Oneal Ron Morris Alleged to get Buttocks Surgery By Fake Doctor

Oneal Ron Morris

MIAMI -- Several possible victims have come forward alleging a woman posing as a Florida doctor and promising buttocks enhancement pumped their behinds with a toxic concoction of cement, superglue and flat-tire sealant, state health officials said Tuesday.

Oneal Ron Morris – who police say was born a man and identifies as a woman – was arrested Friday after nearly a year of being sought and charged with practicing medicine without a license with serious bodily injury. Authorities say a victim who was looking to get a job at a nightclub and wanted a curvier figure paid Morris $700 for the injections in 2010. Morris allegedly used some type of tubing and inserted the toxic chemicals into her backside during a painful procedure.

The victim, who is not being identified due to medical privacy laws, suffered permanent scarring around the injection sites. Shortly after the surgery, she went to the hospital, but left because she was too embarrassed to tell doctors about the procedure. The victim required multiple surgeries and had a 24-hour home health aide for an extended period of time, according to a statement from the Department of Health.

State health officials said Tuesday that several possible victims have since come forward alleging Morris performed similar procedures resulting in life-threatening injuries.

The 30-year-old Morris has since been released from jail on a bond. A phone listing for Morris could not be found, and it's unclear if Morris has an attorney. Police say Morris performed the same surgery on herself.

Authorities said Morris may be part of an underground plastic surgery ring in South Florida. Health officials said additional arrests are possible, but did not elaborate because it's an ongoing investigation.

Investigators spent nearly a year tracking Morris throughout South Florida and said she moved frequently.

State health officials are encouraging other potential victims to contact them.

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Exercise May Improve Memory in Fibromyalgia Patients

Exercise improved pain and memory in women with fibromyalgia, even without medication, suggests a new study.

Researchers found that regular aerobic exercise decreased activity in memory and pain control areas of the brain.

"The decreased brain activity ... suggests that the brain is working more efficiently," says study researcher Brian Walitt, MD, in a news release.

"We also see less brain activity in areas responsible for pain processing, which might be aiding that efficiency," says Walitt, the director of the Fibromyalgia Evaluation and Research Center at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The findings may help explain why regular exercise decreases pain and tenderness and improves brain function in people with fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia affects more than 5 million Americans, mainly women. Its most common symptoms include body-wide pain and tender points, fatigue, and difficulty sleeping. There can also be brain changes, such as memory and concentrations problems.

The study was presented at the Society of Neuroscience's annual meeting.


In this small study, researchers studied 18 women with fibromyalgia who had been taking medication for the condition. All the women received brain scans to measure their short-term memory. They also answered questions about their pain levels and overall well-being.

The women were asked to stop using their medication for six weeks. After that they had a second brain scan and took another round of memory tests. In the last stage of the study, the women exercised three times a week with a personal trainer.

During their half-hour workouts, the women could choose from several different kinds of aerobic activity. These included walking, cycling, swimming, and using a treadmill or an arm bicycle.

After participating in the fitness program for six weeks, the women received a final brain scan, memory testing, and a self-evaluation of their symptoms.

Initially, the women had more pain and memory problems when they stopped their medication. But after following a fitness program, memory returned to the levels seen at the start of the study. They also felt better physically and mentally, and they had less pain.

Their brain scans showed noticeable changes, too. Researchers observed a decrease in brain activity in areas that process pain and memory. This means the brain was more efficient and used less energy during a mental task.

The researchers suggest that one of the benefits of exercise for fibromyalgia patients is that it may streamline brain functioning. It may help free up brain resources involved in perceiving pain and improve its ability to hold on to new information.

Larger studies are needed to understand exactly how exercise may help fibromyalgia and what amount is most beneficial.
These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.

By Cari Nierenberg

Reno Fire Destroys Homes, Turns Deadly In Nevada

Reno, Nevada, U.S.A.

RENO, Nevada, U.S. — A cloud of grayish-white smoke settled over upscale homes and horse pastures at Reno's edge Friday as firefighters from across Nevada came close to taming a sudden wildfire that sent 16 people to hospitals and destroyed or damaged 25 houses.

The unexplained blaze also gave a firefighter first- and second-degree burns and was blamed for the death of a 74-year-old man who had a heart attack while trying to flee, but authorities said the worst was likely over as growing snow flurries and falling temperatures stoked hopes that the remaining showers of ember and ash would die down.

Reno Fire Chief Mike Hernandez said firefighters had largely contained the blaze that sent nearly 10,000 people from their homes in the middle of the night and sent flames licking the edges of the region's mountain roads.

"We are actually backtracking and going over areas that have burned and extinguishing hot spots," Hernandez said.

The cause of the blaze wasn't known, but a downed power line or homeless encampments in the area might be to blame, Hernandez said. He said the region is also a popular area for teenagers who might have started the fire to stay warm.

At least 400 firefighters from as far as 260 miles away flocked to Reno early Friday as multiple fires roared from the Sierra Nevada foothills in northwestern Nevada and spread to the valley floor. Flames reached 50 feet high and embers pushed by the wind traveled up to a mile.

Police went house-to-house, pounding on doors and urging residents to evacuate in the dark of the night.

Hernandez said residents ran from their homes dressed in pajamas, frantically trying to grab as many possessions as possible. One elderly man dressed in his underwear ran out with a blanket wrapped around his body.

"The people are in a state of shock and are hanging in there," Gov. Brian Sandoval said.

Dick Hecht said that when he escaped from his home with his wife, "the whole mountain was on fire," and it was so windy he could barely stand.

"It was so smoky, you couldn't hardly see," Hecht said.

The couple tried to return to their home before morning, but they were turned back by high winds and erupting flames. As they made their way back down the mountain roads, flames burned less than 40 yards from their vehicle.

Gusts of up to 60 mph grounded firefighting helicopters and made it difficult for firefighters to approach Caughlin Ranch, the affluent subdivision bordering pine-forested hills where the fire likely began after 12:30 a.m.

The strong winds, combined with the area's dry terrain, helped the fire spread from 400 acres to 2,000, or more than 3 square miles. Firefighters said their efforts spared 4,000 homes but that the disaster would likely cost many millions of dollars.

The gusts were comparable to the Santa Ana winds that often aggravate and spread wildfires in the hills surrounding Los Angeles, officials said.

"The wind is horrific," said Reno spokeswoman Michele Anderson. "We just watched a semi nearly blow over on the freeway."

More than 150 people had filled two shelters set up at area high schools by midmorning.

John and Maggie Givlin were among those watching a television at Reno High School, scanning the screen for details on whether the home they left behind was safe. They already were preparing to flee when a police officer knocked on their door at about 1:30 a.m.

"I smelled smoke and got out of bed, and the electricity was out," said John Givlin, a retired civil engineer who has lived there about eight years. "I looked out the front window and saw the glow over the hill before us."

He and his wife made their way out of their home with a flashlight. Outside, flames billowed in every direction.

More than 4,000 NV Energy customers lost power as poles and electrical wires were scorched and knocked down, said spokeswoman Faye Andersen. Utility workers were not allowed into the fire area.

Roughly 100 Nevada National Guard members assisted local law enforcement in checking homes and keeping people out of the evacuated region.

"These next 24 hours, with all the power lines down and everything else, it is still a very, very dangerous area," Reno Mayor Bob Cashell said.

Evacuees could return to their homes at noon Saturday, Cashell said. A number of local hotel-casinos were also offering discounted rooms to displaced residents.

At least 90 schools were closed for the day to clear the roads of school traffic and make way for emergency workers.

The U.S. Postal Service suspended delivery to the area for the day, and the state high school athletic association moved its football playoffs from Friday night to Monday.

Most of the 16 people who went to hospitals were treated for smoke inhalation. Health officials urged residents to stay inside and reduce physical activity, warning that the dust and smoke could cause health problems for those in the affected regions and downwind neighborhoods.

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PayPal makes sending money via Facebook

Paypal

AFP - The online payment service PayPal (eBay group) Thursday launched an application to exchange money with friends, with an application designed for the website Facebook. "We are the world's largest online payment on the world's largest social network, to make it even easier to send money to friends or family members," said a marketing manager PayPal, JB Coutinho, the blog of the company.

"Our new application 'Send Money' (send money) is used to transform messages in real gift," she added. Such remittances may be posted on the site illustrated with maps, videos or simple photos. Click the links can then make the money transfer. Transactions, reserved for the U.S., are free and can be performed with normal bank accounts. "PayPal is where friends and families gather," said Ms. Coutinho. "Imagine the smile when you receive money to buy a cold beer with the message 'this tour is for me"

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Authorities foil NY protest bid to shut Wall Street

Wall Street, U.S.A

(Reuters) - New York police prevented protesters from shutting down Wall Street on Thursday, arresting at least 177 people in repeated clashes with an Occupy Wall Street rally that grew to several thousand strong.

Occupy Wall Street protesters took to the streets in rainy New York and elsewhere in the U.S. for a day of action seen as a test of the momentum of the two-month-old grassroots movement against economic inequality.

Demonstrators targeted bridges they considered in disrepair in cities such as Miami, Detroit and Boston to highlight what they said was the need for government spending on infrastructure projects to create jobs.

In the biggest New York protest since a police raid broke up the protesters' encampment in a park near Wall Street on Tuesday, organizers and city officials had expected tens of thousands to turn out.

A crowd that disappointed organizers throughout the day grew to several thousand after the standard workday ended and labor union activists joined a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, where last month more than 700 people were arrested during a similar march.

"If you look at the crowds today, they are getting larger and more diverse. It's wonderful when you see the unions get involved. It truly shows this movement represents people from all different walks of life," said Terri Nilliasca, 38, a United Auto Workers member from New York.

Many protesters complained of police brutality, pointing to one media image of man whose face was bloodied during his arrest and another of a woman who was dragged across the sidewalk by an officer.

Police reported seven officers were injured, including one whose hand was cut by a flying piece of glass and five who were hit in the face by a liquid believed to be vinegar.

Police barricaded the narrow streets around Wall Street, home to the New York Stock Exchange, and used batons to push protesters onto the sidewalk as they marched through the area to try and prevent financial workers getting to their desks.

Workers were allowed past barricades with identification and the New York Stock Exchange opened on time and operated normally.

Protesters banged drums and yelled "We are the 99 percent" -- referring to their contention that the U.S. political system benefits only the richest 1 percent.

At the Union Square subway stop, one of the busiest in the city, protesters tried to crowd the entrance but police repeatedly moved them against the walls to make way for subway riders.

"The mayor wanted to shut us down at Zuccotti Park, but try shutting this down," said Travis McConnell, 27, of Brooklyn. "They can't. This movement is now worldwide and the more politicians and police try to stop us, the stronger we become."

PROTESTS ACROSS U.S.

In St. Louis, more than 1,000 protesters marched through downtown in support of the Occupy St. Louis movement which was evicted last week from its campsite near the Gateway Arch. The Thursday march was by far the largest since Occupy St. Louis began in support of the New York demonstrators.

In Los Angeles, hundreds of anti-Wall Street demonstrators blocked a downtown street, snarling traffic on surrounding freeways, before police moved in and arrested 23 people.

The Los Angeles protest took place near demonstrators' encampment on the City Hall lawn, and a handful of people in grinning Guy Fawkes masks -- a style hallmark of the Occupy movement -- joined the march.

"I think we're all saying the same thing, but in a million different ways," said Good Jobs LA organizer Sandra Gonzalez, 42, in explaining the relationship between her group, which organized the march, and the nationwide Occupy protests.

At least 300 people gathered at Chicago's Thompson Center, giving speeches in English and Spanish. The protest was focused on jobs with signs reading "We need jobs, not cuts" and "Jobs, schools, equality: end the wars."

The Washington gathering was smaller than hoped for by organizers. One protester in McPherson Square said he expected about 1,000 people while perhaps 200 showed and many left within the hour.

In Dallas more than a dozen people were arrested when police shut down their six-week-old camp near City Hall.

Before dawn on Thursday, police cleared away a protest camp from a plaza at the University of California, Berkeley, where 5,000 people had gathered on Tuesday night.

Protesters say they are upset that billions of dollars in bailouts given to banks during the recession allowed a return to huge profits while average Americans have had no relief from high unemployment and a struggling economy.

They also say the richest 1 percent of Americans do not pay their fair share of taxes.

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Obama tells Asia U.S. "here to stay" as Pacific power

Barack Obama, U.S. President

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama announced on Thursday that the U.S. military would expand its role in the Asia-Pacific region, despite budget cuts, declaring America was "here to stay" as a Pacific power which would help shape the region's future.

China has voiced misgivings about Obama's announcement of fresh troop deployments to Australia and has longstanding fears that its growing power could be hobbled by U.S. influence. But Beijing has also stressed that conflict is in nobody's interest.

Obama addressed the Chinese unease, pledging to seek greater cooperation with Beijing.

The U.S. military, turning its focus away from Iraq and Afghanistan, would be more broadly distributed in Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, more flexible and help build regional capacity, Obama told the Australian parliament.

"As we end today's wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia Pacific a top priority," Obama said in a major speech on Washington's vision for the Asia-Pacific region.

"As a result, reductions in U.S. defense spending will not -I repeat, will not - come at the expense of the Asia Pacific."

Obama was clear in acknowledging China's discomfort at what it sees as attempts by Washington to encircle it.

"We'll seek more opportunities for cooperation with Beijing, including greater communication between our militaries to promote understanding and avoid miscalculation," he said.

Nervous about China's growing clout, U.S. allies such as Japan and South Korea have sought assurances from the United States that it would be a strong counterweight in the region.

A first step in extending the U.S. military reach into Southeast Asia will see U.S. marines, naval ships and aircraft deployed to northern Australia from 2012.

China has questioned the new U.S. deployment, raising doubts whether strengthening such alliances helped the region pull together at a time of economic gloom.

Obama said the United States would seek to work with China to ensure economic prosperity and security in the region, but would speak candidly about issues such as human rights in China and raise security issue like the South China Sea.

China claims the South China Sea, a vital shipping route rich in oil, minerals and fishery resources. But Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei hold rivals claims to at least parts of the sea, sparking maritime stand-offs.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointedly visited the Philippines on Wednesday, saying that no claimant should resort to intimidation to push its cause.

Obama also referred in his address to reforms undertaken by Myanmar's new civilian leaders, including the release of political prisoners. But he said they had to do more on human rights in order to secure better relations with Washington.

Rory Medcalf, security analyst at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, said Obama's speech marked a hardening of policy toward China, though he noted that the president was still reaching out to Beijing.

"I think we are seeing a firm stance from Obama. He spent the first year of his presidency trying very hard to engage with China, perhaps even to accommodate China," said Medcalf.

"I think he feels that he was rebuffed and that he was in effect taken advantage by China. So, there is a fundamental reorienting of American policy on display here."

U.S. SEEKS MORE FLEXIBLE FORCES IN ASIA

The winding down of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has opened the door to greater U.S. attention to simmering tension over the South China Sea, a shipping lane for more than $5 trillion in annual trade that the United States wants to keep open.

Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday agreed to have 2,500 U.S. Marines operate out of a de facto base in the northern port of Darwin by 2016.

The United States has military bases and large forces in Japan and South Korea, but its presence in Southeast Asia was dramatically reduced in the early 1990s with the closure of bases at Clark Field and Subic Bay in the Philippines.

Deploying U.S. Marines, ships and aircraft in Darwin, only 820 km (500 miles) from Indonesia, will allow the United States to quickly reach into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to ensure secure major trade sea-lanes.

Obama cited increased U.S. naval ship visits and training in the Philippines and Singapore, working with Indonesia to fight piracy, partnering Thailand for disaster relief, and significantly, acknowledged India's role in region security.

Washington welcomed "India as it 'looks east' and plays a larger role as an Asian power.

"We'll have new opportunities to train with other allies and partners, from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean," he said.

Medcalf said: "It will be a landmark speech of Obama's presidency. It states unequivocally that the U.S. is squarely focusing its strategic attention on Asia. Its defining that Asia as including the Indian Ocean and India."

In a note to his domestic audience, Obama said the increased focus on Asia-Pacific was essential for America's economic future.

"As the world's fastest-growing region-and home to more than half the global economy-the Asia Pacific is critical to achieving my highest priority: creating jobs and opportunity for the American people," he said.

Obama will fly to Bali late on Thursday, where he will seek to underscore a focus on Asia by becoming the first U.S. president to participate in the security East Asia Summit.

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Google launches music service

Google Music

(Reuters) - Google Inc has turned on the music at its new online store, aiming to wrest the lead from Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc in audio entertainment distribution despite the absence of a major record label.

Google Music, with more 13 million songs, will be integrated with Android Market, the company's online store for smartphone apps and videos as it plays catch-up with its rivals. Apple, Amazon and Facebook have to varying degrees integrated music into their core online and mobile products.

Google Music will allow the Web search leader to do the same by letting consumers access music from various Internet-connected devices and easily share tracks with friends.

But analysts said the lack of soundtracks from Warner Music - a major label whose artists include Led Zeppelin and Prince, among others - will limit the appeal of Google Music.

"They've got to get that catalog filled pretty quickly," said Mike McGuire, an analyst at industry research firm Gartner. "It's a launch, but it's kind of like a work-in-progress."

Google Music was unveiled at a splashy event at the Mr. Brainwash Studios in Hollywood, California on Wednesday.

Google has negotiated U.S. deals with three of the four major music companies: Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group; Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment; and EMI. It has also signed deals with the increasingly influential independent label group Merlin and London-based Beggar's Banquet label group, home to the year's biggest selling artist, Adele.

Analysts say selling online music is unlikely to provide much of a lift to Google's revenue. But they say Google needs to be in the market to ensure that its Android-based mobile efforts can match offerings from competitors.

Android is the world's No. 1 smartphone operating system, powering about 200 million devices worldwide. But without a music service, Android-based smartphones and tablets may not be as attractive to consumers seeking a product that offers a seamless media experience.

And with music storage increasingly moving to remote Internet servers in "the cloud" rather than on the device itself, companies like Google and Apple have a way to keep users locked in to their respective mobile services, said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis.

"Everyone is using music and media as a jail. Ultimately, this stuff is going to be stored in the cloud and it becomes harder and harder to switch systems," he said.

To help jump-start the new music store, Google said it will offer one free song for consumers to download every day.

Google will also allow consumers to share purchased songs with friends on the Google+ social network. The feature will give users of Google+ a "free, full-play" of songs purchased by their friends.

"Recommendations from friends are the single most important way that people discover music and we think that this feature has the potential to really transform purchasing behavior," said Zahavah Levine, Google's director of content partnerships for Android, at Wednesday's event.

Music executives said that even though sales have struggled in recent years, music usage has never been more popular on different types of formats like social networks and mobile devices.

Facebook, the world's largest social network, unveiled a tab in September through which music services like Spotify, Rdio and MOG enable Facebook users to share music. Amazon has also long been a major music retailer and has a music locker service

Earlier this year, Google unveiled the Google Music beta, which allowed users to upload their music to Google servers, and access the music from multiple devices.

Shares of Google, which finished Wednesday's regular session at $611.47, were up 72 cents in after-hours trading.

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Facebook hit with unsolicited porn, violent videos

Facebook

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Tuesday that it is investigating a rash of unsolicited graphic images that hit some users' accounts this week.

The images, Internet links and videos depicting pornography and violence have hit some people's Facebook newsfeeds in recent days.

"We experienced a coordinated spam attack that exploited a browser vulnerability," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement emailed to Reuters. "Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible."

Facebook does not know yet who was behind the attack and a motive was not clear, Noyes added during an interview with Reuters.

Facebook users were tricked into pasting and executing "malicious" javascript in their browser URL bar, which led to them unknowingly sharing the content, Noyes explained.

Facebook engineers have been working to reduce this browser vulnerability, he added.

Facebook and other "Web 2.0" sites are easy targets for such attacks because they pull in a lot of content from outside sources, according to Paul Ferguson, senior threat researcher at Trend Micro Inc.

"It seems every other day there is some new Facebook 'threat,' but this is just the new reality of Web 2.0 and social networking," Ferguson said. "It is 'low-hanging fruit' for criminals."

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9-year-old NC girl survives 2 days in car wreckage

Car Accident

COVE CITY, N.C. (AP) — A 9-year-old North Carolina girl pinned in a wrecked car for almost two days ate Pop-Tarts and Gatorade to help her survive the single-car crash that killed her father, police and relatives said on Monday.

Jordan Landon of Cove City was airlifted to a hospital Sunday night after rescue teams cut her out of the 1995 Chevrolet Monte Carlo that had been upside down in a culvert since Friday night, the North Carolina Highway Patrol said. Killed was 39-year-old Douglas Landon, police said.

Sgt. David Clifton called the girl "heroic" and that she was able to stay calm despite being trapped in the dark and cold. He says the girl was talkative and is expected to fully recover.

Clifton said a person walking by saw the car off the state highway and called 911 late Sunday afternoon, more than 40 hours after the pair was believed to have crashed on their way to a store. Temperatures at night had dropped into the 30s in the area in eastern North Carolina.

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Penn State's Sandusky denies he is a pedophile

Jerry Sandusky

(Reuters) - Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State University assistant football coach charged with child sex abuse, says he is not a pedophile, but admits he showered with young boys.

In a full-court media press across two television networks, Sandusky and his attorney, Joe Amendola, said they have answers for all 40 charges that Pennsylvania prosecutors have leveled.

"I am innocent of those charges," Sandusky told NBC's Bob Costas in excerpts released by the network on Monday night.

The former coach and founder of The Second Mile charity for disadvantaged youth, acknowledged that after workouts he has showered with boys.

"I have hugged them and I have touched their leg without intent of sexual contact," Sandusky told Costas.

Sandusky is just a "big overgrown kid," Amendola told CNN in a separate interview on Monday night.

The lawyer painted a sympathetic picture of his 67-year-old client, saying he is worried for Sandusky's health.

Amendola said he had advised Sandusky and his wife to leave State College, Pa., to relax, but Sandusky told him he would be recognizable anywhere.

For each charge, "We have an answer," Amendola said.

The defense team is having trouble finding some of the alleged victims mentioned in a grand jury report that was released November 4, Amendola said.

Sandusky, once considered a likely successor to legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, is accused of sexually assaulting eight boys over more than a decade.

He is free on bail and is technically free to go anywhere ahead of his next court appearance, provided he does not contact witnesses, alleged victims, or any minor.

The allegations led to the firings of Penn State President Graham Spanier and Paterno. Athletic Director Tim Curley was placed on administrative leave and Gary Schultz, interim senior vice president for finance and business, retired.

Sandusky retired from Penn State in 1999. The grand jury alleged, among other charges, that Sandusky had sexually assaulted a boy in a Penn State football locker room in 2002 and university officials failed to report the incident.

Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary, who witnessed the alleged incident, is on paid administrative leave from the university.

The Big Ten athletic conference said on Monday it will remove Paterno's name from the trophy that will be given to the winner of its first-ever championship game, scheduled to be played in Indianapolis in December.

"The trophy and its namesake are intended to be celebratory and aspirational, not controversial," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement.

The intertwined relationship between Penn State, its football program and The Second Mile charity continues to be a focus of the developing scandal.

On Sunday it was reported that the district court judge who ordered Sandusky to be freed on $100,000 unsecured bail had donated to the charity and worked as a volunteer for the group. Prosecutors had requested a $500,000 bail for Sandusky and that he be required to wear a leg monitor.

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Obama administration launches $1 billion healthcare drive

Barack Obama

(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday said $1 billion of federal funds allocated in last year's health reform law will go toward innovation programs designed to boost jobs and improve patient care.

The announcement is the administration's latest attempt to show that it is working outside of a deeply divided Congress to create jobs.

The administration will award grants in March to people who come up with the best ideas to lift care and save money for those enrolled in the federal healthcare programs Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

However, the administration did not say how many jobs the measure would create.

Don Berwick, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said a good example includes the Baylor Heart Hospital in Dallas which has worked to lower readmission rates for congestive heart failure.

"With the healthcare innovation challenge, we're going straight to the source," Berwick said during a news conference for the announcement.

"We want to find them, we want to help them, we want to spread what they know and what they've learned."

The $1 billion of awards will cut into the $10 billion that Congress set aside in the Affordable Care Act to fund a new CMS Innovation Center. The center is meant to promote better care and health at reduced costs by identifying, testing and spreading new models of care and payment.

To get a grant, projects must start within six months and the program will concentrate on those ideas that spur the most hiring and workforce training, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

Awards will range from around $1 million to up to $30 million and be spread over three years. Applications are open to providers, payers, local government, community organizations and public-private partnerships.

Separately on Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide the legal fate of Obama's healthcare law, with an election-year ruling due by July.

JOB POLITICS

President Barack Obama has been aggressively promoting programs that hold potential to boost hiring, amid 9 percent U.S. unemployment which will hurt his re-election chances next year unless job creation improves.

Republican lawmakers have held up passage of most of a $447 billion jobs bill that Obama proposed in September, and which Democrats want funded by a tax on millionaires.

So far, only two modest proposals in the package have been approved by the Senate with Republican support.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have meanwhile passed a number of measures to boost jobs, but these have yet to be taken up by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Asked how many jobs the grants would create, Dr. Rick Gilfillan, acting director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, said: "This is not about a specific number. This is about recognizing that there are going to be more people involved in healthcare" as the population ages.

"The question is what are they going to be doing," he said, adding that the program would help identify high-value jobs in healthcare and help train people for them.

Some Republicans have questioned the innovation center's approach.

"We are concerned that at a time of significant uncertainty for the fiscal health of the U.S. government, funds are being expended by the Innovation Center with little to no actual value provided," three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee wrote to Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last week.

Senators Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the committee, Mike Enzi and Tom Coburn said the innovation center received $10 billion in federal funding but has not yet produced recommendations or implemented any reforms.

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Brady, Patriots take control of AFC East with win over Jets

Rugby

New England, facing the prospect of dropping three successive games for the first time since 2002, instead gained the upper hand in the AFC East by silencing the New York Jets 37-16 Sunday night.

Defending champion New England, New York and the Buffalo Bills had all owned a share of the division lead when the day began at 5-3. But Buffalo was pummeled by the Dallas Cowboys 44-7 one week after the Jets handed the Bills a damaging 27-11 loss at home.

New England got it done in all three phases: offense, defense and special teams.

Quarterback Tom Brady regained his hot hand, completing 26 of 39 passes for 329 yards without tossing an interception. He twice found tight end Rob Gronkowski for TDs, hitting him from 18 yards out to establish a 13-9 halftime lead before they connected on a 5-yarder for a 23-9 margin late in the third quarter.

After New York responded with a 10-play, 71-yard drive that culminated in Mark Sanchez's 7-yard pass to Plaxico Burress, narrowing the deficit to 23-16 at the start of the fourth quarter, Brady took his club on a surgical 84-yard march that required 13 plays and burned 6:51 off the clock. Brady hit Deion Branch for an 8-yard scoring strike with 8:04 remaining.

New England's maligned defense, ranked last in allowing 416.3 yards per game and last in surrendering 314 yards passing when play began, finally rose up after the Patriots were outscored at the Pittsburgh Steelers (25-17) and against the New York Giants (24-20).

The latter ended New England's 20-game regular-season home winning streak, marked its first loss to a visiting NFC team since 2002 and spurred talk that the perennial power was primed for a mighty fall.

Such talk now appears to be as much off target as the boast by Jets coach Rex Ryan that his club will win the Super Bowl after consecutive appearances in the AFC Championship Game.

The Patriots' defense kept New York from moving the chains consistently and linebacker Rob Ninkovich produced a pair of key interceptions of Mark Sanchez. He returned the second of those 12 yards for a back-breaking touchdown that produced the final margin.

New York began the game driving from its 33 to first-and-goal at New England's 9. But Shonn Greene's 3-yard run off left tackle was followed by two incomplete passes. It was bad enough that the Jets were turned away without a TD. It got worse when Nick Folk missed the 24-yard field goal attempt.

New England, meanwhile, produced field goals on its first two possessions, with Stephen Gostkowski connecting from 50 and 36 yards out. He would add a 27-yarder early in the third quarter.

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Franco Harris Defends Joe Paterno in Child Sex Abuse Scandal

Franco Harris

Pittsburgh Steeler great Franco Harris, who played college ball at Penn State, today defended his former coach, Joe Paterno, who lost his job over the child sex abuse case that has rocked the university.

Harris was one of a stream of supporters who visited Paterno at his home in State College, Pa., today.

When he came out of the Paterno house, Harris said he doesn’t understand why Paterno is being portrayed the way he is, that he did what he should have done in the case.

Paterno told investigators that when a graduate student told him in 2002 that he had seen former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in the gym showers with a young boy, he in turn informed university officials.

Investigators say those officials never passed on the report to police to investigate.

Since Sandusky was arrested on Nov. 5, charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over a 15-year period.

Two university officials have also been arrested on perjury charges, and University President Graham Spanier and Paterno both lost their jobs.

The children Sandusky allegedly abused were all connected to his Second Mile charity, which was supposed to give at-risk children a chance to improve their lives through sports.

Harris, along with Cal Ripken Jr., Arnold Palmer and Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid have all been listed as honorary directors of the charity.

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Obama officially open the summit of the Asia-Pacific to Hawaii

Barack Obama

AFP - U.S. President Barack Obama officially opened Sunday the summit of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Economic (APEC) in Hawaii, dominated by a proposed free trade area comprising half of the 21 member countries. "We now have the opportunity to move toward our ultimate goal: a regional economy without hindrance," said Obama, who announced Saturday an agreement on the outline of a proposed free trade agreement between 10 countries Asia-Pacific.

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Hugo Chavez: the U.S. and the EU "infiltrate terrorists" in Syria

Hugo Chavez

AFP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday slammed the attitude in the Syrian crisis of the United States and the European Union, which he said "redouble their offensive against Syria" and "infiltrate terrorists" there. Chavez made the remarks during a speech to several thousand supporters gathered in central Caracas. Was the first time taking part in such a public gathering since he was treated for cancer. "The United States and its European allies redouble their offensive against Syria, infiltrate terrorists to generate violence, blood and death, as they have done in Libya earlier this year," he told Mr. Chavez, leader of the radical left in Latin America.

"A bombs, they managed not only to overthrow the Libyan government, but also to destroy this country and assassinate Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (...) and now they are Syria," said the Venezuelan president. Chavez, who was a strong support of Colonel Gaddafi, has strongly condemned from the beginning the military operation in western Libya. He described as "killing" the death of Colonel Gaddafi, who died in suspicious circumstances after being captured by rebels after an air strike against its NATO convoy. In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad is facing since mid-March to suppress an uprising that hard. According to the UN, the repression has more than 3,500 dead.

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Obama ready to show unbelievers the hospital where he was born

Barack Obama

AFP - U.S. President Barack Obama joked Saturday about the controversy surrounding his birthplace, enjoying his return to Honolulu, her hometown, to offer unbelievers to show them the hospital where he was born. "I want to thank our hosts for their warm hospitality Hawaiian," Obama said to an audience of business leaders meeting in the margins of the Forum of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec). "As many of you know, this is my birthplace," said Bush. "I know that the thing has been challenged for a while, but I can show you the hospital, if you want to check it out," he said as the laughter and applause from the audience.

Obama has had to resolve in April to publicly release a copy of their birth certificate establishing that he was born in Honolulu Aug. 4, 1961, following a controversy fueled by growing some of his opponents. The latter asserted that Mr. Obama, born of Kenyan father, was not born on American soil and therefore could not claim to be President of the United States. Obama also joked about the formalism of the APEC summit that was held to organize in his hometown with the leaders of 21 Pacific Rim countries. "I must say that after all the years I spent in Hawaii, is the first time I find myself wearing a suit," he said.

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Shoppers rebel against early Black Friday

Rebel Shoppers

For the first time in years, Michelle Nyberg probably will not be standing in line when stores open for their Black Friday sales.

She still loves a good deal — last year she spent a couple of thousand dollars on markdowns that day, the Friday after Thanksgiving — but Ms. Nyberg says that she does not want retailers to ruin the holiday for her or their own employees.

Ms. Nyberg is drawing the line now that major chains like Target, Macy’s, Best Buy and Kohl’s say they will open for the first time at midnight on Thanksgiving, and Wal-Mart will go even further, with a 10 p.m. Thanksgiving start for deals on some merchandise.

Retailers, eager to be the first to draw customers on one of the biggest shopping days of the year, are pulling the equivalent of the Republican primary shuffle by opening earlier and earlier than competitors.

Last year, a few stores, including Toys “R” Us, pushed into Thanksgiving.

But judging from the negative reaction among dedicated Friday after Thanksgiving shoppers on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, the wave of midnight openings this year has crossed a line.

Part of the objection is inconvenience. To be at or near the front of the line, shoppers say they will now have to leave home hours earlier — in the middle of the turkey dinner for some. But the wider objections reflect sentiments like those of the Occupy Wall Street movement, including a growing attention to the rights of workers and a wariness of decisions by big business.

Either way, many in the shop-till-you-drop crowd have had enough with Black Friday creep.

“I just don’t think that’s good business, in a sense, to make your employees come in on one of the biggest holidays of the year and cut their family time short,” said Ms. Nyberg, 31, a saleswoman in Villa Rica, Ga., for a molecular biology company. “With the economy the way it is, no one’s going to say, ‘I’m not going to do that, I’m going to quit or get fired over it.’ ”

One retail executive sounded sad about the decision to open earlier. Brian Dunn, the chief executive of Best Buy, said that the midnight opening “became an operating imperative for us” after competitors moved their openings back. “I feel terrible,” he said.

A handful of retailers are holding out, like J. C. Penney, which will open at its usual 4 a.m. on Friday. “We wanted to give our associates Thanksgiving Day to spend with their families,” said Bill Gentner, senior vice president for marketing.

Still, some of the big retailers making the switch said that the response from workers and customers had been positive.

“There are many associates who would prefer to work this time as they appreciate the flexibility it affords their schedules for the holiday weekend,” Holly Thomas, a Macy’s spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail. A Target spokesman, Antoine LaFromboise, said that employees will get holiday pay for Thanksgiving work, and “we’ve heard from our guests that they are excited.”

But even with increased pay, some retail workers said in interviews that the holiday hours were a raw deal.

Anthony Hardwick, 29, who works at a Target store in Omaha, said he would have to leave Thanksgiving dinner with his fiancée’s family so he could sleep before starting a shift around 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving, followed on Friday by a shift at his other job, at OfficeMax.

Mr. Hardwick says he is glad to have a job, and does not mind the early hours on Friday, but “cutting into our holidays is just a step too far.”

He added, “Even though it’s a desperate time doesn’t mean that we should trade all the ground that our fathers and our grandfathers, everyone that came before us, fought really hard for.”

He has created an online petition urging Target to open at 5 a.m. Friday instead, which had attracted a handful of signatures as of Thursday.

The concern among customers about retail workers recalls an earlier era, when consumer advocates encouraged people to consider the impact of their shopping on sales clerks, said Lawrence B. Glickman, the chairman of the history department at the University of South Carolina.

In the late 19th century, as labor organizers pushed for eight-hour days and holidays off, consumer advocates told shoppers to “watch out for their complicity in the exploitation of workers through shopping” he said. That sentiment faded after the 1930s, he said, as consumer advocacy focused more on protecting shoppers.

For shoppers themselves — and the stores hoping to profit from them — the rush to midnight could have unintended consequences.

Last year, for instance, an adept shopper could be in the Toys “R” Us line for its 10 p.m. opening Thanksgiving Day, then line up at Wal-Mart to get a wrist band at 2 a.m. that assured a place in line for its sales starting at 5. In between, the shopper could swing by Kohl’s at 3, and Target or Macy’s at 4, and perhaps finish with Best Buy after its 5 a.m. opening.

“This year, people are going to have to pick and choose what store they’re going to leave behind,” said Jennifer Carr, 30, a homemaker in Jonesboro, Ga. She regularly hits the Friday sales, but says she is reconsidering that this year.

Wal-Mart said in a statement that “customers told us they would rather stay up late to shop than get up early.” But like Ms. Carr, many dedicated Black Friday shoppers say they are rethinking shopping on that day altogether.

Jill Paffrath usually attacks the Friday sales at Target like a ninja. After Thanksgiving lunch, she, her four sisters and two sisters-in-law study the Target ads and make a list of presents they want to buy. After dinner and card games, they drive to the Target in southeast Lincoln, Neb., four hours before it opens, ask a relative who is a police officer to drop off coffee, and bring a DVD player so they can watch “Christmas Vacation” every year.

As much as she loves that ritual, Ms. Paffrath said, she may now skip it.

“Where can it go from here?” she said. “We really don’t want to wait in line and miss Thanksgiving.”

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A U.S. soldier sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Afghan civilians

Adam Winfield

The leader of a group of U.S. soldiers accused of having executed three Afghan civilians in 2010 was sentenced Thursday, November 10 to life imprisonment by a court martial of the State of Washington. Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, was convicted of 15 counts, including three premeditated murders. The military jury deliberated for five hours. Sergeant Gibbs can apply for parole after serving ten years in prison, the court decided. His trial began October 28 on the military base at Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle. Five other soldiers were charged in this case, three of them pleaded guilty and were sentenced to terms ranging from three to twenty-four years in prison. A fifth is awaiting trial.

During these procedures, and since the opening of the first trial in March, the young man tried unsuccessfully to refute the accusation of his fellow unit, which described him as the leader of the group. It would partly designed and directed the execution of "scenarios" play, which sought to disguise killings of Afghan civilians in combat operations. The soldiers and detonated grenades and weapons deposited close to their victims, later reported to their superiors of insurgent attacks. "TROPHIES" "to believe a legitimate intervention was part of the plan," said Attorney had in his indictment Wednesday. But these stories are "highly unlikely" he continued.

Gibbs was convicted of inciting two men to kill an agricultural worker of 15 years named Gul Mudin in a field. The sergeant gave a grenade at one of the soldiers under his command, Jeremy Morlock, who threw the boy. Then a second soldier, Andrew Holmes, shot him. Gibbs was also found to have shot dead a man asleep at the roadside, Marach Agha, and filing of a Kalashnikov rifle near his body. The third murder was that of a cleric, Mullah Adahdad, again performed with grenades and shot.

Some soldiers were photographed posing next to the corpses. They have taken parts, described as "trophies" by the prosecution. Sergeant Gibbs has admitted that he cut the fingers of his victims, pulled teeth and have subsequently used to intimidate another soldier. He acknowledged during the trial to be ashamed of these actions: "I was trying to be hard, real hard," he said during the hearing, while continuing to assert that the victims represented a real threat to its unit.

A SON OF THE MORMONS MONTANA

Montana Son of Mormon, poorly educated, Sergeant Gibbs joined his unit in the fall of 2009, several months after deployment of the brigade. He had served previously in Iraq. A tall (1.91 m), jaw powerful: it was described by his comrades as charismatic, experienced and with some intelligence tactics.

The New York Times, several soldiers from his company described the boredom dominant deployment, from the summer of 2009, a forward base in the east of Kandahar, the former capital of the Taliban in the Pashtun south. They also spoke of a lack of closeness and trust with Afghan villagers, fear of improvised explosive devices placed on the roadside, which exploded during their two regular daily patrols, and the expectation of direct combat that not come. "All other units had these super stories of fighting, said one of them on condition of anonymity. And we, we are here, it does nothing. We had to sit and wait to explode."

The first murder was linked in January 2010, the second in February, the last in May. One of the soldiers of the unit, Adam Winfield, who pleaded guilty, had complained to her parents on Facebook, not being able to pop the case. In one of these exchanges, he spoke of the death of young farm worker: "A guy innocent. They prepared it and they did. I knew. I thought they would not do it. And then it ' has arrived. Almost the entire unit knows, and it is OK for most. Except for me. I want to do something. The only problem is that I can not tell anyone. The type who did this is the 'golden boy' of the company, who can never do anything wrong, and that's my word against theirs, "he wrote. Sergeant Gibbs is the highest ranking officer to have been prosecuted in this case. Command of the brigade was withdrawn to Colonel Harry D. Tunnell IV, in the summer of 2010, after the start of the investigation.

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Original 'Hulk' actor turning 60

Lou Ferrigno

Lou Ferrigno

Don't make him angry: The body-builder turned actor most famous for his role as "The Incredible Hulk" turns 60 on November 9. The Brooklyn-born muscleman first appeared on TV as the mad green monster back in 1978, and he's been going strong ever since.

The larger-than-life figure (he's 6-foot-5) first came to notice in the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron," which follows the Mr. Olympia competition. The quiet, partially hard-of-hearing upstart attempts to unseat the reigning champ: charismatic, outgoing, confident Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ferrigno does not succeed, placing third.

The docudrama did lead to Ferrigno's show-business start on the small screen, and made Ah-nold a star.The bodybuilding king went on to movies and finally into politics as governor of California. Ferrigno became famous playing himself.

The muscular actor could be found in guest appearances as himself on the show "The King of Queens." The "Incredible Hulk" alum also had a cameo as a security guard in Ang Lee's CGI version of "Hulk" in 2003, and played himself in the comedy "I Love You Man." The guy can't get away from that original role: The actor will be voicing the part of the Hulk in the 2012 movie "The Avengers."

Ferrigno knows he's tied to the green fellow because of the fans. He said in an interview at the 2010 New York Comic Con, "Everybody just loves 'The Hulk.' They keep telling me they liked the original series better [than] they all liked the movies [with] the CGI or that kind of stuff." Maybe so, but no actor could match the bodybuilder's workout: At the age of 25, Ferrigno benched-pressed 560 pounds. Even at 50, he was still lifting 400 pounds.

The still-fit sexagenarian even served as Michael Jackson's trainer in the 1990s, as well as for his comeback tour in 2009. And watch for Ferrigno competing for a different kind of victory on next season's "Celebrity Apprentice."

Even at 60, Ferrigno is still hulking out.

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Sarkozy addresses Netanyahu of "liar" to Obama in private

Sarkozy-Obama

AFP - Nicolas Sarkozy has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "liar" during a private conversation, November 3 at the G20 in Cannes, with Barack Obama, who answered duty "to deal with it every day," says Freeze website images. "I can not see, is a liar," he told the French president. "You're tired of it, but I have to deal with it every day!" Replied his American counterpart, depending on the site that specializes in media analysis, which reports their words without specifying whether there is a sound recording of these statements. Sarkozy-Obama Exchange, held in camera, should have remained confidential but reached the ears of journalists incidentally, as Stop on images.

The organization released to the media with a small lead boxes to the translation of the press conference Obama-Sarkozy, some journalists have quickly connected headphones or headsets cell phone, managing to capture some echoes of the private conversation depending on the site. Questioned by AFP, several journalists have confirmed this. "I am aware of the buzz. We must see what is the reality of the thing. I have no idea. I will not comment on that. We are on the buzz," responded the carrier word of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Valero, asked during a press briefing, journalists and referring to the Presidency of the Republic for which it "confirm or deny" those words.

"All this makes us lose sight of the essential. All we want is to keep working to get things done because things are not moving" towards peace in the Middle East, said M . Valero, adding he had no knowledge of reactions so far. In Israel, Netanyahu's office was immediately refrained from any reaction, as well as the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The correspondent of the Israeli public radio in France, Gideon Kutz, who covered the summit in Cannes, for his part said that his colleagues who have heard about the private exchanged by MM. Sarkozy and Obama had agreed not to do is "by correction and not to embarrass the Press" at the Elysee.

Freeze frame still says, without citing specific statements that Barack Obama would be criticized for Nicolas Sarkozy in the interview for not having warned that France would vote in favor of the accession of Palestine to UNESCO, while the United States were strongly opposed.

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