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Sunday 30 October 2011
Thursday 27 October 2011
Consumer confidence at lowest since recession (AP)
NEW YORK ? Americans say they feel worse about the economy than they have since the depths of the Great Recession.
Consumer confidence fell in October to the lowest since March 2009, a research group said Tuesday ? an ominous sign for the economy as families begin to prepare their budgets for holiday shopping season.
The declining mood reflects the big hit that the stock market took in late summer ? down almost 20 percent in one month ? as well as frustration with an economic recovery that doesn't really feel like one.
The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer sentiment came in at 39.8, down about six points from September and seven shy of what economists were expecting.
The reading is still well above where the index stood two and a half years ago, at 26.9. But it's not even within shouting distance of 90, what it takes to signal that the economy is on solid footing.
Economists watch consumer confidence closely because consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. The index measures how shoppers feel about business conditions, the job market and the next six months.
It had been recovering since hitting an all-time low of 25.3 in February 2009, but has taken a turn for the worse as Americans worry about stubbornly high unemployment, rising prices for food and clothes and an overall weak economy.
The index is based on a survey conducted Oct. 1-13 of about 500 randomly selected people nationwide.
It was three days after the survey got under way, on Oct. 4, that the stock market began a remarkable rally. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 12 percent in three weeks, from the Oct. 3 close through Monday's trading.
The Dow fell about 1 percent Tuesday, not just because of consumer confidence but because investors are worried about corporate earnings and about whether Europe can find a solution to its crippling debt problem.
The last time consumer confidence was this weak was also the turning point for the stock market in its severe downturn during the recession. It was in March 2009 that the Dow bottomed out at 6,547.
The survey found that a growing number of Americans are worried about making less money over the next six months. The proportion of people expecting a pay cut is about nine percentage points higher than those who expect a raise, the biggest gap since April 2009.
It also came exactly two months before Christmas, with retailers preparing for the holiday shopping season, their busiest.
"If people think their income is declining, they're not going to be inclined to spend," said Jacob Oubina, an economist at RBC Capital Markets.
Higher earners are also starting to lose confidence, a bad sign because they account for a disproportionate amount of spending. The confidence index for people making more than $50,000 has dropped for six months in a row.
"The upper income brackets have weathered the recession and recovery better than most citizens and declining confidence among this group is certainly unwelcome," Dan Greenhaus, an economist at BTIG, said in a note to clients.
Still, many economists cautioned that what consumers say and what they do can be two different things.
In September, for example, despite feeling bad about the economy, people increased their spending on retail goods by the most since March. More people bought new cars, a purchase people typically make when they are confident in their finances.
Christopher Rupkey, an economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, said in a note to his clients that he expects consumer confidence to "bounce back with stocks in next month's report."
And the survey found that people weren't as gloomy when it came to specific buying plans, several analysts pointed out.
The percentage of Americans who plan to buy a major appliance in the next six months, such as a television or washing machine, rose to 45.9 percent, up from 40.8 percent. Exactly half plan to take a vacation in the next six months, up from 46.9 percent.
___
Rugaber reported from Washington.
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Wednesday 26 October 2011
Netflix shares tank amid backlash and defections
FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2011 file photo, the exterior of Netflix headquarters is seen in Los Gatos, Calif. Netflix?s third-quarter earnings rose 65 percent even though the video subscription service suffered the biggest customer losses in its history, according to earnings reports released Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2011 file photo, the exterior of Netflix headquarters is seen in Los Gatos, Calif. Netflix?s third-quarter earnings rose 65 percent even though the video subscription service suffered the biggest customer losses in its history, according to earnings reports released Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Netflix shares plunged 35 percent Tuesday after the one-time Wall Street favorite revealed a massive departure of subscribers angered by price increases and other questionable changes at the rental service that was created to make entertainment a snap.
Netflix revealed late Monday that it ended September with 23.8 million U.S. subscribers. That's down about 800,000 from June and worse than what the company had hinted at before. In September, the company predicted it will lose about 600,000 U.S. customers.
And it may get worse. Netflix said it expects more defections in coming months.
The exodus began after the company raised its prices by as much as 60 percent in July and split up its streaming and DVD rental services. Its website was flooded by comments from angry customers. Many people also canceled service, especially on the DVD-by-mail side. The company is betting that its future is in streaming video, and CEO Reed Hastings has said he expects Netflix's DVD subscriptions to steadily decline, much like what has happened to AOL Inc.'s dial-up Internet service.
But Netflix bungled a spin off its DVD-by-mail service, giving it the name Qwikster and creating separate accounts for people who wanted both DVDs and movie streaming. By doing so, the company created what many perceived as a more complicated rental process at a company that began its meteoric rise with a new, easier way of searching for and finding entertainment effortlessly.
Netflix shares fell $41.47 to close Tuesday at $77.37. The stock is down from more than $300 just 3 ? months ago. The last time the stock was trading so low was in April 2010, but that was during its steep ascent.
The results prompted a downgrade to "Neutral" from "Buy" from Citi Investment Research analyst Mark Mahaney on Tuesday, who also slashed his target price on the stock to $95 from $220. The analyst called the price increase and the abandoned plan to separate Netflix's DVD business two "major execution errors."
Netflix Inc. did report better-than-expected financial results for the third quarter, but that was drowned out by the din of subscriber cancellations, expense controls and a one-time tax benefit, said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.
Pachter cut his target price to $82.50 from $110 on Netflix's stock and kept his rating at "Neutral."
Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix said it does not comment on stock movement or analyst reports.
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ARM doubles Q3 profit, sees surge in revenue, is understandably pleased
The news just keeps getting better and better for ARM Holdings. Today, the chip designer reported third quarter net profits of £31.5 million ($50.4 million), more than double the £14.8 million it reported during Q3 2010. Revenue, meanwhile, rose to $192.3 million -- a 22 percent increase over the previous year, and a slightly higher figure than previously expected. In a statement, chief executive Warren East attributed these results to a "continued high level of design activity, with many new customers licensing ARM technology for the first time, driven by end-market requirements for smarter, low-power chips." Indeed, a total of one billion ARM mobile chips were shipped this quarter (up ten percent from last year), and the company expects to rake in about $763 million in total revenue, by the end of 2011. Find figures and facts galore, at the source link below.
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Tuesday 25 October 2011
Is she a heroic mom or a shrewd killer?
EARLY, Iowa?? Something shocking happened one cold night a decade ago in this quiet country town of 500 people, but even now, just one fact about it all is undisputed:
Tracey Roberts, at home with her three children, fired 9 shots from two guns into her 20-year-old neighbor, leaving him dead on the floor of her bedroom.
Tall and thin with curly brown hair and blue eyes, she was 35 at the time. It wasn't long before her image appeared in newspaper coverage of the shooting and even on a national TV talk show, where she was celebrated as a heroic mother who acted in self-defense to protect herself and her young children from men who broke into her home and assaulted her.
But today, folks in Early are weighing a contradictory view and a slew of questions: Could she be a master manipulator who planned the killing and concocted an elaborate hoax that let her get away with murder? What exactly is written in the pink journal that police found, and does it show she was justified, or that she's guilty?
This is the story of a case that baffled investigators and stalled for years. Of an agent whose work resurrected the case and a rookie prosecutor who became obsessed with it. Of the quiet young man whose death ripped apart his family. Of townspeople who panicked after the shooting but soon suspected the official account did not add up.
Above all, it is the story of a woman who left a trail of deceit from Chicago to Nebraska and has a history of making sensational allegations that are never proven.
She insists she is telling the truth.
In a trial starting Tuesday, jurors will decide whom to believe.
___
It was a Thursday evening, Dec. 13, 2001, and Kenlee Schomaker and his wife Jane, emergency medical technicians for the volunteer fire department, were sitting in their Early home when the pager went off.
Shots had been fired a few doors down in their neighborhood. At least one person was injured and one or more suspects were on the loose. The EMT couple rushed to the blue, two-story colonial on South Avenue where Tracey and Michael Roberts lived. It was one of the nicest houses in town.
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Kenlee Schomaker remembered what they had been taught about scene safety: Do not enter a home until it is secure. Three sheriff's deputies arrived, scoured the house, found no suspects inside and waved them in.
Climbing stairs to the bedroom, the EMTs spotted a man slumped at the bottom of the bed in a pool of blood. Shell casings scattered the room. One bullet had gone into the back of his head and out through his eye socket. His eye was gone.
He had no pulse, and Schomaker told a deputy that rescue attempts would be futile.
As the EMTs left, they heard Tracey Roberts, in the kitchen with her three kids and deputies, screaming.
Her report that two other intruders escaped sent deputies canvassing everywhere. Fear quickly spread in a town where folks usually leave their doors unlocked. One of the Schomakers' neighbors would spend that night at their house. Another borrowed shells to load his shotgun.
The dead man was Dustin Wehde. He mowed the grass at property Schomaker owned; nice if you knew him, quiet if you didn't. He had few friends; folks remembered him as a kid who played golf and liked video games. Was he the type to break into anyone's home?
Besides, he was close to the Robertses, who took him to church and to play paintball. His mother, Mona Wehde, was a real estate agent who was among the first to welcome them to town.
Had Dustin been trying to protect Tracey from the other man and been killed in a mixup? Or was it something else entirely?
Whatever happened, Schomaker told a reporter two days after the shooting, Tracey Roberts had to go through hell to be scared like that, to have fired so many times.
___
Just three days after the shooting, Roberts showed up alone at the back door of Mary Cullen's home 15 miles away in Storm Lake. Cullen gave piano lessons to Roberts' 11-year-old son Bert, but the visit wasn't about that.
Cullen's husband John was publisher of the Storm Lake Times, and Roberts wanted to get her story out. John's brother Art, the paper's editor, conducted the interview.
Her retelling of the ordeal crackled with drama: With her husband on a business trip, she was home with her three children ? Bert, 3-year-old Noah and 1-year-old Mason ? when Wehde and another man barged through her unlocked door. One of the men choked her with panty hose that had been hanging from the staircase. She lost her glasses and blacked out. She woke to the sound of Bert screaming; he was holding a baseball bat to protect his younger siblings.
Roberts continued: She ran to the bedroom and reached for the gun safe. Wehde tugged at her hair and yanked on her feet. When the safe opened, she grabbed a 9 mm handgun and pulled the trigger. Nothing. The safety was on. She groped, unlocked it, then fired. Most of the shots hit.
Next, she said, she grabbed a revolver from the safe. She spotted Wehde trying to get up and fired that gun at him. His movement stopped. The second man fled the house (She would later explain she was mistaken when she initially told a deputy two men had gotten away).
Bert dialed 911.
"TRACEY ROBERTS TELLS HER STORY," was the Dec. 19 headline. Subheads added: "Strangled with panty hose, she warded off attackers to protect her children," and "'You're next,' intruder tells boy." The Times published a picture of her apparently bruised neck, which was checked out at a hospital.
TV personality Montel Williams invited Roberts to tell the story to a national audience.
Before the cameras, she and husband Michael held hands as she calmly spoke: "I did what I had to do to protect my family."
Applauding, Williams called her actions justifiable homicide.
___
An investigation by the Sac County Sheriff's Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation remained open but no second intruder was ever found and no charges were filed as of late 2002.
On Thanksgiving Day, Dustin's father, Brett Wehde, took a walk through the cemetery where his son was buried alongside relatives, his marble headstone emblazoned with engravings of his interests ? a snowmobile, a golf cart, a computer ? and inscribed, "Brett and Mona's beloved son."
After Dustin was killed, Brett and Mona broke up and filed for divorce. Brett was distraught over the crumbling of his family. At the graveside, he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
The suicide of the well-known Brett hit Early hard.
Mona wanted answers. She filed a wrongful death lawsuit attempting to hold Tracey Roberts accountable for Dustin's death and to learn what happened that night. Why had Roberts really killed Dustin?
Her attorney picked up on inconsistencies in Roberts' story as she told and retold it. In one account, she knew it was Dustin pulling at her legs; in another, she did not find out the victim's identity until later. In different accounts, she fired from different positions.
In the end, Mona Wehde dropped the lawsuit just days before trial. State lawyers argued the planned testimony of a DCI agent could hamper the investigation.
But what investigation? Though never closed, it seemed to go nowhere. And years passed.
___
In January 2011, Sac County had a new prosecutor.
Ben Smith had left his job as a young lawyer for the attorney general's office and moved home with his parents months earlier to run for county attorney. A former running back at nearby Buena Vista University, he won handily. Now, taking office, he was inexperienced and swamped with work.
On his second day, DCI Special Agent Trent Vileta stopped by to welcome him ? but added, "I want to tell you about this one case."
Vileta, a former Milwaukee police officer, had been assigned to take a fresh look at Wehde's death in 2008. He had gone through the evidence, re-interviewed those involved, re-read Tracey's statements, traded emails with her.
He'd helped bring in an expert on blood splatters who concluded the last three shots went through the back of Dustin's head while he was face down on the ground.
Smith remembered hearing reports about Wehde's death when he was in college, and thinking: "Stupid kids. That's what happens when you break into a home." He hadn't thought about the case since and told Vileta he needed time to settle into his new job before he could.
But the agent wouldn't let it go. He'd send Smith photos of the crime scene to pique his interest. After hours, they'd spend time playing "Call of Duty," the prosecutor's favorite video game. Finally, Smith promised he'd spend a weekend reviewing the case ? and he was immediately hooked.
Working late nights and weekends, he went through years of files, putting together what he would later call 10 years of motive for the shooting and 10 years of twists and turns since.
The effort was exhausting. Smith's mother told him attending church would be a stress reliever. But there, a reading from Jeremiah instead gave him goosebumps. "To you I have entrusted my cause," the biblical passage began ? but the reader said "case" instead. "For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked."
Within months, Smith would file a first-degree murder charge against Tracey, who now goes by her maiden name of Richter.
____
The criminal complaint cited a key piece of evidence found by investigators in Dustin's car. After months of speculation in town, prosecutors revealed this month it was a pink spiral notebook that claimed to be his diary.
In Dustin's sloppy handwriting, it suggested he had been hired as a hitman by a "mysterious fellow" named John Pitman III, who was Tracey's first husband.
"J.P. wants me to get/force his ex T.R. to kill her son Burt and then commit suicide, and if that plan fails Plan B is to make it appear as though T.R. had committed the murder of her son & then committed suicide," he wrote.
While it was Dustin's writing, investigators never believed it was credible. Dustin, a special education student, did not like to write and he'd never met Pitman. They decided to keep the journal's existence and contents a secret. Anyone who had knowledge of it could be involved in setting up Dustin.
Prosecutors suspect Tracey had convinced Dustin to write the diary, perhaps on the day of his death. Mona Wehde says Tracey had asked the day before to have Dustin come over to do some "copy work" for their computer business.
An old acquaintance of Tracey Roberts later came forward and said Tracey told her about the notebook days after the shooting and that her ex-husband would soon be arrested in connection with the home invasion.
Tracey and Pitman, a plastic surgeon, had been married in Chicago in 1988 and split up four years later after having Bert. (He has not responded to AP requests for comment on his mother's case.) During a bitter divorce, child support and custody litigation, Tracey went to police claiming that Pitman had sexually abused the 3-year-old boy.
Pitman called the allegation false and spent years trying to clear his name. When the divorce was finalized in 1996, a judge ruled there was zero evidence to support the claim.
Later in 1996, Tracey married Australian businessman Michael Roberts and they would move to Iowa and have two kids together. But her feuding with Pitman continued.
In early 2001, she went to authorities with new allegations that Pitman had abused Bert, which were quickly dismissed. Pitman responded by filing legal actions claiming she was interfering with his visitation rights and alienating him from his son. Tracey worried about possibly losing custody of Bert and having to travel to Chicago for court.
A judge ordered that she be deposed days before Dustin was shot, but it was cancelled at the last minute.
At the time, another strange legal case involving Tracey was also wrapping up. She had filed a lawsuit in 1998 accusing a Chicago dentist of sexually assaulting her while she was sedated during a procedure. He called her claims bogus. In the end, she received a small settlement and dropped the suit ? again, just days before Dustin was killed.
___
In the decade since the shooting, Tracey's life has taken more bizarre turns.
After Roberts filed for divorce from her in 2004, she tried to pin involvement in the home invasion and Dustin's death on him. She told the county sheriff that he used to talk in his sleep and would mention something about a journal that would set him free.
She started a Web site calling him a deadbeat dad and alleging that he may have been the second intruder. He told police that she tried to kill him ? twice ? but these and other allegations were dismissed by law enforcement as bogus he-said, she-said claims.
After she moved to Omaha, she told police in 2009 her Lexus had been broken into and Michael Roberts was likely to blame. Investigators found no evidence of a break-in but learned she had carried out an elaborate scheme to assume a fake identity.
She'd altered her divorce decree to give herself a fabricated maiden name ? Sophie Edwards ? which she then used to obtain a driver's license, a new Social Security number and a passport. She pleaded no contest to welfare fraud in Nebraska and was convicted of vehicle licensing perjury in Iowa, but she avoided jail. Federal passport fraud charges are pending.
___
For all the complexity swirling around his client, defense attorney Scott Bandstra said her defense in the murder case will actually be simple for jurors to understand.
It's about self-defense, about a mother protecting her children from intruders, and an investigation that failed to find the truth. He said he looks forward to telling "Tracey's story ? and by story I mean her statement of what happened." He will present a theory about who the second intruder could be.
"Dec. 13, 2001 was a nightmare for Tracey. The nightmare is not over."
Now 45 and facing life in prison if convicted, she has been held on $1 million bail at the jail in Sac City. She's getting support from her fianc? in Omaha and her parents, who live up the road in Rembrandt. Her father, Bernard Richter declined comment, saying reporters write about defendants without thinking about "their poor family." He said he knows from experience: he's a retired Chicago homicide detective.
At the courtroom in Fort Dodge, Smith will be joined by an experienced prosecutor with the Iowa Attorney General's office. The county attorney said he hopes to get justice for Mona Wehde ? and then quickly put the case that has consumed his life behind him.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45007535/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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Monday 24 October 2011
Volcker wants crackdown on money market funds, GSEs (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is advocating for regulatory control over the money-market mutual fund industry and believes the government should stop financing mortgages.
Volcker said in a recent speech that money market funds have exacerbated stress in the financial markets because they pulled back on short-term lending to European banks.
If money-market funds are to continue providing significant funding to regulated banks, they should be subject to capital requirements, deposit insurance protection and stronger oversight of their investments, Volcker said.
"The time has clearly come to harness money market funds in a manner that recognizes both their structural importance in diverting funds from regulated banks and their destabilizing potential," Volcker said in a speech last month that was highlighted by The New York Times on Saturday.
The speech, titled "Three Years Later: Unfinished Business In Financial Reform," also criticized the government's role in the U.S. mortgage market through government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Today, he noted, the U.S. residential mortgage market is almost entirely dependent on financial support from taxpayers. The federal government placed those entities into conservatorship in 2008 and has funded hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of losses on their mortgage portfolios.
"It is important that planning proceed now on the assumption that Government Sponsored Enterprises will no longer be a part of the structure of the market," Volcker said.
In his interview with the Times, Volcker acknowledged that it will take time to remove government support from the mortgage market, which is still struggling to repair itself, but said policymakers now have "an opportunity to get rid of institutions that shouldn't exist."
Volcker's opinions are highly regarded among some economists and regulators and he was a top adviser to President Barack Obama on financial regulatory reform.
But a measure he championed to restrict banks' ability to bet with their own capital, now known as the Volcker rule, has become a target for financial industry lobbyists seeking to blunt its impact on Wall Street profits.
(Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
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iPhone used to record parts of Marvel?s ?The Avengers? feature film (with video)
Oct 21, 2011 - 05:30 PM EDT ? AAPL: 392.87 (-2.44, -0.62%) | NASDAQ: 2637.46 (+38.84, +1.49%)
?It was revealed on Thursday that the cinematographer filming ?The Avengers? used an iPhone to shoot footage for the upcoming high-budget film,? Chris Smith reports for AppleInsider.?The Irish Film and Television Network reported that Oscar-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, in his first big-budget action film, used Apple?s smartphone instead of high-priced equipment for certain shots in the super-hero blockbuster,? Smith reports. ??On ?The Avengers,? I did a couple of shots on the iPhone and they are in the movie,? McGarvey said. ?In fact they are in the trailer!??
Smith reports, ?Detailing his decision to use the iPhone, McGarvey explained that he didn?t make a compromise when choosing the handset, saying that ?every piece of kit should be tailored to what you?re trying to achieve.? He goes on to underscore that camera equipment does not define a film, but rather the decisions made with what is available.?
Read more in the full article here.
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Iraq war over, US troops coming home, Obama says (AP)
WASHINGTON ? America's long and deeply unpopular war in Iraq will be over by year's end and all U.S. troops ""will definitely be home for the holidays," President Barack Obama declared Friday.
Stretching more than eight years, the war cost the United States heavily: More than 4,400 members of the military have been killed, and more than 32,000 have been wounded.
The final exit date was sealed after months of intensive talks between Washington and Baghdad failed to reach agreement on conditions for leaving several thousand U.S. troops in Iraq as a training force. The U.S. also had been interested in keeping a small force to help the Iraqis deal with possible Iranian meddling.
The task now is to speed the pullout of the remaining U.S. forces, nearly 40,000 in number.
Staying behind in Iraq, where bombings and other violence still occur, will be some 150-200 U.S. military troops as part of embassy security, the defense attache's office and the office of security cooperation. That's common practice but still a danger to American forces.
Obama, an opponent of the war since before he took office, nevertheless praised the efforts of U.S. troops in Iraq. He said American soldiers would leave "with their heads held high, proud of their success."
For Obama, Friday's announcement capped a remarkable two days of national security successes, though there's no indication how much they will matter to re-election voters more concerned with economic woes at home.
On Thursday, the president heralded the death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and a day later the end to one of the most divisive conflicts in U.S. history.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the U.S. more than $1.3 trillion.
Obama did not declare victory.
He did speak, though, about the string of wins on his watch ? none bigger than the killing of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The Afghanistan war still rages, but there, too, Obama has moved to end the combat mission by the end of 2014.
This was, in essence, the third time Obama had pronounced an end to the war, allowing him to remind the nation he had opposed it all along ? a stance that helped his White House bid in 2008.
Shortly after taking office, Obama declared in February 2009 that the combat mission in Iraq would end by Aug. 31, 2010. And when that milestone arrived, he said it was "time to turn the page" on Iraq and put the focus back on building up the United States. On Friday, he said: "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March of 2003 after reports, later discredited, that the country was developing weapons of mass destruction. By early April, American Marines were helping Iraqis pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Saddam was captured in December of that year and executed in 2006, but the war dragged on.
The ending was set in motion before Obama took office. In 2008, President George W. Bush approved a deal calling for all U.S. forces to withdraw by Dec. 31, 2011.
At issue was whether that deal would be renegotiated to keep thousands of U.S. forces in Iraq. The Obama administration and Iraqi government spent months debating whether the United States would keep troops to maintain a training force, to provide added stability in a country where spectacular attacks still occur, and to serve as a hedge against Iran.
Throughout the talks, Iraqi leaders refused to give U.S. troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the Americans refused to stay without that guarantee.
Obama never mentioned that issue on Friday.
He said that after speaking with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, both were in agreement on how to move forward. Obama said the two nations will now deal with each other in the normal fashion of sovereign countries and will keep open the idea of how the United States might help train and equip Iraqi forces.
"Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home," Obama said. "The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing the American people stand united in our support for our troops."
The Associated Press first reported last week that the United States would not keep troops in Iraq past the year-end withdrawal deadline, except for some soldiers attached to the U.S. Embassy.
"Both countries achieved their goals," said Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Moussawi. "Iraq wanted full sovereignty while the United States wanted its soldiers back home, and both goals are achieved."
In addition to remaining military forces, Denis McDonough, White House deputy national security adviser, said the U.S. will have 4,000 to 5,000 contractors to provide security for American diplomats.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States will now "turn our full attention to pursuing a long-term strategic partnership with Iraq based on mutual interests and mutual respect." He said the goal is to establish a relationship with Iraq similar to other countries in the region.
"Iraq is a sovereign nation that must determine how to secure its own future," Panetta said.
Obama's announcement was applauded by congressional Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who called it "the right decision at the right time."
Republicans were more skeptical. Many praised the gains made in Iraq and gave Obama at least partial credit but expressed concern that getting troops out would bring that progress into question.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he feared that "all we have worked for, fought for and sacrificed for is very much in jeopardy by today's announcement. I hope I am wrong and the president is right, but I fear this decision has set in motion events that will come back to haunt our country."
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney accused Obama of an "astonishing failure" to secure an orderly transition in Iraq, and said, "The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government."
The U.S. said repeatedly this year it would entertain an offer from the Iraqis to have a small force stay behind, and the Iraqis said they would like American military help. But as the year wore on and the number of American troops that Washington was suggesting could stay behind dropped, it became increasingly clear that a U.S. troop presence was not a sure thing.
The issue of legal protection for the Americans was the deal-breaker.
But administration officials said they feel confident that Iraqi security forces are well prepared to take the lead in their country.
McDonough said that one assessment after another of the preparedness of Iraqi forces concluded that "these guys are ready; these guys are capable; these guys are proven; importantly, they're proven because they've been tested in a lot of the kinds of threats that they're going to see going forward."
The president used the war statement to once again turn attention back to the economy, the domestic concern that is expected to determine whether he wins re-election.
"After a decade of war," he said, "the nation that we need to build and the nation that we will build is our own."
__
Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and Jim Kuhnhenn, Erica Werner and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this story.
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Iraq PM: Immunity issue scuttled US troop deal (AP)
BAGHDAD ? Iraq's prime minister said Saturday that U.S. troops are leaving Iraq after nearly nine years of war because Baghdad rejected American demands that any U.S. military forces to stay would have to be shielded from prosecution or lawsuits.
The comments by Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, made clear that it was Iraq who refused to let the U.S. military remain under the Americans' terms.
A day earlier, President Barack Obama had hailed the troops' withdrawal as the result of his commitment ? promised shortly after taking office in 2009 ? to end the war that he once described as "dumb."
"When the Americans asked for immunity, the Iraqi side answered that it was not possible," al-Maliki told reporters in Baghdad. "The discussions over the number of trainers and the place of training stopped. Now that the issue of immunity was decided and that no immunity to be given, the withdrawal has started."
Nearly 40,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, all of whom will withdraw by Dec. 31 ? a deadline set in a 2008 security agreement between Baghdad and Washington.
But continued violence across Iraq, coupled with growing influence by the Shiite power Iran over the government in Baghdad, prompted the Obama administration earlier this year to push to keep thousands of U.S. troops here for years to come. The two nations negotiated for months over whether U.S. forces should stay ? a politically delicate issue for Obama and al-Maliki, both of whom faced widespread opposition from their respective publics to continue a war that was never popular in either nation.
U.S. officials, from Obama to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, stressed that Washington will continue to have a strong diplomatic relationship with Baghdad despite the absence of military forces to help guide Iraq to stability.
Washington has long worried that Iranian meddling in Iraq could inflame Sunni tensions with Iraq's Shiite-led government and set off a chain reaction of violence and disputes across the Mideast.
In an interview released Saturday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Tehran has "a very good relationship" with Iraq's government, and that this relationship will continue to grow.
"We have deepened our ties day by day," Ahmadinejad said in an interview broadcast Saturday with CNN's Fareed Zakaria.
Al-Maliki told reporters he still wants American help in training Iraqi forces to use billions of dollars worth of military equipment that Baghdad is buying from the United States. He did not say if the prospective U.S. trainers would be active-duty troops, and said any immunity deals for them would have to be worked out in the future.
About 160 U.S. troops will remain at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to help oversee training plans ? a duty that is common at most American diplomatic posts worldwide.
Michael O'Hanlon, an expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington said continued violence in Iraq was always a threat, whether or not U.S. troops remain.
"But it's true that their frequency may increase absent U.S. help in areas of intelligence and special operations," said O'Hanlon, who was among a group of Bush administration officials and academics who called on Obama to keep a robust U.S. force in Iraq. "In addition, I do fear the residual risk of civil war goes up with this decision, as the north in particular will become more fraught."
___
Associated Press Writers Bushra Juhi and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.
Rebecca Santana can be reached at _http://twitter.com/ruskygal
Lara Jakes can be reached at _http://twitter.com/@larajakesAP
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Sunday 23 October 2011
Environmentalists want Chatsworth Nature Preserve left alone
Jarron Lucas tromped through waist-high brush at the Chatsworth Nature Preserve, flipping over weathered boards.
"Let's see if anyone's home," he said, lifting a plank. Coiled underneath was a reddish snake with dark brown cross bands on its neck. Lucas reached down and snatched the young red racer. "It's just a baby," he said as the slender 14-inch snake writhed in his hand. Male, too, he said, judging from the long tail.
A few yards away, he found a 4-foot adult female red racer thick as a broom handle. "It's the little guy's mamma," Lucas said with a smile.
"You never know what you're going to find out here," Lucas, spokesman for the Southwest Herpetologists Society, said as he surveyed the brushy landscape tinged with the spicy scents of white sage and milkweed. "There's no place like it in the city. We can't afford to lose it."
The herpetologists society, the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society and other environmental groups are concerned that Los Angeles' plan to allow construction of 44 acres of wetlands and transfer control of the property from the Department of Water and Power to the Department of Recreation and Parks could inadvertently degrade the largely undeveloped area, which is rich in wildlife.
The 1,300-acre preserve in the northwestern San Fernando Valley is still a place where two-striped garter snakes, black-headed snakes and desert night snakes slither through willow forests and grasslands. Horned lizards and whiptail lizards skitter over sandy slopes. Worm salamanders cling to the moist stone walls of an old storm drain. After a heavy spring rain, ponds are black with toad tadpoles, which attract migrating shorebirds.
The herpetological community is still talking about a Western spadefoot toad recently discovered in a marsh at the preserve. Spadefoot toads, which get their name from a distinctive hard, black projection on each hind foot, had not been seen in the area for more than a decade.
Republic Services Inc. aims to establish 44 acres of riparian and wetland habitat within the property to mitigate the loss of similar habitat at its Sunshine Canyon Landfill near Sylmar. For now, the Department of Recreation and Parks plans to maintain the property in its natural state. But some local residents want the agency to build biking, hiking and equestrian trails, as well as wildlife viewing platforms.
Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander, whose district includes the preserve, said the environmentalists' fears were misplaced. "I'm leading a parade to protect this preserve forever, and I'm asking them to join me," he said. "As it stands, the DWP could sell this property for a graveyard, a golf course or a high-density apartment complex."
By charter, the city Recreation and Parks Department can't sell the parcel, Englander noted. "It would not be a recreational facility," he said. "Instead, it would be used for docent-led tours and open to people and groups like the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society and schoolchildren.
"The only point we differ on is whether or not the mitigation would enhance the habitat."
But that's a big point to supporters of the preserve. "This place doesn't need one thing done to it; it is fine just as it is," said Lucas, a DWP reservoir keeper and tour guide at the preserve. "If the city's plans go through, there'll be nothing special left here in 20 years. It will turn into another Lake Machado."
Lake Machado is best known as the swampy hide-out of Reggie, the abandoned alligator who eluded animal control officers for two years before being captured and sent to the Los Angeles Zoo. The 31-acre lake and surrounding Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park are plagued by trash and unwanted alien species: bullfrogs, apple snails as big as baseballs and Florida banded water snakes.
"What we have right now is a functioning nature preserve teeming with wildlife," said Mark Osokow, a board member of the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society.
louis.sahagun@latimes.com
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Saturday 22 October 2011
Jackson doctor's defense challenges key expert
Dr. Conrad Murray looks on during his involuntary manslaughter trial in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, Pool)
Dr. Conrad Murray looks on during his involuntary manslaughter trial in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, Pool)
Anesthesiology expert Dr. Steven Shafer holds a bottle of propofol while testifying during Dr. Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, Pool)
Anesthesiology expert Dr. Steven Shafer gestures while holding a propofol bottle during Dr. Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in downtown Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, Pool)
Anesthesiology expert Dr. Steven Shafer demonstrates the use of propofol while testifying during Dr. Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, Pool)
Dr. Conrad Murray looks on during his involuntary manslaughter trial in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, Pool)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The lead attorney for the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death challenged a key prosecution expert Friday about his contention that the physician was responsible for the death of the singer.
Attorney Ed Chernoff cross-examined Dr. Steven Shafer, who previously testified that the only plausible explanation for the death was that Jackson had been hooked up to an IV drip of the anesthetic propofol then left alone by Dr. Conrad Murray.
"That's a bold claim, isn't it," Chernoff asked.
"It's an honest statement," Shafer replied.
Chernoff also questioned the Columbia University researcher and professor about his IV demonstration for jurors on Thursday.
The defense attorney suggested Shafer had drawn conclusions that weren't necessarily supported by the evidence. Chernoff said the type of IV line that Shafer used in the demonstration was never found at Jackson's house.
Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He could face up to four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license if convicted.
Shafer was expected to be the last witness called by the prosecution. After Shafer's testimony ends, defense attorneys will begin presenting their case.
In a development outside the presence of jurors, Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor set a Nov. 16 hearing to determine whether he should find defense expert Dr. Paul White in contempt for talking to a reporter on Thursday in violation of a gag order.
E! Entertainment reported Thursday on its website that White called either Shafer or Deputy District Attorney David Walgren a "scumbag."
White said in court that he didn't recall making the statement.
He told Pastor that he had talked to Walgren after the prosecutor pulled a tab from the side of a bottle of propofol that was recovered at Jackson's mansion.
He said he told Walgren it was "inappropriate to tamper with evidence found at the scene."
White and Shafer are colleagues at Columbia University and have known each other for nearly 30 years.
In a closed chambers meeting before court started on Friday, Walgren asked that White be expelled from the courtroom for the remainder of Shafer's testimony.
The judge declined, and Chernoff said he was embarrassed by the incident and he would ensure it didn't happen again. He said White had been hurt by Shafer's criticism of him during testimony.
Pastor previously ordered Chernoff's partner, Matt Alford, to appear at a contempt hearing over comments made during a network TV interview.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
___
McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
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At schools, stores and hospitals, Californians prepare for quake
Millions of Californians took part in one of the largest-ever simultaneous earthquake drills Thursday, sending students, hospital workers and even Target shoppers dropping for cover at 10:20 a.m.
The annual ShakeOut drill, which attracted 8.6 million registrants in California, was intended to train the public on what to do the moment the shaking begins ? dropping, covering your head, and holding on, rather than panicking and running, which would increase the chance of tripping and injuring yourself or being struck by a falling object.
In Northridge, shoppers at a Target took cover between store aisles, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ducked underneath a red shopping cart. At Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, visitors in the cafeteria crouched underneath dining tables, and nursing staff in patient rooms were told to sit in a ball, their arms covering their heads and necks.
Even where people couldn't practically participate in the drill, they talked about what they would do. At the Burbank hospital, a surgery team discussed how they would handle a real shaker: each would place one arm over their heads and lean over the open incision of the patient's abdomen, said Connie Lackey, director of emergency preparedness at Providence Saint Joseph.
"You will do what you practice, and so you need to practice doing it," Lackey said, saying that practicing crouching helps train the brain to act correctly during a quake.
Target opened the doors to its store at Balboa Boulevard and Nordhoff Avenue to drill for a quake. Before the drill, employees handed shoppers a notice that the ShakeOut was coming, and at 10:20 a.m., a recording announced that the drill was underway.
Shopper Joan Giglione of Tarzana knelt underneath a cosmetics aisle.
"The information was really good about what to do when you're in a store ? to get in the middle of the racks. I'm almost happy I was here," Giglione said. She particularly liked the advice that if you're in the clothing racks, it's best to stay there.
Lucy Jones, seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, praised the Target event for getting people to think about what they'll do if they can't easily get underneath a desk.
"The first thing to do in an earthquake, anywhere, is to drop down to the ground," Jones said, and resist the urge to run. "The shaking in a big earthquake will throw you to the ground, so get there before the earthquake will do it to you."
If you're in a store and can't get under a table, "if you're in bread aisle, you can stay there.... If you have a grocery cart, you can use that as some protection. But if you're near heavy appliances or knives, you probably want to get moving somewhere else."
Running outside is the worst possible idea, because a building's facade is often the first part to collapse and can kill those below.
The Los Angeles Times also participated in the ShakeOut, testing its emergency newsroom at its printing plant about 2 miles from the main office. The printing plant was built to hospital-style earthquake specifications, and some editors and reporters were publishing the website and the LATExtra section from the printing plant Thursday night.
"We successfully demonstrated that when the Big One hits, people ? as they always do ? can log in to latimes.com for up-to-the-minute news and information, and can drop four quarters in the nearest newsstand to get the most comprehensive newspaper report available during a large-scale emergency," Times Editor Russ Stanton said.
About four hours after the ShakeOut drill, a 3.9 earthquake struck under UC Berkeley. No damage was reported.
ron.lin@latimes.com
Los Angeles Times staff writer Lee Romney in San Francisco contributed to this report.
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Computers piece together scattered medieval scrolls
It's like something out of "The Da Vinci Code": Hundreds of thousands of fragments from medieval religious scrolls are scattered across the globe. How will scholars put them back together?
The answer, according to scientists at Tel Aviv University, is to use computer software based on facial recognition technology. But instead of recognizing faces, this software recognizes fragments thought to be part of the same work. Then, the program virtually "glues" the pieces back together.
This enables researchers to digitally join a collection of more than 200,000 fragmentary Jewish texts, called the Cairo Genizah, found in the late 1800s in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. The Cairo Genizah texts date from the ninth to the 19th centuries, and they're dispersed amongst more than 70 libraries worldwide. Researchers will report on their progress in digitally reuniting the Cairo Genizah during the second week in November at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision in Barcelona.
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Genizahs are storerooms for holy texts, which under Jewish law cannot be simply tossed in the garbage when they're worn out. The Cairo Genizah, however, also contains merchants' lists, divorce documents and even personal letters, a firsthand look at hundreds of years of history in the Middle East.
A non-profit organization, the Friedberg Genizah Project, is working to digitize the fragments of the Cairo Genizah. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv University computer scientists Lior Wolf and Nachum Dershowitz have the difficult task of joining the fragments into a continuous whole.
To do so, they developed a computer program that analyzes document handwriting, physical properties of the page, and even spacing between the lines of writing.
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"Its big advantage is that it doesn't tire after examining thousands of fragments," Wolf said in a statement. The program has made 1,000 confirmed connections between fragments of the Cairo Genizah in the span of a few months, almost the same amount made in 100 years of human scholarship.
The researchers are now applying the same technology to fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of hundreds of text found along the Dead Sea in the 1950s.
"It's a more complicated challenge," Wolf said, referring to the Dead Sea Scrolls. "The fragments are for the most part much smaller, and many of the texts are very unique. These texts shed light on the beginnings of Christianity."
Wolf and Dershowitz's effort is part of a Google project using high-resolution photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls in order to put these biblical texts online.
You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.
? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44983463/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Friday 21 October 2011
IMF and EU at odds over Greek debt sustainability (Reuters)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? The International Monetary Fund disagrees with EU projections on Greece's debt sustainability and wants to wait until a clearer outlook emerges before signing off on the next tranche of financial support to Athens, EU officials said on Thursday.
The IMF, which together with the European Commission and the European Central Bank comprises the 'troika' of inspectors in Greece, believes the EU's debt projections are too optimistic and wants to wait until after a euro zone summit on Sunday to see if discussions there produce a clearer picture on how the debt levels can be made more sustainable.
"The IMF thinks that estimates by other parts of the troika are over-optimistic," one source said, while another added: "The IMF will definitely want to see what the Eurogroup and the European Council come up with first," referring to this weekend's meetings.
The IMF was not immediately available to comment.
The troika was expected to publish its latest report on Greece on October 24, despite pressure to release it before the October 23 summit. The report is expected to indicate whether Greece is doing enough to cut its budget deficit to justify receiving the next, 8 billion euro installment of aid.
If Sunday's summit agrees on a deeper involvement by the private sector in helping reduce Greece's debt burden, that may make the debt stock, which stands at around 360 billion euros, more sustainable and allow the IMF to sign off on the release of the next tranche, possibly in November, the sources said.
The IMF has said in the past that it needs to be confident in Greece's medium-term financing -- at least a year out -- before it can sign off on further aid to the country. Holding off on approval is a way of applying pressure on Athens.
In May last year, the EU and IMF agreed to disburse 110 billion euros of loans to Greece, five installments of which have been paid. If the next tranche is not released by the end of the year, Greece could default on its debts.
Some euro zone countries are pushing for the private sector to play a much more significant role in reducing Greece's debt burden by taking a larger writedown on their holdings of Greek debt.
On July 21, the private sector agreed on a voluntary basis to take around a 21 percent "haircut" on its Greek debt holdings, helping reduce the debt burden by around 50 billion euros between now and 2014.
However, that is now deemed insufficient by some countries and there is a push to sharply increase the private sector's contribution, even if it is not done voluntarily.
If that were to happen, it would likely reduce the debt pile more aggressively, putting Greek debt on a more sustainable footing and in turn allowing the IMF to sign off on the next aid payment.
(Writing by Luke Baker, reporting by Luke Baker, Julien Toyer and Harry Papachristou and Ingrid Melander in Athens)
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'Dark Shadows' Is Vintage Johnny Depp & Tim Burton, Says Chloe Moretz
Anyone who follows us here at Movies Blog and MTV News, for that matter, is well aware that we're just a little excited about "Dark Shadows," Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's next collaboration. In addition to our gushing over all the released photos, Depp weighed in on the subject himself, calling his Barnabas Collins a [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/10/19/dark-shadows-johnny-depp-tim-burton-chloe-moretz/
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Pretty Little Liars Postmortem: Is Alison a Twin? Is Lucas "A"? (omg!)
Correction: People-Sarandon-Pope story AP - 16 hours ago
In a story Oct. 18 about a controversy over Susan Sarandon referring to Pope Benedict XVI as a Nazi, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the actress gave Benedict?? More??Correction: People-Sarandon-Pope story
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PlayStation Store hits the Tablet S today, lets gamers relive the glory of the mid-'90s
PlayStation Store hits the Tablet S today, lets gamers relive the glory of the mid-'90s originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |PlayStation blog | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/19/playstation-store-hits-the-tablet-s-today-lets-gamers-relive-th/
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Thursday 20 October 2011
John Singleton's lawyer fires back at Paramount (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Producer John Singleton's lawyer, Martin Singer, is slamming Paramount's claim as to why it didn't finance two John Singleton films, per its deal to distribute "Hustle & Flow."
In a statement provided to TheWrap, Singer calls Paramount "desperate."
"As Paramount well knows, John Singleton did not begin work on 'Abduction' until long after the puts expired," Singer said. "For Paramount to try to make his work on that film an issue now -- having never raised it before -- is typical of the lengths to which the studio will go in its desperate attempt to evade its legal and moral responsibilities."
On Wednesday, a Paramount spokesperson provided a statement to TheWrap suggesting that it didn't end up making the two Singleton movies -- which the filmmaker claims were part of the deal when he agreed to let the studio distribute the 2005 film "Hustle & Flow" -- because he chose to direct the Taylor Lautner film "Abduction."
"Paramount was hoping that John Singleton would produce two more pictures before his agreement with our studio ended in 2010, but that did not happen," the studio's statement reads. "Instead, he went on to direct 'Abduction' for Lions Gate. Paramount fulfilled all of its obligations and his claims have absolutely no merit."
Singleton filed suit against Paramount Wednesday, claiming that he allowed Paramount to distribute "Hustle & Flow" because they agreed to finance and distribute two other films from him, provided they didn't cost more than $3.5 million each.
However, the suit claims, when Singleton's production company, Crunk Pictures, tried to put the new movies into motion, Paramount threw up a bunch of roadblocks that made production impossible.
Singleton is seeking at least $20 million in the suit.
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Obama looks to South in bid to help keep his job
President Barack Obama jogs to the stage before speaking at the YMCA at the Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. Obama is on a three-day bus tour promoting the American Jobs Act. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama jogs to the stage before speaking at the YMCA at the Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. Obama is on a three-day bus tour promoting the American Jobs Act. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama speaks at the YMCA at the Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. Obama is on a three-day bus tour promoting the American Jobs Act. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama speaks at the YMCA at the Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. Obama is on a three-day bus tour promoting the American Jobs Act. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama greets people inside Reid's House Restaurant in Reidsville, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. Obama is on a three-day bus tour promoting the American Jobs Act. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama talks with James Totton as he greets people outside the Reid's House Restaurant in Reidsville, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. Obama is on a three-day bus tour promoting the American Jobs Act. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
JAMESTOWN, N.C. (AP) ? North Carolina and Virginia are two southern states at the heart of President Barack Obama's re-election strategy.
Obama won the states in a surprise in 2008 and his campaign is now doubling down in the region, hoping to turn to changing demographics as a way to offset potential losses in traditional swing states.
The president is in the middle of a three-day bus trip through North Carolina and Virginia even as polls show his challenges there. A recent Elon University poll put the president's approval rating in North Carolina at 42 percent and a Quinnipiac (KWIHN'-uh-pee-ak) University poll had it at 45 percent in Virginia.
Democrats are keying on the region. The party will hold its convention in Charlotte, N.C., next summer.
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