Tuesday, October 23, 2012

After final debate, Obama says election comes down to trust

After final debate, Obama says election comes down to trust


After final debate, Obama says election comes down to trust

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 02:46 PM PDT

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in DelrayDAYTON, Ohio (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned voters on Tuesday that Republican rival Mitt Romney cannot be trusted to deal honestly with the public as the presidential campaign shifted from televised confrontation to a frantic dash for votes. After three televised debates that have boosted Romney's prospects before the November 6 election, Obama delivered what is likely to be his closing argument: that, unlike Romney, he has been honest with voters about his plans to deliver a broadly shared prosperity over the next four years. ...


Detroit boosters say they're putting the mo' back in Motown

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 08:24 AM PDT

Jeanette Pierce stands on an outside balcony in the high-rise apartment building she lives in downtown Detroit, MichiganDETROIT (Reuters) - When Jeanette Pierce moved into a downtown Detroit high-rise seven years ago, she could always count on getting into The Well, a local bar with wood-paneled walls, dartboards and an X-Box in the corner. Now she can barely squeeze in. "There could be a line with as many as 150 to 175 people at the bar," said Pierce, 31, co-founder of a nonprofit that promotes Detroit. She's wistful for the nights when just 50 patrons would show up. ...


Leak will send ex-CIA officer to prison

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:52 PM PDT

The logo of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is shown in the lobby of the CIA headquarters in La..ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - A former Central Intelligence Agency officer is expected to spend 2 1/2 years in prison for telling a journalist the name of a covert agent, marking the first time in 27 years that someone will go to prison for blowing the cover of a CIA agent. John Kiriakou, 48, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of disclosing the identity of a covert agent. ...


Surfer killed in shark attack off California coast

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 04:42 PM PDT

Santa Barbara County Sheriff's spokesperson holds media briefing on fatal shark attackLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A shark killed a male surfer at a popular surf spot off California's coast on Tuesday in the second fatal shark attack at the same beach in two years, authorities said. The incident took place at Surf Beach near Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of the coastal city of Santa Barbara. The beach was closed by authorities after the attack. "It was a confirmed shark attack and a confirmed death," a Santa Barbara County Sheriff's spokeswoman said. ...


New York court finds pole dancing revenue can be taxed

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 01:23 PM PDT

ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - Pole dancers might be athletic and artistic but their performances don't qualify for tax-exempt status under New York law, a state court ruled on Tuesday. The owners of Nite Moves, an exotic dance club near Albany, New York, had sought to have pole dancing and private lap dances qualified as tax exempt since revenue collected from "dramatic or musical arts performances" is not taxable under state law. But the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, decided against the club in a 4-3 ruling handed down on Tuesday. "Surely it was not irrational ... ...

Court blocks Indiana law cutting Planned Parenthood funds

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:47 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court has blocked Indiana from enforcing a law to cut off Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood, a law that critics said would deprive thousands of low-income people of medical services. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that Indiana had broad authority to exclude unqualified providers from its Medicaid program for the poor, but could not deny funding to a class of providers for an unrelated reason -- in this case, because Planned Parenthood clinics perform abortions. ...

Colorado rampage case lawyers oppose letting victims see files

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 06:13 PM PDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Lawyers in the murder case of accused Colorado gunman James Holmes oppose allowing victims suing the theater chain where the rampage occurred to review sealed evidence in the criminal case, court filings showed on Tuesday. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers told the judge that allowing the victims access to the investigative files while the murder case is pending would unduly complicate the process. ...

Michigan considers locking clean energy mandate in constitution

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 04:15 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In less than two weeks, Michigan voters will decide on a hotly contested ballot initiative on whether the state should become the first in the country to enshrine a renewable energy mandate in its constitution, a move that backers say could put clean energy in the national spotlight. The measure, known as proposal 3, would require that one-quarter of the electricity produced in the state to come from renewable energy sources by 2025. Michigan, a battle ground state in the U.S. ...

Teenager accused in Ohio Craigslist murders says: "I was terrified"

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 02:27 PM PDT

AKRON, Ohio (Reuters) - A teenager accused in the killing of three men lured by a job ad on Craigslist testified on Tuesday he was shocked when he saw a man he viewed as a father figure kill the first of the victims and then terrified when the man threatened him with a knife. Brogan Rafferty, 17, told jurors that Richard Beasley shot Akron, Ohio, resident Ralph Geiger, 56, in the head and then pointed a knife at the teenager and threatened the safety of Rafferty's mother and sister. "I didn't think it was real," Rafferty said in three hours of testimony. ...

Colorado girl's killing tied to prior botched abduction: police

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 01:22 PM PDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Police investigating the murder of a 10-year-old Colorado girl who was snatched as she walked to school said on Tuesday they have definitively linked her death to the botched abduction of a jogger. Jessica Ridgeway vanished October 5 on her way to school in the Denver suburb of Westminster, Colorado. Two days later, a man reported finding her backpack on a sidewalk in front of his house, six miles from where the girl disappeared. Police later confirmed that dismembered remains found at a park about 10 miles from the Ridgeway home belonged to the missing girl. ...

U.S. Army vehicle contracts may escape automatic budget cut axe

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 11:53 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army on Tuesday said its ground vehicle procurement programs may escape significant impact from mandatory additional budget cuts due to start taking effect in January, since most of the programs are only in the developmental phase at the moment. Scott Davis, program executive officer for the Army's ground combat systems, said most of the Army's ground vehicle programs were not multi-year agreements or large-scale production contracts, which limited the impact of across-the-board cuts. "We're sort of in a transitional phase right now. ...

Florida to execute mass murderer; lawyers say he is mentally ill

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 11:49 AM PDT

John Errol Ferguson in an undated photoTALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida man convicted of killing eight people, including two teenagers, during the 1970s is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday after an appeals court rejected his lawyers' claims that he is mentally insane. The execution of John Errol Ferguson, 64, is set to begin shortly after 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) at Florida State Prison near Starke, Florida. His lawyers have applied for an emergency stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. ...


Obama administration agrees to ease in Medicare benefit rules

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 04:25 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has agreed to relax Medicare's requirements for skilled nursing and home health care, allowing beneficiaries to qualify for benefits even if their conditions are not expected to improve, according to court documents. A proposed settlement of a national class-action lawsuit, filed October 16 in U.S. District Court in Vermont, says the government will revise its Medicare manual to make benefits available when care would only "maintain the patient's current condition or ... prevent or slow further deterioration". ...

Volcker group to say Illinois budget is unsustainable

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 11:53 AM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois has dug itself into such a huge financial hole that it may not be able to provide basic services to residents or meet employee benefit obligations, according to a national task force that is due to release a report about the state's finances. The report, prepared by the nonpartisan State Budget Crisis Task Force and expected on Wednesday, will also say that the state's fiscal stress is a "serious drag" on its economic performance, a statement from the task force said. ...

New York lesbian couple accuses wedding venue of discrimination

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 08:40 AM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York lesbian couple said they were barred from booking an upstate farm for their wedding because they are gay and filed a discrimination complaint against the venue. Melisa Erwin and Jennie McCarthy of Albany, New York, said in their complaint with the state Division of Human Rights that Liberty Ridge Farm in Schaghticoke refused to allow them to book the venue next summer after learning they were lesbians. "That's when she said, 'Now we have a problem,'" Erwin told WNYT, a local news channel. The couple could not be reached on Monday for comment. ...

Americans favor water recycling, but there's an "ick factor"

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 09:22 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most Americans have scant understanding about their water supply, but they are concerned about it, and believe recycling water gives the United States an advantage over other countries, a survey said on Tuesday. However, Americans are less accepting of drinking recycled wastewater in a practice known as toilet-to-tap, the survey found. With clean water growing scarce in much of the world, and with shortages possible in 36 U.S. ...

Nissan recalls new Altima in U.S. on loose steering bolts

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 11:08 AM PDT

(Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co is recalling 13,919 of its top-selling Altima sedans in the United States because bolts that may not have been tightened properly during production could fall off, increasing the risk of a crash, according to U.S. safety regulators. The Altima sedans are from the 2012 and 2013 model years and were made at the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi, from May 10 to July 26, Nissan North America told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. ...

State and local taxes highest in New York, lowest in Alaska

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 09:13 AM PDT

(Reuters) - New York state residents have the highest state and local taxes as a percentage of income in the United States, while Alaskans have the lowest tax burden, according to a report on Tuesday by the Tax Foundation. The nonpartisan research organization found that in fiscal 2010, New York residents paid 12.8 percent of their incomes in the taxes, while in Alaska, the taxes accounted for only 7 percent of incomes. In fiscal 2009, New York ranked just behind New Jersey on the high end of taxes, while Alaska was the lowest. For the entire country, state and local taxes accounted for 9. ...

Analysis: In foreign policy debate, Romney and Obama get domestic

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 01:02 AM PDT

U.S. President Barack Obama makes a point while answering a question from moderator Bob Schieffer as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney listens during the final U.S. presidential debate in Boca RatonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was billed as a debate on foreign policy, but that did not stop Democratic President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, from sparring repeatedly on issues that polls indicate are more important to voters: the economy and jobs. After two contentious debates that helped to reshape the battle for the White House, the final encounter between Obama and Romney featured few actual differences on foreign policy. ...


Billionaire John Paulson gives $100 million to NY's Central Park

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 09:22 AM PDT

Central ParkBOSTON (Reuters) - Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson pledged $100 million to New York's Central Park Conservancy, making the largest gift ever in the history of the city's 155-year-old urban icon. Paulson, whose personal net worth is estimated at $12.3 billion by Forbes, invests $20 billion for wealthy clients, pension funds and endowments at Paulson & Co. ...


Obama on attack in foreign policy debate, but Romney steady

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 07:25 AM PDT

U.S. President Obama and Republican Presidential nominee Romney shake hands at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Lynn University in Boca RatonBOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) - President Barack Obama scolded challenger Mitt Romney for being "all over the map" on foreign policy in their final presidential debate on Monday, but the Republican appeared to have passed the "commander-in-chief" test of looking authoritative on national security issues. With two weeks left until Election Day, the high-stakes debate strayed frequently into domestic policy, with Romney seeking to bolster his argument that Obama had bungled the U.S. economic recovery. ...


White House: nothing new in Obama's comment on automatic cuts

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 02:46 PM PDT

U.S. President Barack Obama makes a point during the final U.S. presidential debate in Boca RatonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday that there was nothing new in President Barack Obama's unqualified remark that automatic spending cuts looming in January "will not happen." Obama's comment, made during his debate on Monday night with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, has set off speculation that the president is aware of a new development or perhaps planning to take a significant step himself to halt the cuts. ...


Before meningitis outbreak, firm avoided sanctions

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 09:46 AM PDT

Pharmaceutical compounding company NECC, a producer of the steroid methylprednisolone acetate, is seen in Framingham, MassachusettsBOSTON (Reuters) - The pharmacy tied to a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak escaped harsh punishment from health regulators several times in the years leading up to the health crisis that has raised questions about oversight of the customized drug mixing industry, newly released state records show. Problems at the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Massachusetts, date as far back as 1999, the year after it began operations, according to hundreds of pages of documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. ...


GM fixing 2013 Volt software glitch that affects motor

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 06:21 AM PDT

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co is updating the software on about 4,000 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid vehicles to fix a problem that could cause the electric motor to shut down while driving. The glitch only affects 2013 Volts when owners use the delayed charging function, which allows them to program the vehicle to recharge at specific times. When the motor shuts down, the steering and brakes still work, allowing drivers to safely coast to a stop. The vehicle functions properly again after being off for two to five minutes, GM spokeswoman Michelle Malcho said. ...

Russian-American trio head for space station

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 06:46 AM PDT

The Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Ford and Russian cosmonauts Novitskiy and Tarelkin blasts off from its launch pad 31 at the Baikonur cosmodromeKOROLYOV, Russia (Reuters) - A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American blasted off on Tuesday for the International Space Station (ISS), where the men are to spend five months in orbit. The Russian-built Soyuz TMA-06M lifted off on time from the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan for the two-day trip to the station, orbiting about 250 miles above Earth. ...


Arizona ballot measure contests ownership of the Grand Canyon

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 06:12 AM PDT

Overall view from the south Rim of the Grand Canyon near Tusayan, ArizonaPHOENIX (Reuters) - When voters in Arizona go to the polls next month, they will be asked to decide a landownership tug of war: Should the Grand Canyon belong to all Americans, or just the residents of Arizona? A controversial ballot measure backed by Republicans in the state legislature is seeking sovereign control over millions of acres of federal land in the state, including the Grand Canyon. ...


Biggest readers in U.S. teens or 30-somethings: survey

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 09:07 PM PDT

Man rests and reads book under banyan tree on Magic Island near Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most likely book readers in the United States are high-school students, college-age adults and people in their 30s, with e-book use highest among 30-somethings, a survey released on Tuesday showed. Seventy-eight percent of Americans had read at least one book in the previous 12 months, with the rate 83 percent among those aged between 16 and 29, according to the survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. The survey is part of Pew's effort to assess U.S. ...


NYPD informant who tracked militants quits, denounces police

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 08:01 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An informant recruited by the New York Police Department to collect information on suspected Islamic militants has quit and denounced his police handlers, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the case. The informant, a 19-year-old American citizen of Bangladeshi descent, was recruited by the NYPD recently as part of an expansive intelligence-gathering program the department launched after the al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001. ...

Teen brothers charged with death of 12-year-old New Jersey girl

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 07:03 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Two teenage brothers face murder charges for strangling a 12-year-old New Jersey girl after luring her to their house with an offer of parts for her bicycle, authorities said on Tuesday, a day after her body was found in a recycling bin near her home. The girl, Autumn Pasquale, was last seen alive on Saturday riding her bicycle in Clayton, the town of 8,100 where she lived. Her body was discovered on Monday in a curbside bin about four blocks from her home, a spokesman for Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton said. ...

Colorado rampage case lawyers oppose letting victims see files

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 06:13 PM PDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Lawyers in the murder case of accused Colorado gunman James Holmes oppose allowing victims suing the theater chain where the rampage occurred to review sealed evidence in the criminal case, court filings showed on Tuesday. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers told the judge that allowing the victims access to the investigative files while the murder case is pending would unduly complicate the process. ...

Surfer killed in shark attack off California coast

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 04:42 PM PDT

Santa Barbara County Sheriff's spokesperson holds media briefing on fatal shark attackLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A shark killed a male surfer at a popular surf spot off California's coast on Tuesday in the second fatal shark attack at the same beach in two years, authorities said. The incident took place at Surf Beach near Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of the coastal city of Santa Barbara. The beach was closed by authorities after the attack. "It was a confirmed shark attack and a confirmed death," a Santa Barbara County Sheriff's spokeswoman said. ...


Michigan considers locking clean energy mandate in constitution

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 04:15 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In less than two weeks, Michigan voters will decide on a hotly contested ballot initiative on whether the state should become the first in the country to enshrine a renewable energy mandate in its constitution, a move that backers say could put clean energy in the national spotlight. The measure, known as proposal 3, would require that one-quarter of the electricity produced in the state to come from renewable energy sources by 2025. Michigan, a battle ground state in the U.S. ...

After final debate, Obama says election comes down to trust

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 02:46 PM PDT

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in DelrayDAYTON, Ohio (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned voters on Tuesday that Republican rival Mitt Romney cannot be trusted to deal honestly with the public as the presidential campaign shifted from televised confrontation to a frantic dash for votes. After three televised debates that have boosted Romney's prospects before the November 6 election, Obama delivered what is likely to be his closing argument: that, unlike Romney, he has been honest with voters about his plans to deliver a broadly shared prosperity over the next four years. ...


Teenager accused in Ohio Craigslist murders says: "I was terrified"

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 02:27 PM PDT

AKRON, Ohio (Reuters) - A teenager accused in the killing of three men lured by a job ad on Craigslist testified on Tuesday he was shocked when he saw a man he viewed as a father figure kill the first of the victims and then terrified when the man threatened him with a knife. Brogan Rafferty, 17, told jurors that Richard Beasley shot Akron, Ohio, resident Ralph Geiger, 56, in the head and then pointed a knife at the teenager and threatened the safety of Rafferty's mother and sister. "I didn't think it was real," Rafferty said in three hours of testimony. ...

New York court finds pole dancing revenue can be taxed

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 01:23 PM PDT

ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - Pole dancers might be athletic and artistic but their performances don't qualify for tax-exempt status under New York law, a state court ruled on Tuesday. The owners of Nite Moves, an exotic dance club near Albany, New York, had sought to have pole dancing and private lap dances qualified as tax exempt since revenue collected from "dramatic or musical arts performances" is not taxable under state law. But the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, decided against the club in a 4-3 ruling handed down on Tuesday. "Surely it was not irrational ... ...

Colorado girl's killing tied to prior botched abduction: police

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 01:22 PM PDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Police investigating the murder of a 10-year-old Colorado girl who was snatched as she walked to school said on Tuesday they have definitively linked her death to the botched abduction of a jogger. Jessica Ridgeway vanished October 5 on her way to school in the Denver suburb of Westminster, Colorado. Two days later, a man reported finding her backpack on a sidewalk in front of his house, six miles from where the girl disappeared. Police later confirmed that dismembered remains found at a park about 10 miles from the Ridgeway home belonged to the missing girl. ...

Court blocks Indiana law cutting Planned Parenthood funds

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:47 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court has blocked Indiana from enforcing a law to cut off Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood, a law that critics said would deprive thousands of low-income people of medical services. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that Indiana had broad authority to exclude unqualified providers from its Medicaid program for the poor, but could not deny funding to a class of providers for an unrelated reason -- in this case, because Planned Parenthood clinics perform abortions. ...

Leak will send ex-CIA officer to prison

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:52 PM PDT

The logo of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is shown in the lobby of the CIA headquarters in La..ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - A former Central Intelligence Agency officer is expected to spend 2 1/2 years in prison for telling a journalist the name of a covert agent, marking the first time in 27 years that someone will go to prison for blowing the cover of a CIA agent. John Kiriakou, 48, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of disclosing the identity of a covert agent. ...


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