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MIAMI ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney for "carpet-bombing" his record ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary in Florida, trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in the final 48 hours before the vote.
On the defensive after barrage of attacks from Romney and a political committee that supports him, Gingrich said Romney had lied and the GOP establishment had allowed it.
"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."
Despite Romney's effort to turn positive, the Florida contest has become decidedly bitter and personal. Romney and Gingrich have tangled over policy and character since Gingrich's stunning victory over the well-funded Romney in the South Carolina primary Jan. 21.
Showing no signs of letting up, Gingrich objected to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline the then-House speaker for ethics charges.
"It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," Gingrich said.
Gingrich acknowledged the possibility that he could lose in Florida and pledged to compete with Romney all the way to the party's national convention this summer.
An NBC/Marist poll showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters and Gingrich slipping to 27 percent.
While Romney had spent the past several days sharply attacking Gingrich, he pivoted over the weekend to refocus his criticism on President Barack Obama, calling the Democratic incumbent "detached from reality." The former Massachusetts governor criticized Obama's plan to cut the size of the military and said the administration had a weak foreign policy.
Gingrich's South Carolina momentum has largely evaporated amid the pounding he has sustained from Romney's campaign and the pro-Romney group called Restore Our Future. They have spent some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week.
Gingrich planned to campaign Sunday in central Florida, while Romney scheduled rallies in the south. He was also looking ahead to the Nevada caucuses Feb. 4, airing ads in that state and citing the endorsement Sunday of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.
Gingrich collected the weekend endorsement of Herman Cain, a tea party favorite and former presidential hopeful whose White House effort foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, planned to remain in Pennsylvania where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized, and resume campaigning as soon as possible, according to his campaign. She has a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul has invested little in the Florida race and is looking ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.
Gingrich appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and ABC's "This Week." Paul was on CNN's "State of the Union."
___
Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Tampa contributed to this report.
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LONDON ? Passengers stepping out of London Bridge tube station cannot help but crane their necks to gaze at the jagged tower under construction: The Shard is the tallest building in the European Union and looks like a slice of glass balanced on the edge of the financial district.
When the tower opens next year, visitors to the observation deck will see helicopters fly by at eye level and take in the metropolis all the way to the distant north Downs Hills. The structure designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano dwarfs nearby landmarks like Tower Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral.
The ambitious project speaks of now faded boom times: 1.5 billion pound ($2.34 billion) price tag, fancy restaurants, corporate office space, posh hotel. But it is being completed as Britain and Europe totter on the brink of recession ? and the Shard will loom over a city in decline.
Neighbors are hoping the dramatic tower, visible from most parts of London, will bring big spenders to its south-of-the-river location, for centuries the less prosperous side of the Thames.
"I like the design, I like the promise. I think it's going to blast this neighborhood out of the water," said Cherille McNeil-Halward, 71, who runs a picture framing shop a few minutes away from the Shard. "This tower will bring people with money to spend here, and that's got to be a good thing."
There is no question that the Shard is a riveting addition to the traditionally low-rise London skyline. But some complain it dominates the view, obscuring sights such as St. Paul's impressive dome.
The developer Irvine Sellar sees the project as a symbol of London's status as a world city. The 310 meter (1,016 ft) building is designed by an Italian, financed by the Qatar government, and the Chinese hotel group Shangri-La were the first tenants to sign up.
"We want this building to be a building Londoners will feel ownership of," said Sellar. "You can eat there, you can work there, you can sleep there. And you can see the view from there."
The building's exterior will be finished in June but it is unlikely to open until early next year. It will open in a truly historic neighborhood, close to the Tower of London, Shakespeare's Globe, and Borough Market.
In fact, the ultra-modern Shard sits at the edge of ancient London. The first Roman settlement Londinium was nearby on the banks of the Thames. Charles Dickens' "Little Dorrit" was set in the streets behind the Shard.
The developers conceived the project more than 11 years ago when there was a financial appetite for building tall. But it generated almost immediate opposition from conservation groups who didn't want the fabric of the city changed.
English Heritage and other groups complained that the design did not fit in with the surrounding architecture, but were overruled.
Prince Charles, who has waged a passionate campaign against modern architecture, wryly referred to the Shard as "an enormous salt cellar" shortly after it won planning permission but has not formally tried to block the project.
Last year UNESCO said it is reviewing the status of the Tower of London as a World Heritage Site, partly because of the way the Shard and other buildings loom over its courtyard.
The future of the building is still not secure. Along with Shangri-La, some restaurants have signed leases, Sellar said, but most of the office space has not yet been rented at a time when many London-based businesses are striving to reduce costs.
A report by Barclays Capital published this month finds a correlation between the construction of skyscrapers and financial crises, concluding that ambitious building projects often open just as the economy declines.
It cites the economic and oil crises of the early 1970s, which coincided with the completion of the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago. In Malaysia the building of the Petronas Towers coincided with the Asian economic crisis on 1997. And in Dubai the Burj Khalifa ? the world's tallest building ? went up as the emirate almost went bust.
The Shard itself was hit by the credit crunch. Sellar secured funding from investment bank Credit Suisse in 2008, but the bank pulled out after Lehman Brothers crashed in September of that year. Eventually the central bank of Qatar stepped in to finance the project.
Other tall buildings have been built in recent years as London has become a more vertical city ? including Norman Foster's famous "Gherkin." But the Shard dominates them all, and is likely to become a prominent symbol of London.
"You are going to see this building from everywhere in the city," said Jonathan Glancey, architecture critic at The Guardian newspaper. "It is going be the building that says `this is London,' and the message it is going to send is that London is brash, shiny and pretty bling."
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NEW YORK (Reuters) ? New Jersey's Democrat-controlled state legislature revived its push to legalize same-sex marriage on Tuesday, putting Governor Chris Christie under pressure as speculation mounts that he could be a Republican vice presidential contender.
Christie, who decided against entering the 2012 presidential race despite a high-profile courtship from top Republican donors, has said he opposes marriage for same-sex couples but supports civil unions, which New Jersey has allowed since 2007.
A similar bid to approve marriage for same-sex couples was defeated by the New Jersey State Senate two years ago, just weeks before Christie took office. Christie has repeatedly said he would veto any such legislation on gay marriage.
Supporters of gay marriage in the state, who would need a two-thirds majority to override a governor's veto, face a considerable hurdle, and did not appear to have the votes in hand despite strong support from Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver.
On Tuesday, hearings were being held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Meanwhile, at a town hall appearance, Christie said his position had not changed and that the issue should be put to voters in a referendum, local media reported.
"I think this is not an issue that should rest solely in my hands, or the hands of the Senate President or the Speaker or the other 118 members of the legislature," Christie said, according to reports. "Let's let the people of New Jersey decide what is right for the state."
Polls show growing popular support for gay marriage in New Jersey, including a Quinnipiac University poll last week that found voters support gay marriage by a margin of 52 to 42 percent. The effort comes at the heels of New York approving a gay marriage bill this summer.
Steven Goldstein, head of Garden State Equality, said he hoped that could translate into legislative success for gay marriage.
"Over-ride is a long shot that seems to be less of a long shot every day," he said.
COURT BACKED CIVIL UNIONS
New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that same-sex couples have equal rights under the law and backed civil unions. But the court stopped short of endorsing gay marriage, saying that issue should be decided by the legislature.
Gay-marriage supporters say that civil unions are inadequate because many employers do not recognize them.
More than 40 states ban or refuse to recognize gay marriage, but six states, as well as the District of Columbia, allow it. In addition to New York, gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa.
A bill to legalize same-sex marriage has been introduced in Washington state, and gay rights activists in Maine say they plan to bring the issue to voters in a referendum.
The National Organization for Marriage, a national group advocating that marriage be defined as a union between a man and a woman, has pledged to spend $500,000 supporting legislators who vote against the measure as part of an "all-out effort" to defeat the bill in New Jersey.
Nationally there is still strong opposition to gay marriage, especially among Republicans. Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has seen his past comments on gay rights come back to haunt him on the campaign trail.
Christie, mentioned as a possible vice presidential running mate for Romney, has been actively campaigning for the former Massachusetts governor.
On Monday, Christie won praise from gay rights leaders, including Goldstein, for nominating Bruce Harris, an openly gay man, to the state Supreme Court. Christie said his feelings about gay marriage had not changed, but some questioned the timing of his appointment.
"The judicial appointment itself is a way to inoculate himself on the gay marriage bill," said David Redlawsk, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
He said New Jersey voters were unlikely to punish Christie if he does in fact veto the bill. While a majority of New Jersey voters support gay marriage.
"For the vast majority of people, it's not high on their agenda," Redlawsk said.
(Reporting By Edith Honan)
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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned a contempt hearing for Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in a case that could push him from office and is adding to growing pressure on the unpopular civilian government.
Gilani was in court to explain why he should not be charged with contempt for failing to re-open old corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The government maintains Zardari has presidential immunity.
"It is my conviction that he (Zardari) has complete immunity inside and outside the country," Gilani told the court. "In the constitution, there is complete immunity for the president. There is no doubt about that."
The prime minister, however, appeared not to have convinced some judges.
"On the next date, let's hear you convince us the issue is of the president's immunity," said Justice Sarmad Osmani, a member of the seven-panel bench. "Let's grab the bull by its horns."
While the immediate battle is about Gilani, the larger political crisis is about Zardari -- who has had his own run-ins with the chief justice -- and the fate of his government which is also increasingly at loggerheads with the military.
It is the longest-running civilian administration in Pakistan's coup-marred history, but has become deeply unpopular, seen as both corrupt and incompetent.
If Gilani is charged with contempt of court, he could be disqualified from office and be forced to resign.
That would further increase the pressure on the government and the risk of more instability in the nuclear-armed ally in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
After the hearing, a confident-looking Gilani appeared outside the court smiling and waving. The Supreme Court agreed that he would not have to appear again personally when it reconvenes on February 1.
Gilani's legal troubles are the latest blow for his administration which also faces pressure from the military over a mysterious memo seeking U.S. help to avert an alleged coup last year.
RE-OPEN CASES
Ahead of the court hearing, police blocked off parts of the capital city to impose tighter security in the South Asian country facing homegrown Taliban militants blamed for many of the suicide bombings that have kept foreign investors away.
Hundreds of policemen were stationed outside the Supreme Court as every car was checked. Gilani's security men, in dark suits, combed the premises.
After the hearing, members of various bar associations chanted slogans in support of the court, whose chief justice has had poor relations with Zardari since the president opposed his return to the bench in 2007.
"We felt we had to come and support the judiciary, not let anyone intimidate them," Rana Umer Iqbal, 28, a lawyer from Islamabad told Reuters.
Zardari's court battles are often portrayed in the media and public debate as an assault on the court's independence, while his supporters say he is defending himself against bias.
During the 1990s, Zardari had multiple cases of corruption and even murder lodged against him, all of which he says are false and politically motivated.
An amnesty deal that protected him from prosecution was nullified in 2009 and the court has been pushing for the government to re-open and investigate the corruption cases against Zardari.
The government refuses to do so, saying Zardari enjoys immunity as the head of state.
In an exchange with the judges, Aitzaz Ahsan, the prime minister's lawyer, said the government could not write a letter to Swiss authorities to re-open the corruption cases.
"The letter shall be written when ... Asif Ali Zardari is no longer the president," Ahsan told the bench.
Gilani won a unanimous vote of confidence in parliament when he became prime minister nearly four years ago, and has been known as a peacemaker even among the ruling Pakistan People's Party's most bitter enemies. Unlike Zardari, he was seen as having smooth ties with the military before the latest turmoil.
But his diplomatic skills may not be enough to fend off both the Supreme Court and Pakistan's generals, who have ruled the country for more than half of its 64 years history through coups, and from behind the scenes.
"The fact is that it's not just the anger of the judges against the PM, it's the anger of the army against the PM as well," said Ayesha Siddiqa, a prominent defense analyst.
(Additional reporting by Rebecca Conway in ISLAMABAD, Sahar Ahmed and Faisal Aziz in KARACHI; Writing by Chris Allbritton; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
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Weather Underground Forecast for Monday, January 16, 2012.
The cold and unstable airmass of the Northwest will spread into the Central Great Basin and the Central Rockies by early Monday morning as a strong cold front moves through the area. Below average temperatures in these regions will allow widely scattered light snow showers to develop through the morning hours. Snow in the Central Rockies will be enhanced by a system and moisture pushing out of the desert Southwest. Total snow accumulations in the mountains are expected to range from 5 to 10 inches with locally higher amounts. Gusty southwest winds may create periods of drifting snow through the day. A Winter Weather Advisory will remain in effect for the Central Rockies through Monday evening. Behind this system, chilly, below normal temperatures will persist in much of the West. Another disturbance will move across Washington in the afternoon, allowing for more rain and mountain snow showers.
Meanwhile, the trough of low pressure in the Northwest will slide out of the Northern Rockies and a cold front will extend from the Upper Great Lakes through the Central and Southern Plains. Southerly flow ahead of this front and it 1/4's associated low pressure system in the Central Plains will usher moisture from the Gulf of Mexico northward. This will lead to generally light rain showers in the Lower Mississippi Valley and eastern Texas through the afternoon. Showers will increase and spread into the Tennessee and Ohio Valley during the evening/Monday night with possible thunderstorm activity as the cold front pushes eastward. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Sunday have ranged from a morning low of -23 degrees at Watertown, N.Y. to a high of 82 degrees at Alexandria Esle, La.
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SINGAPORE ? Oil prices hovered below $102 a barrel Monday in Asia amid investor concern that a meeting between the leaders of Germany and France won't yield a plan that will keep Europe from recession this year.
Benchmark crude for February delivery rose 13 cents to $101.69 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 25 cents to settle at $101.56 in New York on Friday.
In London, Brent crude was up 60 cents at $113.66 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Crude traded above $100 last week amid growing trader concern that tension between Iran and Western powers could disrupt Middle East oil supplies. However, some analysts expect a slowing global economy led by a likely recession in Europe will help pull down oil prices.
"The deterioration in fundamentals should accelerate as we move into seasonally weaker demand in the months ahead," Morgan Stanley said in a report. "If Mideast tensions recede, the risk premium built into crude is likely to fade, sending prices lower."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are scheduled to meet later Monday to discuss fiscal coordination within the eurozone and plans to boost the continent's flagging economy.
An Iranian newspaper on Sunday quoted a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard saying that Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the key Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf if the country's oil exports are undermined by U.S. or European sanctions.
The U.S. has recently enacted new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad over Tehran's nuclear program. Washington says Tehran is trying to develop weapons, while Iran denies the charges.
Closure of the strait "has a very, very low chance of happening," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "If Iran cut the strait, its own oil wouldn't get to market and it wouldn't get oil revenue. I consider that a war of words, sabre-rattling."
In other Nymex trading, heating oil gained 1.7 cents at $3.09 per gallon and gasoline futures added 1.1 cents at $2.76 per gallon. Natural gas futures were down 3.8 cents to $3.02 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) ? A second man has died from injuries sustained in the southern Mississippi wreck of a motorhome carrying a group of friends from Georgia to New Orleans to attend the national college football championship game, authorities said Sunday.
Forrest County, Miss., Coroner Butch Benedict said Sunday that 66-year-old Alfred Holt Jr. of Lithonia, Ga., the driver of the vehicle, died Sunday. On Saturday evening, 47-year-old Darryl Parker of Riverdale, Ga., died in the wreck. Benedict said Parker's wife was among at least 10 people injured in the crash.
Authorities said the group was traveling in the recreational vehicle from the Atlanta area to New Orleans, where they planned to attend the Bowl Championship Series national title game between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama. The game will be played Monday.
Solomon Brannan, who said he owns the motorhome, told The Associated Press that he let a group of friends borrow it, but didn't go along because he had just returned from New Orleans and had a funeral to attend. He said Holt was a professional bus driver whom he felt confident could handle the large vehicle, but a blowout is hard to overcome.
"It was just an unfortunate thing," Brannan said.
Authorities said there were 14 people traveling in the 2002 Freightliner.
One person remained in intensive care Sunday and four others were in regular hospital rooms. They were all in stable condition, said Ronda Smith, patient care supervisor at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Miss. She said several others were treated and released.
Mississippi Highway Patrol Cpl. Todd Miller said the motorhome blew a front tire, ran off Interstate 59 in Forrest County, Miss., and hit a tree in the median. He said two people were ejected from the motorhome. Benedict said he's not sure if Parker was one of them.
Officials said some interstate lanes were blocked as the injured were transported by ground and air to local hospitals.
The phone rang unanswered Sunday at a listing for Darryl Parker in Riverdale. A number for Holt's family wasn't immediately available.
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SCHENECTADY - There is an event taking place Friday night in Schenectady, celebrating the life of Cassandra Boone.
She was the 19-year-old student at Schenectady Community College who was hit by a car and killed back in November.
The driver of the car left the scene but was later arrested. Cassandra's boyfriend organized the event at the Apostrophe Cafe near Proctors Theater.
He hopes to raise money for a scholarship in her memory. The event runs from now until 8 p.m.
Source: http://schenectadycity.wnyt.com/news/news/105446-event-tries-raise-money-college-student-hit-car
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Source: www.nytimes.com --- Wednesday, January 04, 2012
The Green Mountain Project performed Monteverdi?s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin at the Church of St. Jean Baptiste. ...
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In this photo taken on Wednesday Dec. 28, 2011, a woman looks at the prices of beans at Guaicaipuro food market in Caracas, Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez's government is likely to spend heavily in 2012 to rev up the economy during his re-election bid, and that could worsen one of Venezuela's biggest problems: 27-percent annual inflation that is already close to the highest in the world. Polls consistently show that Venezuelans see inflation as one of the country's biggest problems after violent crime. Poor Venezuelans, who traditionally have been key supporters of Chavez, are particularly hard-hit by rising food prices, which according to the Central Bank, increased by more than 35 percent last year. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
In this photo taken on Wednesday Dec. 28, 2011, a woman looks at the prices of beans at Guaicaipuro food market in Caracas, Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez's government is likely to spend heavily in 2012 to rev up the economy during his re-election bid, and that could worsen one of Venezuela's biggest problems: 27-percent annual inflation that is already close to the highest in the world. Polls consistently show that Venezuelans see inflation as one of the country's biggest problems after violent crime. Poor Venezuelans, who traditionally have been key supporters of Chavez, are particularly hard-hit by rising food prices, which according to the Central Bank, increased by more than 35 percent last year. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
In this photo taken on Wednesday Dec. 28, 2011, customers shop in Guaicaipuro food market in Caracas, Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez's government is likely to spend heavily in 2012 to rev up the economy during his re-election bid, and that could worsen one of Venezuela's biggest problems: 27-percent annual inflation that is already close to the highest in the world. Polls consistently show that Venezuelans see inflation as one of the country's biggest problems after violent crime. Poor Venezuelans, who traditionally have been key supporters of Chavez, are particularly hard-hit by rising food prices, which according to the Central Bank, increased by more than 35 percent last year. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuela's Central Bank says the country finished the year with 27.6 percent inflation, the highest in Latin America.
The oil-producing nation has had the highest inflation in the Americas for six years running. Inflation in 2010 was similar at 27.2 percent.
Venezuela had the second-highest official inflation rate in the world as of November, surpassed only by Ethiopia's 31.5 percent.
President Hugo Chavez's government and the Central Bank both predict inflation of between 20 percent and 22 percent this year.
But analysts say inflation could rise above 30 percent, influenced by an expanding money supply and heavy government spending.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? As Wall Street anxiously awaits the Labor Department's monthly employment report due on Friday, a decent bet has emerged. Odds are, the government will say it underestimated recent job gains.
The government's monthly guess on how many people draw paychecks, which sets the tone for financial markets worldwide, has been prone to upward revisions since 2009.
It is not clear what might be behind the trend, although some economists suspect the government's statistical models might be challenged when the economy is coming back from a recession.
Whatever the cause, the pattern in revisions could mean the economy is performing consistently better than data has led to believe, which makes it harder for investors and policymakers to make informed decisions.
"Data that gets revised as much as it does doesn't do anybody justice," said Joseph LaVorgna, an economist at Deutsche Bank in New York who has studied the pattern of revisions.
Private sector economists have long noted that payroll estimates tend to be revised upward when the economy is growing and downward when it is not.
In the past, big revisions often have come when the government studied tax archives long after the initial data was released.
But economists have been surprised at what has become a monthly routine of revising prior job counts higher.
Philadelphia Fed economist Tom Stark focused on these initial monthly revisions in a recent research paper. Each month, the Labor Department revises the data from the prior two months based on late responses from its survey of employers.
Studying payroll data from recoveries from recessions after 1964, Stark found a statistically significant bias toward upward revisions in the current recovery for the first time since 1970.
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GRAPHIC- Payroll revisions http://link.reuters.com/vyj85s
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TARDY RESPONSES
Since the economy emerged from recession in June 2009, the government found that after tallying tardy survey responses around 36,000 more jobs were created per month, on average, than initially believed.
The question is, why would late responses inject bias into the Labor Department's initial estimate?
One possibility is that the government's model for estimating employment gains for some small businesses incorporates trends from the past. If those trends have changed for the better then more data would lead to an upward revision.
This has yet to be confirmed. But by and large, it highlights a constant hazard for statisticians who often extrapolate from the past to make sense of incomplete data.
"When push comes to shove, all models are taking account of statistical correlations that are in the data of the past," said Stark, who is the assistant director of the Philadelphia Fed's Real Time Data Research Center.
"So any time you have something new, you're obviously not going to be able to estimate that new thing very well," he said.
Some economists also speculate that the government's model for estimating the number of firms that are starting up or going out of business - dubbed the "birth-death model" - might also be challenged by the recovery.
The Labor Department, however, has also looked at revision patterns over the years and has not found evidence to indicate there is any upward or downward bias, said Kerrie Leslie, an economist at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nor have government economists found evidence that tardy responses have come from particular industries that might skew the initial estimates, she said.
Still, the amount of tardy responses to the survey, which polls around 140,000 businesses, is significant.
In 2010, for example, about 70 percent of firms contacted by the government each month provided details on their payrolls at first request. Within two months of the initial survey, the percentages of responses surged to 94 percent.
The recent revisions in the payroll data have led some economists to pay extra attention to a separate - albeit smaller - survey of households that is subject to fewer changes and does not rely on a birth-death model.
In November, the household survey showed 315,000 jobs were added to the economy, while the payroll survey showed only 120,000 hires.
The household survey tends to be more volatile because it is based on a smaller sample, and many economists expect that on Friday it could show job creation slowed in December.
On the other hand, if the trend in revisions from the other survey of employers holds, revised figures for November payrolls could edge a little bit in the direction of the more positive household survey data. Analysts expect the payroll survey will show 150,000 jobs added last month.
LaVorgna expects the pattern of upward revisions to payrolls will likely continue until the economy eventually slides back into recession.
"These measurement issues are significant," he said.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by James Dalgleish)
From Business Insider:
The entity responsible for publishing the financial statements of the U.S. government, the General Accounting Office, has released its fiscal 2011 annual report.
When companies and governments have bad news to release, they try to release it at the moment when journalists and the public are paying the least amount of attention ? thus, hopefully, generating the least possible amount of grumbling and complaints.
So it's no surprise that the GAO released its 2011 report on the Friday before Christmas, possibly the day of the year on which the country was paying the least amount of attention.
As you might expect, the GAO's annual report on the financial condition of the United States contains tons of bad news.
The country can print its own money, so it's not "broke" in the classic sense of the word (can't pay its debts, can't fund its operations).
But the country is also clearly on an unsustainable course.
We will highlight sections of the report over the coming days.
For now, here are the highlights:
To be perfectly clear: The amount of the "unfunded liability" for our Social Insurance programs (Medicare and Social Security) is now $34 Trillion. This is an increase of $3 Trillion from last year. This number has increased at about $1.7 Trillion per year for the past 10 years. If not for some absurd assumptions about how Congress is going to eventually chop the cost of Medicare (the so-called "doc-fix" that pays doctors more for Medicare procedures that Congress passes every year), the liability would be $46 Trillion.
So, what's the implication and solution?
Over the long haul, the intelligent solution is a combination of modestly higher taxes and reductions in Medicare and Social Security benefits.
The other option is bankruptcy.
Let's go to the CHARTS -->
Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/yes-united-states-still-broke-1-11-first-135010416.html
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LONDON (Reuters) ? BP (BP.L) has called on contractor Halliburton (HAL.C) to pay all costs and expenses it incurred to clean up the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which the oil major previously put at around $42 billion.
Halliburton cemented the failed well that caused the United State's biggest offshore oil spill.
In a U.S. court filing, BP said it was suing to recover costs and expenses from cleaning up the oil spill, lost profits, and "all other costs and damages incurred by BP related to the Deepwater Horizon incident and resulting oil spill."
It did not specify an amount and it was not clear how the latest suit differed from a previous one brought last year. A BP spokesman declined to put a figure on the costs sought in the latest filing, but said the "documents speak for themselves."
In April 2011, BP asked a court to award it damages "equal to, or in the alternative proportional to Halliburton's fault," to cover clean up costs and government fines BP might faces.
The company previously said it expected the costs of sealing the blown out well, cleaning up the damage, compensating those affected and government fines to reach $42 billion.
BP has spent $14 billion in the Gulf Coast region in its response to the spill and set aside $20 billion for economic claims and natural resource restoration, according to its website.
Halliburton officials were not immediately available for comment.
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010, which killed 11 workers and spewed more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, has sparked a slew of lawsuits and federal citations against the companies involved.
BP has already cut deals with its two partners in the doomed Macondo well, Anadarko and Mitsui, which at first refuted their responsibility to contribute to oil spill bill, citing BP's negligence.
Last month, Cameron International Corp (CAM.N) agreed a $250 million settlement with BP to help pay for costs associated with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, raising hopes that deals between the British oil firm and two other contractors could follow.
Yet settlement agreements with two remaining parties, Halliburton and Transocean (RIGN.VX), have to date proved elusive.
Transocean, the owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and Halliburton, which supplied cement to cap the well, are both being sued by BP to share the cost of the spill and cleanup, while the two have launched lawsuits of their own.
(Reporting by Tom Bergin in London and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Tom Hals and Andrew Hay; Editing by Jodie Ginsberg)
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The problem started completely out of the blue as the drive was working perfectly fine a couple of days prior to the problem starting. Whether a windows update or iTunes update etc
The drive is showing in Disk Management and shows as working properly in Device Manager.
Event viewer shows the following error The driver detected a controller error on \Device\CdRom0.
I have so far;
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Source: http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/1034053-sony-vaio-vgn-nw20sf-dvd.html
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Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10776202&ref=rss
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A Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter extinguishes multiple cars on fire in a carport in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. For the third night in a row, a rash of arson fires has sent firefighters scrambling to extinguish car fires in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Most of the fires on this night occurred in the San Fernando Valley. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
A Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter extinguishes multiple cars on fire in a carport in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. For the third night in a row, a rash of arson fires has sent firefighters scrambling to extinguish car fires in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Most of the fires on this night occurred in the San Fernando Valley. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Los Angeles Police Department officers evacuate residents of an apartment building as multiple cars burn in a carport in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. For the third night in a row, a rash of arson fires has sent firefighters scrambling to extinguish car fires in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
A Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter assists a woman and her cat out of her apartment as multiple cars burn in a carport in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. For the third night in a row, a rash of arson fires has sent firefighters scrambling to extinguish car fires in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Most of the fires on this night occurred in the San Fernando Valley. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
A Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter waits for water to extinguish multiple cars on fire in a carport in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. For the third night in a row, a rash of arson fires has sent firefighters scrambling to extinguish car fires in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters assist a man out of his apartment along with a cage of birds as multiple cars burn in a carport in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. For the third night in a row, a rash of arson fires has sent firefighters scrambling to extinguish car fires in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Most of the fires on this night occurred in the San Fernando Valley. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Fire trucks parked in neighborhoods. Police patrolled the city. Switchboards took hotline calls. City officials scrambled on a busy New Year's Eve to identify who was behind dozens of arson fires that have spooked the Hollywood area for two straight nights.
A pair of blazes Saturday evening suggested it could be a long night. Firefighters quickly put out a car fire at about 6 p.m. in Hollywood that "fits the profile of concern" authorities have been following for the arsons, fire department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.
A crew of 10 put out the fire in minutes. The flames did not spread beyond the car and no one was injured. Humphrey could not immediately say how the fire started.
Later at the Hollywood and Highland complex, a popular destination for holiday revelers, firefighters responded to a small car fire in a parking structure that was out by the time they arrived, Humphrey said.
He said only that the fire was under investigation, and could not say whether it was thought to be arson or tied to the others.
The fires resembled more than a dozen set before dawn Saturday, mostly in North Hollywood, and nearly two dozen fires set in and around Hollywood a day earlier.
Though some of the fires spread and damaged homes and apartments, none have brought injuries.
Still, some residents were on edge as authorities ramped up efforts to catch the culprit or culprits on a night when police and fire resources are always stretched thin as drunken New Year's revelers hit the town.
"We're pulling out all the stops," Humphrey said. "We're hoping that the person or people responsible will be brought to swift and complete justice."
Firefighters were to be stationed around the city to respond to emergencies, while authorities set up a hotline and pored through tips. Authorities also were interviewing witnesses, looking at video footage for clues and have announced at least $35,000 in rewards for information leading to a conviction.
Among the most pressing questions: Were the fires set by a serial arsonist, multiple people or copycats? And why target cars, apparently at random?
"It's really unnerving," said Gary Joseph, one of several neighbors who stood looking at the frames of four badly charred vehicles in a carport in North Hollywood. Joseph said there was no way to stow his own car and keep it safe.
"It's partly exposed, but there's nothing I can do about it," he said.
Sheila Kirk, who lives in the building next to the Hollywood freeway where the four cars were torched, said she quickly realized when she was awakened before dawn that the arson spree had spread to her neighborhood, though it's several miles northeast of where the fires were set the previous night.
"We'd heard all about the fires in Hollywood and West Hollywood, then we heard what sounded like a giant hose and ran downstairs and found everything burning," said Kirk, whose own car had a partly melted bumper despite being some 30 feet away from the cars that were set on fire. "It looks like they chose the spot where the cars were bunched together so they could do the most damage. Thank God no one got hurt."
Neighbors and gawkers gathered to take cell phone pictures of the wreckage, and the smell of burnt plastic still hung in the air hours after the fire.
Kirk said she felt no safer because her building had already been struck.
"You don't know, you just don't know," she said. "When you're dealing with crazy people, who knows what they're going to do?"
Elyse Eisenberg, a film producer who lives in West Hollywood about a mile from a fire that was set Friday morning, said that since then she has noticed fire trucks ramping up their presence on city streets.
"I've seen the fire trucks stationed around town on ready alert. And that's comforting ... They're positioned in neighborhoods ready to go like in Laurel Canyon where the Jim Morrison fire was," Eisenberg said, referring to the house of the famous late Doors singer, which was among those damaged Friday.
Eisenberg says residents have been sending emails around reminding people to be on alert.
Eisenberg plans to go to a friend's house party in Laurel Canyon for New Year's Eve and isn't concerned about encountering any fires.
"I'm sure I'll be home by then. I don't mean to be dismissive but the fires do seem to start well after midnight," Eisenberg said.
While few clues have emerged publicly, officials have speculated that it's plausible that one person in a car, on a motorcycle or on a bike could have set all the fires, considering the limited area the blazes broke out in, but know they could be looking for multiple suspects.
Police said they were looking for a man who was driving a mid-1990s Lexus sedan, but offered no further description or details.
Fire officials also have yet to set a damage figure for the blazes. In West Hollywood alone, they said flames destroyed about $350,000 worth of property.
Also early Saturday some 25 miles to the south in an unincorporated section of Los Angeles, arson detectives from the Sheriff's Department investigated a fire that destroyed eight vehicles, damaged six more, destroyed a carport and damaged an apartment building.
No evidence has been found linking that fire to those in the Hollywood area, Sheriff's Sgt. Joe Acevedo said in a statement.
_____
AP reporter Terry Tang contributed from Phoenix.
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