Netflix, Amazon sign content deals with Disney (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Netflix and Amazon.com Inc unveiled content deals with Walt Disney Co on Monday, a sign of increased competition between the two companies in the video streaming business.

Netflix said it extended its license agreement with ABC Television Group, a division of Disney, to continue to stream TV shows over the Internet.

With the extension of the existing license agreement, Netflix will also add new TV show episodes from ABC Studios, Disney Channel and the ABC Family to its existing library, it said in a statement.

Netflix will now also carry episodes of ABC's "Switched at Birth", "Alias" and prior-season episodes of Disney Channel's animated series "Kick Buttowski".

Netflix will continue to carry every episode of ABC shows such as "Lost", "Ugly Betty", "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives", and a number of programs from the Disney Channel.

Amazon announced a new licensing agreement with Disney-ABC Television Group that will allow Amazon Prime members to instantly stream a broad selection of library content from ABC Studios, Disney Channel, ABC Family and Marvel.

Amazon Prime costs $79 a year in the United States and gives members free 2-day shipping along with free access to almost 13,000 TV shows and movies from the company's Internet streaming service.

(Reporting by Maneesha Tiwari in Bangalore and Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Matt Driskill and Richard Chang)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/tv_nm/us_netflixdisney

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Rod Stryker: The Stress-Relieving Benefits of 'Corpse Pose' (Huffington post)

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Adult-care agency gets new chief (Star Tribune)

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Spy Satellite Engineer's Top Secret Is Revealed

Roger Guillemette/SPACE.com

Phil Pressel designed cameras for the government's top-secret Hexagon project. He's only recently been able to speak about his life's work.

Every day for decades, engineer Phil Pressel would come home from work and be unable to tell his wife what he'd been doing all day.

Now, Pressel is free to speak about his life's work: designing cameras for a top-secret U.S. government spy satellite. Officially known as the KH-9 Hexagon, engineers called it "Big Bird" for its massive size.

Until the government declassified it last month, Hexagon had been a secret for 46 years.

"The challenge for this satellite, to design it, was to survey the whole globe," Pressel tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

It was a grand challenge for Pressel. Born in Belgium, he survived the Holocaust as a young boy when a French family hid him from the Nazis. Pressel says he never expected to come to America, much less become an engineer on a top-secret American spy satellite.

Hexagon's main purpose was, in a way, to prevent wars. It was designed to spot Soviet missile silos and troop movements.

"It permitted President Nixon, in the early 1970s, to sign the SALT-1 treaty, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty," Pressel says. Photos sent down from Hexagon enabled the U.S. to verify the Soviet Union's claims about its weapons stockpiles.

Those photos themselves were a technological marvel. Pressel says that even 40 years after its original launch, Hexagon is still one of the most complicated vehicles ever to orbit the earth because it used film.

"It was the last film-recovery system used for reconnaissance," he says. Each Hexagon satellite launched with 60 miles worth of film and an immensely complicated electromechanical system that controlled the cameras.

Once a reel of film was finished, it was loaded into a re-entry pod and sent back to earth. "And then at around 50,000 feet, a parachute would slow it down, and a C-130 airplane caught it in midair over the Pacific," Pressel says.

After all the film was sent back to earth, the satellite was abandoned, and a new one launched, he says. Nineteen of them went up before the program ended in 1986.

Pressel says he's immensely proud of the work he and his colleagues did on Hexagon. "We did all of this incredibly complicated work with slide rules, without microprocessors, without solid state electronics," he says.

"We used old technology, and it worked!"

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/29/141824562/spy-satellite-engineers-top-secret-is-revealed?ft=1&f=1007

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Amid Europe debt crisis, EU goes hat in hand to China (The Christian Science Monitor)

Beijing ? China is unlikely to play the role of white knight, riding to the rescue of debt-ridden European nations, Chinese and foreign analysts here are warning, as a visiting European official seeks Beijing?s financial help.

?China will be polite, but they are not likely to put up any serious money,? predicts Andy Xie, former chief Asia-Pacific economist for Morgan Stanley.

Klaus Regling, head of the Europe?s bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, met Chinese officials here on Friday to explore how ready they are to contribute to a new fund designed to relieve troubled European nations? debt burdens.

Euro debt crisis 101: What can Merkel, Sarkozy plan accomplish?

Mr. Regling cautioned against high expectations. His visit, he said ?does not mean that I expect any precise outcome of our talks. There are no negotiations? and there will be no conclusion during my visit.?

China's vice finance minister was equally cautious, saying his country would wait for more details before committing to the fund.

"We need to wait for the technicalities to be clear and also to carry out serious studies before we can decide on investment," Zhu Guangyao told reporters.

China is the world?s biggest creditor, with foreign exchange reserves of around $3.2 trillion. Europe would like Beijing to use some of that money to buy European bonds. This week?s European summit proposed a new ?special purpose investment vehicle? to buy distressed countries? bonds, though the details of how it might work have yet to be decided.

?Politically it would be very difficult for China? to buy in heavily to such an investment vehicle, says Michael Pettis, who teaches finance at Peking University. ?After all, this is a country that is many times poorer than the countries it is being asked to help.?

At the same time, he points out, China?s sovereign wealth fund has come in for heavy criticism at home for earlier investments abroad that have performed badly. ?China is not keen to repeat that experience,? Mr. Pettis adds.

Nor is the government here likely to offer large sums of money to bail out countries over whose future economic policy it has no influence, suggests Mr. Xie. ?If you bail someone out, you need to be sure that it is sustainable,? he argues. ?China has no influence over Europe and no control over how its money would be used.?

European debt crisis: Seven basics you need to know

China has bought EFSF bonds in the past, Regling pointed out, and has proved ?a good and loyal customer.? Those bonds are AAA rated, he reminded reporters, and ?China must invest every month because its foreign exchange reserves go up every month. They are interested in solid, attractive, safe investment opportunities and I am happy that our bonds have been in this category in the past.?

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said last month China was willing to offer ?a helping hand? to Europe, but said pointedly that a reciprocal friendly gesture, such as offering China market economy status, and thus easing Chinese exports, would be appreciated.

?The Chinese government is waiting for a response,? says Ye Tan, a well known independent economic commentator. ?If Europe wants large-scale Chinese help, giving market economy status will be one of the requirements.?

That is not something Regling is talking about. ?I am not here to discuss any concessions,? he told reporters. ?The Chinese authorities are regular buyers of EFSF bonds, they are good commercial products not linked to any other ideas.?

This time, though, Beijing is likely to be cautious about getting involved in the special investment fund, says Ms. Ye, because ?China has to decide whether this fund can solve the crisis or not. If it looks as though it will need a lot more money again sometime in the future, that is risky.?

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20111028/wl_csm/418361

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Kabul suicide bomb kills 13 U.S. troops, civilian

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber on Saturday killed 13 troops and civilian employees of the NATO-led force in Kabul, including Americans and a Canadian, in the deadliest single ground attack against the coalition in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

"Five International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members and eight ISAF civilian employees died following a suicide vehicle-born improvised explosive device attack in Kabul earlier today," ISAF said in a statement.

Source: http://www.mashget.com/2011/10/29/kabul-suicide-bomb-kills-13-u-s-troops-civilian/

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Weak incomes cast pall on accelerating economy (Reuters)

CINCINNATI, Ohio (Reuters) ? U.S. consumers dug deep to power the recent rebound in economic growth, but data showing stagnant incomes suggests they could be hard pressed to contribute much more.

Earlier in the year, a spike in gasoline prices and a sagging stock market led many Americans to hold back on purchases. But the government said on Thursday that consumer spending moved forward at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the third quarter, boosting the overall economy.

However, people dipped into savings to meet their needs. More worrisome, inflation-adjusted, after-tax income fell at a 1.7 percent pace -- the first decline in nearly two years.

That suggests the burst of spending, which fueled the strongest quarter of growth in a year, might be short-lived.

"I can barely pay my bills," said Yasha Davis, 39, an assistant chef at a small coffee shop in Cincinnati. "When I do spend money, I only buy what I need."

Weak incomes also mean people have less to save for retirement, which could eventually undermine their willingness to spend. Americans were able to sock away only 4.1 percent of their after-tax income during the third quarter, the weakest saving rate since 2007.

A recent surge in inflation is one reason consumers have lost ground. Fortunately, inflation is expected to slow sharply over the next year.

But even discounting the rise in prices, incomes grew at their slowest rate since the third quarter of 2009, when the country was just emerging from its deepest recession in decades.

The income and savings data shed light on the divide between economic readings that show healthy spending on things like refrigerators and surveys that show consumers feel very much down in the dumps.

With unemployment stuck above 9 percent, it's hard for people to ask for wage increases that can keep up with inflation. For every job open in the country, there are more than four people out of work.

"I don't see how it could get much worse," said Joe Brashear, 66, an architect whose firm recently laid off five other architects.

Indeed, the rebound in economic growth during the third quarter only looks strong compared to the frightfully weak readings clocked earlier in the year.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate, which is tame by historical standards and not enough to bring down unemployment.

"I don't know anybody who's better off now than he was a year ago," said Jose Lopez, a 67-year-old construction engineer who recently lost his job in Miami.

"People are not doing well."

(Additional reporting by Tom Brown in Miami; writing by Jason Lange in Washington; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/ts_nm/us_usa_economy_incomes

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Officer: He believed woman's home invasion story (AP)

FORT DODGE, Iowa ? A local detective who interviewed an Iowa woman the night she killed her 20-year-old neighbor believed she was telling the truth about defending herself during a home invasion and assault, but a high-level state investigator was immediately skeptical, according to testimony Thursday in her murder trial.

Former Sac County sheriff's Lt. Dennis Cessford testified that he believed Tracey Richter's demeanor in the hospital and bruises on her neck, hands and legs were consistent with her claims of self-defense. Cessford said Richter appeared concerned and perhaps scared when he interviewed her at a local hospital.

"We took Tracey's information at face value," he said.

But retired Division of Criminal Investigation crime scene team supervisor Robert Harvey said he saw no signs of a forced entry or a struggle when he arrived at the home hours after the slaying.

Richter, 45, of Omaha, Neb., is charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 13, 2001, death of Dustin Wehde at her former home in Early, a town in northwest Iowa. Prosecutors say she shot Wehde, planted a notebook in his car that implicated her ex-husband in a murder-for-hire scheme and then falsely claimed she was a victim of a home invasion.

Richter has claimed all along that she shot Wehde to protect herself and her three children after Wehde and another man broke into her home and strangled her with pantyhose. She claims that she was able to break free, unlock her gun safe, grab a gun and shoot Wehde over her shoulder. She says she then shot him again with a second gun after he was trying to get up.

Cessford said that one thing that "bothered me" about her story was the way she used two guns, ending up with one in each hand. He said that was something he had not seen in his experience or would have thought to do himself.

Prosecutors had Harvey walk jurors through gruesome photographs he took of Wehde, slumped over on the bedroom's hardwood floor with a pool of blood around his head. Richter covered her eyes for the most graphic shot and but occasionally looked at the television screen as other photos showing blood running across the floor, the gun safe and bullet fragments were broadcast.

Harvey, who retired in 2006 after three decades with DCI, testified he arrived at the home hours after the shooting and was immediately skeptical that a break-in and assault had occurred.

He said investigators examined all the doors and saw no signs of a forced entry. He said there also were no items in the house that were knocked over or out of place that would have suggested a struggle. He said he did find a pair of pantyhose on the kitchen floor, a baseball bat and a revolver on the kitchen counter.

"In a struggle you would have a tendency to run into things and knock things over ... none of that was there," said Harvey, who retired in 2006.

Cessford said law enforcement officials found a pink spiral notebook in the front of Wehde's car the day after the shooting in which he had written that Richter's ex-husband had hired him to kill her and her 11-year-old son and make it look like a murder-suicide. He said police decided immediately to keep the notebook a secret because "that would be a key piece of evidence that only the person responsible for that evidence would know about it and talk about it."

Cessford said investigators looked at whether Richter's husband at the time, Michael Roberts, was involved in the events leading up to the shooting but ruled him out after determining he had been out of state on business. But under cross-examination from Richter's defense lawyer Scott Bandstra, the officer acknowledged that prosecutors no longer have the cell phone records he reviewed that helped him reach that conclusion.

Bandstra has suggested that another man was the alleged second intruder, but part of the defense strategy also appears to be raising doubts about Roberts' potential involvement. The defense noted Wednesday that Roberts had planned a business trip during the shooting and gave an employee who went with him a $5,000 bonus and a $20,000 raise shortly afterward. The employee testified the pay increase was for his performance and had nothing to do with the shooting.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_us/us_hero_mom_or_killer

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Intestinal stem cells respond to food by supersizing the gut

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) ? A new study from University of California, Berkeley, researchers demonstrates that adult stem cells can reshape our organs in response to changes in the body and the environment, a finding that could have implications for diabetes and obesity.

Current thinking has been that, once embryonic stem cells mature into adult stem cells, they sit quietly in our tissues, replacing cells that die or are injured but doing little else.

But in working with fruit flies, the researchers found that intestinal stem cells responded to increased food intake by producing more intestinal cells, expanding the size of the intestines as long as the food keeps flowing.

"When flies start to eat, the intestinal stem cells go into overdrive, and the gut expands," said UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Lucy O'Brien. "Four days later, the gut is four times bigger than before, but when food is taken away, the gut slims down."

Just as in humans and other mammals, O'Brien added, the fly intestine secretes its own insulin. In flies, intestinal insulin seems to be the signal that makes stem cells "supersize the gut."

"Because of the many similarities between the fruit fly and the human, the discovery may hold a key to understanding how human organs adapt to environmental change," said David Bilder, UC-Berkeley associate professor of molecular and cell biology.

The research will be published in the Oct. 28 issue of the journal Cell.

Experiments such as this "could provide important insights into the therapeutic use of stem cells for treatment of different gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders such as diabetes," wrote Abby Sarka and Konrad Hochedlinger of Harvard University in a Cell perspective accompanying the publication.

Stem cells key to adaptability

Many tissues grow or shrink with usage, including muscle, liver and intestine. Human intestines, for example, regrow after portions have been surgically removed because of cancer or injury, and hibernating animals see their intestines shrink to one-third their normal size during winter.

"One strategy animals use to deal with environmental variability is to tune the workings of their organ systems to match the conditions at hand," O'Brien said. "How exactly this 'organ adaptation' happens, particularly in adult animals that are no longer growing, has long been a mystery."

Following the surprising discovery of stem cells in the intestines of fruit flies five years ago, O'Brien and Bilder decided to investigate the role of adult stem cells in normal intestinal growth in hopes of finding clues to their role in vertebrates like us.

"I looked at stained stem cells in the fruit fly intestine, and they are studded throughout like jewels. The tissues were so beautiful, I knew I had to study them," O'Brien said.

O'Brien, Bilder and their colleagues discovered that when fruit flies feed, their intestines secrete insulin locally, which stimulates intestinal stem cells to divide and produce more intestinal cells.

"The real surprise was that the fruit fly intestine is capable of secreting its own insulin," BIlder said. "This intestinal insulin spikes immediately after feeding and talks directly to stem cells, so the intestine controls its own adaptation."

Stem cells can divide either asymmetrically, producing one stem cell and one intestinal cell, or symmetrically, producing two stem cells. The team found that, in response to food, intestinal stem cells underwent symmetric division more frequently than asymmetric division, which had the effect of maintaining the proportion of stem cells to intestinal cells, and is a more efficient way of ramping up the total number of cells, O'Brien said.

"Adaptive resizing of the intestine makes sense from the standpoint of physiological fitness," she said. "Upkeep of the intestinal lining is metabolically expensive, consuming up to 30 percent of the body's energy resources. By minimizing intestinal size when food is scarce, and maximizing digestive capacity when food is abundant, adaptive intestinal resizing by stem cells helps animals survive in constantly changing environments."

Bilder and O'Brien's coauthors on the Cell paper are UC Berkeley staff researchers Sarah S. Soliman and Xinghua Li.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and, for O'Brien, by a Genentech Foundation Fellowship of the Life Sciences Research Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. The original article was written by Robert Sanders.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Lucy Erin O'Brien, Sarah S. Soliman, Xinghua Li, David Bilder. Altered Modes of Stem Cell Division Drive Adaptive Intestinal Growth. Cell, 2011; 147 (3): 603-614 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.08.048

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/85FzIqaweQw/111027150209.htm

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Nightmare scenario: U.S. deflation risks rising (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Risks are rising that a moribund job market and potentially steep drop in inflation could push the United States into a downward spiral of falling wages and prices.

That nightmare scenario of deflation might seem remote considering a recent rebound in growth, and the Federal Reserve would almost certainly try to head it off, probably well before prices started to fall.

But some investors and economists say the risk is real.

Inflation is expected to more than halve over the next year as a spike in prices for goods like oil and grains unwinds. Unemployment, meanwhile, will likely hold at nearly double its pre-recession level well into next year, keeping incomes under pressure.

If forecasts are correct, that could present a dangerous combination the Fed might not allow to brew for very long.

"You run the models and that all points to deflation," said Joshua Dennerlein, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. "Without some kind of monetary policy help you would definitely get deflation."

Already, many forecasts for price increases are lower than they were a year ago when the Fed announced it would pump $600 billion into the banking system to boost growth and counter fears of deflation, which were growing at the time.

The inflation rate, which hit a three-year high of 3.9 percent in September, could fall to 1.3 percent by October 2012, according to a measure of expectations calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

That would leave the rate below the U.S. central bank's 1.7 percent to 2 percent comfort zone.

FOUNDATION FOR ACTION

With this year's inflation surge as a backdrop, the Fed is not expected to make any move at its policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

But looking to mid-2012, when the central bank's current stimulus program known as "Operation Twist" is due to expire, a high jobless rate and slowing inflation could look worrisome, especially if inflation expectations decline further.

"That would provide more of a foundation for action both to try to reduce the probability of slipping into deflation and to try to provide some more support for economic growth," said Randall Kroszner, an economist at the University of Chicago who served on the Fed's board until 2009.

When Kroszner was a policymaker, deflation fears were perhaps their highest since the Great Depression, the last time U.S. prices and incomes sank in a vicious, self-feeding cycle.

To counter inflation, central banks can always raise interest rates. But the Fed's normal tool kit for countering falling prices is limited since it has already cut short-term borrowing costs nearly to zero.

The key would be to find a way to ensure a deflationary psychology does not take hold. If consumers and businesses put off purchases because they could be cheaper down the road, that could undercut the economy and push prices down further.

While growth likely accelerated to around a 2.5 percent annual pace in the third quarter, nearly double the second-quarter rate, several Fed officials have continued to talk about steps they could take to spur a stronger recovery.

Some of the third quarter's relative strength reflects a one-time bounceback from shocks caused by a spike in oil prices and an earthquake in Japan that disrupted manufacturing.

And dark clouds remain. Economists say a worsening of Europe's debt crisis could easily send the United States back into recession, further increasing deflation risks.

MONEY PRINTING

Already, nearly one fifth of Americans believe their family incomes will fall during the next six months, the highest level of wage pessimism since October 2009, according to data released on Tuesday by the Conference Board.

At the same time, consumer expectations for long-term inflation, as measured by a Thomson-Reuters/University of Michigan survey, fell this month to the lowest level since the Fed was readying a $600 billion bond-buying plan a year ago.

Growth in wages has slowed markedly since the recession and they could eventually start falling if the unemployment rate remains high, said Paul Ashworth, and economist at Capital Economics in Toronto. A Reuters poll of economists expects the jobless rate to edge down to just 9 percent in the second quarter of 2012 from 9.1 percent now.

Some analysts think the Fed's extraordinary actions to help the economy -- it has already pumped $2.3 trillion into the banking system -- make it nearly impossible for a sustained deflation to take hold.

While much of that money has not seeped into the wider economy because of weak demand and tighter lending standards, eventually it will, greasing the gears of growth and fueling inflation, said Richard Burdekin, an economist at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.

"There is a legitimate concern about deflation," he said. "But to have a deflation when you have the sort of money growth we're seeing would be unprecedented."

Yet investors who believe most ardently that deflation is coming see evidence in the declines in the values of a number of asset classes. U.S. housing prices have fallen about a third since their pre-recession peak, while the Standard & Poor's stock index is down about a fifth. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodities index (.CRB) has also dropped about a third since its 2008 peak, and nearly 15 percent since April of this year.

"When you have deflation in all these other areas, it's kind of difficult to see how goods and services are going to resist the trend," said Gary Shilling, who formerly worked on the staff of the San Francisco Fed and as an economist at several Wall Street firms.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_deflation

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Michael Jackson's ex-GM sentenced on tax violation (AP)

WASHINGTON ? A judge on Tuesday spared Michael Jackson's former general manager prison time after she tearfully blamed a failure to file her tax returns on being overwhelmed with handling the affairs of the pop superstar and her ailing mother.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay sentenced Raymone Bain to five years' probation and to pay $202,422 in back taxes to the IRS and District of Columbia for the 2006-2008 tax years.

Prosecutors said Bain was earning $30,000 a month as president and general manager of the Michael Jackson Co. during that time. They asked Kay to lock her up for a year and a half to show that tax scofflaws will be punished.

"It's important that the law-abiding taxpayers of the United States are not dupes for following the law," prosecutor Karen Kelly told the judge, also noting that Bain has yet to file returns for 2009 or 2010. Bain later told The Associated Press that her attorney turned over the returns for those two years after the sentencing so her filings are up to date.

Bain pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to file returns ? one for the IRS and one for the District of Columbia, where she ran a public relations firm from the basement of her home. She specialized in handling media relations for high profile clients, including tennis star Serena Williams, longtime Washington mayor and councilman Marion Barry and rhythm and blues vocal group Boyz II Men.

Her attorney said the criminal charges have damaged her business because clients don't want someone with her problems speaking on their behalf.

Bain became Jackson's spokeswoman in 2003 and the singer promoted her to head of his company in 2006 after his child molestation trial. She said she was responsible for rehabilitating his image and finances, including negotiating the release of a CD to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his "Thriller" album, refinancing his loan to keep the Beatles' song catalog, and negotiations that led to a sold-out concert series in London cancelled because of his death. In 2009, she sued him for $44 million she said she was owed for handling the deals ? one of many former Jackson associates to sue for failure to pay ? but attorneys for his estate successfully argued to have the case thrown out last year.

Still, Bain spoke affectionately of her former boss in court Tuesday, referring to him as "the late king of pop Michael Jackson" in reading a statement to the judge pleading for mercy. She sobbed as she recalled how he and her mother, who had Alzheimer's disease, died six months apart in 2009.

"Addressing their needs, your honor, became my mission," she said in a quiet voice, shaking with emotion. She noted that she was granted extensions to file her taxes and said she had an appointment with her accountant to do so when the IRS came to her door.

"I was wrong not to stop and get things done and to focus, but I was an emotional wreck," she said.

Kay responded that being busy isn't an excuse for failing to file tax returns. He said Bain clearly had the resources and staff available to help her, noting prosecutors found deposits of roughly $1.3 million in accounts she controlled during the three years she didn't file taxes. But he said he would not send her to jail for the first-time offense. He gave her a 90-day sentence but suspended it and instead ordered the probation.

After the sentencing, Bain told the AP that she did not earn $1.3 million in income during those years. Prosecutors said those deposits could have included business expenditures but still showed she earned significant income to require that she file tax returns.

Bain issued a statement after Kay's decision, thanking him for "his compassion and leniency" and saying she's sorry to have made the mistake of not filing her taxes. "It will never happen again," she said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_en_mu/us_michael_jackson_manager

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China spacecraft to launch soon to test docking (AP)

BEIJING ? China will launch an unmanned spacecraft early next month that will attempt to dock with an experimental module, the latest step in what will be a decade-long effort to place a manned permanent space station in orbit.

In space, the Shenzhou 8 will carry out maneuvers to couple with the Tiangong 1 module now in orbit.

The ship and the modified Long March-2F rocket that will sling it into space were transferred early Wednesday to the launch pad at the Jiuquan space base on the edge of the Gobi desert in northern China, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Its exclusive report did not specify a date for the launch. Chinese space officials rarely speak to foreign media.

The 8.5-ton, box car-sized Tiangong 1 launched last month has moved into orbit 217 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth and is surveying Chinese farmland using special cameras, Xinhua said.

It is also conducting experiments involving growing crystals in zero gravity, the report said, citing the launch center's chief engineer, Lu Jinrong.

Following Shenzhou 8, two more missions, at least one of them manned, are to meet up with the module next year for further practice, with astronauts staying for up to one month.

Plans call for launching two other experimental modules for more tests before the actual station is launched in three sections between 2020 and 2022.

At about 60 tons when completed, the Chinese station will be considerably smaller than the International Space Station, which is expected to continue operating through 2028.

China launched its own space station program after being rebuffed in its attempts to join the 16-nation ISS, largely on objections from the U.S. It is wary of the Chinese program's military links and the sharing of technology with its chief economic and political competitor.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_sc/as_china_space

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Bold Stroke: New Font Helps Dyslexics Read [Slide Show]

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After years of fumbling while reading the written word, Christian Boer, a graphic designer from the Netherlands, has developed a way to help tackle his dyslexia . The 30-year-old created a font called Dyslexie that has proved to decrease the number of errors made by dyslexics while reading. The font works by tweaking the appearance of certain letters of the alphabet that dyslexics commonly misconstrue, such as "d" and "b," to make them more recognizable. This month Boer released the font in English for U.S. users to purchase online. [More]

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The Rangers' Best Move: How Texas Remembers Shannon Stone (Time.com)

It was a shocking tragedy, born of an innocent act: a big leaguer tossing a baseball into the stands so that a dad could give a gift to his son. On July 7, Texas Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton lobbed a foul ball into the crowd at Rangers Ballpark. He left it a tad short. Shannon Stone, a firefighter from Brownwood, Texas, whose young son was seated next to him, leaned over to snag it, only to fall over a railing, down 20 ft., headfirst, onto concrete behind the outfield wall.

At first, Stone was conscious, and before being taken to the hospital, he even asked that someone check on Cooper, his 6-year-old son. But soon after, Stone, 39, went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. He died within an hour, of blunt-force trauma. (Read more about the Shannon Stone tragedy.)

In the aftermath of the deadly accident, there seemed lots of blame could go around. Blame the Rangers: on two previous occasions, fans had fallen over railings and broken bones. The railings should be higher (and, indeed, after the World Series, the team will raise the barriers). Blame Hamilton, a man who has already battled alcohol and drug abuse, and now had to cope with this guilt. He should have put more mustard on that throw. And yes, maybe Stone could have been more careful.

But instead of threatening the Rangers with litigation, which would have been an understandable response, the Stones did something unusual: they tried to comfort them. Stone's widow Jenny and his mother Suzann sent handwritten notes to both Hamilton and the Texas team's president Nolan Ryan. "I thanked them for their kindness to our family," says Suzann. "But I especially wanted to write to Josh Hamilton and tell him not to feel like it was his fault in any way. I said, 'You know, what you did, you were just trying to make a memory for his little boy.'" (See a video of Cooper Stone throwing the first pitch at a Rangers game.)

"At one point they talked about not letting them throw the ball into the stands," Suzann says. "I said, 'Please don't do that. Please keep throwing those balls.' Because, you know, that will be such a memory."

The Texas Rangers, who enter Saturday night's Game 3 of the World Series tied with the St. Louis Cardinals at 1-1, are still playing ball with heavy hearts. But if the Stones aren't holding a grudge against the organization, how can anyone else? And even if you fault the Rangers for the tragedy, you can't deny their class in the aftermath.

In August, with the blessing of the Stone family, the Rangers announced that they will build a bronze statue in Shannon's honor. The statue will depict Shannon and Cooper at a game, and stand outside Rangers Ballpark. "I just got to thinking about what we can do to memorialize Shannon," Ryan told TIME from his St. Louis hotel room a few hours before the start of Game 1 of the World Series. "We didn't want this accident to just pass. The statue, to me, represents what we strive for as an organization ? families and sharing memories."

See how baseball is avoiding other sports' labor woes.

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Huge 'X-Factor' episode cuts 5 acts

Ray Mickshaw/Fox

Tiah Tolliver lit up the stage on "X Factor."

By Craig Berman, TODAY.com contributor

In a special event designed to accommodate the World Series and torture fans with itchy remote control trigger fingers and short attention spans, ?X Factor? cut the field from 17 acts to 12 over a gargantuan 2? hour episode Tuesday.

One by one, the four judges heard their mentees sing and then decided which three in each category would make it to next week. For those who couldn?t resist the opportunity to change the channel, or who didn?t have 150 minutes to devote to a singing competition, here?s what happened.

You know the acts who made you wonder what in the heck the judges were thinking when they picked them for the live shows?

They got the boot.

L.A. Reid sent home crooner Phillip Lomax, a nice-sounding young man who?s a much better for for ?American Idol,? or a jazz retrospective at the local senior center, or some other competition that is not this one.

Nicole Scherzinger said a tearful goodbye to Dexter Haygood, perhaps because his constant screaming was giving her and everyone else watching a migraine.

Paula Abdul agonized and agonized and then kicked off The Brewer Boys, a very entertaining duo with a bright future somewhere, but not in the same commercial class as the three acts she kept.

And after sniping at his fellow judges for criticizing his picks, Simon Cowell did the conventional thing and let go of his strange love for Tiah Tolliver and Simone Battle.

That doesn?t mean there aren?t some polarizing acts remaining. Rachel Crow can be annoyingly cloying. Stacy Francis always seems to be one comment away from a meltdown ? L.A. channeled the audience when he told her ?You know what I?m most proud of? You?re not crying. So don?t start.? The judge-created groups InTENsity and Lakoda Rayne could get old quickly.

But all in all, there wasn?t a lot of controversy. The acts picked were the ones most would have expected.

We also learned on Wednesday that:

• Steve Jones apparently has a clause in his contract that pays him based on whether the show finishes on time. He cut the judges off and herded them along like a frazzled tour guide in the airport security line.
• Every judge thinks they would be the best mentor for every one of the contestants, and would have made much better song choices had they been in charge of everyone.
• The latest attempt to make Nicole Scherzinger interesting is to give her a manufactured feud with Simon. Because that approach worked so well for Kara DioGuardi on ?Idol.?
• Most importantly for the future of Simon?s pet project, the diversity of acts that the ?X Factor? setup produces gives it a deeper and more entertaining field than the typical ?Idol? group of finalists. Instead of a bunch of people in the same age range singing the same type of songs, there are soloists from 13 to 60 and the group acts to break up the monotony, which at least make these supersized episodes more watchable.

?

Are you going to miss any of the acts that were cut? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!

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Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/26/8491225-x-factor-cuts-5-acts-in-xl-episode

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Russian journalist deported from Belarus (AP)

MINSK, Belarus ? A Russian newspaper journalist working on a report about the opposition in Belarus said Wednesday he was deported overnight from the authoritarian ex-Soviet nation by the secret police.

Igor Karmazin told The Asociated Press he was detained by plainclothes agents after speaking to Irina Khalip, the wife of jailed former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov. The reporter for the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily said his recordings were erased and he was barred from entering Belarus for a year.

"It's a triumph of injustice and trampling of law," Karmazin said.

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko has relentlessly cracked down on dissent and free media during his 17-year rule, prompting the U.S. and the European Union to impose economic and travel sanctions.

Lukashenko has relied on Russia's political and financial support, but has been locked in economic arguments with Moscow and often lashed out at Russian media.

KGB officials refused to comment on Karmazin's claim.

Lukashenko won another term in December in an election that sparked massive street protests against alleged vote fraud. The protests were violently dispersed by riot police and seven of the nine candidates who ran against Lukashenko were arrested, along with some 700 others.

Lukashenko has sought to tighten his grip on the 10-million nation with new legislation that boosts the already sweeping powers of the KGB. His critics saw the move as a reflection of Lukashenko's fear of rising public anger over the country's worst financial crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

The past summer saw a wave of demonstrations against Lukashenko's regime by people who clapped their hands, stomped their feet or simply smiled. Police rounded up demonstrators, who staged their protests through social networks, even though their actions did not violate any law.

The set of legal amendments, passed at a closed session of parliament earlier this month, now give police formal justification for clamping down on those taking part in the protests despite the absence of any political demands.

Lukashenko said Wednesday that his government has learned the lessons of the Arab Spring uprisings that have ousted repressive regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and knows how to deal with protests organized through social networks. "We have learned how to deal with this evil," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_re_eu/eu_belarus_journalist_deported

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Video: Kathie Lee, Hoda check out Hollywood?s hottest

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Shop Locally, Online: Five Local Farmers Market Favorites Not In Stores

So you stopped by the local farmers market and sampled the most ah-mayzing sauces ? and now you can?t find them in any market. Here are five fantabulous local goodies that may show up at specialty events but can otherwise only be bought online.

Pastamore: Forget Italy ? get gourmet, hand-made pastas through Pastamore along with infused olive oils, marinades and vinegars. We?re a huge fan of the sun-dried chipotle chile oil.
303-944-5122

Whit?s: Get your sweet tooth fix without adding toxins to the mix ?Whit?s caramelsare completely organic and 100 percent delicious.

Yaffa?s Savory: Chef Yaffa creates authentic Mediterranean fare. While there?s not a bad order in the house, we strongly suggest you go here for your tapenade needs.
720-971-4088

Cook-N-Shoupe: Cooking at higher temps for ?altitude infused? sauces, this local ?Microbrew of BBQ? currently features a bold-n-tangy mustard sauce and a sweet-n-spicy flavor. Heat seakers: Keep an eye out for their upcoming Angry Poltergeist with ghost peppers.
303-335-7378, 303-815-7512

Beyond the Grain: Blueberry infused sugar, Balsamic sea salt, handmade ginger extract, gumbo spice blend ? if you use it in the kitchen, Beyond the Grainoffers a tastier version of it.
720-854-5094

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The IPO market, an engine of job growth, stalls (AP)

NEW YORK ? Two companies with quirky names, Ubiquiti Networks and Zeltiq Aesthetics, made their public debuts earlier this month with listings on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Each company's stock went up modestly on the first day of trading.

Ubiquiti pocketed $106 million for the day, and Zeltiq made $91 million. They were the most successful stock debuts of the past two months. Then again, they were the only stock debuts of the past two months.

The market for initial public offerings, or IPOs, is suffering through a drought of Texas proportions. Companies thinking of going public are deciding it's just too risky.

The stock market lost nearly 20 percent of its value in a month this past summer. Swings of 200 points for the Dow Jones industrial average continue to be commonplace. Getting the timing wrong for a coming-out party can mean missing out on millions of dollars.

A dried-up IPO market matters because stock debuts aren't just a chance for tech whizzes to become overnight billionaires and ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Companies use the cash they raise to grow ? and that means hiring people.

And at a time when 14 million Americans are looking for work and the unemployment rate has been stuck near 9 percent for two years, the last thing the economy needs is for one engine of hiring to stall.

There are 215 companies waiting to go public. They've filed the necessary paperwork and lined up bankers, and are just holding out for the right time to unleash their stock. The waiting list is the longest since 2001, according to Renaissance Capital, an investment advice firm.

LogMeIn, a Massachusetts software company, went public in July 2009, raised $107 million and harnessed the cash to hire people. Within two years, its work force grew by a third, to 432 people. Without the IPO, the company might have added only 10 percent to its work force, says Jim Kelliher, the chief financial officer.

"It's cash to expand your business," he says.

That's how it usually works. For upstart companies, IPOs and hiring sprees go hand in hand:

? LinkedIn, the online social network for professionals, went public in May to fanfare, raising $353 million. In the three months through the end of June, it expanded its staff by 17 percent.

? Pandora, which streams music online, debuted in June. It bulked up the product development staff by 74 percent and sales and marketing by 125 percent. Pandora employed about 300 people at the end of January and now has more than 400.

? ReachLocal, an online marketing company, went public in May 2010. From the month before its coming-out party through the end of the year, its work force grew 30 percent, to 1,381.

In good times, an open door for stock market debuts can start a snowball of benefits, says Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Venture capital firms bankroll small upstarts, like Amazon and Google, years before they go public. A successful IPO enriches the venture capital backers. They then have an easier time raising money from new investors to plow into companies that might be the next Amazon or Google.

"There's a feedback effect," Kaplan says.

For profitable businesses, an IPO can also unlock the door to corporate debt markets, another source of cash that helps a company grow.

Entrepreneurs and investors describe going public as a crucial hurdle for fast-growing companies, one that divides the Amazons and Googles of the world from the graveyard of startups.

Those that clear the hurdle can transform themselves from obscure businesses to household names. A recent study by the National Venture Capital Association, a trade group, and IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, examined companies that went public from 1970 to 2010 and had been backed by venture capital before their IPO.

It found that 92 percent of the people hired by those companies over the four decades came on after the IPO.

A separate report by Nasdaq OMX, which owns the Nasdaq Stock Market, examined companies that went public from 2001 to 2009 and found that they increased their collective work force by 70 percent. The number of employed people in the United States in that time rose 1.3 percent.

Of course, the economy has bigger problems than a barren IPO market. Even if all the promising upstarts in line for an IPO went public, it might not put a dent in the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

And it's difficult to know exactly what companies will do with the money. Most are vague in regulatory paperwork about their next steps. And would-be public companies are barred from talking about their plans until a month after their debut.

Before this past summer, fast-growing companies like LinkedIn and Pandora had been jumping into the stock market at a brisk pace. The companies got a good initial price, and their stock generally did well after that. LinkedIn went public May 19, and its stock more than doubled on its first day.

For a while, it appeared that 2011 would be the best year for IPOs since the Internet bubble popped in 2000. Investors were ready for Internet companies like Zynga and Facebook to go public.

They're still waiting. The Dow lost more than 2,000 points from late July through mid-August. And while the market has rallied since early October, the past two months have been a series of up and down lurches.

As dry as it's been, the drought for IPOs is still not as bad as during the financial crisis. Just one company, Grand Canyon Education, managed to go public in six months, August 2008 to February 2009.

Faced with a long wait and a volatile stock market, some companies have decided to give up. At least 15 private companies have withdrawn their IPO paperwork from the Securities and Exchange Commission in the past two months.

Others are getting snapped up by larger corporations. Of the five companies that pulled their IPOs in September, three were acquired. Hitachi, Nestle and private equity firms all picked up companies that gave up their dream of going public.

What will it take to end the drought? Calmer markets. In recent weeks, moves by European officials to end the region's debt crisis have lifted stocks, but the market remains volatile.

In the meantime, companies are warily eyeing the calendar. Groupon, the daily-deal email service, plans to go public in early November. It was valued as high as $25 billion in June, but it now expects less than half that.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ipo_drought

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Video: Sara grants wishes at ?Boo at the Zoo?

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Letters to the editor (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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French forces join fight against Somali militants (AP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia ? Kenya on Sunday said that France's navy bombed a town in Somalia near a stronghold of al-Shabab, the first confirmation that a Western military force is involved in the latest push against the Islamist militia.

Thousands of people, meanwhile, fled a camp for the displaced near Somalia's capital on Sunday, fearing an imminent clash between African Union peacekeepers and the al-Qaida-linked militants who are trying to demonstrate their strength amid an assault on two fronts.

In the country's south, others braced for fierce battles as Kenyan soldiers closed in on a militant-held town in their weeklong effort to defeat the al-Shabab group blamed for suicide bombings, kidnapping foreigners and killing famine victims.

Kenyan forces last week moved into Somalia to fight al-Shabab, and on Sunday confirmation emerged that the East African country is receiving help in the fight from a Western power.

Kenyan military spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir said the French navy bombed the town of Kuday near the southern al-Shabab stronghold of Kismayo on Saturday night. A Nairobi-based diplomat told The Associated Press last week that France was carrying out military attacks in Somalia; French officials in Paris denied French forces were carrying out any attacks.

U.S. officials told AP last week that the United States had been pressuring Kenya to "do something" in response to a string of security incidents along the Kenya-Somalia border, but that Kenya's invasion of Somalia took the U.S. by surprise.

The U.S. has carried out precision strikes against militants in Somalia in recent years, but has not been involved in any wider military action since pulling out forces shortly after the 1993 military battle in Mogadishu known as "Black Hawk Down."

Chirchir said fighting was a likely to occur in the town of Afmadow "very soon." Afmadow lies near Kismayo.

"Most likely man-to-man battles will occur in Afmadow," he told The Associated Press. "That is one of the areas we really want to inflict trauma and damage on the al-Shabab basically to reduce their effectiveness completely so that they do not exist as a force."

Hundreds of residents were fleeing Afmadow Sunday in anticipation of fighting. Chirchir said al-Shabab were regrouping in the town of Bula Haji to face the Kenyan troops.

Somalia has been a failed state for more than 20 years, and the lawless country is a haven for pirates and international terrorists. Al-Shabab fighters have been waging a war against the weak Somali government for more than five years, but now face attacks on two fronts.

A force of 9,000 African Union peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda have been aiding the Somali forces. Al-Shabab retreated from Mogadishu amid a devastating famine a few months back, but re-emerged by staging their deadliest single bombing that killed more than 100 people.

African Union forces already have pushed the militants from their last base in the capital of Mogadishu, and those staying on the outskirts said they worried the battles were approaching. The African Union Mission to Somalia force, also known as AMISOM, said in a statement Sunday they had advanced to Mogadishu's outskirts.

"We want to pass here before the fighting closes the escape routes," said Salado Abdullahi, a mother of six, who was at a checkpoint in Mogadishu on Sunday.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber killed himself and wounded two AU troops when he ran after the AU convoy.

The Kenyan military sent troops into neighboring Somalia one week ago to pursue the militants following a string of kidnappings on Kenyan soil that were blamed on Somali gunmen. Al-Shabab has threatened to launch suicide bombings inside Kenya in retaliation, and the U.S. Embassy warned late Saturday than an imminent terrorist attack is possible.

Somali gunmen have kidnapped four Europeans in the last six weeks ? two from Kenya's Lamu coastal resort region and two from the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border. One of the hostages, a quadriplegic French woman, died on Wednesday.

The kidnappings have threatened Kenya's tourism industry, which had only recently bounced back from a near collapse after postelection violence left more than 1,000 dead several years ago.

Kenya's troops are untested and it isn't clear if they are prepared for a long-term occupation requiring counterinsurgency skills ? a scenario that ended U.S. and Ethiopian interventions during Somalia's 20-year-old civil war. The Somalia operation is Kenya's biggest foreign military commitment since independence in 1963.

However, al-Shabab has been weakened by a severe famine in its strongholds. Al-Shabab also is beset by internal divisions and public discontent over the group's strict punishments, recruitment of child soldiers and indiscriminate bombings.

___

Associated Press reporters Tom Odula and Jason Straziuso contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_re_af/af_somalia_kenya

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Anti-illegal immigration bill stokes backlash in Alabama fields

Farmers in states like Alabama that have passed strong anti-illegal immigration laws are fighting back, saying they are losing labor and that US workers are unwilling to take up farm work.

Farmers fearing a labor shortage are protesting recent immigration laws they say are too harsh, forcing undocumented workers to flee to prevent deportation. They say US workers are unwilling to endure the rigorous conditions of farm work and that state legislators need to come up with solutions to prevent local agribusiness from going under.

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More than 100 farmers and three state representatives in Alabama responded to the recent enactment of a slate of anti-illegal immigration laws by holding a public hearing this week in Oneonta, about 35 miles northeast of Birmingham. The farmers complained that they were already seeing laborers pack up and leave the state.

The new immigration laws will result in a $40 million hit to the state?s economy, with 10,000 illegal workers, each making about $5,000 a year, set to leave, according to a report released this week by the University of Alabama?s Center for Business and Economic Research.

Farmers are routinely the first to criticize immigration-reform efforts that target illegal workers, says Leo Chavez, a labor and immigration expert at the University of California, Irvine.

?If you get tough on undocumented immigrants, they lose their main labor force,? Mr. Chavez says.

There are already signs of an exodus in Alabama. The majority of school districts say that they?ve experienced a sharp drop in attendance of Hispanic students, a trend that prompted at least one superintendent to record a plea to parents that is airing continuously on a local Spanish-language television station.

Among its many measures, the new legislation in Alabama requires public-school officials to document which schoolchildren are not documented, plus it empowers law-enforcement officials to require documentation when people are pulled over for routine traffic stops.

Lawmakers at the farmers' hearing all said they stood by their support of the measures but said there were opportunities to tweak it to accommodate agribusiness concerns next session. In talking with the Birmingham News Thursday, state Rep. Jeremy Oden (R) said one solution was a temporary-worker program that would allow workers from outside the US to work here seasonally.

US Rep. Lamar Smith (R) of Texas is proposing a similar measure at the federal level, which would allow as many as 500,000 seasonal workers into the country each year. Yet many agribusiness leaders say guest-worker programs like these are costly, because they often require farmers to foot the bill for housing and other costs.

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Video: Equity Profits to Get Tougher?

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USB Animal Cushions: Providing The Warmth You Never Had [Gadgets]

Winter is creeping up. Luckily, your pet dog is there to greet you and offer the opportunity for a warming hug the minute you get home. But for animal lovers who are allergic to furs? Don't be discouraged — grabbing one of these USB Animal Cushions might be a solution. More »

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Old-time radio convention meets for last time

Writer and director Edgar Farr Russell III, left, directs Russell Horton, standing center, as Jughead Jones, and others during rehearsal of his "Radio Goes To War," episode, "Any Bonds Today" at the Friends of Old-Time Radio convention in Newark, N.J., Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. To devotees of old-time radio, Fibber McGee is still opening that closet and Fred Allen and Jack Benny are still enjoying their feud. But time has run out on this convention. This weekend's gathering of the Friends of Old-time Radio is the 36th and last, says the organizer. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Writer and director Edgar Farr Russell III, left, directs Russell Horton, standing center, as Jughead Jones, and others during rehearsal of his "Radio Goes To War," episode, "Any Bonds Today" at the Friends of Old-Time Radio convention in Newark, N.J., Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. To devotees of old-time radio, Fibber McGee is still opening that closet and Fred Allen and Jack Benny are still enjoying their feud. But time has run out on this convention. This weekend's gathering of the Friends of Old-time Radio is the 36th and last, says the organizer. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

A book about The Shadow radio series sits nearby as Lauri Bortz, dressed in a 1940's outfit, looks through bins of old radio programs at the Friends of Old-Time Radio convention in Newark, N.J., Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. To devotees of old-time radio, Fibber McGee is still opening that closet and Fred Allen and Jack Benny are still enjoying their feud. But time has run out on this convention. This weekend's gathering of the Friends of Old-time Radio is the 36th and last, says the organizer. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Lauri Bortz is dressed in a 1940's outfit as she looks through bins of old radio programs and movies at the Friends of Old-Time Radio convention in Newark, N.J., Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. To devotees of old-time radio, Fibber McGee is still opening that closet and Fred Allen and Jack Benny are still enjoying their feud. But time has run out on this convention. This weekend's gathering of the Friends of Old-time Radio is the 36th and last, says the organizer. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Writer and director Edgar Farr Russell III, left, directs Russell Horton, standing center, as Jughead Jones, and others during rehearsal of his "Radio Goes To War," episode, "Any Bonds Today" at the Friends of Old-Time Radio convention in Newark, N.J., Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. To devotees of old-time radio, Fibber McGee is still opening that closet and Fred Allen and Jack Benny are still enjoying their feud. But time has run out on this convention. This weekend's gathering of the Friends of Old-time Radio is the 36th and last, says the organizer. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) ? For one weekend a year, the ghosts and survivors of Jack Benny, Benny Goodman, Goodman Ace and hundreds of other legends of the old days of radio hold court at a hotel across the road from Newark Airport.

The annual Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention has been meeting for 36 years. But when it signs off Saturday night, it will be for the last time. The reason is simple, says Jay Hickerson, a musician who has been running the show from the beginning: the march of time.

"Lack of OTR (old-time radio) guests. And the committee is getting older," he said.

The gathering, humble as it is, used to be able to call on a constellation of stars from the early days of radio.

Now it's down to former child stars in their 80s and 90s. Arthur Anderson, 88, who acted as a teenager with Orson Welles, is an honored guest. Grandsons of 1930s song and dance star Eddie Cantor and Brace Beemer, the voice of the Lone Ranger for most of its run on radio, are on the program.

Collecting old-time radio shows and trivia has never been a young person's game. But most of the convention-goers are too young to have firsthand recollections of the shows they're buying, recreating and discussing on panels.

Gary Yoggy, 73, has been to all 36 of the conventions.

"It's my favorite weekend of the year. It tops Christmas," he said.

Yoggy, a retired history teacher from Corning, N.Y., is part of the committee that puts on the convention. He directed a re-creation of a Tom Mix episode for a Friday afternoon program.

"It's like reliving my youth," he said. "I was a kid when the golden age of radio was beginning to die."

Simon Jones is one of the celebrity guests for the weekend. Jones doesn't exactly qualify as a Golden Age of Radio star. He played Arthur Dent in the BBC's hugely popular radio and TV adaptations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, starting in 1978. But he's been here before and is delighted to be asked.

"I've learned quite a lot about what went on before me," he said.

Listeners who started as children, he said, make the most loyal fans. "If you can catch them that young, maybe they'll become addicted later on."

But it's not just the radio programs that bring participants back year after year.

Stuart Weiss has been part of the steering committee from the beginning. He moderates a music panel with Brian Gari, the Cantor grandson. Weiss likens the gathering to a family reunion.

"These are old friendships. But you don't keep in touch during the year. We come here, it's as if we were together yesterday," he said.

Weiss, a party supply salesman from Staten Island, was inspired by the convention to start his own radio show on the Internet. It's eight hours long.

"I can't stop," he said. The party supply business isn't doing too well these days, but "when I do my show, I forget all my problems. And for eight hours, I'm in heaven."

Sometimes the family aspect is literal. Gary Yoggy met his wife at the convention. They've been married 29 years. Jeff Muller, 45, has been coming since he was a teenager. He brings his father.

"I guess it's his second childhood, in a way," he said.

And when the curtain comes down, after Jay Hickerson and his wife Karen play "I'll Be Seeing You" and a version of "Thanks for the Memories," with special lyrics written for the convention?

Weiss joked he'll come back to the Newark Airport Ramada anyway and wander around empty rooms. Yoggy said he wants to help revive radio drama, which withered away decades ago, in the United States at least.

Jones, the Hitchhiker's Guide star, said the form remains alive in Britain. Next year, the radio version goes on a live tour.

"Obviously, this art form hasn't quite died," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-21-Old-Time%20Radio-Signing%20Off/id-bf1d667060cc49dabbcd778efcdd88a8

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