WASHINGTON ? Aiming tax increases at millionaires and companies that ship jobs abroad may help frame the fairness theme of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, but it's a plan that stands virtually no chance of passing Congress.
Republicans have enough votes in the GOP-run House, and almost certainly in the Democratic-controlled Senate, to kill Obama's proposals. They say his ideas would discourage investment and job creation and further hurt an already ailing economy.
"He's got to know that none of those things he proposed really have much of a chance of going through both houses of Congress," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
"I don't think he's intending on passing any laws this year," said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. "He's in a campaign. That was his re-election speech."
The GOP's dismissiveness hardly matters to Obama and his Democratic allies.
After last year's hyper-partisanship bogged down routine business like financing the government and paying its debts, few expect much to move through Congress before November's election anyway ? especially not tax hikes that Republicans solidly reject.
"Even if there is little prospect of getting Republicans to agree with these proposals, they're important reference points for the public in identifying Obama as someone who's on their side," said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin.
Obama offered his plans, with scant detail, in Tuesday's State of the Union address. He used the word "fair" seven times to describe tax increases aimed at groups the Occupy movement has branded as the "one percent" of Americans who are doing extremely well while the rest of society struggles.
The president proposed ending tax breaks for U.S. companies moving jobs or profits to foreign countries and creating a minimum tax on their overseas profits. He also suggested new tax breaks for businesses that move jobs back to the U.S., for domestic manufacturing and for companies that invest in towns that have suffered major job losses.
Getting most attention was his plan to tax incomes above $1 million annually at a rate of at least 30 percent. That's a sharp and convenient contrast with the 15 percent tax rate enjoyed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, who earned about $21 million each of the past two years.
The proposals quickly became fodder for the GOP presidential contenders. Romney said the next day on CNBC's "Kudlow Report" that Obama's plan was "designed to come at me if I'm the nominee," and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said during last Thursday's presidential debate, "His proposal on taxes would make the economy worse."
Democrats immediately made clear that there will be Senate votes this year on the subject.
New York Sen. Charles Schumer, part of the Senate Democratic leadership, said he was relishing a push on "some kind of Romney rule, I mean Buffett rule." Obama has embraced a Buffett rule, named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has cited the inequity of laws that let him pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.
On Monday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said he would introduce legislation this week requiring anyone earning over $1 million to pay at least 30 percent of their income in federal income taxes. It would do so by requiring people earning over $1 million to multiply their income by 30 percent and pay at least that amount in taxes, or more if their computations showed their tax liability was greater. He said he has two Senate co-sponsors so far but none in the House.
Such proposals, along with any efforts to deny tax breaks to U.S. companies that outsource jobs and profits, would never get the 60 votes they would need to prevail in the Senate this year, let alone win approval from the GOP-run House.
"If the president has proposals that will help create jobs, we'll take a look," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "But tax hikes on small businesses will make it even harder for them to invest and grow."
Republicans say boosting taxes on millionaires would hurt many of the people who run small businesses and create jobs, a claim Democrats call exaggerated. The GOP and business groups also marshal their own fairness argument, calling it unjust and impractical to raise taxes on companies that set up operations overseas.
"They locate their facilities to be close to the customer," said Dorothy Coleman, vice president for tax policy for the National Association of Manufacturers. "That's a big concern for us, targeting multinational companies as if there is something wrong with doing business overseas."
Democrats challenge that argument as well, saying many pharmaceutical and high technology companies that set up shop abroad are drawn by lower labor costs and taxes and still sell the bulk of their products in the U.S.
Those disputes underscore a political climate so difficult that neither the House nor Senate seem likely to even try advancing pre-election legislation that each party calls their top tax priority: overhauling and simplifying the tax code.
Even so, Obama's tax proposals can also be read as an opening gambit in what looms as a titanic partisan struggle to be waged after the November elections, perhaps in a lame duck session of Congress in December.
Next January, broad tax cuts will expire that were enacted under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 and were temporarily renewed by Obama and Congress in 2010. At the same time, $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts will kick in unless lawmakers vote otherwise.
Congress will also need to renew the government's authority to borrow money. And action will be needed on a package of expiring smaller tax cuts, mostly for businesses, and on preventing the alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at the wealthy, from trapping middle- and upper-middle-income families as well.
1. Black, pollution filled boogers that start in Kathmandu will only increase with severity as you head towards Delhi. Bring an abundance of anti-bacterial wipes and shove those bad boys straight up your nostrils as needed.
2. As an American tourist traveling in a group of non-Americans, be prepared constantly to defend, apologize for and explain the intricacies of your crazy ass country.
3. If you think you are in the Lonely Planet's highly recommended Brown Bread Bakery in Varanasi, India - you know, the one that donates its proceeds to a local school for disadvantaged youth, then you are probably in the FAKE and extremely dirty Brown Bread Bakery that is literally 10 yards away from the real thing. The fake Brown Bread Bakery preys on your benevolence and keeps the proceeds all for their damn selves. The real Brown Bread Bakery looks delicious.
4. Public urination. Get used to it.
5. The kids are cute, friendly, and excited to practice their English by conversing with you. Bring pens and hand them out to the local kids as you go. It's an inexpensive and appreciated.
6. The foods I swooned over...tomato sorba: a thin soup filled with hot spices, toasted cumin seeds and cilantro. Gajar halwa: a grated carrot desert resplendent with butter, cream and spice. Poori: the most delicious fried bread in the known universe. The ginger lemon honey, which is, you guessed it, a hot drink made with fresh lemon, honey & grated ginger. And my personal favorite: a traditional mulled wine, the perfect way to warm up after a day of trekking on the cold evenings in Nepal, especially great to drink by the many open fires that virtually every restaurant in Pokhara had in their backyard patios.
7. Riding on elephants gives me the sads. That was one tourist experience I had to pass on.
8. There are many times when I was in the poorest sections of India that I struggled to justify why I would travel to a place with such dramatic poverty for my own amusement.
9. Which leads me to...I suck at haggling! It's hard to haggle someone down from $2 to .50 cents for a yak wool blanket I'd probably pay $25 for in the States.
10. Two hotels I'd return to without hesitation: Orchha Resort in India and the Sapana Lodge in Chitwan National Park. At Orchha Resort we stayed at luxury tents located behind a set of gorgeous historic temples. Sapana Lodge was centered in a gorgeous village and had tons of activities from elephant washing to energetic bike rides through the national park. In addition to charming facilities in a beautiful setting, Sapana is a non-profit that uses the proceeds to benefit the local villagers through a variety of community development programs, so you can feel good about splurging on an after dinner hot chocolate under the stars, or learning to make momos from their onsite chef.
The Kathmandu to Delhi tour was courtesy of G Adventures. You can read more about it here.
Ian Abercrombie played a boss who was endlessly frustrating to work for -- but a lot of fun to watch. Abercrombie, a British character actor best known for portraying Elaine's boss Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld, passed away on Thursday at age 77 from complications stemming from kidney failure, according to The Los Angeles Times.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ? NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger earned his first major victory in almost six years by closing out the Rolex 24 at Daytona for Michael Shank Racing.
Allmendinger drove the final stint in the No. 60 Ford Riley, spending almost three hours behind the wheel at the end of the twice-around-the-clock endurance race. His team included IndyCar driver Justin Wilson, and Grand-Am regulars Ozz Negri Jr. and John Pew.
Ryan Dalziel was at the wheel for Starworks Motorsports' second-place finish, and Felipe Nasar was driving for Shank when he crossed the line in third. Ford swept the top three spots of the Daytona Prototype class.
The vaunted teams from Chip Ganassi Racing finished fourth and sixth after both cars had mechanical issues.
Cancer sequencing initiative discovers mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumorsPublic release date: 29-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Summer Freeman summer.freeman@stjude.org 901-595-3061 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project provides first evidence linking cancer to mutations in genes involved in DNA organization
Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique role in other aggressive pediatric brain tumors as well.
The findings from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) offer important insight into a poorly understood tumor that kills more than 90 percent of patients within two years. The tumor, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), is found almost exclusively in children and accounts for 10 to 15 percent of pediatric tumors of the brain and central nervous system.
"We are hopeful that identifying these mutations will lead us to new selective therapeutic targets, which are particularly important since this tumor cannot be treated surgically and still lacks effective therapies," said Suzanne Baker, Ph.D., co-leader of the St. Jude Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program and a member of the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology. She is a corresponding author of the study published in the January 29 online edition of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.
DIPG is an extremely invasive tumor that occurs in the brainstem, which is at the base of the skull and controls such vital functions as breathing and heart rate. DIPG cannot be cured by surgery and is accurately diagnosed by non-invasive imaging. As a result, DIPG is rarely biopsied in the U.S. and little is known about it.
Cancer occurs when normal gene activity is disrupted, allowing for the unchecked cell growth and spread that makes cancer so lethal. In this study, investigators found 78 percent of the DIPG tumors had alterations in one of two genes that carry instructions for making proteins that play similar roles in packaging DNA inside cells. Both belong to the histone H3 family of proteins. DNA must be wrapped around histones so that it is compact enough to fit into the nucleus. The packaging of DNA by histones influences which genes are switched on or off, as well as the repair of mutations in DNA and the stability of DNA. Disruption of any of these processes can contribute to cancer.
Researchers said that the mutations seem unique to aggressive childhood brain tumors.
"It is amazing to see that this particular tumor type appears to be characterized by a molecular 'smoking gun' and that these mutations are unique to fast-growing pediatric cancers in the brain," said Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and one of the study's corresponding authors. "This is exactly the type of result one hopes to find when studying the genomes of cancer patients."
The results are the latest from the PCGP, an ambitious three-year effort to sequence the complete normal and cancer genomes of 600 children with some of the most poorly understood and aggressive pediatric cancers. The human genome includes the complete set of instructions needed to assemble and sustain human life. The goal is to identify differences that explain why cancer develops, spreads and kills. Researchers believe the findings will provide the foundation for new tools to diagnose, treat or prevent the disease.
For this study, researchers sequenced the complete normal and cancer genomes of seven patients with DIPG. "The mutations were found at such high frequency in the cancer genomes of those seven patients that we immediately checked for the same alterations in a larger group of DIPGs," Baker said. When researchers sequenced all 16 of the related genes that make closely related variants of histone H3 proteins in an additional 43 DIPGs, they found many of the tumors contained the same mistakes in only two of these genes.
Of the 50 DIPG tumors included in this study, 60 percent had a single alteration in the makeup of the H3F3A gene. When the mutated gene was translated into a protein, the point mutation led to the substitution of methionine for lysine as the 27th amino acid in this variant of histone H3 protein. Another 18 percent of the DIPG patients carried the same mistake in a different gene, HIST1H3B.
Researchers are now working to understand how mutations in H3F3A and HIST1H3B impact cell function and contribute to cancer. Earlier research provides some clues. The lysine that is mutated is normally targeted by enzymes that attach other molecules to histone H3, influencing how it interacts with other proteins that regulate gene expression, Baker said. Mutations in the enzymes that target histone H3 have been identified in other cancers, but this is the first report showing a specific alteration of histones in cancer.
H3F3A and HIST1H3B were also mutated in other aggressive childhood brain tumors, glioblastoma, that develop outside the brain stem. Of 36 such tumors included in this study, 36 percent carried one of three distinct point mutations in the genes. The alterations included another single change in the makeup of H3F3A not found in DIPGs.
The histone H3 genes, however, were not mutated in any of the 252 other childhood tumors researchers checked for this study. The list included the brain tumors known as low-grade gliomas, medulloblastomas and ependymomas plus other cancers outside the brain and nervous system. The H3 changes have not been reported in any other cancers, including adult glioblastoma. "This suggests these particular mutations give a very important selective advantage, particularly in the developing brainstem and to a lesser degree in the developing brain, which leads to a terribly aggressive brain tumor in children, but not in adults," Baker said.
"This discovery would not have been possible without the unbiased approach taken by the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project," Baker said. "The mutations had not been reported in any other tumor, so we would not have searched for them in DIPGs. Yet the alterations clearly play an important role in generating this particular tumor."
###
The study's first authors are Gang Wu, Alberto Broniscer and Troy McEachron, all of St. Jude. The study's other corresponding authors are Jinghui Zhang and James Downing, both of St. Jude. The other study authors are Charles Lu, Li Ding and Elaine Mardis, all of Washington University; and Barbara Paugh, Jared Becksfort, Chunxu Qu, Robert Huether, Matthew Parker, Junyuan Zhang, Amar Gajjar, Michael Dyer, Charles Mullighan, Richard Gilbertson and David Ellison, all of St. Jude.
The research was funded in part by the PCGP, including Kay Jewelers, a lead project sponsor; the National Institutes of Health, the Sydney Schlobohm Chair of Research from the National Brain Tumor Society; the Cure Starts Now Foundation, Smile for Sophie Forever Foundation, Tyler's Treehouse Foundation, Musicians Against Childhood Cancer, the Noyes Brain Tumor Foundation and ALSAC.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Since opening 50 years ago, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has changed the way the world treats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. No family ever pays St. Jude for the care their child receives and, for every child treated here, thousands more has been saved worldwide through St. Jude discoveries. The hospital has played a pivotal role in pushing U.S. pediatric cancer survival rates from 20 to 80 percent overall, and is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted to children. It is also a leader in the research and treatment of blood disorders and infectious diseases in children. St. Jude was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, who believed that no child should die in the dawn of life. Join that mission by visiting http://www.stjude.org or following us on http://www.facebook.com/stjude and Twitter@StJudeResearch.
Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine's 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Cancer sequencing initiative discovers mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumorsPublic release date: 29-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Summer Freeman summer.freeman@stjude.org 901-595-3061 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project provides first evidence linking cancer to mutations in genes involved in DNA organization
Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique role in other aggressive pediatric brain tumors as well.
The findings from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) offer important insight into a poorly understood tumor that kills more than 90 percent of patients within two years. The tumor, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), is found almost exclusively in children and accounts for 10 to 15 percent of pediatric tumors of the brain and central nervous system.
"We are hopeful that identifying these mutations will lead us to new selective therapeutic targets, which are particularly important since this tumor cannot be treated surgically and still lacks effective therapies," said Suzanne Baker, Ph.D., co-leader of the St. Jude Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program and a member of the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology. She is a corresponding author of the study published in the January 29 online edition of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.
DIPG is an extremely invasive tumor that occurs in the brainstem, which is at the base of the skull and controls such vital functions as breathing and heart rate. DIPG cannot be cured by surgery and is accurately diagnosed by non-invasive imaging. As a result, DIPG is rarely biopsied in the U.S. and little is known about it.
Cancer occurs when normal gene activity is disrupted, allowing for the unchecked cell growth and spread that makes cancer so lethal. In this study, investigators found 78 percent of the DIPG tumors had alterations in one of two genes that carry instructions for making proteins that play similar roles in packaging DNA inside cells. Both belong to the histone H3 family of proteins. DNA must be wrapped around histones so that it is compact enough to fit into the nucleus. The packaging of DNA by histones influences which genes are switched on or off, as well as the repair of mutations in DNA and the stability of DNA. Disruption of any of these processes can contribute to cancer.
Researchers said that the mutations seem unique to aggressive childhood brain tumors.
"It is amazing to see that this particular tumor type appears to be characterized by a molecular 'smoking gun' and that these mutations are unique to fast-growing pediatric cancers in the brain," said Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and one of the study's corresponding authors. "This is exactly the type of result one hopes to find when studying the genomes of cancer patients."
The results are the latest from the PCGP, an ambitious three-year effort to sequence the complete normal and cancer genomes of 600 children with some of the most poorly understood and aggressive pediatric cancers. The human genome includes the complete set of instructions needed to assemble and sustain human life. The goal is to identify differences that explain why cancer develops, spreads and kills. Researchers believe the findings will provide the foundation for new tools to diagnose, treat or prevent the disease.
For this study, researchers sequenced the complete normal and cancer genomes of seven patients with DIPG. "The mutations were found at such high frequency in the cancer genomes of those seven patients that we immediately checked for the same alterations in a larger group of DIPGs," Baker said. When researchers sequenced all 16 of the related genes that make closely related variants of histone H3 proteins in an additional 43 DIPGs, they found many of the tumors contained the same mistakes in only two of these genes.
Of the 50 DIPG tumors included in this study, 60 percent had a single alteration in the makeup of the H3F3A gene. When the mutated gene was translated into a protein, the point mutation led to the substitution of methionine for lysine as the 27th amino acid in this variant of histone H3 protein. Another 18 percent of the DIPG patients carried the same mistake in a different gene, HIST1H3B.
Researchers are now working to understand how mutations in H3F3A and HIST1H3B impact cell function and contribute to cancer. Earlier research provides some clues. The lysine that is mutated is normally targeted by enzymes that attach other molecules to histone H3, influencing how it interacts with other proteins that regulate gene expression, Baker said. Mutations in the enzymes that target histone H3 have been identified in other cancers, but this is the first report showing a specific alteration of histones in cancer.
H3F3A and HIST1H3B were also mutated in other aggressive childhood brain tumors, glioblastoma, that develop outside the brain stem. Of 36 such tumors included in this study, 36 percent carried one of three distinct point mutations in the genes. The alterations included another single change in the makeup of H3F3A not found in DIPGs.
The histone H3 genes, however, were not mutated in any of the 252 other childhood tumors researchers checked for this study. The list included the brain tumors known as low-grade gliomas, medulloblastomas and ependymomas plus other cancers outside the brain and nervous system. The H3 changes have not been reported in any other cancers, including adult glioblastoma. "This suggests these particular mutations give a very important selective advantage, particularly in the developing brainstem and to a lesser degree in the developing brain, which leads to a terribly aggressive brain tumor in children, but not in adults," Baker said.
"This discovery would not have been possible without the unbiased approach taken by the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project," Baker said. "The mutations had not been reported in any other tumor, so we would not have searched for them in DIPGs. Yet the alterations clearly play an important role in generating this particular tumor."
###
The study's first authors are Gang Wu, Alberto Broniscer and Troy McEachron, all of St. Jude. The study's other corresponding authors are Jinghui Zhang and James Downing, both of St. Jude. The other study authors are Charles Lu, Li Ding and Elaine Mardis, all of Washington University; and Barbara Paugh, Jared Becksfort, Chunxu Qu, Robert Huether, Matthew Parker, Junyuan Zhang, Amar Gajjar, Michael Dyer, Charles Mullighan, Richard Gilbertson and David Ellison, all of St. Jude.
The research was funded in part by the PCGP, including Kay Jewelers, a lead project sponsor; the National Institutes of Health, the Sydney Schlobohm Chair of Research from the National Brain Tumor Society; the Cure Starts Now Foundation, Smile for Sophie Forever Foundation, Tyler's Treehouse Foundation, Musicians Against Childhood Cancer, the Noyes Brain Tumor Foundation and ALSAC.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Since opening 50 years ago, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has changed the way the world treats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. No family ever pays St. Jude for the care their child receives and, for every child treated here, thousands more has been saved worldwide through St. Jude discoveries. The hospital has played a pivotal role in pushing U.S. pediatric cancer survival rates from 20 to 80 percent overall, and is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted to children. It is also a leader in the research and treatment of blood disorders and infectious diseases in children. St. Jude was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, who believed that no child should die in the dawn of life. Join that mission by visiting http://www.stjude.org or following us on http://www.facebook.com/stjude and Twitter@StJudeResearch.
Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine's 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
SAN FRANCISCO?? Bloggers and activists from China, the Middle East and Latin America said Friday they were afraid that new Twitter policies could allow governments to censor messages, stifling free expression.
Thursday's announcement that Twitter had refined its technology to censor messages on a country-by-country basis raised fears that the company's commitment to free speech may be weakening. Twitter is trying to broaden its audience and make more money by expanding around the globe.
"I'm afraid it's a slippery slope of censorship," said social media commentator Jeff Jarvis, interviewed at a gathering of business and government leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
"I understand why Twitter is doing this ? they want to be able to enter more countries and deal with the local laws. But, as Google learned in China, when you become the agent of the censor, there are problems there," he added.
Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem, who tweets and blogs under the name "Sandmonkey," questioned in a tweet whether Twitter "is selling us out."
Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or tweets, remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world.
Before, when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweet containing content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.
Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed. That's similar to what Internet search leader Google Inc. has been doing for years when a law in a country where its service operates requires a search result to be removed.
Like Google, Twitter also plans to the share the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the chillingeffects.org website.
Related: Twitter to restrict user content in some countries
The similarity to Google's policy isn't coincidental. Twitter's general counsel is Alexander Macgillivray, who helped Google draw up its censorship policies while he was working at that company.
"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice," Twitter wrote in a blog post. "We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The tweets must continue to flow."
Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, is tweaking its approach now that its nearly 6-year-old service has established itself as one of the world's most powerful megaphones. Daisy chains of tweets already have played instrumental roles in political protests throughout the world, including the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States and the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Syria.
It's a role that Twitter has embraced, but the company came up with the new filtering technology in recognition that it will likely be forced to censor more tweets as it pursues an ambitious agenda. Among other things, Twitter wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active users now to more than 1 billion.
Reaching that goal will require expanding into more countries, which will mean Twitter will be more likely to have to submit to laws that run counter to the free-expression protections guaranteed under the First Amendment in the U.S.
If Twitter defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested. That's one reason Twitter is unlikely to try to enter China, where its service is currently blocked. Google for several years agreed to censor its search results in China to gain better access to the country's vast population, but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdown with Chain's government. Google now routes its Chinese search results through Hong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.
In China, where activists quickly caught on to Twitter despite it being blocked inside the country, artist and activist Ai Weiwei tweeted Friday: "If Twitter censors, I'll stop tweeting."
China's Communist Party remains highly sensitive to any organized challenge to its rule and responded sharply to the Arab Spring, cracking down last year after calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China.
Many Chinese find ways around the so-called "Great Firewall" that has blocked social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Nelson Bocaranda, a Venezuelan journalist, radio host and outspoken opponent of President Hugo Chavez, warned that Twitter's decision could prompt a government crackdown on critics' tweets ahead of the Oct. 7 presidential election.
"Twitter has become a weapon to preserve our embattled democracy," said Bocaranda, who has more than 482,000 followers.
Twitter is "an important tool" for Venezuelans to share information as local media resort to self-censorship as means of avoiding conflict with government officials, Bocaranda added.
Salem, the Egyptian activist, added in a tweet on his account: "This is very bad news."
"Is it safe to say that (hash)Twitter is selling us out?" he wrote.
Related: Twitter to restrict user content in some countries
"Clearly there is a huge user backlash against this latest move by Twitter," said blogger Mike Butcher, editor of Tech Crunch Europe.
"It was seen as one of the few platforms that was free of any kind of censorship, heavily used during for example Arab spring and even in Russia lately over protests over the elections. It is, to some extent, something that we could have predicted," Butcher said.
In its Thursday blog post, Twitter said it hadn't yet used its ability to wipe out tweets in an individual country. All the tweets it has previously censored were wiped out throughout the world. Most of those included links to child pornography.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt declined to comment on Twitter's action and instead limited his comments to his own company.
"I can assure you we will apply our universally tough principles against censorship on all Google products," he told reporters in Davos.
Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said it was a matter of trying to adhere to different local laws.
"I think what they (Twitter officials) are wrestling with is what all of us wrestle with ? and everyone wants to focus on China, but it is actually a global issue ? which is laws in these different countries vary," Drummond said.
"Americans tend to think copyright is a real bad problem, so we have to regulate that on the Internet. In France and Germany, they care about Nazis' issues and so forth," he added. "In China, there are other issues that we call censorship. And so how you respect all the laws or follow all the laws to the extent you think they should be followed while still allowing people to get the content elsewhere?"
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Launch Center, a new shortcuts app for iPhone, aims to make everything from sending messages and mail to posting on Facebook and Twitter, to turning on your LED flashlight, faster
FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, actress Demi Moore attends the premiere of "Margin Call" in New York. A spokeswoman for Moore on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 said the actress is seeking professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, actress Demi Moore attends the premiere of "Margin Call" in New York. A spokeswoman for Moore on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 said the actress is seeking professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Demi Moore smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and was "semi-conscious, barely," according to a caller on a 911 recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.
The woman tells emergency operators that Moore had been "having issues lately."
"Is she breathing normal?" the operator asked.
"No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up," the friend said.
When the emergency operator asked what Moore ingested or smoked, the caller replied, but the answer was redacted.
"Some form of ... and then she smoked something. I didn't really see. She's been having some issues lately with some other stuff. So I don't know what she's been taking or not."
When the operator asked the friend if this has happened before, she said, "I don't know. There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out."
By the end of the call, Moore seemed to have improved.
"She seems to have calmed down now. She's speaking," a male caller told the operator.
Moore announced in November she had decided to end her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher following news of alleged infidelity.
Moore, 49, and Kutcher, 33, were wed in September 2005.
Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore's three daughters ? Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle ? from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly. Moore and Kutcher were photographed socializing with Willis, and the couple attended Willis' wedding to model-actress Emma Heming in 2009.
Moore and Kutcher created the DNA Foundation, also known as the Demi and Ashton Foundation, in 2010 to combat the organized sexual exploitation of girls around the globe. They later lent their support to the United Nations' efforts to fight human trafficking, a scourge the international organization estimates affects about 2.5 million people worldwide.
Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films "Margin Call" and "Another Happy Day." Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV's "Two and a Half Men" and is part of the ensemble film "New Year's Eve."
Adelaide:?Here are the statistical highlights of the fourth day's play between India and Australia in the Adelaide Test.
# Virat Kohli has become the first Indian to aggregate 300 runs (ave.37.50) in the 2011-12 series against Australia.
# Virender Sehwag (62) has posted his highest innings as captain, surpassing the 52 against Bangladesh at Chittagong in January 2010.
# In four Tests as captain, he has aggregated 253 at an average of 31.62, including two fifties.
# Sehwag enjoys an excellent record at Adelaide Oval, aggregating 388 at an average of 64.66 in three Tests, including a hundred and two fifties. Only Rahul Dravid has managed more runs than Sehwag for India at Adelaide - 401 at an average of 66.83, including a hundred and a fifty, in four Tests.?
# In his last 16 innings away from home, Sehwag has recorded just two fifties - 67 against Australia at Melbourne last month and 62 at Adelaide.
# In second team innings, Sehwag has completed his 2,000 runs - 2008 (ave.30.42) in 71 innings, including one hundred and 14 fifties.
# In first team innings, Sehwag is averaging 64.94 as compared to his average of 30.42 in second team innings.
# Sehwag has completed 1,000 runs against Australia in Australia - 1031 at an average of 46.86 in eleven Tests, including two hundreds and five fifties. His tally includes 83 runs for ICC World XI at SCG in October 2005.
# Sehwag's 62 off 53 balls is his tenth fifty against Australia - his 32nd in Tests.
# Sehwag and Gambhir, in their last 12 innings overseas, have totalled 182 runs for the first wicket at an average of 15.16 with 27 against South Africa at Cape Town in January 2011 as their highest stand.
# For the first time in a five Test series in Australia, Tendulkar has failed to post a hundred. He had recorded two hundreds each in 1991-92 and 2007-08 and one each in 1999-00 and 2003-04. Also, for the first time in a Test series, he has failed to record an average of 40. In the present series, he averaged 35.87 - 287 runs in eight innings, including two fifties.
# Sachin has averaged 32.60 in five Tests at Adelaide Oval - 326 runs in ten innings, including a hundred and a fifty. His average is the lowest amongst all Australian venues whereas he has appeared in atleast three Tests. (He has averaged 7.66 at Brisbane - 23 runs in three innings).
# Michael Clarke (37) took his tally to 626 at an average of 125.20 in the series, including a triple hundred and a double hundred. For the first time in a Test series, he has made 600 runs or more in a Test series.
# Clarke became the third Australian to manage 600 runs or more in a Test series against India. He has joined Sir Donald Bradman - 715 runs at an average of 178.75 in five Tests in 1947-48 and Ricky Pontng - 706 (ave.100.85) in four Tests in 2003-04.
# Clarke is the fourth captain to make 600 runs or more in a Test series against India. Apart from Don Bradman (as above), Graham Gooch (752 at 125.33 in three Tests in 1990) and Clive Lloyd (636 at 79.50 in five Tests in 1974-75) have touched 600 runs or more as captain in a Test series against India.
# Ricky Ponting became the first Australian to amass 500 runs or more in a Test series twice against India. In the present series, he has aggregated 544 at an average of 108.80 in six innings.
# Apart from aggregating 500 runs or more twice against India in a Test series, Ponting has managed this feat three times - 576 (ave.82.28) in five Tests against England in 2006-07, 523 (ave.130.75) in three Tests against the West Indies in 2003 and 515 (ave.103.00) in three Tests against South Africa in 2005-06.
# Clarke is averaging 198.00 in three Tests this year - 594 in four innings, including two hundreds.
# As captain, Clarke is averaging 63.78 in twelve Tests - 1212 runs, including five hundreds and a fifty. His strike rate of 64.46 is quite impressive.
# Clarke, as number five batsman, enjoys an impressive record in Tests - 4485 runs at an average of 60.60, in 82 innnings, including 16 hundreds and 16 fifties.
# Ponting (60 not out) has recorded his 61st fifty in Tests - his 12th against India.
# For the second time in a Test match, Ponting has posted a double hundred and a fifty - 221 & 60 not out - the first instance was against Pakistan at Hobart in January 2010 - 209 & 89.
# Ponting's match aggregate of 281 is his third highest in a Test match - the two highest being 298 (209 & 89) against Pakistan Hobart in January 2010 and 288 (257 & 31 not out) against India at Melbourne in 2003-04.
# Ponting's unbeaten 60 is his 102nd of fifty or more - 41 centuries and 61 fifties. Only Sachin Tendulkar has recorded more fifty-plus innings in Tests (116) - 51 centuries + 65 fifties.
# Ponting has become the first batsman to play 20 innings of fifty or more against India - 8 centuries and 12 fifties.
# Ponting's aggregate of 2555 at an average of 54.36 in 29 Tests is the highest by a batsman against India.
# In terms of averages, Ishant Sharma's performance against Australia is his worst - 5 wickets in four Tests at an average of 90.20. In terms of strike rate (150.6) also, his performance is the worst in a Test series.
# After 70 Tests, Michael Hussey has managed an average of fifty-plus - 5489 runs in 121 innings at an average of 50.82.
# Hussey has averaged 58.60 in the present series - 293 runs in six innings, including a hundred and a fifty.
# Ravichandran Ashwin has conceded 200 runs in a Test match for the first time - his figures being 73-8-267-5 - the fourth highest in a Test match for India. Anil Kumble had match figures of 88.5-15-279-12 in the 2003-04 Sydney Test - the most conceded by an Indian bowler in a Test match.
# In his last 14 innings away from home, Gambhir has posted just one fifty - his sequence of scores being 15, 22, 38, 14, 10 & 3 against England and 3, 13, 0, 83, 31, 14, 34 & 3 against Australia.
# Against England in 2011, Gambhir averaged 17.00 - 102 in six innings and 22.62 against Australia - 181 in eight innings.
# Nathan Lyon (3/57) has produced his best figures against India.
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In July 2009, Roy and Sheila Bowers refinanced the mortgage on their suburban ranch home in Topeka, Kansas. The couple wanted to take advantage of the low interest rates that were all the rage at the time.
Roy, a truck driver, and Sheila, a former hotel housekeeping supervisor, knew their new loan from Wells Fargo would enable them to save $198.86 a month - a nice chunk to help with gas and groceries.
But what the Bowers never imagined was that their old loan, the one Wells Fargo told them was paid off, would resurrect itself, trashing their credit report, scotching their son's student loans and throwing the whole family into foreclosure. All, they say, even though they didn't miss a single mortgage payment.
The Bowers aren't alone.
More and more, homeowners say that mortgages they thought were dead and buried are springing back to life, sometimes haunting them all the way into foreclosure.
"It's the most egregious manifestation of an industry that's seriously broken," said Ira Rheingold, a lawyer who is the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocate.
Foreclosures keep pushing house prices lower
Diane Thompson, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, says she has defended hundreds of foreclosure cases, and in nearly all of them, the homeowner was not in default. "The record-keeping on the part of the mortgage servicers is not to be trusted."
The problems grew from a lot of sloppy recordkeeping that began during the housing boom, when Wall Street built a quick-and-dirty back-office operation to process mortgages quickly so lenders could sell as many loans as possible. As the loans were later sold to investors, and then resold around the world, the back office system sidestepped crucial legal procedures.
Now it's becoming clear just how dysfunctional and, according to several state attorneys general, how fraudulent the whole system was.
Depositions from "affidavit slaves" depict a surreal, assembly-line world in which the banks and their partner firms hired hair stylists, fast-food kids and Wal-Mart floor workers, paying them $10 a day, to pose as bank vice presidents, assistant secretaries and corporate attorneys.
These "robosigners" became a national sensation in the fall of 2010 when it was revealed that they faked titles, forged documents and backdated affidavits so they could make up for the bypassed procedures and foreclose on properties.
They passed around notary stamps as if they were salt. They did all of this, they testified, without verifying a single word in any of the documents - as is required by law.
And it was all done, they say, to foreclose on as many homeowners as fast as possible.
Ensnared in mortgage hell
No one collects statistics on wrongful foreclosures, or how many people are facing the phantom mortgage debts. But as the industry enters its fifth year of unwinding its mortgage morass, consumer groups, homeowner attorneys and foreclosure-fraud investigators say they are seeing more cases where people who don't owe the banks a dime are getting ensnared in the same hell as those who have missed payments.
They add that such problems are likely to intensify. Former industry employees have testified that they knowingly pushed through foreclosures on the wrong people.
It all casts a pall over a housing market in worse condition than it was during the Great Depression. By some estimates, 12.5 percent of U.S. homes with mortgages are either in foreclosure or the loans are at least 30 days past due, representing about $1 trillion in value.
"This is an epic problem that the economy hasn't even begun to digest," said Florida foreclosure analyst Lisa Epstein.
In some cases, mortgages that were supposed to die off in a refinancing are popping back up, while in others, the loans were paid in full. Homeowners who pay off their houses through bankruptcy programs are also falling prey.
So are homeowners who never even had a mortgage to begin with.
Homeowners say the banks' repo men sometimes even show up at work. Banks also hector them with threatening letters and phone calls. "It scared the hell out of him," said a Houston lawyer whose client was the target of such efforts. "He was absolutely spooked," lawyer Barry Brown said.
So was Shantell Curtis of Utah. She showed up at her accountant's office last year only to learn that she had been sued for foreclosure on a house she had sold years before. Bank of America reported the delinquency to credit bureaus, tarring Curtis's credit. It turned out the entire saga stemmed from a bank coding error. The amount the bank falsely alleged Curtis still owed on her mortgage? One dollar.
Vietnam vet Dwight Gaines fell behind on his payments on his Birmingham, Alabama, home. Gaines paid off his entire mortgage, plus all the fees and expenses he owed the bank in March 2010, as a part of a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan. But Bank of America kept sending Gaines notices that he still owed $6,842.37. Nearly two years later, Gaines is still fighting the bank in court.
"In my experience, if I had not sued Bank of America, they would have eventually placed Mr. Gaines in foreclosure although he had completely paid his mortgage," said Gaines' lawyer, Wesley Phillips.
Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said the bank is working to resolve the Gaines situation. She also said that "these situations pre-date a review of our foreclosure procedures which took place in the fall of 2010. At the time, we identified areas of our process that needed to be improved, and we have been making those improvements."
Mounting pile of probes
The reincarnating mortgage is only the latest development in the megabanks' mortgage debacle, a scandal that has made them the target of a mounting pile of investigations and lawsuits. Though a settlement with most of the U.S. attorneys general may be imminent, a rogue group of AGs has peeled off to launch their own investigations.
One of those AGs, New York's Eric Schneiderman, is a part of the U.S. Justice Department task force announced by President Obama in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
Up until Obama's announcement, the federal government's response to the alleged financial misconduct was in the form of an independent review of the banks overseen by the federal Office of the Comptroller of Currency. But critics have labeled the OCC review as a farce rife with conflicts of interest.
The OCC spokesman, Bryan Hubbard, disputed that claim, saying the OCC has gone to great lengths to ensure that the independent consultants hired by the banks to review their procedures would report to regulators, not the banks. "During the selection process of the independent consultants and law firms, regulators rejected some proposed consultants and law firms to prevent conflicts of interest," said Hubbard.
Such reviews are supposed to gather information from homeowners like Jennifer Wilson, a former nursery school teacher from Philadelphia. Wilson settled a wrongful foreclosure case with Wells Fargo in June 2010. That month, court records show, Wells Fargo filed a satisfaction of mortgage document noting that the $8,000 loan on Wilson's home had been paid in full.
But more than a year later, on Dec. 8, 2011, Wilson, who is disabled and lives below the federal poverty line, answered her door to see a process servicer brandishing foreclosure warning papers from Wells Fargo. The bank's letter warned Wilson that she owed 57 months of late payments, plus expenses, totaling $18,407.55. If she did not pay within 30 days, the bank said, it would sue for foreclosure.
"I thought I'd been punked," said Wilson. Even more bizarrely, one day later, a different process server from a different company showed up on Wilson's door and handed over the exact same papers Wilson had received the day before.
"We see a lot of cases like this, where they are trying to collect even though there is no
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MINNEAPOLIS ? Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann swept aside doubts about her political future Wednesday, declaring less than a month after ending her presidential bid that she will seek a fourth term in Congress.
Bachmann's decision ended speculation she might be ready to move on from the House, perhaps leveraging her popularity among some conservatives into a career in talk media. Despite her high profile, Bachmann has been only a marginal player in Congress.
"I'm looking forward to coming back and bringing a strong, powerful voice to Washington, D.C.," Bachmann said in an interview with The Associated Press. She said a formal announcement would come later.
Unless redistricting radically changes Minnesota's Republican-leaning 6th District, Bachmann figures to be a heavy favorite. Other Republican hopefuls had stood aside awaiting her decision. No Democrats have yet declared for the race.
Bachmann is a potent fundraiser who brought in $13.5 million in her last House race, but she likely would start from scratch after the presidential campaign. A campaign finance report that would show how much money she can bring to the race isn't due until the end of the month.
Ken Martin, chairman of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer Labor Party, said Bachmann's announcement wasn't a surprise. He said Democrats would attack Bachmann for being absent from the district and for missing votes in Washington during months chasing the presidential nomination.
"Anyone who thinks that they're unbeatable is fooling themselves, and particularly once you hand us these issues on a silver platter," Martin said.
Martin said he's talked with several potential candidates who were waiting for a special redistricting panel to issue new maps late next month. He said some also were waiting for Bachmann's decision.
David Fitzsimmons, 6th District chairman for Minnesota's Republican Party, said Democrats "put a lot of resources and a lot of energy" into three previous high-profile candidates against Bachmann without seeming to make much of a dent.
"We're very happy and excited in the 6th to have her running again as congresswoman," Fitzsimmons said.
Bachmann captured some early momentum in the chase for the GOP presidential nomination by winning the Iowa straw poll in midsummer, but she eventually faded. Bachmann said she will not be working for any GOP candidate still in the race ahead of Minnesota's caucuses Feb. 7.
Bachmann also addressed President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech. As she did on the campaign trail, Bachmann criticized Obama for "doubling down on failures that didn't work."
She said she "chose to lay everything on the line this last year" because she saw a better way.
"I know how to create jobs and I am a job creator," Bachmann said. "I do have a formula for success. I have lived that formula. ... We need that voice here in Congress."
New York Yankees baseball player Jorge Posada smiles while standing behind five World Series trophies he helped to win during a news conference to announce his retirement at Yankee Stadium in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Yankees baseball player Jorge Posada smiles while standing behind five World Series trophies he helped to win during a news conference to announce his retirement at Yankee Stadium in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Yankees baseball player Jorge Posada, center, is flanked by teammates Mariano Rivera, left, and Derek Jeter, while standing behind five World Series trophies during a news conference to announce his retirement at Yankee Stadium in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Yankees baseball player Jorge Posada becomes emotional during a news conference where he announced his retirement, at Yankee Stadium in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Yankees baseball player Jorge Posada, second from left, sits with his family, wife Laura Posada, second from right, and his children Paulina Posada, left, and Jorge Posda Jr., during a news conference to announce his retirement at Yankee Stadium in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Yankees baseball player Jorge Posada becomes emotional during a news conference where he announced his retirement, at Yankee Stadium in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Jorge Posada was watching television when he saw speculation on which teams were interested in signing him as a free agent.
"They put my face on different uniforms," he said. "And it didn't look good."
He began a Yankee and ended as a Yankee, spending his entire career in pinstripes.
Flanked by his wife and children, with five World Series trophies sitting on a table to his right, the five-time All-Star catcher retired at age 40 on Tuesday after 17 major league seasons. He finished with a .273 career batting average, 275 home runs and 1,065 RBIs.
At a crowded Yankee Stadium news conference, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and CC Sabathia were among those who watched Posada fight off tears as he sat on a dais with wife, Laura, 12-year-old son Jorge Jr. and 9-year-old daughter Paulina. It was clear the rest of the family also wanted to be Yankees lifers.
"This is so cool," Paulina said to her dad as she picked up the cardboard in front of her seat with her name and the famous interlocking "NY" logo. "I'm going to keep this."
Posada joins Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte in retirement, leaving only the 37-year-old Jeter and 42-year-old Rivera from the core group that led the Yankees to four World Series titles in five years from 1996-2000.
"Mariano said this is it. He says one more year. But Derek says he's got like three more to go. So we'll see," Posada said, adding he didn't expect the great closer to quit after next season.
"I don't think about it right now. But the time will come," Rivera said. "Definitely the time will come when I'll have to just admit it and hang (up) the glove and the uniform and move on. We all go through that."
Jeter, the Yankees' captain and leader, expects to outlast Rivera.
"Mo's still got to go first. He's a lot older than me," he said before adding with a laugh: "Mo's going to be here longer than all of us."
Shrieking at success and fuming over failure, Posada often was nuclear fission at the center of the Yankees and what became known as the Core Four. While Jeter and Rivera rarely reveals their feelings, and Pettitte does only on occasion, Posada has been a passionate open window into the Yankees, praising, strutting, venting and battling.
"We feel the same way; I'm just better at hiding it. But we feel the same way inside, and I think that's why we've gotten along so well throughout the years," said Jeter, who first played alongside Posada in the minors in 1992.
He has called him "Posado" for years, even since late Yankee Stadium announcer Bob Sheppard mispronounced his name when he pinch ran for Wade Boggs in Game 2 of the 1995 AL playoffs.
In the same room where Pettitte announced his retirement 11? months ago, select season ticket holders were invited to sit in the audience.
Posada talked with great fervor about the team that drafted him on the 24th round in 1991.
"Every time I step through the Yankee Stadium doors," he began, "I quoted Joe DiMaggio and said, I want to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee."
"I could never wear another uniform," he said. "I will forever be a Yankee."
Posada's voice broke up, especially when he spoke in Spanish. He thanked his teammates, rubbing his chin three times and wiping his eyes. He called Rivera "my brother" and praised Jeter "who helped me stay focused and positive."
"Hopefully you won't miss me that much," he said.
Diana Munson, wife of the late Yankees catcher Thurman Munson, spoke admiringly of Posada, who kept a quote from her husband in his locker: "Batting fourth and being in the lineup is important, but I think the stuff I do behind the plate is more important." One day at Yankee Stadium, Posada sat next to her and told her about his admiration for the former captain, who died in a plane crash when Posada was 7. She wound up following Posada in the box scores.
"He in fact is the one who brought me back to baseball again. After losing Thurman, I kind of lost my heart for baseball," she said. "He plays the game I think the way Thurman played it: a lot of grittiness, lot of toughness. ... I think he and Thurman would have been best buds. He definitely has the it factor. I can't describe it. I don't know what it is. But I knew immediately upon meeting him that he had it, and I think the Yankee fans also have realized that, and I imagine they're as sad today as we all are."
She was followed by a video of fan tributes and by Lisa and Brett Niederer from Bristol, Wis. She talked about the Jorge Posada Foundation and its emotional support and financial assistance to families affected by craniosynostosis, a disease that causes bones in the skull to fuse prematurely.
Jorge Jr. has had nine operations, and Lisa Niederer was watching on television when the father and son went onto the field together during the introductions for the 1992 All-Star game. Brett, then 2?, was diagnosed the disease around the start of that year, and they talked about the Posada family's assistance.
"I knew we were not alone anymore," said Lisa, who has become a mentor for the foundation.
When the focus returned to baseball, Posada recalled how he started his professional career as a shortstop, was moved to second base and was asked by the Yankees to move to catcher after the 1991 season.
"I felt like it was the worst decision ever," he said, remembering all the passed balls he allowed while catching top draft pick Brien Taylor. "It was not a pretty sight."
He went on to have one of the better offensive careers by a catcher. The switch-hitting Posada made the decision to retire during a season that turned tumultuous May 14 when he was batting .165 and was dropped to No. 9 in the batting order against Boston. He asked to be taken out of the lineup, saying he wasn't ready to play.
Posada rallied to hit .268 for the rest of the season, leaving him with a .235 average, 14 homers and 44 RBIs. And then on Sept. 21, his two-run pinch-hit single beat Tampa Bay to clinch the AL East and earn another huge ovation. He hit .429 (6 for 14) in the five-game loss to Detroit in the division series.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman said that was just a blip in his career ? part of Posada's fiery disposition, the one that drew fans to him, one that he may take with him into coaching or managing ? after the Yankees likely honor him with a tribute this year.
That nature caused him to tell his agents not to negotiate with other teams.
"They kept saying that people are asking about you," Posada said. "I'm like ? not interested."
NEW YORK ? Apparently enough water has flowed under the bridge for Barbara Walters and Star Jones to reunite for a day.
"The View" announced on Wednesday that Jones will appear on the daytime talk show on Feb. 22 to promote an awareness campaign about heart disease among women.
Walters and Jones had a falling out in 2006 when Jones, one of the five original co-hosts of the daytime chat show, exited "The View." ABC decided not to renew her contract and Jones took Walters by surprise by announcing on June 27 that she would be leaving the show.
That exit came more quickly than expected. Walters wouldn't allow her back the next day.
Walters later said that Jones had compelled her co-hosts to lie for her by not revealing that Jones had undergone gastric bypass surgery while on "The View." Jones took her own shots, criticizing Walters for writing an autobiography that revealed details of an affair.
The women later had something serious in common. Both underwent open heart surgery to repair faulty heart valves within two months of each other in 2010.
Jones is coming back to the show to discuss her involvement in the American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" public information campaign. Women are asked to wear red on Feb. 3 to support heart patients.
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged support for the U.S. shale gas boom, but said government must focus on safe development of the energy resource.
In his State of the Union address, Obama called for government to develop a roadmap for responsible shale gas production and said his administration would move forward with "common-sense" new rules to make sure drillers protect the public.
"America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk," Obama said.
Obama's proposals on natural gas were similar to previous administration comments, and would do little to satisfy oil and gas industry backers who argue that the federal government needs to stay out of the way of burgeoning shale development.
Some industry groups had hoped Obama might streamline government oversight or offer specific plans to increase access for oil and gas drilling.
Instead, Obama pressed again for ending tax breaks for the oil and gas industry in his speech, something he has pushed for repeatedly without success.
The American Petroleum Institute, the top oil and gas lobbying group, said the policies Obama promoted in his speech are at odds with expanding energy output.
"It's a contradiction because he calls for further regulation that will slow down the production of energy and then increasing costs by raising taxes," said the institute's president, Jack Gerard.
Chris Jarvis, president of Caprock Risk Management in Rye, New Hampshire, said Obama avoided tackling key issues regarding natural gas, such as switching to using more gas in transportation.
"He was basically using his discussion on energy to deflect away from his critics versus really doing major changes with the U.S. energy sector and natural gas," Jarvis said.
SHALE GAS REVOLUTION
Improvements in drilling techniques have transformed the U.S. energy landscape in recent years by unlocking the country's immense shale oil and gas reserves.
But the drilling boom has raised concerns about the safety of natural gas extraction techniques like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which environmentalists say could pollute water supplies.
Still, with fracking mostly exempt from federal oversight and most shale gas production occurring on private lands, the Obama administration is limited in its authority over the practice.
Obama said the administration would move forward with rules that would require companies to disclose chemicals used during the fracking process on public lands.
In wide-ranging comments about the energy industry, Obama also said he would direct his administration to open 75 percent of the country's potential offshore oil and gas resources to drilling.
This proposal would be carried out in the latest offshore drilling plan released by the Interior Department in November.
PROMOTING CLEAN ENERGY
Obama strongly defended his record in investing in renewable energy.
The high profile collapse of solar-panel maker Solyndra last year - after the company received $535 million in loan aid from the administration - led critics to argue that government should not be in the business of backing energy companies.
"Some technologies don't pan out; some companies fail," Obama said. "But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy ... I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here."
Though Congress failed to move on a proposal he put forward last year to set a target for power plants to produce mostly clean electricity by 2035, Obama said the administration would establish zones to develop 10 gigawatts of solar and wind power projects on public lands.
In addition, the Defense Department will purchase one gigawatt of renewable energy, with the Navy purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year.
(Additional reporting by Eileen Houlihan; Editing by David Storey and Eric Beech)
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Public release date: 29-Jan-2012
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Here are the statistical highlights of the fourth day's play between India and Australia in the Adelaide Test.