Edra J. Pollin: My Top Ten List Of What Not To Do In Divorce Court

Getting ready for trial in a divorce or child custody case can be a stressful time as litigants and litigators attempt to condense the details and documents of a relationship into the hours or days of a trial. If you're represented by counsel, it is your attorney's job to prepare you for trial and to deliver a concise and convincing presentation of your case to the court. That said, since judicial determinations are often based upon the behavior a party exhibited in the courtroom rather than the exhibits they offered into evidence, please consider the following helpful hints for your day in divorce or custody court:

1. Do not roll your eyes, mutter under your breath or otherwise gesticulate when your spouse is testifying. Although justice may be blind, most judges are not. To the contrary, they are usually astute observers of body language who rarely appreciate one party's use of facial expressions to mock the other spouse's testimony. If your spouse is misrepresenting facts to the court, pass a few brief written comments to your attorney and patiently await their brilliant cross examination.

2. Do not keep referring to your child as "my" son or "my" daughter. More often than not, a parent who consistently uses the singular possessive pronoun with regard to the children is a parent who is singularly possessive about who should raise them.

3. Make sure that you've disclosed relevant and potentially embarrassing personal facts to your attorney early on in the case. Many years ago when I was a public defender, I represented "Jordan" who was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. At the first office appointment, Jordan provided me with a detailed description of his performance on the roadside sobriety test, but he neglected to mention that when he exited the vehicle he was wearing a "teddy" negligee and a pair of high heels. Although Jordan's was a criminal case which was resolved without a trial, his story bears repeating for divorcing spouses whose personal habits are relevant to their case.

4. Don't bring your entire extended family and ten of your closest friends to your divorce hearing. During a marriage, most spouses would think twice about sharing their income tax returns or the intimate details of their relationship with third parties. When a marriage is ending, some divorcing spouses abandon this rule of privacy and assume that inquiring minds want to know everything about the divorce. If you need a support system to get you through the trial, pick no more than two people to sit quietly in the bleachers of the courtroom.

5. Don't wear your torn blue jeans, your muscle shirt or your mini skirt to divorce court. Strange but true, months of trial preparation can be undone in an instant by a client who is dressed to tease rather than to testify. A provocative outfit may be great for the weekend after your divorce but it's a fashion disaster for your custody case. When you select your courtroom attire, pretend you're heading for a job interview. In some respects, you are.

6. Do not be rendered speechless if you're asked to describe the positive aspects of your spouse's parenting. A child custody case can be won or lost with the single question, "Can you describe some of the positive aspects of your spouse's parenting skills?" On occasion, this question is followed by a pregnant pause as the witness scrambles to identify one favorable aspect of the other party's parenting. If you can't say anything positive about your spouse to the court, you're probably not saying anything positive about your spouse to the kids.

7. Don't display open hostility toward your spouse's attorney. Your spouse's attorney is probably not on your Christmas list. If you're openly hostile toward opposing counsel during your cross-examination, you're probably scoring more points for the other team than for yours. Keeping your cool on the witness stand is a great way of saying that you have nothing to hide.

8. Don't read or receive text messages during the hearing. If you want the Court to pay full attention to the testimony, make sure that you do the same.

9. In a child custody dispute, don't keep talking about "your" needs and "your" desires. Custody cases are determined based upon "the best interests of the child". At trial, it is a safe assumption that the court doesn't particularly care about you or your spouse, but the court cares deeply about the child(ren) you have created together.

10. Don't tell long winded stories with irrelevant details of your spousal disputes. In divorce court, most judges have full dockets, sore backs and a desire to make it to lunchtime without an emergency hearing. If you're asking the court for a protection order, describe the alleged spousal abuse and avoid the temptation to explain the minute details of the domestic dispute which precipitated the abuse.

Hopefully, my top ten tips will improve your odds at trial although there are no guarantees of success in the world of litigation. Ignore them if you wish but you just might end up seeking out another top ten list entitled, "Top Ten Local Lawyers To File An Appeal."

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edra-j-pollin/my-top-ten-list-of-what-n_b_1096630.html

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Mexico senator drops out of presidential race (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? Mexican Sen. Manlio Fabio Beltrones says he won't seek the presidential nomination for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, leaving former Mexico State Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto effectively unopposed.

Beltrones says in an announcement published Tuesday that he wants to maintain his party's unity as it seeks to regain the presidency it lost in 2000 after 71 years in power.

The move means that two of the three major candidates expected to compete in the 2012 race are unofficially set.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of leftist Democratic Revolution Party was selected as presidential nominee after winning an opinion poll released last week.

President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party has yet to choose a candidate.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_politics

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Oil and gas wells find new life with geothermal

OLD oil and gas wells might soon be reborn as environmentally friendly geothermal power generators.

Geothermal energy holds promise as a low-carbon source of electricity because of its ubiquity - rock temperatures increase by between 25 and 50?C for every kilometre of depth due to heat from the Earth's core. But as much as half the cost of geothermal power plants comes from drilling into the Earth.

Old oil and gas wells often plunge several kilometres deep to reach reserves. Refitting their shafts to circulate water could provide an easy way to extract this energy, says Xianbiao Bu and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzho.

The team proposes a pipe-within-a-pipe design. Water would flow down one pipe to the bottom of the well, heat up and then be pumped up an inner pipe to the surface, where it would drive a turbine (Renewable Energy, DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.10.009).

Xianbiao believes that a typical well could produce around 54 kilowatts of electricity - not much compared to a full-sized power plant running on coal, gas or nuclear energy. But with an estimated 2.5 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the US alone, huge stores of energy could be going untapped.

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Egypt gov't offers to resign as violence grows

Protesters move away from tear gas fired by Egyptian riot police, not seen, during clashes near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Security forces fired tear gas and clashed Monday with several thousand protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the third straight day of violence that has killed at least two dozen people and has turned into the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of Egypt's military. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

Protesters move away from tear gas fired by Egyptian riot police, not seen, during clashes near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Security forces fired tear gas and clashed Monday with several thousand protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the third straight day of violence that has killed at least two dozen people and has turned into the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of Egypt's military. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

A wounded Egyptian protester reacts as a medic treats him in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Security forces fired tear gas and clashed Monday with several thousand protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the third straight day of violence that has killed dozens of people and has turned into the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of Egypt's military. (AP Photo)

Two Egyptian protesters throw rocks toward Egyptian riot police in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Security forces fired tear gas and clashed Monday with several thousand protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the third straight day of violence that has killed dozens of people and has turned into the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of Egypt's military. (AP Photo)

Egyptian protesters gather around Tahrir square during the clashes with the Egyptian riot police, unseen, in Tahrir square, Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Egyptian riot police clashed Monday with thousands of protesters demanding that the ruling military quickly announce a date to hand over power to an elected government. (AP Photo/Mohammed Abu Zaid)

Protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by Egyptian riot police, not seen, during clashes near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Security forces fired tear gas and clashed Monday with several thousand protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the third straight day of violence that has killed at least two dozen people and has turned into the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of Egypt's military. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's army-appointed government handed in its resignation Monday, trying to stem a spiraling crisis as thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square clashed for the third straight day with security forces in violence that has killed at least 24 people and posed the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of the military.

The crowds in Tahrir, which had grown to well over 10,000 after nightfall, broke out into cheers with the news of the Cabinet's move, chanting "God is great." But there was no sign the concession would break their determination to protest until the military steps down completely and hands over power to a civilian government.

Beating drums, the protesters quickly resumed their chants of "the people want the ouster of the field marshal," a reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the council of generals that has ruled the country since the Feb. 11 fall of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which Tantawi heads, did not immediately announce whether it would accept the mass resignation. Many Egyptians had seen the government, headed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, as a mere facade for them military and either unable or unwilling to press ahead with democratic reform or take action to stem increasing turmoil and economic crisis around the country.

The anger, however, has ultimately been focused on the generals themselves, who many activists accuse of acting as abusively as Mubarak's regime and of intending to maintain their grip on power.

The turmoil comes only a week before Egypt is to start key parliamentary elections, which many had hoped would be a landmark in the transition to a democracy. Instead, they have been overshadowed by the standoff over the military. Activists believe that no matter who wins the vote, the generals will dominate the next government as much as they did Sharaf's. The military says it will hand over power only after presidential elections, which it has vaguely said will be held in late 2012 or early 2013.

If Monday's resignations are carried out, a crucial question will be who will replace the Cabinet. Some in the square demand the military immediately hand over all its authority to a national unity government made up of multiple factions.

"We are not clearing the square until there is a national salvation government that is representative and has full responsibility," said activist Rami Shaat.

Violence has steadily escalated the clashes began Saturday, when police tried to clear several hundred protesters in the square. Repeated attempts to clear the protesters from Tahrir have failed, and a death toll that quadrupled overnight from Sunday has only brought out more and angrier protesters. The protests have spread to other cities around the country, including the coastal city of Alexandria, where one of the deaths took place.

Throughout the day on Monday, black-garbed security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and ? many protesters said ? live ammunition at young men in the streets around Tahrir. The protesters hurled stones and threw back the gas canisters that clattered across the pavement, streaming stinging clouds.

Sounds of gunfire crackled around the square, and a constant stream of injured protesters ? bloodied from rubber bullets or overcome by gas ? were brought into makeshift clinics set out on sidewalks, where volunteer doctors scrambled from patient to patient.

"I will keep coming back until they kill me," said Mohammed Sayyed, his head bandaged from a rubber bullet wound. "The people are frustrated. Nothing changed for the better."

"What does it mean, transfer power in 2013? It means simply that he wants to hold on to his seat," said Sayyed, holding two rocks in his hand, ready to throw, as he took cover from tear gas in a side street off Tahrir.

During an overnight assault, police hit one of the field clinics with heavy barrages of tear gas, forcing the staff to flee, struggling to carry out the wounded. Some were moved to a nearby sidewalk outside a Hardees fast food restaurant. A video posted on social networking sites showed a soldier dragging the motionless body of a protester along the street and leaving him in a garbage-strewn section of Tahrir.

An Egyptian morgue official said the toll had climbed to 24 dead since the violence began Saturday ? a jump from the toll of five dead around nightfall Sunday, reflecting the ferocity of fighting through the night. The official spoke on condition of because he was not authorized to release the numbers. Hundreds have been injured, according to doctors in the square.

Amnesty International condemned the violence.

"While the Egyptian authorities have a duty to maintain law and order, they must not use excessive force to crack down on peaceful protests, something that poses a severe threat to Egyptians' rights to assembly and freedom of expression," the London-based group said in a statement.

The military on Sunday night issued a statement saying it did not intend to "extend the transitional period" and vowed not to let anyone hinder the "democratic transition." The government has said elections will be held on schedule, starting on Nov. 28 and extending over numerous phases for several months.

Election politics have complicated the protesters' bid to launch what some of them tout as a "second revolution."

The loose coalition of groups that led the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak in February is fragmented. In particular, the Muslim Brotherhood, which gave the first revolution powerful muscle, so far refuses to take to the streets again, fearing the turmoil will derail the parliament elections, which it expects to dominate. Some of the secular protesters in Tahrir are worried the vote will give too much power to the fundamentalist group.

Monday afternoon, protesters angry at the Brotherhood for not participating jeered and threw water bottles at a prominent figure in the group, Mohammed el-Beltagy, as he visited the square.

Earlier in the day, the military council made another apparent attempt at a concession, issuing a long-awaited anti-graft law that bans anyone convicted of corruption from running for office or holding a government post.

But the law falls far short of demands by many that all members of Mubarak's former ruling party be banned from politics.

The protesters' suspicions about the military were fed by a proposal issued by the military-appointed Cabinet last week that would shield the armed forces from any civilian oversight and give the generals veto power over legislation dealing with military affairs. It would also give them considerable power over the body that is to be created after the election to draft a new constitution. Activists already accuse the military of ruling with the same autocratic style of Mubarak.

One of the most prominent democracy proponents in the country, Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, called on the civilian government to resign and for a national unity government to be formed "grouping all the factions so it can begin to solve the problems of Egyptians."

"Power is now in the hands of the military council, which is not qualified to run the country, and the government, which has no authority," he said on a TV political talk show late Sunday. For the next six months, "we want see the powers of the military council given completely to a civilian, national unity government, and the military goes back to just defending the borders."

__

Associated Press writer Ben Hubbard contributed reporting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-21-ML-Egypt/id-c3522d9296b145288fd09c914f5180be

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Inhabitat's Week in Green: LA Auto Show, tidal energy farm and Japan's futuristic eco-city

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

It was a big week for green cars, as Inhabitat scoured the floors of the LA Auto Show to search for the latest and greatest in green auto design and innovation. We were excited to check out Audi's hybrid-diesel E-Tron Spyder concept car, Croatia's first electric vehicle prototype the DOK-ING XD, and Honda's hotly anticipated 2013 electric version of their popular Fit. Honda also made waves at the west coast auto show with their Civic Natural Gas car, which took home the title of 'Green Car of the Year' -- the Civic is the cleanest running internal combustion car certified by the EPS. Meanwhile, Ford announced that their EVOS plug-in hybrid will be hitting the market next year, FlyKly's ultra-modern electric bikes have become a choice ride in New York City, a German museum decided to recreate an operable version the world's oldest electric car, and the US Navy successfully sent a test-ship out on a 117 hour voyage using a 50 percent algae-derived fuel.

There were also some exciting announcements in clean energy technology this week, including a recent report completed by leading scientists that predict giant orbiting solar power plants could supply all the earth's energy needs by 2041. We also learned that France will open the world's largest tidal energy farm in 2012, and GE will provide the turbines for a $100 million wind farm in Mongolia. Also for Mongolia, a local geo-engineering firm is making plans to battle the capital's scorching hot summers by cooling it down with gigantic manmade chunks of ice that mimic naleds. London's audacious mayor came up with an equally ambitious idea -- his plan is to curb pollution by spraying the city's roads with a sticky calcium-based adhesive able to catch airborne pollutants. We also got the inside scoop from Panasonic's Energy Solution Business Director, Haruyuki Ishio, on the futuristic eco-city that is being planned for Fujisawa, Japan.

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: LA Auto Show, tidal energy farm and Japan's futuristic eco-city

Inhabitat's Week in Green: LA Auto Show, tidal energy farm and Japan's futuristic eco-city originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/20/inhabitats-week-in-green-la-auto-show-tidal-energy/

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Kingfisher Airlines seeks funds, concerns persist (Reuters)

MUMBAI (Reuters) ? Shares in beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines fell as much as 18 percent on Friday, even as it was in talks with a potential investor and met with lenders in a scramble to shore up its finances.

An official at the UB Group, which controls Kingfisher, told Reuters that the airline was talking to an Indian investor for equity funding but would not give details. The official declined to be identified.

India's No.2 carrier, which has never turned a profit, saw its losses double in the September quarter on high fuel costs and fierce price competition. It has cancelled scores of flights in recent weeks, leading investors to fret about its future.

"There is a shortage of cash. They are not being able to price tickets properly because of increased competition. All airlines are suffering, it's not just this one," said S. Vishvanathan, CEO of SBI Caps.

State Bank of India, one of the carrier's lenders, has hired its SBI Caps unit to study the viability of Kingfisher's business model and advise banks.

Kingfisher Chairman Vijay Mallya, a flamboyant liquor baron who named the airline after his popular beer, was seen leaving State Bank of India's headquarters in south Mumbai on Friday afternoon in a white Rolls Royce.

He did not speak to reporters and a Kingfisher spokesman declined to comment on the meeting.

Kingfisher hopes to launch a rights issue as well as an issue of global depositary receipts (GDRs), but tapping public investors would be difficult amid current market conditions.

Kingfisher also wants the government to drop a ban on foreign carriers from owning stakes in Indian airlines, a move New Delhi is contemplating that would clear the way for an overseas operator to take a stake in the carrier.

"In this kind of scenario short term players may not invest. It's only long-term players who may invest for strategic reasons," Vishvanathan told Reuters.

"Capital markets on the whole in India are closed. That is not in the question. Even for good companies it is increasingly getting difficult so any activity in airlines will take time," he added.

The Financial Times reported that Mallya said he was close to sealing a $250 million equity injection from a wealthy Indian to recapitalise the carrier, and was also near a deal for a short-term loan of 6 billion rupees ($117 million) from banks.

However, Mallya said on social media site Twitter that the report was "factually wrong," but did not elaborate.

The chairman of SBI, Pratip Chaudhuri, declined comment.

INVESTORS WARY

Investors, including banks who hold about 24 percent in the airline, have been increasingly worried over Kingfisher's health after it sought further cushion to ease its debt burden of $1.3 billion.

Kingfisher has asked banks for 7-8 billion rupees additional working capital, as well as 1.5 billion of term loans to fund fleet reconfiguration as it ends its budget offering, Ravi Nedungadi, chief financial officer of UB Group, said earlier this week.

Shares in Kingfisher, which has been asked by creditors to raise $160 million in equity, recouped some of their losses on Friday to close down 3.8 percent. The stock hit an all-time low last week and is down 64 percent in 2011, shrinking its market value to $245 million.

"The fresh infusion of capital in Kingfisher is still uncertain," said K.K. Mital, chief executive for portfolio management services at Globe Capital.

"There is nothing concrete coming from the company, except that flights still continue to be cancelled, and the market is reacting to that uncertainty," he said.

The civil aviation minister ruled out a public bailout for Kingfisher or any other airline, urging private carriers to put their own house in order.

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) has forecast a record $2.5 billion to $3 billion loss for Indian airlines for the year ending March 2012, with state-run Air India alone likely to account for more than half of it.

Kingfisher cut its debt through a restructuring earlier this year by issuing shares to 14 banks, including State Bank of India and ICICI Bank. It recently recast its business model, doing away with its low-cost service Kingfisher Red.

($1 = 51 rupees)

(Additional reporting by Prashant Mehra in MUMBAI and Michelle Martin in LONDON; Editing by Tony Munroe and Aradhana Aravindan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/india_nm/india606001

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How the brain senses nutrient balance

Friday, November 18, 2011

There is no doubt that eating a balanced diet is essential for maintaining a healthy body weight as well as appropriate arousal and energy balance, but the details about how the nutrients we consume are detected and processed in the brain remain elusive. Now, a research study discovers intriguing new information about how dietary nutrients influence brain cells that are key regulators of energy balance in the body. The study, published by Cell Press in the November 17 issue of the journal Neuron, suggests a cellular mechanism that may allow brain cells to translate different diets into different patterns of activity.

"The nutritional composition of meals, such as the protein:carbohydrate (sugar) ratio has long been recognized to affect levels of arousal and attention," explains senior study author, Dr. Denis Burdakov, from the University of Cambridge. "However, while certain specialized neurons are known to sense individual nutrients, such as the sugar glucose, it remains unclear how typical dietary combinations of nutrients affect energy balance-regulating brain circuits."

Dr. Burdakov and colleagues studied how physiological mixtures of nutrients influenced "orexin/hypocretin" neurons, which are known to be critical regulators of wakefulness and energy balance in the body. Previous research had demonstrated that orexin/hypocretin neurons are inhibited by glucose. Surprisingly, the current study revealed that physiologically relevant mixtures of amino acids, the nutrients derived from proteins (such as egg white), stimulated and activated the orexin/hypocretin neurons. The researchers went on to show that when orexin/hypocretin neurons were simultaneously exposed to amino acids and sugars, the amino acids served to suppress the inhibitory influence of glucose.

Taken together, these results support a new and more complex nutrient-specific model for dietary regulation of orexin/hypocretin neurons. "We found that activity in the orexin/hypocretin system is regulated by macronutrient balance rather than simply by the caloric content of the diet, suggesting that the brain contains not only energy-sensing cells, but also cells that can measure dietary balance," concludes Dr Burdakov. "Our data support the idea that the orexin/hypocretin neurons are under a 'push-pull' control by sugars and proteins. Interestingly, although behavioral effects are beyond the scope of our study, this cellular model is consistent with reports that when compared with sugar-rich meals, protein-rich meals are more effective at promoting wakefulness and arousal."

###

Cell Press: http://www.cellpress.com

Thanks to Cell Press for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115303/How_the_brain_senses_nutrient_balance

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Heavy D 'Brought So Much Light,' Mary J. Blige Says

'Every song Heavy D ever put out was something to uplift us,' former labelmate tells MTV News about her fallen friend.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Vanessa White Wolf

Mary J. Blige
Photo: MTV News

Mary J. Bilge famously sang "Not Gon' Cry" on her 1996 single, but when the topic of her fallen friend and former Uptown Records labelmate Heavy D came up, the emotion was just too much to hold back.

"Heavy D was so beloved because the impact he made on music was that we could have fun: We can do hip-hop without murdering and killing everybody," a tearful MJB told MTV News on Tuesday in Beverly Hills. "And he just brought so much light." Mary, like Heavy, hailed from the outskirts of New York City — him from Mount Vernon, her from Yonkers. It was 1987 when Heavy D & the Boyz released their first album, Living Large, on Uptown Records. Mary was signed years later, and in 1992, dropped her debut album, What's the 411? — but her earliest memories of Heavy pre-date her days in the music industry.

"I just remember being a child and him coming to King school, where they used to have all the performers come, and they came and did 'The Overweight Lover,' " Mary recalled with tears in her eyes. "We always needed something to uplift us, and he brought us so much joy because we were always in a place where we didn't have enough, we couldn't get enough money, but the King school show was free, and every song Heavy D ever put out was something to uplift us."

The exact cause of Heavy D's death November 8 is still unclear, as initial autopsy results came up inconclusive. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills after a 911 call was placed from his home. Heavy had difficulty breathing and was pronounced dead after he reached the hospital.

There will be a public viewing for the fallen rapper Thursday (November 17) at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, New York, and a private funeral service for family and close friends Friday. BET is planning a special tribute to Heavy D during the Soul Train Awards on November 27. Rappers Big Daddy Kane, Doug E. Fresh, Kurtis Blow, Naughty by Nature, Whodini and Stetsasonic's Daddy-O are all expected to take part.

Share your fondest memory of Heavy D in the comments.

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• Mary J. Blige
• Heavy D

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674554/heavy-d-death-mary-j-blige.jhtml

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Chu takes responsibility for Solyndra loan (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Taking responsibility for a debacle that has embarrassed the Obama administration, Energy Secretary Steven Chu says he made the final decisions on a half-billion-dollar loan to a California solar company that later went bankrupt.

Chu, in testimony prepared for delivery Thursday to a House committee, said he made all decisions on Solyndra Inc. with the best interests of the taxpayer in mind.

"I want to be clear: Over the course of Solyndra's loan guarantee, I did not make any decision based on political considerations," Chu said in testimony prepared for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Chu is likely to face sharp questions as the energy panel continues a nine-month investigation of Solyndra.

In a joint statement, Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Cliff Stearns of Florida said they intend to find out how decisions were made to guarantee and lend more than $500 million to Solyndra. Upton chairs the energy panel while Stearns heads a subcommittee on investigations.

"We want to find out why the administration restructured the loan after Solyndra had reached a technical default, and how they explain putting private investors in line ahead of taxpayers. And we need to understand how all the warnings, from inside and outside the Department of Energy, were ignored and this risky bet was allowed to happen," Stearns and Upton said.

Chu, in his prepared testimony, said his decision to approve the $528 million Solyndra loan was based on the analysis of experienced professionals and on the strength of the information they had available to them at the time.

"The Solyndra transaction went through more than two years of rigorous technical, financial and legal due diligence, spanning two administrations, before a loan guarantee was issued," he said. "Based on thorough internal and external analysis of both the market and the technology, and extensive review of information provided by Solyndra and others, the (Energy) Department concluded that Solyndra was poised to compete in the marketplace and had a good prospect of repaying the government's loan."

Chu also took responsibility for a later decision to approve a restructuring of Solyndra's debt that allowed two private investors to move ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of default

The Energy Department faced a difficult decision in late 2010 and early this year, he said: Force Solyndra into immediate bankruptcy or restructure the loan guarantee to allow the company to accept emergency financing that would be paid back first if the company was still unable to recover.

"Immediate bankruptcy meant a 100 percent certainty of default, with an unfinished plant as collateral. Restructuring improved the chance of recovering taxpayer money by giving the company a fighting chance at success," Chu said.

Although both options involved significant uncertainty, Chu said he made the judgment that restructuring was the better option to recover the maximum amount of the government's loan. The decision also meant continued employment for the company's approximately 1,100 workers, he said.

Chu said it was worth noting that U.S. taxpayers remain first in line for repayment of the initial loan and noted that private groups invested nearly $1 billion in the company.

Solyndra faced another crisis in August, Chu said. This time, after consulting with outside analysts, he decided that the U.S. should not provide additional support to Solyndra. Days later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

While disappointed, Chu said the U.S. should continue to support clean energy.

"When it comes to the clean energy race, America faces a simple choice: compete or accept defeat. I believe we can and must compete," he said.

Solyndra was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under the 2009 stimulus law, and the Obama administration frequently touted the company as a model for its clean energy program. Chu attended a 2009 groundbreaking when the loan was announced, and President Barack Obama visited the company's Fremont, Calif., headquarters last year.

Since then, the company's implosion and revelations that the administration hurried a review of the loan in time for the September 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for Chu and Obama and a rallying cry for GOP critics of the administration's green energy program.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_go_co/us_solar_investigation

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Va. Judge OK'd $722K Legal Fees Clawback Due to Withheld ...

Evidence

A Virginia judge knocked $4.13 million off a $10 million wrongful death award and OK'd an additional $722,000 legal fees clawback due to withheld evidence.

Among the key materials at issue were photos deleted from plaintiff Isaiah Lester's Facebook account. He and his lawyer, Matthew B. Murray, also were found by Charlottesville Circuit Judge Edward Hogshire to have withheld information from the court about what they did, the Daily Progress reports.

In an October final order (PDF posted by Above the Law) in the case, the judge said the attorney and client must pay $722,000 in legal fees to Patton Boggs, which will get $625,110; and Zunka Minor and Carter, which will get $96,890.

Hogshire earlier reduced Lester's award by $4.13 million, the newspaper notes.

The judge required Murray to pay $522,000 of the $722,000 in legal fees, making the sanction perhaps the largest ever against an attorney in an e-discovery matter, the Next Gen eDiscovery Law & Tech Blog blog reports.

"This case reflects a trend we see based on anecdotal data points where a minority of legal and eDiscovery practitioners have not quite placed social media evidence on the same par as other electronic evidence," writes attorney John Patzakis in a post yesterday. "For instance, I believe it is highly unlikely that Murray would have instructed his client to delete all his emails or wipe his hard drive, but for some reason he differentiated social media evidence."

Additional coverage:

ABAJournal.com: "Defense Seeks Reversal of $10.6M Death Award, Says Lawyer Didn?t Disclose ?Stink Bomb? Email"

Above the Law: "Facebook Spoliation Costs Widower and His Attorney $700K in Sanctions"

Source: http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/va._judge_okd_722k_legal_fees_clawback_reduced_10m_award_by_4.13m/

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Two youths cross country to combat trash

Non-profit Pick Up America is the nation's first coast-to-coast roadside litter pickup. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren profiles its founders and the challenges they face tonight on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. This is a? sneak peek at the story. ?????

By Shannon Urtnowski
NBC News associate producer

In conjunction with NBCUniversal's Green Week, Nightly News will bring you a special report tonight about two youths with a big dream and tough legs.

Through their non-profit organization Pick Up America, Jeff Chen and Davey Rogner have been traveling across the country picking up litter and spreading a message of zero waste.

Since March 2010, Chen and Rogner have walked almost 2,000 miles and gathered more than 140,000 pounds of trash along the way.

But the two don't work alone. They have recruited various volunteers along the way, some for just a day and others for months at a time.

Chen and Rogner say they want Pick Up America to instill lasting change in behavior and mentality among the individuals they touch.

"I'm hoping that we can create this kind of respect for the earth," Chen said. "And I think it's very much up to us youth to do that."

Pick Up America has completed half its journey to date. The team, currently just outside Denver, started the pickup in Maryland and has San Francisco in its sights.

The journey is supposed to end there in one year. But Chen and Rogner hope the message will last a lifetime.

Watch the full report Wednesday at 6:30 ET on Nightly News with Brian Williams.

Source: http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/16/8839168-two-youths-cross-country-to-combat-trash

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Fiery leftist will again run for Mexican president

FILE .- In this Nov. 20, 2006 file photo, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is sworn in as the country's 'legitimate president' in front of thousands of supporters at the Zocalo plaza in Mexico City, Mexico, Monday, Nov. 20, 2006, after narrowly losing the country's 2006 elections to President Felipe Calderon. Lopez Obrador will make another run for president after an opinion poll released Tuesday by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) selected him over Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. who conceded, saying he wanted to put an end to divisions within the party. "A divided left would only take Mexico to the precipice," he said.(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

FILE .- In this Nov. 20, 2006 file photo, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is sworn in as the country's 'legitimate president' in front of thousands of supporters at the Zocalo plaza in Mexico City, Mexico, Monday, Nov. 20, 2006, after narrowly losing the country's 2006 elections to President Felipe Calderon. Lopez Obrador will make another run for president after an opinion poll released Tuesday by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) selected him over Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. who conceded, saying he wanted to put an end to divisions within the party. "A divided left would only take Mexico to the precipice," he said.(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

FILE - In this Sunday June 26, 2011 file photo, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, left, talks with Mexico's former presidential candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador at a Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), closing campaign rally, in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico. Lopez Obrador will make another run for president after an opinion poll released Tuesday by the prd selected him over Ebrard. who conceded, saying he wanted to put an end to divisions within the party. "A divided left would only take Mexico to the precipice," he said. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, fILE)

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? The charismatic and combative leftist who paralyzed the streets of Mexico City after narrowly losing the country's last presidential election will make another run next year after winning an opinion poll released by his party on Tuesday.

A hugely popular candidate in 2006, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador now is seen as a long shot to stop Mexico's old Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, from regaining the presidency in 2012.

Enrique Pena Nieto, the telegenic leading candidate for the PRI, is far ahead of his potential rivals, topping Lopez Obrador by 23 points in an October poll. But Lopez Obrador has a core of passionate supporters who say he was cheated of victory in 2006 and who often refer to him as Mexico's legitimate president.

The Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, is the first of Mexico's three major parties to select a candidate for the campaign, which legally can't begin until February. Lopez Obrador's main rival for the nomination, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, said he would support the results of the poll, which asked 6,000 voters of all parties which man they preferred.

Lopez Obrador, 58, said his first task would be to unify the country's array of left-leaning parties, something that should be easy since two of the main small parties have been openly promoting his candidacy with radio and television advertisements for more than a year.

"We'll go forward together, without hatred or rancor, to construct a country with more love, with a social conscience and spiritual greatness," he said.

Lopez Obrador began his political career with the PRI in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, but he left the party to support the 1988 presidential campaign of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a movement that gave birth to the PRD.

In 1994, he lost a Tabasco state governor's election that many watchdog groups said the PRI won by fraud. He later served as president of Democratic Revolution.

Lopez Obrador tempered his firebrand reputation after winning election as Mexico City mayor in 2000, working with business groups and building large public works projects. He frequently squabbled with then-President Vicente Fox, whose government unsuccessfully tried to have him removed from office in a dispute over a hospital access road.

After Lopez Obrador narrowly lost the last election to President Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, his supporters occupied the Zocalo, the main plaza in Mexico City, and blocked the city's elegant Reforma Avenue for weeks, claiming the election was stolen.

That reaction began to dent Lopez Obrador's popularity, and many Mexicans were enraged at his movement for blocking traffic and straining daily life.

Lopez Obrador cooled his rhetoric this year, taking a more conciliatory tone toward the wealthy and business interests. Still, Ebrard argued that he appealed to a broader segment of voters outside the party.

"It seems to me that Marcelo had more opportunity to grow in popularity," said political analyst Jose Antonio Crespo. "Lopez Obrador, despite his more moderate discourse, won't attract independent voters, or the protest vote against the PAN ... Marcelo had a greater possibility of moving into first or second place."

The PRI held power for seven decades until losing in 2000, and polls show it making a comeback across the nation, partly due to weariness with 11 years of National Action governments and horror at the estimated 40,000 drug war deaths since Calderon ramped up the fight against cartels.

Pena Nieto, a 45-year-old former Mexico State governor, has led in all recent national polls. The majority of Mexican voters are centrists and the polls show their biggest concerns are security and the economy.

Democratic Revolution, meanwhile, has been split by feuding and it has lost much of its support even in its strongholds.

Preliminary results show the PRI winning Sunday's gubernatorial election in Michoacan, Calderon's home state and the place where he launched the war against cartels. The PRD has governed there for 10 years, but it finished third behind National Action.

Recent polls show that the PRI even has a chance to win back the mayorship of Mexico City, where the PRD has governed since 1997.

In his concession speech, Ebrard emphasized the need to unite the PRD.

"A divided left would only take Mexico to the precipice," he said.

____

Olga Rodriguez and Michael Weissenstein contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-15-LT-Mexico-Politics/id-6091c75932d04f08adbbc303f9e74b65

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King of Granite, Part I (TIME)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/162711398?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Scores killed in Syrian clashes, activists say

BEIRUT, Lebanon?? At least 69 people were killed in southern Syria on Monday, most of them in clashes between army deserters and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, activists said on Tuesday.

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The violence came as Syria faces growing international isolation following the Arab League's decision to suspend its membership in response to Assad's crackdown on eight months of protests calling for his overthrow.

The United States hopes the Arab League will use its next meeting on Wednesday to send a forceful message to al-Assad to halt violence against his own people, the State Department said.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. hopes for more follow-up when Arab foreign ministers meet in Morocco on Wednesday.

"We look for the Arab League tomorrow to again send a forceful message to Assad that he needs to allow for a democratic transition to take place and end the violence against his people," Toner told a news briefing on Tuesday.

On Monday, King Abdullah of Jordan also called on Assad to step down for the good of his country, becoming the first Arab leader to make such a call publicly. Assad's family has ruled Syria for four decades.

Story: Jordan's king urges Syria's Assad to step down

Hundreds of people have been killed so far this month, making it one of the bloodiest periods of the Syrian protests, inspired by uprisings which have overthrown leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The Syrian Organization for Human Rights said 34 soldiers and members of Syrian security forces were killed in clashes with suspected army deserters who attacked military vehicles in the southern province on Monday.

Video footage broadcast by Al-Jazeera television showed what appeared to be a tank engulfed in flames, alongside other burning vehicles.

Interactive: Young and restless: Demographics fuel Mideast protests (on this page)

The U.N. estimates the regime's military crackdown on dissent has killed 3,500 people in the past eight months.?

The Syrian government has prevented independent reporting and barred most foreign journalists. Details gathered by activist groups and witnesses are key channels of information.

Alongside street protests, which rights groups say have been mainly peaceful, an increasingly forceful armed insurgency has targeted Assad's military and security forces. Authorities blame these armed groups for the violence, saying at least 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed since the uprising broke out in March.?

A resident near the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in Daraa province said he heard more than four hours of intense gunfire. He asked that his name not be used for fear of government reprisals.

Another witness, who is an activist in the area, said he counted the bodies of 12 people, believed to be civilians killed by security forces' fire.

"I saw two army armored personnel carriers, totally burnt," he told The Associated Press by telephone. He also asked for anonymity out of fear for his safety.

The violence appeared focused in the southern province of Daraa.

Syria's crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising has brought international condemnation, but Damascus generally has been spared broad reproach in the Arab world. That changed Saturday, with a near-unanimous vote by the 22-member Arab League to suspend Syria.

Earlier Monday, Syria struck back at its international critics, branding an Arab League decision to suspend its membership as "shameful and malicious" and accusing other Arabs of conspiring with the West to undermine the regime.

The sharp rebuke suggests Damascus fears the United States and its allies might use the rare Arab consensus to press for tougher sanctions at the United Nations.

Assad says extremists pushing a foreign agenda to destabilize Syria are behind the unrest, not true reform-seekers aiming to open the country's autocratic political system.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45300836/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Werner Herzog plumbs crime and punishment in "Abyss" (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? "He always seems to know where to look," Roger Ebert wrote of what Werner Herzog does in "Into the Abyss." The film is the German director's evenhanded, understated and powerful examination of a senseless triple murder in Texas, which sent one man to death row and another to life in prison.

"Into the Abyss" is made up mostly of one-on-one interviews that Herzog conducted with the two convicted killers, Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, along with their friends and family, family members of the murder victims, and others involved in Texas' death row.

The film, which opened in limited release on Friday, paints a devastating picture of cycles of violence and wasted lives on both side of the prison bars.

Note: Herzog's last answer (in response to a comment about the difference between the two killers he interviews) contains a detail that might be considered a spoiler.

TheWrap: I understand that this isn't the only film you're doing about death row.

Werner Herzog: Well, "Into the Abyss" is a whole tapestry, and only part of it is about death row. It's very much about life. I have also filmed some death row inmates for a series of one-hour films for television, which will be called "Death Row." That's very much focused on one person on death row, and no big tapestry of people around it, members of the families of victims, and whatever.

So somehow like an aftershock in an earthquake, you still have some tremors. There will be some more death row films.

TheWrap: What drew you to the story?

Herzog: I think it was my sense as a storyteller. When something comes across, you know immediately this is big and you better go for it. And in this case, what was so mind-boggling was the senselessness of the crime. I mean, it can't get any more senseless.

And of course what actually also emerged is the sense of life. How can we lead a decent life with a cohesion of small families that stick together and give a sense of values to the kids, pass something on and take care of each other? Which was absent with both of the perpetrators.

We do not know how we are going to die and when we are going to die. And all of a sudden you are confronted with someone who knows exactly every step of the protocol, and who knows exactly what minute and what day he's going to die.

TheWrap: Unlike many of your documentaries, where you're the narrator, you don't do voiceovers in this film. And yet your voice is a key part of the movie, because we hear you asking questions of all the people who are interviewed.

Herzog: Yes. And every single person that you see on camera, I met less than one hour in my entire life.

TheWrap: So how did you know, for instance, that asking about a squirrel would get the chaplain to break down?

Herzog: The chaplain had to be in the death chamber within 40 minutes. He arrives where we just had set up the camera and he says, "Quick, quick, let's get over with it because in 40 minutes I have to be in the death house." So I introduce myself, telling him why I would like to film with him, and he starts to talk almost like a television preacher about the ever-loving, forgiving God, and paradise awaits everyone, and he looks at creation and sees this beautiful grass, and on the golf course a squirrel and a horse and some deer, and how beautiful it is.

And now I ambush him. I ask him, "Tell me about an encounter with a squirrel." And he very cheerfully says, "Oh yeah, I was on the golf course in my cart, and these squirrels ran out, and I put on the brakes, I could have run over them, and they looked at me, and how about that!"

And all of a sudden he unravels, because he realized in 20 minutes he has to assist an execution, and unlike the golf cart, he cannot stop what is going on. He cannot rescue anyone.

TheWrap: The question seems like a throwaway until you hear his answer.

Herzog: Yes. And nobody in film school can ever teach you that, how to crack him open with his cheerful voice. When you're a director of movies, you better know the heart of men and know how to very quickly look in the deepest recesses of his soul.

I' m not a journalist. I don't have any questions. "Tell me about an encounter with a squirrel" is not a real question from a journalist, but it comes because all of a sudden I see something and I know how to crack him open.

TheWrap: At the beginning of your conversation with Perry, you tell him, "I respect you but I don't have to like you..."

Herzog: No, it's important to get the quote right. I tell him, "The fact that your childhood was really bad does not exonerate you, and it does not necessarily mean that I have to like you." It freezes him for a second, and I have to expect that after 120 seconds our discourse could have ended. But nobody speaks as free, as straight with them, and they appreciate it.

And yes, I tell him, "It does not necessarily mean that I have to like you. But I respect you as a human being." Everybody tells me that these crimes are monstrous and these are monsters to be killed off.

I respectfully disagree. Correct, the crimes are monstrous, but the perpetrators are just human beings who have done something senseless, violent, evil. But they are still human, they are not monsters, and I treat them as human beings. And I do not believe the government should have the power to execute anyone.

TheWrap: Many of the films that deal with crimes are devoted to figuring out exactly what happened. Your film isn't really concerned with that.

Herzog: Those are issue films. Very often films about death row inmates are trying to prove the innocence of a perpetrator, very famously so in the case of Errol Morris' film "The Thin Blue Line," where during the making of the film all of a sudden another man confesses to the murder. Fine, yes. But that's not what I did. It's not an issue film. It has to do with us, with our lives, with our abysses, with our squirrels that we encounter.

TheWrap: The two convicted killers you interview in the film are dramatically different.

Herzog: When you look at Perry, he is a very nice kid, almost like a lost kid somehow. And when you look at his co-defendant, Burkett, he is big and intimidating-looking and scary-looking.

But among all those who I have met, and I have seen now five or six people on death row, I am absolutely sure that Perry was the most dangerous. If you run into Burkett in a dark alley under murky circumstances and that guy comes at you armed and hostile, yes, OK, you can deal with it. But if Perry comes at you, you know this is it. He is the most dangerous one of all that I have seen.

Or he was. Sorry, I apologize. He was executed eight days after I met him.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111113/film_nm/us_abyss

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Keen On? Why $50 Billion Is Small Change For SCVNGR (TCTV)

Proud Princeton drop-out and imminent mega billionaire, Seth Priebatsch is the self-styled Chief Ninja of the gaming/payments platform SCVNGR. Having raised $20 million and now employing 120 people, Priebatsch believes that the SCVNGR market could easily exceed $50 billion, a number he regards as "small". I?m not sure what to make of Priebatsch. The cynic in me (not hard to find) sees him and his company as a symbol of the hubris that has taken over the Valley. After all, how seriously can we take a 22 year-old kid in orange sunglasses who believes that he can "flip" the entire credit card industry by establishing what he calls an "interchange zero" business model for financial transactions? And yet wise old VCs like Highland General Partner Peter Bell have invested in Priebatsch and SCVNGR, so there is clearly something real about him and his idea for revolutionizing the credit card industry.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/d-qg_N_JHV8/

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APEC Family Photo Taken Without ?Cononut Bras? (ABC News)

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Troops and hoops for Obama, on a Navy warship

President Barack Obama salutes as he and first lady Michelle Obama walk on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson for the Carrier Classic NCAA college basketball game between Michigan State and North Carolina, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, in Coronado, Calif.(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

President Barack Obama salutes as he and first lady Michelle Obama walk on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson for the Carrier Classic NCAA college basketball game between Michigan State and North Carolina, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, in Coronado, Calif.(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

President Barack Obama salutes as he and first lady Michelle Obama walk on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson for the Carrier Classic NCAA college basketball game between Michigan State and North Carolina, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama watch a flyover from the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson before the Carrier Classic NCAA basketball game between Michigan State and North Carolina, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

President Barack Obama leaves the court to be interviewed by ESPN during the Carrier Classic NCAA basketball game between Michigan State and North Carolina on the USS Carl Vinson, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama speaks to the crowd as first lady Michelle Obama listens before the Carrier Classic NCAA college basketball game between Michigan State and North Carolina aboard the USS Carl Vinson, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

CORONADO, Calif. (AP) ? Soaking in one of the most spectacular settings of his time in office, President Barack Obama pledged an unwavering commitment to veterans Friday from the deck of an aircraft carrier doubling, for one night, as a gleaming basketball court.

The president's patriotic message to the military crowd, while welcomed, was secondary to the scene itself. The players from two storied basketball programs, No. 1 North Carolina and Michigan State, competed aboard the USS Carl Vinson in the open air, in the dusk of a perfect San Diego evening.

Basketball star power was on hand in the form of Magic Johnson and James Worthy, former teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers and alums of Michigan State and North Carolina, respectively.

The first-ever Carrier Classic gave Obama a chance to honor troops and pay tribute on the 95,000-ton Navy warship that buried Osama bin Laden's body at sea. For the hoops-loving president, topping it all off with a college basketball game played outside and on water was surely unforgettable.

"Every American citizen can make a solemn pledge today that they will find some opportunity to provide support to our troops, to those who are still active duty, to our national guard, to our reservists and to our veterans," Obama told the crowd before the game got under way.

"It's especially appropriate that we do it here," Obama said, referencing the carrier's role in "that critical mission to bring Osama bin Laden to justice." He later observed to an ESPN interviewer that "this is the last time Osama bin Laden was on the face of the earth, so there's a lot of history on this ship."

A day after the Senate acted in unusual bipartisan agreement to pass a small piece of the president's jobs bill aimed at helping veterans, Obama said that to support veterans was "a sacred trust."

"That gratitude we have for the men and women in the armed forces does not stop when they take off the uniform," he said.

There were about 7,000 people in the crowd, both teams wore camouflage versions of their regular uniforms and two fighter jets screamed right above the carrier anchored off the coast of San Diego just as the singing of the national anthem was reaching its final notes.

Once the game started Obama, wearing a bomber jacket, watched from the sidelines, looking thrilled, as Michelle Obama looked on at his side.

Despite the unusual setting, it quickly turned into a real basketball environment as the sun set and night fell over the giant warship.

"Can we get a call, ref?" one sailor shouted.

"Get your head in the game!" said another.

The court was surrounded by stands of fans, so no loose balls had a chance of splashing in the water.

North Carolina won 67-55.

Obama's stop in San Diego was the first leg of a nine-day diplomacy mission he's embarking on, to Hawaii, where the U.S. is hosting an economic summit for the Asia-Pacific, and from there to Australia and Indonesia. He is aiming to use the trip to create bonds and boost U.S. business in the region before arriving back in Washington Nov. 20.

___

Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Julie Watson contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-11-Obama/id-833bbad8777e4d0d997c75808c3ccdae

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