Yankees post back-to-back 7-run innings, win 15-9




By JIMMY GOLEN, AP Sports Writer
BOSTON (AP) — New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi found little to get excited about after Mark Teixeira's solo homer in the sixth inning.
After all, the Yankees still trailed by eight runs.
"You're down 9-0 and Tex hits what looks like an innocent home run. Then we come back with back-to-back seven-run innings," Girardi said after New York rallied to beat Boston 15-9. "I don't think I've ever been a part of that."
Nick Swisher hit a grand slam in the seventh to help the Yankees

UFC 145 live results: Rashad Evans vs. Jon Jones


By Todd Martin
April 21, 2012
UFC 145 takes place from Atlanta Saturday night, headlined by a grudge match for the UFC light heavyweight title between champion Jon Jones and challenger Rashad Evans. We'll be providing ongoing coverage throughout the evening, beginning at around 4PM Pacific.

 Rapid Reaction: Valentine's Day Massacre
By Gordon Edes

BOSTON -- The tweet came from a New Yorker (@jdubs88), and it’s a winner. Something the Red Sox are decidedly not. 


“The Bobby Valentine’s Day Massacre,” he called it

If this is what Fenway Park has to look forward to in its second century, it might prefer that someone hang a condemned notice at 4 Yawkey Way. 


One hundred years and one day into its existence, Fenway bore witness to what will make anyone’s short list of worst Red Sox losses ever. 

       In his weekly address, Obama pushes for lower student loan rates

By Leigh Ann Caldwell

CBS THIS MORNINGGeorge Zimmerman's release could be imminent1 of 9CBS THIS MORNINGNYPD close to finding Etan Patz remains?2 of 9CBS THIS MORNINGSecret Service sex scandal keeps growing3 of 9GALLERYMexico's Popocatepetl

        Orrin Hatch to face run-off in primary






By Leigh Ann Caldwell

(CBS News) Orrin Hatch of Utah overcame Tea Party-tied opposition to advance his quest for a seventh term in the Senate, but did not perform well enough at the Republican Party's state convention to avoid a run-off election.

Obtaining 59.2 percent of the vote of delegates at Saturday's state convention, Hatch will face Dan Liljenquist, a former member of the State Senate, in a run-off on June 26.

Although the veteran lawmaker easily obtained 40 percent of delegates' support to advance, he fell a hair short of obtaining the 60 percent support of state delegates necessary to avoid a run-off.

  Watergate figure Charles Colson has died at 80
By Jessica Gresko

WASHINGTON—He was described as the "evil genius" of the Nixon administration, and spent the better part of a year in prison for a Watergate-related conviction. His proclamations following his release that he was a new man, redeemed by his religious faith, were met with more than skepticism by those angered at the abuses he had perpetrated as one of Nixon's hatchet men.

But Charles "Chuck" Colson spent the next 35 years steadfast in his efforts to evangelize to a part of society scorned just as he was. And he became known perhaps just as much for his efforts to minister to prison inmates as for his infamy with Watergate.

Colson died Saturday at age 80. His death was confirmed by Jim Liske, chief executive of the Lansdowne, Va.-based Prison Fellowship Ministries that Colson founded. Liske said the preliminary cause of death was complications from brain surgery Colson had at the end of March. He underwent the surgery to remove a clot after becoming ill March 30 while speaking at a conference.

Colson once famously said he'd walk over his grandmother to get the president elected to a second term. In 1972 The Washington Post called him "one of the most powerful presidential aides, variously described as a troubleshooter and as a `master of dirty tricks.'"

"I shudder to think of what I'd been if I had not gone to prison," Colson said in 1993. "Lying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it's not prosperity or pleasure that's important, but the maturing of the soul."

He helped run the Committee to Re-elect the President when it set up an effort to gather intelligence on the Democratic Party. The arrest of the committee's security director, James W. McCord, and four other men burglarizing the Democratic National Committee offices in 1972 set off the scandal that led to Nixon's resignation in August 1974.

But it was actions that preceded the actual Watergate break-in that resulted in Colson's criminal conviction. Colson pleaded guilty to efforts to discredit Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg. It was Ellsberg who had leaked the secret Defense Department study of Vietnam that became known as the Pentagon Papers.

The efforts to discredit Ellsberg included use of Nixon's plumbers -- a covert group established to investigate White House leaks -- in 1971 to break into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to look for information that could discredit Ellsberg's anti-war efforts.

The Ellsberg burglary was revealed during the course of the Watergate investigation and became an element in the ongoing scandal. Colson pleaded guilty in 1974 to obstruction of justice in connection with attempts to discredit Ellsberg, though charges were dropped that Colson actually played a role in the burglary of Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Charges related to the actual Watergate burglary and cover-up were also dropped. He served seven months in prison. Before Colson went to prison he became a born-again Christian, but critics said his post-scandal redemption was a ploy to get his sentence reduced. The Boston Globe wrote in 1973, "If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everyone."

Ellsberg, for his part, said in an interview that Colson never apologized to him and did not respond to several efforts Ellsberg made over the years to get in touch with him. Ellsberg said he still believes that Colson's guilty plea was not a matter of contrition so much as an effort to head off even more serious allegations that Colson had sought to hire thugs to administer a beating against Ellsberg -- an allegation that Colson states in his book was believed by prosecutors despite his denial.

"I have no reason to doubt his evangelism," Ellsberg said of Colson. "But I don't think he felt any kind of regret" for what he had done, except remorse that he had been ineffective and got caught.

Colson stayed with his faith after Watergate and went on to win praise -- including the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion -- for his efforts to use it to help others. Colson later called going to prison a "great blessing."

He created the Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976 to minister to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families. It runs work-release programs, marriage seminars and classes to help prisoners after they get out. An international offshoot established chapters around the world.

"You can't leave a person in a steel cage and expect something good to come out of him when he is released," Colson said in 2001.

Michael Cromartie, director of the Evangelical Studies Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, worked with Colson at Prison Fellowship Ministries. He said he's certain Colson's faith was genuine.

"Before he went off to prison he had a born again evangelical experience, a conversion experience," he said. It produced guffaws in official Washington, Cromartie said, but Colson demonstrated he was serious.

When Colson emerged from prison, "he had a lot of offers to do other things that would have made him a lot of money", but he wanted to serve people who had been "forgotten" in society, Cromartie said.

"I think if he's going to be remembered for anything, he's going to be remembered as a person who had a complete turnaround in his life," he said.

While faith was a large part of Colson's message, he also tackled such topics as prison overpopulation and criticized the death penalty, though he thought it could be justified in rare cases. He said those convicted of nonviolent crimes should be put on community-service projects instead of being locked up He wrote more than 20 books, including "Born Again: What Really Happened to the White House Hatchet Man," which was turned into a movie.

"(W)ho was I to moralize, to preach to others?" Colson wrote. "I'd botched it, was one of those who helped bring on Watergate and was in prison to prove it. Yet maybe that very fact ... could give me some insights that would help others."

Royalties from all his books have gone to his ministry program, as did the $1 million Templeton prize, which he won in 1993.

Colson also wrote a syndicated column, and started his daily radio feature, BreakPoint, which airs on more than 1,000 radio networks, according to the PFM Web site.

While he admitted he'd been wrong to do so much of Nixon's dirty work, he remained embittered at one of the sources who'd exposed the wrongdoing. In 2005, when it was revealed that Mark Felt was the infamous "Deep Throat" responsible for the fall of the Nixon administration, Colson was disgusted, having worked so closely with Felt. "He goes out of his life on a very sour note, not as a hero," Colson said.

Colson, a Boston native earned his bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1953 and served as a captain in the Marine Corps from 1953 to 1955. In 1959, he received his doctorate with honors from George Washington University.

He spent several years as an administrative assistant to Massachusetts Sen. Leverett Saltonstall. Nixon made him special counsel in November 1969.

In the mid-1990s Colson teamed up with the Rev. Richard Neuhaus to write "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium," calling for Catholics and evangelicals to unite and accept each other as Christians.

In February 2005, Colson was named one of Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America."

Time commended Colson for helping to define compassionate conservatism through his campaign for humane prison conditions and called him one of "evangelicalism's more thoughtful public voices."

"After decades of relative abstention, Colson is back in power politics," Time wrote.

Mark Earley, a former Virginia attorney general who became president and chief executive officer of Prison Fellowship Ministries after his failed gubernatorial run in 2001, said the influence of Colson's work in his ministry is a different kind of power from what he had as Nixon's special counsel.

"Yet, it wasn't until he lost that power, what most people would call real `power,' that Chuck began to make a real difference and exercise the only kind of influence that really matters," Earley said on BreakPoint.

"Prison Fellowship is possible only because its founder, Chuck Colson, was forced to personally identify with those people who hold a special place in God's heart: prisoners and their families."

In October 2000, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush restored Colson's civil rights, allowing him to vote, sit on a jury, run for office and practice law. Colson had a home in Naples, Fla., and Bush called him "a great guy ... a great Floridian."

Ultimately, Colson credited the Watergate scandal with enriching his life.

God "used that experience -- Watergate -- to raise up a ministry that is reaching hundreds of thousands of people," Colson said in the late 1990s. "So I'm probably one of the few guys around that's saying, `I'm glad for Watergate.'"

‘Pregnant Man’ Thomas Beatie Separates From Wife

By Jennifer Abbey

Thomas Beatie, the female-to-male transgender who caused controversy in 2007 when he became pregnant, has separated from his wife of nine years, according to People magazine.
Beatie, who has had three children with wife Nancy, announced the separation during a taping of CBS’ “The Doctors.”
“Like all marriages, we have our ups and downs, and we’re going through a rough patch right now. At the moment, we’re separated,” Beatie said on the show, according to People magazine.
Also during the taping, Beatie revealed that he had the final female-to-male gender reassignment surgery, People reports.
“Nancy hasn’t seen the new me yet,” Beatie, 38, says.
Beatie, who was born female in 1974 and named Tracy Lagondino, had sex-reassignment surgery in 2002 and legally changed from female to male in Hawaii. But Beatie had never undergone “bottom” surgery, known as phalloplasty, to create an artificial penis, until now. He also left his female reproductive organs in place and said the decision to bear children came after his wife, Nancy, found out she could not.
Beatie first made headlines in 2007 when he appeared in photos, bearded with a pregnant belly. He was then known as “the world’s first pregnant man.”
Beatie’s three children, daughter Susan and sons Austin and Jensen, were all born between June 2008 and July 2010 through artificial insemination using donor sperm.
In October, Beatie, Nancy, and their three children appeared on another episode of “The Doctors” in which Beatie revealed he was considering a hysterectomy.
The new episode of “The Doctors” airs Monday, May 7.

Flyers again can’t seal the deal as Penguins triumph

By Frank Seravalli / Philadelphia Daily News


PITTSBURGH — Drenched and dragging, the Flyers left the ice on Friday night with nothing left in the tank after a furious push in which they tried to end the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season.

With a sea of white towels cheering their exit, the Flyers, who outshot and outchanced Pittsburgh by a healthy margin in the third period, left behind a rambunctious crowd as the series heads back to Philadelphia for Game 6 on Sunday at noon.

Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy went top shelf on goalie Ilya Bryzgalov just three minutes apart in the second period, and the Flyers were thwarted by goalie Marc-Andre Fleury’s newfound brilliance in the final period in a 3-2 loss at Consol Energy Center in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

                  Earth, better or worse?
3 ways our environment is healthier after the creation of Earth Day, and 3 ways it's not
By Naomi Nix, Chicago Tribune reporter

Sunday is Earth Day, and Chicagoans are marking the occasion.

Local high school students will display a pop-up art exhibit at two city locations Sunday, weather permitting, through a program at the Field Museum focused on how Chicago families can help the Earth.

A yacht club is donating some of its proceeds from electric boat ride memberships on the Chicago River this month to the Earth Day Network. Clergy will deliver sermons on the importance of environmental sustainability.

After it began in 1970, Earth Day buzz eventually led to the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the clean water, clean air and endangered species acts.

More than 40 years after the movement began, scientists say there are reasons to celebrate the health of Mother Nature, and also some reasons to worry.

Positives

Air quality

In the early 1970s, the newly-created Illinois Environmental Protection Agency began to enforce pollution restrictions on municipalities, private organizations and businesses. As lead and mercury levels lessened, so did pollution-related illnesses.

"It was really remarkable how quickly lead levels in the air declined," said Susan Kidwell, a geophysical science professor at the University of Chicago.

Green space

Experts say that green space in cities brings wildlife, clears pollution and has a positive effect on children's well-being.

"What we did is we added new types of spaces, because what we valued changed," said Kathleen Dickhut, deputy commissioner of the city's Department of Housing and Economic and Development.

Clean water

Soon after it was created, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency began to regulate what gets dumped into Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. The toxins, sewage and industrial waste that were regularly discarded in local rivers became better regulated, resulting in rivers that are not only cleaner but less likely to make residents sick.

Negatives

Invasive species

Quagga and zebra muscles, for instance, have been making their way to the Great Lakes. The finger-nail size sea critters filter out plankton that smaller fish eat, disrupting the normal ecosystem. The influx of these species also results in clearer waters, which means more sunlight can get through and creates more algae.

"If you were going to the border of Illinois (from) Michigan you would likely find a carpet of quagga muscles," said Todd Main, deputy director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. "I guess that's one way of saying it's a big problem."

Carbon dioxide

Increased output of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, due to increased electrical production, creates changes in the Earth's temperature and weather patterns.

Climate Change

Climate change is a global environmental issue. Experts say regions such as Chicago will have to plan for how to deal with hotter summer, heavier rains and bigger snowstorms.

"People look at global climate change and they think of polar caps ... (but) there are local impacts too," said Aaron Durnbaugh, director of sustainability at Loyola University Chicago.

Jose Canseco not a 'gimmick' for Worcester Tornadoes
By Jim Wilson TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER —  The Worcester Tornadoes made their biggest — and most controversial — move in franchise history yesterday with the signing of Jose Canseco.

Canseco, the 1988 American League MVP, played 17 seasons in the major leagues, including a stint with the Boston Red Sox in 1995 and ’96, and hit 462 home runs. The 47-year-old Canseco last played in the majors in 2001 and may be more famous for his admission of anabolic steroid use in 2005. The six-time all-star has written two books about his controversial life in baseball and in his 2005 book “Juiced” he claimed 85 percent of major league players used banned substances.

Canseco was in Boston yesterday taking part in the 100th anniversary celebration at Fenway Park. He was among the former Red Sox players honored during a pregame ceremony, and he played to the crowd by flexing his biceps during his entrance.

“I can’t wait. It’s what I love to do,” Canseco said after yesterday’s celebration. “I’ll play anywhere, any time for any team that wants me. I’ll play until I can’t find a place to play. It’s my addiction.”

The Tornadoes start their season on May 17 at Newark, with their home opener on Monday, May 21, at 7:05 p.m. against defending Can-Am League champion Quebec.

A Fenway Park Celebration Ends When the Yankees Step on the Field


By DAVID WALDSTEIN

BOSTON — In what was surely the largest number of Red Sox ever assembled, 212 former players gathered Friday afternoon to help 36,770 fans celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park. But, as has often happened here, 25 Yankees spoiled the party.

They hit five home runs — two by Eric Chavez — to beat the Red Sox, 6-2, and ruin a long-anticipated day for the hosts.

DIARY-IMF, World Bank Spring 2012 meetings in Washington
From:reuters


Finance ministers and central bankers from around the globe are in Washington this week for the semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Following is a schedule of the top events. All times listed are in EDT/GMT.

Saturday, April 21

0800/1200 - The IMF's steering panel, the International Monetary and Financial Committee, meets. IMFC Chair Tharman Shanmugaratnam and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde hold news briefing following the meeting

Time TBD - The joint IMF/World Bank Development Committee meets. A news briefing follows

1100/1500 - Finance ministers from Africa holds news briefing

1700/2100 - The Bank of France hosts a panel discussion on financial stability

Sunday, April 22

Time TBD - IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde holds news briefing following a meeting of the African Consultative Group

     'Think Like A Man:' The Reviews Are In!
By Fallon Prinzivalli
Critics agree the cliché and 'disposable' plot is strengthened by its ensemble cast.

The story line for "Think Like a Man" is nothing groundbreaking. Every rom-com touches on men wanting sex and women wanting a man to sweep them off their feet — with both unsatisfied until everything is tied into a neat bow in the last five minutes.

Based on the Steve Harvey book "Act like a Lady, Think like a Man," the film follows a group of men who realize their relationships are being infiltrated by Harvey's self-help book. The women are highlighting away at the pages and using every tactic to get what they want out of their affairs. And while many critics claim the movie looks more like an infomercial, what saves the film is the ensemble cast of attractive, talented actors — Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, Kevin Hart, Taraji P. Henson and Regina Hall, to name a few — who deliver mild lines with wit and perfectly hit the punch lines of

Phillies win a strange one, continue domination in San Diego



SAN DIEGO -- Two balks on their starting pitcher. Their leadoff man called out for hitting outside the batter's box. Their No. 5 hitter told to stay in the box after being hit with a pitch.


It was a strange game for the Phillies, but it would end like their previous 12 games in San Diego: They walked off winners, 4-1 over the Padres, extending the club record for consecutive wins in any ballpark.


"Baseball is a weird game," said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, whose team hasn't lost in Petco Park since a defeat there on Aug. 16, 2008.


Shane Victorino singled to begin a three-run rally in the seventh inning. An inning later, batting right-handed, the switch-hitter hit his second home run of the season. It came a few pitches after umpire Dan Bellino told him to continue batting because he'd leaned into a pitch that him in the shoulder.


"I hit a home run; that's all I need to say," Victorino said.


Cole Hamels (2-1) held the Padres (3-13) to one run over six innings despite two balks, the first multi-balk game by a Phillies pitcher since Paul Quantrill also had two in July 1995.


Hamels agreed with the first balk call, but he yelled in disagreement after umpire Bob Davidson called him for a second balk in the fourth.


The lefty escaped after each balk.


"You're got to take it for what it was and keep pitching," said Hamels.


Brian Schneider's first hit of the year, an RBI single off Padres reliever Andrew Cashner with none out and the bases loaded, tied the score 1-1 in the seventh. One out later, Juan Pierre's two-run single put the Phillies ahead 3-1.


The Padres' Edinson Volquez (0-2) took a 1-0 lead into the seventh, but Victorino hit a leadoff single and advanced to second base on Ty Wigginton's single. When Freddy Galvis bunted the ball between the mound and third base, neither Volquez nor third baseman Chase Headley moved toward the ball. The result was a single that loaded the bases.


"I screwed up," Headley said.


Cashner replaced Volquez and began with a 99 mile-per-hour fastball to Schneider, who was in the starting lineup because catcher Carlos Ruiz had a sore wrist. Schneider pulled the fastball into right field for a base hit to score Victorino.


Pierre yanked a slider into right field for his third and fourth RBI of the season.


"I got the groundballs I wanted," Cashner said. "They just didn't find the right spots."


Jonathan Papelbon allowed no baserunners to get his fifth save and improve the Phillies' Petco record to 24-4 while lifting the team's 2012 record to 7-7.


A Padres fans who grew up in San Diego, Hamels entered the game as Petco's all-time leader in ERA (1.23) with at least five starts. But the lefty needed Petco's large outfield and a strong defense to keep the Padres in check.


"It's nice pitching in a big ballpark," Hamels said. "I wasn't able to locate with too many pitches. Fortunately with the ballpark, you're able to get away with a lot of pitches down the middle."


In the third, the Phillies' defense stepped up. Galvis, the second baseman, made a difficult play to his left, and right fielder Hunter Pence made a running catch in deep right-center.


In the fourth, it was Hamels who made a stellar defensive play, using his glove creatively to retire Yonder Alonso at home plate. With one out, Volquez put down a safety squeeze bunt toward Hamels, who raced off the mound and with a scoop-and-flip of his glove sent the ball about 10 feet to his catcher, Schneider, well before the slow-footed Alonso arrived.


"I know I couldn't have gotten the ball with my bare hand," Hamels said.


The Padres took a 1-0 lead in the fifth on Cameron Maybin's leadoff triple and Jesus Guzman's RBI groundout to shortstop. The run ended a 21-inning scoreless streak by Phillies starters.


Volquez overcame a leadoff double by Hamels off the center-field fence in the third.


NOTES: Hamels had three career balks entering the game. ... Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz was out of the lineup because of a wrist injury suffered on Thursday when he jammed his wrist while tagging out the Padres' Will Venable. "The wrist was swollen," said manager Charlie Manuel. Brian Schneider started for Ruiz and might start Saturday's game as well. ... Phillies leadoff man Juan Pierre was called out for stepping outside of the batter's box while putting a bunt in play in the third inning.

Form: chicagotribune.com

      'Idol' Dixon looks forward to Murfreesboro homecoming

Colton Dixon, right, says goodbye to his fellow contestants after learning he had been eliminated Thursday on ‘American Idol.’ He will rejoin them on a summer tour in July. / Photo courtesy of Fox

MURFREESBORO — Less than 24 hours after being eliminated from “American Idol,” Colton Dixon is on his way to New York. While his time on the show has come to a close, he is on to the next steps of promoting his career.

On Friday, the 20-year-old Murfreesboro native spent time with the media doing interviews, then he was off to the East Coast for an appearance on “Live with Kelly” Monday morning.

“I should be home later next week. I can’t wait. I’m super excited to be home,” Dixon said.

Although he has not had any meetings about record deals, he isn’t concerned.

“I’ll do one myself. I want to do one that bad,” he said.

Of course, Dixon is already signed on to the “American Idol” tour this summer from July to September.

Things definitely looked brighter in the morning, but Thursday night, Dixon was startled by his elimination.

“I knew I was going to be in the bottom three,” Dixon said. “I deserved to be.”

Dixon watched his performance along with those of his fellow contestants. He felt he was not as good, so he expected to be lower in the voting, but he never expected to go home.

“Once I heard I was eliminated, I just took a breath. My final song (“Everything” by Lifehouse) was totally a worship moment, totally a connection between me and God,” he said.

In between other obligations, Dixon took some time to answer reader-submitted questions from The Daily News Journal readers and DNJ.com Facebook friends.

Is there anything between you and (fellow Idol contestant) Skylar Laine?

Dixon: (Laughs) I get that all the time. No, I don’t have anything with Skylar. We are just friends, but I can talk to her about anything. That’s how close the Idol family gets. It’s funny though, when I got eliminated, she said, “Well, I guess we are not dating anymore. I guess we have to break up.”

Was it hard to keep your Christian faith being in Hollywood and getting so much attention?

Dixon: There were times I was so busy, but I always made a point to take time because I knew if I strayed, I would be lost. On stage was my time to be a reflection of God.


How is your relationship with your sister, Schyler after the audition situation?

Dixon: Schyler and I are doing just fine. Our family is such a tight knit one. She was enjoying (Los Angeles) life as much as I was. But I’m ready to be home and a normal family again.

Do you plan on pairing with your sister on a future album or are you pursuing solo careers?

Dixon: Schyler and I are doing solo careers, but I do think we should do a duet. I think that would be sic!

What kind of album do you plan to record?

Dixon: I really like (the bands) Switchfoot and The Line that crosses the line with Christian and secular music. I would love to do the best of both worlds, but whatever genre I go into, I won’t water down the message.

If you could change one thing about your journey on “American Idol,” what would it be?

Dixon: I would change the song choice from this week. Nothing against Lady Gaga, (he sang her single “Bad Romance”) but I think I would have chosen something with a more positive message.

Do you think your comment “I don’t care” on Wednesday, April 18, had a part in you going home? What did you mean by it?

Dixon: I hated the way they edited that. I didn’t see it until I was backstage with Jessica (Sanchez). What I said was “Ouch, that hurt,” and that I didn’t care because I was not singing for the judges or anybody else in the audience but for myself and God. When I saw how they edited it, that’s why I apologized. I appreciate the judges and their constructive criticism and all I learned from them. Yeah, it was kinda weird.

Did you expect to go home?

Dixon: I expected to be in the bottom three, but no, I didn’t think I would go home. I thought I would have a chance to redeem myself.

What is the one thing you learned from your experience on “American Idol”?

Dixon: Always be yourself, no matter what suggestions are put in your ear. Never waver from who you are, whether it is your faith or what style of music you choose.



Form:  DNJ EXCLUSIVE

  Pat Summitt To Receive Presidential Medal Of Freedom
WASHINGTON -- The White House says former Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
President Barack Obama says Summitt is an "inspiration" as the coach who has won more games than anyone else in NCAA college basketball history and for her willingness to "speak so openly and courageously about her battle with Alzheimer's."
The White House says Summitt was notified last week of Obama's decision to present her with the award. It will be presented later this year.
Summitt announced Wednesday she was stepping aside as Tennessee's head coach after 38 seasons. Summitt said in August that she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia.
Summitt has won eight national titles and 1,098 games during her coaching career at Tennessee.



by:http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Wall Street up on earnings but tech, banks weigh


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks mostly rose on Friday, led by solid earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Microsoft, but declines in banks and technology shares pulled indexes from their day's highs.
The Nasdaq Composite fell as SanDisk Corp (NSQ:SNDK - News) led a drop in semiconductor shares with an 11.3 percent slide after its second revenue warning in as many quarters.
Apple Inc's (NSQ:AAPL - News) more than 2.4 percent fall also weighed, as shares continue to struggle ahead of earnings next week. Apple shares posted back-to-back weekly declines of more than 4 percent for the first time since late December 2008.
As earnings season moves into high gear, the first wave of corporate results has been substantially stronger than expected. About 81 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have beat expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The impressive rate of beats comes amid lowered expectations, but the earnings have helped stocks regain their footing after a recent pullback on less-than-inspiring U.S. economic figures and renewed worry about Europe's debt crisis.
Analysts said the weakness heading into Friday's close was in part because of caution ahead of an early indicator of China's industrial activity, expected late Sunday.
"We already know earnings are coming in better, and the market has been up quite a bit," said Doreen Mogavero, president and chief executive of Mogavero Lee & Co. in New York.
"The private-sector manufacturing data from China will be setting the pace for next week, so people are taking some profits off the table," she said.
A weaker level in China's HSBC flash purchasing managers index late in March sent equity and other risk markets lower.
The Dow Jones industrial average (DJI:^DJI - News) rose 65.16 points, or 0.50 percent, to 13,029.26. The S&P 500 Index (MXP:^GSPC - News) gained 1.61 points, or 0.12 percent, to 1,378.53. The Nasdaq Composite (NAS:^COMP) dropped 7.11 points, or 0.24 percent, to 3,000.45.
For the week, the Dow gained 1.4 percent, the S&P 500 added 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.4 percent, down for a third week running.
Bank of America Corp (NYS:BAC - News) fell 4.7 percent to $8.36 after a downgrade from CLSA analyst Mike Mayo. The shares led declines in the S&P financials group (.GSPF), the second-worst performing among the S&P 500 top 10 sectors.
Microsoft Corp (NSQ:MSFT - News) jumped 4.5 percent to $32.42 and was the top boost to the Dow on Friday, a day after its profit report beat Wall Street's expectations.
General Electric Co's (NYS:GE - News) results drove buying in industrial shares. The company said it expects double-digit earnings for the year, which helped shares rise 1.1 percent to $19.36.
Industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc (NYS:HON - News) reported higher quarterly profit and raised its 2012 earnings forecast. The stock rose 2.4 pct to $59.39.
The S&P industrial sector index (REU:^GSPII), up 0.8 percent, was a top boost to the S&P 500.
McDonald's Corp (NYS:MCD - News) edged up 0.7 percent to $95.94 after the world's No. 1 fast-food chain reported higher quarterly profit, helped by strong U.S. sales.
About 6.68 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE Amex, just shy of the 6.78 billion daily average so far this year.
Almost two issues rose on the NYSE for every one that fell, and despite the day's decline, three issues rose for every two that fell on the Nasdaq.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, editing by Padraic Cassidy)

             Rare 1792 penny sells for $1.15M
  This photo combination made with images provided by Heritage Auctions shows the front and back of a copper and silver 1792 experimental penny that sold at auction in Schaumburg, Ill. on Thursday, April 19, 2012. Officials with Heritage Auctions say Kevin Lipton of Beverly Hills, Calif., bought the penny on behalf of a group of unnamed investors for $1 million and must also pay the auction house's 15 percent commission. It was never actually put into circulation and only 14 examples of the coin are known to exist. (AP Photo/Heritage Auctions)

         Syrian forces fire on anti-regime protesters



By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press 
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops fired tear gas and bullets on thousands of protesters who spilled out of mosques after noon prayers Friday, activists said. State media reported that bombs and shootings killed 17 soldiers as the latest diplomatic efforts failed to halt more than 13 months of bloodshed in the country.
Opposition activists reported that at least 11 Syrian civilians were killed in regime shelling and other attacks Friday, the main day of the week for protests calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad.
The United Nations hopes to have 30 observers in Syria next week to monitor the tenuous cease-fire between regime troops and opposition, and plans are being made for the deployment of up to a total of 300. An advance team of seven monitors, whose presence set off anti-Assad marches that prompted gunfire from security forces in at least two areas earlier this week, did not venture out Friday.
The U.N. is also trying to ramp up its humanitarian response and send more food, medicine and aid workers to Syria, said John Ging, the head of emergency response at the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"The whole infrastructure of the country is under strain," Ging said. He added that the Syrian regime has finally acknowledged that there is a "serious humanitarian need" and that he hopes this will ease the aid mission.
Ging said the idea is to help one million people over six months with food, medical assistance and emergency supplies.
U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the World Food Program, through the Syrian Red Crescent, had given food to about 100,000 Syrians in need, a figure expected to double in a month.
The U.N. estimates some 230,000 Syrians have been displaced and more than 9,000 killed since the uprising against President Bashar Assad erupted more than a year ago. The revolt began with largely peaceful protests, but has grown increasingly violent as the opposition has taken up arms in response to a brutal regime crackdown.
A U.N.-brokered cease-fire that technically went into effect last week has been steadily unraveling, with regime forces continuing to shell rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs and opposition fighters ambushing government troops. Still, the truce is still seen as the most viable way to end the bloodshed, simply for a lack of other options.
Western powers have called for Assad's ouster, but the Syrian leader has dug in, unleashing his military on an ill-equipped and fractured opposition, and there appears to be little appetite in the international community to try to dislodge him by force with an operation similar to the one that helped topple Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi last year.
Instead, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to adopt an arms embargo and other tough measures against Syria. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took a hard line against Damascus, saying Syria was not honoring the cease-fire and that violence was escalating.
As part of the truce, Assad was to withdraw troops and tanks from urban centers and allow peaceful anti-regime marches, which the opposition has staged every Friday since the uprising began. He has ignored both provisions and continued attacking opposition strongholds, though the overall level of violence is down compared to the period before the truce.
On Friday, protests were reported in the capital Damascus and its suburbs, as well as in the northern city of Aleppo, the central regions of Hama and Homs, in eastern towns near the border with Iraq and in the southern province of Daraa. Demonstrators spilled out from mosques onto the streets, calling for Assad's downfall and chanting in support of the country's rebel forces, activists said.
"Security is extremely tight in Damascus," said activist Maath al-Shami, adding that despite the heavy presence of plainclothes security agents, there were protests in the capital's neighborhoods of Qaboun,            Midan, Barzeh and Mazzeh.
He said troops fired in the air to disperse the protesters. Activists also said troops fired bullets and tear gas at protesters in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, as well as the central city of Hama. They had no immediate word on casualties.
In the rebel-held Khaldiyeh neighborhood in the central city of Homs, which has become the heart of the uprising, a mortar round was striking every five minutes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. An amateur video posted online by activists showed thick black smoke billowing as shells fell in a residential area.
The Observatory said eight civilians were killed in Homs on Friday, including a family of three whose home was struck by a shell. The group reported three more civilians were killed by army fire in other parts of Syria.
Citing its network of sources on the ground, the group said explosions and the crackle of gunfire rang out in the town of Qusair, near the border with Lebanon. Activists said the government was sending reinforcements to the town.
Meanwhile, Syria's state-run news agency SANA said a large roadside bomb went off in the southern village of Sahm al-Golan, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing 10 soldiers. A separate explosion, also in southern Syria, killed five troops, the agency said, adding that two more soldiers were killed in separate shooting attacks.
In Paris, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Friday that the international community has to live up to its responsibilities in Syria and prepare for the possible failure of an increasingly fragile cease-fire. He told France's BFM television that if special envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan "doesn't function, we have to envisage other methods."
Clinton referred during the Paris meeting to a resolution under the U.N. Charter that would be militarily enforceable.
"We need to start moving very vigorously in the Security Council for a Chapter 7 sanctions resolution, including travel, financial sanctions, an arms embargo, and the pressure that that will give us on the regime to push for compliance with Kofi Annan's six-point plan," she said.
Her comments were welcomed by the Syrian opposition Friday.
"The fact that Mrs. Clinton talked about this resolution (Chapter 7) shows that the international community is preparing to take stronger action against this cruel regime," said Fawaz Zakri, an Istanbul-based member of the Syrian National Council.
Any attempt to push for U.N. sanctions on Syria would likely meet resistance from Syrian allies Russia and China, which hold vetoes in the Security Council. Moscow and Beijing have already twice shielded Syria from U.N. sanctions over the crackdown.
Ban has recommended the Security Council quickly approve a 300-member U.N. observer mission to Syria, a number larger than what was originally envisioned. But he said he will review ground developments before deciding when to deploy the mission.
Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Geneva, Switzerland, and Peter James Spielmann at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Brothels will offer robot prostitutes by 2050, researchers predict
News Corp Australian Papers

In the future brothels will serve-up robot prostitutes offering clean, guilt-free sex, say researchers.
The prediction was made in a research paper examining what the sex industry will be like in the year 2050.
Ian Yeoman and Michelle Mars of the Victoria Management School in Wellington, New Zealand, wrote about an imaginary brothel in Amsterdam's red-light district called Yub-Yum.
The research paper titled Robots, Men And Sex Tourism describes the brothel as being "modern and gleaming with about 100 scantily clad blondes and brunettes parading around in exotic G-strings and lingerie," io9 reported.






They said clients would pay $9,500 for an "all-inclusive service," featuring lap dances and intercourse from "a range of sexual gods and goddesses of different ethnicity, body shapes, ages, languages and sexual features."
The lifelike sex robots would offer people a guilt-free sexual experience devoid of sexually transmitted diseases, the researchers wrote.
They also predicted robot prostitution would put a stop to human trafficking associated with the sex industry.
“In 2050, Amsterdam's red light district will all be about android prostitutes who are clean of sexual transmitted infections,” the researchers wrote.
"All androids are made of bacteria-resistant fiber ... guaranteeing no sexually transmitted diseases are transferred between consumers."
They said the city council would have direct control over android sex workers – including prices, hours of operations and sexual services.
Android sex workers may also provide a "guilt free" experience for men, with prostitution gaining a new level of respectability, the paper said.
“Clients feel guilt free as they actually haven't had sex with a real person and therefore don't have to lie to their partner," researchers said, according to the Daily Mail.
However, the paper said the introduction of sex bots would force human sex workers out of work.
In 2007 Netherlands university student David Levy said humans will be marrying and having sex with robots by 2050.
He completed a PhD on the subject of human-robot relationships and said robots would become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people would fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them.

It News: WRAPUP 1-Lagarde sees deal in making on IMF f...

It News:
    WRAPUP 1-Lagarde sees deal in making on IMF f...:     WRAPUP 1-Lagarde sees deal in making on IMF funding WASHINGTON, April 19 | Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:17am EDT ( Reuters ) - International...

McDonald’s Worker Spits in Tea: How Gross is Fast Food?
By Sarah B. Weir


Police in South Carolina say that a McDonald's worker spit in two customers' cups of iced tea after they returned them because they weren't sweet enough. A video shows the employee,19-year-old Marvin Washington Jr., leaning over the open cups before giving them back. The fast food chain patrons claim they discovered phlegm in the drinks when they removed their tops. He was arrested Wednesday and charged with malicious tampering with food.
Related: The 11 Worst Burgers in America
Eating out can be an exercise in suspended disbelief. Wide eyed, we assume the food is fresh and wholesome and that workers have followed the "employees must wash hands" decree posted in the bathroom. Nevertheless, the McDonald's incident is so sickening because it actually bears out the urban legend that a disdainful waiter can and will contaminate your food if you tick him off.
Kitchen Confidential
Chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain's bestseller, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, exposed the grungy side of the culinary world over a decade ago. Not only is the book a rollicking memoir about coming of age in the 1970s and 80s, it's a veritable primer for how not to get food poisoning on date night. Bourdain rudely threw open the kitchen doors and exposed restaurants' dirty little tricks such as filtering cigarette ash out of used butter to make a sauce and serving old beef to the customers who ordered it well done.
Chicken scandals
There are many more recent examples of restaurants serving contaminated food and having unsanitary kitchens, especially by fast food joints. Most recently, a lawsuit by the former manager of a Kentucky Friend Chicken franchise in Oregon alleges the owner fired other employees for refusing to serve chicken that had turned green and passed its expiration date. According to the lawsuit, he resigned because he "couldn't stand serving rotten chicken to families anymore."
Related: Fast Food Saltier in US than Overseas
The website kfcmademesick.com chronicles a not-so-finger-lickin'-good list of other health code violations associated with the fried chicken franchise. They include rodent infestations, salmonella contamination, and foreign objects such as bandages and cock roaches showing up in cooked food.
Fast food dangers
Not to single out one business, an undercover NBC Dateline investigation revealed that 60% of restaurants in the nation's top 10 chains had received critical health code violations in the year-and-a-half prior to the report. Caroline Smith-Dewaal who works for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food safety watchdog group, explained, "A critical violation is something that happens in a restaurant that may result in the food becoming contaminated."
Some of the recurring problems at franchises such as McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy's, and Burger King were rodent droppings, insects, food borne illnesses, debris and grime on counters and in prep areas, and poor employee sanitation. Given that about 25% of Americans eat fast food everyday, that's millions of opportunities to be exposed to something nasty, or worse, a pathogen that could make you sick.
The Huffington Post catalogs a revolting list of items reported to have been found in customers' fast food. Some of the gruesome highlights: maggots in Wendy's fries, saliva on a Whopper, a bloody band-aid in a Pizza Hut pizza crust, and a fried mouse in a basket of Popeye's chicken.
As for independent restaurants, Bourdain claims that kitchens are more sanitary than when he was working on the line. "Things are much better now—with fish markets, with the quality of food handling in general," he told WebMD. "There is a sense of pride and raised expectations in kitchens now that didn't exist when I started out." The availability of restaurant inspection reports online may also be pushing owners to clean up their acts.
Nevertheless, restaurant report cards have no control over the impulsive nature of human beings. Maybe it would be better just to sweeten that tea yourself.

Obama-Bush Stimulus “Saved Us From A Depression”: Arlen Specter

By Bernice Napach
The country may be focused on the presidential election but former Senator Arlen Specter says Congress is the key to what happens to the U.S. economy.
"Regardless of who is elected president, if Congress is gridlocked nothing will happen in Washington," Specter tells The Daily Ticker. And there are many issues that require Congressional attention, including the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending reductions that will all take effect by year end if Congress does nothing.


Specter spent 30 years in Washington as a senator from Pennsylvania, most of them as a Republican. But after he voted for the president's stimulus plan in 2009 — "the single most important vote of 10,000" he notes — Specter switched to the Democratic Party, setting the stage for the end of his political career. He recounts it all in his new book Life Among The Cannibals.
Specter hasn't endorsed a candidate for the presidential election. He's critical of Mitt Romney's constant position shifts and says the former Massachusetts governor doesn't have a plan to revive the economy. But Specter says President Obama hasn't had much success with the economy either and should explain why he didn't follow through on recommendations from the Simpson-Bowles commission to cut the deficit.


Unlike Romney, Specter supports the stimulus plans of Presidents Obama and Bush which together injected about $1.5 trillion into the economy. Those programs "saved us from a depression" says Specter. Now he says it's up to U.S. voters to do their job come election day by choosing a Congress that will "take care of the people's business."

       Best Bet for Young Investors: Roth, 401(k) or IRA?
By Walter Updegrave
I'm 25 years old and contribute enough to my 401(k) to take full advantage of my employer's matching funds. But I can afford to save even more. My question: Should I just put more in my 401(k) or contribute to an IRA? -- Derek
Clearly, you always want to contribute enough to your 401(k) to get all the matching funds your employer is willing to kick in. Otherwise you're giving away free money.
But since you're already maxing out the match, your next best step is to go with an IRA, specifically a Roth IRA. And if you move quickly, you could sock away a healthy amount this year.
Fund a Roth IRA account by the April 17 tax filing deadline and you can invest as much as $5,000 and have it count as your contribution for the 2011 tax year. That would allow you to contribute up to $5,000 for the 2012 tax year, too.
If you decide to go the 401(k) route instead, the extra contribution will count toward the 2012 tax year, as you can't retroactively contribute money to a 401(k).
By contributing to the Roth IRA for 2011 rather than boosting the amount you put into your 401(k), you get a chance to put an extra year's contribution into your retirement kitty.
To make an annual Roth IRA contribution, you must first meet the income eligibility criteria. But even if you earn too much to do a Roth, you can still fund a Roth account in a roundabout way: Contribute to a nondeductible IRA and then convert that account to a Roth IRA. Before you try this end run, however, you should know that it involves a few wrinkles.
Why do I recommend you put money into the Roth rather than continue to save without a match in your 401(k), or for that matter contribute to a traditional deductible IRA, which you could also do for the 2011 tax year?
Two reasons.
First, although you don't get the same immediate tax-break with a Roth that you do with a 401(k) or traditional IRA, the Roth allows you to withdraw money down the road without paying a cent in income taxes as long as you meet the requirements for tax-free withdrawals.
The option of paying taxes on your contribution now is generally a better deal than getting a tax break today if you expect to be in the same or higher tax bracket when you withdraw the money -- often the case if you contribute when you're young and in a lower tax bracket.
Of course, forecasting the tax rate you'll pay years from now is an iffy proposition at best. Not only is it difficult to project what your taxable income may be decades ahead, it's even harder to predict the tax rates Congress might set.
That leads me to the second reason a Roth IRA is a good idea if you're already saving in a 401(k) -- namely, contributing to a Roth allows you to practice "tax diversification."
Since the savings you accumulate in 401(k)s and traditional IRAs will eventually be taxed at ordinary income rates when you withdrawal, a boost in tax rates during retirement could dramatically reduce the after-tax value of those savings. To the extent you keep some of your nest egg in a Roth account, you can protect yourself against the risk of higher rates.
Diversifying your tax exposure also gives you greater flexibility in managing your tax bill in retirement. If additional withdrawals from your 401(k) or IRA are about to push you into a higher tax bracket in a given year, you can take money from your Roth account instead and avoid the higher levy.
Roth IRAs offer other benefits. Unlike a traditional IRA, you're not required to begin withdrawing money from your account after age 70 1/2. When you do pull money from a Roth, the withdrawals don't count in determining whether your Social Security benefits are taxable, as it is with withdrawals from a traditional IRA or 401(k). And if you decide you don't need to spend the dough in your Roth, you can pass it along to your heirs income tax free.
There is a downside to your plan of supplementing your 401(k) with a Roth IRA. And that's failing to follow through on it.
If you decide to increase your 401(k) contribution, all you've got to do is notify your plan administrator or HR department. The extra dough will be deducted from your paycheck automatically, assuring the money actually gets saved.
A Roth IRA requires more of a commitment. You've got to set up an account with a mutual fund company or other investment firm, and you must fund it. Neither is difficult. In fact, you can do the entire process online at many firms.
But with all the details that demand our attention in life, this is a simple task we sometimes never get around to completing. Next thing you know, the deadline has passed, and that extra savings didn't make it into a 401(k) or a Roth IRA.
So if you agree with my reasoning about a Roth IRA, I suggest you open and fund your account well within the April 17 deadline for a 2011 contribution. Once you've done that, you might as well get a head start for 2012 as well -- provided you'll also contribute enough to your 401(k) to get the maximum match.

 The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL

(Reuters) - The NDP have swept to a decisive victory in both British Columbia by-elections - including a landslide win in an area where the party has not won since provincial elections began more than a century ago.

- Three recent deaths at the hands of Toronto police have prompted the force to launch a wide-ranging review of how they deal with the mentally ill.

Reports in the business section:

- The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is paying $1.14 billion for stakes in five major Chilean toll roads, as the fund seeks to boost its exposure to both infrastructure and emerging markets.

- Iamgold Corp's chief executive Steve Letwin laid out plans to nearly double the company's production by 2017 from the current 850,000 ounces, with most of that to come from acquisitions, including one in coming months that will likely be worth between $400 million and $500 million.

NATIONAL POST

- Foods and drinks boosted with high levels of certain vitamins and minerals are going to have to be reformulated to stay on store shelves as Health Canada moves to close a loophole that has permitted fortified snacks and beverages to be sold as natural health products.

Reports in the business section:

- Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc is eyeing Germany for its next big move after it takes time to digest its $2.8 billion proposed takeover of Norwegian service station operator Statoil Fuel and Retail ASA .

Where have all the women's jobs gone?



More jobless Americans are finding work these days, but they are mainly lucky fellas.
The "mancession" has morphed into the "hecovery," leaving women workers largely in the dust. The share of adult women who are employed is lower than it was two years ago, while men have seen an upturn.
"Even though we are seeing some recovery, we have not seen it in a recovery of jobs for women," said Heather Boushey, senior economist at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
Mitt Romney, the leading Republican presidential candidate, started trying to capitalize on this statistic last week, telling crowds and TV viewers that women held more than 92% of the jobs lost under President Obama.
Women were generally spared the worst of the recession, accounting for only one-quarter of the jobs lost. Men, on the other hand, were hit hard by the devastation in the construction and manufacturing industries.
But the slow pace of recovery in women's employment has surprised and concerned some experts, who say it's unclear whether there will be a rebound anytime soon.
While the private sector picked up nearly 2.9 million jobs over the course of the recovery, women secured only 23.5% of those positions.
Women gained only 12.3% of the more than 2.3 million total jobs added to the economy during the recovery -- which include both public and private positions --according to the National Women's Law Center.
Much of the blame lies in the steep loss of government jobs, particularly in local school districts, where women predominate. State and local governments were propped up in 2009 and 2010 by Obama's Recovery Act. But the funds largely ran out after that, prompting budgets and payrolls to be slashed.
Women lost 396,000 public sector jobs during the recovery, according to the law center. That's 69.1% of the jobs cut, even though women represented only 57.2% of the public workforce at the end of the recession.
Moms: 'I can't afford to work'
That bleeding has now largely stopped, which is why women's employment has stabilized somewhat in recent months. But governments aren't likely to add lots of jobs anytime soon, said Michael Montgomery, senior U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, though women should benefit from continued improvement in the economy.
The public sector isn't the only place that has cost women jobs. The manufacturing sector, for instance, has boosted payrolls since the recovery began ... but only for men, according to the Center for American Progress. Same goes for trade, transportation and utilities and for financial services.
The way the recovery has played out has also hurt two segments of female workers -- low income ones who depend on public child care subsidies and older women, said Joan Entmacher, vice president of family economic security at the law center.
The former have suffered from cuts in government aid, leading them to leave their jobs because they have no one to watch their children. The latter have had a harder time finding new employment after they've lost their jobs.
Prolonged unemployment can hit women harder because they often earn and save less, she said.
"They are more economically at risk," Entmacher said. "It's harder for them to get back on their feet because they have fewer resources."
Did you choose not to use all your vacation days last year? Why? Email us your contact information and story, and you could be featured in an upcoming article on CNNMoney.

By Tami Luhby CNNMoney

Bo Ryan, Wisconsin lift non-Big Ten transfer restrictions for Jarrod Uthoff
By Matt Brooks

Bo Ryan finally backed down. (Michael Dwyer - AP)

It took one week, a moderate media firestorm and one awkwardly contentious radio interview, but Wisconsin has agreed to allow freshman forward Jarrod Uthoff to transfer to any school of his choosing outside the Big Ten.

The school’s athletic department and head basketball coach Bo Ryan were the target of criticism this week after Uthoff said he was told he could not transfer to Marquette, Iowa State, Florida or any school in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Ryan was steadfast in his decision, even through an adversarial interview on ESPN’s “Mike and Mike” program Thursday when he explained that he took advice from other coaches on which schools he should block.

Uthoff met with Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez and associate AD Justin Doherty on Thursday to appeal the decision to reject four of the 16 schools on his transfer list. Alvarez and Doherty then met with Ryan and decided that Uthoff would be allowed to contact any team outside of the conference.

“Ryan wanted the appeals process to serve as a means for dialogue to occur between Uthoff and UW Athletics administration,” the school said in a press release.

A 6-foot-8 red-shirt freshman, Uthoff was named Mr. Basketball in the state of Iowa in 2011.

Uthoff told the Associated Press on Wednesday, “I just want to explore my options.”

Ryan maintained that Uthoff never told him of his intent to seek a transfer and never met with the 11th-year coach.

Uthoff’s former AAU coach, Jamie Johnson, said Wednesday that Uthoff is scheduled to visit Creighton. In its release, Wisconsin said Uthoff may appeal the “permission to contact” denial to any Big Ten school, but must do so at a hearing with the Chair of the Athletic Board within eight days.

In his interview with “Mike and Mike,” Ryan said he was relatively unfamiliar with the transfer process and sought out advice from other coaches.

“I don’t know how to deal with transfers like some other guys who do it a heck of a lot more often, so here’s what I did. I called some coaches and I said, ‘Guys, what do you do when a situation comes up like this?’ Every coach that I talked to said, ‘Coach, you block the conference, and then any schools — especially if you’re in a major conference — if there are schools around in a contiguous area, states that are close proximity.”

In 2010 Badgers sophomore guard Ben Brust successfully appealed the Big Ten’s restriction on transfers within the conference when he signed with Wisconsin after initially accepting a scholarship from Iowa. When the Hawkeyes fired head coach Todd Lickliter, Brust asked for his release. After his request for a waiver by the Big Ten was initially denied, a faculty group ruled to allow him full transfer freedom within the conference.

Oklahoma City bombing inspired Breivik, Norway’s mass murderer (VIDEO)


The Oklahoma City bombing and Al Qaeda attacks served as inspiration and education for mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, he told a courtroom in Norway today, The Associated Press reported.

On the fifth day of his trial, the man accused of killing 77 Norwegians relayed details about how he studied Timothy McVeigh’s 1995 bombing of a US government building that killed 168 and injured 600.

He also said he poured over details surrounding the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and Al Qaeda operations.

“We want to create a European version of Al Qaeda,” he said, according to the AP. “I have studied each one of their actions, what they have done wrong, what they have done right.”

Breivik admitted to killing eight people by bombing a Norwegian government building, then shooting 69 others – mostly teens – at a Labour Party camp on July 22; he said they betrayed Norway by embracing multiculturalism.

The far-right extremist has pleaded not guilty, and claims to be part of a Christian group called the Knights Templar.

Authorities have found no evidence of a larger group, and two court reports disagree on Breivik’s sanity.

by : globalpost.com

Annual April 20 marijuana rallies anger parents
4/20 marijuana smoking events draw tens of thousands of young people
 by:CBC News

Some parents and drug prevention officers say not enough is being done to keep teens away from a major marijuana festival that lures thousands of students across Canada.

April 20, widely known in marijuana culture as “4/20,” is a day when thousands of people gather for “smoke-ins” in cities across North America.

Some parents of Vancouver high school students are particularly concerned because the city’s school board has scheduled a professional development day for many teachers, meaning several classes are cancelled and students are potentially free to attend the annual pot-smoking event in the downtown core.

The coincidence angers Inge Mueller-Langer, the parent of two teenagers.

"I don’t think it's very responsible. I think the school should instead be educating our children about the potential long-term effects of smoking pot when you are a teenager," Mueller-Langer told CBC News. "This isn’t the same stuff we had in the '60s and '70s."

CBC News has obtained absence reports from the Vancouver School Board that show an additional 900 students skipped class on Wednesday, April 20, last year, when compared with Wednesday, April 13.

Mueller-Langer said she will not allow her two teens to take part in the downtown Vancouver gathering.

"If we had an event where children were being offered tequila shots, we would all be in an uproar. So, why are we not upset about pot smoking?"

Police stand by and watch
In past years, Vancouver police have attended the event, but uniformed officers have stayed on the perimeter and not made mass arrests.

"At the 4/20 event, conducting enforcement on minor possession of marijuana is not our priority,” said police spokesman Lindsey Houghton.

Drug prevention experts like Tibor Palatinus, of Narconon, say students have no business at a public gathering where police stand by as thousands get high.

"It’s not a festival," Palatinus said. "It’s a pot promotion. It's a weed-selling promotion. Sponsored and promoted by drug dealers. That's what is going on."
   The head of the school board’s drug prevention program, Art Steinmann, said parents need to talk to their teens about the 4/20 event, but admits it might not be an easy conversation.

"The parents that take too hard a line, that are too strict, that often isn't very helpful," Steinmann said. "And the parents who are so laissez-faire and casual and hands-off, that's not helpful either.

"We need to find that middle ground where parents are firm and have discussions and dialogue. Don't expect to always agree with your youth, and do things to help keep your youth safe."

Steinman said that although there are no classes, the Vancouver School Board is co-hosting a free concert all afternoon at East Vancouver’s Rio Theatre in an attempt to discourage students from heading to the 4/20 event.

The name 4/20 tradition has many reputed origins, but it's believed to have originated in the 1970s at a California high school where students would gather at 4:20 p.m. every weekday to smoke pot

Zimmerman sorry for loss of Trayvon Martin, says he didn't know if he was armed

Tribune staff and wire reports

SANFORD, Fla.— Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman has taken the witness stand during his bail hearing and apologized to the parents of Trayvon Martin for shooting their son.

Zimmerman made the brief statement during Friday's hearing over whether he should be released on bail while he awaits trial on second-degree murder charges.

Related
Watch live: George Zimmerman at bond hearing
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Zimmerman told Martin's parents that he was "sorry for the loss of your son." He said he didn't know that Martin was 17 and that he was unarmed during their altercation in a central Florida neighborhood.

The 28-year-old Zimmerman shot Martin the night of Feb. 26. He says Martin attacked him.

Prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda argued that the court should consider that Trayvon Martin "was minding his own business. He was not committing a crime."

State Attorney's investigator Dale Gilbreath testified earleir. O'Mara questioned him about the probable cause affidavit he signed for the second-degree murder charge. Gilbreath said he did not expect to testify at the hearing.

O'Mara grilled Gilbreath on his use of the word "profiling" in describing Zimmerman's behavior that night, asking why he used the term. Gilbreath said the term indicates that Zimmerman saw the teen, then formed an opinion of him not based on any facts.
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune