Pegasus's Daily News, etc.

[the flying reindeer]

Rain Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 211th day of 2012 with 154 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 2:16 p.m., it's fair , temp 80ºF [Feels like 80ºF], winds variable @ 5 mph, humidity 40%, pressure 30.07 in and falling, dew point 54ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
1030--the patron saint of Norway, King Olaf II, was killed in battle.
1588--in the Battle of Gravelines, the English under Sir Francis Drake defeated the Spanish Armada.
1778--French Vice-Admiral Count d'Estaing established contact with the Continental Army, waiting for his help to retake Rhode Island.
1862--Confederate spy, Belle Boyd, was captured.
1883--Benito Mussolini, Italian prime minister and Hitler's ally during W.W. II, was born; died 1945 at age 61.
1900--Italian King Humbert I was assassinated by an anarchist and was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III.
1909--General Motors bought Cadillac.
1914--transcontinental telephone service began with the first phone conversation between New York and San Francisco.
1921--Adolf Hitler became the leader ("fuehrer") of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi).
1945--the Japanese sank the USS Indianapolis.
1948--Britain's King George VI opened the Olympic Games in London, the first games snce Berlin in 1936.
1958--the US Congress established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to coordinate America's activities in space.
1965--the 101st Airborne Division arrived in Veitnam.
1967--an accidental rocket launch caused a fire that swept the supercarrier, USS Forrestal, in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing 134 servicemen..
1967--The Doors scored their first #1 hit with "Light My Fire."
1975--Pres. Ford became the 1st US president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland.
1976--the serial killer Son of Same began terrorizing New York.
1981--Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
1985--the space shuttle Challenger began an 8-day mission that got off to a shaky start — the spacecraft achieved a safe orbit even though one of its main engines shut down prematurely.
1993--the Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible" and threw out his death sentence.
1996--Carl Lewis won his forth consecutive gold medal for the long jump at age 35.
1999--a day trader opened fire in two Atlanta brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 13 before shooting himself to death; he had earlier killed his wife and two children.
2002--in Afghanistan, a man identified by authorities as a would-be suicide bomber with more than a half-ton of explosives in his car was stopped by a chance traffic accident just 300 yards from the U.S. Embassy
2002--an Amtrak train derailed outside Washington, D.C., injuring more than 100 people.
2008--US Army scientist Bruce Ivins commited suicide as prosecutors prepared to indict him in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
2011--Norway began burying the dead, a week after an anti-Muslim extremist killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage.

World News Capsules:
1. Retiring envoy to Afghanistan exhorts US to heed its past.
....Ryan C. Crocker, the diplomat most linked to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, says policy makers must learn from those wars as they consider military options for current crises
2. Waste project is abandoned following protests in China.
....Angry demonstrators entered a government office in the port city of Qidong to protest a waste discharge plant that they said would pollute the water supply.
3. Egypt's Islamists tread lightly, but skeptics squirm.
....Pres. Mohamed Morsi has made no apologies for his Islamism, but he seems to be going out of his way to allay fears that the Muslim Brotherhood would radically change Egypt.
4. As tensions in India turn deadly, some say officials ignored warning signs.
....Though the violence in the eastern Indian state of Assam has been building for years, state officials say they were caught unaware, while others claim that the government was deliberately negligent.
6. Spain's jobless rely on family, a frail crutch.

....As the effects of years of recession pile up in the country, more and more Spanish families are leaning hard on their elderly relatives. But it has not been easy for any of the generations.
7. Syrian military intensifies assault on rebels in Aleppo.
....It was not clear whether Saturday's attack was a limited foray by government troops or the beginning of a broader campaign.
8. Fighters replace tourists crossing over from Syria to an idyllic Turkish town.
....Antakya, a picturesque border town, has attracted Syrian fighters and foreign jihadists seeking refuge and medical care, as Syria's civil war becomes Turkey's national security headache.
8. Health team fights Ebola outbreak that has killed 14 in Uganda.
....The strain of the virus, which in recent years has killed at a rate often above 70 percent of those infected, has been identified as Ebola Sudan/
10. Nuns weigh response to scathing Vatican rebuke.
....American nuns meeting in St. Louis next week will decide whether to cooperate with three bishops assigned to supervise the overhaul of their organization.

US News Capsules:
1. Doctor shortage likely to worsen with health law.
....Even as the new health care law expands insurance coverage, another problem faces many areas of the country: a lack of physicians, particularly primary care ones.
2. In Maine, more lobsters than they know what to do with.
....The overabundance, attributed to warm weather and good conservation techniques, has led to fishermen receiving the lowest prices in 40 years.
3. Giant stocks are walking tall again.
....The megacap stocks - those of the very largest American companies - have vastly outperformed the overall market over the last 18 months.
4. They're clever and carnivorous.
....in New YOrk City, the American Museum of Natural History exhibition "Spiders Alive!" looks at the wonders of the 43,000 spider species.
4. Drillers in Utah have a friend in a US land agency.
....An obscure branch of the Bureau of Land Management wields great influence on local land-use decisions in the state, usually to the benefit of the energy industry.
POLITICS:
1. Obama's team taking gamble going negative.
....The opportunities and the risks are greater for Pres. Obama, who seeks to shape perceptions of Mitt Romney just as more voters are starting to tune in to the race.

[ Thought for Today
"Man must rise above the Earth — to the top of the atmosphere and beyond — for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives."
—Socrates (469 B.C.-399 B.C.), Greek philosopher

[the flying reindeer]

Read an Almanac Month
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 213th day of 2012 with 152 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:37 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 82ºF [Feels like 84ºF], winds SSW @ 12 mph, humidity 56%, pressure 29.88 in and falling, dew point 65ºF, chance of precipitation 30%.

Today in History:
1559--St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, died in Rome. The Society of Jesus played an important role in the Counter-Reformation and eventually succeeded in converting millions around the world to Catholicism.
1703--Daniel Defoe was put in the pillory as punishment for seditious libel, brought about by the publication of a politically satirical pamphlet.
1715--a hurricane sunk 10 Spanish treasure ships off the east coast of Florida and the treasure would not be recovered until 250 years later.
1777--the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, became a major general without pay with the Continental Army.
1875--Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the US (succeeded Pres. Lincoln), died at age 66 of a stroke while visitng his daughter in Carter Station, Tennessee.
1914--the New York Stock Exchange closed due to the outbreak of World War I and didn't reopen until December..
1917--the 3rd Battle of Ypres began in France.
1919--Primo Levi, the Italian writer and chemist whose work was influenced by his captivity at Auschwitz, was born; died 1987 at age 67.
1941--Herman Goering, writing under instructions from Hitler, ordered SS Geneal Reihard Heydrich to prepare for the "Final Solution of the Jewish question."
1945--Pierre Laval, the puppet leader of Nazi-occupied Vichy France, surrendered to US authorities in Austria.
1957--the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America, went into operation.
1964--Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, transmitted the 1st close-up photos from the moon.
1971--Apollo 15 crew members David Scott and James Irwin became the first astronauts to use a lunar rover on the surface of the moon.
1972--Democratic vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the ticket with George McGovern following disclosures that he had once undergone psychiatric treatment.
1977--the "Son of Sam" killer claimed his last victims when he shot and killed Stacy Moskowitz, 20, and seriously wounded her date as they sat in a parked car in Brooklyn, N.Y
1981--a seven-week strike by major league baseball players ended.
1991--Pres. Bush and Soviet Pres. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow.
1992--the former Soviet republic of Georgia was admitted to the United Nations as its 179th member.
1992--Thai Airways Flight 311, an Airbus A310, crashed while approaching Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal; all 113 people aboard died.
1995--Walt Disney Co. agreed to acquire Capital Cities-ABC Inc. in a $19 billion deal..
2002--a bomb exploded inside a cafeteria at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing 9, including 5 Americans.
2002--Pope John Paul II canonized Juan Diego, the first Indian saint in the Americas, in a Mexico City ceremony.
2007--the US Army censured retired three-star Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger for a "perfect storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership" after the 2004 friendly-fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman.
2007 --the UN Security Council unanimously approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Sudan's Darfur region.
2008--scientists reported the Phoenix spacecraft had confirmed the presence of frozen water in Martian soil.
2009--three American tourists were arrested by Iran on suspicion of espionage during what their families have said was a simple hiking trip along the Iraq-Iran border.
2011--ending a perilous stalemate, Pres. Obama and congressional leaders announced a historic agreement on emergency legislation to avert the nation's first-ever financial default.
2011--Syrian security forces launched a ferocious assault on defiant cities and towns, killing at least 70 people and possibly many more.

World News Capsules:
1. After bus bombing, Bulgaria's ties with Israel are at risk.
....Bulgaria's reluctance to pin blame for the attack, which killed five Israelis, on Hezbollah and Iran is jeopardizing its strong ties with both Israel and the Arab countries of the Middle East.
2. In Cairo, Panetta declares support for Egypt's new president
.
....Leon E. Panetta, the US defense secretary, says Pres. Mohamed Morsi is “his own man,” the most positive endorsement so far from a member of the Obama administration.
3. 2nd outage in India in two days cuts power to more than 600 mmillion people.

....Hundreds of miners trapped as three networks collapse; subway services and more than 300 trains halted.
4. Courts rebuke Iran's president with sentences and ally's firing.
....An embezzlement case’s result and a confidant’s dismissal are seen as a rebuke to Pres. Ahmadinejad in his final year in office.
a. Deal struck to tighten sanctions against Iran.

....House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Monday night on a new round of sanctions against Iran, cracking down on energy, shipping and insurance sectors. and targeting Iran's oil as well as banks in China and Iraq,
5. Militant group poses risk to US-Pakistan relations.
....As the Haqqani militant network grows bolder in attacking US troops in Afghanistan, it jeopardizes the relationship between the US and Pakistan, where the militants hide.
6. Peru overtakes Colombia as top cocaine producer.

....Peru has again become the top producer of pure cocaine in the world, outpacing Colombia, where output fell by an estimated 25% in a year, according to a White House report.
7. Russian prosecutors charge protest movement leadr.
....Embezzlement charges against Aleksei Navalny are the Kremlin’s most direct measure to date against a leader of the Russian protest movement that erupted in December.
8, Syrian and rebel forces claim gais in nation's largest city.
....The battle in Syria's largest city could signify a decisive moment in the 17-month-old conflict, proving the government's resilience or exposing its fragility.
a. Rebels in Aleppo claim to seize important police stations.

....The two police stations in Aleppo that rebels claimed to have seized have become increasingly valuable military locations, analysts and activists said.
8. Escaping Syria to a Turkish barren plain of sweat and grit.

....The Ceylanpinar camp, home to more than 12,000 Syrians who fled their country’s civil war, is in the Turkish equivalent of Siberia, a dusty, rocky plain in southeastern Turkey
9. UK Teen held after Olympian gets Twitter death threat.

....A British teenager was arrested on suspicion of making "malicious" remarks, after a profanity-strewn death threat to U.K. Olympic medal hopeful Tom Daley appeared on Twitter after Daley came fourth in the men's synchronized 10-meter dive.

US News Capsules:
1. Bedbugs among fastest-growing consumer woes.
....Penny auctions, gold buying-companies and misleading solicitations for home improvement work disguised as 'free' energy audits were among the newest complaints to consumer protection agencies within the past year, according to a new survey.
2. Evidence mounts that home prices hit bottom last winter.

....A closely watched survey, the S&P/Case Shiller composite index, showed today that single-family home prices in the nation's biggest metro areas pushed higher for the fourth consecutive month.
3. Not so fun: Docs warn of rise in Zumba injuries.

....Zumba may be a great way to "party yourself into shape," but according to a number of doctors, the wildly popular dance-fitness program may also be a good way to party yourself into pain. "I'm seeing a number of injuries," says Dr. Orly Avitzur, a neurologist and Consumer Reports medical adviser who recently wrote that she's seen an uptick in Zumba-related injuries, which can range from ankle sprains, shin splints, heel spurs and plantar fasciitis to hip bursitis, muscle strains and knee problems requiring surgery.
4. Social media are giving a voice to taste buds.
....Some companies are leaning on social media like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare for advice on what products to bring to market.
5. Caustic crusader at center of FDA scandal.
....Dr. Robert C. Smith's scorched-earth approach so unnerved his superiors, they began a wide-ranging surveillance operation.
6. Insurance rebates seen as selling point for health law.
....The law requires insurers to give out annual rebates by Aug. 1, if less than 80 percent of the premium dollars they collect go toward medical care.
7. A drop-in looking for sigs of company.
....A NASA rover, Curiosity, is ready for a delicate descent to Mars next week, and then a deeper search for evidence of life.
8. Murder trial tests leeway for giving the dead a say.
....The admissibility of statements by two of Drew Peterson’s wives, one now buried and the other missing, is in dispute in an Illinois case highlighting the intricacy of hearsay laws,
POLITICS:
1. Romney trip marred by unforced errors.
....Overseas trip ends with a spat between the campaign and the press as stumbles overshadow successes.
2. Democrats to back gay marriage at convention.
....The Democratic Party is set to include a pro-gay-marriage plank in their party convention platform and was included in the first step in the platform drafting process.
3. Battle of spending cuts moves to campaign trail.
....The fight in Congress over extending tax cuts grows more political, lowering the possibility of a resolution and increasing the risk of a stalemate-driven economic setback.

Olympic Headlines of Interest:
1. Queen's granddaughter rides to a silver medal in the team equestrian event.

Zara Phillips is a former World and European champion and only the third rider in the history of the sport to hold both titles at once. She and her old champion Toytown carried the Olympic flame down Cheltenham racecourse before the Games. Her mother, Princess Anne, was European champion back in 1971 and her father, Mark Phillips, won team gold at the 1972 Olympics and team silver in 1988 in Seoul. And She has not had a moment spare, even to celebrate her first wedding anniversary on Monday with husband and former England rugby captain Mike Tindall.
2, Vincent Hancock perfect in skeet final

.....The US shooter (and US Army sergeant) became the first to win two gold medals in the men's skeet shooting event, as he successfully defended his Olympic crown to take the top spot at the London games held at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
3. Women's gymnastics team go gold.

....The Americans lived up to their considerable hype and then some Tuesday, routing Russia and everybody else on their way to their first Olympic title since 1996. Their score of 183.596 was a whopping five points ahead of Russia, and they were so far ahead their last event, floor exercise, was more like a coronation. This team is the strongest, top to bottom, the USA has ever had, and the rest of the world never stood a chance. After the U.S. opened with a barrage of booming vaults, everyone else was playing for silver.
4. Phelps wins record-tying 18th medal.

....Michael Phelps' silver medal in the men's 200-meter butterfly is his 18th overall, tying the Olympic record. He'll get a chance for 19 tonight as part of the U.S. 4 x 200 freestyle relay team.

Today's Headlines of Interest:

Chinese Olympic success raising suspicions of doping
When Chinese swimmers started blowing rivals out of the water, whispers quickly followed. Is China cheating the sport again, as it did in the 1990s, when drug-fueled, muscle-bound swimmers emerged from nowhere to beat the world? Alain Bernard, the 2008 Olympic freestyle champion from France, was among those who wondered. "I'm for clean sport, without doping, and I truly hope the authorities in charge of this are doing their job in good conscience and really well," he said. "Unfortunately, I want to say that there is no smoke without fire. But today there is no proof to show that any Chinese has tested positive in this competition."
Unlike the 1990s, however, there are plausible explanations this time for why China is the swimming phenomenon of the 2012 Games. For example, 16-year-old Ye Shiwen's astounding world record in the 400 medley, when she swam the last 50 meters faster than American Ryan Lochte did in winning the equivalent men's race, isn't solely attributable to her large hands and feet. It also is at least partly because China, which has grown to become the world's second-largest economy, now throws big checks at some of swimming's sharpest minds. China has turned to foreign trainers to get their coaching programs, expertise and methods, not only to hone its swimming stars but to make them more rounded and relaxed, too. The idea is that happy swimmers are fast swimmers.
Ye has trained in Australia with two well-recognized coaches, Ken Wood and Denis Cotterell. Wood has had a contract with the Chinese Swimming Association since 2008, and 15 of China's swimmers in London, plus five of its relay swimmers, have trained at his academy north of Brisbane, rotating through in groups for a couple of months at a time, he told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "China is putting a lot of money into its program and I am only too happy to work with them," Wood said. "The whole Chinese philosophy is that they want to be the best they can."
Ye, asked by the AP about the suspicions, gave what sounded like a stock answer. "We resolutely don't use and are resolutely opposed to doping," she said. Wu Peng, who trains in Ann Arbor, Mich., and, at 25, is older than Ye, was more forthcoming. "In the 1990s, the reputation of Chinese swimming wasn't good. There were a lot of doping problems. But it really is very different now. A lot of attention is paid to training. And despite breaking the world record, Ye Shiwen didn't come out of nowhere. Her results have steadily been improving," he said. "So I think it is down to training, not other methods."

Thought for Today
"Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless."
—Milton Friedman (1912-2006), US economist.

Today's flower: Ask Alma pink bearded iris

[the flying reindeer]

National Golf Month
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 216th day of 2012 with 149 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:07 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 79ºF [Feels like 80ºF], winds SW @ 5 mph, humidity 58%, pressure 30.03 in and steady, dew point 63ºF, chance of precipitation 20%.

Today in History:
1492,--Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.
1778--La Scala opera house opened in Milan, Italy, with a performance of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
1797--Lord Jeffrey Amherst, who twice refused the position of commander of British forces against the rebelling American patriots, died at his estate, called Montreal, in England.
1807--former Vice Pres. Aaron Burr went on trial before a federal court in Richmond, Va., charged with treason.
1846--the Donner party encountered its first delay.
1900--Ernie Pyle, the famous World War II war correspondent, was born.' died 1945 at age 44.
1914--Germany and France declare war on each other.
1916--Sir Roger David Casement, an Irish-born diplomat who in 1911 was knighted by King George V, was executed for his role in Ireland's Easter Rising.
1921--baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refused to reinstate the former Chicago White Sox players implicated in the "Black Sox" scandal, despite their acquittals in a jury trial.
1923--Vice Pres. Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th US presidentafter the death of Pres. Harding.
1936--Jesse Owens won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100-meter sprint.
1943--Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice.
1948--former Communist Whitaker Chambers accused former State Department officialAlger Hiss of being a Communist spy.
1949--The National Basketball Association (NBA) was organized as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League..
1958--the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplished the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole.
1972--the US Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
1975-- a chartered Boeing 707 jetliner crashed in the Atlas Mountains near Agadir, in southern Morocco, kiling all 188 people aboard.
1977--the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, was released to theaters.
1981--US air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from Pres. Reagan that they would be fired.
1996--"The Macarena" began its reign atop the US pop charts.
2007--Iraqis welcomed home their soccer team, which had won the Asian Cup.
2011 --frmer Egyptian Pres. Mubarak denied all charges against him as he went on trial for alleged corruption and complicity in the deaths of protesters who'd helped drive him from power..
2011--the Muscular Dystrophy Association announced that Jerry Lewis was no longer its national chairman and would not be appearing on the Labor Day telethon.

World News Capsules:
1. Murder trial of disgraced Chinese politician's wife to begin next week.
....Gu Kailai, who is married to the deposed leader Bo Xilai, is accused of poisoning a British businessman.
a. Shame and indignation in China as its Olympians come under fire.
....After a pair of badminton players were disqualified and a 16-year-old’s record swim victory was questioned, Chinese media pointed the blame in several directions.
2. New Egyptian cabinet includes many holdovers.
....Prime Minister Hesham Qandil drew heavily from the ranks of creaking state institutions to form his government, lowering expectations of sweeping change..
3. After warnings of an Olympic crush, businesses suffer in a deserted London.
....Fears of the Gridlock Games have transformed into complaints about the Ghost Town Olympics as some tourists skip London, bowing to official warnings of stifling overcrowding.
4. Reclaiming the forests and the right to feel safe.

....The people of Cherán, Mexico, who say they have long been terrorized by an armed group of illegal loggers, rose up and took the law into their own hands.
5. North Korean leader calls for greater prosperity.

....A major policy guideline is the latest statement or speech in which Kim Jong-un has sounded more focused on the North Korean economy than on the military.
6. Russia pulls the plug on drunken paratroopers' swimming pool of choice.
....To prevent drownings, Russian cities drained public fountains on the soldiers’ national holiday.
b. Mixed Russian feelings on jailed punk rock band.
....Pres. Putin told reporters that while there was “nothing good” about the band members’ demonstration, “nonetheless, I do not think that they should be judged severely for this."
a. Ex-KGB banker and Putin critic plans to sell his Russia-based assets.
....Aleksandr Y. Lebedev, who for years has gotten away with tweaking the Russian president in public, said police and regulatory checks on his businesses had become so intense that he was giving up.
7. 3 men arrestd in Spain are suspected of having links to al-Qaida.
.....Spanish officials announced the arrest of three suspects who were believed to have been planning attacks in Spain and elsewhere
8. As conflict continues, Assad's arms under strain.
....Many of the Syrian government's most powerful weapons are looking less potent and in some cases like a liability for the military of President Bashar al-Assad.
a. Resigning as envoy to Syria, Annan casts wide blame].
....After months of failure to achieve a basic cease-fire in Syria, Kofi Annan cited government intransigence, rebel militancy and lack of support from a split United Nations Security Council.
b. Syrian fighting intensifies in battle for Aleppo.
....An apparent execution by rebel fighters of pro-government militiamen drew criticism amid claims of new massacres by government forces.
c. New fighting reported in Syria, including deadly assault on Palestinian camp.

....The new fighting was reported as diplomatic recriminations intensified over the resignation of Kofi Annan, the special peace envoy.

US News Capsules:
1. Errant trades reveal a risk few expected.
....By rushing to get a software trading program online, Knight Capital lost millions of dollars and created havoc on stock exchanges this week.
2. Fury reveals deep rifts near 'Happiest place on earth.'.
....Anger over two fatal police shootings in Anaheim, Calif., the home of Disneyland, has led to the eruption of longstanding race and class tensions.
3. A river newly wild and seriously muddy.

....As a river in Washington State returns to its original state because of a dam removal project, fish again swim upstream — but tons of sediment are heading downstream.
4. A fast-food loyalty rooted in southern identity.
....For many Southerners, whether to go to Chick-fil-A is not as simple as choosing sides in a cultural war, and they feel protective of a brand rooted in their region’s tradition..
5. Amtrak losing millions each year on food sales.
....Required since 1981 to break even, Amtrak’s food service never has, instead racking up huge losses, largely because of lack of oversight, waste and employee theft, according to government auditors.
6. Pace of hiring rose in July, but jobless rate picked up.

....The American economy added 163,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said, a jump up from June’s figure of 64,000. But the unemployment rate inched up to 8.3%.
POLITICS:
1. Pile of bills left behind as Congress goes to campaign.
....A last-minute House attempt at relief for drought-stricken farmers was one of a series of measures that fell victim to partisan fighting, and infighting, in recent weeks.
2. Cybersecurity bill is blocked in US Senate by GOP filibuster

he bill would have established optional standards for the computer systems that oversee critical infrastructure.
3. In tight Iowa race, Romney struggles to excite GOP base

....The lack of enthusiasm may affect turnout in a state that is considered up for grabs.

Today's Headlines of Interest:
Drought dries up stretch of Platte River, slows barges on lower Mississippi.

It's not just on land where drought is taking a toll: a 100-mile stretch of the Platte River has dried up, while barges along the lower Mississippi are having to carry less cargo in order to navigate shallower water. The Mississippi impact is one that goes far beyond the immediate area: About 60 percent of the nation's grain, 22 percent of its oil and gas, and 20 percent of the nation's coal goes down the river. Lighter barges mean longer waits for those products.

The Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with dredging parts of the river where barges ground, and business is booming. "We're dredging around the clock," Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the Corps' Mississippi Valley District, said. The situation is the opposite from last year when flooding saw the Mississippi crest at nearly 48 feet above the baseline near Memphis, Tenn. Lately the river has been six to seven feet below the baseline -- 12 feet below normal for this time of year. It could drop another 2.5 feet by August, National Weather Service meteorologist Marlene Mickelson told Reuters, calling that a "worst-case scenario."

For the barges, every inch of water counts. Barges must unload 17 tons of cargo for every one-inch loss of water and 204 tons for every one-foot loss of draft, Tom Allegretti, president of the American Waterways Operators, said in a recent statement. Draft is the distance between a ship's waterline and the lowest point of its keel. "When you consider that a typical tow on the upper Mississippi or Ohio Rivers has 15 barges, a one-foot loss of draft will decrease the capacity of that tow by 3,000 tons," Allegretti said. "The tows on the lower Mississippi River are larger, consisting of 30-45 barges, resulting in decreased capacity of over 9,000 tons." It would take 130 semi trucks or 570 rail cars to haul the freight unloaded by one large barge under those conditions.

Locals are doing everything in their power to manage -- and that means barges are loading less, the Coast Guard is constantly resetting buoy lines that help navigate, and the Corps is dredging. River conditions were even worse during the 1988 drought, when a 100-mile stretch south of Memphis was closed. At one point, more than 700 barges were backed up on the river near Greenville, Miss. Lessons learned then prompted changes in how the Army Corps of Engineers maintains the river and, as a result, have lessened the impact of this year's drought. Those changes include new dikes and other structures that direct water in key areas.

On the Platte River, meanwhile, sand, plants and tire tracks are now the dominant features along a stretch near near Columbus, Neb. Someone with a dry sense of humor even put up a cactus in the middle of the river, TheOmahaChannel.com reported. "This is the worst I've ever seen it, and I've been on the river since I was a pup," Dan Kneifel, who runs Geno's Bait and Tackle Shop, told TheOmahaChannel.com. The river is essentially dry from Columbus to Kearney, about 100 miles away. "You may find a little trickle in some stretches of that, but nothing to support fish," Daryl Bauer, a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission staffer, told the Lincoln Journal-Star.


Thought for Today
"Who will stand guard to the guards themselves?"
--Juvenal [Decimus Junius Juvenalis] (c.55-c.128 AD) Roman satirical poet

Today's flower: Banshee black bearded iris

[the flying reindeer]

Friendship Day
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 218th day of 2012 with 147 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 8:53 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 77ºF [Feels like 79ºF], winds S @ 12 mph, humidity 74%, pressure 31.01 in and steady, dew point 68ºF, chance of precipitation 70%.

Today in History:
1779-- Lt Col. James DeLancey’s New York Loyalists and Patriot William Hull’s Connecticut Brigade battle for the Bronx in New York City.
1858--the 1st transatlantic telegraph cable was completed.
1861---Pres. Lincoln i,posed the first federal income tax.
1864--Union forces scored a victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay.
1884--the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
1914--the world's first electric traffic signal wasinstalled in Cleveland, Ohio.
1914--the German assault on Liege began first battle of World War I.
1924--the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" by Harold Gray made its debut.
1930--Neil Armstrong, astronaut, turns 82.
1948--an earthquake caused dealy landslides in Ecuador.
1957--American Bandstand, hosted by Dick Clark, made its network TV debut on ABC.
1962--Marilyn Monroe wass found dead of a drug overdose at her home.
1963--the US, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater.
1969--the U.S. space probe Mariner 7 flew by Mars, sending back photographs and scientific data.
1974--the UC Congress cut military aid to South Vietnam.
1976--the NBA merged with the ABA.
1981--Pres. Reagan fired 11,369 striking air traffic controllers.
1998--Marie Noe, age 70, was arrested at her Philadelphia home and charged in the smothering deaths of eight of her children, who died between 1949 and 1968.
2002--Divers recovered the rusty gun turret of the US Monitor turret after 140 years underwater.
2009--Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term as Iran's president.
2010--the US Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as the Supreme Court's 112th justice and the fourth woman in its history.
2011 --tandard & Poor's lowered the United States' AAA credit rating by one notch to AA-plus.

World News Capsules:
1. Two top Afghan security ministers face dismissal.
....Lawmakers explained a move that would cast out the heads of the army and national police in the middle of a war as part of a fight against crippling corruption and cronyism.
2. Leaders' torture in the '70s stirs ghosts in Brazil.

....A Brazilian truth commission is gathering details on decades-old torture cases, including that of Pres. Dilma Rousseff
3. 2,000 arrested in China in counterfeit drug crackdown.
....Authorities detained nearly 2,000 people as part of a nationwide crackdown on the sale of fake or counterfeit drugs and health care products, according to a report Sunday from Xinhua, the official news agency.
4. Israel bars foreign envoys from West Bank meeting.
....Delegations from five countries were denied permission to use Israeli border crossings because their governments do not recognize the state of Israel.
5. He may be leader of Peru, but to outspoken kin, he's just a disappointment.
....Pres. Ollanta Humala tries to sidestep the negative attention, but the criticism by his own kin mirrors a growing dissatisfaction by the public.
6. Intensified Syrian fighting reported in battles for Damascus and Aleppo.
....Explosions and heavy fighting rocked Syria's two largest cities on Saturday, witnesses and activists said, as the Syrian government and rebel fighters struggled to gain an advantage in the country's bloody, 17-month-old conflict.
a. 48 captives are Iran'thugs,' say rebels in Syria.

....As fighting continued throughout Syria, the rebels insisted that their hostages were members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, not religious pilgrims.
7. As Syria war roils, unrest among sects hits Turkey.
....With Syria’s war devolving into a bloody sectarian showdown, tensions have increased across the border between Turkey’s Alawite minority and its Sunni Muslim majority.

US News Capsules:
1. Lucrative gambling pits tribe against tribe.
....Plans for two tribal casinos are drawing fierce opposition from nearby tribes with casinos that they say will be hurt by the newcomers.
2. A Spanish hat factory thrives on orders from a finicky Brooklyn.
....A hat factory in Seville has found an unlikely source of revenue amid the economic downturn - the Hasidic community in Brooklyn.
3. If the name gets in the way, change it.
....Changing the company's name can make a big difference, whether to ease confusion, rebuild a brand or flee a negative. connotation.
4. State department and Pentagon plan for post-Assad Syria
.
....The agencies have created cells to look at potential problems in the wake of Pres. Bashar al-Assad’s fall, hoping to avert the types of mistakes made after the invasion of Iraq.
5. US officials brace for huge task of operating health exchanges.
....The insurance marketplaces are a centerpiece of Pres. Obama’s health care law, but federal officials never expected to have to run them themselves.
6. Networks struggle to appeal to Hispanics.

....Shows meant to reach out to Hispanic viewers often rely on boilerplate characters that fall flat.
POLITICS:
1. Record spending by Obama's camp shrinks coffers.
....Pres. Obama has spent more campaign cash more quickly than any incumbent in recent history, about $400 million from the beginning of last year to June 30 this year.
2. Copyikng Obama's '08 strategy, Romney takes to the ground in Colorado.
....Mitt Romney’s fate in Colorado may depend on whether his campaign can build a ground-level presence like the one that helped carry President Obama four years ago,

Today's Headlines of Interest:
Gunman kills 6 in Wisconsin Sikh temple befoe dying in shootout.

In what police called an act of domestic terrorism, a gunman opened fire in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., south of Milwaukee, killing six people and wounding at least three others, including a police officer, before being shot to death. "We're treating this as a domestic terrorist-type incident," Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said at a late afternoon press conference. He did not elaborate. It was not immediately clear why local police were classifying the shooting as domestic terrorism.
Federal law enforcement officials said the suspect had no obvious connection to domestic terror or white supremacist groups and apparently was not on any list of suspected terrorists. The suspect was in his early 40s, and while he had an arrest record, it was for minor offenses, one federal official said.
Greenfield Police Chief Bradley Wentlandt, acting as public information officer at the scene, said the shooting took place shortly before Sunday services were to begin. A police officer responding to multiple 911 calls came upon a gunman outside the temple and was shot multiple times, Wentlandt said. The gunman shot at another officer, who returned fire, striking and killing the him, Edwards said. The wounded officer was taken to a hospital where he was undergoing surgery and was expected so survive.
A law enforcement official said the gunman was dressed in tactical gear and armed with a single handgun. His name was not released but police say they have a tentative ID and were preparing to search what they believed to be his home. A temple committee member, Ven Boba Ri, told the Journal-Sentinel that people inside the temple described the shooter as a white male in his 30s. "We have no idea," he said of the motive. "It's pretty much a hate crime. It's not an insider." Ri told the Journal-Sentinel the gunman walked up to a priest who was standing outside the temple and shot him. Then he went inside and started shooting.
Sikh rights groups have reported a rise in bias attacks since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Washington-based Sikh Coalition has reported more than 700 incidents in the U.S. since 9/11, which advocates blame on anti-Islamic sentiment. Sikhs don't practice the same religion as Muslims, but their long beards and turbans often cause them to be mistaken for Muslims, advocates say. Sikhism is a monotheistic faith that was founded in South Asia more than 500 years ago. It has roughly 27 million followers worldwide. Observant Sikhs do not cut their hair; male followers often cover their heads with turbans -- which are considered sacred -- and refrain from shaving their beards. They are neither Muslim nor Hindu. There are roughly 500,000 Sikhs in the U.S., according to estimates. The Sikh Temple of Wisconsin was founded in October 1997 with 20 to 25 families, according to its website. It currently has 350 to 400 people in its congregation and has grown rapidly, the group says. The congregation started in rental facilities in Milwaukee and established formerly established in a building in 1999. It later bought 13 acres in Oak Creek and broke ground on the current temple in 2006.

Thought for Today
"There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience."
--Hartley Shawcross (1902-2003), prosecutor at Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal

[cereb]

Good night peg, and thanks!

[the flying reindeer]

cereb--How great to hear from you!! It's been ages. I'm glad you enjoyed my little news effort.

[the flying reindeer]

Hiroshima Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 219th day of 2012 with 146 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:07 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 70ºF [Feels like 70ºF], winds W @ 6 mph, humidity 57%, pressure 30.12 in and falling, dew point 54ºF, chance of precipitation 0%.

Today in History:
1777--Gen. Nicholas Herkimer was killed at the Battle of Oriskany. but British and Indian forces were halted on their way to Saratoga.
1787--the first draft of the US Constitution was debated in Philadelphia, Pa.
1825--Upper Peru became the autonomous republic of Bolivia.
1862--the C.S.S. Arkansas, a Confederate ironclad, was blown up by her crew after suffering mechanical problems during a battle with the U.S.S. Essex near Baton Rouge, La.
1890--Hall of fame pitcher Cy Young made his major league debut with the Cleveland Spiders of the National League.
1890--The first execution by electric chair occurred in Auburn State Prision in New York.
1914--Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia, and Serbia declared war against Germany at the outbreak of war,
1915--Allied forces commanded by Sir Frederick Stopford landed at Suvla Bay, on the Aegean Sea, to launch a fresh attack against Turkish and German forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
1926--Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English channel, arriving in Kingsdown, England, from France in 14½ hours..
1930--New York State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater went missing after leaving a Manhattan restaurant; his disappearance remains a mystery to this day.
1942--Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands became the first reigning queen to address a joint session of Congress.
1945--an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima.
1965--Pres. Johnson signed the Voting Rigths Act.
1971--the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the first US Army troops deployed to Vietnam, stood down for withdrawal from the country.
1991--Peugeot said au revoir to U.S. car market.
1997--a Korean Air Boeing 747 crashed in Guam, killing 228 people sue to an inexperienced crew and poor air-traffic policies on the island.
2002--Pres. Bush signed legislation restoring to US presidents broad authority in negotiating trade pacts.
2007--the Crandall Canyon Mine in central Utah collapsed, trapping six coal miners. (All six miners died, along with three rescuers.)
2007--Baron Elie Robert de Rothschild, who helped France's Rothschild winemaking and banking dynasty recover from the ravages of World War II, died near Scharnitz, Austriaat age 90.
2008--the government declared that Army scientist Bruce Ivins was solely responsible for the anthrax attacks that killed five in 2001.
2009--Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice .
2011--insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the elite Navy commando unit that had slain Osama bin Laden; seven Afghan commandos also died.

World News Capsules:
1. Afghan president moves to reassure allies after security ministers are dismissed.
.... Pres. Hamid Karzai said he respected Parliament’s decision to fire two senior security officials, but it was not clear how quickly he would replace them.
2. Chinese leaders gather ahead of transition, reports indicate.
....For months, party elders and current senior officials have been negotiating quietly in Beijing to fill the seats of the party’s top governing bodies, the 25-member Politburo and its elite Standing Committee
3. Gunmen kill 15 and steal vehicle in attack on Egypt base.

....After the attack on an Egyptian army barracks in the northern Sinai peninsula, near the country's border with Israel, the militants seized armored vehicles and tried to infiltrate Israel, according to officials
a. Israeli defense chief says Egypt attack a 'wake-up call'.
....The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, said that a terrorist attack that killed 15 Egyptian soldiers underscored a growing danger at the border between the two nations.
4. Optimism in Greece after talks with lenders.
....Creditors wrapped up a review of the country’s progress in meeting the terms of its second bailout and said they would return in September for a final assessment
5. Saying Mali 'is our country,' militias train to oust Islamists.

....Fledgling citizen militias have taken on the task of standing up to an array of Islamist fighters bent on enforcing a hard-edged brand of Shariah law in Mali, but the eager recruits have almost no weapons, little military instruction, and not much more than the hard ground to sleep on.
6. Syria premier defects to anti-Assad oppositin, spokesman says.

....Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has defected to the opposition seeking to overthrow Pres. Assad, a spokesman for Hijab said, marking one of the most high-profile desertions from the Damascus government.

US News Capsules:
1. NASA's most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet.

(Artist rendereing of Curiosity on Mars)
....The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.
2. Wisconsin gunman identified as US Army veteran.

....Officials said the gunman, shot and killed by the police, was Wade Michael Page, an Army veteran who, a rights watchdog said, had white supremacist ties and led a neo-Nazi punk band.
a. Sikhs reel after 'senseless' attack: We're not Taliban.
....Sikhs around the country mourned the loss of their fellow believers, saying they are misunderstood minority. "We are pretty sure that this is a hate crime because there is so much ignorance and people mistake us either being Taliban, or being part of Bin Laden’s network, or al-Qaida because of our turbans and beards," Rajwa Singh of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation in Rockville, Md., said.
3. To increase learning time, some schools add days to academic year.
....Increasing time in school is one of the best ways to narrow the achievement gap between rich and poor students, education advocates say.
4. As Libor fault-finding grows, it is now every bank for itself.
....The investigation into the manipulation of the Libor benchmark interest rate has led banks to seek to implicate their rivals, according to government and bank officials.
5. NBC's coverage in London is becoming a rating success with a shot at a profit.
....NBC said viewership for the London Games was so much higher than expectations that the network predicted it would turn a small profit overall.
POLITICS:
1. Fearing an impasse in Congress, industry cuts spending.
....Executives at a wide range of companies fear paralysis in Washington will force hundreds of billions in tax increases and budget cuts in January, leading them to cancel new investments and put off new hires.
2. In Kansas, Conservatives vilify fellow Republicans.
....Kansas politics have been tilting more to the right for at least the last two decades, and now that shift is prompting a bitter clash within the state’s Republican Party.
3. Outside cash in Missouri race could be a national model.
....The campaign against Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, fueled by tax-exempt groups backing Republican candidates, may be a precursor to such efforts on a broader scale.
4. Team Romney once again outraises Team Obama.

....The full picture on fundraising comparisons won't be clear until Aug. 20, when the July numbers are due at the FEC

Olympic Headlines of Interest:
Quiet highlights.

(Silver medal race walk winner Erick Barrondo of Guatemala )
Amid the sensational wins of the first half of the London Olympics, there are some less-celebrated but no less impressive victories that you might have missed.
1. GUATEMALA won its very first Olympic medal in history, when Erick Barrando won silver in the 20 km race walk. The country first participated in the Games in 1952.
2. ITALY overtook France to claim the highest number of fencing medals overall in Olympics history. Italy's fencing medal count now stands at 121 to the 115 held by France, which failed to take home a fencing medal for the first time since 1960. With her six gold medals, Italy's Valentina Vezzali also made Olympic history by becoming the most decorated female fencer.
3. Other fencers also made Olympic history for their national teams, including Reuben Limbardo Gascon, who won VENEZUELA's first fencing gold—and the country's first gold medal since 1968. Silver medalist Bartosz Piasecki won NORWAY's first fencing medal.
4. SOUTH KOREA's fencer, Shin A Lam, picked herself up to win silver in the team event, after she sat on the piste in tears earlier in the week after losing the women's epee semifinal over a disputed final hit.
5. NORTH KOREA has won four medals in weightlifting—three of them gold. Om Yun Choi and Kim Un Guk triumphed in the men's 56 kg and 62 kg events, the first time the nation has won an Olympic medal for men's weightlifting since 1992. Rim Jong Sim followed a few days later with a victory in the women's 69 kg event.
6. HONG KONG cyclist Wai Sze Lee won a bronze in women's keirin, the first medal awarded in the London Olympics to Hong Kong. It was also the third Olympics medal ever won by the special administrative region of China, which has independently competed in the summer Olympics since 1952.
7. BELARUS won its first gold medal in tennis, triumphing in the mixed doubles event, which returned to the Olympics after an 88-year absence.
8. Women's boxing made its debut in the London Olympics, bringing 36 female boxers from 23 nations across three weight divisions to the ring. In the 75 kg division, NIGERIA's Edith Ogoke defeated 2012 world championship silver medalist Elena Vystropova, making her one to watch in Monday's quarterfinals.

Thought for Today
"[T]he burden of government is not measured by how much it taxes, but by how much it spends."
--Milton Friedman (1912-2006) Nobel Prize-winning economist ,advisor to Pres. Reagan and "ultimate guru of the free-market system."

Today's flower: Blueberry filly iris

[the flying reindeer]

Professional Speakers Day

Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 220th day of 2012 with 145 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 2:03 p.m., it's fair , temp 82ºF [Feels like 82ºF], winds W @ 9 mph, humidity 31%, pressure 29.99 in and falling, dew point 48ºF, chance of precipitation 0%.

Today in History:
1782--Gen. George Washington created the Purple Heart medal, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and non-commissioned officers.
1882--the famous feud between the Hatfields of West Virginia and the McCoys of Kentucky erupted into full-scale violence.
1903--Louis S. B. Leakey, Kenyan archaeologist and anthropologist, was born; died 1972 at age 69.
1912--former Pres. Teddy Roosevelt was nominated as the Bull Moose/Progressive Party candidate for president.
1927--the already opened Peace Bridge connecting Buffalo, N.Y., and Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, was officially dedicated.
1942--US forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific.
1947--Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti.
1959--the US launched the Explorer 6 satellite, which sent back images of Earth.
1964--the US Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving Pres. Johnson nearly unlimited powers to oppose "communist aggression" in Southeast Asia.
1971--Apollo 15 returned to Earth after a manned mission to the moon.
1974--French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.
1990--Pres. Bush ordered Operation Desert Storm to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia against a possible invasion by Iraq.
1998--US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, killing 224 peope, including 12 Americans, and wounded some 4,500.
2000--Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore chose Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, making him the first Jewish candidate on a major party ticket.
2002--major league baseball players and owners agreed on the sport's first tests for steroids.
2005--after three days, the Russian Priz AS-28 mini-submarine, with seven crew members, was rescued from deep in the Pacific Ocean.
2008--Georgia shelled the capital of breakaway republic South Ossetia. (Russia responded by occupying much of Georgia in a five-day war.)
2011--four adults and three children were killed by a gunman in Copley Township, Ohio; the shooter died in a gunfight with police.

World News Capsules:
1. 8 civilians killed in bombing near Kabul.
....A suspected insurgent who had been arrested and released by Afghan authorities detonated a bomb outside Kabul, killing at least eight people in a packed bus, the Afghan police said.
2. Sinai attack tests new Egyptian president's relationship with Israel.
....The attack, which left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead, brought several early signs of cooperation and coordination between the governments.
3. As Greece rounds up migrants, official says 'Invasion' imperils national stability.
....Of the 6,000 detained, authorities said 1,400 did not have proper documentation, leading the minister of public order to say that Greece was suffering an “unprecedented invasion.
4. Cracks in Great Britain's governing coalition as House of Lords overhaul falls apart.
....The proposed changes would have nearly cut in half the size of the upper chamber, from 826 to 450 members, and made 80 % of the body elective by 2025..
5. Where streets are thronged with strays baring fangs.

....Free-roaming dogs in India, many of which are rabid, number in the tens of millions and bite millions of people annually, including vast numbers of children
6. Regulator says British bank helped Iran hide deals.
....Standard Chartered, motivated by the millions of dollars it reaped in fees, schemed with the Iranian government to launder $250 billion, New York's banking regulator said.
a. Iran warns US on fate of hostges in Syria.
....The Iranian government said it would hold the United States responsible for the fate of a group of Iranians held by Syrian rebels following an artillery attack that reportedly killed three of them.
7. Japan utility shows recordings of nuclear crisis.
....The split-screen videos show executives from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, huddled around a conference table, trying to grasp or organize the situation.
8. Gunman kill 16 in Cental Nigeria church attack.
....Gunmen fired on worshippers at a church in Nigeria's central Kogi state during a Monday evening service, police said.
9. 1000s flee Manila flooding: desperate residents trapped on roofs.

....Rescue workers on Tuesday raced to pluck people from their roofs and out of fast-flowing water as the worst flooding in two years submerged a third of the Philippines’ overpopulated capital
10. Russian booster rocket fails to deliver satellite.
....The malfunction is a particularly glaring failure of Russia’s space program, coming just hours after NASA landed a research probe on Mars.
11. Prime minister's defction in the dark jolts Syrians.
....The defection of Syria's prime minister, Riyad Farid Hijab, planned furtively for weeks, spurred jubilation in the opposition but seemed unlikely to end the war.
a. Fighting grows more intense in Syria's largest city.
....1000s of frightened refugees poured out of the embattled Syrian metropolis of Aleppo as the military’s fighter jets stepped up bombing raids.
b. Lugar urges US and Russia to rid Syria of chemical weapons.
....Sen. Lugar (R-Ind.) is in Moscow to press for an extension of a program to safeguard and dismantle nuclear and chemical weapons in the former Soviet Union.
12. Tibetan monk dies in Western China blaze, reports say.
....At least 45 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since February 2009, according to an estimate by Radio Free Asia,

US News Capsules:
1. Hospital chain inquiry cited unnecessary cardiac work.
....HCA, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country, uncovered evidence of unnecessary - even dangerous - cardiac treatments at some of its medical centers in Florida.
2. Wisconsin killer fed and was fueled by hate-driven music.

....Wade M. Page, who the authorities said killed six people at a Sikh temple, was a white supremacist who performed in a racist rock band.
3. After safe landing, the rover Curiosity sends images from Mars.
....The rover ushers in a new era of exploration that could turn up evidence that the Red Planet once had the ingredients for life.
4. Life term for gunman after guilty plea in Tucson killings.
....Jared L. Loughner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to carrying out a shooting rampage that left six people dead and Gabrielle Giffords wounded. In exchange, the government has agreed not to seek the death penalty.
5. Close-knit mosque community shaken by fire in Joplin, Mo.

....Members of the worship house of the Islamic Society of Joplin, Missouri, destroyed by a suspicious fire in a month, are sad and shaken, but resolute in their plans to stay in the area, a spokeswoman said. Earlier in the month, the Islamic center was the site of an attempted arson.
6. Disabled students almost twice as likely to be suspended, analysis finds.
....The highest rates are among black children with disabilities, which can include learning difficulties.
POLITICS:
1. Reid puts GOP in a bind over Romney's takes.

....Republican sources say they're in a Catch-22 situation on how to reply to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's claims that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney went 10 years without paying taxes.

Olympic Headlines of Interest:
1. In the pole vault, consistency through tough conditions.
....Jennifer Suhr won the pole vault with a jump of 4.75 meters, or 15 feet 7 inches with the wind affecting many vaulters.
2. Raisman's Olympic moment

Afterlosing a bronze medal in the all-around to a tie-breaker, Aly Raisman finally got her Olympic moment winning a gold medal in the floor exercises and a bronze on the balance beam.
3. Windsurfing's last stance.

....Windsurfers took to the sea today for what could be the last time in an Olympic Games if the International Sailing Federation gets its way. In May 2012 the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) decided that windsurfing -- which made its Olympic debut in 1984 -- would not be included in the Rio 2016 Olympics. So the windsurfing body International RS:X Class Association decided to increase the pressure on the ISAF by taking it to court.

Thought for Today
"Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor."
—Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) English historian.

[the flying reindeer]

International Day of the World’s Indigenous People
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 222nd day of 2012 with 143 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:07 p.m., it's fair , temp 83ºF [Feels like 84ºF], winds calm, humidity 54%, pressure 29.91 in and falling, dew point 66ºF, chance of precipitation 40%.

Today in History:
378--in one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman aimy under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, was defeated by the mounted barbarian Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople.
1593--Izaak Walton, English biographer and author of The Compleat Angler, was born; died 1683 at age 90.
1842--the US and Canada resolved a border dispute by signing the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
1854--Henry David Thoreau published Walden, which described his life near Walden Pond in Massachusetts.
1862--Confederate Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson scored a narrow victory over Union forces under Gen. John Pope at the Battle of Cedar Mountain.
1877--having refused government demands that they move to a reservation, a small band of Nez Perce Indians clash with the U.S. Army near the Big Hole River in Montana.
1896--Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist famous for his studies of cognitive development in children, was born; died 1980 at age 84
1902--Britain's Edward VII was crowned king following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
1936--American Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal )100-meter relay) at the Berlin Olympics, thereby discrediting the Nazi theory of Aryan superiority.
1942--Britain arrested Indian nationalist agitator Mohandas K. Gandhi; releasing him in 1944.
1944--258 African-American sailors based at Port Chicago, Calif., refused to load a munitions ship following an explosion on another ship that killed 320 men, many of them black. (Fifty of the sailors were convicted of mutiny, fined and imprisoned.)
1945--the US dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, instantly killing an estimated 39,000 people.
1969--members of Charles Manson's cult killed five people in the Beverly Hills, Calif., home of movie director Roman Polanski, incuding his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate.
1974--Pres. Nixon and his family left the White House as his resignation took effect. Vice Pres. Gerald R. Ford became the nation's 38th chief executive.
1976--Hurricane Belle struck the Eastern seaboard from North Carolina to Vermont.
1985--Arthur Walker, a retired U.S. Navy officer. was found guilty of spying, passing secrets to his brother who then gave them to the Soviets.
1988--Wayne Gretzky was traded by the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.
1995--Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead died at age 53.
1997, Haitian immigrant Abner Louima was brutalized in a Brooklyn, N.Y., stationhouse by officer Justin Volpe, who raped him with a broken broomstick. (Volpe was later sentenced to 30 years in prison.)
2001--Pres. Bush approved federal funding for eisting lines of embryonic stem cells.
2002--Oscar-winning actor and National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston, 78, revealed that doctors had told him he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
2004--Terry Nichols was sentenced to 161 consecutive life sentences for the Oklahoma City bombing.
2007--China banned exports by two toy manufacturers whose products were subject to major recalls in the United States.
2010--a JetBlue flight attendant quit his job via hisplane's escape slide.
2010--former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, 86, the longest serving Republican in the US Senate, was killed in a plane crash in southwestern Alaska.
2011--polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced in San Angelo, Texas, to life in prison for sexually assaulting one of his child brides, and received the maximum 20-year punishment for a separate child sex conviction.

World News Capsules:
1. Fatal attack shows plan to unsettle Afghanistan.
....The attack, in which two bombers detonated suicide vests as soldiers were patrolling near the provincial council’s office, occurred just a few days after the Taliban made a show of force in Kunar Province
2. Trial of Chinese ex-official's wife begins and ends.

....After only seven hours, officials said that Gu Kailai, the wife of the deposed political leader Bo Xilai, and an accomplice had all but confessed to poisoning a British businessman.
a. Growth flagging in China, government data show.
....Key areas are expanding far less than expected compared with the same period a year ago, although inflation has decreased dramatically.
3. For victim in Sikh temple shooting, a life of separation.

....A stunned family that had lived for so long without its father and husband is now preparing to travel to Wisconsin to collect Ranjit Singh's body.
4. Plots are tied to shadow war of Israel and Iran.
....Analysts say the shadow war has more in common with the cloak-and-dagger maneuverings of the CIA and the KGB during the cold war than the publicity-hungry terrorism campaign of Al Qaeda.
5. New Pakistani premier faces contempt notice on corruption inquiry.
....Pakistan's Supreme Court issued a contempt-of-court notice against Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, signaling a rerun of judicial proceedings that saw his predecessor ousted from office in June.
6. Punk ban's Moscow trial offers platform for orthodox protesters.

....Religious groups in Moscow burned a poster of the punk band whose members are on trial for performing an anti-Putin song at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior,
7. Rebels pull back as Syrian military continues moving in on Aleppo.

....Rebel forces in Syria's largest city said that government forces had launched a ground assault, forcing them to pull back from parts of a key neighborhood. Meanwhile, Pres. Assad appointed a new prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, to replace Riyad Farid Hijab, who defected to Jordan this week.
8. After 40 years, US to clean up Agent Orange in Vietnam.

....Luu Thi Thu's son's birth defects are linked to his father's exposure to Agent Orange at a former American base in Da Nang, Vietnam. Now, a four-year, $43 million US program is being welcomed in Vietnam, but many people say the effort is too little and too late.

US News Capsules:
1. With rates low, banks increase mortgaage rofit.
....Bundling mortgages and selling them to investors is helping banks make big profits even as they charge lower interest rates. Am I wrong but isn't this how we got into the economic mess we're in now?
2. The sound of hate.
....Law enforcement and anti-racist activists should pay close attention to the neo-Nazi music scene as a motivating force for hate crime.
3. $1 million each year for all, as long as tribe's luck holds.

....A growing movement to legalize Internet gambling and give states the power to regulate and tax online gambling even on reservations is driving anxiety even among one of the richest tribes, the Shakopee,
4. What cornfields show, data now confirm: July set mark as US's hottest month.

....The average temperature in the lower 48 states last month was 77.6 degrees, breaking a record set in July 1936.
5. In laundering case, a lax banking law obscured money flow.
...In so-called U-turn transactions before 2008, global banks like Standard Chartered could provide scant information on transfers that passed in and out of the US.
6. Google goes back to the drawing board for Nexus Q.
....The setback from the Nexus Q reveals deeper challenges for Google as it tries to move into two new areas: hardware and social technology.
7. Soaring ointment prices are a dermatologic mystery.

....Generic creams routinely prescribed by doctors have been undergoing rapid price increases, an example of the murky and often illogical world of drug pricing.
8. OLYMPICS: The US bounces back, and over.
....Aries Merritt won the 110-meter hurdles, Brittney Reese won the long jump, and Allyson Felix won the 200 meters as all three overcame disappointments from 2008.
a. And the Olympic gold for whining goes to...
....Any moment not shrouded in gold, silver or bronze has the potential to draw complaints, insults and general disgruntlement from fans and the news media.
POLITICS:
1. Politicians, protesters, police: Charlotte braces.
....With thousands of protesters of all stripes preparing to invade the city for the Democratic National Convention, Charlotte and the Secret Service announced the perimeters of the security zone.
2. A candidate whose ads are never off the air.
....Linda Lingle, the Republican nominee for Senate in Hawaii, has turned a cable channel into a 24-hour advertisement for her campaign.
3. Romney's unfavorable rating is up.

a. Romney faces pressure from right to put Ryan on ticket.
....Conservative media outlets are pushing Mitt Romney to erase doubts about his agenda by choosing Representative Paul D. Ryan as his running mate.
4. Young in GOP erase the lines on social issues.
....Many of the youngest leaders of the Republican Party are embracing views on some social issues that are at odds with traditional conservative ideology.

Today's Headlines of Interest:
"We're with you, sisters": Nuns amazed by outpouring of support.

More than 900 Roman Catholic nuns gathering in St. Louis, Mo., this week to discuss the future of their relationship with the Vatican were surprised to be greeted by supporters with a simple message on their signs: "We're with you, sisters." "It's utterly amazing to all of us, really," Sister Annmarie Sanders, director of communications for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, said. "They're having vigils every night," she added. "We've received... I think it's almost 1,500 letters that have been collected so they can distribute them to our members -- all letters of support." This week, the nuns will pray together and discuss a range of options for the future, from accepting the Vatican's mandate to starting a new organization independent of the church's control.
This spring, after a three-year investigation, the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog issued a report questioning the organization's loyalty to some Church teachings, including the nuns' lack of outspokenness on issues such as gay marriage, abortion and contraception. Another concern voiced by the Vatican relates to conferences organized by the nuns featuring "a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." On April 18, the Vatican appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to oversee the nuns' organization and reform its programs to adhere more closely to "the teachings and discipline of the church."
The Leadership Conference, which represents about 80% of the 57,000 nuns in the US, is holding its yearly national assembly this week following scathing criticism from the Vatican of the nuns' alleged lack of fidelity to Catholic teachings. Their supporters say they were shocked by the crackdown. The Nun Justice Project, a grassroots coalition of Catholic organizations, started the day after the Vatican released its mandate as a petition created on Change.org. "The goal was to have 57,000 signers on the petition -- one name for every sister in the U.S. -- and we surpassed that," spokesperson Erin Saiz Hanna said. The group delivered the petition to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The coalition also asked American Catholics to redirect their annual Peter's Pence contributions from the Vatican to their local communities of women religious. "We were able to redirect $100,000 from that Peter's Pence," Hanna said. "People were able to choose the community that they wanted to redirect their funds to."
Jim FitzGerald, executive director of the Catholic organization Call To Action, which is also part of the Nun Justice Project, said there is a growing disconnect between the Vatican and the nuns. "It's really two different world views," he said. "It's the Vatican, that is very concerned with how Catholics follow rules and you have the perspective from the women religious and how they live out the gospel values...We are a faith where we believe that with God all things are possible," FitzGerald added, "and I would like to think that those who are seeing the incredible support around the country for the sisters would be moved by that support and be a little more reflective about their actions."

Thought for Today
"If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."
--Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist

[mmhmm]

Hiya, Peg. Looks like you've got the chance of rain. I'm looking out my window at the rain coming down and wishing we could send some to the midwest. They need it soooo badly.

Hope all's well with you and yours. Purrs and hisses to Tuxy from my gang.

[cereb]

Good morning Peg,
Yes indeed I do enjoy your news effort! So often you have items that really interest me and it's nice and easy because they are all in one place on your thread! Hope you are doing well.

[the flying reindeer]

I doing fine, thanks, cereb. How about you? It seems ages since we've talked!!

[the flying reindeer]

International Left-Handers Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 226th day of 2012 with 139 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 2:06 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 75ºF [Feels like 75ºF], winds calm, humidity 51%, pressure 30.02 in and falling, dew point 56ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
1521--Spanish forces under Hernándo Cortés capture Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire.
1624--King Louis XIII of France appointed Cardinal Richelieu his first minister.
1704--the Battle of Blenheim was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English-led forces under John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, over French and Bavarian soldiers.
1781--Patriot forces led by Col. William Harden and Brig. Gen. Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion lure the British into an ambush at Parker's Ferry, 30 miles northwest of Charleston, SC as 3,000 French soldiers set sail to aid the patriots.
1792--French revolutionaries imprisoned the royal family.
1846--the American flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles, Calif.
1878--the firxt victim of the Memphis, Tenn. yellow fever epidemic died.
1910--Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, died in London at age 90.
1934--the satirical comic strip "Li'l Abner," created by Al Capp, made its debut
1942--Walt Disney's animated feature Bambi had its U.S. premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
1948--U.S. and British planes airlift a record amount of supplies into sections of the city under American and British control, signaling they would not give in to the Soviet blockade.
1960--the first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1.
1961--East Germany sealed off the border between Berlin's eastern and western sectors and began building a wall that would stand for the next 28 years.
1981--Pres. Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA), a historic package of tax and budget reductions.
1982--the movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, debuted.
1989--searchers in Ethiopia found the wreckage of a plane carrying Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.) and 14 other people.
2002--amid rising floodwaters, tens of thousands of people in the Czech Republic fled their historic capital, Prague, for higher ground.
2003--Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of 270 people killed in the 1988 Locherbie Pan Am bombing.
2007--a bridge under construction in the ancient Chinese city of Fenghuang collapsed, killing 64 people.
2011--seven people were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair during a powerful storm just before a concert was to begin.

World News Capsules:
1. Argentina's new literary tradition: Pensions for aging writers.

....Buenos Aires now provides pensions to about 80 writers (pictured writer Bernardo Kleiner, 84), and as other countries trim social programs, Argentina is considering expanding the literary benefit nationwide.
2. Australian premier backs plan to accept more refugees.
....Prime Minister Julia Gillard endorsed a set of immigration reforms that would increase the number of refugees the country accepts by nearly 50%.
3. Hollywood eager to feed China's appetite for 3-D.
....American technologies, including 3-D and large format films, are delivering content to Chinese moviegoers who are increasingly focused on authenticity and a high-quality experience that cannot be pirated.
4. In upheaval for Egypt, Morsi forces out military chiefs.
....Pres. Mohamed Morsi ousted his powerful defense minister, the army chief of staff and several senior generals, seeming for the moment to reclaim power the military had seized.
a. The leaders of the Egyptian military coucil.

....Egypt’s ruling military council is made of up 23 senior officers. Six of them dominate the decision making in the council
5. 200 rescued in Iran after quakes; death toll rises to 300.
....Relief workers saved more than 200 people from the rubble of dozens of villages that were destroyed after two earthquakes struck Saturday
6. Norway panel on massacre finds litany of government failures.
....Norwegian authorities could have prevented or disrupted the bomb and gun attacks by Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people last year, according to an independent inquest.
7. Korea policing the net. Twist? It's South Korea.

....As one of the world's most wired societies, South Korea has embraced the Web, but a recent crackdown on Internet freedom has drawn accusations of censorship.
8. Syrian jets pound rebel positions as opposition presses for no-fly zone.

....Pres. Assad's forces fired on areas in and around Aleppo and the authorities reported two bomb attacks in Damascus.
9. Ugandan copters, en route to battle Shabab, disappear over Kenya.
....At least two Ugandan military helicopters, key assets in a push against militants in Somalia, “lost communication” somewhere in Kenyan airspace and may have crashed, officials said.
10. Vatican judge indicts Pope's butler in leak case.

....Paolo Gabriele, the butler, is charged with aggravated theft and accused of taking and then leaking documents from the pope’s private apartment that raised allegations of corruption at the Vatican.

US News Capsules:
1. Problems riddle moves to collect credit card debt.
....Judges said that big lenders are using inaccurate or incomplete records to go after consumers, including some who have already paid their debts.
2. Study links healthier weight in children with strict laws on school snacks.
....The study, conducted over three years in 40 states, is likely to stoke the debate over government efforts to reduce obesity rates.
3. Woman becomes first openly gay general.
....Brig. Gen. Tammy S. Smith acknowledged her homosexuality by having her wife pin her star to her uniform.
4. NBC banks on Olympics as springboard for new shows.
....In spite of the millions watching the Games on any given night, history suggests that exposure during the Olympics does not necessarily drive viewers to new shows.
5. Museum defends antiquities collecting.

....With acquisitions of two antiquities, the Cleveland Museum of Art comes out firmly in support of collecting in a landscape reshaped by international disputes.
POLITICS:
1. Conservative star's small-town roots.

....After Paul D. Ryan's father died when he was 16, he began developing a self-reliance and political philosophy, family and friends say, that has led to a defining role as a vice-presidential candidate.
a. Both sides focus on the Republican ticket's new face.
....Mitt Romney sought to capitalize on conservative enthusiasm for his vice-presidential choice without having to defend all of Representative Paul D. Ryan’s positions
2. Enduring drought, farmers draw the line at Congress.

....With lawmakers at home for a recess, constituents are venting their anger over delays in enacting a new five-year farm bill.
3. Casino mogul's frontman in China is focus of inquiries.
....Questions over a casino company’s payments to its Chinese representative highlight how often politics and profits are intertwined for Sheldon Adelson, the company’s founder and a major Republican donor,

Thought for Today
"There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves."
—Jane Austen (1775-1817) English author .

Today's flower: Delirium iris

[the flying reindeer]

R.I.P. Helen Gurley Brown, one of the world's most influential magazine ediors (Cosmopolitan) for three decades and author (Sex and the Single Girl), died at age 90 at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia after a brief hospitalization.

She transformed Cosmopolitan into a source of sexual empowerment for women after taking charge in 1965, giving it its sexually frank tone. She remained editor until 1997 and is still listed as editor in chief for Cosmopolitan International on all mastheads. Until her death, Ms. Brown was known for coming into her pink corner office nearly every day.
In a statement by a Hearst Corp. spokesman, it said "It would be hard to overstate the importance to Hearst of her success with Cosmopolitan, or the value of the friendship many of us enjoyed with her. Helen was one of the world’s most recognized magazine editors and book authors, and a true pioneer for women in journalism — and beyond. She lived every day of her life to the fullest and will always be remembered as the quintessential 'Cosmo girl.' She will be greatly missed”

R.I.P. Helen Gurley Brown, one of the pioneers of the fight for women's rights. And thank you.

[the flying reindeer]

National Catfish Month
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 228th day of 2012 with 137 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 5;16 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 76ºF [Feels like 76ºF], winds N @ 5 mph, humidity 48%, pressure 29.93 in and falling, dew point 60ºF, chance of precipitation 20%. Sumset @ 8:09 p.m.

Today in History:
1057--the Battle of Lumphanan: King Macbeth of Scotland was slain by Malcolm Canmore, whose father, King Duncan I, was murdered by Macbeth 17 years earlier.
1483--the Sistine Chapel was consecrated by Pope Sixtus IV.
1769--Napoleon Bonaparte, French general, 1st Consul and Emperor of France, was born on the island of Corsica; died 1821 at age 41 in exile.
1771--Sir Walter Scott, Scottish novelist, poet, historian and biographer, was born; died 1832 at age 61.
1780--Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion and his irregular cavalry routed loyalists at Port's Ferry, SC.
1914--the Panama Canal was opened to traffic.
1935--humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska.
1939--The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
1945--in a radio address, Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced that his country had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II.
1947--India and Pakistan won their independence after 200 years from Great Britain.
1948--the Republic of Korea (South Korea) was proclaimed.
1960--the Republic of the Congo became independent of France.
1964--Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev declared that he was ready to begin disarmament talks with the West.
1968--Vietnam: Heavy fightnig erupts in and around the DMZ.
1969--the Woodstock Music Festival opened on a farm in a hamlet in the upstate New York town of Bethel in the Catskill Mountains.
1971--Pres. Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.
1979--the movie Apocalypse Now was released to theaters.
1983--Hurricane Alicia pounded the Texas coast.
1998--a car bomb in Omagh, Northern Ireland, killed 29 people and injured 370; a splinter group calling itself the Real IRA claimed responsibility.
2001--astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own - two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper.
2002--Pres. Bush, using Mount Rushmore as a backdrop, pressed Congress to give him a flexible, fast-moving homeland security department.
2006--Israel began withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon.
2007--former NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to felony charges for taking cash payoffs from gamblers and betting on games he'd officiated.
2007--a magnitude-8 earthquake in Peru's southern desert killed some 540 people.
2011--a relentless barrage of bombings in Iraq killed 63 people, striking 17 cities from northern Sunni areas to the southern Shiite heartland.

World News Capsules:
1. Afghan attacks kill dozens in the deadliest day for civilians
.
....Bombings and shootings took the lives of at least 43 Afghans on Tuesday. The assaults came as people were thronging shops to prepare for the Muslim holiday that ends the month of Ramadan
2. Australian court strikes down tobacco challenge.
....Images of ulcers, cancerous lungs and gangrenous limbs will cover three-quarters of the front of all cigarette packages sold in Australia, and brand logos will be banned, under a landmark decision by the High Court.
3. French leader promises order after youths riot in a northern city.
....Clashes in the northern French city of Amiens could represent a challenge to Pres. François Hollande in a time of joblessness and flat economic growth.
a, In Peugeot's troubles, a test of contradictory campaign promises for Hollande.

....Vows to spur economic growth and shrink a budget deficit clash as an iconic company prepares to lay off 8,000 workers and shut a major factory,
4. British employment defies weak economy.
....The jobless rate fell to 8.0 % in the second quarter from 8.1% in the first, as businesses stepped up hiring for the Olympic Games.
a. British bank in $340 million settlement for laundering.
....New York's top banking regulator had accused Standard Chartered of laundering $250 billion for Iranian clients and lying about it to authorities.
c. UK's Prince Philip admitted to hospital.

....Britain's Prince Philip, the 91-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Scotland Wednesday after the recurrence of a bladder infection, Buckingham Palace said.
5. Despite alarm by US, Europe lets Hezbollah operate openly.

....Washington and Jerusalem insist Hezbollah is a resurgent terrorist group with Iranian backing, but the European Union treats it as a Lebanese social and political movement.
6. Importing the AK-47, Russia's top gun.
....As Russia’s military has cut back Kalashnikov purchases, American enthusiasts have started buying civilian versions of weapons manufactured by the same factory.
7. Casino plan runs into opposition in Spain.
....The legal troubles of the American casino mogul Sheldon G. Adelson in the US and Macau are fueling opposition to his plans to build a casino and resort in Madrid or Barcelona.
8. Grandmas grow gold in Swaziland.

....Many of the marijuana-farming grandmothers of Swaziland, who supply South Africa's drug market, started growing to support the offspring their children left behind when they died.
9. Syria conflict spills into Lebanon with rash of kidnappings.

.....The kidnapping of more than 20 Syrians in Lebanon, in revenge for a rebel abduction in Damascus, spread fear in Beirut that such kidnappings were just the beginning.
a. Syrian conflict imperils historical treasures.

....Fighting in Aleppo, Syria’s commercial capital, threatens to damage irreparably the stunning architectural and cultural legacy left by 5,000 years of civilizations.

US News Capsules:
1, Hassles of air travel push passengers to Amtrak.

....Passengers weary of the security and delays of airports are flocking to trains, which now dominate commercial travel in the Boston-Washington corridor.
2. Mine plan puts two Kentucky fixtures on collision course.
....A plan to develop a coal mine around a Girl Scout camp has exposed shifting alliances between environmental and business interests.
3. Sect pastor is convicted of assisting in abduction.
....Kenneth L. Miller was charged with abetting international kidnapping in a case involving same-sex unions and conservative Christian opposition to homosexuality.
4. A giant hospital chain is blazing a profit trail.
....Under private equity ownership, HCA made an aggressive push for more revenue that sometimes led to conflicts with doctors and nurses over patient care.
5. Nine straight days of 110 or more: that's hot, even for Phoenix.

....Temperatures in Phoenix have reached at least 100 degrees for 31 consecutive days, stretching even the most elastic tolerance levels of residents there used to scorching summers.
6. Illegal immigrants line up by 1000s for deportation deferrals
.

....The initiative allows deportations to be deferred for up to two years for as many as 1.7 million people and grants work permits to illegal immigrants who arrived in the US as children.
7. US vow to speed aid to Iran earthquake victims.
....American sanctions make charitable giving to Iran slow and complicated, but the Obama administration has promised to speed applications for donations to help victims of recent earthquakes
8. ARTS: A park's starring role in a yearly ritual.

....The joy of Shakespeare in the Park at the Delaacorte Theater is a summer ritual that can be connected to milestones in a New Yorker's life
POLITICS:
1. Utility's role in convention tests Obama.
....Efforts to free the Democratic convention from business and lobbyist support have prompted charges of hypocrisy from Republicans and grumbling among some Democrats.
2. Two-way jabs on Medicare recast races for Congress.
....A fight over the health care program for older Americans is intensifying in House and Senate races after Rep. Paul D. Ryan's selection as Mitt Romney's running mate

Today's Sports Headlines:
1. MLB: Royal perfection: King Felix tosses perfect game.

....King Felix now has a crowning achievement. Felix Hernandez pitched the Seattle Mariners' first perfect game and the 23rd in baseball history, overpowering the Tampa Bay Rays in a brilliant 1-0 victory.
2. MLB: Melky Cabrera suspended for 50 games for positive testosterone test.

....Melky Cabrera has been suspended 50 games for a positive testosterone test, knocking out of the rest of the season and presumably the first five postseason games. Cabrera was hitting .346 and the Giants’ offensive MVP for most of the season. Now … he’s gone. And it hurts not just the Giants: Cabrera will be a free agent after the season is over, and now his free agent money drive is all gone.
3. TENNIS: Nadal pulls out of US Open, citing sore knee.

....Spaniard Rafael Nadal and third-ranked plalyer withdrew from the U.S. Open, due to the tendinitis that has kept him out of action since his stunning loss at Wimbledon in late June. The injury already forced him out of the London Olympics, where he was supposed to defend his title and carry Spain's flag in the opening ceremony.
4. OLYMPICS: Father of Saudi athlete says daughter called names for competing in Games.

....The father of Wojdan Shaherkani, a 16-year-old on Saudi Arabia's Olympic team ,said his daughter has been called names by people in her home country for competing at the London Games."... After the competition, I returned home, I read on Twitter that somebody said bad words about my daughter. Three people on Twitter accused her of being a 'prostitute.'"

Thought for Today
"Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it."
—George Carlin (1937-2008) comedian.

[the flying reindeer]

National Relaxation Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 229th day of 2012 with 136 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 12:17 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 73ºF [Feels like 74ºF], winds variable @ 3 mph, humidity 76%, pressure 29.98 in and falling, dew point 61ºF, chance of precipitation 0%.

Today in History:
1777--American forces won the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington (Vt.).
1780--American Gen. Horatio Gates suffered a humiliating defeat at Camden, SC.
1812--American Gen. William Hull surrendered Fort Detroit and his army to the British without a fight.
1841--Pres. Tyler was burned in effigy outside the White House.
1861--Pres. Lincoln issued Proclamation 86, which prohibited the states of the Union from engaging in commercial trade with states in rebellion.
1896--George Carmack spotted gold nuggets in a creek bed in Canada's Yukon Territory.
1920--Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was struck in the temple by a ball pitched by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees and died 12 hours later.
1954--Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.
1956--Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
1962--The Beatles fired their original drummer, Pete Best, replacing him with Ringo Starr.
1964--Gen. Nguyen Khanh, elected president by the Military Council, ousted Duong Van Minh as South Vietnamese chief of state and installed a new constitution, which the U.S. Embassy had helped to draft.
1967--Pres. Johnson's broad intrepretation of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was challenged by Sen. William Fulbright (D-Ark.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
1972--the Moroccan king survived an attack by his own air force.
1977--Elvis Presley, 42, died at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee of a heart attack, likely brought on by addiction to prescription barbiturates.
1987--A plane crash due to pilot error at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan killsed156 people with a four-year-old girl the sole survivor.
1987--1000s of people worldwide began a two-day celebration of the "harmonic convergence," which believers called the start of a new, purer Age of Aquarius.
1991--Pope John Paul II began the first-ever papal visit to Hungary
2002--terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal was found shot to death in Baghdad, Iraq.
2007--Jose Padilla, a US citizen held for 3-1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted in Miami of helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks.
2007--a cave-in killed three rescuers in the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah; the search for six trapped miners was later abandoned.
2008--Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly by a 100th of a second for his 7th gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, tying Mark Spitz's 1972 record.
2010--China eclipsed Japan as the world's second biggest economy after three decades of blistering growth.

World News Capsules:
1. [Bahrain jails activist for 3 7ears over protests/u].
....Activist Nabeel Rajab was already serving three months in jail over a tweet criticizing the prime minister. Today’s verdict is likely to undermine a U.S. call for dialogue to defuse political tension.
2. China urges Japan to release protesterscaught on disputed island.

....The 14 Chinese, who include journalists, planted Chinese flags on one of a group of islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan,
3. Ecuador to let AJulian ssange stay in its embassy.

....The government of Ecuador is letting Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to remain indefinitely in its embassy in London as he seeks asylum.
4. Egypt's Islamist leader accused of stifling media.
....Facing strident criticism, Pres. Mohamed Morsi’s government has suspended a satellite television channel, confiscated copies of a newspaper and censored columnists in a state newspaper
5. Iran group may remain on US terror list
....The Mujahedeen Khalq, also known as M.E.K., has been lobbying to be removed from the State Department’s terrorist list, but its refusal to leave a camp in Iraq has caused concern.
6. At least 39 killed in wave of attacks in Iraq.
....A series of bombings and shootings wounded more than 100 people across Iraq, just as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan drew to a close.
7. Pakistani Air Force base with Nuclear ties is attacked..
....Suspected Islamist militants attacked a major Pakistani air force base with links to the country's nuclear program in the early hours of Thursday, sparking an exchange of fire that lasted several hours.
8. South Africa police fire on striking miners.

....At least a dozen men were killed at Lonmin’s Marikana mine after riot police opened fire on the protesting miners armed with machetes and sticks.
9. UN observer mission to Syria to end.

....The United Nations Security Council agreed to keep a much smaller liaison office in the country

US News Capsules:
1. Tapping into the land, and dividing its people.
....Elders of the Blackfeet in Montana have decided to utilize their land's resources to transform a reservation scarred by poverty, but many in the group see the land as sacred.
2. Pennsylvania judge keeps voter ID law intact onits way to higher court.
....An appeal to the state Supreme Court was planned after opponents of a requirement for photo identification were denied an injunction.
3. Risk builds as junk bonds boom.
....Demand for high-yield corporate debt is insatiable, even as analysts warn that the market has become overheated and is ripe for a fall.
4. Downtown comes uptown.

....Madison Avenue, a barometer of New York City's retail health, is filling once-empty storefronts with businesses that are bringing younger customers to the street.
5. 'Mirror Fasts' help take the focus off yourself.

....Some people in search of serenity are trying to abstain from looking at their reflections for a day, a week, a month or even a year.
6. 2 deputies killed and 2 wounded in Louisiana shootings.
....The two shootings were separate but related in what the authorities described as an “ambush” in a rural town northwest of New Orleans.
7. Job losses persist for the less-educated.
....A disparity in employment based on education that had been growing since the 1980s accelerated in the recession and the recovery.
8. Scorched earth all around, but house survives.

....More than 800 firefighters from around Washington state converged on the Taylor Bridge wildfire that destroyed dozens of homes, just one of the blazes being fought across parched western states.
9. Housing crisis prompts novel idea: Use eminent domain to seize mortgages.
....Local governments would then offer loan relief options for the millions of homeowners who are still under water.
POLITICS:
1. Few voters truly up for grabs, research suggests.
....Nationally, the share of voters who could decide the election is probably between just 3% and 5%, polling experts say/
2. Choice of Paul Ryan shifts the focus from economy to ideology.

....For both contenders in the presidential race, winning over the small group of undecided voters seems less important than appealing to the base

color=Brown]Today's Headlines of Interest:
Families question Scientology-inked drug rehab afer recent deaths.

Famous Scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta have touted the value of Narconon, a drug rehabilitation program based on the teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. "We are the authorities on getting people off drugs," Tom Cruise said in a video about Scientology released online. But the parents of one young person who died while in treatment by Narconon’s flagship facility have called Narconon “inhumane,” and others whose children died on the premises of Narconon caution anyone from sending their children there.
Narconon's method of rehabilitation is unorthodox. Patients are called "students" and they study a series of eight books like school workbooks based on the writings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Narconon's unconventional methods include spending up to five hours a day in a sauna for 30 straight days and taking up to 5,000 milligrams of the vitamin Niacin daily. It is similar to Scientology's regimen called a "purification run-down," designed to free the body of toxins in order to achieve spiritual gains. And BTW, it costs $30,000 per patient and the treatment usually takes three to six months to complete.
Narconon says it runs 62 treatment centers around the world, including 19 in the United States, and says it has helped thousands of people get off and stay off of drugs. But their facilities have been running into trouble. Four "students" at Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma have died in three-and-a-half years.
Kaysie Werninck, 27, left her Florida home to check into Narconon Arrowhead in 2009, but just a few weeks after her 28th birthday, Kaysie succumbed to a respiratory infection in a Tulsa hospital. Her mother, Connie Werninck, said Narconon staff did not give Kaysie the right medication. Werninck said she arranged for a helicopter to take Kaysie to a Tulsa hospital 100 miles away. She said Kaysie's infection had taken over her body and she died within an hour of arriving at the hospital. Werninck and her husband, Keith, sued Narconon. The organization settled for an undisclosed amount without admitting wrongdoing. "I want to get the word out so no one sends their child there," she said.
Gabriel Graves was the 32-year-old father of two young girls when he was found dead in his bed at Narconon Arrowhead. His mother, Shirley Anne Gilliam, said she felt misled by Narconon. "I felt like they were leading me to believe he overdosed and I was devastated," she said. Her son's autopsy report shows only trace amounts of morphine in his system and the cause of death remains a mystery.
Gilliam said her son told her Narconon Arrowhead was anything but drug free-- a place where drugs were used by some to barter for sex. "He said that it was one of the easiest places he's ever been to get drugs if you want them. He said there were drugs offered for exchange of physical favors," she said. A former client and a former employee told similar stories. Narconon Arrowhead has strongly denied the allegations. Gilliam also said her son told her that he felt Narconon was trying to convert him to Scientology. "He said that's their whole thing, trying to get us to be Scientologists. That's what they do," Gilliam said.
Also in April, 21-year-old Hillary Holten died in her room at Narconon Arrowhead. Her family has retained Tulsa lawyer, Mike Atkinson, to investigate the facts surrounding Hillary's unexplained death.
Colin Henderson, a former student at Narconon Arrowhead, organized a protest near the facility after Hillary's death. He said he left after two weeks because he was denied his blood pressure medication. He also said he felt the Narconon program was too restrictive. "I came to Narconon to get off drugs, not to have Narconon attempt to rewire my brain in order to reform to their way of thought. I will never allow anyone to attempt to control my mind. I think for myself,” he said.
In April, the regional government in Quebec, Canada shut down Narconon’s largest facility in North America, Narconon Trois Rivieres, because it failed to meet new health and safety laws.
Narconon and the Church of Scientology say they disagreed with the Quebec decision to allow only the medical model of detoxification and notes that Narconon facilities continue to operate elsewhere in Canada. Marc Lacour, director of the regional health agency, said there was no medical supervision at the facility, and as such it “posed a risk” to patients. Oklahoma law enforcement and health department authorities have launched investigations into the facility.
Susan Foster, director of policy research at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, says she has not seen any science that supports a "sweat it out" approach. She is not a medical doctor, but says extensive research shows a combination of pharmaceutical drugs and behavioral therapy is the safest and most effective way to get people off of drugs. Foster says the number of deaths at the Narconon Arrowhead facility is alarming. "You're supposed to go there to recover, not to die," she said.

Thought for Today
"Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action."
—[/i]Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) British statesman


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[the flying reindeer]

Eid-al-Fitr (end of Ramadan at sunset)
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 231st day of 2012 with 134 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 2:37 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 71ºF [Feels like 71ºF], winds W @ 7 mph, humidity 42%, pressure 29.99 in and falling, dew point 47ºF, chance of precipitation 10%. Sunset at 8:05 pm

Today in History:
293 BC--the oldest known Roman temple to Venus was founded.
1201--the city of Riga, today capital of Latvia, was founded.
1227--the Mongol conquerer Genghis Khan died in camp during a campaign against the Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia, possibly succumbing to injuries incurred during a fall from a horse in the previous year.
1572--the French Huguenot King Henry IV of Navarre married Marguerite de Valois in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics in France.
1587--Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, N.C
1590--John White, the governor of the Roanoke Island colony, returned from England to find the Roanoke Colony deserted.
1775--the Spanish established a presidio (fort) that became Tucson, Ariz.
1795--Pres. Washington signed the Jay (or "Jay's") Treaty with Great Britain.
1846--US forces led by Gen. Stephen W. Kearny captured Santa Fe, NM.
1864--the Petersburg (Va.) Campaign-Battle of Weldon Railroad began (lasted 3 days).
1868--French astronomer Pierre Jules Csar Janssen discovered helium in the solar spectrum during and eclipse.
1894--the Bureau of Immigration was established by the US Congress.
1909--Tokyo mayor Yukio Ozaki presented Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which Pres. Taft decided to plant near the Potomac River.
1914--Pres. Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of the European war.
1917--the Italians launched the 11th Battle of the Isonzo.
1920--1he 19th amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified.
1937--the Toyota Motor Company was founded.
1927-Rosalynn Carter, Former first lady as wife of Pres. Jimmy Carter, turns 85.
1931--in the worst disaster of the 20th century, the Yangtze River in China peaked during a horrible flood that killed 3.7 million people directly and indirectly over the next several months.
1934--Roberto Clemente, Hall of Famer and one of major league baseball's top outfielders was born' died 1972 at age 28 when his plane disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico.
1937--the first FM radio construction permit was issued in Boston, MA.
1937--Robert Redford, Academy Award-winning actor, director, producer, environmental activist and founder in 1978 of the world-fammous Sundance Film Festival, turns 75
1941--Hitler ordered that the systematic murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end because of protests within Germany.
1958--Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was published.
1963--James Meredith became the first African American graduate of the University of Mississippi.
1966--the first pictures of earth taken from moon orbit were sent back to the US
1983--Hurricane Alicia slammed into the Texas coast, leaving 22 dead and causing more than a billion dollars in damage.
1969--the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, NY, concluded with a mid-morning set by newcomer Jimi Hendrix
1971--Australia and New Zealand decided to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
1991--Soviet hard-liners launched a coup aimed at toppling Pres. Gorbachev, who was vacationing in the Crimea.
1997--Virginia Military Institute admitted a female student for the first time in its 158-year history.
2005-a judge in Wichita, Kan., sentenced BTK serial killer Dennis Rader to 10 consecutive life terms.
2008--Pervez Musharraf resigned as the president of Pakistan amid efforts by opposition lawmakers to seek his impeachment.

World News Capsules:
1. Iranian currency traders find a haven in Afghanistan.
....Though officials say they cannot put a precise figure on the trading of rials for dollars, they see it as a potential challenge to the sanctions, and one that the United States helped create.
2. [Flamboyant crime figure now may face Chinese justice over role in scandal/u].
....Wang Lijun, who told American diplomats of his suspicions that Gu Kailai murdered a British business associate, is now accused of being as much a criminal as those he persecuted.
3. In India, many flee fearing ethnic violence.

....Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured migrants that they were safe as 1000s fled big cities, fearing a backlash from violence against Muslims in Assam. 'What is at stake is the unity and integrity of our country,' country's prime minister says .
a. Panic seizes India as a region's strife radiates.
....What began as a vicious if obscure fight over land and power between Muslims and an indigenous tribe in a remote state has set off panic among northeastern migrants across India.
4. Iran's president calls Israel 'an insult to humankind.'
....Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fanned the flames of confrontation with Israel on the annual Iranian holiday that calls for the Palestinian reclamation of Jerusalem from Israel’s control.
5. North Korea leader visits troops near disputed sea border.
....The report of Kim Jong-un’s visit comes a few days before the United States and South Korea begin joint military exercises.
6. Anti-Putin stunt earns punk band two years in jail.
....Three women who staged a protest against Vladimir V. Putin, Russia's president, in a cathedral and became a cause célèbre of artists around the world were convicted of hooliganism.
7. South African official defends police killing of 34.

....South Africa’s police commissioner described a desperate struggle by the police to contain a machete-wielding crowd of angry miners in a strike at a platinum mine.
8. Syrian rebels forces advance close to airport at Aleppo.
....The insurgents' seizure of areas near the airport comes as the UN and the Arab League announce that Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat, will succeed Kofi Annan as the envoy to Syria.
a. As the last UN observers leave Syria, more bodies are found near the capital.

....A bitter struggle for control of Syria continues, both in the streets and in the effort to win over public opinion outside of the country.
9. At least 14 die in militant raid at Yemeni office.
....Militants suspected of being with Al Qaeda attacked a Yemeni intelligence headquarters, killing 14 people in a bold strike in the country’s main southern city of Aden, officials said.

US News Capsules:
1. Many New York City teachers denied tenure in policy shift.
....The education reform movement, slow economies and federal grant competitions have led lawmakers to tighten the requirements for earning and keeping tenure.
2. A college lifts a hurdle for illegal immigrants.
....Metropolitan State University of Denver's new policy extended a special tuition rate to illegal immigrants is raising hopes and anger.
3. ART: Putting a good face on street art, to upgrade Atlanta
.
....In Atlanta, a city with one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates, a project called Living Walls commissions artists to spruce up recession-hit neighborhoods.
4. Caterpillar workers ratify deal they dislike.
....The showdown was a test case in American labor relations, partly because Caterpillar was driving such a hard bargain when its business was thriving.
5. The sun hasn't set on the drive-in.

....Though far from their 1950s golden era, some drive-in theaters are going strong. Movie lovers are drawn by the low-cost tickets and an outdoor liveliness that multiplexes can’t match
6. Lawyers of Big Tobacco lawsuits take aim at food industry
.
....More than a dozen lawyers who took on Big Tobacco have filed 25 cases against industry players like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani.
7. Horses fall victim to hard times and dry times on the range.

....Thousands of the nation’s horses are being left to fend for themselves on the dried ranges of the West and Southwest, abandoned by people who can no longer afford to feed them.
8. Salmonella outbreak in 20 states kills 2 and sickens 141.
....Cantaloupes from a farm in southwestern Indiana appear to be the source of the infections, state and federal authorities say.
9. Abortin cases against clinic in Kansas are dropped by prosecutors.
....The first criminal prosecution of Planned Parenthood ended with prosecutors dropping all charges against a local affiliate.
10. 4 men, 3 women arrested in shsooting of Louisiana sheriff's deputies.

....Five of those arrested are now in jail, while the two others remain hospitalized for treatment of gunshot wounds, Louisiana State Police spokesman Melissa Matey said Friday.
POLITICS:
1. Obama lags on judicial picks, limiting his mark on courts.
....With relatively few lower-court appointments, Pres. Obama has made less of an ideological imprint on the judiciary than liberals hoped and conservatives feared.
2. In defending medicare plan, Ryan speaks of his time as caregiver.
....In Florida, a battleground state, Paul Ryan sought to counter Pres. Obama’s charge that Republicans would “end Medicare as we know it” by moving to a voucher program that would cost retirees more.

Sports's Headlines of Interest:
1. MLB: Jeter hits home run, savoring a milestone.

....Derek Jeter hit his 250th home run, one of five solo shots that the Yankees hit against the Red Sox, to become the 4th MLB player to hit 250 home runs, steal 300 bases and get over,000 hits.
a. Of the Boston Red Sox' many problems, injuries have hurt the most.
....While much of the blame for the Red Sox' disappointing season has been directed at Bobby Valentine, injuries and bad games have plagued the team all season.
2. Horse Racing: Horse given painkiller breaks down at New Mexico racetrack.
....The horse, which recently tested positive for a powerful painkiller, died at a New Mexico racetrack after winning a trial heat for one of the world's richest horse races.
3. NHL: A seeming edge, until the Winter Classic nears.
....It appears about 90 percent certain that a lockout will postpone the start of the N.H.L. season, so the next question is how long that postponement will last..
4. GOLF: Youth golf thrives, but not in high school.

....High school golf has become irrelevant on the recruiting trail for college coaches, who are flocking to junior tournaments to identify the best young talent.
a. Yet-to-be details of Olympic golf.
....Golf will return to the Summer Games in 2016, with unknown men’s and women’s fields, on a course that does not exist.

Thought for Today
"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."
--e e cummings (1894 - 1962) poet.

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[the flying reindeer]

World Humanitarian Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 232nd day of 2012 with 133 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 1:36 p.m., it's fair , temp 70ºF [Feels like 70ºF], winds SSE @ 5 mph, humidity 51%, pressure 29.99 in and falling, dew point 51ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
1099--Crusaders beat Saracens in Battle of Ascalon
1561--18-year-old Mary Queen of Scots returned to Scotland, after spending 13 years in France, and was proclaimed queen.
1692--in Salem, Mass., five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, were executed for witchcraft.
1745--Prince Charles Edward Stuart landed in Glenfinnan, Scotland, from a French warship and marched on London - the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion known as ""the 45".
1779--the American rebels raided Paulus Hook, N.J.
1785--Seth Thomas, clock manufacturer who pioneered mass production, was born; died 1859 at age 73.
1812--the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution defeated the British frigate Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia. Witnesses claimed that the British shot merely bounced off the frigate's sides, Its against the supposedly invincible Royal Navy provided a tremendous boost in morale for the young American republic.
1818--Capt James Biddle took possession of Oregon Territory for US.
1856--the process of processing condensed milk was patented by Gail Borden.
1862--deciding that the Fort Ridgely garrison was too strong, the Dakota (Sioux) in Minnesota moved on to New Ulm, killing all settlers along the way.
1895--John Wesley Hardin, one of the bloodiest killers of the Old West, was killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
1909--the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Louis Schwitzer the first winner at the racetrack.
1919--Pres. Wilson appeared personally before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to argue in favor of its ratification of the Versailles Treaty ending World War I,
1919--Afghanistan gained independence from Britain
1929--the comedy Amos 'n' Andy starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll made its network radio debut on NBC.
1934--a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer.
1942-- an Allied force of 7,000 men launched a large raid against German positions at the French seaport of Dieppe with about 50% casualties.
1946--Bill Clinton, former president, turns 66
1953--the Iranian military, with the support and financial assistance of the US, overthrew the government of Premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and reinstated the Shah of Iran.
1955--Hurricane Diane killed 200 and was the first $1 billion in damages storm.
1958--NAACP Youth Council began sit-ins at Oklahoma City Lunch counters.
1960--a tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.
1960--Sputnik 5 carried 2 dogs, 3 mice into orbit (later recovered alive),.
1964--The Beatles kicked off their first US tour at San Francisco's Cow Palace.
1970--the US and Cambodia signed a military aid pact.
1978--the 1st transatlantic balloon crossing in history finished in Paris.
1981--two Libyan SU-22s were shot down by two U.S. Navy F-14 fighters from the USSNimitz in the Gulf of Sidra.
1987-iIn the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan killed sixteen people with an assault rifle and then commits suicide in Hungerford.
1988--Iran-Iraq began a cease-fire in their 8-year-old war
1991--Yankel Rosenbaum, a visiting student from Australia, is stabbed to death by an angry mob in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, NY, rioting continuing against Jews for four days.
1994--Pres. Clinton halted the nation's three-decade open-door policy for Cuban refugees.
2002--a Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops was hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
2003--a car-bomb attack on UN headquarters in Iraq killed the agency's top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.
2003--a Hamas suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem killed 23 Israelis, 7 of them children.
2004-the Internet search engine Google went public.
2005--a Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable for the death of a man who'd taken the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
2005--a series of strong storms lashed Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as ceating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities.
2010--the last American combat brigade exited Iraq, seven years and five months after the US-led invasion began.

World News Capsules:
1. Afghan attacks on allied troops prompt NATO to shift policy

....The military's efforts to stop "insider attacks" is an indication of how destabilizing the deaths of coalition troops at the hands of Afghan forces have become.
a. Taliban fighters killed in airstrike.
....The coalition strike killed more than 20 insurgents at a public execution in northeastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said.
2. Do Argentines need therapy? Pull up a couch.
....The number of practicing psychologists in Argentina has been surging, making the country a world leader, at least when it comes to people's broad willingness to bare their souls.
3. Chinese take to streets as dispute with Japan escalates.

....Protesters filled the streets in nearly a dozen Chinese cities in response to Japan’s detention and deportation of activists from Hong Kong, Macau and China who had landed on a disputed island.
4. Support grows in Germany for vote on giving up power to European bloc.
....Political leaders increasingly support allowing Germans to have a direct say in whether to give up more power to European Union institutions.
a. Germans talk tough on Greece.
....A top official from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party said that the country’s Parliament was in no mood to grant Greece further concessions.
5. in Great Britain, Assange casts self as whistlel-blower persecuted by US.
....Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, took to the balcony of Ecuador’s embassy in London on Sunday to condemn the United States government/
6. US says Iraqis are helping Iran to skirt sanctions.
....Financial institutions and oil-smuggling operations in Iraq have given Iran a crucial flow of dollars as sanctions over its nuclear work squeeze its economy, officials and experts said.
7. Parts of Darfur see stability, but others are seething.
....Nearly a decade after war first arrived, Sudan's vast desert region of Darfur is a land of mixed signals.
8. Assad shown at prayer in Camascus mosque.

....Pres. Bashar al-Assad’s appearance seemed to be an attempt at normalcy during Eid al-Fitr, a three-day holiday after Ramadan, but it renewed doubts about the strength and confidence of the Syrian government.

US News Capsules:
1. Los Angeles puts a new park at its heart.
....Grand Park, one of the largest new parcels of open space in a sprawling city, is the focus of all sorts of visions for a downtown whose sidewalks once rolled up by nightfall.
2. New wave of deft robots is changing industry.

....Robots far more adept than those now commonly used by automakers and other industries are replacing workers in both manufacturing and distribution.
3. Secret E-scores chart consumers' buying power.
....Buying-power scores, compiled from huge amounts of data, measure your potential value as a customer. But you’ll probably never learn your total.
4. Nyad's latest swim: "No stopping her now."

....Diana Nyad is making good progress in her latest attempt to swim to Florida from Cuba, her crew said
5. GM recalls SUVs for fire hazarad.
....General Motors is recalling nearly 250,000 sport utility vehicles (2006 and 2007 Chevy Trailblzers, BMC Envoys, Buick Raniers, SAAB 9-7x, Isuzu Ascnders) because of an electrical problem that can cause fires caused when fluid may enter the driver's door module, causing corrosion that can lead to a short-circuit.
6. One killed, six injured in massive Indiana pileup.

....Six people were injured and one person died in a pileup involving more than a dozen vehicles along I-65 in Jasper County, Indiana, state police said.
POLITICS:
1. The courtship before Romney elevated Ryan.
....A congenial meeting in 2007 led to closer collaboration, especially in the last 18 months, as the Republican Party shifted more to the right.
2. Both campaigns seize role of medicare defender.
....Paul Ryan spoke of his care for a relative with Alzheimer’s, seeking to counter Presi. Obama’s charge that Republicans would “end Medicare as we know it.”

Thought for Today
"To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up."
--Ogden Nash (1902-1971) humorous poet.

[the flying reindeer]

National Water Quality Month
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 233rd day of 2012 with 132 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:16 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 73ºF [Feels like 73ºF], winds calm, humidity 55%, pressure 29.90 in and falling, dew point 56ºF, chance of precipitation 30%.

Today in History:
1000--the foundation of the Hungarian state was established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1583--Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed to Cape Race, Newfoundland to fish for cod and explore the mainland.
1781--Gen. Washington begins to move his troops south to fight Lord Cornwallis.
1794--Gen. "Mad Anthony" Wayne put down Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket's confederacy near present-day Toledo, Ohio, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
1804--Lewis & Clark's expedition, the Corps of Discovery, suffered its only death, Sgt Charles Floyd.
1833--Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd Pres.ident of the US, was born in North Bend, Ohio; died 1902 at age 68.
1866--Pres. Andrew Johnson formally declared the US Civil War over.
1882--the first Canadian Pacific train reached Regina, Saskatchewan.
1896--the dial telephone was patented.
1911--a dispatcher in the New York Times office sends the first telegram around the world via commercial service.
1914--German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
1920--seven men, including legendary all-around athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, met to organize a professional football league, the American Professional Football Conference, at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in Canton, Ohio.
1938--Lou Gehrig hit his 23rd career grand slam - a record that still stands (tied by NY Yankee 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez)..
1940--exiled Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico by Stalinist agents.
1953--the Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
1955--100s of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
1960--Senegal broke from the Mali federation.
1964--Pres. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act (totaling nearly $1 billion).
1968--the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek’s regime.
1969--all four Beatles were together in the recording studio for the final time as they finished the Abbey Road LP.
1975--Viking 1, an unmanned U.S. planetary probe, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a mission to Mars.
1977--the US launched Voyager 2 spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
1982--a multinational force including 800 U.S. Marines landed in Beirut to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon and led to 262 U.S. servicemen dead.
1988--in the Nepal-India border region a 6.6 quake killed 721, 6,553 injured and 64,470 buildings damaged in eastern Nepal.
1989--the Menendez brothers murdered their parents.
1991--Estonia seceded from the Soviet Union.
1996--In northern India, a collision and explosion between two trains kills 358 people
1998--retaliating embassy bombings in East Africa, the US launched missile strikes against al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan.
2005--Canada became the fourth country to legalize same sex marriages.
2006--former AP photographer Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising picture, died at age 94.
2009--the only man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 returned home to Libya after his release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

World News Capsules:
1. A day for Canada's fallen in a lesser-known battle.

....The Dieppe raid, the first amphibious attack on German-occupied France by the Allied forces during World War II, remains the most deadly conflict in Canadian history,
2. China defers death penalty for disgraced official's wife.

....Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, received a suspended death sentence for the poisoning death of a British business associate. In the Chinese legal system, such a sentence is often commuted to life in prison.
a. Family of murdred Briton silent on China sentencing.
....Relatives of Neil Heywood, the murder victim, remained silent on the sentencing of Gu Kailai, but friends of Mr. Heywood have publicly challenged her defense.
b. Activist Chinese group plans more anti-Japan protests.
....The group that triggered heightened tensions between China and Japan by sailing to a disputed island last Wednesday plans to organize protests around the world on Sept. 18.
3. Tension over aid to Greece could unsettle markets.
....Greeceâ's prime minister, Antonis Samaras, is expected to seek an extension for meeting his country's budgetary and reform commitments, but Germany appears reluctant to grant further concessions..
4. India asks Pakistan to investigate root of panic.

....The conflict in the state of Assam was initially contained there until tensions rippled outward. Some in India blame “elements based in Pakistan” for triggering a panic.
5. Bomb wounds Iraqi Sunni cleric who urged cooperation with Shiites.
....Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaie was known for urging extremists within his own sect to work with the Shiite-led government.
6. ]u]7 Israeli youths are arrested in assault on Palestinians[/u].
....Scores of Israeli youths assaulted a group of Palestinians last week, beating one unconscious as hundreds of bystanders watched without intervening, the police said.
7. Myanmar abolishes censorship of private publications.
....The government of Myanmar said on Monday that it would no longer censor private publications, a move that was seen as a major step toward media freedom in the country.
8. Russian authorities seek others in dissident punk band.
....The search for others in the band Riot indicated that Moscow was unmoved by international criticism of the two-year prison sentences for band members involved in an anti-Putin stunt.
a. Bomber kills 7 officers in Russian republic.
....The victims were attending the funeral of a slain colleague in Ingushetia, a predominately Muslim republic in the volatile North Caucasus.
9. New parliament is cnvened in Somalia.
....It is still considered a caretaker government because the members were not directly elected, and it springs from a Constitution that needs to be ratified by public referendum.
10. Clash of cultures upends Spain's cajas.

....In Spain, the time-honored tradition of the caja as a baronial community institution came into conflict with a modern, euro-based banking economy.
11. Obama warans of military action on Syria over chemical weapons.
....Pres. Obama, in his most direct warning of US intervention in Syria, threatened military action if there was evidence that the government was moving its stocks of chemical weapons.

US News Capsules:
1. Fabled spiritual retreat debates its future.
....Some worry that the Esalen Institute, which helped make things like yoga and organic food part of the mainstream, is losing its relevance and becoming more corporate.
2. In midst of a drought, keeping traffic moving on the Mississippi.

....There are more than a dozen dredging vessels working to make sure that the Big River, shrinking under one of the worst droughts in modern history, stays deep enough
3. In Apple's patent case, tech shifts may follow.
....If Apple prevails in its legal dogfight with Samsung over patents, experts believe its rivals will have a stronger incentive to distinguish their smartphone and tablet products.
4. A media persnality, suffering a blow to his image, ponders a lesson.
....Fareed Zakaria is among writers who have parlayed their journalism into more lucrative work like writing books and public speaking, but a plagiarism scandal could threaten that image.
5. Close to shore, humpbacks are far from safe.
....Researchers tracking whales off Cape Cod are hoping to use their findings to push for changes in fishing and shipping rules
POLITICS:
1. Cautious moves on foreclosures haunting Obama.
....Pres. Obama's response to the housing crisis was deliberately subdued, and some economists believe stronger action could have softened the economic impact.
2. GOP packaging seeks to reveal a warm Romney.
....Mitt Romney's campaign has recruited professionals to manage his appearance at the Republican convention, hoping to overcome his image of being stiff and aloof.
3. Senate candidate provokes ire with 'legitimat rape' comment.
....In an effort to explain his stance on abortion, Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri said women's bodies can somehow block an unwanted pregnancy in instances of "legitimate rape."
4. In Congress's paralysis, a mightier Supreme Court.
....A study has found that Congress has overridden far fewer Supreme Court decisions in recent years, limiting the usual back and forth between the two bodies and giving the court more power.

Sports Headlines of Interest:
Augusta National admits women for first time in club's 80-year history

The home of golf's Masters championship, which has faced increasing criticism because of its all-male membership, invited former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become the first women in green jackets when the club opens for a new season in October. Both women have accepted. The move likely ends a debate that intensified in 2002 when Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations urged the club to include women among its members. Former club chairman Hootie Johnson stood his ground, even at the cost of losing Masters television sponsors for two years, when he famously said Augusta National might one day have a woman in a green jacket, "but not at the point of a bayonet."
Payne, who took over as chairman in 2006 when Johnson retired, said in a statement, "These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership, It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their green jackets when the club opens this fall. This is a significant and positive time in our club's history and, on behalf of our membership, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome them and all of our new members into the Augusta National family."
The issue of female membership resurfaced again this year after Virginia Rometty was appointed chief executive of IBM, one of the Masters' corporate sponsors. The previous four CEOs of Big Blue had all been Augusta National members, leading to speculation that the club would break at least one tradition – membership for the top executive of IBM or a men-only club.
Welcome, Augusta National, to the 21st century.


Thought for Today
"The first duty of love is to listen."
--[/i]PaulTillich (1886-1965) theologian & philosopher

[egotistsclub.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/monday.jpg [/img]
[/i][/size][/color]

[the flying reindeer]

Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Week
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 235th day of 2012 with 130 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 2:16 p.m., it's fair , temp 77ºF [Feels like 77ºF], winds SSE @ 7 mph, humidity 45%, pressure 30.16 in and falling, dew point 54ºF, chance of precipitation 6
0%.

Today in History:
565--St. Columba reported seeing monster in Loch Ness.
1138--the English defeated the Scots at Cowton Moor. Banners of various saints were carried into battle, which led to its being called the Battle of the Standard
1485--Battle of Bosworth Field: England's King Richard III was killed by the future Henry VII in the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the War of the Roses.
1567--the Duke of Alba, sent to reestablish Spanish authority in the Netherlands, instituted the Council of Troubles (nicknamed the "Council of Blood") at the start of his tyrannical rule.
1642--the English Civil War began between the supporters of Charles I (Royalists or Cavaliers) and of Parliament (Roundheads).
1654--Jacob Barsimson arrived in New Amsterdam, the first known Jewish immigrant to America.
1770--after landing in Australia, Capt. James Cook, claimed it for the British crown.
1776--the British army landed on Long Island.
1798--French troops landed in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen's Irish Rebellion.
1846--the US annexed New Mexico.
1849--first air raid in history. Austria launched pilotless balloons against the Italian city of Venice.
1851--gold fields discovered in Australia.
1851--the schooner America outraced the British schooner Aurora around the Isle of Wight to win a trophy that became known as the America's Cup.
1864--the "Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field" was signed by 12 countries. It also guaranteed the neutrality of members of the Red Cross.
1865--liquid soap was patented by William Sheppard of New York City.
1901--the Cadillac Motor Co. was founded.
1902--Pres. Roosevelt became the first US chief executive to ride in an automobile in public in Hartford, Conn.
1906--in Camden, NJ, Victor Talking Machine Co. started manufacturing the Victrola, known today as a record player.
1910--Korea was annexed by Japan after five years as a protectorate.
1914--World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Belgium.
1922--Irish politician and Sinn Fein leader Michael Collins, largely responsible for the 1921 Anglo-Irish treaty, was killed in an ambush.
1926-gold was discovered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
1932--in England, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) started its first experimental television broadcast.
1941 - Nazi troops reached the outskirts of Leningrad to begin a siege that lasted until January 1944.
1942--after a U-boat sunk several Brazilian ships, Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy and two years later sent the "Brazilian Expeditionary Force" to Italy, the only South American country to send combat forces to Europe.
1952--the penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed.
1950--Althea Gibson becomes first African-American player to participate in the US Open tournament.
1956--Pres. Eisenhower was nominated for a 2nd term by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
1962--the USS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completed her maiden voyage from Yorktown, Virginia, to Savannah, Georgia.
1968--Pope Paul VI arrived in Colombia on the first visit by a pontiff to Latin America.
1969-Hurricane Camille struck the US Gulf Coast killing 255.
1989--the first complete ring around Neptune discovered.
1972--Anti-Vietnam demonstrators disrupt the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla. that nominated Pres. Nixonfor a 2nd term.
1973--National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger was named U.S. Secretary of State, replacing William Rogers.
1986--Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.
1989--Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panthers, was shot to death in Oakland, Calif.
1992--Hurricane Andrew pounded the Bahamas.
1992--on the 2nd day of the Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho, an FBI sharpshooter killed Vicki Weaver, the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver.
2003--Alabama's chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse.
2005--the last Jewish settlers left the Gaza Strip, ending decades of Israel's turbulent occupation.

World News Capsules:
1. In toll of 2,000, new portrait of Afghan War.
....As the war in Afghanistan wears on, an analysis of troop casualties reflects the effect of the 2010 troop surge and points to the growing danger from an ostensible ally.
2. British man who fought for assisted suicide is dead.
....Tony Nicklinson, paralyzed and unable to speak, died six days after the High Court rejected his request for help in ending his own life. He had refused food since the ruling, according to media reports.
a. Nude Harry: the tablods lost their stng

....Another day, another story about Prince Harry. The party-loving grandson of Queen Elizabeth II has been exposed again, this time naked, playing strip billiards flanked by an equally naked girl. But, the UK press is reluctant to report the nude Prince Harry story. Royal watcher Robert Jobson says after the hacking scandal no editor will risk the backlash.
3. Ethiopian leader's death highlights gap between US interests and ideals.
....Meles Zenawi, the late prime minister of Ethiopia, was a critical ally to the United States who nonetheless undermined the American stance that Africa needs strong institutions, not strongmen
4. Saving India's tigers.

....India’s Supreme Court issued an interim ban on tourism inside the country’s game parks on June 24, and the government has been relocating hundreds of villagers to save the endangered wild tigers
5. UN lader will attend Iran summit over US and Israeli objections.
....Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, plans to attend the annual meeting of the 120 countries that are in the nonaligned movement, despite American-led efforts to marginalize Iran/
a. US grants broad sanctions exemption for Iran quake aid.
....The exemption permits American charities to transfer up to $300,000 each to relief and rebuilding efforts, bypassing restrictions on financial transactions that are enforced under the sanctions imposed on Iran.
6. Dispute over islands reflets Japanese fear of China's rise.

....A chain of islands at the center of a territorial dispute has Japanese nationalists pushing their country to boldly counter the explosive growth of China and South Korea.
7. Dozens dead n Kenya clashes.
....About 50 people in a coastal area, most of them women and children, were killed in ethnic clashes that residents said stemmed from a confrontation over land and resources.
8. Murder conviction in South Africa underscores economic inequality.
....The conviction of a farmhand in the death of the white supremacist Eugène Terre’Blanche ended up being a symbol more of deepening inequality than of racial disharmony.
9. Rebels say Syria using fear tactics in Damascus.

....Syrian activists reported a widening campaign by military forces to sow fear in neighborhoods where rebels are strong, and which the government is too weak to fully control.
10. In Vietnam, growing fears of an economic meltdown.

...In Vietnam's major cities, a once-booming property market has come crashing down, adding to an economic slowdown that is being compared to the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
11. Cholera epidemic envelops coastal slums in West Africa.

....An exceptional rainy season that flooded sprawling shantytowns has made it one of the worst regional outbreaks of the disease in years.

US News Capsules:
1. Questions surround man's death in patrol car.
....The death of a man in Arkansas while he was handcuffed in the back of a car was ruled a suicide this week amid heavy scrutiny of the police and their procedures.
2. In Google's inner circle, a falling number of women..

....The search giant’s efforts to recruit and promote more women have resulted in more hires, but not in the executive offices.
2. Father's age is linked to risk of autism and schizophrenia
.
....Random genetic mutations in children that become more numerous with advancing paternal age may account for as many as 30% of autism cases, researchers reported/
3. West Nile outbreak shaping up as worst ever in US, authorities say.

....The CDC says that with 41 deaths and more than 1,100 reported cases, this year’s West Nile outbreak will be the worst since the virus was discovered here in 1999.
4. Appeals Court draws boundaries on Alabama's immigration law.
....The appeals court struck down many of the state’s measures that had gone furthest in making the everyday lives of illegal immigrants so difficult.
POLITICS:
1. Ignoring deadline to quit, GOP Senate candidate defies his party leaders.

....Rep. Todd Akin said definitively that he would not step aside. After his comments on rape, fellow Republicans, including Mitt Romney, asked him to drop out of the Missouri Senate race.
a. Missouri controversy may endanger Republican chances in the fall.
....Rep. Akin's remarks on rape have focused attention on the party's agenda on restricting abortion rights, a politically volatile topic for Mitt Romney and other candidates.
2. Patients would pay more if Romney restores Medicare savings, analysts say.
....The $716 billion in reimbursements to hospitals and insurers that Mitt Romney has promised to restore would hasten the program's insolvency, some experts say.
3. When conventions mattered.

....Today's political conventions tend to be scripted affairs. But observers caution against seeing conventions as nonevents. "A reporter who goes to a convention with the notion that these are meaningless -- the days of smoke-filled rooms are over -- is the reporter who is ill-equipped for the job," Gernard Shaw, former CNN anchor, said.
a. Limited convention coverage will leave Ann Romen off air.
....Believing that viewers are tired of politics, the networks will broadcast three hours of convention coverage, less than they showed in 2008.
4. Former GOP hero plays down label.
....Sen. Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts, who is locked in a dead heat in the nation’s most expensive Senate race, is distancing himself from the Republican ticket.
5. Skinny-dipping in Israel casts unwanted spotlight on Congressinal travel.
....Reports of a skinny-dipping lawmaker in Israel last year have put unwanted attention on the practice of private groups paying for foreign travel.

Thought for Today
""I have no reason to suppose that he, who would take away my Liberty, would not when he had me in his Power, take away everything else."
--John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist.

[the flying reindeer]

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition (UN)

Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 236th day of 2012 with 129 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 1:19 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 79ºF [Feels like 79ºF], winds WSW @ 6 mph, humidity 40%, pressure 30.17 in and falling, dew point 53ºF, 0% chance of precipitation .

Today in History:
79--Mount Vesuvius began erupting, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire
1305--William Wallace ("Braveheart"), Scottish knight and patriot, was taken to Smithfield where he was hanged drawn and quartered for treason against Edward I of England.
1541--French explorer Jacques Cartier landed near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
1617--the first one-way streets were established in London.
1628--George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and rumored lover of James I of England, was stabbed by one of his army officers.
1775--Britain's King George III proclaimed the American colonies in a state of open rebellion
1784--four counties in western North Carolina (later became Tennessee) declared their independence as the state of Franklin.
1797--Emanuel Allen was sold at public auction in Montreal; last slave transaction in Canada
1799--Napoleon leaves Egypt to seize power in France .
1814--Dolley Madison saved Washington's portrait from the British destruction of Wasington, D.C.
1833--Britain abolishes slavery in colonies; 700,000 slaves freed.
1839--Great Britain captured Hong Kong in preparaton for war with Qing China known as the First Opium War.
1864--the Union Navy captured Fort Morgan, Ala., thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.
1877--the Texas Rangers arrested notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardins.
1902--Fannie Farmer, who changed the way Americans prepared food by advocating the use of standardized measurements in recipes, opened Miss Farmer's School of Cookery in Boston, Mass.
1904--a patent for the tire chain was issued.
1914--in their first confrontation on European soil since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, four divisions of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), commanded by Sir John French, struggle with the German 1st Army over the 60-foot-wide Mons Canal in Belgium,
1926--silent-screen idol Rudolph Valentino died of a perforated ulcer at age 31 sending his fans into a hysterical state of mass mourning.
1927--Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery.
1939--Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact, stunning the world, given their diametrically opposed ideologies.
1944--US Army Air Force B-24 bomber crashed into Freckleton, England demolishing a school and killing 61 including 38 children.
1948--World Council of Churches formed by 147 churches from 44 countries.
1979--Russian ballet star Aleksandr Godunov defected to the United States, the first dancer to defect from the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet.
1985--the wreck of the RMS Titanic was found.
1989--as punishment for betting on baseball, Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose accepted a settlement that included a lifetime ban from the game.
1996--tobacco regulation, recommended by the FDA, was approved by Pres. Clinton.
1999--New York City reported the first cases of West Nile virus.
1999--Berlin once again became the capital of Germany.
2000--Gulf Air Flight 072 (Airbus A-320-212) with 143 passengers and crew crashed in the Persian Gulf on its approach to Bahrain Inationall Airport.
2003--former Roman Catholic priest John Geoghan, a convicted child molester, was strangled by a fellow inmate in a Massachusetts prison.
2005--Israeli forces evicted militant holdouts from two Jewish settlements, completing a historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
2005--Venezuela's vice president reacted angrily to comments by U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson who suggested Presi. Hugo Chavez be assassinated.
2006--Natascha Kampusch, an Austrian teenager who was kidnapped at age 10, escapes from her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, after more than eight years.
2007--flooding in the upper US Midwest drove 1000s of people from their homes.
2008--Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai blamed US airstrikes for the deaths of 95 civilians.
2009--thousands of people protest against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage in Bamako, Mali.
2012--Valentino Memorial Service, Hollywood Cathedral Mausoleum, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA. Held annually since 1927 on the anniversar of his death.

World News Capsules:
1. Afghanistan, contradicting NATO, blames foreign spies for insider attacks.
....Afghan officials claimed that foreign intelligence services were behind the wave of killings of Western troops by Afghan forces, a statement directly at odds with NATO's assessment of the crisis.
a. General notes Taliban coercion in some attacks on troops.
....Gen. John R. Allen, the senior commander in Afghanistan, said that up to one-quarter of the attacks by Afghan security forces on Americans could be caused by Taliban infiltration or coercion
2. Bahrain overturns activist's twitter case.
....A judge overturned a conviction against a prominent human rights activist for “inciting” antigovernment protest on social media, but the activist remained jailed while appealing another prison sentence.
3. China forcing repatriation of ethnic refugees from Myanmar.
....Officials in southwest China are pushing ethnic refugees from neighboring Myanmar back into Kachin State, where a renewed civil war has forced 7,000 to 10,000 people to flee to China, according to Human Rights Watch..
a. China besieged by glut of unsold goods.

....The severity of the country’s inventory surplus has been masked by the blocking or adjusting of economic data by the government.
4. Egypt president passes law against media detention.
....In his first use of legislative powers he wrested back from the military this month, Pres. Mohamed Morsi issued a law barring detention for criimes related to the press, an official said.
5. Taking quake relief effort into their own hands.
....After Iran’s official relief organizations were accused of not doing enough for earthquake survivors, young Iranians spontaneously organized their own effort to gather money and goods.
a. US sends aircraft carier back to gulf to face Iran and Syria.
....The US Navy is cutting short home leave for the crew of one of its aircraft carriers and sending them back to the Middle East next week to counter any threat from Iran, according to the official Navy News Service.
6. Developments in Iran and Sinai deepen Israel's worries over Egypt.
....With Egypt's deployment of tanks in the Sinai Peninsula and its president's upcoming trip to Iran, Israeli officials are increasingly worried about what has long been a critical regional relationship.
7. South African panel named to nvestigate mine shooting.

....Pres. Jacob Zuma, facing criticism for the police shooting of striking miners that left 34 dead last week, appointed a panel of judges to investigate the episode.
8. Korean activist, ex-supporter of North, plots his next move
.
....Kim Young-hwan was recently returned to Seoul after being imprisoned in China for running a clandestine network aimed at toppling the North Korean government/
9. Botched restoration of Jesus fresco shocks Spain.

( From left, the original version by Elías Garcia Martínez; painter; a deteriorated version of the fresco; the restored version by Cecilia Giménez)
....A century-old fresco depicting Jesus crowned with thorns has been disfigured after an elderly parishioner took it upon herself to restore the artwork, damaged by moisture.
10. Syrian forces renew raids on Damascus Suburbs.

....Government forces supported by tanks raided a suburb of the Syrian capital on Thursday, killing 15 people, opposition activists said.
11. Vietnamese bank baces run after tycoon's arrest.
....A major Vietnamese bank founded by arrested tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien faced a run on deposits, witnesses said, but the central bank has injected funds into the banking system and assured jittery residents their money is safe.

US News Capsules:
1. After 352-million mile trip, cheers for 23 feet on Mars.
....The NASA rover Curiosity moved forward and back for a test spin, a milestone after its first two and a half weeks on Mars.
2/ Tiny Hawaiian island will see if new owner tilts at windmills.

....Larry Ellison, a technology billionaire, has bought the island for an undisclosed price. What he plans to do with the beautiful-yet-divided place is anyone's guess.
3. Worst year for West Nile is expected, officials say.
....The CDC says that with 41 deaths and more than 1,100 reported cases, this year's West Nile outbreak will be the worst since the virus was discovered here in 1999.
4. Parasailing death in Florida renews a push for regulation.
....The parasailing industry in Florida, and almost everywhere else in the country, is not regulated, leaving most owners to operate at their own discretion.
5. Signs of revival slight, but sure, for home sales.
....Sales of existing homes were up in July, continuing a trend of several months that real estate agents said was good news for the housing market.
6. Changes toe money market funds stall.
....Attempts to make sweeping changes to money-market mutual funds, which played a destabilizing role in the 2008 financial crisis, have been derailed.
7. Buying their way to Twitter fame.
...That person who brags about having 1,000, even 100,000 Twitter followers may not have earned them, but simply bought them on the black market.

POLITICS:
1. In poll, Obama is given trust over Medicare.
....New polls show that Medicare ranks as the third most crucial issue to likely voters in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin, and that more respondents trust Pres. Obama to manage it than Mitt Romney.
2. Victory for Akin seen as difficult, but still possible.

....Rep.. Todd Akin is having fund-raising and party problems since the abortion controversy erupted, but some say he could still win his Senate race in Missouri.
3. Romney strategists say they'll stay the course amid focus on abortion.
....Campaign advisers say Mr. Romney’s economic message will still resonate with female voters after the controversy created by Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment subsides.
a. Romney energy plan would expand oil drilling on US land and offshore.
....Mr. Romney’s plan would give states more control over drilling on federal land, promote the nuclear power industry and approve an oil pipeline from Canada.
4. Palin a presence despite absence.

....Sarah Palin electrified the 2008 Republican ticket when she was picked as a running mate, but just four years later her wattage has dimmed. Still, don't count Palin out, experts say..
5. Judge warns of civil war if Obama wins.

....Texas Democrats are calling for the resignation of a Republican elected county judge who warned this week that the nation could descend into civil war if Pres. Obama is re-elected.

Today's Headlines of Interest:
Raped, pregnant and ordeal not over.
In the vast majority of states -- 31 -- men who father through rape are able to assert the same custody and visitation rights to their children that other fathers enjoy. When no law prohibits a rapist from exercising these rights, a woman may feel forced to bargain away her legal rights to a criminal trial in exchange for the rapist dropping the bid to have access to her child. When faced with the choice between a lifetime tethered to her rapist or meaningful legal redress, the answer may be easy, but it is not painless. For the sake of her child, the woman will sacrifice her need to see her once immensely powerful perpetrator humbled by the court.
Opponents argue no woman would ever choose to raise the child she conceived through rape. The only two studies to analyze the choices made by pregnant raped women indicate otherwise -- at least 30% of women who conceive by rape make this choice. Others argue that no rapist would ever seek parental rights. Not only is that otherwise, but it is not surprising that a man who cruelly degrades a woman would also seek to torture her in an even more agonizing way, by seeking access to her child.
Today, it seems we may face a new and unbelievable challenge: convincing legislators that women can conceive when they are raped. Make no mistake, the efforts of women to persuade legislators to pass laws restricting the parental rights of men who father through rape will be directly impacted by Akin's recent comments. Whether these efforts will be helped or hurt, however, depends upon us as a society. Either we will fight ignorance and take steps to legislate for raped women based upon reason and facts, or we will be led by ignorance and continue to make bad laws. Or fail to make good ones.

Thought for Today
"[T]he powers granted by the proposed Constitution are the gift of the people, and may be resumed by them when perverted to their oppression, and every power not granted thereby remains with the people."
--James Madison (1751-1836), 4th US President

[the flying reindeer]

National Park Day / International Bat Night
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 238th day of 2012 with 127 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:07 p.m., it's fair , temp 81ºF [Feels like 83ºF], winds SSW @ 6 mph, humidity 45%, pressure 30.26 in and falling, dew point 58ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
325--the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical debate held by the early Christian church, concluded with the establishment of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Arian belief of Christ as inferior to God as heretical.
1537--The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, was formed.
1609-Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1718--hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, with some of them settling in present-day New Orleans.
1814--The White House and also the Library of Congress and its 3,000 books were burned down by British troops."
by the British in the War of 1812.
1825--Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil.
1835--the first in a series of six articles announcing the supposed discovery of life on the moon appears in the New York Sun newspaper.
1864--the Second Battle of Ream’s Station, Va, Confederate troops secure a vital supply line into Petersburg, when they halt destruction of the Weldon and Petersburg Railroad by Union troops.
1894--Shibasaburo Kitasato discovered the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and published his findings in the British medical journal, The Lancet.
1910--the Yellow Cab Co. was founded by Walden W. Shaw and John D. Hertz.
1912--The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, was founded.
1914--German troops burned the Belgian town of Louvan.
1916--the National Park Service was established within the Department of the Interior.
1921--the US signed a peace treaty with Germany.
1939--The Wizard of Oz, which will become one of the best-loved movies in history, opened in theaters around the US.
1944--after more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris was liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.
1950--Pres. Truman ordered the US Army to seize control of the railroads to avoid a strike.
1967--Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara conceded that bombing of North Vietnam was less than effective.
1967--a sniper assassinated American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell in Arlington, Va.
1971--the 173rd Airborne Brigade departed Vietnam.
1975--the album "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen was released.
1985--Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets begame the youngest 20-game winner in MLB history.
1991--the Soviet republic of Byelorussia, now known as Belarus, declared independence.
1992--right-wing extremists, egged on by Berlin residents, set fire to a hostel for Vietnamese asylum seekers during a third night of violence against foreigners.
1993--Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in connection with a number of terrorist activities, including the bombing of the World Trade Center.
1997--the tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.
2001--Crown Prince Haakon of Norway married Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby, a former party girl with an out-of-wedlock son, at Oslo Cathedral.
2003--at least 45 people died and more than 61 were injured when two car bombs exploded in a crowded area of Mumbai., India.
2004--a US Army investigation concluded that military intelligence units played a major role in the Abu Ghraib prison abuses in Iraq.
2004--the World Health Organization warned that polio was on the verge of becoming a major epidemic in Africa.
2007--back-to-back explosions thought to be set by terrorists killed at least 44 people and injured more than 50 in Hyderabad, India.
2008--Israel freed 198 Palestinian prisoners to show support for the leadership of the Fatah party governing the West Bank.
2009--Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy, the final Kennedy brother and "liberal lion of the US Senate," died at age 77 at home in Hyannis Port, Mass. of brain cancer.
2009--South Korea's first rocket blasted off into space, but fails to put the STSAT-2A satellite into the planned orbit.

World News Capsules:
1. Ragtag revolts in parts of Afghanistan repel Taliban.
....While distrusting the government, many villagers have also come to loathe the Taliban for their dictatorial cruelty and are fighting back.
a. NATO says Pakistani militant is killed in Afghanistan[u/].
....The death of the Taliban commander is expected to have an impact on the fighting in Bajaur, where the Pakistani Army has been battling the local Taliban since 2008.
2. Labor unrest in Bangladesh's garment industry.

....As workers have demanded higher wages and labor rights, protests and violent clashes with police have become increasingly common
3. Collapse of new bridge underscores worries about China infrastructure.

....Less than a year after it was opened, one of the longest bridges in northern China collapsed on Friday, triggering a storm of criticism from Chinese Internet users.
a. China is said to be bolstering missile capabilities[//u].
....China is developing a new generation of missiles that would give it a greater capability to hit targets in the US and overwhelm any defense system, analysts said this week.
4. French leader hails Greeks' "painful efforts."
....Pres. François Hollande urged Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of Greece to show a willingness go all out to solve the economic crisis, but signaling unhappiness with some austerity measures.
5. Storm leaves several dead in Haiti.

....Tropical Storm Isaac delivered strong winds and rain that caused flooding, mudslides and several deaths, according to preliminary reports, but not the kind of destruction feared.
6. Diplomacy with Iran still is viable, US says.
....The US insisted that diplomatic solutions remained in the Iranian nuclear crisis, despite new evidence that Iran is bolstering its ability to produce a type of uranium used for bomb fuel.
7. 2 US employees wounded in ambush on Mexican road.
....Two Americans were shot and wounded when the US Embassy vehicle they were driving was ambushed by a caravan of cars that included Mexican police..
8. Radical Islamic attacks in a moderate region unnerve the Kremlin.
....The apparent rise of Islamic militancy could have far-ranging effects as the Kremlin looks for ways to promote moderate Islam and quash radical movements at home and abroad
9. Crisis reignites old conflicts in Spain.
....Across the fields of Andalusia, a longstanding social conflict has been reignited by Spain’s economic crisis: farmworkers against landowners.
9. Torrent of Syrian refugees strains aid effort and region.

....Many refugees are housed in schools, which will soon open, and camps that are not prepared for winter.
a. Syrian forces strike again in suburbs of Damascus.
....Syrian troops continued to pound the suburbs of Damascus on Friday, as fighting raged in Aleppo and rebels in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour reported seizing a contested armory.
10. 24 are killed in explosion at refinery in Venezuela.

....Balls of fire rose over the Amuay refinery, one of the largest in the world, in video posted online. At least 53 were wounded in the explosion, blamed on a gas leak.

US News Capsules:
1. Jury awards $1 billion to Apple in Samsung patent case.

....The jury found that Samsung infringed upon a series of Apple patents on mobile devices, in a closely watched court case that could have broad implications for the industry. The smartphone patent wars are unusually complex, and the courts, rather than the patent office, are pushing companies toward a truce. In the end, consumers may be the losers.
2. Gunman dies after killing at Empire State Building in New York City.
....A man fatally shot his former co-worker and was then shot and killed by the police in gunfire that injured nine other people outside the Empire State Building, the police said.
3. A run on bug spray amid fears of West Nile virus.
....With at least 10 deaths, Dallas County is the epicenter of the mosquito-borne illness that has spread throughout Texas and other parts of the country.
4. Cash moves by HSBC in inquiry.
....Federal authorities said the bank was suspected of laundering money for Mexican drug cartels and moving cash for Saudi Arabian banks with ties to terrorists.
5. Employing dietitians pays off for supermarkets.
....As nutrition is becoming more important to customers, the grocery business is finding dietitians indispensable for fending off competition from specialty markets.
5. The best book reviews money can buy.
....The growing business of self-published books has spawned an industry in which hired reviewers produce favorable online reviews.
6. Border cities are burdened with calls for help.

....From San Diego to Brownsville, Tex., requests for assistance have become a drain on the finances and resources of fire departments.
7. Trial to begin for 16 members of Amish group charged in beard-cutting attacks.
....Samuel Mullet Sr., the group’s leader, has been charged along with nine other men and six women of multiple counts including conspiracy, hate crimes, kidnapping and destroying evidence.
8. Early detection for brain injuries.
....Using magnetic sensors that can spot changes in brain waves, researchers are working on a new, relatively inexpensive way to spot injuries and monitor brain diseases.
POLITICS:
1. Capitol dome is imperiled by 1,300 cracks and partisan rift
.
....The Capitol dome needs a comprehensive rehabilitation, but the House has declined to appropriate the $61 million required for repairs.
2. Invitation to cardinal shows GOP's Catholic push.
....The Republicans are sensing an opportunity to cut into the advantage that Pres. Obama had among Catholic voters in 2008.
3. Tax credits shed light on Romney.
....Some experts are looking at a corner of the tax code involving foreign tax credits, and pointing to intriguing clues buried in the returns Mitt Romney has released.
4. For big givers, cash and clout arrive together.
....Lobbyists, corporate executives, trade associations and donors exploit legal loopholes, making each party’s quadrennial conventions a gathering of money and influence unrivaled in politics.
5. Libertarian legion stands ready to accept torch from Paul
.
....After a valedictory rally on Sunday in Tampa, Fla., supporters of Rep. Ron Paul are eager to build on his electoral advances and youth support.

Thought for Today
"The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn."
--David Russel (b. 1942) Scottish classical pianist

[the flying reindeer]

Global Forgiveness Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 240th day of 2012 with 125 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:57 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 85ºF [Feels like 84ºF], winds SW @ 10 mph, humidity 40%, pressure 29.99 in and falling, dew point 58ºF, chance of precipitation 60%.

Today in History:
1576--Titian ,(talian Renaissance artist, died in Venice during the Plague of 1575 that swept Italy, Sicily and segments of Northern Europe.
1626---Thirty Years War: a force of Imperialists under Count Tilly heavily defeated a force of Germans and Danes under Christian IV at the Battleof Lutter am Barenberge.
1660--in London, John Milton's books were burned because of the his attacks on King Charles II.
1776--British forces under Gen. William Howe and his brother, Adm. Richard viscount Howe, defeated Gen. Washington at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights in New York.
1789--the Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the French National Assembly.
1813--Napoleon with a force of 130,000 defeated a superior allied force of 200,000 Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the battle of Dresden.
1859--Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful US oil well near Titusville, Pa.
1861--Union ships sail into North Carolina's Hatteras Inlet, beginning a two-day operation that secures the area for the Union.
1883--the most powerful (a force of 100 megatons - the Hiroshima bomb was about 20 kilotons) volcanic eruption in recorded history occurred on Krakatoa, a small, uninhabited island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia.
1908--Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th Pres. of the US, was born; died 1973 at age 64.
1912--Tarzan came to life. when Edgar Rice Burroughs published Tarzan of the Apes.
1916--Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary sending troops into the much-disputed province of Transylvania.
1921--J.E. Clair, owner of the Acme Packing Co., bought Green Bay, Wis. a pro football franchise to honor those who packed meat at his processing plant.
1928--the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by 15 nations in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes.
1938--at a poetry reading by Archibald MacLeish, fellow poet Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers to disrupt the recital.
1939--Hitler served notice on England and France that Germany wanted Danzig and the Polish Corridor.
1939--the German Heinkel He 178 , the worlds first fully jet powered aircraft, had its maiden flight
1941--the anti-fascist, anti-militarism prime minister of Japan, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, requested a summit meeting with Pres. Roosevelt.
1945--US troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government.
1950--BBC transmits the first ever live TV pictures across the channel.
1952--the "Red Scare"—the widespread belief that international communism was operating in the US—came to dominate much of presidential politics.
1953--the movie Roman Holiday, featuring Audrey Hepburn in her first starring role, opened.
1962, the US launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.
1972--US aircraft conduct heavy raids on Hanoi and the North's major port of Haiphong in Vietnam.
1975--Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia's 3,000-year-old monarchy, died in Addis Ababa almost a year after being overthrown.
1979--Lord Louis Mountbattena war hero, elder statesman and second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, was killed when Irish Republican Army terrorists detonated a 50-lb. bomb hidden on his fishing vessel.
1991--the Soviet republic of Moldavia declared independence and the European Community recognized Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as independent countries.
1995--Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed an agreement in Cairo to expand Palestinian autonomy from Gaza to the West Bank.
1999--2 Russian cosmonauts and a French astronaut left Mir to return to Earth, leaving the orbiting Russian space station unmanned for the first time in 13 years.
2003--Mars made its closest approach to Earth.
2004--Russian authorities said traces of explosives were found in the wreckage of two airliners that crashed within minutes of each other after takeoff, killing 89 in Moscow.
2006--reports said 100s of tribal chiefs signed a pact supporting reconciliation and an end to sectarian strife in Iraq while bombs and gunfire killed 100 Iraqis over a two-day period.
2007--beleaguered US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation.
2007--NFL quarterback Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons pled guilty in a federal dogfighting case.
2008--Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo.

World News Capsules:
1. Attacks on soldiers and civilians leave dozens dead in Afghanistan.
....In three separate attacks on Sunday and Monday, an Afghan soldier killed two American troops, attackers killed 10 Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint, and the Taliban cut the throats of 17 civilians
2. Sea ice in Arctic measured at record low.

....More of the Arctic than ever before is ice-free, scientists say, and the melting may be causing extremes of weather to the south.
3. To preserve regional tradition, Flanders subsidizes horse breeding.

....In less than a century, Belgian draft horses have gone from being one of the country's most valuable exports to a vanishing breed in their own homeland.
4. France says it would recognize provisional Syrian government.
....The statement by the French president, François Hollande, represented the furthest any Western leader had gone in pressuring Pres. Assad.
5. Hong Kong protesters defy court order to leave.

....An unusual intersection of legal issues, local politics and weather has allowed Occupy Central to defy the authorities longer than similar movements .
6. India's premier jeered in Parliament over coal deals.

....Opposition lawmakers shouted down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he rebutted claims that sweetheart coal deals with power companies had cost the government $34 billion in royalties.
7. [y]Israel arrests 3 settler boys suspected of attack on Palestinians[/y].
....Three Jewish settler boys are suspected of throwing a firebomb earlier this month at a Palestinian vehicle in the West Bank, injuring six people.
8. Myanmar leader reeshuffles his cabinet.
....In a move that could consolidate his power, President Thein Sein put his closest allies in crucial positions and sidelined at least one hard-line minister left over from the days of military rule.
9. Philippine economy set to become Asia's newest bright spot


....Young urban workers in the Philippines are helping to give the country its best prospects in decades, economists say.
10. With opening near, Yale defends Singaore venture.
....As the Yale-National University of Singapore College prepares to open, Yale has received criticism for lending its name to an institution in a country where some freedoms are restricted.
11. Crackdown toll seen as Syrians bury hundreds.

....With more than 200 bodies found over the weekend, the assault in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus has begun to look like one of the deadliest short-term raids of the uprising.

US News Capsules:
1. Storm gains strength moving toward coast.

....Tropical Storm Isaac was expected to gather strength, potentially making landfall as a hurricane somewhere along the Gulf Coast, late on Tuesday or early Wednesday.
2. Before gunfire, hints of 'bad news'.
....James Eagan Holmes left no trail of hate behind him before the shootings in Aurora. But interviews with people who knew or had contact with him before the attack tell a story of a man struggling with a mental illness and losing his footing.
3. Benefits of circumcision are said to outweigh risks.
....The American Academy of Pediatrics has shifted its stance on infant male circumcision, motivated in part by research that says it may protect heterosexual men against HIV.
4. Jimmy Kimmel's move may seal fate of "Nightline".

....The decision to shift "Jimmy Kimmel Live" into the time slot long held by "Nightline" is a hurtful and possibly fatal blow to the program, former members of the news show say.
5. These days, it's back to school, then shopping.
....In an effort to follow trends, students and their families are delaying back-to-school purchases, which could hurt an economy heavily dependent on consumer spending to stay afloat.
6. ARTS: A punk fest, defiant and undefinable.

....The Afro-Punk Festival in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, continues to expand beyond its punk and hard-core roots.
7. Intriguing habitats and careful discussions of climate change
.
....Many zoos are fearful of alienating visitors with tours or wall labels that dwell bleakly on damaged coral reefs, melting ice caps or dying trees.
8. Farmers pray for rain - and change.

....The worst drought in decades is driving American dairy farmers to sell their herds and call it quits. As one farmer puts it: "It's the system that failed us."
9. Abuse victim fights order to pay alimony.

....The California legislature unanimously passed a bill last week that would prohibit victims of spousal abuse from having to pay alimony to their convicted abuser. The bill is a result of one California woman who says she was a victim of spousal abuse and the justice system.
10. Bill Nye slams creationism.

....Famed TV scientist Bill Nye is slamming creationism in a new online video for Big Think titled "Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children." "Denial of evolution is unique to the United States," Nye begins in a YouTube video posted on Thursday. The video quickly picked up steam over the weekend and as of Monday morning had been viewed more than 1,100,000 times.
POLITICS:
1. A party of factions gathers, seeking consensus.
....Republican leaders said there was unity in the drive to unseat President Obama, but they expressed concerns about challenges to the establishment.
a. At convention, 2 disruptions: tropical storm and Ron Paul.

....As Tropical Storm Isaac diverted attention from the delayed Republican convention, the Romney campaign was monitoring a potential challenge from restive delegates when it does begin.
b. Paul makes sure his voice is heard in Tampa.
....Denied a speaking slot at the Republican convention, Ron Paul told a gathering of 10,000 of his supporters that his “liberty movement” was alive and well
2. Earnest and efficient, Romney spares the subtlety.
....Mitt Romney’s speeches and rallies are highly polished and hyper-scripted and they tell a story of a man who sees himself as a hero prepared to pull off his biggest rescue yet.
3. Relaxed and loose, Candidate Obama hits his mark.
....In this re-election campaign, the president is a scheduler’s dream, a walking, talking, handshaking, baby-hugging prototype of campaigning efficiency/

Thought for Today
"It's the price of leadership to do the thing you believe has to be done at the time it must be done."
--Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) 36th Pres. of the US.

[the flying reindeer]

Race Your Mouse around the Icons Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 241st day of 2012 with 124 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 6:17 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 77ºF [Feels like 78ºF], winds SSW @ 7 mph, humidity 58%, pressure 29.96 in and rising, dew point 61ºF, chance of precipitation 20%.

Today in History:
1189--the Crusaders began the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan.
1521--the Ottoman Turks occupied Belgrade.
1565--St. Augustine, Fla. was founded, the oldest surviving European settlement in the US."
1609--English sea explorer Henry Hudson reached present-day Delaware Bay.
1619--Ferdinand II was elected Holy Roman Emperor and started the Thirty Years War to eradicate Protestantism.
1640--English Civil War: the Scots under Leslie defeated royalist English forces under Lord Conway at the battle of Newburn near Newcastle.
1774--St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley, the first American-born saint beatified by the Roman Catholic Church, was born in New York City. She founded the first Catholic school and the Sisters of Charity, first female apostolic community in the US.
1789--Sir William Herschel discovers Saturn's moon Enceladus.
1811--the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley eloped with Harriet Westbrook.
1828--Leo Tolstoy, Russian author considered one of history's greatest novelists (War and Peace[/img], Anna Karenina) was born near Tula, Russia; died 1910 at age 82.
1845--Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue.
1850--Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin" received its first performance.
1862--Confederate spy, Belle Boyd released from Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC.
1867--the US occupied Midway Islands in the Pacific.
1879--Cetewayo (or Cetshwayo), last of the great Zulu kings, was captured by the British ending the Zulu wars.
1898--Caleb Bradham renamed his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola".
1907--Jim Casey, 19, borrowed $100 from a friend, Claude Ryan, to start a local delivery service in Seattle, Wash. which they named the American Messenger Company. It became United Parcel Services(UPS).
1908--Roger Tory Peterson, American ornithologist and conservationist, was born; died 1996 at age 87.
1910--Montenegro proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman empire, with Nicholas I as ruler.
1914--Battle of Heligoland Bight: the first major naval battle of World War I occurred between British and German ships in the North Sea, near the northern coast of Germany.
1917--Pres. Wilson was picketed by woman suffragists in front of the White House demanding the right to vote,
1922--the 1st radio commercial aired, on WEAF in New York City.
1922--at Southampton, NY, the Walker Cup, the oldest international team golf match in the US, was held for the first time.
1941--more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Gestapo in occupied Ukraine.
1944--the last German troops in Marseilles surrendered and Toulon was finally cleared of German troops.
1955--14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, was brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman. His assailants (the woman's husband and brother) beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to a 76 Lb. cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.
1963--200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
1968--1000s of protesters against the Vietnam War battled police in Chicago while the Democratic Party tore itself to shreds concerning a platform statement on Vietnam.
1981--John W. Hinckley Jr. pleaded innocent to charges of attempting to kill Pres. Reagan.
1988--An unsuccessful coup attempt against Filipino Pres. Corazon Aquino resulted in the deaths of 50 people.
1990--two more bodies (Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada) were discovered near the campus of the University of Florida, two days after the discovery of three young female students killed and mutilated in two separate locations near the campus.
1996--Democrats nominated Pres. Clinton for a 2nd term at their national convention in Chicago.
1990--the government of Saddam Hussein declared Kuwait to be the 19th province of Iraq, in a move that foreshadowed the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
1995--a mortar shell killed 38 people in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, triggeromg NATO airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs.
1996--Charles, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, and his wife, Princess Diana, formally divorced after 16 years.
1998--the Pakistani prime minister created a new Islamic order and legal system based on the Koran.
2005--New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered everyone in the city to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Katrina, designated as a Category 5 hurricane.
2006--fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was arrested.
2008--Sen. Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination with a speech at Invesco Field in Denver.
2009--Reading Rainbow, the 3rd longest-running children's show on PBS, ended its 26-year run.
2009--the Los Angeles County coroner ruled that Michael Jackson's death was a homicide caused by acute intoxication from the drug propofol.

World News Capsules:
1. US military disciplines 9 over video and Koran burning.
....Nine American service members were disciplined for the burning of Korans and the posting of a video showing Marines urinating on dead insurgents, events that prompted outrage in Afghanistan.
a. Afghan police chief escapes attack that kills 4 civilians.
....The police chief of Kandahar Province, Gen. Abdul Raziq, survived a powerful suicide car bombing by the Taliban late Monday.
2. Former wife of child killer is released in Belgium.
....The release of Michelle Martin, former wife and accomplice of the convicted child killer Marc Dutroux, infuriated families of victims of crimes that shocked the world 20 years ago
3. Gangs' truce buys El Salvador a tenuous peace[/u]

....A truce between two notoriously violent street gangs endures in El Salvador after five months, but some wonder whether the government has made a deal with the devil.
4. After attacks, Israeli schools confront hate.
....Israeli students are being required to discuss the attempted lynching of a number of Palestinian youths.
a. Court rules Israel is not at fault in American activist's death.
....An Israeli judge ruled on Tuesday that the state bore no responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie, the young American protester who was run over by a military bulldozer in 2003
5. Grenade attack in Kenya kills police officer as riots rage.

....It was the second day of deadly unrest over the killing of an influential cleric, Sheik Aboud Rogo Mohammed, who has been accused of fund-raising and helping to recruit fighters for a Somali militant group.
6. Mexico detains 12 officers in attack on US embassy vehicle.
....Mexican police officers who wounded two American employees when they shot at a US Embassy vehicle were detained to determine whether they abused their authority.
7. Lawyers seek releasse of Pakistani girl charged with blasphemy.
....An influential Muslim cleric also offered support for the girl, Rimsha Masih, who has been held in a high-security jail since Aug. 16., after being accused of burning a religious textbook used to teach the Koran.
8. Palestine: UN sees bleak outlook for Gaza unless services are improved.
....Gaza may not be “a livable place” by 2020 unless intensive efforts are made to improve infrastructure and services in fields like energy, health, water and sanitation, a United Nations report concluded this week.
9. For Putin, reort says, state perks pile high.
....In a new report, Russian opposition leaders describe the presidential perks enjoyed by Vladimir V. Putin, including palaces, a fleet of jets and droves of luxury cars.
a. Russian activists criticize 8-year drug sentence.
....Supporters say that the charges against Taisiya Osipova were fabricated in retaliation for her work in opposition to Russia’s longtime paramount leader, Vladimir V. Putin/
10. Somalia: Piracy around Horn of Africa has plunged, US says.
....The US Navy credits aggressive patrolling by international forces and increased vigilance by the commercial shipping industry for the decrease.
11. More Syrian efugees flooding into Jordan and Turkey.

....The UN refugee agency said that 10,200 Syrians had crossed into Jordan last week, and Syrian activists reported deadly government airstrikes in Idlib, near Turkey.

US News Capsules:
1. Destroying precious land for gas.
....Natural gas has been sold as clean energy, but the word "clean" is taking on a disturbingly Orwellian tone. Don't be fooled.
2. Hurricane Isaac builds as it churns toward coast

....The tracking forecasts reached a consensus that the storm would land overnight Tuesday somewhere around southeastern Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane.
3. Levee needing costly repairs lands Ohio village on endangered list.
.....The Army Corps of Engineers is considering alternatives to expensive repairs, including razing buildings in the village of Zoar, Ohio.
4. Active in cloud, Amazon reshapes computing.
....Amazon is quietly upending the world of business computing through its cloud operations, a vast resource that gives companies heavy computing power without the baseline costs.
5. IBM mainframe evolves to serve the digital world.
....Executives said the company's new line of mainframe computers can tackle any trend in corporate computing, from the cloud to so-called green computing.
6. Aspirin made aid cancer recovery.
....Men treated for prostate cancer who took aspirin regularly for other medical conditions were less likely to die of their cancer than patients who weren't taking aspirin, a new study shows.
7. As genes learn new tricks, animal lifestles evolve.

....Recent studies on how some snakes and other animals detect infrared light provide striking examples of how new lifestyles can evolve when old genes learn new tricks, i.e. bloodsuckers sensory pits help vampire bats find the best place to bite..
8. New Will.i.amsong broadcast from Mars.

...."Reach for the Stars" made its solar system premiere after a 330-million-mile trip, from Earth to Mars and back again.
9. Designers set sail, turning to wind to help power cargo ships
.
....To reduce emissions and conserve expensive fossil fuels, cargo ship designers are turning to the oldest source of power there is: the wind.
10. More than one kind of partner for a supernova.
....Scientists studying a Type 1a supernova found it to be caused by a white dwarf absorbing gas from a nearby red giant.
11. Finding something worthy in every fomd.

....Seeking out paintings at yard sales and thrift shops, an art critic observes, is often worth the effort.
12. Newspapers fighting deal n postage for ad fliers.
....A direct marketer’s agreement with the Postal Service could lure more ads away from newspapers, which earn more than $1 billion a year on advertising inserts.
POLITICS:
1. As storm disrupts plans, GOP takes up tensions.
....Monday was a day of frustration for Republicans as the delay in beginning their convention deprived them of their national stage and brought a fresh airing of intraparty tensions.
a. House Republicans deemed not ready for prime time['u].
....Less than two years ago after leading their party to power, House Republicans are being largely kept out of the spotlight.
2. Business and political experineces pull Romney 2 ways on economy.
....As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney supported a greater government role in the economy, but as a presidential candidate, he has moved closer to the Republican mainstream.
3. Keynoter Christie is a skilled speaker and Tea Party pleaser.
....Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, known for unscripted moments, will give the keynote address to the first Republican convention at which Tea Party insurgents will join establishment party members

Thought for Today
"It's important to give it all you have while you have the chance."
--[/i]Shania Twain (b. 1965) Canadian singer.


[/size][/color]

[the flying reindeer]

Spain: La Tomatina, Buñol - the world's largest food fight
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 242nd day of 2012 with 123 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 7:18 p.m., it's fair , temp 73ºF [Feels like 72ºF], Sunset 7:54 p.m., winds NNW @ 7 mph, humidity 41%, pressure 30.0. in and falling, dew point 48ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
1350--the Hundred Years war: a Spanish fleet under La Carda was defeated by the English of Edward III at the battle of Winchelsea in the English Channel.
1533--Francisco Pizarro's Spanish conquistadors strangle Atahualipa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas, marking the end of 300 years of Inca civilization.
1632--John Locke, English philosopher who influenced the American Founding Fathers, was born; died 1704 at age 72.
1756--on learning of the Franco-Austrian alliance, Frederick II of Prussia invaded Saxony, heralding the start of the Seven Years War. (French and ndian War in the colonies).
1779--Battle of Chemung or Newtown, NY: Continental forces led by Maj. Gen. John Sullivan and Brig. Gen. James Clinton defeated a combined force of Loyalists and Indians commanded by Capt. Walter Butler and Chief Joseph Brant.
1786--Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, began in response to high debt and tax burdens.
1825--Brazilian independence under Pedro I was recognized by Portugal.
1842--the Treaty of Nanking was signed between the British and Chinese, ending the first Opium War and conceding Hong Kong to Britain..
1862--Union and Confederate armies clashed at the 2nd Battle of Bull Run or Manassus.
1877--Brigham Young, the 2nd president of the Mormon Church, died in Salt Lake City at age 76.
1885--the world's first motorcycle patented by Gottlieb Daimler.
1886--the chef of China's ambassador to the US came up with a new dish in New York City. - chop suey.
1898--the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. was founded.
1907--the Quebec Bridge collapsed during its first construction killing 75 of the 86 construction workers.
1911--Ishi, described as the last surviving Stone Age Indian in the contiguous US, was discovered in California.
1936--John McCain, US (R-Ariz.) was born, turns 76.
1942--the International Red Cross announcesd Japan refused passage of ships carrying food, medicine, and other necessities for American POWs.
1944--US troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as part of the celebration of the French capital liberation.
1945--Pres3 Truman ordered the Secretary of the Navy to seize control of petroleum refineries and transportation companies to counteract strikes by oil workers at the Gulf, Shell, Standard and Union oil companies.
1949--the USSR exploded its first atomic bomb at a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.
1957--Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-SC) ended the longest filibuster in Senate history of 24 hrs, 18 min. against a civil rights bill.
1958--the Air Force Academy opened in Colorado Springs, Colo.
1965--astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad landed safely to end the eight-day orbital flight of Gemini 5.
1966--the Beatles performed their last scheduled concert, before disbanding at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
1973--US District Judge John Sirica ordered Pres. Nixon to turn over secret Watergate tapes. .
1991--the Supreme Soviet, the parliament of the USSR, suspended all activities of the Communist Party, bringing an end to the institution.
1994--Israel and the PLO signed an agreement to shift West Bank administration to the Palestinian National Authority.
2000--Pope John Paul II endorsed organ donation and adult stem cell study but condemned human cloning and embryo experiments.
2003--a car bomb explosion killed more than 80 worshippers at the Imam Ali Mosque in the Iraqi Shitte holy city of Najaf.
2004--Vanderlei de Lima, Brazilian marathoner was assaulted at the Athens Olympics when he was in the lead with 4 miles left.
2005--Downgraded to a Category 4 but packing high storm surges and sustained winds of more than 140 miles an hour, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast near New Orleans.
2007--South Korea said the Taliban would release 19 hostages held for 41 days after it promised to pull outits troops by year's end and ban its Christian missionary work in Afghanistan.
2008--Republican presidential candidate John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential running mate.
2008 --a dam break in Nepal sent flood waters from the Kosi River racing across northern India, causing 75 deaths and more than 2 million people to be homeless.

World News Capsules:
1. Karzai is overhauling Afghanistan's top cabinet posts, western officials say.
....Pres. Hamid Karzai has deepened a cabinet shake-up in the most important security and intelligence ministries, Western officials said.
2. Victims' sons in tough fight for redress after China rail crash.

....Two Chinese-American brothers’ odyssey to retrieve their parents’ bodies and gain compensation for the 1st deadly high-speed railroad crash highlighted the workings of an unbending government agency in China.
3. Georgia frees hostages along border with Russia.
....The Georgian authorities said they had engaged in a fierce gun battle to free five Georgian villagers being held by a band of militants who had crossed over the border from the Russian republic of Dagestan.
4. German and Italian leaders at odds over euro plans.
....Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Mario Monti sought to present a united front after meeting Wednesday, but could not hide their divisions.
5. New urgency on airport plans for Great Britain's Cameron.
....Prime Minister David Cameron of Great Britain is facing new challenges to his leadership as the long-simmering issue of expanding Heathrow Airport demands his attention
6. UN leader broaches sensitive topics with Iranian leaders.

....Ban Ki-moon met face-to-face with four members of Iran’s hierarchy to address his concerns about the disputed Iranian nuclear program, the Syria conflict, human rights issues,
7. Village's tribute reignites a debate about Italy's Fascist past.

....The mayor of Affile, Italy, recently dedicated a monument to a general under Mussolini accused of war crimes. The event raised questions about whether Italy has come to terms with its wartime past.
8. Japanese and North Korean officials hold first talks in four years.
....The discussions come amid hopes that the North’s new leader could be trying to reduce tensions with Japan and by extension, the United States.
9. Libya officials seem helpless as Sufi shrines are vandalized.
....The country’s interior minister said he lacked the means to stop well-armed extremists from destroying sacred Sufi sites, adding he was willing to see all shrines destroyed to avoid bloodshed.
10. Americans shot in Mexico were CIA operatives aiding in drug war.
....The two Americans wounded last week when their embassy vehicle was shot up were CIA employees aiding in Mexico’s efforts to fight drug traffickers.
11. Gaza's tunnel economy: UN sees bleak outlook for Gaza unless services are improved.

....Gaza may not be “a livable place” by 2020 unless intensive efforts are made to improve infrastructure and services in fields like energy, health, water and sanitation, a United Nations report concluded this week.
12. Many hands patch together Syria rebels' arsenal.

....Using unconventional means to acquire weapons, Syria’s rebels have managed to put the government to siege, seize territory and drive the conventionally equipped Syrian armed forces back in certain areas of the countryside. A network of tradesmen and businesses have helped to piece together an arsenal to counter the Assad government’s army.

US News Capsules:
1. Isaac loses steam, but brings flooding, power outages.

....Isaac weakens to a tropical storm, but flooding traps people in their homes and on levees, destorys a Mississippi marina, but leaves New Orleans working really, really well.
a. Biloxi surprised by Isaac's rain.
....What this hurricane lacked in wind, it made up for with more water than expected, especially along the 26 miles of Gulf Coast beaches along Mississippi’s southern edge/
2. Sharp cuts in dental coverage for adults on Medicaid.
....Republican- and Democratic-controlled states alike have reduced or largely eliminated dental coverage for adults on Medicaid.
3. Hard-hit cities show a housing rebound.
....The latest housing data showed a year-over-year increase in prices nationally, with a recovery apparent even in places like Miami, Atlanta and Detroit.
4. US sets higher fuel efficiency standards.
....The rules, first proposed last year, would require new cars and trucks to average 54.5 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving by 2025.
5. New York State is investigating energy drink makers.
....New York is looking at whether the makers of energy drinks are misleading consumers about how much caffeine the drinks contain and the health risks they could pose.
6. Italy to Brooklyn, fig by fig.
....Fig trees are abundant in Brooklyn, producing soft, purple fruit that can be eaten by the handful, tossed into salads or threaded onto a skewer.
7. Touring streets, highlighting gutters.

....Tours sponsored by TMZ highlight the tawdry stories of celebrities in Los Angeles.
8. Rare illness has killed 2 lodgers at Yosemite.
....Park officials have told 1,700 people they may have been exposed to a potentially lethal, rodent-borne disease while visiting one of Yosemite’s low-cost lodging areas this summer.
9. Families of Aurora shooting victims ask relief fund to speed assistance.

....In their first public gathering, grieving relatives said they had received scant assistance from a $5 million fund and little explanation as to why.
10. Penn State to give back trophies because of NCAA sanctions.

....Penn State will have to return all of the football trophies they won during a 14-year span as a result of sanctions handed down by the NCAA for school's role in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal, a school official said on Wednesday. And what will happen to these bowl game trophies - given to the losers?
11. West Nile cases rising; 66 dead
....66 people have died from West Nile virus infections this year, and the number of human cases has grown to 1,590, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the highest case count since the virus was first detected in the US in 1999.
POLITICS:
1. Republican Convention: Platform's sharp turn to right has Conservatives cheering.
....The 1980 Republican platform was considered a triumph for conservatives. But they are even happier this year.
a. As Republicans build ranks of future leaders, Latinos are in demand. .

....Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will have a starring role at the Republican convention in Tampa Thursday night when he introduces Mitt Romney to accept the nomination/
2. Nomination secure, Romney pitch starts.
....Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, took the lead in trying to shape perceptions of her husband, hailing him as a strong and steadfast family man whom Americans could trust to help rebuild the economy.
3. Focus on Ryan extends to his budget plan.
....While Paul D. Ryan was expected to use his acceptance speech to make the case for smaller government, Democrats were busy pointing out how contentious his vision is.
a. Fast rise built with discipline.
....Ryan’s uncanny ability to develop relationships with like-minded conservatives while he worked on Capitol Hill helped lay the groundwork for his ascension to vice-presidential candidate
4. Ron Paul supporters put dent in unity at GOP convention.

....The always-vocal supporters of Ron Paul made one final push to support the Texas congressman's bid for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination Tuesday, and in the process made their displeasure at the GOP establishment known as official proceedings at the Republican National Convention got underway.
5. Federal court finds Texas voting maps discriminatory.
....A federal court ruled political maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature in Texas discriminated against minority voters, but the ruling is unlikely to affect the November elections.
6. California sheriffs oppose bill on illegal immigrants.
....Known as the Trust Act, the bill would bar law enforcement officers from detaining illegal immigrants for deportation if they have not been charged with serious or violent crimes.

Thought for Today
"Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly."
--George Santayana [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás] (1863-1952) Spanish-born philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist.

[the flying reindeer]

Black Business Month
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me
This is the 244th day of 2012 with 121 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:13 p.m., it's fair , temp 91ºF [Feels like 93ºF], winds WSW @ 12 mph, humidity 32%, pressure 29.96 in and falling, dew point 57ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.

Today in History:
1422--Henry VI became King of England at the very young age of 9 months.
1535--Pope Paul II deposed & excommunicated King Henry VIII.
1862--Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va.
1864--the Battle of Jonesboro was fought, leading to fall of Atlanta, Ga.
1870--Maria Montessori, Italian physician & educator, was born; died 1952 at age 82.
1886--the largest earthquake ever registered inthe south east US struck Charleston, SC.
1888--Mary Ann Nichols was found in Whitechapel, London, England, the first victim of serial killer Jack the Ripper.
1900--Coca Cola went on sale in Great Britain for the first time.
1907--England, Russia & France formed the Triple Entente alliance.
1928--Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera ("Die Dreigoschenoper") premiered in Berlin, starring Lotte Lenya..
1930--Warren Buttett, billionaire Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, was born; turns 82.
1935--Pres. Roosevelt signed the Neutrality Act that prohibited the export of arms made in the US to belligerents.
1939--Hitler signed an order to prepare for the invasion of Poland.
1941--Nazi forces began a siege of Leningrad that lasted nearly two and a half years.
1944--the British 8th Army broke through the Germans' "Gothic Line," a defensive line drawn across northern Italy.
1945--Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Japan and set up Allied occupation headquarters.
1951--US Supreme Court justic William O. Douglas called for the recognition of the People's Republic of China.
1955--Secretary of State John Foster Dulles supported South Vietnamese Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem's position refusal to hold elections.
1955--William Cobb demonstrated first solar-powered car.
1963--the hot-line communications link between Washington and Moscow went into operation.
1965--Premier Nguyen Cao Ky said that South Vietnam would not negotiate with the Communists without guarantees that North Vietnamese troops would be withdrawn from the South.
1967--the US Senate confirmed the appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court
1980--the trade union Solidarity was founded in Gdansk, Poland.
1983--Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first African-American astronaut to travel in space when he blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
1985--Richard Ramirez, the notorious Night Stalker serial killer was nearly killed by a mob in East Los Angeles, Cali., after being recognized from a photograph.
1986--hte Admiral Nakhimov, a Soviet passenger ship, collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea and both sank, killing 448 people.
1991--Serbia accepted a European Community proposal that included international observers to oversee a cease-fire in Croatia.
1991--Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan declared their independence from the Soviet Union.
1992--white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered after an 11-day siege that cost the lives of his wife, teenage son and a US marshal in Idaho.
1993--The Late Show with David Letterman premiered on CBS.
1994--the Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire, ending 25 years of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
1997--Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris.
2003--a Russian K-159 nuclear-powered submarine was lost in the Barents Sea, killing 9 crew members.
2005--nealy 1,000 Shiite pilgrims died in a stampede and the partial collapse of a bridge over the Tigris River in northern Baghdad.

World News Capsules:
1. Young girl and boy found beheaded in Afghanistan.
....The victims were a 7-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, who residents said was killed by the Taliban because his relatives were members of the local police, but a spokesman for the group denied the charge.
2. Change unlikely from Angola election, but discontent simmers.

....The governing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, which has been in power for more than three decades, was expected to win the legislative elections on Friday handily.
3. Australia ends search in boat sinking with scores presumed dead.
....Nearly 100 passengers are thought to have died when a boat packed with refugees sank south of Indonesia this week, Australian officials said.
4. China and Germany promise to strengthen ties.
....Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany agreed with Chinese leaders to strengthen ties between the two countries. China also promised to invest more money in a struggling Europe.
a. Chinese dissident in Yahoo case is freed after 10 years.
....Wang Xiaoning had been convicted of state subversion based on evidence provided by the Internet company.
5. Hopes raised, Roma in France still face a date with the bulldozer.

....Foreign Roma hope that Presi. François Hollande will annul an expulsion order, after being led to believe that their lot would improve, but so far his approach has been much like that of his predecessor.
6. Summit meeting in Iran disrupted by rebukes of Syria.
....At a meeting of world leaders in Iran, Pres. Mohamed Morsi of Egypt denounced the repression of the armed uprising in Syria, a close Iranian ally.
a. Iran criticizes Egypt's new leader over Syria comments.
....The move by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came a day after Pres. Morsi of Egypt countered the Iranian stance on Syria and denounced the repression of the armed uprising there.
7. Report on Iran nuclear work puts Israel in a box.

....An International Atomic Energy Agency report detailing Iran’s ramped up nuclear capabilities may force Israel to strike Iran or concede it cannot act on its own, according to experts.
8. Japan and North Korea agree to new talks.
....The two countries ended their first direct talks in four years with an agreement to meet as early as next month, in a sign of the North’s desire to reduce tensions with Japan, and by extension, the US.
9. Earthquake causes damage in Philippines.
....An earthquake of 7.9 magnitude struck off the Philippines and a tsunami warning has been issued for the region, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
10. " Riot" murder a domestic dispute.
....Authorities said a 38-year-old man confessed to a grisly double murder in Kazan, in which two women were found brutally stabbed and with “Free! Riot” written in blood on a wall nearby.
11. In police shooting of miners, South Africa charges miners
.
....Two weeks after the police fired on workers engaged in a wildcat strike at a platinum mine, killing 34 people, prosecutors are charging the workers themselves.

US News Capsules:
1. For gulf casino, a brief lull in the action.

....The Gulf Coast casinos, vital to the region’s economy, began reopening as the last effects of Hurricane Issac were still blowing outside.
a. Rain from Isaac puts wide area at risk.

....The storm's once fierce winds slowed to 45 mph as it moved out of southern Louisiana and headed north, still bringing heavy rains and flooding.
b. Efforts to relieve dam cntinue in Mississippi.
....If the Percy Quin Dam on Lake Tangipahoa fails, thousands of homes in southeastern Louisiana would be threatened.
2. No charges filed on harsh tactics used by the CIA.
....Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s announcement eliminates the last possibility that any criminal charges will result from brutal interrogations carried out by the CIA.
3. The majority of new jobs pay low wages, study finds.
....The disappearance of midwage, midskill jobs is part of a longer-term trend that some refer to as a hollowing out of the work force.
4. Roberts leaves Good Moring, America for medical treatment[/u].

....Robin Roberts, who will undergo a bone marrow transplant that will leave her hospitalized and homebound for months, began her leave of absence a day early. due to the pending death of her mother.
5. Having to prove you're 'hopeless' to escape college debt.
....To discharge student loans, a bankrupt borrower may have to convince a judge that life will never get better and destitution is certain.
6. What "We are...Penn State" means now.

....A campus struggles to reshape its identity with its rallying cry uniting many students, but for others it's only a shameful reminder of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.
POLITICS:
1. Court b;pcls Texas vpter OD ;aw. cotomg racoa; o,[act.
....A federal court stopped Texas from enforcing a strict voter identification law, handing the state its second legal setback this week involving minority voters.
2. REPUBLICAN CONVENTIN: Romney vows to deliver country from economic travails.
....Mitt Romney asked voters to consider whether their lives had improved over the last four years and urged them not to feel guilty about giving up on Pres. Obama.
a. After a gunslinger cuts loose, Romney aides take cover.

....Clint Eastwood’s rambling endorsementin which he laid out what he sees as the good, the bad and the ugly state of American political affairs seemed to leave Mitt Romney’s campaign advisers unsettled and displeased.
b. Republican wmen seek to play down social issues.
....Women at the Convention expressed the feeling that the emphasis needs to be on the economy, and that issues like abortion are too divisive in a close, contentious race.
3. Obama team sharpens attacks on rivals' character.
....The Obama campaign has criticized many of Mitt Romney’s statements as false and is now planning to turn up the volume.

Thought for Today
"The ultimate result of protecting fools from their folly is to fill the planet full of fools."
--[/i]James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) author and diplomat.


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[the flying reindeer]

R.I.P. Harold "Hal" David, American lyricist who colloaborated with composer Burt Bacharach on such hits as "Walk on By" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" for Dionne Warwick, and the Oscar-winning song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," died at age 91 of complications from a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Hall David and Burt Bacharach scored their first hit together in 1957 with Marty Robbins’ recording of “The Story of My Life,” which was followed by a 1958 hit for Perry Como, “Magic Moments.” They began an exclusive partnership after discovering their "magical interpreter," as David once described Dionne Warwick. In 1962, Warwick recorded their song “Don’t Make Me Over,” which became her first hit single. Her long string of pop classic hits by David and Bacharach includes “Walk on By,” “Alfie,” “Reach out for Me,” “Message to Michael,” “Trains and Boats and Planes,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.”
David and Bacharach went their separate ways in the early 1970s. David went on to collaborate with other composers, including Albert Hammond, with whom he wrote "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." In May 2012, David and Bacharach were honored by Pres. Obama as "two kings of songwriting" and were presented the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the nation's highest prize for popular music

R.I.P. Hal David, one of America's greatest popular song lyricists.

[the flying reindeer]

R.I.P. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, self-proclaimed messiah & founder of the Unificatin Church which he turned into a worldwide religious movement, has died at age 92 at a church-owned hospital in Gapyeong, northeast of Seoul two weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Moon is survived by his second wife and 10 children.

Church officials planned to meet later Monday to discuss mourning and funeral arrangements. The church will likely hold a 13-day mourning period and start accepting mourners at its nearby religious center on Wednesday, church spokesman Ahn Ho-yeul said.
Born in 1920 in what is today North Korea, Moon founded his Bible-based religion in Seoul in 1954, a year after the Korean War ended, saying Jesus Christ personally called on him to complete his work. While preaching the gospel in North Korea in the years after the country was divided into the communist-backed North and US-allied South, Moon was imprisoned there in the late 1940s for allegedly spying for South Korea -- a charge Moon disputed. He quickly drew young followers with his conservative, family-oriented value system and unusual interpretation of the Bible.
The church gained fame -- and notoriety -- in the 1970s and 1980s for holding mass weddings of thousands of followers, often from different countries, whom Moon matched up in a bid to build a multicultural religious world. His followers were derisively referred to by critics as as "Moonies." It was accused of using devious recruitment tactics and duping followers out of money; parents of followers in the United States and elsewhere expressed worries that their children were brainwashed into joining. The church responded by saying that many other new religious movements faced similar accusations in their early stages. The Unification Church claims millions of members worldwide, though church defectors and other critics say the figure is no more than 100,000. In later years, the church adopted a lower profile and focused on building a business empire that included the Washington Times newspaper, the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, Bridgeport University in Connecticut, as well as a hotel and a fledgling automaker in North Korea. It acquired a ski resort, a professional soccer team and other businesses in South Korea, and a seafood distribution firm that supplies sushi to Japanese restaurants across the US.
As he grew older, Moon quietly handed over day-to-day control of his multibillion-dollar religious and business empire to his children. His youngest son, the Rev. Hyung-jin Moon, was named the church's top religious director in April 2008. Other sons and daughters were put in charge of the church's business and charitable activities in South Korea and abroad. After ending a first marriage, Moon remarried a South Korean, Hak Ja Han Moon, in 1960. She often was at Moon's side for the mass weddings. R.I.P. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, as the founder of the worldwide Unificatin Church

[the flying reindeer]

R.I.P. Michael Clarke Duncan, character actor (Armageddon, Planetof the Apes, Kung Fu Panda), who received an Oscar nomination fo his performance as a death row inmate in The Green Mile, died at age 54 from complications of a myocardial infarction at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The muscular, 6-foot-4 Duncan, a former bodyguard who turned to acting in his 30s, had a handful of minor roles before The Green Mile and his Best Supporting Actor nomination.. He quickly became a favorite in Hollywood, appearing in several films a year. He owed some of his good fortune to Bruce Willis, who recommended Duncan for The Green Mile after the two appeared together in Armageddon. Clarke would work with Willis again in Breakfast of Champions,, The Whole Nine Yards"and Sin City. His gravelly baritone avoice was good enough for several animated movies, including, Kung Fu Panda, and Brother Bear. Among Clarke's television credits werw The Apprentice, ]u]The Finder[/u], Two and a Half Men. According to the Internet Movie Database, Duncan had two completed projects that have yet to be released on a nationwide basis. He is slated to appear in "he Challenger, a boxing movie written and directed by Kent Moran. He will also appear in the Robert Townsend film, In the Hive, about an alternative school for boys who have been kicked out of other schools.
R.I.P. Michael Clarke Duncan, actor - you reached for the stars and achieved them.

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[the flying reindeer]

Cable TV Month
Good evening from Tuxy and me
This is the 248th day of 2012 with 117 days left in the year.
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 7"12 p.m., it's lightly raining , temp 74ºF [Feels like 77ºF], winds SSE @ 6 mph, humidity 91%, pressure 29.80 in and falling, dew point 71ºF, chance of precipitation 80%.

Today in History:
476--Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by Odoacer, a German barbarian who proclaimed himself king of Italy - the final fall of Rome.
1588--Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicster and long-standing favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, died most likely from stomach cancer.
1609--Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan.
1781--Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers
1786--Sir John Fielding, brother of Henry Fielding novelist, and co-founder of the Bow Street Runners, 1st professional police force) died at age 59.
1864--feared Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan was killed during a Union cavalry raid on the town of Greenville, Tenn.
1870--Emp. Napoleon III of France was deposed after being captured at the Battle of Sedan by German troops.1886--Apache chief Geranimo surrendered to US Army troops.
1888--George Eastman registered the trademark "Kodak" and received a patent for his roll film camera.
1907--Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer and pianist, died at age 64 after a long period of illness.
1908--Richard Wright, whose books Native Son and Black Boy exposed the harsh effects of American racism, was born; died 1960 at age 62.
1917--the US expeditionary force in France suffered its first fatalities in World War I.
1918--US troops land at Archangel, in northern Russia as part of an intervention in the Russian civil war.
1945--the Japanese surrendered on Wake Island in the Pacific.
1948--Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicated in favor of her daughter Juliana for health reasons.
1951--Pres. Truman made the first transcontinental television broadcast from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco.
1954--the first passage of the fabled Northwest Passage was completed by icebreakers from the US Navy and Coast Guard.
1957--under orders from the governor of Arkansas, armed National Guardsmen prevented nine African-American students from attending the all-white Central High School in Little Rock.
1969--Radio Hanoi announced the death of Ho Chi Minh.
1971--Alaskan Airlines flight 1866 crashed into a mountain near Juneau on approach for landing killing all 111 on board.
1972--in Munich, Mark Spitz bnecame the first swimmer to win 7 Olympic gold medals.
1991--South African President F.W. de Klerk proposed a new constitution, providomh for universal voting rights and opening the parliament to all races.
1993--Fatah, the PLO's largest and most moderate faction, endorsed an accord with Israel calling for interim Palestinian self-rule.
1996--the Colombian guerilla organization FARC led an attack on a military base in Guaviare, Colombia,.
1999--over 60 people were killed when Chechen terrorists detonated a car bomb near an apartment building in Dagestan, Russia.
2005--New Orleans officials completed evacuation of Hurricane Katrina survivors from the Superdome and convention center -- a total of 42,000 in one day.
2006--Steve Irwin, Australia's internationally renowned Crocodile Hunter TV star, was killed by a stingray barb to the heart while he was filming underwater.
2007--Hurricane Felix made landfall in northern Nicaragua as a Category 5 storm packing sustained winds of 160 mph.
2007--toy maker Mattel Inc. recalled 800,000 lead-tainted, Chinese-made toys worldwide, a third major recall in just over a month,
2008--Sen. John McCain (R=Ariz.) accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in St. Paul, Minn
2008--China admitted that shoddy construction of school buildings may have contributed to their collapse in the May 12 earthquake that killed 70,000 people, including 10,000 students.

World News Capsules:
1. Bomber kills at least 25 at Afghan funeral.
....Scores were wounded, overwhelming local hospitals in eastern Afghanistan, where the Shinwari tribe has been engaged in internal tribal warfare, as well as conflict with Taliban insurgents.
2. Bahrain court upholds life sentences for activists.
....Twenty opposition figures were convicted of plotting to overthrow the Western-allied government, a decision likely to escalate tensions between Sunni rulers and Shiite-led protesters.
3. A harsh reception for Clinton in China's state media.
....As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton prepared to visit China, editorials, articles and comments by Chinese analysts contained unusual bite.
a. Plans for change to schools stirs protest in Hong Kong.
....Controversy has erupted over a new plan by the Hong Kong government that requires schools to teach courses in modern Chinese history. Opponents say the plan amounts to pro-Beijing indoctrination.
b. Cina faces new scandal over crash of a Ferrari.
....Chinese officials said the son of Ling Jihua, a close ally of the departing president, died in a crash in which two women in the Ferrari he was driving were seriously injured and all were in various states of undress.
4. The ivory wars.
....Heavily armed platoons of rangers at Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo wage war against elephant poachers.
a. Elephants dying in epic frenzy as ivory fuels wars and profits
.

....Conservation groups say poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the previous two decades, with the ivory trade becoming increasingly militarized
5. To back democracy, US prepares to cut $1 billion from Egypt's debt.
....Nearly 16 months after first pledging to help Egypt’s failing economy, the Obama administration is nearing an agreement with the country’s new government to relieve $1 billion of its debt.
6. Airport delays undermine image of German efficiency.
....Technical and budgetary problems have repeatedly delayed the opening of Belrin's new airport, which was supposed to be a symbol of the city's dominance and a tribute to German unification,
7. In Britain, Cameron reshuffles cabinet.
....The changes produced only one surprise: a promotion for Jeremy Hunt despite his entanglement in a furor over ties between the prime minister’s inner circle and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
a. A redoubt of learning holds firm.

....The Royal Society in Great Britain, the world’s oldest continuous scientific society, is striving to stay relevant in the modern world.
8. Crops in India wilt in a weak monsoon season.
....With the nourishing downpours of the monsoon season down an average of 12 percent across India, farmers are on the brink of disaster
9. In ruined apartments, a symbol of Ireland's fall.
....Residents of Priory Hall, the most notorious of Ireland’s ruined ghost developments, are in legal limbo, barred from living in homes that they still have to pay for.
10. US vehicle is rammed by a bomber in Pakistan.
....There were conflicting reports of American casualties after a suicide bomber crashed into a vehicle belonging to the United States Consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday
11. Fears rising, Spaniards pull out their cash and get out of Spain.
....While the situation in Spain is not as dire as that of Greece, some Spaniards are taking their euros, and sometimes themselves and their families, out of the country.
12. UN says 100,000 refugees fled Syria in August.

....A sudden acceleration of the exodus came after the government of President Bashar al-Assad started using airstrikes against rebel neighborhoods.
a. Syrian children offer glimpse of a future of reprisals.
....If Syrian rebel fighters portray their battle as a struggle for democracy, refugee children at the Zaatari camp in Jordan tell a much uglier story of sectarian revenge against Alawites

US News Capsules:
1. Project aims to harness the power of waves.

....Energy development groups will be watching closely when the first commercially licensed grid-connected wave-energy device in the nation is launched in October.
2. Stanford scientistss cast doubt on advantages of organic meat and produce.
....Stanford University researchers concluded that meant, fruits and vegetables labeled organic were, on average, no more nutritious than their conventional counterparts.
3. A vast Frank Lloyd Wright archive is moving to New York.
....Thousands of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural drawings, models, photographs and documents are moving to New York, where the collection will reside at Columbia University and the Museum of Modern Art and become more accessible.
4. Farm use of antibiotics defires scrutiny.
....A dearth of information makes it difficult to document the precise relationship between routine antibiotic use in animals and antibiotic-resistant infections in people, scientists say
POLITICS:
1. Democratic Convention: Democrats say US is better off than four years ago.
....The party's message to wavering voters is that Pres. Obama was the right choice in 2008, and that he has the country on its way to a sustainable recovery.
a. Spirit of '08 gone, Democrats renite against GOP threat.
....The party is not as united as it was four years ago, but Democrats are finding common purpose in denying Republicans control of the White House and Congress next year.
2. Ohio unions battle conservative 'Super PACs' for votes.
....Unions’ get-out-the-vote efforts face a daunting challenge: Conservative “super PACs” with unlimited donations have saturated Ohio and other crucial states with anti-Obama ads.
3. How the party platforms differ.
....The Democratic Party platform to be approved Tuesday offers a stark contrast to the Republican one adopted last week, especially on abortion rights, gay marriage and the future of Medicare and Social Security.

[ Thought for Today
"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government."
--James Madison (1751-1836), 4th Pres. of the US & Father of the US Constitution.