Wall Street bonuses, staff levels to rise in 2013: consultant

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street bonuses and staff levels are expected to rise this year as trading and dealmaking activity pick up, according to a closely watched report released on Friday by a compensation consulting firm.

Johnson Associates Inc predicts that senior bank executives will receive bonus increases of 5 percent to 15 percent, with investment bankers getting the biggest potential bonus increases of up to 20 percent.

The firm, headed by longtime industry pay consultant Alan Johnson, cited "signs of economic recovery in the United States and positive market momentum" in its report, but also noted that new regulations and a slowdown in Europe may weigh on bank profits and employee compensation.

Johnson Associates predicts that banks and other Wall Street firms will grow headcount by 5 percent to 10 percent this year. Cost-cutting initiatives in 2011 and 2012 helped support bank profits, as trading and dealmaking revenues were soft.

The firm predicts that advisory bankers will receive bonus increases of 5 percent to 15 percent, while underwriting bankers will receive bonus increases of 10 percent to 20 percent. The firm expects employees of equities and fixed-income trading divisions to receive bonus increases of 5 percent to 15 percent. Bonuses in other areas including prime brokerage, asset management, hedge funds and private equity are expected to rise in similar ranges.

Commercial banking and retail banking were the only areas Johnson Associates expects to have flat to 5 percent bonus increases.

(Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-bonuses-staff-levels-rise-2013-consultant-153337845.html

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Famed 'hatchet hitchhiker' arrested in NJ homicide

In this undated photo downloaded from the Union County Prosecutor?s website, Caleb ?Kai? Lawrence McGillivary is shown. McGillivary, 24, is being sought by New Jersey authorities on a murder warrant in the beating death of a New Jersey lawyer he befriended in New York?s Times Square. The homeless hitchhiker had previously gained Internet and TV celebrity status by using a hatchet to intervene in an attack in California on a utility worker on Feb. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Union County Prosecutor?s Office)

In this undated photo downloaded from the Union County Prosecutor?s website, Caleb ?Kai? Lawrence McGillivary is shown. McGillivary, 24, is being sought by New Jersey authorities on a murder warrant in the beating death of a New Jersey lawyer he befriended in New York?s Times Square. The homeless hitchhiker had previously gained Internet and TV celebrity status by using a hatchet to intervene in an attack in California on a utility worker on Feb. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Union County Prosecutor?s Office)

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) ? A homeless, hatchet-wielding hitchhiker who became an Internet hero earlier this year was arrested Thursday for allegedly beating a New Jersey lawyer to death inside his home.

Caleb "Kai" McGillvary, whose star turn as "Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker" came after he intervened in an attack on a California utility worker, was arrested at a Philadelphia bus station, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said.

"I believe that everyone is a little safer with this person off the streets," the prosecutor said. Philadelphia police could not immediately be reached for comment.

McGillvary was charged with killing Joseph Galfy, Jr., a Clark, N.J. attorney found dead Monday. Romankow said he will be processed and sent to back to New Jersey, where his bail is set at $3 million.

Galfy's body was found two days after authorities said he met McGillvary in New York City. Galfy, 73, was found wearing only his underwear and socks by police who went to his home to check on his well-being.

Statements posted on McGillvary's Facebook page following the homicide indicated the encounter was sexual in nature, Romankow said, though he declined to go into specific detail.

On his Facebook page, McGillvary's last post, dated Tuesday, asks "what would you do?" if you awoke in a stranger's house and found you'd been drugged and sexually assaulted. One commenter suggests hitting him with a hatchet ? and McGillvary's final comment on the post says, "I like your idea."

A hatchet helped give McGillvary a brief taste of fame in February when he gave a rambling, profanity-laced 5-minute interview to a Fresno, Calif. television station about thwarting an attack on a Pacific Gas & Electric employee. The interview went viral, with one version viewed more than 3.9 million times on YouTube. He later appeared on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Kimmel asked him what people were saying to him since the Feb. 1 incident. "Hey, you're Kai, that dude with the hatchet," he responded.

McGillvary, who said in his TV appearance he prefers to be called "home-free" instead of homeless, traded on his newfound celebrity to meet fans across the country, according to Romankow.

McGillvary met Galfy on Saturday in Times Square, then spent at least two nights at his home on a cul-de-sac in Clark, 20 miles west of New York, Romankow said. His movements after that included two trips to meet a fan in Asbury Park, a trip to Philadelphia and another to Glassboro in southern New Jersey before he took a train bound for Philadelphia, authorities said.

McGillvary swiftly gained notoriety in February after he intervened in an apparently unprovoked attack that led to charges including attempted murder.

McGillvary said he was riding in a car with a man who veered into the worker, got out of the car, then said "I am Jesus and I am here to take you home" before attacking. McGillvary said he then pulled a hatchet from his backpack and struck the driver in the head several times to subdue him, The Fresno Bee reported.

"That woman was in danger," Kai told KMPH-TV. "He just finished, what looked like at the time, killing somebody, and if he hadn't done that he would have killed more people."

Last month, the driver entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, according to The Fresno Bee.

In his television interview, McGillvary also said he'd once intervened in what he called a domestic violence situation.

A man "starts beating up on this woman who he calls his," McGillvary told the television station. "I started smashing him in the head and the teeth."

McGillvary also goes by the names Kai Lawrence, Caleb Kai Lawrence and Kai Nicodemus, prosecutors said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-16-NJ%20Killing-Hatchet%20Hitchhiker/id-854a3adca9824b2d9f1a591f42069b02

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Calif. wildfire grows, but weather may aid fight

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) ? A wildfire tearing through a coastal region in Southern California nearly tripled in size as high temperatures fueled the flames, but an expected weekend change in the weather will likely give crews manning the fire lines much-needed assistance.

The fire 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles mushroomed to 43 square miles Friday as 900 firefighters used engines, aircraft, bulldozers and other equipment to battle the flames.

Forecasters said a weekend of increased humidity should help teams fighting the early-season blaze make gains Saturday.

"It's a total turnaround from what we had," said Kurt Kaplan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "It should be a much better day for firefighters tomorrow."

Despite its size and speed of growth, the fire that broke out Thursday and quickly moved through the Camarillo Springs area has caused damage to just 15 structures, though it's threatening 2,000 homes.

Residents were grateful so many homes were spared.

"''It came pretty close. All of these houses ? these firemen did a tremendous job. Very, very thankful for them," Shayne Poindexter said. Flames came within 30 feet of the house he was building.

Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash said parts of the Newbury Park community of Thousand Oaks were under mandatory and voluntary evacuations. Overnight, he said firefighters planned to stockpile resources along a road that lies between the fire and Malibu, protecting homes on the fire's eastern front. Its cause of the fire is under investigation.

The good fortune of the Camarillo Springs area wasn't the result of luck or clairvoyance by firefighters. It came after years of planning and knowing that sooner or later just such a conflagration was going to strike.

Camarillo Springs, which was nothing more than rugged backcountry when homes began to go up there 30 years ago, was well prepared.

Its homes were built with sprinkler systems and fireproof exteriors from the roofs to the foundations. Residents are required to clear brush and other combustible materials to within 100 feet of the dwellings, and developers had to make sure the cul-de-sacs that fill the area's canyons were built wide enough to accommodate the emergency vehicles seen on TV racing in to battle the flames.

Residents in the area are also particularly vigilant about clearing brush from the hillsides next to their yards, Kruschke said. Normally, firefighters remind people in such areas to do that every June, but in Camarillo Springs people do it every few months. The work paid off this week.

The type of blaze that hit the area usually doesn't strike Southern California wild-land until September or October, after the summer has dried out hillside vegetation. But the state has seen a severe drought during the past year, with the water content of California's snowpack only 17 percent of normal.

That created late-summer conditions by May, and when hot Santa Ana winds and high temperatures arrived this week, the spring flames that firefighters routinely knock down once or twice a year quickly roared up a hillside ? out of control.

On Friday, the wildfire stormed back through canyons toward inland neighborhoods when winds reversed direction.

After jumping Pacific Coast Highway 20 miles north of Malibu, the fire burned for a time on a beach shooting range at the Point Mugu Naval Air Station.

The blaze is one of more than 680 wildfires in the state so far this year ? about 200 more than average.

In Riverside County, a 4 1/2-square-mile fire that destroyed a home burned for a third day in mountains north of Banning. It was 75 percent contained.

Fifty-five miles away from Camarillo, in the hills above Glendale, a blaze broke out Friday afternoon, prompting evacuations and closure of a freeway as it quickly charred 75 acres.

In Tehama County in Northern California, the size of a wildfire north of Butte Meadows was revised down from more than 15 square miles to 10 square miles, state fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

The fire, which was 20 percent contained, was burning in a remote area and wasn't posing an imminent threat to any structures.

___

Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/calif-wildfire-grows-weather-may-aid-fight-071128755.html

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Forest Service to states: Give subsidies back

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. Forest Service is in the business of preventing fires, not starting them.

Yet the agency set off alarms in Congress and state capitols across the West by citing the automatic spending cuts as the basis for demanding that dozens of states return $17.9 million in federal subsidies. And it's all come down to a bureaucratic squabble over whether the money is subject to so-called sequestration because of the year it was paid ? 2013 ? as the Obama administration contends, or exempt from the cuts because of the year it was generated ? 2012 ? as the states insist.

Right now, it's a standoff heightened by history and hard fiscal realities. But with taxpayer cash scarce, both sides are digging in: The Forest Service has to slash 5 percent of its budget under sequestration. The states, meanwhile, have depended for decades on a share of revenue from timber cut on federal land. Perhaps least willing to compromise are members of Congress who are up for re-election next year and are loath to let go of money that benefits potential voters back home.

It's not clear who gets to decide or whether the question ends up in court. But lines have been drawn.

"We regret having to take this action, but we have no alternative under sequestration," Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell wrote in March to governors in 41 states, explaining that since the payments were issued in the 2013 budget year, the money would be subject to sequestration.

Infuriated, Republicans and Democrats from Capitol Hill to the governor's offices banded together to fight back, arguing the money was paid to the states well before the spending reductions went into effect. The governors of Alaska and Wyoming have flat out refused to send the money back.

"The frustration level is off the charts on this," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., whose timber-rich state is the top recipient of the Forest Service payments and stands to lose nearly $3.6 million.

Wyden, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the panel's top Republican, are working together to "turn this around" so their states and others are not forced to return any money to the federal government.

"This is slap-your-forehead-in-disbelief kind of stuff," Wyden said.

At issue are so-called county payments, a revenue sharing plan that's existed since President Teddy Roosevelt created the national forests to protect timber reserves from the cut-and-run logging going on at the time. For nearly a century, hundreds of counties received a quarter of the revenue from the timber sold on federal land. The money is being used for roads, schools and emergency services and is a welcome addition to cash-strapped county coffers, especially in the Northwest. In recent years, the law has acted as a subsidy for states and counties hard hit by logging declines triggered by measures to protect threatened species.

Idaho's Valley County, for example, would have to return more than $128,000 from its budget of $2.5 million for roads and schools. That leaves Gordon Cruickshank, chairman of the Valley County commission, in a no-win position. Should he forgo the repaving of even a single mile of the county's 300 miles of paved roads, defer maintenance on a bridge or lay off two county employees?

"We are struggling really hard now to figure out what to do," Cruickshank said. "It's a tough pill to swallow that they sent these payments out just a few months before sequestration, and now they want them back."

The Forest Service has paid billions of dollars to counties over the decades, but the receipts dwindled as logging on national forests dropped precipitously in the 1990s ? first in the Northwest to protect the northern spotted owl and salmon, and then later across the country as concerns grew over the impact of clear-cut logging on wildlife and clean water.

In 2000, Wyden led the charge for a new law, called the Secure Rural Schools Act, a way for the government to pay counties that no longer could depend on revenue from logging in federal forests. But the law has expired, and the last payments went out in January. Wyden and other lawmakers are pushing to renew the subsidy.

The Forest Service issue provides one look at the real-world fallout of sequestration, which began March 1 after Congress and President Barack Obama failed to agree on a deficit-cutting plan. Forced to find the required savings in the wobbly aftermath of recession, federal officials are getting creative ? reducing hours at courthouses, furloughing employees and cutting back services. The full impact of sequestration remains unclear because most of the reductions have yet to take effect.

Ryan Yates of the National Association of Counties said state and local officials understand that sequestration is the law of the land and that future cuts to scores of federal programs are inevitable. But there is widespread concern that the Forest Service's action means that the sequestration's reach is far greater than they anticipated.

"This retroactive move by the administration to squeeze more money from rural forest communities is not only legally questionable, but insults the longstanding relationship between counties and the federal government," Yates said.

Tidwell's March letters to the governors incited lawmakers and state officials, who said the payments came from revenues generated in the 2012 budget year and were therefore not subject to sequestration.

The National Governors' Association advised governors to consult closely with their legal staffs before making a decision.

"No one has ever heard of an agency demanding money back that they have already spent," said NGA Deputy Director Barry Anderson.

In a letter sent to senior Obama administration officials in late March, four House Democrats joined 27 House Republicans in assailing the Forest Service's demand, calling it an "obvious attempt by President Obama's administration to make the sequester cuts as painful as possible." The Forest Service was aware for months that sequestration was a possibility, they said. Yet even after it went into effect, the agency waited for several weeks before informing states that payments would have to be returned.

"We request that this action be halted," the House members wrote.

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Daly in Washington and Jeff Barnard in Grants Pass, Ore., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rplardner

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/forest-states-subsidies-back-073718610.html

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I Can't Figure Out What's Real and What's Fake in This Illusion

This illusion will have you doubting what's real and what's just a piece of paper. Because what you think is a real hand becomes a photograph of a hand and then what you think is a photograph becomes real but then it becomes fake again. Confusing? Yes, my mind has jiggled around after watching this video. Yours will too.

The illusion was created by Willie Witte. Witte writes:

I'm testing an experimental process of printing out still frames from videos and using them to create these transitions.

It's awesome how nothing in the video is computer generated. You're not being fooled by complete digital trickery, you're just getting fooled by really smart right-in-your-face trickery. [Willie Witte via BoingBoing]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/i-cant-figure-out-whats-real-and-whats-fake-in-this-488256981

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The US Navy is inaugurating its first squadron of drones today.

The US Navy is inaugurating its first squadron of drones today. The "Magicians" will consist of a "still-to-be-determined" number of Northrop Grumman Fire Scout MQ-8 B unmanned choppers, which are capable of flying 12 hours without refueling. [AP]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-us-navy-is-inaugurating-its-first-squadron-of-drone-487068686

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Why we often view digital culture through insect metaphors (Wired UK)

Humanity has often looked to the insect world for its technological metaphors, and now for digital inspiration

Swarms. Hive minds. The web*.

It can be hard to avoid talking about our digital culture without using insect metaphors.

Yet for new media theorist Jussi Parikka, it may be more than just a metaphor. Parikka is reader in Media and Design at Winchester School of Art and author of the Anne Friedberg Award-winning?Insect Media.

"For me?Insect Media?started from a realisation and a question: why do we constantly talk about digital culture and networks through insect metaphors?" says Parikka. "Is it just a metaphoric relation? If yes, why do we make sense of high technological culture through references to these small brained, rather 'dumb' animals? Or is there even more to this?

Parikka explains that philosopher of communication theory?Marshall McLuhan?thought about media as extensions of man, but that he sees media as extensions of the non-human.?

According to Parikka, the Victorians were the first to spot the relationship between the insect world and the technological one they were creating. Out of this fascination came entomology, the scientific study of insects.

"Victorians were as fascinated with insects as they were with steam," he says, as they perceived the "parallels, connections and impacts that insects had on human populations and cultures".?

They saw insects as "media machines" that sensed, moved, and indeed communicated in different ways from that of humans. Beehives became a "constant reference" in culture. So the smooth efficiency of the then relatively new Bank of England or the General Post Office was as easily compared to that of "a hive of bees" as are the workings of the internet today.

Other arthropods like spiders were described as builders, engineers and weavers. They were even portrayed as the original inventors of telegraphy, the email of the day.

As a result of this use of metaphor the "ideas of calculation, optimisation and rationality were firmly embodied in the insect world long before the advent of the computer". So it was only "a small step" to start to see digital culture in a similar way, using the same metaphors, Parikka believes.

"From the perspective of a computer scientist, it is hard not to see ant colonies as massive computation machines, optimising their algorithms, for instance, to find the best food routes.

"After all, insects are hackers and are interpreting the rules to survive."

However, Parikka began to think that this use of metaphor was more than just a way of our culture perhaps trying to "domesticate these new machines of computation".

"We need to be aware of the massive amount of things that happen in digital culture which are not human" and instead appear more insectoid.

"The speed of the flash crash of the stock market was due to the automated software processes; the speed of the signal travelling through the fibre-optic cable; the distributed calculations and packets firing across the globe as part of internet connection? These are much quicker than us humans."

It has even been argued that today the best technology can be created only by disregarding what it means to be human, rather than as an extension of humanity.

In robotics, Parikka argues that pioneers such as Rodney Brooks started to design insectoid and arachnoid types of robots as they would be much more efficient forms of machine in, for example, the harsh conditions of space missions.?

"Think of it through robotics or artificial intelligence: if you want to design a very efficient robot, let's say for moving, you do not necessarily make it bipedal, with two legs -- or even with two eyes, two ears: instead, it is as if robotics had picked up entomology books and realised that insects do it better.

"In fact, insects give clues as to how to robots may evolve, as there are more efficient ways of using the space with, for instance, six legs; or perceiving space with a different mechanism of vision; or distributing your brain power into a hive formation, rather like crowd sourcing."

Phil Husbands has "some sympathy" with Jussi Parikka's argument. Husbands is Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sussex. He is co-director of The Sussex Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) that takes inspiration from insect behaviour and physiology to help with artificial intelligence, robotic control and control of simulated objects in games.

"We are trying to understand some fundamental things and trying to understand them relative to humans can be very unhelpful," Husbands says.

By observing the behaviour of ants, including the way they sometimes stop and visually scan the world, scientists at Sussex last year were, for example, able to understand the nature of the special "learning walks" ants engage in when exploring new terrain. Then using these "very efficient and simple view-based methods" they were able to come up with a biologically plausible algorithm that could provide robots with "a highly robust and minimal method for navigation in difficult environments like deep space."

"If we think like a human then it's going to be very hard work to solve some of these challenges," according to Husbands. "Instead ants are optimised for interacting with their environment. Their resources are limited but they are very sophisticated.

"So with a very small brain they can do very simple things in very efficient ways which can then be implemented very economically" in robots and artificial intelligence. "It's very illuminating and chastening to think about insects," he adds. "It's a reminder of a very different view of the world."

For Michael Dieter, a researcher into media and culture at the University of Amsterdam, the significance of Parikka's work is that it is "an attempt to historically trace the relationship between entomology, or the study of insects, and the development of modern media technologies."

He describes the goal of Parikka's work as "to unsettle our commonplace conceptions of the divide between nature and digital culture when it comes to technology and these small animals".

What he achieves, Dieter believes, "is to demonstrate that there are significant direct relations between the design of modern and contemporary media and the analysis of insect behaviours".

Parikka is able to do this by a combination of thinking beyond the human world-view and using the new approach of "media archaeology", which tries to understand the development of our technical communication systems through the technologies that weren't followed or reached a dead end.

However, for Dieter the relationships between the insect world and our modern wired world have been "forged by capitalism", and the economic forces that have driven this are something that Parikka "needs to give further thought to".

For others the criticism of Insect Media may be more straightforward: digital networks don't grow -- they are built.

In the end, for Jussi Parikka, Insect Media is "is not about predicting the future but more about realising that this is a fundamental link in terms of how we see technology from the Victorians to the current high-tech culture. It is as if the most advanced technologies of today have established a link to the ancient evolutionary force of insects."

Even if our digital networks are built by humans, they still contain within them the same tendencies as those of the ants or bees.?

Indeed, Parikka doesn't want to stop with insects, as other animals -- such as dolphins -- could be seen as having their own media or methods of communication that connect with the digital world, almost a kind of "cybernetic zoology".?

Ultimately this is a reminder, he believes, that our digital culture exists in a biological context: "It is completely reliant on natural resources, from rare earth minerals to energy."

So when "soft technologies" such as pesticides are perceived to be causing the colony collapse disorder that is causing the mass extinction of bees, perhaps we should be "gravely worried about that" for the future of our own hive mind.?

"Bees then are the canaries in the mine for our own technological culture."

Jussi Parikka's latest article on "Insects and Canaries" is due out in a forthcoming edition of Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities

*We realise spiders are arachnids, not insects, but the word "arthropod" isn't quite so snappy.

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/3/insect-technology

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Daughter voices anger at mom found after 11 years

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? The teenage daughter of a woman who just revealed she abandoned her family 11 years ago said Thursday the disclosure has angered her and she is not eager to restart their relationship.

Morgan Heist, who learned last week Brenda Heist had surfaced in the Florida Keys, said the news has made her recall with bitterness the years of mourning she endured when she assumed her mother was dead and feared she'd been murdered.

"I ached every birthday, every Christmas," said 19-year-old Morgan Heist, a freshman at a community college outside Philadelphia. "My heart just ached. I wasn't mad at her. I wanted her to be there because I thought something had happened to her. I wish I had never cried."

Brenda Heist's mother, Jean Copenhaver, said Thursday that her daughter "had a real traumatic time" but was doing OK.

Brenda Heist was released from police custody on Wednesday and is staying with a brother in northern Florida for now, Copenhaver said.

Copenhaver, of Brenham, Texas, said she had spoken with Heist several times since Friday, when the 54-year-old woman turned herself in to police in Florida and was identified as a missing person.

"She just said she thought the family wouldn't want to talk to her because of her leaving," Copenhaver said. "And we all assured her that wasn't the case and we all loved her and wanted to be with her."

Morgan Heist said she's not sympathetic, partly because her mother had a choice, unlike the family she secretly abandoned.

"It's definitely very selfish," Morgan Heist said. "She clearly did not think of me or my brother or my dad at all with that decision. She thought of herself."

Heist told police she made a spur-of-the-moment decision in 2002 to join a group of homeless hitchhikers on their way to Florida, walking out on Morgan, 8, and her brother, then 12.

Brenda and her husband, Lee, were living together but going through an amicable divorce when she learned she had been denied housing support, police said. She was crying about that in a Lancaster park when three strangers befriended her and offered to let her join them.

Morgan Heist said her parents had agreed to live near each other once they divorced. Brenda Heist had been a bookkeeper at a car dealership.

"It's more of a mystery than ever," she said. "Her life was not hard at all."

Brenda Heist told police she slept under bridges and survived at times by scavenging food from restaurant trash and panhandling. But Lititz Police Detective John Schofield said Thursday he is looking into reports that have come in over the past day suggesting Brenda Heist's time in Florida included much less miserable periods.

"We're getting several calls from people down in Florida that knew her who want to say she's not being truthful with us," Schofield said.

Heist told a detective with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office that she had recently been arrested in the Tampa Bay region and might be in violation of probation. She told the detective she used the name Kelsie Lyanne Smith and provided a date of birth.

Jail and court records show Kelsie Lyanne Smith, with a matching birth date, was arrested in January on misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and providing false identification to law enforcement. After pleading guilty, Smith was sentenced to time served and was released on Feb. 13. She was also ordered to pay court costs but failed to do so and was found delinquent on April 15.

Copenhaver said she has not pressed her daughter about what led her to walk away from the life she knew in Pennsylvania and then live underground for more than a decade.

"We haven't gone into that with her," Copenhaver said. "She just needs time to recover, and have some peace and that. She'll tell us when she's ready."

She agreed to pass along a message from The Associated Press, asking Brenda Heist for an interview.

Heist told police she contacted them after feeling like she was at the end of her rope and tired of running.

"She's doing OK," Copenhaver said. "She's got a long way to go. She had a real traumatic time, but she's doing OK."

She said Heist was born in South Carolina, then moved as her father was transferred by the Air Force to Italy and Missouri before ending up in San Antonio, where she graduated from high school.

When she vanished, Lee Heist, was investigated but was cleared as a suspect. He raised the children without her and got the courts to declare her legally dead. He has since remarried.

Police erroneously said on Wednesday that daughter Morgan Heist was a sophomore at West Chester University. She is a freshman at Montgomery County Community College.

___

Associated Press writer Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/daughter-voices-anger-mom-found-11-years-190028861.html

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Benchtop NMR breakthrough

Public release date: 2-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Andrew Chapple
andrew.chapple@ifr.ac.uk
01-603-251-490
Norwich BioScience Institutes

In a world first, scientists from the Institute of Food Research (IFR) on the Norwich Research Park have been test-driving a prototype instrument that promises to revolutionise access to a potent laboratory analysis technique called NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance).

The instrument was developed by Oxford Instruments, an award winning producer of scientific measuring equipment, who breathed new life into an existing technology using innovative designs and advanced electronics. The result is an NMR spectrometer called Pulsar.

Existing NMR spectrometers are hugely expensive, in part because they rely on special cooling, special housing and highly trained experts to run them. Pulsar, on the other hand, is a benchtop system based on permanent rather than superconducting magnets that is designed to work in an ordinary science lab and to be run by non-specialists.

Building on a long track record of scientific data analysis, the IFR team, led by Dr Kate Kemsley, are devising mathematical recipes and writing new computer software that will help to collect and analyse data from Pulsar automatically, without the need for experts to analyse the data a piece at a time. Making this partnership possible is funding from the Technology Strategy Board, who are sponsored by the Department of Innovation and Skills to stimulate technology-enabled innovation in the areas which offer the greatest scope for boosting UK growth and productivity.

NMR is a powerful technique used to analyse a material's molecular structure and composition. It works rather like hitting a bell with a hammer, listening to the chime of the bell and deducing information about the bell and its environment from the chime. In NMR the 'hammer' is a pulse of radiofrequency waves, applied to a sample held in a powerful magnetic field, and the 'chime' is a radiofrequency ringing given off as atoms within the sample settle back to their original state. The output is a complicated signal containing information about the different atoms and their relative arrangement in the sample. The team at IFR, which is strategically funded by BBSRC, plans to use the instrument and their new algorithms to automatically test and explore the composition of a number of common foods.

IFR has been trialling the instrument's capabilities by assessing how well it can differentiate between hazelnut oil and extra virgin olive oil, two food oils that are very difficult to tell apart by other methods. The flexibility of the NMR technology means that many other similar applications can also be developed in the areas of quality control, authentication and adulteration.

Pulsar was officially launched by Oxford Instruments on Thursday 2nd May, offering stunning NMR capability to smaller labs and university teaching centres. Students will benefit from access to direct hands-on experience of NMR, both collecting and analysing their own data. Quality Control labs, where analysis is usually carried out by technicians lacking NMR expertise, will now be able to add the unique capabilities of NMR to their range of analysis techniques. The ease of use and data capture makes high-throughput NMR a reality, ideal for industrial settings where large numbers of samples are processed and the results needed quickly to feedback into control processes.

###

Notes to editors:

About the Institute of Food Research

The mission of the Institute of Food Research (IFR), http://www.ifr.ac.uk, is to undertake international quality scientific research relevant to food and human health and to work in partnership with others to provide underpinning science for consumers, policy makers, the food industry and academia. It is a company limited by guarantee, with charitable status.

IFR is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). IFR received a total of 14.4M investment from BBSRC in 2011-12.

The institutes deliver innovative, world class bioscience research and training, leading to wealth and job creation, generating high returns for the UK economy. They have strong links with business, industry and the wider community, and support policy development

The Institutes' research underpins key sectors of the UK economy such as agriculture, bioenergy, biotechnology, food and drink and pharmaceuticals. In addition, the Institute maintains unique research facilities of national importance.

About Oxford Instruments

Oxford Instruments designs, supplies and supports high-technology tools and systems with a focus on research and industrial applications. It provides solutions needed to advance fundamental physics research and its transfer into commercial nanotechnology applications. Innovation has been the driving force behind Oxford Instruments' growth and success for over 50 years, and its strategy is to effect the successful commercialisation of these ideas by bringing them to market in a timely and customer-focused fashion. The first technology business to be spun out from Oxford University over fifty years ago, Oxford Instruments is now a global company with over 1900 staff worldwide and is listed on the FTSE250 index of the London Stock Exchange (OXIG). Its objective is to be the leading provider of new generation tools and systems for the research and industrial sectors.

This involves the combination of core technologies in areas such as low temperature, high magnetic field and ultra-high vacuum environments, Nuclear and Electron Magnetic Resonance, X-ray, electron and optical based metrology, and advanced growth, deposition and etching.

Oxford Instruments aims to pursue responsible development and deeper understanding of our world through science and technology. Its products, expertise, and ideas address global issues such as energy, environment, security and health.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 2-May-2013
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Contact: Andrew Chapple
andrew.chapple@ifr.ac.uk
01-603-251-490
Norwich BioScience Institutes

In a world first, scientists from the Institute of Food Research (IFR) on the Norwich Research Park have been test-driving a prototype instrument that promises to revolutionise access to a potent laboratory analysis technique called NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance).

The instrument was developed by Oxford Instruments, an award winning producer of scientific measuring equipment, who breathed new life into an existing technology using innovative designs and advanced electronics. The result is an NMR spectrometer called Pulsar.

Existing NMR spectrometers are hugely expensive, in part because they rely on special cooling, special housing and highly trained experts to run them. Pulsar, on the other hand, is a benchtop system based on permanent rather than superconducting magnets that is designed to work in an ordinary science lab and to be run by non-specialists.

Building on a long track record of scientific data analysis, the IFR team, led by Dr Kate Kemsley, are devising mathematical recipes and writing new computer software that will help to collect and analyse data from Pulsar automatically, without the need for experts to analyse the data a piece at a time. Making this partnership possible is funding from the Technology Strategy Board, who are sponsored by the Department of Innovation and Skills to stimulate technology-enabled innovation in the areas which offer the greatest scope for boosting UK growth and productivity.

NMR is a powerful technique used to analyse a material's molecular structure and composition. It works rather like hitting a bell with a hammer, listening to the chime of the bell and deducing information about the bell and its environment from the chime. In NMR the 'hammer' is a pulse of radiofrequency waves, applied to a sample held in a powerful magnetic field, and the 'chime' is a radiofrequency ringing given off as atoms within the sample settle back to their original state. The output is a complicated signal containing information about the different atoms and their relative arrangement in the sample. The team at IFR, which is strategically funded by BBSRC, plans to use the instrument and their new algorithms to automatically test and explore the composition of a number of common foods.

IFR has been trialling the instrument's capabilities by assessing how well it can differentiate between hazelnut oil and extra virgin olive oil, two food oils that are very difficult to tell apart by other methods. The flexibility of the NMR technology means that many other similar applications can also be developed in the areas of quality control, authentication and adulteration.

Pulsar was officially launched by Oxford Instruments on Thursday 2nd May, offering stunning NMR capability to smaller labs and university teaching centres. Students will benefit from access to direct hands-on experience of NMR, both collecting and analysing their own data. Quality Control labs, where analysis is usually carried out by technicians lacking NMR expertise, will now be able to add the unique capabilities of NMR to their range of analysis techniques. The ease of use and data capture makes high-throughput NMR a reality, ideal for industrial settings where large numbers of samples are processed and the results needed quickly to feedback into control processes.

###

Notes to editors:

About the Institute of Food Research

The mission of the Institute of Food Research (IFR), http://www.ifr.ac.uk, is to undertake international quality scientific research relevant to food and human health and to work in partnership with others to provide underpinning science for consumers, policy makers, the food industry and academia. It is a company limited by guarantee, with charitable status.

IFR is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). IFR received a total of 14.4M investment from BBSRC in 2011-12.

The institutes deliver innovative, world class bioscience research and training, leading to wealth and job creation, generating high returns for the UK economy. They have strong links with business, industry and the wider community, and support policy development

The Institutes' research underpins key sectors of the UK economy such as agriculture, bioenergy, biotechnology, food and drink and pharmaceuticals. In addition, the Institute maintains unique research facilities of national importance.

About Oxford Instruments

Oxford Instruments designs, supplies and supports high-technology tools and systems with a focus on research and industrial applications. It provides solutions needed to advance fundamental physics research and its transfer into commercial nanotechnology applications. Innovation has been the driving force behind Oxford Instruments' growth and success for over 50 years, and its strategy is to effect the successful commercialisation of these ideas by bringing them to market in a timely and customer-focused fashion. The first technology business to be spun out from Oxford University over fifty years ago, Oxford Instruments is now a global company with over 1900 staff worldwide and is listed on the FTSE250 index of the London Stock Exchange (OXIG). Its objective is to be the leading provider of new generation tools and systems for the research and industrial sectors.

This involves the combination of core technologies in areas such as low temperature, high magnetic field and ultra-high vacuum environments, Nuclear and Electron Magnetic Resonance, X-ray, electron and optical based metrology, and advanced growth, deposition and etching.

Oxford Instruments aims to pursue responsible development and deeper understanding of our world through science and technology. Its products, expertise, and ideas address global issues such as energy, environment, security and health.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/nbi-bnb050213.php

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Hamas rebuffs Arabs for softening Israeli-Palestinian peace plan

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Islamist Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip on Friday rejected a revised Middle East peace initiative put forward by the Arab League, saying outsiders could not decide the fate of the Palestinians.

In meetings this week in Washington, Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan, acknowledging that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any eventual peace deal.

The United States and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank praised the move. But speaking to hundreds of worshippers in a Gaza mosque, senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh said it was a concession that other Arabs were not authorized to make.

"The so-called new Arab initiative is rejected by our people, by our nation and no one can accept it," said Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government in the coastal enclave.

"The initiative contains numerous dangers to our people in the occupied land of 1967, 1948 and to our people in exile."

He was referring to the partition of British-mandate Palestine in 1948 when the United Nations voted to divide the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state, and to the 1967 war when Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and claims all the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river as rightfully Palestinian. It never accepted the Arab plan which was first presented in 2002.

RARE SPAT

The modified version was announced by Qatar's prime minister on Monday and Haniyeh's comments represented a rare public disagreement between Hamas and one of its main supporters.

The rich Gulf state has pledged over $400 million to fund housing projects in the Gaza Strip, which Hamas seized from the rival Palestinian Fatah faction in a brief civil war in 2007.

"To those who speak of land swaps we say: Palestine is not a property, it is not for sale, not for a swap and cannot be traded," Haniyeh said.

Haniyeh said the rival Palestinian Authority, headed by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was to blame for inspiring the softer Arab position because it accepted the need for land swaps with Israel.

Israel rejected the Arab peace plan when it was proposed 11 years ago. Israeli officials gave a cautious welcome to the new suggestions, but the government still objects to key points, including the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and the creation of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is seeking to revive direct peace talks that broke down in 2010 over the issue of Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

On Tuesday, he hailed the Arab League announcement as "a very big step forward."

However, any peace moves will have to confront the fractured Palestinian political landscape with Abbas holding sway over parts of the West Bank and Hamas firmly entrenched in Gaza. Repeated attempts by the two sides to secure a political reunification of the two territories have failed.

(Editing by Crispian Balmer and Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hamas-rebuffs-arabs-softening-israeli-palestinian-peace-plan-140406735.html

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US economic concerns weigh on markets ahead of ECB

Specialist Thomas Facchine, second from right, directs trades in Metro PCS at the close of trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. Asian stock markets fell Wednesday May 1, 2013 in holiday-thinned trading after the pace of China's manufacturing growth slowed in April, raising fears of a weaker recovery in the world's second-largest economy. Shares in other regions were poised to post gains, however. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist Thomas Facchine, second from right, directs trades in Metro PCS at the close of trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. Asian stock markets fell Wednesday May 1, 2013 in holiday-thinned trading after the pace of China's manufacturing growth slowed in April, raising fears of a weaker recovery in the world's second-largest economy. Shares in other regions were poised to post gains, however. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

LONDON (AP) ? Concerns over the state of the U.S. and China economies, the world's two biggest, weighed on markets Thursday despite widespread expectations that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates to a new low later.

Over the past few weeks, evidence has mounted that the U.S. and China have entered a soft patch. Figures on Wednesday, particularly out of the U.S., pointed to a further weakening in economic activity and in the labor market during April.

Wall Street had a difficult day Wednesday especially after the Federal Reserve sounded a fairly neutral view on the U.S. economy after its two-day policy meeting. Some investors had hoped the Fed would steer investors into extending their views on how long the super easy and cheap monetary policy would last.

"A general risk-off mode predominates, the Fed meeting yesterday having been viewed as a crushing disappointment by equity markets," said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.4 percent at 6,428 while Germany's DAX rose 0.1 percent to 7,918. The CAC-40 in France was 0.3 percent lower at 3,844.

Wall Street was poised for a modest recovery after a big retreat on Wednesday following a soft private payrolls report from ADP and another lackluster manufacturing survey from the Institute for Supply Management. Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures were 0.2 percent higher.

"Yesterday's (ADP) jobs number has ensured that no one is enthusiastic ahead of tomorrow's nonfarm payrolls," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor.

Before U.S. markets open, investors will have another raft of news to digest, including weekly jobless claims that could have a bearing on expectations for Friday's big economic release of the week ? the monthly U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.

However, the main focus on Thursday will likely center on developments in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, where the European Central Bank is expected to cut its main interest rate by a further quarter of a percentage point to 0.5 percent. Of more interest, perhaps, than the actual rate cut, which is fully priced in, is whether the ECB does more to shore up growth. A lending program for small and medium-sized, or SMEs, may be announced by ECB head Mario Draghi too.

"Measures to ease credit conditions for SMEs would be more useful, and cause a stronger market reaction," said Andrea Cicione, an economist at Lombard Street Research.

Currency traders will also be keeping a close watch on the newsflow to see if the dollar's recent weakness following the sub-par data continues. Ahead of all the main news, it was trading fairly steadily. The euro was down 0.1 percent at $1.3167 while the dollar was flat at 97.24 yen.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 percent to close at 13,694.04 while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.4 percent at 1,956.39. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.3 percent to 22,668.30.

Oil prices were flat with the benchmark New York rate up a cent at $91.04 a barrel.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-02-World%20Markets/id-d32fc561ba444bfdb9f50fa07dd1ae1c

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Three charged with obstruction in Boston bombing case

>>> tonight, the boston marathon bombing case has three more defendants. pete williams of nbc news will join me with the latest on the investigation.

>>> three additional suspects have been taken into custody.

>> the fbi took into custody three additional people.

>> they were roommates.

>> two of the people are here on student visas.

>> ages 19 and 20.

>> suspected of removing evidence after the bombing.

>> what they are accused of doing is taking things.

>> at least two of them expected to be in court.

>> they are accused in obstruction of justice and making false statement.

>> destroying, concealing and covering up a laptop computer .

>> a missing laptop.

>> they take a backpack filled with fireworks and throw it in the trash.

>> that's what the charges are about.

>> i think he's there.

>> this morning we are learning about the events in boston that led the police to is suspects.

>> my body was shaking. i was worried it would come back to me.

>> he said he will testify in open court .

>> there's a lot we need to learn here.

>> it is a fluid situation.

>> this is the beginning of a long process.

>>> tonight, three more people now face federal criminal charges in the boston marathon bombing according to a complaint. die as cad ra b -- two it by knowingly destroying, concealing and covering up objects belonging to dzhokhar tsarnaev, mainly a backpack with a computer. impede and obstruct. a third man, robel feliphillipos. all three men are friends of bombing suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev and began attending the university in dart mouth. don't worry about my pronunciation. they are nationals of -- they were taken on student visa violations for not regularly attending classes. they shared an apartment in new bedford, massachusetts. they went to dzhokhar tsarnaev's apartment and removed a backpack with fireworks and a jar of vaseline. they watched news report that is featured photographs of a man later identified as dzhokhar tsarnaev and identified the guys as a suspect. they then collectively decided to throw the fireworks into the trash because they did not want tsarnaev to get in trouble. all three had their hearing in court today.

>> he did not know that this individual was involved in the bombing. his first inkling came much later. the government allegations as far as seeing a photo and recognizing him. immediately we dispute. he did not know the items were involved in a bombing or of any value.

>> my client feels horrible and was shocked to hear that someone he knew at the university of massachusetts was involved with the boston marathon bombing, just like many other individuals interviewed on campus. he's cooperated fully with the authorities and looks forward to the truth coming out in this case.

>> my client is not charged with helping the suspect in any way what so ever before or after and he had no knowledge of the incident and as to the actual charge, misrepresentation of the other two individuals did or did not do. we'll look forward to litigating that in court.

>> joining me now is nbc news justice corporate pete williams and james cavanagh , an msnbc analyst. pete , thank you for being here on the first night of pronouncing the new names. i'm going to need your help. pete , i want to go to the lawyers, first of all, representing the new defendants. are they court appointed lawyers? what do we know about how they got their lawyers?

>> no, they are private counsel. some representing the two on immigration, which has arisen a couple days ago when they were picked up. there was a question about their student visas. the fact is the fbi has been trying to figure out what happened here for several days now. as i understand, the sequence of events here. after tsarnaev is arrested on friday night and after the shootout in waterford, they get his cell phone and look back for the record of his cell phones and texts. he's texts several of these individuals. two, they talked to dzhokhar tsarnaev's actual roommate who tells them the story about these men coming in and taking something out. so that got them on to the trail. they have been questioning the men and trying to figure this out. they, you know, discovered the backpack was thrown away. they find it in the landfill five days ago. the actual backpack. the picture you showed with the fireworks in it came from the fbi from the backpack they have thrown away. the counselors are not court appointed. they are regular, private counsel.

>> one person in the clear as of tonight in the investigation was dzhokhar's actual roommate.

>> yes. there's no suggestion here he had anything to do with this. we should say at some point there's no allegation here by the fbi . these three men charged today had anything to do with the bombing itself or were involved in planning or executing it this entire charge has to do with what they did afterwards. what they did after the fbi released the pictures of the two bombing suspects on a thursday night. it's later that evening they go to dzhokhar tsarnaev's dorm room , take the backpack away. the fbi was suspicious he was involved. one texted him and said he look like one of the suspects. he responded lol come to my room and take anything you want. they go to the room and take the backpack out. the next morning, as they are watching the news accounts and the names come out about tamerlan and dzhokhar tsarnaev, they decide to throw the backpack away.

>> on this point of the texting, the fbi is not alleging, it sounds like, that this was a coordinated thing that dzhokhar was saying to them, go to this, i need you to throw that stuff away.

>> correct. according to the court documents, he never says i need you to go to my dorm room , get the backpack and take it away. there's an implied invitation, come to my room and take anything umt. it also says they consider it a joke. then they go to the room and find the backpack. that's when, according to the fbi , says one of them knew, at that point, is the term the fbi uses, knew that tsarnaev was involved in the bombing. you heard the lawyer for one of the defendants who says no. he says no, they did not think they were taking evidence directly related to the bombing out of the dorm room . why they were taking it out, he doesn't say.

>> james cavanagh , you have worked investigations like this. you came across this package of evidence, the texts and then the knowledge that these people went to the dorm room , what they did, the roommate tells you this is what they did with that stuff. they got rid of it. what do you make of this evidence as it's gathered now in this case?

>> well, they made a clear choice, lawrence . remember, you have to add in the other facts and complaints. dzhokhar told at least one of the brothers a month before he knew how to make bombs. they saw the photographs, got the texts from dzhokhar, take anything out of my room. you look like the bomber, lol. they decided they knew that dzhokhar was one of the bombers. they made an active criminal choice to obstruct justice, go in there and get the backpack as pete described, the fireworks. the evidence in there, vaseline and other materials and his laptop, which would be significant evidence to stop another attack. these guys had left with other bombs. taking a laptop is serious. agents would want to get in there and see if there's another attack. they obstructed justice. it's serious.

>> james, when you say, based on what we know about the case and what you know about the frame of the case, what they did in that dorm room was actually remove the most valuable possible material in there for investigators.

>> exactly. the laptop, lawrence , mike reported he talked to one of the counsels for the defendant. they told mike they turned the laptop over to the fbi . you know, that solves the question, the laptop wasn't in the backpack, but turned over to the fbi . they have already swept it, i'm sure.

>> one other thing, the fbi claims in the charging documents that the reason they took the laptop was, and i'm just going to tell you what it says. you can decide the logic on your own. according to the complaint, they didn't want to roommate suspicious they were only taking the backpack, so they took the laptop, too. that's their claim.

>> what type of penalties do they face in these charges?

>> this is not the end of the game. the government can come back with more charges. this is the opening move by the government. as they learn more, they can add more. the obstruction count is a maximum of five years. lying to federal agent count against phillipos carry as maximum eight year sentence. there may be more charges down the road.

>> thank you both for your guidance tonight.

>> you bet.

>> thanks, lawrence .

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b6800fe/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C51741651/story01.htm

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No remains found near suspected 9/11 airplane part

NEW YORK (AP) ? Using a pulley system and sheer brawn, police removed a suspected 9/11 plane part from between two buildings near the World Trade Center site, and the medical examiner said no potential human remains had been found there.

About a dozen officers raised the jagged, 255-pound metal piece, which contains cranks, levers and bolts from the ground. They took it over a three-story wall, lowered it into a courtyard and they carried it through the basement of a planned mosque, where it was discovered by an inspector last week.

Onlookers across the street took pictures as they heaved it onto a truck taking it to a Brooklyn police facility. The process took about two hours.

"It's a piece of history, and we tried to preserve it as best we could," said NYPD Deputy Chief William Aubry, who leads the forensic investigation division. Aubry said they didn't do any damage to the piece when they moved it.

The part was discovered a week ago, wedged in a narrow space between a luxury apartment building and the mosque that prompted a national debate about Islam and freedom of speech because it's located just blocks from the World Trade Center site. An inspector doing construction work at the mosque site noticed it from the rooftop.

Authorities believe the rusted wing part is from one of the two hijacked airliners that brought down the trade center on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It's a pretty eerie feeling known that we're here 11 years later removing that part," Aubry said.

The 5-foot piece was initially thought to be a piece of landing gear, but officials later determined it was a trailing edge flap support structure. Located close to the body of the plane, the part helps secure wing flaps that move in and out and aid in regulating speed.

Boeing officials told police the part came from one of its 767 airliners, but it isn't possible to determine which one. Both hijacked planes that struck the towers, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were Boeing 767s. American and United have had no comment.

The medical examiner's office sifted through sediment at the site for days, but found no potential human remains.

Investigators continue to recover potential human remains from the trade center construction site. About 3,000 people died in the attack, and 1,000 were never identified.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-remains-found-near-suspected-9-11-airplane-142721740.html

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EFF report knocks Verizon, praises Twitter for protecting user data

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released its annual "Who Has Your Back?" report, ranking 18 companies by how well they protect user information from government eyes. Twitter and Sonic.net get high scores from the EFF, as they meet all six of the organization's privacy guidelines, which include requiring a warrant for sharing content and telling users about government data requests. On the other end of the spectrum are MySpace and Verizon, both of which score zero out of six stars. Meanwhile, Apple and AT&T get one gold star each, and Google, Dropbox and LinkedIn are tied for second place. You'll find the complete breakdown in the EFF 's comprehensive infographic (partially displayed above), and the full report is available via the source link.

Filed under: Internet, Apple, Google, Verizon, Facebook

Comments

Via: Electronista

Source: EFF

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/1gZ5XdfJhKY/

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REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT THE VICE ... - The White House

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

April 30, 2013

The White House

THE VICE PRESIDENT:? Thank you all very much.? My name is Joe Biden, I?m Jill Biden?s husband.? (Laughter.)? And it?s a delight to be here with all of you.

Secretary Shinseki, Becky Blank, who is the acting Commerce Secretary, all -- we have Seth Harris here, who is the acting Labor Secretary.? And, Admiral, good to see you, man.? Look at all the brass here.? There?s no reason why we all shouldn?t be here.

Look, folks, the truth of the matter is that we?re delighted to welcome you to the White House, but all the business leaders, military leaders, it?s great to have you here -- and veterans.

But the truth is we all should be here.? We all should be in this spot at this time because there?s so much work to do.? My colleagues are tired of hearing me say over the last 20 years, we only have one truly sacred obligation in this country.? We have a lot of obligations -- to our children, to the elderly, to the poor.? But there?s only truly sacred obligation in my view, and that's to equip those we send to war and care for those who come home from war and their families.? That's a sacred obligation.

This post-9/11 generation -- and I see some folks out there -- well, no one is quite my age.? (Laughter.)? But I see folks out there from the Vietnam generation on, and before.? All made incredible contributions, but this 9/11 generation has been astounding.? Over 3.4 million young women and men have joined our military since 9/11, with almost the certain knowledge that they're likely to be deployed overseas.? 1.7 million of those brave women and men have walked across those scorching sands of Iraq or those barren mountains in Afghanistan.? And many of them, as all of you know -- and some of you are among them, including some of the brass here -- didn't just serve once or twice.? Some have served three and four and five deployments.? Pretty incredible.

Every day I get a card, and on my schedule card I have them listed on the back -- and, thanks to the Pentagon, we call every day.? I want to know exactly how many lives have been lost and exactly how many people -- how many of our brave soldiers, Marines, Guardsmen, et cetera, how many have been wounded.? As of today, 6,564 have died in those conflicts; 50,651 have been wounded.? And like all of you, I count the one.

I know how we would have felt if, God forbid, something happened to our son when he was there a year and someone said, by the way, there are around 6,000 who have died, or there are about 65,000 who have been wounded.? Every single one of these women and men have families, have a story and a future, and many of them still have a future.

So this obligation is real, and it?s going to be lasting, and it?s consequential.? The truth of it is these veterans coming home into civilian life are among the most qualified men and women that have ever served our military because of these men up here -- how they -- and women, how they?ve trained them.? They're among the most qualified technically, intellectually.? They're among the most qualified Americans that have ever been available for the job market.? They have the capacity to do virtually any job in the private sector.

You're going to hear from a young man soon who, I will not steal his thunder, but works in an industry where they move a lot of equipment and freight around.? I remember talking to someone at one of these big companies and saying, well, I don't know about so and so; he was talking about a young man.? And I said, man, this kid handled more responsibility and billions dollars' worth of equipment than you own, than you?ll ever own.? (Laughter.)? So don't tell me this kid can't handle the dispatching yard of your trucks.? One of the vehicles he had cost more than all your trucks.? (Laughter.)?

And, seriously, think of these kids.? Go to an aircraft carrier.? Watch who is making the judgment as to when that jet aircraft lands down.? It?s a 19-, 20-year-old kid standing there with a flag.? It?s a 19-, 20-year-old kid -- they even let me do it once -- (laughter) -- that sits underneath that as they catapult off.? They can handle anything.? They're technologically proficient.? They're totally responsible.? And they?re undeniably capable.?

So what we?re selling here today -- and all of us are selling it -- is an incredible product.? And I want to thank so many of you business leaders here today behind me and out in the audience for recognizing that fact.

As the President said, no one who fights for this country overseas should have to come home and fight for a job when they come back home.? They just shouldn?t have to do that.? And that's what you?re all about.? That's what we?re about.

But it?s not just about the returning veterans.? We know there are families, and particularly you men and women in uniform know the sacrifices your families make to allow you to serve.? The English poet John Milton once said, ?They also serve who only stand and wait.?? And literally, hundreds of thousands, millions of wives, husbands, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers -- they?ve stood and waited.? And we owe them as well, because they have served as well.?

And quite frankly, I?ve never seen my wife, Jill, so absolutely, totally committed to any cause, and that's the cause of serving military families, the cause of serving all of you who served.? I?ve heard her say it once, I?ve heard her say it over the last seven years I don't know how many times:? Everyone, everyone can do something.? Only 1 percent of the population is serving, but 90 percent of the population -- 99 percent owes them just a simple act of kindness.

I remember how moved we were when we got a call from our daughter-in-law after a snowstorm the winter our son was deployed.? The next-door neighbor just walked over and shoveled the driveway -- just shoveled the driveway.? Never said a word, packed up, left.? Shoveled the driveway.? We?ve got a lot of driveways to shovel.? We owe an awful lot.?

And that's why Michelle and Jill started Joining Forces, and why, with the absolute rock-solid commitment of President Barack Obama behind them, they?ve done, with your help, a remarkable job.? I?m sure you?ll hear the numbers and you will all know the remarkable job that you?ve done and they?ve done responding to the needs of these brave women and men.

And now I?d like to introduce you to a woman whose father served, whose sons serve, and who serves us every day -- Jill Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, who happens to be my wife.? (Applause.)

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DR. BIDEN:? Thank you, Joe.? Hi, everyone.? I?m Jill Biden, a proud Blue Star mother.?

Over the past few years, the First Lady and I have had the incredible honor of meeting military spouses all over this country, and I?m always amazed by their strength, their commitment, and, most importantly, by their resilience.

These are spouses like Erin Voirol.? Erin met her husband, Dale, a Sergeant First Class in the Army, when they were both in high school.? Not long after becoming an Army wife, Erin found herself overseas with two young children.? Soon thereafter, her husband deployed for a year.? That was just the beginning.?

Over the past 18 years, they have moved their family 10 times.? They are raising three children with Erin providing primary care of the kids during three deployments, each for more than a year.? And today, Dale is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina while Erin and their children stayed in the Hampton Roads area in Virginia so that their kids can finish high school there.?

Through all this, Erin pursued her own education, made strong connections with other military spouses, and embraced a wide range of careers, all leading to her current profession of serving other military families.? Erin is the operations manager for two non-profits that provide employment readiness and job-placement assistance for veterans, military spouses, and more.

Erin is here with us today.? Erin, would you stand.? Thank you, Erin, for all you do.? Thank you.? (Applause.)

Yet stories like Erin?s are not unique among military spouses.? They are people who, when their spouse deploys, are carrying our military families, doing the work of two parents, raising children, running a household.? And military spouses are the first to step up for their communities, whether it?s volunteering to help out a neighbor or serving in the PTA.? All the while they?re building their own careers.?

And because our nation?s military spouses move 10 times more than their civilian counterparts, that?s not always easy.? Just as they?re settled into a new job, it might be time to pack up again, move across the country or out of the country, and start the entire process all over again.

But of all the things Michelle and I have learned about military spouses, here?s what stands out the most:? They never complain.? Whatever the situation, they keep on serving, doing whatever needs to be done.? Military spouses like Erin have so much to offer -- their skills, their incredible work ethic, and perhaps most of all, their endless energy.?

That?s why nearly two years ago, we were proud to launch the Military Spouse Employment Partnership.? This effort has helped spouses build strong resumes, has sponsored hiring fairs and has created mentoring programs.? Since its launch, more than 160 Fortune 500 employers have signed on to the partnership, and more than 43,000 military spouses have been hired.? And more and more companies are finding ways to keep these spouses in their employment, even after they move.? And I?m sure every partnership company will say, if you?re looking for dynamic, resourceful, and highly skilled employees, our military spouses are exactly who you are looking for.?

As Joe mentioned just a moment ago, our military spouses serve right along our servicemen and women.? Through Joining Forces, we honor all military service and we ask all Americans to join us in finding ways to show our gratitude.? From the beginning, the private sector has played an important part in supporting the Joining Forces initiative.?

?Our next speaker is a veteran who has benefited from this private sector involvement.? It is my great pleasure to introduce David Padilla, who served in the United States Navy for five years as a second-class petty officer operations specialist.? And he has a new four-month-old daughter -- month, right?? Four-month-old.? David, thank you for your service to our country.? (Applause.)

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PETTY OFFICE PADILLA:? Good morning.? My name is David Padilla.? I served honorably for the United States Navy as an operations specialist second-class petty officer.? I served in two deployments -- first, as a database manager in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and second, as an air controller and watch supervisor on an AFRICOM partnership for countries such as Kenya and the Congo.?

My time in the Navy taught me invaluable skills:? How to manage a team, work with data, and operate high-tech equipment -- not to mention all the discipline and hard work that comes with wearing that uniform.? But when I came home and started my job search, it felt like companies didn?t see any of that in me.?

After returning from the Navy, I applied to countless jobs and was averaging two interviews a week, but nothing ever materialized.? So with the help of the GI Bill, I enrolled at Mercy College in New York where I earned a bachelor?s degree in finance.? Just after I graduated, my fianc?e discovered she was pregnant with our beautiful daughter, Emiliana (ph), who is now four months old.? I knew that with a growing family, I needed to double down on my job search, even with a bachelor?s degree.? So I signed up for veterans? workshops, updated my resume, and attended dozens of job fairs.? But still, I struggled to find work.?

In all, I was unemployed for two and a half years before and after college.? But then, thanks to Paralyzed Veterans of America and their PAVE program, which provides support to all veterans who are looking for work, UPS hired me as a dispatch supervisor where I could use my management training I received from the Navy.? And after only four months on the job, UPS recognized my leadership skills and promoted me, where I?m responsible now for dispatching 75 drivers and optimizing our delivery schedule.?

UPS has given me the opportunity to build my career and provide financial support for my family.? I want to thank UPS and CEO Scott Davis, who is here today, for giving me this opportunity and making veteran-hiring a priority.? And I also want to salute all the companies here today who are making hiring veterans and their spouses a priority.? I only hope that more companies stand up for families like mine.

No one understands this better than our Commander-in-Chief and First Lady. ?They have both made it their mission to support our troops, veterans and military families.? And now, I have the great pleasure to introduce them now.?

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our President, Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama.? (Applause.)

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THE PRESIDENT:? Thank you.? Thank you very much.? Thank you.? (Applause.)? Please, everybody have a seat.? David, thank you so much for your introduction and sharing your story, but most importantly, thanks for your extraordinary service to our nation.? We are very, very proud of you.?

Thank you to our partners in crime -- (laughter) -- the outstanding Joe Biden, and the even more outstanding Jill Biden.? (Laughter and applause.)? We're grateful for their leadership, their commitment on a whole range of issues.? But I'm particularly grateful for the passion that Jill, you've shown when it comes to our military families, because you know what it?s like when a loved one is deployed.? And that passion comes through with everything you do.? So we're very, very proud of you.

I also want to recognize the members of my Cabinet and Joint Chiefs and some of our top brass who are here.? We appreciate all the great work that they're doing.? And your presence reflects our commitment to this cause across the entire government.?

And now, I've got a simple task this morning, and that is to introduce the graceful, brilliant, inspiring love of my life -- (laughter) -- First Lady Michelle Obama.? Joe and I are just warm-up acts today, which in our families means it?s just another Tuesday.? (Laughter.)? That's how it generally goes. ??

But of all the honors and privileges of serving as President, the opportunity to meet incredible people like David is among the things that I cherish the most.? David, being here today is representative of a 9/11 generation -- men and women who volunteered to put the uniform on even though they understood it was wartime, knowing full well they could be sent into harm?s way.?

And for more than a decade, they have answered every call, executing some of the most dangerous missions on the planet; operating some of the most cutting-edge, complex technologies known to man; leading their peers in moments where their decisions can determine life or death.? And, as we saw during the attacks in Boston, as Guardsmen and as veterans were racing towards danger, they put that courage and experience and skills that they?ve earned serving in our military to use every single day.? George Washington once said, ?When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen.?

Our troops and our military families who serve right alongside them keep us strong and they keep us safe.? And as Commander-in-Chief, I?ve pledged that just as they?ve left their homes and families to take care of us, we've got to make sure we're taking care of them when they come home.? That?s our sacred obligation:? To make sure that they get the care and the benefits and opportunities that they deserve.? And that includes economic opportunity -- good jobs worthy of their incredible talents.?

And as David indicated, unfortunately, when they hit the job market, employers don?t always recognize the high-quality, high-tech skills our newest veterans have gained in the military.? They don't understand the leadership that they've shown under extraordinary circumstances.? So, too often, just when these men and women are looking to move forward in the next chapter of their lives, they?re stuck in neutral, scraping together odd jobs just to pay the bills.?

Now, our economy is growing.? It's creating jobs on a consistent basis.? Although I just had a press conference -- we could be doing even better if we'd get a little more cooperation down the street.? But for post-9/11 veterans, employment continues to lag behind the national average -- and that's especially true for our youngest veterans.? And this does not make any sense.?

If you can save a life on the battlefield, then you sure as heck can save one in an ambulance in a state-of-the-art hospital.? If you can oversee a convoy of equipment and track millions of dollars of assets, then you can run a company?s supply chain or you can balance its books.? If you can lead a platoon in a war zone, then I think you can lead a team in a conference center. ??

There are lots of extremely talented young people who are more than qualified for the jobs that businesses are looking to fill.? We've got the end of the Iraq war.? The war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close.? More than 1 million servicemembers are going to be transitioning back to civilian life in the coming years.? So we've got to do everything we can to make sure they have every opportunity to succeed.?

That?s why, a year and a half ago, I signed new tax credits for companies that hire unemployed veterans and Wounded Warriors.? And since then, the number of veterans hired through tax credits like these has more than doubled.? And my budgets proposed extending these tax credits permanently.? Congress needs to get that done.?

We?re working to help our troops earn the credentials they need for jobs in manufacturing and medicine and transportation.? We strengthened the Post-9/11 GI Bill, helping nearly 1 million veterans and military family members get a college education.? And for the first time in 20 years, we've overhauled the military?s Transition Assistance Program to help our newest veterans compete for those private sector jobs.? Our online Veterans Jobs Bank now has more than 2.5 million searchable job postings.? With our Veterans Gold Card, our veterans receive six months of personalized career counseling.? At my direction, the federal government has hired nearly 250,000 veterans.

So we've made progress, but we know that government alone can't put every veteran and military spouse to work.? So about a year and a half ago, I went down to the Navy Yard and issued a challenge to America?s businesses:? Hire or train 100,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2013.? And I am proud to say that these companies stepped up.? And some of those companies are represented here today.?

In just a year, businesses had already hired 125,000 veterans or military spouses.? They committed to hiring 250,000 more.? Today, we?re announcing a major milestone in this effort, thanks in large part to the leadership of so many companies that are represented here today.? And we could not be more grateful for the commitments of these companies.?

Now, they're doing it partly because it's good business sense, because they're getting great employees.? But they're also doing it because they're patriots.? They're also doing it because they really care about this country and they understand that they don't succeed unless they've got an incredible military that's doing this.

Hiring our veterans and military spouses is not just the patriotic thing to do, it's the smart thing to do.? They're looking for highly skilled workers.? Highly skilled veterans and military spouses are looking for jobs, let?s connect them up.? It?s good for families, it?s good for businesses, it?s good for our country.?

And that?s why Joining Forces is so important.? It?s a way for us to both honor and serve the men and women who have served us so well, but also to move the country forward.? That?s why we've all got to step up and do our parts -- government, business, schools, hospitals, community groups, houses of worship, neighbors, and obviously our military and our VA.? We've had to up our game, and we're not there yet, but we continually try to strive to improve to make sure we're doing the right thing.? And just as service and sacrifice defines our military families, serving our military families has to define who we are as Americans.?

Now, none of this could have happened had it not been for the extraordinary work that Michelle and Jill have engaged in over the last two years.? And that?s a call that we're renewing here today.? I've got to tell you, I'm proud of my wife all the time.? I could not be prouder of the work that she and Jill have done in this effort.? They have put their heart and their soul into it, they care about it deeply.? They identify so deeply with these military families because they understand the sacrifices that they're making.?

So with that, let me introduce a woman who I've seen live out that message every day as a wife and a mother, a tireless champion of military families, love her dearly -- my wife, First Lady Michelle Obama.? (Applause.)

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MRS. OBAMA:? Thanks so much.? (Applause.)? Thank you all.? Well, let me start by thanking the President of the United States for that nice introduction.? (Laughter.)? It's always nice to get a good introduction from the President, and from your husband.? But I want to thank you and Joe, because truly, we could not issue these challenges without leadership from the top.? And that?s something that Jill and I always say, is that we're out there on the front lines pushing this initiative, but the only way we get this done is because we've got strong leadership in our President and our Vice President.?

And, of course, to Jill, who is not just an extraordinary partner but a wonderful friend in this endeavor, not just working with our military families but in this interesting life that our husbands have gotten us into.? (Laughter.)? Jill is a true champion, and she's taught me a lot about what it means to serve, what it means to be part of the military community.? And I couldn?t be more grateful.

I also want to recognize all of the leaders from the administration, from the military and throughout the country, especially the veterans and military spouses who are here with us today.? Thank you all for your commitment and your service to this nation.?

And finally, I want to take a moment to say a special thank you to someone who didn?t know I was going to thank him, but who has been a cornerstone of this effort throughout this year in a difficult time -- when we've been in transition -- these two were running for something -- (laughter) -- but we couldn?t have kept this effort going without Captain Todd Veazie.? (Applause.)? And, believe it or not, today is Todd's last day as our Joining Forces executive director.? That?s another miracle -- the fact that we get so much done with sporadic support like Todd's.

And I want to make that point, because it's not just Jill and I, but Todd and a small team of others really keeps this going.? And this year has been a success because of you, so we decided as a reward, we would have you, as your last hurrah, to plan an event with every single one of your bosses -- (laughter) -- because we knew you could pull it off, because that?s what Navy SEALs do, right??

But in Todd, we saw his skill, determination on display every single day.? And I'm just so proud.? We'll miss you here with Joining Forces.? So Todd and I just wanted to say thank you -- or, Barack and I wanted to say thank you.? (Laughter.)? You.? You, too.? (Laughter.)? At least I caught that one.? (Laughter.)? But we are grateful and impressed by your talent, integrity, and the incredible work ethic that you've shown to make this possible.? Todd!? (Applause.)? Very bashful.? We kept that out of the remarks so that you wouldn?t know that it was there.?

But really, the same thing can be said -- all those wonderful traits in Todd -- can be said of all the servicemembers and military spouses we have had the honor of meeting over these past four years.? These men and women are some of the most talented, accomplished, dedicated people you will ever meet.

And that?s why, two years ago, when the four of us came together to launch Joining Forces right here in this very room, our goal was to create an initiative that was worthy of their character and their service.? We challenged every segment of our society to stand up and take action and make a real commitment to support and serve our military families.? And since then, this nation has truly joined forces in so many amazing ways.

We have seen doctors and nurses take bold new steps to care for the families affected by PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.? We?ve seen colleges sign up to train teachers to be more responsive to the needs of our military children in their classrooms.? We?ve seen community groups and houses of worship and citizens from every walk of life show their appreciation for our military families, not just with words but with deeds.

And today, we are here to recognize the tremendous efforts of businesses all across the country.? Together, we have been partnering to do everything in our power to help our veterans and military families find the jobs they need and deserve.?

These efforts are about so much more than a paycheck.? This is about giving these men and women a source of identity and purpose.? It?s about providing thousands of families with financial security, and giving our veterans and military spouses the confidence that they can provide a better future for their children.?

So as we reflect on our accomplishments to date and challenge ourselves to do more, it?s important to remember what?s at stake with all this.? It?s important to remind ourselves every single day what this employment effort is really all about.?

And that?s exactly what we did two years ago when the President issued this challenge.? Because every time we looked at those veterans? unemployment numbers, every time we heard another story about someone who had taken incoming fire on a combat patrol but couldn?t get an HR rep to take their calls, every time we talked to a military spouse who had been transferred far too many times to build a decent career, we became even more determined to make this right.

So with that challenge, we all snapped into action.? And since then, it seems like every week -- quite frankly, every day -- someone new gets involved in this effort.? There hasn?t been a "no" from anyone.? And today, I am thrilled to announce that in less than two years, America?s businesses have hired or trained 290,000 veterans and military spouses -- (applause) -- which is almost triple the original goal with eight months to spare.

And we are also proud to announce that American companies have committed to hire or train another 435,000 of these men and women over the next five years.? (Applause.)? And we are so grateful to all of the business leaders here today who are a part of this effort.?

These commitments come from companies of every shape and size.? BNSF Railroad is hiring 5,000 veterans in the next 5 years.? UPS, hiring 25,000.? Home Depot, 55,000.? McDonald?s is hiring 100,000 in the next three years.? Deloitte is doubling its veterans hiring over the next three years.

USAA is pledging that 30 percent of its new hires will be veterans or military spouses.? Walmart is telling any veteran who has served honorably that if they want a job in the year after they separate from service, Walmart is going to hire them.? And their goal is to do it within 30 days of the veteran?s application.

The Blackstone Group has challenged each of its 50,000 hiring managers at affiliated businesses to hire at least one more veteran.? AT&T is creating an online, military exchange for a group of businesses so that if one company can't hire a veteran at that moment, they can connect them to someone who can.

The International Franchise Association has helped more than 4,300 veterans own their own businesses since 2011.? And right now as we speak, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is holding its 400th career fair since last March, fulfilling a commitment that it made to us a year ago.

So we are thrilled with all the new, innovative ideas and we?re in awe of the meaningful employment commitments.? But ultimately, these companies aren?t just committing to a number ?- they?re committing people, people like David.? Right here in this room, there are so many stories like his.? So I?d like to take just a moment to tell a few of these stories.? And as I call your name, I want you to stand and remain standing.

Staff Sergeant Shaun Murphy, please stand.? Shaun is an eight-year Army veteran who transitioned to become a sixth-grade special-ed teacher in Delaware for three years.? (Applause.)? A little shout-out to Delaware.? He?s working for Teach For America, and today, he has been promoted to lead Teach For America?s nationwide effort to hire more veterans as teachers -- yes, indeed.? He?s doing it all because, as he said, ?When you hang up those fatigues and put those boots away, you don?t want to feel like you?ve given up your sense of service.??

And then there?s Staff Sergeant Courtney Beard.? (Applause.)? Courtney has served in the New Jersey Air National Guard for six years, including a deployment in Iraq.? But when she?s not serving on active duty, she?s putting her skills as an intelligence analyst to use at Cisco as a network consulting engineer -- small, but tough.? (Laughter.)? And really smart.? Thank you.? (Applause.)?

And then there?s Chryssy Johnson, who is on stage with us.? Chryssy is a mother and an Army wife from San Antonio.? Her family has been transferred three different times over nine years, leaving Chryssy scrambling for jobs at restaurants or call centers or beauty counters.? But USAA gave her a shot to build a career, and today, she is a financial -- a senior financial foundations specialist on her way to earning her MBA.? Yes.? (Applause.) ?

And then there?s Sergeant Erick Varela.? Erick served in combat infantry for the 82nd Airborne Division, and was deployed two times to the Middle East.? But when he came home to California in the middle of the housing crisis, Erick couldn?t find a job.? And soon, he and his wife found themselves homeless.?

But fortunately, Erick was accepted in an electrical apprenticeship program in San Francisco.? And even though he and his wife were living out of his pickup truck at that time, Erick was able to pinch enough pennies to buy enough gas to drive to and from that class and finish that program.? And today, he?s employed full-time at PG&E, even taking on leadership roles within his crew.? And now, Erick is hoping to buy a home for their growing family.? And we are so proud.? (Applause.)

These veterans and military families are talented, resilient, disciplined, and they are ready to do the job no matter what it takes.? And these characteristics connect every single veteran and military spouse in this room.? So I?d like to ask all of our veterans and military spouses here today to please stand if they are able so we can give you all a round of applause.? (Applause.)? Thank you all so much.?

Stories like these are not just in this room, but they?re all around us.? Across America and around the world, our men and women in uniform and their families are standing up for us.? They?re standing up for our values, our security, our communities.? And in so many ways, all they?re looking for is another way to serve.? All they need is that next mission.? All they need is a job.?

So, to every business leader in this room and throughout the country, I just want you to remember these stories every single day.? Think about all of the skills these men and women possess, all the people they've led, all the risks they've taken and sacrifices they've endured for us.? And then I want you to ask yourselves, what more can you do for these men and women -- what more can you do??

If you own a small business, can you commit to hiring a few veterans, maybe even just one?? If you own a larger company, can you hire a few hundred, maybe a few thousand?? Can you retain the veterans already in your workforce so that they are able to grow within your company?? Can you team up with other businesses to hire more veterans all across this country?

And again, I just want to reiterate that my husband and I, we're in this with you.? Jill and Joe, we're in this with you.? We're going to keep working to do what we can to develop new programs and partnerships at the federal level that can help you all put these men and women to work even faster.? Because while we're proud of how far we've come, we know that today is not the finish line.? Today is simply just a mile marker, and we're not going to stop until every single veteran or military spouse that is searching for a job has found one.

These men and women have stood up for us again and again and again.? So now the question is, will we do the same for them?? And everything that we have seen in these past two years gives me confidence that the answer is absolutely yes.? You live in a grateful nation, and people will stand up.?

So to all the business leaders, I just want to say thank you all.? Thank you for getting us this far.? And to the veterans and military families here in this room and around the country, thank you, again.? We can't thank you enough for your courage and your service.? We will stand with you now and for decades to come.

Thank you all.? God bless.

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END 12:30 P.M. EDT?

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Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/30/remarks-president-vice-president-first-lady-dr-jill-biden-and-petty-of-0

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