Police integrity lost: A study of law enforcement officers arrested

Public release date: 31-Jan-2012
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Contact: Bonnie Blankinship
bblanki@bgsu.edu
419-372-2618
Bowling Green State University

$261,480 grant from the National Institute of Justice

BOWLING GREEN, O.A Bowling Green State University criminal justice team is developing the first national profile of police integrity through an analysis of police crime committed by sworn law enforcement officers. A National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant in excess of $260,000 will fund the work of criminal justice faculty members Dr. Philip Stinson, principal investigator for the project, and co-investigators Drs. John Liederbach and Steven Lab. NIJ is a branch of the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice.

The focus of the 24-month research project is to study the arrest records of on- and off-duty law enforcement officers across the nation. It builds on previous studies by Stinson and Liederbach published in Police Quarterly, Criminal Justice Policy Review, and International Journal of Police Science and Management.

According to Stinson, the research is important because "there are no comprehensive statistics available on problems with police integrity, and no government entity collects data on criminal arrests of police officers in the U.S."

"The lack of statistics on police crime should be troubling to police executives, researchers, policymakers and the general public," Stinson added.

While the overall purpose of the project is to promote police integrity by gaining a better understanding of police crime and agency responses to officer arrests, there are several distinct goals established for the study.

Stinson and his colleagues expect to determine the nature and extent of police crime in the U.S.

"Police agencies cannot formulate effective policies to confront these problems until they know what types of crimes police are most likely to commit and the factors that seem to influence their commission," Stinson said.

A second goal is to find out how law enforcement agencies discipline officers who are arrested and the considerations that contribute to those decisions. The team will determine benchmarks for comparisons of how organizations handle various types of offenses committed by police officers, including which they tend to sanction or ignore.

The research team will also seek to discover to what extent police crime arrests correlate with other forms of police misconduct. This information may help guide the development of strategies to better identify problem officers and those at risk for engaging in police misconduct and devise early intervention processes.

Law enforcement agencies, criminal justice policymakers and practitioners will benefit from the resulting nationwide data set, which the team will share through reports, peer-reviewed journal articles and Internet-based products geared specifically to them. The data set from this project will also be archived at the National Archives of Criminal Justice Data for use by other researchers in replication studies.

The BGSU investigators are gathering information using improved methodologies compared to previous studies. They will look at archived news articles and records concerning several thousand arrests of police officers in the U.S. from 2005 to 2011. Additionally, they will utilize federal court records to investigate the connection between police crime and other forms of police misconduct.

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Public release date: 31-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Bonnie Blankinship
bblanki@bgsu.edu
419-372-2618
Bowling Green State University

$261,480 grant from the National Institute of Justice

BOWLING GREEN, O.A Bowling Green State University criminal justice team is developing the first national profile of police integrity through an analysis of police crime committed by sworn law enforcement officers. A National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant in excess of $260,000 will fund the work of criminal justice faculty members Dr. Philip Stinson, principal investigator for the project, and co-investigators Drs. John Liederbach and Steven Lab. NIJ is a branch of the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice.

The focus of the 24-month research project is to study the arrest records of on- and off-duty law enforcement officers across the nation. It builds on previous studies by Stinson and Liederbach published in Police Quarterly, Criminal Justice Policy Review, and International Journal of Police Science and Management.

According to Stinson, the research is important because "there are no comprehensive statistics available on problems with police integrity, and no government entity collects data on criminal arrests of police officers in the U.S."

"The lack of statistics on police crime should be troubling to police executives, researchers, policymakers and the general public," Stinson added.

While the overall purpose of the project is to promote police integrity by gaining a better understanding of police crime and agency responses to officer arrests, there are several distinct goals established for the study.

Stinson and his colleagues expect to determine the nature and extent of police crime in the U.S.

"Police agencies cannot formulate effective policies to confront these problems until they know what types of crimes police are most likely to commit and the factors that seem to influence their commission," Stinson said.

A second goal is to find out how law enforcement agencies discipline officers who are arrested and the considerations that contribute to those decisions. The team will determine benchmarks for comparisons of how organizations handle various types of offenses committed by police officers, including which they tend to sanction or ignore.

The research team will also seek to discover to what extent police crime arrests correlate with other forms of police misconduct. This information may help guide the development of strategies to better identify problem officers and those at risk for engaging in police misconduct and devise early intervention processes.

Law enforcement agencies, criminal justice policymakers and practitioners will benefit from the resulting nationwide data set, which the team will share through reports, peer-reviewed journal articles and Internet-based products geared specifically to them. The data set from this project will also be archived at the National Archives of Criminal Justice Data for use by other researchers in replication studies.

The BGSU investigators are gathering information using improved methodologies compared to previous studies. They will look at archived news articles and records concerning several thousand arrests of police officers in the U.S. from 2005 to 2011. Additionally, they will utilize federal court records to investigate the connection between police crime and other forms of police misconduct.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/bgsu-pil013112.php

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49er Aldon Smith faces DUI charge in Florida

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updated 7:32 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2012

MIAMI - San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith was charged Saturday with driving under the influence in Miami Beach.

Miami-Dade County jail records show Smith was booked Saturday morning and held on $1,000 bond. Jail records did not show whether Smith was represented by an attorney.

A Miami-Dade County Corrections spokeswoman said Smith was arrested by Miami Beach police. A police spokesman said he had no information immediately available about the arrest.

Smith was drafted as the seventh overall draft pick in 2011. During his first season, he had 14 sacks, a franchise record for a rookie linebacker. He also ranked first in the NFL in sacks among rookies.

The 49ers said in a statement Saturday that they were aware of the arrest.

"We take these issues very seriously, but will reserve further comment at this time, as this is an ongoing legal matter," the team said. "The 49ers will continue to gather the facts and monitor the developments closely."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46177253/ns/sports/

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Mitt Riffs Hard on Newt (TIME)

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UK police arrest Murdoch tabloid staff, raid offices (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? British police arrested four current and former staff of Rupert Murdoch's best-selling Sun tabloid plus a policeman on Saturday as part of an investigation into suspected payments by journalists to officers, police and the newspaper's publisher said.

Police also searched the paper's London offices at publisher News International, News Corp's British arm, in a corruption probe linked to a continuing investigation into phone hacking at its now closed News of the World weekly tabloid.

News Corp's Management and Standards Committee, set up in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, said Saturday's operation was the result of information it had passed to police.

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated," the committee said in a statement confirming the arrests of four "current and former employees" of the Sun.

The committee is conducting a lawyer-led internal review of News International's remaining titles, which also include The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers, as part of a drive to mend the reputational damage done by the phone hacking scandal.

The committee's investigation into The Sun was "well advanced," News International chief executive Tom Mockridge said in an email sent to staff.

"News International is confronting past mistakes and is making fundamental changes about how we operate which are essential for our business.

"Despite this very difficult news, we are determined that News International will emerge a stronger and more trusted organization," he added.

News International was providing legal support for the four arrested "colleagues," Mockridge said.

The arrests included The Sun's crime editor Mike Sullivan, its head of news Chris Pharo, and former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Also arrested was the paper's former managing editor Graham Dudman, now a training director at News International, the source said.

Police said a 48-year-old man from north London and two other men from Essex, east of London, aged 48 and 56, were arrested at their homes. The fourth man, aged 42, was arrested after reporting to an east London police station.

A Sun reporter, who asked not to be named, said: "Everyone is a bit shocked, there is disbelief really. But there is a big difference between phone hacking and payments to the police."

A 29-year-old policeman serving with the Met Police's Territorial Policing Command, was arrested at the central London police station where he worked.

All five were being questioned on suspicion of corruption.

OPERATION ELVEDEN

Police searched the arrested men's homes as well as The Sun's offices in Wapping, east London.

Thirteen people have now been arrested over allegations that journalists paid police in return for information.

Their detentions are part of Operation Elveden - one of three criminal investigations into news-gathering practices.

Last week, News International settled a string of legal claims after it admitted that people working for the tabloid had hacked in to the private phones of celebrities and others to find stories.

The phone hacking scandal drew attention to the level of political influence held by editors and executives at News International, and other newspapers in Britain.

It embarrassed British politicians for their close ties with newspaper executives and also the police, who repeatedly failed to investigate allegations of illegal phone hacking.

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Ben Harding)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_newscorp_arrests

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New in at ShopAndroid.com: Verizon Galaxy Nexus spare battery and charger

 

Well, look at that. New on the shelves at ShopAndroid.com is the Verizon Galaxy Nexus Spare Battery Charging System. It includes a spare 1850 mAh battery, plus a spare battery charger, so you can make sure you've always got a fresh one ready to go. Ours also comes with a microUSB travel charger, so there are no excuses in keeping your phoen ready.

While we're at it, let's give one away to our U.S. Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners. Just leave a comment on this post and we'll pick a winner later this afternoon. Good luck!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/-RvUDyFkcIE/story01.htm

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Billionaire insurance exec backs initiative to change rate rules ...

AlexKalina/istockphoto.com

UPDATE, Jan. 27, 2011: Mercury Insurance provided this response to questions about its record.

The 90-year-old billionaire chairman of Mercury Insurance just won?t give up.

George Joseph gave $8.2 million to put an initiative on the November ballot that supporters say would lower car insurance rates for consumers who maintain continuous coverage. His Los Angeles-based company spent $15.8 million on a similar proposition, derided as a deceptive move to increase rates, that failed in 2010.

The new initiative qualified for the ballot last week, putting a renewed spotlight on Joseph and the company he founded in 1962. Joseph is a longtime conservative political donor, giving $1 million to the California Republican Party in 2010, though his company has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state Democratic party as well. Joseph also gave $1 million to a political action committee that spent millions against Dave Jones, a Democrat who won the state post of insurance commissioner in 2010.

Joseph owns just over a third of Mercury's stock. The company?has tangled with the state Department of Insurance over the years and currently faces an ongoing enforcement action against it for allegations of violating consumer protections. The company denies any wrongdoing.

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In a separate case, the department is opposing Mercury's application to raise homeowners' insurance rates, arguing that the company's rates already are too high, according to senior staff counsel?Daniel Goodell. Mercury is also pursuing a 6 percent increase in auto insurance rates, but the department hasn't weighed in yet.

This year's ballot initiative would allow companies to base auto insurance rates on whether a customer had previously been insured. Under tough regulations passed by ballot initiative in 1988, companies can't charge customers more simply because they had been uninsured; they also can't charge less if customers had been insured.

So while consumer advocates say the initiative would let companies jack up rates for the previously uninsured, industry proponents argue it would lead to discounts. The new initiative improves on the old one, supporters say, in that it allows continuous-coverage discounts for those who dropped insurance due to military service or losing a job.

"This initiative is all about creating competition, driving down prices and insuring more folks," said campaign spokeswoman?Rachel Hooper.?

Hooper distanced the current initiative, which is sponsored by a trade association of insurance agents, from 2010's Proposition 17.?

"This is not a Mercury initiative," she said.?

Unlike in 2010, Mercury doesn't plan to spend company money on the current initiative campaign, according to a company representative.

Joseph has been trying to change the rules for years. His company sponsored a bill to do so in 2003, but it was struck down in court. Portrayed by his critics as a greedy "Grinch," Hooper said Joseph has been misunderstood.

"They don?t realize that this is a World War II vet," Hooper said. "They don?t realize how hard he?s worked to make this company successful. They don?t realize how much he?s done for California."

Over the last decade, Joseph gave more than $200,000 in federal campaign contributions, the vast majority to Republican candidates and committees. In California, he gave $100,000 to oppose the failed 2006 initiative that would have taxed the wealthy to provide free preschool to 4-year-olds. He spent $200,000 on the successful effort to defeat another 2006 initiative to provide public financing for political candidates and restrict campaign contributions.

The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog is a persistent thorn in Joseph's side. The group's founder wrote the 1988 initiative regulating insurance rates. Executive Director Doug Heller argues that this year's initiative will raise rates and invokes Mercury's record.

"You have a corporation and a chairman who have been found to ignore California law on several occasions, and now they?re asking voters to say yes to a slickly advertised initiative campaign," Heller said.

In 2010, then-Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner accused Mercury of breaking the law, announcing that "an examination done by the Department of Insurance appears to show that Mercury Insurance has disregarded California's consumer protection statutes and overcharged consumers."

Mercury denied and provided a rebuttal to each allegation, according to the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The department will begin a hearing process before an administrative law judge later this year.

In a separate case, the department accused Mercury of illegally allowing its agents to charge broker fees. The company "does not believe that it has done anything to warrant a monetary penalty," according to its filings. An administrative hearing process is ongoing, according to the department.?

Source: http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/billionaire-insurance-exec-backs-initiative-change-rate-rules-14628

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Unsold goods weigh on future growth

By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer

?

The U.S. economy perked up late last year as hiring accelerated?and factories ramped up production.?Unfortunately, a lot of what those factories made is still sitting in warehouses and on store shelves.

That doesn?t bode well for growth in the coming months. ?

At first blush, the numbers posted by the Commerce Department for gross domestic product in the last three months of 2011 looked strong. Overall growth advanced by 2.8 percent on an annual basis, a little weaker than economists had expected based on a series of other positive economic reports. That was much better than the 1.8 percent pace in the third quarter and the best showing since the second quarter of 2010.

But much of the fourth quarter growth came from businesses restocking inventories, which swelled by $56.0 billion, adding nearly 2 percentage points to GDP growth. The so-called ?final sales? number, which tracks how much was actually sold, rose a meager 0.8 percent.

?The pickup in GDP growth doesn't look half as good when you realize that most of it was due to inventory accumulation," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. ?Despite the apparent improvement in some of the incoming economic data, it still looks like ... another disappointing year."

Ashworth is among a number of private economists who see the fourth quarter growth spurt easing this year. He expects to see U.S. GDP advance by just 1.5 percent in 2012.

Federal Reserve officials echoed that prediction this week, though they?re?a bit more optimistic. The central bank is looking for growth of 2.7 percent in 2012, but the latest forecast was trimmed by two-tenths of a percentage point. The Fed expects unemployment to drop as low as 8.2 percent by the end of the year.

Vote: Will the economy continue to accelerate?

The lowered growth forecast prompted central bankers to extend their pledge to keep interest rates at or near zero for another year; they now expect to hold rates at rock bottom until at least 2014 to try to encourage businesses and consumers to borrow and spend more money.

Business investment slowed sharply in the fourth quarter after heavy spending earlier last year.

Consumers continued to do their part; consumer spending grew at a 2 percent annual rate, up a bit from the third quarter. Car sales zoomed ahead as the average age of the cars and light trucks on the road hit record levels. The replacement of those worn-out vehicles helped boost car sales by 14.8 percent.

Consumers are feeling a bit better about the outlook for the economy. A separate report Friday showed the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index edging up for the fourth straight month. But the level of confidence remains weak.

?Despite the rise, this and other confidence measures remain in recession territory due to global sovereign debt fear, Congressional dysfunction, and high food and energy prices,? said economist Mike Englund at Action Economics

Consumers have also fallen back on car loans and credit cards to maintain their spending.?Consumer borrowing jumped by $20.4 billion in November, the Federal Reserve said Monday. That was the third straight increase and the largest monthly gain in a decade. Consumers have boosted borrowing in 13 of the past 14 months.

The gradual improvement in the job market may explain some of the rise in borrowing. But many households are also leaning harder on debt because their wages are rising as fast as the price of the goods and services they need to buy.

A breakdown of the fourth quarter GDP numbers, with Mark Olson, Treliant Risk Advisors co-chairman/former Fed governor; CNBC's Steve Liesman & Rick Santelli

Personal incomes rose at an 0.8 percent annual rate, according to Friday?s GDP report, after falling for the last two quarters. Consumer prices are climbing at an annual rate of 3 percent, according to the latest government data.

Much of that spending appears to represent people buying goods, not services. That's a sign that households are sticking to necessities, according to Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors.

?The clearest sign that households remain cautious was in services spending,? he said. ?This is the largest component of consumer demand and it fairly budged.? People are not yet comfortable buying the little luxuries in life.?

With consumers tapped out and cautious, the economy faces other headwinds in the coming year. The housing industry remains stuck in the worst recession since the 1930s. A separate report Friday showed that the pace of new home sales fell in December, making 2011 the worst sales year since the Commerce Department first began collecting the data in 1963. Sales in December fell to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000 ? less than half the 700,000 that economists say represents a healthy pace.

Slack sales have forced builders to slash prices, which has kept many would-be buyers on the fence until they see signs that the market has bottomed. The median sales prices for new homes dropped in December by 2.5 percent to $210,300.

Though ultra-low mortgage rates have made home buying more affordable than it has been in decades, mortgage bankers remain very choosy about to whom they?ll lend. Some 12 million potential ?move-up? buyers are stuck with mortgages that are bigger than their homes are worth.

Growth in the fourth quarter was also held back by big cuts in government spending, which lopped 0.9 percent from fourth-quarter GDP.? That belt-tightening will likely continue.

What are your thoughts on the short term economic future? Share your thougts on Facebook.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10251908-unsold-goods-weigh-on-future-economic-growth

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CNN en Espanol anchor to participate in Fla debate (AP)

MIAMI ? CNN en Espanol is joining the list of Spanish-language networks to co-host debates and forums with the GOP presidential candidates.

On Thursday, CNN en Espanol's top anchor Juan Carlos Lopez will moderate questions from a panel in Miami during the CNN debate in Jacksonville. The debate is also co-hosted by the Hispanic Leadership Network and the Republican Party of Florida.

Last fall, Telemundo anchor Jose Diaz-Balart asked questions related to immigration during an MSNBC debate, and he has since interviewed several of the candidates, including Newt Gingrich. On Wednesday, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos went head-to-head in a series of "Meet the Candidate" interviews with Mitt Romney, Gingrich and Rick Santorum.

Lopez has collaborated with CNN before, but Thursday's event will showcase his talents to a much broader, English-speaking audience.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_tv/us_cnn_debate_spanish

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Britain ranks top risks posed by climate change (AP)

LONDON ? Britain says coastlines, wildlife and even the nation's most famous dish are under threat from climate change in its first-ever national assessment of likely risks.

The 2.8 million pound ($4.4 million) study sets out the most pressing problems expected to affect the United Kingdom as a result of climate change.

Britain's government said Thursday that higher temperatures could see as many as 5,900 more people die as a result of hot summers, but predicts a sharp reduction in deaths due to cold weather by the 2050s.

Other risks include increased pollution and energy demands.

The report says Britain's stocks of cod ? a key component of the nation's beloved fish and chips dish ? will dwindle, but should be replaced by more plentiful numbers of plaice and sole.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_climate_change

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GOP Candidates Spar on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (ContributorNetwork)

American taxpayers have contributed more than $183 billion to bailout mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in the years following the housing collapse, according to CNN. Given this considerable burden, the Republican presidential candidates were asked if they played any role in aiding these two firms and how they plan on helping distressed homeowners.

Here is what they said, according to the Florida GOP debate transcript provided by the Council on Foreign Relations:

* Rick Santorum: "There were several of us in the United States Senate back in 2005 and 2006 who saw the problem with Freddie and Fannie, and tried to move forth with a bill. We voted a bill out of committee to try ? to constrain Fannie and Freddie, and there were a lot of people out there fighting that, including Harry Reid and his minions. I signed a letter ? that said ? if we don`t constrain these two behemoths from continuing to underwrite this subprime mortgage problem, then we`re going to have a collapse. The problem now is, what are you going to do about it? And what I've said is ? let capitalism work. Allow these banks to realize their losses. And create an opportunity for folks who have houses to realize their losses and at least help them out."

* Ron Paul: "Everybody now admits in Washington interest rates were kept too low, too long. ? They kept interest rates especially low with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and there was a line of credit there, and it was a guarantee. As a matter of fact, I had introduced legislation 10 years before the bubble burst to eliminate that line of credit. But then the Community Reinvestment Act added more fuel to it, forcing banks to make loans that are risky loans. ? The consequences were anticipated. It was all government manufactured. ? The best thing you can do is get out of the way, because you want the prices to come down so that people will start buying them again, but politicians can't allow that to happen. Our policies in Washington still has been to try to stimulate houses and keep prices up."

* Mitt Romney: "Mr. Speaker ? you said you were paid $300,000 by Freddie Mac as an historian. They don`t pay people $25,000 a month for six years as historians. ? This contract proves that you were not an historian. You were a consultant. ? And you were hired by the chief lobbyist of Freddie Mac, not the CEO, not the head of public affairs. You also spoke publicly in favor of these government-sponsored entities at a very time when Freddie Mac was getting America in a position where we would have had a massive housing collapse. ? You could have spoken out in a way to say these guys are wrong, this needs to end. But instead, you were being paid by them. You were making over $1 million at the same time people in Florida were being hurt by millions of dollars."

* Newt Gingrich: "I have never done any lobbying. Congressman J.C. Watts, who for seven years was the head of the Freddie Mac Watch Committee, said flatly he has never been approached by me. The fact is that Congressman Rick Lazio, who is chairman of the Housing Subcommittee, said he has never been approached by me. And the only report in the newspaper was "The New York Times" in July of 2008, which said I told the House Republicans they should vote no, not give Freddie Mac any money, because it needed to be reformed."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120125/pl_ac/10882649_gop_candidates_spar_on_freddie_mac_and_fannie_mae

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Irishman makes "billion-euro home" of shredded notes (Reuters)

DUBLIN (Reuters) ? An unemployed Irish artist has built a home from the shredded remains of 1.4 billion euros ($1.82 billion), a monument to the "madness" he says has been wrought on Ireland by the single currency, from a spectacular construction boom to a wrenching bust.

Frank Buckley built the apartment in the lobby of a Dublin office building that has lain vacant since its completion four years ago at the peak of an ill-fated construction boom, using bricks of shredded euro notes he borrowed from Ireland's national mint.

"It's a reflection of the whole madness that gripped us," Buckley said of what he calls his "billion-euro home."

"People were pouring billions into buildings now worth nothing," he said. "I wanted to create something from nothing."

A wave of cheap credit flowed into Ireland in the early 2000s after Ireland joined the currency zone fuelling a huge property bubble that transformed the country.

The bubble's collapse since 2007 plunged Ireland into the deepest recession in the industrialized world, forcing the former "Celtic Tiger" to accept a humiliating bailout from the EU and the IMF.

Buckley was given a 100 percent mortgage at the peak of the boom to buy a 365,000 euro home on the far reaches of Dublin's commuter belt, despite the fact he had no steady income.

He has separated from his wife who lives in the home, which has since lost at least one-third of its value.

Living in his "billion euro home" since the start of December, Buckley is working on adding a kitchen to the living room and hall.

The walls and floor are covered in euro shreddings and the house is so warm Buckley sleeps without a blanket.

Pictures made from notes and coins decorate the walls, including one of a house, made from Irish 5 pence pieces.

"There are houses in Ireland worth less than that," Buckley quips.

Buckley said he wants Europe's politicians to solve the eurozone debt crisis without destroying its currency. But if the currency ultimately fails, he will happily use the euro zone's defunct notes as fodder for future projects.

"Whatever you say about the euro, it's a great insulator."

($1 = 0.7704 euros)

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Carmel Crimmins and Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/od_nm/us_ireland_art_euro

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Sun hurls strong geomagnetic storm toward Earth

WASHINGTON | Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:35pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The strongest geomagnetic storm in more than six years was forecast to hit Earth's magnetic field on Tuesday, and it could affect airline routes, power grids and satellites, the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center said.

A coronal mass ejection - a big chunk of the Sun's atmosphere - was hurled toward Earth on Sunday, driving energized solar particles at about 5 million miles an hour (2,000 km per second), about five times faster than solar particles normally travel, the center's Terry Onsager said.

"When it hits us, it's like a big battering ram that pushes into Earth's magnetic field," Onsager said from Boulder, Colorado. "That energy causes Earth's magnetic field to fluctuate."

This energy can interfere with high frequency radio communications used by airlines to navigate close to the North Pole in flights between North America, Europe and Asia, so some routes may need to be shifted, Onsager said.

It could also affect power grids and satellite operations, the center said in a statement. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station may be advised to shield themselves in specific parts of the spacecraft to avoid a heightened dose of solar radiation, Onsager said.

The space weather center said the geomagnetic storm's intensity would probably be moderate or strong, levels two and three on a five-level scale, five being the most extreme.

(Reporting By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/74pIVHQqnMo/us-sun-storm-idUSTRE80M25Q20120123

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Kung Hei Fat Choi / Gong Xi Fa Cai (slacktivist)

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Small Business Lending Rises At Chase, Citi

(Reuters) - Global lending giants Chase (JPM.N) and Citi (C.N) said they substantially increased loans to U.S. small businesses last year, both exceeding previous commitments.

Chase said its small business loans rose to $17 billion in 2011, up 52 percent from 2010.

Citi said it lent $7.9 billion to small companies last year, an increase of more than 30 percent from the prior year and exceeding its previous commitment of $7 billion. Since the start of the economic downturn in late 2008, many small businesses have been struggling to get loans, lines of credit and other financing.

But a monthly poll of small business sentiment released Jan. 10 by the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group, said small businesses' access to credit ranked at the bottom of respondents' concerns, with only 4 percent of owners reporting financing as their primary business problem.

Chase, which says it leads in U.S. Small Business Administration loans by volume, provided nearly 400,000 new loans and lines to small companies last year. For the past three years, the company exceeded annual small business lending commitments.

Last fall it pledged to maintain elevated lending volumes through at least 2013.

"Since 2009, we have provided more than $35 billion in working capital, term loans for expansion, commercial mortgages, lines of credit and business credit cards to small businesses," said Scott Geller, Chase's CEO of business banking, in a statement accompanying the lending figures Jan. 19.

In September 2011, Citi committed to lending $24 billion to small businesses over the course of three years. Its progressive increases call for lending to reach $9 billion annually in 2013.

"We made it easier for customers to apply for credit by offering less paperwork and an improved customer experience," said Raj Seshadri, Citi's head of U.S. Small Business, in the company's prepared statement, also released Jan. 19.

"Over the last year we tripled originations and increased credit application approvals substantially."

(Reporting by Deborah L. Cohen; Editing by Carla Tonelli)

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

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Concordia captain tests negative for drugs: lawyer (Reuters)

GROSSETO, Italy (Reuters) ? The captain of the Costa Concordia was not under the effects of drugs when the liner hit a rock that tore a hole in the hull and caused it to capsize near the port of Italy's Giglio island, his lawyer said on Monday.

A toxicology report showed that Captain Francesco Schettino had tested negative for drugs, his lawyer Bruno Leporatti told reporters. "We had no doubts about it," Leporatti said.

The comment came as divers resumed a search for bodies on the stricken vessel, which lies on its side in about 20 meters of water off Giglio.

Thirteen people are known to have died and around 20 are still missing from the accident, which occurred in calm seas and good weather as the 114,500 tonne liner approached the island, apparently to make a display known as a "salute."

Schettino has been charged with multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew was complete.

He is currently under house arrest in his home town of Meta di Sorrento near Naples.

(Reporting by Silvia Ognibene, writing By Steve Scherer)

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Kathy Griffin Strips For Letterman (Video)

Comedian Kathy Griffin loves shocking people and she did just that when she stripped down to her skivvies for David Letterman on his show last night. It was highly entertaining to say the least and you can see the video clip right here. Griffin was a guest on Dave?s show last night and they began chit chatting about her hosting New Years Eve for CNN with Anderson Cooper. If you watched the NYE special then you know that at one point Kathy just started taking off her clothes until she was only in her undies and a bra of course. Poor Anderson was like WTF as his co-host stood there trying to justify why she pulled such a prank. Anyway so while appearing on Letterman, Dave of course asked her about this little prank that she pulled, so of course being the I don?t give a you know what about what anyone thinks I will do what the heck I want, kind of gal that she is Kathy informs the talk show host that she will take it all off right there. The look on Letterman?s face is priceless, like he was really going to say ?no don?t do that? [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/7-RP6sozpQg/

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Can A Middle-Aged Neophyte Make It to Carnegie Hall?

Ask the Experts | Mind & Brain

A psychologist takes up guitar in his late 30s and becomes a working exemplar of the brain's inherent plasticity

By Gary Stix ?| January 21, 2012?|

Gary Marcus, in the red shirt, helped hone his playing skills at the DayJams summer camp, by playing in a band. Image: Athena Vouloumanos

Gary Marcus suffers from what a friend jokingly describes as congenital arrhythmia?the inability, despite many hours of his youth spent practicing and taking lessons, to learn to play a musical instrument. A few years ago Marcus, a cognitive psychologist at New York University, decided at 38 to make one last try when he took up guitar. No surprise: He did not succeed in becoming the next Jimi Hendrix, but managed to acquire a modicum of skill?and went on to describe his experience in Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning.

Marcus says his personal experience jibes with current theories in neuroscience that adult brains are plastic?that, in practice, they can learn new skills that scientists once thought had to be acquired during the so-called critical period of prepubescent childhood. Marcus, though, calls into question the conventional wisdom that hard work alone suffices. Raw talent also plays a role, he says?a message that will come as a surprise to many people in an era that lauds "tiger moms" and 10,000-hour apprenticeships. Marcus spoke with Scientific American about music and the brain. Excerpts

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

What is a critical period?
It's supposed to be a window in development that defines the only period in which a thing can be learned.

How has our understanding about this concept changed?
There used to be an idea that there were very strict critical periods,?? that you had to learn something by a certain time or you wouldn't be able to do it all. That's the dominant idea in the textbooks. What we've found in the last decade is that there's a gradual decline rather than an immediate falloff.

Neurons do become less flexible over time, which makes learning more difficult, but not all in one moment. There's sort of a gradual decline. The other thing that gets in the way relates to interferences with what's learned early in life. So if you try to learn a new language that works differently from your old language, you sometimes get stuck when using the new language. Another reason for difficulty learning new things is that adults are simply busy with other obligations.

There have always been late bloomers. Grandma Moses and Anton Bruckner, among others.
For sure! People like that presumably have considerable innate talent, to begin with, and then later in life develop a passion that consumes them and leads them to great heights.

How far do you think someone could go? Do you think it would ever be possible to start playing at 50 and become a concert violinist?
I think it's possible. It's less likely; starting earlier is better. If you're starting later in life, I think you need to temper your ambitions. But I don't think it's completely impossible if you devote yourself to something?especially if you have some raw talent.

How important is talent? The popular psychology literature has focused a lot of attention on the question of motivation?the idea that 10,000 hours of concerted practice can make you an expert in virtually any field.
The idea of 10,000 hours is a nice first approximation, but also very much oversold. It's weird the way some prominent people seem to have forgotten about genes. Some people become experts faster, some slower, and it also depends on what skill you are trying to acquire.

The fact that practice is important doesn't mean that talent isn't. Most of the top performers in any field are people who combine industry with predisposition. You can actually see that in the original studies that inspired the "10,000 hour" rule of thumb?some people who had practiced for 10 years were better than others that practiced for 20, and that's what talent is. There is also a huge literature in twin studies that highlights the contributions of genes and heritability. Without talent you can become very good, but to be truly outstanding, you probably need the right genes, too.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b84f431f03956a6acc5618512c0d9e47

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Osawatomie Reprised (TIME)

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Genetically Engineered Stomach Microbe Converts Seaweed into Ethanol

News | Energy & Sustainability

A genetically modified strain of common gut bacteria may lead to a new technology for making biofuels that does not compete with food crops for arable acreage

By David Biello ?| January 19, 2012?|

SEAWEED TO BIOFUEL: Brown seaweed grows fast, is chock full of sugars to turn into biofuel and doesn't compete for land with food crops. Image: Courtesy of BioArchitecture Lab

Seaweed may well be an ideal plant to turn into biofuel. It grows in much of the two thirds of the planet that is underwater, so it wouldn't crowd out food crops the way corn for ethanol does. Because it draws its own nutrients and water from the sea, it requires no fertilizer or irrigation. Most importantly for would-be biofuel-makers, it contains no lignin?a strong strand of complex sugars that stiffens plant stalks and poses a big obstacle to turning land-based plants such as switchgrass into biofuel.

Researchers at Bio Architecture Lab, Inc., (BAL) and the University of Washington in Seattle have now taken the first step to exploit the natural advantages of seaweed. They have built a microbe capable of digesting it and converting it into ethanol or other fuels or chemicals. Synthetic biologist Yasuo Yoshikuni, a co-founder of BAL, and his colleagues took Escherichia coli, a gut bacterium most famous as a food contaminant, and made some genetic modifications that give it the ability to turn the sugars in an edible kelp called kombu into fuel. They report their findings in the January 20 issue of the journal Science.

To get his E. coli to digest kombu, Yoshikuni turned to nature?specifically, he looked into the genetics of natural microbes that can break down alginate, the predominant sugar molecule in the brown seaweed. "The form of the sugar inside the seaweed is very exotic," Yoshikuni told Scientific American. "There is no industrial microbe to break down alginate and convert it into fuels and chemical compounds."

Once he and his colleagues had isolated the genes that would confer the required traits, they used a fosmid?a carrier for a small chunk of genetic code?to place the DNA into the E. coli cells, where it took its place in the microbe's own genetic instruction set. To test the new genetically engineered bacterium, the researchers ground up some kombu, mixed it with water and added the altered E. coli. Before two days had gone by the solution contained about 5 percent ethanol and water. It also did this at (relatively) low temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius, both of which mean that the engineered microbe can turn seaweed to fuel without requiring the use of additional energy for the process.

An analysis from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (pdf) suggests that the U.S. could supply 1 percent of its annual gasoline needs by growing such seaweed for harvest in slightly less than 1 percent of the nation's territorial waters. Humans already grow and harvest some 15 million metric tons of kombu and other seaweeds to eat. And there's no reason to fear the newly engineered E. coli escaping into the wild and consuming the seaweed already out there, Yoshikuni argues. "E. coli loves the human gut, it doesn't like the ocean environment," he says. "I can hardly imagine it would do something. It would just be dead."

The microbe could turn out to be useful for making molecules other than ethanol, such as isobutanol or even the precursors of plastics, Yoshikuni says. "Consider the microbe as the chassis with engineered functional modules," or pathways to produce a specific molecule, Yoshikuni says. "If we integrate other pathways instead of the ethanol pathway, this microbe can be a platform for converting sugar into a variety of molecules."

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=c464ea79a198762d99f7751c918e5c37

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Bank of America reverses loss and earns $2 billion (AP)

NEW YORK ? Bank of America made $2 billion in the last three months of last year, reversing a loss from a year earlier. It offset legal expenses over mortgages and losses in its investment banking business by selling debt and its stake in a Chinese bank.

The bank said Thursday that it made 15 cents per share in the fourth quarter. That fell short of the 22 cents expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet, a provider of financial data, but was in line with other estimates.

For the year, the bank made $1.4 billion. It lost $2.2 billion in 2010.

Bank of America has been raising cash by selling pieces of itself that don't fit into its basic banking model. The strategy was also a way to prepare for a Federal Reserve stress test, which is under way, and meet international regulatory standards.

"We enter 2012 stronger and more efficient after two years of simplifying and streamlining our company," CEO Brian Moynihan said.

Bank of America's results are considered a gauge of the health of the American consumer. The bank serves about half of American households. The results showed that housing continues to remain a concern in the economy.

Bank of America's real estate business lost $1.5 billion after a 74 percent decline in new home loans. The bank lost some market share and closed a division that helped third-party home lenders.

But Americans seemed to be getting their financial houses in order by paying off more debt on time.

Bank of America, one of the largest credit card issuers, said customers who paid bills a month late declined for the 11th consecutive quarter. New credit card accounts also grew 53 percent, and the division posted a profit of $1 billion.

Already dealing with an image problem after the 2008 financial crisis, Bank of America caused an uproar last fall when it announced a $5 monthly fee for its debit cards. The bank quickly backed off.

Banks have been raising all types of customer fees. They say they need to make up lost revenue because a federal law that took effect last year caps what banks can charge stores for purchases paid for with the swipe of a debit card.

The $2 billion net income for the fourth quarter compared with a $1.2 billion loss in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue was $25.1 billion, up 11 percent and higher than the $23.7 billion estimated by FactSet.

The bank made $2.9 billion by selling its stake in China Construction Bank and $2.4 billion more selling debt and exchanging its higher-cost preferred stock for common stock.

Bank of America stock was clobbered for two years and lost more than 60 percent of its value. But the market seems to like what Moynihan is doing. The stock has soared 23 percent in 2012.

On Thursday, it climbed 28 cents after the earnings report to $7.08. Bank of America stock has not closed above $7 since Oct. 28.

The bank set aside $1.5 billion for litigation expenses, mostly related to fighting lawsuits from mortgage loans.

Bank of America's investment banking business reported a loss of $433 million due to lower investment banking fees and lower sales and trading driven by the rocky stock and bond markets in the last three months of the year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_bank_of_america

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Video: Maria's Market Insight

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo discusses the day's top business and financial stories, and looks ahead to tomorrow's Closing Bell.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

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IMF seeks up to $500 billion in new funds

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, walks out of 10 Downing Street to greet his Italian counterpart Mario Monti outside 10 Downing Street in London Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, walks out of 10 Downing Street to greet his Italian counterpart Mario Monti outside 10 Downing Street in London Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, right, talks to British Prime Minister David Cameron as he arrives for a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, right, removes his coat as he meets with British Prime Minister David Cameron as he arrives for a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, left, greets his Italian counterpart Mario Monti outside 10 Downing Street in London Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that it's aiming to increase its financial firepower by around $500 billion so it can give out new loans to help mitigate a worsening financial crisis.

Responding to widespread speculation surrounding its funding requirements, the Washington-based institution said its staff estimates that countries around the world will need about $1 trillion in loans over the coming years. Most of the concerns center on the 17-nation eurozone, which has been embroiled in a debt crisis for around two years.

"At this preliminary stage, we are exploring options on funding and will have no further comment until the necessary consultations with the Fund's membership have been completed," a Fund spokesman said in a statement.

Thanks to some $200 billion that European countries have recently promised to the IMF, it is already more than one third on its way to reaching its fund-raising goal.

The IMF has put up about a third of the financing of the eurozone's bailouts over the past two years, but there are growing worries that non-European countries will also need more help given the worsening economic outlook.

Earlier, its sister organization, the World Bank, urged emerging countries that they have to be ready for a severe global downturn if the crisis in the 17-nation eurozone intensifies.

The eurozone, in particular, has been pushing countries around the globe to give more funds to the IMF in the hope that it would build up a larger firewall to stop the continent's debt troubles from spreading to large economies like Spain, Italy or even France.

But so far, even countries relatively flush with cash as China or Brazil have been reluctant to put up more money for Europe. The United States is also reluctant to increase the fund's resources.

Eswar Prasad, a former top IMF official who now teaches economics at Cornell University, said emerging market countries may have started to see the need for such support because Europe's debt crisis has begun to cut into their exports. He said also that concern about possible European bond defaults is triggering a flight to safety. That means less capital is flowing to emerging markets.

"There is a sense among many countries that the problems of Europe are beginning to wash up on their shores so some action must be taken," Prasad said.

Prasad expects the issue will be discussed Thursday at a meeting of deputy finance ministers for Group of 20 countries in Mexico City. But he does not expect a decision until the G-20 finance ministers meet on Feb. 24-25 in Mexico City.

Prasad said he did not expect the Obama administration to change its position. He expects it will continue to oppose more U.S. support to the IMF.

"The United States is almost certainly not going to put any more money on the table," Prasad said. "Even if the administration wanted to do it, there is little chance they could get it through Congress."

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday that the government would be prepared to back an increase but that he would require approval from his Parliament.

"We believe the IMF must always lend to countries, not to currencies," Cameron said at a news conference with Italian Premier Mario Monti. "We would only act if that was with others, not just as part of a eurozone measure.

However, Cameron said it's up to the eurozone itself to prove that it's "standing behind its own currency."

How the IMF's fund-raising goal will be reached is set to be discussed at a meeting of finance ministers of the Group of 20 leading economies in Mexico next month.

____

David Stringer in London and Martin Crutsinger in Washington contributed to this story.

Associated Press

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Phobos-Grunt Falls into the Pacific; Russians Blame America (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | ABC News reports the remnants of the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, thus ending the latest attempt by Russia to revive its planetary probe program. The Russians said most of it burned in the atmosphere.

Phobos-Grunt was launched in November with the mission of landing on Phobos, a Martian moon, taking a soil and rock sample and delivering it back to Earth for study. It was to be the first Russian space probe beyond low Earth orbit since the failure of a Mars probe in the mid-1990s.

Unfortunately, contact was lost with Phobos-Grunt soon after it failed to execute a rocket burn that would have sent it on its way to Mars orbit. Despite the best efforts of the Russians, aided by the European Space Agency, the probe could not be saved.

The orbit of Phobos-Grunt decayed until it entered the Earth's atmosphere on Sunday. About 450 pounds of the probe likely crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Despite the fact that the probe carried a load of toxic fuel, the main damage appears to be to Russian pride.

Most Western analysts believe the failure of Phobos-Grunt had to do with poor quality control during its processing. But the U.K. Telegraph reports a story that some Russians are blaming an American radar for causing the failure of the probe. The Russians are conducting a number of experiments to see whether this explanation is plausible.

Blaming the Americans is certainly a convenient way to assuage Russian pride, hurt as it has been by a number of launch failures. But the story of a nefarious American radar causing the failure of Phobos-Grunt is not likely to be believed by many people in the West. Indeed, if the Russians start to fix on that idea, they might not be motivated to pay attention to the real problems facing their space effort.

Space exploration, because of its technological complexity and the harsh environment of space, is unforgiving of human error. The history of the space age is replete with dead satellites and dead astronauts and cosmonauts that attest to that fact.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.

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FACT CHECK: All's not well for 'King of Bain' (The Arizona Republic)

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