Athmo GFX

In the United States, the earliest settlers claimed land by simply fencing it in. Later, as the American government formed, unsettled land became technically owned by the government and programs to register land ownership developed, usually making raw land available for low prices or for free, if the owner improved the property, including the construction of fences.

Privacy fencing is the use of fences to protect privacy, usually by preventing outsiders from seeing onto a property. There are cultural differences with regards to the use of fences around properties. For instance, it is common in European countries to put a fence around the entire border of one's property, including the front border, with a gate to obtain access to the property. However, in many parts of North America, fences are commonly used only on the borders between properties that back onto each other (on the side away from the street) and along the sides of properties up to the point where the house begins. Such fences are often made of chainlink and do not prevent people from seeing into neighboring yards. They may be intended to mark property lines or to keep dogs in, or out of, yards. The front yards in such neighborhoods are often open to the street.

Fence Fort Worth

Let me tell you a fairy tale. Once upon a time, a gorgeous blond California girl -- let's call her "Carrie" -- wanted to be a beauty queen.

Asked about gay marriage, "Carrie" blurted out her truth: "I believe all Americans should enjoy equal rights to get married whether it is same-sex or opposite marriage. That's the way I was raised, and that's the way I think marriage should be."

Afterward, a judge proclaimed her answer so offensive he voted against her and wanted to rip off her tiara. Instead of rebuking the judge, pageant officials said that "Carrie" needs to meet anti-gay marriage folk to assuage the "hurt" she has caused them. A media firestorm ensued.

"Carrie" explains to the press that her Christian faith taught her that gay marriage was right. She even appears at a press conference with the Human Rights Campaign, which some said violated her contractual obligations.

Roll back the tape. What would that alternate Carrie's life be like right now?

Carrie Prejean is right.

She has made many mistakes in her young life, including some that Catholics like me would call sins. But when I was 22 years old, Carrie's age, I had a child out of wedlock.

I hope young women watching learn something from Carrie's ordeal; ideally something like: Don't have sex with men who aren't willing to marry you. But if that is too elevated an ideal, try this one: Girls, don't send any pic to your boyfriend you don't want your mom or Matt Lauer to see.

An embarrassed Carrie wasn't fully truthful about her private and personal life, which ended up making things more difficult for her. (Could any of those folks who defended Bill Clinton's right to commit perjury about sex please step up and say a kind word or two for Carrie?)

But fundamentally, Carrie is right: None of this spectacle would be happening to her if she had submitted instead of speaking truth to Hollywood power.

The hatred she has generated is inexplicable and ugly. The people who are intent on sexually shaming Carrie have no shame themselves. Admittedly, I am getting kind of old. But in my old-fashioned view, boyfriends who release personal information on ex-girlfriends for money and/or to embarrass them are scum. I don't understand the newsworthiness of these allegations.

Seven million Californians voted for Prop 8. Quite a few of them are people who committed sexual sins of various kinds. Why is this one 22-year-old girl carrying the whole weight of that on her young shoulders?

A few people have asked me if Carrie is now going to "stop" working for me. The truth is she doesn't work for NOM (National Organization for Marriage). We cut a TV ad without asking her approval using publicly available footage, and then we asked her to appear at a press conference to promote it. Out of the goodness of her heart she agreed, for which I remain grateful. I was asked to introduce her at several events, and I would do so again.

I really wanted Carrie to work for me because I believed she may have had a calling to help fight for the other Americans who believe as she does that marriage is the union of husband and wife.

But Carrie did not want to be a crusader on the gay marriage issue, or the leader of a Christian youth movement. She just wanted to be a model, or an entertainer, or a sportscaster, or a news reader -- the kind of thing you'd imagine a 22-year-old beauty queen might dream about. I don't know why so many people are exulting over the idea they may have killed her young dreams.

I hope the people gleeful about this attack are enjoying their pyrrhic victory. What they have done says far more about them than about Carrie, who turns out to be a not-unusual California 22-year-old.

(Maggie Gallagher is president of the National Organization for Marriage and has been a syndicated columnist for 14 years.)

RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina's consumer protection chief for Attorney General Roy Cooper has been picked to join the Federal Trade Commission.
President Obama nominated Julie Brill to the five-member commission that oversees consumer protection and lawful competition in the economy. The White House announced the nomination Monday.
Brill joined Cooper's Department of Justice in February as senior deputy attorney general. She previously served as an assistant attorney general in Vermont for more than 20 years. Brill is also a lecturer at Columbia University School of Law.
The Senate must confirm the nomination of Brill, who would serve a seven-year term.

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Don't expect the expanded home buyer tax credit to be a permanent cure for the U.S. housing market. It won't.

Take the spike in mortgage demand created by the tax credit this summer. It was followed by a plunge as the incentive was set to expire, showing how housing's recovery is tethered to government aid.

As the economy emerges from a recession triggered by the housing market crisis, increasing home sales is viewed as essential. Housing and related business account for about 20 percent of the economy, and more sales means more spending on everything from dishwashers to energy-efficient windows.

The Obama administration last week extended an $8,000 first-time buyer credit, added a $6,500 provision for move-up buyers and increased income limits. Eligible borrowers must sign contracts by April 30 and close loans by June 30, 2010 instead of closing by the end of this month.

Both the credit and another major government action -- the purchase of more than $1.4 trillion in mortgage-related securities aimed at cutting home loan rates -- will now end within weeks of each other. The purchases stop by March 31.

Unless the employment picture brightens around that time, housing does not have enough footing to forge a recovery on its own, most economists and industry experts said.

"Housing was going to fall off a cliff if they didn't do it," said John Burns, president of John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, California. "We're still expecting a leg down, but it shouldn't be as significant" as his prior estimate, which called for sales to plunge as much as 30 percent.

Up to 400,000 people bought a home for the first time due to the credit, boosting first-time buyers to a record 47 percent of sales over the past year, the National Association of Realtors has said.

With the help of the credit, existing home sales will rise 2 percent this year and 13.6 percent in 2010, the group estimates.

The housing credit has pulled many a wary buyer off of the fence, but it is not a fix to the mess of troubles that spawned the deepest housing slump since the Great Depression.

This is a slow, tentative recovery, evidenced by the most recent reading of builder sentiment of the National Association of Home Builders. Its index remained at a low 17 in November while a reading above 50 indicates more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

If the government pulls out the rug "when the economy is growing and we're actually adding jobs, we will have essentially managed our way through this and the leg down won't be very significant" in housing, said Burns. "If it happened now, it would be devastating."

Mortgage rates hover near record lows below 5 percent but will start rising as the economy improves and the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage bonds.

Burns expects home price gains for at least the next six months while the government supports are in place. "We're telling our clients to sell homes as quickly as they can now because of uncertainty in the back half of 2010."

LIFE SUPPORT

These extraordinary life-saving measures raised new-home sales for five straight months before a dip in September and pushed existing home sales to a two-year high.

While housing typically slows in winter months and heats up again in spring, sales could be pulled forward this year because of the credit.

"The decision to extend the credit was really to try to avoid the downside risk of the unraveling of this modest recovery," said Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Consumers are well aware of this: Applications to purchase homes sank last week to a nine-year low, the Mortgage Bankers Association said, as buyers held out in hopes that the tax credit would be revived.

Following the tax credit extension, website traffic at real estate search engine Trulia.com jumped to record levels, increasing by 75 percent in the first week of November from a year ago.

Few disagree that affordability is a major lure, with record low borrowing costs and home prices that have tumbled on average by about 30 percent from 2006 peaks.

"Economists, though, do worry about programs like this that can borrow demand from the future," Retsinas said.

"It's hard to describe the housing market as stable or being in good shape when over 3 million families are receiving foreclosure notices this year," he added.

Questionable lending practices earlier in the decade and now 26-1/2-year high unemployment forced record numbers of struggling homeowners to lose their homes this year.

A federal mandate for lenders to alter terms on many failing loans is gaining traction. But just 20 percent of those eligible are in trial modifications, the Treasury said, and it is unclear how many of these will be permanent or successful.

"We don't think the recovery could occur in the absence of this housing tax credit," said Richard Smith, chief executive of Realogy Corp, parent of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Century 21 and other real estate companies. "All things being equal, however, we need to look at unemployment and creation of jobs."

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

NEW YORK – Zack Greinke won the American League Cy Young Award on Tuesday, beating out Felix Hernandez after a spectacular season short on wins but long on domination.
Greinke went 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA for the Kansas City Royals. Hernandez went 19-5 with a 2.49 ERA for the Seattle Mariners.
Greinke received 25 first-place votes and three seconds for 134 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Hernandez drew two firsts, 23 seconds and one third for 80 points.
Detroit's Justin Verlander was third with the remaining first-place vote and nine thirds for 14 points. He was followed by the Yankees' CC Sabathia with 13 points and Toronto's Roy Halladay with 11 points.
The NL winner will be announced Thursday.
Greinke's ERA was the lowest in the AL since Pedro Martinez's 1.74 ERA in 2000 and his 242 strikeouts were second in the league behind Verlander.
It was quite a turnaround for the 26-year-old right-hander, who was the sixth overall pick in the 2002 amateur draft but led the AL in losses in 2005 when he went 5-17.
He left spring training in February 2006 and went home to Florida with what later was diagnosed as a social anxiety disorder. He started working out in the minors about six weeks later and returned to the majors in late September.
Greinke was 7-7 the following year and 13-10 in 2008 before his breakout season.
His victory total matched that of Arizona's Brandon Webb three years ago for the fewest by a starting pitcher to win a Cy Young Award in a non-shortened season and was the fewest by an AL starter to win in a full-length season.
Kansas City, which tied for last place in the AL Central at 65-97, scored just 13 runs in his eight losses and 21 runs in his nine no-decisions. He failed to get a victory in six starts in which he allowed one run or none.
He was particularly sharp at the start and finish, going 5-0 with a 0.50 ERA in April and 5-0 with a 1.29 ERA in his last eight starts. He didn't allow any runs in his first three starts and any earned runs in his first four, and his 0.84 ERA through 10 starts was the first below 1.00 in the major leagues since Juan Marichal's 0.55 in 1966.
He struck out 15 over eight innings against Cleveland on Aug. 25, then followed five days later by pitching a one-hitter at Seattle. After Kenji Johjima's soft second-inning single, Greinke retired his final 22 batters.
Greinke, who agreed to a $38 million, four-year contract last winter, receives a $100,000 bonus for winning.
The first-place votes for Hernandez came from Chris Assenheimer of The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria, Ohio, and Mark Feinsand of the Daily News In New York. Verlander's first-place vote was cast by Steve Kornacki of Booth Newspapers in Michigan.

Computer software is often regarded as anything but hardware, meaning that the "hard" are the parts that are tangible while the "soft" part is the intangible objects inside the computer. Software encompasses an extremely wide array of products and technologies developed using different techniques like programming languages, scripting languages or even microcode or a FPGA state. The types of software include web pages developed by technologies like HTML, PHP, Perl, JSP, ASP.NET, XML, and desktop applications like OpenOffice, Microsoft Word developed by technologies like C, C++, Java, C#, etc. Software usually runs on an underlying software operating systems such as the Linux or Microsoft Windows. Software also includes video games and the logic systems of modern consumer devices such as automobiles, televisions, toasters, etc.

The term "software" was first used in this sense by John W. Tukey in 1958. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all computer programs. The theory that is the basis for most modern software was first proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.

Club Membership Software

Details of a mousepad designed by Armando M. Fernandez were published in the Xerox Disclosure Journal in 1979 with the description:

There is now a fairly large variety of high quality "gaming grade" mousepads. In the beginning there were only a few such manufacturers: Everglide (arguably the first to come onto the market), fUnc Industries, Icemat, SteelSeries and Ratpadz (made by [H]ard|OCP). In 2005, several more companies followed suit, including Razer, Qpad, Corepad, Xtracpads, X-Ray, Gamerzstuff, Ideazon, and Allsop. These pads are available in a wide variety of sizes to suit the different sensitivity settings that gamers choose. The Corepad Deskpad XXXL, one of the largest pads on the market, measures 90cm x 45cm.

http://www.a1imaging.com/

Wallets may also have an identification pocket, which facilitates the display of a regularly-used piece of identification such as workplace ID or a bus pass, by housing it within a transparent "window". A wallet may also have photo pockets, which are designed to hold a collection of small personal photographs. A wallet may also have a small pouch for coins or keys.

Specialist designers include Ben & Dafna, who create wallets made from duct tape in Camden Market; J Fold, that offer a large range of colourful leather wallets; Stewart-Stand, a New York design house that designs wallets made from woven stainless steel; and db clay a company based in Portland Oregon that creates unique wallets dubbed "pocket art".

Mens Wallets

Florida Life Insurance

An insurer's underwriting performance is measured in its combined ratio. The loss ratio (incurred losses and loss-adjustment expenses divided by net earned premium) is added to the expense ratio (underwriting expenses divided by net premium written) to determine the company's combined ratio. The combined ratio is a reflection of the company's overall underwriting profitability. A combined ratio of less than 100 percent indicates profitability, while anything over 100 indicates a loss.

o Environmental liability insurance protects the
insured from bodily injury, property damage and cleanup costs as a result of the dispersal, release or escape of pollutants.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
An outbreak of food-borne illness, linked to dangerous bacteria in ground beef, sickened 28 people and may have caused two deaths in the U.S. Northeast, health officials said on Monday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all but three of the illnesses were in the Northeast and 18 were in the six New England states. A common strain of E. coli bacteria was involved so tests were under way to see if all of the reported cases have the same cause.

State officials said a death in New Hampshire was linked to the ground beef that is being recalled by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York. The New York State Health Department said a death in the Albany area from E. coli O157:H7 bacteria was being investigated to see if it is linked.

New Hampshire officials did not release information about the death in their state. The death in New York state last month involved an adult with underlying medical conditions, said the CDC. Two people were hospitalized in New Hampshire.

Fairbank Farms announced the recall on Saturday of 545,699 lbs (248,450 kg) of fresh ground beef products. The beef was produced in mid-September and probably was labeled for sale by the end of the month, said USDA.

The Agriculture Department, which oversees meat safety, said an investigation led it to conclude "there is an association between the fresh ground beef products and illnesses in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts." USDA worked with state and federal officials in examining a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses.

A potentially deadly bacteria, E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness.

USDA said it would examine Fairbank Farms' food safety plan this week.

A string of food-borne safety scares led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation this summer to require more inspections and oversight of food manufacturers and would give the government new authority to order recalls.

The Fairbank Farms beef went to retailers including Trader Joe's, Price Chopper, Lancaster and Wild Harvest, Shaw's, a unit of Supervalu, BJ's, Ford Brothers and Giant, a unit of Ahold, in eight states -- Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

A complete list of products is available at:

http://link.reuters.com/vyx27f

The beef was produced September 14-16, and the company urged consumers to check their freezers for products listed in the recall. Labels of the recalled packages will say EST 492 inside the USDA seal.

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by Christian Wiessner)

ALBANY, N.Y. – With the Republican out of the race and unions lining up behind their candidate, national Democrats on Monday used a high-profile campaigner and ramped up get-out-the-vote efforts to try to grab a congressional seat in a district held for decades by the GOP.
On the other side, a splintered Republican Party brought in its own big names to try to salve over wounds opened by a bruising special election campaign that has seen a maverick third-party conservative candidate outgun the hand-picked Republican.
Away from the rallies, organized labor claiming membership of 110,000 people in the sprawling 23rd Congressional District knocked on doors, staffed phone banks and flooded the radio waves to give Democrat Bill Owens its united, last-minute clout in the last 72 hours of his unpredictable campaign against Doug Hoffman, a member of the state's Conservative Party.
Hoffman and Owens scrambled in the final hours to win the district, which stretches from eastern Lake Ontario up and over to the Canadian and Vermont borders and has suddenly become a national battleground for the identity of the Republican Party.
What started as a three-way race with Hoffman initially playing the role of spoiler turned into a frantic duel when Republican Dierdre Scozzafava abruptly dropped out over the weekend and backed Owens. She was sharply criticized in the strongly Republican district for some views, including her support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage, that some conservatives balked at.
The schism has pushed high-profile support Hoffman's way, including from former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and others. Scozzafava was initially backed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said he was disappointed by her support of Owens following her withdrawal.
Polls have shown the two candidates nearly even in the district, which has about 45,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.
Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, had a one-word answer Monday when asked if he regrets the money and support he and fellow party officials had given Scozzafava. "Yes," he said.
He later added: "This lady clearly has an agenda that's different from most Republicans. She was out there for herself."
Speaking in Watertown on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden said the Conservatives' view is narrow and a reflection of failed Bush-Cheney policies, espousing a philosophy that "you are either absolutely right or morally wrong.'"
"We need to bring people together, not divide them," Biden said. "This is a place ... where people have strong views but not closed minds."
Meanwhile, automated calls by Rudy Giuliani, the former presidential candidate and New York City mayor who helped comfort the nation after 9/11, flooded telephone lines.
"Voting for Doug Hoffman is the only way to stop (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi from gaining one more liberal vote for higher taxes, higher federal deficits and government-run health care," Giuliani stated in his automated phone calls.
John Rich of the country music duo Big & Rich was performing Monday evening at a rally for Hoffman, where Fred Thompson, a former GOP presidential candidate and star of TV's "Law & Order," was speaking.
But the tumultuous weekend could help the Democrat out, too.
The AFL-CIO and the New York State United Teachers union united over the weekend for Owens.
"That's key for Owens," said Steven Greenberg of the Siena College poll. "There are not many unions who have the get-out-vote potential" of the teachers union.
____

Associated Press writers Michael Gormley in Albany and William Kates in Watertown contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
"Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and agent Bryan Lourd were among big Hollywood names named on Monday as members of U.S. President Barack Obama's Committee on Arts and the Humanities.

The panel focuses on arts and humanities education, cultural diplomacy, economic revitalization through the arts and humanities and special events.

First lady Michelle Obama is its honorary chairwoman and film producer George Stevens Jr. and theater producer Margo Lion had already been named as its co-chairs.

Besides Parker, Whitaker and Lourd, who is a partner and managing director of Creative Artists Agency, other Hollywood figures named to the group included actors Edward Norton, Kerry Washington and Alfre Woodard, director George Wolfe, independent filmmaker Liz Manne and publicist Andy Spahn.

The list of 25 people from the worlds of arts and entertainment also included cellist Yo Yo Ma, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, philanthropist Teresa Heinz, architect Thom Mayne and ballet dancer Damian Woetzel. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

CARACAS, Venezuela – Two soldiers in Venezuela's National Guard have been shot to death near the border with Colombia.
State television says unidentified assailants gunned down the soldiers at a roadside checkpoint in the western state of Tachira. It says Monday's slayings were confirmed by the National Guard and police.
Phone calls to the National Guard's offices went unanswered. The guard is separate from Venezuela's army.
Colombian rebels, paramilitary groups and drug traffickers operate along the remote border.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AFP) –
A suicide bomber targeted workers queuing for their salaries outside a Pakistani bank and hotel on Monday, killing 35 people as the United Nations pulled expatriate staff from the northwest.

The twin blows to Pakistan eclipsed the military's announcement that troops had captured a key Taliban-held town during a major offensive in the tribal belt and offered five million dollars for Taliban chiefs dead or alive.

Monday's attack, near army headquarters in Rawalpindi, turned a routine day into bloodshed for the second time in less than a week, showing the enormity of the threat that Al-Qaeda-linked militants pose in Pakistan.

The blast showered the area with human flesh, smeared blood on the ground and shattered the windows of a multi-storey block housing the bank and four-star Shalimar Hotel.

"Our building shook as if in an earthquake and when we came out there was smoke everywhere and body parts were thrown into our office," Raja Sher Ali, a marketing manager in a local company, told AFP. Related article: Pakistan posts massive rewards for Taliban leaders

A surge in violence left more than 300 people dead last month, when Pakistan began a major offensive against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the tribal belt where US officials say Al-Qaeda are plotting attacks on the West.

On Monday evening two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a police checkpoint at the entrance to Lahore city, wounding seven people, a senior police official said.

"A car was stopped at the checkpost and the two suicide bombers in the car exploded themselves. We have found legs and a head," city police chief Pervez Rathor told reporters.

Rathor said the car was packed with a huge quantity of explosives and "could have caused a catastrophe" had it entered the city.

The deadly Rawalpindi bombing was also the work of a suicide bomber, police said, although rescue workers said the cause was still unclear.

"The suicide bomber came on a motorcycle and blew up close to people gathered to get salaries. We found parts of a suicide vest and some body parts of the suicide attacker," senior police official Aslam Tarin told reporters.

"Thirty-five were killed and more than 60 wounded," Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told a news conference. Four security personnel were among the dead and nine others wounded, the military said. Scene: Bomb survivors recall bloodshed

The attack occurred near Pakistan's army headquarters, where 10 gunmen kept up a nearly 24-hour siege last month that left 23 people dead and deeply embarrassed the military.

Pakistan claimed more successes Monday in its US-endorsed fight against Islamist networks which have killed more than 2,420 people within the nuclear-armed Muslim nation since July 2007.

"Kanigurram is now under the complete control of security forces," Major General Athar Abbas told reporters, hailing what he called a "significant achievement" after two days of street battles in the South Waziristan town.

Commanders on the battlefield have described Kanigurram as a major TTP "operational centre" and base for Uzbek fighters.

But the United Nations announced it was pulling out non-essential international staff from northwest Pakistan, days after at least 118 people were slaughtered in a car bomb in its local capital Peshawar.

"They will be relocated. Immediately," Ishrat Rizvi, a UN spokeswoman, told AFP of the expatriate workers in the area. She could not immediately say how many staff the decision affected.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon raised the security level to "phase four" in the North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

"The decision has been taken bearing in mind the intense security situation in the region," a UN statement said.

On October 5, five UN World Food Programme workers died when a suicide bomber walked into their Islamabad office and blew himself up. The TTP claimed responsibility.

Pakistan on Monday offered rewards worth five million dollars for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of the country's Taliban warlord Hakimullah Mehsud and 18 lieutenants.

The country's army chief Ashfaq Kayani discussed matters of "mutual" and "professional interest" Monday in separate talks with General Sir David Richards, Britain's Chief of General Staff, and US General Stanley McChrystal, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, the military said.

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont utility regulators are doing something unusual. The Public Service Board is holding a lottery to see which solar and biomass power developers get to sell their power at above-market prices.
The Legislature this year set special rates Vermont's utilities would be required to pay for up to 50 megawatts worth of renewable energy — about a 20th of the state's power demand.
When they opened proposals from developers, they totaled more than 200 megawatts of power, the vast majority of it for solar, but biomass also exceeded its quota.
So the board decided to hold a lottery to determine which of the proposals are accepted.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) –
U.S. President Barack Obama should do much more to ensure Congress passes a greenhouse emissions bill, giving global climate talks a major boost, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Panel said on Thursday.

Rajendra Pachauri, whose panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. vice president Al Gore, said legislation clarifying U.S. emissions targets would make all the difference to a climate conference in Copenhagen in December.

"I personally feel that he ought to be doing a lot more," Pachauri told reporters on the sidelines of a conference, when asked about Obama's commitment to combating climate change.

"I think that President Obama really needs to assert himself to see that the U.S. passes legislation -- it will make all the difference to negotiations," he said, referring to the Copenhagen talks on Dec. 7-18.

Pressure is growing before the Copenhagen conference for officials from 190 nations to agree a U.N. climate pact replacing the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012.

The European Union has already agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, but the United States has yet to pass similar legislation on its emissions targets.

While the House of Representatives has approved a 2020 target to cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels, Congress as a whole has not approved any legislation, and analysts doubt that Obama will sign a bill by December.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said earlier this month that he was very worried time was running out before the Copenhagen conference.

The EU has pressured the United States to do more to secure a deal, and senior officials from the bloc will meet Obama in Washington early next month to discuss climate change, among other issues.

(Reporting by Nick Vinocur; editing by David Stamp)

TOPEKA, Kan. – The memory still bothers Ken Keller: A panicked ambulance crew had a critically ill patient, but the man weighed more than 1,000 pounds and could not fit inside the vehicle. And the stretcher wasn't sturdy enough to hold him.
The crew offered an idea to Keller, who was then an investigator with the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services. Could they use a forklift to load the man — bed and all — onto a flatbed truck? Keller agreed: There was no other choice.
"I'm sure it was terribly embarrassing to be in his own bed, riding on the back of a flatbed with straps tying him down, going to the hospital, and then have a forklift at the hospital unload him," Keller said.
As the nation battles the obesity crisis, ambulance crews are trying to improve how they transport extremely heavy patients, who become significantly more difficult to move as they surpass 350 pounds. And caring for such patients is expensive, requiring costly equipment and extra workers, so some ambulance companies have started charging higher fees for especially overweight people.
The move to modify ambulances is just the latest effort to accommodate plus-sized patients. Some hospitals already offer specially designed beds, wheelchairs, walkers and even commodes.
Ambulance companies say it's time for insurance providers, Medicaid and Medicare, or patients themselves to begin paying the added costs, which are cutting into their razor-thin profit margins.
In the past, ambulance companies often absorbed the extra expense of serving the obese. Now they are adding charges similar to those already imposed on intensive-care patients, people requiring multiple medications and patients on ventilators.
"In order for these systems to survive and continue to provide their service, there has to be some way to recover those costs," said Jim Buell, a director at the American Ambulance Association.
Transporting extremely heavy people costs about 2 1/2 times as much as normal-weight patients. It takes more time to move them and requires three to four times more crew members, who often must use expensive specialty equipment, Buell said.
Keller, now an operations manager for the American Medical Response unit in Topeka, successfully petitioned the Shawnee County Commission last summer to raise ambulance fees from $629 to $1,172 for critical-care patients and people who are 500 pounds or heavier.
In Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Nebraska cities of Omaha and Lincoln, the fees are $1,421 for an extremely obese patient, compared with $758 for a typical patient.
Before those ambulances had heavy-duty equipment, crews just had to make do, often calling in burly firefighters to help lift patients.
"I've heard stories of people moved by U-Haul trucks and sides of mobile homes having to be removed to move patients out, things of that nature," said Ted Sayer, a general manager for the American Medical Response unit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long said that nearly a third of Americans are obese. About 5 percent of the population is morbidly obese, meaning they are more than 100 pounds heavier than their ideal weight.
Some critics say the higher fees are a form of discrimination.
"Ambulance services are a critical public service and should accommodate the needs of all of those who require them at a fair cost," said Joseph Nadglowski, president of the Obesity Action Coalition, a group that advocates for the obese.
Higher payments for heavy patients are commonplace in Oregon and Washington because the insurance industry there acknowledges the additional costs, said Liz Merritt, a spokeswoman for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Rural/Metro Corporation, an ambulance provider.
Ambulance companies say the insurance industry is their best hope for closing the financial gap.

As with any medical service, ambulance companies bill private insurers or government health care programs. Medicare and Medicaid do not pay extra for transporting the extremely obese, although that's something the ambulance industry wants to change. The uninsured are charged directly, but many of them cannot pay.

"It's really an emerging area," said Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for the America's Health Insurance Plans, an insurance industry trade group. "It is one more way that obesity is contributing to health costs."

Proponents of the extra fees say obese patients are grateful for equipment that eliminates the need for flatbed trucks and forklifts.

"We've noticed that people who are heavy know that they are heavy, and they don't want to impose on others, and they don't want someone injured while moving them," Sayer said.

Like many ambulance companies, Keller's unit in Topeka recently spent about $10,000 to retrofit an ambulance with equipment that accommodates patients weighing up to 1,600 pounds. Ambulance services with helicopters also are creating larger patient compartments and adding stronger gurneys.

Sales of specialized lift systems nationwide are expected to reach $193 million by 2012, up from $75 million in 2004, according to EMS Insider, an industry newsletter. The sale of specialized stretchers is expected to nearly double to $50 million in 2012.

Keller is hopeful more companies add the equipment so the very obese will receive better care. He recently went out on a call involving a severely overweight woman.

"The family was there, and we brought the cot in and helped her onto the cot. And she said, 'I appreciate it so much, you looking out for our needs,'" Keller said. "And I thought that was pretty cool."

ANAHEIM, Calif. – CC Sabathia taps his beefy right hand on the wooden door of his clubhouse locker and grins. Not that the power pitcher who's on a playoff roll for the New York Yankees needs a lot of luck. Still, he's not taking any chances.
"I don't want to jinx anything or say anything I shouldn't, but I've been feeling pretty good," he said. "Hopefully, I'll just keep it going, keep it rolling, and we win the whole thing."
Sabathia's dominance in these playoffs has helped put the Yankees on the brink of reaching their first World Series since 2003. They took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven American League championship series into Thursday's night game against the Los Angeles Angels.
"That's why we got CC," Johnny Damon said. "To be a workhorse during the season, of course, but to shut down teams in the postseason."
Sabathia, who defeated the Angels in Games 1 and 4, would be in position to pitch Game 7 on four days' rest if necessary. But unless the Angels regain their offensive punch, it's more likely he'll be well-rested for the World Series opener next Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
That's when Sabathia could go against former Cleveland teammate Cliff Lee, who is slated to pitch Game 1 for his new team, the Philadelphia Phillies. They defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 to clinch the NLCS on Wednesday night.
Sabathia was 2-3 with a 7.92 ERA in five playoff starts with Cleveland and Milwaukee before this season, but he's been superb this October, going 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 22.2 innings.
The Yankees' left-hander yielded five hits and one run in eight innings while striking out five and walking two in Game 4 against the Angels, throwing 101 pitches on three days' rest. He retired the last eight batters he faced.
"I never had any doubt about me being able to perform on this stage and to pitch well late in October, but it seems like people did," Sabathia said. "But I feel great."
Sabathia's go-to pitch is his changeup, something the 6-foot-7, 290-pounder added to his repertoire when he reached the majors in 2001 with Cleveland and has perfected ever since.
"That was probably the biggest thing we had trouble adjusting to," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He threw it on off-counts and had great command of it."
Sabathia cost the Yankees $161 million to acquire, but he's been economical on the mound.
In Game 1 of the ALCS, he allowed four hits in eight innings, struck out seven and walked one, going to three-ball counts just twice.
Sabathia's four shutout innings to open Game 4 marked the first time in eight career postseason starts that he hasn't been scored upon in the first four innings.
"I don't think you can say enough what he's done so far in this series," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "One of the reasons he's able to amass so many innings is he doesn't throw a lot of pitches in seven or eight innings. He can give you that almost every time he goes out. Very seldom do you see him with 100 pitches in five innings."
Sabathia said joining the Yankees this season was made easier by the addition A.J. Burnett, who came from Toronto. They've combined with veteran Andy Pettitte to form a lethal three-man rotation.
"I came here and from day one, Andy has been a big help," Sabathia said. "I talk with A.J. about emotions, when you're feeling strong how to keep that and how to keep your delivery tight."
Burnett's on-field pie-throwing after games has loosened up his teammates. When he's not cutting up, he finds inspiration from following Sabathia in the rotation.

"It seems like every night he throws I give him a hug and say, `Man, you just inspired me to go tomorrow,'" Burnett said. "That's who he is. He's a horse. He throws eight innings every time out, and he sets the tone. We talked about it when we signed him, about being able to throw back-to-back, and it's been an honor. It makes you go harder."

Girardi presides over a clubhouse full of future Hall of Famers in his own low-key manner while marveling at Sabathia's ability to keep his composure no matter how high the stakes get in the postseason.

"Sometimes people get a little overanxious or hyped up," Girardi said. "I've not ever seen that during the season with CC. He's the same guy every day. That's one of the big pluses about him because it allows him to do his job every time."

However, the remaining vast tracts of unsettled land were often used as a commons, or, in the American west, "open range." As degradation of habitat developed due to overgrazing and a tragedy of the commons situation arose, common areas began to either be allocated to individual landowners via mechanisms such as the Homestead Act and Desert Land Act and fenced in, or, if kept in public hands, leased to individual users for limited purposes, with fences built to separate tracts of public and private land.

Five foot high fences (over which many people can see and talk) are increasingly being superseded by six-foot fences giving the impression of complete privacy.

Garden Gates

LOS ANGELES – Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Colin Egglesfield are moving out of "Melrose Place."
Their characters will make a final appearance on the CW drama in January, the network said Thursday.
Heather Locklear, who starred as Amanda in the 1990s "Melrose Place," is joining the new edition starting with the Nov. 17 episode.
Simpson-Wentz's Violet and Egglesfield's Auggie have been part of the murder mystery involving Sydney (Laura Leighton), whose death kicked off the season and who's been seen in flashbacks. Original cast member Thomas Calabro also co-stars.
(This version CORRECTS APNewsNow. SUBS 3rd graf to correct spelling to 'Locklear')

LOS ANGELES – Lindsay Lohan is getting another chance.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel granted a request Friday morning by the "Mean Girls" star to extend her three-year probation another year.
The 23-year-old actress was placed on probation in 2007 after she pleaded guilty to two counts of being under the influence of cocaine and no contest to two counts of drunken driving and one count of reckless driving. She spent 84 minutes in jail.
Lohan's lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, asked the judge for the probation extension because she said Lohan has been busy with work and unable complete her substance abuse treatment program. She is scheduled to return for a progress hearing Dec. 15.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lindsay Lohan has another date with a judge.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel has ordered the "Mean Girls" star to appear in a Beverly Hills, Calif., courtroom Friday morning.
The 23-year-old actress was placed on three years of probation in 2007 after she pleaded guilty to two counts of being under the influence of cocaine, and no contest to two counts of drunken driving and one count of reckless driving. She spent 84 minutes in jail.
It is unclear why Lohan has been ordered to appear. The judge's order was made during a routine progress report hearing on Wednesday.
Court records show that no warrant has been issued, and they do not reflect a probation violation has occurred.
E-mails to Lohan's publicist and attorney were not immediately returned Thursday.
Lohan's probation has not been without incident. Since January, the actress has escaped further punishment twice after her substance abuse treatment program notified the court she had violated the rules.
Both instances were described as misunderstandings.

Cap Cana

Cap Cana is a tourism development with an investment of upwards of two billion dollars in the eastern lands of the Dominican Republic. This area renown for its great hotels and beaches, lacks exclusivity to the high upper class which Cap Cana hopes, in part, to offer. The area was conceived with the backing both financially and publicly of "elites" such as Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, and other holders.

Cap Cana's area includes more than one-hundred and twenty millon square meters of land, of which twenty-five million will be developed in its first phase. It also includes 8 kilometers of beach and coasts, 5 of which are considered to be among the most spectacular in the Caribbean, locally considered to be neck-in-neck to the beaches of Bahia de Las Aguilas (literally, Bay of the Eagles) located in the southwestern municipality of Perdernales- often referred by past visitors as some of the most beautiful in the world.

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – If her check were bigger, 76-year-old Agnes Conti might be able to spring for a better cut of meat for her pot roast. She could afford to send her nine grandchildren more than $20 for their birthdays and Christmas. She'd be able to buy some nice new clothes, like she sees on QVC, not what she settles for at Walmart.
If only. The government has said the Social Security checks Conti and tens of millions of other seniors rely on as their primary source of income will not increase next year as consumer prices have fallen overall. And while the retired hospital clerk will get by, she'll be watching her spending even closer, knowing she can't expect the annual raise she's been accustomed to.
"We were good citizens all our lives. We went to work, we lived by the book, we weren't on welfare, we didn't ask the city for anything," Conti said while taking a break from crafts at a senior center here. "And what do we get?"
At the Southwest Focal Point Senior Center in this Fort Lauderdale suburb, seniors lamented the cost-of-living freeze and praised a White House plan for $250 checks to soften the blow. But they took all of the news in stride, saying they've had a lifetime of experience living on a fixed income and would manage with the money they currently receive.
Frank Ferreira sits in the center's lobby, near a decorative fireplace and an autumn centerpiece. The 90-year-old retired truck driver loves to sing, even practicing on a karaoke machine at home, and loves to dance even more. He gets about $890 a month from Social Security, most of which he hands over to his daughter to help pay his share of the bills.
The money isn't the biggest issue, Ferreira said. It's the message the government is sending about caring for seniors.
"I could use a little more, but that's all right, I get along," he said. "But I think that we deserve it, the elderly. You can't just discard them. You've got to help them."
Nearby, 89-year-old Miriam Danzinger is shuffling along with a walker. She gets about $1,300 monthly in Social Security, and after rent and other expenses, including a MediGap plan, she has little to spare. Her daughter helps pay her bills.
When her Chevrolet Cavalier broke down a few months back, Danzinger was forced to give it up. When she goes to the store, she's thrifty, having learned how to cut grocery costs when she ran a coffee shop. She lives as simply as possible.
"Listen, there's no money. People are going hungry," she said. "But what can I say? I'm only a little ant."
The freeze in next year's checks is the first since automatic Social Security cost-of-living increases were adopted in 1975, and follows a 5.8 percent increase in January, the largest since 1982. By law, the adjustments are pegged to inflation, which is negative this year because of lower energy costs.
The Obama administration plan to send $250 stimulus payments to about 57 million seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities, would amount to a roughly 2 percent raise for the average Social Security recipient. If approved, the checks would cost about $13 billion, though there is no plan yet how to finance them.
While seniors here have grown used to the annual raises, many of them said they're willing to cut the government some slack given the recession and the federal deficit.
"When they have the money, they give us the raise. If they don't have it, they don't have it," said Lucy Polieto, a retired waitress who lives in Southwest Ranches. She wears a glittery gold sweater and chains around her neck, and walks with a spry bounce that belies her 94 years. "Sometimes, I'm so surprised when I look at the check and I get a raise."
The news this week that checks would be stagnant is buffered by some positives: Seniors won't be getting any less than they already do, most recipients' Medicare part B premiums will freeze as well, and the president's plan could soften the blow. But because the one-time stimulus payments won't be a lifetime raise, it means many seniors will never see what amounts to thousands of dollars.
For those in poverty, the raise could have made a huge difference. But for the average senior simply living on a fixed income, it is seen less in dollars and cents, and more in the tangible costs they might be more careful with.
Polieto cooks eggplant, chicken cacciatori and pasta fazool. A raise could have given her more leeway with her grocery bill.
"Then I could buy some steaks, maybe," she said. "But I'd rather have a pork chop."

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) –
Jacques Audiard's French film "A Prophet," Michael Haneke's German film "The White Ribbon" and Bong Joon-ho's "Mother," from South Korea -- three films that have figured prominently on this year's festival circuit -- are among the titles being considered for the foreign-language film Oscar.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its list Thursday of the 65 countries that have submitted films for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.

Nominations will be announced on February 2, and the awards ceremony will take place March 7.

NEW YORK – Annie Leibovitz has won an extension on a $24 million loan in a financial dispute that threatened her rights to her famous images, the two sides said in a joint statement Friday.
Leibovitz and the company, Art Capital Group, said the 59-year-old photographer had been given more time to repay the loan. The loan's deadline passed on Tuesday, but both parties had continued to work to try to resolve the dispute. Neither party would specify the length of the extension.
"In these challenging times I am appreciative to Art Capital for all they have done to resolve this matter and for their cooperation and continued support," Leibovitz said in the statement.
Her spokesman Matthew Hiltzik declined to comment on specifics of the deal.
Last year, Leibovitz put up as collateral three Manhattan townhouses, an upstate New York property and the copyright to every picture she has ever taken — or will take — to secure the loan.
Leibovitz needed the money, according to Art Capital, to deal with a "dire financial condition" stemming from her mortgage obligations, tax liens and unpaid bills.
The company sued her in July, claiming she had breached an agreement that authorized it to act as the agent in the sale of her photography and real estate. On Friday, the parties said Art Capital withdrew the lawsuit and sold back the rights to her works.
Leibovitz "purchased from Art Capital its rights to act as exclusive agent in the sale of her real property and copyrights," the joint statement said. "Ms. Leibovitz will therefore retain control of those assets within the context of the loan agreement which shall prevail until satisfied."
The company declined to say how much Leibovitz paid for the company's rights to act as agent.
"It was important to us to be flexible and to work out an agreement with Ms. Leibovitz that helps her achieve financial stability," Art Capital said.
"I think this is a win-win for both parties," said William Heller, an intellectual property attorney not involved in the case, when told of the agreement. "An amicable resolution in disputes like these is far better than an adjudicated solution, which comes at great cost and great delay."
"Art Capital is most concerned about repayment of its loan, and Annie Leibovitz is most concerned about protecting her rights in her valuable intellectual property," Heller added.
Should she default, Heller said, "the consequences will be determined by the terms of the deal they had just renegotiated."
But he said it appeared that "there has been fair consideration exchanged so that she could buy back control of her collection. It sounds like a common-sense result, a fair result and an intelligent result for both parties."
Leibovitz's artsy, provocative portraits of celebrities have made her nearly as famous as the celebrities in her images. Her portraits have regularly graced the covers of Vanity Fair, Vogue and Rolling Stone
Over the years, her lens has captured such famous faces as Queen Elizabeth II, Demi Moore and Bruce Springsteen. One of her best-known images depicts a nude John Lennon cuddling with a clothed Yoko Ono just hours before he was fatally shot.
She gave the world its first glimpse of baby Suri, newborn daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, on the cover of Vanity Fair, which she joined in 1983.
Art Capital, a Manhattan-based company that issues loans against fine and decorative arts and real estate, had estimated the value of Leibovitz's portfolio at $40 million, and real estate brokers have said her New York properties were worth about $40 million.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
The Congressional Budget Office said on Friday that a student loan reform plan backed by Sallie Mae and other lenders might save U.S. taxpayers $17 billion less than one backed by the Obama administration.

The Obama plan has already been approved at the committee level in the U.S. House of Representatives and is headed for a likely vote on the House floor next week.

The student loan industry has been fighting the administration's plan and seeking political support for its own counter-proposal that would preserve a role for the lenders in the student loan system and furnish them steady fee income.

Congress' budget researchers said that after counting expenses needed to make the lender plan viable, budget savings from it "would be about $67 billion over the 2010-2019 period -- in contrast to the net impact of $80 billion in 10-year savings for" the Obama bill.

In addition, the lender plan "would increase direct spending by about $4 billion over the 2010-2019 period" in other areas, said the CBO in a letter to Representative George Miller, Democratic chairman of the House education committee.

Committee spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said: "This shows that the Obama administration's student loan proposal is the superior plan for saving taxpayers dollars."

But Sallie Mae spokeswoman Martha Holler said: "This CBO score confirms that mandatory savings of $87 billion are achievable through" both plans.

Other student loan groups involved in the counter-proposal include Student Loan Corp, SunTrust Banks and Nelnet Inc.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will hold a news conference on Tuesday to urge passage of the Obama bill.

The education committee in July approved the Obama bill, which would shut down the $55 billion Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and shift most student lending into a program run by the Education Department.

The bill is expected to be approved by the House, where Democrats hold a substantial majority, analysts said. That would send it on to the more closely-divided Senate.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh; editing by Carol Bishopric)

WASHINGTON – The Senate Armed Services chairman Friday added to mounting pressure on the White House to avoid escalating the war in Afghanistan by calling for faster training of Afghan security forces instead of sending more U.S. troops into combat.
A leading Senate Republican quickly countered that deploying more American troops to Iraq is what helped turn that war around.
The Senate panel's chairman, Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, had earlier raised concerns about a possible new troop buildup. But his proposal Friday to focus the U.S. mission in Afghanistan more on training than fighting was a blunt warning to the Obama administration — and it came after other Democratic congressional leaders raised similar concerns this week.
Levin said the trainers would help build a "surge" of 400,000 Afghan army and police officers a year earlier than initially planned. The term "surge" is most recently associated with the 2007 U.S. troop buildup in Iraq that helped bring the nation back from the brink of civil war.
"Our support of this surge of the Afghan security forces will show our commitment to the success of a mission that is clearly in our national security interests," Levin said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "But we would do so without creating a bigger U.S. military footprint, which provides propaganda fodder for the Taliban."
He added: "And we should implement these steps on an urgent basis, before we consider an increase in U.S. ground combat forces beyond what is already planned by the end of this year."
Levin did not immediately know how many trainers would be needed, and conceded that many would be U.S. military troops. He said more NATO forces should also help, a demand that came hours after Spain's government agreed to send 220 more troops to Afghanistan, raising their total to about 1,000.
Additionally, Levin said the U.S. needs to shift its trucks, weapons and other equipment still in Iraq to outfit the Afghan security forces. And he said more efforts need to be made to help reconcile local Taliban fighters — known as the "$10 Taliban" because they usually are hired for specific battles — with law-abiding forces.
Levin's comments came as the Obama administration weighs whether to boost the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000 he has approved to be there by the end of the year. Congressional leaders are expected to be briefed next week on a broad review of Afghanistan strategy recently sent to President Barack Obama by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces there.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is also expected to request additional forces to address what he sees as shortfalls in the military's ability to deal with a rising threat from roadside bombs in Afghanistan. That would not necessarily mean more forces above the current 68,000, but might mean replacing some existing forces with others specializing in bomb detection and removal and medical response.
"Nothing has been decided but there are capabilities he believes need to be addressed," Gates spokesman Geoff Morrell said Friday.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday that no decision about troops is expected for "weeks and weeks" and likely will not come until after all the troops in the current ramp-up are in place and the situation can be evaluated with their presence.
"I think it will be many weeks of evaluation and assessment," Gibbs said.
Many military and diplomatic leaders have urged Obama to send thousands more Marines, soldiers and pilots to try to reverse Afghanistan's crumbling security. But leading Democrats in Congress have signaled they do not support a troop increase — especially on the heels of the bloodiest month in Afghanistan for U.S. troops so far.
Fifty-one U.S. troops died in Afghanistan in August, more than any other month since the U.S. invasion in October 2001.
Shortly after Levin finished outlining his plan, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he also believes training for the Afghan forces must be stepped up, and quickly. But he said a "significant" number of additional U.S. combat troops also must be sent to Afghanistan to clear out the Taliban and keep violent extremists from returning.
"I say with great respect that I've seen this movie before," McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services panel and a Vietnam War veteran, told The Associated Press. He said most Democrats also opposed the 2007 surge, but "they were wrong in Iraq and they are wrong now."
"I think there's significant fatigue and resistance to an increase in troops, McCain said of Congress. "But I saw that same fatigue when we ordered the surge, and it succeeded."

___

AP National Security Reporter Anne Gearan contributed to this report.

SAN DIEGO – District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has dismissed reality TV star Tila Tequila's accusations that San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman choked her and threw her to the ground early Sunday.
Dumanis announced Friday afternoon there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Merriman committed a crime. Tequila had signed a citizen's arrest warrant charging Merriman with battery and false imprisonment, both felonies.
"This case is now closed," Dumanis said in a statement.

ATLANTA – It wasn't under the moonlight, and it wasn't quite the funk of 40,000 years. But 900 zombies, aliens and Star Wars Stormtroopers boogeying to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" might be a sight that almost stops your heart.
The masquerade of sci-fi faithful performed Michael Jackson's signature "Thriller" music video dance routine on Sunday. And if officials approve, they will have set a new Guinness World Record.
The crowd turned out in a downtown Atlanta hotel ballroom during Dragon Con, which is billed as the country's largest convention dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, gaming, comics and more.
The iconic video played on a huge video screen as a Jackson lookalike channeled the pop star in red jeans, a red leather jacket, and white socks and black penny loafers.
The current record was set in May by a group of 242 College of William & Mary students who performed the routine in Williamsburg, Va., according to Guinness World Records.
Dragon Con special events director Mandy Collier expects a decision this week on whether a record was set.
More than 12,000 people claimed they broke the record in front of Mexico City's Monument of the Revolution on Aug. 29, which would have been Jackson's 51st birthday.
However, the record was not accepted by Guinness.
___
Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com

The most common type of driver uses a lightweight diaphragm connected to a rigid basket, or frame, via flexible suspension that constrains a coil of fine wire to move axially through a cylindrical magnetic gap.

The lowest-priced speaker systems and most drivers are manufactured in China or other low-cost manufacturing locations. Although the manufacture of drivers has become largely commoditized, the fabrication and subsequent sale of finished speaker systems still carries high profits. Partly for this reason, manufacturers are increasingly combining power amplifier electronics (a typically lower profit item) with finished speaker systems to create powered speakers with an overall higher market value.[citation needed]

Wireless Outdoor Speakers