These fish migrate to stay off the menu

Niklas Liljeback

In the winter, thousands upon thousands of the common roach fish migrate to nearby streams throughout Europe.

By Joseph Castro
LiveScience

From birds to crustaceans, numerous animal species migrate each year to find more food, pleasant weather or the perfect place to breed. But at least one species ??a freshwater fish called the common roach ??migrates to avoid getting eaten, new research suggests.

Researchers used identifier tags to track the seasonal movements of the common roach (Rutilus rutilus) for four years. These fish live in freshwater lakes throughout Europe and are partially migratory ??that is, during winter, up to 80 percent of the fish migrate to nearby streams, while the rest stay put.

"It's a bit of an overwhelming sight to come across these streams in wintertime, and you suddenly realize that there are thousands upon thousands of fish in this restricting area," said lead researcher Christian Skov, a fish ecologist at the Technical University of Denmark.

Cormorant birds (Phalacrocorax carbo) are known to prey on roach living in both lakes and streams. However, 92.5 percent of the tags retrieved from cormorant pellets came from roach that last swam in lakes specifically, the researchers found. Moreover, the longer the fish stayed out of the lakes, the more likely they were to escape becoming bird food, suggesting that the fish reduce their predation risk from the birds by migrating into streams. [The 10 Most Incredible Animal Journeys]

Jes Dolby

Researchers attached passive integrated transponder tags to more than 2,200 roach fish living in two lakes in Denmark. Then they set up antennas (shown here) to pick up signals from the tags.

Lakes vs. streams
The idea that some animals migrate to escape predation isn't new, but evidence for this behavior is hard to come by. In 2010, scientists discovered predation was partially involved in the breeding migrations of Arctic shorebirds: birds that traveled farther north were less likely to have their nests ravaged by foxes and other predators. But little other evidence for this kind of phenomena exists.

In the new study, Skov, along with colleagues from Sweden and Switzerland, attached passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags to more than 2,200 roach living in two lakes in Denmark. Every tag had a unique identifier code, allowing the team to distinguish each individual fish. At the inlets and outlets of each stream, the researchers set up antennas, which picked up signals from the PIT tags. "We knew the position of all of these tagged fish, allowing us to calculate how many days they spent in the stream and how much time they spent in the lake," Skov told LiveScience.

The researchers also knew cormorants roosted and bred near the lakes, while preying on roach, among other fish. With a device not so different from a minesweeper, they combed the cormorants' habitat, searching for tags that were pooped out. [The 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]

Analyzing the data from the tags, they saw a large variation in the amount of time the fish spent out of the lakes. Some fish spent five months in the streams, while others would visit the streams four or five times in a single winter. "But there was a consistent pattern," Skov said. "The longer (the fish) spent in the stream, the smaller their probability of predation."

For example, in 2008, small fish that stayed in Lake Loldrup the entire winter had about a 20 percent chance of getting eaten, but this probability dropped to about 10 percent if they stayed out of the lake for 100 days. Large roach (around 10 inches, or 25 centimeters, in length or more) showed the same trend, but overall were more likely to get eaten than small fish ??they had a 40 percent chance of being preyed upon if they stayed in Lake Loldrup for the full 2008 winter.

Interestingly, the choice to migrate wasn't risk free. During winter food becomes scarce in the lakes, but there's practically nothing to eat in the streams, Skov said.

Why some, but not all?
Given how much safer the streams appear to be during the chilly months, one can't help but wonder why some roach stay behind in the lakes. The researchers don't have the full picture yet, but their previous research has uncovered clues.

In one study they found that physically fit fish were more likely to migrate than those in poor physical condition. The researchers also found that the fish's personality matters, as bold fish?are more likely to migrate than shy fish. "So it's pretty complicated why some fish stay behind," Skov said.

Skov thinks the research will help scientists understand what drives migration and how different migrations evolve. "Here's support for one of the most underexplored ideas as to why animals migrate," he said, adding that he's interested in seeing how adaptive the roach's behavior is and if the fish would continue to migrate when there's no cormorant threat.

Future research may even show that other animals migrate to escape predators. "I could easily imagine that's the case," Skov said.

The research was detailed online Tuesday?in the journal Biology Letters.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17118241-these-fish-migrate-to-try-to-stay-off-the-menu-of-predators?lite

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Video: Captain King 'Fleet is shrinking before our eyes'

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50965300/

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WHO: Small cancer risk after Fukushima accident

FILE - In this April 16, 2011 file photo, Wakana Nemoto, 3, standing next to her mother Naoko, receives a radiation exposure screening outside an evacuation center in Fukushima, northeastern Japan. People exposed to the highest doses of radiation during the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011 may have a slightly higher risk of cancer that is so small it probably won?t even be detectable, according to a new report from the World Health Organization released on Thursday Feb. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)

FILE - In this April 16, 2011 file photo, Wakana Nemoto, 3, standing next to her mother Naoko, receives a radiation exposure screening outside an evacuation center in Fukushima, northeastern Japan. People exposed to the highest doses of radiation during the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011 may have a slightly higher risk of cancer that is so small it probably won?t even be detectable, according to a new report from the World Health Organization released on Thursday Feb. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)

FILE - In this April 7, 2011 file photo, Japanese police, wearing suits to protect them from radiation, search for victims inside the deserted evacuation zone, established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors, in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. People exposed to the highest doses of radiation during the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011 may have a slightly higher risk of cancer that is so small it probably won?t even be detectable, according to a new report from the World Health Organization released on Thursday Feb. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

LONDON (AP) ? People exposed to the highest doses of radiation during Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011 may have a slightly higher risk of cancer but one so small it probably won't be detectable, the World Health Organization said in a report released Thursday.

A group of experts convened by the agency assessed the risk of various cancers based on estimates of how much radiation people at the epicenter of the nuclear disaster received, namely those directly under the plumes of radiation in the most affected communities in Fukushima, a rural agricultural area about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Tokyo.

Some 110,000 people living around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant were evacuated after the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 knocked out the plant's power and cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors and spewing radiation into the surrounding air, soil and water.

In the new report, the highest increases in risk appeared for people exposed as infants to radiation in the most heavily affected areas. Normally in Japan, the lifetime risk of developing cancer of an organ is about 41 percent for men and 29 percent for women. The new report said that for infants in the most heavily exposed areas, the radiation from Fukushima would add about 1 percentage point to those numbers.

"These are pretty small proportional increases," said Richard Wakeford of the University of Manchester, one of the authors of the report.

"The additional risk is quite small and will probably be hidden by the noise of other (cancer) risks like people's lifestyle choices and statistical fluctuations," he said. "It's more important not to start smoking than having been in Fukushima."

Experts had been particularly worried about a spike in thyroid cancer, since iodine released in nuclear accidents is absorbed by the thyroid, especially in children. After the Chernobyl disaster, about 6,000 children exposed to radiation later developed thyroid cancer because many drank contaminated milk after the accident.

In Japan, dairy radiation levels were closely monitored, but children are not big milk drinkers there.

WHO estimated that women exposed as infants to the most radiation after the Fukushima accident would have a 70 percent higher chance of getting thyroid cancer in their lifetimes. But thyroid cancer is extremely rare, one of the most treatable cancers when caught early, and the normal lifetime risk of developing it is about 0.75 percent. That risk would be half of one percentage point higher for women who got the highest radiation doses as infants.

Wakeford said the increase in such cancers may be so small it will probably not be observable.

For people beyond the most directly affected areas of Fukushima, Wakeford said the projected risk from the radiation dropped dramatically. "The risks to everyone else were just infinitesimal."

David Brenner of Columbia University in New York, an expert on radiation-induced cancers, said that although the risk to individuals is tiny outside the most heavily exposed areas, some cancers might still result, at least in theory. But they'd be too rare to be detectable in overall cancer rates, he said.

Brenner said the numerical risk estimates in the WHO report were not surprising. He also said they should be considered imprecise because of the difficulty in determining risk from low doses of radiation. He was not connected to the WHO report.

Some experts said it was surprising that any increase in cancer was even predicted.

"On the basis of the radiation doses people have received, there is no reason to think there would be an increase in cancer in the next 50 years," said Wade Allison, an emeritus professor of physics at Oxford University, who was not connected to the WHO report. "The very small increase in cancers means that it's even less than the risk of crossing the road," he said.

WHO acknowledged in its report that it relied on some assumptions that may have resulted in an overestimate of the radiation dose in the general population.

Gerry Thomas, a professor of molecular pathology at Imperial College London, accused the WHO of hyping the cancer risk.

"It's understandable that WHO wants to err on the side of caution, but telling the Japanese about a barely significant personal risk may not be helpful," she said.

Thomas said the WHO report used inflated estimates of radiation doses and didn't properly take into account Japan's quick evacuation of people from Fukushima.

"This will fuel fears in Japan that could be more dangerous than the physical effects of radiation," she said, noting that people living under stress have higher rates of heart problems, suicide and mental illness.

In Japan, Norio Kanno, the chief of Iitate village, in one of the regions hardest hit by the disaster, harshly criticized the WHO report on Japanese public television channel NHK, describing it as "totally hypothetical."

Many people who remain in Fukushima still fear long-term health risks from the radiation, and some refuse to let their children play outside or eat locally-grown food. Kanno accused the report of exaggerating the cancer risk and stoking fear among residents.

"I'm enraged," he said.

___

Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-02-28-EU-MED-Japan-Radiation/id-4670ec19e3d04fba83ce2782c1e2d388

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Road to the IGF: Jeppe Carlsen and team's 140 - Indie Games

What happens when the lead gameplay designer at Playdead (Limbo) strikes out on his own with a side project? 140 is what takes up Jeppe Carlsen's free time. It's a rhythm-based minimalist platformer that he's developing with Playdead audio programmer Jakob Schmid and graphic artists Niels Fyrst Lausdahl and Andreas Arnild Peitersen.

The game earned its IGF nomination in the audio category, and in this interview, Gamasutra speaks to Carlsen and the team about marrying platforming, audio, and visual art into a cohesive whole.

What is your background in making games?

Jeppe Carlsen: I am currently working at Playdead as lead gameplay designer, and 140 is my spare time pet project. My background is in computer science at university, and after finishing my master's degree I started working as a game programmer. During my work at Playdead, I found that I had a knack for designing simple yet challenging puzzles, which was my main contribution to Limbo.

Jakob, who created music and sound design for 140, works as audio programmer at Playdead. He was hired by Playdead after Limbo.was completed.

Niels and Andreas, who designed the visuals, are graphics and motion designers outside of the games industry.

What development tools are you using?

JC: The game is done in the free version of Unity3D. All audio was produced using Ableton Live.

How did you come up with the concept?

JC: The game concept was developed very iteratively. I started working on a retro platformer framework in my spare time, in which the main character had the ability to throw a ball that would fly in a straight horizontal line and bounce between walls.

When adding different audio samples to the different walls, the bouncing balls resulted in beats created by the environment itself. Switches on the walls controlled different environment elements, and made the whole level "dance" to the music. I was onto something, and even though the game changed to something rather different (and simpler) over the next two years, it was at this point I got obsessed with merging platforming and beats, and 140 is ultimately the result of this obsession.

How long has your team been working on the game?

JC: I have been working on in it my spare time with a steady dedication for longer than two years, completely redesigning the game and its levels a few times in the process. I had no idea I would be working on this for so long. But the way I make games can pretty much be boiled down to: implement a ton of different ideas, delete most of them, repeat until I'm too tired. It is all about getting some kind of consistency to it, where everything feels like it fits together and complements each other.

Jakob is a close friend from university, and I have always admired (read: totally envied) his skills as an electronic musician. I have bounced my ideas off him from the very beginning, and he started contributing a bunch of test loops for me to play around with. Along the way, he became more deeply involved in the process as composer and sound designer. Originally, the music was 120 BPM, but Jakob was keen on changing it to a more energetic 140 BPM, which immediately resulted in all the level design of the game breaking. As it turned out, the new tempo was a great fit, and ultimately provided a title for the game.

Niels and Andreas (graphics) joined the project about a year ago, and we agreed to keep the game completely abstract.

What was the inspiration behind the game's art style?

Niels Fyrst Lausdahl: The main idea for the visual look of the game, was to make it as simple as possible to state the importance of the sound. We wanted to make it bold and clear and not go with the typical anthropomorphic game character and a concrete environment.

What was the inspiration for the music and sound design?

Jakob Schmid: One of the primary challenges of 140 was to create elements that simultaneously acted as musical elements and sound effects for game elements, the behavior of which are governed by game logic and level design.

Creating and discovering sounds that could fulfill this dual role was an interesting process. Although the audio was developed using modern tools, it conceptually adheres to certain limitations of Sega Genesis and Commodore Amiga audio hardware, specifically the combination of FM synthesis and samples with a low sample rate. All non-sample-based instruments have been synthesized from scratch using FM synthesis, a rewarding approach, as the exploration of the space of FM sounds constantly provides surprising results.

Have you played any of the other IGF finalists? Any games you've particularly enjoyed?

JC: Only played a few. I am huge fan of Terry Cavanagh and Super Hexagon is up there with the best of his work.

What do you think of the current state of the indie scene?

JC: 2012 has been very shallow in terms of triple-A games, and all my truly memorable gaming experiences have been in the indie space: Spelunky, Dyad, and Fez -- just to name a few, that both Jakob and myself have been obsessing over.

What's your guiding principle for marrying audio and gameplay -- i.e. do you work toward a concept such as synaesthesia?

JC: 140 is not a strict rhythm game, in the sense that you don't tap or move directly to the rhythm. The rhythm aspect is more subtle, and something the player has to take in on his own. The game is pretty merciless in terms of timing, and is intentionally very vague in its visual clues, but the audio is always there to guide you. Every single challenge is designed to encourage you to search for audio cues, and synchronize your movement with those cues to succeed.

[Christian Nutt wrote this article originally for sister site Gamasutra.]

Source: http://indiegames.com/2013/02/road_to_the_igf_jeppe_carlsen_.html

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Major Search Engine Optimization Company Creating Monopoly From

Posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

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Officials: Iran widens use of clandestine oil tankers

Tim Chong / Reuters file

The Delvar, a Malta-flagged Iranian crude oil supertanker, is seen anchored off Singapore on March 1, 2012.

By Jonathan Saul, Reuters

LONDON - Iran is using old tankers, saved from the scrapyard by foreign middlemen, to ship out oil to China in ways that avoid Western sanctions, say officials involved with sanctions who showed Reuters corroborating documents.

The officials, from states involved in imposing sanctions to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear program, said the tankers - worth little more than scrap value - were a new way for Iran to keep its oil exports flowing by exploiting the legal limitations on Western powers' ability to make sanctions stick worldwide.

Officials showed Reuters shipping documents to support their allegation that eight ships, each of which can carry close to a day's worth of Iran's pre-sanctions exports, have loaded Iranian oil at sea. Publicly available tracking and other data are consistent with those documents and allegations.

"The tankers have been used for Iranian crude," one official said. "They are part of Iran's sanctions-busting strategy."

---

Dimitris Cambis, the Greek businessman who last year bought the ships - eight very large crude carriers, or VLCCs - to carry Middle East crude to Asia, flatly denied doing any business with Tehran or running clandestine shipments of its oil to China.

Cambis said he had not been involved in shipping before but had bought the tankers as part of a new venture he runs from the United Arab Emirates. He denied trading with Iran - though he has contacts there from his previous work in the oil industry.

Related story:?Skulduggery at sea: Iran uses tankers off Malaysia to evade oil embargo

He denied his vessels have loaded oil from Iran while at anchor in the Gulf. Known as ship-to-ship transfers, or STS, such movements are hard to track as crews can switch off tracking beacons or not update their recorded positions for periods to conceal that one vessel has come alongside another.

Cambis also explained a stop in Iran by one of his tankers - recorded in publicly available tracking data - as having been only for an emergency repair, not to load an oil cargo.

"There is no Iranian vessel that has done any STS with us," Cambis told Reuters in Athens in response to the officials' allegations of taking oil from Iranian tankers owned by Tehran shipping group NITC. "We have nothing to do with NITC."

The officials involved with sanctions dispute his account and showed documents detailing several ship-to-ship loadings. They said all eight of the tankers were involved in Iran trade.

In one instance in early December, according to the shipping documents shown to Reuters by the officials, an NITC tanker named Marigold loaded Iranian crude onto the Leycothea, one of Cambis's eight ships, while both were at anchor off the UAE emirate of Sharjah. Public tracking showed Cambis's tanker made a call about a month later to Zhanjiang oil terminal in China.

Loading at sea lets vessels pick up a cargo without visiting the country of origin of the crude. Officials allege the tankers are also used as offshore storage for Iranian oil which can then be transferred onward to other ships, concealing its origins.

Officials in Iran, which rejects Western allegations it is seeking nuclear weapons, did not respond to requests for comment.

Muddying waters
Experts on sanctions law said that by operating outside the European Union, ship-owners had no clear obligation to observe rules barring EU companies from buying Iranian oil, though banks and insurers with EU or U.S. business ties are giving a wide berth to firms they suspect of dealing with Iran, given U.S. and EU efforts to penalize such firms within their own jurisdiction.?

"Such ships would be used to delete traces of a trade taking place," a London-based ship broker said.

While Iran has its own substantial tanker fleet, capable of carrying over 72 million barrels, the 2 million barrels that each of the eight tankers can move would be a useful addition to its capacity, analysts said - particularly as their foreign ownership and management could help conceal the Iranian origin of the oil, making it easier to obtain insurance, finance and other ship services that are affected by EU and U.S. sanctions.

Cambis said that between August and November he bought the eight ships: Leycothea, Glaros, Nereyda, Ocean Nymph, Seagull, Zap, Ocean Performer and Ulysses I. The first five are now managed by his firm, Sambouk Shipping, in Sharjah and he is in the process of transferring management of the remaining three.

In other movements indicated by the shipping documents, the Nereyda was also involved in a separate ship-to-ship transfer with NITC's Rainbow in the Gulf in November, while the Glaros took an offshore transfer from the Marigold there in December.

The Nereyda was later recorded arriving at a terminal in China in December. The Glaros appears to have remained in the Gulf since that December transfer, according to tracking data.

Asked about publicly available ship tracking data showing that the Glaros stopped at Iran's Larak Island oil terminal on October 20 last year, Cambis provided what he said was an affidavit by the ship's master describing an emergency repair carried out by Iranian divers when the tanker was headed to Saudi Arabia.

The master, named as I. Bonoutas, could not be reached for comment. Cambis denied loading any oil in Iran. After its stop at Larak, Glaros's next recorded visits, according to ship tracking data, were at Chinese ports between November 24 to December 1.

The eight tankers, built up to 20 years ago, can carry about 16 million barrels of oil among them, shipping databases show.

Iranian crude exports declined to an average of 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2012, down about 1 million bpd from 2011 levels, data from the International Energy Agency showed.

NITC blacklisted
The eight tankers were bought last year for a total of about $204 million, ship trading sources said - reflecting prices only 3-4 percent above their worth as raw metal. The purchases have been the object of considerable discussion among ship brokers - not least because they would more typically have been broken up.

A ship dealer based in London said, however: "They can carry on trading for as long as people are willing to employ them.

"There's really not much that any authorities can do."?

NITC has been blacklisted by the West and the EU has imposed an outright ban on providing ship insurance that would benefit Iran. The exit from Iran of top providers of ship certification, vital for port access, and the removal of Iranian vessels from international registries have added to operational challenges.

While NITC has expanded its fleet in recent months, experts say access to additional foreign tankers would give Tehran more flexibility in maintaining exports.

"The key word for the Iranians is resistance as in the Supreme Leader's declaration of a resistance economy," said Scott Lucas, a specialist on Iran at Birmingham University.

"This is not an economy which is going to produce growth but it is one which is going to try and avoid a domestic collapse."

More related stories

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17105999-iran-widens-use-of-clandestine-tanker-fleet-to-bust-oil-sanctions-international-officials-say?lite

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Was that Peter Brady hosting the Oscars?

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

One's a "Family Guy," the other wanted to "somehow form a family." Oscar-watchers were of differing opinions on host Seth MacFarlane's performance at Sunday's big awards show, but many found one thing to agree on: He looked an awful lot like Peter Brady.

TODAY

Here's the story: Some Oscar-watchers felt host Seth MacFarlane looked more than a little like Peter Brady.

Twitter users spotted the comparison early, and began sharing photo comparisons and of course, "Brady" references. (Some saw a mixed resemblance, saying MacFarlane also looked like Donny Osmond.)

?

You remember Peter, the Brady family's middle son, played by actor Christopher Knight. Peter loved movies too -- he famously once tried to say "pork chops and applesauce" in the style of Humphrey Bogart. And he was more than a little into drama, once getting big brother Greg to attempt a "Cyrano" act with him in hopes of charming a girl, and pretending to his parents that he was still employed after a bike shop fired him for working too slow.

MacFarlane acknowledges the resemblance, telling Parade magazine on Sunday, "I get a lot of 'Hey, aren't you Peter Brady?'" And maybe the resemblance is more than skin-deep.

If you'll remember, poor Peter, like middle sister Jan, had it a little rough. He never pulled off the suave charm of Greg or the little-kid cuteness of little Bobby.?Maybe, as the mixed reviews of MacFarlane's hosting gig continue to trickle in, the comic can relate.

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/02/25/17087872-peter-brady-is-that-you-heres-the-story-of-oscar-host-resemblance?lite

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Clinton: Nigerian poverty fuels religious violence

ABEOKUTA, Nigeria (AP) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that Nigeria must do more to alleviate the extreme poverty across the nation's predominantly Muslim north in order to halt the wave of bombings, shootings and kidnappings by Islamic extremists there.

Clinton's comment comes as Islamic terror groups have claimed the kidnappings of foreigners in recent days from the region and Nigeria's weak central government appears unable to contain the spreading violence. He said that poverty remains the main driver for the attacks and needs to be addressed by strong local and federal government programs.

Extremists from a radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram killed at least 792 people last year in Nigeria, according to an Associated Press count. Fighters who said they belong to Boko Haram claimed responsibility Monday for the kidnapping of seven French tourists in northern Cameroon. Ansaru, which analysts believe is a splinter group from Boko Haram, has claimed the kidnappings of seven foreigners ? a British citizen, a Greek, an Italian, three Lebanese and one Filipino ? all employees of a Lebanese construction company named Setraco.

"You have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don't have it," Clinton said Tuesday. "You have all these political problems ? and now violence problems ? that appear to be rooted in religious differences and the all the rhetoric of the Boko Harams and others, but the truth is the poverty rate in the north is three times of what it is in Lagos," Nigeria's largest city.

Clinton said that oil-rich Nigeria, which earns billions of dollars from its oil industry and is a major supplier to the U.S., must not take a "divide the pie" approach toward attacking poverty. That appeared to be a subtle reference to the endemic corruption that envelopes government and private industry in the country.

"It's a losing strategy," the former president said. "You have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will have share prosperity."

Poverty is endemic in Nigeria, and corruption has siphoned away billions in oil earnings since the country began exporting crude more than 50 years ago. Government statistics show that in Nigeria's northwest and northeast, regions besieged by Islamic insurgents, about 75 percent of the people live in poverty.

Analysts say that poverty, despite decades of military rule by leaders from the north, coupled with a lack of formal education has driven the region's exploding youth population toward extremism. Those attacks also have strained relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

Clinton spoke Tuesday in Abeokuta as part of an awards ceremony put on by ThisDay newspaper and its flamboyant publisher Nduka Obaigbena, who has invited the former president several times to Nigeria, along with other celebrities. The event, put on by a newspaper publisher sometimes accused by his staff of not paying them from months at a time, was also attended by former Nigeria military ruler and President Olusegun Obasanjo.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-nigerian-poverty-fuels-religious-190845324.html

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Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop dies at age 96 (CNN)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287360091?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Senator: 'Give and take' needed between US, Cuba

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy arrives to the Hotel Parque Central in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. U.S. lawmakers confirmed on Wednesday that they visited an American man whose detention and long sentence in Cuba has hampered efforts to improve ties between the countries, but they gave no details on his condition or what was said. The seven-member delegation led by Leahy also met with Cuban President Raul Castro and other senior officials. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy arrives to the Hotel Parque Central in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. U.S. lawmakers confirmed on Wednesday that they visited an American man whose detention and long sentence in Cuba has hampered efforts to improve ties between the countries, but they gave no details on his condition or what was said. The seven-member delegation led by Leahy also met with Cuban President Raul Castro and other senior officials. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

In this picture released by Cuba's state newspaper Granma, Cuba's President Raul Castro, right, talks with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2012. U.S. lawmakers confirmed on Wednesday that they visited an American man whose detention and long sentence in Cuba has hampered efforts to improve ties between the countries, but they gave no details on his condition or what was said. (AP Photo/Granma, Estudios Revolucion )

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A senator just back from Cuba says it will require "give and take on both sides" and "quiet negotiation" to secure the release of an American man imprisoned in Cuba.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says that Alan Gross isn't going to be released by the Cuban government because of pressure from the United States.

Leahy tells CNN's "State of the Union" that it's time to re-examine the overall U.S.-Cuban relationship and move on from the "Cold War mentality" of the 1960s and 1970s.

Leahy met last week with Gross and raised his case during a meeting that a congressional delegation had with Cuban President Raul Castro.

Gross, who's from Maryland, is serving a 15-year-sentence for bringing communications equipment to the island illegally while on a USAID-funded democracy-building program.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-24-Cuba-Imprisoned%20American/id-10c32ad1420f46bc9c8c51e5bb54b6f4

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Are you wasting money looking for cheaper gas?

With gas prices on the rise, NBC's Chris Clackum gets secrets of fuel-efficient drivers from Philip Reed of Edmunds.com.

By Herb Weisbaum, TODAY contributor

?When will it end? The nationwide average for regular gasoline is now $3.75 a gallon, up 4 cents a gallon from a week ago, according to AAA. That?s 36 cents more per gallon than a month ago.

?

Soaring prices are driving people to actively search for cheaper gasoline. How far would you go to save a few cents per gallon?

??

??68 percent would make a left-hand turn across a busy street to save five cents per gallon
??68 percent would drive 5 minutes out of their way to save 5 cents per gallon
??36 percent would drive 10 minutes out of their way to save 10 cents a gallon

?

?Of course, if you drive too far out of you way, you?ll waste time and spend more on gas to get there than you?ll save.

?

??Driving around aimlessly doesn?t make a lot of sense,? said Jason Toews, co-founder of GasBuddy.com. ?We always tell people to work it into their daily commute. Most of the time you can find cheaper gas somewhere along your route.?

??

I asked Gas Buddy to look at my 13 mile commute. The highest price that day was in Seattle near my office: $4.23 for regular. If I filled at a gas station near my home in Bellevue, I would pay $3.85 a gallon, that?s 38 cents a gallon less. And if I drove as little as a mile out of my way, I could save even more at the station that was charging just $3.65 a gallon.

??

It turns out, that is the gas station run by Safeway. And because I had points in my Club Card account, I got a 40-cent a gallon discount for that fill-up. My final price was $3.20 a gallon.

?

?In many parts of the country, supermarkets offer gas discounts. Why not take advantage of them. I?ve found that the gasoline at Costco is normally lower than most stations in the area.

??

You can use the fuel cost calculator at Gas Buddy or Bankrate.com to see if that extra drive for cheaper gas saves money or not.

By punching in the numbers, I found that driving 10 miles to save 10 cents a gallon ($3.89 vs. $3.79) would cost me 45 cents more for that fill-up. Driving only a mile to save 2 cents a gallon ($3.89 vs. $3.87) would only save me 11 cents.

??

Is cheaper off-brand gasoline bad for your engine?

??

Auto experts say there?s nothing to worry about. Your car?s onboard computer can adjust for the variations in the fuel you use.

?Buying off-brand gasoline is not going to hurt your engine or affect the performance of your car in the short term,? said Phillip Reed, senior consumer advice editor at Edmunds.com. ?Over time though, you may benefit from top-tier gasoline because it may have more additives.?

?

?Don?t waste money pumping premium fuel unless your car needs it. You may be able to safely switch to regular and save 30 cents or more a gallon. It all depends on what it says in your owner?s manual.

?If high octane is required you must use it because in the long run it might hurt the performance of your car,? Reed advised. ?But if it?s merely recommended, you can experiment with a lower octane. Most people will find that their car performs just fine on a lower-grade of gasoline.?

?

?You can always give it a try and if there?s a change in performance or a drop in fuel economy, switch back to the higher-octane fuel.

?

?Other ways to save on gas

?

• It?s no secret that the way you drive can significantly help or hurt your car?s fuel economy.

• ?Jack rabbit starts burn up fuel. Using cruise control when possible boosts fuel economy.?

• Make sure your tires are properly inflated. You can improve gas mileage by up to 3.3 percent by doing that, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Check your tires at least once a month.?

• Mike Quincy at Consumer Reports Autos had this tip: get rid of any unnecessary weight ? golf clubs or big containers of kitty litter in the trunk ? and remove any roof rack or bike rack that you?re not using regularly. ?The added weight of excess cargo or the extra aerodynamic drag caused by those racks will really reduce fuel economy,? he said.

More information

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.
?

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/25/17087867-are-you-wasting-money-looking-for-cheaper-gas?lite

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State senators to talk Sunday liquor store sales in Minnesota (Star Tribune)

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???????????? Samsung Galaxy ???????? ?? ???? ??? &quot

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Source: http://forums.ferra.ru/index.php?showtopic=54650

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Samsung confirms Galaxy S IV launch on March 14th in NYC

It was true. And then it wasn't. Now, here at MWC in Barcelona, Samsung has finally confirmed its rumored March 14th launch event for the much-anticipated Galaxy S IV. The smartphone giant's latest flagship is set to debut in New York City, apparently by popular demand. "We introduced the Galaxy S III in London last year," Samsung Electronics' mobile division chief JK Shin told Edaily news. "This time we changed the Venue (to New York)... as we were bombarded with requests from US mobile carriers to unveil the Galaxy S IV in the country." As with any such announcement, details are sparse at best, so we'll need to wait a few more weeks before confirming specs and appearance for the Galaxy S III successor. But, as always, you're welcome to shout out your best guesses in the comments.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

Comments

Source: Reuters, Edaily

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/samsung-confirms-galaxy-s-iv-launch-on-march-14th-in-nyc/

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WH Brief Previews Supreme Court Arguments on Gay Marriage

The White House has asked the Supreme Court to strike down a main provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, but in the legal paper filed with the judiciary it may have signaled a wider push for same-sex marriage as a constitutional right on the horizon.

The Justice Department issued an amicus brief Friday urging the court to repeal Section 3 of DOMA when it hears a challenge to the act late next month. The portion bars the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages for health benefits, income tax purposes, and other issues.

In 2011, President Obama announced the executive branch would cease upholding the 1996 law, although it remained on the books. Given that the Obama administration has been named a party to the case, the filing with the court does not come as a surprise, yet the equal protection issues covered in United States v. Windsor are relatively narrow in scope.

Instead, court watchers have been waiting to see whether the president would weigh in on a separate case involving gay marriage: California's Proposition 8. The administration has until next week to decide whether to join other parties in challenging the ballot-approved state law, later overturned, that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Friday's brief could serve as hat-tip that the Justice Department is preparing for such a move.

See also: Will Obama join legal fight for gay marriage?

Any ruling regarding Prop 8 would have sweeping ramifications over a much broader issue than DOMA: Whether the U.S. Constitution guarantees a fundamental right to gay marriage.

Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. is not required to file a so-called "friend of the court" brief in that, but sources say the administration is considering the possibility at the highest levels.

In an interview Wednesday with San Francisco's ABC station, KGO-TV, Obama said his administration had yet to reach a decision.

"I have to make sure I'm not interjecting myself too much into this process, particularly when we're not party to the case," he told KGO-TV. "I can tell you, though, that obviously my personal view is that I think that same-sex couples should have the same rights and be treated like everybody else."

Historically his administration has left such decisions to the states; the administration has not previously offered an official statement on Prop 8 because the federal government was not directly affected by it.

Although the California case and DOMA do not directly intertwine Friday's brief does offer a window into the language likely to be employed by the Justice Department in Prop 8, should it become involved. The brief can be found at the well-established SCOTUSblog.com.

"Gay and lesbian people are a minority group with limited political power," reads the administration statement. "Although some of the harshest and most overt forms of discrimination against gay and lesbian people have receded, that progress has hardly been uniform (either temporally or geographically), and has in significant respects been the result of judicial enforcement of the Constitution, not political action."

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has also filed a brief urging that the law be upheld, arguing gay-rights issues would be better left to the democratic process.

"Gays and lesbians are one of the most influential, best-connected, best-funded, and best-organized interest groups in modern politics, and have attained more legislative victories, political power, and popular favor in less time than virtually any other group in American history," it says.

The House named itself a party to the case after the executive branch announced its decision to abandon the legislation.

ABC's Ariane de Vogue contributed reporting.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wh-brief-previews-supreme-court-arguments-gay-marriage-011631913--abc-news-politics.html

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PFT: Harbaugh says?49ers will not release QB Smith

Getty Images

The stories of the football influences on Jim Harbaugh were well told and often during the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. But perhaps the biggest impact on his NFL Scouting Combine preparation isn?t Bo Schembechler or Jack Harbaugh, but Judge Judy.

While discussing the need for draft prospects to be forthcoming during interviews, Harbaugh admitted being a fan of the syndicated television jurist.

Because of course he did.

?Somebody that?s not truthful, that?s big, to me,? the 49ers coach said. ?I?m a big fan of the Judge Judy show. And when you lie in Judge Judy?s courtroom, it?s over. Your credibility is completely lost. You have no chance of winning that case. So I learned that from her.

?It?s very powerful, and true. Because if somebody does lie to you, how can you ever trust anything they ever say after that? Ronald Reagan, another person of great wisdom and advice, ?Trust but we will verify.? ?

Of course, the discussion of trust centers on tomorrow?s arrival of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te?o, of the fake dead girlfriend fame.

But when Harbaugh was asked if the trust factor made Te?o undraftable, he replied: ?No. I wouldn?t say that.?

That?s why even though the interview Te?o does with the assembled media tomorrow will draw plenty of eyeballs, the meetings he holds with teams this week will carry more weight.

?I think there?s certainly a part of being with somebody for a half an hour or 15-minutes or an hour or two that you can know somebody,? Harbaugh said. ?Some people have that ability to have a 30-minute conversation with them and you walk away thinking you really know that person. Others, you can?t.

?You have to validate a meeting with a person or two or three conversations with their track record, their relationships with other people at their school, their teammates, their trainers, equipment managers, teachers, professors, their family. People usually leave a track record of success or failure or success and failure.?

Or in the case of Judge Judy, 17 years of television fame, and the admiration of a professional football coach.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/22/harbaugh-alex-smith-wont-be-released/related/

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Vatican lashes out at 'false' pre-conclave reporting as attempts to influence cardinal votes

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican lashed out Saturday at the media for what it said has been a run of defamatory and false reports before the conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI's successor, saying they were an attempt to influence the election.

Italian newspapers have been rife with unsourced reports in recent days about the contents of a secret dossier prepared for the pope by three cardinals who investigated the origins of the 2012 scandal over leaked Vatican documents.

The reports have suggested the revelations in the dossier, given to Benedict in December, were a factor in his decision to resign. The pope himself has said merely that he doesn't have the "strength of mind and body" to carry on.

On Saturday, the Vatican secretariat of state said the Catholic Church has for centuries insisted on the independence of its cardinals to elect their pope. Now, it said, the "pressures of public opinion" is in play in a bid to influence their vote.

"It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave ... that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions."

It was issued as Benedict met for the last time with the Vatican bureaucracy before stepping down Feb. 28. The occasion was the final session of the Vatican's Lenten spiritual retreat, a weeklong series of meditations composed by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, himself a papal contender.

In one of his final meditations Friday, Ravasi denounced the "divisions, dissent, careerism, jealousies" that afflict the Vatican bureaucracy ? divisions that were exposed by the leaks of documents taken from the pope's study. The documents revealed the petty wrangling, corruption and cronyism and even allegations of a gay plot at the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

The three cardinals who investigated the theft of the documents had wide-ranging powers to interview even cardinals to get to the bottom of the dynamics within the Curia ? the Vatican bureaucracy ? that resulted in the gravest Vatican security breach in modern times.

Benedict has referred obliquely to the Vatican's dysfunction in recent days, deploring how the church is often "defiled" by attacks and divisions and urging its members to overcome "pride and egoism."

On Saturday, in his final comments to the Curia, he lamented the "evil, suffering and corruption" that has defaced God's creation. But he also thanked the Vatican bureaucrats for eight years of work, love and faith and promised them he would continue to be spiritually close to them in retirement.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-lashes-false-pre-conclave-reporting-attempts-influence-134629403.html

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Ex-Canada ambassador slighted by Affleck's "Argo"

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 file photo, former Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and his wife Pat, pose for photographers at the premiere of the film Argo in Washington. Taylor, Canada's former ambassador in Iran, who protected Americans at great personal risk during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, says if "Argo" wins the Oscar for best picture on Sunday there would be something wrong with director Ben Affleck if he didn't mention Canada, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 file photo, former Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and his wife Pat, pose for photographers at the premiere of the film Argo in Washington. Taylor, Canada's former ambassador in Iran, who protected Americans at great personal risk during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, says if "Argo" wins the Oscar for best picture on Sunday there would be something wrong with director Ben Affleck if he didn't mention Canada, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

TORONTO (AP) ? The former Canadian ambassador to Iran who protected Americans at great personal risk during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis says it will reflect poorly on Ben Affleck if he doesn't say a few words about Canada's role should the director's film "Argo" win the Oscar for best picture Sunday.

But Ken Taylor ? who said he feels slighted by the movie because it makes Canada look like a meek observer to CIA heroics in the rescue of six U.S. Embassy staff members caught in the crisis ? is not expecting it.

"I would hope he would. If he doesn't then it's a further reflection," Taylor told The Associated Press. But the 78-year-old Taylor added that given what's happened in the last few months, "I'm not necessarily anticipating anything."

Taylor kept the Americans hidden at his residence and the home of his deputy, John Sheardown, in Tehran and facilitated their escape by arranging plane tickets and persuading the Ottawa government to issue fake passports. He also agreed to go along with the CIA's film production cover story to get the Americans out of Iran.

Taylor became a hero in Canada and the United States afterward. He felt the role that he and other Canadians played in helping the Americans to freedom was minimized in the film.

"In general it makes it seem like the Canadians were just along for the ride. The Canadians were brave. Period," Taylor said.

Affleck's thriller is widely expected to win the best-picture trophy. Two other high-profile best-picture nominees this year, Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" and Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," have also been criticized for their portrayal of some factual issues.

Affleck said in a statement Friday night that he thought his issue with Taylor had been resolved.

"I admire Ken very much for his role in rescuing the six houseguests. I consider him a hero.?In light of my many conversations as well as a change to an end card that Ken requested I am surprised that Ken continues to take issue with the film," Affleck said in the statement. "I spoke to him recently when he asked me to narrate a documentary he is prominently featured in and yet he didn't mention any lingering concerns.?I agreed to do it and I look forward to seeing Ken at the recording."

Taylor told the AP on Saturday that he would take the "high road" upon hearing what Affleck said in the statement. He said it was news to him that Affleck had agreed to narrate the documentary and looked forward to working on it with him.

He added that he had sent Affleck an email on Saturday, saying he was pleased to hear that "Argo" has received international acclaim even though the debate still continues about the role Canada played. In the email, he said the dispute doesn't reflect on Affleck's skills as a director and wished him luck on Sunday.

"I'm not conceding anything," Taylor told the AP. "What I said is still valid. It's time to move on. I've registered it now for six months and President Jimmy Carter's remarks back it. There's nothing more a Canadian can say after the president says it."

Carter appeared on CNN on Thursday night and said "90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian," but the film "gives almost full credit to the American CIA."

Carter also called "Argo" a complete distortion of what happened when he accepted an honorary degree from Queen's University in Canada in November.

"I saw the movie Argo recently and I was taken aback by its distortion of what happened because almost everything that was heroic, or courageous or innovative was done by Canada and not the United States," Carter said.

Taylor said there would be no movie without the Canadians.

"We took the six in without being asked so it starts there," Taylor said. "And the fact that we got them out with some help from the CIA then that's where the story loses itself. I think Jimmy Carter has it about right, it was 90 percent Canada, 10 percent the CIA."

He said CIA agent Tony Mendez, played by Affleck in the film, was only in Iran for a day and a half.

The movie also makes no mention of Sheardown, the First Secretary at the embassy. Taylor said it was Sheardown who took the first call from the American diplomats who had evaded capture when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in November 1979, and agreed right away to take the Americans in. Sheardown died on Dec. 30, and his wife, Zena, called the movie disappointing.

"It was frustrating," Zena Sheardown said about "Argo" in an interview with The Associated Press after her husband's death. "It would have been nice if the story was told correctly because basically, if the Canadians weren't there to help, who knows what would have happened to those Americans."

Friends of Taylor were outraged last September when "Argo" debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The original postscript of the movie said that Taylor received 112 citations and awards for his work in freeing the hostages and suggested Taylor didn't deserve them because the movie ends with the CIA deciding to let Canada have the credit for helping the Americans escape.

Taylor called the postscript lines "disgraceful and insulting" and said it would have caused outrage in Canada if the lines were not changed. Affleck flew Taylor to Los Angeles after the Toronto debut and allowed him to insert a postscript that gave Canada some credit.

Taylor called it a good movie and said he's not rooting against it, but said it is far from accurate.

"He's a good director. It's got momentum. There's nothing much right from Day 1 I could do about the movie. I changed a line at the end because the caption at the end was disgraceful. It's like Tiananmen Square, you are sitting in front of a big tank," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-23-Canada-Argo%20Slight/id-d1b01e02caf8405ba01d94c914de2c64

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San Bernardino hire has twice declared bankruptcy

Tim Reid , Reuters ? ? ? 1 hr.

LOS ANGELES - The bankrupt city of San Bernardino has hired a new city manager who, according to court filings, has twice declared personal bankruptcy and was recently ousted from the board of a small community's water company after being sued by shareholders.

The city council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to hire Allen J. Parker, 71, as its city manager on an annual salary of almost $222,000. He replaces an interim city manager who resigned last month because, according to friends, she was exasperated by the city's internal divisions.

The interim city manager, Andrea Travis-Miller, could not be reached for comment.

Pat Morris, the mayor of the city in California, praised Parker's "wealth of city management experience" and expressed "great confidence" in his ability to oversee the city's affairs. Parker, who began working in the job on Wednesday, will be crucial in guiding the city of 210,000 people through municipal bankruptcy, in a case that could set a national precedent for Wall Street bondholders and pension funds in future municipal bankruptcies.

The mayor and council members knew about both of Parker's personal bankruptcies -- the first in 1991 and the second in 2011 -- and the litigation surrounding his water board tenure before they interviewed him, according to the mayor's chief of staff. They discussed both issues with him when they interviewed Parker last Friday. They say the issues were no impediment: the council interviewed two final candidates but voted unanimously to hire him.

The California newspaper The Press-Enterprise reported on Thursday that Parker filed in 2011 for personal bankruptcy. In comments to the paper, Parker said that his bankruptcy and his ability to handle the city's fiscal problems were "apples and oranges."

Calls and emails to Parker asking about his bankruptcy filings and his tenure on the water board went unanswered. An email to Parker asking if his wife Sara, with whom he jointly filed for bankruptcy in the 2011 petition, would comment also did not elicit a response.

The bankruptcy of San Bernardino, a city 65 miles east of Los Angeles, is a national test case as to whether the pensions of government workers take precedence over other payments in a municipal bankruptcy -- a high stakes issue for pension plans and their beneficiaries, and for the Wall Street bondholders who lend money to governments.

City managers are central to any city's quest to seek bankruptcy protection, because they have a pivotal role in answering questions from creditors and the court. The judge overseeing San Bernardino's case must still rule on whether the city is eligible for bankruptcy before the case proceeds.

Legal dispute
A 2009 lawsuit brought by a shareholder in the Banning Heights Mutual Water Company, where Parker was a director and then president of the board between 2004 and 2010, resulted in Parker being voted off the board in February 2010 after a court-ordered special election.

Banning Heights is a tiny unincorporated community 85 miles east of Los Angeles. The water company was formed in 1913 to provide water and today it serves about 250 residents.

Despite its small size, the water rights and land upon which the community sits are worth millions of dollars, according to John McClendon, the water board's general counsel. At one point under Parker's tenure on the water board, an entity called The Tahiti Group had placed $7 million in an escrow account to purchase the company, according to correspondence attached to court filings.

Court filings in the 2009 lawsuit, and a subsequent separate lawsuit brought by the water company allege that Parker, along with others, used their position on the board to try to sell the water company, against the wishes of shareholders.

Parker and others were also accused of withholding information from shareholders, according to those court filings. The shareholder sued in 2009 because he said Parker and others ignored the results of previous shareholder elections when they were voted off the board. Parker is not a defendant in the second lawsuit which is still active.

According to one court filing by the water company dated September 20, 2010, when shareholders gained access to the water company's office after Parker and others were voted off the board, computers were missing, hard drives had been wiped and bags of shredded documents sat on the floor.

In a deposition dated November 9, 2010 relating to the 2009 lawsuit, Parker said he never shredded documents and did not believe anyone "during our regime" on the water board shredded any documents.

After a judge ruled against Parker and others in the 2009 lawsuit and ordered a special shareholder election, they were voted off the board by shareholders in February 2010.

Background check
According to his resume, which does not mention Banning Heights Water Company, Parker has long experience as a local manager in several other California cities such as East Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, Seal Beach and Compton.

Jim Morris, the son and chief of staff to Pat Morris, San Bernardino's mayor, said the city had done its own thorough background check on Parker before he was interviewed by the council, last Friday. His bankruptcies, and the Banning Heights Mutual Water Company litigation, were known about by the time the interview took place, Morris said.

"We talked to the attorneys involved, and pulled the court filings. These were disputes over election results," Morris said. He said the Banning Heights litigation did not involve serious issues, and that such disputes occur on small entities such as the water board all the time.

Morris said there was no reason why Parker should have included his tenure on the water board on his resume. "He wasn't employed by the water board," Morris said. "His resume was an employment resume. If someone was a member of their local homeowners' association you wouldn't expect that to be on their resume."

Parker filed for personal bankruptcy in 1991 in San Mateo, Calif., according to court records. No further details were available. In February 2011, he filed for bankruptcy with his wife, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California.

According to the 2011 bankruptcy filing, Parker and his wife listed among their debts two home mortgages with unsecured balances of $267,500, as well as bank and credit card debt of $137,252.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/bankrupt-san-bernardino-picks-twice-bankrupt-manager-1C8499972

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