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Monday, October 28, 2013

Phone-hacking trial of Murdoch aides set to open

LONDON (AP) — They were once two of the most powerful people in the British media, senior executives for media mogul Rupert Murdoch and associates of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are due to go on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges of hacking phones and bribing officials while at the now-shuttered Murdoch tabloid.

The trial unfolding in a plain, starkly lit room at London's Central Criminal Court should provide high drama for media watchers — and an unwelcome reminder for Murdoch and Cameron of the two-year-old scandal that continues to tarnish Britain's media, politicians and police.

Murdoch tweeted about the upcoming trial earlier this month: "Remember, everyone innocent until proven guilty, entitled to fair trial in most countries."

WHO IS ON TRIAL?

The three highest-profile defendants are: Brooks, 45, ex-editor of the News of the World and former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers; Coulson, 45, another former News of the World editor who was Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief until 2011; and Rebekah Brooks' 50-year-old husband Charles Brooks, a racehorse trainer.

Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have become the faces of the scandal, though neither has been convicted of wrongdoing.

He was the elusive figure — rarely photographed — behind Cameron's canny media strategy. She was the flame-haired high-flyer who exchanged text messages with her friend and neighbor Cameron while overseeing Murdoch's politically powerful British newspapers.

They face trial alongside former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, ex-news editor Ian Edmondson and former royal editor Clive Goodman; Rebekah Brooks' former assistant Cheryl Carter; and Mark Hanna, former security chief at Murdoch's News International.

WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?

Brooks and Coulson are charged with conspiracy to intercept communications — phone hacking — and with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, which covers bribing officials such as police and prison guards. The other former News of the World journalists face related charges.

Rebekah Brooks, Charles Brooks, Carter and Hanna are accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by removing material from the company archive and withholding computers and documents from police.

The defendants deny all the charges.

HOW DID THE ALLEGATIONS ARISE?

The charges stem from the scandal that erupted in 2011, when it was revealed that journalists at the News of the World eavesdropped on the cellphone voicemail messages of celebrities, politicians, crime victims and others in the public eye.

The furor led Murdoch to close the News of The World and triggered police investigations into phone hacking, computer hacking and the bribery of officials, which have expanded to take in other newspapers.

More than 30 people have been charged, including senior journalists and editors from the News of the World and its sister paper, The Sun.

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES IN THE TRIAL?

This will be a long and complex trial, expected to last up to five months. The first step will be selecting a jury; the prosecution is expected to begin outlining its case later in the week.

Judge John Saunders will ask jurors to ignore everything they may have heard about the defendants and focus on the evidence. The dozens of journalists on hand face restrictions including a ban on tweeting from court as the judge attempts to rein in speculation and comment.

The central questions are: What did Brooks and Coulson know, and how widespread were illegal practices during the periods when they ran the newspaper? Brooks edited the paper between 2000 and 2003; in 2002, it hacked the mobile phone voicemails of a murdered 13-year-old, Milly Dowler, while police were searching for her. (Brooks denies knowing about any of the hacking). Coulson was in charge from 2003 to 2007.

WHAT SENTENCES COULD THEY GET?

The maximum sentence for phone hacking is two years in prison, while the other charges carry a maximum life sentence, although the average term imposed is much shorter.

WILL THE TRIAL PUT AN END TO THE SAGA?

Not likely. The hacking scandal convinced many politicians and members of the public that Britain's press was out of control. Cameron ordered a judge-led inquiry into media ethics, which recommended an independent press regulator be set up with state backing. Many editors and journalists fear that could lead to state regulation, but they may find it hard to resist amid a new blare of publicity about media misdeeds.

Revelations at the trial also could heap new pressure on Murdoch, who remains atop his now-fractured media empire. The scandal led him to shut down his best-selling newspaper, pay millions to settle lawsuits from hacking victims and split his News Corp. into two businesses, a publishing company and a media and entertainment group.

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-28-Britain-Phone%20Hacking/id-a23b225f06ad40ad89ed023d7eae705b
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Moving From Left to Right

I’m often asked: “How do you go from Walter Mondale to Fox News?” To which the short answer is: “I was young once.” The long answer begins by noting that this is hardly a novel passage. The path is well trodden, most famously by Ronald Reagan, himself once a New Deal Democrat, and more recently by a generation of neoconservatives, led by Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz. Every story has its idiosyncrasies. These are mine.

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/25/moving_from_left_to_right_318598.html
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UFC Fight Night 30 live blog: Norman Parke vs. Jon Tuck

Norman Parke will try to remain unbeaten in the UFC at UFC Fight Night 30. - USA TODAY Sports

This is the UFC Fight Night 30 live blog for Norman Parke vs. Jon Tuck, a lightweight bout at Saturday night's UFC event at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, England.

Parke, who is 2-0 in the UFC, will face Tuck, who is 7-0 in his career, on the main card.

Check out the UFC Fight Night 30 live blog below.

Round 1: Referee Leon Roberts oversees the action. We're off. Both men go high early. Parke blasts Tuck's midsection with a pair of kicks. Tuck eats a big straight left then closes the distance. Parke unloads a flurry. Parke turned away and called to Roberts for an eyepoke, and instead of waiting Tuck charged inside with a high kick. Tuck turns it on and stalks forward with straight punches. Parke firing off short counters. Slow battle so far. Tuck peppers from the outside then barely misses a high kick. Parke rips into Tuck with a counter left. Parke changes levels and slams Tuck to the canvas at the horn. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Parke.

Round 2: Tuck circles and eats a steady barrage of straight punches, answering with a hard kick to the body. Parke stalking forward, turning it on. Another lightning quick left counter from Parke. Tuck is fading. Parke wades inside and connects on a three-punch flurry. Another flurry backs up Tuck. Parke letting his hands go now, landing that left hand over and over. Tuck launches a flying knee to the body. Parke continues to stalk forward with combinations. Parke dodges a superman punch then cracks Tuck with a left uppercut. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Parke. (20-18 Parke.)

Round 3: Tuck's corner told him that he needs a finish. They're probably right. Wild capoeira kick misses from Parke. Tuck appears hesitant. Parke eats a right and shakes his head. Tuck starts to open up, Parke fires right back. Parke connects on a nice inside uppercut. Parke cracks Tuck with a left that makes him drop his mouthpiece. Inexplicably Tuck bends down to pick it up. Parke pours on the strikes while Tuck reinserts his mouthpiece. Weird sequence there. Tuck eats another uppercut. 90 seconds left and Tuck finds a home for a combination. Parke still stalking forward, lands a stiff right hand. Parke is relentless from the outside. Another big flurry inside from Parke. Parke whiffs on a few wild kicks at the horn. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Parke. (30-27 Parke.)

Norman Parke def. Jon Tuck via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/26/5030548/ufc-fight-night-30-live-blog-norman-parke-vs-jon-tuck
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Column - Sandy +1: Preparing for the storms ahead

By Bas Jonkman and Mathijs Van Ledden

One year ago Tuesday, Hurricane Sandy, perhaps the largest Atlantic storm ever, began its path of destruction in New York City. It ultimately killed almost 300 people across seven countries. In the United States alone, the fierce storm left an estimated $70 billion in damage in its wake, the second-costliest storm in U.S. history.

Substantial money and effort has now gone into rebuilding the areas most devastated by the storm. The truth is, however, that many other areas of the world, including in the United States, are just as vulnerable to intense flooding.

Existing flood protection in most countries is simply not fit for this purpose. Even in our native Netherlands, a world leader in flood management, roughly one-third of the defenses is sub-standard.

The combined impact of climate change, subsidence, urban growth and socio-economic change mean that average global flood losses could rise dramatically if no adequate risk reduction measures are implemented.

A new global agenda to enhance flood protection infrastructure is badly needed. This must be started now.

Having confronted water hazards for generations, the Dutch are eager to share their experience in planning and design of effective systems to reduce storm surge risk. We have learned how to protect the country against flooding and have developed a sophisticated system — a complex network of canals and pump stations to drain excess water.

Almost 3,800 km of flood defenses are in place to defend the country against major floods. The system includes earthen levees along rivers and sand dunes, coastal dikes and five major coastal dams and barriers along the coast.

For densely populated and strategically important areas, this strategy is generally more cost efficient than moving people, planning strategies or evacuation measures. As India's response to Cyclone Phailin recently demonstrated, however evacuation and early warning can also be effective in reducing risk to life

A combination of solutions will be needed to realize this agenda. These options include "hard" measures (engineering and building barriers and levees); "soft" options (strengthening existing natural features like dunes ); and also "hybrid" approaches (foreshores strengthened by vegetation for dikes).

One effective hard solution for protecting coastal metropolitan areas are storm surge barriers — as we have here in the Netherlands. However, the construction and maintenance costs are high — sometimes billions of dollars.

As the experience of the Netherlands shows, they can also take many years to plan and build. And there might be adverse effects for navigation and the environment.

Nonetheless, various cities, including New Orleans and St. Petersburg, have recently implemented this solution. Others, such as Shanghai and the Houston-Galveston area are studying this option.

The current proposals for New York City demonstrate a preference for more localized options, including flexible flood defenses for low-lying areas at waterfronts and protection measures to flood-proof subway and road tunnel systems. Softer solutions, including reinforcing wetlands in Jamaica Bay and dunes in front of coastal towns, are also being proposed

Natural solutions, such as dunes and berms, can often be implemented faster to implement and more adaptable to changing conditions than hard solutions, such as levees. However, there are still many uncertainties over the long-term safety of these soft solutions.

The solutions that New York City eventually chooses will be relevant for other flood-prone regions. This is not just for areas at risk in the United States, like the Houston- Galveston region and Sacramento, California, but regions in other parts of the world — especially growing megacities like Guangzhou, China, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand, where people face the challenging question of how to achieve sustainable flood protection.

Based on Dutch best practices, far more investment is needed in flood management globally to realize this agenda. With a national population of almost 16 million, the Dutch government already spends about 0.2 percent of its gross domestic product on managing a complex flood management system. Despite this investment, it is anticipated that costs could rise substantially due to aging infrastructure and future demands associated with sea level rises.

Other countries will also need to raise their own investment — some markedly so. A realistic target for flood adaptation is probably around 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent of the GDP at risk, significant but affordable.

Given the innovation and large sums of money required, part of this new agenda must be better distribution of roles and responsibilities between governments and the private sector. After the floods in Thailand and New York City, for example, the private sector has invested heavily in flood protection. Substantial floodwalls have now been built around industrial estates in Thailand, and measures have been implemented by companies in New York.

This is all positive. But governments must take care that local flood protection measures do not negatively affect other areas and put parties at risk. Therefore, there will always remain a key role for government to develop a long-term plan for flood management that sets a clear strategic framework and aligns all key stakeholders.

This combined agenda is as serious as it is pressing. It is an unfortunate reality, however, that societies seek to invest in adequate flood risk reduction only after large disasters. Given the scale of risks in coming decades, this attitude must now change for both human security and financial cost.

(Bas Jonkman is professor of hydraulic engineering at Delft University of Technology. Mathijs Van Ledden is director of flood risk reduction at Royal HaskoningDHV. Opinions are their own.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/column-sandy-1-preparing-storms-ahead-050747788.html
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Data center glitch is latest problem in 'Obamacare' rollout

By David Morgan and Sharon Begley

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A data center critical for allowing uninsured Americans to buy health coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law went down on Sunday, halting online enrollment for all 50 states in the latest problem to hit the program's troubled rollout.

The data center operated by Verizon's Terremark experienced a connectivity issue that caused it to shut down, affecting the federal government's already problem-plagued online marketplace Healthcare.gov and similar sites operated by 14 states and the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Obama administration and company officials could not say how long it would take to fix the connectivity problem.

Separate technical problems that have stalled enrollment on Healthcare.gov since its launch on October 1 are at the heart of a new Republican effort to discredit the healthcare law, also known as Obamacare, largely through congressional investigations to determine what went wrong in building the costly and complicated implementation system.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is due to testify later this week before a House of Representatives committee, while government contractors work around the clock to improve the Healthcare.gov website.

The outage that started in the early hours of Sunday caused the data center to lose network connectivity with the federal government's data services hub, an electronic traffic roundabout that links the online health insurance marketplaces with numerous federal agencies and can verify people's identity, citizenship, and other facts.

Without the hub, consumers are unable to apply online for coverage or determine their eligibility for federal subsidies to help pay for insurance premiums. On Saturday, Sebelius praised the hub's ability to perform complex calculations in quick time as an example of a successful segment of the system.

HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said Sebelius spoke with Verizon's chief executive officer on Sunday afternoon to discuss the situation: "They committed to fixing the problem as soon as possible."

The outage was affecting enrollment in all 50 states, as well as Terremark customers not connected with the marketplaces, according to the HHS spokeswoman. She said the data center's network connectivity went down during planned maintenance to replace a failed networking component.

A spokesman for Verizon said the problem would be fixed "as soon as possible."

"Our engineers have been working with HHS and other technology companies to identify and address the root cause of the issue," Verizon spokesman Jeff Nelson said.

The administration has expressed confidence it can fix underlying problems with Healthcare.gov by early December, in time for people to meet a December 15 deadline to enroll in new health plans to receive benefits on January 1. Further delays would jeopardize its ability to enroll as many as 7 million Americans for coverage during Obamacare's first year.

Sebelius, who faces Republican calls for her resignation, will be grilled about her role in the Obamacare rollout on Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Contractors have already blamed the administration for not conducting enough vital system-wide testing and for a last-minute design change requiring online visitors to set up accounts before window-shopping for insurance. The change is widely blamed for creating early bottlenecks as millions of people flooded the website.

Health officials in Connecticut, one of the 14 states that constructed their own marketplaces, were the first to report on Sunday that potential customers would not be able to complete the sign-up process for some services but could create accounts and search for pricing comparisons.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the HHS agency responsible for the federal system, told Connecticut officials about the outage and gave no indication of when the data services hub would be functioning again, said a spokeswoman for Access Health CT, the Connecticut exchange.

(Additional reporting by Anna Yukhananov and Emily Stephenson in Washington; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Will Dunham and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/data-center-glitch-latest-problem-obamacare-rollout-003951167--sector.html
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Sunday, October 27, 2013

64-year-old John Force wins 16th NHRA title

LAS VEGAS (AP) — John Force won his record 16th Funny Car title Sunday, beating daughter Courtney Force in the final round in the NHRA Toyota Nationals.

The 64-year-old Force has won three straight events and four overall this season to push his record career total to 138. He won the final with a 4.062-second run at 310.63 mph.

Matt Smith also won at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to wrap up the Pro Stock Motorcycle season title. Antron Brown won the Top Fuel event, and Shane Gray topped the Pro Stock field.

Smith topped Jerry Savoie with a 6.991 at 192.08 on a Buell.

Antron Brown edged Clay Millican at 3.782 and 324.51, and Gray beat V. Gaines with a 6.699 at 206.89 in a Chevy Camaro.

The season-ending Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals is next week in Pomona, Calif.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/64-old-john-force-wins-16th-nhra-title-234147848--spt.html
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Clinton: Ideologues reliable GOP voters

Former President Bill Clinton prepares to speak at a campaign event, "Putting Jobs First", for Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, left, in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, at a "Putting Jobs First" event in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe, centerleft, during a "Putting Jobs First" events in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, right, at a "Putting Jobs First" event in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Sarah, of Alexandria, Va., who preferred not to give her last name, adds a button to her hat while waiting in line to see former President Bill Clinton and Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe at an election campaign event "Putting Jobs First" in Dale City, Virginia, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Fanaticism is fueling conservative voters who could threaten Democrat Terry McAuliffe's political chances, former President Bill Clinton warned Sunday as he joined his longtime buddy's campaign for Virginia governor.

With little more than a week before Nov. 5's Election Day, McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli each have sought to energize their strongest supporters, by inspiration or fear. McAuliffe has opened a lead in polling and is heavily outspending Cuccinelli on television ads, but turnout is expected to be low and the result could be decided by a few thousand votes.

"Political extremism does have one redeeming virtue in terms of pure politics," Clinton said here at a packed high school auditorium.

"If you can get somebody into a fanatic frame of mind," Clinton said, then they will vote because they are convinced the deck is stacked against them.

It was a shift in roles. For decades, it has been McAuliffe championing the personal and political futures of Bill Clinton and, later, his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now, the former president is here to pitch in during the campaign against Republican Ken Cuccinelli during its final week.

"Terry's gotten so good on the stump, I don't think he needs me anymore," Clinton said to laughter at the pair's first stop in Dale City.

Clinton planned other stops throughout the state with his longtime pal and fundraiser during the coming day. Former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is considered a strong contender for 2016's presidential nomination, used her first political event after stepping down as secretary of state to endorse McAuliffe earlier this month.

Bill Clinton predicted that Cuccinelli's supporters, who are deeply conservative and align to the tea party, would vote and he urged Democrats to be just as motivated.

"Just remember, the people who aren't here today, who go to the other fella's rally, they will be there on Election Day," he said.

That "other fella," as Clinton called Cuccinelli, sought to turn one of the Democratic Party's stars into another way to build enthusiasm among his conservative supporters. Even before the pair arrived at a veterans' hall near Washington, Cuccinelli's campaign had sent reporters a memo recounting the years of Clinton-McAuliffe collaboration for Democrats.

Yet what Republicans called "the McAuliffe-Clinton baggage" — questions over the Clintons' finances, Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern and his subsequent impeachment — seems to have faded for many voters.

And between Clinton's first and second stops for McAuliffe, Cuccinelli organized a conference call with reporters to again raise separate questions about McAuliffe's investment with a man who has pleaded guilty to stealing the identities of the terminally ill.

Cuccinelli has acknowledged the investments were not against the law but also said McAuliffe needs to explain the details to voters. He also wants to know why the investment did not appear on McAuliffe's financial disclosure forms when he ran for governor in 2009.

"I'm tripping over myself to be as open as humanly possible with the voters of Virginia, and Terry McAuliffe is taking every step possible to hide, to bury and obfuscate and lie, let's face it," Cuccinelli said. "He knows how dirty it is."

McAuliffe says he was a "passive investor" and was never aware of the details. Much of what Cuccinelli raised had been out there for weeks, campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin said.

Clinton and McAuliffe's four-day swing was sending them to stops in Democratic-leaning parts of the state.

"In the parlance of my native state and my culture, I am fully aware that I am just preaching to the saved," as Clinton put it.

But they're not always reliable parishioners.

In 2008, 75 percent of the state's registered voters turned out during the heat of a presidential campaign, and 2012's campaign drew 72 percent. Obama won both campaigns.

But in 2009, that number was 40 percent and Republican Bob McDonnell won.

To help inspire turnout, Clinton and McAuliffe spent almost an hour at a Red Lobster restaurant near Richmond to meet with a largely black crowd who ate after attending church services. The pair signed autographs, posed for cellphone photos, snacked on biscuits — and came away with voters pledging their support.

Darlene Gilchrist-Dailey of Richmond said the Clinton stop cemented her vote for McAuliffe.

"I was planning on voting for him anyway but having President Clinton and his wife endorse him has even made it a stronger commitment for me to get out there and vote for him," she said.

Bill Clinton's approval ratings have improved since he left the White House in 2001 and voters have not lost interest in Hillary Rodham Clinton since she stepped down as President Barack Obama's top diplomat earlier this year.

Every step Hillary Rodham Clinton has taken since leaving the State Department has been examined for its 2016 implications. And Bill Clinton's return to full-time campaigning — even if for only a few days — was sure to add to speculation about whether a Clinton could call the White House home again in 2017.

Democrats have been relentless in painting Cuccinelli — who is known best outside the state as the first to challenge President Barack Obama's health care law — as a political ideologue and someone who is unwilling to compromise.

Clinton happily added his voice to that message.

"If we become ideological, then we're blind to evidence," said Clinton, who as president sometimes bucked his party and worked with Republicans. "We can only hear people who already agree with us. We think we know everything right now, and we have nothing to learn from anybody."

___

Associated Press writer Steve Szkotak in Richmond contributed to this report.

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-27-VA%20Governor-Clinton/id-3eaf34a13c0b4d5c8327e0ca93b46c3d
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