I am interested in buying a Venom, but there are no drivers for Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition, which is my preferred operating system. Korg and Yamaha have always seen fit to write drivers and editors that work in XP x64. Why do M-Audio (and practically every other manufacturer including Roland, the third giant) consider XP x64 to be too trivial to bother supporting? Really. You're losing a sale here. Who knows how many thousands of others? In this economy, can you afford to alienate any possible source of revenue? Just, please, consider writing 64-bit XP drivers and software. It's really nothing more than Windows Server 2008 with an XP interface. How difficult can it be? Without those drivers and the extended access of the editor, the Venom does not look as promising as the price would hope to warrant.
(Reuters) ? Some 8 million people received emails from the New York Times on Thursday offering a special discount if they would reconsider their decision to cancel their subscriptions.
The trouble is, the offer was supposed to go to only about 300 people who had decided to stop taking home delivery of the newspaper -- it was erroneously sent by a New York Times employee to more than 8 million people on an email marketing list.
The debacle lit up social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, sparking concerns that hackers might have broken into the newspaper's computer network to send out spam.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper blamed human error, saying hackers were not involved and security was not at fault.
"An email was sent earlier today from The New York Times in error. This email should have been sent to a very small number of subscribers, but instead was sent to a vast distribution list made up of people who had previously provided their email address to The New York Times," the paper said in a statement.
The email offered a 50 percent reduced rate for 16 weeks on home delivery.
The New York Times is owned by New York Times Co.
(Reporting By Paul Thomasch in New York and Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Phil Berlowitz)
I would like to convert my panels to show better on the Galaxy Nexus. The resolution is 1280 X 720. Where do I begin? Do I need a different apk? I tried following the tutorial of building my own apk but I guess I wasn't smart enough. Thanks in advance!
What is Life Insurance Settlement? What Is Life Insurance And How Does Life Insurance Work? What Is Life Insurance And How Does Life Insurance Work?
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Memo to pediatricians: Allergy tests are no magic bullets for diagnosis Public release date: 26-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ekaterina Pesheva epeshev1@jhmi.edu 410-502-9433 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
New report includes guidelines on whom and when to test
An advisory from two leading allergists, Robert Wood of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and Scott Sicherer of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, urges clinicians to use caution when ordering allergy tests and to avoid making a diagnosis based solely on test results.
In an article, published in the January issue of Pediatrics, the researchers warn that blood tests, an increasingly popular diagnostic tool in recent years, and skin-prick testing, an older weapon in the allergist's arsenal, should never be used as standalone diagnostic strategies. These tests, Sicherer and Wood say, should be used only to confirm suspicion and never to look for allergies in an asymptomatic patient.
Test results, they add, should be interpreted in the context of a patient's symptoms and medical history. If a food allergy is suspected, Sicherer and Wood advise, the patient should undergo a food challenge the gold standard for diagnosis which involves consuming small doses of the suspected allergen under medical supervision.
Unlike food challenges, which directly measure an actual allergic reaction, skin tests and blood tests are proxies that detect the presence of IgE antibodies, immune-system chemicals released in response to allergens. Skin testing involves pricking the skin with small amounts of an allergen and observing if and how the skin reacts. A large hive-like wheal at the injection site signals that the patient's immune system has created antibodies to the allergen. Blood tests, on the other hand, measure the levels of specific IgE antibodies circulating in the blood.
These tests can tell whether someone is sensitive to a particular substance but cannot reliably predict if a patient will have an actual allergic reaction, nor can they foretell how severe the reaction might be, the scientists say. Many people who have positive skin tests or measurably elevated IgE antibodies do not have allergies, they caution. For example, past research has found that up to 8 percent of children have a positive skin or blood test for peanut allergies, but only 1 percent of them have clinical symptoms.
"Allergy tests can help a clinician in making a diagnosis but tests by themselves are not diagnostic magic bullets or foolproof predictors of clinical disease," Wood says. "Many children with positive tests results do not have allergic symptoms and some children with negative test results have allergies."
Undiagnosed allergies can be dangerous, even fatal, but over-reliance on blood and skin tests can lead to a misdiagnosis, ill-advised food restrictions or unnecessary avoidance of environmental exposures, such as pets.
In addition, the researchers caution, physicians should be careful when comparing results from different tests and laboratories because commercial tests vary in sensitivity. Also, laboratories may interpret tests results differently making an apples-to-apples comparison challenging, Wood says.
In their report, the scientists say, skin and blood tests can and should be used to:
Confirm a suspected allergic trigger after observing clinical reactions suggestive of an allergy. For example, children with moderate to severe asthma should be tested for allergies to common household or environmental triggers including pollen, molds, pet dander, cockroach, mice or dust mites.
Monitor the course of established food allergies via periodic testing. Levels of antibodies can help determine whether someone is still allergic, and progressively decreasing levels of antibodies can signify allergy resolution or outgrowing the allergy.
Confirm an allergy to insect venom following a sting that causes anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction marked by difficulty breathing, lightheadedness, dizziness and hives.
Determine vaccine allergies (skin tests only).
Conversely, skin and blood tests should NOT be used:
As general screens to look for allergies in symptom-free children.
In children with history of allergic reactions to specific foods. In this case, the test will add no diagnostic value, the experts say.
To test for drug allergies. Generally, blood and skin tests do not detect antibodies to medications.
Nearly 3 percent of Americans (7.5 million) and at least 6 percent of young children have at least one food allergy, according to the latest estimates from the National Institutes of Health.
###
Related:
Warning: Food Allergy Blood Tests Sometimes Unreliable http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/newsDetail.aspx?id=1896&LangType=1033&terms=Allergy+tests
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Memo to pediatricians: Allergy tests are no magic bullets for diagnosis Public release date: 26-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ekaterina Pesheva epeshev1@jhmi.edu 410-502-9433 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
New report includes guidelines on whom and when to test
An advisory from two leading allergists, Robert Wood of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and Scott Sicherer of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, urges clinicians to use caution when ordering allergy tests and to avoid making a diagnosis based solely on test results.
In an article, published in the January issue of Pediatrics, the researchers warn that blood tests, an increasingly popular diagnostic tool in recent years, and skin-prick testing, an older weapon in the allergist's arsenal, should never be used as standalone diagnostic strategies. These tests, Sicherer and Wood say, should be used only to confirm suspicion and never to look for allergies in an asymptomatic patient.
Test results, they add, should be interpreted in the context of a patient's symptoms and medical history. If a food allergy is suspected, Sicherer and Wood advise, the patient should undergo a food challenge the gold standard for diagnosis which involves consuming small doses of the suspected allergen under medical supervision.
Unlike food challenges, which directly measure an actual allergic reaction, skin tests and blood tests are proxies that detect the presence of IgE antibodies, immune-system chemicals released in response to allergens. Skin testing involves pricking the skin with small amounts of an allergen and observing if and how the skin reacts. A large hive-like wheal at the injection site signals that the patient's immune system has created antibodies to the allergen. Blood tests, on the other hand, measure the levels of specific IgE antibodies circulating in the blood.
These tests can tell whether someone is sensitive to a particular substance but cannot reliably predict if a patient will have an actual allergic reaction, nor can they foretell how severe the reaction might be, the scientists say. Many people who have positive skin tests or measurably elevated IgE antibodies do not have allergies, they caution. For example, past research has found that up to 8 percent of children have a positive skin or blood test for peanut allergies, but only 1 percent of them have clinical symptoms.
"Allergy tests can help a clinician in making a diagnosis but tests by themselves are not diagnostic magic bullets or foolproof predictors of clinical disease," Wood says. "Many children with positive tests results do not have allergic symptoms and some children with negative test results have allergies."
Undiagnosed allergies can be dangerous, even fatal, but over-reliance on blood and skin tests can lead to a misdiagnosis, ill-advised food restrictions or unnecessary avoidance of environmental exposures, such as pets.
In addition, the researchers caution, physicians should be careful when comparing results from different tests and laboratories because commercial tests vary in sensitivity. Also, laboratories may interpret tests results differently making an apples-to-apples comparison challenging, Wood says.
In their report, the scientists say, skin and blood tests can and should be used to:
Confirm a suspected allergic trigger after observing clinical reactions suggestive of an allergy. For example, children with moderate to severe asthma should be tested for allergies to common household or environmental triggers including pollen, molds, pet dander, cockroach, mice or dust mites.
Monitor the course of established food allergies via periodic testing. Levels of antibodies can help determine whether someone is still allergic, and progressively decreasing levels of antibodies can signify allergy resolution or outgrowing the allergy.
Confirm an allergy to insect venom following a sting that causes anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction marked by difficulty breathing, lightheadedness, dizziness and hives.
Determine vaccine allergies (skin tests only).
Conversely, skin and blood tests should NOT be used:
As general screens to look for allergies in symptom-free children.
In children with history of allergic reactions to specific foods. In this case, the test will add no diagnostic value, the experts say.
To test for drug allergies. Generally, blood and skin tests do not detect antibodies to medications.
Nearly 3 percent of Americans (7.5 million) and at least 6 percent of young children have at least one food allergy, according to the latest estimates from the National Institutes of Health.
###
Related:
Warning: Food Allergy Blood Tests Sometimes Unreliable http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/newsDetail.aspx?id=1896&LangType=1033&terms=Allergy+tests
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann eat burritos at Dos Amigos Burritos while campaigning in Concord, N.H. Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann eat burritos at Dos Amigos Burritos while campaigning in Concord, N.H. Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and his wife Callista, shake hands with supporters during a campaign stop in Manchester, N.H., Wednesday Dec. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann walk through a square while campaigning in Concord, N.H. Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's wife Mary Kaye, second from right, listens to her husband speak along with their daughters Abby, left, Gracie, second from left, Mary Anne and Liddy, right, at the Peterborough and Jaffrey-Ringe Rotary meeting in Peterborough, N.H. Monday, Dec. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ? Mitt Romney's wife gushes about his silly side and devotion to their five sons and 16 grandchildren. Rick Santorum's college-age daughter opines online about missing the campus coffee shop and chats with friends about their Friday night plans. Jon Huntsman's daughters generate much-needed buzz for him with a joint Twitter account and online videos, including at least one that went viral.
Days away from voting in the Republican presidential race, the path to the nomination is quickly becoming a crowded family affair with spouses and offspring pitching in and doing far more than just smiling from the sidelines.
Ann Romney, Anita Perry and Callista Gingrich are starring in new TV ads for the husbands they've loyally campaigned for. Romney extols her husband's character and says "to me that makes a huge difference" in a candidate. Perry tells the "old-fashioned American story" of how she and her husband were high school sweethearts who had to wait until he was done flying airplanes around the world for the Air Force before they could marry. Callista Gingrich wishes the nation a Merry Christmas "from our family to yours" in husband Newt Gingrich's new holiday-themed TV ad.
Candidate kids, including those born to Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, are helping, too, acting as surrogates, strategists and, in some cases, sounding boards for parents competing for the right to challenge President Barack Obama next fall.
"There are times when I wonder why I'm not sitting in the coffee shop on campus with my friends, lightheartedly discussing ('Saturday Night Live') videos, how bad the cafeteria is, what our plans are for Friday night or how absolutely swamped we are with school work," Santorum's daughter Elizabeth lamented in a recent blog post. "But this is where God wanted me."
She has taken time off from her junior year at the University of Dallas to serve as a self-described "field staffer/phone banker/chauffeur/surrogate speaker," for her father, primarily in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa.
Her father, who hopes Iowa's socially conservative voters turn out for him on caucus night Jan. 3, rolled out an ad late last week featuring the entire Santorum clan, including the family German shepherd, Schotzy. The spot highlights his 21-year marriage to his wife, Karen, notes that he has coached Little League and introduces viewers to the youngest of the couple's seven children, Isabella, born in 2008 with a genetic disorder.
Sometimes the family members campaign with the candidates and other times they go it alone.
Such family involvement carries risks and benefits. The stories they tell often humanize the candidates and help voters relate to them. But the things they say, and do, can sometimes cause headaches for the campaign advisers who are left to try to figure out a way out.
While Rick Perry spent several days campaigning in Iowa recently, his wife was hundreds of miles away in New Hampshire emphasizing his small-town upbringing and conservative values at a retirement community chapel. Audience members then peppered her with detailed questions about such subjects as taxes, immigration and the death penalty.
"She handled them quite well," said Sid Schoeffler, an independent voter from Concord. "When she knew the answer or knew the campaign's story line, she recited it. And when she didn't know, she said so. I thought that was refreshing."
"Compared to what I expected, she made a favorable impression," he said. "But whether it's enough to swing my vote, I don't know yet."
Earlier in the year, as Bachmann rose in public opinion, her husband, Marcus, was forced to defend his Christian counseling business from claims that its therapies included "curing" people of being gay. With Bachmann now near the back of the GOP pack in polls, Marcus Bachmann joined her at the start of her bus tour of Iowa's 99 counties but was quickly replaced by four of their five children.
"My husband had to go home. We're small-business owners and someone had to go home and mind the store," Bachmann told one crowd. And at one point, Bachmann, who began losing her voice in the middle of the jam-packed tour, turned over the microphone to son Harrison, a teacher who talks up his family's ties to the state, and teased: "Harrison, say some nice things about me and you'll get extra cookies."
In Paul's case, he's probably hoping validation from his son, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a favorite of the tea party, will give him a boost with that pivotal constituency in Iowa. Rand Paul is also appearing in a television ad for his father.
Romney's five-son family and wife of more than four decades have long been a part of his presidential campaigns. But the spotlight has been shining more brightly on his wife and their brood in recent weeks as the campaign seeks to cast the former Massachusetts governor as a person of "steadiness and constancy" while drawing a contrast with the thrice-married Gingrich.
Ann Romney also has spoken openly about how her husband supported her through her struggle with multiple sclerosis.
Huntsman's wife and the couple's three oldest daughters are near-constant companions in New Hampshire, the only state where the former Utah governor is earnestly campaigning. His daughters recently generated a huge amount of buzz with a video spoof of an ad by former rival Herman Cain. They donned oversized glasses and fake mustaches to look like Cain's campaign manager.
"We are shamelessly promoting our dad like no other candidate's family has," one daughter said in the ad. "But then again, no one's ever seen a trio like the Jon2012 girls."
___
Associated Press writers Philip Elliott and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
When then Harvard University president Lawrence Summers suggested in 2005 that innate differences between men and women may account for the lack of women in top science and engineering positions (and subsequently resigned), he was referring to the greater male variability hypothesis. Women, it holds, are on average as mathematically competent as men, but there is a greater innate spread in math ability among men. In other words, a higher proportion of men stumble mathematically, but an equally high proportion excel because of something in the way male brains develop. This supposedly explained why boys tend to dominate math competitions and why men far outnumber women in elite university math departments. Since then, scientists have put the variability hypothesis to the test, and it comes up short.
In the most ambitious study so far, mathematics professor Jonathan Kane of the University of Wisconsin?Whitewater and oncology professor Janet Mertz of the University of Wisconsin?Madison analyzed data on math performance from 52 countries, including scores from elite competitions such as the International Mathematical Olympiad. In particular, they examined variance?roughly, how spread out scores are. Two patterns emerged, they report in a paper in the January issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society. The first is that males? and females? variance is essentially equal in some countries. The other is that the ratio of males? to females? variance differs greatly from one country to another. These ranged from 0.91 to 1.52 (where a ratio of 1 means the two sexes? variance is equal, and a number greater than 1 means males? scores were more spread out than women?s).
The finding that males? variance exceeds females? in some countries but is less than females? in others and that both range ?all over the place suggests it can?t be biologically innate, unless you want to say that human genetics is different in different countries,? Mertz argues. ?The vast majority of the differences between male and female performance must reflect social and cultural factors.?
Such as? One clue comes from the finding that a widely used measure of a nation?s gender equality, called the Global Gender Gap Index, correlates with the ratio of boys versus girls scoring in the top 5 percent on an international math competition called PISA. In some countries, such as the Czech Republic, the boys? and girls? distribution of math scores were nearly identical. Another clue that gender differences in math performance are not innate comes from the shrinking gender gap. In the U.S., the ratio of boys to girls scoring above 700 on the math SAT fell from 13:1 in the 1970s to 3:1 in the 1990s.
Psychology professor Stephen Ceci of Cornell University calls the new analysis ?a very important argument? in the debate over the sources of sex differences in math careers. But, he adds, the findings do not mean that biology plays no role. Just because diet affects human height, for instance, does not mean ?that nature is unimportant.? Now that the greater male variability hypothesis has fallen short, nature is not looking as important as scientists once thought.
SEOUL (Reuters) ? North Korean state TV footage on Sunday showed Jang Song-thaek, the power behind the communist state's throne, wearing a military uniform with the insignia of a general, another sign of his rising influence after the death of Kim Jong-il.
The footage, which state TV said was taken on Saturday, showed Jang at the front of rows of top military officers who accompanied Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of Kim Jong-il and his anointed successor, paying their respects in front of Kim's body.
North Korea announced on Monday Kim Jong-il had died of a heart attack on December 17. His body is lying in state in a mausoleum in Pyongyang. He was believed to be 69.
His death sparked fears about succession in the reclusive communist state, which has been ruled by Kim's family since shortly after World War Two.
It also unnerved neighbors Japan and South Korea, as well as Seoul's key ally, the United States, as they wait to see how the succession plays out in the unpredictable hermit state.
Kim Jong-un was hailed by state media on Saturday as "supreme commander" of the North's 1.1 million-strong armed forces, the title held by his father.
While the younger Kim has been described as the "Great Successor," a senior source told Reuters this week Pyongyang will shift from a strongman dictatorship to a coterie of rulers including the military and Jang, Kim Jong-un's uncle.
Kim Jong-un, in his late 20s, has also been called by his official title of vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North's ruling party.
Jang married the daughter of the country's autocratic founder, Kim Il-sung, in 1972, to join the ruling family.
A Seoul official familiar with North Korea affairs said it was the first time Jang has been shown on state TV wearing a military uniform. His appearance was interpreted as meaning he has secured a key role in the North's powerful military, which has pledged its allegiance to Kim Jong-un.
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
Sources with close ties to North Korea and China have said Jang is the real power behind Pyongyang's succession process.
North Korea's state media have geared up their propaganda machine since Saturday in an apparent bid to smooth the untested Kim Jong-un's succession and show his grip on the military, which is trying to develop a nuclear arsenal.
The Japanese government will hold consultations with the governments of prefectures along the coast of the Sea of Japan to seek their support in accommodating North Koreans in case of a possible flood of refugees, Kyodo News said on Saturday.
Japan has already picked several public facilities in prefectures such as Niigata, Ishikawa and Fukuoka to serve as temporary shelters for North Korean refugees, Kyodo said, but the government needs to expand the list.
Experts say Tokyo has made contingency plans for possibly tens of thousands of refugees arriving at its ports but has not obtained local agreement to the plans, a potential headache.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda instructed government officials on Monday to make preparations for all possible contingencies. Noda is due to arrive in Beijing later on Sunday for talks with Chinese leaders, with North Korea expected to be high on the agenda.
China has been the North's major backer during decades of isolation and Noda will meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao during a two-day trip. They are expected to agree to work together TO maintain stability on the Korean peninsula.
The two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a ceasefire rather than an armistice.
(Additional reporting by Mari Saito in TOKYO; Editing by Paul Tait)
Grapevine police investigate the scene where they found seven people dead outside Dallas in Grapevine, Texas, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. Four women and three men who police believe to be related were found apparently shot to death, and authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)
Grapevine police investigate the scene where they found seven people dead outside Dallas in Grapevine, Texas, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. Four women and three men who police believe to be related were found apparently shot to death, and authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)
Police tape hangs in front of an apartment complex where 7 people were found dead, Sunday Dec. 25, 2010, in Grapevine, Texas. Four women and three men who police believe to be related were found apparently shot to death, and authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)
Police tape stretches through a Grapevine, Texas, apartment complex where police found seven people dead in an apartment on Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 in Grapevine, Texas. Four women and three men who police believe to be related were found apparently shot to death, and authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)
Police line tape lines the scene where police found seven people dead in an apartment on Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 in Grapevine, Texas. Four women and three men who police believe to be related were found apparently shot to death, and authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Scott Goldstein) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; AP MEMBERS ONLY
Grapevine police investigate the scene where they found seven people dead outside Dallas in Grapevine, Texas, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. Four women and three men who police believe to be related were found apparently shot to death, and authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Michael Ainsworth) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT;
GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) ? Investigators believe that seven people who were found dead Christmas Day were cleaning up holiday wrapping paper when they were shot inside a suburban Fort Worth apartment, but a motive remains unclear.
All of the victims appeared to be related, and Grapevine police said they believe the shooter was among the dead. Investigators were meticulously searching the apartment, along with three vehicles parked outside, and didn't expect to finish until dawn on Monday.
"It appears they had just celebrated Christmas. They had opened their gifts," Grapevine Police Sgt. Robert Eberling said, adding that the apartment was decorated for the holiday, including a tree.
The four women and three men, aged 18 to 60, were found dead in an adjoining kitchen and living room area when police arrived midday Sunday, shortly after receiving a 911 call in which no one was on the other line, Eberling said. Two handguns were found near the bodies, he said.
None of the victims has been identified, but Eberling said it appears they all died of gunshot wounds. He said authorities still don't know what sparked the incident.
Grapevine Police Lt. Todd Dearing said investigators believe that the victims were related, though some were visiting and didn't live in the apartment. He said police are looking for other relatives to inform of the deaths.
"Seven people in one setting in Grapevine, that's never happened before. Ever," Dearing said.
Police and firefighters first rushed to the Lincoln Vineyards complex after receiving the open-ended 911 call at about 11:30 a.m., Eberling said.
"There was an open line. No one was saying anything," he explained.
So police went into the apartment, located in the middle-class neighborhood of Grapevine, not far from the upscale Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville. The apartment was at the back of the complex, overlooking the athletic fields of Colleyville Heritage High School.
But many of the nearby apartments are vacant, and police said no neighbors reported hearing anything on a quiet Christmas morning when many people were not around.
Jose Fernandez, a 35-year-old heavy equipment mechanic who moved to the complex with his family about six months ago, said he always felt safe in the area, but is now afraid to let his 10-year-old son play freely outside.
"This is really outrageous especially on Christmas," said Fernandez, who was visiting family for the holiday and returned to find several police cars parked outside his home.
"This has shocked everybody. It has scared everybody. I guess something like this can happen anywhere, but seven people dead. It's just very scary," he added.
Eberling agreed the area is fairly quiet, noting this would be the first homicide in Grapevine since 2010.
Christy Posch, a flight attendant who moved to the complex about six months ago so her son could attend the high school, said she lives a few buildings away and did not hear any gunshots.
"It's all families. That's why I moved here. No burglaries, no nothing," Posch said.
___
Associated Press writer Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston contributed to this report.
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myfoxdc Woman Gang-Raped Near Greenbelt Metro: A College Park woman was gang raped near the Greenbelt Metro Stat... tinyurl.com/6s4hey2Il y a environ 1 heurevia twitterfeedRetweeted by 47 people
MUMBAI?Ravi Chaturvedi was looking forward to giving his wife a gold ring as an anniversary present this January.
But with gold prices stubbornly high in rupee terms, the 34-year-old bank manager says he has changed his mind: He now plans to give her a mobile phone.
It is a telling choice.
Many Indians are either scaling back or eliminating their gold purchases outright. The drop-off in demand is exposing cracks in what gold investors have traditionally perceived as a solid support for global prices.
With many of its religious and cultural traditions steeped in the precious metal, India historically has ...
BY DEBIPRASAD NAYAK AND TATYANA SHUMSKY
MUMBAI?Ravi Chaturvedi was looking forward to giving his wife a gold ring as an anniversary present this January.
But with gold prices stubbornly high in rupee terms, the 34-year-old bank manager says he has changed his mind: He now plans to give her a mobile phone.
It is a telling choice.
Many Indians are either scaling back or eliminating their gold purchases outright. The drop-off in demand is exposing cracks in what gold investors have traditionally perceived as a solid support for global prices.
With many of its religious and cultural traditions steeped in the precious metal, India historically has ...
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office immigration jail officers who lost their federal power to check whether inmates are in the county illegally, turn in their credentials after federal officials pulled the Sheriff's office immigration enforcement powers Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Phoenix. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stripped Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail officers of their federal powers after federal authorities accused the sheriff's office last week of a wide range of civil rights violations. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office immigration jail officers who lost their federal power to check whether inmates are in the county illegally, turn in their credentials after federal officials pulled the Sheriff's office immigration enforcement powers Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Phoenix. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stripped Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail officers of their federal powers after federal authorities accused the sheriff's office last week of a wide range of civil rights violations. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio shows his badge as he holds a ceremony where 92 of his immigration jail officers, who lost their federal power to check whether inmates are in the county illegally, turn in their credentials after federal officials pulled the Sheriff's office immigration enforcement powers Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Phoenix. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stripped Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail officers of their federal powers after federal authorities accused the sheriff's office last week of a wide range of civil rights violations. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office 92 immigration jail officers, who lost their federal power to check whether inmates are in the county illegally, turn in their credentials after federal officials pulled the Sheriff's office immigration enforcement powers Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Phoenix. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stripped Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail officers of their federal powers after federal authorities accused the sheriff's office last week of a wide range of civil rights violations. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
A defiant Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks to the media before holding a ceremony where 92 of his immigration jail officers, who lost their federal power to check whether inmates are in the county illegally, turn in their credentials after federal officials pulled the Sheriff's office immigration enforcement powers Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Phoenix. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stripped Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail officers of their federal powers after federal authorities accused the sheriff's office last week of a wide range of civil rights violations. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office immigration jail officers, who lost their federal power to check whether inmates are in the county illegally, turn in their credentials after federal officials pulled the Sheriff's office immigration enforcement powers Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, in Phoenix. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stripped Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail officers of their federal powers after federal authorities accused the sheriff's office last week of a wide range of civil rights violations.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
PHOENIX (AP) ? Dozens of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail officers lined up at a news conference in Phoenix Wednesday to ceremoniously hand in their federal credentials a week after they were stripped of the ability to verify the immigration status of inmates.
Arpaio spoke at the same news conference, saying he's going to hold the federal government to its promise to send 50 federal agents to do such screening in his jail. But he predicted there will be illegal immigrants in jail who won't be deported and will be put back on streets.
"I want to see how many agents are going to be coming to our jail," the sheriff said. "I want to see how long it will take for 50 agents from across the country to work in our jails."
The Department of Homeland Security announced Dec. 15 that more than 90 of Arpaio's Maricopa County jail officers could no longer check whether inmates were in the county illegally.
The decision followed the release of a scathing Department of Justice report that said Arpaio's office has a pattern of racially profiling Latinos, basing immigration enforcement on racially charged citizen complaints and punishing Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish. The sheriff has denied the allegations.
Homeland Security officials had no immediate comment on Arpaio's comments on Wednesday, but later pointed to a Dec. 21 letter that Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent to a county official, saying federal agents will staff the county's jails on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis and that immigrants who pose public safety threats will be taken into federal custody and won't be released, Morton said in the letter.
On Monday, the agency said in a letter to U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl that it would send immigration agents to screen jail inmates in Arizona's most populous county. Arpaio's aides say only one Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has worked at the county jails since last week.
Homeland Security's decision wasn't the first time Arpaio's federal immigration powers were cut.
In October 2009, Immigration and Customs Enforcement stripped Arpaio of his power to let 100 deputies make federal immigration arrests, but still allowed his jail officers to determine the immigration status of people in jail.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Federal Reserve proposed new capital and liquidity rules for the largest U.S. banks that would roll out in two phases and not likely go further than international standards.
The plan issued on Tuesday closely follows statements the Fed has made in recent weeks to calm Wall Street concerns that U.S. standards may be more aggressive than those from other nations, putting U.S. banks at a disadvantage.
The Fed said that both the capital and liquidity requirements in last year's Dodd-Frank financial oversight law would be implemented in two phases.
The first phase would rely on policies already issued by the Fed, such as the capital stress test plan it released in November.
That stress test plan will require U.S. banks with more than $50 billion in assets to show they can meet a Tier 1 common risk-based capital ratio of 5 percent during a time of economic stress.
The second phase for both capital and liquidity would be based on the Fed's implementation of the Basel III international bank regulatory agreement.
That standard brings the Tier 1 common risk-based capital ratio requirement to 7 percent, plus a surcharge of up to 2.5 percent for the most complex firms.
"They're basically following the guidelines from Basel on the capital buffer. There were really no big surprises," said Gerard Cassidy, bank analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
One area still unclear is how much the surcharge will be for banks that are above $50 billion in assets but are not designated as globally systemic.
"It looks like they are taking a pass on that," said Joe Engelhard, a bank policy analyst at Capital Alpha Partners.
The KBW Bank Index of stocks was trading up 4.5 percent following release of the Fed proposal, a slight gain over where it was prior to the release.
The rules, once finalized, will apply to all banks with more than $50 billion in assets, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America.
Most large U.S. banks already meet the Basel III requirements scheduled to fully go into effect in 2019.
For its liquidity requirements, the Fed is waiting on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to flesh out its own liquidity recommendations before setting out U.S. requirements.
The central bank said it initially would hold U.S. banks to a qualitative liquidity standard.
Under the Fed plan, banks would have to assess, at least once a month, what their liquidity needs would be for 30 days, for 90 days, and for a year, during a time when markets are stressed. They would be required to have enough liquid assets to cover 30 days of operations under these circumstances.
The proposals released on Tuesday are aimed at ensuring that financial firms have enough capital and liquid assets on hand to weather a future financial crisis. During the 2007-2009 crisis, taxpayers put up $700 billion to bail out the financial system, partially through capital injections into banks.
THREE MONTHS OF LOBBYING
The rules will be out for public comment until March 31, 2012, giving Wall Street time to argue that being forced to keep so much cash on hand it will hurt lending and the economic recovery.
Executives, including JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, have complained that regulators are littering the financial landscape with rules, without properly analyzing their economic impact.
A Fed official on Tuesday said the agency does not have an estimate on how much the capital and liquidity standards will impact U.S. gross domestic product.
But he said the net benefit to the financial system outweighs the cost to Wall Street and any short-term decrease in credit availability.
The rules proposed will not only apply to the largest U.S. banks. They will also cover any financial firm the government identifies as being important to the functioning of financial markets and the economy.
The government has yet to decide which non-banks, such as insurance companies and hedge funds, meet this standard.
When such companies are designated, the Fed said it may "tailor" the rules, which were drafted mostly with banks in mind, to better fit that particular company or industry.
The law also requires the Fed to write tougher standards for foreign banks with operations in the United States. Fed officials said on Tuesday they would release those proposals soon, and that they would apply to about 100 firms.
UNTANGLING THE BANKS
The Fed rules also try to limit the dangers of big financial firms being heavily intertwined. It would limit the credit exposure of big banks to a single counterparty as a percentage of the firm's regulatory capital.
The credit exposure between the largest of the big banks would be subject to an even tighter limit.
Further, the Fed proposal requires banks to bolster their capital if it appears they are heading into trouble, such as being overexposed to risky assets.
The rule outlines four phases of this "remediation" process that a bank or other large financial organization would go through if it hits certain triggers signaling weakness.
If a bank does not bounce back after following through on requirements such as a capital boost, the regulators could then restrict dividends, compensation, or even recommend the institution be seized and liquidated.
The Fed did not provide details about how much of the remediation process would be made public.
(Reporting By Dave Clarke; Additional reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra, David Henry in New York and Alexandra Alper in Washington; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
LOS ANGELES ? The executors of Michael Jackson's estate will no longer have to pay some legal expenses and other costs out of their own pockets after a judge approved changes Monday to the estate that has earned hundreds of millions of dollars since the pop star's death.
The changes approved by Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff mean attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain will no longer pay the costs from their share of the estate.
The men had been paying fees for entertainment legal counsel provided by members of Branca's firm, and McClain had been incurring expenses for the use of a recording studio founded by Marvin Gaye.
Those expenses significantly diminished their 10 percent share of Jackson's post-death earnings.
Branca and McClain have been collecting closer to 7 percent of the estate earnings since it became a "massive entertainment business enterprise," court filings state.
Estate attorneys sought the change, saying the executors spend more time than they anticipated on Jackson's affairs. The men have overseen numerous Jackson-themed projects, including the licensing of music, video games and a touring Cirque du Soleil show that will eventually become a Las Vegas fixture.
The men agreed in February 2010 to accept 10 percent of the gross entertainment-related earnings of the estate, minus money generated by Jackson's 50 percent interest in the Sony-ATV music catalog and earnings from "This Is It," a film compiled from the singer's final rehearsals.
The exclusions are huge revenue generators for the estate ? the Sony-ATV catalog includes publishing rights to music by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and other stars. The executors also have been excluded an interest in Jackson's music, which has sold briskly since his death on June 25, 2009, at age 50.
Since then, the estate has earned more than $310 million.
The percentage covers Branca's work on the estate and McClain's producing services.
Under the deal approved Monday, Branca's firm Ziffren Brittenham LLP will now receive 3 percent of entertainment-related income generated by Jackson's estate in 2011 and future years.
Estate attorney Howard Weitzman said the firm was performing work that would cost more than $2 million a year if it was being handled by another firm, and court filings state that a traditional entertainment estate would include additional managers and attorneys who would receive up to 30 percent of the estate's overall revenue.
There was no estimate for how much McClain's billings might be. He bought and restored Gaye's former Los Angeles studio in 1997, christening it Marvin's Room, and Jackson and other top singers have recorded music there.
The estate benefits Jackson's mother, Katherine, and the singer's three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket, who received an initial $30 million payment earlier this year.
Attorneys for Katherine Jackson and the children had no objection to the changes approved by Beckloff. Meg Lodise, who represents the children's interest, said, "It is quite clear that what they're proposing is going to be fair to the estate."
Weitzman told Beckloff that the estate has recently resolved creditors' claims worth at least $11 million and is working to resolve any other valid outstanding debts. Jackson died with an estimated $400 million in debts, but renewed interest in his music and career have fattened the estate's accounts, which listed $90 million in cash on hand according to a September court filing.
___
Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
In this week's elimination episode of The X Factor, the Top 4 contestants -- Melanie Amaro, Marcus Canty, Josh Krajcik, and Chris Rene -- could not be saved by the judges any more; the decision was solely based on viewers' votes. So which three acts will go through to the finals round?
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The top U.S. market regulator is appealing a judge's rejection of a major Citigroup Inc civil securities fraud settlement, according to court papers filed on Thursday.
The $285 million pact was rejected by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff last month as "pocket change" for Citigroup. In that ruling, the judge criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's policy of settling lawsuits without having defendants admit or deny wrongdoing.
The SEC said in a statement that it believes Rakoff erred "by announcing a new and unprecedented standard that inadvertently harms investors by depriving them of substantial, certain and immediate benefits."
Such appeals are unusual for the regulator, which is used to hammering out deals with defendants and having them approved by judges.
Rakoff's November 28 ruling threw out a deal over the sale of toxic mortgage debt. The judge wrote at the time that the settlement was "neither reasonable, nor fair, nor adequate, nor in the public interest." He set a trial date of July 16, 2012.
The SEC's challenge will be reviewed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. That could delay the trial.
Citigroup also disagreed with the judge's ruling. In a statement on Thursday, the bank said it believes the settlement "fully complies with long-established legal standards. In the event the case is tried, we would present substantial factual and legal defenses to the charges."
In its complaint, the SEC had accused Citigroup of selling a $1 billion mortgage-linked collateralized debt obligation, Class V Funding III, in 2007 as the housing market was beginning to collapse, and then betting against the transaction.
The SEC said the CDO caused more than $700 million of investor losses. One Citigroup employee, director Brian Stoker, was charged by the SEC, and is contesting those charges.
Rakoff has been a thorn in the side of the SEC. In 2009, he rejected its initial proposed settlement with Bank of America Corp over its takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The case is SEC v Citigroup Global Markets Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-07387.
(Reporting by Grant McCool, editing by Bernard Orr)
It's been 25 years since The Three Amigos! rode into theaters and cracked up audiences with their outrageously ornate uniforms and charmingly dense sensibilities. Now, the Amigos are back -- on Blu-ray, at least -- and director John Landis tells ET, "It was a very relaxed and fun shoot because [Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short] kept each other in place."
Released in 1986, The Three Amigos! starred Martin, Chase and Short as a trio of out-of-work silent movie actors who are recruited to perform their signature roles in a poor Mexican village, unaware that they have been roped into a real, life-or-death situation. The pitch is basically a comedic take on The Magnificent Seven with clueless, singing cowboys.
"It's clearly a parody of westerns, but it's also an homage. I'm a big western fan, and we were trying to make it look like a Technicolor Hollywood western," explains the director, who as a young man worked as a stuntman on spaghetti westerns, including Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West: "I got very good at falling off horses."
As for the riding skills of the Amigos, Landis laughs, "They were hopeless, and that's an accomplishment of mine; in the movie you think, 'Boy, they can ride!' They weren't big fans of the horses." On the upside, he offers, "Marty and Steve both became pretty good with those six-guns."
The Three Amigos! Blu-ray contains an all-new transfer overseen by Landis, featuring over 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage. The filmmaker recalls that the late comedian Sam Kinison had a role in the movie as a wild cannibal mountain man, but his scene was dropped from the final cut -- and the footage has sadly been lost.
"The movie was too long, and so unfortunately Sam Kinison's [scene was lifted]. It was terribly funny," says the director, who explains that the negative trims were lost when the Amigos! print was bought from the bankrupt Orion Pictures. "There's about another 15 minutes that's just gone."
From Animal House and The Blues Brothers to Trading Places and Coming to America, Landis' remarkable career has been associated primarily with comedies, but he tells ET that lately he's been called a "master of horror."
"I'm doing a little monster movie in Paris next year," says the helmer of An American Werewolf in London, Innocent Blood and, of course, Michael Jackson's legendary Thriller video. Prodded to reveal a little more about the project, Landis replies gamely, "I don't agree with the conventional wisdom about marketing. I think it's better when people know nothing, and then suddenly there's the movie."
Just to drive the point home, Landis also has a book out now called Monsters in the Movies, chronicling 100 years of cinematic nightmares, from B-movie bogeymen to outer space oddities and big-budget terrors. "It would make a perfect Christmas present," he jokes.
And as to where The Three Amigos! ranks in the annals of comedy history, Landis says philosophically, "When people talk about their favorite movies, so much of it is how old they were and where they were when they saw it; [it's about] who you are when you see the picture."
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