THE PEGASUS DAILY NEWS

[pegasus]

Diet Resolution Week
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 2nd day of 2013 with 363 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 1:16 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 26ºF [Feels like 14ºF], winds WSW @ 13 mph, humidity 51%, pressure 30.01 in and falling, dew point 13ºF, chance of precipitation 30%.

Today in History:
533--Mercurius, a Roman priest of the Basilica di San Clemente, became the first Pope to adopt a new regnal name upon his elevation to the papacy as Pope John II
1492--the leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.
1776--the Continental Congress published the "Tory Act" resolution on how colonies should handle those Americans who remain loyal to the British and King George.
1788--Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1811--Timothy Pickering, a Federalist from Massachusetts, became the first US senator to be censured after being accused of publicly revealing secret presidential documents.
1863-- the Union troops of William Rosecrans defeat Confederates under Braxton Bragg at Murfeesboro, Tennessee, just south of Nashville in the Battle of Stones River.
1897--Stephen Crane survived the sinking of his boat off the coast of Florida and turned the harrowing adventure into his classic short story "The Open Boat" (1897).
1900--Secretary of State John Hay announced the Open Door Policy to prompt trade with China.
1905--the Russian fleet surrendered to the Japanese at Port Arthur.
1923--Albert Fall, the secretary of the Department of Interior, resigned in response to public outrage over the Teapot Dome scandal.
1926--Isaac Asimov, science fiction author and professor of biochemistry, was born; died 1992 at age 72.
1935--Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh.
1942--the US Navy opened a blimp base in New Jersey.
1942--Japanese forces occupied Manila, forcing US and Philippine forces to withdraw to the Bataan peninsula.
1959--the Soviet Union launched Lunik-1, the first unmanned spacecraft to travel to the moon.
1962--the folk group The Weavers were banned by NBC after refusing to sign a loyalty oath.
1965--the New York Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath for a reported $400,000.
1971--66 football (soccer) fans were killed in a stampede at a stadium in Glasgow, Scotland,
1974--Pres. Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph.
1980--in a reaction to the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pres. Carter asks the Senate to postpone action on the SALT II nuclear weapons treaty and recalls the US ambassador to Moscow.
1980--former model Sherry Lansing was named the first female studio production head at Fox Productions.
1981--Police in Sheffield, England, arrested Peter Sutcliffe, who confessed to being the "Yorkshire Ripper," the serial killer of 13 women.
1990--Great Britain's most wanted terrorist suspect, Patrick Sheehy, was found dead in the Republic of Ireland.
1991--Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C., becoming the first African-American woman to head a city of Washington's size and prominence.
2004--more than 200 people in northern India were reported to have died because of a prolonged cold spell.
2005--US helicopters began dropping supplies on remote sections of Aceh province in Indonesia, devastated by Southeast Asia's earthquake and tsunami. Airdrops also were under way in parts of India.
2005--a suicide car bomb killed 18 members of the Iraqi National Guard and a civilian in Baghdad.
2006--a methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia trapped 13 miners underground for more than 40 hours; only one survived.
2007--national and world dignitaries attended a funeral ceremony in Washington's National Cathedral for former president Gerald Ford.
2008--Pakistan's national parliamentary elections were postponed until Feb. 18 in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
2008--Oil prices soared to $100 a barrel for the first time.
2009--a rare unrestored 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe was found in a garage of a British doctor and sold at a Paris auction a month later for some $4.4 million.

World News Capsules:
1. With US set to leave Afghanistan, echoes of 1989
....As the US prepares to withdraw from an unpopular war in Afghanistan, it faces challenges similar to what the country’s last occupier, the Soviet Union, had experienced.
2. Central African Republic rebels halt advance

....The rebels said they had halted their advance on the capital of Bangui and would start peace talks, averting a clash with regionally-backed troops.
3. Europe's debt crisis: no relief on the horizon
....European Union officials have struggled to turn things around — debating new treaties, shoring up banks, securing more funding. The people of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Latvia have dealt with economic troubles in various ways.
4. Iraq's Sadr encourages anti-government demonstrations
....A populist Shiite leader, Moktada al-Sadr, expressed support on Tuesday for new protests against Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite but his political opponent.
5. Used to hardship, Latvia accepts austerity, and its pain eases

....In four years, the country has gone from the European Union's worst economic disaster zone to a model of what is being hailed as the healing properties of deep budget cuts.
6. Laos could bear cost of Chinese railroad
....China wants a railroad linking it to Thailand and on to the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar, but some international groups warn that it may put a big burden on Laos.
7. North Korean leader makes overture to South

....Kim Jong-un, who called for an end to the "confrontation" with South Korea, also laid out broad policy guidelines for the new year.
8. Militants gun down seven aid workers in Pakistan
....Continuing a militant campaign of violence against aid workers in Pakistan, gunmen killed seven Pakistani teachers and health workers, six of them women.
9. Putin orders new system for Russian parliamentary elections
...The move by Pres. Putin to establish a mixed electoral system would alter the way seats are filled in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, and could help solidify his power.
a. Malls blossom in Russia, with a middle class
....While malls appear to be past their peak in the US, in Russia they are luring shoppers with money to spend and investors like Morgan Stanley.
10. A Swiss region where the gold comes in solid and liquid forms

....Mendrisio, Switzerland, is home to three major gold refiners and a dark red merlot produced in the surrounding hills.
11. More than 60,000 have died in Syrian conflict, UN says

....The UN’ human rights chief, Navi Pillay voiced dismay over an analysis that far exceeds earlier estimates of the toll in 22-month-old war.
a. Dozens of Syrians killed in explosions around Damascus

....Blasts at a gas station east of the Syrian capital and in another of its suburbs killed more Syrians.

US News Capsules:
1. Energy drinks promise edge, but experts say proof is scant
....The popularity of the drinks reflects success in convincing consumers that they provide an edge, but most of their ingredients have no or little benefit, research shows.
2. Rig runs aground in Alaska, reviving fears about Arctic drilling

....There are no signs of spilled fuel, but that remains a concern as long as the Shell Oil vessel is stuck; the Coast Guard hopes to get salvage experts aboard to assess the damage.
3. Study suggests lower mortality risk for people deemed to be overweight
....A report on nearly three million people found that those whose body mass index ranked them as overweight had less risk of dying than people of normal weight.
4. Drug makers losing a bid to foil generic painkillers
....The companies making the narcotic painkillers OxyContin and Opana have introduced tamper-resistant pills, hoping to slow adoption of the drugs' generic versions.
5. Learning to create the perfect cup of coffee

....At coffee training centers, which are increasingly common, prospective baristas are learning the art and science behind the best-tasting coffee drinks.
6. ARTS: 2 queens, 3 lovers and one death warrant

....Joyce DiDonato triumphs in the title role, and Elza van den Heever makes a notable Met debut as Queen Elizabeth I, in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda.
7. Feeling draged through the mud, as MTV comes to West Virginia
....Like Jersey Shore, whose slot it is filling, Buckwild is prompting anger over what some consider the exploitation of stereotypes.
POLITICS:
1. Amid pressure, House passes fiscal dea

....Ending a climactic showdown in the final hours of the 112th Congress, the House sent Pres. Obama legislation to avert big income tax increases on most Americans.
2. From Congress to halls of state, in New Hampshire, women rule

....New Hampshire, which again chose a woman to be governor, will also become the first state in history to have an all-female delegation in Washington.
3. House ignores storm relief, to fury of local Republicans
....Gov. Christie of New Jersey angrily accused Congressional leaders in his party of “duplicity” after the House refused to take up a federal aid package for states that suffered damage from Hurricane Sandy.
a. King: House to vote on Sandy aid

....Republican Rep. Peter King of New York said that House Speaker John Boehner has promised a vote Friday on $9 billion in disaster aid for Superstorm Sandy and then another vote on $51 billion in aid on January 15.
4. House GOP looks to a round 2 Obama hopes to avoid
....Though Pres. Obama said he would not be pulled into another debt negotiation, Republicans are looking to reprise a bitter clash from 2011.

Thought for Today
"You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics."
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer

[pegasus]

Drinking Straw Day
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 3rd day of 2013 with 362 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:22 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 28ºF [Feels like 17ºF], winds SSW @ 13 mph, humidity 63%, pressure 29.96 in and falling, dew point 19ºF, chance of precipitation 50%.

Today in History:
1521--Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
1777--Gen. Washington's army routed the British in the Battle of Princeton, NJ.
1793--Lucretia Mott, an early proponent of the women's rights movement in America, was born; died 1880 at age 87.
1818--Venus transits Jupiter.
1841--Herman Melville sailed for the South Seass
1861--Delaware rejected secession.
1868--the Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns.
1892--J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa; died 1973 at age 81.
1924--British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen uncovered the greatest treasure of King Tut's tomb--a stone sarcophagus containing a solid gold coffin that holds the mummy of Tutankhamen.
1938--the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was organized vy Pres. Roosevelt.
1945--Rock musician Stephen Stills (Crosby, Stills and Nash) turns 68 years old.
1945--Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz were given new commands in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and mainland Japan.
1952--the police drama Dragnet became one of the first TV series filmed in Hollywood, beginning a long, nearly unbroken line of popular crime and police TV dramas, continuing into the present day.
1959--Alaska became the 49th state of the union.
1961--the US severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1965--anti-government demonstrators clash with police in Saigon, South Vietnam.
1967--Jack Ruby, the man who fatally shot accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died in a Dallas hospital.
1968--Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-<Minn.) announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1981--New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning turns 32 years.
1990--ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to US forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Panama City.
1991--AIDS was removed from the list of diseases that would automatically bar an infected person from entering the US.
1993--Pres. Bush and Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin signed the START II treaty reducing strategic nuclear arsenals by two-thirds.
2000--the last new daily "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles Schulz ran in 2,600 newspapers.
2004--a Flash Airline (Egyptian Charter flight company) Boeing 737 crashed shortly after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheik in Egypt, killing 148 people.
2004--NASA's Mars Rover, Spirit, touched down on the red planet.
2005--Indonesia's Ministry of Health announced another 14,000 deaths, bringing the total of lives lost in Asia's earthquake and tsunami disaster to 155,000.
2006--lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion and agreed to cooperate in investigations of corruption in Congress.
2006--Iran advised the International Atomic Energy Agency it planned to restart work on what it called its "peaceful nuclear energy program."
2007--an Iraqi prison guard was arrested for illegally videotaping the Baghdad execution of deposed leader Saddam Hussein and posting it on the Internet.
2007--National Express Coach crash occurred on the motorway slip connecting to the M25 motorway in London resulting in the death of 3 people with several more injured.

World News Capsules:
1. Afghan war commander ives options for after '14
....Gen. John R. Allen has submitted military options to the Pentagon that would keep 6,000 to 20,000 American troops in Afghanistan after the NATO mission ends in 2014.
2. Central Africa on the brink, rebels halt their advance
....A new willingness to talk raises hope of a peaceful resolution to a conflict that has driven thousands of civilians from their homes in search of refuge.
3. In China, grasss-roots groups take on HIV/AIDS outreach work
....Community organizations are slowly facing less resistance from government officials as they offer services to HIV-infected people, many in the gay community, who are often stigmatized.
4. Report says Mubarak dictated fierce response to Egypt protests
....Former Pres. Hosni Mubarak "knew everything, big and small" regarding the brutal response to protests against him last year in Egypt, a report says.
5. Murder charges are filed against 5 men in New Delhi gang rape
....Rape, murder and other charges were filed against five men suspected of carrying out an attack on a 23-year-old student in a case that has sparked outrage and protests across India.
6. Attacks in Iraq kill at least 32 pilgrims
....In what appeared to be a spate of sectarian-motivated violence, a car bomb and a roadside bomb exploded during the culmination of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest rituals.
7. Hezbollah leader urges Lebanon to aid in a solution for Syria
....Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite militant movement in Lebanon, also wants the country to open its border to refugees to avoid further bloodshed.
8. US drone strike kills a top Pakistani militant

....The death of Maulvi Nazir, reported by security officials, was seen as a serious blow to Taliban fighters who attack US and allied forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
9. South Korea rejects extraditio in attack on Japanese shrine
....A Chinese man who carried out an arson attack on a Japanese war shrine will not be deported from Korea to Japan, a South Korean court ruled.
10. What's next for Syria?

....More than 60,000 have died in Syria's almost 2-year civil war. Will the bloody stalemate linger in 2013 or will the tide turn?
11. Plane crash? Murders? Time to play Thai lottery

....Thais, who often mix superstition with a proclivity for fun, play the underground lottery with numbers gleaned from calamity, believing that disaster can beget good fortune.

US News Capsules:
1. Inmates find health and solace in yoga

....In prisons across the country, inmates are doing yoga to improve their fitness and cope with the stress of overcrowded prison life.
2. A soaring homicide rate, a divide in Chicago
....The killing of one man outside the funeral for another emphasized gang violence in some of Chicago's neighborhoods.
3. Clinton out of hospital after treatment for clot
....Doctors said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would make a full recovery after being treated for several days for a blood clot in a vein in her head.
4. Together a century, city and oil giant hit a rough patch
....Chevron has spent millions in recent years trying to shore up its relationship with Richmond, Calif., but many residents still oppose the company's efforts to repair a refinery hit by a fire.
5. In drug fight on Texas border, some officers play both sides
....Some officers sworn to fight the drug trade along the Texas border with Mexico give in to the temptation of corruption, authorities say.
6. Immigration change to ease faily separations
....New rules unveiled will allow many American citizens to avoid long separations from family members who are illegal immigrants as they apply to become legal residents.
7. Suit claims officer faked DUI cases
....A former trooper of the year with the Utah Highway Patrol is accused of falsifying dozens of arrests on charges of driving under the influence during her 10-year career.
8. In victory for Google, US ends antitust investigation

....The Federal Trade Commission found that Google had not violated antitrust statutes in the way it structures its Web search application, dealing a setback to Google’s rivals.
POLITICS:
1. Lawmakers gird for next fiscal clash, on the devt ceiling
....Even as Republicans vow to leverage the federal borrowing limit in their demands for spending cuts, Pres. Obama, who signed the tax bill Wednesday, says he won't join in more charged talks on the issue.
2. Stalling of storm aid makes Northeast Republicans furious
....The depth of the anger that followed the House's refusal to take up a package of assistance for Hurricane Sandy victims was extraordinary and exceedingly personal.
3. Boehner re-elected speaker despite dissenting votes

....As the 113th Congress convened, John A. Boehner weathered some protest votes and was re-elected by a vote of 220 to 192.

Thought for Today
"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."
--George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright

[pegasus]

National Poverty in America Awareness Month
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 4th day of 2013 with 361days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 5:46 p.m., it's cfair , temp 33ºF [Feels like 23ºF], winds SW @ 12 mph, humidity 54%, pressure 29.88 in and steady, dew point 17ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
1643--Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist and father of modern science, was born; died 1727 at age 84.
1698--the Palace of Whitehall, main residentce of the English monarchs in London from 1530 to 1698, was destroyed by fire
1746--Benjamin Rush, American physician, political leader and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born; died 1813 at age 67.
1796--the US Congress accepted the Colors, or flag, of the French Revolutionary Republic.
1821--Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American born saint, died of tuberculosis at age 46.
1847--Colt sold his first revolvers to the U.S. government.
1865--the New York Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.
1885--Dr. William Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed the first successful appendectomy.
1896--Utah was admitted to the Union as the 45th state.
1936--Billboard magazine published the first pop music chart.
1944--US aircraft began dropping supplies to guerrilla forces throughout Western Europe.
1948--Great Britain granted independence to Burma.
1951--North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul during the Korean War.
1960--Nobel Prize-winning French author Albert Camus died in a car accident at age 46.
1964--the Boston Strangler strikes again, raping and strangling Mary Sullivan who turned out to be his last of 13 victims.
1964--Bobby Vinton topped the pop charts with the last #1 single of the pre-Beatles era, "There! I've Said Again."
1965--Pres. Johnson presented his Great Society program in his State of the Union address.
1965--T.S. Eliot, the moxt important English language poet of his time, died at age 76.
1972--Rose Heilbron, the first woman appointed Queen's Counsel, became the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey.
1974--Pres. Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1985--Israel confirmed that 10,000 Ethiopian Jews had been flown to Israel.
1993--25 people, including 18 Americans, were killed when their tour bus traveling on a rain-slick highway near Cancun, Mexico, crashed into a utility pole and burned.
1995--the 104th Congress was the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the House.
1999--former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
1999--for the first time since Charlemagne's reign in the ninth century, Europe is united with a common currency when the "euro" debuts.
2000--Pres. Clinton nominated Alan Greenspan to a 4th four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
2004--Spirit Rover (NASA's MER-A) landed successfully on Mars three weeks before its twin (Opportunity) landed on the other side of the planet
2006--Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke and his powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.
2007--Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., became the first female speaker of the House.
2010--Dubai opened the world's tallest skyscraper, the 2,717-foot gleaming glass-and-metal tower Burj Khalifa.

World News Capsules:
1. Insider attacks in Afghanistan shape the late stages of a war
....Interviews with an Afghan soldier who opened fire on Americans reveal the rage that officials worry may disrupt the training mission at the core of the United States' withdrawal plan.
a. Afghanistan frees detainees in show of sovereignity before Karzai visits US
....Pres. Hamid Karzai’s government in Afghanistan released 80 people as part of an effort to assert sovereignty over detainees, a source of tension with the US.

Leaders of Sudan and South Sudan in Ethiopia for talks
....The two nations have been locked in a tense dispute over borders, territory and oil since the south split off and became its own country 18 months ago.

Europe's debt crisis: no relief on the horizon
....European Union officials have struggled to turn things around — debating new treaties, shoring up banks, securing more funding. Also, the people of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Latvia have dealt with economic troubles in various ways.

Anglicans open a path to bishopric for gay men
...The Church of England said that gay clergymen in civil partnerships could become bishops as long as they vowed to remain celibate.

Iraqi prime minister faces more calls for resignation
....Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has come under fire for measures that some lawmakers and political opponents see as an attempt to monopolize power ahead of provincial elections.

Japanese envoy tries to mend ties with South Korea
....Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan reached out to South Korea’s incoming president, Park Geun-hye, by sending a special envoy to Seoul.

Fleeing North Korea is becoming harder
....The tightening of controls at the Chinese border led to a fall of about 44% from the previous year in the number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea in 2012

Drone dills a Pakistani militant behind attacks of US forces
....The death of Maulvi Nazir, reported by security officials, was seen as a serious blow to Taliban fighters who attack US and allied forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
a. Pakistani girl shot by Taliban is discharged from British hospital

....Doctors said Malala Yousafzai, the teenager attacked for advocating girls’ education, has made “excellent progress” and will receive surgery to her skull in coming weeks.

In Palestine, Fatah celebration in Gaza signals easing of rift with Hamas

....A show of unity between rival Palestinian factions posed a diplomatic quandary for the US, which considers Hamas a terrorist organization.

Gunman kills 9 in house-to-house rampage in Philippine town

....A gunman, Ronald Bae. went door-to-door near the Philippine capital Friday, shooting and killing at least nine people in his neighborhood, authorities said.

Gas station attack kills at least 10 n Damascus

....An explosion in the Syrian capital added to fears that attackers were focusing on places where civilians congregate in order to inflict maximum casualties.
a. Battle for Syria airport as US troops arrive in Turkey

....Syrian rebels battle for control of an airport in northern Syria as US troops arrive in Turkey to man Patriot missile defense batteries near the Syrian border.

Debit and credit card purchases shut down at Vatican

....The move follows a Bank of Italy decision based on concerns over financial accountability and money-laundering controls.

Chavez battling 'severe' lung infection, respiratory failure

....Hospitalized in Cuba since undergoing cancer surgery more than three weeks ago, Venezuelan Pres. Chavez, 58, is battling a "severe" lung infection that has caused respiratory failure, a top official said.

US News Capsules:
1. Obama disputes limits on detainee transfers imposed in defense bill
.....The president said he had the power to override a defense measure's limits on the executive branch's ability to transfer detainees out of military prisons.
2. Lawyers saying DNA cleared inmate, pursue access to data
....Attorneys for a man incarcerated for 10 years for a rape say his exoneration by DNA evidence, after months of litigation, proves such data must be made available to defense lawyers.
3. Pregnancy centers gain influence in anti-abortion arena

....Pregnancy centers, largely run by conservative Christians, say they are taking a “compassionate approach” to efforts to restrict abortion.
4. Massachusetts plans stricter control of compounding pharmacies
.....Gov. Deval Patrick proposed changes to prevent another public health disaster like the meningitis outbreak tied to a Framingham company.
5. Scare amplifies fears that Clinton's work has taken heavy toll
....Those who know her best hope that Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is renowned for her grueling work and travel schedule, will take some time to rest.
6. Justices take case on adoption of Indian child
....Via a case from South Carolina, the Supreme Court agreed to address a 1978 federal law underlying the adoption of American Indian children.
7. Job creation is still steady despite worry
....Employers added 155,000 jobs in December, about apace with job growth over the last year, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The unemployment rate was 7.8%.
8. FDA offers sweeping rules to fight food contamination

....The plan shifts the agency away from taking action after contamination has been identified to requiring measures to prevent it in the first place.
9. Inaugural contributors identified
....When President Obama’s inaugural planners released the names of donors on Friday, only a handful of companies were on the list of several hundred contributors.
10. Gore went to bat for Al-Jazeera network, and for himself

....Al Gore used the same arm-twisting he employed to build up Current TV to persuade cable distributors to keep showing it after it was sold to Al Jazeera.
POLITICS:
1. Boehner retains Speaker's post, but dissidents nip at his heels
....Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio was re-elected Speaker of the House amid open dissent from conservatives that suggested the last Congress's turmoil would live on.
2. Congress approves scaled-back Sandy aid bill

....Congress approved a $9.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package following delays over fiscal cliff bickering, warnings of dwindling federal funds and swirling controversy over millions of dollars for unrelated projects. The measure passed the House, 354-67. The Senate did so unanimously and without debate.
3. Auto racetrack owners keep coveted tax break
....A break for speed racing, like similar special benefits, will cost the government millions, but supporters defended it as a tax break.
4. Nomination of Hagel could come next week

....Administration officials cautioned that Pres. Obama had not made a final decision or offered Chuck Hagel the job, but those who know the former senator said all signs point to his selection.

Thought for Today
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
--Voltaire (1694- 778) French author, playwright and philosopher

[pegasus]

National Bird Day
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 5th day of 2013 with 360 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 6:10 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 31ºF [Feels like 26ºF], winds S @ 5 mph, humidity 60%, pressure 30.19 in and falling, dew point 21ºF, chance of precipitation 50%.

Today in History:
1066--Edward the Confessor died in London, England, leaving three men to claim the throne of England including William, Duke of Normandy.
1589--Catherine de Medici, widow of Henry II of France, died at age 69 most likely from pleurisy.
1643--in the first record of a legal divorce in the colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke.
1757--Louis XV was subject to an assassination attempt by Robert Damiens.
1762--Elizabeth, Empress of Russia ,(aughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I, died at age 52 after a 21 year reign .
1781--a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold captured and burned Richmond, Va.
1846--the US House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for an end to British-American sharing of the Oregon Territory.
1861--thr Star of the West left New York with supplies and 250 troops to relieve the beleaguered Fort Sumter at Charleston, SC.
1894--Alfred Dreyfus, French artillery officer of Jewish background, was convicted of treason and sentenced to Devil's Island.
1896--German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation that came to be known as an X-ray.
1914--Ford Motor Co. increased its daily wage from $2.34 for a nine-hour day to $5 for eight hours of work.
1916--the 1st conscription bill was introduced in the British parliament.
1920--the New York Yankees announced the purchase of slugger-pitcher Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox.
1925--Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming was sworn in as the first woman governor in the US.
1928--Walter F. Mondale, former vice president and Democratic candidate for president, turns 85 today.
1933--construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure's huge anchorages.
1933--Calvin Coolidge, the 30th Pres. of the US, died at age 60 in Northampton, Mass.
1938--Juan Carlos, King of Spain, turns 75 today.
1939--Amelia Earhart was declared dead approximately two years after her initial disappearance.
1945--Japanese pilots received the first order to become kamikaze, as the suicidal blitz revealed Japan's desperation in the final months of World War II.
1945--the Soviet Union recognized the pro-Soviet Polish Provisional Government
.1949--in his State of the Union address, Pres. Truman labeled his domestic program the "Fair Deal."
1957--Pres. Eisenhower proposes new Middle East policy, "the Eisenhower Doctrine" that established the Middle East as a Cold War battlefield.
1967--the 1st Battalion, 9th U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese Marine Brigade Force Bravo began amphibious operations in the Kien Hoa Province in the Mekong Delta,1
1968--Alexander Dubcek's effort to establish "communism with a human face" was celebrated across Czechoslovakia, and the brief period of freedom became known as the "Prague Spring."
1969--Pres3-elect Richard Nixon named Henry Cabot Lodge to succeed W. Averell Harriman as chief US negotiator at the Paris peace talks.
1970--the soap opera "All My Children premiered on ABC-TV.
1970--The bodies of dissident union leader Jock Yablonski, his wife, and daughter were discovered in their Clarksville, Pa, farmhouse, illed on the order of United Mine Workers leadership.
1972--Pres. Nixon ordered development of the space shuttle.
1973 --Bruce Springsteen's debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., was released.
1976--Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot announced a new constitution changing the name of Cambodia to Kampuchea and legalizing its Communist government.
1982--an amazing 18,000 different landslides took place in the San Francisco Bay Area killed up to 33 people and closed the Golden Gate Bridge.
1993--Washington state executed multiple child killer Westley Allan Dodd by hanging in the nation's first gallows execution in 28 years.
1994--former House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill died in Boston, Mass. at age 81.
1995--the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill requiring Congress to comply with its own civil rights and labor laws.
1996--the longest US government shutdown ended after 21 days when Congress passed a stopgap spending measure that would allow federal employees to return to work.
1998--Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif., of Sonny and Cher fame, was killed when he hit a tree while skiing at South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
2000--the Clinton administration decided that Elian Gonzalez, a 6-year-old Cuban refugee whose mother drowned while trying to enter the US, should be returned to his father in Cuba.
2002--a 15-year-old student pilot, flying alone, was killed when he crashed his single-engine Cessna into the 28th floor of the Bank of America building in Tampa, Fla.
2004--Pete Rose publicly admitted that he'd bet on baseball while manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
2005 At least 24 people were killed in two car bomb explosions in Iraq in mounting violence ahead of upcoming elections.
2005--UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a $977 million emergency appeal to cover six months of aid for 5 million victims of the Southeast Asia tsunami.
2005--Eris, the largest dwarf planet in our solar system, was discovered.
2006--134 people were killed in two car bombings in Iraq and more than 120 others were wounded in a second day of heavy violence.
2007--43 people died in a two-day series of militant assaults on migrants, mostly milkmen, in two districts of India.
2008--tribal violence following the disputed Kenya presidential election of incumbent president Mwai Kibaki claimed almost 500 lives.
2013--Rep. John Boehner of Ohio was re=elected speaker as Republicans retained control of the House of Representatives.

World News Capsules:
1. Argentine vitriol over Falklands resurfaces, as do old arguments
....Thirty years after Britain and Argentina fought over the Falkland Islands, the same questions of sovereignty that led to that conflict are being voiced again.
2. Rangers in isolated Central Africa uncover grim cost of protecting wildlife

....Increasingly, the rangers, many in their 40s or 50s, are finding themselves wading into the bush to confront hardened soldiers working as ivory poachers.
a. Alarm gorws over use of child soldiers in Centtral African Republic

....Opposition and pro-government militias are recruiting child soldiers as the Central African Republic faces a rebellion in the north, the UN warned..
3. Travel disrupted in China amid unusually cold weather

....Snow and ice led to closed highways, canceled flights, stranded tourists and power failures in several provinces.
4. Germany, for decades a pacifist power, faes the need to play a military role
....Not so long ago, every German military action brought mass demonstrations, public hand-wringing and probing questions about the country’s militarist past. But that time is over
5. Greek tax scandal distracts from a collection shortfall

....Foreign lenders say Greece has fallen short of its tax collection targets and is still not moving hard enough to tackle widespread, long-tolerated tax evasion.
6. With deposits, India aims to keep money for the poor from others' pockets

....On Jan. 1, the government began depositing pension and scholarship payments directly into the bank accounts of about 245,000 people — to prevent corrupt officials from diverting the money.
7. Baath leader urges Sunnis to protest Iraqi premier
....Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most senior member of Saddam Hussein’s entourage, called on Sunnis to keep up the pressure until Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is toppled.
8. Soccer racism prompts walkout, and outrage

....Showered with racist taunts, a player at an Italian exhibition led his team off the field — a first — and many hope that will have wide repercussions in sports.
9. French actor arrives in Russia with sights on citizenship

....Gérard Depardieu, who is fleeing high taxes in France, arrived by private airplane to claim his new Russian passport, possibly from Pres. Putin himself.
10. Rebellion at stalemate, waiting for undecided Syrians to make a move

....In Syria, each side has bloodied the other while many stay on the sidelines, and a contingent of supporters feels obligated to stick with the government even as their doubts grow.
11. After years in solitary, an austere ife as Uruguay's president
....José Mujica, a former guerrilla who took office in 2010, shuns opulence, donates most of his salary and lives modestly, as he says a leader of a proper democracy should.

US News Capsules:
1. Ex-officer is first in CIA to face prison for a leak

....John C. Kiriako says he did not intend to harm national security and doesn’t think he did. But Mr. Kiriakou is the first CIA officer to face prison for leaking classified information to a reporter.
2. General details Pentagon tensons with Obama on Afghanistan
....In a long-awaited memoir, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says disputes with the White House began at the beginning of Pres. Obama’s first term.
3. Health insurers raise some rates by double digits

....States with and without regulatory approval of rate increases are allowing insurers to pass on their higher expenses to consumers and small businesses.
4. On the trail of a counterfeiter called "The Printer"
....Arresting an Atlanta-area man suspected of printing $1 million in fake money required months of detective work and another man's ill-fated decision not to bail someone out.
5. [Gabrielle Giffords visits Newtown, Conn.

....The former Arizona congresswoman who survived a mass shooting in her district roughly two years ago paid a visit Friday to Newtown, where last month a gunman killed 27 people and himself in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
6. u]Exports of American natrual gas may fall short of high hopes[/u]
....Global demand for natural gas - which would be shipped from the US in a condensed form - could taper off by the time new and costly export terminals are ready.
7. Gunman and three others killed after standoff in Aurora, Colo.

....A barricaded gunman and three people were found dead in an Aurora, Colo., home after unsuccessful attempts to force the gunman out of the house. He was shot to death by the police after he appeared in a second-floor window, authorities said.
8. Alaska gets all clear after quake and tsunami alert
....The powerful earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean late Friday night, causing tsunami warnings on the mainland and jolting some residents of Alaska.
9. Town launches website to fight rumors

....Community leaders in Steubenville, Ohio set up a website to keep the community updated on a rape case that has consumed the small Ohio town
POLITICS:
1. After fiscal deal, tax code may be the most progressive since 1979
....By some measures, the tax code might now be the most progressive in a generation, with about 99.3% of US households seeing no change in their income taxes.
2. In Texas, resistance to a renewed call for an annual roundup of legislators
....A bill in Texas would change not only how lawmakers conduct business, but also how often, in a state where legislators meet only in odd-numbered years.
3. GOP begins soul-searching after tax vote
....From Mitt Romney’s loss through the recent tax fight, Republicans have seen the foundations of their strategy called into question, stirring a debate about how to reshape the party.
4. Obama and Republicans gear up for next fiscal fight

....Days after one high-stakes standoff over finances was resolved, the two sides are getting ready for another as Congress prepares to address the nation’s borrowing limit.

Sports Headlines:
1. Rinks in Canada's Aaractic turn to cooling systems
....Climate change has forced arena managers in the northernmost reaches of Canada to forgo relying on natural ice for the entire skating season.
2. NFL: Texans' Schaub looks to reassert himself
....As Houston struggled through the end of the regular season, losing a top seed for the playoffs, quarterback Matt Schaub has shouldered much of the blame.
a. Spearheaded by Foster and defeense, Texans win 19-13 over Bengals[/i]
....Thanks to Arian Foster’s 140 rushing yards and a defense that did not allow a touchdown, Houston regained its swagger with a victory over Cincinnati in the AFC wild-card game.
3. NCAAF: In no rush to leave Saban's shadow

....Alabama's defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart, attracts interest from other programs but says his job of coaching with Nick Saban is tough to beat.
4. NBA: Lakers finding there is nothing beautiful about an aging lineup

....After Friday’s loss to the Clippers, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers found themselves 10 games behind in the standings to the other team in Los Angeles.

[ Thought for Today
"It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate."
--[/i]Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American essayist, poet and philosopher


[/size][/color]

[pegasus]

Make All Your Dreams Come True Day
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 40th day of 2013 with 355 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 8:37 p.m., it's fair , temp 31ºF [Feels like 31ºF], winds calm, humidity 74%, pressure 30.52 in and steady, dew point 25ºF, chance of precipitation 20%.

Today in History:
1645--William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, was beheaded by Paraliament for treason.
1776--Thomas Paine published the pamphlet Common Sense.
1861--Florida became the third state to secede from the Union to join the Confederacy.
1863--London's Metropolitan, the world's first underground passenger railway, opened to the public.
1870--John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.
1878--a constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote was introduced into the US Senate.
1901--oil was discovered at the Spindletop claim near Beaumont, Tex., launching the Southwest oil boom.
1911--while flying over San Diego, Calif., Major Jimmie Erickson took the first photograph from an airplane.
1912--the first flying boat, designed by Glenn Curtiss, made its maiden flight at Hammondsport, NY.
1920--the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.
1926--Fritz Lang's gripping silent film, Metropolis, opened in Berlin, Germany.
1945--Rock singer Rod Stewart was born and turns 68 today.
1946--the first meeting of the UN General Assembly convened in London.
1947--Finian’s Rainbow opened on Broadway in New York City., playing for 725 performances.
1951--taking an hour an 42 minutes, Donald H. Rogers piloted the first passenger jet from Chicago to New York City.
1952--Cecil B. DeMille's circus extravaganza, The Greatest Show on Earth, starring Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, and Dorothy Lamour, opened in the US,
1957--Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Great Britain following the resignation of Sir Anthony Eden.
1967--Republican Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, the first black elected to the US Senate by popular vote, took his seat.
1969--after 147 years in publication, the final issue of The Saturday Evening Post was published.
1971--Masterpiece Theatre premiered on PBS.
1984--the US and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations.
1986--in Washington, D.C., the uncut version of Jerome Kern’s musical, Showboat, opened at the Kennedy Center, marking the first time in 60 years the four-hour version was seen.
1994--NATO approved a plan for a limited expansion of the membership to Eastern European nations.
1996 rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya holding 2,000 rebels released all but 130 and were allowed to flee.
2000--America Online agreed to buy Time-Warner for $162 billion. (Time-Warner decided to spin off AOL in 2009.)
2003--North Korea withdrew from the 1979 nuclear nonproliferation treaty barring it from making nuclear weapons.
2005--CBS issued a damning independent review of mistakes related to a 60 Minutes Wednesday report on Pres. Bush's National Guard service.
2005--Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip elected Mahmoud Abbas as their new president, succeeding the late Yasser Arafat.
2006--Iran unsealed its nuclear facility at Natanz and resumed atomic research for what it claimed to be peaceful purposes but sparking international ire.
2007--Pres. Bush announced he would send a "surge" of 21,500 U.S. forces to Iraq.
2007--the US House of Representatives approved and sent to the Senate a $2.10-an-hour increase in the national minimum wage, raising the figure to $7.25.
2008--US forces mounted a major air offensive against al-Qaida targets on the southern outskirts of Baghdad.
2008--23 people were killed and 60 others injured when a suicide bomber detonated outside a busy courthouse at midday in Lahore, Pakistan.
2011--a judge ordered former US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to serve three years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. (DeLay remains free on bond as he appeals.)
2012--former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary.

World News Capsules:
1. Heat, flood, or icy cold, extreme weather rages worldwide

(Snow blanketed Jerusalem yestereay)
....The growing incidence and intensity of extreme weather events is a sign that climate change is not just about rising temperatures.
2. Priorities are far apart for Karzai and Obama

....The meeting between Pres. Obama and Pres. Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan will bring together two sides with vastly different expectations of the role of the US in Afghanistan.
3. Chinese newspaper protests end, but battle over censorship is unresolved

....The publication Southern Weekend appeared on newsstands, but the newspaper remains at the forefront of the dispute over government control.
a. To counter China, Japan and Philippines will bolster maritime cooperation
....The foreign ministers of Japan and the Philippines proclaimed their nations to be strategic partners that would collaborate more in resolving their separate territorial disputes with China.
4. At once Catholic and secular, France debates gay marriage
....There appears to be broad support for gay unions in France, but when it comes to marriage, it may be another matter.
a. Three Kurdish women politial activists are killed in Paris, in locked-door mystery

....The deaths of three women opened up questions about whether the killings were linked to the long struggle for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.
5. Signs of a rift in British coalition over European Union
....Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats, said that risking British membership in the union was perilous.
a. Officer at Scotland Yard is guilty in hackng trial
....Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn was convicted of a single count of misconduct in public office in the phone hacking scandal that has enveloped Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire in Britain.
6. Iran finding ways to circumvent sanctions, US Treasury Department says
....The department said Iranians were using private exchange houses and trading companies in other countries, masking transactions with fake identities and transferring money informally and often illegally through couriers.
a. Film to present Iran's view of Argo events

....The Iranian government is reportedly planning to finance a movie that will correct what it says are the numerous distortions of the historical record in Argo.
7. Mali government is left reeling after Islamists take village long held by army
....Islamists advanced into territory long held by the Mali government, dealing a significant blow to the army’s efforts to contain the militants, according to an army officer.
8. Blasts in Pakistan kill scores and stir fears on elections

....The bombings in Quetta and the Swat Valley offered harrowing evidence of how Pakistan’s myriad internal conflicts may destabilize the country as elections approach.
9. Russia to let a few US adoptions go on
....The spokesman for Pres. Putin said adoptions already approved by a court would be honored, despite a ban on American adoptions signed into law last month.
10. Syrian lives collapsing again

....First their houses were destroyed by regime forces -- now Syrian refugees are battling to save their tents from icy floodwaters in hideous conditions.
11. Chávez, or at least his sash, is set for Venezuela inauguration

....Pres. Hugo Chávez's health crisis and decision to proceed with a quasi-presidential inauguration that he is unable to attend is producing a stream of bizarre developments and national angst about who is in charge.
12. Activistss convicted in Vietnam crackdown on dissent
....A Vietnamese court convicted 14 democracy activists of plotting to overthrow the government and sentenced them to jail terms ranging from 3 to 13 years.

US News Capsules:
1. New York is moving quickly to enact tough curbs on guns
....The rush to put new gun controls in place made New York the first flash point in the battles over firearm restrictions that are expected to consume several state capitals this year.
a. Governor of Colorado calls for stricter controls on gun sales
....In his State of the State address, Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado called for universal background checks on all gun sales, a proposal applauded by Democrats.
2. Flu widespread, leading a range of winter's ills

....Public health officials say the flu season is off to an early start with an unusually aggressive virus.
3. Fund titans battle ofer Herbalife
....Daniel S. Loeb's Third Point disclosed that it had acquired more than 8.2 % of the nutritional supplements company, putting him at odds with his friend William A. Ackman.
4. Student who opened fire felt he'd been bullied, sheriff says


....One student was critically injured at the Taft, California, high school. A teacher and a school staffer "stood there face-to-face" with a shotgun-wielding student and talked him into putting the weapon down, the Kern County sheriff said.
5. Cash for hay driving thieves to move bundles
....Drought and grass fires have pushed the price of hay to near records, making it an increasingly irresistible target for thieves or desperate peers.
6. Washington National Cathedral announces it will hold same-sex marriages
....The cathedral's dean said that they wanted to give gay and transgender people "the same tools for living their lives faithfully that straight people have always had."
7. US consumer watchdog to issue mortgage rules
....In an attempt to prevent future housing crises, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued new laws for lenders.
8. Drug agency recommends lower doses of sleep aids for women
....After laboratory studies and driving tests confirming the risks of next-day drowsiness, the Food and Drug Administration said that women should be taking half as much.
9. Gun enthusiast with popular online videos is shot to death in Georgia
....Keith Ratliff, who helped make online videos of high-powered weapons and explosives, was found surrounded by guns, but not the one that killed him.
10. Justices look at legality of drunken-driving test
....The US Supreme Court considered a request by Missouri prosecutors and the federal government to rule that warrants are not needed to obtain blood samples in drunken-driving cases.
POLITICS:
1. Tough path for ban on assault guns shifts Obama's focus

....Pres. Obama pledged to crack down on what he called “weapons of war” after last month’s school massacre, but the White House is emphasizing other measures it deems more politically achievable.
a. Biden: Obama exploring execuitive orderss to combat gun violence
...."The president is going to act. Executive orders, executive action, can be taken," Biden told reporters before meetings with groups representing survivors of mass shootings. "We haven't decided what this is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and all the rest of the Cabinet members."
2. Pentagon acts to limit spending in case cutbacks begin in March
....Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced the money-saving steps, which are designed to be reversible should a compromise be reached on federal spending.
3. Despite 12 years in Senate, Hagel has few allies there
....The brusque Chuck Hagel was not known as a dealmaker in the Senate, whose confirmation he needs to become defense secretary.

Sports Headlines[/u][/b]:
1. MLB: Bonds (and everyone) strikes out

....In the most resounding referendum yet on the legacy of steroids in baseball, voters for the Hall of Fame emphatically rejected the candidacies of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
a. Despite no diret tie to steroids, Piazza falls short

....Mike Piazza hit more home runs as a catcher than any player in baseball, but suspicion about performance-enhancing drugs may have prevented him from being elected to the Hall of Fame.
b. Baseball to expand drug-testing program
....Major League Baseball and its players union have agreed to in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone.
2. NFL: Questions of strategy as Griffin has surgery
....The injury to Robert Griffin III has cast doubt over his availability next season and also called into question whether his dynamic style of play can, or should, be continued when he returns.
a. Seau suffered from brain disease

....The former linebacker Junior Seau had chronic traumatic encephalopathy when he committed suicide last spring, the National Institutes of Health said.

Thought for Today
"A gentleman is a man who can play the accordion but doesn't. "
--[/i]Anonymous


[/size][/color]

[pegasus]

Hot Tea Month
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 11th day of 2013 with 354 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 6:31 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 39ºF [Feels like 31ºF], winds S @ 13 mph, humidity 79%, pressure 29.98 in and steady, dew point 33ºF, chance of precipitation 90%.

Today in History:
1757--American founding father and 1st secretary of the treasury Alexander Hamilton was born in the West Indies' died 1804 at age 49 in a duel with Aaron Burr.
1775--Francis Salvador, the first Jew to hold an elected office in the Americas, takes his seat on the South Carolina Provincial Congress.
1785 The Continental Congress convened in New York City.
1787--English astronomer William Herschel discovered both Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1805--the Michigan Territory was created.
1842--William James, American psychologist and exponent of pragmatism, was born; died 1910 at age 68.
1861--Alabama seceded from the Union.
1863--Union Gen. John McClernand and Adm. David Porter captured Arkansas Post, a Confederate stronghold on the Arkansas River.
1885--Alice Paul, American women's rights activist, was born; died 1977 at age 92.
1908--Grand Canyon National Park was declared to be a National Monument by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt.
1912--Lawrence, Mass. became the site of an immigrant textile workers strike over lowered wages due to the law shortening the work week.
1922--Insulin was first used on a human being for the treatment of diabetes by Dr. Frederick Banting.
1928--Stalin banishes Leon Trotsky, a leader of the Bolshevik revolution and early architect of the Soviet state, to Alma-Ata in remote Soviet Central Asia..
1935--aviator Amelia Earhart began a trip from Honolulu to Oakland, Calif., becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.
1937--a sit-down strike by General Motors auto workers at the Fisher Body Plant No. 2 in Flint, Mich., a riot breaks out when police try to prevent the strikers from receiving food deliveries.
1945--Greek civil war: a political truce was signed between the British-backed Democratic National Army and the communist rebel National Liberation Front.
1949--on Connecticut Ave. in Washington, D.C., the cornerstone was laid at the first mosque of note in the US.
1957--Jack Gilbert Graham was executed for planting a bomb in his mother's luggage, which caused UA Flight 629 to crash 11 minutes after takeoff.
1962--An avalanche in Huscaran Peru caused 4,000 deaths.
1964--Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report saying smoking cigarettes is a definite "health hazard."
1973--owners of American League baseball teams voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule.
1977--France set off an international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
1984--the US Supreme Court reinstated a $10 million award to the family of Oklahoma nuclear worker Karen Silkwood, who died in 1974.
1990--martial law, imposed during the June 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, was lifted in Beijing, China.
1995--the US State Department accused Russia of breaking an international agreement by making major troop movements into the rebel republic of Chechnya without providing notification.
2000--the British government declared Chile's Augusto Pinochet medically unfit to stand trial in Spain. The ruling cleared the way for the former dictator to avoid charges of crimes against humanity.
2001--a yearlong investigation by the US Army concluded that US soldiers killed unarmed South Korean civilians in July 1950 during the Korean War.
2002--Ford announced it planned to lay off 35,000 employees, drop four car models and close four plants.
2002--the first planeload of al-Qaida prisoners from Afghanistan arrived at a US military detention camp in Guantanamo, Cuba.
2003--calling the death penalty process "arbitrary and capricious, and therefore immoral," Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of 167 condemned inmates, clearing his state's death row two days before leaving office.
2005--NASA scientists studying the tsunami-inducing Indonesia earthquake of Dec. 26 calculated it slightly changed Earth's shape and shifted the poles by about 1 inch.
2006--China confirmed a new outbreak of bird flu with the deaths of two more people, bringing the number of avian influenza deaths there to five.
2007--the president of Sudan agreed to a 60-day cease-fire in the country's war-torn Darfur region.
2007--an Indonesian fisherman found a piece of an airliner missing since Jan. 1 with 102 aboard off the coast of South Sulawesi.
2008--Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to conquer Mount Everest, died at age 88.
2010--Mark McGwire admitted to The Associated Press that he'd used steroids and human growth hormone when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998.
2011--Rio de Janeiro was struck by a series of floods and mudslides in the worst weather-related natural disaster in Brazilian history.

World News Capsules:
1. Obama accelerates transition of security to Afghans

....After meeting with Pres. Hamid Karzai, Pres. Obama said American troops would play a supporting role in Afghanistan beginning this spring, and that few would remain next year.
2. China said to crack down on censorship protests
....People across China have been detained or questioned in recent days for supporting journalists at a newspaper who have been protesting strict censorship, according to a rights group and online posts.
3. Fiji's government rejects proposed constitution
....The government blamed foreign meddling in dismissing the document, which was meant to help the coup-plagued nation return to democracy ahead of elections set for next year.
4. France sends troops into combat in Mali to counter Islamist advance

....France answered an urgent plea from the government of its former colony to help blunt an advance into the center of the country by Islamist extremist militants.
5. Report depicts horrific pattern of child sexual abuse by BBC celebrity

....The report drew a horrific picture of almost six decades of sexual abuse of children as young as 8 by the BBC television host Jimmy Savile.
6. Greece votes to raise tax on its higher earners
....Prime Minister Antonis Samaras hopes to raise 2.3 billion euros (about $3 billion) from a tax increase on middle- to high-income earners, self-employed professionals and businesses.
7. A trail of bullet casings leads from Africa's wars to Iran

....Researchers worked for years to locate the source of rifle and machine-gun ammunition in war-torn regions. The manufacturer was not one of Africa’s usual suspects.
8. With Laos disappearance, signs of a liberalization in backslide
....With a man who led one of the most successful nonprofit organizations in Laos missing, the Communist government is under increasing pressure to provide answers.
9. Pakistanis protest the killing of 86 shiites

....The protesters and family members of the dead refused to bury the bodies until the Pakistani Army took control of Quetta, where the attack occurred.
10. Palestinians set up tents where Israel plans homes

....Scores of Palestinian activists and international supporters erected tents in a hotly contested piece of Israeli-occupied West Bank territory known as E1.
11. Hotel fire in Philippines kills 7, officials say
....The fire ripped through a small hotel near the former US naval base in Subic Bay, and four foreign visitors were among those killed, according to officials.
12. Trouble in Russia over ban of adoptions by Americans
....The ban on American adoptions of Russian children began as a dispute between two countries, but Russians are now fighting among themselves over the ban.
13. Saudi Arabia's king allows women to join National Advisory Council
....King Abdullah for the first time granted women seats on the Shura council, but they will have to wear conservative Islamic head covering and use doors, offices and seating areas separate from the men.
14. Sri Lankan parliament impeaches Chidf Justice
....The impeachment was a significant step in a worsening showdown between the nation’s legislature and its judiciary that could become a constitutional crisis.
15. Syrian rebels say they seized helicopter base in the north

....The rebel claims came as the international envoy on the Syria crisis met with Russian and American officials in hopes of finding a political solution to the conflict.

US News Capsules:
1. Bank deal ends flawed reviews of foreclosures
....As quick justice, regulators are giving cash payments to 3.8 million borrowers, but the deal is actually a way to paper over a deeply flawed review of foreclosed loans across America.
2. Drug agency recommends lower doses of sleep aids for women
....After laboratory studies and driving tests confirming the risks of next-day drowsiness, the Food and Drug Administration said that women should be taking half as much.
3. Back from the fiscal abyss, California balances its budget
....Gov. Jerry Brown declared that "the deficit is gone," and he projected that his state would post surpluses beginning next year.
4. In 2nd look, few savings from digital health records
....The conversion to electronic records has failed so far to reduce health care costs, according to a new study by the RAND Corporation, which issued a rosier report in 2005.
5. A big exhibition about an even bigger war

....The National World War II Museum, in New Orleans, opens its third building on Sunday.
6. Flu season deaths reach epidemic level but may be at peak, CDC says

....Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were not alarmed, urging Americans to continue to get flu shots, which they acknowledged were not completely effective.
7. Monks in California breathe life into a monastery from Spain..
....An order of Cistercian monks have rebuilt a 12th-century chapter house whose stones lay for decades after being brought from Europe by William Randolph Hearst in the 1930s.
POLITICS:
1. Tough path seen by Obama on ban of assault arms
...Pres. Obama pledged to crack down on what he called "weapons of war" after last month's school massacre, but the White House is emphasizing other measures it deems more politically achievable.
2. Senator Rockefeller is retiring fter five terms

....Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the scion of the Rockefeller family who established himself as a liberal voice in Congress, said he would retire in 2014 after five terms in the Senate.

Thought for Today
"You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was."
--Irish proverb

[pegasus]

Home Office Safety and Security Week
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 12th day of 2013 with 353 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:56 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 51ºF [Feels like 51ºF], winds SSW @ 8 mph, humidity 80%, pressure 30.01 in and steady, dew point 48ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
1528--Gustav I of Sweden was crowned King at Uppsala Cathedral nearly 5 years after he was elected.
1737--National Handwriting Day celebrates John Hancock's birthday.
1773--the first public museum in America was established, in Charleston, SC. (The building itself burned to the ground in the late 1880s.)
1777--American Brigadier General Hugh Mercer died from the seven bayonet wounds he received during the Battle of Princeton.
1828--a border treaty, which had acknowledged Mexico's sovereignty over Texas, settled boundary disputes between the US and Mexico.
1838--after his Mormon bank failed in the Panic of 1837, Joseph Smith fled Kirtland, Ohio for Missouri, to avoid arrest.
1879--the British-Zulu War began as British troops under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.
1888--the so-called "Schoolchildren's Blizzard" killed 235 people, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains.
1895--The National Trust, a conservation organization in England, was founded .
1904--Henry Ford set a land-speed record of 91.37 mph on the frozen surface of Michigan's Lake St.
1915--the US House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.
1919--British Prime Minister David Lloyd George met with representatives from the other Big Four nations—Prime Ministers Georges Clemenceau of France and Vittorio Orlando of Italy and Presi. Woodrow Wilson of the United States.
1926--the two-man comedy series Sam 'n' Henry" that later became Amos 'n' Andy debutsedon Chicago's WGN radio station.
1928--the young Russian-born pianist Vladimir Horowitz made his American debut at Carnegie Hall playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Sir Thomas Beecham conduction the NY Philharmonic Orchestra.
1932--Hattie W. Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, became the first woman elected to the US Senate.
1942--Pres. Roosevelt reinstated Pres. Wilson's National War Labor Board in an attempt to forestall labor-management conflict.
1943--Soviet forces punched a hole in the German siege of Leningrad that allowed for more supplies to come into the city.
1945--Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe during World War II.
1948--the US Supreme Court ruled that states could not discriminate against law-school applicants because of race.
1954--US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced a policy toward protecting our allies of "massive retaliation."
1959--Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records (originally Tamla Records) in Detroit.
1967--James Bedford , a University of California psychology professor, became the first human being to be cryonically preserved.
1969--Led Zeppelin's self-titled first album was released.
1969--the New York Jets of the AFC defeated the Baltimore Colts of the NFC 16-7 in Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
1971--the sitcom All in the Family premiered on CBS.
1971--a US grand jury indicted the "Harrisburg Six", Rev. Philip Berrigan and five other people, including a nun and two priests, on charges of plotting to kidnap presidential adviser Henry Kissinger.
1976--Agatha Christie , popular English novelist and playwright, died.
1990--Salvadoran Presi. Alfredo Cristiani named eight soldiers, including chief of the military academy, as suspects in the November 1989 slayings of six Jesuit priests.
1991--a deeply divided Congress gave Pres. Bush the authority to use force to expel Iraq from Kuwait.
1994--Pres. Clinton asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the Whitewater land deal affair that involved him and the first lady.
1995--Pres. Clinton and congressional leaders agreed on a bailout package that would give Mexico as much as $40 billion in loan guarantees.
1995--Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, was arrested for conspiring to kill Louis Farrakhan.
1998--Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
2000--the SUS upreme Court gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.
2004--the ocean liner Queen Mary 2 made her maiden voyage.
2005--the Southern California death toll from rain, flood and mudslides rose to 19.
2005--Great Britain's Prince Harry apologized after a newspaper published a photograph of the young royal wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party.
2006--350 people were crushed to death by a stampeding crowd at the entrance to Jamarat Bridge in Mina, Saudi Arabia, during an annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
2007--Comet McNaught reached perhelion and became the brightest comet seen by the naked eye since Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965
2007--a proposed law to require the US government to negotiate Medicare drug prices was soundly approved by the House of Representatives.
2010--Port-au-Prince Haiti experienced an earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale affecting as many as 3 million people with a death toll exceeding 100,000.

World News Capsules:
1. Obama accelerates transition of security to Afghans

....After meeting with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, President Obama said American troops would play a supporting role to Afghans beginning this spring.
2. Rebel coalition in Central African Republic agrees to short cease-fire
....Rebels gave up their demand for President François Bozizé to step down in exchange for the release of political prisoners and the forming of a coalition government
3. Rivals in Czech presidential runoff support warmer ties with Europe
....Former prime minister, Milos Zeman, won 24.21% of the vote, giving him a narrow lead over Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, an ardent supporter of the European Union and the US.
4. French airstrikes in Mali deter Islamist rebels

....French airstrikes overnight in Mali pushed back Islamist rebels from a key village and destroyed a rebel command center, France said, as West African nations promised a fast deployment of troops to Mali.
a. French soldier killed in Somalia commando raid

....At least one French commando was killed during a raid Friday night in Somalia to rescue an intelligence agent being held hostage, the French defense ministry said.
b. Theories and motives abound in the kiling of 3 Kurdish women in Paris

....The brother of one of three Kurdish women found shot to death in Paris said he considered it a professional assassination aimed at derailing peace talks.
5. Journalists in Greece are becoming targets
....An anarchist group claimed responsibility for Friday’s attacks, citing coverage of the financial crisis that the group denounced as sympathetic to austerity programs.
6. Salvagers in Italy say Costa Concordia wreck may be gone by summer's end[/u]
....As the island of Giglio prepares to commemorate the anniversary of the wreck on Sunday, environmentalists worry that the longer the delay, the greater the environmental risk.
7. Rebels claim copter attack in Myanmar
....Ethnic Kachin rebels battling Myanmar’s army said they shot down a government helicopter, but the army denied the claim, saying on Saturday that engine failure caused the crash.
8. Russia says it supports UN envoy for Syria
....Support aside, Russia also insisted that the exit of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, could not be a precondition for a deal to end the country’s conflict.
a. Russian lawmakers undertake a quest to scrub civic life of foreign influences
....The lower house of Parliament is considering steps that would force Russians to cut, or at least reduce, their ties to the rest of the world.
9. A desert cold and wet multiplies the misery of Syrian refugees

....With aid agencies expecting the number of Syrian refugees to reach 1 million in 2013, the misery in one struggling camp highlights the deepening humanitarian crisis that threatens to further destabilize the Middle East.
10. Venezuela warns opposition against vocal dissent
....The vice president threatened action against any who question the legality of delaying the swearing-in of President Hugo Chávez, who is still in Cuba.

US News Capsules:
1. Sales of guns soar in US as nation weighs tougher limits
....The rapid growth in gun sales began after Pres. Obama's re-election and surged after the Dec. 14 shooting at a school in Newtown, Conn.
2. New York ties doctors' pay to quality of care
....The plan, affecting physicians in public hospitals, represents a push away from the traditional model of rewarding doctors for the volume of services they order.
3. Drivers with hands full get a backup: the car
....New technology is poised to refashion driving fundamentally long before completely autonomous vehicles arrive.
4. Makers of violent video games marshal support to fend off regulation

....With the Newtown, Conn., massacre spurring concern over violent video games, makers face their biggest regulatory threat in two decades.
5. Smartphones bcome life's remote control
....At the Consumer Electronics Show, many app-powered accessories are on display that allow consumers to turn off lights, unlock doors or monitor their blood pressure.
6. Over 50, and under no illusions

....Many people aged 55 to 64, who had been dreaming of easy retirement, have had to remake their lives to find work during the recession and its aftermath.
7. As 'bodega clinicas' fill void, officials are torn on embracing them
....In Los Angeles, storefront doctors’ offices are servicing mostly uninsured Latinos, leaving officials to examine the clinics’ place in the nation’s health system.
8. Justices to hear case on groups' free speech
....The Suprme Court will hear cases on the free speech rights of private groups receiving federal money and the right against self-incrimination during police questioning.
9. Flowers Foods to buy Wonder bread from Hostess

....Wonder Bread may soon have a new owner. But there is still no buyer for Twinkies just yet.
POLITICS:
1. Fund-raising is lagging, so far, for inaugural plans
....The Obama inaugural committee is struggling to enlist corporate donors to help toward its $50 million goal.
2. Lawmaker seeks public reply on guns
....Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) said he would use information gleaned from three town hall meetings for recommendations on curbing guns.

[ Thought for Today
"It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important."
--[/i]Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), British author and lecturer


[/size][/color]

[pegasus]

International Hot and Spicy Food Day
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 16th day of 2013 with 349 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:37 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 33ºF [Feels like 24ºF], winds ssw @ 12 mph, humidity 78%, pressure 29.79 in and falling, dew point 27ºF, chance of precipitation 20%.

Today in History:
1547--Ivan IV (popularly known as "Ivan the Terrible") was crowned czar of Russia.
1707--the Scottish Parliament ratified the Acts of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
1780--the British demonstrated their naval supremacy vs. Spain in The Moonlight Battle off the coast os southeastern Portugal.
1847--the explorer and mapmaker John C. Fremont briefly became governor of the newly won California territory.
1861--the Crittenden Compromise, the last chance to keep North and South united, died in the U.S. Senate.
1883--the US Congress passed a bill creating the civil service.
1916--Montenegro capitulated to Austro-Hungarian forces in World War I.
1920--Prohibition began as the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution took effect.
1925--Leon Trotsky was dismissed as chairman of the Russian Revolution Military Council.
1942--Carole Lombard, actress and wife of fellow actor Clark Gable, along with her mother and 20 other people, died at age 33 in a plane crash near Las Vegas.
1944--Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Allied invasion force in London.
1945--Adolf Hitler took to his underground bunker, where he remained for 105 days until he committed suicide.
1964--the musical Hello, Dolly!, starring Carol Channing, opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.
1969--an agreement was reached in Paris to open expanded peace talks between the US, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the National Liberation Front.
1969--two manned Soviet ]/i]Soyuz spaceships became the first vehicles to dock in space and transfer personnel.
1970--Curt Flood filesd a historic lawsuit against Major League Baseball's reserve clause, which prevented players from moving to another team unless they were traded.
1973--the final first-run episode of the long-running western Bonanza aired on NBC.
1979--Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the leader of Iran since 1941, was forced to flee the country.
1984--Pres. Reagan called for "peaceful competition" with Moscow and authorized research and development on space-age weapons capable of destroying incoming nuclear missiles, the program known as "Star Wars."
1986--Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Libya would train, arm and protect Arab guerrillas for Palestinian "suicide and terrorist missions."
1987 China's No. 2 leader, Hu Yaobang, 71, was forced to resign as Communist Party chief for failing to curb student demonstrations.
1989--three days of rioting erupted in Miami when a police officer fatally shot a black motorcyclist, causing a crash that also claimed the life of a passenger.
1990--Moscow rushed 11,000 troops to Azerbaijan and Armenia to reinforce soldiers trying to quell ethnic violence.
1991--the White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
1992--the government of El Salvador and rebel leaders signed a pact in Mexico City ending 12 years of civil war that had killed at least 75,000 people.
1993--Windsor Castle was reopened two months after a fire swept through the British landmark.
1994--at a Geneva news conference with Pres. Clinton, Syrian Pres. Hafez Assad indicated a willingness to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel.
1995--three days of avalanches swept two buses off the highway between Srinagar and Jammu in Kashmir and eventually killed more than 200 people.
1997--entertainer Bill Cosby's son was murdered along a California interstate.
1997--a bomb exploded at an Atlanta building housing an abortion clinic. An hour later, after investigators and others had come to the scene, a second bomb went off, injuring six people.
2000--British drug maker Glaxo Wellcome agreed to buy SmithKline Beecham for $76 billion, creating the world's largest pharmaceutical company.
2001--Pres. Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was shot to death, reportedly by one of his bodyguards.
2003--the space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven blasted off from Cape Canaveral. (The shuttle broke up during its return descent on Feb. 1, killing everyone on board.)
2004--pop star Michael Jackson pleaded innocent to child molestation charges in Santa Maria, Calif.
2005--Pres. Bush said his re-election was a ratification of what he did in Iraq and there was no reason to hold any administration official accountable.
2006--International Atomic Energy Agency officials said Iran's newly restarted nuclear program could enable the country to have nuclear weapons within three years.
2006--a suicide attack at a Kandahar wrestling match killed 22 civilians, reportedly the highest toll so far in the Afghan conflict.
2006--Africa's first elected female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was sworn in as Liberia's president.
2007--Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., launched his successful bid for the White House.
2007--a UN report said about 34,000 Iraqis died violent deaths due to fighting and terrorist attacks in Iraq during 2006.
2008--officials in Islamabad put the death toll at 47 in the attack on a northwestern Pakistani military outpost.
2008--Republican Bobby Jindal took over as the new governor of Louisiana, first Indian-American elected to that office in the United States.

World News Capsules:
1. Powerful explosion outide of Afghan spay agency

....Suicide bombers struck the headquarters of the Afghan intelligence agency, detonating a powerful bomb in the heart of one of the most heavily guarded areas of the city.
2. Militants seize Americans and other hostages in Algeria

....The State Department said Americans were among hostages captured by Islamist extremists in Algeria on Wednesday, in what the attackers called retaliation for France’s intervention in Mali.
3. French troops battle with Mali rebels

....In the first direct combat since France launched its military operation, ground troops battled armed rebels. Above, French soldiers deployed.
4. 2 killed as helicopter crashes into crane in central London

....A helicopter crashed into a construction crane atop a new luxury residential building in thick London fog Wednesday, killing the pilot and another person and sparking a line of flames as it plunged to the ground.
a. Horsemeat found in hamburgers in Britain and Ireland

....The discovery of horse DNA in hamburgers on sale at supermarkets in Ireland and Britain is testing the appetite of meat lovers there.
5. Car bombs strike restive city in Iraq

....At least two car bombs shattered a building that houses the local headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Kirkuk, and a third exploded nearby.
6. Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian at barrier
....The shooting of a teenager along Gaza’s border with Israel underscored the potential for spiraling violence after weeks of restiveness in the area.
7. Back in politics, Berlusconi knows how to stir it up
....Analysts see little chance that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will rule Italy again, but he may win enough Parliament seats to achieve his goals.
8. With groundings, crisis deepens for Dreamliner in Japan

....Japan’s top airlines said they would ground their Boeing 787 aircraft after a string of problems.
9. Fighting back as Mexican churches are looted
....Residents of Cholula, Mexico, known for its wealth of old churches, have organized patrols in response to the theft of religious art and the lack of official response.
10. Syrian rebels find hearats and minds leusive
....Despite its military successes, Syria’s opposition has failed to shape a political strategy to win over many of its countrymen.
a. Dozens killed as explosions hit Syrian university

....Each side in Syria’s conflict blamed the other after multiple blasts rocked Aleppo University, leaving 82 people dead, according to a Syrian official.

US News Capsules:
1. An oil town where men are many, and women are hounded

....The authorities in Williston, N.D., say that crimes against women have increased in this area, where single men greatly outnumber single women.
2. The NRA attacks Obama in video
....A Web video published by the gun rights group suggests that the president is an “elitist” because his two daughters have protection while he opposes posting armed guards at schools, conveniently forgetting that all members of any president's family are protected by Secret Service agents.
3. Warning signs of violent acts often unclear
....Forestalling violence by keeping closer tabs on those with mental illness is an appealing idea, but it poses more difficulties than are at first apparent.
4. Study links highly segregated counties and lung cancer deaths in blacks
....The study was the first to look at segregation as a factor in lung cancer mortality. Its authors said they could not fully explain why it worsens the odds of survival for African-Americans.
5. Harsher view of bombing suspect is revealed on tapes
....Tapes played at the federal terrorism trial of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, accused of plotting to bomb a crowded square in Portland, Ore., showed a sometimes swaggering religious militant.
6. It may float, but a home isn't a boat, Justices rule

....A floating home cannot be regulated under federal admiralty law, the Supreme Court ruled in a colorful decision that featured a dissenting opinion.
7. Gunman kills 2 at college in eastern Kentucky
....Gunfire in the parking lot at Hazard Community and Technical College wounded a third victim, the authorities said.
8. NY governor signs nation's first gun-control bill since Newtown

....Gov. Andrew Cuomo beefed up New York's gun-control laws by signing into law a new package of firearm and mental health regulations that mark the nation's first since last month's massacre in Newtown, Conn.
POLITICS:
1. Obama issues new challenge with gun law proposals

....Pres. Obama unveiled plans to introduce legislation by next week that includes a ban on assault weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines and other steps.
2. Ex-governor of South Carolina to run for Congress
....Mark Sanford, whose career and marriage crumbled as he pursued a relationship with an Argentine woman, said he would run for a House seat that opened up last month.
3. Record taxpayer cost is seen for crop insurance
....After a severe drought, the cost of the program has drawn renewed attention as the Obama administration and Congressional Republicans wrangle over ways to cut the deficit.
4. For 'Party of Business,' allegiances are shifting
....Some corporate executives and Republicans have found themselves on opposite sides in the fiscal crisis debate.
5. House approves $50.7 billion in emergency aid for storm victims
....The aid package passed 241 to 180, with 49 Republicans joining 192 Democrats to approve it, and it now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to pass3

Thought for Today
"There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness."
--Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech author

[pegasus]

Ben Franklin Day
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 17th day of 2013 with 348 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:27 p.m., it's lightly snowing , temp 23ºF [Feels like 16ºF], winds variable @ 6 mph, humidity 62%, pressure 30.10 in and rising, dew point 14ºF, chance of precipitation 50%.

Today in History:
1369--Peter I of Cyprus was murdered in his bed by three of his own knights
1562--French Huguenots (Protestants) were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain.
1905--Miguel de Cervantes masterpiece Don Quixote was first published.
1706--statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston.
1781--the Battle of Cowpens, SC: Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan and a mixed Patriot force rout British Lt Col. Banastre Tarleton and a group of Redcoats and Loyalists.
1806--Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha, gave birth to James Madison Randolph, the first child born in the White House.
1865--Union Gen. Sherman's army was rained in at Savannah, Ga., as it waited to begin marching into the Carolinas.
1871--Andrew Hallikie received a patent for a cable car system that went into service in San Francisco in 1873.
1893--Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown as a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.
1893--Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, died in Fremont, Ohio, at age 70.
1899--Chicago gangster and prohibition era crime leader, Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, NY; died 1947 at age 48.
1917--the US bought 50 of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies from Denmark for $25 million.
1945--Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw in World War II.
1945--Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, was taken into Soviet custody in Budapest, Hungary. (His fate has never been determined.)
1946--the UN Security Council held its first meeting.
1950--nine bandits staged a $1.5 million robbery of a Brink's armored car in Boston.
1953--the Corvette sports care was first unveiled at the GM Motorama.
1961--Pres. Eisenhower warned the American people to keep a careful eye on what he called the "military-industrial complex."
1966--a US B52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs collided with its refueling plane over Palomares, Spain, scattering radioactive plutonium over the area.
1977--convicted apree killer Gary Gilmore was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first US execution in a decade.
1987--Pres. Reagan signed a secret order permitting the covert sale of arms to Iran.
1993--US missiles attacked an Iraqi nuclear weapons facility outside Baghdad.
1994--in Northridge, Calif., a pre-dawn magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck, killing at least 61 people and causing $20 billion worth of damage.
1995--a magnitude 6.8 earthquake devastated the city of Kobe, Japan; more than 6,000 people were killed.
1996--Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 16 others were sentenced to life in prison for plotting to bomb the UN.
1997--Delta II Rocket with a GPS2R satellite exploded 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.
1997--a court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.
1998--Pres. Clinton denied in a sworn deposition that he had an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, becoming the first US president to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil suit.
2000--almost 50,000 people marched in Columbia, SC, to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag over the state Capitol.
2001--faced with an electricity crisis, California used rolling blackouts to cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people.
2002--the volcano on Mount Nyiragongo in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, erupted, causing at least 45 deaths and leaving an estimated 55,000 people homeless.
2005--Chinese state-run media confirmed that Zhao Ziyang, the former premier who fell from power during the 1989 Democracy Movement that resulted in the Tiananmen massacre, had died at age 85.
2005--Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestine Liberation Organization ordered militants to stop launching attacks on Israel.
2006--the US Supreme Court upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law by a 6-3 vote.
2007--the White House said Pres. Bush will go ahead with his plan to send more troops to Iraq whether Americans were against it or not.
2007--the Bush administration gave jurisdiction over the controversial anti-terrorist wiretapping program to a court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
2008--Israel added to its armed attack in retaliation against Hamas shelling of Israeli border towns by closing all Gaza entries to commercial traffic.
2008--chess master Bobby Fischer died at age 64.

World News Capsules:
1. US miitary stops sending detainees to some Afghan prisons on rights fears
....Setbacks on detention issues that have created tension between the countries, and to years of international efforts to promote humane treatment of prisoners.
2. Some hostages killed, but raid rescues many, Algeria says

....Algerian forces assaulted a group of Islamist extremists with dozens of hostages in a gas field Thursday, killing many of the kidnappers and freeing many of their captives in a raid that left some hostages dead, the government announced.
3. Next made-in-China oom: college graduates
....China is making a huge investment in its universities, hoping to leverage its enormous population into 195 million college graduates by the end of the decade.
a. Leader issues populist vows in Hong Kong
....Leung Chun-ying pledged to help produce 100,000 new units of housing by streamlining approvals, opening up undeveloped lands for housing and even tapping rock caverns for development.
4. Prime Minister ready to stake Britain's European role on a referendum
....Prime Minister David Cameron is heading for Amsterdam on Friday to set out his vision of a sharply whittled-down role for Britain in 21st-century Europe.
5. Torrential rains paralyze Jakarta, Indonesia

....Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate, with some areas of Indonesia’s capital under six feet of water.
6. An insider's insider returns to Italian poitics, this time as an outsider
....Analysts widely agree that there is little chance that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will govern Italy again, but he is likely to win enough seats in Parliament to achieve his goals.
7. Jordan says it won't accept mass influx of Syrian rfugees
....At least two dozen people died when three car bombs exploded in Idlib, according to the opposition, and on Thursday, Syrian activists reported dozens of deaths in the central city of Homs, news agencies reported.
8. France sends reinforcements to confront Islamist forces in Mali

....Contradicting early French reports, officials said French forces had been involved in direct ground combat since just after landing last week.
a. US sees hazy threat from Mali militants
....The rush of violent events has masked the fact that officials in Washington still have only an impressionistic understanding of the militant groups that have established a safe haven in Mali.
9. Nigeria captures top Boko Haram figure
....Nigeria's military says it's questioning a leader of Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group blamed for the killings of hundreds of civilians, after capturing him in the country's northeast.
10. Russia warns of retaliation over US ruling on a Jewish collection
....The levying of fines over Russia’s refusal to turn over the Schneerson Collection added tension to Russian-American relations, which have become strained over the past year.
a. Russian gangster fatally shot on downtown Moscow street

....The killing of Aslan Usoyan, an ethnic Kurd from Georgia known as Grandpa Hassan, may signal a return to the gangland violence of two decades ago.
11. In Thailand, a broader definition of insulting royalty
....A defendant accused of insulting Thailand’s king was punished not only for what he said during a speech, but also for making a gesture of being muzzled.
12. Crowds in Turkey honor 3 Kurds slain in Paris

....Tens of thousands of people gathered in the southern Turkish city of Diyarbakir to mourn three women who were shot dead in a Kurdish political office in France.

US News Capsules:
1. Winfrey's low-rated chanel is poised to break through

....OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, is benefiting from Lance Armstrong’s interview and a deal to expand revenue.
2. When pills fail, this, er, option provides a cure
....Transplanting feces from a healthy person into the gut of one who is sick can quickly cure severe intestinal infections caused by a dangerous type of bacteria that antibiotics often cannot control.
3. An added mission for Arizona sheriff's immigration posse: school patrols
....Volunteers for Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., look a lot like his paid deputies as they keep an eye on schools.
4. Some with autism diagnosis can overcome symptoms, study finds
....A new study suggests that some people who have received an autism diagnosis are able to improve significantly and not qualify for the diagnosis later in life.
5. The spirits are back in force in Brooklyn

....The Brooklyn Museum’s installation on the art of the Americas explores the themes of life, death and transformation, and includes more than 100 objects.
6. Search of DNA sequences reveals full identities
....Surprising results from a DNA researcher highlight the growing tension between the advancement of medical research and privacy concerns.
7. Philadelphia vandalism seen by some as union intimidation

....Labor leaders say an episode involving a Quaker meeting house under construction has no connection with any work dispute.
8. Rapidly produced insect-based flu vaccine wins FDA approval

....The vaccine, called Flublok, can be ready more quickly in the event of a pandemic and, unlike current vaccines, will be an option for those allergic to eggs.
9. Report criticizes school discipline measures used in Mississippi
....Less than three months after the Justice Department sued Meridian, Miss., over discipline procedures, a report said that “overly harsh” policies were common throughout the state.
10. Victim's son: It was a hate crime

....The victim of a fatal hit-and-run in Mississippi was black. The teens in the car that struck him are white. The case is not being prosecuted as a hate crime.
POLITICS:
1. Obamq to 'put everything 've got' into gun control

....Pres. Obama unveiled plans to introduce legislation by next week that includes a ban on assault weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines and other steps.
a. Even defining 'assault rifles' is complicated
....One obstacle Pres. Obama may face in proposing a new federal ban on assault weapons could lie in the use of the term “assault weapon” itself.
2. Obama tells Senate that it's time to confirm ATF director
....The president said he was nominating the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, B. Todd Jones, to lead the agency on a permanent basis.
3. Hard choices on debt if the US hits the ceiling
....As soon as Feb. 15, the nation may face intractable options in deciding whom to pay when bills come due.
4. No votes disguise yes sympathies for some in GOP
...As House Republicans gather for their annual retreat, they will try to map out an approach to coming confrontations with Pres. Obama and Congressional Democrats.

Thought for Today
"It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts…it is to teach them to think."
--Robert M. Hutchins (1899-1977) American educator and writer.

[pegasus]

Clean Out Your Inbox Week
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 20th day of 2013 with 345 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 7:07 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 24ºF [Feels like 11ºF], winds WSW @ 16 mph, humidity 53%, pressure 29.97 in and rising, dew point 12ºF, chance of precipitation 80%.

Today in History:
1265--England's House of Commons, which became a model for parliamentary bodies, met for the first time.
1356--Edward de Balliol, short-lived King of Scotland, abdicated his throne to Edward III of England.
1649--Charles I, King of England and Scotland went on trial for high treason and "other high crimes"
1732--Richard Henry Lee, American statesman and orator, was born; died 1794 at age 62.
1777--the Battle of Millstone, NJ: Brig. Gen. Philemon Dickinson successfully led 400 raw men in an attack against a group of 500 British soldiers foraging for food.
1783--US and British representatives signed a preliminary "Cessation of Hostilities," which ended the fighting in the Revolutionary War.
1801--John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the US.
1841--Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain.
1863--Union Gen. Burnside's Army of the Potomac got bogged down in mud against General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and three days later abandoned the campaign.
1892--the first officially recognized basketball game was played at the YMCA gym in Springfield, Mass.
1918--British and German forces clash in the Aegean Sea when the German battleships Goeben and Breslau attempt a surprise raid on Allied forces off the Dardanelle Straits.
1920--Federico Fellini, Italian film director, was born: died 1993 at age 73.
1930--Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, astronaut, turns 83 today.
1936--Britain's King George V died and was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.
1942--Nazi officials arrived at a "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews, during a conference at Lake Wannsee in Berlin.
1945--Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only president to be elected to four terms in office, was inaugurated to his final term, dying three months later.
1949--in his inaugural address, Pres. Truman announced his Point Four program for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped nations.
1953--Dwight D. Eisenhower took the oath of office as the 34th president of the US; Richard M. Nixon was sworn in as vice president.
1961--John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the US in a ceremony on the newly renovated east front of the Capitol.
1969--the first pulsar (highly magnetized rotating neutron star) was discovered in the Crab Nebula.
1980--bleachers at a bullring in Sincelejo, Colombia, collapsed, resulting in the deaths of 222 people.
1981--Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president of the United States.
1981--Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days.
1986--the US observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
1987--Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut, Lebanon, while attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages.
1990--62 civilians were killed and more than 200 wounded when the Soviet army stormed into Baku to end what Mikhail Gorbachev called fratricidal killing between Muslim Azerbaijanis and Christian Armenians.
1993--Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president of the US.
1993--Oscar-winning actress Audrey Hepburn died at age 63 of colorectal cancer at her home in Switzerland.
1995--the US announced it was easing the trade embargo in effect against North Korea since the Korean War.
1995--a strike-shortened National Hockey League season opened with teams playing a 48-game schedule.
1996--Yasser Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian Authority with 88% of the vote.
1997--millionaire Steve Fossett landed in northern India after a record-setting bid to become the first person to circle the globe in a hot air balloon.
2001--Pres. Clinton issued 176 pardons -- a number of them controversial, just hours before leaving office.
2001--George W. Bush took the oath of office as the 43rd president of the US.
2001--Hundreds of thousands of protesting Filipinos forced Pres.t Joseph Estrada to step down; Vice Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in as the new president.
2003--Al Hirschfeld, Jewish American caricaturist best known for his satirical portraits, died at age 99 in his home in Manhattan.
2003--Britain said it was sending 26,000 troops to the Persian Gulf for possible deployment to Iraq.
2006--Lawrence Franklin, a former U.S. State Department analyst and Iran expert, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for passing classified information to Israel and two pro-Israeli lobbyists.
2007--Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., became the first former first lady to seek the U.S. presidency when she entered the race for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
2007--Cuban leader Fidel Castro was "fighting for his life," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in a speech in Brazil.
2008--Israeli Cabinet ministers called for the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who claimed to have the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon.
2009--Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th Pres. of the US making him the first African-American and native of Hawaii to hold the office.
2009--the National Day of Renewal and Recognition was declared by Pres. Obama as his first official act.

World News Capsules:
1. Scars are an 'honor' victim's sole testimony
....Gul Meena survived a brutal attack in Afghanistan three months ago, but she says she cannot recall what led to the moment when, according to the police and neighbors, her brother tried to kill her.
2. Hostages dead in bloody climax to siege in Algeria

....The Algerian Army conducted a last assault on a gas field that militants had seized, killing most of the kidnappers left, and raising the total of hostages dead to at least 23, Algerian officials said.
3. In Egypt, Brotherhod struggles to translate power into policy
....Islamists, winning elections, have unrivaled political power but still appear to exercise little day-to-day authority over the judiciary, the police, the military and the state-run media.
4. An electoin in Israel unusual for what isn't being discussed

....A few days before the national elections, voters say social values or pocketbook concerns have been front and center.
5. Africa must take lead in Mali, France says
....Once the situation is more stable, France wants African troops to do most of the work to wrest the north of Mali from the Islamists, as called for under a United Nations Security Council resolution
6. Jihadists' surge in North Africa reveals grim side of Arab Spring
....The assaults in Mali and Algeria have contributed to a sense that North Africa, long a dormant backwater for Al Qaeda, is turning into another zone of dangerous instability.

US News Capsules:
1. Obama ends oath with 'so help me God'

....The presidential and vice presidential swearings-in took place Sunday, a day before the public oaths at the Capitol in front of hundreds of thousands on the National Mall.
a. Change comes: After 4 years, friends see shifts in the Obamas
....Those who know the Obamas say they can see an accumulation of small shifts in the president and the first lady since they walked the inaugural parade route four years ago.
2. Military rules leave gay spouses out in cold

....Because same-sex marriages are not recognized by the military, gay service members who are married are barred from receiving benefits accorded to heterosexual married couples.
3. Rift widens over mining of uranium in Virginia
....Bills introduced to the General Assembly would lift a moratorium on uranium mining at a site in southern Virginia, but the issue has divided the region.
4. The guns hiding in your portfolio
....Whatever their position on gun control, many investors own shares of firearms makers at least indirectly, through their mutual and exchange-traded funds.
5. 5 injured after firearms go off at Ohio, NC, Indiana gun shows

....A 12-gauge shotgun loaded with bird shot accidentally discharged Saturday at a gun show at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, injuring a retired sheriff's deputy and two other persons, authorities said.
6. Former New Orleans mayor indicted don federal corruption charges

....Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who captured the drama of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with an "SOS" call to the nation, was indicted on 21 federal corruption charges, including bribery, money laundering, fraud and filing false tax returns.
POLITICS:
1. Fiscal footnote big Senate gift to drug maker
....A provision buried in the fiscal bill passed earlier this month gives Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology firm, more time to sell a lucrative kidney dialysis drug without price restraints.
2. Medicaid expansion is delicate maneuver for Arizona's Republican covernor
....Gov. Jan Brewer's decision to support the Medicaid expansion under President Obama's health care law drew fire from conservative groups.
3. How to cut megabanks down to size
....Chopping the biggest banks into pieces would better protect the nation's taxpayers, says the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
4. Bloomberg: Assault weapon ban is tough sell

...."Getting rid of assault weapons, that is a tougher sell, and that's what we've really got to work on," Bloomberg said in an interview with CNN's AC360°. "I'm optimistic, but it's tougher."
a. Closing gun-sale loophole rises on agenda
....Tightening background checks and limiting magazines may have a better chance at being part of new gun control measures than renewing an assault weapons ban.

Thought for Today
"A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done. "
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) 34th Pres. of the US.

[pegasus]

National Measure Your Feet Day

Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 23rd day of 2013 with 342 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 6:07 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 9ºF [Feels like 9ºF], winds E @ 3 mph, humidity 72%, pressure 30.11 in and rising, dew point 3ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
1368--Hongwu Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang) ascended to the throne in a coronation ceremony that initiated the three century long Ming Dynasty rule over China.
1556--Shaanxi China earthquake kills 830,000 people in what is still considered to be the deadliest disaster on record.
1570--James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, illegitimate son of James V of Scotland and half-brother to Mary Queen of Scots, was assassinated.
1571--the Royal Exchange in London was opened by Queen Elizabeth I.
1737--John Hancock, American Revolutionary statesman and Founding Father, was born; died 1793 at age 56.
1775--London merchants petitioned for reconciliation with America.
1789--Georgetown University was established in present-day Washington, D.C.
1790--HMS Bounty, anchored after the mutiny, was burned to prevent the ship's detection and anyone's possible escape off Pitcairn Island.
1845--the US Congress decided that all national elections would take place on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
1849--English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, NY.
1865--Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood was officially removed as commander of the Army of Tennessee at his request.
1897--Greenbrier Ghost was Zona Heaster Shue who was found dead and believed to have died from a faint until her ghost revealed otherwise.
1898--Sergei Eisenstein, the Russian film director and innovator, was born; died 1948 at age 50.
1920--the Netherlands refused to extradite Kaiser Wilhelm to the Allies.
1922--at Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes.
1930--Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize-winning poet, playwright, turns 83 today.
1932--New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1937--17 people went on trial in Moscow during Soviet leader Josef Stalin's Great Purge.
1948--Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said he couldn't accept a presidential nomination from either party.
1950--the Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
1957--the toy company Wham-O toy produced the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs--Frisbees.
1957--Caroline, Princess of Hanover, was born to Princess Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
1960--Trieste, a Swiss bathyscaphe, descended to the ocean floor in the Challenger Deep (Mariana Trench) at a record depth of 35.8 thousand feet.
1962--Tony Bennett recorded "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" in New York for Columbia Records.
1964--the 24th amendment to the Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, was ratified.
1968--North Korea seized the USS Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the communist nation's territorial waters on a spying mission.
1971--he temperature at Prospect Creek, Alaska, dropped to 80 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature recorded in the US. 1973--Pres. Nixon announced an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.
1973--Eldfell , a cinder cone volcano on the Icelandic island of Heimaey, suddenly erupted, causing the evacuation of 5,000 people with only 1 death.
1977--the TV mini-series Roots, based on the Alex Haley novel, began airing on ABC.
1980--Pres. Carter reinstated the Selective Service System.
1988--Sandinista missiles downed a cargo plane that was dropping US-financed supplies to Contra rebels in southeastern Nicaragua.
1989--surrealist painter Salvador Dali died in his native Spain at age 84.
1991--US Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady asked Congress for another $80 billion toward the bailout of the nation's savings and loan industry.
1991--the videotaped murder of Darrell Lunstard, a policeman who pulled over a traffic violater, led to convictions in Texas of three men who beat, kicked and stabbed him on the highway.
1991--allied forces in the Persian Gulf War announced that they had achieved air superiority after some 12,000 sorties.
1997--a judge in Fairfax, Va., sentenced a Pakistani man to death for an assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two people and wounded three.
2002--Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted in Karachi, Pakistan, by a group demanding the return of prisoners from the Afghan campaign.
2005--former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson died at age 79.
2005--Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in as Ukraine's president, ending a tumultuous election and promising a period of radical, liberal reforms.
2006--Ford Motor Co., reflecting the downsizing of the auto industry, said it would close 14 factories and eliminate 30,000 jobs over the next six years.
2006--Canadian voters chose Stephen Harper's Conservation Party over outgoing Prime Minister Paul Martin's Labor Party in a close parliamentary election.
2008--tens of thousands of Palestinians rushed into Egypt to buy food and supplies after members of Hamas destroyed parts of a wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
2008--Thailand returned to civilian rule after a military council that had ruled the country for 16 months disbanded.
2009--Ibuki , the World's first greenhouse-gas probe, was launched on an H2A rocket from Tanegaslhima, Japan.

World News Capsules:
1. Algerian attack puts focus on worker security
....The attack in Algeria could lead some energy companies to pull out of especially volatile countries, although analysts said the siege is not likely to fundamentally reshape the industry. The companies operating the site that was attacked chose not to deploy armed guards, leading security analysts to question whether the assault could have been slowed by tighter security
2. Cameron promises Britons a referendum on European membership

....Prime Minister David Cameron’s vow of a vote within five years, provided his party wins the next election, is likely to set up a divisive debate.
3. For rape victims in India, police are often part of the problem
....In many rape cases, the police spend more time seeking reconciliation, even marriage, between the attacker and the victim, instead of pursuing an investigation. A commission has recommended a number of far-reaching changes including requiring police officers to register every case of reported rape and re-examining every appointed state police chief.
a. India warns Kashmiris to prepare for nuclear war
....An advisory published Monday suggested that residents of Kashmir build bombproof basements and stockpile food and water, adding to tensions between India and Pakistan.
4. Bombing at a funeral in Northern Iraq kills at least 35

....A tent full of Turkmen funeral mourners, including a number of high-ranking regional dignitaries, military officers, and religious men, was transformed into a mass killing ground.
5. Tepid vote for Netanyahu in Israel is seen as rebuke

....Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to serve a third term, but voters gave a surprising second place to a centrist party founded by Yair Lapid, a celebrity who emphasized kitchen-table issues and own 19 of 120 Parliamentary seats.
6. Honoring drug war dead, and spurring a debate in Mexico

....Mexico has built a memorial to the thousands of people killed in the drug war, but some ask whether all of the victims deserve such an honor.
7. At Bolshoi, regrets and a new appointment
....Russia's Bolshoi Ballet has made Galina Stepanenko, a former principal dancer, its acting artistic director, taking over for Sergei Filin, who after suffering an acid attack, said that he regretted not accepting protection.
8. Defying common view, some Syrian Kurds fight Assad

....1000s have taken up arms on the rebels' side, saying that they have also suffered under Pres. al-Assad.
a. Syrians struggle in an uneasy Lebanon
....At the most recent count, there were 212,000 refugees in Lebanon, registered or awaiting registration with the United Nations refugee agency. A year ago, the agency had registered 5,000.

US News Capsules:
1. Clinton cites new security steps after Libya attack

....Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted that she had moved quickly to improve the security of American diplomats after the September attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans.
2. New sexual abuse files cast shadow on legacy of Los Angeles cardinal
....Personnel files released this week as part of a civil court case show that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his top adviser knowingly protected priests from being prosecuted.
3. Unfinished luxury tower is stark reminder of Las Vegas's economic reversal
....The Harmon Tower, part of the $8.5 billion complex known as CityCenter, remains in build-it-or-tear-it-down legal limbo after inspectors found construction defects in 2008.
4. Maker aware of 40% failure in hip implant
....Documents from a California court case show that a Johnson & Johnson analysis estimated that a subsidiary's hip implant would fail within five years in nearly 40% of patients.
5. A tax bite tailored to help all
....Everyone agrees that federal spending must be drastically cut. But there is an alternative: raising more money from all taxpayers, including the middle class.
6. Share of the work force in a union falls to a 97-year low, 11.3%

....The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the percentage of American workers in labor unions fell to 11.3% last year, the lowest since 11.2% in 1916.
7. Pentagon is set to lift combat ban for women

....The groundbreaking decision overturns a 1994 Pentagon rule that restricts women from artillery, armor, infantry and other such combat roles.
8. From Midweat to East, subzero temperatures turn mild winter deadly

....A bracing wave of Arctic air has swept across much of the nation, causing several deaths in the Midwest and prompting cities along the Eastern Seaboard to open emergency shelters.
9. Hate crimes alleged in holding of cpatives in Philly boiler room

....Prosecutors said the defendants held four victims in subhuman conditions in a scheme to steal Social Security payments. The hate crimes case is the first of its kind.
10. 3 wounded, 2 detained in Texas college shooting

....Students ducked under desks and ran for cover during a shooting at a community college in Texas that left three people wounded. The early-afternoon shooting apparently stemmed from an argument between two men. At least one of the men was armed and at least one had a student ID.
POLITICS:
1. Obama speech leaves GOP stark choices

....As Pres. Obama's second term begins, Republican leaders appear ready to accede at least in the short term on some matters, like increasing the debt limit.
2. Governor of Nebraska backs route for pipeline
....The revised route sets up a decision for Pres. Obama that pipeline opponents say will be a crucial test of his intentions on climate change.
3. Democrats in Senate confront doubts at home on gun laws
....Several Democratic senators up for re-election next year are confronting galvanized constituencies that view any effort to tighten gun laws as an infringement.
4. The last holdout in New England, Rhode Island weighs gay marriage
....Supporters say that if the gay marriage bill gets to the Senate, it would pass, but opponents are skeptical and state senators are being lobbied heavily by both sides.
5. House vote sidesteps an ultimatum on debt

....The move staves off an impasse that could have been disastrous, but an economic showdown with the president is still looming.

Thought for Today
"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."
--James Joyce (1882-1941) Irish author

[pegasus]

Natonal Skate Month
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 24th day of 2013 with 341 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:07 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 14ºF [Feels like 14ºF], winds NW @ 14 mph, humidity 50%, pressure 30.36 in and rising, dew point 1ºF, chance of precipitation 30%.

Today in History:
41--Gaius Caesar, called Caligula, Roman Emperor from 37, was assassinated by Cassius Chaerea at the Palatine Games.
661--at Kufah in Iraq, Caliph Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed, was murdered.
1076--the Synod of Worms took place at which German bishops renounced their allegiance to Pope Gregory.
1732--Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais, French author, was born; died 1799 at age 67.
1781--Patriot commanders Lt Col. Light Horse Henry Lee and Brig. Gen. Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion of the South Carolina militia raided Georgetown, SC. defended by 200 British soldiers.
1848--gold was discovered at John Sutter's mill near Sacramento, Calif., touching off the great gold rush of 1849.
1865--the Confederate Congress agreed to resume prisoner exchanges.
1888--Jacob L. Wortman of Philadelphia, Pa., patented the typewriter ribbon.
1908--the first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
1915--German naval forces under Admiral Franz von Hipper and a squadron of British cruisers led by Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty battled at the Dogger Bank in the North Sea.
1916--the US Supreme Court ruled that an income tax was unconstitutional.
1924--the Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.
1927--The Pleasure Garden (silent film, and Alfred Hitchock's debut) was released into theaters.
1935--beer was sold in cans for the first time, by the Krueger Brewing Co. in Richmond, Va.
1939--an 8.3-magnitude earthquake centered in south central Chile leaves 50,000 people dead and 60,000 injured.
1941--singer-songwriter Neil Diamond turns 72 years old today.
1943--Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
1943--German Gen. Friedrich von Paulus, commander in chief of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, urgently requested permission from Adolf Hitler to surrender.
1956--J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, two white men from Mississippi confessed they beat black teenaged Emmett Till with a gun, shot him and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River. They were never made to pay for their crime and died in 2004.
1960--a major insurrection began in Algiers against French policy in the country.
1961--Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller divorced after less than five years of marriage due to their differing lifestyles.
1964--CBS-TV bought the rights to televise the National Football League’s regular 1964-1965 season, which lasted 30 years.
1965--former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.
1966--Operation Masher/White Wing/Thang Phong II, the largest search-and-destroy operation to date, was launched in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam.
1966--Air India Flight 101 crashed into the side of Mount Blanc in Switzerland killing all 117 aboard
1972--the US Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.
1973--National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger announced that a truce is expected in Laos and Cambodia.
1978--Cosmos 954 (Soviet Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite with an onboard nuclear reactor) reentered Earth's atmosphere and crashed.
1980--in a series of reactions to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, US officials announced that America was ready to sell military equipment (excluding weapons) to Communist China.
1981--Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders scored his 50th goal in 50 NHL games.
1986--the Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the 7th planet from the sun.
1987--gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh.
1989--confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida's electric chair.
1991--Saudi jet fighters shot down the first enemy planes of the Persian Gulf War, while US forces sank an Iraqi minesweeper and forced Iraqi troops off an island near Kuwait.
1993--Ugur Mumcu, Turkish investigative journalist and columnist, was killed by a bomb placed in his car outside of his home.
1993--retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice, died at age 84.
1995--the prosecution gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
1999--Jordan's King Hussein, who was seriously ill, named his son Abdullah as crown prince, rplacing his father's younger brother as successor to the throne.
2003--the new federal Department of Homeland Security officially opened as Tom Ridge was sworn in as secretary.
2003--a report said the global economic slowdown that began about two years previously had wiped out some 20 million jobs, bringing total world unemployment to perhaps 180 million people.
2003--a US government program to vaccinate 500,000 front-line healthcare workers in case of bio-terrorist attack began .
2004--NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars three weeks after its identical twin, Spirit.
2004--after years of denials, Pakistan admitted scientists may have sold nuclear designs to other nations probably "for personal financial gain."
2005--the US Supreme Court rejected an attempt by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to prevent the husband of Terri Schiavo from removing her life support system.
2006--Walt Disney announced its $7.4 billion purchase of Pixar.
2007--three precision raids on predominantly Sunni-controlled areas of Baghdad allowed Iraqi and US troops to regain control of the city.
2007--European defense officials said North Korea was sharing its nuclear data on 2006's test explosion with Iran.
2008--French bank Societe Generale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader.
2010--Machu Picchu (ancient Inca ruins in Peru) was closed when floods and mudslides leave over 2,000 tourists in need of rescue by helicopter.
2011--Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty in Phoenix to federal charges he'd tried to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides in a Tucson shooting rampage.

World News Capsules:
1. Algeria gas compound lacked armed guards
....The companies operating the site that was attacked last week chose not to deploy armed guards, leading security analysts to question whether the assault could have been slowed by tighter security.
2. American Mumbai plotter sentenced to 35 years
....David Coleman Headley was sentenced on Thursday to 35 years in prison for the key role he played in a 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai that has been called India’s 9/11.
a. India rape trial starts with renewed ban on media coverage
....As a closely watched trial gets under way, a judge warns lawyers against speaking to the media.
3. Making of Israel's new power broker
....Yair Lapid's party shocked the political establishment by winning 19 of Parliament's 120 seats, becoming Israel's second-largest faction and a crucial partner for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
a. Netanyahu-Obama ties may thaw after Israel election

....Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s weakened position could set the stage for an improvement in his relationship with Pres. Obama as he navigates Israel’s new political landscape
4. US and 3 European countries warn of threats to Westerners in Libya

....Citizens of Britain, Germany and the Netherlands were warned to leave immediately. The US called the potential for violence in Benghazi “significant."
5. Faction splits from Islamist group in Northern Mali

....A leader of Ansar Dine, one of the main Islamic militant groups fighting to control Mali, said that he would form his own group to seek negotiations to settle the country’s crisis.
6. North Korea issues blunt new threat to United States

....An explicit threat from North Korea that its missile and nuclear programs would “target” the US revives a challenge the White House had tried to contain for four years.
7. Inquiry ordered in death of prosecutor who investigated Pakistani premier
....The prosecutor, Kamran Faisal, had been building corruption charges against Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf when he was found dead at his government lodgings.
8. Thai court gives 10-year sentence for insult to King
....The sentencing of a former magazine editor is the latest in a string of cases showing a continued lack of tolerance over perceived insults to Thai royalty.

US News Capsules:
1. Simple, low-cost drones a boost for US military
....The ScanEagle drone, which uses off-the-shelf video equipment, allows local commanders the ability to gather close-in, real-time images of an immediate target.
a. formally lifting a combat ban, military chiefs stress equal opportunity

....Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said that not every woman would become a combat soldier but that every woman deserved the chance to try.
2. Air Force leaders testify on culture that led to sexual assaults of recrits
....A weak command structure and a climate of fear among female personnel created the atmosphere that led to sexual assaults at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, commanders said.
3. After Newtown, cities urge pension funds to divest from gun makers

....Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago urged the executives of two major banks to cease the financing of firearms companies. Other cities are making similar efforts.
4. Boeing's battery problems cast doubt on appraisal of new technologies
....The 787's difficulties have raised questions about how regulators certify new technology and how they balance advances in design and engineering with safety.
5. Robot makers spread global gospel of automation
....Manufacturers of robots and similar machines gathered in Chicago, casting automation as an indispensable engine of economic growth.
6. At remote desert outposts, Border Patrol agents sift for clues

....The outposts near the border with Mexico are an essential element in the Border Patrol’s quasi-military strategy of “gaining, maintaining and expanding.”
7. Mutations found in melanomas may shed light on how cancers grow
....The changes are in regions that control genes, not in the genes themselves, and they are exactly the type caused by exposure to ultraviolet light.
8. Indiana's gmbling lock loosened by competitioin
....Threats of casino expansion in several neighboring states endanger a gambling powerhouse’s steady revenue stream.
9. To raise graduation rate, colleges are urged to help a changing student body
....One report called for more flexibility for nontraditional students, suggesting services like midnight class meetings, online courses and easier credit transfers.
10. Art: The great outdoors

....A new Met exhibition includes 50 French paintings from the years between neo-Classicism and Romanticism, with a particular love for gleaming oil sketches that were done outdoors.
11. Fashion and style: And precisely so

....Masters of couture like Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel know that precision is a virtue. And newer designers are learning to wield this skill to make their own mark — and magic.
12. Florida holds high-profile hunt for low-profile creatures
....State wildlife officials became so frustrated with the prolific and invasive Burmese pythons that on Jan. 12 they began a one-month hunt in South Florida.
13. Slap-in-the-face cold may freeze South

....The Arctic cold front that's delivered subzero temperatures to Chicago, above, the upper Midwest and Northeast is forecast to bring freezing rain to the South and Mid-Atlantic states on Friday.
POLITICS:
1. Redistricting in Virginia hurts blacks, Democrats say
With one Democratic senator absent, Republicans in the Virginia State Senate pushed through a redistricting bill by one vote that Democrats say dilutes blacks' votes.
2. Kansas' governor and GOP seek to eliminate income tax
....Kansas provides perhaps the starkest view of the crimson ideology that could challenge President Obama's Inauguration Day rallying cry for an expansive liberal agenda.
3. Senator unveils bill to limit semi-automatic arms

.....At an emotional news conference, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California announced legislation intended to “dry up the supply” of assault weapons.
4. A gridlocked Senate agrees to some limits on filibusters
....Lawmakers and aides said the new rules would end the use of a tactic that forces the majority party to marshal 60 votes to bring a bill to the floor.
5. Kerry links economic and foreign policy at confirmation hearing
....Sen. John Kerry said at his confirmation hearing for the post of Secretary of State that the US’ top priority should be getting its fiscal house in order

Thought for Today
"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English statesman, philosopher and essayist

[pegasus]

National Blood Donor Month
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 25th day of 2013 with 340 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:57 p.m., it's lightly snowing , temp 14ºF [Feels like 6ºF], winds ESE @ 5 mph, humidity 73%, pressure 30.09 in and falling, dew point 8ºF, chance of precipitation 70%.

Today in History:
1308--Isabella of France married Edward II of England at Boulogne-sur-Mer.
1533--England's King Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn, his second wife.
1759--Scottish national poet Robert Burns was born in Alloway; died 1796 at age 37.
1776--the Continental Congress authorized the 1st national Revolutionary War memorial in honor of Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery, killed during an assault on Quebec.
1787--Shays' Rebellion suffered a setback when debt-ridden farmers led by Capt. Daniel Shays failed to capture an arsenal at Springfield, Mass.
1825--George Edward Pickett, American Confederate Army officer, was born; died 1875 at age 50.
1890--the United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio.
1890--Nellie Bly, a young New York reporter, completed a trip around the world in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.
1905--at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond was discovered during a routine inspection by the mine's superintendent.
1915--the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated transcontinental telephone service in the United States.
1924--the first Winter Olympic Games opened in Chamonix, France.
1927--former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze turns 85 years old today.
1942--Thailand, a Japanese puppet state, declared war on the US and England.
1947--gangster Al "Scarface" Capone died at age 48 after suffering from syphilis.
1949--the 1st Emmy Award Ceremony was held at the Hollywood Athletic club, but solely to honor shows produced and aired in Los Angeles,
1959--American Airlines opened the jet age in the US with the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.
1969--the 1st plenary session of the formal Paris Vietnam Peace talks was held.
1971--Charles Manson and three female followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate.
1980--Paul McCartney was released from a Tokyo jail and deported from Japan due to having nearly half a pound of marijuana in his baggage.
1981--the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days returned to the United States.
1981--in China, Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, was sentenced to death her "counter-revolutionary crimes" during the Cultural Revolution.
1988--Vice Pres.Bush and Dan Rather clashed on The CBS Evening News as the anchorman attempted to question the Republican presidential candidate about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.
1990--Ava Gardner, Oscar nominated actress and former wife to Frank Sinatra, died in London at age 67 from bronchial pneumonia.
1990--the Burns' Day storm hit England and Wales with Hurricane-force winds killed at least 39 people in the UK and 21 people in France.
1990--a Colombian jetliner with little fuel left crashed in Long Island, NY, after missing its first approach to Kennedy Airport, 73 died.
1993--a Pakistani national shot and killed two CIA employees outside agency headquarters in Virginia.
2003--two small planes collided over Denver, killing four people and spilling wreckage and fuel on a neighborhood injuring at least four others.
2005--a Wichita, Kan., TV station received a postcard from the BTK serial killer, one in a long line sent by the killer who terrorized Wichita for over 30 years, brutally murdering 10 people and taunting law enforcement.
2005--the death toll from December's 11-nation tsunami in southern Asia was 281,000 with thousands more missing.
2006--the Islamic militant group Hamas won a large majority of seats in Palestinian parliamentary elections.
2007--a car and two motorcycles rigged with explosives exploded in three Baghdad sites, killing 32 people and injuring 80 others.
2007--Israeli President Moshe Katsav, facing indictment for rape and sexual harassment, was granted a three-month leave of absence.
2008--Egyptian soldiers fortified the country's border with Gaza with a human chain and barbed wire in response to the tens of thousands of Palestinians who crossed back and forth since Hamas damaged the crossing walls.
2008--China's Ministry of Railway said 18 railroad workers were killed and nine injured by a high-speed train that barreled into their work site in Anqiu.
2010--Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off killing all 90 on board.
2011--Egypt's revolution began as thousands of anti-government protesters clashed with police during a Tunisia-inspired demonstration to demand the end of Pres. Mubarak's rule.


World News Capsules:
1. Officials in Azerbaijan claim to restore order to rioting city
....But residents of the city of Ismayilli said it remained on the brink of martial law after two days of volatile political protests, a rare explosion of uncontrolled frustration in the country.
2. Chinese leader takes conciliatory tone in meeting with Japanese politician
....Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, met with the lawmaker in an effort to cool tensions with Japan over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both nations.
a. Chinese graduates say no thanks to factory jobs
....Millions of Chinese graduate from college every year, but they struggle to find jobs in an economy that is still dominated by blue-collar industries.
b. Chinese officials fired over sex scandal
....The state news media reported details of a sex extortion ring in Chongqing that has led to the dismissals of at least 11 officials of the Communist Party, government or state-owned companies.
3. Deadly riots erupt on anniversary of Egyptian revolt

....Egyptians in Tahrir Square protested against the Muslim Brotherhood, and there were minor clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere.
4. India needs to 'reset its moral compass,' president says
....Pres. Pranab Mukherjee made a blunt call for gender equity and said the Dec. 16 gang rape and murder of a young woman in New Delhi had “shattered complacency.”.
5. At least 9 killed as Iraqi protesers confront army
....It was the first deadly confrontation in more than a month of antigovernment protests by mostly Sunni opponents of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
6. Mali army, riding US hopes, is proving no match for militants
....The Malian Army's frequent defeats and spotty human rights record have rekindled longstanding doubts about whether it can - or perhaps even should - be left to hold on to the gains French troops have made.
7. North Korea turns its combativeness toward the South

....North Korea threatened to take “physical countermeasures” against South Korea if it takes part in enforcing sanctions against the besieged North.
8. US envoy apologizes for ships grounding on Philippine coral reef

....The grounding of the USS Guardian minesweeper was preceded by other events that have led to renewed criticism of the US military presence in the Philippines
9. UN panel to investigate rise in drone strikes
....A prominent British human rights lawyer said the panel would investigate the "exponential rise" in drone strikes, focusing on "whether there is a plausible allegation of unlawful killing."

US News Capsules:
1. When the bullets flew, 'They didn't care that I was a woman'
.....The question that now looms over the Pentagon as it moves toward full integration is whether women can perform the same dangerous and demanding tasks day in and day out.
a. Looking to Israel for clues on women in combat

....Although on paper the Israeli military is one of the most gender-neutral in the world, the reality is more complicated.
2. Towns' next hit from Hurricane is to tax revenues
....As a result of property damage, localities hit by Hurricane Sandy cannot expect to reap the same property taxes from homeowners.
3. Judge orders HCA to pay foundation $162 million
....A judge found that HCA, the nation's largest profit-making hospital chain, had not made improvements it agreed to make when it bought several hospitals in the Kansas City area.
4. Housing offers hope of strength in the economy
....The US housing market is not yet in good shape, but it is getting better, and in that there may be hope for a surprisingly strong economy this year.
5. Markets ride high as smll investors return

....After millions of people all but abandoned the markets after the 2008 financial crisis, individual investors are pouring money into stock mutual funds for the first time in years.
6. FDA panel votes to restrict drugs like vicodin

....An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration voted 19-10 to recommend increased restrictions on hydrocodone products, the country’s most widely used narcotic painkillers.
POLITICS:
1. SEC pick is ex-prosecutor, in signal to Wall Street
....Pres. Obama's choice to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, a former US attorney, suggested a resolve to hold Wall Street accountable for wrongdoing.
2. Governors push bigger reliance on sales taxes
....Ambitious experiments in collecting revenue that are taking place at the state level could shape the national approach on taxes.
3. 40 years after Roe .v Wade, thougsands march to oppose abortion
....The march came two months after the 2012 campaign season, in which social issues like abortion largely took a back seat to the focus on the economy.
4. Court rejects recess appointments to labor board
....Pres. Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate last year to fill vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board, a federal appeals court panel ruled.
5. GOP mulls a strategy from Obama's playbook
....The Republican National Committee is reviewing the party’s deficiencies, particularly in technology and grass-roots organizing, that contributed to Mitt Romney’s defeat.

Thought for Today
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. "
--Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) Nobel Peace Prize laureate, preacher & civil rights activist

[pegasus]

National Hot Tea Month
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 28th day of 2013 with 237 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 5:07 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 37ºF [Feels like 30ºF], winds SSW @ 10 mph, humidity 86%, pressure 29.88 in and falling, dew point 33ºF, chance of precipitation 100%.

Today in History:
1547--England's King Henry VIII died and succeeded by his son, Edward VI.
1777--John Burgoyne, poet, playwright and British general, submitted an ill-fated plan to the British government to isolate New England from the other colonies.
1782--the US Congress authorized creation of the Great Seal of the United States.
1813--The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was first published anonymously in London.
1853--Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti was born in Havana.
1855--the 1st train crossed the Panamanian isthmus.
1871--France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War.
1878--the first commercial telephone switchboard began operation in New Haven, Conn.
1909--the US ended direct control over Cuba.
1915--the US Coast Guard was created by an act of Congress.
1915--the Germans sank the William P. Frye, an American merchant ship.
1916--Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by Pres. Wilson to the Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.
1917--U.S. ends search for Pancho Villa after nearly 11 months of fruitless searching for the revolutionary, who was accused of leading a bloody raid against Columbus, NM.
1945--allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1959--Vince Lombardi was named head coach of the NFL's Green Bay Packers.
1964--Soviets shoot down an American jet that strayed into East German airspace.
1973--a cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War.
1974--Israel lifted its siege of Suez City and turned over 300,000 square miles of Egyptian territory to the UN, ending the occupation that had begun during the October 1973 war.
1980--Six US diplomats who had avoided being taken hostage at their embassy in Tehran flew out of Iran under false identities.
1982--kidnapped US Army Brig. Gen. James Dozier was rescued in Padua, Italy, after 42 days in the hands of Italian Red Brigades militants.
1986--the space shuttle Challenger exploded 72 seconds after blastoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crewmembers.
1985--American recording artists gathered to record "We Are the World" for African famine relief.
1993--a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that the US military's policy against homosexuals was unconstitutional.
1995--the US and Vietnam agreed to exchange low-level diplomats and open liaison offices in each other's capital cities.
1997--five former police officers in South Africa admitted to killing anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko, who died in police custody in 1977 and whose death had been officially listed as an accident.
1999--Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, honoring a personal request for mercy from Pope John Paul II, spared a triple murderer from execution.
2003--42 passengers burned to death when a luxury tourist bus collided head-on with a truck carrying paints and chemicals in India's eastern state of West Bengal.
2003--Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Likud Party retained power in Israeli parliamentary elections.
2004--the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq told Congress "we were almost all wrong" in believing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
2005--Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as the 66th US secretary of State, the first African-American woman to hold the office.
2005--European scientists confirmed the first known case of "mad cow" disease in a goat.
2006--Clint Eastwood honored by Directors Guild of America with its ifetime Achievement Award.
2006--British analysts predicted the price of oil could go to $90 a barrel if Iran responded to nuclear sanctions by cutting off supplies.
2007--US and Iraqi forces killed a reported 300 enemy fighters in a major battle near Najaf in southern Iraq.
2007--British researchers warned climate effects from global warming would be irreversible in 10 years without "serious reductions in carbon emissions."
2008--Pres. Bush delivered his final State of the Union address.
2009--the Democratic-controlled House approved a $819 billion stimulus bill.
2010--Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke won Senate confirmation for a second term.

World News Capsules:
1. US plans base for surveillance drones in northwest Africa
....The military’s Africa Command is making preparations to install unarmed drones as Islamist extremist groups are seen as posing a growing menace to the region.
2. Frenzied scene as toll tops 200 in Brazil blaze
.....A fire ignited by a band's pyrotechnics swept through a nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil, killing at least 233 people and injuring many others, police said.
3. Egypt's leader declares state of emergency in three cities
....Pres. Morsi resorted to the authoritarian weapon of his deposed predecessor as escalating violence in the streets threatened his government and Egypt's democracy.
a. Protests grow on fifth day of unrest in Egypt

....Protests in the Suez Canal city of Port Said and new clashes in Cairo came a day after Pres. Morsi declared a state of emergency and a curfew in three cities.
4. Thousands rally in Paris for same-sex marriage

....About 125,000 people in Paris marched to support a same-sex marriage bill that lawmakers will begin to debate and that stands a good chance of becoming law this year.
5. Iranian journalists are arrested and accused of links with foreign news media
....Iranian rights advocates called the arrests part of a broader campaign of intimidation to forestall political unrest before the presidential elections in June.
6. Israel girds for attacks as Syria falls apart
....At least one Iron Dome missile defense battery was deployed in northern Israel amid reports that Syria's chemical weapons could possibly fall into Hezbollah's hands.
7. Japan to ease restrictions on US beef
....The move will finally allow American ranchers and meatpackers to move past a mad cow scare that led to a ban in 2003, and regain full access to what was once their most lucrative market.
a. Toyota returns to No. 1 in global auto sales
....The Japanese automaker sold a record 9.75 million vehicles last year, according to an official tally, roaring past General Motors and Volkswagen.
8. With fighters gone, Malians welcome normal days
....Residents of Gao, who had been under occupation for nearly a year by Islamist fighters, celebrated the arrival of Malian and French troops.
9. North Korean leader vows 'high-profile' retaliation over new UN sanctions
....North Korea did not clarify what those measures might be, but referred to earlier threats to launch more long-range rockets and conduct a third nuclear test.
10. Norway debates overseas ventures after siege in Algeria

....Oil and gas made Norway one of the richest countries, but the siege that killed four Statoil employees has forced the nation to rethink how far its petroleum companies should go for profits.
11. Russia tries to prosecute a dead whistle-blower
....The effort to open proceedings against Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died three years ago in a Moscow prison, has stoked tensions in a case that has damaged Russia’s image abroad.
a. Shaken but determined, the Bolshoi dances on

....The Bolshoi Ballet carries on even as a scandal swirls around it following an acid-throwing attack on its artistic director, possibly ordered by a rival.
12. Yemen seizes boat suspected of smuggling Iranian arms
....A boat seized by Yemen was filled with explosives, weapons and money, and American officials said there were indications that Iran was smuggling the contraband to insurgents inside Yemen.

US News Capsules:
1. State Dept. closes office working on shutting Guantanamo Prison
....The announcement appeared to signal that the administration does not currently see the closing of the Guantánamo Bay prison as a realistic priority.
2. An oil boom takes a toll of health care

....Swamped by uninsured laborers in dangerous jobs, medical facilities in North Dakota are sinking under skyrocketing debt, gruesome injuries and bloated business costs.
3. Aging in brain found to hurt sleep needed for memory
....A report in Nature Neuroscience suggests that natural physical changes interfere with quality slumber, blunting the ability to remember new information for the long term.
4. Boy Scouts consider lifting ban on gay leaders

....The Boy Scouts of America said on Monday that it was considering allowing local scouting groups to choose for themselves whether to allow gay members.
5. In hiring, a friend in need is a prospect, indeed
....As employers increasingly use internal referrals to find new hires, the odds narrow for unconnected job seekers, especially among the long-term unemployed.
6. Pentagon expanding cybersecurity force to protect networks against attacks
....The expansion would increase the Defense Department’s Cyber Command by more than 4,000 people, officials said.
7. Passenger vs. airline policy

....Flight attendants are trained to avoid escalating conflict, but the “nip it in the bud” approach may seem aggressive to passengers, as an incident on a recent flight left Eillilam Pollock with lingering questions about his rights as an airline passenger.
POLITICS:
1. Senators offer a new blueprint for immigration

....A bipartisan group of senators has drafted a set of principles that includes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants that hinges on increased border security and enforcement measures.
2. GOP's Cantor, looking past politics of debt
....Rep. Eric Cantor is reasserting himself in the House after Republican election losses, with plans to unveil softer proposals beyond reining in the debt.
3. Obama focuses on status quo, not left, in battle with GOP
....Much of the president’s early second-term energy seeks simply to preserve the status quo as he continues to face off with Republicans over fiscal issues

Thought for Today
"The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues."
--Rene Descartes (1596-1650), French philosopher

[pegasus]

[/img]
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 30th day of 2013 with 235 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 5:07 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 60ºF [Feels like 60ºF], winds SSW @ 16 mph, humidity 75%, pressure 29.38 in and steady, dew point 52ºF, chance of precipitation 100%.

Today in History:
1649--England's King Charles I was beheaded by Parliament.
1798--the first fight to break out on the floor of the House of Representatives began when one congressman spat in another's face.
1835--a gunman fired twice on Pres. Jackson, the first attempt on the life of a US president.
1882--Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the US, was born in Hyde Park, NY; died 1845 at age 63.
1883--James Ritty and John Birch received a US patent for the first cash register.
1889--Rudolf. Crown Prince of Austria, was found dead along with his lover Baroness Mary Vetsera at his hunting lodge Mayerling.
1933--the first episode of the Lone Ranger was broadcast on radio station WXYZ in Detroit.
1933--Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
1943--the British air force bombed Berlin in a daylight raid timed to coincide with a speech by Joseph Goebbels in honor of Hitler.
1948--Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.
1962--King Abdullah II of Jordan turns 51 years old today.
1965--Winston Churchill receives a state funeral held at St. Paul's Cathedral by decree of Queen Elizabeth II
1968--the Tet offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.
1969--the Beatles performed in public for the last time in a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London.
1972--13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
1979--the Iranian government announced it would let Shiite Muslim leader Ayatollah Khomeini return from exile.
1991--Iraqi armored forces engaged allied forces in Khafji, Saudi Arabia. 12 U.S. Marines were killed in the heaviest ground fighting of the Gulf War.
1993--parents donated portions of their own lungs to their daughter with cystic fibrosis in pioneering transplant surgery in Los Angeles.
1995--42 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in Algiers, Algeria.
1995--the UN Security Council authorized deployment of 6,000 peacekeepers to Haiti.
1996--Comet Hyakutake was discovered by Yuji Hyakutake of Japan using a powerful set of binoculars
1999--NATO ambassadors gave the organization authority to attack military targets in Serbia
2003--Richard Reid, a British citizen and al-Qaida follower, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes.
2004--Fidel Castro, in a militant five-hour speech in Havana, accused the Bush administration of plotting to kill him.
2005--Iraqis voted in their country's first free election in a half-century.
2006--Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died at age 78 while trying to recover from a stroke and heart attack..
2007--Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system went on sale.
2008--Egypt reported it had foiled a suicide attack on Israel by arresting five Palestinians alleged carrying rifles and explosives.

World News Capsules:

US News Capsules:

Sports Headlines:

Today's Headlines of Interest:

Thought for Today
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. "
--[/i]Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist and astronomer


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