Immigration bill clears Senate test

FILE - In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. At the start of a crucial week for far-reaching immigration legislation backed by the White House, the Senate headed Monday for the first test vote on the measure offering the prize of U.S. citizenship to millions and pouring new technology and manpower into the border. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

FILE - In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. At the start of a crucial week for far-reaching immigration legislation backed by the White House, the Senate headed Monday for the first test vote on the measure offering the prize of U.S. citizenship to millions and pouring new technology and manpower into the border. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, Sen. John Hoeven, N.D., leaves the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. At the start of a crucial week for far-reaching immigration legislation backed by the White House, the Senate headed Monday for the first test vote on the measure offering the prize of U.S. citizenship to millions and pouring new technology and manpower into the border. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Historic immigration legislation cleared a key Senate hurdle with votes to spare on Monday, pointing the way to near-certain passage within days for $38 billion worth of new security measures along the border with Mexico and an unprecedented chance at citizenship for millions living in the country illegally.

The vote was 67-27, seven more than the 60 needed, with 15 Republicans agreeing to advance legislation at the top of President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda.

The vote came as Obama campaigned from the White House for the bill, saying, "now is the time" to overhaul an immigration system that even critics of the legislation agree needs reform.

Last-minute frustration was evident among opponents. In an unusual slap at members of his own party as well as Democrats, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said it appeared that lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle "very much want a fig leaf" on border security to justify a vote for immigration.

Senate passage on Thursday or Friday would send the issue to the House, where conservative Republicans in the majority oppose citizenship for anyone living in the country illegally.

Some GOP lawmakers have appealed to Speaker John Boehner not to permit any immigration legislation to come to a vote for fear that whatever its contents, it would open the door to an unpalatable compromise with the Senate. At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee is in the midst of approving a handful of measures related to immigration, action that ordinarily is a prelude to votes in the full House.

"Now is the time to do it," Obama said at the White House before meeting with nine business executives who support a change in immigration laws. He added, "I hope that we can get the strongest possible vote out of the Senate so that we can then move to the House and get this done before the summer break" beginning in early August.

He said the measure would be good for the economy, for business and for workers who are "oftentimes exploited at low wages."

As for the overall economy, he said, "I think every business leader here feels confident that they'll be in a stronger position to continue to innovate, to continue to invest, to continue to create jobs and ensure that this continues to be the land of opportunity for generations to come."

Opponents saw it otherwise. "It will encourage more illegal immigration and must be stopped," Cruz exhorted supporters via email, urging them to contact their own senators with a plea to defeat the measure.

Leaving little to chance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced it was launching a new seven-figure ad buy Monday in support of the bill. "Call Congress. End de facto amnesty. Create jobs and economic growth by supporting conservative immigration reforms," the ad said.

Senate officials said some changes were still possible to the bill before it leaves the Senate - alterations that would swell the vote total.

At the same time, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who voted to advance the measure during the day, said he may yet end up opposing it unless he wins a pair of changes he is seeking.

Senate Democrats were unified on the vote.

Republicans were anything but on a bill that some party leaders say offers the GOP a chance to show a more welcoming face to Hispanic voters, yet tea party-aligned lawmakers assail as amnesty for those who have violated the law.

The party's two top Senate leaders, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas, voted against advancing the measure. Both are seeking new terms next year.

Among potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was an enthusiastic supporter of the bill, while Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky were opposed.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the legislation will reduce the deficit and increase economic growth in each of the next two decades. It is also predicting unemployment will rise slightly through 2020, and that average wages will move lower over a decade.

At its core, the legislation in the Senate would create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. It also calls for billions of dollars to be spent on manpower and technology to secure the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, including a doubling of the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents.

The measure also would create a new program for temporary farm laborers to come into the country, and another for lower-skilled workers to emigrate permanently. At the same time, it calls for an expansion of an existing visa program for highly-skilled workers, a gesture to high tech companies that rely heavily on foreigners.

In addition to border security, the measure phases in a mandatory program for employers to verify the legal status of potential workers, and separate effort to track the comings and goings of foreigners at some of the nation's airports.

The legislation was originally drafted by a bipartisan Gang of 8, four senators from each party who negotiated a series of political trade-offs over several months.

The addition of the tougher border security provisions came after CBO informed lawmakers that they could potentially spend tens of billions of dollars to sweeten the bill without fearing higher deficits.

The result was a series of changes negotiated between the Gang of 8 and Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee. Different, lesser-noticed provisions helped other lawmakers swing behind the measure.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, likened some of them to "earmarks," the now-banned practice of directing federal funds to the pet projects of individual lawmakers.

He cited a provision creating a $1.5 billion jobs fund for low-income youth and pair of changes to benefit the seafood processing industry in Alaska. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., issued a statement on Friday trumpeting the benefits of the first; Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat, took credit for the two others.

Grassley also raised questions about the origin of a detailed list of planes, sensors, cameras and other equipment to be placed along the southern border.

"Who provided the amendment sponsors with this list?" asked Grassley, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee that approved an earlier version of the bill. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "did not provide the committee with any list. Did Sikorsky, Cessna and Northrup Grumann send up a wish list to certain members of the Senate?"

Randy Belote, a spokesman for Northrup Grumann, said in an email the firm has "not had the opportunity to review the comments nor... provided the committee a 'wish list' of its systems to consider."

Officials at the other two companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-24-Immigration/id-c80adce2aa334cc099bfc1b298b57a3b

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Five years of stereo imaging for NASA's TWINS

June 24, 2013 ? Surrounding Earth is a dynamic region called the magnetosphere. The region is governed by magnetic and electric forces, incoming energy and material from the sun, and a vast zoo of waves and processes unlike what is normally experienced in Earth-bound physics. Nestled inside this constantly changing magnetic bubble lies a donut of charged particles generally aligned with Earth's equator. Known as the ring current, its waxing and waning is a crucial part of the space weather surrounding our planet, able to induce magnetic fluctuations on the ground as well as to transmit disruptive surface charges onto spacecraft.

On June 15, 2008, a new set of instruments began stereoscopic imaging of this mysterious region. Called Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers or TWINS, these satellites orbit in widely separated planes to provide the first and only stereo view of the ring current. TWINS maps the energetic neutral atoms that shoot away from the ring current when created by ion collisions.

In five years of operation, the TWINS maps have provided three-dimensional images and global characterization of this region. The observatories track how the magnetosphere responds to space weather storms, characterize global information such as temperature and shape of various structures within the magnetosphere, and improve models of the magnetosphere that can be used to simulate a vast array of events.

"With two satellites, with two sets of simultaneous images we can see things that are entirely new," said Mei-Ching Fok, the project scientist for TWINS at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This is the first ever stereoscopic energetic neutral atom mission, and it's changed the way we understand the ring current."

Each spacecraft is in a highly elliptical orbit called a Molniya orbit, during which the spacecraft spend most of their time around 20,000 miles above Earth, where they get a great view of the magnetosphere. Initially launched for a two-year mission, TWINS was formally extended in 2010 for three more years, with another multi-year extension pending. Over that time, TWINS has worked hand in hand with other NASA missions that provide information about Earth's magnetosphere.

"We've done some fantastic new research in the last five years," said David McComas, the principal investigator for TWINS at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "As a mission of opportunity, it is a very inexpensive mission and it continues to return incredible science."

TWINS science is based on two instruments that can track neutral atoms. The first is a neutral atom imager that records the atoms that naturally stream away when a neutral atom collides with an ion. This allows the instrument to map the original ions from far away -- as if it could see atoms the way we see light -- instead of only collecting data from the areas of space it passes through.

"Over the course of the last 20 years a completely new technique evolved so we can observe charged particles, such as those in the ring current, remotely," said McComas. "The charged particles sometimes collide with a slow-moving neutral particle, in this case from a population of neutrals from Earth's highly extended atmosphere, the geocorona."

When this happens, an electron hops from the slow neutral atom to the fast ion, so now the former becomes charged, and the latter neutral. That new neutral speeds off in a straight direction, unfazed by the magnetic field lines around Earth that guide and control the motion of charged particles. TWINS collects such fast neutral particles and from that data scientists can work backward to map out the location and movement of the original ions.

The other instrument on TWINS is a Lyman alpha detector, which can measure the density of hydrogen from afar, and in this case observes the hydrogen cloud around Earth, the geocorona.

Most importantly, these instruments exist on both of the TWINS spacecraft. Much of the successful research in the last five years relies on the ability to watch these neutrals from two viewpoints, allowing scientists to analyze not only speed and number of particles, but also to determine the angles at which the particles left their original collisions. The stereo vision contributed to the detailed perspectives on how the magnetosphere reacts to space weather storms: both those due to the impact of a coronal mass ejection that traveled from the sun toward Earth and due to an incoming twist in the solar wind known as a co-rotating interaction region. TWINS has also revealed that the pitch angle at which the ions travel around Earth is different on each side of the planet. Such information helps scientists determine whether the ions are more likely to escape from the ring current out into space or to ultimately funnel down toward Earth.

"TWINS is a stereo mission, providing the first observations of the neutral atoms from two vantage points, but two spacecraft give us another advantage," said Natalia Buzulukova, a magnetospheric scientist at Goddard who works with TWINS data. "Two spacecraft provide continuous coverage of the ring current, as one set of instruments always has a view."

Because the spacecraft orbits are not in sync they provide stereoscopic imaging for a few hours each day, but there is always at least one spacecraft keeping tabs on how events are unfolding. Prior to TWINS, a spacecraft might see a tantalizing process taking place in the ring current for only a short while before its orbit took it out of view. The event might well have finished before the spacecraft came back around for its second look.

Such continuity has proved useful to determine what governs whether particles in the ring current will precipitate downward toward Earth as well as to provide a global temperature map of the magnetic tail trailing behind Earth, the magnetotail. Such a map had only ever previously been inferred from models and statistical analysis, never from a comprehensive data set of what was actually observed.

The Lyman-alpha instrument has been used in two ways. For one thing, it quantifies the geocorona in order to better understand how it affects the collisions in the ring current. It also has taught us more about the geocorona itself. Previously, researchers believed it to be a fairly simple sphere around Earth. The two TWINS instruments have shown how asymmetric it is, changing with the solar cycle, seasons, and even the hours of the day.

A final important feature of this fire hose of TWINS data is how much it helps improve computer simulations of the ring current and the rest of the magnetosphere. With accurate computer models, scientists can better predict how the magnetosphere will react to any given space weather event.

"We get two really unique things with two spacecraft: stereo imaging and continuous coverage. Together the observations we get are fantastic," said McComas. "It's an incredibly powerful combination of tools."

TWINS is an Explorer Mission of Opportunity. Southwest Research Institute leads TWINS with teams of national and international partners. Goddard manages the Explorers Program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

For more information about TWINS science and mission, visit: http://science.nasa.gov/missions/twins/

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130624141606.htm

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CyanogenMod 10.1 general release is on its way

Any device that received an RC build will get the stable release; builds hitting servers as soon as possible

The CyanogenMod team announced on its official blog today that it will be ending the release candidate (RC) phase for builds of CM10.1 and moving to a general release. Following a few quick releases of the latest RC builds, the general release is currently being built for any device that has received an RC of CM10.1 and will hit servers for download as soon as possible. Absent from this CM10.1 general release are Tegra 2 devices, as are many Samsung Exynos devices -- the team says it will give an update as to the status of CM for those devices soon.

The launch of a general release also marks the time when we get back into the M-release cycle for experimental features to be added to CM10.1 for willing flashers among us. CyanogenMod says it has already incorporated its new Privacy Guard feature into the latest nightly build and surely has many more up its sleeve to come.

Source: CyanogenMod

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/3svhOjw4IAs/story01.htm

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Sky Faces New Challenges From Coliseum Over Internet... | Stuff.co.nz

TIM HUNTER YOUR PORTFOLIO

Getty Images

Play of the day: Coliseum Sports Media chief executive Tim Martin fronts the media in Auckland last week.

Sky TV's?shares staggered on Wednesday after a sideswipe from new football broadcaster Coliseum.

It was an interesting development for football fans, but it also showed how in the daily dance of sharemarket investment it takes two to tango.

When shares trade, every seller needs a buyer. And typically they will have different views on the attractions of a particular business.

Some will have seen Coliseum as the thin end of a wedge that will ultimately shatter Sky's business into a dozen fragments and end its reign as a dominant force.

Others saw it as just another lightweight hoofing it in a heavyweight game with as much impact on Sky as a rat on an open plan office - there is a frisson of alarm and then life goes on.

The net result of these views was a sudden drop in the share price from the $5.67 open down to $5.20, followed by a slow climb back above $5.43.

Sky has been a popular blue-chip stock for years and is firmly ensconced in portfolios big and small around the country. Perhaps it was no surprise then that initial comments from analysts and fund managers saw little impact for the pay TV company.

They are probably right. Some say the rights to the English premier league are likely to have cost Coliseum $2 million to $3 million. If so, they would be about 1 per cent of Sky's total programming rights cost - last year the total was $216m.

A Sky Sport package costs about $26 a month or $312 a year more than the basic package, and about 558,000 subscribers get Sport.

If 1 per cent of Sports subscribers were die-hard fans of English football and switched to Coliseum, that would represent about 5500 subscribers, or revenue for Sky of $1.7m a year.

With Coliseum's EPL subscription costing $150 a season, that would represent revenue of $825,000 a season for Coliseum, or $2.5m over its three-year licence period.

Using these numbers we can start to gauge the effect of the new service on Sky, and it looks like the football fan base would have to be large before it made much of a dent. In that sense, the share-price drop was probably a buying opportunity - a drop of 24c a share represents a cut on Sky's market value of about $90m, way more than the likely financial impact of the EPL rights loss.

But if Coliseum was not itself a significant problem for Sky, maybe it was the harbinger of greater competition for content as the internet becomes a realistic delivery system. This is an interesting question, and analysts were alive to it before Coliseum announced its play. A research note from Tristan Joll and Lance Reynolds at UBS last month declared Sky TV a "buy" with a 12-month price target of $6.30, citing an "earnings sweet-spot" as the company enjoyed the benefits of previous investment.

"Risks to our rating include entry of internet competitors, fragmentation of entertainment content and pressure on NZRFU rights at the 2015 renegotiation window," they said. But "all are factored into our forecasts, with declining content margins a fact of life going forward."

Greg Main, at First NZ Capital, was also positive in a May 15 research note with Sky "riding a cash flow sweet-spot for the next two to three years". His outlook was more cautious with a 12-month target of $5.70 and a rating of neutral, although there was some upside because Sky could offer a special dividend or on-market buyback.

Both research notes followed an investor day in which Sky briefed analysts on its current thinking.

Main wrote that the briefing "discussed and again discounted the risk of sports bodies going direct where the current relationship with SKT is strong (ie, SKT pays them a lot for their content already). While it could happen in some overseas sports with a small New Zealand following, the cost requirements and coverage required for the main sports makes this a harder proposition."

The potential for a Coliseum-type move was evidently well understood by Sky, and its view that local sports such as rugby were less vulnerable to internet competition looks justified. However, the presence of NZRU board member and former broadcasting executive Brent Impey at the Coliseum press conference indicated the rugby establishment is taking a close interest in developments. Even if Sky is unchallenged as a rugby broadcaster, come 2015 the NZRU, or its international equivalent Sanzar, may demand widespread internet distribution for the product.

Although we don't know how change will happen it would be wrong to assume the internet won't pose challenges for Sky. The comfort for investors is that the company has so far proved highly adaptable and can eye the future from a position of strength.

Last week's Portfolio column incorrectly stated Wynyard Group's expected revenue was $19 million this year and $24.6m in 2014. The prospectus figures are in fact $21.5m and $27m respectively. I apologise for the error.

Tim Hunter is deputy editor of the Fairfax Business Bureau.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8826559/Challenges-from-internet-for-Sky

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UBS to exit banking business in India: source

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS AG will surrender its Indian banking license and close its banking unit, covering fixed income, forex operations and credit services, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

However, UBS will continue its corporate client service business, which includes mergers and acquisitions, equities and debt capital market services, said the source, who declined to be identified as the information was not yet public.

"That doesn't mean that we are closing down our India operations. We will be closing a very small business unit, to focus on our key strength," said the source. "It's part of our global strategy."

A UBS spokesman declined to comment.

UBS has a full-fledged banking license in India with a single branch in Mumbai and was focusing on the wealth management business, covering foreign exchange, fixed income and credit services.

Indian newspapers reported on Saturday that UBS would surrender its banking license.

Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley sold its private wealth management business to Standard Chartered , in a sign of growing consolidation of Asia's wealth management industry, which is struggling with rising regulatory costs and wafer-thin advisory fees.

(Reporting by Indulal PM; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ubs-exit-banking-business-india-source-072735265.html

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AK-47 creator to be flown to Moscow for treatment

MOSCOW (AP) ? Russia's Emergencies Ministry says it has sent a medically equipped aircraft to bring the 93-year-old creator of the AK-47 assault rifle to Moscow for treatment.

A spokeswoman for the ministry told Russian state news agencies that doctors will accompany Mikhail Kalashnikov on the flight to Moscow on Sunday from his home in Izhevsk, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to the east of the capital.

Kalashnikov spent two weeks in an Izhevsk cardiology clinic in May.

The AK-47 is the world's most popular firearm with an estimated 100 million spread worldwide. Its name stands for "Avtomat Kalashnikova," or Kalashnikov's automatic, and the year it went into production.

Kalashnikov continued working at least into his 80s as chief designer of Izhmash, the plant in Izhevsk that first built the AK-47.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-23-EU-Russia-Kalashnikov/id-87527d878e1843ec96d086248a294279

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Beyond silicon: Transistors without semiconductors

June 21, 2013 ? For decades, electronic devices have been getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller. It's now possible -- even routine -- to place millions of transistors on a single silicon chip.

But transistors based on semiconductors can only get so small. "At the rate the current technology is progressing, in 10 or 20 years, they won't be able to get any smaller," said physicist Yoke Khin Yap of Michigan Technological University. "Also, semiconductors have another disadvantage: they waste a lot of energy in the form of heat."

Scientists have experimented with different materials and designs for transistors to address these issues, always using semiconductors like silicon. Back in 2007, Yap wanted to try something different that might open the door to a new age of electronics.

"The idea was to make a transistor using a nanoscale insulator with nanoscale metals on top," he said. "In principle, you could get a piece of plastic and spread a handful of metal powders on top to make the devices, if you do it right. But we were trying to create it in nanoscale, so we chose a nanoscale insulator, boron nitride nanotubes, or BNNTs for the substrate."

Yap's team had figured out how to make virtual carpets of BNNTs,which happen to be insulators and thus highly resistant to electrical charge. Using lasers, the team then placed quantum dots (QDs) of gold as small as three nanometers across on the tops of the BNNTs, forming QDs-BNNTs. BNNTs are the perfect substrates for these quantum dots due to their small, controllable, and uniform diameters, as well as their insulating nature. BNNTs confine the size of the dots that can be deposited.

In collaboration with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), they fired up electrodes on both ends of the QDs-BNNTs at room temperature, and something interesting happened. Electrons jumped very precisely from gold dot to gold dot, a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling.

"Imagine that the nanotubes are a river, with an electrode on each bank. Now imagine some very tiny stepping stones across the river," said Yap. "The electrons hopped between the gold stepping stones. The stones are so small, you can only get one electron on the stone at a time. Every electron is passing the same way, so the device is always stable."

Yap's team had made a transistor without a semiconductor. When sufficient voltage was applied, it switched to a conducting state. When the voltage was low or turned off, it reverted to its natural state as an insulator.

Furthermore, there was no "leakage": no electrons from the gold dots escaped into the insulating BNNTs, thus keeping the tunneling channel cool. In contrast, silicon is subject to leakage, which wastes energy in electronic devices and generates a lot of heat.

Other people have made transistors that exploit quantum tunneling, says Michigan Tech physicist John Jaszczak, who has developed the theoretical framework for Yap's experimental research. However, those tunneling devices have only worked in conditions that would discourage the typical cellphone user.

"They only operate at liquid-helium temperatures," said Jaszczak.

The secret to Yap's gold-and-nanotube device is its submicroscopic size: one micron long and about 20 nanometers wide. "The gold islands have to be on the order of nanometers across to control the electrons at room temperature," Jaszczak said. "If they are too big, too many electrons can flow." In this case, smaller is truly better: "Working with nanotubes and quantum dots gets you to the scale you want for electronic devices."

"Theoretically, these tunneling channels can be miniaturized into virtually zero dimension when the distance between electrodes is reduced to a small fraction of a micron," said Yap.

Yap has filed for a full international patent on the technology.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/JY7mkn1cLuE/130621121015.htm

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Senate immigration bill boosted by border deal

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Far-reaching immigration legislation offering the prize of U.S. citizenship to millions is swiftly gaining ground in the Senate following agreement between Republicans and Democrats on dramatic steps aimed at securing the border with Mexico.

The deal to double Border Patrol agents and fencing along the Southwest border won support Thursday from four undecided Republican senators for the immigration bill that's a top priority for President Barack Obama. More appeared likely to come on board, putting the legislation within reach of securing the bipartisan vote that its authors say is needed to ensure serious consideration by the GOP-controlled House.

"It is safe to say that this agreement has the power to change minds in the Senate," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a lead author of the bill. "With this agreement, we have now answered every criticism that has come forward about the immigration bill."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the deal should satisfy those Republicans concerned that the border security provisions in the bill were too weak. "If they can't accept these provisions, then border security is not their problem," McCain said.

The deal was developed by Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota, in consultation with Schumer, McCain and other members of the so-called Gang of Eight senators who wrote the immigration bill. It prevents immigrants now here illegally from attaining permanent resident status until a series of steps have been taken to secure the border.

These include doubling the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents, 18 new unmanned surveillance drones, 350 miles of new fencing to add to the 350 miles already built, and an array of fixed and mobile devices to maintain vigilance, including high-tech tools such as infrared ground sensors and airborne radar.

The new provisions would be put in place over a decade, in line with the 10-year path to a permanent resident green card that the bill sets out for immigrants here illegally. During that time, the immigrants could live and work legally in a provisional status.

Vice President Joe Biden told a predominantly Latino crowd of 1,100 gathered in Las Vegas for the national conference for the League of United Latin American Citizens that now is the time for a "fair, and firm and unfettered path for 11 million people" to become U.S. citizens.

"The question you should ask is, 'What will immigration reform do for America?'" Biden said Thursday. "The answer is clear and resounding: It can and will do great things for America."

Hoeven said the 10-year cost included $25 billion for the additional Border Patrol agents, $3 billion for fencing and $3.2 billion for other measures.

It's "border security on steroids," said Corker, who along with Hoeven had been uncommitted on the immigration bill. Both are now prepared to support it, assuming their amendment is adopted, as is expected to happen early next week. Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., also announced their support Thursday.

Corker and Hoeven had said they expected the legislation to be formally unveiled in the Senate late Thursday, but for unexplained reasons that did not happen. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., adjourned the Senate around 10:30 p.m., saying the amendment was nearly ready and the Senate could move forward with it Friday.

The deal on border security came together quickly earlier this week after talks had bogged down over Republicans' insistence that green cards be made conditional on catching or turning back 90 percent of would-be border crossers. Schumer, other Democrats and Obama himself rejected this trigger, which they feared could delay the path to citizenship for years.

The breakthrough came when the Congressional Budget Office released a report Tuesday finding that the bill would cut billions of dollars from the deficit.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an author of the bill who helped run interference between Corker and Hoeven and Democrats in the group, said that with the CBO finding in hand, he sat down with Schumer and Corker and said, "OK, let's go big."

The idea immediately appealed to the left and the right.

For Republicans, it provided concrete assurances that the bill would achieve a secure border. For Democrats, it offered goals that, if dramatic, were achievable and measurable.

Still, not everyone was won over.

Shortly before Corker and Hoeven went to the Senate floor to announce their agreement Thursday afternoon, five leading Republican opponents of the bill held a news conference to denounce the deal as little more than an empty promise.

"In short I think this amendment is designed to pass the bill but not to fix the bill," Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said.

About 10 Republicans have indicated they will vote for the bill, far more than enough to ensure it will have the 60 votes required to overcome any attempted filibuster by last-ditch opponents. Democrats control 54 seats, and party aides have said they do not expect any defections.

In addition to the border security components and eventual citizenship for the 11 million people now here illegally, the immigration bill would create new work visa programs and expand existing ones to allow tens of thousands of workers into the country to work in high- and low-skilled jobs.

Employers would have to verify their workers' legal status.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-immigration-bill-boosted-border-deal-073020424.html

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Emmys: Can an Adventurous 'Steel Magnolias' Put Lifetime in the Game?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Over the years, a perception has grown of what Lifetime fare is supposed to be: prolific ripped-from-the-headlines television movies and biopics.

And then there's the perception of what Lifetime's programs aren't supposed to be: Emmy winners. In the almost three decades since the network was launched, Lifetime has only been nominated seven times in the television movie category, and it has never won.

But "Steel Magnolias", Lifetime's TV version of the 1989 movie about a group of Southern women who gather around a beauty salon, flies in the face of those perceptions and might give the network a strong chance to break through with voters as well as viewers.

Asked if the movie represents a departure for Lifetime, the network's executive vice president of programming, Rob Sharenow, told TheWrap that he "absolutely" thinks it is, adding that Lifetime worked to attract the caliber of talent to the project that doesn't normally appear in made-for-television movies.

Executive producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who are also working on the Lifetime miniseries "Bonnie and Clyde", NBC's live broadcast of "The Sound of Music" and their second consecutive Academy Awards show, said they weren't worried that "Steel Magnolias" didn't fit the network.

"We never look at the network and say, ?Is this the kind of stuff they want to do?' We always look at what we want to do," Zadan told TheWrap.

The producers brought "Steel Magnolias" to Lifetime at a point when the network was looking for something special. "I think the original source material is timeless," Sharenow said of the 1987 play by Robert Harling, which was made into the hit feature starring Sally Field two years later. "It's one of the great pieces of American theater. It was a great movie. And we knew the story itself had enormous resonance with our audience. I think the big question for us was, How do you make it fresh and bring it into the new century in a different way?"

Zadan and Meron suggested an all African-American cast, an idea that Harling himself had floated years earlier as a way of showing how universal his play was.

"It immediately clicked as the right thing to do," Sharenow said. "I think it really speaks to the universality of the story - and it's exactly what we're trying to say about Lifetime. We don't want Lifetime movies to be factory-made. We want them to be acts of passion and love and creativity."

The project began to gain momentum after director Kenny Leon came on, followed by Queen Latifah in the role of M'Lynn, the mother who's desperately protective of her diabetic daughter. The executive producer, actress and rapper previously worked with Meron and Zadan on the Chicago and Hairspray movies.

"Kenny is a real actor's director," said Meron. "We said to Queen Latifah that he was going to direct her in a different way than she's had before, because he's very intense with actors. And she said, ?Good.'"

For the pivotal role of M'Lynn's daughter Shelby - a part that landed Julia Roberts her first Oscar nomination - the producers settled on up-and-coming Broadway actress Condola Rashad, the daughter of Phylicia Rashad. Condola was then joined by her mother, along with Alfre Woodard, Jill Scott and Adepero Oduye.

Other than small updates for advances in diabetes care and pop-culture references, the producers stuck to the source material for their movie, which they shot in Atlanta over only 18 days. The film earned praise from reviewers, and its premiere last October drew an audience of 6.5 million, Lifetime's third-best original-movie premiere ever.

"It's the perfect storm of good," Sharenow said. "It was incredibly high quality. It got incredibly high ratings. It was the highest-rated movie ever for women for us -- you can't ask for better than that."

But can it turn around Lifetime's typically tepid showing with Emmy voters? "I think we have an excellent chance," Sharenow said. "We've already gotten a lot of award attention. We had two NAACP Image awards for miniseries, and Alfre Woodard won. It was a little bit of an image game-changer in that we brought big talent and big stars to the network. It was a real win on all levels, and it set the bar for what we're trying to do going forward."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/emmys-adventurous-steel-magnolias-put-lifetime-game-001903890.html

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Stocks mostly lower on Wall Street

Stocks edged lower on Friday, but nothing like the plunge they took earlier this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down two points at 14,756 as of 12:51 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. That almost seemed like a rally after the Dow's 560-point tumble over Wednesday and Thursday, which wiped out its gains from May and June. The plunge came just three weeks after the Dow hit a record high of 15,409.

The Fed's easy money policies have been a big driver behind the stock market's bull run the last four years. It led to low interest rates that encouraged borrowing for everything from factory machinery to commercial airplanes to home renovations. Now investors have to figure out where to put their money now that they have a better idea of how the Fed's stimulus efforts could end.

Kim Forrest, senior analyst with Fort Pitt Capital Group, a portfolio management firm in Pittsburgh, said the market had the "right reaction" to the news that the Fed would wind down its stimulus if the economy continues to improve, but the move may have been overblown.

"We're getting news that made the market uncomfortable," she said. "We shouldn't be sitting at these highs given the fact that the Fed signaled that someday it's going to take some liquidity off the table. So the reaction is right, the magnitude is probably a little off."

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell a point to 1,587. The S&P hit its own record high a month ago. The S&P and Dow were moving between slight gains and losses Friday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit 2.50 percent from 2.42 percent late Thursday. It has risen sharply since Wednesday as investors sold bonds in anticipation that the Fed would slow, and eventually end, its bond purchases, if the U.S. recovery continues. The Fed has said it wouldn't hesitate to step up its bond purchases again if the economy weakens.

The yield, which is a benchmark for interest rates on many kinds of loans including home mortgages, is at its highest level since August 2011. On Tuesday, the day before the Fed's announcement, it was 2.19 percent. It hit a low for the year of 1.63 percent on May 3.

Technology shares fell more than the rest of the market after business software maker Oracle reported disappointing earnings late Thursday. Oracle plunged $2.71, or 8 percent, to $30.50, the biggest drop in the S&P 500 index. Oracle is struggling to adapt as customers shift away from software installed on their own computers toward software that runs remotely.

Oracle's results are a poor omen for business spending on technology. Technology stocks in the S&P index fell 1.8 percent, the second-biggest decline among the 10 industry groups in the index. The biggest declines were in materials stocks, down 2 percent.

The Nasdaq composite index, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, fell 14 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,350. Apple, the biggest stock in the index, fell $3.84, or 1 percent, to $412.99. Microsoft fell 10 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $33.39.

The price of gold recovered after plunging the day before. Gold was up $6.30, or 0.5 percent, to $1,292.50 an ounce. Crude oil fell $1.90, or 2 percent, to $93.24 a barrel in New York.

The dollar rose against other currencies as traders anticipated that U.S. interest rates would rise as the Fed winds down its bond purchases.

Among other stocks making big moves:

? Darden Restaurants, which runs Olive Garden and Red Lobster, fell $1.97, or 3.8 percent, to $49.26 after rising expenses hurt its fourth-quarter earnings.

? CarMax, which runs used car dealerships, reported that its first-quarter profit jumped 21 percent as sales rose. Its stock rose in morning trading but then gave up its gains. In the afternoon its stock was down $2.02, or 4.5 percent, to $42.56.

A Fed policy statement and comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke started the selling in stocks, bonds and commodities Wednesday. Bernanke said the Fed expects to scale back its bond-buying program later this year and end it by mid-2014 if the economy continues to improve. The bank has been buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bonds, which has made borrowing cheap for consumers and businesses. The program has also encouraged investors to buy stocks instead of bonds.

The S&P 500 is still up 10.9 percent, for the year, not far from its full-year increase of 13.4 percent last year.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei index rose 1.7 percent, but other Asian markets fell. European markets slipped. France's CAC-40 fell 1 percent and Germany's DAX fell 1.8 percent.

The real question will be whether the sell-off continues next week, said Frank Fantozzi, CEO of Planned Financial Services. So far, it's more of an adjustment. "If the flow out of equities starts to increase, this might be the pullback we've been waiting for," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-mostly-lower-wall-street-170004639.html

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Wait a Minute, Are We Already Cyborgs?

If you think about how connected we are?smartphones in our pocket, computers on our laps, internet at our fingertips?it might be reasonable to assume that we kind of, sort of already are cyborgs. Can you imagine if someone in the past saw a person wearing Google Glass today? He'd totally believe that person was half-robot.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/yTkisLD5g_8/wait-a-minute-are-we-already-cyborgs-524003840

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Obama nominates Comey to head FBI

FILE - In this May 15, 2007 file photo, James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The White House says President Barack Obama plans to announce Friday his new choice to lead the FBI in Comey, former President George W. Bush's No. 2 at the Justice Department. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - In this May 15, 2007 file photo, James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The White House says President Barack Obama plans to announce Friday his new choice to lead the FBI in Comey, former President George W. Bush's No. 2 at the Justice Department. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama has named James Comey to be the new FBI director. Comey was the No. 2 Justice Department official under Republican President George W. Bush.

Obama says Comey is a model of "fierce independence and deep integrity."

Comey gained attention for blocking efforts by the Bush White House to reauthorize a no-warrant wiretapping program in 2004.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would replace Robert Mueller and serve a 10-year tenure.

Obama says Mueller displayed a "steady hand and strong leadership" during his time at the head of the FBI.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-21-Obama-FBI/id-fed309d76ded4d2792ac81b27503b20d

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Spring cleaning: Win an HTC Media Link HD

The HTC Media Link HD is way to cool to be sitting here, unused in my desk drawer. See the review for a quick refresher of exactly what this baby can do, but know that if you have a Sense 4+ or Sense 5 phone and a television, you probably want it. So here's your chance.

Drop a comment below. Sometime late tonight, we'll shut the comments down and pick a winner at random. Be sure you have a working email address on file here at AC, 'cause that's how I'll get in touch with you to find out where to send it. When I've finished finding all the cool stuff I need to give away, we'll announce the winners here on the blog. 

Good luck!

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/fZZ1Vng5l9Q/story01.htm

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Russia plans to sell MiG fighter jets to Syria

The Russian manufacturer of the military aircraft said a delegation from Syria was recently in Moscow to discuss the terms of a new deal.

By Vladimir Isachenkov,?Associated Press / May 31, 2013

In this 2012 file photo, a Russian MIG-29 plane flies during a celebration marking the Russian air force's 100th anniversary in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, Russia.

Misha Japaridze/AP/File

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Russia's MiG aircraft maker said Friday it plans to sign a new agreement to ship at least 10 fighter jets to Syria, a move that comes amid international criticism of earlier Russian weapons deals with Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

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MiG's director general, Sergei Korotkov, said a Syrian delegation was in Moscow to discuss the details of a new contract for the delivery of MiG-29 M/M2 fighters. In remarks carried by Russian news agencies, he said Syria wants to buy "more than 10" such fighters, but wouldn't give the exact number.

Russia has said it's only providing Assad with weapons intended to protect Syria from a foreign invasion, such as air defense missile systems. It has claimed it is not delivering weapons that could be used in Syria's two-year civil war, which has killed more 70,000 people and sent millions fleeing the country.

But the delivery of MiGs would contradict that claim and expose Russia to global criticism, so the Kremlin might think twice before giving the go-ahead.

A MiG spokesman wouldn't comment on Korotkov's statement, and the MiG chief could be referring to a deal the company previously negotiated with Syria that apparently has been put on hold amid the civil war.

Moscow has shipped billions of dollars' worth of missiles, combat jets, tanks, artillery and other military gear to Syria over more than four decades. Syria now is Russia's last remaining ally in the Middle East and hosts the only naval base Moscow has outside the former Soviet Union.

Russia has shielded Assad from U.N. sanctions and has continued to provide his regime with weapons despite the uprising against him that began in March 2011.

Russian media reports say Syria placed an order a few years ago for 12 MiG-29 M/M2 fighters with an option of buying another 12. The Stockholm Peace Research Institute also has reported that Russia planned to provide Syria with 24 of the aircraft.

The MiG-29 M/M2 is an advanced version of the MiG-29 twin-engine fighter jet, which has been a mainstay of the Soviet and Russian air force since mid-1980s. Syria had about 20 fighters of the original make among scores of other Soviet- and Russian-built aircraft.

Other Russian weapons deals have apparently been put on hold during Syria's civil war, including a recent contract to deliver Yak-130 combat training jets that could also be used for ground attacks.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Cw1JbHT3zkw/Russia-plans-to-sell-MiG-fighter-jets-to-Syria

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