BEIRUT: The body of an Electricite du Liban contract worker was found Sunday night, 10 days after he went missing, the National News Agency reported.
The body of Ali Ibrahim was found in an electrical room in a buildings in the southern Beirut suburb of Hay el-Sellom.
Ibrahim apparently died of electrocution, the NNA said.
SIDON, Lebanon: Fatah al-Islam official Bilal Badr's bodyguard was shot early Monday morning in the refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh outside the coastal city of Sidon, south Lebanon.
At least one gunman opened fire at Ali Khalil at 2:00 a.m. in the Safsaf neighborhood of the camp, wounding him in the head.
Khalil was transferred to a medical center inside the camp but Islamist officials then decided to move him to Labib Medical Center outside the camp because he was in critical condition. He later died from his wounds.
Khalil was a bodyguard for Badr, an official with the radical Islamist Fatah al-Islam group, and the nephew of Jund al-Sham official Ousama al-Shahabi. He was also wanted by the Lebanese authorities.
Security sources said that a meeting was being held between Shahabi and Badr in the Safsaf neighborhood shortly before the incident.
The Lebanese security forces arrived at the hospital, inspected the body and took Khalil's fingerprints.
The latest killing comes just weeks after a Sunni Sheikh was fatally shot in Ain al-Hilweh.
Sleiman was the head of a charity linked to Al-Ahbash, an Islamist group that was active during Syria’s wardship of Lebanon.
hide captionTexas Gov. Rick Perry has eight months left on the job. He's also weighing another run for the White House. A grand jury is considering whether he abused his power when he threatened to veto $7.5 million in state funding for public corruption prosecutors.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has eight months left on the job. He's also weighing another run for the White House. A grand jury is considering whether he abused his power when he threatened to veto $7.5 million in state funding for public corruption prosecutors.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has spent a record 14 years in office vanquishing nearly all who dared confront him: political rivals, moms against mandatory vaccines for sixth graders, a coyote in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But with eight months left on the job and a decision to make about the 2016 presidential race, the long-serving governor known for his Texas swagger is now the focus of a grand jury investigation that could cause more difficulty than any adversary has.
What should have been a political victory lap for Perry could now wind up in a final tussle that has implications for his political future.
"Gov. Perry is used to being challenged every step of the way in almost every issue. In that sense, this is not significantly different," said Ray Sullivan, Perry's onetime chief of staff and a former spokesman. "This just comes with the territory."
A judge seated a grand jury in Austin last week to consider whether Perry, who is weighing another run for the White House, abused his power when he carried out a threat to veto $7.5 million in state funding for public corruption prosecutors last summer.
Aides to Perry say he legally exercised his veto power. Others say Perry was abusing his state office and is finally getting his comeuppance.
The state Public Integrity Unit operates under Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat who has been the subject of Republican grumbling that the office investigates through a partisan lens. Lehmberg, who took office in 2009, was convicted of drunken-driving last year and filmed in a jailhouse video berating officers following her arrest.
Perry called on Lehmberg to resign and torpedoed the funding when she didn't.
Craig McDonald, whose public watchdog group filed a complaint that a Texas judge took seriously enough to hire a special prosecutor, said the veto embodied a brash governor who's gotten too accustomed to dictating to others.
"He threatened her in broad daylight just like it was high noon," said McDonald, the executive director of Texans for Public Justice. "I think it's indicative of perhaps someone in the office a little too long."
Lehmberg, who served about half of a 45-day jail sentence, has called Perry's attempts to remove her partisan. The public corruption unit, which prosecuted former Republican U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in 2010 on charges of laundering campaign funds, now runs on a smaller budget with local taxpayer funds and a scaled-back staff.
Special Prosecutor Michael McCrum has said he has specific concerns about the governor's conduct but refused to elaborate. Perry's office has hired a high-profile defense attorney, David Botsford of Austin, who is being paid $450 hourly and with public funds.
The grand jury is impaneled for three months. In the original complaint, McDonald accused Perry of breaking laws related to coercion of a public servant and abuse of official capacity.
Perry never lost an election until his run for the Republican presidential nomination flamed out in 2012. If he makes another bid upon leaving office in January, he's positioned to boast of an even more robust Texas economy and to project a slightly toned down image: he now wears a pair of thick-framed glasses and seldom slides on his cowboy boots anymore.
But the grand jury probe could draw attention back to more contentious issues, even if Perry is not indicted. And if the panel does pursue charges, "that would be very, very hard to overcome, particularly because voters already have a perception of him in their mind, and right now he's been busy cleaning that perception up," said Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist in Washington. "It would put him on life support as a presidential candidate."
A Texas governor hasn't been indicted since 1917. Democrat James E. Ferguson was eventually convicted on 10 charges, impeached and removed from office for vetoing funding for the University of Texas after objecting to some faculty members.
Some legal experts see the allegations against Perry as shaky.
"If the governor were to pressure someone to not prosecute someone, that would be some violation of some clear legal duty. Pressuring them to quit? That's a little less clear," said David Kwok, a law professor at the University of Houston.
RAPID CITY, S.D. -- Even though they haven't graduated from high school yet, twin sisters Samantha and Mackenzie Reynolds have a year of college under their belts.
But they had to pay a price, a big price.
The girls have spent a total of around $14,400 in tuition to take two three-credit hour courses a semester at the University Center-Rapid City for what is known as the dual credit program, which gives students an opportunity to take high school and college courses simultaneously.
Despite tuition costs of $301 an hour for the program, more than 2,860 high school students have taken advantage of it since 2008, according to data provided by the Board of Regents.
But the cost of tuition became a source a concern for Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who this year asked the Legislature to approve $300,000 for the program.
As a result of that appropriation and other adjustments, the cost will drop to $40 per credit hour beginning with this fall's classes.
In making his case for the funding, the governor said he wants to remove an obstacle for students who want to get a jump on higher education.
"In some cases, the cost of the higher education credits makes these opportunities cost prohibitive for a student's family," Daugaard said in his state of the state speech in January where he announced the initiative.
Daugaard noted in his speech that students who begin college with completed credits are more likely to complete their degrees on time.
The statement is backed up by a study the Board of Regents presented in July 2013. It found that students who participated in the dual enrollment program outperformed other college students in ACT scores, first-year grade point averages, second-year retention and degree completion.
"Perhaps most striking among the figures shown here is that students with dual enrollment credits 'out-graduated' students with no such credit by a difference of 40.5% to 22.4% (four-year rates) and 74.2% to 54% (six-year rates)," the study's authors concluded.
The Reynolds sisters are reaping the benefits of the program even if it came at a high price.
The 17-year-old Stevens High School seniors began enrolling in college courses in their junior year. With two college courses a semester since then at the University Center-Rapid City, the girls are in the final months of both their senior and freshman years.
They have been accepted to the pre-med program at the University of South Dakota. Mackenzie plans on becoming a neurologist; Samantha a pediatric oncologist.
The girls began taking high school classes in middle school at their Department of Defense Education Activity school in Aviano, Italy, Mackenzie said.
Their father, Bill, is a nurse in the U.S. Air Force and their mother, Nichole, is a teacher. Mackenzie said they have always stressed that a good education is their top priority.
Mackenzie, who maintains a 3.97 grade-point average, said they are eager to become full-time college students and get their degrees.
"We're kind of getting kind of sick of the general education stuff," she recently said Monday.
Samantha, who has a 4.17 GPA, added that she looks forward to the experience that college courses will offer.
"I really liked it because the teachers treat you like you're an adult," she said. "They just tell you what you have to do, and they expect you to do it. Compared to high school where they treat you like a kid, and you have to ask to go to the bathroom. I think this experience will really benefit us."
Samantha had a bit of advice for the students who can now take dual credit courses for a greatly reduced tuition.
"I know a lot of high school kids who think that college will be just like high school," Samantha said. "But when they get there, they find out it is completely different."
MUSKEGON, Mich. -- When Chantella Bentsen moved to Muskegon, she planned to operate her yarn shop from her home. That was before she saw the Century Club Shops.
Sharing space in the downtown boutique shopping center and business incubator has helped her get her fledgling business going. And she doesn't have to make room in her new home for her merchandise or the knitting classes she holds regularly, according to The Muskegon Chronicle ( http://bit.ly/R3zdmK ).
"I've had people compliment me on being in a small space because I have a better chance of surviving the economy," said Bentsen, who recently opened her Apple Valley Yarn West shop.
That's the idea behind the Century Club Shops. The Century Club nurtures start-ups like newcomer Glo's Repurpose on Purpose, which transforms mirrors into works of art.
The Century Club also is providing a chance for established businesses to test the downtown market. LeFleur Flower Shoppe and Maggie's Gourmet Food & Gifts are the most recent businesses to establish shops at the Century Club.
"To have an extension of an established business adds to the stability of the collection of shops there," said developer Gary Post, who owns the Century Club building.
Post is determined to help rebuild Muskegon's downtown to its former glory. He understands the challenges that remain, but also celebrates the victories already achieved. Those include Unruly Brewing and Drip Drop Drink, both start-up companies that recently opened in Post's Russell Block building next door to the Century Club.
The Century Club Ballroom, located on the building's top floor, has proven wildly successful in attracting weddings and other events to its elegant loft-like space that features hardwood floors, brick walls, chandeliers and large windows with views of Muskegon Lake. More than 60 events are booked there this year, and more than 15 are already scheduled for next year, Post said.
He said he's excited about an upcoming announcement about the use of the Century Club's bottom floor. But he remains realistic about the ground-floor Century Club Shops, where there's still plenty of retail space available.
"The retail piece is, admittedly, still a work in progress," Post said.
Post is convinced that people want to support the downtown district — they just need reasons to visit it. The opening of the new Muskegon Farmer's Market will provide "huge" exposure to downtown businesses, he said.
It was at the Farmer's Market where Cindy Moyer and her sister, Diana McConnell, got their start selling gourmet teas.
"People asked, 'After summer, where can we get your tea?'" Moyer said.
And so the sisters moved their BananaDog Teas into the Century Club a year and a half ago. They share a bright space at the front of the building with McDonald's Candies, which is another established business trying a downtown satellite location.
Sharing Century Club space also is working well for Bentsen's yarn shop and Emma Jean Hardiman's Emmaj's Lady Bug Shop. Hardiman, who sells items she sews and crochets, said she had been starting to look around for a yarn wholesaler when Bentsen walked in looking for space for her Apple Valley Yarn.
"I love all the new yarn, all the new texture," Hardiman said, looking around at Bentsen's colorful stock.
Bentsen spent years managing the Apple Valley Yarn Company store in Midland (there's also a store in Clare). When her husband got a job in Muskegon, she and the Apple Valley Yarn owner agreed to partner on a Muskegon location, Bentsen said.
Bentsen has a phased business plan that includes buying out her partner and moving into her own store, possibly in downtown. She knows she is filling a niche in Muskegon with her hand-dyed yarns and Turkish wool. But she also knows she can't grow too fast. That's where the Century Club Shops fills her needs.
Deb Moon sees the Century Club Shops as a chance to test the downtown market for a florist. Fresh and silk flowers and gift items from Moon's LeFleur Flower Shoppe fill the main corridor at the Century Club.
"For reaching new people and new marketing, it's a very affordable opportunity," Moon said.
It's a bit of a homecoming for LeFleur, which was on West Western Avenue downtown before it moved to its present location on Grand Haven Road. That was before Moon bought the business 15 years ago.
Moon said she's "drawn" downtown by the historic buildings and believes that through her Century Club location she can reach customers who have never been to her Grand Haven Road store. That includes couples scoping out the Century Club ballroom for a wedding reception site.
"I think the traffic will increase with all the things that are happening downtown," Moon said. "I look forward to being a part of that."
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Information from: The Muskegon Chronicle, http://bit.ly/1cBdupZ
This is an AP Member Exchange by The Muskegon Chronicle.
NEW YORK -- Rising costs for materials and labor appear to be pressuring businesses, according to a quarterly survey from the National Association of Business Economics.
During the first quarter of the year, 31 percent of businesses surveyed reported higher material costs, more than double the 15 percent that saw costs rise in the previous survey. Additionally, 35 percent reported rising wages and salaries at their businesses in the past three months, up from 23 percent in January.
Yet those who said they raised the prices they charge in the past three months remained unchanged at 20 percent, according to the latest NABE survey of 72 members, which was conducted between March 18 and April 1.
"It appears that businesses were not able to pass on costs increases, resulting in increased pressure on margins," the survey findings said.
The quarterly survey by NABE is intended to gauge business conditions at members' firms or industries. The April survey reflects first quarter results, as well as the near-term outlook.
Despite the cost pressures, businesses seem more upbeat about the direction of the broader economy. The survey found that 80 percent said they expect the GDP to rise at least 2 percent over the next year. Nearly three-quarters also said they expect labor market conditions to improve, with unemployment easing to between 5 percent and 6 percent in the next one to three years. And over the next six months, 43 percent of respondents expect their firms to expand employment.
Still, a majority expect wage growth to remain subdued, with growth of up to 3 percent over the next three years.
The number of businesses that reported rising sales in the first quarter fell to 53 percent, down from 63 percent in the previous quarter. Jack Kleinhenz, president of NABE and chief economist at the National Retail Federation attributed the decline to "a very rough winter" in a statement.
Capital spending rose for 38 percent of respondents, up from 28 percent in January. Meanwhile, those reporting rising profit margins during the period declined slightly to 32 percent, from 34 percent in the previous survey.
Looking ahead to the coming quarter, 41 percent said they expect costs to increase up to 5 percent. Whether they'll be able to pass that on to customers is uncertain; 31 percent said they expect their businesses to raise prices. That's down from the 43 percent who said they planned to raise prices in January, but still an elevated level from most of last year.
FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta -- Canadian company Suncor Energy says an employee has died after being "severely injured" at its oil sands site.
A statement posted on the company's website says the employee was pronounced dead at a hospital after being injured Sunday morning. The employee's name was not released.
The publicly traded company says it is working with authorities and will "complete a full investigation into the cause of the accident."
The company is one of several in Canada that supports the Keystone XL pipeline project that would carry oil from western Canada's tar sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. The project requires U.S. State Department approval because it crosses an international border.
The Obama administration last week said it was putting off indefinitely a decision on the project.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- West Des Moines officials say their past work with major companies played an important role in attracting a $1.1 billion Microsoft data center to their city.
Microsoft approached West Des Moines about the project roughly five years ago but had concerns over whether the city could provide the necessary infrastructure, according to the Des Moines Register (http://dmreg.co/1kPKAZU ).
West Des Moines Mayor Steve Gaer said city officials pointed to their relationships with other major companies, such as Wells Fargo and General Growth Properties. Gaer says those connections gave the city credibility and showed that they deliver on their promises.
The new data center announced Friday is Microsoft's second in West Des Moines. Dubbed Project Alluvion as a way to keep it a secret, the new data center will bring the company's total investment in the city to just under $2 billion.
West Des Moines Deputy City Manager Jody Smith said having the same staff members working on both Microsoft projects helped secure the new data center.
"We're a consistent group, and when we say we can get something done, we get it done," Smith said.
To help land the new project, both the city and state approved incentives for Microsoft, so long as the data center creates 84 jobs and adds $255 million in taxable value to West Des Moines.
Once the data center is fully built out in five to seven years, that taxable value could add about $8 million a year in property tax revenue to the city. That represents about 14 percent of the city's current annual operating budget.
With infrastructure improvements and a connection between Microsoft's two sites on the way, West Des Moines officials believe an extended technology corridor will form along a seven-mile stretch. That corridor would then become a hub, they hope, for new commercial development.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Idaho, Nevada and Utah have among the nation's highest interest rates for payday loans, according to a report.
The study, released this week by the Pew Charitable Trusts, found their rates are so high mainly because they're among only seven states that impose no legal limits on them.
Idaho payday lenders charge an average 582 percent annual interest on their loans to lead the nation, The Salt Lake Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/1fcSc3d ).
That's followed by South Dakota and Wisconsin, both 574 percent; Nevada, 521 percent; Delaware, 517 percent; and Utah, 474 percent.
Among states with storefront payday lenders, the lowest average interest charged is Colorado at 129 percent, which matches its legal limit. The next lowest are Oregon at 156 percent and Maine at 217 percent.
Fifteen states either ban payday loans or cap interest rates at 36 percent. None of them has any storefront lenders.
Without a limit on interest rates, competition among lenders does not tend to lower rates much, according to the research.
Representatives of the Alexandria, Va.,-based Community Financial Services Association of America did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.
The study also found the nation's four largest payday loan companies charge similar rates to each other within any given state, usually at the maximum allowed by law. States with higher limits have more stores, but the rates remain higher and competition does not lower them much.
"This new research shows that payday loan markets are not competitive," Nick Bourke, project director for Pew, told The Tribune
The study urges states to limit payments to "an affordable percentage of a borrower's periodic income," saying monthly payments above 5 percent of gross monthly income are unaffordable.
On average, a payday loan takes 36 percent of a person's pre-tax paycheck, Bourke said.
"Customers simply cannot afford to pay that back and still afford their other financial obligations," he said. "This is why you see people ending up borrowing the loans over and over again."
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Some California beekeepers say pesticides may be to blame for the death or damage of as many as 80,000 bee colonies after the insects pollinated almond trees in the San Joaquin Valley.
Some believe pesticides used on almond orchards could be sickening or killing the bees, the Sacramento Bee reported Sunday (http://bit.ly/1eVnRvv ).
"We're a little mystified," said John Miller, a beekeeper based in Newcastle. "We have some colonies that looked like they've been through some kind of brood die-off. It's puzzling because it is intermittent and random."
California's almond orchards are pollinated by about 1.6 million bee colonies, which are mostly brought in from other states by some 1,300 commercial beekeepers.
Beekeepers have also been struggling with colony collapse disorder, which has led to the disappearance of large numbers of honeybees in North America.
The damaged beehives could hurt the broader agriculture industry. About 90 percent of honeybees that pollinate U.S. crops are used during the California almond bloom before being moved to pollinate other crops, such as apples, cherries and watermelons.
In March, beekeepers met with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials to discuss the problem. Seventy-five beekeepers said about three-quarters of their hives showed damage.
Michele Colopy, program director with the Pollinator Stewardship Council, an advocacy group for beekeepers, believes the hive damage is related to the practice of "tank mixing" certain insecticides as well as applying insecticides during the early daytime hours when bees are foraging.
Beekeepers are calling for labels warning of possible effects of tank mixing, as well as an effort to end daytime applications of the insecticides. But they don't have scientific data linking the colony damage to the mixing of pesticides.
State and federal officials say they plan to work with the beekeepers to reduce the risks that bees face from pesticides applied during the almond bloom.
PITTSBURGH -- After early complaints that out-of-state firms got the most jobs, some local construction trade workers and union members in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia say they're now benefiting in a big way from the Marcellus and Utica Shale oil and gas boom.
That vocal support from blue-collar workers complicates efforts by environmentalists to limit the drilling process known as fracking.
"The shale became a lifesaver and a lifeline for a lot of working families," said Dennis Martire, the mid-Atlantic regional manager for the Laborers' International Union, or LIUNA, which represents workers in numerous construction trades.
Martire said that as huge quantities of natural gas were extracted from the vast shale reserves over the last five years, union work on large pipeline jobs in Pennsylvania and West Virginia has increased significantly. In 2008, LIUNA members worked about 400,000 hours on such jobs; by 2012, that had risen to 5.7 million hours.
Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says total employment in the nation's oil and gas industry rose from about 120,000 in early 2004 to about 208,000 last month. Less than 10 percent of full-time oil and gas industry workers are represented by unions.
Alex Paris, head of a Pittsburgh-area contracting firm founded by his grandfather in 1928, said many of the jobs in the early years of the boom went to out-of-state workers, perhaps because the biggest drilling firms come from Texas and Oklahoma. Now there's been a shift to hiring local contractors that use union labor.
"It has created more work for our business. There's jobs here for the first time in many, many years. Legitimate, good-paying jobs," Paris said of a region that was hit hard by the decline of the steel industry in the 1980s and '90s.
The increasing use of union construction labor has given energy companies a powerful ally as drilling is debated in communities nationwide. Many Republicans have been pro-drilling, but now some unions traditionally associated with Democrats are using their political clout to urge politicians to reject bans on pipelines or drilling.
For example, LIUNA has urged members of Congress to support liquefied natural gas exports and regional gas pipeline expansions, and union members plan to participate in a pro-drilling rally in Pennsylvania's capital next month.
"The unions are powerful and influential," said David Masur, director of Penn Environment, which has been critical of the drilling boom.
The Marcellus and Utica shale fields, rich in natural gas and oil, lie deep underneath large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and more than 6,000 new wells have been drilled there over the last five years.
In the early days of the shale drilling boom, there were complaints about the number of local jobs. In 2010, one union leader told a Pennsylvania House Labor Relations Committee that local people had little or no success in getting work from the industry. And even now some powerful unions are withholding judgment. Anthony Montana, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers, declined to comment on how much drilling is helping that industry.
But others say the trend toward more local jobs is clear.
Mike Engbert of the Ohio Laborers District Council said that while some companies still use a lot of out-of-state labor, "Across the board, job gains have really shot up."
For some, the drilling-related work is a big improvement over low-wage service jobs.
"I've probably worked 15 jobs, and none of them nearly as stable as this one, or nearly as interesting," said Amy Dague, 38, of Wheeling, W.Va. She's worked for a pipeline construction and maintenance company for a little more than a year.
"It's definitely changed the way I see my future. I see this as long-term employment," Dague said.
Some energy companies say they're happy with local workers, too.
Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources of Fort Worth, Texas, wrote in an email: "We are in need of reliable, consistent, quality work at a reasonable price and the local trades have stepped up in a significant way."
Some environmental groups worry that what's happening in the region is a repeat of the battle over the Keystone XL pipeline, when some major unions and green groups took opposite sides. Penn Environment has called for much stronger regulations and a ban on drilling in some areas, such as state forests.
"I understand the dynamic at play. It feels fairly short-sighted," Masur said of how workers and unions are embracing oil and gas drilling. "This could leave the same sort of legacy as coal." He urged more investments — and thus jobs— in wind and solar power.
HELENA, Mont. -- The chairman of a foundation funded by the sale of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana says he expects the foundation's assets to grow from $40 million to more than $150 million.
Board chairman Denis Prager says the Montana Healthcare Foundation is still organizing, but plans to hand out $1 million in grants this year to fund health-care programs.
The foundation began with $40.2 million from last year's sale of Blue Cross to Health Care Service Corp. of Chicago.
Prager tells Lee Newspapers of Montana those assets could nearly quadruple as portions of Blue Cross that were not part of the sale are liquidated.
That could include property, leftover reserves and deferred tax benefits.
But the company handling those assets also must pay old liabilities not assumed by HCSC.
NEW YORK -- Kraft Foods is recalling 96,000 pounds of its Oscar Mayer wieners because they may mistakenly contain cheese.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said Sunday that Kraft's "Oscar Mayer Classic Wieners" may instead contain the company's "Classic Cheese Dogs."
The agency said the product labels are incorrect and do not reflect the ingredients associated with the pasteurized cheese in the cheese dogs. Those products were made with milk, a known allergen, which is not declared on the label.
It said the problem was discovered by a consumer who notified Kraft on Friday. The company alerted the USDA the following day, according to the statement.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service said it has not received reports of adverse reactions. A representative for the agency wasn't immediately available for comment.
A representative for Kraft Foods Group Inc., Joyce Hodel, said in an email that the hot dogs were made in a plant in Columbia, Mo.
The products were made in early March and bear the number "Est. 537H" inside the USDA mark of inspection. People with questions about the recall are being asked to contact Kraft's consumer relations department at (855) 688-4386.
The recall applies to:
—16-ounce individual consumer packages of "Classic Wieners Made with Turkey & Chicken, Pork Added," with a "USE BY 16 Jun 2014" date and product code "044700000632."
—Cases of 16-ounce packages that were distributed to retailers of "Classic Cheese Dogs Made with Turkey & Chicken, Pork Added, and Pasteurized Cheese Product," with "USE BY 16 Jun 2014" date and case code "00447000005300."
Those cases may contain packages that are mislabeled as "Classic Wieners," according to Hodel.
STATELINE, Nev. -- Tourism officials from several key Lake Tahoe agencies have paid a visit to Park City, Utah, to catch a glimpse at how another mountain town operates and manages its major challenges.
Participants had the chance to explore several facets of the city, including public transportation, parking issues, and community- and tourism-based projects.
TahoeChamber, in partnership with the North Lake Tahoe Chamber, spearheaded this year's Trek to Park City, which took place April 2-5.
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority Executive Director Carol Chaplin told the Tahoe Daily Tribune (http://bit.ly/PldGUE ) that about 20 people from the Lake Tahoe area went on the trip.
She says the trip gave them a chance to build new relationships with key Park City figures who could provide valuable insight as Tahoe plans its future.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Lawmakers return from their spring recess this week focusing on hundreds of bills that have to pass from one house to the other by the end of May, but the most contentious issues will come later.
Among the bills under consideration are several that try to protect health or the environment by banning cigarette sales online, microbeads in cosmetics, mislabeled seafood and unprotected sex in adult films.
Bills shaping up as potentially divisive include SB1000 by Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, which would require warning labels on sodas and other sugary drinks, and SB1132 by Democratic Sens. Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles and Mark Leno of San Francisco, which would place a moratorium on fracking for oil and natural gas.
Some already have been shelved, including the state Senate leader's call for a carbon tax on consumer fuels and a Leno proposal to accelerate minimum wage increases to $11 an hour in 2015 from the $9 an hour level taking effect in July. Democrats want two-thirds majorities in both houses of the Legislature but face the prospect of lower voter turnout within their party this year. Proposals to raise taxes or increase costs to businesses would give fodder to Republicans in an election year.
Against that backdrop, Democratic Sen. Ed Hernandez of West Covina pulled a proposed constitutional amendment that would have reintroduced affirmative action into the college admissions process. The amendment passed the Senate but was pulled from consideration after a furious backlash by Asian-Americans and a reversal of support from some Asian lawmakers. Even though it is no longer on the table for this year, Republicans are using SCA5 to try to win favor in the Asian community.
One bill that remains alive and is certain to draw partisan opposition is AB1552 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, which would require employers to offer up to three days of paid sick leave to their workers. It is among the top "job killer" bills identified by the California Chamber of Commerce, an organization that has influence with both political parties.
But Gonzalez says her bill is about providing "bare minimum" labor protections, which are modest compared to previous proposals that would have allowed up to a week of leave. And she said election-year considerations to policy-making are no reason to abandon an issue that she says has broad public support.
"If anything, this a good election-year issue, to be quite honest, because it is so popular among the Democratic base and the people who don't normally turn out in elections," Gonzalez said in an interview.
Other high-profile bills have bipartisan support, including several that are meant to close campaign finance reporting loopholes and strengthen political ethics. They were introduced after three Democratic senators caught up in separate criminal cases were suspended and a lobbyist was hit with a record fine.
In addition to the routine bills they will consider, lawmakers also will meet in a special session called by Gov. Jerry Brown to debate changes to a rainy day fund ballot measure already on the November ballot. Brown wants to change the measure by having the reserve fund capture excess capital gains revenue in good budget years and dedicate that money to K-12 schools and to paying down the state's debts and unfunded liabilities.
Discussions on divisive, longer-term issues will not have to be solved until later in the year.
Chief among them will be how to alter an $11 billion water bond that is on the November ballot but that nearly all lawmakers agree needs to change drastically. Legislative leaders say they expect the negotiations to produce a much smaller bond that will be stripped of the local, special interest projects that were crammed into it when it was first proposed several years ago.
Ambitious spending proposals, such as Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's $1 billion call for universal preschool, are likely going to be handled during budget negotiations in early June. Republican lawmakers have been critical of spending the state's budget surplus to create permanent programs.
Nearly 1,900 bills were introduced for this year, the second half of the two-year session. Among those that must pass their house of origin before the end of May:
— SB1381 by Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, would require genetically modified food to be labeled at grocery stores, after voters rejected a similar proposal in California in 2012. Similar bills have been introduced in 23 states and adopted in two.
— AB2394 and Assembly Constitutional Amendment 12 by Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, R-Camarillo, would allow votes to decide in November whether to make the secretary of state's office nonpartisan. The secretary of state also would take over from the attorney general's office the duty of writing the title and summary for ballot propositions.
— SB1262 by Sen. Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, would regulate the state's unwieldy medical marijuana system. Law enforcement and local government groups who normally opposed such moves are now shaping the legislation to their liking.
— SB984 by Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel, would appropriate up to $2 billion from the state general fund, depending on revenue projections this year, to the California State Teachers Retirement System, which is at least $80 billion in the red.
— AB1576 by Isadore Hall, D-Compton, would mandate that adult film actors use protection while filming and that producers pay for sexually transmitted disease testing, following a similar measure in Los Angeles County.
— AB1829 by Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway, R-Tulare, would prohibit felons convicted of fraud from handling patient data or working for the Covered California health insurance exchange.
— AB1535 by Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, follows other states facing a growth in heroin use by making it easier for pharmacists to dispense naxolone, an opiate overdose treatment, to addicts and their family members.
— SB1266 by Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, would require school districts and county offices of education to provide emergency epinephrine auto-injectors to trained personnel and require those workers to use the pens on people suffering a severe allergic reaction.
— SB1138 by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, would require seafood to be clearly labeled by its species after the nonprofit group Oceana found rampant mislabeling of fish at grocery stores.
— AB2374, by Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, R-Costa Mesa, would increase oversight of residential drug and substance abuse rehabilitation centers by requiring them to report a resident's death. It also would require those cases to be addressed by the state Department of Health Care Services in a timely manner.
— SB843 by Sen. Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, would create an expedited system for dismissing teachers accused of egregious wrongdoing after another measure was vetoed last year.
— AB2036, by Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, R-Costa Mesa, would require the approval of two-thirds of Orange County voters to build new toll lanes within the county.
— SB1183 by Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, would allow cities, counties or regional park districts to impose a special sales tax on new bicycles, except those with wheels less than 20 inches in diameter. The money would pay for bike trails.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Two months after Arkansas agricultural officials gathered at the Governor's Mansion to announce efforts to revitalize the "Arkansas Grown" program, nearly 150 farmers and buyers have added their names to a list of willing project participants.
Arkansas Department of Agriculture marketing director Zach Taylor told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/1i6GgQC ) that the program now has more than 500 participants and that most of the new signees are farmers, though buyers such as restaurants, grocery stores, food distributors and even hospitals and schools also are joining.
Taylor said the growth of farmers markets across the state is evidence of how the program is being driven by consumer demand.
"Five years ago, we had about 40," Taylor said. "Now, on any day, I would say the number is approaching close to 100." While the department has contact information for about 80, other markets pop up for several weeks depending on what's in season, he said.
The program also works to connect fruit, vegetable and livestock operations with buyers.
As long as a producer can grow and deliver fruits and vegetables, connecting with larger buyers boils down to building connections, said Abraham Carpenter Jr., farm manager for Carpenter's Produce in Grady.
"I have found that distribution centers like Wal-Mart and Kroger and all the others, they really want to participate in purchasing home-grown when they can find the producer who can produce the quality and the supply of the product that they need," he said.
Arkansas Grown is a branding effort designed to help the state's growers promote their products, such as at farmers markets, with marketing elements and by providing a contact point between farmers and potential customers.
Another approach is a pilot project led by Jody Hardin, who is working with Heifer International's Seeds of Change Initiative to create new market opportunities for small Delta farmers to market organic produce directly to central Arkansas consumers.
Using a model called "community supported agriculture," Hardin said, participants prepay for shares of future crops, with farmers being paid upfront to supply boxes of seasonal foods on a weekly basis.
"Our ultimate mission with the model is we want to develop a community food hub," Hardin said, which will put small farmers in the driver's seat. He said the effort will also involve training farmers to shift from conventional to organic growing techniques.
Rusty Mathis, general manager of food distributor Ben E. Keith Co.'s North Little Rock division, said the company, which has added its name to the Arkansas Grown list, is getting requests for locally grown produce not just from restaurants but also from other customers, such as hospitals.
"I think we have a chance in Arkansas to get this up and going," Mathis said. "And now with Arkansas Grown and some of these concepts coming through, we're excited about it, and we're going to do our part to be part of it."
NEWARK, N.J. -- A year ago this week, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey held a public board meeting to re-elect its officers and hear from various committees. The governance and ethics committee presented its report with the following conclusion:
"There is a reasonable basis for the Board to have a high level of confidence in the professional and ethical conduct of Port Authority personnel, and that the Port Authority is conducting its business in a manner that ensures public confidence."
Today, those remarks seem almost jarringly at odds with reality. Over the past year, the Port Authority has been buffeted by the involvement of some of its members in a New Jersey lane-closing scandal at the George Washington Bridge, allegations of conflicts of interest in the awarding of contracts, the abrupt resignation of its chairman and criminal investigations on both sides of the Hudson River.
Everyone seems to have an opinion on how to reform the sprawling 93-year-old agency, which operates the bridges, tunnels, ports and airports in the New York region and was called a "challenged and dysfunctional organization" in a 2012 audit report.
Some have advocated taking away the power of appointing board members from the two states' governors. Others see legislative solutions that would provide more oversight. At a news conference last month, Gov. Chris Christie said he was intrigued by the idea of splitting the bistate agency into New York and New Jersey divisions.
Those ideas likely will be discussed Monday in New York at a special panel composed of academics and public-policy experts. Specific reform measures could be proposed in the next few months.
"Everything should be on the table," Vice Chairman Scott Rechler said Friday. "Right now there's the political will for reform and the recognition that reforms are needed. We should take as many actions as we can."
According to Rechler, one idea is to have the executive director and deputy executive director be nonpolitical appointments. Currently, New York's governor appoints the executive director, and New Jersey's governor appoints the deputy.
Legislative solutions can be challenging. Richard Brodsky served in the New York assembly and spearheaded legislation in 2010 that imposed reforms on all public authorities in New York — except the Port Authority, which, as a bistate agency, requires New Jersey and New York to enact similar, if not identical, legislation.
"If this had been enacted in New Jersey, there wouldn't have been Bridgegate," Brodsky said, referring to the lane closures. "That discussion has to start now."
Some New Jersey lawmakers are looking at the New York legislation to see if it can apply directly to New Jersey.
"I'm not sure we could do exactly the same thing in New Jersey," said Sen. Loretta Weinberg, whose district includes Fort Lee, site of the lane closures. "If not, the goals of that legislation were and are very good. We need to tweak it and be able to do it in both states right now."
Sen. Richard Codey, New Jersey's governor from 2004 to 2006, is pushing legislation to give subpoena power to the Port Authority's inspector general, though he contends the overall problem is not legislative in nature.
"The only reform you need is for the governor to appoint the appropriate people to do the job," he said. "The problem was (Christie) put in people who didn't have the moral ethics to do the proper job."
The bridge scandal forced the resignations late last year of deputy executive director Bill Baroni, a Christie appointee, and director of interstate capital projects David Wildstein, a Christie acquaintance from high school. Subpoenaed emails have portrayed Wildstein as the orchestrator of the lane closings.
Former chairman David Samson was the focus of questions about a $1-a-year lease extension for a park-and-ride lot operated by New Jersey Transit, a client of Samson's law firm. The Port Authority said Samson recused himself, but his vote was recorded incorrectly. Last month, the agency said it is reviewing the contract.
The lane closures are being investigated by a New Jersey legislative committee and the U.S. attorney's office. The Manhattan district attorney's office has subpoenaed Port Authority records from the World Trade Center rebuilding and other projects, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn't authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The DA's office is declining to comment, a spokesman said Saturday.
Rechler said broader reforms would be considered in the future.
"We can step back and say, 'It's been 93 years. What should the Port Authority look like today?' The landscape is very different than it was in 1921. Do we still need the same Port Authority?"
Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this story.
LOS ANGELES -- Captain America continues to vanquish box office foes, triumphing in ticket sales for the third consecutive week and dominating over megastar Johnny Depp's new movie.
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" added another $26 million to its coffers, according to studio estimates Sunday, while Depp's sci-fi thriller, "Transcendence," opened in fourth place with $11 million.
Directed by longtime Christopher Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister, the Warner Bros. film is Depp's third consecutive box office disappointment. He played Tonto in last summer's "The Lone Ranger" — one of the biggest flops of 2013 — and starred in 2012's comedy-horror dud, "Dark Shadows."
"As we approach the summer movie season, box-office drawing power becomes more about the concept of the movie rather than its star," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak. "It may not have been so much (about) Johnny Depp, but audiences right now like brands that they know."
That doesn't bode well for original ideas, such as "Transcendence," penned by first-time screenwriter Jack Paglen. Dergarabedian notes that 12 sequels are expected this summer alone.
Another new movie, the religious-themed "Heaven Is for Real," debuted in third place over Easter weekend, while another sequel, "Rio 2," held on to the second spot.
Faith-based films are performing well, Dergarabedian said, with four releases in the domestic top 20.
"The Winter Soldier" set a box-office record as the biggest April release ever when it opened with more than $96 million domestically. Starring Chris Evans as comic book hero Capt. America and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, the Disney release has earned more than $200 million to date in North America — the 12th Marvel film to do so.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday:
1. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," $26.6 million ($35.3 million international).
2. "Rio 2," $22.5 million ($48 million international).
3. "Heaven is for Real," $21.5 million.
4. "Transcendence," $11.2 million ($17.4 million international).
5. "A Haunted House 2," $9.1 million.
6. "Draft Day," $5.9 million.
7. "Divergent," $5.75 million ($18.1 million international).
8. "Oculus," $5.2 million.
9. "Noah," $5 million ($21.6 million international).
10. "God's Not Dead," $4.8 million.
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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
1. "Rio 2," $48 million.
2. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," $47 million.
3. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," $35.3 million.
4. "Noah," $21.6 million.
5. "Divergent," $18.1 million.
6. "Transcendence," $17.4 million.
7. (tie) "Frozen," $7.6 million.
1. (tie) "The Lego Movie," $7.6 million.
1. "The Grand Budapest Hotel," $6 million.
2. "The Other Woman," $5.3 million.
3. "Mr. Peabody and Sherman," $2.2 million.
Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
PERTH, Australia -- A Malaysian official met Sunday with relatives of passengers who were aboard the missing jetliner and discussed ways of providing them with financial assistance, as an unmanned submarine continued its search for any signs of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainuddin met with the passengers' relatives in Kuala Lumpur to talk about where to go next. Financial assistance was discussed and family members were urged to submit a plan for consideration. He declined to elaborate further, but said a fund could possibly be set up by the government or Malaysia Airlines.
The relatives, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the meeting, saying in a statement that until "at least a tiny bit of concrete evidence" that the plane crashed is found, authorities should not try to settle the case with final payoffs.
"No meaningful report on the progress of the investigation was given" at the meeting, the relatives said, adding that "not a single one" of their questions was answered.
"We realize this is an excruciating time for the families of those on board," said Zainuddin, who heads a committee overseeing the needs of the next of kin. "No words can describe the pain they must be going through. We understand the desperate need for information on behalf of the families and those watching around the world."
He added that he would soon visit Beijing to shore up bilateral relations between Malaysia and China. Two-thirds of the missing plane's 227 passengers were Chinese, and many of their family members have been angered by Malaysia's handling of the investigation, with some accusing the government of lying, incompetence or participating in an outright cover-up.
After nearly a week of sweeping the bottom of the ocean with sonar, the unmanned sub began its eighth mission on Sunday. The yellow device has already covered about half of its focused search area, but has yet to uncover any clues that could shed light on the mysterious disappearance of the plane more than six weeks ago.
The U.S. Navy's Bluefin 21 has journeyed beyond its recommended depth of 4 1/2 kilometers (2.8 miles) to comb the silt-covered seabed off the coast of western Australia. Its search area forms a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius around the location of an underwater signal that was believed to have come from the aircraft's black boxes. The search center said the sonar scan of the seafloor in that area was expected to be completed sometime next week.
On Saturday, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein stressed the importance of the weekend submarine missions in the southern Indian Ocean, but stressed that even if no debris is recovered, the scope of the search may be broadened or other assets may be used.
Meanwhile on Sunday, up to 11 aircraft and 12 ships continued to scan the ocean surface for debris from the Boeing 777, which disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Radar and satellite data show the jet mysteriously veered far off course for unknown reasons and would have run out of fuel in the remote section of the southern Indian Ocean where the search has been focused. Not one piece of debris has been recovered since the massive multinational hunt began.
There have been numerous leads, but all have turned out to be false. The most promising development came when four underwater signals were detected April 5 and 8. The sounds were consistent with pings that would have been emanating from the plane's flight data and cockpit recorders' beacons before their batteries died.
The underwater operation is being complicated by the depth of the largely unexplored silt-covered sea floor. The unmanned submarine has gone beyond its recommended depth, according to the U.S. 7th Fleet. That could risk the equipment, but it is being closely monitored.
The search coordination center has said the hunt for floating debris on the surface will continue for at least the next few days, even though the Australian head of the search effort, Angus Houston, had earlier said it was expected to end sooner.
On Sunday, the visual surface search was to cover an estimated 48,507 square kilometers (18,729 square miles) of sea.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- A Pascagoula shipping terminal opened in 2011 to import liquefied natural gas now is working to become an export terminal.
The nationwide shale boom has greatly imports since the $1.1 billion Gulf LNG terminal opened near the Bayou Casotte Ship Channel.
Gulf LNG got U.S. Department of Energy approval in 2012 to export 11.5 million tons of LNG a year to countries approved under the Free Trade Agreement, including Australia, Canada and some in South and Central America.
Kinder Morgan Inc. spokesman Richard Wheatley tells The Sun Herald (http://bit.ly/1nAZrqT) that the Pascagoula terminal is seventh on the list for a permit to export to other countries.
He says there's no estimate on how long it would take to convert the terminal after getting such approval.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- For five years, lawyers for families of those killed when a plane crashed into a house and the airlines they blame have prepared for trial, filing thousands of court documents, interviewing witnesses, reporting to a judge.
But with the last of more than 40 federal wrongful death claims now settled and talks ongoing in a few remaining state cases, a trial is increasingly unlikely.
That means any new details about the crash that such a public airing could expose may remain unknown as documents filed under seal stay shielded from public view.
"All of the families just want the truth to be fully disclosed and uncovered," said Scott Maurer, whose daughter Lorin was among 50 people killed when Continental Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., stalled and crashed into a house 5 miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport in 2009.
The lawsuits claim the pilots and flight's operators, Continental Airlines, regional carrier Colgan Air and its parent, Pinnacle Air, were reckless and caused the crash.
The claims parallel findings by the National Transportation Safety Board, which in 2010 blamed the accident on pilot error, determining that Capt. Marvin Renslow incorrectly pointed the plane's nose up after a stall warning, causing the stall and crash.
Prodded by the victims' families, federal officials have since issued an extensive overhaul of training requirements for pilots and made other safety-oriented aviation changes.
"We learned a lot (about the crash) through the NTSB and efforts we have made," Maurer said. "But if there is anything we are not aware of, we want it brought out in the light of day and addressed. That is one of the objectives of the trial. Are there other things to be learned?"
One of the documents that could remain sealed without a trial is an internal safety review commissioned by Colgan less than a month after the crash. The firm Nick Sabatini & Associates interviewed mechanics, pilots and other employees and observed training classes and flights.
Colgan executives had argued the findings were privileged and irrelevant to the lawsuits, but U.S. District Judge William Skretny ruled the report was potentially relevant because it was unlikely that the culture at Colgan had significantly changed in the weeks after the crash.
The families' lawyers also argued successfully for the cockpit voice recorder to be heard, rather than rely on the already released transcript. Video animations have been created synchronized to the recording, said Chicago attorney Robert Clifford, who represented five families in federal court.
He called it "very powerful evidence of the tragic way the passengers lived their last moments before death."
While unresolved state Supreme Court cases are tentatively set for a November trial, Clifford said it's unlikely any will get that far. He lamented that the case had been allowed to be "litigated in secrecy."
"The public loses the safety benefits that come from the disclosure. Now we've got one more incident of sweeping the bad conduct under the rug and nobody sees it," he said.
Terms of the settlements have not been disclosed.
The legal cases were largely stalled for 13 months by a bankruptcy filing by Pinnacle. The carrier emerged from Chapter 11 a year ago as Endeavor Air, a unit of Delta Air Lines. Colgan Air stopped flying in 2012. Continental, meanwhile, merged with United Airlines in 2010.
Spokeswomen for United and Endeavor declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Industry, academic and policy experts will be in Ann Arbor this week for a connected cars conference.
The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute hosts the 2014 Global Symposium on Connected Vehicles and Infrastructure.
The event runs Monday through Wednesday. A special energy workshop is Wednesday and Thursday.
Ann Arbor is home to an ongoing experiment involving so-called talking cars that University of Michigan and government officials hope will lead to safer roads. Thousands of wirelessly connected cars, buses, trucks and motorcycles are operating in the city as a part of the study conducted by UMTRI (um-TREE').
The vehicles are being used to study how cars equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle wireless communication devices interact with each another and with wirelessly equipped infrastructure, such as intersections and street lights.
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Online:
http://bit.ly/1i2XpAF
MOUNT SAVAGE, Md. -- The Iron?Rail Diner is the only business in the area that is now accepting a cryptocurrency known as a Dogecoin.
The restaurant has been accepting Dogecoin since April 4 and it wasn't long before the word went viral and several cryptocurrency miners traveled to Mount Savage to spend their hard-earned Dogecoins, according to Iron Rail co-owner Terry Linn II.
Linn thought locals might be attracted to the idea of Dogecoin since it's a sponsor of NASCAR.
"The way I feel is that for us, it's the same as a credit card but it eliminates a lot of the fees," said Linn. "I feel they will be valuable in a couple of years down the road."
A Dogecoin is a Litecoin-derived cryptocurrency featuring a Shiba Inu from the Doge Internet meme on its logo. Dogecoin community, as well as members of other cryptocurrency communities, use the phrase "To the moon!" to describe the overall sentiment of the coin's rising value.
Tym Holwager, a former Frostburg resident who now lives in?Hagerstown, drove by the restaurant?April 4 and noticed the sign in the window stating that Dogecoins are now accepted. Holwager, who is a cryptocurrency miner, took a picture of the sign and posted it online to Reddit, where Dogecoin has its user base, and the post went viral.
Jared Gorby of Morgantown, W.Va., saw Holwager's post on Reddit and the next day, with his brother in tow, he traveled to the restaurant to make his first in-person purchase with?Dogecoins.
"Before this, I had only ever spent Dogecoins online to purchase fine-grade sea salts, as well as commemorative copper and silver minted Dogecoins, so this was the first opportunity I had to spend the coins in person," said Gorby.
Holwager had a pizza delivered paying for it by using his tablet and the QR code from the sign.?Holwager paid Ð13,000 in Dogecoin, which equals $8 in U.S. currency. Gorby paid Ð32,000, which was equal to $20, for a chopped steak with onions and mushrooms, a Big Chief hamburger with french fries and applesauce as well as an appetizer of batter-fried mushrooms and two fountain Dr. Peppers.
Dogecoins can be used to buy goods and services, or can be traded for other cryptocurrencies or traditional currency like U.S. dollars. Dogecoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin are all interchangeable virtual currencies that can be sent all over the world very quickly with very low fees, said Holwager.
In order to use Dogecoin, an online desktop or mobile wallet is needed. Miners who wish to purchase food at the Iron Rail Diner can scan the QR Code with their smartphone/tablet to get a key code and the Dogecoin can be transferred from wallet to wallet, according to Linn. If Linn wanted to trade Dogecoins in for cash he would have to get a merchant service.
"Mining cryptocurrency, in laymen's terms, involves making your computer solve math problems. When a problem is solved, the computer that solved the problem is rewarded a certain amount of the currency (25 Bitcoins, 50 Litecoins and 250,000 Dogecoins, currently)," said Holwager. "So, the more powerful your computer is the more chance your computer will solve a math problem faster than all the other computers working on the problem."
Both Holwager and Gorby have been mining Dogecoin since January.
"The incredibly friendly community behind Dogecoin is what got me supporting and mining Doge," said Gorby. "The Dogecoin community is truly the friendliest, most sincere place I have ever found on the Internet."
Gorby plans on returning to the Iron Rail Diner with several friends.
"My friends seem to be most curious as to how and why merchants should take Doge, and I think the best way is to just show them," said Gorby.
Holwager has been a Bitcoin miner since 2011.
"The main difference be-tween Bitcoin and Dogecoin are in terms of rarity. There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoins in existence, with about 12 million already mined up and in circulation," said Holwager. "Once the 21st millionth Bitcoin is mined up (130 years from now) there will be no more created."
Holwager also noted that Dogecoin is more user friendly than?Bitcoin for those who aren't as tech savvy.
There are several ways to acquire Dogecoins; by far, the most popular is for tipping fellow Internet-goers who are creating or sharing great content, according to the Dogecoin website.
Dogecoin was created by programmer Billy Markus from Portland and was introduced?Dec. 8, 2013.
For more information on how to use Dogecoins, visit http://bit.ly/1jWCyNV.
Information from: Cumberland (Md.) Times-News, http://bit.ly/RBUEeE
WASHINGTON -- Biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term, a study shows, challenging the Obama administration's conclusions that they are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help combat climate change.
A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government and released Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that biofuels made with corn residue release 7 percent more greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional gasoline.
While biofuels are better in the long run, the study says they won't meet a standard set in a 2007 energy law to qualify as renewable fuel.
The conclusions deal a blow to what are known as cellulosic biofuels, which have received more than a billion dollars in federal support but have struggled to meet volume targets mandated by law. About half of the initial market in cellulosics is expected to be derived from corn residue.
The biofuel industry and administration officials immediately criticized the research as flawed. They said it was too simplistic in its analysis of carbon loss from soil, which can vary over a single field, and vastly overestimated how much residue farmers actually would remove once the market gets underway.
"The core analysis depicts an extreme scenario that no responsible farmer or business would ever employ because it would ruin both the land and the long-term supply of feedstock. It makes no agronomic or business sense," said Jan Koninckx, global business director for biorefineries at DuPont.
Later this year the company is scheduled to finish a $200 million-plus facility in Nevada, Iowa, that will produce 30 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol using corn residue from nearby farms. An assessment paid for by DuPont said that the ethanol it will produce there could be more than 100 percent better than gasoline in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
The research is among the first to attempt to quantify, over 12 Corn Belt states, how much carbon is lost to the atmosphere when the stalks, leaves and cobs that make up residue are removed and used to make biofuel, instead of left to naturally replenish the soil with carbon. The study found that regardless of how much corn residue is taken off the field, the process contributes to global warming.
"I knew this research would be contentious," said Adam Liska, the lead author and an assistant professor of biological systems engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "I'm amazed it has not come out more solidly until now."
The Environmental Protection Agency's own analysis, which assumed about half of corn residue would be removed from fields, found that fuel made from corn residue, also known as stover, would meet the standard in the energy law. That standard requires cellulosic biofuels to release 60 percent less carbon pollution than gasoline.
Cellulosic biofuels that don't meet that threshold could be almost impossible to make and sell. Producers wouldn't earn the $1 per gallon subsidy they need to make these expensive fuels and still make a profit. Refiners would shun the fuels because they wouldn't meet their legal obligation to use minimum amounts of next-generation biofuels.
EPA spokeswoman Liz Purchia said in a statement that the study "does not provide useful information relevant to the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from corn stover ethanol."
But an AP investigation last year found that the EPA's analysis of corn-based ethanol failed to predict the environmental consequences accurately.
The departments of Agriculture and Energy have initiated programs with farmers to make sure residue is harvested sustainably. For instance, farmers will not receive any federal assistance for conservation programs if too much corn residue is removed.
A peer-reviewed study performed at the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory in 2012 found that biofuels made with corn residue were 95 percent better than gasoline in greenhouse gas emissions. That study assumed some of the residue harvested would replace power produced from coal, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it's unclear whether future biorefineries would do that.
Liska agrees that using some of the residue to make electricity, or planting cover crops, would reduce carbon emissions. But he did not include those in his computer simulation.
Still, corn residue is likely to be a big source early on for cellulosic biofuels, which have struggled to reach commercial scale. Last year, for the fifth time, the EPA proposed reducing the amount required by law. It set a target of 17 million gallons for 2014. The law envisioned 1.75 billion gallons being produced this year.
"The study says it will be very hard to make a biofuel that has a better greenhouse gas impact than gasoline using corn residue," which puts it in the same boat as corn-based ethanol, said David Tilman, a professor at the University of Minnesota who has done research on biofuels' emissions from the farm to the tailpipe.
Tilman said it was the best study on the issue he has seen so far.
Follow Dina Cappiello's environment coverage on Twitter at http://bit.ly/1owYCUh
LANSING, Mich. -- The Archives of Michigan is using a state-of-the-art and inexpensive option — the Internet — to store and preserve a growing collection of digital records that includes everything from 40 years' worth of election results to an index of thousands of proposed designs for the state's quarter released 10 years ago.
The move to the cloud is expected to bolster a plan to help the public easily access some historical records without having to trek to the Archives' facility in Lansing. A cloud-based service being used by Michigan saves money and, archivists say, makes sure that important electronic records — documents, audio and video files — don't go obsolete as formats change.
The company Michigan contracted with in 2012, England-based Tessella, plans to release its first version of a public access interface on April 30. Within the next year, people will be able to visit the state website to access historical records stored with the company's Preservica technology.
For state officials, finding a way to store electronic records was crucial because more government records are being produced electronically — emails, photos, video and the like.
"When dealing with something in a format that isn't permanent and yet the content is permanent, you have a challenge. It's an international challenge," said Caryn Wojcik, a government records archivist for the state.
The solution for Michigan after years of searching — cloud computing — refers to the practice of renting computing accessories over the Internet instead of buying more machines, the applications running on them and servers to store and backup files. The $13,000 annual cost is a fraction of the Archives' yearly budget that totals around $850,000, said state Archivist Mark Harvey.
A key component of the technology used by Michigan supports the conversion of files to newer formats so they remain usable.
Examples of Michigan records being stored in the Amazon Web Services cloud include aggregate historical data on K-12 students, legal briefs filed with the state Supreme Court, meeting minutes kept by state bodies and recently digital audio recordings of Michigan House of Representatives sessions. If asked by a researcher, archivists will also convert old cassette recordings of legislative sessions to a digital copy.
"As we convert traditional records to digital formats, we are making case-by-case decisions about whether to store the digital version in Preservica," Wojcik said.
Despite the emphasis on preserving electronic records, less than 1 percent of Michigan's archival information is being kept in the cloud. Harvey said he recently logged 40 to 50 boxes of records involving tribal affairs, all but one filled with paper.
"We're not at the point of where all of a sudden everything we're seeing is electronic," he said.
NEW YORK -- General Mills is scrapping a controversial plan to strip consumers of their right to sue the food company.
The company, which owns Cheerios, Progresso and Yoplait, had posted a notice on its website notifying visitors of a change to its legal terms — visitors using its websites or engaging with it online in a variety of other ways meant they would have to give up their right to sue.
Instead, the new terms said, people would need to have disputes resolved through informal negotiation or arbitration.
The Minnesota-based company's decision was widely denounced on social media after The New York Times wrote a story Wednesday bearing the headline, "When 'Liking' A Brand Online Voids the Right to Sue." The next day, General Mills clarified the meaning of its new terms to say they did not apply when people engaged with its brands on Facebook and Twitter.
"No one is precluded from suing us merely by purchasing our products at the store or liking one of our brand Facebook pages. That is just a mischaracterization," the company said.
The terms would apply in instances such as when people subscribed to one of its publications or downloaded its coupons from its websites, General Mills said.
Despite the clarification, the company apparently continued to feel pressure regarding its new terms, and issued another statement late Saturday saying that it decided to return to the previous legal terms.
"We are announcing today that we have reverted back to our prior legal terms, which contain no mention of arbitration," the email said.
NEW YORK -- "Just Do It" has been a familiar Nike slogan for years, but now parents are wondering what it was doing on some of New York's Common Core standardized English tests.
Brands including Barbie, iPod, Mug Root Beer and Life Savers showed up in questions on tests that more than a million students in grades 3 through 8 took this month.
New York state education officials and the test publisher say the references were not paid product placement but happened to be contained in published passages selected for the tests.
Some critics say brand mentions on standardized tests are unnecessary and inappropriate.
While general complaints about Common Core tests have arisen elsewhere, advocates say the prevalence of brand names appear to be specific to New York.
GROTON, Conn. -- The U.S. Navy has endorsed changes to submarine sailors' schedules based on research into sleep patterns by a military laboratory in Connecticut.
With no sunlight to set day apart from night on a submarine, the Navy for decades has staggered sailors' working hours on schedules with little resemblance to life above the ocean's surface.
But the scientists at the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory concluded submarine sailors, who traditionally begin a new workday every 18 hours, show less fatigue on a 24-hour schedule.
The first submarine to try the new schedule on a full deployment was the USS Scranton, led by Cmdr. Seth Burton. He said he found during the seven-month deployment that the more consistent sleep pattern made up for any effects of working slightly longer shifts.
The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Legislation awaiting a likely veto by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon would create a new tax break for the owners of local diners and downtown antique stores. Accountants and doctors could benefit, too. And farmers and car dealers and architects.
So could lawyers and lobbyists.
Nixon has focused on those latter two professions while denouncing the legislation as "an unaffordable giveaway to special interests" that would provide "especially generous benefits for folks that don't need anything."
But Nixon may be oversimplifying the issue while highlighting his opposition.
He could just as easily describe it as a break for ambitious college students running their own lawn-mowing services over the summer. They would benefit, too.
The legislation would gradually cut Missouri's top individual income tax rate to 5.5 percent from 6 percent. It also would phase in a 25 percent deduction for business income reported on personal tax returns — a category referred to as "pass-through" income.
It's true that many lawyers and lobbyists would benefit from the new tax deduction because of the way their businesses are structured. But so would most Missouri businesses.
"If the policy decision is made to provide a tax cut to businesses, you have to figure out some way to address pass-through entities, because that's the vast majority of all businesses," said Chuck Pierce, a lobbyist for the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants.
The tax break would not apply to "C corporations" — which generally are publicly traded — because they pay a separate state corporate income tax. But it generally would apply to businesses structured as sole proprietorships, partnerships and limited liability corporations.
Missouri has more than 500,000 active businesses registered with the secretary of state's office. Nearly four-fifths of those are limited liability corporations. Each of those businesses could have multiple owners, partners or members claiming the tax deduction.
Lawyers and lobbyists comprise a relatively small portion of that total.
About 23,000 attorneys live or work in Missouri, according to The Missouri Bar. About 1,000 lobbyists are registered with the Missouri Ethics Commission, though that includes some who wouldn't qualify for the tax break, such as state employees who serve as liaisons to lawmakers on behalf of Nixon's administration.
The tax break for pass-through business income could affect almost 95 percent of all businesses, said Ray McCarty, president of Associated Industries of Missouri, who cited national data available through the Internal Revenue Service.
McCarty said he came up with the idea for the tax break after meeting in August 2010 with the owners of Bennett Packaging and Displays in Lee's Summit. He said the company is organized as an "S corporation" and thus wouldn't have benefited from the corporate income tax cuts being proposed at the time.
It took a while for the idea of a pass-through business income deduction to gain traction in the Missouri Legislature. In the meantime, Kansas changed its law to fully exempt many of those types of businesses from income taxes. Ohio also passed some form of a business income deduction.
Missouri's Republican lawmakers now have made the business income deduction a key part of their tax-cutting agenda.
"It's for small businesses," said House Majority Leader John Diehl. "The backbone of our economy are small businesses — it's the mom and pop stores on Main Street, it's the people who run businesses out of their homes."
The tax deduction would go only to the owners or partners of businesses, not the employees to whom they pay wages.
Nixon said the deduction would primarily benefit wealthier individuals.
"What lobbyist needs a tax cut? What lawyer does everybody feel so sorry for in this state that they need a tax cut, rather than funding education?" Nixon asked rhetorically while indicating he likely will veto the bill.
Some economists also question the fairness and effectiveness of the business-income deduction.
Scott Drenkard, an economist at the Washington-based nonprofit research group the Tax Foundation, described the deduction as a "Pandora's box for tax avoidance." He said it could encourage people to reclassify themselves as sole proprietors instead of wage-earning employees of businesses.
Michael Leachman, director of state fiscal research at the Washington-based nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the business income deduction would create "a huge windfall for some very wealthy people" without any assurance they would use the extra money to expand their businesses.
"It's a terrible idea if what you're trying to do is boost economic growth," Leachman said.
Proponents contend it's perhaps the best way of boosting the economy.
"This is a tiny cut, but it's going to make a big difference to small-business owners," said Brad Jones, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. "It's going to make it just a bit easier for people to expand their businesses, create jobs and strengthen the overall economy."
David A. Lieb has covered state government and politics for The Associated Press since 1995. Follow him at http://bit.ly/1r4xoCj
PORTLAND, Maine -- Years after federal stimulus dollars funded a Maine Forest Service Project to heat with local wood products, schools and other facilities report they have slashed energy bills in half while supporting jobs in the state's struggling timber industry.
However, some project managers say because they had to borrow money to participate, the effort left them with hefty repayment plans that make their net savings far less than they appear.
In the heating season ending in 2013, the Forest Service credited its Wood to Energy Grant Program with helping 24 facilities replace upward of 900,000 gallons of heating oil with locally produced wood chips and pellets that provide the same energy output for less than half the price.
The Forest Service said the project created or retained more than 335 jobs during the construction phase and supports 13 other forestry jobs through increased usage of wood fuel. Trade groups say those jobs, while temporary, supported the struggling timber industry at the height of the economic recession.
The Forest Service paid around half the cost of installing furnaces known as wood boilers that burn wood pellets or chips — which the industry calls "biomass"— for steam or water central heating instead of heating oil or natural gas.
The $11.4 million funding for Maine came from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which funneled the money through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to create jobs and spur the economy. Nationally, $10.9 billion in stimulus funds went to energy incentive programs.
Maine has numerous other programs, some also funded with stimulus grants, that give tax rebates or smaller grants to help residents and businesses pay for energy studies and retrofit their homes with high efficiency lighting, new heating systems and better insulation.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire have scaled-back projects similar to the Maine Forest Service grants. Vermont is credited with leading the nation in efforts to heat with alternative biomass. It helped 54 public schools and other facilities heat with wood chips in projects that began in the mid-1980s.
But the Forest Service says Maine is unique because of the large amount of stimulus money that went to wood boiler grants, as well as its requirement for recipients to report their energy usage for five years.
Thirteen schools or school systems received the Maine Forest Service Grants. The other 11 recipients were hospitals, university campuses, a community college and public buildings such as town offices.
The grant recipients report cutting $1.5 million from heating bills, slashing bills in half for many. Those savings were anticipated to grow in following years, when the new systems would be online the entire heating season for most facilities.
However, the stimulus grants only partially funded the projects, which individually cost $40,000 to $3.6 million. Some grant recipients said they had to borrow their share of the funding and are now left with hefty repayment plans that make their net savings far less than they appear.
"We have this payback that is going to eat into our savings," said Mike Hammer, superintendent of the school district that includes Houlton High School.
He said the $70,000 yearly bond payment until 2022 cancels out its estimated savings of $60,000 for the first year it had the system. After a grant of $910,000, the school's contribution was more than $1.2 million.
Others in the project said they were optimistic their long-term savings would mount as oil prices continued to rise.
"Initial investments are pretty high," said Dan O'Shea, director of operations and finance for the Falmouth school system. However, he said, the $1.5 million cost was "one of the best overall investments of the town" for money it got through the sales of old school facilities.
The project director at Millinocket Regional Hospital, Dale McLaughlin, said the hospital expected its $1 million project would pay for itself in just a few years, after taking into account the $500,000 Forest Service grant.
He said the hospital saved $75,000 in heating costs the first year and expected to save $125,000 the next year, when the wood pellet boiler would be in use the entire heating season for the first time.
"It gets us off the dependency of foreign fuel, and we're able to use fuel from here," he said. "It's better for the environment, and it's a lot of cash."
BEIRUT -- One by one, the old traditional houses of Beirut are vanishing as luxury towers sprout up on every corner, altering the city's skyline almost beyond recognition amid an ongoing construction frenzy seemingly immune to tensions from the civil war raging next door.
Lebanon's enchanting Ottoman and colonial French-style buildings once represented Beirut's rich history, withstanding years of civil war and invasions only to be demolished in peace time by wealthy Gulf Arab investors.
In that, Beirut is no different than Dubai, Doha or other major world cities overtaken by a global trend for modern, tall buildings. But in a country that prides itself on its rich history, many complain that Lebanon is losing its charm and character, often said to be the only thing going for it.
A famously scenic Mediterranean city surrounded by once lush mountains, Beirut may soon be overrun with buildings — all at the expense of green parks and pedestrian areas.
Robert Saliba, professor of architecture and urban planning at the American University of Beirut, said Beirut always has been attractive for investors because of its cultural diversity and free spirit.
"Beirut is a reflection of a hybrid city where the market takes over the future development. ... My own observation is that Beirut was never interested in its history. It's a city that was always taken by modernity," he said.
Still, he said Beirut is fast becoming saturated, a city often said to provide the smallest ratio of open spaces for its inhabitants in the world.
It is a transformation that those familiar with the city can barely keep up with.
When Salim Baalbaki arrived to Lebanon last year for the first time after more than 15 years spent working in Canada, he struggled to recognize where he grew up, a few steps from Beirut's seaside promenade and central district.
The tree-lined corniche where he took long walks during lulls in fighting during the 1975-90 civil war is now dotted with luxury apartment buildings that sell units for as much as $10,000 per square meter (square yard). The once bustling downtown area, razed to the ground and spectacularly rebuilt after the civil war, is seen as a beautiful yet sterile lot of polished boutiques and high-priced restaurants.
Tall buildings stick out at odd lengths and angles, wedged almost wall to wall between older buildings and sprouting out of alleys.
Worst of all for Baalbaki, the parking lot where he used to play soccer with friends next to his parent's apartment building has been replaced with a high rise that blocks the light from the apartment.
"Actually my depression started when I looked down from the airplane during landing and saw the jungle of cement below," Baalbaki said. "It is a disaster and it makes me sad for Lebanon."
Not everyone shares Baalbaki's gloom. Beirut's post-war reconstruction is seen by many as a model to be looked upon by countries in the region. Despite the chaos in neighboring Syria, and bouts of deadly spillover, construction barely has slowed down. The city is buzzing with the sounds of jackhammers and active cranes dot the skyline — a healthy sign amid turbulent times, some say.
The construction boom has been fueled in the past decade by rich expatriates and Gulf Arab investors who have driven prices up, encouraging Beirut property owners to sell.
Analysts say despite slowing local demand because of the war in Syria, high real estate prices in Lebanon have been sustained partly because of the scarcity of land. The increase in real estate demand by displaced Syrians somewhat compensated for reduced local demand, helping maintain real estate prices.
But while Lebanon's real estate sector has developed to become one of the country's success stories, many say it is coming at the expense of Lebanon's identity and heritage.
It has led to the destruction of hundreds of traditional Lebanese houses known for their stoned, arched headways, elaborate balconies and colorful windows and gardens. The houses, dating back French and Ottoman era, are mainly in Beirut and its peripheries, areas that were heavily damaged during Lebanon's civil war.
An initial census in the early 1990s counted 1600 traditional homes and buildings in the greater Beirut area. Today, an estimated 250 standing structures remain, said Naji Raji, an activist and spokesman for Save Beirut Heritage.
He blames the demolitions on politicians' corruption, greed and non-existent construction regulations or any sort of urban planning outside the Beirut Central District. There are virtually no laws that specifically protect old buildings, except for a ministerial decree issued a few years ago which states that every demolition permit must be co-signed by the Culture Ministry, giving it power to stop the demolition of traditional homes.
Save Beirut Heritage has a hotline through which it receives tips about old buildings threatened with demolitions, which it conveys to the Culture Ministry. This has allowed the group to halt the demolition of up to 60 buildings in Beirut and its suburbs since 2010.
Raji's latest pet project is lobbying against the Fouad Boutros highway, a 1.3-kilometer (0.81-mile) road expected to cut through historic quarters of Beirut.
Like many others, Raji worries that Beirut is losing its identity to become more like Dubai, famous for its splashy megaprojects but often criticized as being artificial and lacking character.
"Modernization should not be at the expense of history," Raji said.
However, Saliba said that modernizing mess is seen by some as Lebanon's charm.
"Strangely enough this visual chaos is appreciated more by ... foreigners, by Westerners who come to Beirut, who fall in love with this chaos," Saliba said.
The professor added: "But we don't."
Follow Zeina Karam on Twitter at http://bit.ly/1pkjzlU .
