Holocaust survivors, veterans gather at DC museum

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Elderly survivors of the Holocaust and the veterans who helped liberate them are gathering for what could be their last big reunion at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Some 1,000 survivors and World War II vets are coming together with President Bill Clinton and Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust activist and writer, on Monday when the museum marks its 20th anniversary. Organizers chose not to wait for the 25th milestone because many survivors and vets may not be alive in another five years.

Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wiesel, who both dedicated the museum at its opening in 1993, will deliver keynote speeches. On Sunday night, the museum presented its highest honor to World War II veterans who ended the Holocaust. Susan Eisenhower accepted the award on behalf of her grandfather, U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, and all veterans of the era.

The museum also launched campaign to raise $540 million by 2018 to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and to combat anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and contemporary genocide. It has already secured gifts totaling $258.7 million. The campaign will double the size of the museum's endowment by its 25th anniversary. Also, a $15 million gift from Holocaust survivors David and Fela Shapell will help build a new Collections and Conservation Center.

Museum Director Sara Bloomfield said organizers wanted to show Holocaust survivors, veterans and rescuers the effort will continue to honor the memory of 6 million murdered Jews, in part by saving lives and preventing genocide in the future.

"We felt it was important, while that generation is still with us in fairly substantial numbers, to bring them together," Bloomfield said, "to not only honor them, but in their presence make a commitment to them that not only this institution but the people we reach will carry forward this legacy."

The museum continues collecting objects, photographs and other evidence of the Holocaust from survivors, veterans and archives located as far away as China and Argentina. Curators expect the collection to double in size over the next decade.

This week, the museum is opening a special, long-term exhibit titled "Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity During the Holocaust." It includes interviews with perpetrators that have never been shown before, as well as details of mass killings in the former Soviet Union that were only uncovered in more recent years.

Curator Susan Bachrach said the exhibit and its research challenge the idea that the Holocaust was primarily about Hitler and other Nazi leaders. Surveys at the museum show that's what most visitors believe.

"That's very comforting to people, because it puts distance between the visitors and who was involved," Bachrach said.

So, the museum set out to look at ordinary people who looked on and were complicit in the killing and persecution of millions of Jews through greed, a desire for career advancement, peer pressure or other factors. It examines influences "beyond hatred and anti-Semitism," Bachrach said.

Focusing only on fanatical Nazis would be a serious misunderstanding of the Holocaust, Bloomfield said.

"The Holocaust wouldn't have been possible, first of all, without enormous indifference throughout Germany and German-occupied Europe, but also thousands of people who were, say, just doing their jobs," she said, such as a tax official who collected special taxes levied against Jews.

In an opening film, some survivors recall being turned over to Nazi authorities in front of witnesses who did nothing. "The whole town was assembled ... looking at the Jews leaving," one survivor recalls.

Steven Fenves was a boy at the time. He recalled how in 1944, Hungary, allied with Nazi Germany, forced his family out of their apartment. The family was deported to Auschwitz, where Fenves' mother was gassed.

"One of the nastiest memories I have is going on that journey and people were lined up, up the stairs, up to the door of the apartment, waiting to ransack whatever we left behind, cursing at us, yelling at us, spitting at us as we left," he said in an interview with the museum.

The museum located images of bystanders looking on as Jews were detained, humiliated and taken away.

Non-Jews were also punished for violating German policies against the mixing of ethnic groups. For the first time, the museum is showing striking, rare footage of a ritualistic shaming of a Polish girl and a German boy for having a relationship. They are marched through the streets of a town in Poland, where the film was located in an attic. Dozens of people look on as Nazi officers cut the hair of the two teenagers. They are forced to look at their nearly bald heads in a mirror before their hair is burned.

"It's hard not to focus on the cruelty that's being perpetrated on this young couple," Bachrach said. "But what we really want people to look at ... is all the other people who are standing around watching this."

Other items displayed include dozens of bullets excavated from the site of a mass grave in former Soviet territory and registration cards from city offices in Western and Southern Europe labeling people with a "J'' for Jew.

The federally funded museum's theme for its 20th anniversary is "Never Again: What You Do Matters." The museum devotes part of its work and research to stopping current and preventing future genocides. A study released by the museum last month found that the longer the current conflict in Syria continues, the greater the danger that mass sectarian violence results in genocide.

Much more is still being learned about the Holocaust, as well, Bloomfield said. The museum is compiling an encyclopedia of all incarceration sites throughout Europe. When the project began, scholars expected to list 10,000 such sites. Now the number stands at 42,000.

The museum opened in 1993 as a living memorial to the Holocaust to inspire people worldwide to prevent genocide. A presidential commission called for such a museum in 1979. Since opening, it has counted more than 30 million visitors. The museum also provides resources for survivors. It has partnered with Ancestry.com to begin making the museum's 170 million documents searchable online through the World Memory Project.

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Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/holocaust-survivors-veterans-gather-dc-museum-095000298.html

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Obama Promises To Protect Science Research From Partisan Politics

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama promised on Monday to ensure that scientific research is insulated from partisan politics, as government-funded projects come under attack from Republicans in Congress.

He made his remarks at the National Academy of Sciences, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

"I will keep working to make sure that our scientific research does not fall victim to political maneuvers or agendas that in some ways would impact on the integrity of the scientific process. That's what?s going to maintain our standards of scientific excellence for years to come."

The president's remarks are particularly timely, coming as the chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), pushes a bill that would essentially politicize decisions made by the National Science Foundation.

Smith's proposed legislation would require the NSF director to certify that every grant the federal agency hands out is for work that is "the finest quality, is ground breaking, and answers questions or solves problems that are of utmost importance to society at large."

In his remarks, Obama seemed to express agreement with this part of Smith's argument, saying on Monday that the government must "ensure that we only fund proposals that promise the biggest bang for taxpayer dollars."

But Smith has also said he wants to ensure approved projects are "not duplicative" of other work the NSF is funding -- even though scientific research is, by its nature, meant to be replicated.

Last week, Smith sent a letter to the NSF demanding that it provide supporting materials to justify research after its panels of independent scientists have approved it.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), the committee's ranking member, wrote to Smith criticizing him for his proposal.

"Your letter marks the beginning of an investigative effort, the implications of which are profound," Johnson said. "This is the first step on a path that would destroy the merit-based review process at NSF and intrudes political pressure into what is widely regarded as the most effective and creative process for awarding research funds in the world."

Republicans have also been critical of supporting social science research. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has for years tried to bar the National Science Foundation from funding research in political science. "Theories on political behavior are best left to CNN, pollsters, pundits, historians, candidates, political parties, and the voters, rather than being funded out of taxpayers' wallets," he said in 2009.

Coburn reintroduced an amendment this year to limit research funding as part of a bill funding the government. Obama signed it into law last month, although it was amended to allow an exception for research certified by the NSF director as "promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/29/obama-science_n_3179411.html

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How we decode 'noisy' language in daily life: How people rationally interpret linguistic input

Apr. 29, 2013 ? Suppose you hear someone say, "The man gave the ice cream the child." Does that sentence seem plausible? Or do you assume it is missing a word? Such as: "The man gave the ice cream to the child."

A new study by MIT researchers indicates that when we process language, we often make these kinds of mental edits. Moreover, it suggests that we seem to use specific strategies for making sense of confusing information -- the "noise" interfering with the signal conveyed in language, as researchers think of it.

"Even at the sentence level of language, there is a potential loss of information over a noisy channel," says Edward Gibson, a professor in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) and Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

Gibson and two co-authors detail the strategies at work in a new paper, "Rational integration of noisy evidence and prior semantic expectations in sentence interpretation," published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"As people are perceiving language in everyday life, they're proofreading, or proof-hearing, what they're getting," says Leon Bergen, a PhD student in BCS and a co-author of the study. "What we're getting is quantitative evidence about how exactly people are doing this proofreading. It's a well-calibrated process."

Asymmetrical strategies

The paper is based on a series of experiments the researchers conducted, using the Amazon Mechanical Turk survey system, in which subjects were presented with a series of sentences -- some evidently sensible, and others less so -- and asked to judge what those sentences meant.

A key finding is that given a sentence with only one apparent problem, people are more likely to think something is amiss than when presented with a sentence where two edits may be needed. In the latter case, people seem to assume instead that the sentence is not more thoroughly flawed, but has an alternate meaning entirely.

"The more deletions and the more insertions you make, the less likely it will be you infer that they meant something else," Gibson says. When readers have to make one such change to a sentence, as in the ice cream example above, they think the original version was correct about 50 percent of the time. But when people have to make two changes, they think the sentence is correct even more often, about 97 percent of the time.

Thus the sentence, "Onto the cat jumped a table," which might seem to make no sense, can be made plausible with two changes -- one deletion and one insertion -- so that it reads, "The cat jumped onto a table." And yet, almost all the time, people will not infer that those changes are needed, and assume the literal, surreal meaning is the one intended.

This finding interacts with another one from the study, that there is a systematic asymmetry between insertions and deletions on the part of listeners.

"People are much more likely to infer an alternative meaning based on a possible deletion than on a possible insertion," Gibson says.

Suppose you hear or read a sentence that says, "The businessman benefitted the tax law." Most people, it seems, will assume that sentence has a word missing from it -- "from," in this case -- and fix the sentence so that it now reads, "The businessman benefitted from the tax law." But people will less often think sentences containing an extra word, such as "The tax law benefitted from the businessman," are incorrect, implausible as they may seem.

Another strategy people use, the researchers found, is that when presented with an increasing proportion of seemingly nonsensical sentences, they actually infer lower amounts of "noise" in the language. That means people adapt when processing language: If every sentence in a longer sequence seems silly, people are reluctant to think all the statements must be wrong, and hunt for a meaning in those sentences. By contrast, they perceive greater amounts of noise when only the occasional sentence seems obviously wrong, because the mistakes so clearly stand out.

"People seem to be taking into account statistical information about the input that they're receiving to figure out what kinds of mistakes are most likely in different environments," Bergen says.

Reverse-engineering the message

Other scholars say the work helps illuminate the strategies people may use when they interpret language.

"I'm excited about the paper," says Roger Levy, a professor of linguistics at the University of California at San Diego who has done his own studies in the area of noise and language.

According to Levy, the paper posits "an elegant set of principles" explaining how humans edit the language they receive. "People are trying to reverse-engineer what the message is, to make sense of what they've heard or read," Levy says.

"Our sentence-comprehension mechanism is always involved in error correction, and most of the time we don't even notice it," he adds. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to operate effectively in the world. We'd get messed up every time anybody makes a mistake."

The study was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/_IIiQYNk9ww/130429164950.htm

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Algeria president sent to Paris after mini-stroke

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) ? Algeria's president was transferred to Paris for medical treatment following a mini-stroke and tests show he isn't seriously ill, the state news agency reported Sunday.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika had a brief blockage of a blood vessel known as a transient ischemic attack and was sent to the French capital for further tests under the recommendation of his doctors.

The 76-year-old president had been checked into Val de Grace hospital, where he was treated in 2005 for a bleeding ulcer.

"Medical tests conducted at the Val de Grace hospital in Paris confirmed that there is no worry about the state of his health," according to a statement from the prime minister's office. "Daily life will continue as normal."

There have long been concerns about Bouteflika's health, especially since the president rarely appears in public.

Bouteflika, president since 1999, is credited with seeing Algeria through the end of a bloody civil war against Islamists and ruling in an uneasy partnership with the powerful military.

The last few years of his reign, however, have been slammed with accusations of corruption. Bouteflika was also widely believed to be planning to run for a fourth term in next year's presidential elections.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/algeria-president-sent-paris-mini-stroke-081408904.html

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Tebow Time in New York over after Jets cut QB

NEW YORK (AP) ? The possibilities appeared endless for Tim Tebow.

Here he was, perhaps the most popular player in the NFL, in New York as a member of the Jets and maybe the biggest thing to hit Broadway since Joe Namath himself.

There were billboards outside the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey welcoming Tebow, and sandwiches named after him at Manhattan delis. He also had a legion of fans who followed him because of his strong Christian beliefs, and in New York, he would be able to take advantage of countless media and marketing opportunities.

And then, it all went terribly wrong.

Or, more like it, the whole idea was completely flawed from the start. For Tebow. And for the Jets.

Tebow was waived Monday morning, the end of an embarrassingly unsuccessful one-season experiment in New York that produced more hype and headlines than production on the field. And it all ended quietly, with a three-paragraph news release.

"Unfortunately," coach Rex Ryan said in a statement, "things did not work out the way we all had hoped."

It also left Tebow's football future very much in doubt.

A year after he threw a TD pass to win a playoff game in overtime for Denver, the Heisman Trophy winner with two college national titles at Florida and a nationwide following may have suited up for the last time.

Tebow took to Twitter a few hours after being waived, citing a bible verse: "Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding," Tebow wrote, "in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

No NFL team has made a pitch to get him. The only nibble so far came from the Montreal Alouettes. They hold his rights in the Canadian Football League and said he come compete for a job ? as a backup.

"Had this happened back in February, he might have had a chance to at least participate in free agency," said 2002 NFL MVP quarterback Rich Gannon, now an analyst for CBS Sports and SiriusXM NFL Radio. "I don't think there would have been a strong market for him, but at least he would've had that opportunity."

Gannon added that it's an even tougher situation for Tebow now because more than 20 quarterbacks were either drafted or signed as undrafted free agents in the last few days.

"Look, it's a two-way street, though," Gannon said. "It's a business. The Jets were trying to find somebody, a dance partner. Sometimes that goes into the draft and teams are calling around. I'm sure the Jets were trying to shop Tebow, and I'm sure they kept getting denied."

This is the same guy who led the Broncos to the postseason in 2011, but became expendable when Denver signed Peyton Manning as a free agent. The popular backup quarterback was acquired by the Jets in March 2012 for a fourth-round draft pick and $1.5 million in salary. He was introduced at the Jets' facility to plenty of fanfare at a lavish news conference, with Tebow repeatedly saying he was "excited" to be in New York.

It turned out to be one of the few high points in Tebow's stay with the Jets. Along with his shirtless jog from the practice field in the rain during training camp, of course.

The Jets never figured out a way to use Tebow effectively, and he never forced the issue by being a good enough player in practice to make Ryan and his coaches put him on the field more in games.

"If he were to happen to call me, I would say, 'Look, you're starting over,'" former NFL GM Ted Sundquist said. "Tim Tebow needs to redefine who Tim Tebow is, in my opinion. He's no longer a first-round quarterback."

Even recently retired Jets special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff labeled the way the team used Tebow an "absolute mess."

It all cost Tebow his job, along with former general manager Mike Tannenbaum and former offensive coordinator Tony Sparano ? both fired in part because of their roles in what was one of the NFL's messiest quarterback situations in recent memory. It also seriously clouds Tebow's NFL future, which might be extended only, in some people's opinion, if he considers a position change.

"I don't see any team giving him a chance because teams don't want to deal with the following that comes with Tebow," ESPN analyst and former NFL offensive lineman Damien Woody said. "Maybe Canada."

Added Gannon: "I don't know. He's just in a bad spot."

Tebow was brought to New York to be a dynamic addition to the offense, a complement to Mark Sanchez and a merchandising touchdown for the Jets. Instead, he attempted just eight passes for 39 yards and rushed 32 times for 102 yards ? and stunningly had no touchdowns.

Through it all, Tebow tried to hide his frustration, but acknowledged late in the season that things didn't turn out quite how he expected in New York.

"I think it's fair to say," Tebow said, "that I'm a little disappointed."

It's an amazing fall for a player whose No. 15 Broncos jersey ranked second in national sales to Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers in 2011.

"He seems like a great kid," Sundquist said, "and it seems like he could bring some positives to a club if he can just bury this whole thing about him being in your quarterback mix and just let him be No. 39 on your roster, one of your back-end guys who can go somewhere and help you win."

The Jets and new general manager John Idzik drafted former West Virginia star Geno Smith in the second round of the NFL draft Friday, giving New York six quarterbacks on its roster ? and creating uncertainty about Sanchez's future as well.

Tebow, who dropped about 15 pounds in the last few months, arrived at the team's facility in Florham Park, N.J., early Monday and was told he had been cut.

"Tim is an extremely hard worker, evident by the shape he came back in this offseason," Ryan said. "We wish him the best moving forward."

But, where to next for Tebow?

The Jacksonville Jaguars have already ruled themselves out of giving Tebow a happy homecoming. But maybe the Chicago Bears, whose new head coach Marc Trestman tutored Tebow before the NFL draft in 2010, could give him a look as their backup.

Perhaps the San Diego Chargers would take a chance on him, adding to the circus-like atmosphere they'll likely have because they drafted Manti Te'o. New coach Mike McCoy was Tebow's offensive coordinator in Denver during the 2011 season, when the quarterback took over the offense and led the Broncos to comeback after comeback.

What about Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots? They're no strangers to turning discarded players ? Wes Welker, Danny Woodhead, even Randy Moss ? into big-time playmakers, and it would give Belichick another chance to tweak the Jets.

Then, there's always the Canadian Football League, but whether Tebow would even be open to a move north of the U.S. border is uncertain.

"If you can find a club that's mature enough to handle it as an organization, then you're going to find the right spot for him," Sundquist said. "What I mean by that is all the media mania and that sort of thing. The club says, 'Look, this is the reason we're bringing him on. We feel he can bring X, Y, Z and A, B, C to the table.' Explain it to Tim, explain it to the media, explain it to your fan base and explain it to your organization."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tebow-time-york-over-jets-cut-qb-135528666.html

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In abortion debate, both sides point to Philadelphia trial

(Editor's Note: Please be advised that this story contains graphic material that may upset some readers)

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Philadelphia abortion clinic that prosecutors called a "house of horrors" is now being cited as powerful evidence by both abortion and anti-abortion rights groups.

Advocates on both sides of the issue spoke out as the murder trial of Dr Kermit Gosnell, accused of killing a patient and four infants during late-term abortions at his clinic, headed for closing arguments on Monday in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia.

Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-shuttered Women's Medical Society Clinic in urban West Philadelphia, could face the death penalty if convicted. The case focuses on whether or not the infants were born alive and then killed.

"Abortion is not safe, it never has been, and what happened in Kermit's clinic is not that unusual," said Joe Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League.

Rev. Frank Pavone, director of the anti-abortion group Priests for Life, said the often gory trial testimony "will change the conversation ... It'll help people engage and make them realize they're not just talking about a theoretical idea."

Abortion-rights activists said Gosnell is an outlier among predominantly safe and legal abortion providers.

"Gosnell ran a criminal enterprise, not a healthcare facility, and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Shoddy practices revealed in the Gosnell case are proof that safe abortions should be easily accessible to women of all income levels, said Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

"This is a peek into the back-alley days, the pre-Roe v. Wade days. It's what too many women experienced when we didn't provide access to safe and clean abortion services," Hogue said, referring to the landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1973 that struck down state laws restricting abortion.

The charges against Gosnell and nine of his employees have added fresh fuel to the debate in the United States about late-term abortions.

It is legal in Pennsylvania to abort a fetus up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. It becomes murder if the infant is fully expelled from the mother alive and then killed, according to a lawyer familiar with Pennsylvania law, who declined to be named given the volatility of the case.

Gosnell is charged with first-degree murder for delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords, prosecutors said. He is also charged with third-degree murder in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Virginia, who died after the procedure from a drug overdose, prosecutors said.

The doctor has pleaded not guilty to all charges, contending there is no evidence the babies were alive when they were expelled and that Mongar failed to disclose her full medical history, which may have triggered drug complications.

Testimony in the six-week trial before a seven-woman, five-man jury has depicted a filthy, squalid clinic serving mostly low-income women in the largely black community.

Early in the trial, anti-abortion rights groups criticized the national media for largely ignoring the case.

Day Gardner, the head of the National Black Pro-life Union in Washington, tied the media's initial avoidance of the trial to what she said was deeply ingrained racism in American society, noting that many of Gosnell's patients were poor black women and the doctor himself is black.

The national spotlight would have shown brighter if the victim had been "a blonde, blue-eyed child ... It's very obvious that passion across America is not quite the same when it comes to black children," Gardner said.

Gosnell, who has been in jail since his January 2011 arrest, is being tried along with Eileen O'Neill, a medical graduate student accused of billing patients and insurance companies as if she had been a licensed doctor. Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are awaiting sentencing.

(Additional reporting by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Prudence Crowther)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/abortion-debate-both-sides-point-philadelphia-trial-040400904.html

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Samsung tells the design story behind the Galaxy S 4 (video)

In case you missed it, Samsung released a new phone over the weekend and now the company's put together a quick video describing the design notions behind its Galaxy S 4. Expect to hear the word intuitive a fair few times, mostly in regard to those new software features, a return of those nature-inspired design licks. Samsung adds that it's has also cranked up the attention to detail on the hardware design, in search of the "perfect line" for its new flagship, though we're not exactly sure if it can be both "unlike anything you've ever seen before" and "not a radical difference, but more an evolution," as mentioned in the clip. Take in some sun-kissed vistas and the chilled-out soundtrack right after the break.

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Source: Samsung Tomorrow (YouTube)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/29/samsung-galaxy-s-4-design/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Brazil's Vale agrees to pay workers as it exits Argentina mine

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian mining giant Vale SA will pay two and a half months' salary to workers in Argentina as part of an agreement signed on Friday allowing the miner to exit the $6 billion Rio Colorado potash project.

The payments will go to about 4,900 subcontractors, a spokeswoman said on Saturday, declining to give further details on the cost of the accord.

The agreement could put an end to months of uncertainty for Vale, which suspended work on the fertilizer project in December and announced its intention to pull out in March.

Since its decision to exit, Vale and Argentina's government have been at loggerheads over the fate of workers at the site.

People familiar with Vale's plans have said the company, the world's second-biggest miner, planned to sell the project in efforts to recoup the $2.2 billion it has already spent on the mine and on railway and port improvements needed to move the potash to market.

(Reporting by Brad Haynes; Additional reporting by Sabrina Lorenzi in Rio de Janeiro)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brazils-vale-agrees-pay-workers-exits-argentina-mine-215635618.html

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Live Extra: Montreal faces Chicago

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Jane Fonda handprints next to Dad's in Hollywood

Jane Fonda is honored with hand and foot prints in cement next to Henry Fonda's outside the Chinese Theater. Jane Fonda will also be present at a special screening of 'On Golden Pond.'

By Sandy Cohen,?Associated Press / April 27, 2013

Actress Jane Fonda arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The 75-year-old Oscar winner will place her hand and footprints next to her father's in the concrete shrine to celebrity outside Hollywood's TCL Chinese Theatre on Saturday, April 27, 2013.

(Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP, File)

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Jane Fonda is planning to shed a few tears on Saturday.

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That's when the 75-year-old Oscar winner will place her hand and footprints next to her father's in the concrete shrine to celebrity outside Hollywood's Chinese Theatre. Then she'll present a special screening of the film she made with her dad, 1981's "On Golden Pond." The cement and cinematic tribute is part of the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival, which is honoring Jane Fonda.

"I am very, very excited," Fonda said in an interview this week. "I thought probably I would die and this would never happen. I'm just really thrilled that it actually is happening and not only that, but I get to put my hand and footprints right next to my father. ... I'm just so happy I'll probably cry."

The honor inspired Fonda to reflect on her career, which hasn't slowed since she returned to acting in 2005 after a 15-year hiatus.

"I've made some really good films. There's also a lot of films I wish I could do over again," she said. "But I've been lucky: I've worked with some great directors, and I feel like I'm still a work in progress as an actor. I feel like I'm still learning."

After her guest-starring stint on "The Newsroom," she's more interested than ever in television.

"I'd love to have a television series of my own," Fonda said. "I'm hoping that might happen."

A fitness pioneer, Fonda continues to focus on health and wellness with a series of videos aimed at older exercisers. She also inspired countless Oscar watchers earlier this year with her fitted, bright yellow gown, and she serves as L'Oreal's oldest spokeswoman.

"When you're younger, you don't have to put so much time into it, but also I didn't care that much. I was an activist and I didn't think so much about how I appeared," she said. "As I've gotten older, I've paid more attention to how I dress, how I look, what makeup I use, what skincare products I use... I guess one reason that I put more effort into looking good now is because I think it gives hope to other women. It takes the edge off the fear that young people have of getting older."

The wisdom and openness that come with aging are easy to wear well, and Fonda said she's happier now than ever.

"This event that's coming up where I get to put my hand and shoeprints next to my dad in front of the Chinese Theatre, it's coming at a very happy time in my life," Fonda said, "and making it even happier."

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.

___

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/csXCNpFN35g/Jane-Fonda-handprints-next-to-Dad-s-in-Hollywood

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Lawmakers question U.S. government failure to protect Iranian dissidents in Iraq, continued funding for Iraq government, says Iranian American Community of Northern California

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a briefing on Capitol Hill, senior House Foreign Affairs, Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees members voiced dismay over what they described was the State Department's failure to secure the safety and protection of thousands of Iranian dissidents in Camp Liberty Iraq and questioned U.S. government's continued funding of Iraq in view of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's refusal to treat the 3,100 residents at Liberty humanely.?

"We should make sure that we as a nation secure the liberty of Camp Liberty. One thing we can do is... to put them back into Camp Ashraf, which is at least a decent place for them... Unfortunately, Camp Liberty was not a place of safety for those folks in Camp Ashraf. So we need to allow them to return to Camp Ashraf," emphasized Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade Subcommittee Chair Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX).

Pointing to the Iraqi government's refusal to heed the call for the safety and security of Camp Liberty residents, the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees member, the Texas Democrat, Sheila Jackson Lee said, "Why do we keep funding Iraq when they can't deal with the human rights of the people in Camp Liberty? ... If they will not listen, then we have to make sure that they listen... Why we are continuing to give comfort to Iraq that continues to participate in the events that result in this devastation and loss of life??... I'd vote for any amendment that would question, diminish, and cut Iraq's funding?... "

Referring to the February 9^th rocket attack that left eight Liberty residents dead and dozens wounded, Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) added, "[Due to] the Iranian government's efforts to tear down your people, they've moved them from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty, which is not as protected, as fortified; people are losing their lives, we need to send a strong message, my hope is that Congress will send a strong message that these people need a fortified place to live... We will continue to push the State Department and this administration to not let you down... We need to send the Iranian government a strong signal that this will not be tolerated anymore."

House Judiciary Committee Member, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) added, "The folks at Camp Liberty are commendable, [They are] fighting for liberty and in Iran... [They] need to be protected from attacks such as those that occurred in February."

SOURCE Iranian-American Community of Northern California

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-u-government-failure-protect-iranian-dissidents-iraq-225900898.html

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My taxes are done, now what? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

The April 15 tax deadline has come and gone, but that doesn?t mean you don?t have to think about your finances until next year. Now is the time for a little spring cleaning ? of your personal finances that is. The steps you take now will not only help you improve your future financial situation, they will also better prepare you for filing next year?s tax return.

?

Review your most recent return

I know, the last thing you want to do is revisit the tax return you just filed, but now is the best time to review your return, while the information is still fresh. Did you have tax due or did you receive a large refund? If so, consider changing your withholding. Did you lose important receipts and miss out on charitable donation deductions and other credits? If so, put a plan in place now to save receipts. Personally, I scan receipts so that I have a digital copy as a backup to the original.

?

Retirement savings

Experts recommend that you check your retirement savings account annually; since you have to file a tax return annually, tacking this spring cleaning step onto your schedule just makes sense. Make sure you?re saving enough to meet your retirement needs, rebalance your account and don?t forget to sit down with an investment professional to get a big-picture look at your financial future.

?

Short-term savings plans

Don?t just set up a savings plan for retirement; you also need to look at any near-term financial goals. Do you need to boost your cash emergency fund? If so, write out a plan that details how you will meet this goal. Is a family vacation in the works for next year? Start a savings plan now so that you can cash flow your trip.

?

Check your credit report

Did you know that 42 million Americans have errors on their credit report? Errors can lower your credit score and in turn, increase the interest rate you pay on your mortgage, auto insurance and other financial products. Get into the habit of checking your credit report annually. You can order a free report from each of the three major credit bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com

?

Make a plan to pay down debt

Are you still paying on student loans even though you graduated a decade ago? Is your credit card debt load stagnant? If so, you may just need to have a written plan to make a dent in your debt. Simply write down each of your credit account balances, including auto loans, credit cards and student loans, and then put them in the order you want to pay them off. Some folks prefer highest interest rate to lowest interest rate and others want to start with the smallest debt first. I don?t care how you order them, just put them in order and write out how you plan to pay them off as soon as possible. This means making more than the minimum payment, so you may need to look elsewhere in your budget for an extra $20 or $100 a month to expedite the process.

?

Source: http://www.mnn.com/money/personal-finance/blogs/my-taxes-are-done-now-what

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Lawmakers question U.S. government failure to protect Iranian dissidents in Iraq, continued funding for Iraq government, says Iranian American Community of Northern California

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a briefing on Capitol Hill, senior House Foreign Affairs, Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees members voiced dismay over what they described was the State Department's failure to secure the safety and protection of thousands of Iranian dissidents in Camp Liberty Iraq and questioned U.S. government's continued funding of Iraq in view of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's refusal to treat the 3,100 residents at Liberty humanely.?

"We should make sure that we as a nation secure the liberty of Camp Liberty. One thing we can do is... to put them back into Camp Ashraf, which is at least a decent place for them... Unfortunately, Camp Liberty was not a place of safety for those folks in Camp Ashraf. So we need to allow them to return to Camp Ashraf," emphasized Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade Subcommittee Chair Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX).

Pointing to the Iraqi government's refusal to heed the call for the safety and security of Camp Liberty residents, the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees member, the Texas Democrat, Sheila Jackson Lee said, "Why do we keep funding Iraq when they can't deal with the human rights of the people in Camp Liberty? ... If they will not listen, then we have to make sure that they listen... Why we are continuing to give comfort to Iraq that continues to participate in the events that result in this devastation and loss of life??... I'd vote for any amendment that would question, diminish, and cut Iraq's funding?... "

Referring to the February 9^th rocket attack that left eight Liberty residents dead and dozens wounded, Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) added, "[Due to] the Iranian government's efforts to tear down your people, they've moved them from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty, which is not as protected, as fortified; people are losing their lives, we need to send a strong message, my hope is that Congress will send a strong message that these people need a fortified place to live... We will continue to push the State Department and this administration to not let you down... We need to send the Iranian government a strong signal that this will not be tolerated anymore."

House Judiciary Committee Member, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) added, "The folks at Camp Liberty are commendable, [They are] fighting for liberty and in Iran... [They] need to be protected from attacks such as those that occurred in February."

SOURCE Iranian-American Community of Northern California

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-u-government-failure-protect-iranian-dissidents-iraq-225900898.html

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Hyundai Suicide Ad Pulled, Company Apologizes

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/hyundai-suicide-ad-pulled-company-apologizes/

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Talked for 16 Hours Before He Was Read His Rights

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is facing the death penalty. That is the circumstance in which procedural fairness matters the most.

Photo provided by FBI via Getty Images

According to the AP, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev answered questions for 16 hours before he was read the Miranda warning that he could remain silent and could ask for a lawyer. Once Tsarnaev was told that, he stopped talking. (So much for the idea that everyone has heard Miranda warnings so many times on TV that they have become an empty ritual.) The AP also reports that the investigators questioning him were ?surprised when a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney?s office entered the hospital room.? The investigators ?had planned to keep questioning him.?

Wow. That?s bad no matter your point of view. If you think Tsarnaev doesn?t deserve the normal protections American law affords criminal suspects, then you?d want the FBI to keep at him as long as they chose. Or if, like me, you?re worried about how far the Obama administration?s Justice Department has stretched the limited ?public safety? exception the Supreme Court has allowed for questioning suspects about ongoing danger without Miranda warnings, 16 hours sounds expansive.

It?s true that Miranda offers protection only after the fact. Technically, the rule is violated not when investigators fail to give the warnings, but when they try to introduce in court a confession or other facts a suspect revealed before he was read his rights. It?s also true that given the mountain of evidence against Tsarneav, he could be convicted without his own statements. But that may not be true with the next terrorist suspect?or the next hated man for whom the government decides to stretch the public safety exception. The Justice Department is setting a precedent here. And how does that precedent directly involve public safety, when all of law enforcement reassured the public that safety had been restored once Tsarnaev was captured Friday night, and that the authorities strongly believed he and his brother, Tamerlan, had acted alone?

This isn?t about public safety?not in any immediate or urgent way. It?s about the Justice Department?s decision, in a 2010 memo to the FBI, that in ?exceptional cases? agents can go beyond public safety questions ?to collect valuable and timely intelligence not related to any immediate threat.? I realize that I?m in a minority here in worrying that in this case, the government went too far. But to show the distance we?ve traveled: No one delayed the Miranda warnings?or talked about enemy combatant status?for Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, or Eric Rudolph, the Atlanta Olympics bomber. OK, that was before 9/11. But even in 2009 after the arrest of the attempted Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the FBI questioned Abdulmutallab for only 50 minutes before Mirandizing him. Three years and one DOJ memo later, the protections of Miranda essentially are nil for a suspected terrorist. Is that because Tsarnaev and his brother succeeded in killing and maiming people, whereas Abdulmutallab failed? Is there some important distinction I?m missing, or is this just the beginning of a boundless expansion of the public safety exception?

And if the president and his lawyers can do that without any court?s oversight, what?s to stop the government from setting aside Miranda not just for the suspects who paralyze an entire city, but in less ?exceptional? cases as well? It?s also dismaying that authorities dribbled out bits of Tsarnaev?s confession Monday and Tuesday after saying he?d been read his rights. They never directly said he kept talking after he?d been Mirandized, but they created that impression. I wonder, too, about the new report that the Tsarnaevs might have gone on to set off a bomb in New York. When did Dzhokhar say that, and are we finding out about it now to make it seem as if, even though he was in custody, there was still a threat hovering out there?

Tsarnaev is facing the death penalty. That is the circumstance in which procedural fairness matters the most. Yes, we have to protect ourselves from terrorism. But not by breaking with our traditional respect for the rule of law.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4b137925240795f5e2b58b2b5ba4c0e7

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Google Brings Its New And Improved File Viewer For MS Office Documents To Chrome Beta

If you regularly need to open Microsoft Office document in the browser, Google now offers you a new Chrome extension that renders Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly in the browser. Currently, these documents open in a Drive-based viewer, but after you install the new Chrome Office Viewer (which is officially still in beta), these documents will open directly in the browser. Until now, this feature was limited to Chromebooks, but now it’s also available for Chrome on Windows and Mac. You do need to run Chrome Beta, however, as it’s not available for the stable release channel of Chrome just yet. The advantage of this new plugin (which weighs in at over 20 megabytes), Google says, is that it ensure that you are protected from malware because the files open in a specialized sandbox “to impede attackers who use compromised Office files to try to steal private information or monitor your activities.” While Google doesn’t say so in today’s announcement, chances are this new feature is at least partially powered by the technology it acquired when it bought Quickoffice last year. When Google launched the Pixel Chromebook in February, it also said it would port Quickoffice to Chrome, using its Native Client technology. Those three months are almost over, so we’ll likely see a bit more from Google with regard to Office documents in the browser.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2UTTJYJG7Zs/

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Israeli army to halt use of white phosphorus

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's army said Thursday that it would soon halt its use of white phosphorus shells after years of international criticism for using the incendiary munitions in crowded Palestinian areas.

The army said in a statement that it would replace white phosphorus shells with ones based entirely on gas. Officials didn't offer further details, nor give a specific date for when they would retire the shells.

Israel came under heavy criticism after the three-week winter war in Gaza in 2008 and 2009 against the territory's Hamas for using white phosphorus shells. During the conflict, shells were used against a U.N. warehouse where more than 700 Palestinians were sheltering.

White phosphorus can be used legally in some battlefield situations, but Israel's use of it in Gaza drew war crimes allegations by the U.N.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-army-halt-white-phosphorus-211040546.html

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HTC insists Nokia's injunction won't affect the One's current stock, new mics in the works

In an email to press, HTC took the opportunity to make a few clarifications about the injunction filed by Nokia this week regarding the dual-membrane microphone in the One. The preliminary injunction claims that the high-amplitude mic, which HTC uses in its flagship device, was supposed to be manufactured exclusively for the Finnish company (and currently used in the Lumia 720). If you've been wondering how this particular action would affect sales of the high-end HTC handset, spokespeople assure us that it's business as usual for the company. According to its official statement, the One is not the actual target of any injunction in The Netherlands -- in actuality, the legalities of the matter are apparently only between Nokia and STMicroelectronics, the supplier of the component in question.

HTC tells us that Nokia's attempts to institute a recall of the One failed; since the products were purchased in good faith, the ruling states that HTC can continue to use microphones that are in its inventory. Despite having a history rich in manufacturing delays, we're told that this legal ruling will have no effect on the One's availability. The Taiwanese phone maker plans a transition to "improved microphone designs" as soon as its current stock of STM supplies has been exhausted, a move which HTC claims will be transparent to consumers. Head below to see the full statement.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC, Nokia

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/hSzeqphbzuA/

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Watch Jennifer Lawrence Get Feisty In Exclusive 'Silver Linings' Alt Ending

Exclusive deleted scene would have ended the movie on a slightly different note.
By Kevin P. Sullivan

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playlist"
Photo: The Weinstein Company

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706329/silver-linings-playbook-alternate-ending-exclusive.jhtml

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Access Hollywood section

??Why was Fallon yelling at Timberlake wedding?
Late night host Jimmy Fallon tells Access' Michelle Beadle he's "psyched" and "honored" to be on Time Magazine's list of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World." Also, he chats about how he started yelling at the wedding reception of close friend Justin Timberlake.

---

Source: http://www.today.com/id/7358550/ns/today-entertainment/

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Grillstock | Manchester Food | Manchester Food Festival | Creative ...

Vegetarians look away now: the international grilled flesh fest comes to the city this summer.

I?m not much of a baker, me. To the rest of the country, which seems to be in the grip of a mass hysteria for buttercream and floral patterned muffin cases, I say let ?em eat Red Velvet cake. All this talk of weighing eggs in their shells and the proper way to sift your flour just makes me want to get a big, bloody hunk of meat and throw it on a grill. So naturally I?m delighted at the news that Grillstock is coming to town. The annual festival of meat and Southern-inflected music is already a legend in Bristol, and it?s coming to Albert Square this June.

What can we expect? Tattoos that say ?Brisket 4-Ever?? Enough beards and man-jewellery to make the Hairy Bikers jealous? Very possibly. The organisers promise two full days of ?meat, music and mayhem?. Music will be provided by retro rockabilly band Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, The Congo Faith Healers, funky brass ensemble Riot Jazz, folky Manchester band Honeyfeet, blues-rockers Dr Tid & the Triple Eights, and country act The Good Intentions. Alongside the music there will be a few family friendly activities on offer, with craft workshops for the kids, a treasure hunt and street performers.

I?m acquainted with competition grillers, & can report that these people are completely insane

Yes, yes, that?s all very well, but let?s talk meat: at the centre of the whole thing is Grillstock?s barbecue competition, King of the Grill. Twenty-four teams from all over will be competing in seven categories, with the winner off to the Royal Invitational in Kansas City. Manchester judges include noted American grillsman Dr. BBQ, Chorlton Butcher Lee Frost, the Mark Addy?s Robert Owen Brown and (full disclosure) me. I?m previously acquainted with competition grillers, having covered BBQ showdowns in the States, and I can report that these people are completely insane. They?re likely to be found grilling ?til the break of dawn, basting all night long and coming to actual blows over sauce recipes. Last year, ?Bad Byron? Chism and Team Buttrub jetted in from Florida to take the Grillstock crown, and this year the organisers hope a British team may win it back. (Any endeavouring to do so can start by coming up with a name as impressive as ?Bad Byron? Chism and Team Buttrub.)

Beer is so important to these guys that it?s the subject of its own festival-within-a-festival, Brewstock. Craft beer bars will be provided by the ace Brooklyn Brewery and festival-goers can sample a selection of craft beers from both sides of the Atlantic, with meet the brewer and beer and food pairing sessions. There will also be chilli and rib-eating competitions, demonstrations and cooking lessons on offer in Grillstock?s BBQ Academy. All in all, it should be a most enlightening weekend. Well, for those of us who aren?t trying to digest half a pig. I?ll be the one with the glazed expression.

Source: http://www.creativetourist.com/articles/food-drink/manchester/preview-grillstock-sets-its-meaty-sights-on-manchester/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=preview-grillstock-sets-its-meaty-sights-on-manchester

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Mad Men, Season 6

Dawn (Teyonah Parris) and Nikki (Idara Victor).

Jordin Althaus/AMC

Paul, your inspired riff on blank spaces got me thinking: Maybe the struggle for these characters is just not to be invisible. Maybe that?s the struggle for all of us.

You are right that Dawn has too pure a heart for this wicked place, but you have to ask yourself, why does she keep coming back every morning? I think it?s because at SCDP she is seen. As she complains to her girlfriend, in her own world, no one pays attention to her and she can?t get a man because she?s too good and plain. ?I can?t stand out in that crowd of harlots,? she says?of church. But once she gets below 72^nd street everything changes. The black crowd gets thinner and thinner and suddenly she is noticed. There is power in that difference, even if it?s uncomfortable. Something similar is operating with Joan: She may be wearing a scarlet letter, but will never be invisible again.

Harry Crane, on the other hand, is just another charisma-free guy who happened to land at the right department at the right time. So he has to get his attention by clumsy force, and when it comes, it?s an envelope of cash to buy him off. And yes, Seth, you are allowed to admire him. I depend on you always to stand up for the hapless and cruelly misunderstood.

In his wonderful novel Mr. Peanut, Adam Ross makes this point about marriage: Over time, husbands and wives become invisible to each other. One wife in the novel refuses to get out of bed, just because she wants her husband to see her. Something like that seems to be happening with Don and Megan. He is receding into the blank space, lurking behind doors, even subsuming himself into his mistresses, as Margaret Lyons argues. Meanwhile, Megan is becoming threateningly vibrant and independent. When he comes home from work she doesn?t zero in on him like she used to; she creates a little coq au vin kitchen theater of romance, a late-?60s version of ?date night,? which he sees right through.

One thing we haven?t discussed much is how politics seeps into the work culture. Each man?s position on the war seems to perfectly reflect his character. Ken?s anti-war sentiments are petty and personal, driven entirely by his hatred of his father-in-law. Michael?s views stem from jealousy; he complains that ?Project K? must be a military account because ?Stan has no conscience.? Harry?s are cheerful and commercial, as he plans a variety show for Dow Chemical starring Joe Namath in a straw hat. And Don?s are judicious and psychological, as he instructs the writer on Megan?s show that people don?t want to hear political satire on a wholesome TV show. I don?t expect any flag burning at SCDP, but since this era marks the beginning of our obsession with subliminal messages, I would love to see something subversive emerge from Stan?s tinfoil lair.

OK boys, gotta go, I think I see a friend.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=cbc36aeb8415de6a1d1bc10fd410e926

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2nd Miss. man investigated in ricin case

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) ? Law enforcement officials searched the home of a second Mississippi man in connection to ricin-laced letters sent to the president and a U.S. senator after charges were dropped without explanation against a man arrested in the case last week.

Everett Dutschke, whose Tupelo, Miss., home was searched Tuesday by dozens of officials, some in hazmat suits, had feuded with Paul Kevin Curtis, a 45-year-old celebrity impersonator who had maintained his innocence since his arrest.

The search began early Tuesday afternoon and ended about 11 p.m. CDT, with officials declining to comment on what they had found or on the next phase of the investigation.

At one point, two FBI agents and two members of the state's chemical response team left Dutschke's property and began combing through ditches, culverts and woods about a block away from his house in the neighborhood of single-family detached homes.

Dutschke (DUHST'-kee), who spoke with The Associated Press by telephone during the search, said his house was also searched last week.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," he said.

No charges have been filed against Dutschke and he hasn't been arrested. Both he and Curtis, who had faced charges in the case, say they have no idea how to make the poisonous ricin and had nothing to do with sending the letters to President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Mississippi county judge Sadie Holland.

Referring to investigators' questions for him about the case, Curtis said after he was released from custody Tuesday afternoon, "I thought they said rice and I said, 'I don't even eat rice.' ... I respect President Obama. I love my country and would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other U.S. official."

A one-sentence document filed by federal prosecutors said charges against Curtis were dropped, but left open the possibility they could be reinstated if authorities found more to prove their case. Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment, but the document said the ongoing investigation had revealed new information. It did not elaborate.

Dutschke and Judge Holland know each other: In 2007, he lost his Republican bid for a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives to Holland's son, Democratic state Rep. Steve Holland, who was the incumbent.

Steve Holland previously said that during a political rally in the small town of Verona in 2007, Dutschke gave a speech disparaging the Holland family, including him, his mother and his wife.

Holland said his mother, who spoke just after Dutschke at the rally, called him back on the stage and said, "You're not going to disparage me. Now, you apologize to me."

Holland said Dutschke returned to the stage and at Judge Holland's instruction, got down on his knees and apologized, but Dutschke disputed that Tuesday.

"That's just Steve Holland being Steve Holland," he said, adding that he did not get down on his knees and apologize for anything. "He's a bit grandiose about the way he describes things."

Since Curtis' arrest at his Corinth, Miss., home on April 17, his attorneys have said their client didn't do it and suggested he was framed. An FBI agent testified in court this week that no evidence of ricin was found in searches of Curtis' home.

The dismissal is the latest twist in a case that has been strange from the beginning and rattled the country during the same week as the Boston Marathon bombing and a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas.

Dutschke and Curtis are no strangers to each other. Dutschke said the two had a disagreement and the last contact they had was in 2010. Dutschke said he threatened to sue Curtis for saying he was a member of Mensa, a group for people with high IQs.

Hal Neilson, an attorney for Curtis, said the defense gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis.

"Dutschke came up," he said. "They (prosecutors) took it and ran with it. I could not tell you if he's the man or he's not the man, but there was something there they wanted to look into."

An FBI intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said the two ricin-laced letters addressed to Obama and Wicker said: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." Both were signed, "I am KC and I approve this message."

Curtis was already well known to Wicker because he had written to the Republican senator and other officials. Curtis also wrote a novel called "Missing Pieces," about black-market body parts he claimed to have found while working at a hospital ? a claim the hospital says is untrue. Curtis posted similar language on his Facebook page and elsewhere. The documents indicate Curtis had been distrustful of the government for years. He told the AP on Tuesday that he realizes his writings made him an easy target.

Multiple online posts under the name Kevin Curtis on various websites that could be seen by anyone refer to the conspiracy he claimed to uncover when working at a local hospital from 1998 to 2000. In one post, Curtis said he sent letters to Wicker and other politicians. He signed off: "This is Kevin Curtis & I approve this message."

Christi McCoy, another attorney for Curtis, said she doesn't know what new information prosecutors have, but said the plot to frame her client was "very, very diabolical."

Curtis, dressed after his release Tuesday in a black suit, red shirt, necktie and sunglasses, said he met Dutschke in 2005 but that for some reason Dutschke "hated" and "stalked" him. "To this day I have no clue of why he hates me."

Ricin is derived from the castor plant that makes castor oil. There is no antidote and it is at its deadliest when inhaled. It can be aerosolized, released into the air and inhaled. The Homeland Security handbook says the amount of ricin that fits on the head of a pin is enough to kill an adult if properly prepared.

Dutschke said agents asked him about Curtis, whether Dutschke would take a lie-detector test and if he had ever bought castor beans, which can be used to make the potent poison.

"I'm a patriotic American. I don't have any grudges against anybody. I did not send the letters," Dutschke said.

After charges were dropped against Curtis, he said: "I'm a little shocked."

Dutschke said his attorney wasn't with him and he didn't know whether he was going to be arrested.

Tuesday's events began when the third day of a preliminary and detention hearing was canceled without officials explaining the change. Within two hours, Curtis had been released, though it wasn't clear why at first.

FBI Agent Brandon Grant said in court Monday that searches last week of Curtis' vehicle and house in Corinth, found no ricin, ingredients for the poison, or devices used to make it. A search of Curtis' computers found no evidence he researched making ricin. Authorities produced no other physical evidence at the hearings tying Curtis to the letters.

All the envelopes and stamps were self-adhesive, Grant said Monday, meaning they won't yield DNA evidence. One fingerprint was found on the letter sent to a Lee County judge, but the FBI doesn't know who it belongs to, Grant said.

The experience, Curtis said, has been a nightmare for his family. He has four children ? ages, 8, 16, 18 and 20. It also has made him reflect deeply on his life.

"I've become closer to God through all this, closer with my children and I've even had some strained relationships with some family and cousins and this has brought us closer as a family," he said.

___

Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson. Associated Press writers Holbrook Mohr in Oxford, Jack Elliott in Jackson, Miss., and Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-24-Suspicious%20Letters/id-da528cce687e42dea72ad8c424b1a007

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