Draghi-sparked rally helps S&P break losing streak

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rode a wave of hope inspired by comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Thursday, ignoring mixed corporate results to focus on the strongest signal yet of the ECB's intentions to protect the euro zone.

Europe's debt woes have taken a toll on stocks at times during the past two years and more recently have manifested themselves in lackluster corporate results. The most recent disappointments came from United Technologies and Dow Chemical, which blamed overseas demand for weak results.

Draghi hinted the ECB would target high sovereign bond yields, a measure the ECB has been reluctant to take in the past. Policymakers have made similar statements about saving the euro before, but if these remarks result in decisive action in European bond markets, it could spur a sizable rally in stocks.

"It's certainly a vote of confidence," said Kathy Karlic, chief client officer at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors in Buffalo, New York, which has $20 billion in assets under management.

"The wall of worry for the euro zone has always been there, but another round of liquidity is very positive."

Shares in sectors more sensitive to risks in Europe and economic demand, such as energy-related stocks and industrials, were among the day's best performers, with the S&P 500 energy index <.gspe> up 2.7 percent.

Worries about Europe have also pressured earnings forecasts, with third-quarter S&P 500 earnings now seen falling for a year-over-year decline.

Diversified manufacturer 3M , whose stock rose 2.1 percent to $90.59 after its results beat estimates, helped boost the Dow and was among the brighter spots of the earnings season.

Zynga shares ended down 37.5 percent at $3.17 after hitting an all-time low, a day after the company slashed its profit outlook after fading enthusiasm for its games on Facebook.

After the closing bell, shares of Facebook tumbled 11 percent to $23.87 after reporting its first quarterly results since Facebook's market debut. During the regular sessions its shares lost 8.5 percent.

Amazon.com shares were down 0.5 percent at $218.88 after the close following the release of its results. The online retailer forecast third-quarter revenue that lagged Wall Street's projections.

During the regular session, shares of Sprint Nextel Corp jumped 20.2 percent to $4.05 after the company posted earnings.

Sales performance this reporting period has lagged earnings. With results in from about half of the S&P 500 companies, 65 percent have beaten analyst earnings estimates but just 41 percent have beaten on revenue, Thomson Reuters data showed.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 211.88 points, or 1.67 percent, at 12,887.93. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 22.13 points, or 1.65 percent, at 1,360.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 39.01 points, or 1.37 percent, at 2,893.25.

Shares of United Technologies ended up 0.4 percent at $72.93 while shares of Dow Chemical dropped 3.6 percent to $29.18.

The S&P 500 ended above the technically important 1,333 level, and a sustained move above that level is seen as bullish. The level marks a convergence of several technical factors, including the index's 50-day moving average, and has served as support for stocks.

In economic news, the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week near a four-year low, although the figures have been volatile due to summer factory shutdowns. Durable goods orders for June were better than expected, but a slip in pending home sales underscored the fragility of the economy.

Volume was 7.44 billion shares on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and Amex, compared with the year-to-date daily average of 6.74 billion shares.

Advancers beat decliners on the NYSE by about 11 to 4 and on the Nasdaq by about 2 to 1.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-index-futures-dip-raft-earnings-due-092215108--finance.html

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Romney stirs Olympic tiff as European tour begins

LONDON (AP) ? Mitt Romney wanted to highlight U.S.-British bonds ? and show off his diplomatic skills to boot ? but he managed to rankle the Olympic hosts instead, from Prime Minister David Cameron on down.

The Republican presidential candidate, taking a turn on the world stage, called London's problems with Olympic Games preparation "disconcerting." That prompted Cameron to retort on Thursday that doubters would "see beyond doubt that Britain can deliver." And London Mayor Boris Johnson told tens of thousands gathered in Hyde Park: "There's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know if we are ready. Are we ready? Yes we are!"

Amid the uproar, Romney tried to back off his critique, finally concluding, "I expect the games to be highly successful."

Romney also caused a stir with his attendance at a fundraiser with banking executives tainted by a British interest rate-fixing scandal. And he inadvertently disclosed that he held a secret meeting with the head of Britain's intelligence service.

The bobbles threatened to undermine Romney's first international tour as the man who would replace Democratic President Barack Obama.

A one-term Massachusetts governor with limited foreign policy experience, he is hoping to show voters back home that he is ready to represent the U.S. strongly and smoothly at a time of global economic turmoil and security troubles. He also wants to emphasize his own tenure running the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City by attending this year's opening ceremonies. And he hopes to draw subtle contrasts with Obama.

"I'm looking forward to the bust of Winston Churchill being in the Oval Office again," Romney told donors at a fundraiser, Obama's administration sent back to Britain a bust of Churchill that once sat in the Oval Office. Obama aides say it was scheduled to be returned.

All in all, though, it was a shaky start to Romney's planned weeklong trip overseas that will include Israel and Poland after England.

As he met with British leaders past and present, Romney sought to keep the focus on the close alliance between America and Britain, praising "the unique relationship that exists between our nations, our commitment to common values, our commitment to peace in the world and a desire to see a stronger and growing economy."

But he may have ended up straining his own relationship with the British ? and embarrassing them ? by questioning whether the country could host a flawless Olympics after years of preparation.

England has constructed an enormous Olympic Park in East London, will showcase tennis at Wimbledon, is hosting soccer in Glasgow in Scotland and has even built a volleyball court behind No. 10 Downing Street, where Romney met with Cameron. Yet, the country has faced steady media coverage of things that have gone wrong: A security firm didn't hire enough people; problems at immigration threatened security risks.

Shortly after arriving in London on Wednesday, Romney told NBC News that it was unclear whether issues that have dogged the final preparations could be overcome, saying: "It's hard to know just how well it will turn out." He made the remark two days before the opening ceremonies and after his staff had attended the dress rehearsal for that show.

By the next morning, Cameron was standing outside Olympic Park responding to questions about Romney's comments.

"We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere," Cameron added. His aides said that was not intended as a jibe at Romney or Salt Lake City. But that didn't stop people on the Internet and elsewhere from suggesting it was.

As criticism of Romney's comments mounted, he suggested it's impossible for any Olympic Games to go off without a hitch.

Later, Romney and Cameron met in private, discussing economic issues and alliances in Afghanistan and Syria ? as well as the Olympics ? and the American sought again to clarify his remarks on the games.

"It is impossible for absolutely no mistakes to occur," he said. "Of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character and determination by the athletes."

By the end of the day Thursday, Romney was outlining his own mistakes as a way of explaining why he had mentioned problems with security forces and immigration enforcement.

"My experience as an Olympic organizer is that there are always a few very small things that end up not going quite right in the first day or so ? these get ironed out and then when the games themselves begin and the athletes take over," Romney said as he stood outside No. 10 Downing St. "All the mistakes of the organizing committee, and I made a few, all of those are overwhelmed by the many things that the athletes carry out that capture the spirit of the Games."

Back home, White House spokesman Jay Carney piled on, telling reporters about an Olympic security briefing held in Washington.

"In keeping with our special relationship, the president also made it clear that he has the utmost confidence in our close friend and ally, the United Kingdom, as they finalize preparations to host the London Olympics," Carney said.

After a day of meetings and an interview with CNN, Romney headed to a fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental hotel that raised over $2 million. It attracted employees of Barclays, which has been in the spotlight after becoming the first bank to admit its employees were involved in manipulating a key interest rate index.

Last month, U.S. and British agencies fined Barclays a total of $453 million. Chief executive Bob Diamond resigned. Diamond was to have been a host of Romney's fundraiser. He dropped out of the event but had already sent a check for $2,500.

So have 82 others who listed their employer as Barclays or Barclays Capital on Federal Election Commission records, including two who gave the maximum to the Romney campaign both in 2011 and 2012.

Reports of Barclays' links to the Romney campaign drew the attention of some members of the British House of Commons, who called on "Barclays and its executives to cease fundraising for political candidates immediately and to concentrate entirely on repairing confidence and trust in the banking system instead."

Romney took questions from the donors who had gathered in a ballroom at the hotel in the Knightsbridge neighborhood in London. Asked about how he would deal with banking regulation, Romney said the Republican Party has sometimes made a "mistake" in focusing too much on deregulation ? but that a sweeping banking overhaul passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis went too far.

"I believe Dodd-Frank has gone beyond what was appropriate," Romney said of the banking bill.

Earlier, Romney met with the head of MI-6, Britain's intelligence service, during his visit to the Foreign Commonwealth Office. The meeting wasn't listed on public schedules, and revealing such a meeting isn't common in the U.K. But the Republican presidential candidate told reporters about it in a statement outside Cameron's home.

In his other meetings, British officials questioned Romney about so-called fiscal "cliff" that U.S. policymakers will have to deal with next year, as well as his plans to expand trade and potentially develop a free trade agreement between America and the Europeans. Romney asked questions about the situations in Iran and also in Syria, where a broiling conflict has the potential to flare as an election issue in the fall.

The candidate's troubles started even before he landed in London.

Earlier this week, the Australians issued a statement clarifying Foreign Minister Bob Carr's remarks after Romney told donors that Carr met with him and sees an "America in decline."

Romney also has faced criticism in the Jewish press abroad for scheduling a fundraiser on Tisha B'Av, a Jewish fasting day that commemorates the destruction of two temples in Jerusalem. And Romney was forced to distance himself from an unnamed campaign adviser quoted in the Daily Telegraph newspaper saying that Romney believes the U.S. relationship with Britain is special because of shared "Anglo Saxon heritage" and that the current White House doesn't appreciate that shared history.

___

Associated Press writer Bob Barr in London contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-stirs-olympic-tiff-european-tour-begins-212554776.html

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Staging The Outside Look of Your Property For Better Home Appeal ...

Home staging has been considered an effective way to transform one?s property and enhancing the appeal for better market presentation. In the process of selling a property, home staging should be considered a tool in making one?s property ready to be presented to buyers in the market. It has also been considered a way of renovating and a process of reconstructing small portions of the house for additional appeal. Most home owners often opt for home staging because they want their properties look more appealing to prospective buyers for faster sell in the market.

Here are some simple ways on how to stage your house to improve its look.

Focus on the landscape.

If you happen to improve the landscape of your house then that would be a good start. Most buyers are attracted when it comes to the outside part of the house.

Plant some bushes that may enhance the appearance of your property. Make sure that bushes are not so expensive. Choose younger bushes so that they may be easy to plant around your home. On a regular basis, see to it that these plants will not cover certain parts of your house. Let?s say it should not reach your windows or cover other parts of your home as these things can destroy the true looks of your property.

Lawn should be mowed properly. Always cut certain uneven parts of your lawn and sprinkled it with water very well. When you opt to stage your lawn, make it sure that you always clean and maintain its fresh look.

Add colorful flowers for a blooming look. What brightens up the appearance of your landscape is the presence of flowers. Choose already matured flowers for these are ready to be displayed and easy to plant around the corners of your yard and other areas.

Now, the exterior part of your home.

Roofing system should be properly checked. Certain leaks and other imperfections should be fixed before showing it to your prospective buyers. Examine and repair it quickly.

House should be painted well. Improve the looks of your home?s exterior part by using the right color of paint. You can also use paint with no VOC( Volatile Organic Compound). This type of paint are environment-friendly. One way of promoting green real estate is to use certain paints that are low in toxicity and directly and easily absorbs carbon in the air.

Front and back doors should be maintained and installed properly for easy use. Make sure that locks are always functioning well. Remember, home buyers are aware of being welcomed if there are no certain delays when they get inside your house.

These are simple ways on how to impress prospective buyers.

Search for Sandy Utah Home listings and Click to search for Utah Home listings now.

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Source: http://saltlake.countyutahrealestate.com/2012/07/staging-the-outside-look-of-your-property-for-better-home-appeal/

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Smugglers use buses to move drugs across the Texas border

by ANGELA KOCHERGA / KVUE News

khou.com

Posted on July 19, 2012 at 12:22 AM

EL PASO, Texas -- Some buses from Mexico are carrying more than passengers on vacation or a weekend shopping spree. Smugglers are using the buses to bring drugs into the U.S., and the bigger the vehicle, the larger the load of drugs.

"There are a lot more compartments in a bus than a car," said Joe Raigosa, a Customs and Border Protection officer, as he waited for a bus to pull up to the border checkpoint at the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso.

"Most of the people who traffic drugs into the United States will use areas you just don't have in a car ? like a commode," Raigosa explained.

Last Friday, CBP officers in El Paso found 857 pounds of marijuana in a secret compartment near the sleeping cab of the bus. A drug-sniffing dog discovered the stash.

That's a large haul, but it's not surprising, said Frank Chavez, a Customs and Border Protection officer. "We?ve had seizures about that size before," he noted.

Buses pose a special challenge for customs officers who must search the vehicle and also screen the passengers and luggage.

"Not only are the passengers searched, but the buses themselves are searched with canines, X-rays if necessary, and physical examination by our officers," Chavez said.

In the El Paso area, officers are finding buses carrying drugs, but the size of the loads is larger than in past years.

Along the Southwest border in 2010, CBP officers found 59 separate buses carrying 3,809 pounds of illegal drugs.

The following year there were 42 buses loaded with 5,587 pounds of drugs. And so far this year, officers have seized 34 buses with 4,310 pounds of drugs ? mostly marijuana.

"It?s good they?re doing safety checks," said Gabriela Romero, a passenger traveling from Celaya, Guanajuato to Denver to visit her daughter.

Buses still have to go through highway checkpoints on the way to other U.S. cities, but some clearly make it beyond the border with drugs on board.

Just last month, a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy and his drug-sniffing dog Ranger discovered a million dollars worth of cocaine and heroin on a bus traveling from Houston to Chicago.

After passing through security at the border, Romero and the other passengers loaded their suitcases in the luggage compartment, boarded the bus, and continued their journey on Interstate 10.

CBP agents expect the biggest surge in buses crossings at the border Thursday through Saturday, when visitors from Mexico travel to Texas to shop. Officer Raigosa said agents will examine 15 to 18 buses on those days.

Source: http://www.khou.com/home/Smugglers-use-buses-to-move-drugs-across-the-Texas-border-162993246.html

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UIC HR Insights: Learn About the HR Business Services Team

By Liz Budzik

I am in charge of creating the unit budgets and the overall budget.? There are 26 different accounts in HR such as the unit state accounts, temporary services, fingerprinting, and charitable fund drive.? Elba reconciles all these accounts, and makes sure the charges are in the correct account and are for the correct amount.? My office handles the contracts and 16 standing purchase orders each year.?

Nelly and Elba handle purchases for their respective units in each building.? This includes office supplies, employee reimbursements, and vendor payments.?

Nelly supports Organizational Effectiveness with ordering food and training supplies, reconciling and charging units for attendees, and general administration activities for leadership essentials training.?

Both Elba and Nelly put in the work orders for the building (Elba has a lot more fun with HRB!) as well as any changes to the telephones.? All construction projects and?improvements to the building are managed in my area.? In addition, any office moves are put into the space planning system and coordinated through me.?

I process academic professional appointments for HR employees, and manage the academic professional searches for the office.? I input salary increases into salary planner once a year, and also collect, or process, all the required forms such as Report of Non-University Activities, Activity Reporting, FICAA, and many more.? All changes to appointments in HR go through my office for approval.? Also, any requests for leaves of absence such as Family Medical Leave are submitted through me.?

The area that seems to make the most people happy is the party planning that happens in business services!? I work with volunteers to put together parties for employee retirements, good byes, holidays, and just for fun teambuilding!?

Another area that?falls under business services is the coordination and management of the election of civil service employees to the State University Civil Service Committee.? Whenever someone retires or has finished a term, an election is held.?? The last election was on June 19^th.?

I also oversee Special Programs.? As of right now this consists only of Marilyn, and we are looking to fill the Special Events Facilitator position this coming month!? Special Programs is in charge of the Employee Recognition Program and Ceremony, the Retirement Luncheon, Retirement Planning Conference and the Charitable Fund Drive for the campus.? As you all know, these events are quite involved and there are many details that make up a successful event!?

One other project I complete every month is the compilation of the metrics report for the Hospital.?

We hope this provides some insight into what we do in Business Services.

Source: http://uichrinsights.blogspot.com/2012/07/learn-about-hr-business-services-team.html

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Mortgage Rates

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We have many options available including loan amounts up to 2,000,000. Depending on the situation points and fees will change accordingly.? For more information give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to the opportunity to serve you.? Mention the BLOG for these extra savings.

Last Update:	Tuesday, July 17,? 2012	Broker /Origination Fee:	0.000%
Lock Period:	30 days	Loan Amount:	$300,000

We have many options available including loan amounts up to 2,000,000. Depending on the situation points and fees will change accordingly. For more information give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

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30 Year Fixed Jumbo above $625,500
4.250% APR 4.302%

30 Year Fixed Jumbo lower than $625,500
3.625% APR 3.786%

15 Year Fixed Jumbo lower than $625,500
3.250% APR 3.354%

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3.655% APR 3.677%

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20% down payment assumption for non-FHA or VA loans
Credit (FICO) Assumption: Excellent = 740, Good = 700, Fair = 680

Please Read the Following:

Rates, points and programs cannot be guaranteed on this web site because rates, fees, APR, and other costs are subject to individual borrower's credit score, loan-to-value, loan purpose, loan amount, and rapid fluctuations in market conditions.

Maximum Loan amount for a conforming loan is $417,000. Loan amounts in excess of $417,000 are considered Jumbo Conforming Loans in most Counties. Rates and APR's are based on amounts of $300,000 for Conforming Loans and $625,500 for Jumbo Conforming Loans. This is not an advertisement for credit as defined by paragraph 226.24 of regulation Z.

Source: http://yourrealestatelife.com/blog/2012/07/17/41-mortgage-rates

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Accounting product that boost your business accounting quickly with ...

Accounting is a theory and system that communicates financial information about a business entity to people like CEO and shareholders. It includes establishing, supporting and checking the books of a company. This system can be adapted to any job industry. It is also an important aspect to provide information that is used to determine the existing and upcoming economic stability of the company. Moreover, it allows corporation to evaluate the financial statement of the business, and look at statistics such as net profit. The accountant is required to follow a set of rules and regulations, like Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

This system is complex with calculations, accounting equations and tonnes of rules. It may be challenging and some finds that it is struggling to finish a set of financial analysis. The boundless tasks on accounting and financial system keep you away from personal quality time. It sounds beef-up but the truth is, even professionals with excellent accounting skills crack their heads over surely infinite calculations and formulations.

Concerning solve this issue, Equator Dreams Company designed unique software ? AccVantage. This system associates ERP system, accounting system, online web store, online chat support and an email marketing campaign application in a centralized database. It can be invested in budgetary price. Also, you can fully combine your current accounting and financial software with the new system. It is a potent role based dashboard, you can log into all KPI, ageing details and bank balances at one go.

On top of that, it brought convenience to users that you can access your organization information anytime and anywhere. Unlike other commercial products, you do not need to top-up extra money to enhance the software and hardware, or, for yearly maintenance fees. It provides you an economic value-added service. Moreover, the design brings cloud ready mode, be it on private or public cloud.

This software manages your accounts efficiently and effectively. With this setup, it shortens turn around time as well as workforce. It offers financial benefits and also increases business to your SME. As a result, detailed information will be automatically calculated and presented instantly with the aid of our system. It relieves the entanglement that is in amidst of complex formulas and equations.

We also tailor our suites to meet the specific needs of your Singapore based business, whether it be helping with your financial needs by presenting an user-friendly accounting system, or handling your accounts more effectively by offering a system that combines tools that you are need.

Come to our page for additional information: Accounting Software, Cloud Computing, Accounting System.

Source: http://www.seositemanager.com/744006/accounting-product-that-boost-your-business-accounting-quickly-with-potential-accounting-sysstem.html

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Between Pages: Speaking of Writing . . .

Last week I spoke before?a group of historians and archivists at the University of Indianapolis for an annual Jurisdictional dinner.? Afterwards, one gentleman?began talking to me about his writing, but was?equally perplexed by the question:? "How can you write so much?while?also spending 50+ hours a week pastoring a church?"??This is a question I get all the time--and?surprisingly, it was a conversation that I had with three other?people the very same week.

"Where do you find the time?"

Answer?(s):

My wife makes it possible.
???? Sure, I joke about my wife, and she's a good sport to take?my good-natured ribbing and?Henny Youngman-esqe marital in stride.??(Youngman's signature line was:? "Take my wife, for?instance.? Please, somebody take her!")
???? But the fact is, for?nearly thirty years my wife has?been the better sport about leaving me alone when I'm in my writing zone.? She doesn't get up at 4 a.m. most mornings?and she doesn't stay up until midnight?because she?wants to be by my side or she can't get enough of me.? (Well, she can't get enough of me, but that's?another story!)? When she sees I'm working at my?station, reclining on the couch in my underwear,?nacho chips strewn in my chest hair and coffee dribbling down my chin, she just sighs and walks away.? (Can you blame her?)
???? She does get frustrated, however, when she talks for thirty minutes, face-to-face, and I claim the next morning that the conversation never happened.? But really, I was working . .?. .
??
Time is what we make of it.
???? I could wax on here about the choices each of us make in life regarding our time.? But the fact is, I have time to write so much because I make time to write so much.? I?enjoy the physical endeavor of writing (not just thinking about the finished product, or the article, or the poem, or the book).? I write FAR MORE material than I ever get into print.?
???? The point being . . . writing takes time.? But so does watching TV, doing a crossword puzzle, or painting or sewing or working with wood.? (I'm not knocking any of these pursuits, mind you . . . I'm just saying I spend time writing every day.? I enjoy it.? But I work hard at it . . . every day.? (And I've been doing it for nearly 40 years now.)

I like to talk about writing, too.? (And authors and editors and publishing.)
???? I do.? I love helping others with their books, their ideas, and discussing what I?know about getting into print, or enjoying writing, or creating, or "how to" do it.? I don't?know everything (in fact, I know very little). But I like to help, and I like admitting that I don't know much about writing. After 40 years, it's still a mystery.
???? The gentleman wanted to know if I'd?read his book or give him some pointers.??Check.??Check.
???? And if there are any others?out there who would love to take a writing class with me (not by me, but with me!) let me know.? I'd love to see what we could create and learn together.

Your friendly neighborhood nerd,
Todd?

Source: http://toddoutcalt.blogspot.com/2012/07/speaking-of-writing.html

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Video: Happy birthday air conditioner

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/48218084/

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'Dark Knight Rises' Stars Pick Their Favorite Scenes

Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway and more recall trilogy's best moments at red-carpet premiere.
By Kevin P. Sullivan

Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway and Christian Bale attend "The Dark Knight Rises" New York premiere
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/ WireImage

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1689781/dark-knight-rises-premiere-christian-bale-anne-hathaway.jhtml

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Police chief hops on suspect's own bike in chase

Chief Joe Leonardi was on his post-lunch patrol Thursday when he saw a man who matched the description of a suspect his officers had been looking for in connection with a July 3 assault.

By Samantha Tata, NBCLosAngeles.com

The Redondo Beach police chief returned to his rank-and-file roots on Thursday when he hopped on a bike and chased down a suspect believed responsible for an assault on a city worker.

Chief Joe Leonardi was credited with catching the man who police believe matched the description of a suspect in a July 3 assault.

?If (the chief) didn?t do something, the guy would have definitely gotten away,? said Sgt. Scott Weibel, with the Redondo Beach Police Department.

---

See the original report at NBCLosAngeles.com

Not only did the chief make the collar on a bike, but the two-wheel contraption was the suspect's getaway vehicle. The man had ditched it while he was fleeing from the cops.

The drama went down after lunch Thursday when Leonardi spotted a 36-year-old transient resembling an assault suspect and riding a dark-colored bicycle, police said.

After being led through a zigzag maze of streets and alleys, police caught up with the bicyclist, but he didn?t stop.

He dropped the bike and ran.

It was then that Leonardi -- dressed in shirt and tie -- hopped on the bike and pedaled after him.

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

?I knew I would never catch up,? said Leonardi. ?So I decided to get on the bike.?

The man surrendered after officers flooded the area. The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was booked into jail on suspicion of delaying an officer?s investigation and possession of stolen property, police said.

Police were investigating the man?s connection to a July 3 assault and a burglary of a Hermosa Beach home.

The bike was booked into evidence.

Police also found a stolen Cal Poly San Luis Obispo class ring that they say was tossed by the suspect during the pursuit.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/07/12619119-police-chief-hops-on-suspects-own-bike-to-chase-him-down?lite

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Assad friend flees, U.S. wants Russia to "pay price"

PARIS (Reuters) - As a Syrian general who was a personal friend of Bashar al-Assad fled for France, Hillary Clinton urged Assad's enemies meeting in Paris on Friday to make Russia and China "pay a price" for helping keep him power in Damascus.

The Secretary of State's remark, among Washington's toughest yet in 16 months of revolt, highlighted the gulf between Western and Arab countries, who met opposition groups in Paris to try to engineer Assad's departure, and his two supporters on the other side of the old Cold War divide, who stayed away from the talks.

"I will tell you very frankly," Clinton told the Friends of the Syrian People conference, "I don't think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all - nothing at all - for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime. The only way that will change is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price because they are holding up progress - blockading it.

"That is no longer tolerable."

The foreign ministers and senior diplomats from 50 Western, Arab and other countries - including Assad's former ally and neighbor turned bitter foe Turkey - urged stronger U.N. Security Council action and "broader and tougher" sanctions.

They also agreed to "massively increase" aid to Syria's rebels and to provide them with communications equipment, according to a final statement. Western powers are reluctant to offer much greater firepower to rebels whose ranks include anti-Western Islamists. Divisions among Assad's foes, visible notably in a fistfight at an opposition meeting in Cairo this week, have also limited the coordination of efforts to remove him by force.

As Clinton spoke, Manaf Tlas, a brigadier in the Republican Guard who attended military college with Assad and whose father was Assad's father's confidant and defense minister for 30 years, was on his way to Paris, the French government said.

There was no immediate sign that Tlas, who friends said had fled Damascus for Turkey this week, would throw in his lot with the rebels. He did not attend Friday's meeting.

But his defection was the clearest signal yet that some in Assad's inner circle think his days in power are numbered, as an uprising that began in March 2011 with a groundswell of peaceful protest turns into a civil war with strong sectarian overtones.

Tlas's father Mustapha now lives in Paris, as does Tlas's sister. The family has been a rare representative of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority in an elite dominated by Assad's fellow Alawites. Sunnis have been in the forefront of the uprising.

DESERTION "MEANS NOTHING"

Assad's enemies among Syrians and in the West were quick to hail Tlas's flight as a breakthrough, while Damascus played it down. A Syrian news website quoted a Syrian official on Thursday as saying: "His desertion means nothing ... If Syrian intelligence had wanted to arrest him it would have."

Opposition sources have spoken of senior figures who are under suspicion of being potential defectors being held under virtual house arrest. Assad's opponents have been trying to encourage as many of his entourage as possible to abandon him.

While the lightly armed rebels are no match for Syria's large and well-equipped army, their hope lies in eroding loyalty and conviction within Assad's establishment to the point where it loses its hold on power.

Syria's army took control of the rebel stronghold of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Idlib province on Friday after an assault on the town backed by helicopters, rebels said.

"The Free (Syrian) Army withdrew from the town last night after it ran out of ammunition. Assad's army is in control," said Abu Hamam, a rebel spokesman who fled to a nearby village.

"They are burning the houses. They have burned my own house. I see the smoke covering the sky from where I am now."

Army shelling and assaults also killed three people in the southern province of Deraa, where the nationwide revolt began.

Opposition activists say more than 15,000 people have been killed in the uprising, while the government says several thousand members of the security forces have died.

The host of the Paris meeting, French President Francois Hollande, said Assad's departure was "in the interest of Syria, of its neighbors and everybody who wants peace in the region".

Clinton repeated a U.S. and French call for a U.N. Security Council resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows the Council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention:

"We should go back and ask for a resolution in the Security Council that imposes real and immediate consequences for noncompliance, including sanctions under Chapter 7," she said.

Western governments have shown no appetite for military intervention like the NATO bombing that helped oust Libya's Muammar Gaddafi last year, and U.S. officials have repeatedly said in the case of Syria they are talking only about sanctions.

Russia and China have in the past vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to pressure Assad, and say they are committed to a peace plan drafted by international envoy Kofi Annan that proposes dialogue without calling for Assad to go.

PLAN STILLBORN

That plan has been stillborn because the ceasefire that was supposed to precede it in April never took hold. Peace monitors effectively gave up on their mission last month after just weeks in Syria as it became clear there was no peace to monitor.

With heavy fighting now on the outskirts of the capital, events on the ground are outrunning diplomatic initiatives.

A senior French diplomat said recent rebel territorial gains had led to signs that even Moscow was now envisaging a post-Assad Syria, something Russian officials strongly deny.

"The situation on the ground has changed fast over the past three weeks, with security forces having no access to some areas," the French diplomat said. "We are now hearing things from within political and military circles in Russia that are surprising us and that we were not hearing before."

Tlas's defection may indicate a growing alienation among the Sunni business elite, which had been slow to embrace the revolt which began among poorer parts of the majority community.

Opposition activists said Tlas would announce that he had abandoned Assad because of anger at civilian deaths. A witness in Damascus said by phone that Tlas's house in Damascus had been ransacked by security agents after reports that he had fled.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the defection meant that Assad's inner circle "is beginning to understand that the regime is unsustainable".

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey, Syria's NATO-member neighbor, agreed: "Every day, generals, colonels, officers are coming, and we have, I think, around 20 generals and maybe 100 high-ranking officers, colonels," he told France 24 television.

Turkey has moved artillery and troops towards its border with Syria in the two weeks since Syria shot down a Turkish warplane at the frontier. Turkey now says it will treat Syrian units that approach the border as hostile.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar want to fund and arm the rebels, but Western powers have misgivings about sending more weapons into what could become a wider sectarian conflict.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani called in Paris for the Security Council, where Russia and China have the power to veto any action, to be sidestepped.

"Are we able to do something outside the Security Council?" he asked. "Yes. Have we done things outside the Security Council in the past? Yes, and there are many examples.

"We are ready to take part in any effort of any kind to free the Syrian people of this tragedy they are in."

While Syria's rebels enjoy wide popular sympathy among fellow Arabs, the support of the Sunni-ruled, pro-Western Gulf monarchies also reflects their strategic goal of thwarting the regional ambitions of Assad's sponsors in Shi'ite-ruled Iran.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer, Brian Love, Vicky Buffery and Arshad Mohammed in Paris, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Antakya, Turkey, Mariam Karouny in Beirut, and Michael Martina in Beijing; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/defection-cheers-anti-assad-coalition-paris-meet-064103435.html

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Giovanni Ribisi Lists, Pothole Gardening ... - Americas Best Agents

Happy Friday in this holiday week. If this week?s festivities put you in a traditional mindset you can get your fix with this updated version of the classic Colonial in Mount Kisco, New York.It is listed at $1.799 million. This and more great links below:

Open Houses of the Week, July 7-8 [AOL Real Estate]

Giovanni Ribisi Lists In Los Angeles [Real Estalker]

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Gardening in Potholes [Houzz]

Source: http://americasbestagents.net/blog/giovanni-ribisi-lists-pothole-gardening-weekend-open-houses-linkage/

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Hits 1000 e-BlackWomenNetwork&#39;s Business Networking Luncheon ...

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e-BlackWomenNetwork's Business Networking Luncheon ? on PR.com. ? This luncheon is designed for the business woman who is feeling frazzled, overwhelmed and lost in the process of juggling a business, perhaps a job, family and home. If you wonder if ?
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Cisco Angers A Lot Of People By Outlawing Porn On Home Routers
Cisco Systems told users of its new high-end home routers ? in a roundabout way ? they couldn't use their routers for porn or to send certain types of e-mail and a whole list of other things. This has made a lot of people angry. ? Cisco reportedly ?
Read more on Business Insider

This entry was posted in E Home Business Network and tagged Business, eBlackWomenNetwork&#39s, Luncheon, Networking. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://hits1k.com/e-blackwomennetworks-business-networking-luncheon/

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US, allies press Assad as top Syrian general flees

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, right, speaks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius during a meeting , in Paris, Friday July 6, 2012. Syrian opposition leaders are pressing diplomats at an international conference for a no-fly zone over Syria, but the U.S. and its European and Arab partners are expected to focus on economic sanctions instead. (AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, right, speaks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius during a meeting , in Paris, Friday July 6, 2012. Syrian opposition leaders are pressing diplomats at an international conference for a no-fly zone over Syria, but the U.S. and its European and Arab partners are expected to focus on economic sanctions instead. (AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, walks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius before their meeting in Paris, Friday July 6, 2012. Syrian opposition leaders are pressing diplomats at an international conference for a no-fly zone over Syria, but the U.S. and its European and Arab partners are expected to focus on economic sanctions instead. (AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool)

French President Francois Hollande, right, shakes hands with the leader of the Syrian National Council (SNC), Abdulbaset Sieda during the Friends of Syria conference, Friday, July 6, 2012 in Paris. The United States and its European partners are threatening new sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime if he doesn't act fast on a new peace plan, but the fractured and frustrated Syrian opposition is seeking quick military actions instead. (AP Photo/Patrick Kovarik, Pool)

Former president of Syrian National Council Burhan Ghalioun talk to the media during the "Friends of Syria" conference in Paris, Friday, July 6, 2012. Syrian opposition leaders are pressing diplomats at an international conference for a no-fly zone over Syria, but the U.S. and its European and Arab partners are expected to focus on economic sanctions instead. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

PARIS (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday hailed an accelerating wave of defections in President Bashar Assad's inner circle as the United States and its international allies pleaded once again for global sanctions against the Syrian regime. Frustrated by the slow pace of diplomacy, Clinton lambasted Russia and China for standing in the way.

Speaking after a 100-nation conference in Paris, Clinton said Syria's "regime insiders and the military establishment are starting to vote with their feet" by abandoning the four-decade Assad dynasty. She spoke after Western officials reported top Assad aide aide Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass had left the country.

"Those with the closest knowledge of Assad's actions and crimes are moving away," Clinton told reporters. "We think that is a very promising development. It also raises questions for those remaining in Damascus, who are still supporting this regime."

Tlass' departure from Syria provided welcome news for the U.S. and its European and Arab partners after another gathering of the "Friends of Syria" group that demonstrated the international community's continued inability to end 16 months of bloodshed that activists say has killed some 14,000 people.

The defection of Tlass, a member of the elite Republican Guards and a son of a former defense minister, is the first major crack in the upper reaches of Assad's regime, which has remained largely cohesive throughout the uprising.

Tlass has not spoken publicly since his defection and his whereabouts remain unknown, though French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced that the general was en route to France, where Tlass' sister lives. Fabius later backtracked, saying he was not sure of Tlass' final destination.

Even those closest to him "are starting to realize that you cannot support a butcher like Mr. Bashar Assad," Fabius said.

Hassem Hashimi, a member of Syria's opposition National Council, said the development could open more cracks in Assad's power base. "The defection of Tlass will encourage a lot of similar people to defect as well," he told The Associated Press in Paris.

As the son of longtime Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass, the general was a member of the Syrian Baath Party aristocracy, part of a privileged class that flourished under the Assad dynasty. He also was one of the most important Sunni figures in Syria's Alawite-dominated regime.

Tlass' father and Assad's father, Hafez, had been close friends since their days in the Syrian military academy in Homs and became even closer after being posted to Cairo in the late 1950s when Egypt and Syria merged into the United Arab Republic ? a union that lasted three years. After Hafez Assad rose to power in the early 1970s, Mustafa Tlass became defense minister and the Syrian president's most trusted lieutenant.

When Hafez died of a heart attack in 2000, Tlass helped engineer Bashar's succession to the presidency and guided the inexperienced young doctor. Tlass was the leader of a coterie of old regime figures that critics blamed for reining in moves to liberalize the Syrian regime.

Clinton referred to Tlass as a "very close and long-time ally of Assad and his father."

"These defections send a message to Assad, but perhaps more importantly they send a message to those still left, which I hope they hear and heed," she told reporters. "We have no doubt about the outcome here. We know that the Assad regime will fall. The question is how many more people will have to die before that happens. We want to see those on the inside hasten the day when a new transition can begin."

The gathering in France's capital aimed to win wider support for a Syrian transition plan unveiled last week by U.N. mediator Kofi Annan. Joined by America's allies, Clinton called for "real and immediate consequences for non-compliance, including sanctions," against the Assad regime.

But with neither Moscow nor Beijing in attendance, much remained dependent on persuading the two reluctant U.N. veto-wielding powers to force Assad into abiding by a cease-fire and the transition strategy. Clinton urged governments around the world to direct their pressure toward Russia and China as well.

"What can every nation and group represented here do?" Clinton asked. "I ask you to reach out to Russia and China, and to not only urge but demand that they get off the sidelines and begin to support the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."

"I don't think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all ? nothing at all ? for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime," she added. "The only way that will change is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price. Because they are holding up progress, blockading it. That is no longer tolerable."

It's unlikely the latest in a serious of U.S. pleas for Russian cooperation on Syria will help. The increasing exasperation with Moscow is partly a reflection of American powerlessness to stop the violence, with the Obama administration having effectively ruled out a military intervention or providing weapons to Syria's rebels.

That leaves the United Nations and the paths of increasing the economic pressure on Assad's regime and its political isolation. Russia and China have twice blocked U.N. condemnations of Syria's government and just last weekend worked to water down Annan's transition plan so that the Syrian leader and the opposition would have vetoes over interim government candidates.

The Kremlin rejected the anti-Assad call on Friday, with Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Clinton's comments contradicted Annan's plan, which Washington and Moscow agreed to.

Despite limited space for action, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said, "We don't rule out any option for the future because it is deteriorating.

"It is a murdering regime, so we want to see a peaceful transition," he said, "but we are not ruling anything out."

Syrian rebels said sanctions weren't working and expressed a preference for quick military action. New violence in Syria led many activists to dismiss the importance of the Paris meeting. Anti-regime activists say Syrian forces have killed at least 25 people, arrested scores more and torched dozens of homes while seizing the northern city of Khan Sheikhoun from rebels.

At the conference, opposition member Hashimi called for a no-fly zone to prevent military forces from "flying over defected soldiers and civilians and bombarding them."

"We're sick of meetings and deadlines. We want action on the ground," said activist Osama Kayal, speaking via Skype from an area near Khan Sheikhoun.

In Paris, Burhan Ghalioun, former leader of the Syrian National Council, explained his frustration.

"I am not satisfied at all because the Syrians are not waiting for press communiques. What preoccupies the Syrians today is the way we can stop the massacre. Every day there are 100, 130, 150 victims and the people only think about that," he said. "They want action. They want measures and (a) practical mechanism to stop the killings."

___

Catherine Gaschka and Elaine Ganley in Paris, Robert H. Reid in Berlin and Ben Hubbard in Beirut contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-06-Syria-Diplomacy/id-a4d3da2b5f914f03abd0302d7af9caf4

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Change of CEOs after Progress-Duke Energy merger

After the merger of Duke Energy Corp. and Progress Energy Inc., valued at about $32 billion, the newly formed electric company is also changing CEOs.

Duke CEO Jim Rogers, 64, was named CEO of the new company, which is now the largest electric company in the nation, according to the Associated Press. Bill Johnson, 58, who was expected to become the new company's president and chief executive, left the company citing a "mutual agreement."

The new company will provide services to more than 7 million customers in Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and South Carolina, according to the AP.

Progress Energy Florida? ? Progress Energy Florida Latest from The Business Journals Progress Energy Florida prepares for more Debby damageProgress Energy Foundation to invest 0K in energy educationTampa Bay Partnership responds to article about its value Follow this company , headquartered in St. Petersburg, is a subsidiary of Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_30/~3/ZKgsGs-jMY4/change-of-ceos-after-duke-energy-merger.html

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Amazon Is Reportedly Working On A Smartphone, But Cracking The Market Won?t Be Easy

Amazon's Kindle Fire has done a remarkable job carving out its own niche in the tablet space, and it seems a sequel is already barreling down the pipeline for a release in the coming months. That new tablet may not be alone though, as rumblings of yet another Amazon hardware project have started up once again. After conferring with their sources, Bloomberg reported late yesterday evening that Amazon is working on a new smartphone that they hope will go toe-to-toe with the iPhone and Android smartphones.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/bb8pdycwUAY/

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Western firefighters hoping for calmer weather

A sudden wind shift draws smoke back over the top of Sheep Mountain as the Squirrel Creek fire spreads Tuesday, July 3, 2012 near Woods Landing, Wyo. (AP Photo/Laramie Boomerang, Andy Carpenean)

A sudden wind shift draws smoke back over the top of Sheep Mountain as the Squirrel Creek fire spreads Tuesday, July 3, 2012 near Woods Landing, Wyo. (AP Photo/Laramie Boomerang, Andy Carpenean)

A wildfire burns in Lambert Park Tuesday, July 3, 2012 in Alpine, Utah. Fire officials say a wildfire in Utah County destroyed a barn and forced the evacuation of Alpine neighborhoods. The Lone Peak Fire District says no houses have been damaged and the fire has moved up the Wasatch mountains. The U.S. Forest Service is stepping in to fight the fire and evacuating American Fork Canyon. The Utah National Guard says it dispatched two Blackhawk helicopters with 600-gallon water buckets. With fire crews stretched around Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert called on the guard for help. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Leah Hogsten)

DENVER (AP) ? Firefighters battling wildfires in the West were hoping a holiday of calmer winds and higher humidity would help efforts against scores of fires burning across the region, while keeping a nervous eye for fireworks and other hazards.

A wildfire in Wyoming grew to 137 square miles Wednesday in Medicine Bow National Forest, a sparsely populated area about halfway between Casper and Cheyenne. The fire was only 25 percent contained.

Firefighters said structures were burned but it was too soon to know how many.

In Colorado, firefighters in Colorado Springs were hoping to push toward full containment of the most destructive blaze in state history. That fire has burned 28 square miles, killed two and destroyed almost 350 homes. It was 80 percent contained Wednesday.

In both Colorado and Wyoming, holiday temperatures were expected to peak in the 90s, continuing a relative cool spell after record heat last week helped prompt tinder-dry conditions. Humidity was higher, too, giving firefighters hope for progress against the blazes.

Air Force tanker planes returned to the flight line for firefighting missions on Tuesday after a deadly weekend crash. C-130 planes were in the air Tuesday fighting a wildfire south of Laramie, Wyo., that grew to 14 square miles and has forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes.

The forecast wasn't as kind in Montana, where a mammoth 380-square-mile in Custer National Forest was gobbling up pine, juniper and sage with help from gusty winds. The fire has burned 16 homes.

Firefighters gave the blaze "extreme" growth potential on Wednesday, with wind gusts up to 45 mph predicted. Temperatures were expected to reach the 100s.

As firefighting efforts continued, holiday fireworks were canceled across the region. Colorado officials were calling off holiday displays from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, while law enforcement was warning of hefty fines for people caught violating personal fireworks bans across the region.

Residents in some parched areas were joining police. In one Colorado Springs neighborhood, a homemade sign read, "FAIR WARNING: Anyone using or allowing use of fireworks in this neighborhood will be dealt with harshly! And that doesn't mean just by the police!"

An investigation continued through the holiday on the cause of the deadly Colorado Springs fire. Eight agencies, led by the U.S. Forest Service, were investigating how the fire started, said Jeff Kramer, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

"You're literally working that origin area down on your hands and knees," Paul Steensland, a retired U.S. Forest Service investigator, told The (Colorado Springs) Gazette.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates wildfire-fighting efforts nationwide, said 45 large fires were burning Wednesday, including 36 fires in nine Western states. In Colorado alone, three fires have destroyed more than 600 homes and killed six residents.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-07-04-Western%20Wildfires/id-5461ffa8b1874e039c8fc60ada5f2686

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New jobs report looms over Obama campaign bus trip

SANDUSKY, Ohio (AP) ? Campaigning by bus through swing state Ohio, President Barack Obama cast his re-election bid as a bet on the American worker Thursday, even as he braced for a Friday unemployment report that will help set battle lines for the hot summer to come.

The monthly unemployment numbers could alter or harden voters' views of Obama's core re-election argument that he pulled the U.S. back from recession while Republican Mitt Romney embraces policies that led to an economic near-collapse. A weak report could undermine Obama's position, while improvement could help the president ? though concerns about jobs are sure to a major issue through Election Day.

Obama tellingly chose to start his summer of on-the-road campaigning in two political battleground states that have a rosier economic outlook than some parts of the nation. Both Ohio and Pennsylvania had unemployment rates of 7.3 percent in May, well below the national average of 8.2 percent.

His trip through northern Ohio gave him a post-July 4 splash of Americana: Main streets and U.S. flags, cornfields and fruit stands, community soccer sign-ups and American Legion halls, small children climbing on fathers' shoulders to see the president's bus go by. Obama was greeted kindly wherever he went and bounded through his day, high-fiving the kids and hugging grandmothers.

Romney rolled his own bus tour through six states last month, including the two Obama is visiting this week. And more are sure to come in the next few months for both candidates.

As he kicked off Thursday's 250-mile trip in Maumee, Ohio, Obama said he had "refused to turn my back on communities like this one."

Romney, chiming in from his family vacation in New Hampshire, criticized Obama for hitting the road with "no new answers" on the economy.

The president, speaking at an early 19th-century museum complex dotted with red-white-and-blue bunting and American flags, claimed credit for Ohio's improving economy, especially its rejuvenated automobile industry. The White House said the Obama-backed auto bailout helped dramatically increase sales of Chrysler's Jeep Wrangler and Liberty, made in nearby Toledo.

Obama said Ohio's economic gains could be replicated nationwide.

"There are some folks who are betting that you will lose interest, that are betting that somehow you are going to lose heart," Obama said. "I'm betting you're not going to lose interest. I'm betting you're not going to lose heart. I still believe on you, I'm betting on you."

In an economic appeal to working class voters, the president also announced his administration was launching an unfair trade complaint against China with the World Trade Organization. The complaint centers on new Chinese duties on American-made cars that the U.S. contends violate international trade rules.

And Obama defended his health care overhaul during his first campaign appearance since the law was upheld by the Supreme Court.

"The law I passed is here to stay," he said. "It is going to make the vast majority of Americans more secure."

Romney has vowed to repeal the health care overhaul if elected, and Republicans believe that position can be a winning one. But much of the attention since the ruling last week has been on debate within the party over whether the law's insurance mandate is a tax or a penalty. A tax, Romney said Wednesday, contradicting an adviser's comments of a few days earlier.

Friday's jobs report was on many minds, too. Obama aides have been anxiously awaiting the new numbers, which follow a dismal May report that showed an uptick in the unemployment rate to 8.2 percent and raised concerns about a further economic slowdown.

The latest economic indicators have been mixed. U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly three years, according to a report this week. Private payroll provider ADP reported Thursday that U.S. businesses added 176,000 jobs last month, better than the revised total of 136,000 jobs it reported for May. But shoppers pulled back on spending in June, leading to sluggish retail sales during the month.

Obama already faces an uphill battle convincing some voters he is the right steward for the economy. An Associated Press-GfK poll released last month found that more than half of those surveyed, 52 percent, disapproved of his handling of unemployment, compared with 45 percent who approved.

Some Ohio voters said the auto bailout was still a plus for Obama. "The bailout will certainly help him. It's definitely working," said Linda Schneider of Maumee.

But Thomas Hutton of Toledo said it the bailout would not be a defining campaign issue. "It's a side issue. The big ones are the economy and health care," he said.

Republicans were dispatching former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, two potential vice presidential nominees, to counter Obama's appeal to voters in some of the same towns where the president was stopping.

"We should all bet on the country, but we shouldn't double down on Barack Obama," Pawlenty said Thursday. "He's had his chance. It's not working. And we need to get it moving in a different direction."

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, yet another potential Romney running mate, wrote a column in an Ohio newspaper Thursday accusing Obama of implementing policies that "make it harder, not easier, to create jobs here in Ohio and around the country."

The bus trip marked a new phase of Obama's re-election campaign as he takes a more retail-oriented approach before the September Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C. Among his events in Ohio Thursday was an ice cream social in Sandusky and remarks in a park in Parma, a suburb of Cleveland.

Obama, dressed casually in a short-sleeved shirt and khaki pants, wiped sweat from his face on a scorching day in the Midwest. He sprinkled his campaign speech with personal references, telling the crowd about his oldest daughter Malia's 14th birthday and promising his popular wife Michelle Obama would come see them in Ohio soon.

As Obama made his way from Maumee to Sandusky, Ohio, he made an unannounced stop at Kozy Corners, a diner in the town of Oak Harbor, where he greeted the lunchtime crowd. And he bought fruit at a roadside stand along the shores of Lake Erie, where he picked up a dozen ears of corn, plus some peaches and cherries

Obama also sought to extend the reach of his bus tour by taping interviews with six Ohio TV stations.

Friday's schedule includes a stop at an elementary school in Poland, Ohio, near Youngstown, followed by a speech at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Recent polls by Quinnipiac University found that Obama held a 9-percentage-point lead over Romney in Ohio and a 6-point lead in Pennsylvania. Obama won both states in the 2008 election.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Ken Thomas in Washington and John Seewer in Ohio contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jobs-report-looms-over-obama-campaign-bus-trip-200346258.html

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RUSSELL, BONE JR., MILLER AND CARTER IN LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY VICTORY LANE!

July 2nd, 2012

(WHEATLAND, MISSOURI) -?Jason Russell from Henley, Missouri, grabbed the $1,000 payday courtesy of Rain's Ice in the ALPS Food Stores ULMA Late Models on Saturday Night. Johnny Bone Jr., Jeff Miller and Mark Carter also all ended up in Victory Lane at?KIX 105.7?Night at the Races. Following an exciting night of on track Fireworks, AM Pyrotechnics lit up the night sky with the area's Wildest Fireworks Show. Lucas Oil Speedway was proud to welcome guests from Homes for Our Troops, Military Veterans and Scouts, to the Diamond of Dirt Tracks. In honor of Independence Day, the Frog's Sign Jr. Fan Club took time to write letters to our Military Men and Women stationed abroad, thanking them for protecting our many freedoms.?

In?DJ's RV?B-Modifieds, Kris Jackson from Lebanon,Missouri and Shawn Strong from Billings, Missouri, started on the front row of the Feature event. The two battled back and forth lap after lap. When the White Flag came out for the last lap, Strong was in the lead. Just before the Checkers flew, the two tangled in the middle of turns three and four, ending both of their nights. Jackson was directed off of the track for unnecessary rough driving. Strong did not restart with the field for the two lap shoot-out. Jeff Miller from Hermitage, Missouri, patiently watched the top two all night. Patience and great driving paid off as Miller ended his night with the win. Bob Kerbs from Nevada, Missouri finished in second with Scott Chism from Bolivar, Missouri in third.??

The?Caron's Corner Napa?Factory Stocks rolled out for 20 Laps with Chip Shaddox from Wheatland, Missouri and Sundance Keepper from Everton, Missouri on the front row. Shaddox would challenge early for the lead but end up involved in a spin and have to restart after a caution from the tail of the field. Keepper was strong up front but was unable to hold off Mark Carter. Carter made his way from a third place start, to win. Shaddox worked his way back from the tail to finish a solid third, behind Keepper. Carters' win puts him only 2 points ahead of Keepper going into next week's Mid Season Points Championship.??

2011 USRA National Points Champion, Johnny Bone Jr. from Pea Ridge, Arkansas started the?Pitts Homes?USRA A-Modifieds out front and never looked back.Terry Schultz from Sedalia, Missouri stayed with Bone early, but in the end the veteran driver from Arkansas took the checkers. Schultz finished in second with Matt Dotson from Clark, Missouri, third. Jason Pursley from Hermitage, Missouri was fourth and Terry Kirk from Urbana, Missouri rounded out the top five. ??

The finale of the night was the $1000 to Win presented by Rains Ice for the?ALPS Food Stores?ULMA Late Models 25 Lap Feature. Jason Russell had to work his way through the Top Five to compete for the win. Jason Bodenhamer from Sedalia, Missouri had a solid night finishing third, behind Jon Binning of Warrensburg, Missouri in second. Jeremy Kelly from Walnut Grove, Missouri was fourth with Kevin Coyne from Kingsville, Missouri in fifth. Special thanks to Austin Rains from Rains Ice for supporting the Late Model class.?

July 7th and 8th Lucas Oil Speedway heats up with the Mid Season Points Championship at the Diamond of Dirt Tracks on Saturday plus the NBRA on Lake Lucas Saturday and Sunday! The DJ's RV B-Mods will be also be running a Special 25 Lap, $500 to win Main Event as the featured class of the evening presented by Outlaw Race Bodies. Visit any participating area Casey's General Store for $2 Discount Coupons to the night's activities.

The NBRA Lucas Oil North/South Shootout will be held July 7th and 8th on Lake Lucas.The boats are much different than drag boats.? These are small boats where the pilot kneels while driving in an elongated circle. This type of boat racing is similar to the setup of dirt racing. They will run multiple "heat" races with several boats on the water at once and then run a final feature to end the show.

Saturday, July 7th - Gates open at 10:00am for Lake Lucas

Spectator Admission?
Adults (16 and up)-NBRA Only $12 (Combo Pass for NBRA and Dirt Track-$17)
Seniors/Active Military (62 and up) NBRA Only $10 (Combo Pass for NBRA and Dirt Track-$15)
Youth (6-15) NBRA Only $5 (Combo Pass for NBRA and Dirt Track-$10)
Kids (5 and under) FREE

Driver and Crew Admission

$20 (Includes Admission to Dirt Track Event)

Saturday, July 7th Lucas Oil Speedway (Dirt Track Only) Gates open at 5:00, Hot Laps at 7:00, and racing at 7:30.
Adults (16 and up) $12
Seniors (62 and up) $8
Youth (6-15) $5
Kids (5 and under) FREE
Family Pass $25?
Pit Pass-$25

Sunday, July 8th - Gates open at 10:00am Lake Lucas?

Spectator Admission
Adults (16 and up)-NBRA Only $12?
Seniors/Active Military (62 and up) NBRA Only $10?
Youth (6-15) NBRA Only $5?
Kids (5 and under) FREE

Driver and Crew Admission-$20

Visit?www.LucasOilSpeedway.com?for complete event information.

?

DJ's RV B-Modified Results 6/30/2012

A-Feature:1. Jeff Miller (Hermitage, MO), 2. Bob Kerbs (Nevada, MO), 3. Scott Chism (Bolivar, MO), 4. Stacy Hall (Bolivar, MO), 5. John Haslock Jr. (Stockton, MO), 6. Chuck Becker (Bolivar, MO), 7. Brandon Sawyers (Flemington, MO), 8. Chad Neill (Dunnegan, MO), 9. Shawn Strong (Billings, MO), 10. Kris Jackson (Lebanon, MO), 11. Ryan Edde (Urbana, MO), 12. Tracy Witherspoon (WIndsor, MO), 13. Robert Baltzel (Ozark, MO), 14. David Harris (Chilhowee, MO), 15. Justin Amick (Osceola, MO), 16. Nate Thomas (Conway, MO),

Heat 1:1. Shawn Strong (Billings, MO), 2. Jeff Miller (Hermitage, MO), 3. Stacy Hall (Bolivar, MO), 4. Ryan Edde (Urbana, MO), 5. John Haslock Jr. (Stockton, MO), 6. David Harris (Chilhowee, MO), 7. Tracy Witherspoon (WIndsor, MO), 8. Justin Amick (Osceola, MO),

Heat 2:1. Kris Jackson (Lebanon, MO), 2. Scott Chism (Bolivar, MO), 3. Bob Kerbs (Nevada, MO), 4. Robert Baltzel (Ozark, MO), 5. Chuck Becker (Bolivar, MO), 6. Brandon Sawyers (Flemington, MO), 7. Chad Neill (Dunnegan, MO), 8. Nate Thomas (Conway, MO),

?Carson's Corner Napa Factory Stock Results 6/30/2012?

A-Feature:1. Mark Carter (Warrensburg, MO), 2. Sundance Keepper (Everton, MO), 3. Chip Shaddox (Wheatland, MO), 4. Jay Prevete (Windsor, MO), 5. Mike Bitner (Frontenac, KS), 6. Logan Clark (Clinton, MO), 7. Dan Corum (Wheatland, MO), 8. Bradley Gideon (Nixa, MO), 9. Michael McGilvray (Wheatland, MO), 10. John Brooks (Warrensburg, MO), 11. Sam Shadden (Fulton, KS), 12. Doug Rich (Macks Creek, MO), 13. Randy Gilmore (Wheatland, MO), 14. Johnny Coats (Joplin, MO), 15. Eddie Clark (Calhoun, MO), 16. Jeff Pipala (Macks Creek, MO), 17. Richard Curnutt (Macks Creek, MO),

Heat 1:1. Mark Carter (Warrensburg, MO), 2. Sundance Keepper (Everton, MO), 3. Jay Prevete (Windsor, MO), 4. Mike Bitner (Frontenac, KS), 5. Michael McGilvray (Wheatland, MO), 6. Richard Curnutt (Macks Creek, MO), 7. John Brooks (Warrensburg, MO), 8. Sam Shadden (Fulton, KS), 9. Logan Clark (Clinton, MO),

Heat 2:1. Chip Shaddox (Wheatland, MO), 2. Doug Rich (Macks Creek, MO), 3. Johnny Coats (Joplin, MO), 4. Randy Gilmore (Wheatland, MO), 5. Bradley Gideon (Nixa, MO), 6. Dan Corum (Wheatland, MO), 7. Eddie Clark (Calhoun, MO), 8. Jeff Pipala (Macks Creek, MO),

Pitts Homes USRA A-Modified Results 6/30/2012

A-Feature:1. Johnny Bone, JR (Pea Ridge, AR), 2. Terry Schultz (Sedalia, MO), 3. Matt Dotson (Clark, MO), 4. Jason Pursley (Wheatland, MO), 5. Terry Kirk (Urbana, MO), 6. Tyler Brown (Richland, MO), 7. Jason Russell (Henley, MO), 8. Colson Kirk (Urbana, MO), 9. Chase Jones (Eldorado Springs, MO), 10. Mickey Burrell (Fair Grove, MO), 11. Jim Cihy (Warsaw, MO), 12. Chris Tonoli (Hermitage, MO), 13. Tim Bostwick (Urbana, MO), 14. John Fellers (Flemington, MO), 15. Richard Payne, 16. Brian Green (Pierce City, MO), 17. Paden Phillips (Chanute, KS), 18. Dennis Walrath (Clinton, Mo ), 19. Rocky Berliew (Joplin, MO), 20. Paul Snyder (Wellsville, Ks), 21. Tracy Wolf (Buffalo, Mo), 22. Jeff Cutshaw (Cross Timbers, MO), 23. Lyle Dietrich (Urbana, MO),

Heat 1:1. Tyler Brown (Richland, MO), 2. Jeff Cutshaw (Cross Timbers, MO), 3. Jason Russell (Henley, MO), 4. Paul Snyder (Wellsville, Ks), 5. Mickey Burrell (Fair Grove, MO), 6. John Fellers (Flemington, MO), 7. Richard Payne, 8. Rocky Berliew (Joplin, MO),

Heat 2:1. Johnny Bone, JR (Pea Ridge, AR), 2. Terry Kirk (Urbana, MO), 3. Chase Jones (Eldorado Springs, MO), 4. Colson Kirk (Urbana, MO), 5. Jim Cihy (Warsaw, MO), 6. Brian Green (Pierce City, MO), 7. Tim Bostwick (Urbana, MO), 8. Lyle Dietrich (Urbana, MO),

Heat 3:1. Terry Schultz (Sedalia, MO), 2. Tracy Wolf (Buffalo, Mo), 3. Jason Pursley (Wheatland, MO), 4. Matt Dotson (Clark, MO), 5. Dennis Walrath (Clinton, Mo ), 6. Chris Tonoli (Hermitage, MO), 7. Paden Phillips (Chanute, KS),

ALPS Food Stores ULMA Late Model Results 6/30/2012

A-Feature:1. Jason Russell (Henley, MO), 2. Jon Binning (Warrensburg, MO), 3. Jason Bodenhamer (Sedalia, MO), 4. Jeremy Kelley (Walnut Grove, MO), 5. Kevin Coyne (Kingsville, MO), 6. Joe Walkenhorst (Lee's Summit, MO), 7. Larry Jones (El Dorado Springs, MO), 8. Evan Hubert (Cross Timbers, MO), 9. R. D. Peterson (Springfield, MO), 10. Brandon Imhoff (Lake Ozark, Mo), 11. Bob Test (Jefferson City, MO), 12. Gage Wineland (Syracuse, MO), 13. Tommy Cordray (Browning, MO), 14. Phil Edmondson (Marionville, Mo), 15. J.D. Hubert (Cross Timbers, MO), 16. Ezekiel Langley (Ashland, MO), 17. Harlen Kennedy (Wheatland, MO), 18. Chris Hawkins (Neosho, MO), 19. Chris Cox (Jefferson City, MO), 20. Steven Clancy (Odessa, MO), 21. Andy Kennedy (Wheatland, MO), 22. Rylan Long (Greenfield, MO), 23. Jake Williams (Lockwood, MO), 24. Ethan Young (Harrisonville, MO), ?

B-Feature:1. Evan Hubert (Cross Timbers, MO), 2. Ethan Young (Harrisonville, MO), 3. J.D. Hubert (Cross Timbers, MO), 4. Jake Williams (Lockwood, MO), 5. Rylan Long (Greenfield, MO), 6. Phil Edmondson (Marionville, Mo), 7. Chris Hawkins (Neosho, MO), 8. Ezekiel Langley (Ashland, MO), 9. Brett Wood (Warrensburg, Mo), 10. Ron Johnson (Goodman, MO), 11. Mark Penticuff (Springfield, MO), 12. Olen Eckhoff (Sedalia, MO), 13. Bob Cummings (Sedalia, MO), 14. Mike Berger (Lake Ozark, MO),

Heat 1:1. Jon Binning (Warrensburg, MO), 2. Gage Wineland (Syracuse, MO), 3. Jeremy Kelley (Walnut Grove, MO), 4. Tommy Cordray (Browning, MO), 5. Ethan Young (Harrisonville, MO), 6. J.D. Hubert (Cross Timbers, MO), 7. Bob Cummings (Sedalia, MO), 8. Olen Eckhoff (Sedalia, MO),

Heat 2:1. Andy Kennedy (Wheatland, MO), 2. Steven Clancy (Odessa, MO), 3. Brandon Imhoff (Lake Ozark, Mo), 4. Harlen Kennedy (Wheatland, MO), 5. Evan Hubert (Cross Timbers, MO), 6. Phil Edmondson (Marionville, Mo), 7. Mike Berger (Lake Ozark, MO), 8. Ron Johnson (Goodman, MO),

Heat 3:1. Joe Walkenhorst (Lee's Summit, MO), 2. Kevin Coyne (Kingsville, MO), 3. Bob Test (Jefferson City, MO), 4. Larry Jones (El Dorado Springs, MO), 5. Chris Hawkins (Neosho, MO), 6. Rylan Long (Greenfield, MO), 7. Brett Wood (Warrensburg, Mo),

Heat 4:1. R. D. Peterson (Springfield, MO), 2. Jason Bodenhamer (Sedalia, MO), 3. Jason Russell (Henley, MO), 4. Chris Cox (Jefferson City, MO), 5. Jake Williams (Lockwood, MO), 6. Ezekiel Langley (Ashland, MO), 7. Mark Penticuff (Springfield, MO),

For current event information check out?www.LucasOilSpeedway.com.

2012 Lucas Oil Speedway Sponsors

AAA Missouri- "The Official Auto Club" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

Bill Roberts Chevrolet- "The Official Truck" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

Canidae Pet Foods - "The Official Pet Foods" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

DART Machinery - "The Official Engine Components" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

E3 Spark Plugs - "The Official Spark Plug" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

GEICO - "The Official Insurance" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

General Tire - "The Official Tire" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

Lucas Oil Products - "The Official Oil" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

MAVTV - "The Official Television Network" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

Optima Batteries- "The Official Battery" of the Lucas Oil Speedway??

Speedco - "The Official Truck Lube and Tire Center" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

Sunoco Race Fuels - "The Official Fuel" of the Lucas Oil Speedway

2012 Lucas Oil Speedway Supporters Include: AAA Missouri, A-1 Disposal, A & G Electric, Advanced Automotive Repair, ALPS Food Stores, American Broadband, American Racer Race Tires, Andy's Frozen Custard, Ash Grove Aggregates, B.J.'s Trophy Shop, Bank of Urbana, Big Surf Water Park, Bill Roberts Chevrolet/Buick, Buffalo Prairie Dental, Bobbie's Cafe, Bridal Cave, Budweiser, Carson's Corner Napa Auto Parts, Casey's General Stores, Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Clearlight Inn, DJ's RV Sales and Service, Eibach Springs, Elite Auto Repair, Fast Shafts, Friendly Fuel America, Frog Signs, Gathering Place, Goody's Resorts, Hermitage Lumber, Hoffman Racecars, Hoosier Race Tires, Impact Signs, Awnings and Wraps,inthepits.net, JE Pistons, Lucas Cattle Company, Lucas Slick Mist, MFA Bolivar, Maples Ford, Midwest Low-E Insulation, Midwest Sheet Metal, Nemo Quarry, O'Bannon Bank, Old Kinderhook, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Ozark Harley-Davidson, Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr. Pepper, Petro Truck Stops, Pitts Homes, Pitts Realty, Pitts Cattle, Racinboys.com, RacinDirt.com, Rains Ice Company Reliable Chevrolet, Ron Jenkins Accounting & Tax Service, Roush/Yates Racing Engines, SBU Athletics, Shadow Lake Golf, S & H Farm Supply, Sugarfoot BBQ, Sunflower Resort, Travel Centers of America, Triangle Quick Shop, TNT Quick Shop, Vickie and Tim's Pub & Grub, White's Marine Center.?

Jason Russell with Austin Rains and Boy Scouts in Victory Lane

Johnny Bone Jr. and Crew in Victory Lane with Miss Lucas Oil Speedway

Mark Carter and Sundance Keepper On Track Factory Stock Action

Jeff Miller with Miss Lucas Oil Speedway, Tessa Knightly and Dwight Brown from DJ's RV Sales and Service

Source: http://lucasoilspeedway.com/news/2012/jul/02/russell-bone-jr-miller-and-carter-lucas-oil-speedw/

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