Genome-Scale Biology and Cancer Biology.

###

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?

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: 14-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Pivi Ojala
paivi.ojala@helsinki.fi
358-919-159-445
University of Helsinki

Human tumor viruses contribute to 15-20% of human cancers worldwide. Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) is an etiological agent for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and two other rare lymphoproliferative malignancies. KS is the most common cancer in HIV-infected untreated individuals and remains a primary cause of cancer deaths in many subequatorial African countries as a result of the AIDS pandemic. Researchers at the Institute of Biotechnology and Research Programs Unit (Genome-Scale Biology) at the University of Helsinki have discovered a novel viral oncogenesis mechanism in which KSHV oncogenes co-opt cellular signaling pathways and modify the cellular microenvironment more permissive for viral replication.

The findings by the group of Research Professor Pivi Ojala (Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki) demonstrates the first lymphatic-specific endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) induced by a human tumor virus. The virus-induced EndMT can contribute to development of KS by giving rise to infected, invasive cells, and providing the virus a permissive cellular microenvironment for efficient spread of the virus.

"This information can be used for developing targeted therapies to prevent or at least slow down the progression of KS in immunosuppressed patients", Dr. Ojala says.

By developing a novel three-dimensional (3D) cell model to better mimic the in vivo microenvironment, the researchers show that KSHV induces transcriptional reprogramming of primary lymphatic endothelial cells (LEC) to mesenchymal cells via EndMT, a process implicated in promoting tumor growth and cell invasiveness. Mesenchymal markers were found co-distributed in the same cells with KSHV in primary KS tumor samples, suggesting that the 3D culture in this work succeeds in recapitulating the known heterogeneity of the cell types in KS tumors.

The results also reveal a key enzyme in cancer cell invasion, MT1-MMP, as a previously unrecognized signaling molecule downstream of Notch to induce EndMT. Moreover, the 3D KSHV-LEC transcriptome showed significant up-regulation of invasion related genes, that were found co-regulated in 3D KSHV-LECs and KS biopsies and suggesting that virus-induced EndMT may contribute to development of KS. The results further demonstrate that the 3D culture provides a permissive microenvironment for continuous viral replication and persistence, indicating the importance of virus-cell interactions for viral spread and thereby for oncogenesis.

"The unraveled molecular mechanisms can lead to identification of novel cellular targets for pharmacological control in virus-associated cancers", Dr. Ojala says.

This work is a collaboration between the research teams headed by Kaisa Lehti, Kari Alitalo, Lauri Aaltonen, and Sampsa Hautaniemi (all from University of Helsinki), Chris Boshoff (UCL Cancer Institute, University College London) and Adam Grundhoff (Heinrich Pette Institute-Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology). The project involves scientists from two Academy of Finland National Centre of Excellence Programs, the Translational Genome-Scale Biology and Cancer Biology.

###

---

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?

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/2011-12/uoh-kir121311.php

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Weiner: Avoid `rush to judgment' on Braun (AP)

NEW YORK ? Baseball's union head says people should wait for all the facts before making conclusions about NL MVP Ryan Braun.

The Milwaukee Brewers' star tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance and is appealing to an arbitrator. The case is not likely to be determined until next month at the earliest. If the positive test is upheld, Braun would face a 50-game suspension as a first offender.

Players' association leader Michael Weiner says in a statement Tuesday that the drug agreement is designed to protect a player from "a rush to judgment." He adds that "fairness dictates that Ryan Braun be treated no differently."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111213/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbn_braun_positive_drug_test

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Muslim Brotherhood seeks to reassure Egyptian voters (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? The Muslim Brotherhood promised Egyptians voting in a run-off on Tuesday it would work in a broad coalition if its party wins parliamentary elections, saying it hoped to avoid a showdown with the ruling military council.

Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie, whose party led the first phase of voting last week, played down suggestions that Islamists would try to dominate parliament when it gets to work after the staggered election is completed in January.

"We will not rule Egypt alone. Parliament will include all the colors of the rainbow that must agree on one direction, one goal," Badie told the private Al-Mehwar station, according to a transcript of the interview.

Parliament's popular mandate will make it difficult for the military council to ignore but the army will remain in charge until a presidential election in June, after which it has said it would hand over power to civilians.

Opponents of the Brotherhood say it will turn Egypt into an Islamic state by stealth, curbing freedoms for 80 million people who include about eight million Christian Copts.

The army, accused of guarding all the levers of power 10 months after the fall of president Hosni Mubarak, announced it would give more decision-making powers to its newly-picked prime minister.

Kamal al-Ganzouri, tasked with forming a "government of national salvation" after violent street protests last month, said the army would grant him presidential powers over everything except the judiciary and armed forces.

Badie said he did not expect the military, which has assumed the role of head of state since Mubarak's fall, to undermine the new parliament. He also dismissed prospects for a showdown with the army after the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said the new assembly should nominate the government.

"The military council is the only president in Egypt and it makes no sense for the president to be unjust, for how can a people choose a government that the military dismisses out of hand?" he said.

ISLAMIST VS ISLAMIST

Hardline Salafis were the surprise runners-up in the opening stage of the vote, the biggest test of the public mood since mass protests ended Mubarak's 30-year rule.

But the Islamists are not united and may not ally themselves in parliament, giving liberals scope to take part in a post-election government and shape the future constitution.

The Salafi al-Nour Party and the FJP were contesting about half the 52 seats up for grabs in Monday and Tuesday's run-offs where no candidate won more than 50 percent in the first round.

"There were attempts to unite, but Salafis are very difficult," said Mohamed Hussein, as he distributed leaflets for the Brotherhood's party in the port city of Alexandria.

"It is easier for me to talk with a liberal or a socialist than a Salafi," he added.

In both Alexandria and Cairo there were none of the long queues that accompanied the first round vote, with analysts seeing a sharp drop in interest by liberal or secularist voters.

"If it's a fight between Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood, they don't want either so they are not going to (vote)," said Adel Soliman of the International Centre for Future and Strategic Studies. "Enthusiasm in the election has now passed."

Independent monitors called for tighter oversight of the polling, saying multiple violations had been recorded, including the rallying of party supporters outside voting stations.

"Until now we haven't seen a positive move to limit this phenomenon," said Tarek Zaghloul, executive manager at the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, involved in monitoring.

He also noted that parties were using banned religious slogans in their campaigning and bussing voters in.

The election committee confirmed that irregularities had forced it to cancel the count in one of Cairo's four electoral districts. A new ballot will be held on January 10 and 11 with the runoffs set for January 17 and 18.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan in Alexandria and Shaimaa Fayed and Edmund Blair in Cairo; Writing by Crispian Balmer; editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111206/wl_nm/us_egypt_election

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CG crash survivor faces charges in deadly incident (Providence Journal)

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Charlie Sheen's ex-wife arrested in Colorado (Reuters)

DENVER (Reuters) ? Brooke Mueller, the ex-wife of actor Charlie Sheen, was arrested for cocaine possession and assault in Aspen, Colorado, the ski resort town where Sheen was arrested for assaulting Mueller in December 2009.

The Aspen Police Department said in a news release that officers were conducting "a routine walk through" of the Belly Up bar late Friday night when a woman reported she was assaulted by Mueller.

"The woman identified Brooke Mueller, 34, of Los Angeles, California as the aggressor," the release said.

Mueller was arrested at a second bar sometime after midnight and charged with felony possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and misdemeanor assault, police said.

Mueller posted a $11,000 bond and was released. She has a December 19 court date. Her spokesman Steve Honig said she would have no immediate comment on the arrest.

On Christmas Day 2009, police were called to an Aspen home the couple was renting for the holidays and arrested Sheen for assaulting Mueller during an argument. Sheen pleaded guilty to the charge in August 2010 and was ordered to serve 30 days in a California drug and rehabilitation facility.

The couple divorced earlier this year.

Sheen was fired from his role on TV's "Two and a Half Men," sitcom after he ranted against his employers and posted videos on the Web in which he bragged about his "winning" ways and the "tiger blood" he had running through in his veins.

He will return to television in summer 2012, in a new "Anger Management" series on FX.

(Editing by Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111203/en_nm/us_crime_sheen_exwife

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Xbox Live update adds 40 entertainment apps, Kinect voice and motion controls, cloud storage, and more (Digital Trends)

Tomorrow, December 6, your Xbox will transform from a gaming console into a full-blown entertainment center.

Microsoft has announced the details of its upcoming overhaul of Xbox Live, which will give users access to dozens of new entertainment services through their dashboard. The update includes live TV, as well as the ability to control their new ?all-in-one? entertainment hub simply by speaking via Kinect?s motion- and voice-control functionality, among other new features. The Xbox Live update will begin rolling out on Tuesday.

Resembling the tile design of Windows Phone 7.5 Metro, as well as the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, the dashboard update is the most major overhaul of Xbox Live in the past five years. Microsoft has billed the update as the ?future of TV,? and from the list of new features, they may just be right.

What?s new

? Metro design: New tile design that makes it easier to navigate through the massively increase number of media options.

? Improved Kinect voice control: Kinect voice search using Bing (Just say: ?Xbox, Bing X-Men,? and all content related to ?X-Men,? from both the Web and your Xbox 360 console, will show up as a selectable option.) Every app is now Kinect-enabled.

? Kinect motion control: Swipe through and select content on the dashboard simply using Kinect motion controls.

? Live TV: Users will now have access to live TV from a number of providers, including Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse.

? Beacons: Let users know you?re up for some multiplayer action at a specific time by posting messages to Xbox Live and Facebook. Friends can then join in on the gameplay straight from the beacon.

? Cloud storage: Users can now save their games directly to Microsoft?s cloud, rather than to the Xbox 360 hard drive, making it possible to load a saved game from any Xbox 360.

? Entertainment apps: Microsoft is adding 40 new entertainment apps globally. The release of new apps will start tomorrow, with many more to follow in the upcoming months.

? Xbox Companion: Also out on Tuesday is a free app for Windows Phone devices, which allows users to control their Xbox Live dashboard directly from their phone.

Upcoming entertainment apps (global)

Dec. 6:
? EPIX. United States
? ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States
? Hulu. Japan
? Hulu Plus. United States
? LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom
? Netflix. Canada, United States
? Premium Play by (MediaSet). Italy
? Sky Go (SkyDE). Germany
? Telef?nica Espa?a ? Movistar Imagenio. Spain
? TODAY (MSNBC). United States

Later in December:
? 4 on Demand (C4). United Kingdom
? ABC iView (Australian Broadcasting Corp.). Australia
? AlloCin?. France (AlloCin?), Germany (Filmstarts), Spain (Sensacine), United Kingdom (Screenrush)
? Astral Media?s Disney XD (Astral Media). Canada
? blinkbox (Blinkbox). United Kingdom
? Crackle (Sony Pictures). Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
? Dailymotion. Available in 32 countries globally
? Demand 5 (Five). United Kingdom
? DIGI+ (CANAL+). Spain
? GolTV (Mediapro). Spain
? iHeartRadio (Clear Channel). United States
? Mediathek/ZDF (ZDF). Germany
? MSN. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom
? MSNBC.com. United States
? MUZU.TV. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
? ninemsn. Australia
? Real Sports (Maple Leaf Sports). Canada
? Rogers On Demand Online (Rogers Media). Canada
? SBS ON DEMAND.Australia
? Sky Go (SkyDE). Austria
? TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States
? TVE (RTVE.es). Spain
? UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC). Canada, United States
? Verizon FiOS TV. United States
? VEVO. Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
? Vudu (Wal-Mart). United States
? YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally

Early 2012:
? Antena 3 (Antena 3 de Televisi?n). Spain
? BBC (BBC). United Kingdom
? CinemaNow (Best Buy). United States
? HBO GO (HBO). United States
? MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media). Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States
? Telenovelas/Sports (Televisa). Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom
? Xfinity On Demand (Comcast). United States

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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McCready's ex says she's pushing luck over son (AP)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. ? Country singer Mindy McCready is pushing her luck with the legal system by not following a judge's order to return her 5-year-old son to the care of her mother in Florida, her ex-boyfriend and father of the boy said Friday.

McCready said Thursday she would not bring her son back from Tennessee, despite violating a custody arrangement.

McCready took the boy during a recent visit at her father's Florida home, and a judge signed an order Thursday ordering authorities to take the boy into custody and return him. It's not yet clear whether the singer could face criminal charges.

"I'm doing all this to protect Zander, not stay out of trouble," McCready wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't think I should be in trouble for protecting my son in the first place."

McCready says she is in Tennessee and cannot travel because she's nearly seven months pregnant with twins.

The judge's order means law enforcement anywhere can pick up the boy and bring him back to Florida.

The boy's father, Billy McKnight, told the NBC "Today" show Friday he spoke on the phone with McCready and their boy after the judge's deadline expired.

"He did sound healthy and ok. He wasn't crying or scared," McKnight said about their son.

"I think she believes she has a case and doesn't realize she's pushing her luck on this one," he said.

McCready and her mother have had a long custody battle over the boy. The boy was living with McCready's mother, who was awarded guardianship in 2007. McCready says her son has suffered abuse at her mother's house; her mother, Gayle Inge, denies the abuse allegations.

"Once the child is located, we will pick him up and bring him back to Florida," said Terri Durdaller, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families. "Although these circumstances are unfortunate for a young child, his safety and well-being are our number one priority."

McCready provided a series of emails to the AP with Lee County Judge James Seals' ruling to return the boy.

"Mom has violated the court's custody order and we are simply restoring the child back into our custody," the judge wrote. "Nothing more. Nothing less. The court makes no judgment about whether Mom will or will not competently care for the child while in her custody. It only wants the child back where the court placed him."

McCready found fame in the mid-1990s and has lived a complicated life in recent years.

In August, she filed a libel suit against her mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted Inge.

And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.

During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010, McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_en_ce/us_people_mccready

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Names Proposed for New Elements on Periodic Table

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The international body that oversees the periodic table of elements unveiled the proposed names for elements 114 and 116: flerovium and livermorium.

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Audio helped sway judge to give Jackson doc jail (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The voice of Michael Jackson helped put the man who killed him behind bars.

It wasn't the familiar voice of hits such as "Billie Jean" and "Thriller," but the slow, slurring recording of the singer that was found on his physician's cell phone that helped convince a judge to sentence the doctor to jail for four years.

The four-minute recording was one of the blockbuster revelations of Dr. Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial, a previously unknown piece of evidence that revealed an impaired Jackson describing his ambitions and aspirations as his personal physician listened.

It was also one of the trial's most haunting moments, and stuck in the mind of Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor as he considered in recent days how to sentence Murray for causing Jackson's unexpected death in June 2009. It wasn't the only thing the judge considered ? he unwaveringly assailed the cardiologist's decisions and ethics for nearly 30 minutes on Tuesday ? but helped convince Pastor to give Murray the maximum sentence.

Jurors unanimously convicted Murray on Nov. 7, but it was up to Pastor on Tuesday to sentence the doctor and explain his punishment.

"Of everything I heard and saw during the course of the trial, one aspect of the evidence stands out the most, and that is the surreptitious recording of Michael Jackson by his trusted doctor," Pastor said.

Murray's attorneys never explained in court why the recording was made, and prosecutors said they do not know what substances Jackson was under the influence of when the audio was recorded six weeks before his death. Murray had been giving the singer nightly doses of the anesthetic propofol to help him sleep.

The doctor's time in a Los Angeles jail will be automatically reduced to less than two years due to laws imposed due to California's prison overcrowding and budget woes.

Murray, 58, will have plenty of time if he wants to consider Pastor's harsh rebuke of him. The Houston-based cardiologist will be confined to a one-man cell and kept away from other prisoners.

With Jackson's family and Murray's mother and girlfriend looking on, the judge called the doctor's actions a "disgrace to the medical profession," and said he displayed a "failure of character" and had showed a complete lack of remorse for his significant role in causing Jackson's death.

"It should be made very clear that experimental medicine is not going to be tolerated, and Mr. Jackson was an experiment," Pastor said. "The fact that he participated in it does not excuse or lessen the blame of Dr. Murray, who simply could have walked away and said no as countless others did.

"But Dr. Murray was intrigued with the prospect of this money-for-medicine madness," the judge said.

Defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan said after the sentencing hearing that Murray made the recording accidentally while playing with a new application on his iPhone. He deleted it, but a computer investigator recovered it from the doctor's phone after Jackson's death.

Pastor said he believed the recording was made with more sinister intent.

"That tape recording was Dr. Murray's insurance policy," the judge said. "It was designed to record his patient surreptitiously; at that patient's most vulnerable point."

"I can't help but wonder if there had been some conflict between Michael Jackson and Dr. Murray at a later point in time in their relationship, what value would be placed on that tape recording, if the choice were to release that tape recording to a media organization to be used against Michael Jackson," Pastor said.

Pastor said Murray was motivated by a desire for "money, fame and prestige" and cared more about himself than Jackson.

After sentencing, Murray mouthed the words "I love you" to his mother and girlfriend in the courtroom. Murray's mother, Milta Rush, sat alone on a bench in the courthouse hallway.

"My son is not what they charged him to be," she said quietly. "He was a gentle child from the time he was small."

Of her son's future, she said, "God is in charge."

Jackson's family said in a statement read in court that they were not seeking revenge but a stiff sentence for Murray that would serve as a warning to opportunistic doctors.

"We're going to be a family. We're going to move forward. We're going to tour, play the music and miss him," brother Jermaine Jackson said.

Defense attorney Ed Chernoff implored Pastor to look at Murray's life and give him credit for a career of good works. "I do wonder whether the court considers the book of a man's life, not just one chapter," Chernoff said.

The judge responded: "I accept Mr. Chernoff's invitation to read the whole book of Dr. Murray's life. But I also read the book of Michael Jackson's life, including the sad final chapter of Dr. Murray's treatment of Michael Jackson."

A probation report released after sentencing said Murray was listed as suicidal and mentally disturbed in jail records before his sentencing. However, Murray's spokesman Mark Fierro said a defense attorney visited the cardiologist in jail last week and found him upbeat.

"That time is behind him," Fierro said.

What lies ahead for Murray is more flogging, with medical authorities in California, Nevada and Texas looking to strip his medical license and Jackson's father, Joseph, suing the physician for wrongful death.

Chernoff, who had advocated Murray receive probation instead of jail, said his client will forever live with the stigma of having caused Jackson's death.

"Whether Dr. Murray is a barista or a greeter at Walmart, he is still the man that killed Michael Jackson," he said.

___

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report.

___

Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_en_ot/us_michael_jackson_doctor

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Obama's Medicare nominee gets GOP leader's support (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama's Medicare nominee Tuesday got unexpected support from one of Congress' Republican stars. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told The Associated Press that Marilyn Tavenner is "eminently qualified" to run Medicare.

It may be too soon to contemplate a truce in the political wars over health care. With Tavenner, major players on both sides may be able to shift from confrontation to problem-solving.

The White House announced Tavenner's nomination last week to replace current Medicare chief Donald Berwick, who had run into a wall of opposition from Republicans and couldn't even get a hearing in the Senate. As head of Medicare and Medicaid, the former nurse would be responsible for programs that already provide coverage to 100 million Americans, as well as for putting in place the new health overhaul law to cover the uninsured.

Cantor said he met Tavenner years ago when he was a state legislator in Richmond, Va., and she was a senior executive for Hospital Corporation of America, a major hospital chain.

"She was an individual with a wealth of knowledge about the complexities of the health care system, and she came forward with solutions that actually made sense," said Cantor. "I always found her to be extremely professional and understanding of the value of the private sector in health care."

Tavenner, 60, is currently Medicare's principal deputy administrator. She started her career as a nurse and worked her way up to hospital executive before entering government service as Virginia's health care secretary. She came to Washington last year as Congress labored in the home stretch to pass Obama's health care law.

Cantor is not a member of the Senate, so he does not get a vote on Tavenner's nomination. But his views are influential with other conservatives.

"I would hope to be able to support her," said Cantor. "Obviously, I'm not in the Senate, so I don't have that vote, but I do think she is qualified. Obviously, she'll be working for a president with an agenda that's quite different from mine."

Cantor said he is convinced that Tavenner is committed to preserving the role of the private sector in health care. Responsibility for health coverage in the U.S. is close to evenly split between federal and state programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and workplace and private insurance. Republicans charge that Obama is trying to engineer a complete takeover by government, while the president insists his way is the best approach for preserving a system of shared responsibility in the face of unsustainable cost increases and millions of uninsured.

Tavenner "is somebody who understands the private sector and business concerns" said Cantor. "Marilyn Tavenner has experience as a nurse at the practical level, and as a health system administrator of a very larger national company. Hopefully she'll bring that type of experience."

Tavenner's nomination has been endorsed by groups representing hospitals, doctors and the health insurance industry. Some congressional Democrats may question her over her tenure at Hospital Corporation, which was embroiled in a major Medicare fraud investigation in the 1990s. None of that seems to have involved Tavenner, however.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_go_co/us_medicare_nominee

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Bachmann opens book tour at MOA (Star Tribune)

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

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Stocks slip to end the roughest week since Sept.

Traders Richard Cohen, left, and Lewis Vande-Pallen, right, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Stocks are taking a sharp fall in early trading Monday amid reports that a congressional committee will fail to agree on a plan to cut the U.S. government's budget deficit.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders Richard Cohen, left, and Lewis Vande-Pallen, right, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Stocks are taking a sharp fall in early trading Monday amid reports that a congressional committee will fail to agree on a plan to cut the U.S. government's budget deficit.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The worst week for the stock market in two months ended with a whimper in thin trading Friday.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 4.8 percent this week, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.7 percent. Both had their worst weeks since Sept. 23.

Major indexes wavered throughout Friday's session, which was shortened because it's the day after Thanksgiving. Worries about Europe's debt crisis flared up again after Italy had to pay 7.8 percent to borrow for two years at a debt auction. It's another sign that investors are increasingly hesitant to lend to European countries.

The euro slipped to $1.32, losing 2 percent this week against the dollar. The drop puts the euro at its lowest level since Oct. 4.

Higher interest rates on government debt of Italy, Spain and other European countries have rattled stock markets in recent weeks. When borrowing costs climb above the 7 percent threshold, it deepens investor fears about a government's ability to manage its debts. Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to seek financial lifelines when their interest rates crossed the same mark.

The Dow fell 25.77 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 11,231.78. Of the Dow's 30 stocks, Chevron Corp. lost 1.6 percent Friday, the biggest drop. Travelers Cos. Inc. added 1.2 percent, the largest gain.

The S&P 500 lost 3.12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,158.67. The Nasdaq composite dropped 18.57, or 0.8 percent, to close at 2,441.51.

Trading volume was 1.6 billion, less than half the daily average.

Markets were battered this week as governments in Europe and the U.S. struggle to tackle their debts. The Dow lost 248 points on Monday as a Congressional committee failed to reach a deal to cut federal budget deficits. It plunged 236 points Wednesday after investors balked at buying German government debt.

Retailers traded mixed on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season and usually the busiest day of the year for retailers. Amazon.com Inc. dropped 3.5 percent. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. inched up 0.4 percent.

A record number of people were expected to show up at stores this weekend to take advantage of deep discounts. The National Retail Federation estimates that 152 million people will go shopping over the three days starting on Friday. That would be an increase of 10 percent from last year.

AT&T's stock dipped less than 1 percent. The company said Thursday that it is budgeting to pay $4 billion in break-up fees if its attempted $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom falls apart.

Four stocks fell for every three that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

Associated Press

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