Beating victim's case against Dodgers underway

BY LINDA DEUTSCH
AP SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers had insufficient security when San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was severely beaten in a Dodger Stadium parking lot after the 2011 opening day game between the California rivals, an attorney told jurors Thursday in opening statements of the trial of a lawsuit seeking damages from the team and former owner Frank McCourt.
The defense countered that there was more security than at any other Dodgers opening day and that responsibility for the injuries lay with the two men who pleaded guilty to the attack and with Stow himself for being intoxicated and exchanging taunts with the assailants.
Stow's attorney, Tom Girardi, outlined his case in a packed courtroom, but his brain-damaged client was not present.
Stow, 45, had observed jury selection from a wheelchair, but Girardi said outside court that it had been too much for the former paramedic from Northern California. He requires constant care, which his lawyers say could cost $50 million over his lifetime.
Girardi said that the Dodgers cut costs by using more non-uniformed off-duty police officers than uniformed officers, who cost more. "The deterrent effect of having an officer in blue means a lot to everybody," he said.
Girardi described a rowdy atmosphere at the game, with a crowd of 56,000 and tempers running high because of the teams' fierce rivalry.
"There was a lot of hostility," he said. "It's different than going to a night at the symphony at the Hollywood Bowl."
During the game, one of Stow's eventual assailants was throwing food and soda at people sitting near him in the stands, Girardi said. "All of the time there was this yelling and screaming and throwing stuff at these nice people there was no security," he said.
Attorney Dana Fox, representing the Dodgers and McCourt, said a capacity crowd was expected and the Dodgers took it seriously.
"The evidence is going to show in this case Mr. Stow was gravely injured because of a testosterone- and alcohol-fueled flash-fire fight in the parking lot," Fox said. "Some of this was caused by Mr. Stow, who consumed a lot of alcohol. He drank liquor and beer before the game and beer during the game."
When Stow arrived at the hospital, his blood-alcohol level was 0.149 percent, and forensics experts will show that at the time of the fight his level was between 0.16 percent and 0.20 percent, Fox said. The legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.
Girardi earlier told jurors that the Stow's blood-alcohol level as it related to the standard for drunken driving was irrelevant because Stow and his friends had taken a taxi to the stadium and afterward were heading to the street to take another taxi.
Fox, however, contended that "it is not legal to be drunk in public when you can't care for yourself and others."
The defense attorney said the Dodgers had assembled "the largest security force ever for an opening day in their entire history," including 437 officers and security guards, Fox said. The sworn officers included police and California Highway Patrol, and the FBI was also present because an opening day game is considered a potential target for a terrorist threat, he said.
The Los Angeles Police Department and FBI had command posts at the stadium, and the FBI also had cameras, Fox said.
The Dodgers' security cost for that day was $66,604 out of a season-long budget of $2.185 million, he said.
The team's attorney told the jury the only issue was whether the Dodgers acted reasonably or were negligent.
While Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood acted criminally and despicably in attacking Stow, the Dodgers were not responsible for their actions, Fox said.
"If they (plaintiffs) do not prove the Dodgers were a substantial factor in causing the injuries, they lose. The standard in this case is whether my clients acted reasonably," he said.
Witnesses at a preliminary hearing testified that security guards were not present in the parking lot where Stow was beaten and kicked by Sanchez and Norwood. The pair wore Dodgers gear, and Stow wore a Giants shirt.
Sanchez pleaded guilty to one count of mayhem and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Norwood pleaded guilty to one count of assault likely to produce great bodily injury and was sentenced to four years. Both still face unrelated federal firearms charges.

Obama & Hillary Clinton's Lunch Was A Secret Until People Magazine Spilled The Beans

Posted: 05/29/2014 5:25 pm EDT Updated: 05/29/2014 5:59 pm EDT

Print Article

President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had lunch at the White House on Thursday, but their meal may have remained a secret if it hadn't been for People Magazine tweeting about it.
Earlier Thursday, the magazine tweeted out a photo of the former secretary of state with People's Washington bureau chief Sandra Westfall. The tweet indicated that Clinton was about to meet with the president:
The lunch was not on the president's public schedule, and had not been acknowledged in any way by the White House. The tweet was deleted shortly after.
The White House later confirmed the meeting to Roll Call's Steven T. Dennis, the print pool reporter for the day.
"The President enjoyed an informal, private lunch with Secretary Clinton at the White House this afternoon," the official said, according to Dennis' pool report. The official did not offer details on what was discussed at the lunch.
Dennis noted that he has filed a complaint with White House press secretary Jay Carney over the lack of transparency regarding the meeting.
People has since reposted their tweet.

2 boys declared co-champions of Spelling Bee

By Ben Nuckols
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) - For the first time in 52 years, two spellers were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday.
Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York, and Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas, shared the title after a riveting final-round duel in which they nearly exhausted the 25 designated championship words. After they spelled a dozen words correctly in a row, they both were named champions.


Earlier, 14-year-old Sriram opened the door to an upset by 13-year-old Ansun after he misspelled "corpsbruder," a close comrade. But Ansun was unable to take the title because he got "antegropelos," which means waterproof leggings, wrong.
Sriram entered the final round as the favorite after finishing in third place last year. Ansun just missed the semifinals last year.
They become the fourth co-champions in the bee's 89-year history and the first since 1962.
"The competition was against the dictionary, not against each other," Sriram said after both were showered with confetti onstage. "I'm happy to share this trophy with him."
Sriram backed up his status as the favorite by rarely looking flustered on stage, nodding confidently as he outlasted 10 other spellers to set up the one-on-one duel with Ansun. The younger boy was more nervous and demonstrative, no more so than on the word that gave him a share of the title: "feuilleton," the features section of a European newspaper or magazine.
"Ah, whatever!" Ansun said before beginning to spell the word as the stage lights turned red, signaling that he had 30 seconds left.
Although they hoisted a single trophy together onstage, each will get one to take home, and each gets the champion's haul of more than $33,000 in cash and prizes.
Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Missouri, finished third, and Ashwin Veeramani of North Royalton, Ohio, was fourth.
Both champions are Indian-American. The past eight winners and 13 of the past 17 have been of Indian descent, a run that began in 1999 after Nupur Lala's victory, which was later featured in the documentary "Spellbound."
___
Associated Press Writer Joseph White contributed to this report.

Carbon Dioxide Levels Topped 400 PPM Throughout Northern Hemisphere In April, WMO Says

 

By Tom Miles

GENEVA, May 26 (Reuters) - Carbon dioxide levels throughout the northern hemisphere hit 400
parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history in April, an ominous threshold for climate change, the World Meteorological Organization said on Monday.

The 400 ppm level in the atmosphere, up 40 percent since wide use of fossil fuels began with the Industrial Revolution, is rapidly spreading southwards. First recorded in 2012 in the Arctic, it has since become the norm for the Arctic spring.

The WMO expects the global annual average carbon dioxide concentration to be above 400 ppm in 2015 or 2016. Rising concentrations of the heat-trapping gas raise risks of more heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels.

"Time is running out," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement.

"This should serve as yet another wake-up call about the constantly rising levels of greenhouse gases which are driving climate change. If we are to preserve our planet for future generations, we need urgent action to curb new emissions of these heat-trapping gases."

Almost 200 governments have agreed to work out a deal by the end of 2015 to slow climate change as part of efforts to limit the average temperature increase to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

Temperatures have already risen about 0.8C (1.4F).

In April, the U.N.'s panel of climate experts said that greenhouse gas concentrations, led by carbon dioxide, would have to be kept below 450 ppm to give a good chance of achieving the 2C goal.

The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is seasonal, since plants absorb more in the summer months, causing a peak in the spring. The northern hemisphere, with more human-related sources of the gas, has a more pronounced seasonal cycle.

Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. It is emitted by fossil-fueled vehicles and coal-fired factories and power plants as well as by natural activities such as breathing.

During the last 800,000 years, the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide fluctuated between 180 ppm and 280 ppm, and has probably not been above 400 ppm for millions of years, scientists say.

With the widespread burning of coal and oil during the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide rose to about 290 ppm by the end of the 19th century.

That accelerated last century, with levels between 370 and 380 ppm by the year 2000. An animated graph that shows the history of atmospheric carbon dioxide is online at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/history.html. (Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Alister Doyle)

Millionaire hides envelopes of cash around San Francisco

This is an important public service announcement for anyone who lives in San Francisco: Stop what you're doing, lace up your running shoes, and go follow @HiddenCash on Twitter. One anonymous millionaire could make you a little bit richer, if you're quick enough.

On KPIX, "They were checking Twitter and said that right outside in the plaza someone was hiding $100 dollar bills under the chair out here. And I guess we were just a little bit too late to grab it today."

Here's how it works: Envelopes of cash have been mysteriously appearing around San Francisco over the weekend. To find the money, aspiring treasure hunters have to follow the Twitter account @HiddenCash, which tweets out clues and photos for every cash drop.

Once the tweet is out, the hunt is on. The lucky San Franciscans who managed to track down the money often posted Twitter pictures of their find. Just look at those happy faces!

Unfortunately, not every searcher got a happy ending. Here's Turner Kirk on Vine.

The mysterious benefactor behind @HiddenCash is remaining anonymous for now, but local paper The Bold Italic reports whoever's responsible made a fortune selling real estate in the Bay Area.

The @HiddenCash founder told the outlet​: "I've made millions of dollars the last few years, more than I ever imagined. ... This is my way of giving back to the community and also having fun." The founder also emphasized that much of his or her money had been given to proper charities.

Of course, random $100 bills probably won't solve the city's severe inequality problem - a recent analysis by The Brookings Institution found the wealth gap between San Francisco's richest and poorest citizens is growing faster than anywhere else in the country. Still, it's the thought that counts, right?

So far, @HiddenCash has given out about $4,000 in free money - and the cash flow isn't going to dry up anytime soon. The wealthy cash dropper told ABC the social experiment might even expand to other cities soon.

 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/05/26/millionaire-hides-envelopes-of-cash-around-san-francisco/20892839/?ncid=webmail19

Top 50 Highest-Paid CEOs

Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, is the second highest paid CEO In 2013.
NEW YORK (AP) - Here are the 50 highest-paid CEOs of 2013, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive pay research firm:

1. Anthony Petrello, Nabors Industries, $68.2 million, up 246 percent

2. Leslie Moonves, CBS, $65.6 million, up 9 percent

3. Richard Adkerson, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, $55.3 million, up 294 percent

4. Stephen Kaufer, TripAdvisor, $39 million, up 510 percent

5. Philippe Dauman, Viacom, $37.2 million, up 11 percent

6. Leonard Schleifer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, $36.3 million, up 21 percent

7. Robert Iger, Walt Disney, $34.3 million, up 46 percent.

8. David Zaslav, Discovery Communications, $33.3 million, down 33 percent

9. Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner, $32.5 million, up 27 percent

10. Brian Roberts, Comcast, $31.4 million, up 8 percent

11. Mark Bertolini, Aetna, $30.7 million, up 132 percent

12. Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil, $28.1 million, up 3 percent

13. Brian Goldner, Hasbro, $27.4 million, up 188 percent

14. David Cote, Honeywell International, $26 million, up 63 percent

15. Steve Ells, Chipotle Mexican Grill co-CEO, $25.1 million, up 27 percent

16. Montgomery Moran, Chipotle Mexican Grill co-CEO, $24.4 million, up 27 percent

17. James McNerney, Boeing, $23.3 million, up 50 percent

18. Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Co., $23.2 million, up 32 percent

19. Alexander Cutler, Eaton, $23.1 million, up 24 percent

20. Laurence Fink, BlackRock, $22.9 million, up 13 percent

21. Larry Merlo, CVS Caremark, $22.9 million, up 59 percent

22. Trevor Fetter, Tenet Healthcare, $22.7 million, up 180 percent

23. Sandeep Mathrani, General Growth Properties, $22.1 million, up 424 percent

24. Paal Kibsgaard, Schlumberger, $22 million, up 30 percent

25. Kenneth Chenault, American Express, $21.7 million, down 15 percent

26. Brian Jellison, Roper Industries, $21.4 million, up 18 percent

27. David Nelms, Discover Financial Services, $21.2 million, up 113 percent

28. Robert Hugin, Celgene, $21 million, up 99 percent

29. Miles White, Abbott Laboratories, $20.9 million, up 34 percent

30. David Lesar, Halliburton, $20.9 million, up 20 percent

31. Lamberto Andreotti, Bristol-Myers Squibb, $20.8 million, up 29 percent

32. Randall Stephenson, AT&T, $20.7 million, up 10 percent

33. Carol Meyrowitz, TJX Companies, $20.7 million, up 9 percent

34. Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical, $20.5 million, up 21 percent

35. Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm, $20.4 million, up 2 percent(asterisk)

36. John Watson, Chevron, $20.2 million, down 9 percent

37. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs, $19.9 million, up 162 percent

38. Lawrence Culp, Danaher, $19.7 million, down 11 percent

39. Stephen Wynn, Wynn Resorts, $19.6 million, up 10 percent

40. David Calhoun, Nielsen Holdings, $19.5 million, up 40 percent **

41. James Cracchiolo, Ameriprise Financial, $19.4 million, up 20 percent

42. John Stumpf, Wells Fargo, $19.3 million, up 4 percent

43. Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric, $19.2 million, up 264 percent

44. George Chapman, Health Care REIT, $18.9 million, up 73 percent***

45. Glenn Murphy, GAP, $18.7 million, down 24 percent

46. Robert Niblock, Lowe's Companies, $18.7 million, up 54 percent

47. Richard Kramer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, $18.7 million, up 178 percent

48. Richard Fairbank, Capital One Financial, $18.3 million, down 19 percent

49. Louis Chenevert, United Technologies, $18.2 million, up 4 percent

50. Ahmet Kent, Coca-Cola Co., $18.2 million, down 21 percent

(asterisk) Jacobs stepped down as CEO on December 13, 2014.

** Calhoun stepped down as CEO on January 1, 2014.

*** Chapman retired April 14, 2014.

Women Are Using 'Rent-A-Gent' To Hire Men To Do Chores And Go On Dates

The next great job for grads?

ABC

By Caroline Moss

What can't money buy?

A service called Rent-A-Gent lets women choose a male companion from a list of "smart and handsome men."

For $200 bucks an hour, men can serve as handymen, dates, or personal chefs.

The only rule? The relationship can't get physical on the clock.

It has been written about previously, but now ABC 7 Chicago has a first-hand account of a woman named Marina who shelled out the dough for Eric on Rent-A-Gent.

Rent-A-Gent

Eric's profile on the site says he "loves the outdoors, culture and also active and social causes." He also suggested he'd be down for a rock-climbing date.

Marina says using Rent-A-Gent is easier than traditional dating sites because you're paying for a service instead of banking on feelings and mind games.

There are tons of guys on the site, divided into categories based on their profession.

Rent-A-Gent

After selecting, booking, and paying for two hours with Eric, he and Marina went rock-climbing.

"Two hours of fun," Marina says, "no strings attached."

But a dating expert tells ABC7 that this could hurt a woman's chance at finding true love - if you can just hire someone who's attractive, you may be dismissing potential suitors who want to make you happy without a price tag.

Rent-A-Gent's CEO, a woman named Sara Shikhman, says the interview process to become one of the site's "Gents" is rigorous - sometimes she can interview up to 100 men before finding one suitable guy.

Detroit motorists under siege in 'Carjack City'

By COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) -- When they pull up to a gas station these days, Detroit drivers are looking beyond the price per gallon at a far more threatening concern: carjackers.
The armed auto thieves have become so common here that parts of the bankrupt metropolis are referred to as "Carjack City," and many motorists fear getting out of their vehicles even for a few moments to fill a tank.
So gas stations are taking steps to protect customers, and the city has formed a special police team to go after suspects. Convicted carjackers will even get their faces and prison sentences plastered onto billboards.
"You need to catch these people and make a good example of them," said Mousa Bazzi, who owns a Mobil station in a semi-desolate neighborhood bordering Detroit's east riverfront. He keeps his business well-lit and continually has two to four employees inside to ensure "there's always an extra hand or two" in case of trouble.
Authorities blame many of the carjackings, ironically, on improvements in vehicle security. Anti-theft equipment, GPS systems and advanced locks now prevent many vehicles from being driven without a key in the ignition.
That makes it difficult or impossible for thieves to steal parked cars, leading them to target vehicles that are occupied, said Jonathan Parnell, of Detroit's auto-theft squad.
Also contributing to the thefts is a strong demand for stolen wheels and tires, police said.
Bazzi's station displays pale-green decals depicting a lighthouse - a symbol that his business has joined the city's anti-carjacking effort. To be part of the program, stations must have security cameras, good lighting, be open 24 hours and have clerks willing to help motorists and provide a phone for emergency calls.
"There is a waiting list," Sgt. Michael Woody said. "We have so many gas stations that want to become a lighthouse. You get better protection with that big sticker in the window that tells criminals there is proper equipment that will help police investigate these crimes."
Detroit police reported 720 carjackings last year in the city of fewer than 700,000 people. That's down from nearly 850 in 2011 and 1,231 in 2008.

Oldest person in America turns 115

The oldest woman in America turned 115 Friday. Happy birthday, Jeralean Talley!



"Jeralean has been the oldest living American since she was 113. We are told by the experts that she's just the 31st person ever to turn 115 years old," ABC reports.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Talley will celebrate her big day with a trip to the doctors for a checkup, although she says she's not feeling sick. So what's her secret? Simple: "Treat others the way you want to be treated." But she also told the paper: "It's all in the good Lord's hands. ... There's nothing I can do about it."

In response to the question "How do you feel, Mama, about being the oldest American?," Talley did a little dance.

Talley is a supercentenarian - a title reserved for people 110 years and older.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, there are just 74 validated supercentenarians ​living in the world, and only about 1 in every 5 million Americans grows old enough to earn the title.

​And in case you haven't done the math yet, Talley was born in 1899. For perspective, according to the History Channel that was just 34 years after the end of the Civil War.

Can you imagine all that Jeralean Talley has seen in her 115 years? We bet she's got some amazing stories to tell.

Currently Talley lives in Michigan with her daughter. Her family spans over five generations. Talley recently did an interview with Anderson Cooper; it's scheduled to air on CNN next week.

Minneapolis awarded 2018 Super Bowl

By BARRY WILNER
AP Pro Football Writer
ATLANTA (AP) -- Minneapolis will host the 2018 Super Bowl after a vote by owners on Tuesday rewarded the city for getting a new stadium deal.
The owners chose Minneapolis and the new $1 billion stadium planned for the site of the old Metrodome to host the championship over New Orleans and Indianapolis.
"The new stadium was absolutely the deciding factor," Jay Cicero of the New Orleans bid committee said. "Any time that there is so much public support for a $1 billion stadium, the NFL owners are impressed.
"We did everything we were supposed to do, had a fantastic presentation. In the end we think the stadium did it."
The big game will be staged in the Twin Cities for the second time. It was there in 1992, when Washington beat Buffalo.
New Orleans has staged the Super Bowl 10 times, tied with South Florida for the most, but its bid might have been damaged by the blackout that interrupted the 2013 title game. Indianapolis had it in 2012.
Next year's game is in Glendale, Arizona, followed by Santa Clara, California, for the 50th Super Bowl, then Houston.
Earlier at their spring meetings, NFL owners tabled any vote expanding the playoffs to 14 teams.
There is strong sentiment among the owners to add a wild-card team in each conference to the postseason, most likely beginning in 2015. Such a setup would eliminate one of the first-round byes, with only the team with the best record in each conference getting a week off at the beginning of the playoffs.
New York Giants owner John Mara, who is against adding more playoff teams, said the topic probably will come up for more discussion in October.
"I don't think it's a sure thing at all," Mara said of going to 14 playoff teams. "It's probably more likely than not, but nothing is set in stone. There was no straw poll taken. ... I think it's good the way we have it."
The players' union says it needs to be consulted on an expanded postseason, and Mara said that would happen at some point if the owners decide to expand the playoff field.
A committee examining the time, length and site of the draft reported to the owners. Commissioner Roger Goodell has said the league is considering several options:
-keeping the draft in May; it drew record TV ratings this year after it was moved back two weeks from its usual late April slot.
-adding a fourth day.
-moving it from its traditional spot in New York to a variety of NFL cities, with a dozen already having expressed interest.
"If I was king of the world, I'd put it right back where it was," Mara said, referring to the April dates.
In other matters, new director of football operations Troy Vincent hired three advisers, including Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary. Vincent, a former All-Pro defensive back, also hired former NFL player and coach Jimmy Raye and former player and general manager Mike Reinfeldt.
Among other chores, the three new hires will serve as liaisons to league coaches and front-office personnel.
"These men bring sound wisdom, football experience and insight that helps us support our clubs and coaches, as well as grow and develop our players and game," Vincent said.

Lack of oxygen caused California fish die-off

Scientists suspect the large school of northern anchovies may have sought cover from a predator along the coastal waters of Marina del Rey on Saturday, said Janice Mackey of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"Once in the harbor, the fish school became trapped, and subsequently depleted all of the available oxygen in the water," she said in a statement.
Workers have removed 300 bags of fish weighing a total of more than six tons, according to Mackey.
The dead anchovies and other fish including stingrays created a silvery blanket on the water's surface and a pungent smell that set off a feeding frenzy among harbor seals, pelicans and seagulls. An octopus was also found among the dead sea life.
Officials collected fish samples for further analysis at a lab.
Mackey said the agency had received various reports of fish die-offs in harbors throughout the state in recent years due to similar conditions.
"While the sight of so many dead fish may be startling to some, this is not considered to be too unusual," Mackey said.
Similar fish die-offs occurred in Ventura Harbor and at Redondo Beach in 2011.

Famous San Francisco street to see summer closing

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco transit leaders will temporarily close a stretch of Lombard Street, a popular tourist spot that's known as the "Crookedest Street in The World."
On Tuesday, the city's Municipal Transportation Agency unanimously approved a pilot closure to vehicles on the oft-photographed, well-traveled curvy and winding thoroughfare for four consecutive weekends starting in late June and including the Fourth of July weekend during the busy summer tourist season. The vehicle closure does not apply to residents who live in the area.
About an average of 2,000 vehicles travel on the street each weekend day during that period, the city said.
WHAT IS LOMBARD STREET?
The world famous scenic, hilly street in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood been featured on TV, in movies- and even video games - is known for its one-block stretch of winding brick road that consists of eight sharp, hairpin turns. Attracting hundreds of thousands annually, tourists prefer to take snapshot panoramic views of the city at the top and then drive down the crooked street with flower gardens at every corner like it's an amusement park ride. It is perhaps the most popular tourist destination in San Francisco besides the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, the Cable Cars and Fisherman's Wharf.
WHY WOULD THEY CLOSE IT?
The temporary closing idea came at the request of Supervisor Mark Farrell and a steady stream of complaints by some residents wanting to curb the street's chronic gridlock mostly due to curious tourists, especially during the summer.
"This will be a test to improve the safety for residents, pedestrians and motorists in the area," MTA spokesman Paul Rose said. "There are often a lot of people who come to either take pictures or drive down the street and it can cause lengthy delays."
WHAT DO TOURISTS THINK?
Tourist Dylan Giordano, 21, of Los Angeles, agreed, as he took in the scenery Tuesday with his family visiting from Florida. "It's an insane amount of traffic and it must be difficult and obnoxious for the wealthy residents who live here and can't even get into their own driveway," said Giordano, who just graduated from the University of Southern California with his degree in Environmental and Urban Planning.
WHAT WOULD BE THE IMPACT?
The city will evaluate what impact the temporary closure will have and may seek to shut down Lombard Street more often, Rose said. No permanent shutdown is being considered - yet.

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Actor charged with murder of wife

3:51 AM PT --

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Jace's 2 kids witnessed him allegedly shooting and killing their mom.  The kids -- both under 10 -- were extremely upset and taken to the police station.  We're told cops are angry it took Children's Services 4 hours to get to the station and take the kids to the home of a family member where they could be comforted.

Jace is being booked for murder.

Actor Michael Jace called police himself to report his wife had been shot, and he had pulled the trigger Monday night in Los Angeles ... TMZ has learned.

According to law enforcement sources Jace called 911 around 8:30 PM PT and told police ... "I shot my wife."

We're told Jace's neighbors in the Hyde Park area of L.A. had reported shots fired in the home ... and shortly thereafter Jace made his call to 911.

Sources tell us the actor stayed on the phone, as instructed, until LAPD arrived and found his 40-year-old wife, April Jace dead.

We're told Jace was home alone when his wife arrived with their kids ... a short time later he allegedly shot her.

Jace -- best know as Detective Lowe from "The Shield" -- was taken into custody, and as of 1:00 AM PT Tuesday ... was being questioned, but had not been booked for his wife's death.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2014/05/20/michael-jace-arrested-wife-shot-april/#ixzz32GUbEV4M

Boise State gets OK to help homeless player

 
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- The NCAA says Boise State can immediately assist a homeless football recruit who signed to play with the team in February.

Antoine Turner said in an interview with KTVB-TV in Boise that he's recently been living in a motel, along with a car belonging to his girlfriend, as he finishes up classes at Fullerton College in California.

Boise State received clearance Wednesday from the NCAA to reach out to Turner and offer support.


After graduating from Fullerton, the defensive tackle is scheduled to take summer school classes at Boise State, where he will live in the dorm and have a meal plan.

Turner grew up in New Orleans and told the station his mom died of cancer when he was young, putting a strain on the relationship with his father. He moved around throughout his childhood.

He said football helped him and that he "brought a suitcase and a dream" with him to California. But he didn't have any money or help from his family back home.

He lived wherever he could find.

"I thought I was going to get away from my problems, but they just had started," Turner told the station. "About a year after I came out here, I actually couldn't take it no more. At one time I had the feeling of suicide. I couldn't fight no more."

An uncle gave him a place to stay in government subsidized housing, until an issue an issue with regulations recently arose. He's been sleeping in motels and anywhere else ever since.

Officials for Boise State said they didn't realize how bad things had gotten for Turner until the television report. They were in contact with him, but the football coaches had no idea he was homeless.

Since the story broke, Boise State fans have been quick to offer food and shelter for Turner, but that could jeopardize his playing status.

The school talked to the NCAA about it and the governing body responded on its Twitter account by announcing: "After Boise State's request last night, the school may provide immediate assistance to football student-athlete Antoine Turner."

Turner had 34 tackles and six sacks as a redshirt sophomore last season. He also had an interception.

Sophia Amoruso, NastyGal Founder, Shares Her Journey From Dumpster-Diving Teen To CEO

 
What does it take to get to the top -- without losing your center? Our “Making It Work” series profiles successful, dynamic women who are standouts in their fields, peeling back the "hows" of their work and their life, taking away lessons we can all apply to our own.
The first thing Sophia Amoruso sold on the Internet was a stolen book. Eight years later, she's the CEO of NastyGal, an online clothing retailer with annual sales over $100 million.
The 30-year-old's fashion empire started as a simple eBay store. When Amoruso was 22, she had a job checking student IDs at a Bay Area art school. During downtime hours she began selling vintage clothing on eBay, using a name borrowed from a Betty Davis album. In 2008, she decided to launch NastyGal as a standalone site. The retailer's sales grew 10,160 percent between 2008 and 2011, landing the company a spot on the Inc. 5000 list, venture capital investors, and an even bigger cult following.
Amoruso now manages over 300 employees in a 50,000-square-foot L.A. office. She's spoken at SXSW, been profiled in Forbes Magazine and made Inc.'s 2013 "30 Under 30" list. The self-described community college dropout, whose first paying job was as a Subway Sandwich Arist, never expected the success she's found.
"Half the people in this office wouldn't have taken me seriously seven years ago," she told Fast Company in March 2014. "To my surprise and everyone else's, I've come out the other side more self-aware, self-critical, and able to appreciate what I have."
Amoruso's most recent venture is her book, #GIRLBOSS. Part memoir, part business guide, the book follows her unlikely path to success -- from a dumpster-diving teenager to a CEO.
Amoruso took a break from promoting her book for a phone call with The Huffington Post, discussing business books, Big Sur and being your own idol:
Why do you do the work that you do?
I realized when I started NastyGal, that selling online means you can calibrate so fast what works and what doesn’t work. I immediately had a customer that I was loyal to; I had someone who was interested in what I was doing, who was either buying or not buying what I had to sell. And I realized that I really enjoyed putting things together for her and ultimately dressing her. So it’s always been a response to a demand. And as soon as anyone cared about what I was doing, it was clear that I wanted to do the best job I possibly could. And it was never about being big. We have a big business today as a result of doing a good job at what I started almost eight years ago on eBay.
And what NastyGal has ultimately become is more than just clothing. We give girls a place to be themselves. And #GIRLBOSS, as a book, gives girls permission to to be who they want to be, and to try new things, and to have an opinion, and to have an unpopular opinion and to do things differently. I think it’s important that everyone understands that there’s no real prescription to having an awesome life.
What would you be doing if you didn’t do this?
I really wanted to be a photographer. I wanted to go to art school, but I ended up with an education beyond my wildest dreams. I think I would probably try to be a photographer again [if I wasn't running NastyGal]. But at this point, I really don’t see a life for myself outside of NastyGal, for a very, very long time -- and maybe never.
Do you have a mentor?
I think I’ve had various mentors. Theres not been a single person that I could attribute NastyGal’s success to, because it was as much learning from the people around me as it was disagreeing with them. The book talks about being your own idol, and it’s probably hard for a lot of people to grasp considering we live in this world where we worship celebrities. But I think if we compete with ourselves, we do our best.
Ultimately, my mentors are my team. They are my president, my CTO, my creative director, our head of marketing and our head of design. They all have more experience than I do at everything that they’re doing, and they mentor me every day. I’d say the world is my mentor -- but for the most part it’s been the awesome team that I’ve been so lucky to surround myself with.
Do you mentor other young women, or people interested in what you do?
I haven’t formally. I’ve had lunches with various people who are starting businesses or trying to start businesses, who want advice or I’ll try to introduce them to someone who might have helped me along the way. My schedule is crazy, so it’s really hard for me to do, and my first loyalty is to NastyGal. Ultimately I don’t have the time to give everyone that already works for me the time that I would like to. But we are launching the #GIRLBOSS foundation which, later on, will have a mentorship component to it. It’s a nonprofit that will support creative entrepreneurs -- women -- in furthering their interests and their dreams.
What advice would you give yourself at the start of your career, before NastyGal became so huge?
That businesses can never rely on one person. It’s really the team that makes the business successful. When my first COO left, I thought the sky was falling. He was only with the company for 9 months, but I learned so much from him in that short amount of time that it was like… what am I going to do with myself? A great mantra to have, whether you’re breaking up with your boyfriend or you lose your job, or something changes that you didn’t anticipate -- which is a fact of life, and very much a fact of running a business -- is: "I was OK before this, I will be OK after this."
Is there anything that you would worry about less, or pay more attention to at the start of your career?
I think I paid attention to everything that I needed to and could, at the start. I can be pretty reactive, and I’ve learned over time to be less reactive, to stop and think before I make decisions. When a company becomes a lot larger, the big decisions that you’re making sometimes have a lot of money at stake and a lot of people’s careers at stake. So it’s a totally different process now, and there’s been a learning curve to that for me. So I would say, “calm down,” maybe. Just a little bit. I’m still working on that.
How would you define success?
You know, success is a scary concept, because it assumes something kind of final. In the grand scheme of life, I don’t think there is some ultimate success. As a business we’ve learned not to go into things and do them for the sake of doing them, but to say "What do we want? What results do we actually want from this?" And to look back and say, "Did we do what we planned to do?" That’s one version of success.
I think we’re all capable of creating successes in our life every day, and I think that’s a much healthier approach to your life and your career. If something doesn’t work out and you learn from it, you’ve still been successful.
We're all so tied to technology these days. What’s your relationship like with your cellphone?
It’s pretty unhealthy. I’m in my inbox a lot. If I’m watching a movie at home, sometimes my boyfriend will take my phone away from me. On vacations I’ll have him hide it from me. It’s just way too easy to stay on top of everything all the time, which feels like you’re being productive, but sometimes you’re not productive at all. And it’s very hard to get away from technology and just focus.
How do you relax?
I just got a Nintendo Wii, and that’s kind of fun. It’s just totally mindless. I think mindless stuff is pretty relaxing. When I take a vacation, I try to go places where I don’t have a lot of choices. I love Big Sur. You wake up in the morning, and there’s one road. And there’s probably five places to eat. Because I make so many choices in the day to day of the business, actually being places where I have what I need, but removed from the overwhelming feeling of too many choices, is usually really good for me.
What made you decide to write #GIRLBOSS?
I’ve read business books, and business magazines, and 10 years ago if you had told me “Hey, you should read this business book,” I would have been like, “that’s boring.” But I actually find it pretty fascinating. There are so many parts of business that you can apply to real life. And I wanted to share that learning with girls, so I think #GIRLBOSS is a little bit of a gateway drug to the world of business books. It’s also a memoir and a life bible. The world tells you: go to high school, get good grades. Go to college, get good grades. Start your first job and then you’ll get a better job. And that works for many, many people -- but none of it worked for me. I tried, but I couldn’t find the reward in it, and I think there’s a lot of people who have varying degrees of that frustration, asking “where do I fit in?” and “what do I want to do with my life?”
We think we want to do something, try it, don’t like it, feel like a failure because we spent time on it, and shift gears -- and I think no one really talks about that, and the fact that that’s OK. Those cumulative experiences can turn into something really awesome. If you’re patient with yourself and you learn from your mistakes, you can achieve a lot. And I think my story is an example of that. And I hope #GIRLBOSS gives women, girls and guys and anyone who reads it permission to live their lives the way they want to, to be honest with themselves and everyone around them, and ultimately try to build a better life for themselves.
What's the one thing women should do in 2014?
I think it’s important that women live the life they want to live, and don’t live the life that the world has told them to live -- unless they want to. That’s their life, that’s their choice, and that’s what they want.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
#GIRLBOSS is available May 6th.

Frequent Arguments Might Be the Death of You

Arguing and worrying over family problems may lead to an increased risk of dying in middle age, Danish researchers report.
Conflicts with family, friends and neighbors posed the greatest risk. Those most at risk are men and people out of work, the researchers noted.
"Stressful social relations in private life are associated with a two- to three-times increased risk of dying," said lead researcher Dr. Rikke Lund, an associate professor in the department of public health at the University of Copenhagen.
"Worries and demands from partners and children, and conflicts in general, seem the most important risk factors," she said.
The findings still held when chronic disease, depressive symptoms, age, sex, marital status, support from social relations, and social and economic position were taken into account, Lund said.
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Kiss and make up: Arguments with your spouse may contribute to your social stress.

"We also find that men and participants outside the labor force are especially vulnerable to the exposure to stress from social relations," she said.
Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said, "While we've long known the protective role that healthy social relations play, the results of this study suggest that social relations are actually more like a double-edged sword, as they can also be destructive when unhealthy."
The report was published online May 8 in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
For the study, Lund and colleagues collected data on nearly 10,000 men and women, aged 36 to 52, who took part in the Danish Longitudinal Study on Work, Unemployment and Health.
Participants were asked about their everyday social relationships, particularly about who, among partners, children, other relatives, friends and neighbors, made excess demands, prompted worries or were a source of conflict, and how often these problems arose. They also examined whether having a job made a difference.
RELATED: 4 Steps to Resolving Any Argument
Using data from the Danish Cause of Death Registry, researchers tracked participants from 2000 to the end of 2011. Over that time, 196 women (4 percent) and 226 men (6 percent) died. Nearly half the deaths were from cancer. Heart disease and stroke, liver disease, accidents and suicide accounted for the rest.
About one in 10 said that their children were a frequent source of excess demands and worries. Nine percent said that their spouse was often a source of demands or concern. Six percent cited problems among their relatives and 2 percent had issues with friends.
Some 6 percent of participants said they "always or often" had conflicts with their spouse or children, 2 percent had such conflicts with other relatives, and 1 percent with friends or neighbors.
Taking all of this into account, Lund's team calculated that these stresses were linked to a 50 percent to 100 percent increased risk of death from any cause. Among all these stresses, arguing was the most harmful, the researchers found.
Frequent arguments with partners, relatives, friends or neighbors were associated with a doubling to tripling in the risk of death from any cause, compared with those who said these incidents were rare, the authors noted.
Rego said it's important to note the limitations of an observational study, such as this one. "As with all studies that employ observational designs, caution should be used when interpreting the results, as the design does not provide conclusive information about any cause-and-effect relationships," he said.
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Still, the researchers suspect that greater stress from conflicts and concerns might be the reason behind the increased risk. They noted that when stressors were increased -- for example, conflict at home coupled with unemployment -- the risk of premature death also rose.
Lund also cited higher levels of stress hormones and increased blood pressure as possible reasons for the connection.
Rego said the interactions between stressful social situations and the body's stress response as well as other factors -- such as genetics, environment, socioeconomic factors and psychological responses -- likely all play a role in the association between conflicts and a higher risk of death.
Lund suggested that learning to deal with conflict and stress might be helpful. "Skills in handling worries and demands from close social relations as well as conflict management within couples and families, and also in local communities, may be considered important strategies for reducing premature deaths," Lund said.
Rego agreed. "Given these findings, it seems reasonable to conclude that designing and implementing psychological interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, which focus on teaching specific skills like how to manage worries and demands from close social relations, as well as conflict management within couples, families, and even in local communities, all may be important strategies for reducing premature deaths," he said.

Last Updated: 5/9/2014
By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay News

Health news Copyright @ 2014 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Sept. 11 Museum displays heart-wrenching artifacts

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's new Sept. 11 museum is a monument to how the terror attacks that day shaped history, from its heart-wrenching artifacts to the underground space that houses them amid the remnants of the fallen twin towers' foundations. It also reflects the complexity of crafting a public understanding of the terrorist attacks and reconceiving ground zero.
The National September 11 Memorial Museum was set to be dedicated Thursday and open to the public May 21.
The museum faced financing squabbles and construction challenges. Conflicts over its content underlined the sensitivity of memorializing the dead while honoring survivors and rescuers, of balancing the intimate with the international.
Holocaust and war memorials have confronted some of the same questions. But the 9/11 museum exemplifies the work it takes to "develop a museum program amidst this range of powerful feelings and differing individuals and issues that get raised," said Bruce Altshuler, the director of New York University's museum studies program. He isn't involved in the Sept. 11 museum.
The museum harbors both personal possessions and artifacts that became public symbols of survival and loss. There is the battered "survivors' staircase" that hundreds used to escape the burning skyscrapers, the memento-covered last column removed during the ground zero cleanup and the cross-shaped steel beams that became an emblem of remembrance. (An atheists' group has sued, so far unsuccessfully, seeking to stop the display of the cross).
Portraits and profiles describe the nearly 3,000 people killed by the Sept. 11 attacks and the 1993 trade center bombing. Nearly 2,000 oral histories give voice to the memories of survivors, first responders, victims' relatives and others. In one, a mother remembers a birthday dinner at the trade center's Windows on the World restaurant the night before her daughter died at work at the towers.
The museum also looks at the lead-up to Sept. 11 and its legacy.
Members of the museum's interfaith clergy advisory panel raised concerns that it plans to show a documentary film, about al-Qaida, that they said unfairly links Islam and terrorism. The museum has said the documentary is objective and its scholarship solid.
While some Sept. 11 victims' relatives have embraced the museum, others have denounced its $24 general-public ticket price as unseemly and its underground location as disrespectful, particularly because unidentified remains are being stored in a private repository there. Other victims' families see it as a fitting resting place.
The museum and the memorial plaza above it cost a total of $700 million to build. They will cost $60 million a year to run, more than Arlington National Cemetery and more than 15 times as much as the museum that memorializes the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Sept. 11 museum organizers have noted that security alone costs about $10 million a year.

What most viewers don't know about LA meteorologist Bri Winkler

That morning in September 2012, Winkler made it to the phone and called her sister, Tara Riggs.
Riggs thought it was low blood sugar at first, but then realized it was serious and called a family friend in southern California, who then called 911.
Doctors say strokes are unusual in young people, but they do happen. In Bri's case, doctors found a blood clot in her brain.

Winkler says she views the stroke as "such a positive thing in [her] life ... I do appreciate everything a lot."
Now, Winkler wants to spread the message that strokes can happen to people at any age, so she wants others to know the warning signs.
According to the Mayo Clinic, you should look out for:

• Trouble walking, talking or understanding speech
• Numbness in the face, arm or leg
• Facial drooping
• Difficulty seeing
• Headache

And you might recall that actor Frankie Muniz, famous for the "Malcolm in the Middle" series, was also in his twenties when he had a mini-stroke.
He was only 26 at the time. He also had another mini-stroke a year later. He has reportedly been doing fine since then.
As for Winkler, her stroke was caused by a tear in a key blood vessel. A blood clot formed in her brain stem.
Winkler believes there's a reason she's still here today, and part of that is spreading her story.

Clippers rally for 101-99 over Thunder

 

BY BETH HARRIS
AP SPORTS WRITER

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Darren Collison scored 10 of his 18 points in the final 2:58, rallying the Los Angeles Clippers past the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-99 on Sunday to tie the Western Conference semifinal series 2-2.

Russell Westbrook, who scored 27 points, missed a 3-pointer and Serge Ibaka's tip attempt was too late at the buzzer, allowing the Clippers to salvage a game they trailed until the final 1:23.

Blake Griffin led Los Angeles with 25 points, making 9 of 11 free throws, and Chris Paul had 23 points and 10 assists. Jamal Crawford added 18 points. DeAndre Jordan had 14 rebounds, helping the Clippers win the boards, 45-43 - the first time in 11 playoff games the Thunder were outrebounded.

Kevin Durant scored 40 points, hitting 15 of 18 free throws, for the Thunder.

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.

It was the 14th comeback by the Clippers this season after trailing by double digits. They rallied from 12 points down in the second quarter of Game 7 to oust Golden State in the first round.

The Clippers had no answer for Durant and Westbrook until midway through the fourth quarter. That dynamic duo drove the lane with abandon, drew fouls and made free throws in leading the Thunder to an early 22-point lead.

Durant's three-point play early in the fourth extended the Thunder's lead to 15 points, and they were still up by 10 with 7:44 to go.

But the comeback Clippers were not to be denied.

Paul willed his team back into it, scoring six straight points to get the Clippers within six. Griffin made three of four free throws before Collison got hot.

Crawford stole the ball and fed Collison for a fast-break dunk that drew Los Angeles within one. Griffin took a bounce pass from Paul, scored, got fouled and made the free throw for the game's first tie at 94-all.

Durant made one of two free throws before Crawford, the NBA's Sixth Man of the year, hit a 3-pointer. Westbrook's basket tied it at 97.

Collison scored the Clippers' final four points on layups. Crawford passed to a streaking Collison for a fast-break conversion on the second one for a 101-97 lead with 32 seconds left. Westbrook scored for the Thunder, but after Griffin missed, Westbrook did too to end the game.

Paul missed all five of his shots in the third, when Griffin picked up three fouls to give him five, and Crawford and Jordan each got their third.

Ibaka, who shot 9 of 10 in the Thunder's Game 3 win, got his fourth foul, along with Westbrook in the third. The Clippers came as close as eight points before Reggie Jackson's 3-pointer beat the shot clock to keep the Thunder ahead 75-63 going into the fourth.

The Thunder had the Clippers on their heels from the opening tip, with Oklahoma City shooting 65 percent in building a 22-point lead.

Oklahoma City outscored the Clippers 32-15 in the first; the fewest points they've allowed in a quarter of a playoff game.

The Clippers got to 39-35 using a 20-7 run, with Paul scoring seven, to start the second. But the Thunder closed the half strongly on an 18-11 spurt, including seven by Durant, to lead by 11 at the half.

NOTES: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million after recordings of him making racist comments surfaced, attended the game, sitting next to Magic Johnson. Johnson tweeted on April 26 that he would never go to a Clippers game again while Sterling remains the owner. ... Johnson and boxer Floyd Mayweather have each made noises about being interested in owning the Clippers. ... Dick Parsons, whom Silver appointed as interim CEO of the Clippers, will be in town Monday. ... Durant's MVP acceptance speech is still a topic, with Thunder coach Scott Brooks joking, "I didn't get enough credit for being the speech writer." ... Among the celebs were Rihanna, Justin Bieber (who got booed), Billy Crystal, Mark Wahlberg, former Clipper Baron Davis wearing a Dodgers hat and Kenny Lofton.

New Boko Haram video may show proof of life

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - A new video from Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorist network purports to show dozens of abducted schoolgirls, covered in jihab and praying in Arabic.
It is the first public sight of the girls since more than 300 were kidnapped from a northeastern school the night of April 14 - exactly four weeks ago.
Families have said most girls abducted are Christians but the about 100 shown under a tree in the video recite Muslim prayers in Arabic. Many are barefoot. Some appear fearful, others desolate.
Fifty-three escaped by themselves and 276 are missing, police say.
The video received Monday by The Associated Press came through channels that have provided previous messages from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who speaks in the video in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria. He is shown in military fatigues cradling an assault rifle on the video that is imprinted with the Boko Haram insignia of a Koran resting on two crossed assault rifles and below the black Jihadi flag.
The United States put a $7 million ransom on Shekau's head last year.
The mass abductions and failure of Nigeria's government and military to rescue them has aroused national and international outrage. Last week Nigeria belatedly accepted offers of help from the United States, Britain and others.

Fast Food Worker Strikes Go Global

Getty ImagesFast food workers campaigning for higher wages on May 7 in New York City.

​

Yesterday, fast food workers holding a preference conference outside a Manhattan McDonald's announced plans for a nationwide strike on May 15, when employees of McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and other fast food giants will push for better treatment and $15 per hour pay. The strikes won't be limited to the U.S., the group said--on the same date, they'll be joined by thousands of workers across six continents.

"We've gone global," said Ashley Cathey, a McDonald's worker from Memphis, Tennessee. "Our fight has inspired workers around the world to come together."

The international agenda includes protests, teach-ins, and even a series of flash mobs inside five McDonald's restaurants in the Philippines. Japan alone will be the site of 30 protests; the UK will have protests in 20 different cities.

The planned strikes push back against more than just low wages. Hungry for Justice organizer Julie Sherry, who said the average fast food worker in the U.K. makes the equivalent of $8.50 per hour, described the enforced "zero-hours" contracts the company uses to boost profits. Under these contracts, workers have no guaranteed hours, but can be called into work at any time. According to Sherry, 90 percent of the company's U.K. workforce lives on these contracts.

"In the UK, we are at the beginning of a battle to take on the multinationals dominating the fast food industry, ensure workers know their rights, and open the door to organizing fast food workers into unions, and it's fantastic to be a part of a global movement," said Sherry.

Some of the foreign protestors are striking in solidarity with the U.S. workers. Louise Marie Rantzau, a McDonald's worker in Denmark, said she makes $21 an hour, and was surprised to hear how hard U.S. employees have to fight for just $15.

The federal minimum wage of $7.25 was last raised in 2009. While some states and localities have raised their minimum wages recently, attempts to boost the federal minimum wage seem unlikely to succeed in Congress.

The strikes, in the U.S. and abroad, will challenge the notion that fast food workers consist mainly of teenagers looking for extra cash, rather than parents struggling to raise families on minimum (or minimal) wage.

They'll also make a case that these are the jobs that are driving economic recovery. Michael Evangelist, author of a recent National Employment Law Project report, described fast food as the industry driving the bulk of low-end job growth. In that case, corporations have an added impetus to make these jobs better.

"This is just the beginning of an unprecedented international fast food worker movement," said Ron Oswald, general secretary of the IUF, a federation comprised of 396 trade unions in 126 countries representing a combined 12 million workers. "This highly profitable global industry better take note."

Filed under: Employment News

Tags: burger king, fast food, fast food strikes, kfc, mcdonalds, minimum wage

Obama hangs with Spielberg, Springsteen at benefit

LOS ANGELES (AP) - President Obama shared a table with Steven Spielberg and Bruce Springsteen at a benefit dinner, but broke away to chat with Barbra Streisand and Samuel L. Jackson.
The president was the guest of honor Wednesday at a fundraising gala celebrating the USC Shoah Foundation, which Spielberg established 20 years ago to collect video testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides. Inspired by the making of "Schindler's List," the video archive Spielberg created now includes more than 50,000 personal accounts and is available to schools across the globe.
"As long as we fail to learn, our work will be urgent work," he said of the foundation's mission. "This institute exists because we know that the future can always be rewritten."
Obama accepted the foundation's Ambassador for Humanity award at the private event at the Century Plaza Hotel. Springsteen provided musical entertainment, tucking his black tie into his white shirt to perform two songs with his acoustic guitar.
"I think anyone who has a boss wishes it was you," Spielberg told the stalwart rocker, who sang "Promised Land" and "Dancing in the Dark." The filmmaker called Springsteen "this nation's hardest working lyrical poet for our common humanity."
Conan O'Brien hosted the event, speaking in Yiddish and teasing the President for the traffic snarls he causes when visiting Los Angeles.
"You left Washington six hours ago, but I left Burbank seven hours ago," O'Brien joked.
Liam Neeson, who played Oskar Schindler in Spielberg's 1994 film, opened the evening.
But it was two non-famous women who left the audience most inspired. San Diego high school teacher Michelle Sadrena Clark recited a poem about how the Shoah Foundation's work enriches her curriculum and connects her students to history.
"Your institute has literally changed my teaching and my life," she said. Several of her students attended the gala, where they showed guests the multimedia projects they developed using survivor testimonies. They were also introduced to the president.
Celina Biniaz was one of the Jews Schindler saved. At 13, she worked in his factory, cleaning the machinery with her small hands. Now a grandmother whose story is included among the Holocaust testimonies, she said, "Oskar Schindler gave me my life, but Steven Spielberg gave me my voice."
Obama said that genocide survivors and the families they've created are "the ultimate rebuke to evil and the ultimate expression of love and hope."
"You are an inspiration to every single one of us," he said.

Woman delivers triplets at 47; babies go home

 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/05/06/woman-delivers-triplets-at-47-babies-go-home/20881388/?ncid=webmail20

 

MIAMI (AP) - Sharon Lewis was already a mother of two when she found out she was pregnant again. This time it was with triplets - at the age of 47, and without fertility treatments.
"Now the tears rolled because it was unexpected," she said Tuesday, moments before she was to take her three new children home, just in time for Mother's Day.
Lewis, a school cafeteria monitor with a 25-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, said she was not looking to get pregnant again at her age. "But I was good. Once I grasped it, I was OK."
Dylan, Denere and Denard slept while Lewis and her doctors addressed the news media at Holtz Children's Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. Each of the triplets weighed about 2 lbs. when born March 18. Since then, they have all been cared for at the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.
Lewis developed high blood pressure during her pregnancy, so her doctors decided to deliver the triplets early, at 30 weeks. They said it was rare for a woman her age not only to get pregnant but also to have multiple births spontaneously, without hormone or fertility treatments.
"It was a miracle she got pregnant. It was a miracle she got three. And all of them are healthy and normal and she is fine," said Dr. Salih Y. Yasin, an obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and delivering multiples, as he held a sleeping Denere in his arms. "Getting pregnant is 1 percent, but to be twins it's probably 1 percent of that. Triplets is 1 percent of 1 percent of that."
Lewis said she was looking forward to bonding with her babies at home.
"I felt that it was nobody but God that blessed my womb at 47. I do believe he brought me to it, he'll bring me through it," she said with a wide smile

Obama: US will help Arkansas rebuild after storms

VILONIA, Ark. (AP) - Surveying the remnants of nature's destructive power in the country's midsection, President Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to residents of tornado-ravaged Arkansas communities that their government will stand with them until they finish rebuilding.

Obama said he wanted to visit this small city about a half-hour north of Little Rock to make sure those grieving the loss of loved ones, their homes and treasured possessions know that they will not be forgotten.

"I'm here to make sure that they know and that everybody who's been affected knows that the federal government's going to be right here until we get these communities rebuilt," Obama said after walking through a subdivision in which just six of its 56 homes had any part still standing after storms tore across the state on April 27, killing 15 people.

"When something like this happens to a wonderful community like this one, it happens to all of us," he said.

Obama first surveyed the rubble by air, peering down from the windows of his helicopter onto a subdivision of short cul-de-sacs that was destroyed. The still-visible rubble was evidence of the random but surgical devastation a twister is capable of.

After meeting privately with grieving families, emergency workers and local officials, Obama set out on foot through a section of Vilonia, where residents felt a sense of deja vu. Four people died after a tornado hit Vilonia in 2011.

"This town has seen more than its fair share of tragedy," Obama observed, speaking in front of the wreckage of destroyed homes. The sunny afternoon beneath a nearly cloudless sky was a sharp contrast to the dark storms that struck less than two weeks ago. "But folks here are tough, they look out for one another and that's been especially clear over the past week."

Obama said there is a lot of cleanup and rebuilding that remains to be done to make Vilonia whole again "but I'm here to remind them they're not doing this work alone. Your country's going to be here for you. We're going to support you every step of the way."

"I could not be more impressed by the spirit of the community that is here," he said.

Obama made the first visit of his presidency to Arkansas while opening a three-day trip to California to raise money for the Democratic Party, accept an award from a foundation created by movie director Steven Spielberg and discuss his energy policy.

His quick layover of several hours also has political implications for the state. Among the elected officials accompanying him on the tour was Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, who is seeking re-election to a third term against Republican Rep. Tom Cotton in one of the most expensive and closely watched Senate races in the country. Neither faces an opponent in the May 20 primary.

Obama also was joined by Gov. Mike Beebe and U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin.

Pryor's willingness to appear with Obama contrasts with other Democrats in difficult races who have chosen to keep the president at arm's length. Obama lost Arkansas in the 2008 and 2012 elections and remains deeply unpopular in the state, polls show.

Republicans have made major gains in Arkansas over the past two elections by tying Democrats to Obama and his policies, particularly the federal health care law. The GOP controls both chambers of the state Legislature and holds all but one of its congressional seats.

The Obama administration has designated four Arkansas counties as major disaster areas because of damage from the storm, part of a violent weather system that killed at least 35 people across the Plains and the South. The twister had winds between 166 mph and 200 mph, the National Weather Service said.

Obama visited a day after his administration released a new report on climate change that attributed severe weather such as hurricanes and droughts to global warming. The report, however, says the effect of climate change on the intensity or frequency of tornadoes is uncertain, and scientists are unsure whether climate change has played a role in recent erratic patterns of tornado activity.

The visit also was the second time in recent weeks that Obama has seen up close the force of nature's destructive power. Late last month, he visited Oso, Washington, where more than 40 people were killed by a massive mudslide in March.

Monica Lewinsky Breaks Her Silence On Her Affair With Bill Clinton

Monica Lewinsky is opening up about her affair with former President Bill Clinton for the first time in years, sharing how the Internet has driven her and others to "global humiliation."
Lewinsky, who penned an essay for Vanity Fair that will be available digitally on May 8 and on newsstands May 13, said she finally came forward about her experience because of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old who committed suicide after video of him kissing another man was broadcast online.
“[T]hanks to the Drudge Report, I was also possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet," Lewinsky said.
Lewinsky said she and her mother were both disturbed by the circumstances surrounding Clementi's death.
“She was reliving 1998, when she wouldn’t let me out of her sight. She was replaying those weeks when she stayed by my bed, night after night, because I, too, was suicidal," Lewinsky said of her mother. "The shame, the scorn, and the fear that had been thrown at her daughter left her afraid that I would take my own life—a fear that I would be literally humiliated to death.”
She hoped by telling her story, she "might be able to help others in their darkest moments of humiliation."
Lewinsky also put to rest some rumors that have followed her since news broke of her affair with Clinton, saying she was not offered a $12 million "for a salacious tell-all book" but noting she did turn down "offers that would have earned me more than $10 million, because they didn’t feel like the right thing to do."
“It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress," Lewinsky said.
“I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened," she added.

Chinese company Alibaba could have a record-setting U.S. IPO

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba filed paperwork Tuesday for what's expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings in history.

But before you start looking at ways to tie the name of the company to the main character of a Middle Eastern folk tale - as I have - let's start with the basics.

"Alibaba is an online marketplace where mostly Chinese companies and some Western companies sell their products to customers and other businesses," according to The New York Times.

Bloomberg says: "The Chinese company that's quite a combination, if you would, between Amazon, eBay and Google."

The man at the center of Alibaba is Jack Ma, a billionaire entrepreneur who's previously worked as an English teacher, according to ABC. So how did he become the Zuckerberg of China?

As Ma has probably told reporters hundreds of times by now, he went online for the first time in 1995 during a trip to Seattle. The Washington Post reports Ma "saw how little information existed about Chinese companies," so decided to build one of his own - although he says he doesn't know much about technology.

In 1999, he founded Alibaba. He and 17 other people started working out of his apartment and what do they have to show for it now? Ridiculous numbers.

Let's talk revenue and profit: Forbes says "Alibaba stated revenues of more than $6.5 billion on profits of about $2.8 billion" nine months into its 2014 fiscal year. The company also reported as many as 231 million active buyers in December of 2013.

The company that began in an apartment is now valued at upwards of $200 billion - Facebook's IPO valuation was $104 billion - and, according to Bloomberg, Alibaba is expected to raise more than $20 billion in its offering. That'll beat out Visa's $19.65 billion and Facebook, which had the largest tech IPO at $16.01 billion.

But why is a Chinese company doing a public offering in the U.S.? A senior analyst at Morningstar, an investment research firm, told Mashable, "By listing in the U.S. you open up the doors to a lot more potential investors. ... The U.S. listing will add a layer of creditability."

But Alibaba isn't the only company benefitting from the U.S. IPO. USA Today reports Yahoo acquired a 40 percent stake in Alibaba for $1 billion in 2005. Yahoo sold almost half of that for $7 billion in 2012. The company now owns almost a fourth of Alibaba, a share which could be worth billions of dollars following a very favorable IPO, according to USA Today.

Alibaba put down $1 billion as a placeholder for its paperwork filed with the Securities Exchange Commission. We won't know the exact amount Alibaba will raise until its IPO, which is expected later this year.

US Report: Warming Disrupting Americans' Lives

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)​

WASHINGTON (AP) - Global warming is rapidly turning America into a stormy and dangerous place, with rising seas and disasters costing citizens from flood-stricken Florida to the wildfire-ravaged West, according to a new U.S. federal scientific report.

Climate change's assorted harms "are expected to become increasingly disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond," the National Climate Assessment concluded Tuesday.

The report emphasizes how warming and its all-too-wild weather are changing daily lives, even using the phrase "climate disruption" as another way of saying global warming.

Still, it's not too late to prevent the worst of climate change, says the 840-page report, which the White House is highlighting as it tries to jump-start often stalled efforts to curb heat-trapping gases.

However, if the U.S. and the world don't change the way they use energy, "we're still on the pathway to more damage and danger of the type that are described in great detail in the rest of this report," said study co-author Henry Jacoby, co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jacoby, other scientists and White House officials said this is the most detailed and U.S.-focused scientific report on global warming.

"Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present," the report says. "Corn producers in Iowa, oyster growers in Washington state and maple syrup producers in Vermont are all observing climate-related changes that are outside of recent experience."

The report looks at regional and state-level effects of global warming, compared with recent reports from the United Nations that lumped all of North America together. A draft of the report was released in January 2013, but this version has been reviewed by more scientists, the National Academy of Science and 13 government agencies and had public comment. It is written in a bit more simple language so people could realize "that there's a new source of risk in their lives," said study lead author Gary Yohe of Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Even though the nation's average temperature has risen by as much as 1.9 degrees since record keeping began in 1895, it's in the big, wild weather where the average person feels climate change the most, said co-author Katharine Hayhoe, a Texas Tech University climate scientist. Extreme weather like droughts, storms and heat waves hit us in the pocketbooks and can be seen by our own eyes, she said.

And it's happening a lot more often lately.

The report says the intensity, frequency and duration of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes have increased since the early 1980s, but it is still uncertain how much of that is from man-made warming. Winter storms have increased in frequency and intensity and shifted northward since the 1950s, it says. Also, heavy downpours are increasing - by 71 percent in the Northeast. Heat waves, such as those in Texas in 2011 and the Midwest in 2012, are projected to intensify nationwide. Droughts in the Southwest are expected to get stronger. Sea level has risen 8 inches (20 centimeters) since 1880 and is projected to rise between 1 foot (0.3 meters) and 4 feet (1.2 meters) by 2100.

Since January 2010, 43 of the lower 48 states have set at least one monthly record for heat, such as California having its warmest January on record this year. In the past 51 months, states have set 80 monthly records for heat, 33 records for being too wet, 12 for lack of rain and just three for cold, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal weather records.

"We're being hit hard," Hayhoe said, comparing America to a boxer. "We're holding steady, and we're getting hit in the jaw. We're starting to recover from one punch, and another punch comes."

The report also says "climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways." Those include smoke-filled air from more wildfires, smoggy air from pollution, more diseases from tainted food, water, mosquitoes and ticks. And then there's more pollen because of warming weather and the effects of carbon dioxide on plants. Ragweed pollen season has lengthened by 24 days in the Minnesota-North Dakota region between 1995 and 2011, the report says. In other parts of the Midwest, the pollen season has gotten longer by anywhere from 11 days to 20 days.

And all this will come with a hefty cost, the report says.

Flooding alone may cost $325 billion by the year 2100 in one of the worst-case scenarios, with $130 billion of that in Florida, the report says. Already the droughts and heat waves of 2011 and 2012 added about $10 billion to farm costs, the report says. Billion-dollar weather disasters have hit everywhere across the nation, but have hit Texas, Oklahoma and the Southeast most often, the report says.